White Poplar V0.99

[Leemaster]

This is a short (relatively short) pretty much complete game, at least in its current form.
It uses minimalist graphics (to hide the fact that I can't draw to save my life, well, maybe to save my life, but regardless, I draw poorly) and classical music to tell a story, that hopefully can be pieced together by getting all four endings.

There are about two spelling errors, which I will fix once I get back to my normal computer. This is a continuing project that I'll be relying partially on your feedback for further development.

white_poplar_1.0.zip

Windows

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white_poplar_1.0-mac.zip

Mac Version

(63.64 MiB) Downloaded 76 times

white_poplar_1.0-linux-x86.tar.bz2

Linux Version

(63.4 MiB) Downloaded 73 times

[Asceai]

I really like what I've played so far. One thing, though; the text speed seems to be veeery slow by default.. never used Ren'py personally so I've no idea if that's configurable or not (probably?). Otherwise, great concept.

[Leemaster]

The text speed thing was supposed to be about three times faster. I meant for it to be fast enough so you wouldn't get frustrated and click to see the whole thing, and not so fast that it just pops up, prompting you to just browse through some of the lengthier sections of text.
Unfortunately it seems as though I forgot to add another digit in the text speed part. I'll get to that by the next release.

[storm-and-fire]

I played it. Got 3/4 endings.
I loved the story, but I'm still asking myself

why Jack was having those looping dreams. Or is it maybe that there's no reason in particular?

Anyway, keep it up! ^^

[Leemaster]

To somewhat answer your question,

Working on the bigger story behind it currently, so I'll hopefully answer that soon. But for a basic explanation that might be evident depending on which of the 3 endings you got, 'H' says something that might shed a little light on why Jack keeps dreaming. In fact, it doesn't necessarily have to even be just him who dreams. And...I've said too much.

By the way, how long did it take for you all to get each ending? I'm rather curious as to which parts I've subconsciously focused on and which parts I've neglected.

[storm-and-fire]

To somewhat answer your question,

Working on the bigger story behind it currently, so I'll hopefully answer that soon. But for a basic explanation that might be evident depending on which of the 3 endings you got, 'H' says something that might shed a little light on why Jack keeps dreaming. In fact, it doesn't necessarily have to even be just him who dreams. And...I've said too much.

By the way, how long did it take for you all to get each ending? I'm rather curious as to which parts I've subconsciously focused on and which parts I've neglected.

Actually, I got all of them very quickly (dunno the exact time) without skipping at all. The first one I got was the intellectual ending. For the rest, I didn't start over, but loaded from the menus.

[DaFool]

Very nice. It seemed like a complete story already to me, despite the open-endedness (I have to research that butterfly phenomenon thingy, I think it was used in some recent movie or something).

It took me about the standard half to full hour to get 2+ endings. The structure is confusing though. Yes, I know you are meant to cycle through some parts a second time but I often found myself tempted to hit 'skip' then scratching my head why it didn't work.

[lordcloudx]

DaFool: This one? http://imdb.com/title/tt0289879/

Now you've got me curious. Giving this one a download.

[Leemaster]

The butterfly effect that refers to the "belief" that a butterfly flapping its wings in Texas can cause a hurricane in Africa is actually mentioned only in one ending. But I'm sure it's not too hard to just get all of the endings.
Judging on how much time I have to work with (midterms for three weeks, research papers, aaah, someone hit me over the head with a plastic bottle.) the butterfly will become a pretty recurring symbol.

In fact, I have a part that might be in this version, or if not, it's coming, where 'H' pops in and out in a flurry of butterflies, once Jack regains his sight, in certain scenario paths.

And that I'll be working both in the Daoist theme of distinction and the theory of changes.
On a slightly different note, how are the graphics and sounds? I know that I've skimped heavily on those portions, as I can draw relatively realistic scenes with great difficulty (And mess the whole thing up once I try to color it) and I am more or less tone deaf and have no clue how best to synchronize the music with the scene.
So eventually, if someone is inspired to volunteer some time and pretty much minimal effort (hey, I wouldn't expect any more from you especially since you're doing this for free) to help out in the A/V area, I would welcome you to do so. Of course, this would require quite a bit of dedication, as I am still only halfway there in terms of actual storyline.