RockRobin - Band Manager (Demo)

[Aleema]

PM is fine!

Edit: @GARLIC: pfffffft. It's AWESOME. Stop being so modest. XD

[GARLICBREAD]

Haha it has been sent! Please forgive me for how it looks.
@Aleema
Wow you think so? I never really get feedback from my drawings haha and I'm not nearly as good as some other people. You had better make Marcus obtainable now.

[Sublime]

I wanted to drop by and make a post on this since I finally decided to sign up after lurking around these forums for so long... I actually played the demo a few weeks ago.

While I'll try not to sound like a gushing fangirl (because at this point, that's really what I am) it may be difficult. Since everything about the game is fantastic, and really there's only so many compliments I can give about what I've seen from the storyline, the art, the interface, etc.. there's one thing in particular that stands out to me. The characters in this story are the most memorable, most enjoyable. In all visual novels, or stories, I've never seen such realistic, believable characters as in Rock Robin. They're flawed, but beautifully so. I felt swept up into the story from the moment I started playing. It's addictive.

Anyhow, I won't bore you by rambling, but I wanted to say thank you for all of your hard work and keep it up!

[Aleema]

@Aleema
Wow you think so? I never really get feedback from my drawings haha and I'm not nearly as good as some other people. You had better make Marcus obtainable now.

I just saw this, sorry.
Yes, I DO think it was very good! You have a cute anime style in drawing! Perfect for Emmitt. (And honestly, I think you nailed their haircuts. I don't know what you're talking about. =P)
Marcus!? You barely know the guy! xD Though ... two brothers ... mmm ...

While I'll try not to sound like a gushing fangirl (because at this point, that's really what I am) it may be difficult. Since everything about the game is fantastic, and really there's only so many compliments I can give about what I've seen from the storyline, the art, the interface, etc.. there's one thing in particular that stands out to me. The characters in this story are the most memorable, most enjoyable. In all visual novels, or stories, I've never seen such realistic, believable characters as in Rock Robin. They're flawed, but beautifully so. I felt swept up into the story from the moment I started playing. It's addictive.

O_O! Thanks for replying! This has given me a big motivation boost. I've been so busy over this weekend, doing nothing computer related ... so now that I am back on the computer, I feel like working twice as hard. ^_^
I suppose it would be weird for me to "agree" with you about the characters, because I never saw them that way, I was just writing. But I do think a lot of what keeps me from getting into other VNs is how shallow/one-dimensional some of the characters can be, standing on the laurels of the art alone for who to "get". But then ... a lot of what I play are untranslated Japanese otome games, so, lol. I'm not really getting 100% of the experience anyway. xD

[broken_angel]

(Figure I'll jump in here and comment like I also meant to do originally...)
I really loved the characters, too. ^^ I agree, they're pretty realistic and even though the heroine is completely different from me, I still felt that I could get into her character.
At the end of the demo, I was a bit sad that it didn't keep going. D:

And the overall layout/set-up was just fantastic! Not only does it look amazing, but it's easy to navigate and figure out.
It inspired me to re-plan a large part of my next game. xDD

[Gryphbear]

Sounds like a great game. The graphics and storyline sound intriguing, but I'm gonna have to pass on playing it though. At least the music bits.

Interesting that you would say that. Are you saying that you would play it if there was strictly a story release (no management at all)?[/quote]

Oh no, the story itself sound intriguing. I just cannot hear. I'm still gonna play the demo anyway soonish after I finish catching up on this thread.

I wasn't sure if I should play the demo if you had to rely on sound cues/music patterns to succeed in a gig or whatnot.

[Aleema]

Oh no, the story itself sound intriguing. I just cannot hear. I'm still gonna play the demo anyway soonish after I finish catching up on this thread.

I wasn't sure if I should play the demo if you had to rely on sound cues/music patterns to succeed in a gig or whatnot.

Rest assured this game is deaf-friendly. The gameplay is NOT dependent on music cues of any kind. This is a management sim -- you raise stats on characters, by pushing buttons. You do not actually play or create music (at least, if I did add that feature, it is not the main part of the game). Thanks for clearing that up, though!

@broken_angel: I'm glad I've inspired you! If you ever need help, you can ask me ...

[Gryphbear]

Rest assured this game is deaf-friendly. The gameplay is NOT dependent on music cues of any kind. This is a management sim -- you raise stats on characters, by pushing buttons. You do not actually play or create music (at least, if I did add that feature, it is not the main part of the game). Thanks for clearing that up, though!

Well, cool. I'll be looking forward to playing it. I've been in awe of your coding prowess since I've been looking at a few of your screenshots on various projects of yours.

(Namely Seraphine lol)

[Gryphbear]

Well I've played the demo, and lamented it was so short. I was trying to raise one band member's writing skill in the hopes they'd get a 2nd song, but I'm not sure if there was just not enough time, or if that wasn't coded into the demo yet.

It's a great play, even if you're deaf

Robin is certainly full of emotions.

[Aleema]

I'm glad you liked it!! Going from "I might pass" to "an hour was too short" is a very big compliment to me. So thank you. :3 And I fully realize and recognize that for a management game, there was not nearly enough of that in the demo. I suppose I should have done something different for the demo, rather than just take the opening of the game, but then ... all the more intrigue for the full game! xD Not that I should care about anticipation and teasers, since the game is free. o_O Yet, for some reason, I do.

I was trying to raise one band member's writing skill in the hopes they'd get a 2nd song, but I'm not sure if there was just not enough time, or if that wasn't coded into the demo yet.

Yeah, songmaking is really not at its best in the demo. I'll try to balance out the writing times, because the reason why it's so hard to write songs in the demo is because, if your writing stat is low, it takes much longer to write a song (but the stat increases constantly, so you'll have good writing if you keep at it!) It's supposed to give some character/realism to the characters. The "they scrapped their song" idea might get trashed, though. Since that's just frustrating after waiting so long for a song.

I'm rambling now, sorry!

Robin is certainly full of emotions.

That has to be the nicest way to describe her. Yeah. xD

[Gryphbear]

I'm glad you liked it!! Going from "I might pass" to "an hour was too short" is a very big compliment to me. So thank you. :3 And I fully realize and recognize that for a management game, there was not nearly enough of that in the demo. I suppose I should have done something different for the demo, rather than just take the opening of the game, but then ... all the more intrigue for the full game! xD Not that I should care about anticipation and teasers, since the game is free. o_O Yet, for some reason, I am.

I was trying to raise one band member's writing skill in the hopes they'd get a 2nd song, but I'm not sure if there was just not enough time, or if that wasn't coded into the demo yet.

Yeah, songmaking is really not at its best in the demo. I'll try to balance out the writing times, because the reason why it's so hard to write songs in the demo is because, if your writing stat is low, it takes much longer to write a song (but the stat increases constantly, so you'll have good writing if you keep at it!) It's supposed to give some character/realism to the characters. The "they scrapped their song" idea might get trashed, though. Since that's just frustrating after waiting so long for a song.

I'm rambling now, sorry!

Robin is certainly full of emotions.

That has to be the nicest way to describe her. Yeah. xD

That's cool. I noticed the writing stat went up faster if you kept at it. Emmit's stress seemed to be practically pushing 100% fairly quickly, but then again as you said something later will increase his tolerance back a while ago in a page earlier in this thread.

I did like the management what I did play with - it just seemed like it went by too fast -- I do think your 'passing time' should vary for certain tasks. It seemed like everything took at least 5 days. Granted, I didn't get to try to record a song yet. Anyway. I'll keep a lookout for an update I'm on here and your website too.

[broken_angel]

Technical question (if you don't mind answering)...

How did you do the flashback effect, where you've got this white flash fading into a grayscale scene?
Did you create the grayscale images and implement then separately, or is there a way to do that within Ren'py?


As for Gryphbear's comments...
It was also a bit frustrating for me that writing a song took so long. I spent almost the whole demo just writing to get a new song, and Robin's "star status" (I think that's what it is) dropped like a rock. ^^; I understand, of course, that writing takes a while, especially if your skill isn't that high, but several weeks seems like a long time.

[Aleema]

How did you do the flashback effect, where you've got this white flash fading into a grayscale scene?
Did you create the grayscale images and implement then separately, or is there a way to do that within Ren'py?

Done all in Ren'Py, so the tools are all there. What you're looking for is Flash, which is just a fade but it fades to white instead of black. And you can black'n'white any image right in Ren'Py with im.MatrixColor. For example:

Code: Select all

image bg flashback school stairs = im.MatrixColor("bg/school_stairs.jpg",im.matrix.saturation(0))

To use flash, define (adjust the 0.5's for your desired time):

Code: Select all

$ flash = Fade(0.5, 0, 0.5, color="#fff")

And then use it like "with dissolve" but say "with flash". Both techniques can be found in the tutorial game. :3

As for Gryphbear's comments...
It was also a bit frustrating for me that writing a song took so long. I spent almost the whole demo just writing to get a new song, and Robin's "star status" (I think that's what it is) dropped like a rock. ^^; I understand, of course, that writing takes a while, especially if your skill isn't that high, but several weeks seems like a long time.

In the span of the demo, yeah, I agree it takes too long. You're the not the only one who was obsessed with it, and that's my bad. =\ In the span of the game, though, it's fine. But I will still try to even out the times more (it goes TOO fast eventually), I stand by it being a realistic time for writing songs, though. If writing a song took only a couple days (for non-seasoned writers) then all of our favorite bands would have new songs all the time. Unfortunately, artists usually come out with new albums once, at MOST twice a year. And albums have an average of 12 tracks. So that's 12 songs a year. And then some artists release albums every few years or whatever, if you get where I'm going. So I don't think taking a couple weeks to write a song is unrealistic -- it's probably just frustrating to the player. Which is my main concern anyway. However, trust me, you don't need EVERYONE writing songs for the band at once. You'll only need just one good person, so pick your songwriter, let them get good at it, and you'll never want for songs. I actually like how your established songwriter can pop a new song a week, but if you ask Emmitt to write one suddenly, it takes a month. xD

But, yeah, I'm aware writing songs in the demo is frustrating, and I apologize.

[Gryphbear]

How did you do the flashback effect, where you've got this white flash fading into a grayscale scene?
Did you create the grayscale images and implement then separately, or is there a way to do that within Ren'py?

Done all in Ren'Py, so the tools are all there. What you're looking for is Flash, which is just a fade but it fades to white instead of black. And you can black'n'white any image right in Ren'Py with im.MatrixColor. For example:

Code: Select all

image bg flashback school stairs = im.MatrixColor("bg/school_stairs.jpg",im.matrix.saturation(0))

To use flash, define (adjust the 0.5's for your desired time):

Code: Select all

$ flash = Fade(0.5, 0, 0.5, color="#fff")

And then use it like "with dissolve" but say "with flash". Both techniques can be found in the tutorial game. :3

As for Gryphbear's comments...
It was also a bit frustrating for me that writing a song took so long. I spent almost the whole demo just writing to get a new song, and Robin's "star status" (I think that's what it is) dropped like a rock. ^^; I understand, of course, that writing takes a while, especially if your skill isn't that high, but several weeks seems like a long time.

In the span of the demo, yeah, I agree it takes too long. You're the not the only one who was obsessed with it, and that's my bad. =\ In the span of the game, though, it's fine. But I will still try to even out the times more (it goes TOO fast eventually), I stand by it being a realistic time for writing songs, though. If writing a song took only a couple days (for non-seasoned writers) then all of our favorite bands would have new songs all the time. Unfortunately, artists usually come out with new albums once, at MOST twice a year. And albums have an average of 12 tracks. So that's 12 songs a year. And then some artists release albums every few years or whatever, if you get where I'm going. So I don't think taking a couple weeks to write a song is unrealistic -- it's probably just frustrating to the player. Which is my main concern anyway. However, trust me, you don't need EVERYONE writing songs for the band at once. You'll only need just one good person, so pick your songwriter, let them get good at it, and you'll never want for songs. I actually like how your established songwriter can pop a new song a week, but if you ask Emmitt to write one suddenly, it takes a month. xD

But, yeah, I'm aware writing songs in the demo is frustrating, and I apologize.

Eh. I'll live. I was trying to work on Emmit and Robin for the Writing stat.

[GARLICBREAD]

Marcus!? You barely know the guy! xD Though ... two brothers ... mmm ...

Well then you should help me Robin get to know him. 8D

Actually when I first saw the character page on the first page here I thought Sterling was an obtainable character. I was kind of sad when meeting him in the game because I thought he was a guy I was going to try and get. xD;;;