Rising Angels [GxG](Now with 100% more demo)

[Nuxill]

Awesome!
I'd like to see some development process if you wouldn't mind sharing it. And concept art would be cool too.

[redeyesblackpanda]

Exciting! I think a lot of us are looking forward to seeing this.

[KomiTsuku]

So... hey... how have you all been? Me? I've been better. I've been pretty tired these past few weeks, but contrary to that popular belief, I've been working hard! I've even been pushing hard on my birthday so that you all can get your first taste that will be Rising Angels. Let's cut to the chase, shall we? I'm here to give you all the very first alpha demo of Rising Angels. It covers the intro section and the first Act of Lenna. I know that doesn't sound like a lot, especially since there are numerous missing features, but sometimes I just gotta share what I've been doing with my fans! After you play it, I'd love to hear what you think. Your favorite character, least favorite, things you want to see... really, I'd love to hear any of your thoughts. This may be a alpha, but...

So... LET'S DO THIS!

The game contains 3,291 screens of dialogue.
These screens contain a total of 36,752 words,
for an average of 11.2 words per screen.
The game contains 0 menus.

WARNING: Game does contain cursing and occasional sexual humor.
Link (roughly 180MB, go go sprites):
version A.1.1
Note: The save/load button is not programmed yet. Use right click or esc to pull up the save menu.

All systems- http://www.idhasstudios.com/games/rising-angels-all.zip

Windows- http://www.idhasstudios.com/games/risin ... -win32.zip

Mac- http://www.idhasstudios.com/games/rising-angels-mac.zip

Linux- http://www.idhasstudios.com/games/risin ... 86.tar.bz2

[SundownKid]

If you ever need a UI programmed for this baby, you should check out my portfolio. It would definitely be cool to work on.

[Nuxill]

Ooh! I'm downloading it now! I'll start playing it later in the day and give feedback/proper fangirling then!

[Nellie]

Congratulations~ *waiting for siblings to finish gaming to start downloading*

If you're really stuck, I'll (try) to help you out with the coding the the save/load button (after sales service? lol)

[KomiTsuku]

If you ever need a UI programmed for this baby, you should check out my portfolio. It would definitely be cool to work on.

Congratulations~ *waiting for siblings to finish gaming to start downloading*

If you're really stuck, I'll (try) to help you out with the coding the the save/load button (after sales service? lol)

Truth be told, getting everything on the interface working wasn't high on my priorities when pushing out the demo. I normally don't work on it until I'm pretty close to the ending. However, since the next release will be on a tentative kickstarter attempt, I may need to step that up and get help sooner. Still really against the kickstarter and pessimistic about its success rate, but I'm under pressure to try it from other people... probably because I said 1 character route was only going to be available for collector editions, that will only be available in physical copies.

[Tetiel]

Congrats on the release It's a real shame I can't download it until I get internet at the apartment. Stupid wait times for service. I am really looking forward to seeing what people think! Well, expect a gigantic, gushing review at some point. xD

Also, I may need to purchase collector's edition if it's for the character I think it is!

[Cain0425]

I love the demo . I can't wait to see the full game.

[KomiTsuku]

Congrats on the release It's a real shame I can't download it until I get internet at the apartment. Stupid wait times for service. I am really looking forward to seeing what people think! Well, expect a gigantic, gushing review at some point. xD

Also, I may need to purchase collector's edition if it's for the character I think it is!

I look forward to it. Heck, I'd love even a little review. >.> <.< *jingles beggar tin*

I'm not sure if it is going to be our duel nature character, the doctor, or the hippy. One of them will be standard, one will be collector, and one will be if I raise enough funds.

[redeyesblackpanda]

After playing the demo, I want to see what happens with a certain winged yandere, eheheh...

[dreamingdaze]

Ehh, I have to put a disclaimer:
My thoughts are meant to be taken with a grain of salt and are very much personal. I do admit to being hard to please. If I care enough to complain, that means I see potential.

Well, here we go!

PROS:
Great art
Original characters/Different characters
Unique story

CONS:
Lack of appeal
Odd characterization/thinking
Awkward writing
Lack of impact

Story:
Unique, which is what I like. You have a very different character going to an academy that has wacky friends. Wait a second, does that sound cliche? Luckily, this visual novel avoids this trope by adding on science fiction emphasis rather than just "high school romance." By doing so, we have a different focus--dare I say going towards slice of life/comedy. Did that work for me? Actually...not really. I wasn't interested in the daily life of Faye or her friends. Again--this wasn't the genre that I often enjoy. I admit this over and over again, but at times I wondered if there were just missed opportunities. This visual novel went quickly over points like it had a checklist of unique characteristics to hit: Ooh, a xenobiologist? Strong part of Faye's personality/appeal? Not for me actually, I didn't really see much of that in her. Nor did I find myself actually liking her as a character.

Not to say she's a bad person or cliche, I found her to be weak/boring. I prefer the strong protagonists, thank you very much. Did it annoy me how she wilted under the angry prejudice of one character? Yes, yes it did. Did I wish there was an option for her to tell him to shove it? Heck yeah, but kinetic novels won't have that unfortunately.

Presentation/Gameplay:
Presentation-wise, I feel it is a bit mixed. The art is great, but at times, I felt like there were rather static moments that could have used effects/moments. Example being the test scene with Faye in the forest: definitely could have used some kind of effect (screen shake perhaps?) to show the frantic nature of that scene. Lack of choices again annoyed me, but for a very different reason beyond immersion/level of investment (which again, was a big issue). Personally, I feel like kinetic novels take a big risk by taking away choices because it puts a huge emphasis on the writing/characterization. Without choices, the reader's focus is solely on that.

Characterization/Writing:
Original characters, that was something I liked. But I couldn't help but feel like the rushed nature of this story/writing bugged me. There were a lot of missed opportunities in my eyes by not slowing down and describing the characters/thinking fully. One situation that stood out strongly to me was in Act 1 when lotor (why is that not capitalized when Faye's name is?) was:

described as a baby/child killer

and no one acted like that was a red flag/bad thing? Maybe there is a back story here that the characters in the visual novels know, but not the ordinary visual novel reader.
Actually, at times I wondered about the responses/actions of each characters. At times, I just wasn't sold that it was err...realistic. I know, realism in a sci-fi VN? I don't mean the sci-fi part, but there were times when it didn't feel like how someone would act (when considering their past actions). Not to mention: they are at an academy but don't actually seem to learn anything...err, useful. I wasn't really pulled into the academy life, nor did I feel touched by the romance. There seemed to be a lack of build up for me, the little things that really define a relationship. I dunno, I guess it felt immature or vague. Plus, there were times when I felt like the character's voices were the same (i.e, hints of the writer's own style of writing taking precedent over the character's voice). This was evident in Faye and lotor (during the use of "yaay") which reminded me of you, Komi. So, bit of immersion breaker there.

Overall
Highly ambitious and definitely an attempt to reach the stars. For me personally, I can't say I enjoyed it. I didn't like the characters, their interactions, or the story (beyond the original aspect/sci-fi bent). If this was a romance, I would say it had no real effect on me. As a comedy, I chuckled now and then (so, mild success?). Immersion was non-existent as I didn't enjoy the weak-willed/simple minded characters (Good heavens, Faye's thoughts about Lenna's gift annoyed me.) A flashy entry, but ones that reminds me of your re-made Dreams of Skies/Anton's Vacation. I wasn't sold on the story/romance, but I liked the new direction at times. More often than not, I was frustrated by the lack of slowing down/odd assumption of knowledge that the reader would have (not quite the info dump of Anton's Vacation, but definitely one that presumes a lot of the reader that doesn't exist).

Recommend or Not?
Ehh...this is an odd scenario. As a demo, I feel like this did its job. I can definitely picture the full VN and for some people, this style may fit their tastes. For me, I feel like it was more of a miss than hit. I wanted to care about the characters, but ended the visual novel with rather little concern/care. Recommended for fans of Anton's Vacation and Dreams of Skies. Or big fans of flashy CGs/sprites.

[KomiTsuku]

Content

You've given me a lot to think about. The thing I've worried about the most you hit on quite a bit. Having the routes split makes me feel like I'm operating a gatling gun instead of a precision rifle. Things are broken up over the different storylines, but I'm now concerned that it might have been spread too thin.

My online voice invading my other writings troubles me. Thank you for bringing that to my attention. I don't want that bleeding into Faye's personality.

I really, really need to step away from the Foxes of Luck series. I'm tired of retelling the same info, and the fans not knowing it hurts understanding and continuity. >.<;

For Lenna x Faye...

The Lenna x Faye romance was intentionally written with it being immature and weak. Faye may be looking too far into a simple friendship.

Many things to consider and work on as we continue towards completion. Thank you! ^_^

[Samu-kun]

I played through the demo up to the point where the branches are supposed to start.

Some concrete suggestions
-I think the presentation really needed more transitions. It was really jarring seeing backgrounds and characters just blink into existence.
-It seems like the choices were taken out at the last moment. I'm not sure how wise it'd be to have a single early game flag trigger as the only choice in the game. You hardly even know the characters when you have to pick one. I think it'd be wiser to ease the player into the story further before locking him into a path.

Mushy impressions:
I'm not quite sold on the whole mixing of the traditional school visual novel format with the sci-fi world yet. It just feels like the science fiction element is alluded to, but never really makes a physical appearance in the story. If this is just a regular school love story, I guess it lacks most of the elements that people like about the genre. I'm not sure what approach the game's going to take, but if it's just a slice of life story about a student who falls in love with another student, I'm a little worried it's just going to follow the format without delivering any of the goods. The general story procedure is pretty traditional, but I think in trying to make the substance original, you've thrown out most of what actually makes the genre fun and just left us with nothing but the procedure.

The characters were introduced too quickly. I lost track of who was who during the first day of class. My game dev instincts are telling me that the cast size should be reduced to half its size. That would be a fine budget cutting move and might help keep things focused. Not to mention you'll be able to afford multiple poses for characters. But hey, if you can afford that many characters, more power to you to make an absolutely huge cast.

I'm also not sold yet on the art style. It's high quality to be sure, but it's not really to my liking. However, they certainly are technically impressive.

In general, not really sold on visual novel. But the presentation is high budget and the prose quality is solid. I'm sure you'll be able to find the right audience for your game. Good luck and godspeed!

[SundownKid]

I think that, in general, the question you have to ask is "what main conceit will make someone want to buy my VN?" From the description, the main point of the story is to get through a training camp for a planetary defense force, so people will buy it expecting heavy science fiction aspects such as spaceships and the like. Without the science fiction aspects, it might be more original by way of flaunting genre conventions, but it will seem to your readers like a cop-out because you are either pandering to the fans or just didn't know how to create a more unusual setting when they were expecting as such. So, it feels like a case of "I'm so clever!" when everyone else will just assume the exact opposite.

(I have to admit that I had that problem with my VN as well - my setting was more medieval than steampunk, which I am fixing when I revise the backgrounds).

Also, as people said before, I wouldn't expect a potential reader from the world at large to know anything about any sort of backstory. SO, even if it's in the same universe, treat it as if the universe is completely new for everyone who is reading.