Long Live The Queen (sim)

[LateWhiteRabbit]

This game is trying to be a quickie for me instead of my tendency towards huge and overcomplicated. So I'm trying to avoid letting fancy features sneak in.

Hahaha! Good luck. I know this is like being locked in a candy store and promising yourself only to eat so many pieces of candy! I have to constantly slap myself writing my design documents and yell "Bad designer! No feature creep!"

And I have to say, once again, you are making a game I absolutely must play. Our design sensibilities seem to be perfectly aligned, I imagine in part because we both site the same inspirational sources like Princess Maker. I was playing Princess Maker 5 a couple of weeks ago, and jotting notes on what could be done better.

The art looks gorgeous, Papillon. Though, if I may make one critique, the font to choose menu options on the far right of the screen is not good. It is too complex and hard to read at a glance. I'm not suggesting plan text like dialogue, but something that curls and swirls less would be a definitive improvement.

So, color me extremely interested and excited. I have to say that the chance the princess will not survive the year depending on my choices is great!

EDIT: Is this the game your preview image of "Sparkle powers activate!" was from in your own forums?

[papillon]

No, that's a visual novel which is being held up by artist trouble, much like the next Magical Diary. I haven't posted a preview thread of it because I don't have any art of the most important characters.

[Fawn]

Sweet baby cakes this is beautiful! It has everything I want in a game... Cute, colorful art, a somewhat dark setting, stat raising AND it's inspired by my current favorite anime Wonderful. I am very very excited to see it finished!

I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere, but it is free or commercial? If commercial, what will the price be around...?

[papillon]

This is probably aiming for the vicinity of $13, because, well, DOOM, and it is supposed to be a smaller game. As always, discounts will be available to those who vigourously spread the word (And, of course, we are running a christmas fanart contest RIGHT NOW that entitles winners to free games, and such freebies can be saved for the future...)

[gekiganwing]

There's a number of incidents in history in which a ruler had to confront a lot of political enemies and internal strife, and only had so much time and resources to deal with the problems. (For instance, in the 5th century CE there was the final dissolution of the western Roman Empire, but the eastern half of the empire survived similar circumstances.) So it should be interesting to take the role of a queen who's trying to keep her nation together.

[Fawn]

@papillion: I'll keep that in mind Our little queen here counts, yes?

[HikkiPanda]

Ugh! ... a princess maker type game, this is ... so tempting >.<. Any rough estimation when you will finish this?

Just a suggestion, how about adding more decoration to the stat screen ? It's a bit plain I think.

I have no problem with the other screen though, they're super georgeous >.< !!! And the princess is so adorable!!

[15385bic]

I was a big fan of princess maker too *_*
looks really good so far

[papillon]

I'm not a strong GUI designer, and I'm afraid that trying to further pretty-up the stats screen will make it hard to read, especially considering the large number of stats and bonus numbers that need displaying. The class-choices screen, which I'm not posting because it's entirely functional and not fun to look at, went through multiple iterations of me trying to make the buttons pretty which kept turning the whole mess into distracting-to-the-point-of-hideousness. I think on screens where there's THAT much information trying to get through, it's probably better to stick with plain than to aim for elegant and miss.

However, if you have specific suggestions for things to try, I'm listening.


And I can never give completion estimates on anything until art is in the can because of the high tendency to unexpected delays, see comments about other games being stuck at the moment...

Our little queen here counts, yes?

I wouldn't disqualify it, but it would be highly unlikely to win because nobody but me knows what she's like as a character yet (not to mention that the setting doesn't have Christmas and you don't know yet what it does have).

[Fawn]

Ah, okay then. I'll draw another one of your characters if I get the time!

About the GUI- maybe just make the stat bars a little decorated? Like little picture frames. And/or, add a texture with roses or diamonds to the bars that fill in, possibly with a gradient. Also, I didn't notice before but I really like the clock design. It's very unique

[papillon]

I don't think the bars are *big* enough for frames or textures, and I can't make them bigger when I need to fit so many in.

Gradients are easy enough, and I threw a little bit of decoration into what blank space I had, but I'm not sure it makes much difference.

[Blue Lemma]

Great idea to do this for a game Looks fun.
I remember back when you were starting out and working on Charm School. Neat to see how things have evolved at Hanako Games since then

This might be the first time I've seen a queen in a computer game with pink hair and not blond or brown hair.

Will it be like Princess Maker where you only get a potential relationship after the game ends? Or will you possibly have to contend with a meddling new king while going about your queenly duties?

[HikkiPanda]

I don't think the bars are *big* enough for frames or textures, and I can't make them bigger when I need to fit so many in.

Gradients are easy enough, and I threw a little bit of decoration into what blank space I had, but I'm not sure it makes much difference.

Actually, my GUI skill is also bad lol! So I'm not sure if I can help but I attach my idea anyway ^^;. It's just a simple one with some gradient added.

Oh, and the background window will be transparent, just like your current one. And maybe you can use different decoration for different window? since some window is way taller than the others.

[Arithra]

AH!
I have been waiting for such a long time.
Will there be coutless endings like in the pm game?
I love the idea of a young princess forced to be a queen.
Will the game end once we have finished the first year?

[jack_norton]

Lol I love how Hanako explicitly said this is going to be a cheap-and-short game and everyone ask about an endless amount of features