The Pirate Mermaid [GxB][Fantasy] - New Demo Out!

[Arowana]

@ShadowBerry
Lol! Maybe you’re thinking of this other pirate captain girl?

@WickedRaccoon
Hahaha! I wouldn’t think of Jack as “smexy” either, lol – more like cute and huggable? ;p

***
Today, we bring you a preview video of an animated scene from the game! It shows the first time the MC meets the sorcerer and involves lots of cute chibis! You can also see our updated textbox in action (screenshot still below).



Anyone find the rotating compass by the namebox too distracting? It’s only supposed to rotate when the speaker changes, but maybe even that’s excessive. ^^; I think I spam animations too much sometimes.

[bunbun]

wow I really like the animation.
It's very impressive ^^
Really looking forward for the game release.

I didn't notice the compass was moving until you mention...might be because the overall color is kind of gold/brown. And I was focusing on the animation CG

The coin at the corner is a bit distracting for me though...I think it's a bit too...huge compare to the font?

[Arowana]

Thanks for the feedback, bunbun! Now that you mention it, I agree the coin is too big. Does this version look better? (also tried another version of the icons - not sure if I like it, though -_-).



Old version for comparison:



Feel free to leave suggestions!

EDIT: Hmm, not sure why images aren't showing up for me. Attaching pics below then.

[GeneDNC]

One tiny nit pick I have about the video scene is the part where she throws the first coconut. Obviously I don't know what the actual timing of the animation looks like in the code, but it makes more sense to me to have her say the line: "Once I'm at the top of the tree..." then show the throwing of the coconut and then the line about "hitting the ground". Otherwise you have present tense text telling us about a past action and it just seems off to me. Like I said, it's not a major thing though, but maybe something to keep in mind in future scenes too.

During the talking scene I found the animation to be overwhelming and very distracting from the text. I had to go back a bit to catch the actual conversation. I'm not sure the red speaking triangles are really necessary. Naturally the fact that the auto is on makes a difference though and I guess it should be evaluated by an individual actually clicking through the dialogue.

I'm just looking for tiny things that can be improved on, since your game looks really excellent overall. XD

[Arowana]

Thanks for the suggestions, GeneDNC! Good point with the coconut timing - I'll fix it right away!

Yeah, I'm kinda worried I spammed too many animations during that scene, but hopefully it will be easier to read when clicking at your pace, like you pointed out. ^^; I can definitely take out the rotating compass, though, since it's an extra bit of movement that doesn't really add anything.

Don't worry about nitpicking - your feedback is much appreciated!

[Lost-Guitarist]

I can definitely take out the rotating compass, though, since it's an extra bit of movement that doesn't really add anything.

Hmm.. I kind of liked the compass. Maybe it's just me though.

[Genesislove]

I agree, the compass looks nice.

[RunicV]

Just a note, the vein popping sign on her head was hard to see. I barely noticed it, and just thought something was moving there.

[wyverngem]

I didn't event notice the spinning when you actually started on the animation in the scene. I liked it.

[AshenhartKrie]

Ah, I like it. I didn't notice the compass or anything, but I agree that the throbbing vein was hard to see. Keep up the awesome work ^^

[bunbun]

I think the smaller coin looks nicer!
It's cute and less distracting ^^
As for the compass it's fine to leave it there. It was because of the animation I was focusing that I didn't notice it ^^;
It should be okay on the other screens

really looking forward for more updates!

[Arowana]

Thank you to everybody who gave feedback on the textbox and the compass! I think I kind of arbitrarily had it out for the poor compass, when it was probably not even the main problem. ^^ So we'll be keeping the spinning for now and see if people have a problem with it during the demo.

Thanks also to everyone who pointed out the "angry vein" being hard to see! We tried making it brighter and bigger, so hopefully it will be more noticeable now!

***

And update time! So obviously we didn't complete the demo by the end of October like we'd originally planned. However, we are getting pretty close - the writing, coding, and sound is all largely complete. We just have to finish up the GUI and some remaining art assets, so hopefully we'll have our first demo out in a week or two! (The demo will use placeholder music and possibly some placeholder art as well, but I think it's at a good point to start getting feedback regardless.)

Current Lint stats if you're interested (I don't think it counts the prologue, though, because it's in a weird format ^^;):

Statistics:

The game contains 829 screens of dialogue.
These screens contain a total of 10,679 words,
for an average of 12.9 words per screen.
The game contains 6 menus.

And some screenshots (many of the scenes/backgrounds also have some small animations):




(izukwon is currently helping to color sprites - thank you, izukwon!)

(Also, we really need a better default name for the protagonist than "MC" - anyone have any suggestions? )

EDIT: Huh, not sure why I can't see the pictures...attaching here just in case...

[Sharm]

How about Aella? According to a quick name search it's a Greek name meaning "Whirlwind" and the name of an amazon.

[junna]

lol. I was going to name her Nimue when I finally play.

Anyway... someone compiled names relating to water if you'd like the name to relate to water. Click here.

or you could be contrary and name her something related to land. XD

[Blane Doyle]

1) WHY DID I NOT COMMENT SOONER?

2) How about... Louise? I think the idea of a more masculine but still feminine sounding name would be interesting. And when I think "female pirate" I think they would already have a more masculine or shorter name it would change their name to something like that. I also like the idea of Antoinette. Mostly because my first thought was "it would be hilarious if her shortened name was Anton and everyone thought she was a guy".

But then again, we are able to chose the MCs name, yes? So that doesn't really matter I suppose...