Kendo Crush! [BxG][April 2014 Update - Demo/KickStarter]

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ktalkimist
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Re: Kendo Crush! [BxG][Sports, Comedy, Romance]

#16 Post by ktalkimist »

How are you funding this? The VAs agreed to work for free?

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Re: Kendo Crush! [BxG][Sports, Comedy, Romance]

#17 Post by PixelFade »

Hello,
gekiganwing wrote:It would be interesting to roleplay the main character. Choices can be deliberate, rather than a guessing game. (And no, I'm not implying that decisions should always lead to a clear outcome. Ambiguity is fine.)
Our thoughts exactly. KC's choices have no 'wrong' answer as to avoid a guessing game (Even failing QTE will lead down a different path). Players are free to interact with the story and its characters however they choose.
Dazed wrote:This looks beautifully done. Can't wait to play! Love the color palette and super excited that it's gonna be fully voiced.
Thank you for the positive feedback!
Reikun wrote:HI I LOVED YOUR TEASER!!!!!!! Big props to Shou's VA for pulling off the BROSEF and to MC's VA for delivering most of his lines ~fabulously~!
Glad you are enjoying Shou's antics!

I liked:
- the voice acting!! You're all probably aware that some of the lines are not voices yet (I'm guessing because this is still a wip)
You are correct, there are a few missing lines that will be corrected for the demo release.
- the art. Very capable artists you have on your team!
- The choices. Really nice to see so how varied the results of the choices are! And I love QTEs I HOPE THERE'S MORE........ (I honestly thought the catching QTE's time was too long)
QTE will start off easy and get more difficult. The way we want to reward players with quick reaction is that they can focus less time on increasing 'MC's reaction' (which essentially gives you a longer QTE duration) and spend that time exploring other aspects of the game. Be warned though, a certain amount of training is necessary unless you have some serious ninja skills!
- GUI! Really clear and easy to navigate.

I didn't like:
- Strange pronunciation of Japanese words. This is mostly for Kaori's lines. I know she has a lot of terms to say, but it would be nice if she pronounced them a bit better ("sheenai" vs "shih-nai," for instance).
- Sometimes the volume of certain words was too quiet or words were not enunciated well.
Thank you for the constructive feedback! We'll take these points into consideration.

Sorry for nitpicking on the voices, but this game is already so good it would be a pity if it wasn't even better??? Sorry, it's 1 AM /brick'd
The only suggestion I have is that there should be at least some kind of default name in the beginning because it's kinda hard to think of a name on the spot without knowing anything about the game or what the MC looks like or anything. I resorted to naming him Tom Ba (after Tomba).
He has a default name if you leave it blank. It might not be obvious though, so thank you for bringing this up!
netravelr wrote:Played it and quite enjoyed it! Really seemed to have a Persona 4 vibe going with it (which is my favorite game, so that's a compliment)
We are heavily inspired by the Persona series so this means a lot to us!
fearflam wrote:i'm going to give this a shot, and i'm also gonna give to a friend who plays more VN's than me and give you our opinions once we finish it (may not be instantly since i work 10 hour days 4 days a week lol) hoping for good things since it looks fantastic (the art direction) and all the positive words from the other people who have played it so far.
Great! We can't wait to hear your opinions/feedback.
ktalkimist wrote:How are you funding this?
PixelFade is funding the project.
Thank you all for the feedback!

Best Regards,
PixelFade

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Re: Kendo Crush! [BxG][Sports, Comedy, Romance]

#18 Post by tnm6 »

Everything about this game looks amazing! The art assets are top notch and you have a great set of voice actors! I can't wait to play this down the road, and best of luck with your development process.

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Re: Kendo Crush! [BxG][Sports, Comedy, Romance]

#19 Post by PixelFade »

Hi All,

Everything is progressing along smoothly! We recently expanded our team with two fantastic QA testers who will help ensure you get the most polished player experiencing. Additionally, a certain individual has joined our writers team whom some of you may recognise from this community... ;)

Best Regards,
PixelFade - Dishu

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Re: Kendo Crush! [BxG][Sports, Comedy, Romance]

#20 Post by Sleipnir56 »

This kind of looks like one of the classic dating sims. I really am excited for this. Good luck and I cant wait for it to come out :D

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Re: Kendo Crush! [BxG][Sports, Comedy, Romance]

#21 Post by PixelFade »

January 04/01/2014 Update:

- Initial character profiles are up!

- Please feel free to provide any feedback you may have. Below are a few points your opinion would be of great help:

1) What is your overall initial impression of the project without having played it yet?
2) What are your thoughts on third person / first person MC's when there are a lot of choices to make?
3) Which character seems the most interesting?
4 )Would you prefer seeing what the affection levels are with characters or let it all happen in the background?

Anything else you'd like to mention, please feel free to include!

Best Regards,
PixelFade - Dishu

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Re: Kendo Crush! [BxG] UPDATED: 04/01/2014

#22 Post by silverpikachu99 »

I loved the demo! The voice acting was very professional, and the main character is really funny~!! I'll be sure to download this when it's done!
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Re: Kendo Crush! [BxG] UPDATED: 04/01/2014

#23 Post by pickle131 »

Can't really answer the first question XD but....

2) What are your thoughts on third person / first person MC's when there are a lot of choices to make?
- From what I've heard about this project, I think third person is a great idea. It allows the possibility to have scenes that do not involve the MC but are still relevant to the story, and I also find it gives the MC a bit more definition.

3) Which character seems the most interesting?
- Sho, Mayu, Ken, other possibility for girl 3 ;D

4 )Would you prefer seeing what the affection levels are with characters or let it all happen in the background?
- Maybe have an option for making them visible or not? Or a section in the menu you can click to view them? That way they would be there, but those who want it to happen in the background wouldn't see it.


edit: I also highly approve of the expression chosen for Nikki's profile. AND KEN'S DESIGN *A*
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Re: Kendo Crush! [BxG] UPDATED: 04/01/2014

#24 Post by PixelFade »

silverpikachu99 wrote:I loved the demo! The voice acting was very professional, and the main character is really funny~!! I'll be sure to download this when it's done!
I'm glad you enjoyed the teaser! The demo, which will be releasing Q1 2014, will have significantly more content to explore. We hope you give it a shot when it releases.
pickle131 wrote:- Sho, Mayu, Ken, other possibility for girl 3 ;D
Shhhhhh :shock:

pickle131 wrote:edit: I also highly approve of the expression chosen for Nikki's profile. AND KEN'S DESIGN *A*
8D

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Re: Kendo Crush! [BxG] UPDATED: 04/01/2014

#25 Post by pickle131 »

Shhhhhh :shock:
Only way I could put it without it being a spoiler XD
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Re: Kendo Crush! [BxG] UPDATED: 04/01/2014

#26 Post by Googaboga »

1) What is your overall initial impression of the project without having played it yet?

Seems like a bunch of fun :]. I love the variety in character expressions.

2) What are your thoughts on third person / first person MC's when there are a lot of choices to make?

I'm not sure how the conversations and such will work in this game and I don't really have a general preference one way or the other so I don't really mind either way ^^;.

3) Which character seems the most interesting?

Ken. Because I've never seen a character in school setting game with their hood up and that is fascinating. In all seriousness though Ken does seem pretty cool and Hitoshi and Aya stick out the most to me :3.

4 )Would you prefer seeing what the affection levels are with characters or let it all happen in the background?

Yes I would prefer to see what my affection levels are because I'm lazy like that XD.
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Re: Kendo Crush! [BxG] UPDATED: 04/01/2014

#27 Post by PixelFade »

Thank you all for the feedback thus far, it has definitely been helpful to consider design choices.

There will be some exciting news in the upcoming week!! Stay tuned...

Here is another CG artwork to hold you over until then 8)

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Best Regards,
PixelFade - Dishu

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Re: Kendo Crush! [BxG] UPDATED: 29/01/2014

#28 Post by LordOfFire321 »

1) What is your overall initial impression of the project without having played it yet?

This project looks simply awesome. Art is gorgeous, synopsis seems great, can't wait to play it!

2) What are your thoughts on third person / first person MC's when there are a lot of choices to make?

Hmmm... I don't know, really. Don't mind either.

3) Which character seems the most interesting?

Ken and Mayu, but I think all of them have a lot of potential ;) Also Kaori, because I've always liked tomboyish, honest girls for some reason xd.

4 )Would you prefer seeing what the affection levels are with characters or let it all happen in the background?

Yeah, I would like to see them, it's a bit easier that way XD.

Overall, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the future of this project. Keep it up!

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Re: Kendo Crush! [BxG] UPDATED: 29/01/2014

#29 Post by LordRevan »

1) What is your overall initial impression of the project without having played it yet?
Project seems fantastic from what I can tell. Art is good, plot seems intriguing, and characters seem diverse and interesting. If my impressions for this project weren't extremely positive I would hardly of created an account here solely for the purpose of saying how excited I am.

2) What are your thoughts on third person / first person MC's when there are a lot of choices to make?
I think I would prefer a first person style. For visual novels it is obviously massively important for the player to get invested in all the characters and this is especially true for the protagonist. I understand that this visual novel will feature a voiced MC and while this is fine, I think it will make it harder for quite a few people to get fully invested in the "role" of the protagonist. Therefore, I think you should avoid doing anything that would further increase the metaphorical "distance" between the MC and the player. A first-person MC would definitely go a long way towards making us more attached to our intrepid Hero. A third-person perspective is fine for simply telling a story and as pickle131 already stated it makes it easier to throw in scenes that improve our understanding of the over-arching story that the MC is not actually involved in, but if switching perspectives in such a manner was actually necessary I believe it would be better simply to switch to another characters first-person viewpoint.
Well that's my opinion anyway, for whatever it's worth.

3) Which character seems the most interesting?
Kaori. I seem intrigued by girls who can kick my ass. Maybe I'm secretly a masochist :)

4)Would you prefer seeing what the affection levels are with characters or let it all happen in the background?
I think I'd prefer to actually see the affection levels. Just so I don't accidentally end up somewhere entirely unexpected in the story if I'm not paying attention. Also it's definitely nice to be able to immediately tell at least some of the impact your choices have had. Though I don't think that it really matters much either way.

Also I have a few questions.

First, obviously the multiple endings are supposed to be a selling point for this project so I wanted to better understand how they will work. Will it work in more traditional VN fashion? As in will there be True Ends, Good Ends, Normal Ends etc? Or will one ending not be any better than another but simply different instead?

Also, how will the ending branch? To elaborate will the differences in story be entirely dependent on whatever girl you end up romancing as is the case in most VN's? Or, will the story be similar no matter what girl you end up with but it's your choices that affect the outcome instead? Will it be some mixture of both? Or, something entirely different?

And finally, it was already mentioned that failing a QTE would not immediately result in failure and therefore: Will this VN even have anything resembling Bad Ends? Will it be at all possible to screw yourself with the choices you make or is there to be no such thing as bad choices or negative consequences in this VN and all choices do is affect how the story ends?

Absolutely ecstatic at how amazing this already looks and cannot wait to play the demo!

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Re: Kendo Crush! [BxG] UPDATED: 29/01/2014

#30 Post by PixelFade »

LordRevan wrote: Also I have a few questions.

First, obviously the multiple endings are supposed to be a selling point for this project so I wanted to better understand how they will work. Will it work in more traditional VN fashion? As in will there be True Ends, Good Ends, Normal Ends etc? Or will one ending not be any better than another but simply different instead?
There will be multiple endings however none of them will be directly "labelled" as true / good / normal...etc. Like one players "true ending" might be that he went really far in the Kendo aspect of the game and wanted to keep all his relationships platonic, while another persons "true ending" would be to be the top student with a strong BF/GF relationship. It basically caters to what you want out of the experience and letting you make choices to get there.
LordRevan wrote: Also, how will the ending branch? To elaborate will the differences in story be entirely dependent on whatever girl you end up romancing as is the case in most VN's? Or, will the story be similar no matter what girl you end up with but it's your choices that affect the outcome instead? Will it be some mixture of both? Or, something entirely different?
We are a firm believer in the concept of life moves on. If you end up with one girl, other potential option(s) could possibly end up with someone else! I've said too much... :shock:
LordRevan wrote: And finally, it was already mentioned that failing a QTE would not immediately result in failure and therefore: Will this VN even have anything resembling Bad Ends? Will it be at all possible to screw yourself with the choices you make or is there to be no such thing as bad choices or negative consequences in this VN and all choices do is affect how the story ends?
You can get suboptimal choices based on how QTE events end. For instance, if you are interested in Kendo, it would definitely be in your best interest to be successful in as many QTE's regarding Kendo as possible. This will open up the most content regarding that specific aspect. You will have scenes (or the lack thereof) for QTE's failed, but it will never abruptly stop your journey.
LordRevan wrote: Absolutely ecstatic at how amazing this already looks and cannot wait to play the demo!
Thank you. We are very close to the demo release. 8)

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