Magicians of Delphine[GxB][BxB][Dating Sim]ALPHA(July 8)

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akemicchi
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Re: Magicians of Delphine[GxB][BxB][Dating Sim]-- DEMO (July

#196 Post by akemicchi »

melelisun wrote:Hot dang this looks amazing!! Need to try the demo ASAP :D

I feel stupid for asking this, but, is it going to be commercial release?

Also, that 200,000 word count. I'm impressed :)
Wow! Thank you! I hope you enjoy it! Please feel free to let me know what you think about the game, positive or negative. :)

The game will be free. :D

Hahaha, thank you. It keeps getting larger and larger the longer I work on this (my first goal was 80,000...). Hopefully when I get to editing it, it'll drop down some. ;v;

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Re: Magicians of Delphine[GxB][BxB][Dating Sim]-- DEMO (July

#197 Post by sasquatchii »

melelisun wrote:The game will be free. :D
What?!? Color me amazed. I just assumed this would be commercial because of the quality & how much fun I had playing the demo. Will you at least consider a donate/pay what you want option? (I feel like this deserves money, and would like to donate at the very least!)
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Re: Magicians of Delphine[GxB][BxB][Dating Sim]-- DEMO (July

#198 Post by LliiraAnna »

Good to see an update. Although I cannot shake off the feeling that the medic with black hair looks like Ali'Sakir in a dress omg XD
And I wouldn't mind donating, too =^^=

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Re: Magicians of Delphine[GxB][BxB][Dating Sim]-- DEMO (July

#199 Post by akemicchi »

Wow!! Really?? Thank you so much! You guys are really generous! o|-<

I don't know about a Pay What You Want since I'm using free music for non-commercial use, but I could put up a Paypal donation button on my wordpress/update blog. (I'll do it sometime this week maybe. ^q^) There's two pieces of music that I really want to purchase for Magicians of Delphine, so the money will just go to that. I'm also investing in having an opening video made, but other than that, money but won't be going to this game. It'll just go to any future games that I make. Would that be alright with people??
LliiraAnna wrote:Good to see an update. Although I cannot shake off the feeling that the medic with black hair looks like Ali'Sakir in a dress omg XD
Hahaha! Ali'sakir's not that pretty!... Maybe...

~*~

Here's another medic sprite. It all looks really nice in the game, but my sister is complaining that an 800x600 screen is far too small.
medics_full.png
I have all the sprites at their full size (~800x~2000px) in the game and I just im.FactorScale it. The fullscreen images are still really blurry. Should I change the size of the game? 800x600 is pretty ancient anyway... All my CGs are still just sketches, my backgrounds can just be cropped, and I'm remaking the GUI, so there's no problem changing screen sizes, but I don't know what to do. I like 800x600.

When you guys played the demo, how did you feel about its size? Would it be better if it were larger? Did elements or characters seem crowded? Or was there just the right amount of space?

The next size would probably be 1024x700, but I definitely won't consider anything larger than 1366x768 since my laptop screen is only that big and that's primarily where I work on my game. ^^;

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Re: Magicians of Delphine[GxB][BxB][Dating Sim]-- DEMO (July

#200 Post by LliiraAnna »

Well, the size didn't really bother me, but it might look a bit better in 1024x700... Not sure if making it bigger than that is needed, though)

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Re: Magicians of Delphine[GxB][BxB][Dating Sim]-- DEMO (July

#201 Post by Hazel-Bun »

I'd love a higher resolution. Mines is pretty high so 800x600 had me straining my eyes far to much >>"
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Re: Magicians of Delphine[GxB][BxB][Dating Sim]-- DEMO (July

#202 Post by Michalina »

These sprites look amazing! I think that their legs are a little short, but in the game it'll look great! Waah, can't wait for the release! *^*

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Re: Magicians of Delphine[GxB][BxB][Dating Sim]-- DEMO (July

#203 Post by akemicchi »

Michalina wrote:These sprites look amazing! I think that their legs are a little short, but in the game it'll look great! Waah, can't wait for the release! *^*
Whoa, really? I'm having trouble seeing it, but sometimes-- being the artist-- I can't see my mistakes. ;v; I've actually had trouble with legs being TOO long before. Anyway, I'll keep that in mind when I draw the other sprites! Thank you so much! :D I appreciate your support! ^^

~*~

On screen size:
Still considering what I'm going to do about it. I wonder if it'd be easier to just have an option that sets screen sizes (choosing between 800x600 or 1024x768). Since I have a small screen, I get pretty annoyed with games whose windows are as big as my screen.

In other news, I've joined NaNoWriMo! I'm using it as an excuse to get my writing done. Since the month started, I've written about 16k words so far. I have no idea how much more words I have left for Part I, but I've just realized my initial word count estimation (200k for Part I) is much too low. "orz
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The game contains 16,613 dialogue blocks, containing 224,807 words and
1,207,866 characters, for an average of 13.5 words and 73 characters per
block.

The game contains 133 menus, 153 images, and 26 screens.
Art assets for my game are going to have to take a backseat this month. All my free time is going straight to commissions and writing. :')

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Re: Magicians of Delphine[GxB][BxB][Dating Sim]-- DEMO (July

#204 Post by SilverSnow »

I'm very sorry if this is kind of late... :(

How was the pacing of the gameplay and writing? Was it too fast? Too slow? Did you feel it was a hindrance in some way, either in speed, or amount of clicks, or...?
Considering it's a dating sim, I think the flow of the story was great but I kind of got lost somewhere around the beginning.

How were the characters? Were they interesting? Likeable? Annoying? Tell me how you feel about them.
Who's your favorite character? ;)

What to say, I like all of them, Ali'sakir is so amusing but if I really have to chose I think General Tiberius. I wasn't expecting him to have such a nice contrast of look and personality. ^^ Haha... I'm hoping to learn more of the characters' background story.

What are you expecting-- plot-wise, character-wise, gameplay-wise-- based on the alpha?
Unexpected turn of events, endings, and character relationship developments throughout the game. I'm curious how the the war will go as well.

Any questions about the game? Feedback? Critique? Type away!
I enjoyed playing the demo and can't wait to play the full version with the battle system. I wanna see Aleo's moves! Also love your art! Cheering you on! ^^
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Re: Magicians of Delphine[GxB][BxB][Dating Sim]-- DEMO (July

#205 Post by Green Glasses Girl »

Finally got around to playing the demo! I'll give my critique:

The beginning started off slow (the narration opening about the world) and then jumped into the thick of things too fast (right into the battle scene). I think those can be evened out a little better? After those scenes, the story picked well, although I did get a tad lost.

How were the characters? Were they interesting? Likeable?
RIMA RIMA RIMA RIMA RIMA RIMA RIMA *breathes*
SHO SHO SHO SHO SHO SHO SHO SHO SHO
I really loved all of the characters, but those are the ones I liked the most. I usually love prim-and-proper characters and kind-of-jerkish-but-actually-pretty-cool characters and those two fit the bill.

I'm not really sure where the story will go at this point. While there are a lot of options with the other characters, I don't know where it will lead in the wartime affairs.

AND I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOUR ART SORRY I HAVE TO WRITE THIS IN CAPS BECAUSE I CANNOT STRESS THAT ENOUGH
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Re: Magicians of Delphine[GxB][BxB][Dating Sim]-- DEMO (July

#206 Post by akemicchi »

SilverSnow wrote:I'm very sorry if this is kind of late... :(
No, no, it's fine! I love hearing about people's thoughts! Thank you very much for taking the time to do this!! :D
SilverSnow wrote:How was the pacing of the gameplay and writing? Was it too fast? Too slow? Did you feel it was a hindrance in some way, either in speed, or amount of clicks, or...?
Considering it's a dating sim, I think the flow of the story was great but I kind of got lost somewhere around the beginning.
I'll work on that, then! :) I've been wanting to completely revamp the beginning anyway. Things that I've been told to keep in mind are the pacing and the amount of exposition. Are these right? Hopefully the next one will be much better.
SilverSnow wrote:How were the characters? Were they interesting? Likeable? Annoying? Tell me how you feel about them.
Who's your favorite character? ;)

What to say, I like all of them, Ali'sakir is so amusing but if I really have to chose I think General Tiberius. I wasn't expecting him to have such a nice contrast of look and personality. ^^ Haha... I'm hoping to learn more of the characters' background story.

What are you expecting-- plot-wise, character-wise, gameplay-wise-- based on the alpha?
Unexpected turn of events, endings, and character relationship developments throughout the game. I'm curious how the the war will go as well.

Any questions about the game? Feedback? Critique? Type away!
I enjoyed playing the demo and can't wait to play the full version with the battle system. I wanna see Aleo's moves! Also love your art! Cheering you on! ^^
Heheh! Thank you so much! :D This really helped me feel better. I'll keep all these in mind while I work on the game. Again, I really, really appreciate it!
Green Glasses Girl wrote:Finally got around to playing the demo! I'll give my critique:

The beginning started off slow (the narration opening about the world) and then jumped into the thick of things too fast (right into the battle scene). I think those can be evened out a little better? After those scenes, the story picked well, although I did get a tad lost.
Oh, so things got really fast after the opening... I was actually under the impression that it was still too slow. :'D I'll definitely keep the pace in mind while I work on the opening.

As for the rest of it-- were you lost because of the lack of setting and direction? So far, Aleo kind of just wanders from place to place. Would it be better if I were more mindful about easing the player into the world and their role (Aleo is at the army to train, Aleo is at camp to meet the magicians)? Or is the problem the gameplay? I've had someone mention they didn't know what to do once they got to the day planner. Would things be better if I were more direct about what the player is doing?

I was hoping the player wouldn't need too many hints or that much direction, but now I realize I'm the one that was being too vague. ^^; Sorry about that! Thank you for telling me; I'll be more mindful about the player! :)
Green Glasses Girl wrote:How were the characters? Were they interesting? Likeable?
RIMA RIMA RIMA RIMA RIMA RIMA RIMA *breathes*
SHO SHO SHO SHO SHO SHO SHO SHO SHO
I really loved all of the characters, but those are the ones I liked the most. I usually love prim-and-proper characters and kind-of-jerkish-but-actually-pretty-cool characters and those two fit the bill.

I'm not really sure where the story will go at this point. While there are a lot of options with the other characters, I don't know where it will lead in the wartime affairs.

AND I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOUR ART SORRY I HAVE TO WRITE THIS IN CAPS BECAUSE I CANNOT STRESS THAT ENOUGH
Hahaha, thank you so much!! :'D Yeah, Part I is really character-centered. The plot, which is the war, plays a secondary role in Part I. You bring up a good point, though-- I'll try to include a little more detail on the politics so people can at least glean some information about the state of the world. :')

~*~

UPDATES
Still working on NaNoWriMo! I'm at 29.8k now. I'm having doubts that Part I will end within the 50,000 word count. :') There's a lot of stuff that I didn't realize I was missing: the last battle before Part II, Christmas scenes, conversation topics, etc. It's getting really long, but people will only be seeing about a tenth of the word count per playthrough. Hopefully it won't be too bad. I'll just be extra critical during the editing phase.
The game contains 17,252 dialogue blocks, containing 234,409 words and
1,259,500 characters, for an average of 13.6 words and 73 characters per
block.

The game contains 135 menus, 153 images, and 26 screens.
I've been feeling really negative about this project lately, and it's making it really hard to work on it. The feeling will pass, but knowing myself, it might take a few weeks. I'll probably just be doing the bare minimum on this for a while. If I finish Part I's writing or all the minor sprites, I'll update. All the rest of my minor victories will go on my update blog, so check there if you want to see if I'm doing anything. :') I try to update every Monday!

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Re: Magicians of Delphine[GxB][BxB][Dating Sim]-- DEMO (July

#207 Post by Googaboga »

I'm sorry you're going through a rough patch when it comes to your opinion on your game akemicchi v.v. That's a hard place to be. I hope you can get back to enjoying working on the project soon :].

And seriously, I've been following this thread and your blog (I haven't commented cause I'm lame like that) but I think everything is amazing and all the things you're doing with MoD are really inspiring :>. Also the little comics you do are super cute/funny X3. If there's something I can do to help you feel better, let me know ^^.
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Re: Magicians of Delphine[GxB][BxB][Dating Sim]-- DEMO (July

#208 Post by LliiraAnna »

It's ok, don't push yourself, we'll wait. Hope you'll feel better soon. You're awesome, really, looking at how much work you've invested into this project - oh, and the project is awesome too, of course :3

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Re: Magicians of Delphine[GxB][BxB][Dating Sim]-- DEMO (July

#209 Post by Shaples »

Ahhhh, I'm so sad that you're feeling down on this game, because it is SO GOOD. I just finished the demo and I already want to go back and play it again to pursue different characters to see what events I missed even though it's only a demo. Anyway, for your questions:

1. The writing is genuinely laugh-out-loud funny. All the characters are well developed, and I love their interactions (I would even cheat a little on weekends to make sure I got dialogue with someone, just so I wasn't missing it!). Though in this demo it feels like we're still getting warmed up for war times, we're learning about the world in a steady, natural (and often hilarious) way. I will say that the pacing at the very very beginning is a little weird, specifically going from story time to I'M A MAGICIAN to flashback/dream back to reality. There's a lot of important information there, but I'm not sure I felt grounded enough in the game to absorb it all, especially the dream (since we don't really know who Reziel is yet). After that, though, I think you do a really good job of introducing the cast and plot details in a way that isn't overwhelming, and developing relationships in a way that feels natural.

2. I love your characters, all of them. They're all well rounded and I'm interested in learning more about them; you can tell immediately that there's more going on beneath their surface personality types, which is great. I've only really gotten the more specialized scenes with Sho and Yue (<3<3<3) but it's fun to see the way they develop as you get closer to them. Faeran and Sitri feel a little heavy on the dialect at times (I think less is more with apostrophe-shortened words like bein' and an'), but for the most part, it just makes them extra charming. In most dating sims, there are maybe one or two characters I really like, but in this I kinda want to date all of them :oops:

3. I have to pick just one? :shock: (Probably Sho or Yue, with Faeran and Tiberus as close runners up)

4. I'm not really sure what to expect from here. We're in the middle of a war but haven't seen a ton of battle yet, so I assume at least there'll be more of that as we get closer to part 2? There's a steady stream of hints and tidbits about the war and the players involved in it, so I hope some of the questions raised there will get answered, too.

5. Can I have more? *bambi eyes*

I really hope you start feeling better soon! It really sucks feeling down on your work (especially when you can't see that it's soooo goooood!!), but yeah, take your time and keep up the good work. It'll be well worth the wait!

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Re: Magicians of Delphine[GxB][BxB][Dating Sim]-- DEMO (July

#210 Post by Green Glasses Girl »

akemicchi wrote:As for the rest of it-- were you lost because of the lack of setting and direction? So far, Aleo kind of just wanders from place to place. Would it be better if I were more mindful about easing the player into the world and their role (Aleo is at the army to train, Aleo is at camp to meet the magicians)? Or is the problem the gameplay? I've had someone mention they didn't know what to do once they got to the day planner. Would things be better if I were more direct about what the player is doing?
I agree that easing the player into the world and their role might be a good introduction. The gameplay I caught onto relatively fast, so I had no problem with it. :D
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