[Cancelled/Build released] Lemon Project ver 1.1

[leon]

Try this mirror download.

[fioricca]

/FINALLY UPDATES POST

Ohmygosh sobs I get worse and worse with this updating thing as dev work picks up. XD I'm really sorry!

This is an amazing game! I really enjoy the voice acting! Especially Vasilius. I could listen to him all day. He has a very calming and attractive voice, which I think really suits him. Props to Yian for doing such a good job. (I liked the others too, but you asked which one was our favorite).

I forwarded your comment to Yian and he was very happy to hear that! Thank you so much for trying the demo out and for taking the time to leave such a lovely comment behind!

Some quick updates: sprite lineart is more or less at 50%, which puts character art at 50% completion (all that's left is to add colours). Voices have been recorded up to mid-way in the game and script is 100% done, with editing at 75%. We still need to get cracking on event art and bg art but we'll do our best to meet the July deadline ;~;

Also:



Our editor, bug, will be attending MCM Comic Con in London, which is coming up soon! She will be giving out little lemon business cards to visitors so do stop by and say hi if you're there.

[Anne]

I really liked the demo, the voice acting sounds great. Unexpectedly my favourite is Torshen but all characters are really good.
But I didn't really get the purpose of the game - does she need to collect a certain sum by a certain date (probably no as it says the game has no time limit and it seems you can't even chack the amount of money you have)? when you talk to the characters it says trust / mood goes up / down, does it affect anything? there's a bar that's filling but I don't really get what it is and whether it's good to fill it or not and then it seems to randomly reset... does kinetic mean that you just get the events at some point regardless of what you do?

[fioricca]

I didn't really get the purpose of the game - does she need to collect a certain sum by a certain date (probably no as it says the game has no time limit and it seems you can't even chack the amount of money you have)? when you talk to the characters it says trust / mood goes up / down, does it affect anything? there's a bar that's filling but I don't really get what it is and whether it's good to fill it or not and then it seems to randomly reset... does kinetic mean that you just get the events at some point regardless of what you do?

The amount of money is displayed on the top bar during explore mode (and when you're outside). The bar that's slowly filling up is a trust bar, and the point of this game is to build up trust with the three characters. Once the trust gauge has been filled up, and you are at the time and place of where the next event will take place, the event triggers. Kinetic is probably a bad word choice as there's gameplay... linear is more appropriate ^^";;

Moods are more subtle. The characters won't buy your lemonade if their mood is awful, or they will tip less. You can then use the money to buy stuff from the online shop.

I'm sorry that the demo was so confusing! x_x We'll be sure to include a tutorial in the final release. We do have a manual here if you're still confused!

[AntiquedFae]

Squeeee! How did I ever manage to miss the demo update?!? Downloading now, I'm so excited to try it!! Yay!

EDIT: Okay, just finished playing the demo last night and I quite enjoyed it! My only complaint would be that I would like more story events for the amount of play time(though I may have just had really bad luck with being in the wrong place at the wrong time over and over again ) and for the characters to have more phrases so it isn't quite as repetitive. (even though the voice acting is so great that it really doesn't seem like that much of a problem.) Again though, this could have just been due to me having bad luck with timing.
Otherwise, it was great and I loved it! Everything is really fun, and I can already tell the commercial-level quality, even with it being a WIP. I'm really excited to see where this goes! It was a lot of fun to play. I completely loved all of the characters! You guys are doing a really good job, at least in my completely inexperienced opinion, that is.
In short, I'm really looking forward to watching this VN's development and completion!

[fioricca]

Squeeee! How did I ever manage to miss the demo update?!? Downloading now, I'm so excited to try it!! Yay!

EDIT: Okay, just finished playing the demo last night and I quite enjoyed it! My only complaint would be that I would like more story events for the amount of play time(though I may have just had really bad luck with being in the wrong place at the wrong time over and over again ) and for the characters to have more phrases so it isn't quite as repetitive. (even though the voice acting is so great that it really doesn't seem like that much of a problem.) Again though, this could have just been due to me having bad luck with timing.
Otherwise, it was great and I loved it! Everything is really fun, and I can already tell the commercial-level quality, even with it being a WIP. I'm really excited to see where this goes! It was a lot of fun to play. I completely loved all of the characters! You guys are doing a really good job, at least in my completely inexperienced opinion, that is.
In short, I'm really looking forward to watching this VN's development and completion!

And how did I manage to miss your comment?! OTL Thank you so much for trying out the demo and I'm really relieved that it hasn't disappointed anyone... yet! I'm super glad to hear that the demo was fun to you. The VAs are all ecstatic to hear that no one's thrown any tomatoes at them so far, too. You're awesome, thanks for stopping by and leaving some feedback -- it helps us greatly!

*

And time for some updates! To be honest, a lot has happened since the last time I posted. Did I mention that the script is done and only the last 25% needs editing? More voices are coming in and they sound incredible. All character, event and environment art has also been lined and we've started colouring:

I'm just sad that we're really behind schedule because of school, cons and other life related things. ;_; But we'll do our best to get it out as soon as we can! Thank YOU so much for your overwhelming support!

[fioricca]

We've decided to formally drop the project. Thanks so much for all of your awesome support and patience so far, it's been a great ride. Since a decent amount of work has actually been done, an incomplete version of the game will be released sometime in either late September (optimistic) or mid-October (more realistic).

[Omniknight]

Well, well, leon, look at this......
Perhaps... I don't even know what to tell you.

[Googaboga]

I hope everything is alright with all you guys. I'm sure cancelling the project wasn't easy v.v. Best of luck on your future endeavors and I'm looking forward to the incomplete version C:.

[AntiquedFae]

Oh no, I'm so sorry you needed to cancel it. I hope not having this to worry about makes the other things you are dealing with easier for you. I hope that if you can you will all work on a VN again in the future, once things have all gotten better for you. When you are in a happy place. Until then, thank you for what you have given us and created already. I hope everyone who worked on this project does amazingly well in all aspects of life. Take care, and I wish you the best in all your ventures. ^.^

[fioricca]

Thank you so much! It was a hard decision considering the amount of funds I've sunk into this but you guys make everything better. I'm not sure if we'll ever be able to make another game (sob) but I'll do my best ;~;

It's been about a week (well, I announced the cancellation on Monday, and it's Friday now), and I'd just like to share a little of what we've been doing. Right now, most of us are busy wrapping up whatever assets we currently have, and I've started exporting finished, coloured sprites. Something tells me I'm going to hate all of them in a matter of weeks... |D

We should hopefully have more material next week. :>

[fioricca]

omg how did one month just fly by I cannot BELIEVE...

The only reason why any of you would download and play this is if you need a kicker from looking at work that is more inferior than yours

I mean… ahem. God that was a long 9 months. x_x We really bombed it big time on this one. This build has only about 50 - 60% of the storyline as those are the only parts that were voiced. Not all the voice files are in, so you’ll hear missing voice clips and inconsistent voice acting as there was no time to QC those. Art isn’t finished either as again, time/budget constraints… the build should be fully functional though.

As I’ve mentioned before, I won’t be picking this project up again, and I’m really sorry about the awful quality of this build. It really sucks to not be able to make a full game twice. ): Live and learn, I guess.

RESOLUTION 1366 x 768 | GENRE Fantasy, slice-of-life | LENGTH ~1h | FEATURES Voice acting, light simulation elements

DOWNLOAD HERE ON ITCH.IO

A big thank you again to everyone who’s supported us so far. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting anyone to care. A big thank you to all of my teammates, who worked with me tirelessly through this. And my deepest apologies to teammates and eager players alike.

[Googaboga]

Congrats on getting the build out. I've downloaded it and I'll definitely give it a full try when I've got the chance C:.

I haven't gone through it fully but it's obvious already that there are a lot of great things in the build. It's really lovely :]. It's clear you guys all worked really hard and I'm very impressed by what you've accomplished. Even though this wasn't everything you wanted to do, you certainly still ended up with something to be proud of ^^.

[Arowana]

Congrats on the release! Even if it's not completely finished, it looks very professional and ambitious for just 9 months. I would definitely be proud of what you've accomplished so far. There's no shame in stopping a game when it is no longer enjoyable/feasible to work on, and I think it's far more sensible to acknowledge that early instead of dragging it out. ^^

[fioricca]

Ahh thanks so much T_T";; I think everything looks horrible anyway but it could be because I've playtested the build like easily 500 times. OTL It's really hard for me to see what's good and what's bad because everything feels crappy to me. If you guys have any feedback, let me know, because I sure could use a fresh perspective. In particular, feedback on the look/presentation of the game would be useful. Known issues include:

--- I wasn't able to make a better textbox to replace the crappy one we're stuck with
--- I wasn't able to adjust the colours on the UI
--- The title screen looks awful and could have been better
--- The logo is AWFUL (can you tell that logos are my least favourite part of asset making)
--- Transitions could have been softer/better/more complex (I really, really need to learn more Ren'py ATL)
--- Voice acting is inconsistent and quite the mess (even though I sank most of my budget into this... sigh.)

Feedback I'm interested in:

--- Lip-flap/blinking: was this extra touch necessary? Did you guys like or was it done poorly?
--- Screen resolution: We could have gone 1920 x 1080 HD but chose 1366 x 768 instead for slower PCs. Is the resolution comfortable? Did you guys try playing it at full screen if your screen resolution is 1366 x 768?
--- Art: Ugh lol everything looks terrible to me but feedback greatly welcome (since I'm mainly an artist...)
--- UI: Is the text size okay or is it too big? Is the UI clunky? It sure looks clunky and messy to me aaaaaa Dx
--- Voice acting: Did it enhance the overall experience of the game? If so, by how much?
--- Narration: I'm not a writer so I cheated a lot with sounds and other assets rofl but is it bearable? I know the story's not as well-written as other games... T_T";;
--- Gameplay: How did you find the light simulation elements? I see in polls a lot that no one likes gameplay, they'd rather have the story up front... I love adding gameplay mechanics though lmfao I'm trying to see if there's a way to do it without driving people nuts.
--- Music: We used free music for the entire game; did that affect how you enjoyed the game overall? Maybe made it seem rather cheap?
--- Transitions: The up/down transition to relate to character height was a fix we introduced for the PC version since lemon was initially planned to be a mobile game, and it was supposed to have a portrait layout (unlike the landscape orientation we currently have for the PC). Was it distracting/annoying?
--- Pricing: If this was a finished game, how much would you pay for it?
--- Other things: Anything else you can mention would be useful. For instance, I personally don't think the characters are that appealing (ergh), they're all quite generic... but if you have anything to say about that, I'd love to hear them.

The more feedback we get the better because seriously, fresh eyes are great and all inputs go towards making better stuff in the future (when I actually do so).