[Cancelled/Build released] Lemon Project ver 1.1

[fioricca]

Double-posting to alert everyone of a known issue! All three of the builds will crash at right before the ch04 event. I'm honestly not sure why this is happening, the build ran fine in the engine itself T_T";; I'm so sorry about this! I'll update this post when we've fixed the issue!

[noeinan]

Just got the chance to play though this, and I wanted to thank you for releasing it even though the project was dropped-- it was a lot of fun! Some notes I took while I was playing (Spoilered for spoilers?):

OMG, Angelo is such a pedo! ("A night with me is going to be a night you'll never forget" made me cringe so hard. Squick! "I learnt my lesson the first time, sir" WHAT DID YOU DO???) Who would fake seduce an elementary school kid like that! XD He just keeps throwing out lines from bad otome games, and I have to admit I'm loving it. Chris seems like a much more accomplished sweet talker, though!

It's like Angelo has good looks, and he's young so he's discovered how useful that is and is used to getting what he wants. His sweet talking is a little more stereotypical and less refined because he hasn't needed to actually learn it. Chris on the other hand has been around the block and developed real skill. :3

Vasilius was really creeping me out at first, but the longer I talk to him the more he seems to grow on me. When you see him at night, he can't buy lemonade, but if you catch him in the afternoon he will buy A LOT. I was really interested in that bat controlling curse. O.O

Got an error message after giving a pearl bracelet to Orina, when she already took it earlier. Also, when I bought a new thing, the last thing I had went missing. /shrug Since the project is dropped I'm not sure you guys want to fix it, but I figured I'd mention it just in case.



Classics vol. 1: Orina HATES this, both Vasilius and the police officer thank you for the thought, but will turn it down-- trust and morale increase.

Pearl bracelet: Orina likes this, and will take it

Leather Notebook: Vasilius and Torshen will turn this down, but trust and morale still increase.

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).

Lip flap: I liked the lip flap, personally. There were times when I was paying attention and it fit the words well and other times when it didn't fit as well, but overall I'm not staring at the lips and just the movement gives a good effect. (Like, I'm not normally watching out for the lips so it didn't matter as much when it didn't fit because unless I'm specifically looking for it I didn't notice.)

Screen Resolution: My computer is higher resolution, but the resolution it was at didn't bother me at all. I played in window mode the whole time. (I like not having to drop out of full screen every time I want to check something else on my computer.)

Art: Honestly, I thought the art was gorgeous! If you're down on it, I'd say it's probably that your eyes are at a higher skill level than your hands-- which can be disheartening. You see all the mistakes but haven't quite caught up in skill yet. This is something that I've been working with myself, since I am only just now learning to shade (having spent over 20 years with no shading, only learned online inking/coloring in the past 5 or so...) I highly recommend checking out this video on artist block if you haven't already! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qb0g_gWrNf8 It really helped me not be down on myself when all I can see are mistakes. :3

UI: I also thought this was really well done. (I didn't have a problem with the text box either, haha.) Nothing about the text stood out to me as difficult to read or understand, I liked the way the buttons flow. (I generally knew what to do with the buttons without having to try to figure it out for long periods of time.) There were a few small problems, such as the inventory not always showing what I had, or acting like I had something after I gave it away, but overall it was good.

Voice Acting: Mostly, the characters use words like "kid" or "child" or "little one" where the MCs name would be. Sometimes, though, I think it would be more natural if the voice acting just omitted it outright instead. Overall, I thought the voice acting was very good-- surprising, since I normally don't like voice acting in games. The voices matched the characters really well. I know you used a lot of your budget on this, so I just wanted to say I think you made a good investment!

Narration: I liked it-- in the beginning I was a little confused because the text didn't say what the MC was saying exactly. Sometimes I thought the MC was thinking something in a rude manner, but actually said something politely. After I got used to it, though, it wasn't so bad. I really liked the way you managed the special effects, especially the monster gurgling!

Gameplay: I like gameplay, too, actually-- as long as it is integrated into the game instead of just separate. One thing I noticed was that it was pretty hard to get money, especially when 4/5 times I didn't meet any of the cast. Maybe for future games, a way to randomly get some small amount of money from nameless people? You don't have to meet them, just a bit at the end of each day saying "I made $# today... Not very much/Good haul.)

I think it would also be cool if you had to buy lemons, or spend money to redo the paint on your cart after the monster attack. (But for this to work you would need to be making more money.) You also start the game with $20, even though Vasilius gives you $50. /shrug

Music: I liked the music-- I'm not a huge music person, though, so for me as long as it isn't distracting and bad I'm going to be happy. I felt it was pleasant and helped set the mood. By default, I think it might be nice for the voices to be at a higher volume and the music and special effects to be a bit lower-- but I have poor differential hearing so that might just be me. (I have a hard time hearing what people are saying if the music is not significantly lower than the voices.)

Transitions: I didn't notice anything off about the transitions, so it must be good!

Pricing: Hm, this depends on how long it was going to be? What I'd played through so far was pretty short-- I interacted a lot with Orina and Vasilius, but only a few times with Torshen, and only really once with either Chris of Angelo. (When the MC got lost on Moon St.) I'd say, if it finished the plot arc, keeping the ratios the same, ~$6 or so? For a longer one with more character interaction and such I would pay more. (I got to see 3 cut scenes, one for Orina, Vasilius, and Torshen.) Though, that's just a guess for me, since I'm not too familiar with mobile pricing. I routinely purchase games from Winter Wolves and Hanako Games, paying a base price of $15-$25. (Sometimes there is an extra cost for a guide or something, which I always buy to support them! I also sometimes buy copies for friends if they seem like they might be interested.)

Other things: I actually loved the characters, and didn't think they were generic at all. I added most details regarding this in my notes above.

[fioricca]

Ahh okay the build is fixed now! Turns out that there was a bit of icky distribution code that we completely missed. OTL It must have snuck in there when we made the old demo build... I'm so sorry about this!

And daikiraikimi, thanks for playing and for taking the time to provide detailed feedback! I like the improved simulation you suggested. I did intend to include more detailed gameplay at first, but realised that it was something I could cut out and did so in an attempt to keep the game as small as possible (as they say, always start small). But I like your idea and if I ever make another simulation-type game, I might add that in.

The very first event with Vas at Moon St is about 25% of the full game if you're curious. We did plan to have more CGs/cut-ins in the later chapters, especially at the climax at the end. I would also have polished the build a lot more because I really don't like the textbox lmfao I think I must have been drunk when I made it... OTL But yes, that's an indication of length if you're curious. Thanks for the feedback on pricing, that's super helpful.

As for the inventory -- yeah, I caught that too but since it didn't interfere with gameplay, I let it slide. > >";; That error screen popped up because you were trying to give an item that doesn't exist. I definitely think we should have stamped out that bug, it does give people the wrong idea...

I'm glad to hear that you didn't find the characters generic! ;; As for gifting, Vas is a classy elitist prick and will only accept very high-end products. I wanted to add more items but again, time issues... /sigh He would have accepted the crazy $9900 dragon pen and I'd prepared a way for the lemon girl to actually obtain all that realistically without having to make $9k worth of sales. Still, he thinks you're cute for trying to give him things (I don't know if this got across, but he's really amused with how a young girl like the MC is selling lemonade earnestly and thinks it's endearing, which is why he supports you so much). Torshen is an a$$ and will not accept anything, but trust and mood increases anyway. BUT at different rates. The gifting part of the game becomes more relevant as later on, it becomes more difficult to fill up the trust bar so you gotta be sneaky and give them stuff they like.

I guess all in all, much of the gameplay mechanism is redundant since this is only half a game ToT";; Wahh

But!! Thank you again for playing and for your feedback. It means tons!

[noeinan]

I'll download the fixed build. Glad my feedback has helped.

If the CG with Vas is 25% then it's not too short, especially if there were more CGs.

[fioricca]

Sorry to be a bother but we really haven't received enough feedback (there's only less than 5 so far), so I'm just wondering if people haven't had the chance to play, or if the game is genuinely bad... ;; If it's the latter, that's also important for us to know.

(Btw, there are about 100 downloads for Lemon so far, 20 - 30 of them made after the latest update. Thanks to the 100 of you who checked us out. :'D)

[Hazel-Bun]

Haven't had the time to yet! I will soon...

[Googaboga]

Yeah I haven't had the time yet to give it a full try either. Sorry >.>.

[fioricca]

NO NO omg please don't apologise! I should be the one apologising, of course everyone's busy at the moment with school and what not. Please play at your leisure, no pressure or obligations at all! I'd hate it if anyone tried a game because they were subtly forced to. I'm sorry for the pesky reminder ;;

[Googaboga]

No worries :]. If you want more feedback it's definitely fine to say so. I just wanted to reconfirm that I would be giving feedback eventually but just haven't been able to yet and that the reason has nothing to do with anything being wrong with the game C:.

I do feel bad that it's taking me so long to get around to it though. But that's not your fault. I always feel bad when I take a long time to get back to someone X3.

[Spubba]

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).

Hi! First post on this board... I recently started fooling around, playing these games. (I'm an artist, not a good writer or coder though... dunno if I could make my own game so take my input with a grain of salt!)

I'm indifferent on the lip flap. Blinking, it made the characters a little more lifelike, but I don't feel it was necessary. I know you put a lot of effort into the voice acting, but with me, I can take it or leave it. I did like Vas' voice, but if it were a silent game I would have still played it!

Screen resolution I think was fine for this game. I didn't play it full screen and it 'felt' the right size.

I thought most of the art was good. My favorites were Orina and Vas; the elf guy could have used a little more polish. Backgrounds were good, but just "there" and I felt they could have had more detail to them without taking away from the game. Your interface design was the best part of the game. Loved the windows and buttons. In fact that's why I'm writing this up. The UI is the cutest thing ever! Not clunky or messy at all from my perspective. Oh, but the inventory system... eh it seemed to act a little weird to me.

I enjoy the 'sim' aspect of these games, where you have to build up trust/make the right choice of responses etc. and see your NPC's reactions to your choices. That was a good decision to include it IMO. I don't think this game had to be as linear as it was, of course I know it takes a lot of effort to build different story arcs.

I turned the music down; not because I didn't like it, but because I prefer silent games. But maybe I'm just weird!

Up/down transitions got on my nerves after a while. If it were me, I would not have added them in.

If it were finished, I might pay a buck or two for it depending on what the content was and how engaging the story/gameplay is. I've paid for these games before and generally I will throw a few bucks in the hole for higher scores/different endings/really fun gameplay/bonus adult CGs (Yep I'm a big pervert!)

All in all I think it's a good job and ok if it were my project I'd have put less time into adding voices and up/down transitions, and blow more of the budget on better backgrounds, better CGs and multi-arc storyline... BUT that is just me. It's an adorable game and I loved it!

[Googaboga]

Well, school is almost over for this semester so I was finally able to play the game through. Sorry for making you wait for so long DX. Here's my feedback C:.

--- Lip-flap/blinking: was this extra touch necessary? Did you guys like or was it done poorly?

I really like when game's have animation like that, so I was glad to see the effort was put in to have it included C:. Some of the blinks/lip flaps were just right, but others didn't work for me. For example with one of Orina's blinking effects, the open eyes weren't exactly the same as the blinking frame so it didn't flow completely. And I also think it would have been nice if the eyebrows moved along with the eyes. To end of a positive note, I liked that there was variety in when characters blinked rather than them all just blinking once a second or that sort of thing.

--- 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?

That resolution works very well for me. I don't like when games take up the whole screen so this size is great. It takes up enough of the screen that I can clearly see everything, but it doesn't take up so much that it makes me uncomfortable.

--- Art: Ugh lol everything looks terrible to me but feedback greatly welcome (since I'm mainly an artist...)

I'm not an artist so I don't really know how to give feedback on this. I thought all the designs were really pretty and the color palettes were nice though. And I liked that the poses were pretty dynamic.

--- 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

The text size looks nice to me. As for the UI, are you crazy? It's beautiful! It's so bright and crisp and cheery. Some of the best UI I've seen in a game and I'd personally be super proud if I had UI like that in one of my games ^^.

--- Voice acting: Did it enhance the overall experience of the game? If so, by how much?

I loved the little voice clips when you did things on the main menu. In the actual game, I would have said it didn't matter if it was there or not at the beginning. But when I got later in the game and the voice acting stopped I missed it.

--- 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";;

I liked the writing . It was interesting to read a VN where a lot of what the main character said wasn't actually written out. That's certainly a unique way to go about things. The style seemed to have kind of a storybook feel to it.

--- 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.

I really like VNs with gameplay and I thought what this game had going on was nice.

--- Music: We used free music for the entire game; did that affect how you enjoyed the game overall? Maybe made it seem rather cheap?

The free music didn't bother me at all :].

--- 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?

Nah, I thought it was neat for the most part. If I had to nitpick, I'd say that it wasn't as charming in that one extended conversation with Vas and Angelo where it went back and forth between the two a lot.

--- Pricing: If this was a finished game, how much would you pay for it?

5$-10$? I'm not sure. I can't really know how much time I'd spend playing the full game, and the amount of time I spend on a game is the main way I decided if I can justify buying a game.

--- 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.

Let's see some random things I noticed;
-All the little sound effects were super cute
-The effect that happened when you talked to someone went by a little fast, it was hard to read what happened 'X3
-It would have been nice if there was something that distinguished save spots from each other besides the screen shot, like a spot that says what time you made the save. Since most of the time I saved before choosing what to do so all the saves looked the same so I couldn't remember which ones were newer until I loaded them
-I could imagine when the MC's (I called her Sunny) teacher asked what they learned that summer the MC answers by saying 'I learned that the best thing to do is find a rich older man who thinks you're cute and have him give you lots of money.' And that makes me laugh XD

As for the characters, I liked them. The only one that I wasn't a huge fan of was Orina. I kept forgetting about her :'D. But Vas, Chris, Angelo, and Torshen were all very fun.

Overall I know it's easier to see flaws in your own stuff, but this is really a fantastic game. It's jam packed with great stuff and you definitely have all the right in the world to be proud of it :3.