Regeria Hope [Female Lawyer] First Episode Out Now!

[octacon100]

EDIT: It's out NOW! Download here for now, will have Ren'py pages set up soon.

For more information: http://goldengamebarn.com/regeria-hope/

Update: If you do try the first episode, please let me know answers to the following questions, so I can improve the game:

1. First impressions? Who do you think the murderer is, and why? Can you figure out the motive yet?

2. Is the game easy enough to understand how to play? Were there parts of the GUI you tripped up on?

3. Did you like being able to skip the tutorial sections by saying you didn't need help?

4. Were the testimony rebuttal sections too hard? Too easy? Just right?


This is called Regeria Hope, and it's a homage to the Phoenix Wright games. I liked the series so much I wanted to write my own stories using the same style. I'm hoping to have the first episode available for free before Xmas, and if enough people like it, I'll make more episodes next year. I'm aiming to have decisions made during the cases affect later cases, and I want to bring in a jury system and have evidence shown affect the story as well. The sprite artwork was done by an amazing artist called Maesketch, and you can check her out at http://maesketch.deviantart.com/ or http://hazakurain.tumblr.com/art )

Here's some images, you can see bigger images at http://wp.me/P4NsCd-d:



Here's some videos, and they work now!

[Googaboga]

Wow this seems really great ^^. And the art looks wonderful. I wish you the best of luck on meeting your release goal and I'll certainly check out the first case once it's finished C:.


There is one issue I take with what you've got going though. I hope this doesn't come off as too rude, but the addition of a timer during the trial sessions seems very unnecessary and will most likely just be mildly frustrating rather than add any genuine tension. Because if the timer does run out all you have to do is reload your file and redo what you've already done. Since this game is a VN style game, once you figure something out getting back to the point you were at when the time ran out doesn't require any new thought or effort. You just reenter the correct things you did before. So unlike a fighting game, for example, if you have to start over because time ran out the challenge is still there because you can't simply repeat exactly what you did last time, just faster. But that's just my opinion :'D.

[octacon100]

Wow this seems really great ^^. And the art looks wonderful. I wish you the best of luck on meeting your release goal and I'll certainly check out the first case once it's finished C:.


There is one issue I take with what you've got going though. I hope this doesn't come off as too rude, but the addition of a timer during the trial sessions seems very unnecessary and will most likely just be mildly frustrating rather than add any genuine tension. Because if the timer does run out all you have to do is reload your file and redo what you've already done. Since this game is a VN style game, once you figure something out getting back to the point you were at when the time ran out doesn't require any new thought or effort. You just reenter the correct things you did before. So unlike a fighting game, for example, if you have to start over because time ran out the challenge is still there because you can't simply repeat exactly what you did last time, just faster. But that's just my opinion :'D.

Thanks very much for having a look and your feedback!

Yeah, the timer is something I've been working with for a bit. It's very lenient, and it's mostly to add extra tension, which play-testing seems to show works. The actual time amount you are given in the case almost becomes a joke in the game, but it is ratcheted up at the last testimony to make players freak out, even though the correct evidence is basically given to them on a platter. I hope you'll try out the demo and see how you go.

The timer and life bars have kind of the same down side, when you fail due to loss of life, you have to play through the game again to get to that point. I'm hoping to have the timer sorted out by the time of release, but I don't see anyone losing due to the timer running out. Thanks for the feedback though. I just see it as an extra knob I can turn to turn tension up and down, and the time will likely only be in a bad state when the player has a chance to save right beforehand.

[Googaboga]

It's true that the health bar also puts you at risk for having to redo what you've done, but you only lose health from your own errors. With a timer you could do everything right and lose simply because you aren't very fast and that's the issue. Some people just take longer to think things through and/or are slower readers. But if there is more than enough time then it doesn't really matter. I just assumed that it would be short enough for it to be possible to lose by running out of time.


I personally am not bothered by timers in VNs for the reason I mentioned above. So it's not going to have an effect on how I feel ^^;. *Edit* I think I might have misinterpreted part of what you said. When you say 'see how you go' do you mean how the timer makes me feel or whether or not I finish the trial in time or just how I feel about the game in general 'X3?

[TheOnlyKieran]

This looks fun! The Phoenix weight style really comes through. Keep it up!

[Arowana]

A female Ace Attorney-ish protag sounds awesome, and I love the character art in the previews. Do you have any plans to further customize the GUI?

And wow, you were at BostonFIG? I only heard about it after it was already over; wish I could've gone! Did you meet anyone else with Ren'Py/VN games?

[Saitoki1582]

This looks really great. The character art is beautiful and I really like detective games. Will definitely check it out once it's finished.
By the way, you should probably include some tags in your thread, like [mystery], [detective].. or something so people will know what kind of game it is before checking the thread.

[octacon100]

Thanks for all the kind words everyone! TheOnlyKieran, thanks, I'm trying to get the PW style, but not be too overpowering with it.

Arowana, thanks for the customizing GUI idea, I really need to get around to doing that. Hopefully will get around to that soon. Would have been great to meet you at BostonFIG! I didn't see many other Ren'Py games there, I only had about 30 minutes to run around, but Choice of Games is kinda close, since they make choice in games a big thing.

Saitoki1582, thanks for the info on the tags, I'll put them on right now!

Hopefully the youtube videos appear soon. How many posts do I need to make before they work?

[octacon100]

So I'll start introducing the characters, hopefully each day as I remember to do so.

Regeria Hope



Regeria is the character you will be playing as. She's a very green lawyer, but she is extremely capable when she feels she is up to the task. While she can be shaken by the press on her first case, she always holds hope out for her client until the very end. Certain things are tough to write about this character, since you will control how she acts and how she responds to certain situations.

She will never back down from a challenge, and her shout, "Have at you!" can make prison guards jump!

[JimG]

Any chance for a Mac version?

Best Regards
Jim

[octacon100]

Sure, I thought I put it in that folder? Did you try downloading RegeriaHope-1.0-all.zip? I should probably update the page with the download link as well.

Thanks!

[octacon100]

Here's today's Character!

Artemis Narcissus



The Prosecutor. She is very vain, and as her name shows, she loves herself. She doesn't trust anyone, but she believes in the justice system, so evidence will make her more interested in a case. Her favorite color is purple, and isn't seen too far away from a mirror.

Today's Update

I've been able to figure out how to customize the textbox and the choice and menu buttons thanks to the forum topics here, and thanks to PyTom, I've been able to get past a bug that was driving me crazy. You're the best, PyTom!

[melelisun]

As a huge fan of Phoenix Wright, I love this!

The writing style is very solid and is very reminiscent of PW, so great job on that. In addition, the art is gorgeous. I also love the usage of classical music, and I think each piece fits the feel very well!

My only gripe is is really the sound effects - they have low audio quality - as well as the GUI, which is a big difficult to look at because the name colors occasionally hurt my eyes.

Looking forward to more! (Also a quick note, but it's cool how you stuck with the color theme - like blue for PW, magenta for Edgeworth = red for RH, purple for AN.)

[octacon100]

Hi Melelisun! Thanks very much for your kind words. Really glad you loved it!

Yeah, I'm looking to make the voices sound a lot better lately, I'm working on what I can do to get the "sustained" working better. Was it the voices that didn't sound very good, or were there other sound effects that had issues?

I'm also working on the GUI text. Which names were hurting your eyes? I'm currently playing with a red background for the name section. Not sure if a bright background with dark names on it would be better than a dark background with bright words on it. Yeah, I'm extremely happy with the artist, you can check her out at http://maesketch.deviantart.com/ or http://hazakurain.tumblr.com/art. She's great!

[melelisun]

Hmm, what mainly caught my attention were the sound effects, as they seemed a bit 'fuzzy' - but then again, that IS fitting with the PW series, so if it's intentional, then I'd completely understand that

For the name colors, it's mainly the highly-saturated ones, like Artemis's magenta and Regeria's bright red. I do understand that it's fitting with their characters, but maybe a little less saturated? Then again, this would also really depend on the color of the name plate.