Ebon Light [Fantasy][Dark][GxB] - Demo Updated!

[underbliss]

Thank you so much for the responses and opinions <3

Hmmmm...
For what it's worth, I don't intend to make the choices in the game vague to the point of catching you unaware. If the outcome surprises you it should be because your character is also surprised by it, not because you as the player are surprised by.. your character, if that makes sense. I want to emphasize also that there isn't a right and wrong answer - because even with flirting, it's not that you have to hit every 'flirt' option in order to start a relationship with so and so.

Cola - Aww thank you <3 I feel ok now, so all is good! To be honest most of those sprites were like 90 percent finished before so.. shhh.. ahem!
Hmm I've been there before too, and it's usually made me yell at my screen/the PC all frustrated (especially because I swear she's doing the polar OPPOSITE of what I wanted her to!@$). That is definitely not the position I want to put people in!

Mad Harlequin - To choice clarity/vagueness - yeah, I'm with you. This is something I can't say I'm doing 'right' or any particular way until other people give me feedback after playing the game, but I hope I'm getting the balance between clarity and and flow. (Also Yes I am totally impressed at your late to the dragon age partyness! I adore that series to fanatical pieces <3 )

Harliqueen - Thank you so much! Hmm... yeah, I really dislike it when the protagonist of VN goes off in a direction I completely did not intend or expect. It's all coming down to immersion vrs information at this point, and people seem to be on both sides of it. (And honestly what did I expect x.x!)

I wonder if it would be difficult to code it in as an optional thing... More options can't do anything but make everyone happy, right? Or something very simple like an ominous sound or sweet sound or whatever where wicked/ flirty options are appropriate? Would that jar immersion at all?

As for stats!!!
It was suggested on tumblr that the stats stay hidden but at the end of the game, the stats of your characters are revealed. I thought that was a neat idea - and it would be a way for people wanting to see how their character measured up (in terms of stats) to see/compare/whatever. I didn't want people agonizing much over stats because it's primarily a tool for me to shape responses and options to the sort of character I think the player is creating - which is why there was any hesitation about whether or not to show them in the first place. What you guys think of that idea?

[Mad Harlequin]

Mad Harlequin - To choice clarity/vagueness - yeah, I'm with you. This is something I can't say I'm doing 'right' or any particular way until other people give me feedback after playing the game, but I hope I'm getting the balance between clarity and and flow. (Also Yes I am totally impressed at your late to the dragon age partyness! I adore that series to fanatical pieces <3)

Well, I'll definitely let you know what I think when the demo's out! (As for Dragon Age, I knew it was a series that seemed like it would interest me, but it came out while I was still in school, and I didn't have much time for games, what with essays and tests and all. I'm still trying to get through a bit of a backlog I have. Games are also expensive. But a friend of mine alerted me when Origin gave away the first title for free a few months back, so I've been chipping away at it ever since. I love it so far. )

It was suggested on tumblr that the stats stay hidden but at the end of the game, the stats of your characters are revealed. I thought that was a neat idea - and it would be a way for people wanting to see how their character measured up (in terms of stats) to see/compare/whatever. I didn't want people agonizing much over stats because it's primarily a tool for me to shape responses and options to the sort of character I think the player is creating - which is why there was any hesitation about whether or not to show them in the first place. What you guys think of that idea?

I'd be open to it. It wouldn't be intrusive, but then at the end, the player could get some idea of what character choices affected gameplay, and what results a different playthrough might produce.

[ColaCat]

^^ Well I doubt this game will put people in that position, you're thinking it all through very carefully! And as for that idea, I think it's a good suggestion! If I knew about coding I'd give you some help/advice/whatever in how to make it. Options are good, but often complicated to code.

[underbliss]

Hey guys! <3
I'm gonna release a demo tomorrow! (28th)
I expect it will be something of a hot mess, which I realize is not the most.. I'm not sure the word, professional? Intelligent? Proper? way to do things, but for my own personal ends, sticking to what remains of a deadline is more important.
And since tomorrow is the last day of February and my initial ETA on the demo was.. the first week of February this is as far as I can stretch it without completely blowing that out the water!

(I dunno it makes sense in my head )

As such the demo wont have finished art assets by any means, some features missing (codex, primarily, which is something I'm keen on adding but right now devoting time to sorting that out is just gonna make the art and such suffer even more so best left for laterrr), I'm gonna be up all night working on the script having a buddy check and edit the script tomorrow morning then I'll get it posted and ladeda there we will be~
I will then be updating the demo prolly like every week or so until it's up to par~
Oh my I type a lot-
Anyway so that's that!
Will post again tomorrow!

Thank you again you guys for your support and such it's been so much more motivating having people involved in this project than when I was trying to work on it all alone <3

Also, Mad Harlequin - I didn't know they were giving Origins away for free :O Lucky! Best game in the series, arguably, though Inquisition is living up to high praise .. got some.. fanart laying around here somewhere gah distractions

[Mad Harlequin]

Hey guys! <3
I'm gonna release a demo tomorrow! (28th)
I expect it will be something of a hot mess, which I realize is not the most.. I'm not sure the word, professional? Intelligent? Proper? way to do things, but for my own personal ends, sticking to what remains of a deadline is more important.
And since tomorrow is the last day of February and my initial ETA on the demo was.. the first week of February this is as far as I can stretch it without completely blowing that out the water!

(I dunno it makes sense in my head )

I wouldn't worry about it too much. Aside from ensuring that the demo features a complete introduction to the story, you don't really have any definite responsibilities. Early demos are often a little crazy.

EDIT: How did this post get messed up? I swear it went through properly early this morning.

[ColaCat]

^o^ Yay! I look forward to playing it! *puts proofreader specs on* XD

Anyway, good luck with getting it all done in time! ^_^

[philip]

This looks really interesting - am anxiously awaiting the demo!

philip

[underbliss]

Hey Phillip! Thanks!

The demo is done (and yet soooo unfinished)!
I just need to find somewhere to upload it, I'm doing that now. I just before midnight that it's done and I swear if I hadn't taken a shower earlier I'd probably have actually released it the day I said I would (gahhhh so closeewEWE)

Gotta find somewhere to upload it, will update this post momentarily. >D

Edit:
Alright!
https://www.mediafire.com/?0b0bc2bhse64h9h
Mediafire. I apologize if anyone who's interested in this demo doesn't like mediafire (I think I've seen a few complaints) but I am dead tired and that's all I got for now.
Please note: This demo ended up even more of a mess than I thought.
Like, at some point, sprites are stacking on top of each other, and they don't even change expressions. It was sooo about meeting a deadline today. But yay, pseudo success!
edit edit: also, I'm aware the file size is kind of stupidly large. I ran out of time sorting out some of my overly massive art files, I suspect that's a primary factor, and I will do my best to trim that down come next update. (which should hopefully be in about a week, if you'd rather wait!)

[ColaCat]

I'll play through it later! Good job on getting it out on time though! *bows*


EDIT:

I'll put this in spoiler tags just in case people aren't meant to see or something.

When the MC comes back from the woods, sleeps, and says "In the few seconds it took fo rme to catch my senses, I was made aware of my aunt's staring." There is a spacing error with fo rme.

I also got this error.

I'm sorry, but an uncaught exception occurred.

While running game code:
File "game/script.rpy", line 1227, in script
if Lace == Lacey:
File "game/script.rpy", line 1227, in <module>
if Lace == Lacey:
NameError: name 'Lacey' is not defined

-- Full Traceback ------------------------------------------------------------

Full traceback:
File "game/script.rpy", line 1227, in script
if Lace == Lacey:
File "C:\Users\User\Downloads\ReverieEbonLight-1.0-all\ReverieEbonLight-1.0-all\renpy\ast.py", line 1587, in execute
if renpy.python.py_eval(condition):
File "C:\Users\User\Downloads\ReverieEbonLight-1.0-all\ReverieEbonLight-1.0-all\renpy\python.py", line 1416, in py_eval
return eval(py_compile(source, 'eval'), globals, locals)
File "game/script.rpy", line 1227, in <module>
if Lace == Lacey:
NameError: name 'Lacey' is not defined

Windows-post2008Server-6.2.9200
Ren'Py 6.18.3.761
Reverie: Ebon Light 0.


Anyway, I know it's a really really rough draft, and you probably know about all these mistakes already, but I thought I'd tell you anyway. ^_^


Overall though it was really good! ^^

[Erikka]

I can't download the demo( the link doesn't work

[underbliss]

Cola - pfth I thought I fixed that one--
Thanks for the heads up on the spacing error, I need to update the demo today after all, so I'll hopefully get crash errors and the spacing error fixed up.
Thanks for trying it!

Erikka - I have no idea why it's not working for you D: Does mediafire usually not work for you, do you know?

[Rinima]

Downloading now
I'll let you know what I think~

[Mad Harlequin]

That link tells me the file is invalid or deleted. But I assume you'll post a new one shortly, so no worries!

[underbliss]

Oh man, I hope it doesn't give you a problem, Rinima! (I say that because I just deleted the other file, the new one is here;)

I fixed the crash Cola had but most importantly I totally didn't get time to mess with the music yesterday, and didn't have time to end an end demo screen, which somehow meant I forgot to... add attribution for the music I used x.x
so while I don't intend to take files down or update them hours after that really had to be fixed!

So in addition to that, cause I was already there :
* fixed the crash with 'Lace=Lacey' when talking to Vadeyn
* made the file size like 1/4th of the original size to download (ahem!)

Link:
https://www.mediafire.com/?yw1u5pk5wc5g0d3

(99mb this time, maybe it will be easier for some people to download? I hope?)

edit: Mad Harlequin - Oi, you caught me right as I was changing the files!

[Mad Harlequin]

Mad Harlequin - Oi, you caught me right as I was changing the files!

I have impeccable timing, don't I?

Anyway, it's downloading now. Thanks!