Spirit Parade [Otome/Asian fantasy] [Commercial] Demo out!

[JinTonic]

It looks very good!
I love Hayato and Haiyue. They looks incredibly good.
Will there be only 3 romancabale guys?

[Camille]

Will there be only 3 romancabale guys?

We are throwing ideas around about adding additional character routes (as a patch) if the game sells well, but for right now yes there will only be three guys you can romance.

[yuuyacchi]

I'm always up for fantasy and Asian themes, so this one is right up my alley! You mentioned wanting feedback on characters and UI, so here goes:

The characters are very solid and diverse; just the description itself really brings them to life, and I look forward to seeing how they all interact and mesh together in the story. Nara, in particular, (love her name, btw; probably won't change it when I play; yes, I will totally play; you can totally expect a pre-order from me, :D) has a lot of potential for character growth, especially along the personalities of the other characters. I'm getting heavy feels that Hayato is the main guy/path, so looking forward to his story in particular. The twins' dynamic sounds really fun and cute, too; they are instant faves for me. Or maybe I'm just biased for twins, haha. And Diaochan is totally girl-crush worthy. Would love a path with her--friendship or romance, either's good.

As for the character designs -- big, fat 'A' with stars and sparkles. Really love the art style, and those chibis are just adorable. The designs are big (especially the guys' hair, haha) and flashy and shiny without being over-the-top, and that balance is just really hard to achieve. The bright and pastel designs work nicely against the BGs in the screenshots.

Now for UI: [uhhh, I'm just pretty specific about things I like, so, yahhh, take my opinions with a grain of salt]

Let's start with the logo: the colors are cute and suit the general style of the art, but I don't really find it well-balanced. That empty space on the upper right just really bothers me, and the flowers look like they were added in last minute just to fill in some space. Not a fan of the font used in "parade", and the 'S' and 'P' look a bit too chunky. Both kind of just take up space and make the logo bigger than it needs to be. But the brush-like stroke of 'S' and 'P' do work, and the flower really is very nice, so maybe a design centered around those elements will be better? The font used for the section headers ('story', 'characters', 'updates', etc.) is actually pretty good, and I feel like it could work. Overall, the logo's fine, but it's not very appealing (well, to me, at least).

As for the ADV, the design is nice, though it does kinda take up a huge chunk of screen space. I like it, though it's kind of a shame that it covers up a lot of the BG and sprites. But that space at the right bothers me again... (Yeah, I'm just really iffy about balance.) Moving the dialogue box or stretching it could work as solutions. (Also, that circular logo thing behind Nara has me curious; I'd like to see in full if ever.)

As for text, the font feels kind of... newspaper-ish? I mean, it looks like something to be used for print material instead. I personally do prefer sans serif for VNs since I have eye problems, and some serif fonts are hard to read for too long on a screen for me, but the font used here kinda looks a bit too -- conservative? Classic? I feel like you can take a lot more liberties with the font; there are tons of other serif fonts out there that don't feel as bookish and have a lot more flair. Though I have to admit, it totally works italicized with the NVL portion. Also, I've never really liked quotation marks with dialogue, but that's just a personal preference.

Last thing: the perspective of the BG on the bottom left screenshot seems kind of off. It kind looks like it's coming from a higher, angled PoV, especially compared to the other BGs shown. I guess the far wall makes it look like the horizon is slanted, and the right wall with the sliding door is too shallow? IDK, I'm not very good at explaining perspectives...

Anywaaaaay... TL;DR and putting my picky design opinions aside, I really am looking forward to this one a lot. Lore's always reliable for a good story. :D Quick question though: are you planning to release this through some sort of platform, like Steam or something? Just asking since I have no idea how Steam works, hahaha. /shot

[JinTonic]

Will there be only 3 romancabale guys?

We are throwing ideas around about adding additional character routes (as a patch) if the game sells well, but for right now yes there will only be three guys you can romance.

I hope this game will sell well. I think more romancable characters you have - more success it will gain. Anyway, I really look forward to playing it. Hope Haiyue will be romancable too)

[Camille]

As for text, the font feels kind of... newspaper-ish? I mean, it looks like something to be used for print material instead. I personally do prefer sans serif for VNs since I have eye problems, and some serif fonts are hard to read for too long on a screen for me, but the font used here kinda looks a bit too -- conservative? Classic? I feel like you can take a lot more liberties with the font; there are tons of other serif fonts out there that don't feel as bookish and have a lot more flair. Though I have to admit, it totally works italicized with the NVL portion. Also, I've never really liked quotation marks with dialogue, but that's just a personal preference.

Quick question though: are you planning to release this through some sort of platform, like Steam or something? Just asking since I have no idea how Steam works, hahaha. /shot

Thanks so much for leaving such a detailed comment! ;w; I'll pass your words on to the artists but I'm so glad that you like the characters and their designs so far! We'll take your comments about the logo and UI into consideration, as well. We might not be able to do anything about those this time around, but they're good things to consider for next time.

Since Spirit Parade's setting is a bit more historical, I thought a serif font would work better because it feels kind of story-bookish? So you saying it looks classic is pretty spot-on because that's what I wanted out of it, haha. But we're thinking of adding in a font-selection option (at the very least I wanted the option for people to be able to choose that special font made for dyslexics), so no worries! As for the quotation marks, in testing people have trouble distinguishing between the MC's dialogue and their thoughts unless there's some marker other than their name, so the quotation marks are good for that, haha. I guess it's also something of a carry-over from Japanese VNs because those usually have the Japanese quotation marks for dialogue.

At present we're planning on just releasing the game through itch.io, which is a vendor but you'll be able to just download the game and play it normally. They've got pricing tiers and whatnot so we can put up the different versions of the game, extras, etc. I've heard that Steam is phasing Greenlight out so we'll have to see the state of things when we release this game... But in general you can't just put your game on Steam—there's like an approval process and all that—so we can't guarantee that Spirit Parade will make it there.

[Mad Harlequin]

But we're thinking of adding in a font-selection option (at the very least I wanted the option for people to be able to choose that special font made for dyslexics).

+100 Awesome Points for you! Everyone should be so considerate.

[AntiquedFae]

Super late response to say that I love you, considerate and wonderful developers who care about diversity and accuracy and sensitivity. I have every confidence you will handle the topic matter wonderfully.
If you feel you need any help with writing the MC and how her condition affects her; I don't have polio, but I am very happy to help however I can with hopefully providing some insight on living with a disability if you need it, and I'm definitely not the only one on this forum who would be happy to assist you. ^_^ I want this to happen so badly. You guys are amazing!

I really do earnestly wish you the best on this project!

[Mad Harlequin]

If you feel you need any help with writing the MC and how her condition affects her; I don't have polio, but I am very happy to help however I can with hopefully providing some insight on living with a disability if you need it, and I'm definitely not the only one on this forum who would be happy to assist you.

Fae, you just hit the nail on the head. To Lore and Rins: I do not have polio either, but what I do have, in many cases, leads to similar paralysis. I'm fortunate enough to be able to walk fairly "normally" thanks to a combination of physical therapy and surgery, but I do remember what it was like when I was younger and had less strength and range of motion. And I definitely know what it's like to resent being pitied.

So . . . my door is open to y'all, too.

[Camille]

@AntiquedFae and Mad Harlequin: Thank you so much for your support! We'd be really happy if you could play the demo (and perhaps sign up for beta testing later) and let us know what you think of it for sure and we'll definitely come to you if we have questions or need some advice. We'll do our best to meet your expectations; thanks again! ;w;

Speaking of which...



The Spirit Parade demo will be available for download on January 30th! The demo will contain the entirety of the common route, which will encompass the first 7 days of the story (which is before the story splits off into the romanceable characters’ routes).

Pre-orders will also start on January 30th, so you’ll be able to pre-order the game at a discounted price of $10 on that date. We’ll be unveiling a number of other exciting things soon, too, so be on the lookout and follow our production diary for the latest updates!

[jack_norton]

Haha, good luck with this. I like asian fantasy settings too
Also, the speed! You announced it the 15th and already planning a demo at end of month! nice

[Hazel-Bun]

Nice I hope it's to my liking. It seems like a fun, well put together game and I adore anyone pandering to my thoughtful otome palette.

[Mad Harlequin]

@AntiquedFae and Mad Harlequin: Thank you so much for your support! We'd be really happy if you could play the demo (and perhaps sign up for beta testing later) and let us know what you think of it for sure and we'll definitely come to you if we have questions or need some advice. We'll do our best to meet your expectations; thanks again! ;w;

Absolutely! I'll be downloading the demo as soon as it's out!

Nice I hope it's to my liking. It seems like a fun, well put together game and I adore anyone pandering to my thoughtful otome palette.

You'll want to reconsider your use of "pandering" . . . it means negative things. (Fact of the day: the word "pander" is an old term for pimp.)

[AntiquedFae]

@AntiquedFae and Mad Harlequin: Thank you so much for your support! We'd be really happy if you could play the demo (and perhaps sign up for beta testing later) and let us know what you think of it for sure and we'll definitely come to you if we have questions or need some advice. We'll do our best to meet your expectations; thanks again! ;w;

I'd love to play the demo and help with beta-testing when the time comes! Provided another project I'm involved with in real life allows me to. I will figure out a way to at least play the demo and give you my thoughts because I really love this project and want to help if I can at all! I'm so glad you are so open to opinions.

[yuuyacchi]

A font-selection option would be absolutely lovely, and I hope it makes it into the final version. :)

I only really mentioned Steam because it was the first platform that came to mind. ^u^" I am a bit more familiar with itch.io though, since I've bought a few games from there. Will the demo and pre-orders be from there, too?

Also, you mentioned a sign-up for beta-testing? Is it a closed beta and how do I sign up? B)

[noeinan]

Ooooh! Gotta comment to watch this thread. :3