A NEAR DAWN ♣ [Thriller x Mystery x Comedy] < Play the Prologue! >

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HimeNaya
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Re: A NEAR DAWN ♣ [Thriller x Mystery x Psychological] [DEMO OUT!] [KickStarter Oct 10th!]

#121 Post by HimeNaya »

I'll be playing your demo this weekend! <3 I'll post feedback afterward. :)

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Re: A NEAR DAWN ♣ [Thriller x Mystery x Psychological] [DEMO OUT!] [KickStarter Oct 10th!]

#122 Post by LeonDaydreamer »

Zelan wrote: Wed Sep 27, 2017 3:59 pm I actually didn't end up playing it, unfortunately. No one came to the stream (my fault since it was so impromptu haha) so I decided to plan things a little better before trying again. I'll probably set a time for this weekend.
You should've seen me though :') I typed in "how to stream on twitch" into Google and crossed my fingers from there.
Haha, alright Zelan. That means you know more about Twitch than I do. :P
Sounds like you're making it into a special experience. Let me know when you check it out!
HimeNaya wrote: Wed Sep 27, 2017 4:16 pm I'll be playing your demo this weekend! <3 I'll post feedback afterward. :)
Coolness! I'm looking forward to hearing some feedback from people.
I haven't really heard much so far. :P
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Re: A NEAR DAWN ♣ [Thriller x Mystery x Psychological] [DEMO OUT!] [KickStarter Oct 10th!]

#123 Post by LeonDaydreamer »

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We just got a Thunderclap thing. It's going to be an uphill climb trying to put this whole campaign business together, but if you have a chance, please support us on Thunderclap (it allows you to pledge one future tweet/post in support of our project). We're going to need all the help we can get! :)
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Re: A NEAR DAWN ♣ [Thriller x Mystery x Psychological] [DEMO OUT!] [KickStarter Oct 10th!]

#124 Post by LeonDaydreamer »

So this is magical and amazing - my illustration of the city of Seattle is up at the top of the Seattle subreddit. :)
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Re: A NEAR DAWN ♣ [Thriller x Mystery x Psychological] [DEMO OUT!] [KickStarter Oct 10th!]

#125 Post by Zelan »

Congratulations! Your art's getting a lot of attention (as it should be). And hey, hit me up if you ever do end up making a print out of it. c:

Also, I'll be trying the streaming thing again here tomorrow at 5:00 PM EST (aka 28.5 hours after the time of this post). If any of y'all wanna come that would be pretty cool. ^_^

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Re: A NEAR DAWN ♣ [Thriller x Mystery x Psychological] [DEMO OUT!] [KickStarter Oct 10th!]

#126 Post by LeonDaydreamer »

Zelan wrote: Sat Sep 30, 2017 12:37 pm Congratulations! Your art's getting a lot of attention (as it should be). And hey, hit me up if you ever do end up making a print out of it. c:

Also, I'll be trying the streaming thing again here tomorrow at 5:00 PM EST (aka 28.5 hours after the time of this post). If any of y'all wanna come that would be pretty cool. ^_^
Thanks Zelan! :)
It was really cool seeing that happen. I still haven't heard too much feedback about the actual game, though. :P

Yay! You're finally checking it out.
Maybe I'll join you a bit if I find the time. :)
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Re: A NEAR DAWN ♣ [Thriller x Mystery x Psychological] [DEMO OUT!] [KickStarter Oct 10th!]

#127 Post by Zelan »

LeonDaydreamer wrote: Sun Oct 01, 2017 2:45 amYay! You're finally checking it out.
Maybe I'll join you a bit if I find the time. :)
Yup! Stream starts in 10-15 minutes, for you or anyone else who wants to come hang out. Same link as before. :D

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Re: A NEAR DAWN ♣ [Thriller x Mystery x Psychological] [DEMO OUT!] [KickStarter Oct 10th!]

#128 Post by LeonDaydreamer »

Zelan wrote: Sun Oct 01, 2017 4:55 pmYup! Stream starts in 10-15 minutes, for you or anyone else who wants to come hang out. Same link as before. :D
I missed it, had to run out. :/
How'd it go, Zelan?
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Re: A NEAR DAWN ♣ [Thriller x Mystery x Psychological] [DEMO OUT!] [KickStarter Oct 10th!]

#129 Post by Zelan »

LeonDaydreamer wrote: Sun Oct 01, 2017 7:01 pm
Zelan wrote: Sun Oct 01, 2017 4:55 pmYup! Stream starts in 10-15 minutes, for you or anyone else who wants to come hang out. Same link as before. :D
I missed it, had to run out. :/
How'd it go, Zelan?
Aww, that's okay! I'm going to try and upload it to YouTube at some point. It went pretty well, I think - there was some problem with streaming the game audio, so it ended up just being me talking over the visuals - but otherwise it went smoothly! There were a whole two people there watching. And I'm planning on playing it again on my own time so that I can hear the voice acting (I had muted it so that I could read the VN to the viewers).

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Re: A NEAR DAWN ♣ [Thriller x Mystery x Psychological] [DEMO OUT!] [KickStarter Oct 10th!]

#130 Post by LeonDaydreamer »

Zelan wrote: Sun Oct 01, 2017 10:05 pmAww, that's okay! I'm going to try and upload it to YouTube at some point. It went pretty well, I think - there was some problem with streaming the game audio, so it ended up just being me talking over the visuals - but otherwise it went smoothly! There were a whole two people there watching. And I'm planning on playing it again on my own time so that I can hear the voice acting (I had muted it so that I could read the VN to the viewers).
Cool, post it when you do! :)
What did you think of the thing?
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Re: A NEAR DAWN ♣ [Thriller x Mystery x Psychological] [DEMO OUT!] [KickStarter Oct 10th!]

#131 Post by LeonDaydreamer »

Look, he's running! - Putting together some GIFs... :)

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It's been tough getting support for our Thunderclap thingamajig. If you could lend a voice, we would really appreciate it. :)

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Re: A NEAR DAWN ♣ [Thriller x Mystery x Psychological] [ PLAY THE PROLOGUE! ]

#132 Post by LeonDaydreamer »

So, things have been a little hectic the past while, and I've been putting a lot of pressure on myself. I described the experience as juggling and trying to cook three things at the same time. Right now I'm thinking I could use a little breather and to have things slow down a little, so I will probably be pushing back the KickStarter date a little bit. I'll drop in some solid details when I figure things out.

If you check out the game, definitely let us know what you think! We'd love to hear from you. And I would personally love to hear from you! :)
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Re: A NEAR DAWN ♣ [Thriller x Mystery x Psychological] [ PLAY THE PROLOGUE! ]

#133 Post by LeonDaydreamer »

Alpha Beta Gamer just wrote an amazing review for our game!  :)
https://www.alphabetagamer.com/a-near-dawn-alpha-demo/
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Re: A NEAR DAWN ♣ [Thriller x Mystery x Psychological] [ PLAY THE PROLOGUE! ]

#134 Post by Zelan »

Hey, I totally get taking a break for yourself. Sometimes you've just gotta chill, y'know? c: You've done so much hard work already, you deserve it.

Okay so the DEMO. I had so much fun with it. I had absolutely no idea just how many animations there were, and every one of them was absolutely breathtaking. It almost felt like I was watching a movie instead of just playing a VN. The dream sequence at the beginning, in particular, was filled with amazing art.

I also loved the point-and-click sections!! Somehow, even after following the updates for so long, I had never actually realized that you had implemented them. It was a nice surprise. c: The flavor text on a lot of the random objects in each scene was fun.

The voice acting was awesome, you really picked some great people to work with. I've also never read a VN where even the narration was voiced, which was GREAT - it really took my preference for full voice acting to the next level. Everyone did such a good job bringing some more life into the characters. My only criticism here is that Ally's and The Kid's lines were a little quiet - I had trouble hearing them even when I turned the voice acting all the way up and lowered the music as much as I felt like doing (I didn't want to lower the music too much because it was also pretty kickass). And it wasn't just that I had trouble hearing them over the music, it was also that they were noticeably quieter than Sam and Harry. A lot of times with sound design, what you need to do is get all the voices equal, so that there isn't a jarring difference between two characters having a conversation. This usually means lowering everyone down to the volume of the quietest character; the reason that you do this rather than raising anyone's volume up is to avoid also magnifying background noise while you're at it (because there is ALWAYS noise). That's why having someone send in voice samples that are too quiet is a pretty big problem. You might have to get retakes and/or find someone with better equipment to get better audio quality for your VA.

The writing was superb, though! I had fun going through and trying all of the different choices. The evil choices were really sad... but also really funny. <: Poor Ally thought she was getting sued so hard; like, babe, no, it's okay, Sam's just being a jerk, it's fine. The interactions with The Kid were also hilarious, although I have to say that my experiences with kids have generally been much more positive. (The bit with the thumb trick was probably the highlight. Sam's kind of a dork, honestly, but that's cool because I am too.) It was also interesting getting to know Harry and Ally a bit more by talking to them. I'm actually really interested in Emily and her novel, and I wouldn't mind if we heard more about her and her novel, even if it was just in passing remarks. Subplots are nice. c:

I guess the only other minor complaint that I have would be that there was no skip function. All these Ren'Py games have spoiled me for it, and when I play a VN that doesn't let me skip there's always this momentary feeling that I can only describe as, "???, !!!!, ..." but honestly it wasn't a huge drag since I could have fixed it with more strategic saving. Plus, I got to see the bomb visuals again.

All in all this was really great and I'm super excited for what comes next. ^_^

P.S. Congrats on the review!! You seem to get a fair few of those, that's awesome. c:

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Re: A NEAR DAWN ♣ [Thriller x Mystery x Psychological] [ PLAY THE PROLOGUE! ]

#135 Post by LeonDaydreamer »

Zelan wrote: Sun Oct 08, 2017 4:36 pm.... [ALL OF IT] ....
Hey Zelan! Thanks for such a wonderful response! :)
I'm glad you enjoyed it! And the art - I worked really hard on it.

Yeah, the voices... we really did the best we could with them, but we would have to do a bunch of retakes for the full release, as you mention particularly with Ally and the Kid's lines. I really like their performances, so I wouldn't want to get different actors. Trina (who voices the Kid) only has three tiny lines and she kills it (even though it was quiet). :P

Yeah it's a particularly shy kid. You shouldn't interrupt his cartoons. :P
The thumb trick is such a shining part of the story for me, I made sure to get it just right with the voice actor, and I think he did a perfect job with it. As for Emily... so far I would plan to have her appear in a Part 2 (hopefully we get there).

I knew I would annoy some people by removing the Skip function - I was actually thinking of removing the Rollback function as well, but I decided it made things a little too unfriendly in terms of gameplay (specifically if you accidentally clicked and missed a line that only appeared one time, you couldn't go back, you would only be able to see it in the Log). But Skipping... I was always kind of against it in the first place, and this game is very options-heavy anyway, so actually playing it you wouldn't get too far with the Skip function before you had to make another selection. This game is inspired by traditional adventure games (hence the point and click interface :) ), and Skip is just not a thing that exists in those - I would really be more concerned with it being triggered unintentionally.

Thanks so much Zelan! :)
That review was such goodness... * melts *
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