Ethereal Creatures [Otome, Supernatural, 18+][Demo]

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LadyOfGatsby
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Re: Ethereal Creatures [Otome, Supernatural, 18+]

#76 Post by LadyOfGatsby »

Zelan wrote:Ahhh, jeez, I was never good at birds. A jay?
Lol you're pretty good since you are right
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Re: Ethereal Creatures [Otome, Supernatural, 18+]

#77 Post by Zelan »

LadyOfGatsby wrote:
Zelan wrote:Ahhh, jeez, I was never good at birds. A jay?
Lol you're pretty good since you are right
Oh, um, wow. cx That was a wild guess, haha.

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Re: Ethereal Creatures [Otome, Supernatural, 18+]

#78 Post by Beckit »

This game looks really pretty!

However *two* of the main characters share names with my siblings... so thats two routes I wont be playing :lol:

Otherwise, awesome work guys

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Re: Ethereal Creatures [Otome, Supernatural, 18+]

#79 Post by LadyOfGatsby »

Beckit wrote:This game looks really pretty!

However *two* of the main characters share names with my siblings... so thats two routes I wont be playing :lol:

Otherwise, awesome work guys
Thanks we're working hard haha and omg, that's such a coincidence :3
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Re: Ethereal Creatures [Otome, Supernatural, 18+]

#80 Post by LadyOfGatsby »

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Oz’s bird form, a "green" jay as guessed correctly from Zelan ^ ^. We’re super excited to announce we’ll be releasing both demo and kickstarter at the same time!
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Re: Ethereal Creatures [Otome, Supernatural, 18+]

#81 Post by LadyOfGatsby »

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Re: Ethereal Creatures [Otome, Supernatural, 18+][Demo]

#82 Post by Amberbaum »

Okay, just finished playing the demo and here come my report (and yes I know this is not the final version):

Pro:

- Pretty menu - easy to navigate
- Nice font choice, thought a bit small.
- The backgrounds are gorgeous and so detailed. An even thought they are so detailed they won't deflect the attention from the character sprites.
- Project Trinity did an amazing job with the music. It's beautiful.
- The overall art presentation is lovely and fits the theme.

Contra:

-Warrens sprites or to be precise his facial expression don't reflect most parts of the first conversation we have with him. He looks more neutral then intimidating, while occasional opening his mouth.
- The text say that Oz is opening his mouth to talk, but then stops and closes it. The problem is that we can't see his mouth because it's covered with the mask thing he is wearing. The text doesn't match with the sprite. Maybe change the text: "He looked liked he wanted to talk, but then shook his read and remained silent." or something like that

Things that are missing/could be implemented:
- While the standard font matches the GUI and theme of the game, it still might be hard to read for people who's sight is impaired or are having trouble with reading. A dyslexie font option would be practical.
- Maybe increase the font size just a little bit.
- Quicksave and quickload function/buttons are missing

Final notes:
-Is the mysterious sender of the rose and the creepy letter the suicidal person from the prologue or is it V'laine? It confuses me a bit, but maybe that's just intentional.
-Those two hunters creep me out.
-The fallen Angel dude is more unpleasant then mesmerizing and for the most time I have a hard time buying the bachelors charms/aura as the protag describes it. Only V'laine is an exception so far, since she had a crush on him and he was bewitching her with some vampire magic. Most of her "Wow, look at those hawt dudes! Oh, I feel some attraction." thoughts remind me too much of some japanese (mobile) otome games that are constantly gushing about on how pretty this person is while I am left in the cold and get annoyed after a while. So....maybe take this last part with a grain of salt. Physical attraction is something very personal that varies from person to person.......er, yeah

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Re: Ethereal Creatures [Otome, Supernatural, 18+][Demo]

#83 Post by LadyOfGatsby »

Amberbaum wrote:Okay, just finished playing the demo and here come my report (and yes I know this is not the final version):

Pro:

- Pretty menu - easy to navigate
- Nice font choice, thought a bit small.
- The backgrounds are gorgeous and so detailed. An even thought they are so detailed they won't deflect the attention from the character sprites.
- Project Trinity did an amazing job with the music. It's beautiful.
- The overall art presentation is lovely and fits the theme.

Contra:

-Warrens sprites or to be precise his facial expression don't reflect most parts of the first conversation we have with him. He looks more neutral then intimidating, while occasional opening his mouth.
- The text say that Oz is opening his mouth to talk, but then stops and closes it. The problem is that we can't see his mouth because it's covered with the mask thing he is wearing. The text doesn't match with the sprite. Maybe change the text: "He looked liked he wanted to talk, but then shook his read and remained silent." or something like that

Things that are missing/could be implemented:
- While the standard font matches the GUI and theme of the game, it still might be hard to read for people who's sight is impaired or are having trouble with reading. A dyslexie font option would be practical.
- Maybe increase the font size just a little bit.
- Quicksave and quickload function/buttons are missing

Final notes:
-Is the mysterious sender of the rose and the creepy letter the suicidal person from the prologue or is it V'laine? It confuses me a bit, but maybe that's just intentional.
-Those two hunters creep me out.
-The fallen Angel dude is more unpleasant then mesmerizing and for the most time I have a hard time buying the bachelors charms/aura as the protag describes it. Only V'laine is an exception so far, since she had a crush on him and he was bewitching her with some vampire magic. Most of her "Wow, look at those hawt dudes! Oh, I feel some attraction." thoughts remind me too much of some japanese (mobile) otome games that are constantly gushing about on how pretty this person is while I am left in the cold and get annoyed after a while. So....maybe take this last part with a grain of salt. Physical attraction is something very personal that varies from person to person.......er, yeah
Thank you for your feedback! Yeah lol the demo will definitely be revamped as our team already agreed on that so thank you for your concerns. I really appreciate your detailed review and what could be fixed :)
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Re: Ethereal Creatures [Otome, Supernatural, 18+][Demo]

#84 Post by wyverngem »

It took me less than an hour to play through the game (50 minutes). I did not feel the need to play through the demo more than once because there were little choices to be made. I really liked the art, gui, and music, but disliked that there wasn't much to do, but read. It was hard to keep my interest, but I stuck with it and there are moments worth reading; such as the meeting the bird and the stranger that embraces you. Those were my favorite scenes.

One quick question before I share my notes. Can you name the main character? I wasn’t given that option when I started the game. Here are my notes.

Notes:
It took a long time to load the game, consider adding a "presplash.jpg" to your game directory to let your players know that it's opening. Or you end up like me opening 3 games and wondering why it’s not loading.

The opening music is very lovely and the GUI is clean. I suggest making an insensitive gallery button if it's not going to do anything. In your Settings Menu, the same goes for the 18+ Filter. What is your 18+ filter going to filter? Will it be language and fbombs as well as sex?

The font chosen for the who is very decorative, but a little hard to read. Also there's something about the main font that felt a little broken and unclear. Maybe try adding an outline to the font to make it smoother? There are breaks in the o's and the thin lines of the w are what make it hard to read. For the textbox it looks really nice. I like the choice of colors for the GUI.

During the scene when you meet the man with the injured leg why did Person B say "I don't know, but she seems mentally disabled if you ask me." The game is 18+, right? Why use "mentally disabled" instead of "retarded"? As a writer you've already used the f bomb and insinuated that Anika would be raped. The word choice just threw me off. If you decide to add the language filter it would be a good place to use it.

When Anita returns to the house and opens the letter why is there scratching sounds as if someone is writing it? Wouldn't it be more appropriate to have a sound effect of opening it?

Overall, I felt that you didn't get to do much as a player. The demo did a good job of introducing everyone, but as a user it was kinetic and wasn't much for them to do. There was what, one choice, but it didn't change that you refused to help.

I really liked the art used for this and the sounds and music are very nice. They fit very well. If you could improve it would be to have sprites for none main characters such as Patchy and the hurt werewolf.

To be honest I was surprised there wasn't a cg on him hurt on the ground or at least a different background view of looking at their house. The way it is now, it felt like she was just standing in her driveway and hadn't moved to see what was going on.

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Re: Ethereal Creatures [Otome, Supernatural, 18+][Demo]

#85 Post by alex.theoto »

It took a long time to load the game, consider adding a "presplash.jpg" to your game directory to let your players know that it's opening. Or you end up like me opening 3 games and wondering why it’s not loading.
It is designed to start like this.
When the game starts there is a 'hard lock_don't skip the text_show the text for X seconds'.
I did it on purpose so the player have to read the info_intro.
The same happens at the credits.

Thank you for your feedback...
Last edited by alex.theoto on Tue Feb 14, 2017 5:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Ethereal Creatures [Otome, Supernatural, 18+][Demo]

#86 Post by LadyOfGatsby »

wyverngem wrote:It took me less than an hour to play through the game (50 minutes). I did not feel the need to play through the demo more than once because there were little choices to be made. I really liked the art, gui, and music, but disliked that there wasn't much to do, but read. It was hard to keep my interest, but I stuck with it and there are moments worth reading; such as the meeting the bird and the stranger that embraces you. Those were my favorite scenes.

One quick question before I share my notes. Can you name the main character? I wasn’t given that option when I started the game. Here are my notes.

Notes:
It took a long time to load the game, consider adding a "presplash.jpg" to your game directory to let your players know that it's opening. Or you end up like me opening 3 games and wondering why it’s not loading.

The opening music is very lovely and the GUI is clean. I suggest making an insensitive gallery button if it's not going to do anything. In your Settings Menu, the same goes for the 18+ Filter. What is your 18+ filter going to filter? Will it be language and fbombs as well as sex?

The font chosen for the who is very decorative, but a little hard to read. Also there's something about the main font that felt a little broken and unclear. Maybe try adding an outline to the font to make it smoother? There are breaks in the o's and the thin lines of the w are what make it hard to read. For the textbox it looks really nice. I like the choice of colors for the GUI.

During the scene when you meet the man with the injured leg why did Person B say "I don't know, but she seems mentally disabled if you ask me." The game is 18+, right? Why use "mentally disabled" instead of "retarded"? As a writer you've already used the f bomb and insinuated that Anika would be raped. The word choice just threw me off. If you decide to add the language filter it would be a good place to use it.

When Anita returns to the house and opens the letter why is there scratching sounds as if someone is writing it? Wouldn't it be more appropriate to have a sound effect of opening it?

Overall, I felt that you didn't get to do much as a player. The demo did a good job of introducing everyone, but as a user it was kinetic and wasn't much for them to do. There was what, one choice, but it didn't change that you refused to help.

I really liked the art used for this and the sounds and music are very nice. They fit very well. If you could improve it would be to have sprites for none main characters such as Patchy and the hurt werewolf.

To be honest I was surprised there wasn't a cg on him hurt on the ground or at least a different background view of looking at their house. The way it is now, it felt like she was just standing in her driveway and hadn't moved to see what was going on.
Thanks for the feedback. For the choices we know that there isn't much to do but this is an introduction and we would like to have less choices an drew purely focus on story, implementing only choices that matter since Anika is already her own character. Choices will only be present enough to gain information or drastically change a scene, not to cater to affections.

For character name, we do have a name screen and have not yet implemented it yet. The 18+ filter will only be for sex scenes and we will imply that later. Yeah for font thanks for the input about it being hard to read but it's mainly based on our logo and whatnot I'll see what can be done...As for word choice I haven't thought of it like that but thank you for suggesting a better word.

We wanted to create the effect of Anika reading it as it is being written down at the same time. For CG we do not have enough funds which is why we only included the major ones for each character and will see to implement it next time.
The point of the demo is not to make choices but to understand overall story and characters. We will however try to implement more in which it feels balanced next time!
Thank you again!
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Re: Ethereal Creatures [Otome, Supernatural, 18+][Demo]

#87 Post by wyverngem »

alex.theoto wrote:It is designed to start like this.
When the game starts there is a 'hard lock_don't skip the text_show the text for X seconds'.
I did it on purpose so the player have to read the info_intro.
The same happens at the credits.

Thank you for your feedback...
^_^ I was talking about before the program even opened. I clicked on the exe and it did nothing. If you have a presplash it shows the players that they clicked the exe and it's just loading.

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Re: Ethereal Creatures [Otome, Supernatural, 18+][Demo]

#88 Post by gothicat »

alex.theoto wrote: ^_^ I was talking about before the program even opened. I clicked on the exe and it did nothing. If you have a presplash it shows the players that they clicked the exe and it's just loading.
The demo loads fast in my case, as fast as most other games I have (about 2-3 seconds). Are you sure it's not something to do with your PC?

In regards to the demo itself, it was fine in my opinion, I wasn't expecting to see the consequence of my choices in just a demo. All I wanted was to be introduced to the characters and the overall plot, which the demo did and threw in a CG for each guy too, so I'm satisfied.

I wasn't expecting to dislike Warren so much though. I dislike the alpha crap immensely, but oddly enough, even though otome games show wolves in packs pretty often, we don't usually see characters who embody the alpha jerkass personality quite so intensively as Warren did. Which is surprising considering how much otome games love their jerk characters, but it's true. I don't think I'm gonna enjoy Warren at all even if we get to see him improve and/or interact positively with his daughter, he just clashes too much with Anika and that first impression was horrendous for me. His pack isn't the only one living on that street and keeping secrets never keeps other people safe, so his excuses are BS. I bet 100$ that the secret he's keeping will come and bite Anika in the ass, and she'll be unprepared for it because someone didn't warn her to "keep her safe".

That and him and the other wolves being so callous to Anika despite the fact that she's friends with the injured Cole the pack look like racist pricks. "Like ZOMG, this filthy coyote cares for one of our precious wolves, not in our street, GTFO." There's keeping the pack united and there's keeping everyone else out because "they're not wolves, so they'll never understand". Well, tough cookies, you guys live in a city with a lot of other species, so isolating yourselves does not work and is rude as all hell. You don't see Anika isolating herself either, she even left her old tribe despite also belonging there, to pursue her own life. Now that is a character I can respect. I can only hope there's a "satisfying" bad ending for him.

I'm neutral towards V'laine. I disliked the way he used his powers, but other than that he seemed an okay character, definitely has a different feel compared to the typical vampire. The whole hands things makes him look a wee bit sexist, but given that he has known Anika for some time, maybe he cares for her and wishes she had an easier job? Or maybe it's because he's old and comes from an age where women didn't have to work so hard. Either way he still let her work on his car, so it's clear he thinks women are capable workers too, so I'm okay with him having his own opinions. Given how much I usually hate vampires, this is a good start. I like Oz even though I didn't get that deep of a feel for his character and I really liked Ian. His introduction addressed the issues I have with reincarnation stories, so I'm really looking forward to see how his route develops.

As for the font, I don't find the normal text font to be hard to read, but the font used for the character names does make my eyes hurt.

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Re: Ethereal Creatures [Otome, Supernatural, 18+][Demo]

#89 Post by LadyOfGatsby »

gothicat wrote:
alex.theoto wrote: ^_^ I was talking about before the program even opened. I clicked on the exe and it did nothing. If you have a presplash it shows the players that they clicked the exe and it's just loading.
The demo loads fast in my case, as fast as most other games I have (about 2-3 seconds). Are you sure it's not something to do with your PC?

In regards to the demo itself, it was fine in my opinion, I wasn't expecting to see the consequence of my choices in just a demo. All I wanted was to be introduced to the characters and the overall plot, which the demo did and threw in a CG for each guy too, so I'm satisfied.

I wasn't expecting to dislike Warren so much though. I dislike the alpha crap immensely, but oddly enough, even though otome games show wolves in packs pretty often, we don't usually see characters who embody the alpha jerkass personality quite so intensively as Warren did. Which is surprising considering how much otome games love their jerk characters, but it's true. I don't think I'm gonna enjoy Warren at all even if we get to see him improve and/or interact positively with his daughter, he just clashes too much with Anika and that first impression was horrendous for me. His pack isn't the only one living on that street and keeping secrets never keeps other people safe, so his excuses are BS. I bet 100$ that the secret he's keeping will come and bite Anika in the ass, and she'll be unprepared for it because someone didn't warn her to "keep her safe".

That and him and the other wolves being so callous to Anika despite the fact that she's friends with the injured Cole the pack look like racist pricks. "Like ZOMG, this filthy coyote cares for one of our precious wolves, not in our street, GTFO." There's keeping the pack united and there's keeping everyone else out because "they're not wolves, so they'll never understand". Well, tough cookies, you guys live in a city with a lot of other species, so isolating yourselves does not work and is rude as all hell. You don't see Anika isolating herself either, she even left her old tribe despite also belonging there, to pursue her own life. Now that is a character I can respect. I can only hope there's a "satisfying" bad ending for him.

I'm neutral towards V'laine. I disliked the way he used his powers, but other than that he seemed an okay character, definitely has a different feel compared to the typical vampire. The whole hands things makes him look a wee bit sexist, but given that he has known Anika for some time, maybe he cares for her and wishes she had an easier job? Or maybe it's because he's old and comes from an age where women didn't have to work so hard. Either way he still let her work on his car, so it's clear he thinks women are capable workers too, so I'm okay with him having his own opinions. Given how much I usually hate vampires, this is a good start. I like Oz even though I didn't get that deep of a feel for his character and I really liked Ian. His introduction addressed the issues I have with reincarnation stories, so I'm really looking forward to see how his route develops.

As for the font, I don't find the normal text font to be hard to read, but the font used for the character names does make my eyes hurt.
Thanks for the concerns we're working hard to rewrite the demo on those scenes especially in which you mentioned. We are rewriting all of Vlaines route and changing up Warren's as well.
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Re: Ethereal Creatures [Otome, Supernatural, 18+][Demo]

#90 Post by JBShields »

I like the character design on these.

Just one suggestion: the title font. It is hard to read with Yellow edged with lime green. How about a small outline of dark green on the letters (you can still keep the bright green). As it is, it was difficult to read. May be just me.

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