Lemma Soft Forums

Quick update this time. Operation: Future Domination has a new logo, done by the talented Valhalla! On top of that, I've revamped the first post of this thread to make it more visually appealing. As for the progress of the demo, it’s nearly complete. I’d say it's around ~90% finished and will come out on July 1st or, at the latest, the weekend after that. Please look forward to it

I've been looking forward to this project for a while now, but it just keeps getting better!
The new logo looks great, and so does the title screen and the new phone feature.
Can't wait to play the demo!

Fantastic choice, I've been a fan of Valhalla's GUI since the first time I saw it. ^_^

It's finally here, it's finally done! Thank you all for your support thus far in the development of my first game. I have seriously learned so much just from making this demo but persevered through the hurdles (*cough* coding errors *cough*) only because of all the help and encouragement I received. The demo is a little bit shorter than I would have liked because I decided to move some of the scenes from the demo to later in the game. However, it should hopefully be enough to give you a feel for the game and a glimpse into the story and writing. The flow of the story and the writing are the things I'm most concerned about at this stage. I hope those who have played and finished the demo can spare a bit of time to answer some questions I've prepared:

1) Which version did you play? Windows, Linux, or Mac? And did you run into any bugs or glitches?
2) What was your overall impression of the demo? Did you enjoy it? Did it keep your interest?
3) What did you think of the animated backgrounds (i.e. the heat wave effect)? Did it add anything to the experience? I do have still versions of the backgrounds, so if you thought the heat wave effect was wholly unnecessary or visually unappealing, please let me know, and I may consider removing the animation from the game.
4) How was my overall writing? Did it flow well? Was there any moment that you felt the dialogue was awkward or stilted?
5) Was there anything that you didn't like about the game or that you want to be changed? Do you have any suggestions for improvement? This question is especially important because I'm still at the stage where tweaking and changing things around is relatively easy.
6) What was your favorite aspect/part of the demo?

Hope you enjoy the demo! Any feedback is very, very appreciated.

Heeeey, it's here.
For anyone who cares, pretty little demo is around 9500 words. At least, Lint reports so.
1. I played in Win system. As for bugs:
1.1. Around the line "The corners of my mouth twitch upward in a smile" smth weird (like blinking) is happening with Nico's sprite. Leon's too a bit later. Maybe you have "hide spritename" command where it shouldn't be.
1.2. Not a glitch, more like a questionable design decision. In the scene of "Unfortunately, the two of us finished our popsicles" three sprites appear one by one, not all at once. Though it seems to repeat in later scenes... I dunno. I believe it's a typo.
1.4. If you choose "go by myself" first, then let the certain timed choice run out of time, Nico appears out of thin nowhere.
2. Demo is fine and I did enjoy it. And well, it did keep my interest, since I'm here, writing this an waiting for more.
2.1. I'm totally afraid to think what the hell the kind of plottwist is awaiting us.
3. Animated BGs are pain. They're laggy and raping my CPU. I can't argue, they certainly do add immersion and it's great, but the price? Try some other options for animated BGs? Maybe smth more in the line of FX, not directly animated video chunks, I dunno.
3.1. No need to consider removing them. Just add "Backgrounds: animated/static" option to settings and you're fine. Or maybe "BG heat wave animation: on/off" 'cause you may want smth that is animated, but not heat anim. Oh well. Someone may have more processor power than I do. Or even less.
4. Writing is good. I don't think I though about it being stilted or innatural, though use of commas in some places looks a bit of strange. But I'm not a native speaker, so I can't be sure here.
4.1. Out of sheer curiosity, may I ask? What's your native language? Or, if you can't/don't want to answer that - may I know at least if English is native for you?
5. 'Ere we go.
5.1. Time format, AM/PM. I have problems with it. And always had. Could you please add the 12/24 hrs option to settings at some point?
5.2. The speechbubbles that point at certain character are good, but not contrast enough, they blend into background and well, what's the point. Maybe add white outline to actually see them better?
5.3. What if I want to rename the character? I mean, you give the name once, it's stored in persist and it's fine, but what if I want to start from beginning and use different name? Of course, I can delete persist data manually, but...
5.4. Backlog. Sure, it's the question of preference, but I strongly prefer the ol' good rollback. I'm not the one here to judge you if you want it to be this way, not that way.
6. Sorry, nothing yet. So far it's just a really really good, solid demo.

So, I congratulate you on finishing this and now waiting for more updates. Good luck!

1) Which version did you play? Windows, Linux, or Mac? And did you run into any bugs or glitches?
I played the Windows version and didn't encounter any errors.

2) What was your overall impression of the demo? Did you enjoy it? Did it keep your interest?
I liked it! I'm curious to learn more about Leon and Ryan, since they didn't really talk about themselves.

3) What did you think of the animated backgrounds (i.e. the heat wave effect)? Did it add anything to the experience? I do have still versions of the backgrounds, so if you thought the heat wave effect was wholly unnecessary or visually unappealing, please let me know, and I may consider removing the animation from the game.
The idea is good, but it was also lagging pretty bad. If you can tweak it I'd keep it, otherwise not.

4) How was my overall writing? Did it flow well? Was there any moment that you felt the dialogue was awkward or stilted?
Overall it was pleasing to read, so no complaints here. I did find a typo or 2 though.

5) Was there anything that you didn't like about the game or that you want to be changed? Do you have any suggestions for improvement? This question is especially important because I'm still at the stage where tweaking and changing things around is relatively easy.
- It's just a minor thing, but I wouldn't set the text to display instantly. In my opinion it's more appealing to read if the text appears gradually.
- I'd change the font in the history screen to something which is easier to read.
- It took me a long time to notice the text boxes were shaped like speech bubbles because the backgrounds are so dark. Maybe give them a white (or any other color) frame so that doesn't go to waste?

6) What was your favorite aspect/part of the demo?
I like your choice of music and I LOVED the animations for the sprites! Usually scenes like that simply get described with a lot of detail, or have a CG, but this is something I haven't seen a VN do before. Looking forward to see what else you do with that feature.
Keep up the good work!

Congrats on the demo release! I'll try and play it soon- this project keeps getting even cooler looking and I'm excited to play it!

Dark Sentinel wrote:Heeeey, it's here.
For anyone who cares, pretty little demo is around 9500 words. At least, Lint reports so.
1. I played in Win system. As for bugs:
1.1. Around the line "The corners of my mouth twitch upward in a smile" smth weird (like blinking) is happening with Nico's sprite. Leon's too a bit later. Maybe you have "hide spritename" command where it shouldn't be.
1.2. Not a glitch, more like a questionable design decision. In the scene of "Unfortunately, the two of us finished our popsicles" three sprites appear one by one, not all at once. Though it seems to repeat in later scenes... I dunno.

1.3. "Why would I ever listen to you now that you've chlorofoamed me"

I believe it's a typo.
1.4. If you choose "go by myself" first, then let the certain timed choice run out of time, Nico appears out of thin nowhere.
2. Demo is fine and I did enjoy it. And well, it did keep my interest, since I'm here, writing this an waiting for more.
2.1. I'm totally afraid to think what the hell the kind of plottwist is awaiting us.
3. Animated BGs are pain. They're laggy and raping my CPU. I can't argue, they certainly do add immersion and it's great, but the price? Try some other options for animated BGs? Maybe smth more in the line of FX, not directly animated video chunks, I dunno.
3.1. No need to consider removing them. Just add "Backgrounds: animated/static" option to settings and you're fine. Or maybe "BG heat wave animation: on/off" 'cause you may want smth that is animated, but not heat anim. Oh well. Someone may have more processor power than I do. Or even less.
4. Writing is good. I don't think I though about it being stilted or innatural, though use of commas in some places looks a bit of strange. But I'm not a native speaker, so I can't be sure here.
4.1. Out of sheer curiosity, may I ask? What's your native language? Or, if you can't/don't want to answer that - may I know at least if English is native for you?
5. 'Ere we go.
5.1. Time format, AM/PM. I have problems with it. And always had. Could you please add the 12/24 hrs option to settings at some point?
5.2. The speechbubbles that point at certain character are good, but not contrast enough, they blend into background and well, what's the point. Maybe add white outline to actually see them better?
5.3. What if I want to rename the character? I mean, you give the name once, it's stored in persist and it's fine, but what if I want to start from beginning and use different name? Of course, I can delete persist data manually, but...
5.4. Backlog. Sure, it's the question of preference, but I strongly prefer the ol' good rollback. I'm not the one here to judge you if you want it to be this way, not that way.
6. Sorry, nothing yet. So far it's just a really really good, solid demo.

So, I congratulate you on finishing this and now waiting for more updates. Good luck!

Hi Dark Sentinel,

Thank you so much for your feedback!!! And especially for catching (1.4) that bug when Nicolas appears out of nowhere; it was a coding error, as usual.
1.1) Although it's intended that Nicolas and Leon were supposed to take a step back, I realize that it looks weird that they "blink" in their new positions. I'm planning to actually code them to move a step back, so hopefully, it will look more natural.
1.2) This was actually intended. I wanted to show them one-by-one for dramatic effect, particularly to shift the focus on the first character that appears. I don't know if I actually achieved that effect, though.
1.3) Thank you for catching that typo! Although I proofread the game myself, these pesky things manage to fly under the radar.
1.4) Again, thank you so much for catching this mistake! I was actually laughing at how ridiculous the scene turned out to be because of this bug. It's like "Whoa, Nicolas?! Did you suddenly teleport here?!"
2.1) Do not fear, my friend, although you are in for a wild ride.
3.1) I appreciate your suggestion! I will consider putting an option to turn on and turn off the heat wave effect.
4.1) I consider English to be my native language.
5.1) I didn't realize that some people might be bothered by 12-hr clocks. I will definitely take your suggestion into account, but it probably won't be a priority.
5.2) Yeah, I noticed since the beginning of development that the black textbox might be an issue. I tried making the tip of the textbox gray-ish, but I realize that it's not noticeable at all. I will try experimenting with the color of the textbox to see how it turns out, but if worse comes to worst, I'll probably just have a GUI artist revamp the entire thing.
5.3) I've thought long and hard about this design choice. Ultimately, having the same name throughout your playthroughs would be most consistent with the plot and perhaps build more attachment to the character you are playing. At least, that is what I'm imagining. However, if enough people agree that they want to be able to change their names every playthrough, then I will oblige.
5.4) This is a technical design choice. If rollback is enabled, then the changing textbox system gets wonky, so I would prefer to have rollback disabled. I am planning to have the dialogue history box appear when you mouse scroll for easier access.
6) Thank you very much for playing! Your feedback was super helpful. I hope you stay tuned for the next round

Syrale wrote:1) Which version did you play? Windows, Linux, or Mac? And did you run into any bugs or glitches?
I played the Windows version and didn't encounter any errors.

2) What was your overall impression of the demo? Did you enjoy it? Did it keep your interest?
I liked it! I'm curious to learn more about Leon and Ryan, since they didn't really talk about themselves.

3) What did you think of the animated backgrounds (i.e. the heat wave effect)? Did it add anything to the experience? I do have still versions of the backgrounds, so if you thought the heat wave effect was wholly unnecessary or visually unappealing, please let me know, and I may consider removing the animation from the game.
The idea is good, but it was also lagging pretty bad. If you can tweak it I'd keep it, otherwise not.

4) How was my overall writing? Did it flow well? Was there any moment that you felt the dialogue was awkward or stilted?
Overall it was pleasing to read, so no complaints here. I did find a typo or 2 though.

5) Was there anything that you didn't like about the game or that you want to be changed? Do you have any suggestions for improvement? This question is especially important because I'm still at the stage where tweaking and changing things around is relatively easy.
- It's just a minor thing, but I wouldn't set the text to display instantly. In my opinion it's more appealing to read if the text appears gradually.
- I'd change the font in the history screen to something which is easier to read.
- It took me a long time to notice the text boxes were shaped like speech bubbles because the backgrounds are so dark. Maybe give them a white (or any other color) frame so that doesn't go to waste?

6) What was your favorite aspect/part of the demo?
I like your choice of music and I LOVED the animations for the sprites! Usually scenes like that simply get described with a lot of detail, or have a CG, but this is something I haven't seen a VN do before. Looking forward to see what else you do with that feature.
Keep up the good work!

Hi Syrale,

Thank you so much for your feedback! It was very encouraging.
2) I'm glad you enjoyed it! Although this first part of the story focused more on Rin and Nicolas, the next part will focus more on Leon and Ryan. Hope you look forward to it!
3) Yeah, I didn't anticipate it to lag so much. I will try to tweak it. If not, I will try to make an option in the settings to turn the heatwave on and off.
4) I will go through the demo again to catch those pesky typos. And I will consider enlisting some proofreaders in the future, since this story will branch out quite a bit and will be difficult to test out alone.
5)
- Sorry, this was actually not intended. I thought the game would revert to the default, slow reading speed once I build the download, but I've now learned that it's kept to whatever speed I left it on. Thank you for pointing this out!
- Yes, I agree. I'm looking into changing the text font for the history screen, but I might leave this decision to my GUI artist when I get one.
- I agree that the textbox and the backgrounds blend in quite a bit, especially with the first background. I tried making the tip of the textbox gray-ish, but I realize that it's not noticeable at all. I will try experimenting with the color of the textbox to see how it turns out, but if worse comes to worst, I'll probably just have a GUI artist revamp the entire thing.
6) I sincerely appreciate the kind words! I put a lot of effort in trying to make the animations look as natural as possible, and I hope it paid off ^^
Thanks again for your input, and I hope you'll stay tuned for more

congrats on the demo release! i've been watching this game for a while now so i'm really happy to see a demo :))

1) Which version did you play? Windows, Linux, or Mac? And did you run into any bugs or glitches?
mac, i didn't run into many bugs or glitches. at the start, when there was the sentence about viewer discretion, it didn't fit onto the screen i.e.: you could only read "ne contains flashing, blood, and violence. viewer discretion is advi" because the rest of the sentence was cut off. also in the history, there are times where the sentences are partially on top of each other, making it practically indecipherable.

2) What was your overall impression of the demo? Did you enjoy it? Did it keep your interest?
i really loved the demo! the opening hooked me in immediately, and by the end i was screaming for more.

3) What did you think of the animated backgrounds (i.e. the heat wave effect)? Did it add anything to the experience? I do have still versions of the backgrounds, so if you thought the heat wave effect was wholly unnecessary or visually unappealing, please let me know, and I may consider removing the animation from the game.
at first, i was confused. however, it become quite obvious why the background was like that as i continued playing. i think it's a really nice addition to the game, and fits in with the theme very well. i haven't seen other games doing that before and i was quite intrigued :)

4) How was my overall writing? Did it flow well? Was there any moment that you felt the dialogue was awkward or stilted?
overall, the writing was pretty well done and was pretty cohesive. the dialogue was super relatable, too. however, there were a few moments where i felt there needed to be some editing, in particular, you may want to check over your syntax, grammar, and tense in places, e.g.: "he then wipes with the back of his hand the bead of sweat that had been running down the side of his cheek" could be worded less confusingly. the scene in the convenience store in particular needs some attention, but other than that, it's generally all fine.

5) Was there anything that you didn't like about the game or that you want to be changed? Do you have any suggestions for improvement? This question is especially important because I'm still at the stage where tweaking and changing things around is relatively easy.
the font in the history box was hard to read. using the same font as the font used for the dialogue in the text box would be fine and may solve the problem of overlapping text. the text box, itself, was quite surprising to me. i like and appreciate that you have several different text boxes for different situations, but it can be hard to see the text box. i thought the changing text box was a glitch at first, because i couldn't see majority of it and thought it was just a black rectangle that kept moving for some reason. you may want to make it more visible, with perhaps a border or change its colour to a dark shade of grey. also, i didn't notice the quick menu until about halfway through the menu and even then, i couldn't find settings because i kept reading "sett" as "seii". you may want to make the buttons more visible, and possibly change the font.

6) What was your favorite aspect/part of the demo?
the opening! it was so beautiful! i also loved how relatable the dialogue was, and the dynamic expressions and positions the sprites had. i've seen sprites with a few pose changes, but this was completely different. it was really nice to see that kind of detail, and i'm looking forward to seeing more of the game :) keep up the good work!

xKiseki wrote:congrats on the demo release! i've been watching this game for a while now so i'm really happy to see a demo )

1) Which version did you play? Windows, Linux, or Mac? And did you run into any bugs or glitches?
mac, i didn't run into many bugs or glitches. at the start, when there was the sentence about viewer discretion, it didn't fit onto the screen i.e.: you could only read "ne contains flashing, blood, and violence. viewer discretion is advi" because the rest of the sentence was cut off. also in the history, there are times where the sentences are partially on top of each other, making it practically indecipherable.

2) What was your overall impression of the demo? Did you enjoy it? Did it keep your interest?
i really loved the demo! the opening hooked me in immediately, and by the end i was screaming for more.

3) What did you think of the animated backgrounds (i.e. the heat wave effect)? Did it add anything to the experience? I do have still versions of the backgrounds, so if you thought the heat wave effect was wholly unnecessary or visually unappealing, please let me know, and I may consider removing the animation from the game.
at first, i was confused. however, it become quite obvious why the background was like that as i continued playing. i think it's a really nice addition to the game, and fits in with the theme very well. i haven't seen other games doing that before and i was quite intrigued

4) How was my overall writing? Did it flow well? Was there any moment that you felt the dialogue was awkward or stilted?
overall, the writing was pretty well done and was pretty cohesive. the dialogue was super relatable, too. however, there were a few moments where i felt there needed to be some editing, in particular, you may want to check over your syntax, grammar, and tense in places, e.g.: "he then wipes with the back of his hand the bead of sweat that had been running down the side of his cheek" could be worded less confusingly. the scene in the convenience store in particular needs some attention, but other than that, it's generally all fine.

5) Was there anything that you didn't like about the game or that you want to be changed? Do you have any suggestions for improvement? This question is especially important because I'm still at the stage where tweaking and changing things around is relatively easy.
the font in the history box was hard to read. using the same font as the font used for the dialogue in the text box would be fine and may solve the problem of overlapping text. the text box, itself, was quite surprising to me. i like and appreciate that you have several different text boxes for different situations, but it can be hard to see the text box. i thought the changing text box was a glitch at first, because i couldn't see majority of it and thought it was just a black rectangle that kept moving for some reason. you may want to make it more visible, with perhaps a border or change its colour to a dark shade of grey. also, i didn't notice the quick menu until about halfway through the menu and even then, i couldn't find settings because i kept reading "sett" as "seii". you may want to make the buttons more visible, and possibly change the font.

6) What was your favorite aspect/part of the demo?
the opening! it was so beautiful! i also loved how relatable the dialogue was, and the dynamic expressions and positions the sprites had. i've seen sprites with a few pose changes, but this was completely different.

there were different sprites for each situation, such as when nico was going to throw a punch, or when nico and rin were being restrained.

it was really nice to see that kind of detail, and i'm looking forward to seeing more of the game keep up the good work!

oh but did i even mention that bomb at the end? HOW COULD YOU DROP SOMETHING LIKE THAT AND END THE DEMO THERE? your cliffhanger was extremely successful and now i can't wait for more asdfghjkl

Hi xKiseki,

Your answers put a huge smile on my face! You don't know how encouraging it was to me ^^
1) The disclosure being cut off was a careless mistake on my part when trying to adjust the resolution. Thank you very much for pointing it out, and it has now been fixed. I'm also still working to change the font in the history screen, but I might also have a GUI artist revamp the screen for me.
2) I'm overjoyed to hear that you loved it!! I'm excited to show you more.
3) Thank you for the kind words! I'm happy to know you liked the effect, but some have said that it made the game laggy for them. I'm planning to create an option in settings to turn the heat wave effect on and off in the future.
4) I've tried to make the dialogue feel natural and relatable as possible, but I'm sure some awkward wording have slipped under the cracks. Thank you for pointing that sentence out; I will try to reword it better. And I will go over the demo again to double-check the grammar. I'm also planning to enlist some proofreaders in the future to help me catch these pesky typos.
5) Yeah, I've noticed since the beginning of development that the textbox and the backgrounds blend in quite a bit, especially with the first background. I tried making the tip of the textbox gray-ish, but I realize that it's not noticeable at all. I will try experimenting with the color of the textbox to see how it turns out, but if worse comes to worst, I'll probably just have a GUI artist revamp the entire thing. Hopefully, I or the GUI artist can touch up on the overall GUI enough in the next demo to make it more visually appealing!
6) Aaah thank you for your encouraging feedback! I put a lot of effort in trying to make the animations look as natural as possible, and I hope it paid off!

I’ve updated the demo download on itch.io so that the game now has the option in “Settings” to change the 12-hr clock to a 24-hr one, as well as an option to turn the heat wave backgrounds on and off. Massive thanks to Dark Sentinel for helping out and making these options possible so soon! I’ve also corrected some typos and squashed bugs in this newest update. Thank you to all who have played and given me feedback so far. I apologize for having to take down the download for a while as the new version was being uploaded. For those of you who haven’t tried out the demo for Operation: Future Domination yet, feel free to do so now!

Thank you everyone for your feedback on the demo, especially in regards to the user interface. The GUI is very much a work in progress, and I'll be experimenting a lot to make it look better. I agree wholeheartedly with the feedback I got about the history screen (e.g. the font was very difficult to read), so I updated the demo yesterday and replaced the old screen with a custom dialogue history box that appears when you mouse-scroll up. I hope that will alleviate most of the issues people had with the dialogue history screen. (I've also fixed as many typos as I could find.) All of the feedback I've gotten about the demo were really helpful, and you can be sure I take every point made into serious consideration. Thank you for all of the support, and I hope you look forward to the extended demo that will come out in a few months!

A lot of milestones have been reached this past month! I'm happy to announce that:

1) Sekai Project will be publishing Operation: Future Domination! I hope this partnership will help Operation: Future Domination reach its greatest potential. I'm very excited to see what the future has in store for OFD!

2) OFD was featured at AnimeFest in Dallas! I managed to conjure up a promotional video in time for the occassion. (Note: It probably won't be the official trailer)


3) In a little over a month, the demo broke 1,000 downloads on Itch.io! I can’t thank you all enough for all the interest and support I received on my first visual novel project.

4) As of right now, I'm working hard to get the extended demo ready, even though it's currently very much a work in progress. I've decided to rewrite certain parts of the current demo to make the plot more concise and believable. I hope you all look forward to it!

Until next time. Eirrir out!

Congrats on the partnership with Sekai Project and all the downloads!