I’ve been developing a game with Ren’py for a while, it’s a visual novel with optional RPG gameplay. It’s provisional title is “La gran teoría del Tiempo” which literally translates as “The great theory of time” and as you may guessed, it’s about time travel.
Plot:
I don’t want to say spoilers but basically is this: you’re a guy who lives in a town, you have your friends and your life there, one day, a new family moves to this town and they have a son which, for some reason, all your friends know and all have different reactions towards him. Why everyone in the town knows him but you don’t? Why he didn’t want to say his name? Why some of the people are happy to see him but some are unbelievable scared?
Screenshots:
At first I was doing it as a simple visual novel, but at some moment I thought "I’m going to do it animated!” And so began my journey, doing all that animated assets, here I include some of them. (The text is in Spanish but I am working in translate it to English right now and still have a way to go)Note: The first two screenshots are somewhat heavy.
- One of the CG Events
- A battle for testing
- Characters in regular conversation, they are animated but for gif problems I have to upload it as PNG...
Questions:
About the graphics:1) What do you think about the graphics? Are they good enough?
2) I was thinking replacing the 2D backgrounds with 3D, and keep the characters in 2D, that is because in 3D you can do more dynamic camera moves. What do you think about it? Do you prefer it all in 2D or hybrid is fine?
3) Will my game be more appealing if it’s completely animated (as the first two screenshots), instead of using just a set of sprites for the animated expressions (as the last one, I know you can't see it but imagine that she blinks, moves her eyes, etc.)?
About the translation:
4) Would you rather have the names and places translated too, or just leave them as the original? For example, one of the characters is called “Rosa” and the English version would be “Rose” Which one you prefer, keeping the original or translate them?
5) All the places have names of food, for example, one of the cities is called “Hojaldre”, translated in English is “Puff Pastry”, but I’m afraid that people feel uncomfortable with that. Do you mind this type of names or should I rename them?
About gameplay:
6) The game has optional RPG elements, but there are just a few, story driven battles and no random encounters (In traditional RPG games, this would be just boss fights) Do you rather having random battles too?
About other things:
7) Is the game title fine? (I’m terrible for giving titles)
8. The game is All-ages. Would you prefer it as +18?
9) Do you have any recommendations to help me to improve the game?
10) Do you have any recommendations to help me to improve this post?
Thank you for seeing my post and for all your answers!