The Far Rings [FREE] [LAUNCH OCT 5!!] [sci-fi] [space opera] [drama] [mystery] [light romance] [otome] [GxB] [GxNB]

A place for game announcements, and for people to discuss games being made.
Forum rules
Please read the sticky before creating a new topic. Linking to Kickstarter/Crowdfunded games requires a demo. Updates to Patreon-backed games may be posted once every 2 months. Adult content should not be posted in this forum.
Post Reply
Message
Author
User avatar
TheFarRings
Newbie
Posts: 8
Joined: Wed Mar 06, 2019 11:26 am
Projects: The Far Rings [sci-fi] [space opera] [drama] [mystery] [light romance] [short]
Organization: The Far Rings Team
Tumblr: thefarrings
itch: heiden
Contact:

The Far Rings [FREE] [LAUNCH OCT 5!!] [sci-fi] [space opera] [drama] [mystery] [light romance] [otome] [GxB] [GxNB]

#1 Post by TheFarRings »



Image

CONNECT WITH US ^_^ !
INDEX
  • Story
  • Demo
  • Features
  • Characters
  • Setting
  • Overview
  • Progress
  • Questions For You


STORY

GENRES: sci-fi || space opera || drama || mystery || light romance || GxB || GxNB (non-binary) || short

"You are Doctor Athena, a passionate young woman and the sole survivor of a terrible, mysterious incident.Three days remain on the trip 'home'—with only the ship's unsettlingly polite captain and a cryptic alien war criminal for company. But is everything really as it seems? Uncover their secrets as Athena decides where she truly belongs."

SCREENSHOTS:
Image

Image



DEMO

This game was originally imagined and created within 48 HOURS for the Global Game Jam 2019 for the theme ‘What does home mean to you?’ Our team of four met for the first time at the jam, and we did the writing, art, and programming for it from scratch! The music was made by musicians at the jam too! Our demo is the product of those first 48 hours. We were really proud of what we managed in that time, and we’ve been working on completing the game since then.

[PLAY our Demo HERE]

Image



FEATURES

• 25k+ word script. (Probably up to 30k)
• Light, slow-burn romance.
• Two potential suitors: GxB or GxNB (Non-Binary)
• At least 7 endings, including 2-3 good endings.
• Point-and-click game elements to interact with scenery.
• All-original art, music, sound, and voice-over assets.
• 2 (or more) fully illustrated CG scenes.
• (Hoping for) Steam Release Version!



SETTING

Ogygia
Ogygia (oh-JIH-jee-ah) is a planet known for the beautiful blue-purple colors of the rings. Ogygians are a non-binary race with a strong sense of fellowship. They live on the Near and Far Rings of the planet, rather than its surface. The Far Rings have recently been victims of Aeaea's invasion.

Image


Aeaea
The Aeaean Empire (ae-EE-en) is a powerful, totalitarian monolith that has become increasingly aggressive and militaristic in recent years. Their latest target has been the Far Rings of the planet Ogygia.

Image



CHARACTERS

Doctor Athena
Born and raised in the Aeaean Empire with an Ogygian ‘mother’ and Aeaean father. She is passionate and hot-tempered, but she also has a strong sense of justice and a natural compulsion to help and protect others. Athena was a doctor volunteering to a humanitarian organization to aid Ogygian refugees on the Far Rings for the past two years of the war. However, a recent incident has forced her to leave quite abruptly...
Voice-overs provided by: Rochelle J Chiang

Image


Captain Odysseus
The young Aeaean military captain of the small warship Ithaca. He is a well-respected, model soldier, following orders and protocol to the letter. As a professional, he is polite but cool-mannered. But beneath the surface, Captain Odysseus hides a few secrets.
Voice-overs provided by: Reece Bridger

Image


Chiron
An Ogygian war prisoner, though they don’t look terribly warrior-like. Chiron confessed to causing the incident that brought Athena to leave Ogygia. However, Athena can't help but suspect that there is more to their story. Chiron appears cool, smug, and tight-lipped, and is above all disdainful of Aeaeans.
Voice-overs provided by: Robyn McConnell

Image



OVERVIEW

Hello everyone! About 1 month has passed since our team created and released the original demo of The Far Rings in 48 hours for the Global Game Jam. We had scoped the project to be quite small, being for a game jam, but we had only managed to complete the first third of the game's written-in-one-day 12k script, so we set a deadline for the end of February to release the full game!

Well, it's March, and we got a lot done but as we worked, we kept wanting to add 'little things' here and there... and the script doubled in length to over 24k O_O . But we're so close to having a minimum full product! So here's the new plan. We want to release the first version of the complete, ‘originally planned’ game to itch.io within the next couple weeks. We’re calling it ‘Original Version’ for now.

Then, we had a lot of other ideas as we continued working, and we were offered voice-over volunteers from a voice actor online interested in our project! We decided to stick all the ‘extras’ we had in mind at the end of the priority list for a special Bonus version, and we'd like to try to release that final version onto Steam! We’re calling that the ‘True End FINAL Version’, since one of the biggest ‘extras’ is a new, ‘true-end-like’ branch.

Being a small project, we don't want to drag it out too much, so including all the bells and whistles we don't expect it to take longer than... two more months for the True End Final Version? And the next few weeks for the Original Version :D !

We appreciate any help, interest, and especially LOVE to hear any thoughts or comments!



PROGRESS

Showing progress for both the planned 'original' and 'true end' versions:
  • Character Sprites: 100% (original) / 98% (true)
  • Environment Art: 100% (original) / 100% (true)
  • CGs/Illustrations: 80% (original) / 60% (true)
  • Writing: 100% (original) / 80% (true)
  • Programming: 98% (original) / 85?? (true)
  • Music: 100% (original) / 90%? (true)
  • SFX: 100% (original) / 100%? (true)
  • Voice-Overs: N/A (original) / 60% (true)


QUESTIONS FOR YOU
Please don't feel like you have to answer EVERY question here! Just answer any that you may have any relevant thoughts for! :D If you're not sure about them, you can just comment freely too, we really love to hear any thoughts or feedback, we promise! Thanks so much!

? ABOUT THE STORY ?
  • Does the overall story seem to make sense? Does it seem interesting, and if so (or not) how or why? What are you curious about? What if anything turns you off?
  • What character(s) do you find the most interesting and uninteresting? Do the two 'suitor' characters seem intriguing or likable to you as a reader? Why or why not?
  • Does the story being 'light romance' count as a plus or minus to you? The story is has some world-building/political drama backstory and more serious, dramatic plot elements, and we didn't want the relationship-building to feel too contrived, so we aimed for more realistic and subtle budding romance. Does that seem too ambiguous, or is it more a nice change or pace, or other?
? ABOUT THE ART ?
  • How much does art matter to you for appeal of a VN, especially comparing 'quantity' and 'quality'? How do the 'little extras' like fancy GUI, more or less poses for sprites, amount of CG scenes, etc. effect whether you choose to play or like a game?
? OTHER QUESTIONS ?
  • How does our website and social media attempts look? Any tips or advice to get seen more? :D
  • General feedback on your impressions of the game so far!


THANK YOU so much for reading! We really, really love to hear any comments or feedback on any part of our project, and we're working fast and hard on finishing it ASAP! Please follow our project and share around too if you have any friends you think would be interested in a game like ours ^_^ ! Have a great day!!

The Far Rings Team
Last edited by TheFarRings on Wed Oct 02, 2019 5:42 am, edited 6 times in total.
"Stuck on a spaceship for three days. A human captain, an alien war criminal, and you're the half-human half-alien doctor lost between the two. Check out our quickly-upcoming short space opera VN, 'The Far Rings'!"

Lemmasoft Thread: viewtopic.php?f=43&t=54183
Website: https://www.thefarrings.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheFarRings
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thefarrings/
Tumblr: https://thefarrings.tumblr.com/

User avatar
Heiden
Regular
Posts: 140
Joined: Sat May 11, 2013 3:20 pm
Completed: Elvine, The Life Threads, Helena's Flowers, Dr. Frank's Build-A-Boyfriend, Beyond the Deep, The Bog's Heart, The Girl With the Gray Hair Awakens, The Far Rings, NB107A
Projects: The Town Pages, Kill the Prince?! [Nano 2020]
Tumblr: heidengames
itch: Heiden
Contact:

Re: The Far Rings [FREE] [DEMO] [sci-fi] [space opera] [drama] [mystery] [light romance] [otome] [GxB] [GxNB] [short]

#2 Post by Heiden »

I had the great opportunity to collaborate with Almyki, LactheWatcher, and Ryetaran on this lovely game!!! Along with them and some fantastic local musicians, we were able to complete a 12k script as well as a playable 4k demo in 48 hours!

I loved working with this team and I'm excited to see how the final project is going to all come together! :D
Completed: Elvine (GxB), The Life Threads, Helena's Flowers (GxG)(As Writer, Coder), Dr. Frank's Build-A-Boyfriend (BxB), Beyond the Deep (GxB)(As Artist), The Bog's Heart, The Girl with the Gray Hair Awakens, The Far Rings, NB107A.

All available to play on my itch.io page!

User avatar
Gery
Regular
Posts: 26
Joined: Mon Feb 25, 2019 7:41 pm
Contact:

Re: The Far Rings [FREE] [DEMO] [sci-fi] [space opera] [drama] [mystery] [light romance] [otome] [GxB] [GxNB] [short]

#3 Post by Gery »

Hello, The Far Rings Team! :) I'll try to answer as many of the questions as possible.

ABOUT THE STORY:
>> Question 1: Yes, I'm definitely curious about it! I don't see many sci-fi Visual novels around, and this one seems to have a lot of my favourite tropes! Politics, interspecies relationship, war, etc. I'm absolutely ecstatic that the main heroine is mixed between the two warring nations! I would love to see her interact with both sides and see where the story would take her. I wonder if finding common ground is even possible, or if the heroine will have to pick a side.
>>Q2: The main heroine is the most intriguing for me. If I am FORCED to pick the least interesting one of them, it would be the Captain, for the simple reason that I would like to see Athena get familiar with the other race's world and views. She grew up in the Aeaean Empire and I wonder whether she'll be even slightly biased in the beginning.
>>Q3: I actually prefer it! Don't worry about it ;)

ABOUT THE ART:
>>Q1: Honestly, I've only discovered Visual Novels a couple of months ago, and I can't say whether having a fancy GUI will influence my decision to play the game. It's one of the last things that would bother me. But if I have to be super picky, I would probably make the names of the characters (on top of the dialogue box) slightly smaller in size. I mean, sure, having a custom made GUI can catch the eye when I first see it, but people won't notice it for long, they'll care far more about the story.
>>Q2: Hmmm...it depends. If the character is experiencing extreme emotions having a more dynamic or intense pose could really hit you deeper as a reader. However, see if you can relay the same feeling through the expressions. It might be more than enough.
>>Q3: CGs are like nice surprises - they sometimes pop up when I least expect them and when they do I LOVE gazing at them. I don't think they are imperative for a game, having one for each ending is something I would expect and if I don't see one, I would feel as if the game is unfinished. Like most of the Art related questions, I believe you can get away with a lot of short cuts AS LONG AS the story keeps the readers engaged. By limiting the CGs, poses, etc. you'll have to rely solely on an exceptional story which can be stressful. Not all stories resonate with all readers, so it's all about balance. The Art stuff can compensate if the reader starts to lose interest. For instance, I'm not a huge Romance fan, but one of the reasons I enjoyed Cinderella Phenomenon was because of the pretty art and CGs. The poses and expressions definitely helped me immerse myself more into this game. If it was just a book, I would probably never read it. So it's up to you....I hope this makes sense, sorry for the long answer. XD

OTHER QUESTIONS:
>>Q1: Offf, this is a hard one...As long as it's VERY subtle, I'm fine with it. Silence is fine too...that's probably not helpful at all XD I would suggest tossing a coin! Or ask this specific question in another thread.
>>Q2: Yep, looking good! I see you're using quite a few social networks, which is great! I started following you on instagram. I would suggest using more tags. The maximum number is 30, so don't hesitate to go wild! I only took a quick glimpse, but I would recommend using tags such as sciencefiction, originalcharacter, (OPdesign, OPconcept, etc.) gameconcept, gameproject, instagamedeveloper, etc (adding insta in front of words is kind of a trend...). Tags such as art, illustration, illustragrams, generate a lot of engagement. It's really important to reach as many people as possible, don't limit yourself to just the Visual Novel fans.Like I said, MAKE USE of the 30 tags. I know that having around 10-15 tags is supposed to increase your algorithm, but it only makes sense if you already have more followers. At the moment, you want to gain followers, not increase engagement. WARNING: This is from my personal experience and experiments, I'm by no means an expert on instagram.. ;) I also saw some fascinating concept and design illustrations on your website- make sure to add them to your instagram and check what kind of tags you can use. I don't have time to go through each link, so I hope this was somehow useful.
>>Q3: Nothing new I can think of. I'm about to check out the demo ;) HOWEVER, there is something I would recommend for the future (I hope I don't sound pushy with my recommendations XD) I think....there are far too many questions at the bottom of your post. They ARE ALL important and relevant questions, but I think having less of them would encourage more people to answer them, knowing it will only take a few minutes of their time. Like everything else, this is just personal opinion. I think I spent more than half an hour answering them XD

Ok...This is quite long XD I truly hope you found something useful in there and I'm looking forward to playing the finished game once it's out!
Best of luck!

PS: Oh yes! And post some that amazing concept art on this thread from time to time ;) I think it will definitely generate a lot of interest when people start seeing how serious, well-throughout and beautiful this game is going to look!

User avatar
TheFarRings
Newbie
Posts: 8
Joined: Wed Mar 06, 2019 11:26 am
Projects: The Far Rings [sci-fi] [space opera] [drama] [mystery] [light romance] [short]
Organization: The Far Rings Team
Tumblr: thefarrings
itch: heiden
Contact:

Re: The Far Rings [FREE] [DEMO] [sci-fi] [space opera] [drama] [mystery] [light romance] [otome] [GxB] [GxNB] [short]

#4 Post by TheFarRings »

Aaaahhh @Gery thank you SO MUCH for your thoughtful and detailed reply! We appreciate it a bunch! And you are so nice! <3 <3 <3

Ahhh I'm glad that the story seems interesting! We know that the most popular games tend to be the really overt otomes with, like, lots of very handsome boys hahaha, and ours ended up being quite a mix of genres so I was a bit worried about our 'identity appeal' I guess? Haha to appeal to otome fans more, or sci-fi fans more, or something? :D And yay for Athena being interesting! I (I'm Mira from the team, I deal with most of the social media stuff LOL) really hate when games have the main hero/heroine be super bland or personality-less to try to help people 'immerse' themselves, since it just doesn't work for me, so I was happy for our heroine to really be her own person. But at the same time I hope her reactions and feelings are still relatable!

Also, yay for another light romance fan!

Hm, for the art, I will ask our programmer if changing the name size/font wouldn't be too difficult, I hope not :D . And yay, haha, we are really trying to keep the scope under control, so we were hoping that 'less' wouldn't hurt the game too much. But since I'm one of the artists, I couldn't help but feel a little self-conscious and ask for opinions ^^; . I totally know what you mean, there are DEFINITELY some games I have played for the art, and the art pulled me through parts that the story/gameplay couldn't do alone. I helped write some of the story too, so I'm a bit nervous about relying on the writing too much hahaha XD .

OMG so many tags!! When I googled advice for hashtags, they did say that less is more so I was worried about overdoing it, and they recommended SEVEN for instagram and TWO for twitter ack! But if you say so, then maybe I should go wild with them after all! Ahhh thank you, I will have to make a hashtag list hahaha! 30?! Wild! Thank you so much for following, and your art BTW is SUPER CUTE totally my Aesthetic! Are you working on any projects or VN ideas of your own? :D I'd love to check that out too!

Ahhhh sorry it took so long to answer all our questions, and thank you so much for your time! I got rid of a few questions and made a note that people don't have to answer each one, eep I hope that helps haha. I didn't really think of people feeling like they had to answer every single one!

Thanks again for your time and interest, we hope you can play the full game when it releases soon! <3
"Stuck on a spaceship for three days. A human captain, an alien war criminal, and you're the half-human half-alien doctor lost between the two. Check out our quickly-upcoming short space opera VN, 'The Far Rings'!"

Lemmasoft Thread: viewtopic.php?f=43&t=54183
Website: https://www.thefarrings.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheFarRings
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thefarrings/
Tumblr: https://thefarrings.tumblr.com/

User avatar
Gery
Regular
Posts: 26
Joined: Mon Feb 25, 2019 7:41 pm
Contact:

Re: The Far Rings [FREE] [DEMO] [sci-fi] [space opera] [drama] [mystery] [light romance] [otome] [GxB] [GxNB] [short]

#5 Post by Gery »

@TheFarRings and Mira >.< No problemo!! And thank you so much for the kind words! ^.^

I think the slice-of-life and fantasy Otome market is highly saturated at the moment and trying to break into it will require competing not only against the Western developers but also the Japanese. I think targeting a niche is a smart decision, your VN definitely stands out by the fact that it's balanced perfectly between sci-fi and otome and that there aren't that many sci-fi VNs on the market. And, as I said, I find the story and Artwork seriously compelling! Don't hesitate to post a couple of your awesome concepts from time to time here to keep the thread active. I think people are used to Visual Novels never seeing the light of day, so the more progress reports you show, the more they'll feel safe in investing their interest.

I also agree about the bland personality MC - I view Visual Novels as an upgrade of books. I would never enjoy a book with a forgettable protagonist. I know VNs are supposed to be different because of the whole "immersion" thing, but...you get my drift.

Sharing your creative vision is never easy and can be quite stressful. The only advice I can give is to create things you enjoy and can be proud of. At the end of the day, not everyone will have the same taste and not everyone will appreciate your work, no matter how beautiful it is - some people just don't care or appreciate it. But as long as you give it your all, you can always look back and cherish what you've created. That's far more important than any likes or dislikes you get on the social networks X)

Instagram is quite tricky, I'm quite new as well and I'm trying to get the handle of it. The only thing I've noticed is in regards of how many like and new followers I get when I use 10 or 30 tags. That's why I can recommend you going for more, based on my experience. Not sure about twitter and the rest.

Thank you again for your compliment ^.^ I am currently working on a game idea, and just like you, I would probably feel self-conscious when I post it here. I would need a few more weeks to clean up everything, but I'm finding this forum and the community here really helpful and supportive.

No worries, I tend to take everything too seriously, including answering any questions I see to the best of my ability XD Looking forward to the game and wish you and the whole a relaxing weekend!

User avatar
Zelan
Lemma-Class Veteran
Posts: 2436
Joined: Tue Mar 01, 2016 7:23 pm
Completed: The Dark
Projects: Cosplay Couple
Tumblr: evns
itch: Zelan
Discord: ltnkitsuragi#7082
Contact:

Re: The Far Rings [FREE] [DEMO] [sci-fi] [space opera] [drama] [mystery] [light romance] [otome] [GxB] [GxNB] [short]

#6 Post by Zelan »

Gery wrote: Sat Mar 09, 2019 2:17 pmDon't hesitate to post a couple of your awesome concepts from time to time here to keep the thread active. I think people are used to Visual Novels never seeing the light of day, so the more progress reports you show, the more they'll feel safe in investing their interest.
Just dropping in to say that this is very solid advice - a lot of projects that I started following throughout three years on this forum have been cancelled and/or simply stopped updating. While every once in a while I get a nice surprise in the form of an update on a project I thought I was dead, this doesn't happen all that often and it can be disheartening to stop hearing updates about a project I was excited about. For this reason, I very rarely play demos unless I really love a game's concept - I don't want to get invested in something only for it to never be finished. This, combined with the fact that I don't have as much time as I used to (thanks, school -_-) means that I don't respond to as many new WIP threads as I used to. Showing that your project is active and that you are serious about completing it is a good way to combat the mindset of people like me. (Just to clarify - I don't have anything against people who drop their projects, and I understand that life gets in the way sometimes, I just wanted to explain why I - and others - are sometimes hesitant to get invested in a new project that looks cool.)

For what it's worth, though, I saw this thread the day you posted it and it did catch my attention. There's definitely a lack of games with nonbinary characters, especially romanceable ones, and the fact that one of the main character's parents is also NB is a plus for me as well, even if they never show up on-screen. I also think it's really cool that the MC is a doctor, you don't see that too often since a lot of otome MCs are very young and wouldn't even be able to hold that job yet.

User avatar
Piper
Regular
Posts: 83
Joined: Sat Jul 07, 2018 5:57 pm
Projects: Refraction
Contact:

Re: The Far Rings [FREE] [DEMO] [sci-fi] [space opera] [drama] [mystery] [light romance] [otome] [GxB] [GxNB] [short]

#7 Post by Piper »

This looks like a really cool concept, and I'm glad you're revamping it. The alien especially seems quite interesting to me. ^^ Can't wait to see more!

User avatar
TheFarRings
Newbie
Posts: 8
Joined: Wed Mar 06, 2019 11:26 am
Projects: The Far Rings [sci-fi] [space opera] [drama] [mystery] [light romance] [short]
Organization: The Far Rings Team
Tumblr: thefarrings
itch: heiden
Contact:

Re: The Far Rings [FREE] [DEMO] [sci-fi] [space opera] [drama] [mystery] [light romance] [otome] [GxB] [GxNB] [short]

#8 Post by TheFarRings »

@Gery Hm, that's definitely true about filling a unique niche!

Unusual for me at least (not for our team leader Heiden LOL), but we are very confident this project will get done and released, and soon! :D Just, trying to decide exactly how much detail to keep or cut, and balancing life of course haha. I was afraid of looking like we're spamming if we bumped too much with little updates, but now I'll try to sit on this thread diligently without shame, thank you!

Your advice on using more hashtags was really good by the way, I just started the max-instahashtag regimen and our numbers definitely look better!! We even got our first two comments! >w<

Good luck with your game idea too, I hope to see it on your instagram when you're ready to share it with the world!



@Zelan oh wow, I didn't think of it like that since I'm fairly new to the indie VN scene myself, but that makes a lot of sense... It's a lot like the fanfiction world, tons of the stories I was interested in just slow down updates and die without a sound, and I get frustrated with trying any WIPs or stories that haven't been updated recently!

Not playing demos with that in mind does make sense, I must admit. I haven't had time to play any games at all with work, life, and working on the game, so I totally understand TOT .

Wow, thank you, I didn't know NB characters were that rare in VNs! Wow, I'll have to consider that for potential future story ideas too now. For some reason, I thought there'd be more. I think we naturally landed on young adults for our game since... we... are all young adults... LOL... Working adults... ^^;;; Making a romance VN with teenagers would just feel weird, woah... Haha. Heiden actually works in the medical field, so bonus points! :D



@Piper Thank you sooo much, we really appreciate your kind words and encouragement! =w= And super glad to hear the alien character seems very interesting to people. We struggled a lot to get them to a place story-wise that we were happy with, haha, and I personally was a bit worried they might not seem likable, with their shady backstory and cold demeanor hahaha. Maybe that is exactly what makes them more interesting though!



UPDATE MARCH 11, 2019
First, progress update. We finished all the expression coding, and by tomorrow we should have the Original-Version game fully functional from start to end :D . Then we must insert the music and SFX, play-test to make edits and touch-ups, aaand *I* need to finish the second CG scene LOL... ^^;;; . Hm, hope we can get it done and on itch.io in 1-2 weeks?

Our marketing campaign is slowly getting its feet wet and we have a few dozen followers! :D

And lastly, I made a new post to our devblog, which will detail the creative process for our game from all sides! From our Twitter poll, the topic 'Creating the Characters' was most popular, so the intro article for that was posted today! ^_^

[READ OUR DEVBLOG: "Creating the Characters Part 1: Core Concepts"]
Image

Thank you, I'll update again soon! <3
"Stuck on a spaceship for three days. A human captain, an alien war criminal, and you're the half-human half-alien doctor lost between the two. Check out our quickly-upcoming short space opera VN, 'The Far Rings'!"

Lemmasoft Thread: viewtopic.php?f=43&t=54183
Website: https://www.thefarrings.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheFarRings
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thefarrings/
Tumblr: https://thefarrings.tumblr.com/

User avatar
Zelan
Lemma-Class Veteran
Posts: 2436
Joined: Tue Mar 01, 2016 7:23 pm
Completed: The Dark
Projects: Cosplay Couple
Tumblr: evns
itch: Zelan
Discord: ltnkitsuragi#7082
Contact:

Re: The Far Rings [FREE] [DEMO] [sci-fi] [space opera] [drama] [mystery] [light romance] [otome] [GxB] [GxNB] [short]

#9 Post by Zelan »

TheFarRings wrote: Mon Mar 11, 2019 5:37 pm@Zelan oh wow, I didn't think of it like that since I'm fairly new to the indie VN scene myself, but that makes a lot of sense... It's a lot like the fanfiction world, tons of the stories I was interested in just slow down updates and die without a sound, and I get frustrated with trying any WIPs or stories that haven't been updated recently!

Not playing demos with that in mind does make sense, I must admit. I haven't had time to play any games at all with work, life, and working on the game, so I totally understand TOT .

Wow, thank you, I didn't know NB characters were that rare in VNs! Wow, I'll have to consider that for potential future story ideas too now. For some reason, I thought there'd be more. I think we naturally landed on young adults for our game since... we... are all young adults... LOL... Working adults... ^^;;; Making a romance VN with teenagers would just feel weird, woah... Haha. Heiden actually works in the medical field, so bonus points! :D
Ugh, yes, I get that exact same thing in fanfic, I refuse to read a WIP no matter how good it looks 9 times out of 10 for the same reason.

Actually, now that I think about it, it would probably be more accurate to say that there's a lack of nonbinary characters in general. VNs (particularly in the indie scene) are probably where I actually see them most often, although to be fair I play a lot more VNs than any other type of game and I haven't sat down and read a lot of actual books recently either. Still, NB characters aren't as common as I would like for them to be in VNs and in general and seeing one (or more!) is always, always always a plus for me.

Haha, yeah, that's fair about the ages of the characters. Even outside of teen characters, though, a lot of MCs I see are usually still pretty young - like, 20-24 - so they don't have any jobs that would require a lot of schooling like doctors. I don't know if Athena is older than that age range or if the requirements to become a doctor are just different in this setting, but either way it's different and very refreshing to see!

I really liked the devblog you shared, I think the approach of "each route dealing with one side of an issue/theme" is really cool! Looking forward to seeing more from you guys. c:

(P.S. responding to each person individually (like you've been doing) is another way to get and keep people's interest!! at least in my opinion because it shows you're actively interacting with your fans ^_^ keep up the good work!)

User avatar
TheFarRings
Newbie
Posts: 8
Joined: Wed Mar 06, 2019 11:26 am
Projects: The Far Rings [sci-fi] [space opera] [drama] [mystery] [light romance] [short]
Organization: The Far Rings Team
Tumblr: thefarrings
itch: heiden
Contact:

Re: The Far Rings [FREE] [DEMO] [sci-fi] [space opera] [drama] [mystery] [light romance] [otome] [GxB] [GxNB] [short]

#10 Post by TheFarRings »

Hahaha it's been a while since I tried fanfic, because of all the frustration with it.

Hmm we never decided on ages for them, having made the story and characters so quickly and on the fly. I think I imagined Athena as mid-to-late 20s though! (Like me...) I wonder what my team would think hahaha.

Wow, thanks so much for check out our blog ^_^ ~ Ah, that was from Heiden's Q&A section! :D It was fun being able to think of questions to ask my own teammate for it, all formal-like, haha.

Thanks again so much, hope we can share our first release real soon! <3 <3 <3
Mira from The Far Rings Team
"Stuck on a spaceship for three days. A human captain, an alien war criminal, and you're the half-human half-alien doctor lost between the two. Check out our quickly-upcoming short space opera VN, 'The Far Rings'!"

Lemmasoft Thread: viewtopic.php?f=43&t=54183
Website: https://www.thefarrings.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheFarRings
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thefarrings/
Tumblr: https://thefarrings.tumblr.com/

User avatar
TheFarRings
Newbie
Posts: 8
Joined: Wed Mar 06, 2019 11:26 am
Projects: The Far Rings [sci-fi] [space opera] [drama] [mystery] [light romance] [short]
Organization: The Far Rings Team
Tumblr: thefarrings
itch: heiden
Contact:

Re: The Far Rings [FREE] [DEMO] [sci-fi] [space opera] [drama] [mystery] [light romance] [otome] [GxB] [GxNB] [short]

#11 Post by TheFarRings »

Aaaahhhh my god it's been a while and I promised I'd stay on top of this thread, guh now I know what creators mean when they're always delaying their Things with Life Happened hahahahaaaa.

I just wanted to at least say, I'm alive, we're alive, this project is still alive I swear LOL. I (aMira) dropped the ball at the end with my side of finishing things up, so release is being puuushed just a bit, heheheh :C .

I've been back on it for the last few weeks, but there's nothing really sexy to share when you're just bug-fixing, playtesting, and polishing off the script with SFX and animation clean-ups and such, you know? All the fun stuff like art is already done ages ago LOL.

Well, first release is sooo close to being done, we're just doing final playtesting and last little cleanups. Like, 1% left to go?? Hahaha! Also, very exciting, we even have most of the voicelines from our voice-actors recorded, ready and waiting for us to start on adding them for version 2 once Version 1 is finished and out the door :D . I'm super excited about that, our VAs sound sooo wonderful and I can't wait until those lines are in, aaahhhh. Voice-acting will be limited to mostly the first day, but I think that will be more than enough to breathe so much more life into the whole thing.

Even though it's taking longer than I wanted it to, it being a pretty small story, I'm still feeling really proud and excited for how it looks and feels right now. Ah, I should probably have snapped a screenshot at least to share here, if nothing else, but it's too late, I've already written this post BD .

Maybe I'll post one later, but for now, thank you for your interest, I hope you'll keep watching this spot, I promise I swear I really mean it, this will be updated Soon with an actual, real, playable, full complete VN experience haha.

Also we're always happy to answer questions of course! Toodles!
aMira from The Far Rings Team
"Stuck on a spaceship for three days. A human captain, an alien war criminal, and you're the half-human half-alien doctor lost between the two. Check out our quickly-upcoming short space opera VN, 'The Far Rings'!"

Lemmasoft Thread: viewtopic.php?f=43&t=54183
Website: https://www.thefarrings.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheFarRings
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thefarrings/
Tumblr: https://thefarrings.tumblr.com/

User avatar
TheFarRings
Newbie
Posts: 8
Joined: Wed Mar 06, 2019 11:26 am
Projects: The Far Rings [sci-fi] [space opera] [drama] [mystery] [light romance] [short]
Organization: The Far Rings Team
Tumblr: thefarrings
itch: heiden
Contact:

Re: The Far Rings [FREE] [LAUNCHING OCT 5] [sci-fi] [space opera] [drama] [mystery] [light romance] [otome] [GxB] [GxNB]

#12 Post by TheFarRings »

We finally got approved by Steam, and now we've waited out their store-front-only wait period, and we're uh launching this weekend, yep :) . I totally failed to keep this thread updated, but a whole lot of it was just waiting around for approval so uh not much to say. I think our game has turned out pretty bangin', hope y'all add it to your wishlist and give it a try, on Steam or itch.io :] .

STEAM PAGE! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1100 ... la/?beta=0

We release on October 5th, it will include some of the voice acting, wheeee, it's happening!
"Stuck on a spaceship for three days. A human captain, an alien war criminal, and you're the half-human half-alien doctor lost between the two. Check out our quickly-upcoming short space opera VN, 'The Far Rings'!"

Lemmasoft Thread: viewtopic.php?f=43&t=54183
Website: https://www.thefarrings.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheFarRings
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thefarrings/
Tumblr: https://thefarrings.tumblr.com/

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users