The Lighthouse [NaNoRenO14(ish)][BxG][Fantasy] DEMO ADDED

[Didules]

Haha, well, it should make sense on release. Having to playthrough to that particular scene over and over for like 3 hours while I got the timing/fx right was an... interesting experience, so I hope it'll come across well.

Haha, testing games is always quite boring But until npw in The Lighthouse, the FX have been great (for the timing and for the feelings it gives)... So: good job!! It really helps to get in the game!

And when your partner demands you write a gooey ending ballad it's rude not to at least try. (This is so out of my usual songwriting remit it will be hilarious but I WILL DO IT *flame eyes air punch etc etc*)

Haha, motivation is motivation, when it's about achieving such a goal, who wouldn't be that motivated? (And as player we won't complain for another song, as they are really good (the opening song is beautiful!)). Good luck then!

The Keeper does have a placeholder name that TK and I use because we started writing this before we'd named anyone but it's incredibly silly... but I did hide it in the intro post if you want to ruin any illusion of seriousness with this. XD We're the worstbestworst at placeholder names.

*dead from laughing to much* Placeholder names often suck.... (I used to name my character with "?"s until I find something (it made some strange things such as "?? asked ? why he killed ??? but ? wouldn't answer..." ) Hummmm... *reads the intro post once again* How come I only read normal words there? Okay, I'll try to find it again! X)

Indeed it really makes sense to make Sienna name it, as she acts like a friend(-to-be) and since until then the Keeper didn't have any name, thefact he accepted the name she gives means a lot... Somehow he's a bit docile but it makes sense since until then he didn't have anyone to talk to. Nah, seriously, from many games where we can name the MC, the Lighthouse it probably the best and the more justified one: it totally makes sense and doesn't get us out of the game! Good job Seriously you did well!

[Mirrowdothack]

Going to keep an eye in this. This looks and sounds pretty interessting to me. The art is beautiful and the story seems to be pretty cool. Going to play the demo, I can't wait for the download to be finished *______*

[Mirrowdothack]

So, I just finished your demo and: I totally love it.
Sienna ♥: She's so damn cool.

When she started the fight => that was epic. I was like "Yeah, in your face b***' I loves the pictures when she was kicking some buts XD

I love the story so far and can't wait to read more. I will totally read to full version ♥

It's so adorable how Sienna was helping the hero out ♥ But it was toally unfair to stop the story right before she was giving him an name >.< I wanna know it XD

You guys just did a fantastic job with the animation, timing, writing, paiting etc. It all fits very well.

I love how you did the fighting scene. It was pretty cool done ^^

Can't wait to read more ♥

[Guest]

So, I just finished your demo and: I totally love it.
Sienna ♥: She's so damn cool.
I love the story so far and can't wait to read more. I will totally read to full version ♥

Yay! I'm glad you like it (BTW I really want to play Y;N but I'm a mac user. Me and TK have been super excited about your game ).

Very happy people are enjoying Sienna, I was worried when I started that I would end up writing a bland and uninteresting heroine but she seems to be coming out alright.

It's so adorable how Sienna was helping the hero out ♥ But it was toally unfair to stop the story right before she was giving him an name >.< I wanna know it XD

Aaactually, that answers a questions I was wondering:

"Is the text input box obvious enough"? I had been worried about that... You get to name him yourself and then the game carries on.

The demo has a really clear END OF DEMO notice when you reach the end of it.

Any suggestions on

How the make the name him text prompt more obvious

are very much appreciated because it's been bugging me a lot how to do it without it breaking the narrative flow.

You guys just did a fantastic job with the animation, timing, writing, paiting etc. It all fits very well.

I love how you did the fighting scene. It was pretty cool done ^^

Can't wait to read more ♥

Thank you very much! I've been having a tonne of fun with the timing and little animation effects on this. It's a really interesting way of telling a story.

Progress update: Nottttt a huge amount, we both needed to take a week of downtime (and I needed to deal with my 'headaches-and-ringing-ears' level of sleepdep.)

But I'm planning to blitz on with the writing tonight and see if I can get another few scenes done.

[KiloTango]

Accck, post above should be me. Didn't notice Lemma had logged me out! XD

(And I just saw you put up the Y;N mac demo *FURIOUS DOWNLOADING COMMENCES*)

[Mirrowdothack]

Accck, post above should be me. Didn't notice Lemma had logged me out! XD

(And I just saw you put up the Y;N mac demo *FURIOUS DOWNLOADING COMMENCES*)

No problem, please let me know if somethings isn't working (or if it is working XD)
Wish you much fun^^

-----

Any suggestions on

How the make the name him text prompt more obvious

are very much appreciated because it's been bugging me a lot how to do it without it breaking the narrative flow.

Ah, I just noticed it:

that I can give him an name^^. Hm, a work aournd would be to simple write, that the player can name. Maybe I will come up with something better *gotta think about it^^
I guess a reason why it's not so obvious might be because the player starts the game as the nameless hero and than he has to act as Sienna.

The good thing is that I can keep on playing ^^V

useless information:

I called him Jean XD, don't know why. This was the first namen that was on my mind ^^

I just finished the demo *for real this time^^

Still love Sienna and the MC ♥ It's such an adorable story so far^^

[KiloTango]

Hehe, glad you enjoyed the rest of the demo!

And it's really interesting to hear what people name him.

STATS after some writing tonight

The game contains 1,035 dialogue blocks, containing 15,085 words and 81,224
characters, for an average of 14.6 words and 78 characters per block.

The game contains 8 menus, 61 images, and 13 screens.

Not quite accurate because I'm pretty sure Lint doesn't count the stuff I pass through a python function I use for some silly effects, and also 5 of those menus are the dev navigation menu...

But that's probably the hardest flashback scene's text done at least at first pass, which puts me half way through Ch3 of 4. Though it's feeling like 3 and 4 are each going to be longer than 1 and 2 (especially considering the ending branches in 4...)

[Mirrowdothack]

I was just thinking about something.

If you don't put in the Keeper's name and push "Enter", his name will be "Grindcore" per default. If you'd like to have him have a default name I would suggest to let Sienna repeat it, after the reader pushed "Enter" and before Grindcore's saying: "Well, I have been called worse things". It feels kinde strang that the input stays empty and he reacts to a name the reader doesn't know at this point.
If you don't want to give him a default name, you may give the reader an advice that their should input something.^^

[KiloTango]

Oh man, I didn't notice that it

Defaults to the silliest placeholder name!

I think I might adjust it to make it clearer you can change his name, and not use

that default

either way... we've just been calling him that as a joke for so long that's it's stuck and made it hard to figure out what his name should actually be!

[Mirrowdothack]

Oh man, I didn't notice that it

Defaults to the silliest placeholder name!

I think I might adjust it to make it clearer you can change his name, and not use

that default

either way... we've just been calling him that as a joke for so long that's it's stuck and made it hard to figure out what his name should actually be!

That's what' beta testers are there for^^
I woke up, today and thought:

"What if I don't put in a name?"

And I like the idea that the reader can do this^^

But now I have to ask:

Why did you named him after that muci style? *curious

[KiloTango]

But now I have to ask:

Why did you named him after that muci style? *curious

Because

TK forgets that if her initial silly suggestions for what I should call something make me laugh enough, I will end up using them as placeholders. Thus, Grindcore kind of stuff, I guess because it's also the least fitting, silliest name and especially funny Sienna to have come up with it. We will give him a more serious placeholder name when we have thought of one though.

[KiloTango]

P-p-progress update:

Spent today blitzing a bunch of soundtrack stuff. Wrote one new track, and then a rearrangement of it and another rearrangement of one of the other tracks (of the one isn't in the demo but is in that soundtrack crossfade, if you're curious). Today's output runs a nice fun gambit between moody, adorable and FEELS and with those 3 done, I think that puts me at about 70% through the soundtrack. At this rate there's going to like an hour of original music in this thing.

I'm wondering if I should move this to the WIP forum, or make a new thread or what...

Oh, and in the meantime, have a sketch of The Keeper I did while I was trying out the latest version of Artrage. TK and I have quite different styles so it was fun doodling one of her designs.

Keeper Artrage Doodle

[KiloTango]

Just to prove we're still working on this, a minor update!

The game contains 1,335 dialogue blocks, containing 19,506 words and 104,671
characters, for an average of 14.6 words and 78 characters per block.

Nearly to 20k! One scene left in chapter 3, then it's just chapter 4 and the endings.

Life has been kicking our arses this month but we're soldiering on and hope to have this done soon.

In the mean time, have another OST preview. Couple of tracks that were in the demo and some that weren't. Still got another 5 or so pieces to do for this thing though.

Once I've hit 20k and we've got a little more art to show you I'll probably make a new thread in the main WIP forum, unless this one can be moved...

[philip]

Just finished going through the demo. Very "professionally" done! I love the story, the characters, the art and everything about it. Sienna is an amazing young lady, and Kendrick is an unlikeable sort.

Have found the discussion about the Keeper's name to be interesting. I felt strange giving him a name - after all, it is YOUR story, and I felt as though I was intruding by stepping in and choosing a name. You have done such a wonderful job so far, I am certain that you will find just the right name as a placeholder for the final version. Being able to choose a name is a nice touch, and gives the reader a sense of participation I suppose, but I would not be upset if that option was not available to me.

Will anxiously await the update.

philip

[KiloTango]

Thank you very much! I'm glad you like it.

The keeper does actually have a better placeholder name in the working-file now:

If you don't pick something, Sienna names him 'Finnian', which is silly enough to be something she would say but y'know, not as silly as the placeholder we used XD. That said we use Finnian and his old placeholder name interchangeably when we talk dev about him, haha.

There's some stories planned after this and in most of them, the idea of 'the names other people give you' is a theme that crops up repeatedly (This one and the 4th one put the most focus on it though, but when we get it there's a lot of mirroring between the 4th story and this one and the issue of names is even more important there). Names are interesting, and particularly when you shift from a title to a nickname or personal name there's a change in dynamics there that is fun to explore.

The 'intruding on the story' is an interesting point, and yeah it was an optional thing but I decided that with this one in particular, having the player add to his collection of names (After all, as much as he's resigned it's not as if the Keeper wasn't anyone before he took on that role) kind of makes you complicit in what happens in the the story. It's less about making The Keeper more a placeholder for you, and more about making the player another of the forces acting on someone who is being incredibly passive. It'll come across even more in the rest of story I hope.

I'm kind of the opinion that if you're going to use game mechanics of any kind (be they naming, choices, point and click etc) it should be specifically in a way that ties to the story in ways you couldn't do as a straight comic etc. So I overthink this stuff a lot