New Game - Soul Gambler, what is the price of your soul?

[mgaia]

Hi,

I work for a game company called m.gaia and we just released a visual novel called Soul Gambler that I think people here are going to enjoy.
The game places the player on the role of Faust, a man who sees his life change after receive a proposal from a mysterious gypsy. The current version already have a preface and the Chapter 1, but to continue the story we created a Kickstarter to get the founds to continue the game.

Let me know what you of the game, we love to hear feedback

Thanks,
Hygor

[AxemRed]

- Window immediately opens up fullscreen, Esc/Alt+Enter don't exit fullscreen mode -- no obvious way to close/minimize window.
- Crashes when trying to exit through the in-game menu.
- Sprites too small for the screen, backgrounds at the wrong angle/position for the sprites.
- Narration is so far up the screen it becomes annoying to read and easy to miss.
- No transitions or music, but I assume those will be implemented later.
- No text speed, skip mode, text log, keyboard support.
- Buttons lack visual feedback on mouse hover -> you never know what's clickable.
- I like how it lets you go back to a nearby checkpoint if you die.
- English translation is comprehensible but not very good.
- Game tries to limit you to one save slot (why?) even though it supports multiple.

[mgaia]

Thanks for the feedback We will make sure to address these concerns on the next version of the game.

I just have a questions for you: Why do you say that the sprites are too small for the screen?

[AxemRed]

The camera position makes me feel like a 3m tall giant who's standing 5m away from the characters. The sprites don't even reach halfway up the screen which creates an unappealingly large amount of mostly empty space above them. Visual novel sprites typically take up 30+% of the screen per-sprite, yours take up <10% making the characters feel small and insignificant.

[mgaia]

Interesting... and how about the new version mock up? Do you think that looks better in this aspect ?



That difference of empty space doesn't look that bad when you are playing on a smartphone, because the proportion between the size of the text and the size of the screen is bigger, but when you play on a PC (specially in a big resolution) the problem become more obvious.

[Obscura]

Hey there fellow Kickstarter game dev! It's pretty awesome to see another VN campaigning. Are you losing sleep yet? I'm effing exhausted. XD

I have to agree with AxemRed, your sprites are really small for the typical visual novel. I don't know if it's that big of a deal for people don't normally play them, but normally the sprites are a lot closer to the screen and they feel more personal.

Two additional things:

1) when setting my stats, it gets confusing because the game allows me to set more stats than I actually have for some reason (it should automatically prohibit you from putting more than your allotment)
2) I feel like your character needs a little background. He has no backstory, no anything. Maybe just a little more about his history or something would make me feel more connected to him. Even a simple, "You're name is Faust and you've been living the same, dull existence untill one day..." But perhaps that's your intent with having a character without any backstory?

I'd say good luck to you, but it looks like you're going to make your goal in short time. Cheers.

[mgaia]

Hey, indeed is really nice to meet a fellow from Kickstarter And congratulations for your project, is really inspiring to see your success!!

You sure know how I feel, the few times I manage to get some sleep I wake up each couple of your to check the status of the project, what people are talking about, etc... At the begin of the project we managed to get a good press about it (specially in Brazil), but over the time we are seen a slow down on the number of backers, so I'm trying everything I can do revert the situation.

On the original script, Faust used to have a bit more of background than we have today, I decided to cut it because I was feeling that the story become too "slow" and that could also be an opportunity to let the player decide by himself(or herself) what is Faust background.
For the next version we are already planning to tweak the existing story a little bit, it would be a good opportunity to rethink about Faust background.

I totally agree with you on the Stats screen, that part needs more "UI Love"...

Thanks for the feedback, I'm always happy to hear what people think about the game.

[gekiganwing]

I'm not sure how to describe your art style, but it's interesting. It's cartoonish but grounded in real life, without being bleak.

If your primary language is Brazilian Portuguese, then consider finding a person to check your writing for errors and inconsistencies. I'm sure someone can assist you to make sure your game reads well in English.

I recently encouraged another person on this forum to avoid physical Kickstarter rewards. I'm sure that it can be done... but I've heard a number of news stories about people who ending using their KS funds in order to send rewards through the mail.

One more question. Goethe's Faust and most works based on it end badly. Is there a chance that your main character will have a positive ending? Might your visual novel have multiple endings?

[mgaia]

Hi gekiganwing,

Don't worry, on the next version we are going to hire someone to do the English review. The reason we didn't made it yet is because we are planning to tweak the existing story a bit, and we don't have sparing resources to do the same work twice. I know that looks bad now, and I apologize, but I promise the next version won't have this problem.

The physical perks are a very good point, we discussed a lot before creating the Kickstarter about what we are going to have. If you look take a careful look on our perks, you will notice we don't have many physical perks (you need to pay at least $50 to get something), they are easy to ship and we made sure that the pledge cost - cost of production - cost of shipping was still worth.

The game have (for now, that could change) 7 endings: One on the preface, one on the Chapter 2 and the remaining on the Chapter 3 (the last one). The first 2 endings are more on the "ignorance is a bliss" line of thought, the player somehow decide that Faust should keep his old life and avoid risks, these are the "positives endings".

The other 5 endings are more tense and dark, they will force the player to make hard choices, and all of them are far from "positive". But that doesn't mean they are bad endings, is just that you shouldn't expect a "forever happy" on them.

[DreamDragonHatchling]

I played the free version. It was nice, but the transition or lack of them were little unpleasant. When one day ended and next started and he went to diffident place. Faust teleport! Even black screen with: NEXT DAY would be better.
And it felt little too fast, he didn't even have a time to think about what the heck happened! It felt like his face T_T i just sold my soul so what? That felt cold and yeah cold... no soul in him XD okay, that was a lame joke. But I'm just that kind of person who likes dept and logic in human nature, the way thy react to things.
But i wish you luck and merry christmas!

[mgaia]

I think you have a good point, a "next day" transition would be nice, I will talk with the rest of the team to discuss solutions for this problem.

About the English, I agree with you and as I said before: We will make sure this doesn't happen again on the next version of the game, for now I can only apologize for the problem.

[Obscura]

Oh man, am I imagining things or did Chris Avellone tweet about your project and back it?!?!

OHMYGOD you cannot believe how freakin' excited I was to see that!!! Congratulations mgaia!!! He's my favorite developer ever...getting a nod from him would have made my friggin' year.

Not that such a thing would ever happen for my gay dating sim.

But seriously, that is beyond awesome.

Ok, enough shameful fangirling from me.

[mgaia]

Thanks dude

A person from our team had the privilege to meet him in his last trip to Brazil during a game event, he also had a chance to show Soul Gambler to Chris and he really enjoyed the game!

[mgaia]

Hi foks,

I just wanted to let you guys know that we are 101% funded on Kickstarter, but we still have about 70 hours left.

We added a few stretch goal as well:
* $5,000 - OUYA Port
* $6,000 - Mac OSX Port
* $7,000 - Linux Port

I also want to give my gratitude for the backers from here who believed on our project, and for all the feedback you guys gave to our game, I think that was very constructive and should help us a lot on the next version of the game. Thank you

[gekiganwing]

I wasn't sure if Soul Gambler would get noticed on Kickstarter, or if more than a handful of people would pledge money. It seemed so unlikely, since it wasn't being created by a celebrity, or a person already famous in video game fandom. I did not know if other people would consider the art or gameplay to be interesting. Despite all my doubt, it seems that about 220 other people contributed over $5000 US in less than thirty days.

Perhaps my thoughts regarding Kickstarter were too cynical. I had been assuming that it was not much different from cyberbegging or online petitions, and that fraudulent or stolen credit cards would be used in order to donate. I still find it difficult to believe that more than a few people choose to donate money online.