Al|together games released.

[PyTom]

I concur with that. Resonance is my favorite of the games I've played so far, although I still have a few left. (I'm pacing myself.)

One thing is that I think that there are some spoilers in the description of Resonance found on the al|together web site, and so I'd recommend downloading it directly without reading the description first.

[Watercolorheart]

Just played Poor Little Bird (too short ...) and Resonance (Good length, was disappointed with the ending.)

Kira-snowdrop was a really good game, I was entertained with it despite the sad ending. The graphics were great. I was actually expecting multiple endings, given the quality of the graphics, but that's not the case.

Most of you were vexed with the Yorkshire accent, but I was impressed wit the game's vocabulary, eloquence, and I thought they did a pretty good job of doing it all. Maybe I'm just not used to seeing bishoujo games actually use words longer than 13 letters in their descriptions when a 7 letter one will do.

I just wanted to say that for Resonance, I was very impressed with the sprites. They definitely beat out Winter Tale's rather uninspired sprites, although Winter Tale (IMHO) has better backgrounds.

Still haven't gotten through the other one I downloaded yet.

[mikey]

BCS>> About Kira, I think I missed the point with it. Can you explain it to me somehow? I mean I only saw the older man and the girl, a missing cat (and another cat that looked the same), they made love and the fish died. I struggled really because I have no idea what that meant - was she a real vampire? The only combination I saw in it was that the key elements were: snow + cat = were white, and fish + blood = were red. All I could decipher.

[GLACIER]

I'm curious about Kira too. Even the translator admitted that he doesn't understand the meaning of the ending.

[musical74]

OK generally I don't let people influnce me about games (unless everyone says it stinks) but from what people have been saying about Kira...not sure I would want to try it out. BCS - given that you have played it, it is a good game? From what mikey and GLACIER have said, it's pretty confusing...what's the scoop? I don't mind games that leave people to their imagination

[Blue Lemma]

I downloaded them, but I can't get any of them to work! I get a window when I start them, but it just contains whatever was on the desktop. (It's kind of like an old ren'py bug on my computer that pytom knows about - what was the solution for that?) Oh well, I'll poke away at it

Edit: I got it to work! I found the solution PyTom gave me on my computer... I have to go into the command prompt and type "set SDL_VIDEODRIVER=windib" to make it work. Annoying, but better than no games ^_^ )

[mikey]

Well, I finally played this game, so...

A Midsummer Day's Resonance
====================
A beautiful softly flowing story, with a lot of emotion. Granted, it was simple, but I love simple stories. The only thing I have to say is that the parts about life and growing up sounded too melodramatic for my taste. A girl shouldn't judge how grown up or not she is, that's for others to decide. Anywhere else this would be something that would seriously spoil my experience, but here it's balanced by just so much romance and emotional monologue, that I'd feel really bad for dragging this into the light, because the game is so great.

The art's been rightfully complimented and I have to say I don't know why people think it's a predictable story. It was absolutely not obvious for me (maybe because I don't watch/read science-fiction) what would happen and the thing PyTom mentioned (and I took the advice of not looking), that the official site has that spoiler - people think that it's so normal and everybody knows, but they don't (well, I didn't). Even in the game itself, I found it too much of a justifying when I read how it's "just like in a manga" or various similar statements assuming the reader has seen plots like these so many times. I mean the story is so great, so beautiful, that it does not need to justify itself. No one has to tell me beforehand, that the simplicity is the point, I will find that out for myself. It's just a bit too much fear of being misunderstood I guess...

I will be the last person to judge the game by its elements - graphics, music and story and I will always take into account the whole experience in these games, because that's what matters. I don't even want to say that Resonance was better than something else or that something else was better than Resonance. I had a great time playing it and it was very nicely written, especially the love parts. Makes me want to jump up and kiss-kiss my girlfriend ^_^ (*does that*)

[Blue Lemma]

I liked AMDR the best because of its interesting story, clean graphics, and professional feel. Plain Song was good, too, but I wish it had some character graphics.

One big thing that bothered me in general about the "games" was the lack of interactivity. They were nice, but where are the choices? You might as well read a book with pictures. I guess there's the music factor, but something about just having to *click click click* to get through bores me. Even some meaningless little choices could have improved my engagement in most of the stories.

[Alessio]

Sometimes I get the impression authors who can't be asked to put down a whole novel just write a Visual Novel instead. But to me, if a VN is missing interactivity AND graphics AND sound I'm wondering why I should play it at all - it could just as well have been distributed as a plain text file. (A close call for Plain Song there, but at least it had SOME choices.)

And I *hate* the
"........"
"........"
"........"
parts. :)

[mikey]

Hmmm, on the topic of this...

Without character graphics it's missing the anime flavor which is really almost essential. Speaking in terms of my encyclopedia, I have to add the Song and Bird to the text games, simply listing them, not even an entry. Just like Amatire.

I was already a bit struck when Soremata came out to see a relatively high production value end up in a non-interactive piece, and one that was even shorter than what is my benchmark for minimum game length - Moonlight Walks. It was even more striking to see because MW is interactive while Soremata isn't. Yes, I know my GR is also non-interactive, but I hope I made up for it in its length and variety.

I see interactivity as one of the key elements of a VN, not because I'd like to pass it as a game, but for that needed level of identification. Clicking the text will support the feel of interactivity, but it must be backed by a choice that alters something (and not only slightly), otherwise you might as well turn on the automatic text and watch it as budget anime.

[Alessio]

"Budget anime" is a funny expression, I thought of some VN exactly in those terms actually! :)

Speaking as a developer/author, I very much want to show every part of the story (or almost) to the players on their first run through the game, since some might not even play it a second time. Which in turn seriously restricts the possible variations/choices in storyline. And that can result (but doesn't have to) in limited interactivity. But I see your point.

[gp32]

I should make it a point to note here that you're certainly defining the term "visual novel" differently from its original Japanese definition (which is the one that I cleave to when categorizing these translated pieces, mainly in deference to the original authors). In the Japanese literature, the term "visual novel" refers to a piece that is "visual" -- in other words, depends heavily on character graphics -- and is a "novel" -- in other words, the bulk of the content is in the written word. Choices are a plus/minus; in fact, the doujin community has been making choice-less visual novels for a very long time (at least 1997; I know of one from that time period) -- which, as far as I understand it, is maybe half a decade longer than your community has even been in existence.

I'm not going to dispute whatever terms you use amongst yourselves, but you should know that as far as the original Japanese definitions are concerned, choices do not necessarily make or break a visual novel (i.e. no Japanese person would ever argue that a piece like Kira or Resonance is not, in fact, a visual novel. By the same token, no Japanese person would ever argue that a piece like Poor Little Bird or Plain Song *is* a visual novel -- those are better classified in the Japanese nomenclature as "sound novels").

(And on another topic completely -- make sure you don't miss out on Resonance's hidden extras section.)

[mikey]

I gave up on finding a solution to this (original vs. percepted meaning) for now, but from the AT05 games I think I can better understand their original meanings as you explained.

One of these days I'll just define genuine Slovak names for all of the various forms and solve the problem for good. I may even be able to cooperate with some of the Czech people, so we can bring this eternal problem to an end. The English and Japanese will simply translate the Slavic words. It's going to be a fresh start without the legacy of Wapanese and Engrish. I am such a genius...

And on a serious note, Resonance hidden extras? I just saw a gallery of the title screens and that was it. Will it have to do something with that appearing/disappearing "Resonance" name in the menu? I don't think I saw that before I went through the game.

Another thing, is there a music off option? I kind of never found a way to switch it off. Some of the readmes for the titles do mention text speed and music options, but I couldn't find them anywhere I like to have my text set as "instant" and play without music (and with my own in background). I know it's barbarian, but it's the way I can relax. So that's why I'm asking.

I very much want to show every part of the story (or almost) to the players on their first run through the game, since some might not even play it a second time. Which in turn seriously restricts the possible variations/choices in storyline. And that can result (but doesn't have to) in limited interactivity

It's really a challenge, I give you that. I think the Ren'Py titles will manage this very well (except GR, obviously).

With Rivertrap I went for a simple approach - the story was the same for every time you played, but each choice changed the BG graphic, so you had the same story in a different place. Admittedly, it is not the top solution, because there are actually no paths to play for once you finish, but then again, I made 8 very different and hopefully rewarding endings, so that the player could be himself and get an ending that was more personal.

Kaori and Milkswim were very different in this. In those you were more or less forced to replay. So it kind of depends. I have to say though, that with K* and MS, I planned a multiend/multipath story from the start, as opposed to Rivertrap, BP or TT, which were dependent on a main story.

[gp32]

On the Extras Mode -- let's just say that everything you need to know is in the installation directory somewhere. It's a puzzle that the author put in there, and giving it away would make me a bad sport, wouldn't it?

[Blue Lemma]

Mikey: Hidden extras for Resonance:

After you beat the game, you see numbers in the corner of the screen for a little bit. Go to the gallery and look at the pictures corresponding to the numbers (in the same order).