Words Within Our Hearts [GXB Romance] (hey look we're back!)

[Rin]

D-Dating with teachers? *A* And he has a wiffeeeee (wow I feel so evil already)

Q&A time~
Yayyy questions, love them! By answering Questions I can express properly - or at least almost - my opinion. I'm not good with words (more like with English >_>), so usually I don't know where to start.

1. What do you think of the game overall? Does the plot interest you? What about the characters, do they seem interesting or too cliché?

School life is always interesting and tempting, I love journalism!
All the characters are distinctive. I mean, each of them have their own -very own- personality/hobbies....etc and even style which is presented pretty well. I can not remember their full name yet due to the amount of characters but I can recognize them (personality, background info, hobby...), thank to the awesome character building :3 And obviously, they are interesting, especially Chris, Megan, Mason, Jeremy (for the guys) and Evangeline (I luv herrrr), Alice, Mia (for girls) <3 (O--o--oops, seems like I listed almost all the current chars. Well, because they are all awesome xDDD)
However, there's something that I'm wondering. The VN is supposed to be at Cheshire (UK right? O.o), and are students call their teacher "sensei" there? Besides, isn't breaking the teacher's family for personal gain too --- evil? >_>

2. We decided to make Jeremy's route accessible after 3 routes, is this ok? Would you prefer him to just be available after 1 route? or always available?

Actually, I often go through all the available paths while playing a VN, unless it is yuri/yaoi. I don't mind the length, honestly. If the script or plot (or both) caught me, I can even re-play it repetitively without skipping.
If Jeremy's path is available only after finishing 3 routes, it's a little bit challenging, and to somebody who wanna woo him baaaaddly, they might going crazy *x* Still, 3 is fine with me (not because I don't like him, but as I said I'm fond with VN, especially Otomes. I accept your challenge no matter whattt xDDD Unless you make him totally unavailable then -white flag- *x* Beside, I like challenges :3)
If you can't choose between 3 and 1, go for 2 xD

3. Are you ok with Adrian being an extra route?

(Are you ok with it being a lesbian route?)

To be honest I'm not up for Homosexual thingy :<

4. Are you ok with the routes being lengthy? Would you prefer shorter routes? Or a variety? (I can't tell you the exact length of each route but my guess is if you were to play like 2-3hrs it probably take you a couple days?)

No no no I don't mind the length, not at all, unless I'm in a seriously hard time dealing with homeworks, projects and other stuffs. As long as the story is great, (which I'm sure yours is) length can't pull my legs :3

5. This game contains:

- some cursing and may contain a few politically incorrect words
like "Retard." (not sure if it'll be used still)

- some violence
(shooting, stabbing. possible animal cruelty, suicide, death threats, brutal beatings)

** Everything above is NOT explicit in any way, it's used in moderation and/or implied. It's used to suit a character and/or scene. We plan on giving this a 16+ rating due to everything above. Do you think this is a fair rating? If not, what would you rate it as? Also are you ok with everything? Only some things? Is there anything you aren't ok with? And if so why how can we improve or change it?

I-I am okay with the first one. But for the second one, the only thing that bothers me is "animal cruelty"

... I-I love animals... I do love them very very very much, and I can't stand if I see anyone do such thing T_T

Other listed violence might scared me, but it's alright! And perhaps 16+ is an appropriate, safe range.

6. With the splitting of the game into 2 games. We think we can go ahead and include the Music Room, Gallery, and probably voiced in the original game. If we can think of quite a bit of extras to include, would you be ok with a delux version? What would you like included in it? Or should we just release the full game with all the bells and whistles?

I'm totally with -Tag at this point. Music room is a good idea, but not really --- um important as CG Gallery.

I hope the team is doing well :3 Good luck to you guys! *continue stalking*

[Cidz]

I thought it might make for some fun drama if you dated your teacher...who was married >_>

1. I'm glad you like the characters, and can tell them and thier personalities apart. It's ok about not rememebering the names lol. I honestly only remember their first names not their last >_>
Ah, actually it was suppose to be a made up name in a made up fictional island/area. However I guess I didn't give it much thought at the time, So Chesire Scott Westford is the name of the school (named after the founder) and got to think of another name for the city, hmm....As far as calling the teacher sensei, that was Martinman's idea. (martinman=Mr.Martin lol) So I thought why not, however I could go back to just Mr. Martin. Or maybe the club can just call him that, since everyone in the club has thier own little nickname. Breaking the teacher's family? Oh you mean the whole hes married but falls in love with the MC? hmm...you think that's too much? I thought it might be kind of fun to write some teacher/student love soap-opera drama or something, but maybe if thats too much i can take that out and think of another idea? (I was going to make it look like his marriage was completely falling apart anyways before MC comes into his life.)

2. Ah, that's good then. I'm the same way, it's fun to see everyone's story. Hmm, yeah it might be challeging, but then thatll just make playing Jeremy's route that much more rewarding! I don't think 3 is that much anyways. Haha! Good then challege accepted! lol XD Nah we are going to include him, we have to Jeremy is very important to the plot! He's like the main guy lol. (Don't worry the others get thier development, but you know in otome games, there's always like the default/main guy?) Hmm...ah i know I made a poll maybe people can vote on it and that'll be easier to decide!

3. Well, that is fine. Adrian if I include them, would be a secret/extra thing in the 2nd game. (I wonder if i should remove this question now? since Adrian doesnt matter until way later on with the 2nd game hmm.....)

4. That's good you don't mind the length. Personally I prefer more lengthy routes then shorter ones, which is one reason we wanted to flesh out the char. more. (but not drag it on or anything.)

5. Hmmm actually

it seems the route related to the animal thing might not be done at all due to some recent drama with it >_> However I don't think animal abuse was quite the right word? It was going to be really mild like...it doesn't go into detail or anything, but you get the idea that he killed the cats and taxidermy them, something like that. It was suppose to be a big secret reveal thing... this character was going to show up in the 2nd game, he might still as it's a way off... I'm kind of hoping that chappers decides to write him still, because he had some really interesting ideas.

6. Alright we'll include the music room and CG gallery.

Thanks, we are working hard! I hope our work pays off in the end <3

[LA-Sugarkane]

I remember really loving this project a while ago and then losing track of it, I'm glad I found it again. Now onto the questions!

1. I'm pretty in love with this premise and it's characters, I'm amused they're based on real people (loosely based but still) and all the characters seem like people I'd like to learn about, I'm not dreading playing any of their routes/side plots which is somewhat rare for me.

2. T_T Jeremy was my favorite...oh well. Anyway I don't mind going through some other routes (though 2 might be better I'm not sure if making the player go through almost all the other guys is a great plan, I'd get a bit frustrated.) I'll probably be going through all the routes anyway and I'll feel accomplished when I succeed at the hard to get ending but I think you'd have to make Jeremy's route a bit more special or something compared to the others if you're making it long winded to unlock /ramble

3.

I'm a frolicky bisexual myself so I'm madly in love with lesbian options. If you include this I'll be waving a fan flag.

But on the other hand a lot of people don't care for it, I doubt they'd object but putting in a route few people play might be disheartening and tiring for you, it depends on what you can handle *sage nod*


4. The longer, the better is the general rule when it comes to sim dates I've found and I'm inclined to agree.

5. As long as it's not so consistantly depressing that I have trouble enjoying the happy parts I'm okay with any of that

though suicide can be iffy but as long as I don't have to actually see it...

6. I approve of the splitting into two games makes for a more polished game (potentially) and a sooner release date. I agree with the previous poster that galleries are more important than music rooms.

Ok, I hope some of that was a bit helpful and good luck!

[Cidz]

Aww, well I'm glad you found it again <3 I noticed the old WIP thread kept getting lost in the midst of all the other ones. These new board changes make things easier to find.

1. Hmm....2. Well Jeremy's route ties a lot together, and kind of sets everything in motion..When you play his you'll know why the club is such a mess, why Jeremy is the way he is, etc....

3.

Ah I see! Well that's good at least you'll like it.

But perhaps you have a point. Hmm...again Adrian wouldn't show up till the 2nd game lol and is an extra route. I figured not alot of people were interested, still I thought perhaps it might be something different, to kind of set our game apart from other otome games. Well, something to think about.

4. Great! I agree too, sometimes that's a minor complaint with me and some games, too short.

5. Nah, Jeremy's route might be kind of depressing in some parts (like when he gets into his past) Still, this game is overall pretty light hearted and fun. It has a lot of cute and fun moments.

No, you don't see the suicide, but you will read about it. It plays a BIG part in the plot.

6. Great! I agree, I think its better all around. Yeah galleries are pretty important, ok we will have a gallery and most likely a music room.

It was very helpful thank you so much! and thanks <3

[Cidz]

So, small update. I've been working on the textbox and name box today. I tried figuring out the side-image, but for the love of everything I can't figure it out >_<. So for now here is the textbox and namebox. What do you think? is the font too small? does it look oddly placed? (I had to make room for the side image, whenever i figure it out.)

I went ahead and made something more simple. Not sure if it'll have buttons, I'll have to look into that later >_>

[CheeryMoya]

There are quite a number of people here (I myself am included in this group) that don't like having a side image when the full portrait of a character is shown on the screen. It's a little redundant, and you can read all the opinions at this thread.

The font could be a little bigger I think, but it depends on how much text you'll show there most of the time. Also, the area for the speaker's name seems a little too spacious if you ask me. Unless you have a character whose name is extremely long, I suggest you reduce the size of it to avoid cluttering up the screen.

[Cidz]

Oh, no no. Actually the side image is only for the MC, not for anyone else. And the MC doesn't have a larger sprite, only side image. Do you think that would still be ok?

You're right looking at it so i made a few adjustments. What do you think of it now? Chris' name is pretty short, so the box might still look a bit big. However it looks fine with longer names like Mr. Martin and Jeremy. Either way, it's not nearly a big of a gap as it was before.



Also I changed the font size a bit from 16 to 17, making it a little larger, here's an example with more text. I think this is a good size.



Oh, one more thing! We're thinking of using photographs as backgrounds, you think that's a good idea or no? I've heard a few complaints that it doesn't match well with hand-drawn sprites. However I've seen it done in katawa shoujo and I think it came out pretty well. I heard quite a few commerical VNs do that as well... (although we'd still like a background artist, but I'm waiting until I get a more clear idea of what backgrounds we'll need before asking.)

[LA-Sugarkane]

On the subject of backgrounds one thing you might consider is taking photos and tracing over them in photoshop or some such. It works when you can't find a background artist and doesn't tend to clash with the drawn characters as much. Still put the photos origins in your credits (or take your own photos) but yeah it's an option.

[CheeryMoya]

There's a code to make a space for the MC's side image only. It should look something like this:

Code: Select all

define p = DynamicCharacter('player_name',
    color = "#58D3F7",
    window_left_padding=230,
    show_side_image=ConditionSwitch(
        "express == 'normal'", "Normal.bmp",
        "express == 'happy'", "Happy.bmp",
        "express == 'blush'" , "Blush.png",
        "express == 'sad'", "Sad.bmp", xalign=0.0, yalign=1.0,
        )
    )

Adjust the padding to fit your needs, and this will only affect dialogue spoken by the protagonist.

The box looks better now, though it's sort of awkwardly hanging off the textbox by itself, IMO. It's something I can probably overlook though, so no worries. As for using photograph backgrounds, it's fine as long as you find a filter that looks good with the sprites. As long as it's not a straight-up photo, I won't complain.

[Cidz]

@ LA-Sugarkane - i tried that once, didn't come out very good >_>. Still I could give it a try again. Only way to learn is through trial and error lol. That's an idea. I found a couple filters on GIMP and photoshop that kind of give it more of a drawn look. So I'll go ahead and experiment, see what fits.

@ CheeryMoya - I tried that code it doesn't work for me, not sure what I'm doing wrong. I did try this code and it works fine for me.

Code: Select all

#init:
    $ n = Character('[player_name]', color="#C20000", show_two_window=True, window_left_padding=170, 
        show_side_image=ShowingSwitch (
            "MCnormal", "MCnormal.png",
            None, Null(),
            xalign=0.0, yalign=1.0))

Anyways, finally got the side image showing HORRAY! heres what it looks like:


(ignore the pink heart background that's just a temp thing..and you can enter your own name, so I just put cidz down as a temp thing.)

and here is what it looks like w/o side image:



I also adjusted the namebox too, does it look better?

[Asterisk]

Really awesome progresses, the art's awesome, I can't wait!
The girls designs are soooo adorable! I hope to see colours on them soon! ;w;

[Cidz]

Thank you! Gothic~Ichigo does such wonderful work <3
Yeah I really like them too, as soon as we get finished girl's sprites (or any other finished sprites) I'll be sure to post it up. <3

[keke-chan]

Woot~! I'm so looking forward to this!

I was gonna answer all the questions but I'm too lazy to so I'll only answer a few

1. What do you think of the game overall? Does the plot interest you? What about the characters, do they seem interesting or too cliché?
- The plot definitely interests me. I like the characters (Kitsu!) and I don't mind them being a littlecliché as long as they're handled well and have good back stories

2. We decided to make Jeremy's route accessible after 3 routes, is this ok? Would you prefer him to just be available after 1 route? or always available?
- Gaah, I think that's too much. 2 routes is enough I think.

3. Are you ok with Adrian being an extra route?
- What, who's Adrian? O_o I don't see an Adrian up there...

4. Are you ok with the routes being lengthy? Would you prefer shorter routes? Or a variety? (I can't tell you the exact length of each route but my guess is if you were to play like 2-3hrs it probably take you a couple days?)
- I'm fine with it, I actually hate it when routes are too short (like, if they're less than 40 minutes)

5. This game contains:
- some cursing and may contain a few politically incorrect words
like "Retard." (not sure if it'll be used still)

- some violence
(shooting, stabbing. possible animal cruelty, suicide, death threats, brutal beatings)


** Everything above is NOT explicit in any way, it's used in moderation and/or implied. It's used to suit a character and/or scene. We plan on giving this a 16+ rating due to everything above. Do you think this is a fair rating? If not, what would you rate it as? Also are you ok with everything? Only some things? Is there anything you aren't ok with? And if so why how can we improve or change it?
- I'm okay with all of it except for the retard thing. And I think 16+ is a goo rating

[Cidz]

That's fine answer some questions or any feedback is always good. ^_^

1. I'm glad it interests you, the plot and characters. Kitsu is an adorable one lol, I can't wait to see what chapperz writes for his story. Ah, glad you're ok with it being a little cliche, I think even if it is it'll still be original enough.

2. Hmm.. well it seems after talking to Jubbz (aka writer and person behind Jeremy), he'll be accessible from right away, so you don't have to play through any routes. (guess no need for this question anymore lol)

3. Opps! I forgot to remove this question, sorry about that. This game originally had 11 love interests, and we decided to split the characters into 2 games. So Adrian is suppose to be part of the 2nd game now.

4. Oh, that's good! I also don't like short routes. Don't worry no route will take 40 min. in our game. Perhaps a few hours at the shortest?

5. Well, doubt that word will be in this game, but just to be on the safeside, I thought I'd ask haha. Ah good, people seem to be ok with the 16+ rating. I'll still put "WARNING This game contains: ......." when we release the game, so people know at least what to expect.

[Cidz]

I realized we haven't been saying much on this project, sorry I don't have much to report on. Things have been pretty slow. Haven't heard from our artist (other then to say shes still alive >_> ) in a couple of months. *sweatdrop*

The intro is getting proofread and added onto, Jeremy's route kind of took the backbuner for the time being until Jubbz is finished proofing the Comon route.

Chapperz is in the planning stage of Kitsu's route, he has it pretty mapped out but hasnt figure out how to started it just yet.

Mason's route I started to write, however I became stuck and unsure what to do or what direction to take. So I'm taking this time to do research, reading up on writing tips, planning it out more, etc...it's helping and now I'm realizing I think I made Mason open up to Jinko a little too quickly, so I'll probably go back and add more to the begging. So working in his rough draft, just slowly..

Programing, well I haven't been doing much programing lately, truthfully? Harvest moon became my new addiction >_> So for a week or so I was really just spending most of my time playing Harvest Moon >_<. Hmm but I should get back to it, I'm trying to at least do 30 mins. or programing everday...that is if i can stick to that schedule! Hoping to get the basic programing down with Chris' route by the end of this month.

I talked to Spiral about Megan's route, he wanted to know some sort of deadline so i gave him till the end of this summer. he said if he has till then he can work it out better and flesh it out better and not rush it.

Well things are slow, but we are working on it in one way or the other, even if we dont have much to show. I'll try and take a couple more caps at least to show my progress with programing (if only we could get more sprites >_< ) maybe i'll make a video or something as well....