PRODIGY - episode 1 - [HORROR, MYSTERY]

[Kuurin]

Download: http://www.mediafire.com/?2xq2fqzf4d2gxfq

Synopsis: At the XXIII century, many things have changed: there are a lot of new advances in science. But there is one major science discovery that changed the life of society: a mixture made by the scientist Minami Hokuto whose whole purpose is to increase enormously a child’s intelligence, making him what society will label later as a prodigy. Asakura Hikaru was one of the few children selected to be part of the experiment and since that day he lives his everyday life like any other, even though deep inside wonders if this project will eventually backfire on society. But his everyday life starts to change when a mysterious girl named Yui Hanabusa transfers to his school. Little by a little he will come to notice that his prediction was not so far away from the truth. And this truth is something scarier than anyone ever imagined.

My first visual novel~
This is the introduction episode~ (no choices sorry >.<)
Please do not hesitate to comment or critique, because it will determine if I make a sequel or not.
B-But don't be a grammar nazi please ; 3 ;

I really hope you guys like it

Info:
Name: PRODIGY - episode 1 -
Genre: Horror, mystery, supernatural, drama
Gameplay time: Around 15-20 minutes
Platform: Any open system should work~ (Windows, Mac, Linux, etc.)
Size: Around 120 mb

Credits:
Art: iluuuv
Programmed by: iluuuv
Story&Dialogues: iluuuv
Character design: iluuuv and asako-rin who kindly designed the main character Hikaru for me <3
Editor: LucyTenshi (Thank you for staying late with me ; 3 ;!)
Music: DO NOT BELONG TO ME. Here is the playlist of the songs I used
Images used: http://thewafflerdotcom.files.wordpress ... g_0819.jpg / http://www.commercial.unimelb.edu.au/As ... 0white.jpg / http://www.aegispg.com/uploads/properti ... 20hall.jpg / http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RbahS_m1-Ck/U ... 00/013.jpg / http://nguyencanhtinh.files.wordpress.c ... heck11.jpg / http://images5.fanpop.com/image/photos/ ... 40-426.jpg
Programs used: Paint Tool SAI, Ren'Py, Audacity, Adobe Photoshop CS5 Portable

[specialtantei]

Downloading ~~! The art is magical *-*
I'll read it tonight :3. Congrats on your first VN!

[Applegate]

Could you give a synopsis of what your VN's about?

[Kuurin]

[EDIT] Added the synopsis!
-----------------------------
Wahh sorry for the lack of synopsis! It's coming soon!

[specialtantei]

Just finished reading it. Oh...my...Gosh..!
The story is really interesting. The ending was just so unexpected and well done *-*!
And your art...it's like honey for the eyes <3!
Waiting for more more more <3!

[PyTom]

I'd call this more of a demo than a completed game. It's 273 screens, and seems to barely scratch the surface of the potential of the world it takes place in, or tell a complete story.

I think there's two things that work well in this game.

The art works for me. I like the production value of the art and CGs - the characters are nice to look at. I also like the white-silhouette look of the background characters, which makes the rooms feel full without (I assume) requiring a huge amount of work or distracting from the lead characters. The backgrounds seem quite stylish for unprocessed(?) photos.

I also think that there's a lot of potential in the premise, that there's a small number of PRODIGY students, who are being groomed for something. That works well, provides a lot of justification for weird anime looks, and has a ton of story hooks that you could go into if you so chose.

The biggest problem I have with this game is that the story doesn't seem to be moving in a coherent direction:

It starts with a teaser, but the teaser is so short that it really doesn't generate much interest in the game. So it just feels kind of wasted.

The next is an info-dump about the various types of people in the world, introducing the LOW, NORMA, and PRODIGY distinction. The game spends a lot of effort (4 CGS!) ensuring that we get this distinction - but apart from PRODIGY/everyone else, it doesn't come up again. We don't see any LOW characters, for example.

It then moves into some standard high school plot - introducing the student council and a transfer student. And some sci-fi stuff - a robot cook, which is fun but ultimately doesn't add anything to the story.

And then CAPTAIN CAPSLOCK captures a student, and kills her for not being able to answer his riddle. So we have a murder on screen, which should be a huge event - except it's not, because nothing leads up to it, we don't know why it happened, it's not a character we've met before, we don't know who CAPTAIN CAPSLOCK is, and the game ends right after it happens.

What we have is a game made up of several scenes, some of which work somewhat in isolation from each other, but that don't really work as a story - the scenes don't really lead into each other, and there's no sort of overarching plot, no change in tone, no sort of happiness from resolving a conflict. I don't want to say "get a writer" - I don't think it would be helpful to have someone else writing this. Rather, I'll say "work with a writer" - someone who can help you to plot out the story you're capable of telling. (Alternatively, maybe read the book Story, by Robert McKee, which covers a lot of the craft of storytelling, albeit from a hollywood perspective.)

I'd also say that the writing could use some polishing - the main character is supposed to be a world-class genius, but he doesn't seem to think or talk like one.

There are a couple of technical flaws - there are hard pauses, in one case to force me to listen to the incredibly standard end of class gong sound effect. I know what I'm hearing, I don't need to be forced to listen to the same thing. The game forces text_cps, which is also annoying.

I think I would like to see more done in this universe - I'm a science fiction fan, and a high school bishoujo game fan, and I think the ideas in this are worth further exploring. The characters have a lot of _look_ to them - they all seem to have personalities, but those don't show up in the game itself. I don't think that this needs a sequel - but I think an order of magnitude larger game that tells a complete story that supersedes this one would be an interesting project.

[azureXtwilight]

For the size of the download, the game was very short. I agree with PyTom up there that it's more of a demo than an actual completed game. I was a bit disappointed, but it really piques my interest since the art is wonderful and it has a very good use of ambience and sound.

I'm left wanting for more, hope you can make a longer next episode for this!

[Misfile]

I'm interested in this story, and think it was a good way to wet my wistle for what is to come next, but I have to ask, why did you choose to use the word episode as you would for a manga instead of how you normally would for a video game. But either way I'll be waiting for the continuation of this story.

[Anna]

It would have probably been better if you started with the ending, since it's the most interesting thing of the demo and things really start moving there. I also felt frustrated because the moment where it became interesting it got cut off.

The general idea seems nice, but this was a bit too short to really say anything. At the very least I can say that I'm glad your characters have personality and am curious in how they would develop further :3. Your art was lovely too!

Also; I liked the music, but you really shouldn't use it like this. Taking music from existing VNs or anime is a big no without permission (even if you credit!).

[DiamondRoseTears]

It looks nice and have nice graphics!!
I'm downloading right now *.* I'll play and comment you tomorrow again!!
Can't wait to play it!

[frederic09]

I've just downloaded the game and i will play tomorrow.

[Kuurin]

Thank you for all your comments
Here is my reply ^^ [link]

[frederic09]

Ok so i played the prologue.

A little bit too short (but that you already know ). I think you should have done Prologue + 1st chapter at the same time. Or at least included more days of the school before Yui comes - to show the different characters personnality.

Oh and I had to wait during the school chime (not sure about the word), and it's something i don't like.

Arts & background are very nice. Music i don't know i always play a VN without.

I suggest redoing Episode 1, to let us players to understand how the characters are, giving more background/depth to each of them. And i think you should already add the choices (like "should i go to the special classes?"). The only stuff that will change will be the dialogue (depending of the choice), and in every case you'll gave the same ending. But it's my point of view, you're the one who does this VN.

[darkphilious]

I do love the art. But if the playtime is between 15-20 minutes and the file is large, I'm hesitating whether to download or not. From what I read, this is just the prologue. I say, good luck with your story. I'm not going to download this for now, because I know I will get frustrated if there's no ending. So I'll wait until you finish all of them before downloading and playing.

[Ketsu]

That was so creepy at the end! This looks like it'll be a good game, I can't wait for the second part!