a2 ~a due~ [GxB][Dramedy][NaNo 2013] - new music downloads!

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Flowers from Nowhere
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Re: a2 ~a due~ [GxB][Musicians][Dramedy][Feb NaNoRenO]

#31 Post by Flowers from Nowhere »

This game is amazing! And in only one month? I want to be your level some day.

The characters were so believable and likeable and their relationship developed naturally over time. <3

I ran into one technical issue where when I clicked to continue on sometimes it would get stuck for a few moments and the music would catch. My computer is nowhere near top of the line though so it might just be technical issues on my end.

I have a very limited knowledge of Chinese myself. I could pick out a few of Hao's words and could sometimes figure out what he was saying but a lot of the time I was in the dark. It made me feel very in tune with Sona. :D

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Re: a2 ~a due~ [GxB][Musicians][Dramedy][Feb NaNoRenO]

#32 Post by EchoLove »

OKay so I need some help, no matter what I chose I seem to be unable to get the love ending and it;s getting really frustrating after playing 5 times. Can someone help me please because I'm loving this but I was the love ending.

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Re: a2 ~a due~ [GxB][Musicians][Dramedy][Feb NaNoRenO]

#33 Post by azureXtwilight »

EchoLove wrote:OKay so I need some help, no matter what I chose I seem to be unable to get the love ending and it;s getting really frustrating after playing 5 times. Can someone help me please because I'm loving this but I was the love ending.
Pick these:
"Try to act polite."
"Help the orchestra."
"Stay awake."
"Defend the orchestra."
"Drink the soup."
"Go back to the practice room."
"Fight him."
"...Maybe they have a point."
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Re: a2 ~a due~ [GxB][Musicians][Dramedy][Feb NaNoRenO]

#34 Post by SilverHyena »

I played through it and got the love ending. I have to say, I'm super impressed with this game! I love the characters and the story is touching. I actually got kind of emotional at a couple of parts--
Especially when Hao shows/tells Sona how much her dad cared about her. It made me sad because Sona and her father never sorted things out when he was alive. *cries*
The chibis were cute and the other art was really nice. I liked Sona a lot too which is quite the accomplishment since I don't usually think much of female heroines. She had a lot of spunk! :D I thought it was hilarious when
the orchestra came to help out in the fight.
Oh, and one more thing:
I loved all the drawings Hao and Sona exchanged. It was a really great way to get feelings and backstory (in Hao's case) across without any text. It's one of the things I found most effective about the game.
Long story short, it's a great, well polished game. It's an impressive accomplishment! Be proud!

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Re: a2 ~a due~ [GxB][Musicians][Dramedy][Feb NaNoRenO]

#35 Post by Mimi_Melody »

Well, to put it simple, for love end: act nice
friend end: act normal
??? end: act bad
Lol, I was surprised with the uncle Mugen's appearance :)) Love it. Kinda dissapointed with the open love end though...But let your imagination fly~ :D.
Aww...it was too short for me :(( But it's wonderful for a 1-month project <3 Really really love it!
P/s: Remaster version? :shock:

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Re: a2 ~a due~ [GxB][Musicians][Dramedy][Feb NaNoRenO]

#36 Post by azureXtwilight »

Well, basically a remaster version is a version with (hopefully) longer story, better art and drawn-backgrounds. But that depends on how many people who wants it or whether it's well-received :)
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Re: a2 ~a due~ [GxB][Musicians][Dramedy][Feb NaNoRenO]

#37 Post by Arowana »

Finally caught up on my sleep! And wow, was I ever stoked to wake up and see everyone’s responses. Thanks so much to everyone who took the time to try our game and comment! For me at least, this is my first completed game ever, so it really means a lot to me as a newbie “game developer” (I can’t believe I can call myself that now <-- tears of happiness).

Again, feel free to let us know what changes/additions you’d like to see in the “remastered” version!

And now for my wall-of-text of replies.

***

@ ScottySeng
Thanks for the compression advice –I’ll keep 48 KHz in mind for the future! (Might I also ask what program you use for compressing music? I’m using Audacity, and the options seem rather limited). Also, do you remember if there were certain songs that had more noise than others? Since the music came from different sources, I’m wondering if maybe some recordings were not that good to begin with.

Good point also on the SFX – I think Nellie was planning to “level” the sounds before release, but ultimately ran out of time. That’s definitely something we’re going to have to fix for the new version! I also agree on changing the confirmation screen – we can probably shrink the font and take out the stuff on right to save space.


@ mugenjohncel
Shoot, that’s not good (we’ll be really sad if Uncle Mugen can’t play ;_;). We haven’t been able to recreate the crashes or the fullscreen window errors, so could I ask what kind of system/graphics card you are using? I saw a few reports of similar errors here and here, so maybe these are related to your problem as well?


@ Asachi
Thanks so much! I think the art in your game is lovely, so I would love to see fanart from you! :) (Haha, yes! Now back to AXIOM.01 and Pirate Mermaid!)
Lol, he must be a secret pervert. If only Sona knew… ;) I’m glad you liked the extra chapter! We thought a bit about doing a side story/omake where Sona meets Hao’s parents and stuff, but a quick scene was all we had time for. ^^; And haha yes, the Mugen ending is a total troll ending.

Oh, did Sona say there was something black in the soup? Shouldn’t be – I’ll go back and double check. My parents also made me snow fungus soup whenever I got sick, so I relate to it as well (though my reaction was pretty much the same as Sona’s, lol). And yes, the girl chibi in “volti subito” is a younger Sona. She used to have a more “conventional” appearance haha. And I totally agree that Nellie’s chibis (and doodles) are adorable!
@ varyalanis
Thanks for your review! It’s extremely flattering to hear you enjoyed a2 as much as an actual commercial game. As the script writer, I’m especially happy that you thought the characterization was solid. I was a bit nervous about only having two real characters, so I’m glad it worked out in the end!

I love the art as well – Azure and Nellie truly did a spectacular job! I am still in awe of how they managed to finish so much in so little time. Seriously, these girls are amazing – there’s no way this VN would ever have been possible without them! I agree that the backgrounds are unfortunately not up to par since they’re just filtered photos. We’re definitely planning to have drawn backgrounds for the new version, so hopefully they will be an improvement.

Can I also ask you if certain songs had more noise/weird sounds than others? (again, trying to pinpoint if some sources had issues)
I’m glad the running theme of misunderstanding came across coherently, even with the mix of comic vs. serious scenes! Also glad that you didn’t balk at the locking of the translation feature. There were concerns that this would be annoying for players, but I think it’s just like you said – the point isn’t to understand all the Chinese, it’s to experience what the characters are going through with the language barrier and trying to rely on other cues (expressions, context, etc.) for understanding. Though admittedly some bits are funnier when you finally do understand them.
@ ririruetoo
Awesome, sweet and heartwarming was definitely what we were going for! (since it was an originally a game for Valentine’s Day, haha)


@Chaotic
Thanks so much! I love “We Are Legend” as well – Gerald Ko is super talented! We can ask and see how he would like to release his song. And yay, slice of life fan! I enjoy working with these kinds of settings, too. :) Also glad you liked the MC’s unconventional appearance! Overall, the reception to her seems a lot more positive than we’d initially anticipated, which is super encouraging.
Hahaha, yay for the Mugen ending! It initially wasn’t going to be a dream, but then the troll path somehow would’ve been the happiest… And yeah, I think your interpretation of Sona is what we were going for. She kind of lost her purpose in life and became a slacker who ostensibly didn’t care about anything. Her interactions with Hao ultimately changed that (and changed him a bit, too, I think).
@ kumacat5
Oh no, that definitely shouldn’t have happened! I’m really sorry you had to wait ten minutes just to get through the intro. :( And you should have been able to click anywhere or hit the “Enter” key to advance, so it’s really weird that it was behaving like that. Hmm…have you had any problems with other recent Renpy games? Or maybe it’s a computer system thing? Maybe we can ask for advice in the Renpy Help forum.


@ sonnet009
I’m really happy you found Sona sympathetic! Between her appearance and personality, I was a bit afraid she’d put people off, so I’m relieved that wasn’t the case.
And yesss, we were hoping at least some people would cry at those parts! <-- we’re clearly terrible people. Also glad that you thought the pacing was alright! Since I had to finish the writing in 2 weeks to leave time for coding, I worried it would be too rushed. ^^; I think we might do a longer bonus chapter for the “remastered” version, at least, though it’s still up in the air for now.


@ bippers
Thanks! Let us know if you have any more suggestions/critiques when you’re finished! And lol, we should take responsibility because we secretly wanted some people to cry. By “smallness,” do you mean “slice of life”-ish, maybe? Not really sure how to describe it, either. ^^; And yessss, glad you got the Sonic reference!
I’m fond of some of those nameless orchestra members as well! Especially the shy flute girl and spacey tuba lol. And the random guy who looks like Detective Conan hahaha.
@ KittyKatStar
Thanks so much – I’m glad you enjoyed it! And yes, everything is better with cute chibi drawings! XD


@ DiamondRoseTears
Yay, you unlocked it!
We were actually hoping some people would cry at that part mwahaha. And yes, it’s definitely a good thing Sona didn’t understand what Hao was saying at the concert…and at some of the other parts as well lol.
@ Sheridan
Thanks! Nellie’s adorable chibi chapter slides are some of my favorite pieces, too! And good catch with the CTC error; I believe it’s caused by improper spacing of the {w} tag. I double checked and found several occurrences of it during Hao’s Chinese dialogue – let me know if you’ve noticed it anywhere else as well.


@ Flowers from Nowhere
I never would’ve thought we could’ve finished in a month, either, but the power of a strict deadline is really amazing. :D I think everyone doing (real) NaNoRenO right now will experience that, too! Are you planning on participating?

Likability is always one of my main concerns with character writing, especially with “harsher” characters like Sona, so I’m really happy to hear your comments on that! My level of Chinese is also similar to hers, so we’re all in tune in that respect. As for the freezing/music catching issue, hmm…I wonder what would cause that. Does it occur more at certain points than others (perhaps during animations/transitions)?


@ SilverHyena
Thanks so much for your comments and encouragement! I know I keep saying this, but I’m genuinely stoked whenever I see Sona getting a positive response!
Family issues make me emotional for some reason, so I hope I was able to do that scene justice. ^^ And lol, the orchestra beating up the gang was one of my favorite “fun” parts because it was just so over the top! :D Also glad you found the doodles effective (especially Hao’s – I thought it would be very challenging to convey his backstory in pictures, but Nellie’s drawings really rose to the occasion imo). We actually wanted to incorporate more doodles, so that might be something we’ll try to do in the “remastered” version!
@ Mimi_Melody
Yep, that’s pretty much the right way to get all the endings! I think we could definitely add more for the “remastered” version, so let us know what you would like to see more of!
Hahaha, Uncle Mugen is the best! :D If you’ve seen the bonus chapter, it makes the Love End a little less “bittersweet” imo, but it’s still rather open-ended.
***

To everyone else who downloaded the game, thanks for giving it a try! Let us know what you think once you’ve gotten a chance to play it. :D
Complete: a2 ~a due~ (music, language, love)
In progress: The Pirate Mermaid (fairytale otome)
On hold: AXIOM.01 (girl detective game)

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Re: a2 ~a due~ [GxB][Musicians][Dramedy][Feb NaNoRenO]

#38 Post by blahblah0625 »

I freaking CRIED when Hao showed Sona the videos that her father recorded of her and her guitar-playing.
It was NOT OK.
)':
[i am hesitant to do the bad ending. realllly hesitant]
I would totally love the remastered version though!
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Re: a2 ~a due~ [GxB][Musicians][Dramedy][Feb NaNoRenO]

#39 Post by Mimi_Melody »

@^: Don't hesitate =]] It's not "bad" at all once you've seen it =]]
Hope to see more Sona and more Hao in the "remastered" version :D (More love, more interaction perhaps? :wink: )
Longer story, more wonderful music and art of course <3
p/s: Can you guys let the ending be a little...less open? Kissing scenes, or even wedding perhaps? (Lol I'm curious to see Sona in a wedding dress :shock: )
Forget to add this :mrgreen: , I love Sona! I almost cried when she cried at the concert and when she read Hao's "letters"...I understand the feeling when you'll never be good enough to your parents :( She loves music and her father...and Hao too. The story is overall beautiful :) Her style is unique, like who cares anyway? She's a nice girl and that's all I need to know.

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Re: a2 ~a due~ [GxB][Musicians][Dramedy][Feb NaNoRenO]

#40 Post by Itwasneveradream »

Oh god I'm crying.
I'll edit this into a better review once i calm down.

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Re: a2 ~a due~ [GxB][Musicians][Dramedy][Feb NaNoRenO]

#41 Post by BooHoo »

Congratulation in the release of this wonderful game.

In all honesty Sona kinda annoyed me a little bit at the beginning, but her character was well developed and I can't help but love her by the end of the game. Her style is also unique and I can't help having my doubt at the beginning but you sure prove me wrong. The story is well written and the art is also lovely especially the chibi. I really love the chibi. Oh, yeah... need to praise the music as well. Nice choice of song and music.

'Remastered' version? Oh yes please. I want to see more of Sona's and Hao's moment.

BTW, when I play with full screen, I can't change the dialog with a click. I have no problem when playing window version thought... just thought u should now.

Anyway... I will be expecting more great games from u guyz^^

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Re: a2 ~a due~ [GxB][Musicians][Dramedy][Feb NaNoRenO]

#42 Post by elysalol »

Sooo, I've been a lurker on here forever, but I just played your game and I had to post a review! It's...sort of a ramble. imsosorry OTL

I LOVED it! I can't believe you guys came out with this in a month; I am beyond impressed. I'll just repeat what everyone else is saying: the characters were well thought out, their relationship developed perfectly and was completely believable, and the back story complimented everything and added a lot of depth! I also really liked how the Chinese was not translated until all endings were completed - as I could not read it, I felt for Sona and it was really cool watching everything play out despite the language barrier <3 (: And the script was fantastic! It was very well written!

Err, I'll throw this paragraph in a spoiler:
I laughed at the doodles, and I cried about the back story (and some of Hao/Sona's interactions...péngyou /sobb), and it was beautiful :"D! What I would looooove for the remastered version is for you guys to extend the ending so I can have some closure. Especially after all the notes she found in the trash bin. D": When I read those, my heart just wrenched like, "THIS HAS TO HAVE A HAPPY ENDING /cry" and when he ultimately leaves... I was so sad D: But the Reprise chapter gave me hope! You should expand on it, I'm dying to know how their reunion goes :"DD


Thanks again for such a great VN (:! I really enjoyed it and I look forward to more!

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Re: a2 ~a due~ [GxB][Musicians][Dramedy][Feb NaNoRenO]

#43 Post by v3-kei »

Way, way beyond my expectation. This is really beautiful. Their relationship develops very naturally, even the points where they start feeling for each other (especially Hao's) feels perfect. I wish I have gotten the good ending the first try, because it is the first try where I appreciate everything. I am sure I will cry twice, from the notes as well as from the video if I went through the love ending first.

I cannot stress enough how beautiful this whole game is. I think Sona doesn't look like a China-girl, as the thugs called her, that much. But her personality, the inner battles, everything is very relatable. I think she's the most surprising one for me, because I didn't expect to like her this much. Like, she is very awesome as well as emotionally relatable.

Uhm, in my computer, the transition to save/load screen is very lagging, I wonder why. But out of that problem, everything is perfect.
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Re: a2 ~a due~ [GxB][Musicians][Dramedy][Feb NaNoRenO]

#44 Post by ScottySeng »

@Arowana
I haven't unlocked all of the songs yet (Still playing the VN), but:

a2 Theme (Piano) is a song with compression problems.
Mendelssohn's Symphony has background noise, but it sounds like it's apart of the recording so that might be hard to fix without some hard denoising work.

As for what program I use, it depends. If it's just compressing music, I usually use one of the music converters in DVDVideoSoft's Free Studio set. (It's a freeware, but READ every step of the installation wizard...the free softwares (in general) are getting crafty with how they sneak in random junkware now.) For creating music, I use Sonar, but that's more for composing music than compressing. Audacity should have the option to set the music saving settings though (It's been a long time I've used it though).

Well, cheers to having more time to relevel / fix the minor issues in the remastered version.

I'll let you know if I find anything else.

On a side note:
2,617 hits for a2 Windows
105 hits for a2 Mac
21 hits for a2 Linux
Totals up to roughly 68 GB of bandwidth so far.

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Re: a2 ~a due~ [GxB][Musicians][Dramedy][Feb NaNoRenO]

#45 Post by Flowers from Nowhere »

@ Arowana
I haven't been able to pin down anything in particular that might be causing the lags. It might just be my computer. It's not exactly top of the line.

To answer your other question I am not doing NaNoReno this year... because I started my first game in January before I knew about NaNoReno and set the deadline for myself that I'd have it in beta by mid March.

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