The Pirate Mermaid [GxB][Fantasy] - New Demo Out!

[Nellie]

@Rabbit`Chi - Thank you for your kind words

@15385bic - Yea, we like free too :3

Sorry for the lack of updates - we're now rushing to finish off a2, will be back at full force once a2 is released. If you like The Pirate Mermaid, please do check out a2 as well - it's a bit shorter and simpler, but it's done by the same brains

[Surufe]

I will holding breath until all of you and Arowana's game finished xD So exciting!

[Maverynthia]

Wow, what's all this misogynistic hate for female pirates? "Suspend belief! Fiction! Myth"! Really people need some HISTORY lessons.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_piracy

There have been a CRAP TON of female pirates, no suspension of disbelief necessary. I seriously HATE it when people decide to rewrite history because of all the crap they are fed and think there were no women anythings back in the day >_< Women were doing EVERYTHING that the men were back in the day, from running armies to blacksmithing.

[Flowers from Nowhere]

Overall I loved it. The thing I loved most was the protagonist's motivation. It's such a tangle of avarice and affection that it really touched me. You do a great job of getting it across and it makes her feel so real. I'm usually turned off by wall-of-text type intros but this one completely captured me.

The scene with her crew really took me out of the story though.

How long has she been a pirate? She wasn't very good at it. It sounded like the crew were only with her because their old captain had named her next in line but... why? She was terrible at keeping the men in line. She didn't even seem to understand that pirates could mutiny. Seems odd. Especially considering that historically female pirates had to be much tougher than their male counterparts to survive the prejudice they faced at sea.

It also seemed out of character for the crew to give her a life boat, at least not without sneering something about "rules of the sea" or "giving the captain a fighting chance against the storm". I loved the scene on the life boat though, that was a brilliant establishing scene for her outlook and her relationship with Jack.

I should also mention that I loved the fight scene between her and the first mate. The slash, sound effects, and camera pans really conveyed the action to me.

The art and GUI are beautiful. So is the moving sky animation for when they're on the boat.

I had some minor technical issues. Sometimes when I would click to advance the game would freeze for a second or two and the music would catch.

I loved the ominous foreshadowing about the sorcerer's past. I also really liked the coconut scene. It helped me envision the scene as it played out before me.

I liked Jack but I found it distracting to have him swooping in and out of the scene to deliver one line. This is very minor though. I love his relationship with the MC. It feels old and well-established.

Thank you for the awesome demo! I look forward to playing it when it's complete!

[Arowana]

Now that a2 is finally complete, Nellie and I will be returning to this project full force! Thanks to everyone who is keeping tabs on it.

@ Surufe
Thanks so much for your support! Check out a2 if you haven't already - we're quite excited about it since it's our first completed game, haha. XD

@ Maverynthia
Thanks for the link! You definitely have a good point, and it's reassuring to know that not everyone is skeptical about the idea of female pirates. We'll definitely have to do more research about them to be more convincing.

@ Flowers from Nowhere
It's great to hear that the "wall of text" at the beginning didn't put you off! We considered starting with a more "action-y" scene, but ultimately felt it was important to establish the protagonist's background and motivation right off the bat. Also glad you liked the art (Nellie is such a pro) and the chibi scene. We really enjoyed doing the animations, though it seems they get mixed reactions at times. ^^;

Hmm, I recall you had a similar freezing/music catching issue in a2 as well? Still unsure about what might cause that - do you notice it happening more at certain times than others? Since we tend to use a lot of animation, I wonder if that could be triggering it.

Yeah, we've gotten mixed reactions about Jack's entrances as well. I think we'll try to keep him offscreen more often in the full game!

Very good points about the MC! She's rather brutish and obstinate, which definitely doesn't make her an effective leader. I think the way we envisioned it, those were qualities that initially helped her rise through the ranks, since she was able to brute force her way to the top through sheer strength and force of will (plus her value as a fighter/potential treasure payoff). When she manages to become captain, though, she doesn’t have the diplomatic people skills to deal with the crew effectively, which leads to more and more problems. I think we definitely need to rethink how we portray this, though, and should be addressing a lot more of it in her backstory with the former captain as well! Thanks for bringing it our attention!

The lifeboat issue is also an excellent point. It was admittedly more for plot convenience, but I really like your idea of reframing it as part of a “pirate code.” Really great suggestions!

[Flowers from Nowhere]

I couldn't figure out what was going on with a2 but in The Pirate Mermaid the freezing/music catching was definitely tied to the animations. I didn't have trouble with the coconut scene, interestingly, but I almost always had an issue when Jack was on screen. As I mentioned on the a2 thread, my computer isn't the newest so it might be something on my end.

[Nakiminamino]

Hey (^-^)/
I would like to know how the progress of the game is going? I'm sooo looking forward to the release, more so now that I've played a2 and it's wonderfull. Keep it up I'll be watching (^-^)

[Pyun~]

Awesome~

[Arowana]

@ Flowers from Nowhere
Ah, thanks so much for the follow-up report! I think we're going to look into creating a separate "animation light" mode that can be selected in the Preferences. Hopefully that will put less of a strain on people's computers!

@ Nakiminamino
Thanks for your interest, and sorry for my delayed reply! It turns out that after finishing a2 in February, Nellie and I got sucked into working on another NaNoRenO game (Autumn's Journey) for all of March. We've learned a lot of new things that we're excited to implement in Pirate Mermaid, so you'll likely be seeing updates to sprites and animations for the final game. xD

Now that Autumn's Journey is starting to wind down (we're still finishing up some things before release), Nellie and I will be returning to Pirate Mermaid for real. We're currently arranging to get some custom music, including a OP song. Nellie has also been working on more BGs.

Sketch preview:



@ Pyun~
Thanks!

***

Also, I don't remember if we ever posted it, but Nellie's friend did an awesome drawing of the MC! (we still need to vote on her default name lol)

[enta]

This is so... AWESOME!

I love pirates and mermaids and...monocles! (Should I say magicians? I like THE monocles better.wtf) xD

*downloads the demo*

[Nebty]

I'm keeping my eye on you guys. I enjoyed the Pirate Mermaid demo and then I was unexpectedly floored by how much I loved a2. I think I have a new favourite indie dev studio.

(we still need to vote on her default name lol)

I still really like the name "Robin" because "Captain Robin" sounds badass.

[LadyAvori]

Wow, what's all this misogynistic hate for female pirates? "Suspend belief! Fiction! Myth"! Really people need some HISTORY lessons.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_piracy

There have been a CRAP TON of female pirates, no suspension of disbelief necessary. I seriously HATE it when people decide to rewrite history because of all the crap they are fed and think there were no women anythings back in the day >_< Women were doing EVERYTHING that the men were back in the day, from running armies to blacksmithing.

Yea, I love all the "omg a lady pirate! Girls can't be pirates!" But lets ignore the merman, sorcerer and parrot fish, as perfectly real and historically accurate! There's going to be some swooning on this forum when I make my lady samurai. The only thing I would change in your post is that Women were doing everything from RULING countries to farming, the whole spectrum. Not as freely or as numerous as men, but they were doing it.

Now to the main subject: I can't wait until this game is done! If it was appropriate, and not at all creepy, I'd hover behind you guys while you worked. However, since that will likely end in a restraining order, I'll just continue to stalk this thread instead.

[philip]

Just finished going through the demo; the work that you have done so far is awesome! I'll bookmark this thread, so I don't miss anything. Sounds like you haven't picked the default name for MC yet. I thought that she was bonny lass, so I chose "Bonny" when I went through the story.

[Nellie]

Finally, updates xD

@enta - Thanks for giving this a try. How did you like the demo?

@Nebty - Thank you, we're so honored! I think Captain Robin sounds badass too. Which reminds me that we should start running a poll for MC's name soon!

@LadyAvori - Your post kinda made me laugh Thanks for your support! Hope we won't disappoint! You're welcomes to stalk as much as you like :3

@philip - Thanks for giving our demo a try! Yep, we definitely need to determine a name for her soon! Lol

Here's a bG WIP update for everyone!


Also... Aro and I are considering revamping the current game assets to make it more... visually appealing. Here's an attempt of the prince sprite revamp.

Princy~XD
What do you think? Do you prefer the old style, or the new style?

[Omnificent]

The second art style is unquestionably superior in pretty much every way, so go with that.