Hierofanía 2 (Fantasy) (Demo available)

[ludeshka]

In a kingdom by the water lived a young orphaned Queen
She lived a charmed life, but then trouble trickled in...




++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


Hello, and welcome to the WIP thread of my second game, the sequel to Hierofanía!


This will be a Fantasy game.
The story will have several branches, as Caramela deals with the different problems going on in the kingdom she used to consider her toybox.
You could say this will be a story about responsibility.
But mostly, I see it as a story about priorities.

What do you want? What do you care about the most?

Depending on your choices you'll reach several endings...it'll be up to you to deem them sad or happy.


The idea is to make this a longer game, with more endings, so, well, it will take more time!
(As you probably know, I'm a one woman team, so, yeah. This will take a while)

But I've already managed to finish a demo, and I think it gives you a honest first look at Hierofanía 2.
This is more or less what's on my mind.

I would really like to have your help. With your feedback, I'm sure I can make it better.

So, please give it a try?





+++About the demo+++ (Released on June 3rd 2013)

Do you need to know about Hierofanía to play H2?
Absolutely not. It happens in another place, in another time, to another characters, so, yeah.

Ok, so, what kind of feedback are you looking for?

Any and all! XD
No, really. Please tell me what you thought. I'm experimenting a bit (you might be able to tell), and I want to reach a consistent style that looks good...

Also, please tell me what you thought about the music. Except for the song played at the main menu (beautiful work by A.Rothaus), the soundtrack for this game is being written by me, and I know nothing about music. PLEASE tell me if you find it bad, because I'm still in time to try to find a musician, or maybe good stock music. (though I'd rather not use stock >_<)

Alternative download link (Mediafire) : http://www.mediafire.com/download/lltdt ... ne-all.zip

[pickle131]

I'll definitely try the demo when I get a chance, I love how unique this looks!

[dreamingdaze]

Very well written, interesting, and original. I really enjoyed this demo and can't wait to see the finished product. Really liked it all, the art/writing/music were fantastic in creating the atmosphere and drawing in my interest.

I guess the only complaint I would have would be how sometimes the text was hard to read. Everything was great in creating the atmosphere, but there were times when I had to look closer because the color sometimes weren't as noticeable for the text against the art.

Really nice job

[Anne]

Oh I so want to know what happens next. I liked the art too. The animation (the blue screen and the waves) could have been smoother. And I'd prefer the text staying within the borders (not a big deal though)

[CheeryMoya]

To make up for not posting on H1's thread I'm gonna type a lot here hhhh

Well, you already know how much I enjoyed playing it, right? :'D I really enjoyed the atmosphere and each of the characters, even if we only caught a glimpse of them. I'm still really angry that Tavo's kind actions ended up screwing everyone over though D: Please tell me he pops up again after the prologue, that boy is precious. By far my most favorite character is Caramela since she's not afraid to tell Senteltje how dumb he is uwu Those two will have a great time managing Currents.

Your art's great, as always. I really like how there's a swirling motif (that better be a motif I'm seeing it in nearly all the images) throughout the game. The sketchiness makes me nostalgic for something, but I can't quite put my finger on it. It's just really magical. I'm also still super impressed by your animations too omg

I really liked your music too, they really fit with the visuals and text. I found that the main menu's song was too short and thus loops became repetitive, so you'll either have to extend the song or replace it. I can't quite help you in the music department since I don't know enough about composition, but remember that silence in the right parts is important too. Music doesn't always have to be playing.

I can only wish I can say what you have here is perfect, the only real nitpicks I have are about the presentation of the elements, AKA programming. It's not your strongest point, and while you can get the game functioning, occasionally it gets in the way of enjoying the story. dreamingdaze already mentioned the problem with readability on some of the text, one such place that could use a little help was the part where Tavo was begging his friends to stay. The way you customized the font only applied dropshadow to NVL text and not the speakers' names nor centered text. Since you left the .rpy files open, I took the liberty of seeing how the game would look with outlines, not just dropshadow.

It's a little easier on the eyes, I think. The lack of transitions from scene to scene was also jarring, especially after Senteltje left the Queen and when he goes back to the castle to find out who the Reagent is. There's no time for the reader to pause and think about the events thus far as the game pushes them to the next day within a single click. Music switching from one track to another was also not one of my favorite things, definitely u_u If you give me permission I can clean up the code for the demo and hand it back to you to study, I'll be sure to comment the code appropriately.

And oh uh, bugs and stuff. I haven't broken the game to the point of being unable to play it, but if you click on the Preferences from the main menu then go back the imagemap disappears. I suspect that there's something wrong with the main menu code and I can fix that for you if you want D: Senteltje also keeps calling her Carmela during the Reagent scene although her name is Caramela; it's an easy fix though.

I think that's all I've got for now, I'm really pumped up for more Hierofanía uwu Stick these in the main post ok you gotta give yourself some more credit for all the hard work you've been doing so far. Keep it up~!

[AxemRed]

- Mouseover hotspots on the title screen are smaller than the text, awkward.
- The text in the textbox can overlap the border at the bottom-left edge.
- The animated bubbles background is a little too distracting.
- Consider occasionally fading out the textbox and doing a slower dissolve for more impactful scene transitions. Especially when a a longer amount of time is supposed to be passing.
- Choices could use some more elaborate styling. Consider putting them in the center of the screen to distinguish them more from regular text.

[ludeshka]

I'll definitely try the demo when I get a chance, I love how unique this looks!

Do tell me if you try it!

I guess the only complaint I would have would be how sometimes the text was hard to read. Everything was great in creating the atmosphere, but there were times when I had to look closer because the color sometimes weren't as noticeable for the text against the art.

Really nice job

Hey, thanks for the vote of confidence about the music
I will keep your complaint really in mind, because readability in a visual novel should be like, my second greatest concern or something.
The least I can do is to try and fix that (Luckily, I've been given a few ideas ^^)

Oh I so want to know what happens next. I liked the art too. The animation (the blue screen and the waves) could have been smoother. And I'd prefer the text staying within the borders (not a big deal though)

Thank you so much! I'll keep everything in mind.

To make up for not posting on H1's thread I'm gonna type a lot here hhhh
I'm still really angry that Tavo's kind actions ended up screwing everyone over though D: Please tell me he pops up again after the prologue, that boy is precious.

Tavo does show up (if you've made the right choices) at the start of Chapter Three. He didn't take the whole "screwing everyone around" lightly, so he's still a bit emo about it. And then he meets Crocket, and she more or less bullies him. Guy can't catch a break.

Senteltje will continue to be rather dumb and Caramela will remain super unimpressed with him. ^___^

I am super aware that my programming is not good! (Um, and I will bug you for solutions, possibly)
But I'm also careless with graphic design, and a whole lot of things, so ahahaha.
I have no idea of how to fix the main menu dissapearing. Guess I will REALLY show up more often and bother everyone with my ignorant questions. O_o

Thank you so much for encouraging me, Moya, and for trying this demo.

- Mouseover hotspots on the title screen are smaller than the text, awkward.
- The text in the textbox can overlap the border at the bottom-left edge.
- The animated bubbles background is a little too distracting.
- Consider occasionally fading out the textbox and doing a slower dissolve for more impactful scene transitions. Especially when a a longer amount of time is supposed to be passing.
- Choices could use some more elaborate styling. Consider putting them in the center of the screen to distinguish them more from regular text.

Ummm, let's see....choices in the center of the screen? Sure, I can absolutely do that, thanks for suggesting it!
As for fading out the textbox, I didn't know that could be done at all. I'll keep it in mind (and ask around how to do it)

Thanks a lot for your suggestions, AxemRed. I'm not much of a programmer, but your advice helps me, because at least I can name the things I might have to do, and that'll make it easier for whoever explains it to me too.
Really, thanks.

[ririruetoo]

Yes! I'm super psyched to play this!! Really looking forward to it!!

[Railgun]

I just finished playing the demo and I loved it!
As others have said, there were some slight issues in terms of readability and I like CheeryMoya's outline solution.
Otherwise the music works well.
In fact, you've got a well-defined universe and your art has a lot of personality. And I think the music is consistent with this universe.

I can only congratulate you and I look forward to playing your future games ^^ *downloading Hierofanía 1*