Autumn's Journey [Fantasy][Friendship][Otome] +artbook

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PugDoll
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Re: Autumn's Journey [Fantasy][Friendship][Otome]

#16 Post by PugDoll »

Oh, I'm adoring this game. This is so well put together. The storyline has me really hit the right emotional notes. So far, I either smile, feel for the characters, or laugh through out at their antics. The art is great, with beautiful yet subdued tones in the backgrounds that don't take away from the characters' own art at all.

The animations are timed well. Really the only thing that I can think of is perhaps more pose variety for the characters for the long play-through. I actually like the set up on the board, but the text was a bit small and hard to read. Though, that may just be my computer's screen resolution. (I have Windows XP Professional, but an even older monitor.) Also, perhaps a cg could have been shown when she received the letter, as this seemed an important event, or also when the knight allowed her to be tested.

Over all, though, the missions and the chibi selves of the characters seemed almost like a little toss in of humor, while taking away a bit of the seriousness. How ever, I think this was a nice relief, as it gave the game a little more variety. I enjoyed this game and it had a polished feel. My favorite character was Kerr on my play through, as he was realistically awkward towards Auralee, while warming up to her over time. Still, I read that it was made with a nano deadline in mind, and as such, this was really a very well put together work. Nice job. <=

*Edit: I did catch an error, though. When I started up the game for the first time it mentioned choices to update directX. How ever, when I clicked to update directX, it came up with the following. I am not sure if it was an error with your game or just with my version of Ren'Py, though.

I saved the log and trace back.

log:

Code: Select all

Windowed mode.
Screen sizes: virtual=(1280, 800) physical=(922, 576)
Vendor: 'Microsoft Corporation'
Renderer: 'GDI Generic'
Version: '1.1.0'
Display Info: <VideoInfo(hw = 0, wm = 1,video_mem = 0
	     blit_hw = 0, blit_hw_CC = 0, blit_hw_A = 0,
	     blit_sw = 0, blit_sw_CC = 0, blit_sw_A = 0,
	     bitsize  = 32, bytesize = 4,
	     masks =  (16711680, 65280, 255, 0),
	     shifts = (16, 8, 0, 0),
	     losses =  (0, 0, 0, 8),
	     current_w = 1024, current_h = 768
>

Fixed-function is blacklisted.
Extensions:
    GL_EXT_bgra
    GL_EXT_paletted_texture
    GL_WIN_swap_hint
Number of texture units: 0
Can't find a workable environment.

Windowed mode.
Initializing EGL: Error initializing EGL (egl error 0x3001)
Performance test:

Traceback:

Code: Select all

I'm sorry, but an uncaught exception occurred.

While running game code:
  File "renpy/common/00start.rpy", line 137, in script call
    call _gl_test
  File "renpy/common/00gltest.rpy", line 374, in script
    python hide:
  File "renpy/common/00gltest.rpy", line 378, in <module>
    os.startfile(__dxwebsetup)
NameError: name 'os' is not defined

-- Full Traceback ------------------------------------------------------------

Full traceback:
  File "C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\Downloads\Autumn's Journey\autumnsjourney-1.0-win\renpy\bootstrap.py", line 285, in bootstrap
    renpy.main.main()
  File "C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\Downloads\Autumn's Journey\autumnsjourney-1.0-win\renpy\main.py", line 349, in main
    run(restart)
  File "C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\Downloads\Autumn's Journey\autumnsjourney-1.0-win\renpy\main.py", line 77, in run
    renpy.execution.run_context(True)
  File "C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\Downloads\Autumn's Journey\autumnsjourney-1.0-win\renpy\execution.py", line 515, in run_context
    context.run()
  File "renpy/common/00start.rpy", line 137, in script call
    call _gl_test
  File "renpy/common/00gltest.rpy", line 374, in script
    python hide:
  File "C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\Downloads\Autumn's Journey\autumnsjourney-1.0-win\renpy\ast.py", line 756, in execute
    renpy.python.py_exec_bytecode(self.code.bytecode, self.hide, store=self.store)
  File "C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\Downloads\Autumn's Journey\autumnsjourney-1.0-win\renpy\python.py", line 1382, in py_exec_bytecode
    exec bytecode in globals, locals
  File "renpy/common/00gltest.rpy", line 378, in <module>
    os.startfile(__dxwebsetup)
NameError: name 'os' is not defined

Windows-XP-5.1.2600-SP3
Ren'Py 6.17.6.512
Autumn's Journey 0.0


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Re: Autumn's Journey [Fantasy][Friendship][Otome]

#17 Post by Deji »

@PugDoll I'm glad you enjoyed it!
The game itself was written in a month, but the art was done on and off during a good part of a year; I honestly didn't think about adding a CG for the letter or the test moment... good catches! I'll keep that in mind for next time to see which moments to prioritise :)
I wanted to get more poses done, but in the end I didn't find the time to do them; I agree it would have been better, though ^^;

I didn't do the mission board, but i can see how you may have found the text too small.

About the error, I think it's a Ren'Py problem, so i don't really know how to deal with it >>; I'll let the experts chip in and give a better reply :'D

@Everybody I'm glad you guys enjoyed the game! It makes us really happy ^___^
And I'm glad to know people would be interested in a sequel, since we have wanted to make one since the day Kitty finished writing the game xD So it's definitely a thing we want to do in the future!

Thanks a lot for playing and I hope you'll enjoy the art book once I finish it :)
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Re: Autumn's Journey [Fantasy][Friendship][Otome]

#18 Post by Cafechan »

I've finished this game! Although I can't figure out what I need to be doing to get different endings. I was incredibly impressed. I wouldn't have even complained about paying a lil to experience a game that nice and professional. =) What I liked the most was absolutely the way the friendships were written. Their interactions and banter were funny, cute, and really made all of them likable. At first, I thought I'd hate Kerr and that I'd have to focus all my attention on him to make him start acting nice, but he charmed me thoroughly by the end as well!! I went in knowing and appreciating that the game would focus on friendships, but I liked both boys so much that I really wished
Aura could have kissed them at the end. LOL I understand that wasn't the point/focus of the game, that was just my own selfish emotion. I really wanted to kiss those cute dragon boys, darn it.
The visuals were stunning. I noticed the characters stuck to one pose each, which normally would make them feel stagnant, but the animations did a lot to add emotion to their sprites. Their expressions were all cute and well drawn. I liked everyone's design as well, especially the main character. I liked the menus, the borders, the text (I think it's very cool you included dyslexic-friendly text!), the placement of everything... The chapter titles were very cool. The backgrounds were gorgeous and very immersive. I especially liked the painterly feeling of the caves.

Elaborating on the CGs, as I've said before, I've been a fan of Deji's art for a long time (I've followed her art on dA for as long as I can remember!), and the art in this game was a huge treat. I'd even say it was better than some commercial VN art out there...!
My favorite one was the of Aura and Kerr fighting. That scene in general made me dokidoki. I thought he was gonna kiss her neck. Hahaha.
As a side note, I quite liked the little SD illustrations/animations. I know it's a huge task to draw a ton of CGs, so it was neat to have some of those supplemented with SDs instead. There's nothing more I hate than when something cool is happening in a VN and there's no visuals to go with it. I start reading and I immediately think, "Yeah!! Bring on the cool picture! Oh... there is none." There were still a few instances of that here, but it's understandable and overall you guys did a super solid job of clearly showing AND telling us what was happening =)

I can see why some people thought the missions section of the game was too glossed over, but I understood why those things would have been a bit tedious or even sidetrack-y to go into great detail on, so I didn't mind the way the missions were summarized. Plus, it gave me a sense of, "Oh, these characters are passing time and going on missions and getting to know each other," better than a time skip would have.

The world building was very interesting and easy to follow. Sometimes with fantasy worlds, it can be easy to lose the readers in too much terminology nonsense, but I didn't have a problem with that here. I wanted to know more about the relationships and communities amongst the different dragonkind and heavenkind, but the suggestions of culture and structure were interesting enough!

Small thing: I enjoyed the role reversal here. I have a huge passion for lady knights, so the fact that both Aura and her mom are/were/aspired to be/whatever, knights, and it wasn't a "SO WEIRD 4 A GIRL" type deal made me really happy. I also liked Aura's very domestic, good chef of a dad. I wanted to see him!!

The story itself was extremely solid and I enjoyed it from start to finish. I thought Aura's character growth was handled very well. The way she started out as a bright-eyed rookie and
ended with the realization that the system was not all it was cracked up to be, but didn't allow it to make her cynical and instead decided to take her own noble path
was super cool.

I liked the idea of the voice acting, but I have to admit I turned it off pretty early in the game. I felt like it would have been better as more in certain spots (fully voice acting selective scenes?) or none at all. The random HEY!! and YEAH!!!s just kind of startled me, but that's a nitpicky thing on my part!! I think it's a cool idea though and props to the actors!

Oh yeah, one last thing: the battles were really cool!!! I especially liked the scene where
Aura and Kerr were surrounded by enemies. The way the image was formatted was neat.
The music and SFX were well integrated and not too distracting. I have a history of muting visual novel BGM because it annoys me pretty quickly, but I didn't have to do that for this game =) The ending credits were cute too! I loved seeing all the sketches and concept art. I can't wait for the art book!

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Re: Autumn's Journey [Fantasy][Friendship][Otome]

#19 Post by Deji »

@Cafechan: Thanks for that lovely review! I'm glad you enjoyed the game >w<
Cafechan wrote:
Aura could have kissed them at the end. LOL I understand that wasn't the point/focus of the game, that was just my own selfish emotion. I really wanted to kiss those cute dragon boys, darn it.
I wanted to make those CGs too, but they were very down on my priority list ;v; I hope you enjoyed the little kiss sketches in the credits, though :3
Cafechan wrote:
My favorite one was the of Aura and Kerr fighting. That scene in general made me dokidoki. I thought he was gonna kiss her neck. Hahaha.
GOD, I STRUGGLED WITH THAT CG SO MUCH I BANNED KITTY FROM WRITING THAT KIND OF SCENE EVER AGAIN XDDD
It also gave her a nosebleed when I drew it, lol, so you're not alone xD
Cafechan wrote: I liked the idea of the voice acting, but I have to admit I turned it off pretty early in the game. I felt like it would have been better as more in certain spots (fully voice acting selective scenes?) or none at all. The random HEY!! and YEAH!!!s just kind of startled me, but that's a nitpicky thing on my part!! I think it's a cool idea though and props to the actors!
I support this! I'd like to do that in an eventual sequel if possible; we actually discussed it when we ere making the game last year :3

Thanks a lot again for your review!
Also personal mental note: design Aura's dad for the art book xD
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Re: Autumn's Journey [Fantasy][Friendship][Otome]

#20 Post by Cafechan »

Deji wrote:@Cafechan: Thanks for that lovely review! I'm glad you enjoyed the game >w<
No problem! Playing it was my pleasure!

Also I'm replaying it now and
I somehow stumbled into Ilmari's route (I assume the ending I got was the harem friends-with-both-boys ending?), and I DID IT. I GOT THE SMOOCHIE. I'm happy now.
Edit: YES... YES....
I FOUND KERR'S ROUTE... HE DID THE NECK KISSIE..... 10/10 GAME OF THE YEAR................. i'm so glad...

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Re: Autumn's Journey [Fantasy][Friendship][Otome]

#21 Post by Reikun »

CONGRATS ON THIS RELEASE GUYS!!!!!!!!!! WOW!! You all should be proud because this is such a lovely game!!! I already gushed on twitter so it's time for my serious comments! (spoiler: it's mostly just more gushing)

First, things I really liked! (everything under a spoiler in case I rant too much)
1) I really like the way the fights scenes were written! I could imagine all the action taking place and with the addition of the cut-in illustrations it was super effective!
2) VISUALS HOLY HELL. Everything from sprites, cgs, interface, chibis, were TOP NOTCH!! Not surprised considering all the lovely people on the team ^___^
3) ILMARI........................... Yes. I really loved Ilmari. Half wanted Auralee to struggle explaining heavenkind 'mating season' to him HAHA;;; He's such a sweetie! I could tell he was lying to tag along from the very beginning though xD
Some minor issues:
1) Aurelee's injuries during the fight with Dervishi weren't really addressed. I half-expected her to faint from blood loss when they were walking away from the battlefield afterwards, but she was just sad about her knight dream.
2) The CG where Auralee and Ilmari are sitting together for the first time in Berri is a little confusing because it looks like the blanket is going over his hair as your eyes follow the blanket from right to left, but then it's under his hair??
Also Ilmari's ending is the best Really excited for any future stories set in Ishtera!! :D Congrats again on the release!!
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Re: Autumn's Journey [Fantasy][Friendship][Otome]

#22 Post by rufiangel »

I just played through Kerr's route!

What a beautiful game!! The GUI, the artwork (I LOVE Deji's artwork nyomnyomnyom T_T*) and the characters and story - so good! I loved it! Lovely world, it was very immersive. Great choice of music and sounds, though I think the default voice level is a bit loud so I was startled by Aura's giggle at first XD;
I was kind of sad to see how it ended but I guess it makes sense. But no kissy CG? O_O Whyyyyy lol. Though reading it was plenty sweet enough admittedly!
Thank you so much for producing this bit of sweetness!! I'll definitely play through the other routes too. :D
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Re: Autumn's Journey [Fantasy][Friendship][Otome]

#23 Post by Deji »

@Cafechan:
GOOD. XD

@Reikun:
Thank you very much!! ^w^ I'm so glad you liked it :DDD
Reikun wrote:
2) The CG where Auralee and Ilmari are sitting together for the first time in Berri is a little confusing because it looks like the blanket is going over his hair as your eyes follow the blanket from right to left, but then it's under his hair??
Oops you're right o_o; Thanks for pointing it out, I didn't notice it Dx I'll be more careful in the future ^^;;;

@rufiangel:
Glad you liked it! <3
I think the voice volume starts at max in the game, you can always lower it in the settings :'D
rufiangel wrote:I was kind of sad to see how it ended but I guess it makes sense. But no kissy CG? O_O Whyyyyy lol. Though reading it was plenty sweet enough admittedly!
Since the friendship-with-the-two-boys route is the canon one and the romantic routes are basically guilty pleasure addendum's (lol), the kiss CGs were low in my priority list ;v; I did want to draw them, myself :'D I hope you enjoyed the kiss sketches on the endings, though!
I'll let Kitty address the writing/story issues~ :'3

We have already broke the 1000 downloads (currently at 1300+) and we're STUPIDLY HAPPY to have reached so many people so far ;O; We hope to keep reaching more people and hopefully making them smile even a bit with our little game :)

Also thanks a lot guys, again, for taking the time to write back your impressions!
Please keep them coming! And remember to include critiques and issues with art, pacing, writing, etc., so we can keep those things in mind for later works and improve! ^___^ (I MEAN THIS. TEAR US APART IF YOU MAY. WE NEED THIS TO IMPROVE!)
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Re: Autumn's Journey [Fantasy][Friendship][Otome]

#24 Post by Hachiko »

This is one of those games that the friendship ending was satisfying and kinda realistic. Good job! =) It was also interesting to know why Kerr got so turned off with Aura touching her at the start...who would have thought eh :3

I was wondering, how do you get the first CG on the second page?

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Re: Autumn's Journey [Fantasy][Friendship][Otome]

#25 Post by Deji »

@Hachiko: Thanks! :D
Hachiko wrote:I was wondering, how do you get the first CG on the second page?
That one shows up when you follow Kerr's route.
To get there do the following:
- Ask if he's hungry
- Tease him
- Talk to Kerr
Accept the following quests: Aviterral feathers, honey-glazed apple tarts, save the chickens!
It should open up "Ilmari is a good friend, Kerr is..."
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Re: Autumn's Journey [Fantasy][Friendship][Otome]

#26 Post by PyTom »

PugDoll wrote: *Edit: I did catch an error, though. When I started up the game for the first time it mentioned choices to update directX. How ever, when I clicked to update directX, it came up with the following. I am not sure if it was an error with your game or just with my version of Ren'Py, though.
You can work around this by running lib/windows-i686/dxwebsetup.exe, where you should find lib in the same directory as the .exe.
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Re: Autumn's Journey [Fantasy][Friendship][Otome]

#27 Post by KittyKatStar »

Cafechan wrote: The story itself was extremely solid and I enjoyed it from start to finish. I thought Aura's character growth was handled very well. The way she started out as a bright-eyed rookie and
ended with the realization that the system was not all it was cracked up to be, but didn't allow it to make her cynical and instead decided to take her own noble path
was super cool.
Aw, thank you. I know I tend to write pretty optimistic/cheerful characters (maybe *too* naive/optimistic/cheerful) but I think it's nice to see a character that can overcome obstacles and still maintain that perspective. It's not easy to stay upbeat sometimes.
Reikun wrote: Some minor issues:
1) Aurelee's injuries during the fight with Dervishi weren't really addressed. I half-expected her to faint from blood loss when they were walking away from the battlefield afterwards, but she was just sad about her knight dream.
?
Originally the injuries were in the sketch of the hug scene, and were minor injuries. I was gonna let the image show she was okay. They disappeared during the polished CG, though and right when the CG was done the game was released. XD I'll keep it in mind for next time, and be sure to add more post-injury mentions.
Deji and I realized we both flubbed with how Auralee was all casual around dragons when heavenkind are supposed to worship them (it's actually an optional thing, some heavenkind fear them, revere them, ignore them and only worship sun/moon, we weren't able to show the range though with limited characters). I guess she's just that laidback, I think she got it from her mom. XD (And props to the dad, who made dinner for the dragons.)

Again thanks everyone for all the feedback, I'll do my best to improve and make my writing tighter for the next projects. ^o^
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Re: Autumn's Journey [Fantasy][Friendship][Otome]

#28 Post by princessgardinia »

I LOVED IT SO HARDCORE. I wanna see the artbook SO HARDCORE. This pulls all my heartstrings and make me dokidoki SO HARDCORE.

It was very lovely. Any release date set for the artbook release yet, or is it still vaguely weekish?

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Re: Autumn's Journey [Fantasy][Friendship][Otome]

#29 Post by ixWishing »

Oh danged! I've been waiting for this for a while! ♥
I'll be sure to play it on Friday night, since I'll be busy until then ;A;
I shall recommend this to my friends! ^^
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Re: Autumn's Journey [Fantasy][Friendship][Otome]

#30 Post by Kagura »

ohmygoshhh this is free?! I CANT BELIEVE ET
THIS ART. THIS STOREI ADSAJFOAFNAIOAFOSAFJSA //DIES

IM TOTALLY NOT SCREAMING INSIDE MY HEAD BECAUSE SOMETHING LIKE THIS IS FREE
imsohappyimsohappyiloveyousomuchoknookmaybeOKIDO
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I can do voice actings and help with the story~
Just message me if y'need help c:

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