[Demo] Omni Link - Space Visual Novel / Action RPG

[Roencia]

I've been working on a visual novel where you can play a full space game adventure similar to "escape velocity nova" or star control 3, but enjoy all the best of a visual novel. Choices that matter, romance, hand drawn character and background art.

Demo: *Includes the entire first chapter
http://www.indiedb.com/games/omni-link- ... action-rpg



The non-spoiler version of the story is this:

You start the game as a man of little consequence. The first chapter: "A Hero Will Rise" defines exactly what you become.

There is something called "The Virus" which has awakened near the edge of the galaxy. People are painfully discovering that this is a real threat. The Virus consumes everything it touches.

You encounter an advanced warship, and an explosion binds you with an entity known as Ectype D-8. You quickly learn that there is more to this ship and A.I. that meets the eye. The artificial intelligence is so advanced, she is able to absorb energy from other ships and duplicate them. As well as quantum burst, administer atmospheric regeneration, quantum entanglement, and of course...Omni Link. You find out about these abilities as you play.

Your choices in the game affect what happens to the story and gameplay in meaningful ways. You'll discover this in the demo. What ships you acquire, who you save from the Virus threat, and what relationships of love, hate, and friendship you form. Who do you trust?

I need a small amount of funding to pay the art/music artists involved:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/99 ... action-rpg

*This gives you chance to be a part of the game early on, and even design some content.















Real-time tactical combat

Choices that affect gameplay and story in minor and large ways

Huge two path end game split

Hand drawn character and background art

Epic emotional music

*Let me know what you think of the demo and the Story

[Hoosha]

can we romance big sexy Dannon..?

[Roencia]

can we romance big sexy Dannon..?

You should see his blushing face emote, it's kinda scary.

[SundownKid]

My feeback on the Demo of the game:

* Gameplay looks pretty solid. You should probably remove the Action RPG and Strategy descriptions from your Kickstarter though, I dont think either of those draw the right fans to your game. Rather you should call it a "visual novel and top down space combat game" since that would describe it far better. Personally I feel "meh" about real time strategy games but I love top down space combat games so that is a definite plus. Weird that your basic ship doesn't have reverse thrust but the alien vessel which is weaker does.

* The text needs heavy proofreading. That is the main thing that makes me hesitant to back on the Kickstarter. There are major typos in the intro of the game. "It's" is NOT the same as "its". And throughout the game the grammar is lacking in a massive way. If a game is a visual novel it has to have 99% perfect grammar and spelling to get me to spend any money on it. After all, you're calling it a novel, you have to live up to that expectation.

* The intro is a bit underwhelming. Show don't tell and all that. It's serviceable but doesn't exactly make me want to learn more about this world. "Generic evil forces are attacking!" Might as well just not have the text scroll at all and reveal everything through dialog.

* UI is... weird. It doesnt fit the character designs and backgrounds at all, which look pretty modern. But the UI looks sort of retro and tacky. It needs more of a modern feel to it, I think.

* Needs an options screen for sure.

[Roencia]

Thank you for the feedback. The great thing about the game is it's still in development and won't be released until everything is perfect, grammar included. Let me know if you beat it.

Oh yes, and about the backwards thrust, none of the ships have it. The only ship that does is "Morpher" which cannot attack and it more or less only useful morphing into other ships.

[SundownKid]

Yes you can explain all the issues by being "in development". But, in my opinion, that's just a cop-out. A Kickstarter demo needs to be more or less a "vertical slice" of what the game will be upon release. Because if it is unfinished in some major way there is no way of knowing whether it will be fixed upon release to an adequate amount. So I would bid you luck, but I wouldn't be convinced to back you due to my doubts about whether these things will be addressed.

I played through some more of the game. The combat is still pretty solid, although I am still not that enthused about the lack of reverse thrusters. It makes all the space battles devolve into essentially just going in figure-8's and not being able to reliably dodge stuff to get a hit on the enemy. The ship with the turret helps somewhat, but then I would basically just want to use that ship all the time. I definitely suggest playing Space Pirates and Zombies if you haven't, because it does essentially what you're trying to do, and really well.

I do like the absorption gameplay, it reminds me a bit of the 'warp into any car' from Driver San Francisco. It feels like it might get a bit cheap later on with being able to become any ship though.

I dont like the lack of being able to save at any point either. If not a real save, there should at least be the ability to quicksave like in FTL. The lack of options in general is an issue, and there's also no menu, or saving in the VN parts.

Continuing with the plot. It's not abysmal but I'd call it more 'video game level', the problem being that if it's a visual novel people would be expecting a bit more. The main character doesn't feel like he has many motivations besides being along for the ride. I feel like he needs to be more of his own person rather than just taking orders in a RPG hero-like manner, plot choices notwithstanding.
(I'm also somewhat confused as to why the AI girl is not a robot avatar. Not only would it prevent the necessity to use technobabble like being able to project a hologram literally anywhere on a space station, but she looks essentially like one in her character design and it would allow more.. interaction with the MC)

Overall: It could use a lot more polish. It's good as a proof of concept and definitely has a lot of potential. But, in the current state you may lose quite a few potential backers due to being unpolished as a game. I reviewed it because I really like top down space combat games so Id like to see a new great entry into the genre.