(One more time) From the Top! (v0.5) by Mad Jubal [Gay, BxB, Visual Novel, Ren'Py]

[MadJubal]

Overview:
When your best friend invite you to spend the summer with her you thought it would be a relaxing and fun experience. After all, she's been working in the biggest and best film studio in the country. Well, you were wrong. A dramatic event will force you to investigate the people you just met and try to find out what dark secrets are hiding. During this investigation you will meet A-list celebrities, directors, producers and the rest of the crew in the studio. Some of them will be nice but some others... well, not so nice. They are suspects, can you trust them? Are they playing with you? Will you fall in love with any of them?

"From the Top" is a Gay Visual Novel where we will explore different aspect like coming out, dealing with acceptance, self empowering and finding love. All of it based in the glamorous environments of the show business, red carpets and parties (and their dark sides too).​


Release Date: 2019-06-28
Developer: Mad Jubal https://www.patreon.com/MadJubal
Censored: No
Version: 0.5
OS: Windows - Linux - MacOS
Language: English
Genre: 2dcg, Gay, Male Protagonist, Multiple Endings, Dating Sim, Romance, Corruption

PC:
https://workupload.com/file/QR4GKYTw
https://anonfile.com/r3hbWbL1nb/FromTheTop_-0.5-pc_zip

MacOS:
https://workupload.com/file/SLPqXxRA
https://anonfile.com/Nbn7W6L9nc/FromTheTop_-0.5-mac_zip

[MadJubal]

I updated the game to the new version, hope you all like it!

[High]

Hello Jubal.

Before playing From The Top, the title and the art style immediately brought to mind Coming Out On Top and made me think this was going to be derivative of it. But I played the game and I'm happy to report that I was wrong. I'm overall very impressed with FTT.

I thought the art looked nice. The sequence where the detective walked up to main character was a stand-out to me. I liked UI, it is very charming. The mystery was intriguing enough to keep me interested. It's obvious from playing the game that you have a very clear vision for it.

My main point of criticism would be the several instances of awkward phrasing and misused words. I presume you're not fully fluent in English (though your English is very good, don't get me wrong). If you are interested in a proof reader I would love to do it, feel free to PM me. Or you could go to the Services Offered section of the forum.

I'm looking forward to future updates. Well done.

Stray Thoughts

*I really liked the side characters! From the gossipy receptionist to Dante's equally horny assistant to the paramedic who gave me his number. They were all memorable to me, despite not having sprites.

*My favorite guy from the images you posted was the raven haired, slender guy. Then I played the game and I found out he is a crazy hobo... My taste in men remains trash even when it comes to video games. All my hope now rides on the flirty paramedic.

*Some friendly advice that you can take or leave, but I think it would be a nice idea for you to edit your opening post and put images of the main characters along with some brief description of them. The love interests are the most important part of any romance visual novel, so you want to present them to a potential player as soon as possible. Something like this is what I'm talking about.

*I was surprised that I could visit every single place on the map. Dating sims usually have limit the amount of actions the player can perform in any given day. So for example, if the can there are 10 things to do in a day the player can make 3. It may sound counter intuitive, but limiting the amount of places the player can visit would lead to more replay value.