Ok so after 1 week struggling with Flash I finally finished my short "Prequel" to Heileen. Head to this page: http://www.heileen.com/flash_demo.htm if you want to play it. If you do and find any grammar errors or weird texts, please let me know so I can fix them before putting the game around!
Thanks!
Last edited by jack_norton on Wed Jan 21, 2009 11:02 am, edited 1 time in total.
Looks VERY nice! As for odd text, you have a screen shortly after thanking her friend for the flower where the maiden says "nobody comes in my village", which I assume was supposed to be "nobody comes to my village" - or maybe you were trying to add innuendo here?
Working on something... might even be something good
Lol no, is a grammar error. Luckily there weren't too many this time! Even if a friend of mine just told me that the right name for the German region is "Bavaria" and not "Bavary"... so I made an error right in the game name, quite a record!
Posted the revised version online, and I've also added a small intro music. Today got a comment on newgrounds site that boosted my morale:
There's a reason people don't serve caviar at a backyard, beer-n-burgers BBQ. It's because everyone will say the caviar "sucks". Newgrounds is a beer-n-burgers BBQ. That's why you have a lot of folks saying "it sucks", because they're used to just clicking on some buttons and being rewarded with hentai pics, like rats in a maze. This type of flash is very good, but won't cater to the majority crowd here. I'm reminded of when I was a young kid and went to see Out of Africa with my parents. I thought it sucked. No action. A bunch of talking. Blah, blah. Later, as I was older and action, boobs, etc become boring and run-of-the-mill, I see Out of Africa and realize it's a very good piece of work. Your work is exploring complex emotional relationships between friends (perhaps even potential lovers), which is not something the majority of the NG cares about. They're interested in "the goods". Like others have said, if you posted this on more girl-oriented sites, it would probably be a big hit. Personally, I found it to be very mature. A young girl is faced with a lot of crappy decisions, from pissing off her best friend, to living with an uncle and his mistress that are demeaning jerks, etc. Sometimes in life, it's not a matter of picking the "best" option, but rather the least crappiest. Your game really focused on that, and there was no clear "right" or "wrong" way to play it. It was all about what goals you felt the main character should strive for. Is her future more important or her friendship? Very touching and very emotional. When some folks on NG who are bagging on it get older, maybe they'll come across this again later, when they can appreciate it, and realize it's actually pretty mature and interesting. Two thumbs up.
This comment brings up a very good point : instead of going for the masses (or where the masses tend to flock), why not go to where fans of the niche and non-fans that should have the closest interest in what you do are?
To make some good targetting, it's worth thinking about who would play such games off the bat and who would potentially be intrigued by them.... and then think about where *these* people go to, and try to spread the word there?
In other words, you don't go sell vacuum cleaners to the rich mansions of the town, and you don't go selling million dollar jewelery in the slums
Yes that's why I'll stop making VN in flash right now - flash market really loves action games, so no point in doing such stuff. I'll get back to the good old downloadables
Mm... but is Flash really the problem? Is it not rather the portals themselves? Flash is still interesting in that you can play them online without any setup or anything. It's still a way to get more people to play a game, as most people don't like installing stuff.... or can't! (playing at work during the pause?)
In the end, whichever the format, I think it's rather *where* you post it that's important ^^
To make some good targetting, it's worth thinking about who would play such games off the bat and who would potentially be intrigued by them.... and then think about where *these* people go to, and try to spread the word there?
My one nitpick: Keyboard controls! Some of us really prefer pressing space or enter to clicking, particularly when repeatedly replaying looking for the extra ending :3
Other than that, very nice artwork, very cute story, and it's got me to download the demo at least of the full game from the site...