The Scaglietti (NaNoRenO 2009)

[mikey]

Hi everyone,

This is my (unexpected, even for me) NaNoRenO 2009 project, a very short game called The Scaglietti.

It took me 3 days to make, so logically it isn't anything large-scale, in fact it takes approximately 15 minutes to play through - with 3 bad endings and 1 good one. Please enjoy!

The home page has some pictures: http://atp.manga.sk/pages/scaglietti.htm

[Taleweaver]

And still, it's a true mikey game. Great plot twist in the end, nice art and BG art, good storytelling altogether and gripping dialogues to hold it all together. Some guitar music to accompany everything would have been great, but as you threw everything together in only three days, that's probably too much too ask for.

A conventional but neat VN. My only gripe: the good ending is too easy to find. I got it on my first try. ^_^

[Shinrei_Reheiner]

All I can say is that this was a great game(also considering that it was made in only 3 days).
The story was quite interesting and kept me clicking to the very end.

Thank you for posting it mikey-sempai ^^
I hope that one day I'll be able to make VNs as good as this.>w<

(*Magically warps away*...but fails...)...I'll never give up!

[mikey]

I'm glad you liked it!

As for music, well, I didn't want non-original and at the same time I couldn't compose or get something composed due to the timeframe, so I let it be.

I guess a halfway suitable generic string or piano piece quickly grabbed from the internet would be perfectly fine and would probably feel a part of the game for players (since the perception of the player is different than mine), but for me it wouldn't feel right, because I'd know it wouldn't be spiritually with the other elements. Most of all, I would very soon regret just putting in something I found on the net, regardless of whether people would actually like it better with the music than without. And if I took longer to polish, extend and add things to the game, it would have lost its spontaneous nature, and would become a project or something I'd need to finish, and that kind of game it's not.

The "alternatives" are done similarly to One Million Kisses, they are there for the atmosphere, rather than true alternative, and I'd actually like people to get the good ending on the first try - it's not difficult, but they mean that it's possible to get a bad ending and I do hope that contributes its small part in making the real path special. But sure, it's for a different mindset, it's not the classic multipath VN.

Anyway, thank you all for playing and sharing the comments!

[Watercolorheart]

Oh, I just now saw this! Well, I've been a fan of yours for forever so I will definitely give this a go.

Also, three days?

Fuck you ... I only WISH I could do that.

After 10 minutes, I've decided that I hate your curly font. Story is good, I just have to squint to read everything ... First time

saved, picked the facts, got nothing to satisfy my curiousity, reloaded, picked stories. Oh, hell, the story got really good, really fast! Following my usual trend (since I chose story and interest, following my heart instead of my gut) I chose instinctively in the third Act. Oh ... I guess I chose right. Or, if this isn't the good end, I don't want to see what is.

What a master you are! Tied all the loose ends up so nicely. Incredible. I have to say, I have respect for both her and her grandfather. In such a situation, I'm not sure if I could condemn her if I knew her personally. I would if I was reading a summary from a news article, I suppose.

A Google Image search leaves me disappointed, when I find out there's no such painting. Instead, let me offer a Claudia Fallen Under Her Stone. http://mikeytherhino.files.wordpress.co ... atid03.jpg

[F.I.A]

It certainly reminds me of 'Embrace by Green' in how you choose either to act logically or not. However, for this one, we shouldn't be thinking logically after all(I was just a choice away from the good ending in the first try, since I decided to approach the security logically).

The whole duplicating and forgery certainly add a lot to it(Not to mention giving me some time to digest it).

[mikey]

BCS >> I'm really glad you liked it (save for the font, of course)! Well, your comments are always special to me. (*gets sentimental*) And you definitely got the right ending, then, since the bad ones are very quick ends.

Anyway, regarding the painting: (this is not really a spoiler - on second thought, maybe read it after playing just to make sure), but:

The name I originally made up was "Bellini", I needed something Italian. Then out of curiosity I googled it, and there was actually a painter, called Giovanni Bellini (link here).
There I found the picture of the woman - which became the centre of the story, and I actually wanted to use it as a CG, but in fact i forgot to put in into the build, and when I tested it, I realized that it worked quite well without it and so I then deliberately left it out.

F.I.A >>
I'm sorry about that, I honestly wish everyone a first-try-good-ending. But I hope you liked it nevertheless.

And indeed for the rather complicated (for me, anyway) duplicate/forgery story I cut me pieces of paper and moved them on the table just to double-check and visualize that ^_^.

Thank you for the comments!

[AYAto_do]

Holy Crap! New Mikey game!
Must DL!

I picked u a mac, so I'll have to go on my windows partition to play it, but I'm going to play ASAP!!!

[DrakeNavarone]

I played this last night and really enjoyed it. Really did. Something about it, especially the first half actually, just resonated with me. So thank you for this. I enjoyed it a lot.

[musical74]

*downloading now*

I'll be honest...when I saw mikey as author, my mentality was *HAVE to give this a go!* It's amazing you can whip out a VN in only three days...and considering the other *quick VNs* that you've done are great, I'm SURE this will be too! (Yeah, I'm a fan of you and your work!)

And, between Taleweaver and BCS's opinions of it, I'm SURE I'm gonna love it!

BTW mikey....how in the world can you go from *idea* to *completed game* so darn fast?

EDIT: This is a GREAT game, esp considering you did it in 3 days! I MAY have caught a spelling mistake of sorts - I think you have an I in a place where it's not needed - towards the behinning <Act 2>, but other than that it's good! The story is great, there's a lot of emotion involved, and it's thought provoking. Assuming I got hte good ending on the first try too...that is, if

going on a date and going home is the good ending

. Keep these up, mikey you do a great job!

[ashogo]

Well, that was a 20 minutes well spent!
I always enjoy your style of storytelling and this one was no exception. Got the best ending on my first try, but it didn't bother me. You did a good job wrapping everything up with a satisfying ending.

Also, I'm glad you didn't stick some cheap music in the background. While music definitely could have fit (if done well), the storytelling was strong enough that it didn't really matter too much.

[mikey]

Thank you all again for playing and for taking the time to comment!

Hearing people play your game because it's you who made it is hugely flattering, thank you for all the confidence and support! I feel like I have fans...

musical74 >> Yes, that's the good ending.

ashogo >> You have really made my day with the music comment, it's so nice to hear that some people see that decision positively or at least understand it.

[Ren]

Aww, too bad you didn't go for Bellini, I really like some of his paintings (although I like the watercolours better, I also heard they inspired Albrecht Dürer!).

How to put it, this was very relevant to my interests, and since I finished

drawing someone's sprite

I thought I could reward myself wit a bit diversion finally playing this, and I'm glad I did! I really like how everything comes together in the end, it's quite admirable you can make a relatively short story like this and still making it feel so "real", I really felt immersed in it, despite being late... ooops!

Great work, thanks for sharing!

(I wish I could poof away to my destination like Mugen does; oh, well...)

Edit: I do understand the music choice, but while playing it I couldn't help but play one in my head (it's by Satie, but I can never remember the right name, just that it was in a movie by Kitano), maybe it was the backgrounds' slightly sunset-like colours. Ok, now I'm REALLY late!

Also: can it be hosted on the Renai archives? I noticed it isn't there...

[mikey]

Ren >> Not a problem having it on the RAA.

I'm happy you liked the game! And as for Bellini...

I didn't use Bellini, because I didn't want a real painter to be involved - and although I liked the name, I had to change it to something non-factual, so I recalled that in an old racing game I liked, the name "Bellini" is used as a team name instead of "Ferrari", due to licensing. This then inspired me to make the names related to Ferrari's history. So Scaglietti is the 612 grand tourer car, the "Mondial" agency has its name from yet another Ferrari model, of course Claudia's last name is Ascari (the famous Ferrari champion), and Carini is also one of the old racers.

[Ren]

Added to the archives. :3