Digital: A Love Story

[DMNT]

You don't need to hack anything. Just get more codes from The Matrix.

Wow, I completely didn't expect that, lol. Thanks.

[Jake]

I managed to find the time to play through this last night - I have to say, I'm pretty impressed! It probably helps that it hits many of my favourite story notes (both from within SciFi and without), but it's nicely put together, has a great sense of place and some engaging characters.

If I were to offer criticism, the main thing would be that the 'first act' is over too quickly, and mostly consists of the player messing around in various places looking for things to do, and I kind of suspect that the game could fail to get anywhere at all if the player doesn't bother to reply to Emilia's poetry post. It felt a bit to me like the plot was missing a driver, like there should have been something drawing the player into the world of BBSes other than straight curiosity; perhaps an odd problem with their computer they need to ask for help with, maybe a broken piece of software or something, which could have had them exploring with a bit more of a purpose... and also could have potentially served as a mediator on the speed of the protagonist and Emilia's whirlwind relationship, which in my playthrough I think whipped up in the space of about 45 seconds.

The choice to absorb the player's identity for the protagonist and not have any monologue or narration was for the most part very nicely executed, IMO, and added to the immersion of the environment. My one complaint in that regard would be that - while I can understand why the player's messages were not shown to the player for purposes such as projection and avoiding breaking suspension of disbelief - it seemed a little disembodied to hit the 'reply' button and instantly have written and sent a message. The first couple of times I did it, I wondered if something had broken or whether a reply had actually been sent, and I'd guess that a short key-tapping SFX and a pause would probably have helped.



And it's a good thing that my day job has prepared me for memorising and typing in long strings of numbers! I tend to agree that while it added to the immersion the first few times, by the end of the game I was thinking "surely even in 1988 people were able to automate their modem diallers..."

[Ramidel]

I liked it, I really did.

::sniff:: Emeliaaaaa!

I just found a few minor problems with this. One is that, as Jake said, the whole thing went way too fast. (No spoiler here.) Part of that's probably the reply function, but really, the whole romance goes way too fast. That said, speed or not, it was an incredibly touching love story and

Emelia

was very easy to come to sympathize with and care for.

Second,

it would have been nice to have some path choices, though of course it would destroy the tragedy of the thing if you could have a happy ending. At the least, there should be an option to say "no, I can't sacrifice you, my love!" and face a somewhat different ending. Which, unfortunately, leads me to my third point...

Third, I understand why you tried to get around "just fork Emelia, then send the fork off with the weapon code," but the core dump would still exist after Emelia's sacrifice and could be conceivably recompiled. The tragedy does lose a lot of its impact when a save file or floppy disk could have avoided it. I guess what I'm saying is that it was kind of jarring to my suspension of disbelief.

Other than those nitpicks, this was one of the best-executed stories I've seen done in RenPy.

[Jake]

Third, I understand why you tried to get around "just fork Emelia, then send the fork off with the weapon code," but the core dump would still exist after Emelia's sacrifice and could be conceivably recompiled. The tragedy does lose a lot of its impact when a save file or floppy disk could have avoided it. I guess what I'm saying is that it was kind of jarring to my suspension of disbelief.

Well, think of it this way - from what I recall, the compile/delete-source mechanism was something of an ethical decision on the part of the AIs, so would Emelia still think of the protagonist the same way if she knew that she'd essentially been cloned and sent off to die? The player would potentially have committed an ethical infringement that disgusts an AI that hears about it...

(That said, I agree that it's a bit of a hole that could have been better patched over.)

[monele]

Lovely game! I've never known the early BBSes, but I've had an Amiga, so the nostalgia factor was strong. While I agree with others that the beginning went a bit too fast, everything else was very cool and I just couldn't stop playing (did it in one go). Didn't really get stuck anywhere, or at least not for long. Dialing by hand got a bit frustrating after a while but

it made the times when codes stopped working somewhat more dramatic, especially towards the end where it felt like being cornered.

Great job on the concept, the interface and the story ^.^

[CandyStar]

Haha I already randomly sent you emails, but I loved this game! It was the first visual novel made originally in English that I ever played through, heh heh. It was awesome!! ^___^ *throws confetti on you* Huzzah!!!

[glamsam8]

I gotta say, I started playing this game at 2am this morning (yeah... bad idea =.=) BUT IT WAS SO AMAZING! Everything worked so well together, especially the music, it was GREAT and really contributed to the atmosphere of the game. All in all, a great game, that really made me feel like a nerd... <3

[DaFool]

Digital: A Love Story receives Honorable Mention in Gamasutra's Best of 2010

Congratulations, Scout!

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/3192 ... _Games.php

[LVUER]

Wow! Let me say congrats too then ^_^

[jack_norton]

It was also on RPS, one of the biggest PC games site: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/12 ... -10-day-8/
I was joking with her that when Love&Order is finished I'll have to write in the credits/PR "From the award-winning creator of Digital: A Love Story"

[Cyal]

I love your design! Very professional ^.^ But it's kind of hard at the beginning to understand how to play...

[G1AndyP]

Wow, this game was amazing. Great story, terrific controls, and it was a blast hearing the old modem connect sounds again (even if I did have to turn it down after a while ) Like others though, I do think the story was a bit rushed at the beginning, but it really wasn't anything major. One thing I would have liked addressed though, would be why

*Emilia talked differently than the rest of the programs. talking to the couple of AIs on Underground Library felt like talking to encyclopedia entries, while talking to *Paris felt like talking to, well, a computer program, so is there any reason why *Emilia talked like an actual person?

Oh, and I though you might like this, Digital was featured last week on the D(LC)lightful games blog over on blisteredthumbs.net as one of the best freeware games the blog editor has played. This is actually the first time I've seen a download game on the blog, usually it's just a handful of flash games.

http://www.blisteredthumbs.net/2010/12/ ... ment-24903

[Coren]

I'm stuck after receiving Rocky's message with the workbench.img. Downloaded it but can't continue.

[Machus]

This...was an amazing game.

Seriously, the story was great, so very touching. The old-school graphics fit the theme, and dialing numbers, though tedious, was very effective in the end at conveying a feeling of desperation.
It's shocking how open the game feels with all the boards and stuff. It almost fools you into thinking it's got multiple paths, when really you have to find the exact thing to do at a certain board.
Even though it was so linear, I really loved the game.
Good work, keep it up! ~

[Starling]

I don't understand how it is that I've never played this game before when I KNOW it's been here.

Beautiful

It almost made me cry at the end though

And very nostalgic.