Oh wow, thanks for all your input guys! I do read all of them :3
selenity136 wrote:5. Do the baking and visual novel portions transition smoothly from one mode to another?
Kinda...my computer is kinda old so it took awhile for the transition to happen.
Ah yeah, old computers will definitely lag since the code's rather unwieldy and large. We're going to have to find a way to trim it down to make it more efficient.
6. Was Info/Profile screen helpful (deciding during a choice menu, understanding the characters, etc.)? How often did you check it?
Not really. I kinda forget about it and when I did checked on it, the 'romance progress' hardly move--which made me think whether I actually did something or not.
I was in a rush so I didn't code that part in, but I will in the next demo update and for the finished game of course.
Also, since the MC is also the manager of the bakery, it would be nice to see more on that side of things such as marketing/employee relations/inventory buying--you know, things that a manager can do to improve or kill a business. Otherwise, just stick the MC as a baker if you're going to have just a baking simulation.
We're planning on it! While making Elise just a baker seems easier, it'd change everything storywise and defeat the whole purpose of the game.
Then with Joshua, I'm surprise he's Chinese considering he has a Vietnamese last name. Though what put me off was the emphasis on the Chinese language and to me, I'm just thinking that well, what happen to the Vietnamese? I would assume he knows both...but hey, if he only knows Chinese, that's realistic as well. This is something that the MC could explore on--along with the blue eyes.
Lol, my family history can only hope to be as crazy as his. My last name is a Vietnamese corruption of the original surname, which happened when my grandparents moved down there. The preferred language is Chinese in the Nguyen house, they slip into Vietnamese sometimes too. No Russian, but Josh likes to joke about it >_>
ludeshka wrote:1. Who is your favorite character and why?
I like Alfonse, and I like Xavier a lot. I actually like all the characters. (I'm going to have a hard time deciding whether to help Xavier and Terry back together or whether to keep him for myself ^^)
I like Renee very, very much. ^^
Hey there ludeshka! I'm playing Hierofanía right now, enjoying the atmosphere a lot. I'll leave a review in your thread, back to the subject at hand >_>
You can't get Xavier and Terry back together and you can only patch their relationship back to semi-good friend status. That's in the best case scenario, mind you.
Glad you like everyone though! I'm really surprised by how many people like Xav though...
he's a hipster you're supposed to point and yell at hipsters
3. Were there any parts of the game that bugged you? How can we improve it?
One thing jumps to mind. Elise. Some of her lines/thoughts are quite petty. I'm not saying "OMG! she's a b*tch who should die!" just that I'm not sure she's as likable as she thinks she is.
Yup, going to take that out. It was demo only, but if we're updating it we might as well take it out. Easy fix.
I'm an idiot who sucks at minigames and plays VNs for the story, so to make ME play more you'd have to give me STORY. Make it important to the story, as in Al stays and cooks with Elise, or Joshua needs a cake for his relatives....give me story events with the bakery, and you'll get me interested. (Remember the suikoden 2 cookoffs?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KmVtU--qr8 I don't mean anything this complicated, the gameplay can stay as it is, but give me reasons to do things, and I will do them. XD)
Yeah, the guys will buy stuff from you in the story (eg. Al will demand you hand over the White Chocolate Macadamia Nut cookies when he's feeling particularly angst-ridden). We got this
Oh, I know, Al could wear one of those white cook hats. (What? I like those hats!)
Hm, but he's only your part-time cashier :/
Fanservice doesn't care We'll think about it!
Alwerien wrote:Oh and actually for some of the guys I was a bit bugged by the fact the conversation was exactly the same as in the other guy's route. Like that Tybs day with Josh/Xav and Aaron/Santos. Really hoped I would at least get to ask the turtles' names when I played Santos' route instead. Mittens? Lol.
Hm, I don't think it'd be too much a problem in the full game, but I could put a few more variations, yeah. And noooo, you'll have to squeeze out the names of the turtles in the full game
fiatal wrote:Also, the in-game justification doesn't work, especially since Elise doesn't react to the supposed mind-reading. Plus it's creepy for her to have a notebook full of this info! Why not just say that all of that info is there for the player? We're supposed to be the creepy ones, after all! lol
That was something I was thinking about too. Should we even try to justify the Info Screen or should we let the game itself teach you how to use it?
The VN parts in particular seem a teensy bit short, but IDK if that's b/c of the demo.
I'm used to writing shorter stories, short scenes, etc. Each of the events I've written average out to be 600 words usually, and I'm not entirely happy with how I wrap up events in such a small amount of words. I get the job done, but it's so short! Then again, making it longer for the sake of more wordcount seems a bit frivolous. Weekend events will be longer, but should I extend the events on the weekdays?
chocojax wrote:3. Were there any parts of the game that bugged you? How can we improve it?
Just that the there was so much empty space around the sprites. This is kinda a good thing though, since it adds to the illusion(?) that the shop is amazingly spacious.
Also, I was paying attention to the text mainly, so since the sprites were so tall, I couldn't really notice their changes in expression, haha. This is probably just me, though.
The size of the screen is more for the baking sim portion so all the info can fit there without being cramped. Trust me, the default size for Ren'Py would not be good for the baking portions :C The nice thing about the bigger screen though is that I can fit in about 5 characters onto the screen at once if I need to. And apologizes for the tall sprites, the tallest guy (Aaron) is 6 ft 2 in. Those darn giants :/
The art is pretty simple, but it fits the VN. They stand out pretty easily from the background because of the black lines, but still match because of the saturation/brightness of colors?
Ah, the sprites are pretty much going to stay looking like that, but the BGs will get colored and stuff. I'm not particularly a fan of anything that has too many dark hues so you can't see anything at all.
Cidz wrote:Hmm....is there a way to overwrite the lists you saved? if not, could i maybe suggest that?
Gutsy's still figuring that out, but in the demo you shouldn't need that many lists >_> Full game, you'll be able to overwrite lists.
Thanks for your input everyone! We were already planning to do as you guys have suggested, so we'll get to it :3 BTW, more on that BG:
Elise's room now has a bookshelf! The bedside table is on the other side of the bed, but you don't see it anymore >_>