Lemma Soft Forums

Group Play is a weekly event in which one game is selected to be promoted within the forums to be played by us as a group. It provides an opportunity to promote some smaller games that would otherwise get lost, promote discussion and promote creativity. This isn't just about the creators of the games, but also us as a community. It acts as a way for us to analyse work as creative people and for us to develop the necessary critical language to develop and pursue our work.



This week's game is "Phase Shift" by MaiMai!

You can find links to the game here: Phase Shift



There are some rules to follow in the following discussion about the game.

- In your primary comment on the game, please try to mention one thing you liked and one thing you think could be improved. This is in the spirit of giving both encouraging and helpful comments to the creators. You may of course go beyond this with praise or critique. I can't enforce this rule, I'll just silently judge you.

- Please try to do one play-through or enough of the game to develop a solid opinion. Some things can be commented on early on, but things like plot might be best left until you finish the game.

- There is no rule as to whether you post here only or in the completed game topic. Feel free to do as you like. This is just a space to discuss this game while playing it at the same time as others.

- Please try to think about the game play as a whole, as well as the different parts that make up the game.

- Please be respectful to the game and creator. You don't have to like a game, but you should be respectful to the effort.

- Please follow the forum rules.



If you would like to make your own suggestions and haven't already, please feel free to PM them to me.

These are the current guidelines for suggestions:

- Anyone can send me 3 games (VN, KN Sim, whatever, just from these forums or related to) that they think are worth playing by PM.
- There can only be three suggestions per person and if a game gets suggested multiple times, they still only get one draw.
- You may suggest your own games.
- For now they must not be 18+, just because we want to encourage everyone to join first up. If it goes well, maybe something can be arranged for the big kids.
- Please try to make sure the game is short (around a max of 30,000 words). It isn't a hard and fast rule, but it's easier to make time for smaller games and it will give this a greater chance of success.
- They must be free and preferably available on all 3 platforms, again for easy access.

And with that, let the games begin!

For some reason I'm not able to open the Mac version of the game because "it may be damaged or incomplete".

Nuxill wrote:For some reason I'm not able to open the Mac version of the game because "it may be damaged or incomplete".

WHOOPS hi this is the KN I made and unfortunately the Mac version doesn't work! So sorry about that!

MaiMai wrote:

Nuxill wrote:For some reason I'm not able to open the Mac version of the game because "it may be damaged or incomplete".

WHOOPS hi this is the KN I made and unfortunately the Mac version doesn't work! So sorry about that!

Oh well, I guess I'll have to wait until the next group play.

Again a game that isn't playable for Mac users? That's too bad.

But on to the review!
I like it. The writing is good, and while short, it was a nice story. It feels a bit incomplete though. Are you still going to make that sequel (or related) game you mentioned? Or does it already exist and am I blind?
I was a bit confused near the end as I thought it was Kazuhiko who was narrating in the beginning.

I liked the music. Especially the one that plays when they first talk.
The background looked a bit like paintings even though they were photo's, which I like.
Not really a fan of the choosen font. The punctuation was a bit wonky. The dots were fat and the exclamation marks barely noticable.
Artwise, the girl (even if she wore a long T-shirt) seems to have a really long torso. You can also still see a bit of the white around the sprites. It's not that obvious though. What bothered me the most is that they seemed to grow bigger and smaller as they changed poses. With the girl it wasn't that bad, it seemed like she was coming closer when she was excited, but it didn't work that well with the redhead.
Oh, and the characterisation was good too.

I liked the sky transitions, great way to mark the passage of time.

One thing that seemed a little odd was that the narrator would give a very detailed description of a character, but the sprite isn't shown until later, so the player is looking at an empty background. Even if the description is to compensate for a lack of detail in the sprites, I'd queue them both up at the same time.

The story ends pretty abruptly (and I'm assuming a sequel hasn't been completed). This feels like it should have been marked as chapter 1 of a series. If a writer intends to leave people hanging, they should signal that intention in some way. I think having chapters is a good way to show that a VN is only part of a larger story (also, if there ARE no other chapters after several years, it signals that the writer has moved on and won't finish the story).

The art in this story is super cute! The characters are adorable. I was annoyed that the sprites didn't line up when the expression changed.

The story gets better as it goes along. It is pretty draggy at the start. I was also confused by who was narrating. I spent most of the story thinking it was about a nice boy who was very empathetic with music got turned into this bitter annoying teenager.

The music was awesome. I like how the music and the story blended together. Good job!

First ten minutes of me playing:
http://youtu.be/9kmb_bY6nts

Susan