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Re: The Spirit Of Disaster (Competition 2012)
Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2012 4:57 pm
by papillon
(I have no idea if The Golden Hound is functioning correctly or not. Author, if you're out there, can you test it and email me? I will poke at it myself again in a bit to see if I've bungled your variables. Looking at the code... I think this was a mistake in the original.)
those two are the only ones not working. At least, I assume that Outlook of Spirit Commission wasn't supposed to have its spirit sprite missing... I mean, that kinda undermines the whole joke about the protagonist not having a sprite...
Yeah, the problem is likely something having to do with your particular computer/graphics card not appreciating certain functions.
Re: The Spirit Of Disaster (Competition 2012)
Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2012 5:44 pm
by Carassaurat
Dusted Star
Which one was that again: the one about Stardust fandom, both in and out of the game.
Ok, so I normally try to let these entries sit for a while to let the thoughts ferment, but I'm afraid I'll forget about this one if I do.
I've never read Stardust. I've never read anything by Neil Gaiman... Dusted Star kind of breaks down completely at that point, and I don't feel confident that I can say a lot of sensible things about it.
There's a lot of technical prowess on display here; too much, I'm inclined to say. The little click-to-continue head is impressive, but also distracting. There's no sprite tinting during the falling. And the resizing as the spirit walks up is a bit ugly, but that's Ren'Py's fault, I imagine. Credit where credit is due, the tinting of the sprite and background in the forest did mesh them together very well, that's impressive.
Another 'technicality', perhaps, is the presentation of the text. It makes liberal use of different speeds and pauses of various lengths. I've never seen it done like this before, and it's an interesting experiment! The idea is, I think, to emulate spoken language better, since we've got more options than plain text in a VN, after all. Regardless... I don't think it's a decision that pays off. It doesn't really take into account different reading speeds, and in general it's another of those things that are just too fancy and distracting. Which is sad, as I can only imagine how much work it took to apply this.
Lastly, the story. The narrator is odd. He's there for two meta jokes that don't quite fit with the tone of the rest of the visual novel. The so-called Supernatural Unveiling is mentioned so sparsely that it's easy to forget that it actually took place, and I didn't remember it when the Fae at one point showed up. Yet on the other hand, if all kinds of Neil Gaiman things (assuming they are?) have shown up, then Miu's assumption isn't that odd, and the initial dialogue doesn't make a lot of sense.
Re: The Spirit Of Disaster (Competition 2012)
Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2012 5:53 pm
by papillon
Walkthrough for 'Ariana' has been added to the second post.
Re: The Spirit Of Disaster (Competition 2012)
Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2012 5:58 pm
by LieselSolo
Outlook of Spirit Commision
It definitely made me laugh with its fourth-wall breaking and the way it poked fun at RPG and VN cliches. I also liked how it made fun of the contest restrictions (especially the comment about how the warehouse background was the best thing to use for the anime convention). However, it seemed a little too self-aware at times. Some of the scenes, such as when Boy steals Girl's panties and drinks them, made me roll my eyes instead of laugh - it seemed to jump out and say, "Hey look, you're reading a parody so of course there must be a panties joke!" It felt lame instead of funny.
The game had some clever use of lighting, especially when it darkened the office hall background to make it into a creepy tunnel - very creative. However, I'm not sure why it made no use of the spirit sprite (except for the "bonus scene"), especially since the game makes several references to her appearance. It got boring to just look at backgrounds for extended periods of time.
I would have liked more interaction - aside from the panties thing and the "sidequest," there aren't any menus - but fortunately, the text was very entertaining. Good job.
Re: The Spirit Of Disaster (Competition 2012)
Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2012 5:59 pm
by Anarchy
Re: The Spirit Of Disaster (Competition 2012)
Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2012 6:02 pm
by Anarchy
LieselSolo wrote:Outlook of Spirit Commision
However, I'm not sure why it made no use of the spirit sprite (except for the "bonus scene"), especially since the game makes several references to her appearance. It got boring to just look at backgrounds for extended periods of time.
I had the same problem too. Apparently, it's a graphic card problem. Can you see the sprite in
For Stellie, by any chance?
Re: The Spirit Of Disaster (Competition 2012)
Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2012 6:11 pm
by LieselSolo
I haven't tried that one yet. I assumed the sprite not showing was the game author's choice (since she DID show in the "bonus scene") but I could be wrong.
Re: The Spirit Of Disaster (Competition 2012)
Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2012 6:24 pm
by Carassaurat
Outlook most definitely has the sprite in the foreground pretty much the entire time, if everything works correctly. It's not as if you're really missing out on something with this static sprite you're more than familiar with, but it is, I'm sorry to say, a problem on your end.
Re: The Spirit Of Disaster (Competition 2012)
Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2012 6:25 pm
by papillon
No, the sprite is definitely there for most of us, it's just something weird is happening for you guys.
Possibly something having to do with the silhouette code is causing problems, since For Stellie also did something involving blacking out the sprite on one side? I really don't know, I've never messed around with those functions myself.
Re: The Spirit Of Disaster (Competition 2012)
Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2012 6:30 pm
by Anarchy
Might the version of Renpy we're using have anything to do with it? Or is that waaay off base? *clueless at coding*
Re: The Spirit Of Disaster (Competition 2012)
Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2012 6:32 pm
by LieselSolo
Okay, I'm playing For Stellie right now and the sprite's not showing up there either. Of course, that one's using NVL mode, so I'm not sure if the sprite would show up anyway.
Re: The Spirit Of Disaster (Competition 2012)
Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2012 6:34 pm
by Anarchy
LieselSolo wrote:Okay, I'm playing For Stellie right now and the sprite's not showing up there either. Of course, that one's using NVL mode, so I'm not sure if the sprite would show up anyway.
Nope, it's supposed to show up. At first I thought that it was supposed to look more like a book with background illustrations than a VN and I absolutely loved it, but then I saw OokamiKasumi's review and realized HOLY SHIT A SPRITE'S SUPPOSED TO BE THERE and then I was like waaaat.
It's sad, but it can't be helped I guess.
Re: The Spirit Of Disaster (Competition 2012)
Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2012 6:39 pm
by papillon
LieselSolo wrote:Okay, I'm playing For Stellie right now and the sprite's not showing up there either. Of course, that one's using NVL mode, so I'm not sure if the sprite would show up anyway.
It does, but in an itneresting way. Check
this review to see some screenshots.
Re: The Spirit Of Disaster (Competition 2012)
Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2012 6:41 pm
by papillon
Anarchy wrote:Might the version of Renpy we're using have anything to do with it? Or is that waaay off base? *clueless at coding*
I don't think that should matter since I built the distribution for 6.13 so unless you're using some weird way to launch the game instead of the usual standalone, it should be the same for everyone.
What OS are you using?
If you hold down shift when launching the game and change the graphics engine to use some of the different renderers, does it make a difference?
Re: The Spirit Of Disaster (Competition 2012)
Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2012 6:44 pm
by Anarchy
papillon wrote:Anarchy wrote:Might the version of Renpy we're using have anything to do with it? Or is that waaay off base? *clueless at coding*
I don't think that should matter since I built the distribution for 6.13 so unless you're using some weird way to launch the game instead of the usual standalone, it should be the same for everyone.
What OS are you using?
If you hold down shift when launching the game and change the graphics engine to use some of the different renderers, does it make a difference?
OH MY GOD PAPI YOU'RE A GENIUS HOW DID YOU KNOW!!?!!?!?
Force Angle/DirectX Renderer solved the problem completely!
I can now play
For Stellie and
Outlook of Spirit Commission the way they were meant to be played YAAAAY
Oh, and I'm using Windows 7. BUT YAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYY