Aloners [GxB] (a post-apocalyptic romance)

[virszka]

The morning after they get lost in the red cloud, when Trash suddenly got unusually quiet and unable to finish his sentences, I stopped, stood up, walked away from my computer, found my boyfriend, and said "This game is about to f*ck me up, I need a hug." I was 100% sure I'd messed something up and turned Trash into a mutie. Really really glad that didn't wind up happening, but OH MY GOD SO MANY EMOTIONS.

Oh man I thought the exact same thing and

I was close to tears and even reluctant to move on with the game cause I grew so attached to Trash that I simply wouldn't be able to handle him turning into a mutie - oh hell no. But.. on the other hand, can you imagine the despair if it was one of the routs? I'd cry myself to sleep for days.

Anyway, I was craving a post-apocalyptic game like yours, dear sonnet009, but holy shit it was better than anything I ever dreamed about. Aloners is tucked safe and sound on my laptop, not going anywhere in the near future, cause sure as hell I'm gonna replay it again and again and again.

I don't know, this story just gripped my heart.
So thank you~

[NiKaWo]

I really loved this. The idea was great and well executed. I liked being able to shape the heroine's personality and really enjoyed Trash(though I had the same suspicions as the people above me, talk about emotional terror) I really hope to see more in the future!

[Salmakia]

OH. MY. GOD.

This is by far the most realistic evolution of a relationship I've ever seen in an otome game.
Something I have experienced while playing some games is that the love part is almost imposed,
one minute he can't stand you and the next one you have him telling you how madly in love he is with you.
That, although flattering, it's pretty unlikely to happen in real life.

In this game you can actually see how the relationship evolves, there are ups and downs, like every couple, and
in the end of it I really didn't want to leave Trash! Besides, that final twist was simply MASTERFUL.

Thank you for sharing this piece of art with all of us!

[Melorice]

At first, I downloaded the game just because it seemed to be interesting, but I didn't expect the fact that I'll enjoy this otome game so much ! You did a great work on it. Really. I think it is in my top ten of best otome game now aha :')
I played to it two times and for sure, there are not the last !
The evolution of the relationship is so realistic and Trash is this kind of character that we are very attached to.
I needed a slap to be able to back to reality...

Thank you very much for this game! I think I will follow your projects from now on

[philip]

@sonnet009-

I had played the demo some time ago, and enjoyed it greatly. I somehow missed the release announcement of the full game, but stumbled across it early this morning (three am, I think it was). Have downloaded it, and am anxious to play it (as soon as I get some sleep). The demo was so well done, I'm sure that the complete game will be icing on the cake!

philip

Edit: Well got a little sleep, did what I had to do today, then sat down to go through this. WOW!!! a great story - so well done. I chose the approach of Jane being nice to Trash, and at the end, had the "good" ending. Want to go back and have her take a different attitude toward him, and see how that turns out. Like some of the posters, I was afraid that Trash's change in attitude after exposure to the red cloud meant that he was on the road to becoming a mutie. Glad that eventuality didn't occur to you, it would just have been one more way to mess with our minds! Seriously, this is a truly fantastic effort, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

[sonnet009]

virszka:

I'm glad I could give you what you were craving, then! Thank you for playing. :-)

NiKaWo:

Thank you! And, gosh, I really have accidentally emotionally terrorised people, haven't I? Oops...

Salmakia:

It's great to hear that you thought the evolution of the relationship was realistic. I mean, that was something I absolutely had to get right -- it was the whole point. Thank you!

Melorice:

Awww, thank you! Please look forward to what comes next! ;-)

philip:

It's been a long wait since the demo, eh? ;-) I'm glad you enjoyed the full game, and I hope you had fun playing with different personalities. Thank you for following Aloners for all this time.

[doodle]

This is not only the best VN I've played, but possibly one of the best games I've ever played! And I can be pretty picky x)
It's just so unique in it's style and atmosphere, you get sucked right in. I've been looking for VN where you can shape your own personality with lots of choices, so it goes without saying that this was exactly what I was looking for... and more.
The story is great, the build-up, as well as the music and dialogue is fantastic, and the artwork is also really good, even though we actually only get to see one character. I loved the fact that your protagonist wasn't visible, because it allowed you to experience everything first-hand. The fact that most of the game focused on these two people's relationship and character development was what kept me interested, because no matter what options you pick it always seems so genuine.

I really, really hope you make more of these. If you're planning to make another game, will you keep this style with creating-your-own-personality and all the choices? Please, PLEASE make another game with that concept, it was an amazing experience and made you feel like you were part of the story in a way no game have made me feel before. I've been going crazy trying to find another similar game after but it's not easy to measure up to I guess ;_;

The only thing I can criticize is the choice to make all the other characters faceless. It makes them look very... shady from the start. I don't know if you even had the intention of making the player warming up to them, maybe questioning whether we should trust them or Trash more etc., but it would've been really interesting if it weren't so obvious they were bad. As I said, maybe it wasn't your intention for the player to think whom to place their trust in, but I thought maybe you were leaning towards that seeing how you at one point had the choice to "Trust Trash because he's killed in self-defense", or "Thinking about all this". It was also a point in the story where Trash had acted a bit strange, and were afterwards you find out about his betrayal, so... maybe I was the only one, but I thought something seemed a bit fishy about him at that point xD

Anyway, a thousands thank you for this experience. Now I will go and search for something that maybe will help me to move on..... maybe D:

[sonnet009]

doodle:

Wow, thank you so much! Sounds like we've been looking for the same thing in the games we play, man. I really appreciate you telling me what worked for you, and what didn't -- it's immensely helpful. :-)

I totally take your point on the half-sprites for the other characters. It was partly a budget necessity and partly a stylistic choice to have Trash be the only character with a face, to reinforce the connection between you/MC and him, and to keep up the sense of "you two alone in the world" even when lots more people appear. But, you're right -- there comes a point in the story where MC's loyalties and Trash's honesty may be called into question, and that would've had more impact if Alpha and Gamma were people with faces who you could connect with. Ultimately, it just came down to having to sacrifice the dramatic tension of those moments to preserve the things mentioned above. It was an experiment, and I learned from it.

If you're planning to make another game, will you keep this style with creating-your-own-personality and all the choices?

I actually have a question for you, since you bring it up.

In a much larger project, with multiple romanceable characters and routes -- assuming that "Trash" levels of reactivity to your character are just not achievable in this bigger game -- how would you feel about still having lots of choices that let you put your stamp on your protagonist's personality, but those choices not being tracked long-term by the other characters? So, they would be mostly cosmetic, but would allow you to roleplay within the game without fear of "punishment" -- by being sent to the bad ending if you're too sassy, for example.

Each romanceable character would, instead, have one main issue that is important to them, and your attitude towards that issue would push you towards a particular ending.

I am currently working on a new project, and trying to balance these things, y'see.

[doodle]

Thanks for taking my feedback to heart it means a lot when you can discuss these things with the creator, and it's fun to do too.

Just so you know, I have absolutely no idea how these games are made, or how much blood, sweat and tears has to be put into them. But in the end, I can only speak from a fan perspective, and have no choice but to put my opinion there without any regard for this x)

I've played a lot of "choices matters" games before, because those are the ones I love the most. I find it kind of disappointing when you have all these choices to make, only to find out that in the end they didn't have much impact (relationship-wise). It's different with VN though, since they usually have a couple of endings, so the choices WOULD still affect the story and outcome... But, it's very special when your "smaller" choices, such as dialogue, makes other's see you differently, since that's what people would do, and it makes me feel a lot more while playing. And, if those choices would lead you to a "bad" ending, then to me that's just very interesting - you might even learn a thing or two about yourself in the process xD

That being said, "Aloners" worked so well because it was just one character responding to you (don't know about the other's really, but I figure they'd pretty much be the same no matter how you acted). If the same could be done in a game with multiple characters, that would be amazing, but maybe it's just not possible to do. So it would be understandable if you played a game like that without every choice affecting people's view of you; however, if you were to pick ex. a nasty option speaking to someone, and this person gets mad in the moment but acts totally normal the next time you see them, that would take away a lot from the game since it means that it's only the ending it will affect, not the time when you actually play... if that makes sense?

So, to summarize: I wouldn't say it needs to have as much impact as it did in Aloners, since this appears to be a much bigger project, but having it to some extent - maybe determine some relationships - would, IF possible, be incredible.

But I'm certain that whatever route you choose to take, the result is bound to be amazing. I played your other game just now and it's just heartbreaking ;_;


Oh, and also one question:

Can your attitude in Aloners really lead to a bad ending? I have no idea how different the responses from Trash can be since I only played it once, but I'm set on doing it again soon. Just curious if that was it or maybe some action at the end?

[sonnet009]

Thanks for giving such a detailed answer. It's definitely a question of finding a balance -- having Trash track so many aspects of your personality, plus remembering certain actions or events... it did become quite a coding nightmare as the script went on. I just don't think I could do that again for a game that had 5 different romance routes. However, I could certainly look into being a bit flexible with these mechanics. It's aaaall about the experimentation, right? heh.

Back to Aloners -- no, your attitude can't get you a bad ending. It'll just change Trash's attitude towards you, in turn. I wanted people to be able to play the character they wanted without worrying that it wasn't the "right" way. But you can change aspects of the good ending depending on the state of you relationship with Trash (in a relationship vs. not). And, for the bad ending, it actually only branches very late in the game, and in one specific scenario.

The final confrontation between you, Trash, and Alpha.

[doodle]

Exactly, trying new things is the only way you can develop! And yes, if it has 5 different romantic ways to go, it's another story altogether.

I see, now I'm reaaally curious... I have to go get that ending soon!

[qirien]

I think it's fun to try the different attitude choices, even if most of them don't affect anything. Or if they just affect one thing later, where a character says "You're so [highest_attitude]", etc. Sort of like Dragon Age; it helps you roleplay choices better and feel more engaged in the story.

[sonnet009]

qirien:

Yeah, that's true. The majority of dialogue choices in Dragon Age only affect the immediate moment, but that dialogue lets you shape and connect to your character. I think it really will be a case of experimenting on the balance between choices that are purely for roleplay purposes and choices that have impact. Thanks for your input, btw! :-)

[Virelai]

Oh my goodness. I saw this around last year, but I briefly passed it simply because it was an apocalyptic-themed VN. I cannot say how glad I am to have stumbled back around this and downloaded it.

The plot is intense, and it's engaging. It is by far one of the best written VN's I have ever read, literally. Like in all honesty, it's probably the best.

I just cant even. I just can't, like CAN'T. IT'S TOO GOOD.

I CAN'T LITERALLY. LIKE CANT EVEN HOW 3 SPEAK.

I'm so sorry for ignoring you like wow what was I thinking.

This is just, Imma just go and re-read this again, and again, and again.

Thank you so much, seriously.
It's great, wonderful, splendid.

[Ordog]

I found a plot summary on "English Otome Games" and thought "wth this' not an otome game, it's about a guy..." but after reading the mysteriously great (sorry for thinking that) comments, I just had to download it.

And I'm currently playing it: I couldn't wait to finish it to tell you how great it is !! At first, I just wanted to quickly go through it to contradict everyone's comments, but the writing style, the choices and, let's be honest, your character way of speaking kept me reading. And though I haven't finished a single play-through, I'm already planning on the next xDD
I didn't expect to laugh this much with a post-apocalyptic story ! Thanks a lot for providing such good quality game. I'll be stalking you !

P.S: Did I say that I really like your writing style ?
*back to game*