Post by Raven in Esoteric comments

Viewing post in Esoteric comments

The artwork is pretty good, and the story starts off interesting enough.

I LOVE that you have a choice to not go there and end the game early! 😂
(In a pretty bad ending too. lol)

It's always nice to have choices. Even horrible ones.

....all the choices seem to lead to the same result tho.
(I'm not sure about the robot, but I tried everything for the seller and the entertainment lady.)

I DO notice a sadly quick ending with zero romance options tho.
(In the cabaret place anyway.)

I like Sui. ^_^
Kinda sad he wasn't AS sketchy as he seemed, but he's not exactly straight-laced either, so I'll take it. lol

Too bad it ends as soon as you start the job.

It's a nice game, but I'd love to see a longer version of it.

I feel like this game has the potential to be so much more than it actually is.

undeadluciel158 days ago

Heyo, I really appreciate your comment! It means a lot to everyone on the team that you enjoyed this little game we threw together in two months. If we have the time, we will definitely work on more of the game!

Regarding Sui and Cosima's endings, they each have 3 different endings, but you need a very specific combination to get to their good ones (they were a pain to code).

Once again, thank you for checking out our game, have a wonderful day!

Raven158 days ago

Really? Cuz as far as I can tell, you just need to do everything right. All the endings I labeled were 'good' endings.

(I will concede I cheated on the restaurant job tho.
But coercing people into buying sketchy stuff seem to come natural to me. lol )

If it was a pain to code the mini-game for the job tests... I don't want to put down your hard work, but it wasn't super-fun with the resturant thing at least. But that could be because I have a memory like a goldfish and no ambition to be a waiter. ^_^;
I did like the Sketchy dealings a bit more. (But it should be mentioned one of the games I really like is called 'Drug Dealer Simulator' lol)

I'd love to see more of this game, so I will keep my fingers crossed for it.

(I also keep my fingers crossed you'll dive into the amoral sides as an option a bit more. The best games have a wide variety of both good and bad endings, and let the player choose how moral or amoral they wish to be.
You can't be a hero if you can't refuse the chance to do evil, and you can't be truly evil if you never get the chance to refuse to take the good path. Choices are so important both in life and games. They teach you a lot about who you are as a person.)

The setting of this game is so full of opportunities.
I don't know exactly what the Night Market is, but it seems like a sketchy part of town, or red-light district or something.
And it actually isn't often moving to that part of town is paired with a Slice of Life-ish game.
In fact... I've never seen it before. Ever.

I could easily see the mc's struggle with her new, darker (and maybe even illegal or at least amoral) jobs, especially if she has friends and family from the richer side that will either worry about her or condescend her new move, her new lifestyle, and her new boyfriend (or girlfriend, if that cabaret woman becomes romancable.)

And we know next to nothing about her background, or why she suddenly went broke and had to move --I'd love to learn more about that too.
Did she have bad luck? Refused to rely on her controlling parents? Gambling debt? Lost her cushy job because of a rumor that barred her from getting a decent job in the nice part of the city?
SO many options! ^_^

And some of those things from the past might come rear their ugly head in her new life too.
(If she was rich, maybe she refused to marry the snobbish guy her parents wanted, and he comes to try and drag her back home and threaten her and so on. Maybe there will even be a 'bad' ending where she gives in, and lives the cushy life with an asshole, wondering what would have happened if she hadn't given in.... lol )

I guess you could also go in a more adventure direction --but it's been done so many times for this setting.

Regardless tho, I'm sure that whatever you have planned will be great. ^_^

undeadluciel157 days ago

That's impressive that you got all the good endings first try! Yes, if we have the chance and time to work on the game again we'll definitely be diving into the more amoral decisions and we'll definitely try to expand more on the story of the town. Thank you for your suggestions!

I'll admit that the job tests was a pain to code, yes, but thank you for letting me know it wasn't actually that fun, I'll keep that in mind for the future!

Raven157 days ago

Ideas is my fortè.
(Enough so that I was stuck in art-school until I dropped out cuz everyone called me 'creative', and no one bothered to ask me what I wanted as a teen. lol)

Feel free to ask if you feel stuck. lol

If I were to make a suggestion; Focus more on the story than the in-game games.
The story is the main sell-point of any Visual Novel, with the artwork coming in second.
(And as far as I understand, many background packs can be bought...somewhere. And most people don't even notice.
Dev's are far more invested in tricky details and originality than the average reader is.)
Sound and voice-acting is below all of the above too --more the cherry on top of an already good cake, than a vital ingredient.
Without the cake itself (that is to say the story), no amount of cherries can save it.

And you clearly have an excellent premise, and is good at writing the story.
The artwork was plenty of good enough as well.

So don't stress the problematic coding so much.
It's a nice detail, but not as important as the story.

(And if you ever decide to add the hellish nightmare that is mini-games, or worse; puzzle and memory games *shudders* PLEASE make a button to be able to skip them. >_>;
Some people enjoy them, but many other don't, and personally I avoid them like the plague.)

I shall send a prayer to Satan for you to get time to work on the game then. ^_^

I definitively want to see more of of it.

itch.io

Viewing post in Esoteric comments