Post by ActiveDayDreamer in OKAMI comments

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I figured you weren’t a native English speaker. That’s why I wasn’t harsh about the grammatical issues.

Also, I read a bunch of indie visual novels in my free time. What I see in other ones is the author being overly-descriptive about the setting or characters instead of focusing on the plot or character development.

That actually halts the story and makes the reading experience feel more slow and boring because it can feel like nothing is happening.

In your case, you didn’t do that. You actually had really beautiful descriptions, and your explanations of the setting and how it changed over time aided in the shift of tone and atmosphere, which I loved.

You described things but moved on. However, in contrast, your characters spoke a lot. I understand for story sake. In this case, less can be more in terms of dialogue.

However, I saw that out carefully planned out your story and cared about it, and when the writer cares, the reader cares too. Art can draw a new reader into the game (or turn them off from it), but it’s the story that makes them stay.

And I stayed and felt invested in the story. There was never a dull or boring moment. So, you should be very proud of yourself, and I am too.

I have created and published visual novels on here too through this account if you want to check them out, and my most recent visual novel is my longest one, and that is only 40 minutes long. That took me 3 months to start and finish with bouts of procrastination in-between. 😅

So, I understand the amount of work that goes into visual novel creation. Ultimately, you had an idea, brought that idea to life, and the game jam helped push you to the finish line. Most people don’t even make it through to completion.

So, all in all, you really did do a good job, and I’m excited to see more from you. 🤩

Finally, you did have a complete story, in spite of the unforeseen twist ending. It’s normal for indie devs to upload demos of their visual novels and games and to work on it over time, releasing a new chapter or build every so often. So, it’s whatever works for you and finding that motivation and drive to not only create but follow through on that creativity to completion, which you did.

I’m just glad you took my review well, as negative as it was. I was worried how you would react to my review. I hated leaving a lot of negative feedback about it, considering how much care and thought I could tell you put into it.

So, the fact that you took my review in stride and with positivity shows that you’re able to take constructive criticism and make better games because of it later down the road, and that goes a long way.

Just focus on optimizing this visual novel to fix the lags, freezes, and crashes.

Otherwise, keep up the good work! 🥳

RF PRODUCTION208 days ago

Whoaw. That's deep. I actually created SO SO MANY games in the past and they're not Visual Novel. They had lore and story in which most players didn't talk about. All they focus is game mechanics. I love how you see my vision!

I love to talk to myself (because I'm introvert) and I was my only judge during the early days of my worl (and sent them to my friends or even my family to test) and I always take into the shoes of the players who will potentially play my game in the future. I carefully and meticulously focus on their reaction of my story.

I made games because storytelling is my passion. More that developing a horror game, or farming game, I focus entirely my life on storytelling. That's why your comment is the FIRST-OF-A-KIND comment that talks about my story and ACTUALLY CARED!

I felt extremely happy knowing at least one or two people in the world cares for my work. While I believe it isn't the perfect and I still have more things to polish, I achieved my goal already — to at least make someone loved my work, or liked it.

That's my MAIN MOTIVATION to release fangames, and free games. I never would ask for donations because for me, The solid genuine feeling of my players are what matter to me. And seeing your comment? Damn. I never NEVER THOUGHT feeling this way!! I'm so thankful!!

Thank you for trusting the story. Thank you for TRUSTING ME 💗😘💗

Thank you for playing Okami,

RF PRODUCTION

PS. (I already seen your works and I love them!! I believe you're more of an expert than me, so I'm glad you liked my work! Such an honor!!!)

ActiveDayDreamer208 days ago (1 edit)

Hey, thanks for the compliments and replies! It warms my heart with gratitude! 😍

As of the moment, half of my visual novels are bite-sized reading experiences that can be read in less than 5 minutes.

This is because they were either made for game jams, I wanted to show off my art, or I couldn’t think of anything to expand upon the story and left them as is.

Also, that was me starting out making them and trying to keep them short and to the point because I overworked myself with the first one I published to itch.

The other main reason I would create mini VNs was because I would be taking 2 months or more making my longer visual novels that I wanted to publish something short in the meantime to give something out to the players and to my followers and for myself.

Now, after making visual novels for almost a year, I am at a point where I’m relying on my stories rather than game jams to push myself through to the finish line in the creation of them.

And that’s how I was able to start and finish my longer visual novels because I had that foundation of the story being written out that I could then create art and music with that vision in mind without fear of it failing or changing.

Of course, I learned the importance of scope through my projects, and my last one was definitely my most ambitious project yet.

Therefore, it’s important to think about how much is in your story and narrow down the characters, places, and plot points to make the visual novel more easier to manage and achieve.

That’s why I focus on short stories in particular because I can follow a plot diagram. Yet, most of my stories, if not all of them, are character-driven stories, too. So, I think about the why behind why characters are in this story, why they are doing what they are doing, and what is the main conflict in their lives that makes their story uniquely their own.

That’s how you can extract and give meaning to a story by making the plot of the story meaningful to both you and the characters of that world. Plot is simply a character trying to achieve a goal or desire of some kind, and something is in their way. The story ends when it reaches that conclusion.

Those are my words of wisdom anyway.

Regardless, I was thinking of making a YouTube video about my journey and the lessons I’ve learned from this side hobby of mine that is also a passion of mine too.

Even though I created more visual novels than you, you’re also ahead of the game too in terms of art, dedication, and programming knowledge.

I tried learning Godot, and I gave up early on. I’m still learning art, and I’ve yet to pick up my violin and learn music again. So, I have a long ways to go, but it’s about the journey, not the destination.

itch.io

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