Post by Mara-Vertin in Background Art Overhaul and Progress on the Game comments

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Hello Jay!

I hope you are doing well.

But just to make one thing clear: I am not a potential customer ... I see myself more as a future customer. 😉

Seriously, it's good to hear that the Steam NextFest helped more people find out about your game. That's always the first hurdle.

Now I'm really interested to see the new backgrounds! Also, a map for the area sounds like a great idea. I always like that because it helps to follow the characters and visualise where everyone is or has been at a certain time (Professor Plum with the candlestick in the billiard room).

Oh, and ... I'm already theorising about the end of the demo and now you're telling me I might miss the whodunit? That's a bit mean, don't you think? 😒😆

So, yeah, I'm still curious to see how the story continues. Also nice to hear about the possible release date! That would be sooner than I expected. Keeping my fingers crossed.

~ Mara

JayzonBH255 days ago

Hi Mara!

Future customer does indeed have a better ring to it. 😁 Once SoB is published on Steam, if I can make a bundle, I'll try to make a "JayzonBH Visual Novel Bundle" or something right away. So if you already own Dreamwalker, you'll get a discounted price—as I'm sure you know, the way Steam bundles work is that if you already own something in the bundle, you can still buy the bundle and get the discount on the products you didn't own.

I was just discussing the map feature yesterday with a friend who's been beta-testing the game—we talked about whether the map should always be accessible after it's acquired. He not only thought it should, he even suggested putting an 'X' marking the spot where the current scene is taking place. I really liked this idea, but it would be an absolute pain to set it up for every scene. 😀 Still, I'm seriously considering it.

As for the whodunit, there's always the option for another playthrough. 😅 No, but you’ll probably want to clear all three main branches anyway, because each reveals unique insights and details you won't get otherwise. And like I probably mentioned before, while it's possible to reach the true ending the first time around, I'd say it's extremely unlikely.

Huge thanks for your continued support—it really does mean a lot!

- Jason

JayzonBH254 days ago (1 edit)

A little update to my previous reply—I already implemented the "X marks the spot"-feature in the game. I compromised a bit and it now shows the approximate location based on the scene, which I think works reasonably well and is informative enough. 🙂

Mara-Vertin253 days ago

Haha, a bundle would be super nice! Thanks for that! The game is on my wishlist, so I'll definitely get a message when it comes out.

Several playthroughs are a must, of course. I want to find out everything! Also, the bad ending usually gets me first, so I'd have to play at least until I make it through the game alive. 😅

One thing I'm curious about: are the decisions in your game all tied to a possible ending or are there some that are more, shall we say, cosmetic? Basically just to deepen the MC's personality? I like the inclusion of (some) choices that don't change the outcome of the game, but I know of other players who don't seem to like that, so I was interested to see what your opinions are.

Showing the approximate location of the scene sounds like a good compromise. I just realised that I haven't thought too much about how to implement such a feature and how much work it would be to set it up. I just thought: Hey, that would be neat! 😙

JayzonBH253 days ago

A large majority of all choices affect something, but there are a few that are just for flare, or cosmetic like you said. I don't want to spoil any actual choices, but for example there is one choice that deals with the mc's morality, but doesn't have any long-lasting effects. At least for now. 😉

And don't worry—getting those "bad endings" first is a proud visual novel tradition for the few honest players! 😅

itch.io

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