Post by Pibk in Uroboros comments

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Haihai,

what a great start to a story, I enjoyed it a lot and am figuratively starving for more :> -insert a whole bunch of raving about all the great things people before me have already pointed out-

I have a few questions and "critiques" after that (more like minor wishes).

Questions:

1. "This game will be free to play in its entirety" - I assume this is a passion project of yours, is / will there be any way to support you?

Whether that be financially, with art or fan-art, maybe even emotionally showing support.

(I wouldn't even know how to 'donate' here on itch without the download popup, which is not on your site)

2. Is there any way to keep updated with the progress and/or release notifications/reminders?

(I tried joining the discord but the link seems to be dead, also I honestly don't know how Tumblr works nor even have an account, so if Tumblr would work for that please enlighten me :>)

3. How will the 'release' -for the lack of a better term- work?

Will it be one big one with essentially a completed game, or will it be episodic just adding a chapter every so often, or something entirely different?

Critiques (actually just wishes):

1. You have got some incredible art available outside of the game atm, is there a chace it might be added into the game itself in some way or another?

2. I think someone before stated that they were missing audio, which while not needed can add a lot if able to execute well on it. (I'd especially recommend giving the free demo of 'Our Life: Now & Forever' a play, it has really cool dynamic music where I had to scroll up and down -to go back and forth chronologically- to even really notice the layers that started and stopped when for example a character showed up)

But audio is a very hard thing to get right, so my personal opinion -not like it's worth much, just food for thought- would be that having audio is only really worth if it is good enough to support the rest of the experience, which is a-helluva-alotta work.

3. How could you not have had 'Eternity' as a preset name for the MC honestly it writes itself and doesn't even sound bad for a name. :>

All in all I want to say, I think you really got something here and it's a crime that you plan for it to be free.

Mistyrious190 days ago(+5)

As for your questions;

1. Yes, it is a passion project! A disclaimer that I do truly believe that authors should be compensated for their creative works. It is personally important to me to share my story with as many people as possible. I love reading and writing stories, and I love that everyone and anyone can access them. The downside to this, unfortunately, is that real life distracts me from this passion of mine, even when I want to do nothing but focus on it. The best way would be to find a way to support myself financially, but I'm stubborn about not receiving donations or tips despite paying 50-300% additional commercial fees on all the artwork I commission.

I've really, really thought about using a donation platform in the past, donating a majority of the profits to charities I care about, and keeping as much as I need to cover taxes + pay for a nice cup of coffee. The moment I accept money for this game, though, I really worry that it will change it for me!

2. The discord is closed for now, sorry! I want to make it available when I am more active again.

Tumblr is the best way to keep updated. You don't need an account to view posts, and you can always submit questions anonymously! I post infrequently, but that is the first place I write anything. Check in every few months to see if I say something of note there!

Itch.io is the best for actually content updates since I also write update posts here when anything of substance is added. More insignificant ones or insights to the lore or characters are on the blog.

3. I plan it to release the work on a chapter-basis! On a tangential note, I don't plan on making this a series; I want a complete work that I can keep adding updates towards, similar to the development of Stardew Valley post-release. I hate this comparison since I feel unworthy, but that is the model of development I want to strive towards. Updates until completion, and updates even afterwards!

As for your critiques:

1. You're absolutely right! At the initial release, the codex and stats page were the most rushed aspects that I added as placeholders. The story itself was the focal point. Of course I should've known how important those things were to the experience.

Next time, I will aim to implement the wonderful character art into the game, but I need to really consider how to make a pleasing character and worldbuilding codex!!! That will take me forever.

2. I just answered the previous comment in detail about music with your post in mind! There is definitely a lot to consider regarding actually doing it correctly. When I add it, I will be very careful with it.

3. BAH, so on the nose, but maybe I'll add it just for you!!

Thank you so much for your detailed comment, and I hope I answered it all with as much enthusiasm,Pibk! <3

Pibk188 days ago(+3)

Thank you for your answer!

Yeah I do get that, I feel like once you start accepting money -especially monthly over something like patreon- you start to put yourself under a lot of additional pressure. (Maybe after the release you can make it so it's downloadable on itch and people can donate if they want to :>)

Then I am gonna keep a lookout on Tumblr and maybe you can let us know on there if/when the discord is open again, that'd be great!

A bit of a combination of 'critique' 1&2, I saw in your reply to dollface444 you mentioned you like the differentiation from Visual Novels, which I absolutely get and makes me rethink my previous comment about the art a little.

I mainly made that 'critique', because I confused some characters -not the best at remembering names- in the beginning and a face popping up the first time you see the name could help a lot, especially when you are making choices about their identity right after!

Side note, I love it when people/characters go "BAH, ...." always makes me laugh! But yeah it is very on the nose, but when aren't gods in mythology very on the nose? ;3

And thank you for you very in-depth answer! You answered with great enthusiasm <3

itch.io

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