This game is way too kinetic. There are choices, but they really don't feel like they affect the story at all. And I understand that this is a visual novel, but there is way too much emphasis on reading and not enough on visuals.
I should be able to understand what was going on and I was thrown off so bad one the crow started talking about a war.
I appreciate the effort put in this project, but there's too many cons (personally) that make me unable to enjoy this experience.
Viewing post in Sileo: Tales of a New Dawn comments
Frankly, I agree. Sileo was my first proper writing project, and with hindsight it's easy to see a lot of what's wrong with it. I've grown a lot working on Sileo, and one of the most difficult aspects of that growth is looking back on prior work for my current project and realizing it's no longer up to the standard I hold myself to. The standard continually rises, and so older works consistently fall short. I've already committed to remaking certain older content and even teased some other possibilities... the scope of which stretches to the majority of everything I've already done.
I don't know if I'll ever be completely happy with my work, but so long as my work continually improves, I can take solace in that.
I am curious about what aspects you felt were visually lacking, however? Sileo is a collaboration as opposed to a visionary working with hired contractors, and so artwork costs and such aren't a factor in our pipeline - we've frequently produced bespoke CG artworks, backgrounds and even sexual scenes for things many other projects would consider a wasteful expense solely because our artist CurryCatz was paid a share as part of the team rather than being commissioned. I am however acutely aware personally that our visuals tend to be especially static, an animator is at the top of our list for who we'd love bring on board our team, but we've never been in the financial situation to be able to do so, especially now with how hostile everything is to NSFW creators. Either way, I'd genuinely like more feedback on why the visuals weren't to your satisfaction - it's a genuine surprise to me, as I always felt our VN had visuals well beyond what a 2-person project usually would. The insight could help us to improve things in the future.
Thank you for actually replying back.
I will admit that I was just angry because I was held accountable for cheating in one of the routes that I took (a choice that I made in-game), but nothing happened to me when I cheated on the twink and the bar owner. It bothered me that there were a lot of non-linear aspects that were overtaken by only reading.
Non-linear visual novels are definitely games I enjoy, so that could also be a reason for my frustration.
I just like making choices that genuinely affect the progression of the story. Making it my story. Helping me feel like I'm apart of the cast of characters.
Branching routes are a major component of future updates with the two remaining routes featuring these elements heavily. I also hope to incorporate these elements into both of the already existing routes. We’re still on hiatus at the moment, but we’ve done a lot of planning in anticipation of our return and when things pick back up, we’ll have a much more dynamic and responsive story to show for it. We’re shooting for a player agency first approach, less massive walls of linear text and more dynamic scenarios that respond to decisions, both made in the moment as well as considering those made throughout the route. I’m hopeful that people will be receptive to this new approach once we begin rolling these updates out.