Post by AnonymousRPGDeveloper in Sinful Testament (Demo) jam comments

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I'm jumping the gun a little and testing some of the early entries! The link below is a Google Doc with my real-time thoughts.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/186dos60SCV9rsTroyD4QBZ9OTChG6d2akrjuTiEm5_k/...

So, coming off this as someone who doesn’t really engage in the otome genre does put me in an interesting but difficult position. On one hand, since this isn’t my type of game, my enjoyment of it should be a shining praise. On the other hand, I don’t have a lot of reference to compare it to, and that makes it difficult to measure how well it weighs up against other entries in the genre. At risk of sounding a little tactless, there’s a chance that I actually like otome games and just didn’t realize it, and this being one of the first ones I’ve played appeals to me not because it’s exceptional in its class but simply because I don’t know any better. There is also the other side of the equation, that perhaps this appeals to me because I’m not an Otome fan, in which case that may mean that it could be unappealing to your target audience that is actually interested in the genre. I don’t really think either is the case, but it’s food for thought with the position I’m in.

Now, the art is obviously great. It’s basically professional quality, and it really stands out especially in a 100% human made game. It’s easy to see a game like this and silently wonder if the developer was using generative AI to pump it out faster, but there’s a clear sense of love and passion that went into this that has me inclined to trust you. The art is really good!

The story compelled me a good deal as well! I chuckled and scoffed a little at first with the army of pretty boys all flaunting their gimmicks to me as the protagonist started to get a feel for her situation, but as things got moving I was really invested in this isekai protagonist’s superpower not being something dumb like having modern technology or an expertise in video games, but her genuine and honest intelligence on historical subjects, which I found made her really compelling. At the beginning she seems a bit meek and passive, which is a reasonable and human reaction to her situation, but once she figures out how she can leverage her skills, the change in confidence is natural and exciting, almost empowering. I’m like, heck yeah girl, you know way more than any of these pretty boys, show them just how useful you are! I’m really rooting for her, and by the end when the demo concluded I let out an audible “awwww” because I really did want to see more, which is honestly something I wasn’t expecting going in.

The audio is all serviceable, nothing stuck out to me as especially bad (although the opening musical number made me wince a little bit, that is once again a matter of personal preference rather than quality) and some of the music choices were really good. I especially liked the green fella’s theme (I’ve forgotten his name, my apologies) and the way it incorporated Chinese instrumentals on top of the otherwise Western guitar heavy sound. It’s good stuff!

The characters are, for the most part, relatively surface level and tropey in the short time I spent with them, but that’s understandable given this is a smaller chunk of the story. We have our bad boy, the smart one, the heart of gold, the happy one, and the quiet stoic one. I didn’t get enough time with greenie to figure out what his schtick is, but needless to say these are archetypes we have seen before. Regardless, it ain’t broke, and I think the characters were enjoyable for what they are. I am a little inclined to move towards the Will route just because I have a penchant for intelligent characters, but I was compelled by Dan’s attitude and hope that even if I take the Will route romantically, that won’t prevent Dan from being friendly and honourable. It’s especially good for a game like this to have some tension between routes, to make the decision of who to court more meaningful.

Overall, while it isn’t my type of game, I had a lot of fun with this anyway! I think my feedback will be less helpful than feedback from someone more experienced in the genre, and in hopes of helping that out I’ve recommended the game to a few friends who I know enjoy this type of thing a bit more than I do. Nonetheless, I had a good time and even left wishing it would go on a little longer, which is about as good as you can get from a playtest! Great work, I’ll leave a proper score when the rating period begins!

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Haven of Souls10 days ago(+1)

Thank you so much for such detailed feedback! I’m really happy you enjoyed the demo! ^^

I actually don’t get feedback from male players very often, since women are the main target audience for the game. My deepest apologies if I’ve made the wrong assumption about your gender, though! Either way, I was really glad to hear this kind of perspective from someone a little more “outside” the usual target audience. :3

As for some of the questions and points you brought up:

1) The intro is a separate video rather than something rendered entirely in Ren’Py.

2) Funny enough, I actually tried to make the scrollbar less noticeable on purpose, because both I and my testers usually instinctively try scrolling first. XD But your feedback made me realize that this may not be obvious to everyone, so I’ll keep it in mind!

3) Some additional answers and little details about the protagonist’s personality and background can be found in the Notes. From your feedback, though, I’m guessing you didn’t really read them, which I absolutely don’t blame you for! They’re entirely optional extra content and aren’t supposed to be required reading to understand the main story.

4) The galaxy shader issue is actually quite strange. Neither I nor any of my testers have encountered performance problems with it so far. From your mention of zooming in through the browser, I assume you were playing the browser version, but could you confirm that? The downloadable build hasn’t shown this issue during testing, so I’d really like to figure out whether this might be specific to the web version.

5) Your comment about the text size is also the first complaint I’ve received about it so far. I’ll be collecting more feedback throughout the festival and looking at the overall picture before deciding whether it needs adjustment, but thank you for bringing it to my attention!

6) As for the genre itself, Sinful Testament does have all the core features of an otome game, but it’s also much more plot-focused and generally more ironic/sarcastic than many other games in the genre. I’m creating it very much “for myself” in that sense, and I’ve actually been told more than once that I have a rather “male” way of thinking despite being a woman. XD

So in some ways, Sinful Testament probably is a fairly niche otome. But don’t worry, there are definitely plenty of women who really enjoy what I’m making! And of course, I’d be absolutely delighted if male players could enjoy the story just as much. :3

So, once again, thank you very much for taking the time to read my story and leave such a warm and thoughtful review. Feedback like this is one of the reasons I keep putting so much of myself into this project. ^^

And thank you as well for recommending the game to your friends. That genuinely means a lot to me!

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AnonymousRPGDeveloper10 days ago(+1)

Yo! You are correct that I didn't really read any of the notes. I think I clicked the first New York one and found it a little wordy and decided I only wanted to click additional notes if it was for a concept I needed more context for. Often the notes were highlighted for subjects I already felt familiar with, so I was like "I know what that is" and didn't read them.

I was playing on Browser when I had that issue with the galaxy shader. Just to be thorough, I booted up the game just now on the downloadable Windows version, and didn't have any problem with it at all. (The animation would freeze briefly in between text boxes, but I don't think that was a performance issue). I don't know RenPy well enough to understand its limitations, but it could be worth looking into a way to check if the player is on browser, and reducing the animation accordingly. I would recommend waiting and seeing if other players report issues on browser as well before doing anything too drastic, but obviously having it completely freeze my computer is pretty major!

The text size problem was also simply because I was playing on browser, where the window is very small when I'm not full screened (and the only reason I wasn't full screened was to ensure I could access my control panel in the event of another freeze). When I played it briefly on the Windows version, the text size felt comfortable to me, but I didn't play enough to have a strong opinion on that front. If nobody else complained about it, then it's probably fine! Maybe a larger window on the Browser build would be appropriate though, if you're able to reasonably control that.

I really respect your philosophy on making this for yourself, and I am totally in that same boat with my own projects. Regardless, this is a very well made game and I hope it reaches its audience! I know I enjoyed it, at least!

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