Please, consider adding "Slice of life" tag.
I also suggest, if it's possible, to display previously shown messages differently, like by using different background color. So it would be possible to quickly determine if it's possible to skip the message or not.
I noticed that the game is very peaceful and life in it is easy. In My Humble Opinion the game needs more drama and hardships.
I added that tag! I didn't realize Itch had Slice-of-Life as an option.
Our Life is made to be a relaxing experience at a time when real life is so stressful and upsetting . That's what people appreciate about it. Adding hardship into OL would essentially ruin the game, aha. It'd be like making Animal Crossing a more harsh experience. You might want to look into our prior visual novel project, Lake of Voices. That one is all about hard times.
Okay, I understand. =) The game is supposed to be cute and wholesome. But please, be aware that there exists the flip side of the coin. Due to this requirement I can't f*ck up life of my avatar, no matter how hard I try (and I tried). And it makes me, as a player, feel powerless, that all my choices don't matter, that this game is fundamentally a kinetic novel, that tag "meaningful choices" isn't suitable for the game. I feel demotivated to give the game second playthrough, knowing that my choices will make too little of difference.
I heard that in philosophy of religion (or was it theology?) there is thought that the fall of man happened because Adam and Eve were given free will, making them able to do a wrong thing. It caused them to fall short of perfection needed to stay in paradise. As the God(s) of game universe you brought the main character of the game back into paradise, but you also had to took their freedom of will as entrance fee.
I'm sorry, I'm really not sure how to try talking to you about this. I'm feeling confused. It's so easy/frequent to influence the game that almost no two playthroughs are likely going to be exactly the same. It's not at all kinetic. Yes, the many alterations are fun and pleasant rather than only some being good and some being bad, but that doesn't make them pointless choices- they're still fun and pleasant. That is the point. This game simply isn't gonna punish players for creating the unique, highly customized life that they want to live. It's not a game where you have to guess at which choice is correct and have something unpleasant happen to your MC if you pick the wrong answer. People who want to ruin everything will instead have their plans ruined, and I'm sorry that's the case for you. But again, this is a VN with a similar vibe to Animal Crossing, not GTA, haha. The choices are there to let people have a nice time and fit the world to their own personality that doesn't have to be the same as anybody else and to be rewarded for being whoever they want to be. That is meaningful to a lot of players. If you don't think that's true, please read the comments of other people on this page.
It's totally understandable if you don't want to play a wholesome life VN. As I said, there's always Lake of Voices. But no matter what, wholesome VNs and wholesome life sims and wholesome media experiences in general do get to exist for those who want them.
Also, I don't get what this has to do with religion, I don't know what to say about it ^^;
"It's so easy/frequent to influence the game that almost no two playthroughs are likely going to be exactly the same."
Yes, but as far as I can tell plotwise the result is still the same. Imagine that there is kinetic VN game in detective genre. Now suppose the developer gave the player ability to customize what the detective drinks, coffee or cocoa, and what color of the tie that they wear, black or dark-blue, thus allowing for more of self-expression of the player. Will the game stop being kinetic? From point of view of my understanding of what kinetic novel is - no. I understand kinetic novels to be visual novels where the player can't influence the plot, even temporarily. Let's me emphasize the ending doesn't need to change for non-kinetic novel. Consider this alternative: the player is given a choice somethere in mentioned above hypothetical detective game that either will lead to folllowing a false lead or following the right lead. If they follow the false lead, then the criminals will have time to track down and muder the key witness, thus leading to a substory where the detective does much more of research and deduction to compensate for missing info. If they follow the right lead, then it will lead to adrenaline-filled substory about race against time, where the detective will rush to reach the key witness before the criminals and then transport them into a safe place in one piece. Will it still be a kinetic novel? Not from my perspective because the player can get two different plots, based on if they follow the right or the false lead, although both plots have the same ending (the criminals get caught).
"Yes, the many alterations are fun and pleasant rather than only some being good and some being bad, but that doesn't make them pointless choices- they're still fun and pleasant"
I'm afraid you misunderstood me here. I don't believe that choices are meaningful only if some of them are good and some of them are bad. Far from it. For me choices are meaningful only if they can influece the plot, even temporarily. Whatever whey would bring good or bad consequences is another question. You seems to interpret "meaningful choices" differently, as any choices that let the player to express themselves.
"This game simply isn't gonna punish players for creating the unique, highly customized life that they want to live."
Ah, I see your game design philosophy now. Your taget audience are people who value choices as way of self-expression and who, at the same time, like wholesome gameplay. You give them choices that are inconsequent plot-wise and ending-wise, but that allow them to express themselves. (The pinnacle of this approach is main character appearance customization screen. It's not only inconsequental plot-wise, the player literally can't see results of this customization for 99.99% of the game) People who mainly value choices as a tool for ends different from self-expression (like me. Seems like I just wasn't your target audience, pure and simple!) will likely feel like they have many choices that don't matter, thus not willing to make them in the first place. Also, they wouldn't mind to get some narrative setback for their choice, while self-expressionists would feel punished for their self-expression, even if this affected neither plot nor the ending.
"People who want to ruin everything will instead have their plans ruined, and I'm sorry that's the case for you."
Just clarification, I tried to ruin everything not because I wanted to make the main character suffer, but because it's the easy and sure way to test how consequent choices are. It's far easier to break status-quo by making a bad choice rather than making a good choice.
"If you don't think that's true, please read the comments of other people on this page. "
When I commented about your "Meaningful choices" tag I didn't imply some kind of objective meaninglessness. I meant that this tag is a lie for me personally. I simply don't value self-expression enough for incosequent choices to be meaningful to me. But again, I'm not a part of your target audience.
Have a nice day!
I appreciate the detailed explanation of what you meant! I had misunderstood and thought the problem was not being able to have bad conclusions happen. In that case, I would say Our Life does have those types choices that you're talking about. Not all the time, but not never either. If you play the game once you won't have seen all there is to see. The game requires multiple playthroughs to get all the content is has. It's not only aesthetic tweaks, though there are many of those too.
It's just in Our Life the impacts you control are based on the MC's and love interest's developed personalities, relationships, interests, and chosen activities, rather than plotlines. Such as choosing between getting a scene where you call a friend at home vs. getting a scene where you hang out at the beach, or choosing to tell the neighbor boy about his dad paying you to be his friend vs. keeping that a secret, or whether you have a crush on him vs. just thinking of him as a friend, or if you decide to panic and get frantic vs. simply remaining calm after losing something important, etc. All those have long changes on what you end up seeing and you'd have to play again, making different choices, to see the other side. And there are multiple ending scenes, but those are also based on the relationships and interests.
With that said, I'm not trying to change your mind about playing the game. I just wanted to answer your comment with what you had originally been talking about. I know that not everyone has fun with ways OL can be changed, that's understandable. Thank you for commenting!
