Indie game storeFree gamesFun gamesHorror games
Game developmentAssetsComics
SalesBundles
Jobs
Tags
(+1)

I like responding in depth, but for my general impressions, I want to say I like it well enough. In this story the fantasy elements don't seem to have any purpose (especially if you choose to have Kalzrak fight the werewolves), and the first paragraph did, frankly, a terrible job introducing the world. It is mostly a shame, because the sci-fi elements shown gave a great impression of the world. I also don't feel convinced that there is a good chemistry between Kalzrak and Clash. The one asked something, and the other said something back, before asking his own question.

That the first paragraph is kinda bad comes down to a lot of generic terms, Fantasy worlds and Magic, which say very little on their own. The second half is more specific, but it feels off in what points it focuses on. What is the relevance that the non-human creatures all came from mutated humans (for some reason specifically 'punks')? Why should I know this before the story starts (Kalzrak introduces it later with no issue.) It is also definitely not what I expect from the description on the itch.io page, where nothing indicates that it is a fantasy world.

In general the writing is good, except I find the point that the magic is shown off very clunky. The fighting did not have anything resembling tension, which was probably the point, so kudos to that. During Clash's first conversation, there were a few things that felt weird. I got confused, because he talks casually about becoming sentient, I expect that was a route thing that just happens sometimes. But later, Clash acts like he was the first robot to be sentient.

Very specific points:
“The mysteries of natural selection” I found this line funny, because as far as I get it, there isn't much mystery about natural selection. 
 Probably uncover, and not incover.
I wouldn't call Clash telling his backstory a “revelation”

I hope you found my comments useful, and good luck with the next visual novel!

A lot of the weirdness can be chalked up to this being a teaser for two different projects while trying not to spoil a lot for either one.  Also, me trying to learn Ink without overwhelming myself.  The whole reason its a fantasy world is because Kalzrak (the visual novel) was set in one (as for why THAT one is set in a fantasy world, it was originally a Skyrim mod that I switched to its own thing).  Clash is technically the first sentient robot of this universe, with Kalzrak being built centuries after him.  Weird timeline shenanigans and all that.  The 'incover' thing was straight up a spelling error I didn't catch, whoops.  Glad you found  the "mysteries" line funny, that was meant to be a bit sarcastic.  So yeah, there's definitely a lot I could've/should've done better, mostly in the "clarifying what's going on NOW and not just assuming people will start with or go back to another project" area.  There's always next time I fiddle around with Ink.

I cannot tell you how grateful I am for the analysis!  I don't really get to share my writing with people IRL who could criticize my stuff, and a lot of time comments will just be like "that was neat!" (which, not complaining, those are lovely too, but they don't really help with skills-building).  Not only is it great to see someone cared enough about my project to analyze it like this, but that the analysis was done constructively to point out all the pros and cons.  Things like that really help me figure out what to do for the next project, and keep me improving.  So again, thank you so much for taking the time out to do so!  You really made my day!  

(+1)

Thank you for your kind response. I do enjoy trying to understand why certain story elements do or do not work for me, and I am happy you saw value in my thoughts. In light of your response, I want to restate that the way Clash was written, it did not feel like he was the first sentient robot. Having it given more thought, I think for me it is the confusion of how much Clash actually knows. While reading the story, it felt like the time between Clash proving himself and him getting locked in the box wasn't that long. The part about Clash having had a couple human assistants did not come across as a long time, more that he had difficulty finding an assistant for more then a couple of years. Due to this short time, I expected Clash to have limited knowledge (as in only in those years he was active).