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Thrawn

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A member registered Apr 28, 2017

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Cool, thanks! :)

I really liked this visual novel, there's a lot of creativity in there, specifically in the world building area (that nobody seems to mention). I like the setting so much, I'm craving a sequel to it! The technological gap between the two species sure was a cool idea, and I'd like to learn more about why the "goat people" would go as far as to build ark ships... fleeing their home world for a reason? I feel like there could be so much you could still do with this universe and the two main characters! Though I have to admit I was hoping for two routes being available here, but that's just me and my... specific interests talking. ;p

Now the (really) small piece of technical criticism: I'm a retro fanatic, so I usually inspect games and programs for their backward compatibility. I also fancy binary-hacking programs to make them work where they're no supposed to.

On the Steam page of the game you claim the VN would run on a potato and specify Windows XP SP1 as the oldest Microsoft OS capable of driving it. Typical for a Ren'Py game, they can usually all work on that platform. This is untrue for this one though; The game load-time links some NT 6.0+ libraries including bcrypt.dll, which is only available on Windows Vista and newer. I suggest either re-compiling the game targeting an NT 5.2 platform for 64-bit (XP x64, Server 2003 x64) and NT 5.1 for 32-bit (regular XP), or - and this would be much easier - specify Windows Vista as the minimum supported operating system on the Steam page. That'd just be editing one line of text. :)

Anyway, I'll leave a few coins around for this visual novel, it's definitely worth it! :)

The drive kinda scared me to death, lol. The car handling is quite... "unique", shall we say (a mix of boat and snowmobile? KB+mouse here though), so I was always afraid I'd crash and kill both me and my cute girlfriend while drifting around on the highway. ;) That's especially true since Skye expects me to look at her to continue the conversation during the drive... "God, girl, I seriously need to look at the road, or we're going to die any moment!!1" ;)

Thank god we both got to the cabin in one piece. ;p

It was really sweet and cute though, especially at the cabin! :)

On a side-note: I know nobody will be interested in this, but as the game bundles OpenJRE 11, it will fail to run on ancient versions of MS Windows (like XP). If you have an Oracle JRE/JDK 1.8 installed though, you can still run it: Open a cmd terminal, enter the game folder, and execute: javaw.exe -jar "game\game.jar". It'll work, doesn't need any Java 11 exlusive stuff. :)

Cheers!

Thank you for still maintaining the game!

PS.: I still like it a lot. :)

I even tried to play an asexual route, just to see how it turns out, but.. seems I can't stick to it. ;)

Downloaded it for free, playread through it, and it's sweet and cute. I really like my dorky MC girl here. ;) Came back to leave a little change on the counter, can't hurt.

PS.: I remember you now.. Not by your name, but by the VNs you have created... I've actually read every last one of them! :) Anyway, this kind of hearwarming, cute litte Yuri story is much appreciated. Maybe more so that you expected?

How did I ever miss this VN when I usually try to play and read everything that is Yuri? ;) Will try the demo today, and can already say (based on the comments below) that I'll most likely get the full version, too. The setup is exactly up my alley. :)

I just get frustrated far too easily these days I guess. ;)

Mh...,

I'm very much aware that this is just me being weak, but... I don't have the time for a ton of replays on my hands anymore. So I kept save games (about 1h of playtime's worth, roughly), but somehow I maneuvered myself into a bad end I couldn't get out of by loading them. Guess I got rid of the wrong persons in the first two rounds (though I managed to pick them just as I intended to).

Too bad there aren't more save game slots (pages? where are they?)...

Even googling "that code" didn't work for me. Lower case still didn't. Guess I'm not qualified at that point in the VN.

So I fear I'm out. I understand failing might just be an intended part of the experience, but this isn't FTL or Into the Breach, so I'd need to invest too much time. Heck, if even cheating can't get me there, then what? ;) Too frustrating to keep going.

Seems I'm the kinetic novel kind of person, branching ones just don't suit me...

Just wanted to play once and get some nice Yuri ending despite the horror. Guess that didn't work out for me. :( Picked the wrong VN. My fault, naturally, so future playreaders, take this (negative) comment of mine with a grain of salt. This VN might still be for you. Just isn't for me.

PS.: Don't hate me! It's just: I came here for Yuri, and left because of the pain. ;)

Alright, I've read it! :) Thank you!

Hello,

I wrote a small review for Crown Cauldron here, but now it's gone... There was a reply from Foleso, but now I can't read it anymore. Have you merged some pages or deleted / re-created them?

I just read through that whole post, and... well, honestly, I had no idea you were doing this as a full-time job! Most people I know are doing this on the sidelines in their free time while working a regular full time job. Or while being students, heh.

Frankly, you're more than charismatic enough, at least judging from our conversations. If I compare you to all other indie developers I've had contact with, in terms of charisma and openness, you're clearly in the top third at least, so no issues there.

It's gotta be a PR problem. I've seen maaany Yuri / LBGT+ Kickstarter campaigns by now, most of them advertised by the Yuri Empire (as was your game), and most went well. I'm not sure about Patreon (I greatly dislike running costs), but something like Kickstarter should work.

From my own customer perspective, I'm more likely to pledge higher amounts of money in the context of KS campaigns. It's like the eBay effect; As time's running out, you get that rush of emotions that just pushes you further in terms of spending.

I also think that the presentation of such a campaign (with videos and people explaining their ideas in the video, plus some demo footage) really matters. If it looks solid and trustworthy, I'm far more likely to pledge.

Other than that, I'm honestly shocked. Rose Seed Replica is such a sweet and also deep game (philosophically speaking), that I can't help but be disappointed that so few people got to see and play it.

Bottom line:

"[...] I wanted to make a unique, quirky, genre-defying, adorable, positive, inclusive, non-violent, deep, flaming gay game that no one else could make [...]"

You sure as hell did, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise...

Hmm, I should revisit it then! :)

What do you think, how much of a budget would be required to build this game? I mean, it has 3D graphics and all, so to do this properly (with green, toxic mist, ruins and trash lying around or something) would likely be a looot of work?

It would be interesting to hear what your estimates would be.

You know... This is probably never gonna go anywhere, but... I'm a sucker for postapocalyptic scenarios, and this could be a pretty good one!

The idea that you'd be sitting in your radiation-shielded bunker underground, searching for that other (lovable?) survivor using a remote-controlled rover on a toxic, irradiated surface? Yep, that's pretty atmospheric alright. Clearly, this demo doesn't do too much, it's like just the initial dialogue plus a rough presentation of the rover's controls in 3D?

But still, this is... very promising! I just think that the way I'm imagining a game like this.. it'd be a ton of work that'd be at least a few 10k€ heavy in terms of man(girl?)-hours.

If you would kickstart this, I'd be in though, maybe at about 30-50€ or so. Just saying. Because the basic concept is truly promising.

PS.: Why the hell is somebody like ME the first person writing a comment here? There's something wrong with this world... ;)

I just tested it with an affected savegame of mine and tried it out. And yup, I can confirm the fix is working!

Thank you! :)

Alright, deleting it is fine! Sorry for not emailing the stuff in the first place...

Thanks!

(1 edit)

Edit: Sorry, you said to email them, but I didn't read carefully.. uh. I can remove this post if you like, just say so If I should do that.

Alright, here it is, I've put the files on my home server. It's slow, but they're not big, so it should be ok.

*** SPOILER WARNING ***

The images are from later parts of the game, so people who haven't played yet might not want to look at them, despite there being no real text. They might also not wanna continue to read this post, as my bug descriptions most definitely contain spoilers!

Naturally, the savegames would enable people to take shortcuts, but people probably don't wanna do that. ;)

Files: [Savegames], [dialog bug 1], [dialog bug 2].

Bug report #1, "No more progress" / "Lilac disappearence":

To trigger the "no more progress" bug, please load saved game #20, and pick "Alien" as a response to Lilac's question. From there on out, you can still complete the present thing, but then, dialogs with Bryn, research and TV set will all be eventually exhausted of options. Lilac will be gone entirely.

Upon further examination, Lilac may have just retreated to her house (the one with the rose bush), never to leave it again. Because there's always "somebody inside" when trying to peek through the window.

You can also fast-forward to save game #29 or the newly created #104 to see the state where I couldn't make any progress anymore and where all dialog options are exhausted (should be the case for 104 at least).

Re-load #20 and pick "human" instead of "alien", and the game will continue on its merry way!

Bug report #2 (see image "dialog bug 2"):

I don't have a save game close to this, but this happened after Bryn asked me to explain some scientific theory to her. So while I was rambling about the big bang and how gravity might be negative energy, suddenly... this. ;) Made me giggle a little, because it was so totally out of place. ;)

This issue happened when I was still sitting in the "no more progress" situation as described in bug report #1.

Bug report #3 (see image "dialog bug 1"):

I still have a save game somewhat close to this one. Load #97. This happens during the "big reveal talk" after I had realized my big discovery and with Paradigm having offered me to explain all the rest.

Starting from save game #97, pick the following dialog options, in that order:

  • Continued researching it
  • How are you related to Intereon Intelligence?
  • Can you see into the future?
  • Have you two talked a lot about each other?
  • Are Bryn and Lilac related to Intereon Intelligence too?

Now follow the conversation for a short while and you should encounter it.

Maybe the exact order of answers doesn't matter, but that's how I did it.

There are also a few typos and grammar errors in the late game, mostly when talking to Paradigm, but I haven't made notes about those. They're not that big an issue, I'm thinking.

I hope my issues are reproducible for you. I have not tested the save games on a different installation / computer after all.

Thank you very much! :)

Ah, bugs happen. ;) I've loaded an earlier save game and I made a different dialog choice, which made the game work again. I'll try to find which exact save it was (I'm at ~100 saves by now), and attempt to re-create the exact situation.

As soon as that's done I'll send you a link to the saves and tell you which ones you may want to look at.

There were a few other (minor, non-blocking) issues, which I will then report too. :)

Unraveling the mysteries in this game is quite fun actually. By now, I managed to complete my research (fully, as far as I can tell, including detailed information provided by a certain someone). But I'm still too curious about what's behind that iris door.. ;)

Also, it's interesting that I could reach the same ending twice, but how I got there was wildly different, especially early on. That was a nice surprise!

I'll send you a message about the saves soon!

Thank you!

(1 edit)

Interesting, thanks for letting me know! :)

There is one thing bugging me currently though. Not sure if intentional, but it seems I somehow got stuck. My romance with Bryn doesn't progress anymore after the present I gave her and Lilac has completely disappeared (?!). My research is stuck too. Apparently I "need more time" before I can contine, because all the interesting parts have been analyzed, but something's "still bugging me".

All I can do is sleep, eat, collect holographic stars and read the "message of the day", of which I've seen all now, I believe.

I even started ignoring Bryn just to provoke a reaction out of her, but to no avail. ;)

There are no more dialog options with any of the remaining characters left, and I've inspected everything, even all the plants. The elevator door is still closed.

Maybe I broke the game with the dialog options I chose when we had that strange conversation with Lilac?

Also, the house next to ours appears to be inhabited now, but I can't get in, and nobody's coming out either.

Just sleeping, eating and reading old MotD's does get old after an hour or two of playing.

Did I encounter a bug, or is this an intentional gameplay mechanic to strain the player's patience?

Thanks!

(1 edit)

Uuhm... Actually, I have another strange question. I really should ask something different I guess, but this keeps interesting me... not sure if it's gonna be cleared up later in the game, but I guess maybe not, so I'll just ask.

That star in the background (or sub-stellar object, if I'm right)... Is that a brown dwarf? If you are just a little bit into astronomy I guess you might have chosen it on purpose. Just wondering.

Or did you choose the color of the star purely for artistic purposes, like, to set the mood?

Maybe I'm overthinking this part, but I'd like to know nonetheless. ;)

PS.: The cuteness is still constantly killing me! ;)

Edit: Are you familiar with the "Ship of Theseus" problem? I wonder if you are. Some of the questions that I have been asked by Lilac so far imply that you do, and/or that you might be quite the philosopher yourself. ;)

(1 edit)

Ah, thanks for the explanation regarding libgdx. I looked into it and it may be portable (somebody managed a few years ago), but that's likely too much for me.

Not that big a deal, I already had a lot of fun with your game yesterday! Can't wait to get back home from work so I can play some more. :)

It's also refreshing in that it is not a visual novel. I mean, I love Yuri VNs, but this is a nice change. :)

Thank you!

Edit: And the cuteness is just killing me!!

Hi,

I just bought this, and that might not be the kind of question you'd expect (I only played for a few minutes so far), but... This is the first Yuri game I've seen that's written in Java! Are there some frameworks in existence for that (like Ren'Py for VNs or like GameMaker), or did you build this from scratch?

I'm not a developer myself, I'm just curious since I've never seen any Games like this one written in Java. Might even try to run it on FreeBSD UNIX using the platform JRE, should work somehow...

Oh, and I already love your pixel art! I knew I would after looking at this page a while ago, but it just had to be said. :)

Alright, back to playing it! :)

It's understandable given the time limit. :) I just used my imagination instead. ;)

Thanks for pointing me to Aishin's page on Ko-Fi, I left them a few cups as thanks for their work. :)

Yes, please do share them with us, if you can find the time for it!

Thanks! :)

I like how you threw a very active and a very (supposedly) passive character together, and created some interesting dynamics between them. Plus, the cuteness. ;)

I especially enjoyed the "breaking out of her shell" ending, if you can call it that, although both endings are sweet, indeed.

A noteworthy thing: The opening screen (the main menu) really set up a nice mood. It was this screen with both its music and its simple, yet effective visuals that drew me in. Whoever designed that: Nice job, because first impressions count! :)

An unfulfilled wish #1: I would've loved to see a CG with both of them looking at those comets! I mean, it's even in the title! Like, it's in the title! But probably not in the budget? ;)

An unfulfilled wish #2: The art appears to focus on Julie, which is nice, given her looks and all, but I would've really liked to see more of Dina as well. She just seems more like "my kind of girl", I guess. ;)

Bottom line: Pretty decent job, I liked it. Will leave a few coins behind, because it's worth it.

Please keep creating!

(2 edits)

Following a Yuri Empire recommendation of your VN, I just playread through it right now. There are some dark tones here and there, but the overall feel is still kinda sweet and fluffy. But still, be aware: That "Mental Health" tag isn't there just for show!

Art: Generally, the backgrounds are rather... spartan in their design. But that's not much of an issue for a shortie like this one. The character art on the other hand is *very* good, I just love looking at them. Very well drawn, and for a character-driven VN, that's important.

Audio: Nothing overly special, but the music does fit in well, setting up an atmosphere that I feel is in tune with the VN. So: Not bad.

Charas: The characters themselves are quite relatable for multiple reasons, although that might depend on the reader of course. For me at least, they were, even if I don't usually sleep every day away. ;) They're written well enough to draw you in, identify with and root for them, and that's what counts here, I'd say.

A direct message to the creators: Would've loved to see a CG of the cuddling part. ;)

Another one: I wanted to donate some money after completing the novel (because I think it's worth it), but sadly, it seems I can't. Or am I overlooking something on itch.io?

Edit: Also thank you for supporting Windows, macOS and Linux, specifically. I know Ren'Py makes this easy, but still!

So I guess this means "not gonna happen"?

Too bad, I saw potential in this...

Wow, just... wow!

I reaaally loved this VN! The first impression I got of Hong Kong - not sure whether to call it "fake" or not - was from the dystopian cyberpunk game "Deus Ex" (the first one). And I loved that. But that's not all.

Now, I know a lot of big cities almost all over the world (US, several EU countries, several Asian countries), but coming from a small, rural town, I disliked all of them - with one exception. And that's Hong Kong, that I had the opportunity to visit back in 2011, together with a former colleague of mine who grew up in the city (he was a great guide, so many awesome experiences!).

The fear of and worries about the handover were already present vividly back then, when talking to some of the locals, but I wasn't aware that it was already on peoples' minds this far back.

I'm left to wonder what it really was like back in 1986 though, because back then, I was just a little kid... But anyway, I remember Hong Kong as the one and only big city I ever managed to actually really like, even if it was the Hong Kong from 2011, and not from 1986.

I truly wish the city and its people all the best!

Now, finally, about the VN: Good story, very good characters, absolutely gorgeous graphics (so many CGs!), and a great soundtrack! Plus, that "neon" feel. As for the story, I made all my choices by gut feeling, but it seems I got the perfect ending right there! :)

Loved every bit of it! Easily in the top 5, likely in the top 3 of all Yuri VNs I've ever playread, and that's a lot of VNs.

Thank you so much for this, you did an awesome job!

Mh ok, thanks for letting me know. Might be helpful for giving advice in the future. I'm more used to RedHat/CentOS Linux and BSD UNIX (plus a little bit of Debian, and very little Ubuntu Linux), so I have just never tried/encountered this. Also, I'm just used to launching shell scripts from the command line, so the idea that somebody might try to launch an .sh script from the graphical user interface never even occurred to me.

If it's like that, then I think this is an issue that should be addressed within the Ren'Py build toolchain... I wonder if one should submit a feature request about that or something. Like, something similar to the .exe wrapper Ren'Py uses for its MS Windows releases may be helpful. There are quite a lot of Ubuntu Linux users after all. And maybe you guys are more accustomed to doing things on the GUI rather than on the command line? In that case, a small binary program might be better than the shell script we have now.

I mean, they didn't do a .bat or .ps script for Windows either...

It's fine, I can understand that, as similar things have happened to me three times already (as I was a cat owner myself)... guess I'm getting old by now.

So those stability issues are to be expected then, I assume.

I'm patient, so I guess I'll just check back in a few months or so. I really like the dynamic between Anna and Alice, just the thing I like, so I'd really love to try playing their route. :)

Thank you for your work!

(1 edit)

Hello,

I'm just trying to do Alice × Anna, but it appears to be riddled with crashes...

So I tried this:


Alright, the first sparring works out, but then, the hangout only proceeds to this screen:



This has been done using "Rollback". If I click once, this happens:



So, I tried doing just hangouts, but in reverse (Alice × Anna instead of Anna × Alice). No good either, because:



So, uhm.. This is probably rather broken? Or does this specific route just not work?

Just out of curiosity: What Linux distribution (and version) are you on?

Should be the same thing, yes. In that case, ToomanyIDs is probably right, and its a file association problem.

If you still feel like pursuing this (I'd be curious), what if you open a terminal window, navigate to where the game is installed (e.g. $ cd "~/Games/DoraKone/" or something), and try to run in from there: $ ./DoraKone.sh. That's essentially also what ToomanyIDs suggested.

Usually, on modern Linux distros, you can find the terminal by just searching for an application named "Terminal". Or browse through your start menu - if you still have one.

If you don't wanna try that (because too much work), it's also fine. :)

Ren'Py games are often ill-packaged for Linux. Especially when they come as .zip archives. Reason is that ZIP doesn't preserve POSIX permissions (like "this file is executable"). Some Linux systems will set the proper permissions automatically for certain file types (like the .sh script) when unpacking, while others sadly will not.

And that's why you were asked to "open that .sh file with a program". Because the executable flag was not set, so it couldn't just run it. With that being the case, the system wouldn't know what to do with the file (Just like when you rename an .exe file under Windows to something else, like .bin. Can't run the program anymore like that, because ".bin" isn't known).

In such cases, you'll have to do this manually. Like this, when sitting in the game folder:

$ chmod u+x ./lib/linux-i686/DoraKone ./lib/linux-linux-x86_64/DoraKone ./DoraKone.sh

That sets the proper permissions on the launcher script and the binaries for both 32-bit as well as 64-bit x86 systems. Afterwards, just launch it like this from your command line terminal, while still sitting in the game folder (or launch it from your file manager by double-clicking):

$ ./DoraKone.sh

I find it strange, that Ren'Py games are often packaged in a way, that requires some slightly more in-depth knowledge about POSIX (UNIX/Linux) systems to make them work there. I mean, if it would be packaged as .tar.gz/.tar.bz/.tar.xz with the permissions preserved properly, such things would never happen...

I assume that is a fault within the Ren'Py development environment itself? Because I've seen this issue a lot. Like really, a LOT.

Downloaded it, playread it, and awww, this was so sweet, fluffy, cute and most of all: warm-hearted! So I came back to give you some cash for it, because - despite it being relatively short - I absolutely loved it!

Also, the art looks very simple, but is somehow just pleasant to look at.

Just went through the art collection and the prologue comic before writing this comment. Beautiful!

This is exactly the kind of stuff I need in my life, so thank you for making this! :)

Just re-played the demo in this latest version. Everything looks good, from characters to background art to script. I'm really looking forward to the release!

Aaand now it's 2020. Soo.. uhm.. has there been progress, and is this going to be finished, or is it abandoned?

Thanks!

Mh, this was pretty good. I especially loved the part where our protagonists' feelings started getting serious. Good stuff.

Thank you!

I'm currently playreading through all my Yuri game jam 2019 picks, including this one. Despite the simple artwork, I kinda like it. Is there any kind of ETA on a final version?

Thanks!

The baking is pretty unintuitive though (I just came here with the same issue). I think there should be some marker on every ingredient selected, so it becomes visually clear what I picked.

Otherwise, if I select something wrong, there is no way to clearly de-select that ingredient?

I think that part could've been done a little better.

Other than that it was pretty sweet. :)