itch.io

Thanks for playing! I'll definitely shy away from using the LayerLab icon assets after hearing they look like AI. 

I think my next goal is to create more of an actual sandbox world with tutorials for battle and minigames, with a more complete UI.

Thanks for giving it a try! Yeah, it's definitely more of a collection of mechanics/features than a game with a tangible vision at the moment. I'll definitely work more on readability and conveying mechanics since LIVE-A-LIVE is pretty niche. The bar on top is a 'Stagger' meter rather than the enemy unit's HP, but it's not intuitive at the moment.

This was really fun. It's so polished. I like the puzzles that used the holes. Capturing enemies in them was really satisfying. 

I think sometimes the collision detection was a little too strict. There were a few times I had difficulty fitting the player in between some openings. 

Never knew I needed a game like this. Now I know two big reasons why.

Hi BubbleKnight, sorry to post here, but is there a way I can reach out to you? Your socials from your YT are no longer active.

Thank you so much!

Thanks so much! I'm glad you enjoyed it. It was a fun project to work on.

Hello, I have 2 free micro-visual novels (each is 1000 words), and was wondering if you would be interested in translating either or both into French and/or Russian. I use Google Sheets to manage localization. The games can be found here:
https://magbo.itch.io/password-schneider
https://magbo.itch.io/spirit-box-strangers

Hello, I have 2 micro-visual novels (each is 1000 words), and was wondering if you would be interested in translating either or both into German. I use Google Sheets to manage localization. The games can be found here:
https://magbo.itch.io/password-schneider
https://magbo.itch.io/spirit-box-strangers

Hello, I have 2 micro-visual novels (each is 1000 words), and was wondering if you would be interested in translating either or both into Japanese. I use Google Sheets to manage localization. The games can be found here:
https://magbo.itch.io/password-schneider
https://magbo.itch.io/spirit-box-strangers

Thanks so much for playing and recording a video! I had a lot of fun watching your reactions to the story.

I really loved this entry. Your artwork is so cute and Lottie felt so expressive. I really liked the small animations like her blinking as well. The details in the environment were also cool (like the Phoenix Wright keychain).

I really liked the message behind your game. As creators we don't always know how personally our works can touch people, even if it's a "self-centered" project like the main character's was. I'd like to imagine that after this, the main character thought more about an ending for the webcomic and made a blog post for Lottie to enjoy the next time she reread it. You told a really great story that brought a smile to my face. It made me think about the first works I had created.

This was great! I really liked how you integrated the gameplay elements into the UI. It made the experience so engaging. Samgrace did a perfect job as well.

I loved your entry last year too. You're really good at creating these settings that are both intriguing and have a sense of danger.

This was so creepy. Great job! I really liked the use of sound and visual effects. Small details like using code to stretch the character made the game feel more alive. 

This was a very powerful story that really shows how games can resonate with players even when they're made with such strict asset limitations. I lost my dog of 18 years four years ago. He was happy and healthy, and then all of a sudden, gone within a week after discovering he had a cancer we didn't know about before then. I still think about him daily... How I would do anything to see him again. I was moved to tears playing this.

Thank you so much! It makes me very happy to hear that.

Hey, I think it may have mistakenly said there was an update because the currently-available build is still around a year old. I didn't realize that disabling/re-enabling the visibility of build would tell people there was an update... Can you let me know what the first boss you're referring to is? The game only saves in the Hub areas, so depending on the story, there are sometimes multiple battles before the next time the game saves.

If you are interested in a new/updated build feel free to reach out to me in DevTalk. I appreciate the feedback though! I think some of it, like the use of Unity default UI assets, has been mostly taken care of. The battles are still KB-only though. I think that's the only part of the game that is not fully playable with either mouse or kb now. Since there are so many potential actions between boosting/swapping/polarity/etc, I was never quite sure how to handle the use of the mouse there.

Thank you for playing! I'm glad you enjoyed it.

This was wonderful. Love the dialogue and twist.

Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Thank you for playing! I greatly appreciate you sharing your thoughts on the UI/UX.

Thank you! I think a lot of people wish they brought more too! 

Thank you! I'm glad the dialogue made you smile!

Awesome job! I really love the creepy and mysterious atmosphere. I felt uneasy and nervous whenever I had to make a decision, which made this game really memorable.

Thank you! I'd love to revisit the setting and characters someday.

This was very cute. I love the art so much. Great job!

This was terrific! The way you used the mirror as the text box or changed the color of the screen to make it seem like we were experiencing the story from the perspective of the mirror was so creative.

Thanks for playing it! The ending was definitely a result of that - hahaha.

Adding full KB/Gamepad support is something I'd like to do eventually.

Thank you!

Thanks so much for playing it! I loved hearing your reactions while reading it!

Your team did a great job overcoming the limitations. The writing was really excellent and it was so easy to feel sympathetic for the main character. The way the UI matches the paintings used makes the experience feel very cohesive.

Thanks so much!

Thank you!

The space could probably be optimized better, but I'm not really sure how - the technical details of optimization are definitely my strong suit. Most sprites are '#' x 1500 though all the character sprites are individual files than some kind of conglomeration. There's about 1GB of sprites, then around 650MB of sound (which will increase once the rest of the game's audio is in). The sprites for the particle systems/attack effects in battle are pretty sizable, past the 2GB point. I could probably reduce the file size if I changed them from PSDs to PNGs. Probably worth experimenting with once I'm done with the game's content. Since the battle effects are something I purchased from the Unity Asset Store and not something I made myself, I was hesitant to change anything and mess things up.

Very cool! The character art is really nice. Conveying fighting in these types of games is difficult, but I like how you conveyed it with the sprites shaking and sliding. Looking forward to seeing more / the end of their encounter.

For Bio Seeker, a message pops up in the top left after "Jean used Bio Seeker" for a few seconds. But I'll consider having it do that every time the skill is used, and then have some kind of health bar physically appear (either permanently or for a period of time) if the OT gate is met. Like I said before, I think it can be easy to miss the messages if you aren't expecting them.

Inflicting Dizzy is how you deal the most damage to enemies (kind of like Stagger in  modern Final Fantasy or Break in Octopath Traveler if you've played those). Each enemy has 'Vulnerabilities' to certain elements (the attack element icons in boxes under their timer meter) and an amount of 'Guard Points' (the number in the shield). Hitting an enemy with an element they're vulnerable to decreases it by one (though it can be decreased by more if other conditions are met). When that number is reduced to zero, the enemy becomes 'Dizzy' for a period of time, where they receive significantly more damage, skips their next turn, and pauses Rage buildup.

Making the tutorials/mechanics visible in-game is definitely something I'd like to do at some point. It can easy to forget things or accidentally miss them.