Just here to say, well done if you managed to submit no matter how amateur you may think your project is. Finishing is a skill, and if you managed to whip up something cool and personal in these 9 days, props to you!
I know I struggled to finish (submitted 8 minutes before deadline) and RPGMaker's shenanigans and absurd logic with tilesets humbled the crap out of me and my aspirations. Regardless, I buckled down, cut my loses and through the magic of GIMP managed to submit something workable. Extra points if you also, like me, accidentally deleted a critical game event while cleaning up ambience events that you were done copy/pasting, and then proceeded to mald about why your game didn't work anymore.
Guys, we finished. Take a breather, let's enjoy the streams!
Just asking to see if any genre is acceptable or if you're looking for something specific. Common sense would dictate that one wouldn't submit a text-based RPG made on an engine designed for other stuff but people are weird sometimes. So, walking sim, combat, no combat, visual novel, deck based, are there any restrictions on genre, things you wouldn't play?
Thanks in advance.
Thank you so much for playing! With the license now permanently open, I'm looking to refashion the game into my original vision: more choices, less combat, sidequests, and the full story... a proper RPG. I'm just waiting for this year's Vampire Jam to see if I want to polish this, or get to work on something different. Cheers!
Hey! Unfortunately, I tried in about 7 different ways to download your game, but the zip file was always corrupted :( Pretty sure the issue is with Dropbox or my internet connection. Do let me know if you host it somewhere else so I can try again, I'd rather not settle for watching a Let's Play of it.
Hola! Lo acabo de jugar en Android, y agradezco te hayas tomado el tiempo de sacarlo en varias plataformas.
Primero, lo bueno! El arte de los personajes es muy bueno. La premisa también es fantástica, y algo que no se explora muy seguido en este universo (creo que Swansong tendrá algo con un niño?). El diálogo y la traducción son excelentes, la traducción en especial es de lo mejor que he visto.
Al principio pensé que el romance se iba a interponer en la historia, y por lo general no lo hace. Sin embargo, a veces me siento empujado a el aunque haya elegido opciones diferentes, pero en un mes supongo que esa fue la forma de condensar y enfocar la historia... sólo que David no me agrada XD Pero es buen personaje, y con el final supongo que lo que querías indicar era que muchas de sus acciones eran por culpa.
No me agrada que el alcohol sea tan... casual? No necesito que digas "blush of life allows me to drink", pero cierta confirmación de que lo que estoy haciendo no es normal o me va a producir efectos adversos sería bueno. O a lo mejor no estoy bien familiarizado con el lore de los Toreador.
La niña cambia muy pronto para mi gusto! Entiendo que está distraída, pero no es tan joven como para bloquear totalmente lo que pasó. Hmmm creo que tenías en mente a una niña mas joven que 9 años, por la forma en que habla siento que tiene 5 o 6 años. Después de su primera introducción, no la sentí tan real :/
Disculpa la crítica, se que son cosas que ya no puedes cambiar pero ojalá sirva para la próxima! Algunas cosas que si puedes arreglar ahorita:
- Cuando David me pide que cante, hay un solo cuadro de diálogo que está en español... en la versión inglés
- Cuando hablo con mi hermana, hay un "mi" en vez de "me"
- no pude leer las cartas! Por una parte, es fuente negra sobre fondo negro y es ilegible; por otra, hay un bug creo porque algunas líneas se estaban escribiendo encima de las otras. Pueden ser problemas de Android solamente
En general, excelente trabajo! La historia me atrapó más de lo que pensé dada la descripción, felicidades!
This was... interesting.
It was a very visceral experience, felt almost too personal. I loved the way you played with day and night to both comfort me and make me feel uneasy. I think I would've liked more insight into what I was before, but I guess that's the beauty of it... this is an extremely emotional experience, and saying anything concrete about myself would detract from that.
Music, like others mentioned, is hit and miss. At times it feels almost made for the moment described, this "purgatorial" state of existence you mentioned: at others, it's extremely distracting and pulls me out of the story. You mention you liked experimental stuff, so maybe I would've liked to see some tracks based on nature sounds (water, dirt roads, leaves rustling).
I think the ending was pretty good. If it were me, at that point I would've played a bit more with other senses: have me talk about smells, sounds, visions... indicate that at the end of this journey, I'm feeling more comfortable with what I am, my senses sharpen and I look proudly into the night as I embrace what I am. You did get that across of course, I would've just pushed it a little further because it's a really cool idea.
Great work! A short story that made me go through a lot of things in a short amount of time. So if that was the intent, I'd say you nailed it.
NOTE: I did find a typo near the end, "when the sun come up". don't remember the exact location.
Hello! Just finished playing Ghosts of the Past, and I had some feedback if you don't mind.
- The environment was amazing. I could see myself going through this city again, but populated by people this time, and having a blast.
- Sam's animations were very fluid and endearing, but I agree with some people here... the first person segments move too slowly for my taste. Also when I jumped it felt like I was being locked vertically, so it kinda took me out of that enjoyment of jumping through the whole map :(
- As a character, Sam could use some work. She's not a silent protagonist, so I can't fully insert myself (actually the best segments for me were when she didn't reply directly and I could feel like I was answering or asking the questions); but she's also not developed enough to where I can enjoy her story fully. I didn't feel she acted realistically to what was happening around her (she acknowledges her family situation for one minute and then just asks other questions, for example) and the segments where she talks are inconsistent with the personality I chose through her dialogue options.
- The premise was good, but I think you guys wrote yourselves into a corner a bit by dropping too many bombs XD instead of working through my feelings due to my family situation or exploring more emotions with my grandmother, I'm left to confront a Nosferatu and some detectives I got introduced to in the last minute of the game. One of my favorite parts was when grandma projects her emotions on me, and I can feel the weight of everything that is happening without her saying a direct word. I think if you took out the kidnapping stuff and focused more on that, the story could've turned out great. It has the potential to be a great supernatural drama, made me feel like Cronos from Guillermo Del Toro sometimes.
Overall, a great job for under a month! The setting is beautiful and it runs like a dream. I just feel like if you're going for a walking simulator, the story could be a little bit more focused. Hope this helps!
Thanks! Maybe a more defensive spread of Disciplines could help with that, and also using Restrain more (it was designed specifically for that section). Once you have those 2 components, I'm sure you'll get through! Sewers is tricky if you don't play defensive but it gets easier once you get to the shops and stuff :P
Glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for the feedback :)
Hi! the concept is great as I mentioned before. 4x games are usually too intimidating to me, but this was easily approachable and pretty fun. The art was also pretty good and the coding was slick! everything looks smooth and polished, no weird pops or music breaks or anything like that. It feels FINISHED.
Some thing we could work on:
- I think everything happens too fast and it's a little too spammy. When I play something like this I think of Starcraft. I send my worker to build something and I have time to look around the map, control my other units, or even just wait. This should feel like an army simluator, but in some cases it feels like a single character game because I have to babysit the same dude until he's done with all his dialogue options.
- I didn't even notice hunger or health, to the point where I never managed them and was able to finish the game easily. Maybe more notifications on what is going on with those effects or more serious consequences would be nice.
- There is very little tension overall... for example, why would I say "no" to any of my recruits? there is no tradeoff and I didn't navigate through dialogue options to feel like I earned it. Going back to RTS games, there's always a trade off if you want more stuff: you have to build another base to have enough resources, you have to keep your population low or they start eating too much food, things like that. I'd like to feel like I'm making a choice when presented with a recruit.
- The game can get a little droning towards the end... I'd add little "mobile game" flair like a sound effect when your dudes make money, and a big, long sound effect or text popup when you finish a night. I didn't even notice nights half the time! "oh, I guess I've been here for 12 nights" :P
- I found some typos, don't remember exactly where but I did write down the characters: Typos in conversations with Abdulah, Ina, Hendrik, lone girl smoking, and Makawee.
The game is really good, and shows great potential! for the me the biggest issue was the lack of tension. At no point did I feel like I could lose, even with vampire hunters running all over the place. Also, I'd love to know more about Portland through the dialogue.
Hi! I do have some feedback if you're interested, let's start with the good stuff first.
THE GOODS:
- Your art is AMAZING. I saw snippets of your stream and it's clear you tried your best to make everything cohesive and it shows. Not once did I say "oh, this was clearly taken from another website". Well done!
- Whenever you narrate, it's done really well. The first bit for example, really nails down the feelings of confusion and thirst that I would imagine a neonate having.
- You give me a lot of stuff to work with, and it makes me wanna go again and take different decisions. High replayability potential.
- I did feel confused and angry when I saw how most people were treating me, which I guess was what you were looking for. Great immersion on that front!
- The best moments for me were the bizarre questions you asked about the universe. Why is this drag queen just content with letting me feed? Is this some kinky bar stuff, is this how Tamara inducts her childer? I just would've like to know more about it.
THE ?s:
- Some of the transitions between scenes were a little rushed, leaving me asking a lot of questions... was I threatening that woman at the apartment? was she threatening me? When the hell did I arrive back with Tamara? Something as simple as "Tamara doesn't seem like the waiting kind. As you leave the poor woman lying on the floor, you start making your way back to her" would have helped me get the flow a lot more.
- I never understood the purpose of Disciplines and Humanity (you have mentioned humanity is not working correctly), because it didn't give me much choice... I just had them. I would've liked to pick my stuff and adventure the way I wanted to. I'm not sad I threw my toxic blood at the dude's face, I'm sad I wasn't given the option to grab that power specifically. I get this would've taken more work, I just would've liked more choice in the matter.
THE "ROOM POR IMPROVEMENT":
- Typos! typos and grammar misuse were extremely distracting. I would get really gripped into the story and then see something that I had to read twice to understand and it really took me out. I think you can fix those still, as they technically don't count as additional content! I even found a couple "unds" in there XD
- The writing could use a little rhythm... you barely gave me any time to slow down and catch my breath! I would suggest splitting your sentences up a little more, give more pauses and use less commas; give me a window with only one sentence, so I can think about it and take it all in. As your game lacks movement, most of your actions have to be felt through text alone.
- My character is too blank... I barely know how he's reacting to these events. I think you were trying to go for the silent protagonist approach, which is fine, but then more of the emotions have to be relayed through the narration. I want to know more about those photos. I want to know if I had kids. I get that I'm immortal now, but I can't just detach from everything in one night, right? I want to know more about myself.
- Some of the writing is too on the nose... again, this goes with the whole pacing thing. When I encounter the Ghoul, she just tells me immediately what she is // what she needs // how she works. So a sentence like "I'm a ghoul. I need vampire blood. Please give me vampire blood." would read better if you give me space to question her, and we could work together towards understanding what we are. Is she sassy? does she hate her master? does she pity me? Even something as simple as me drinking her blood instead could be made more interesting with something like "right before she closes her eyes and gives in to your embrace, you feel a sharp pain in your groin. This bitch tried to kick you in the nuts." That would at least tell me a little about her personality.
All around, I would call this a very enjoyable experience! Sorry if I rambled for too long. I just wish some of the questions you asked were explored a bit more, and others a bit less. Thank you for listening!
Hey! Really nice overall, the lighting looks great and even the janky animations have their own charm to them. The humor is also spot on.
I could unfortunately not finish the game yet because I just ran out of resources, some issues that took me down that road:
- No one tells you that spamming reload on your gun will basically make it be on your last clip, unable to reload anymore. At least that's what I experienced.
- The hitbox of the soldiers' rifles is pretty inconsistent... I could say I was able to pick up about 1/5th of the ammo I was presented with because I would press F and nothing would happen.
- There's no invincibility or recovery period! This means that if I don't manhandle the AI and play it like a regular shooter, 2 enemies firing at me in direct line of sight will pop my health pretty much instantly.
- Short text prompts showing the controls would be nice!
Hope this helps! Absolutely loved Florence and would like to see this ironed out, even if slowly :)
I'm thinking of a VTMB inspired top down turn based RPG: think several hubs, different quests and ways to approach them. The story would be set around a group of vampires, both Camarilla and Hecata, digging their way out of a city-wide conspiracy in the middle of Mexico City. Post-Sabbat shenanigans aimed at taking back the city would be at the very center of the story.
I also think approaching the games as a party of vampires in a classic RPG formula would be refreshing, as aside from the table-top I can't think of any WOD examples where you can play as a party.
