Yes, I call it the “summer's gone” syndrome. But at least the previous one has a finished season, as long as Ocean doesn't decide to make another remake of season 1.I cant help but notice this was uploaded on 2021 meaning this game has been on Prologue for straight 4 years
I mean, the dev can just use something like Grammarly or ChatGPT for spell-checking, it’s not that hard. That’s what I use, since I have horrendous grammar and English is my native language still, I suck at grammarFor a 4 year rework of a prologue, you'd think they'd have at least double checked that the grammar was correct. The simplest thing, (even for Dev's who's native language isn't English) is to make sure each word that's starts a new sentence is capitalized. In this case, the game is horrible for that and it's super annoying to read.
Sure, the graphics are stellar but the story is convoluted and makes little sense without explanation. Yes, you can puzzle most of it out but it's so complex with such a variety of characters that it leaves one to wonder how many decades it will take to make a complete story when there's that much detail. If it took four years to make this, I shudder to think of the wait for a playable game with actual sex scenes, an intriguing plot, and some sense of player agency to make significant choices.
If the Dev reads this, I have a piece of advice for him that I learned when taking a creative writing class that would definitely apply towards VN games. If it doesn't advance your story in a meaningful way, it's a waste of space. Not every book needs to be a Stephen King novel and not every VN game needs excessive detail. Otherwise you'll get slogged down in them and then your story will lag and the workload it takes to create anything of significance will become behemoth. Especially for a first game when trying to build an audience. From what little there is to play at the moment and with how long it'll take to get something worthwhile, it'll most likely become abandoned after a while of milk city for hopeful patrons.
In my opinion, VN games need to have way less characters so that the choices you make regarding potential relationships are more impactful while simultaneously the variety of scenes you get with each of them are of a greater multitude. Having too many characters means having fewer interactions/scenes involving the ones you may like. Unless, of course, you're a super Dev like DrPinkCake. He's made a ton of characters with a ton of content for each over 6 years. But there's not many Devs who can pump out that much content for that many characters and still have a great product.
Lose the unneeded detail. Streamline the story. And maybe there will be something here down the road. Good luck.
I'll take a stab at "foster home, lawsuit over land development, violent guy that might be MC loves his sister, MC returns home after X years and suddenly everyone is a redneck, evil mafia subplot to try to take their house, and possible college classes because nothing is ever original." Just speculation, but take a shot for correct answers if we ever get them.I am so confused after this. Who the hell is anybody? The prologue didn't lock in who anyone is and they all call each other family? I have no clue who is connected to who and what the story is about other than the overly violent kid has been missing for 9 years. What a clusterfuck of a story
Yeah got to be at least one ghost in there for the paranormal tag. Not that they were accurate anyway. The pics were even worse 2 out of 11 were actually in the prologue. As for the rest maybe they are in part 2 coming in another 4 years, maybe?I'll take a stab at "foster home, lawsuit over land development, violent guy that might be MC loves his sister, MC returns home after X years and suddenly everyone is a redneck, evil mafia subplot to try to take their house, and possible college classes because nothing is ever original." Just speculation, but take a shot for correct answers if we ever get them.
Same, absolute disaster, a plethora of characters thrown at you in minutes, no one who the hell anyone is, who anyone is related to, don't even know who the protagonist is, worst written start ever. The fact that its a 3 minutes prologue after 4 years though kinda indicates how bad this is gonna be, if it even ever gets another update.I am so confused after this. Who the hell is anybody? The prologue didn't lock in who anyone is and they all call each other family? I have no clue who is connected to who and what the story is about other than the overly violent kid has been missing for 9 years. What a clusterfuck of a story
All I can say is I agree with what you have said, however prologue B may possibly answer some of this we can't be sure but how long will it be to develop it? I have to give the dev some credit though I mean sticking with an almost forgotten project for 4 years shows at least some dedication no matter what. A lot of dev's would have just scrapped the project and moved on to the next. So good luck to the dev.Strengths:
Weaknesses:
- Great visuals & render quality
- Good character design (visually--can't say much on anything else yet)
- Everything else?
- The writing
- WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE? Beyond the [apparent] MC and Cassie, the characters' relationships are difficult to make out.
- Claire and Diego? Who is Diego to her? It seems he was waiting to pick her up from school or something?
- "The case" - Arthur? Victor? Claire says "He's the freaking mayor of this town! If he really wanted to win then he could've..." Is Artur their lawyer? Claire's comment combined with Benjamin's previous comment that "[Arthur told me] we'll probably lose the case... Victor's not backing off..." suggests that Arthur is the mayor. Claire proceeds to accuse him (Arthur, the mayor) of using his missing son as a narrative prop for political gain? Okay... but this gets complicated shortly...
- Claire is living with Cassie and Benjamin whom she calls "Dad", and Claire says "we [Cassie and Claire] talked about mom a lot". Who is "mom", and whose mom? And, she didn't say "about my mom" or "about her mom", she said "about mom", indicating they're probably sisters, making Claire, Cassie, and MC siblings? BUT Benjamin's response seems to complicate this, because it suggests that Benjamin and the "mom" were together -- "This place is the only thing I have as a memory of her. And you."
- Cassie enters and we understand that she's heard Claire's comments about Arthur, the mayor. Claire is embarrassed and says "I shouldn't have talked about your father like that." Okay, so Arthur is the father of Cassie and MC... but not Claire?
- Are they half-siblings through the same mother? Cassie and MC through "mom" + Arthur, and Claire through "mom" + Benjamin?
- Arthur? Victor? What?
- Benjamin: "Arthur has always been an ambitious guy, that's for sure. Never imagined that timid little kid had it in him."
- Claire: "Victor?"
- Benjamin: "Yeah."
- What the hell does this exchange even mean? They're talking about Arthur, but then randomly bring up Victor?
- Cassie & Claire -- sisters confirmed?
- Claire: "So, what are you doing here this early?"
- Cassie: "What? Can't I visit my little sister?"
- but then she goes on...
- "Dad [Arthur, the mayor] wants you to join him for lunch." Again we have the same thing -- not "My dad", just "Dad".
- Cassie & Claire -- sisters debunked?
- Cassie: "He [Cassie's dad, Arthur] is using his lost son story to win the mayoral election. He thinks you're one of the reasons for his only son's disappearance. .... I don't know about you, but we see you guys as our own family. It's alright if you don't see us [Cassie and Arthur] the same way."
- Claire & MC - not siblings?
- Cassie: "A personal request. Please, leave my brother out of this." Not "our brother".
- There's "lore dumping" and then there's what I'd call "tangle dumping" which is what this game suffers from... A rapid-fire unloading of references and hints at things we have no knowledge about, with no context, and no useful way to take note of. Even worse is that this is all being done through character dialogue, as in, the characters know 100% of what's going on, while we--the audience--following the story through them, are completely lost and clueless.
- Development. 4 years for a prologue of maybe 15 minutes of story? That's... grim. It's not necessarily a judgment on the dev's productivity, because I don't know how much time he's actually spending on this each week, but it's safe to say that this game will never be completed with the current development conditions.
Dev, if you're by chance reading this, please figure out your production issues before attempting any writing / narrative improvements. A revised and improved "Prologue A V2" will be worthless if it takes another 4 years to achieve. Consider partnering with another developer, writer, or resolve whatever else is holding back your development speed. Your art is great on its own, but we (most of us, I'm assuming) are ultimately here for a story.
Its a rework but the OP is unedited to make it seem more appealing. Either way, this coulda been better as a hook for new players. It doesn't need to have sex, just be written better.Yeah got to be at least one ghost in there for the paranormal tag. Not that they were accurate anyway. The pics were even worse 2 out of 11 were actually in the prologue. As for the rest maybe they are in part 2 coming in another 4 years, maybe?
I agree the "plot" gets a bit confusing with all the implications and so little clarifications, the devs should polish the dialogue a bit more because its funky when they talk about one character and suddenly they mention another.; like finish describing/mentioning one and then pivot the conversation to the other in a less confusing way. Still as an observer i do think sometimes these "problems" are more evident to us than to the writers/devsStrengths:
Weaknesses:
- Great visuals & render quality
- Good character design (visually--can't say much on anything else yet)
- Everything else?
- The writing
- WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE? Beyond the [apparent] MC and Cassie, the characters' relationships are difficult to make out.
- Claire and Diego? Who is Diego to her? It seems he was waiting to pick her up from school, but then in the future is lusting over her?
- "The case" - Arthur? Victor? Claire says "He's the freaking mayor of this town! If he really wanted to win then he could've..." Is Arthur their lawyer? Claire's comment combined with Benjamin's previous comment that "[Arthur told me] we'll probably lose the case... Victor's not backing off..." suggests that Arthur is the mayor. Claire proceeds to accuse him (Arthur, the mayor) of using his missing son as a narrative prop for political gain? Okay... but this gets complicated shortly...
- Claire is living with Cassie and Benjamin whom she calls "Dad", and Claire says "we [Cassie and Claire] talked about mom a lot". Who is "mom", and whose mom? And, she didn't say "about my mom" or "about her mom", she said "about mom", indicating they're probably sisters, making Claire, Cassie, and MC siblings? BUT Benjamin's response seems to complicate this, because it suggests that Benjamin and the "mom" were together -- "This place is the only thing I have as a memory of her. And you."
- Cassie enters and we understand that she's heard Claire's comments about Arthur, the mayor. Claire is embarrassed and says "I shouldn't have talked about your father like that." Okay, so Arthur is the father of Cassie and MC... but not Claire?
- Are they half-siblings through the same mother? Cassie and MC through "mom" + Arthur, and Claire through "mom" + Benjamin?
- Arthur? Victor? What?
- Benjamin: "Arthur has always been an ambitious guy, that's for sure. Never imagined that timid little kid had it in him."
- Claire: "Victor?"
- Benjamin: "Yeah."
- What the hell does this exchange even mean? They're talking about Arthur, but then randomly bring up Victor?
- Cassie & Claire -- sisters confirmed?
- Claire: "So, what are you doing here this early?"
- Cassie: "What? Can't I visit my little sister?"
- but then she goes on...
- "Dad [Arthur, the mayor] wants you to join him for lunch." Again we have the same thing -- not "My dad", just "Dad".
- Cassie & Claire -- sisters debunked?
- Cassie: "He [Cassie's dad, Arthur] is using his lost son story to win the mayoral election. He thinks you're one of the reasons for his only son's disappearance. .... I don't know about you, but we see you guys as our own family. It's alright if you don't see us [Cassie and Arthur] the same way."
- Claire & MC - not siblings?
- Cassie: "A personal request. Please, leave my brother out of this." Not "our brother".
- There's "lore dumping" and then there's what I'd call "tangle dumping" which is what this game suffers from... A rapid-fire unloading of references and hints at things we have no knowledge about, with no context, and no useful way to take note of. Even worse is that this is all being done through character dialogue, as in, the characters know 100% of what's going on, while we--the audience--following the story through them, are completely lost and clueless.
- Development. 4 years for a prologue of maybe 15 minutes of story? That's... grim. It's not necessarily a judgment on the dev's productivity, because I don't know how much time he's actually spending on this each week, but it's safe to say that this game will never be completed with the current development conditions.
Dev, if you're by chance reading this, please figure out your production issues before attempting any writing / narrative improvements. A revised and improved "Prologue A V2" will be worthless if it takes another 4 years to achieve. Consider partnering with another developer, writer, or resolve whatever else is holding back your development speed. Your art is great on its own, but we (most of us, I'm assuming) are ultimately here for a story.