VN HTML HTML game functionality feedback (short VN test)

[inkalicious]

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Calling all HTML VN enthusiasts.

I'm producing an HTML VN and, as it's my first, I'd like feedback on how it was to play.

It's set during the same zombie apocalypse seen in my other VN, The Redburns, and is only a dozen or so pages now.
Here's a synopsis and the test:

Days after your group is attacked, you awaken tied to a chair. One group member is missing, while the other is drugged and also bound to a chair.
On the third day, the kidnapper begins their game.

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I'm looking for any feedback or tips on elements such as:

• Was the dialogue easy to follow?
• Navigation and choices understandable?
• Layout of image and text OK?

Also any examples of functionality / appearance that you liked in other HTML games is welcome.

Thanks and hope you enjoy.

 

[Nubatron]

I'm not too big on HTML games. I always feel like it would be much better to just do an NVL-style VN. Sometimes in these HTML games there is a ton of text, while the image that is supposed to accompany said text gets scrolled away and the text itself fails to provide sufficient descriptions to make it immersive. As a result it becomes a plain, boring text. This is more or less the case in this test game as well. While low quality was expected from a simple test, this is something to keep in mind.

Moving on, the continue "button" is too small. On a higher resolution it makes it hard to hit it, unless you zoom in the page. The user shouldn't need to zoom in just because they are running higher resolution. And the resolution I tried it with wasn't even that big (1920*1080).

However, the biggest offender here was the dialogue. Unless you pay close attention and think about each line yourself about who might say that line, you basically have no idea who is talking. This was especially bad when they started talking about "servicing" where the Older Woman, the Captor, the MC and the Younger Woman were all talking at one point or another.

This is my take on it, but keep in mind that I don't play too many HTML games, precisely because of what I said in the 1st paragraph.

 

[inkalicious]

I'm not too big on HTML games. I always feel like it would be much better to just do an NVL-style VN. Sometimes in these HTML games there is a ton of text, while the image that is supposed to accompany said text gets scrolled away and the text itself fails to provide sufficient descriptions to make it immersive. As a result it becomes a plain, boring text. This is more or less the case in this test game as well. While low quality was expected from a simple test, this is something to keep in mind.

Moving on, the continue "button" is too small. On a higher resolution it makes it hard to hit it, unless you zoom in the page. The user shouldn't need to zoom in just because they are running higher resolution. And the resolution I tried it with wasn't even that big (1920*1080).

However, the biggest offender here was the dialogue. Unless you pay close attention and think about each line yourself about who might say that line, you basically have no idea who is talking. This was especially bad when they started talking about "servicing" where the Older Woman, the Captor, the MC and the Younger Woman were all talking at one point or another.

This is my take on it, but keep in mind that I don't play too many HTML games, precisely because of what I said in the 1st paragraph.

Many thanks for the great feedback. It touched on many concerns I have with HTML games.

I feel a fair amount of text is unavoidable, as I'm doing this as a way to build an experience with minimal images. However it was a gamble to strip the text down and make it more immersive, which is why there's no 'she said' etc.

I'm looking at cutting up the text into more bite-sized chunks and other ways to identify speakers. Love the refining process I do.

 

[Nubatron]

Many thanks for the great feedback. It touched on many concerns I have with HTML games.

I feel a fair amount of text is unavoidable, as I'm doing this as a way to build an experience with minimal images. However it was a gamble to strip the text down and make it more immersive, which is why there's no 'she said' etc.

I'm looking at cutting up the text into more bite-sized chunks and other ways to identify speakers. Love the refining process I do.

Color coded lines can work wonders. The trick with that is that the colors need to be different enough in shade to tell apart, but should still look good. Unless you want to burn people's eyes out. This is also good, because colors usually have a sort of "sound" to them. This probably sounds weird. But if you try coloring some text and read it in your head, purple will be a "deeper voice". Hard to explain.
Alternatively you can color the text depending on what is a dominant color on a character. Since the characters here are the duo from Kindread (at least that's what I assume), both have red hair. The older one, since older could have a darker shade of red as a color, while the younger girl can have a more vibrant red shade.
Other than that you could just put who is talking in front of each line, but that's not really a good idea, because it breaks immersion even more than putting "she said" after.

Speaking of "she said"... If you grab any half-way decent book, even those have these at the end of certain lines. These are there to specify who is speaking when it's not obvious, because said line could come from multiple characters in the scene. But that topic comes down to writing skills.
Other than that you can specify the speaker by describing their current state a bit.
I'll put an example in the spoiler below from the demo:

Spoiler

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PS: I've written the whole 2nd paragraph, then I realised this is a test, so I assume it didn't get too much effort in all... I'll just keep it there though. Maybe it's helpful in a way?

 

[inkalicious]

Color coded lines can work wonders. The trick with that is that the colors need to be different enough in shade to tell apart, but should still look good. Unless you want to burn people's eyes out. This is also good, because colors usually have a sort of "sound" to them. This probably sounds weird. But if you try coloring some text and read it in your head, purple will be a "deeper voice". Hard to explain.
Alternatively you can color the text depending on what is a dominant color on a character. Since the characters here are the duo from Kindread (at least that's what I assume), both have red hair. The older one, since older could have a darker shade of red as a color, while the younger girl can have a more vibrant red shade.
Other than that you could just put who is talking in front of each line, but that's not really a good idea, because it breaks immersion even more than putting "she said" after.

Speaking of "she said"... If you grab any half-way decent book, even those have these at the end of certain lines. These are there to specify who is speaking when it's not obvious, because said line could come from multiple characters in the scene. But that topic comes down to writing skills.
Other than that you can specify the speaker by describing their current state a bit.
I'll put an example in the spoiler below from the demo:

Spoiler

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

PS: I've written the whole 2nd paragraph, then I realised this is a test, so I assume it didn't get too much effort in all... I'll just keep it there though. Maybe it's helpful in a way?

Thanks again for the great feedback.

I'm looking at colour-coding as a possible solution. I'm not sure I've seen it done well elsewhere though, so we'll see.

You're right in that character titles just interrupted the experience. I also felt I might as well do it in Renpy then, but with less image changes.
And previous tests adding narrative elements, as in your examples, felt clunky. Although that may well be because I'm trying to avoid that approach.

All in all this is still an experiment and will crack on with the next test. Cheers.

 

[StoneM]

The continue button is too invisible (the first time I was wondering for almost 15 seconds where it is)... you should probably make it bigger and the standard blue color. Also I hope this game is not another wall of text... less text more images.

Another thing I do not like is... the first choice the player does is only one version (the most unbelievable one) is available. If it's going to be like that further... it would not be a very good game... I know of many games that have these "non working/fake" choices that supposedly be added later... and then nobody adds them ever, only to stay there and be annoying...