I'm back and I need testers!

[TinoBambino]

Hi there! I'm TinoBambino.

You may remember me as WETness from my 2016 post:

You must be registered to see the links

where I was ranting about some developer practices that I thought were just so technically incorrect and damaging to user experience.

Well, I started fiddling with a game of my own.

It has been 2 years and I've almost got a product ready. I just started the fourth major rewrite, but it's time to start getting some wider perspective on it.

Here's the thing, though: It's a little bit of a genre bender and it leans heavily towards soap.

It's Golden Sun but its a really pervy Gilmore Girls instead.

It's like A Series of Unfortunate Events but Indiana Jones is in Aperture Science test chambers while his daughter makes increasingly compromising decisions due to her incorruptible sense of duty.

And it's a ton of reading.

Seriously, if you don't like reading, there will be ways to skip early game bloat, but they're not in this build... this is heavily story focused.

I need some people who binge watch CW shows to be fresh eyes for me.

It's not that this project isn't enjoyable to all audiences, because it is, I'm just only looking for people who can give me a perspective using the language I need advice in. The language I need is DC/CW verse metaphors.

So if you've seen Arrow and you've also seen the new Sabrina show on Netflix, hit me up.

 

[Saki_Sliz]

At first, I was like, ~meh, I'll read this post
then you mentioned Golden Sun, YOU HAVE MY ATTENTION

humor aside,
a went through and read the linked post, and having a critical eye for how games are designed and made, criticizing them (or the devs rather) as you did is perfectly fine, I won't argue (or flaunt?) my opinions of what I thought of your opinions, It good to study something you are passionate about and make the improvements you would like to see in games (walk the walk). So it's great to hear you are almost done with your game.

Side note, as for me, I think the main issues with many NSFW games is an excessive focus on writing, or limiting mechanics, which are just limitations of the skills of hobbyists not really a design choice. However, since it seems you are asking for feed back following DC/CW verse metaphors (what does that even mean?) I am guessing it is because you are working with ideas that play on some aspect of story writing or storytelling, so I guess I can't criticize you for having to focus on writing. My one concern is, will your eventual audience be those who know and understand this DC and CW stuff? or do you just need that from someone who is analysing your writing just as part of the development process?

 

[TinoBambino]

Oh yeah dude, I'm talking the talk, walking the walk, I'm going to craft the best user experience on this whole goddamn forum.

Picture this project as a dramatic television show masquerading as a visual novel inside of a point and click adventure game.

I want to get feedback from someone who can talk about it with me like it's a film. My background is chiefly in fiction and television studies, and so the way I've structured the story is much like a TV show.

The project itself has nothing to do with the DC or the CW, but shows like Arrow, Riverdale, Supergirl, iZombie, Crazy Ex-girlfriend, and The 100 have had a large influence on my work. Other big influences are Bruno Heller (Rome and Gotham) and Brad Wright (Stargate, Stargate: Universe, Travelers).

I would love the opinion of someone with a critical eye for filmic detail, with attention shot composition and choreography.

I'll settle for people who love teenage TV drama. Like if you watch the first couple episodes of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and you like that kind of shit, then you'll love what I've got in store for you.

 

[Saki_Sliz]

inside of a point and click adventure game.

You have managed to capture my attention yet again. Point an click games I think are both an art form and underrated.

Mhh... with a background like yours, the best I could do would be a rhetorical analysis essay, but that may be more technical (borderlining on psychology), to so much with respect to known ideas in the industry. I would love to help you, since you certainly seem passionate about your project, but it seems out of my area of expertise, I can talk game design theory, coding, and art, and a bit about writing (in terms of game design) but as for writing in general, it was my weakest skill in highschool. It doesn't help that I have no attention span and never really watched TV or movies (which is why i personally try to avoid writings in my projects such as games) because I am more about doing something, making something, less about being a consumer/audience. But I would be interested to see what becomes of your project.

 

[TinoBambino]

Well, we might as well keep bumping this thread until I have a test build ready, and then I'll show it to you if you're interested lol.

Maybe more people will find me in the meantime.

 

[Saki_Sliz]

I'd be interested, I'd like to see what the art and game mechanics are like, to learn how you made or got your art, stuff like that.

 

[8873672413434]

Happy to help in anyway, Just holla.

 

[cold_arctus]

Oh yeah dude, I'm talking the talk, walking the walk, I'm going to craft the best user experience on this whole goddamn forum.

Picture this project as a dramatic television show masquerading as a visual novel inside of a point and click adventure game.

I want to get feedback from someone who can talk about it with me like it's a film. My background is chiefly in fiction and television studies, and so the way I've structured the story is much like a TV show.

The project itself has nothing to do with the DC or the CW, but shows like Arrow, Riverdale, Supergirl, iZombie, Crazy Ex-girlfriend, and The 100 have had a large influence on my work. Other big influences are Bruno Heller (Rome and Gotham) and Brad Wright (Stargate, Stargate: Universe, Travelers).

I would love the opinion of someone with a critical eye for filmic detail, with attention shot composition and choreography.

I'll settle for people who love teenage TV drama. Like if you watch the first couple episodes of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and you like that kind of shit, then you'll love what I've got in store for you.

@RogueKnightUK: Writing is kind of your thing... maybe you can give him some pointers

 

[RedPillBlues]

So I have three questions.

Is this a text based game? If not is it 2dcg or 3dcg?

Is this going to be a full release after testers and bug-fixes?

 

[HiEv]

Hi there! I'm TinoBambino.
(...)
Well, I started fiddling with a game of my own.

It has been 2 years and I've almost got a product ready. I just started the fourth major rewrite, but it's time to start getting some wider perspective on it.

Here's the thing, though: It's a little bit of a genre bender and it leans heavily towards soap.
(...)
And it's a ton of reading.

Seriously, if you don't like reading, there will be ways to skip early game bloat, but they're not in this build... this is heavily story focused.

I need some people who binge watch CW shows to be fresh eyes for me.
(...)
So if you've seen Arrow and you've also seen the new Sabrina show on Netflix, hit me up.

If there's any transformation in your game, you might also want to try asking in

You must be registered to see the links

. A lot of people there are used to text-heavy games and can probably give you some good input.

Good luck on the game!

 

[RogueKnightUK]

I have somewhat different tastes - I really enjoyed iZombie, Arrow, and Travellers, but Stargate (any) and The 100 were shows I actively avoided. That said, I write analyses and critiques for a part of my living and am a life-long movie buff. I have a keen interest in history and psychology - both areas where you get to find deep stories that may have many interpretations.

I have mixed feelings about the genre of 'Teen Drama'. Too often I feel that writers dumb everything down for a younger audience, especially depth of plot and depth of character. Teenagers are not stupid. Far from it. The teenage brain is at the peak of it's development, naturally (without proper educations, which add just an extra couple of years) losing brain cells from that point for the rest of a lifetime. They lack experience and wisdom, but their brains don't get any bigger, faster or smarter from that point onward.

I'd honestly guess that 99% of things labelled as 'teen drama' are not written by someone who realises that the teen audience can actually spot patterns, learn stuff, faster than an adult audience, and is hampered only by having less old patterns recognised to compare stuff against.

I grew up before video, when our replayable visual media was comic books and where I loved the fact that while comic books were written for kids, Stan Lee and his crews at Marvel never spoke down to kids, never dumbed down the plots or characters, and as a result created characters and background stories that are dominating cinema today.

All of which is simply to introduce some of my own tastes and preferences so you can see if it's something you'd like to have on your team.

 

[TinoBambino]

Big thanks to everyone who has shown an interest in my project! To make communicating about it easier, I'm going to start calling it BtF.

BtF is like I've wrote, shot and directed a television pilot for a snazzy new Original Series.

However, I shot the whole thing on a camera that made everything look like a Sega Dreamcast and Windows XP had a baby together.

That's right! It developed BtF in RPGMaker MV!

The reason I chose RPGMaker to tell my story, over something that handles reading heavy gameplay better (like Renpy,) is that in RPGMaker I get that like, little SNES era level of cinematography. When I watch a visual novel it looks like paper dolls. I can watch something in RPGMaker and it looks like I'm a little kid on a Gameboy taking a break from reality.

Furthermore, the lastest version of RPGMaker runs at 60fps, and its just so much easier to pace everything out in real time from within the editor when one frame corresponds to one second.

So there ^^^ is my impassioned defense of RPGMaker.

Imagine this:

A world, mostly like our own, but with some differences. A pale redheaded acrobatic explorer with an alternate theory on history. Her husband, a large, stoic, swarthy man of Mediterranean heritage. Their daughter, in a Seattle suburb, fights corruption in her municipal government and uncovers the seedy sexual underbelly of a small resort town. Hundreds of miles away on an expedition, the parents must solve the secret of an ancient arctic ruin before a geological event destroys the site.

So I have three questions.

Is this going to be a full release after testers and bug-fixes?

That's kind of an interesting question because the business model I'm proposing is kind of a new thing. I'll explain more about this in the future.

If there's any transformation in your game, you might also want to try asking in

You must be registered to see the links

. A lot of people there are used to text-heavy games and can probably give you some good input.

Good luck on the game!

No transformation, unfortunately. The game isn't "text heavy" so much as it is "word dense."

I have somewhat different tastes - I really enjoyed iZombie, Arrow, and Travellers, but Stargate (any) and The 100 were shows I actively avoided. That said, I write analyses and critiques for a part of my living and am a life-long movie buff. I have a keen interest in history and psychology - both areas where you get to find deep stories that may have many interpretations.

I have mixed feelings about the genre of 'Teen Drama'. Too often I feel that writers dumb everything down for a younger audience, especially depth of plot and depth of character. Teenagers are not stupid. Far from it. The teenage brain is at the peak of it's development, naturally (without proper educations, which add just an extra couple of years) losing brain cells from that point for the rest of a lifetime. They lack experience and wisdom, but their brains don't get any bigger, faster or smarter from that point onward.

I'd honestly guess that 99% of things labelled as 'teen drama' are not written by someone who realises that the teen audience can actually spot patterns, learn stuff, faster than an adult audience, and is hampered only by having less old patterns recognised to compare stuff against.

I grew up before video, when our replayable visual media was comic books and where I loved the fact that while comic books were written for kids, Stan Lee and his crews at Marvel never spoke down to kids, never dumbed down the plots or characters, and as a result created characters and background stories that are dominating cinema today.

All of which is simply to introduce some of my own tastes and preferences so you can see if it's something you'd like to have on your team.

I shouldn't have even said 'teen drama' as what I meant was BtF as evocative of the storylines and young adult vibes of shows like Arrow and iZombie.

BtF is Riverdale levels of intrigue and sordid small town affairs, mixed with one of those Japanese games where a young woman walks around town full of sexy hijinks. Additional science fiction adventure storylines provide a new point of view and new gameplay opportunities for the audience.

 

[MR. Stiale]

Not going to contest your choice of RPGM, but it is unfortunate as I can only run Ren'Py games on my PC and I am intrigued by what you have said about BtF. Still, if you're willing to provide the(or some) screenplay/script, I will look it over and comment/critique.

 

[Saki_Sliz]

Hmmm.... so a focus on young adult things (makes me think either teen titans but older stuff, or more mature anime stuff). I am curious to know what the difference between 'text heavy' and 'word dense' is.