I feel like I must be missing something; does it explain in the game how the different stats affect gameplay? (Has someone already asked this and I've missed it? I tried to search but I didn't see anything obviously related)
- Thread starter Droid Productions
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It's self-made; mostly built around justifying the poker mechanic
Red Jokers are considered heart cards, black jokers are considered spades. Probably better to treat them as no-suit instead, though. Good point on sorting by suit secondarily; right now those are just sorted "in place", but a more deterministic solution would be to use the suit as a fallback.
There's two parts to this; first, a lot of dialogs are gated by stats (the MMA fight with Katie is probably the most clear on this). I try to always make it explicit when you succeed / fail, and I also try to only gate things that you can replay easily (so, for example, when you ask Chloe about your father, there's a charisma check. If you fail it, there's no real cost associated with it, and you can try again later free of charge). As a result, I'm not gating any real content in the progression mechanics behind stats; occasionally it'll have cosmetic changes (Emily Date 1, where a high charisma check lets you try to be smooth instead of drooling over her dress, is an example... it's cosmetic, and just changes some of the dialog; it's not like it will open up new sexual positions 4 hours later or anything).
The second part is the poker game. STR will give you a bonus to your HP. CHR will recharge your allies faster (allies recharge a bit when you deal or take damage). INT will give you an XP bonus (once I get the level progression system sorted out; trying to get that done as part of the mechanics update for ACT 2).
I decided to pick up Adobe Aftereffects again. I really wanted to make a "introduction to the character" (I liked what HopesGaming did with the
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). But while setting it up I got an idea for a snippet, and decided to put together a teaser for Act II as a way to refresh my memory on how to make videos.Maybe you can use small video snippets to end/begin chapters or as Act reminders since so much time has passed. A "Previously on Merlin's fuckabout" etc.
I thought about it, but Unity and videos are.. not always good friends. They don't play properly on WebGL, and I had more video-related trouble with Android on Making Movies than anything else. It's not insurmountable, but it does add a lot of testing and messing around for a one-man team. Instead I've got the first dialog after you wake up basically be Chloe prompting you on exactly what happened, which hopefully jogs your memory.
I am guessing some magic is involved for Chloe to know about the things outside of her sight.
"Hey MC, you banged firebush, and creampied a princess, plus you went totally evil, took the side of the evil monsters, and are planning a coup against me. Just thought you should know."
"Hey MC, you banged firebush, and creampied a princess, plus you went totally evil, took the side of the evil monsters, and are planning a coup against me. Just thought you should know."
Sorcery doesn't really work like that. It's more like a really insistent internal voice telling you "Tell him his zip is undone. Do it". At it's core it's basically magic as channeled by your subconscious; for someone like Chloe she's learned to listen and understand that it's hers to control. For someone coming in scared and unware, it's like someone's trying to take over her life.
I was mainly meaning how Chloe would do the "Catch player up" stuff about things she doesn't or really can't know. For example without the MC saying he met Nemui, how would she have gotten that information to tell the player, it happened in Elsewhere in a hidden place, etc. However the Player needs to know these things if they haven't played for a few months.
It will sound weird, but too much girl.
We know the story, but as a trailer it kind of doesn't impart much, you mention poker but don't show cards in any of the pages, no males who are decent characters, and no monsters. Lastly none of the pages have any backgrounds so feels a bit flat.
Text was legible, you put things to pique curiosity like the enemies closer line with Katie, coffee shop girl being turned sideways when all the previous were straight on felt a bit odd.
I guess it also left out any story/lore tidbits to get people interested, Albion, Merlin, Arthur, Knights of the round table made up by an American college football team. Something to draw those people in. Of course don't blow your load, but a small mention of that stuff will bring Arthurian legend people in.
Lastly, some of the images of the girls and text kind of leave too much page space and make it feel a bit empty. Like Coffee shop and end Katie. So a bit better sizing of them for less blank space.
For Patreon or for Youtube? With youtube, easy way around that is just to use Embed, so no one goes to the actual video. For patreon well you know how they are now, everything got stomped down on. Also I noticed the video mentions patreon but no link for it, even in thread start or itch area?
No patreon yet. This is meant to be the 'intro' video for when I actually get it up and running. It's the first time I'm doing anything like this, so it's a lot of poking around
I've rendered out another bunch of movies, now I just need to assemble them, and ... render this monstrosity. But that can wait until I go to sleep, because it'll basically hog my PC for 5-6 hrs.
I don't know if this is too cheesy (replaces the penultimate pages), but I really like the two evokers standing back to back here.
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Cheesy is fine, as long as it draws eyes.
One of the things I added for the patreon page was a "all the characters together". Thought it might be interesting for you guys as well!
Chloe is cheating with 2 spots.
Banner looks fine, my two "critiques" would be dude's chair is hidden kind of, and the placements don't make it extremely cohesive. However those are tiny things which you would probably have to have new renders just for it and study a few "cast banners" of anime or stuff. Not worth it. Also kind of sad bald chair dude doesn't try to fake being Professor X once, or mention Magik (X-men who is magical).
Have you thought of making a Bestiary/info book? Figured I would mention it because as I see tentacruel didn't make the compilation banner. It may let you fill out the world lore and a storage of some mechanics. Like Mino Lord entry tells you about their kind after you hear from others or read in library but the player little info is 3 of a kind in hearts is a weak spot or something. Or how Chloe makes her special drinks for player to reference when bar tending. Etc.
Chloe would say "If you ain't cheating, you ain't trying". She's a sorceress. Fair fights are for Evokers and other idiots.
Oh, that's so making it into a slice of life.
I like it. I'd need to work out if it's in-game or ex-game.
Also; here's the updated video based on feedback from you guys (and based on the Katie pic likely bringing down Patreon's Trust & Safety on my ass).
New video critiques (these are all small things that don't really matter)
When book is opening it seems like all the pages are a solid block, so a few fake page lines to make it seem more booky
Still wish the pages had something more, background, stains, wear/tear, silly folk tale font, but that is a small thing.
Logo, it stands out a lot. maybe some type of blurring the edge into the page? Looks weird on a book page.
Anything that isn't characters lack animation (can be whatever like the card page changing suits)
First girl is low on page, yet the rest are high on the page.
Blonde doesn't fill the page that well
Barista kind of looks weird in the turn away pose
White dress is okay, not great.
Evoker statement feels too far into the intro, especially after "Join the fight"
I agree with most of the comments; I might fix them (and the fact that Chloe's saying is the only one with quotation marks, for some reason) if I re-render.
But that white dress is awesome. I love it so much.
White dress looks fine in game, in the trailer though it looks very flat, might be YouTube video compression, nothing stands out on it, just a white silhouette, not form fitting, no sparkles, or different materials for highlights, etc.I agree with most of the comments; I might fix them (and the fact that Chloe's saying is the only one with quotation marks, for some reason) if I re-render.
But that white dress is awesome. I love it so much.