AceOfNiagara
Well-Known Member
- May 1, 2020
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Hm, yeah... I'm certainly aware of this, and I'm thinking about what I could do in future games. Personally, I prefer to focus on 1-2 girls for each update. I feel jumping from one girl to another in one episode cheapens their arcs, and especially that I'm not only focusing on character development, but I'm mainly writing per arc/full story. Unless I do like... 10-15k lines of code with 80k words per update, but even then, I can only fit three girls in that amount. I always want to dive as deep as I can into the highlighted characters. But even if I wanna do that, it would take me many months to finish one episode. I'd feel guilty doing that.
One fix I'm already making is to reduce the number of love interests in the future (not here, too late for that). With that, I'd likely feel less choked up, and you, the readers, too. The game I'm planning to make after MBML is completed only has six LIs in the lineup.
I feel like if you managed to get more slice of life moments in that'd help the girls feel less episodic. For me at least the beach vacation was the second best update after Moon's largely because it was a lot more chill and was more about the relationships than the plot.
This is a very story heavy game though so I get that adding in simple slice of life arcs can be a little tricky, especially if you don't wanna be developing it for the next decade. No real easy answer tbh.
We'll come up with something in the future; for now, we'll stick to what we do to avoid drastic change. Again.
I just hope you people are ready for the ending of this game.
The biggest thing by far that threw off the pacing for me was how lengthy flashbacks can be. I fully understand they are necessary to flesh out characters but when they drag on that long it really can be frustrating as it’s effectively putting a stop to the flow of the story that is happening in the present. Emma’s and Lily’s flashbacks were particularly rough. Imo that was handled MUCH better in Sicae.
Other than that I felt that the beach island part took a bit longer than it needed to. Kinda felt like the filler beach episode you see in anime. The fan service was great don’t get me wrong but again it made the story grind to a halt.
Would you rather I take it through short flashbacks with bits of exposition? Like how I handle it in Sicae.
But tbh, I'm very lazy on doing flashbacks now, even the thought of doing it, because now I do agree that it halts the progress in the present a lot.
awesome, not sure why search failed me but thanks (a really unwelcome change to this site tbh)
that is possibly the best aproach to have. take criticism on board, adjust where needed, but keep your general vision going. much better than the high on own supply and echo chambers i've seen crop up in general and especialy recently.We'll come up with something in the future; for now, we'll stick to what we do to avoid drastic change. Again.
not sure how it is in sicae (wasn't ready for another of your games) but that sound pretty decent. my main advice is to avoid flashback ception and any scenario where time starts feeling warped and it is unclear what is a flashback anymore
few ever are.I just hope you people are ready for the ending of this game.
I feel Sicae handled the flashbacks perfectly. Long enough to appropriately communicate what happened but short and to the point enough to not disrupt the flow of the story. Im actually currently replaying Sicae after replaying MBML and can say with confidence that the pacing is nearly perfect there. You absolutely nailed it
crazymantis
New Member
- Feb 27, 2020
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Playing on the android version. is there a way to apply the patch on the android application itself?
Alright. I'll take this on board. See how we can adjust those flashbacks in the future.
I think one way we can avoid excessive flashbacks in the future is to also avoid preset relationships, like what Supreme Breeder pointed out. That way, there's nothing for us to go back in time, or barely. Flashbacks are still good if used right.
This can happen during the scenes after the credits roll. Any scenes that happen after that, before the actual next episode jumps in, are always teasers for the upcoming episode. They're not part of the main content. Kind of an MCU thing.
I guess one of the downsides of my writing style is that I'm not really writing the game in a VN format. But more like a series or a in movie structure. People aren't used to that in this medium.
quack4420
New Member
- Sep 7, 2023
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