I don't want to be ungrateful and I know gb is an indie industry, but I really think we should be getting more contend. I'm happy the game gives us so many choices and she listens to feedback, but one whole month for what? Half of a step?15 minutes of gameplay? I've replayed the game a thousand times, and most of the text is the same. The game problably will take more 5 years to complete. I could understand the first two years bc our life 1 was on the making too. But now that she could focus on our life 2, she's already writing another game. I check here everymonth almost everyday, and I'm upset with how long it's taking. I love this game and i think we all do, so i hope you can understand my frustration
- Thread starter Crazygamer43
- Start date
I feel the same, there was definitely a disappointing amount of content in the beta, but I will say that I don't think what they show is all they have, I'd be willing to bet they have a lot more content that they just aren't ready to show, either because they don't want to reveal something that they might change, or because the art isn't ready yet, or any number of other things, I think what's gonna happen is that they'll have a bunch of small updates just to release something, and then they'll release a big update
Yeah, they prob gonna have a much bigger content drop when they release the next public demo.
- May 10, 2022
- 55
- 163
It's funny that no matter if we told they mc's name or not, they doesn't believe us and blocks us XD (although maybe they's just joking)View attachment 4076676
OL2: Step 2 Prologue Day 1 Script Preview
Having a phone is gonna be a lot of fun
Pure Text:
Menu:
-“hi qiu.”:
-“hey, it’s [first_name]”:
-“what’s up qiu?”:
-“so sorry to annoy you. I have a phone and my [mom] thought I had to tell you right now. this is [first_name] you probably didn’t know”:
-“Qiu! My [Mom] got me a phone!”:
-“”:
-“i know where you live Qiu Lin”:
-“✨ Qiu ✨”:
-“who do you think this is?”:
-“This is my first text” if texting first:
-“qiu! qiu! its amazing!!!”:
-“hey charmer
######## end menu
if first text:
if jokey/teasing:
“Yeah, that was perfect. [It’s a quote that’d go down in history!/You definitely weren’t gonna forget it by tomorrow.]” #if jokey or teasing
if nervous:
“That was horrible! What were you thinking? [Tamarack] was gonna think you were embarrassing. How could you delete a sent text?”
else:
“Okay, that would work.”
#####
if mc doesn’t include their name:
“It simply read:
qiu “im blocking ur number”
“They were not kidding. Qiu wouldn’t accept nonsense from some stranger. You didn’t have time to lose.”
mc “it’s [first_name] qiu. [please don’t block me/your friend remember/your best friend remember]”
“Did they get it…? Was it too late?”
if neighbors:
qiu “oh thanks. im gonna block ur number [first_name] ”
if close:
qiu “nice try. [first_name] doesn’t have a phone. im blocking you ”
#####
“Alright, now they were joking.”
########
if mc included name:
if neighbors:
qiu “oh really? im gonna block ur number ”
if close:
qiu “nice try. [first_name] doesn’t have a phone. im blocking you ”
######
My MC will have to get up from wherever they is sitting (if they is at home in that scene), go outside and knock on Qiu's house door and ask they to unblock it.
Last edited:
I love step 2 Qiu , they're so cold all the time but really sweet to you if you're close, I love that its kinda adorableView attachment 4076676
OL2: Step 2 Prologue Day 1 Script Preview
Having a phone is gonna be a lot of fun
Pure Text:
Menu:
-“hi qiu.”:
-“hey, it’s [first_name]”:
-“what’s up qiu?”:
-“so sorry to annoy you. I have a phone and my [mom] thought I had to tell you right now. this is [first_name] you probably didn’t know”:
-“Qiu! My [Mom] got me a phone!”:
-“
-“i know where you live Qiu Lin”:
-“✨ Qiu ✨”:
-“who do you think this is?”:
-“This is my first text” if texting first:
-“qiu! qiu! its amazing!!!”:
-“hey charmer
######## end menu
if first text:
if jokey/teasing:
“Yeah, that was perfect. [It’s a quote that’d go down in history!/You definitely weren’t gonna forget it by tomorrow.]” #if jokey or teasing
if nervous:
“That was horrible! What were you thinking? [Tamarack] was gonna think you were embarrassing. How could you delete a sent text?”
else:
“Okay, that would work.”
#####
if mc doesn’t include their name:
“It simply read:
qiu “im blocking ur number”
“They were not kidding. Qiu wouldn’t accept nonsense from some stranger. You didn’t have time to lose.”
mc “it’s [first_name] qiu. [please don’t block me/your friend remember/your best friend remember]”
“Did they get it…? Was it too late?”
if neighbors:
qiu “oh thanks. im gonna block ur number [first_name] ”
if close:
qiu “nice try. [first_name] doesn’t have a phone. im blocking you ”
#####
“Alright, now they were joking.”
########
if mc included name:
if neighbors:
qiu “oh really? im gonna block ur number ”
if close:
qiu “nice try. [first_name] doesn’t have a phone. im blocking you ”
######
Last edited:
- Nov 27, 2021
- 16
- 22
honest thoughts, do ya'll think this is making a late 2025 release? gb said at some point that she'd just do base step 2 plus dlc and base step 3 without dlc to make 2025 but i dunno
im willing to wait as long as it takes tho
im willing to wait as long as it takes tho
not trying to say this in a mean way, cause I'm not sure if you honestly don't know or you don't understand but qiu uses they/them pronouns only in step 2 and they use they/he in step 3&4 and their name is spelled qiu, not qui
this explains it better:
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I think it's possible. I don't have experience with anything as big as our life but I've made some small games before and for me the longest part is always the art. So I think that once the art is finished they'll start making progress much faster
- Nov 27, 2021
- 16
- 22
i did forget that step 1 is already fully drafted and the rest of it just needs to be scripted into the game
step 1 will probs be finished by january with voice actors being called on, im more worried about step 3 cause a lot of work is gonna be done for that next year after step 2 base, dlc, and then fall ended
shit my fault, I just got so used to step 1 Qiu I forgot in the moment. Won't forget next time
- Jul 12, 2022
- 148
- 1,664
I do understand your frustration with this, and while it's disappointing for me too, I also understand things from GB's perspective as well. The scope of things for OL2 are much larger than what we had with OL1. While we had a lot of freedom in OL1, we didn't get nearly as many choices as we're getting with OL2 in ways we can respond. OL1 had like 5 solid choices we could pick from that set the mood for our character, and then three or four ways to respond.
For example, meeting Cliff Holden for the first time, you had three ways to approach;
Cordial, but not too trusting
Friendly, not minding too much of telling him who you are and about yourself
Anxious/Quiet kid, not telling him much about who you are.
It also felt like you were sort of just a ride along no matter what you were doing in the moments, yes you had the options to decide what you were doing in those moments but you had no say in whether or not you wanted to attend things. and more often than not, it was either you go with Cove, or the moment would be short with not much to do. Before the addition of other LI's it was more his story than yours.
OL2 has much much more in terms of options in order to give us more personal freedom in what we want to be included in, and in what we don't want to be included in, and how we feel about things. So while it might not feel like we're getting as much content right now, I do understand why the moments take so long to write. There's so many ways to respond, not just depending on your personality, but your dynamic with not just one, but two neighbors. (Even more so in step 2 with the jealousy options). But you get more deeper and personal relationships with more than just Qiu and Tamarack, but with your mother and the other parents/Grandparents of Golden Grove as well.
We also have to consider that since the game is so new, not all of the art is readily available and all of the backgrounds have to be prepared as well. So while it's frustrating, it's also understandable given the much higher quality this game is reaching for.
I think we should also remind ourselves that this is a beta being released every month. Not many games release betas every month, because producing things take time, so I can understand why this update was short/missing things, the prologue for step two will probably be complete by the time they release another public update (I think...I hope) and step1 dlc will probably be over by january, so I don't believe there'll be much delay on the game release, maybe a couple months at max.
I was also disappointed by the size of this beta, but tbh I'm glad for their consistency and quality, so I will give them some grace lol
I was also disappointed by the size of this beta, but tbh I'm glad for their consistency and quality, so I will give them some grace lol
- Aug 29, 2023
- 9
- 31
And yet, you did sound rude. There is literally no need for this, it's a game. The character won't get mad at this person for using 'he' pronounce when speaking about step 2, even though they identify themselves as they/he by the end.
It's really not that serious.
- Apr 30, 2023
- 92
- 313
Seriously? Even a small update to the beta every month/half month is great IMO, especially given how consistent GB has been with it. Considering how small of an operation this is, its making great consistent progress.
You say you don't want to be ungrateful but you REALLY do sound that way.
it is that serious because it's about being respectful to the trans community as a whole and respecting the character's identity, and honestly, the only rude one here is you. if someone corrected someone misgendering a cis character, you wouldn't react this way, but when it comes to a trans character, you say it's 'just a game' or 'it isn't that serious' it doesn't matter if it's just a game—representation matters, and using the correct pronouns helps create a more inclusive environment. it allows players to connect with diverse identities and reinforces the idea that all identities deserve respect. so when you don’t use the correct pronouns, you’re essentially saying that their gender isn’t valid because you don’t want to be bothered, which is actually a form of transphobia. besides, the game literally expresses that they do get upset when their correct pronouns aren't used so i don't know why you would think that they wouldn't get mad because they would. and if i was truly being rude, i'm sorry to the original commenter even though they didn't seem to have a problem with what i said, i was honestly trying to be respectful but i do not apologize for what i am saying to you.
dw about it they didn't come off as rude to me, I genuinely just forgot so i'm chill with the reminder. Plus Ive somehow been spelling Qiu is Qui this whole time lol
Tbh until I looked it up I never knew how I was supposed to pronounce Qiu’s name. And when I first starting playing I kept misspelling it as Qui.
I can understand why someone might have this opinion if they've never been involved or made a choice-heavy game. But there are lots of reasons it's taking so long and that we're actually lucky to it isn't taking longer. I'll list them off. But needless to say, there's a reason you don't see games like Our Life being made even in big industries, despite how
1. The most important one, GB Lady creates this game virtually all by herself. Literally. She comes up with the ideas, drafts them and writes them. She is at least a quarter involved with the programming process if not more, with the local legend Shauna luckily taking on the remainder of that load. Not to mention that a lot of misspellings are bound to be involved due to the sheer amount of writing.
Luckily, again, this is something she only has to handle partially due to her brother, but she herself still needs to look over her writing and change thing. Then she has to come up with designs for things. Thank God, though, the artists do the heavy lifting for this. With all this being said, it's rare for the creator/director of a game of this scale to do this much and be this involved in practically every aspect.
Then, the sensitivity readers, who actually do very little to nothing and to be extremely brutally frank are actually likely to add to GB's workload than subtract to it, since the input she gets from them and even pays them for can easily come from the minority base of her fandom. However, I imagine she wants some discretion/to avoid spoiling a lot of the game, so it's easy to see why she opted to have them.
2. This is not just any normal 'choices matter' game like we see from hosted games. This is a Visual Novel. You know when we see things like characters blinking, their expressions changing, the speech bubbles, animations around the speech bubbles, leaves falling and raindrops? This is called directing and when performed by just a single individual, it can take up to weeks to complete.
This being said, I think OL2 takes maybe days, a week at max due to helpful tools. OL2 nevertheless still does have way more complex directing than your average Visual Novel does, including OL1. Almost everything you see in the game is layered. The sky, the trees, the bushes, those are separate layers that have to be arranged. This is something else GB Lady has to do all by herself, in order to get across the desired effects and atmosphere.
3. Unlike OL1 almost every single choice you make in OL2 matters in varying extents. Step One of OL2 already has more choices than Step One of OL1, and OL2's Step One isn't even finished yet. This requires a lot of flags and branching, both of which can be difficult to keep track of the longer the game goes on. It takes more than you would think to make the game remember even basic details, like if the MC is left-handed or right-handed. It's a big reason why a lot of Visual Novels go the 'management' or 'point system' route and make your character customizable via that (The Sims, Growing Up, XOXO Droplets, and many, many, more). Most Visual Novels have a 'right' or 'wrong' choice, because it is a lot more sustainable and straightforward to create.
4. Having two concurrent love interests mean double the branching, flags, writing and programming. This, again, is why visual novels with more than one love interest have 'right or wrong' choices, requirements and/or point systems. But as if that's not enough, you don't even have to pursue a romantic relationship with them. You can be friends or neighbors. That triples the amount. Then the dynamics system, even now in Step One, where you can alter just the MC's part of the dynamic, the amount is now quadrupled. Not to mention that the MC's personality is not customized by the dynamics, but individual of the dynamics system. When Step Two officially comes around, progress will be even slower due to the option to also be able to customize Qiu and Tamarack's dynamics. Keep in mind that you also have the option to go from Crush to just Neighbors or vice versa. That makes this game at minimum, seven times longer than OL1. And this is just the stuff that we as players, can see. By the time this game is finished, there will be thousands of potential alterations and at least a million words.
5. MC's family dynamic is more customizable. Which, you guessed it, more drafting, writing, and coding.
6. Lastly, GB Lady, due to player vote through Patreon, now has two mandatory off-days per week. While I think she deserves them, we have to remember that this was not the case with OL1, where she only had off-days per her own choosing (birthdays, sickness, vacations, etc). So now she has her chosen off-days and mandatory ones. Just that by itself makes progress a little slower.
So yes, Late 2025 is a more ambitious goal than GB Lady might realize it is right now. She might reach it, but chances are that Step Two will be just getting finished by that time, or we'll be in the middle of Step Three. Also, if we're following the same pattern as OL1, Step Two moments will be longer than those of Step One. The game, Wedding DLC and all, is likely to be fully finished around Late 2027 or early 2028.