Recommending Story-first games

[Tlaero]

Hey Arisushi. I'm not sure that I'll be able to get to it tonight, but I'll definitely read it sometime this weekend.

Tlaero

 

[FatGiant]

Hey Arisushi. I'm not sure that I'll be able to get to it tonight, but I'll definitely read it sometime this weekend.

Tlaero

I took a look at the OP couldn't build enough interest to download. It's not even the absence of sex, I dunno, there was not anything that interested me enough.

So, I'll wait for Tlaero opinion, paired with Arisushi clear interest in the story, maybe I can find something that grabs me.

Peace

 

[365 others]

The latest update of Twin Eclipse is out. I'd like to think it's a story first game. (It doesn't even have any sex in it yet.)

As usual, nobody really cares about the game on its main thread. So, I came here for feedback.

I let my real life situation dictate the direction of the vn and made some weird storytelling decisions. (Which I personally liked when making them). But I have no idea whether those choices actually worked, or if I've turned everything into a giant mess.

Would be really grateful if anyone here could check it out and let me know your thoughts on the update, game, or just the overall consistency of the story.

It's quite late in the night over here, and I'm pretty sleep deprived. So, if anyone responds while I'm offline and struggling to sleep, thank you very much. Means a lot.

I gave it a try and was quite surprised by a few elements.

First things first, I think it's the only Indian culture-based game besides Insimology I've seen on this site, and I have to say its premise looks far more interesting than the one on Insimology.

The art is very good. Even when I'm not much of a fan of that style (it kind of reminds me of the images in my old high school textbooks), overall the UI and arts are very easy on the eye, and I liked them.

I have to say, tho, that you did not do any favors or justice to your VN's premise on the OP. It lacks any hint of what the story your VN has, the banner shows something different from what is described on the OP (even if it later makes sense when playing it) and honestly doesn't seem very appealing.

The first chapter/act completely fooled me. I was on the edge of closing it, as It was completely out of my taste. I felt it was like reading some conversation taken out of a chick-flick rom-com, with honestly no meaning nor relevance to the story at all. Adding to it the fact that the game neither has nor will have adult content at all (at least not according to the laws in my country), made me disinterested in it.

However, I wanted to at least push through Chapter 2 to see if the writing style was still consistent with the chick-flick of the first chapter or if there were any new elements or anything I could somehow enjoy from it.

I'm glad I did, as it has become a bit more interesting. I found it funny, as it reminded me of that story about a teacher leaving the assignment about "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus" and having his 2 students write a story that changed from a love-drama (on the girl's side) to a space-war (on the boy side) story. The storytelling goes from a boring conversation out of a typical rom-com in Chapter 1 to a Ghost Whisperer type of thing in Chapter 2.

I like the fact that you're using elements from your cultural background for the fantasy/mystic side of the story, and given that it's from India it kinda makes me curious about what these beings are, and what will be the relationship between the sisters.

I'm still not sure if I like it or not. The way the writing describes things (focused more on situations rather than introducing the characters or giving some background), and the type of relationship between the FMC and the people around her is not the type of story I usually like. Imho, it makes things a bit heavy to read.

I'll still read one or two more chapters and will update my feedback based on it.

 

[Deleted member 2577953]

Hey Arisushi. I'm not sure that I'll be able to get to it tonight, but I'll definitely read it sometime this weekend.

Tlaero

Thank you. Eagerly looking forward to hear your feedback

 

[Deleted member 2577953]

I gave it a try and was quite surprised by a few elements.

First things first, I think it's the only Indian culture-based game besides Insimology I've seen on this site, and I have to say its premise looks far more interesting than the one on Insimology.

The art is very good. Even when I'm not much of a fan of that style (it kind of reminds me of the images in my old high school textbooks), overall the UI and arts are very easy on the eye, and I liked them.

I have to say, tho, that you did not do any favors or justice to your VN's premise on the OP. It lacks any hint of what the story your VN has, the banner shows something different from what is described on the OP (even if it later makes sense when playing it) and honestly doesn't seem very appealing.

The first chapter/act completely fooled me. I was on the edge of closing it, as It was completely out of my taste. I felt it was like reading some conversation taken out of a chick-flick rom-com, with honestly no meaning nor relevance to the story at all. Adding to it the fact that the game neither has nor will have adult content at all (at least not according to the laws in my country), made me disinterested in it.

However, I wanted to at least push through Chapter 2 to see if the writing style was still consistent with the chick-flick of the first chapter or if there were any new elements or anything I could somehow enjoy from it.

I'm glad I did, as it has become a bit more interesting. I found it funny, as it reminded me of that story about a teacher leaving the assignment about "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus" and having his 2 students write a story that changed from a love-drama (on the girl's side) to a space-war (on the boy side) story. The storytelling goes from a boring conversation out of a typical rom-com in Chapter 1 to a Ghost Whisperer type of thing in Chapter 2.

I like the fact that you're using elements from your cultural background for the fantasy/mystic side of the story, and given that it's from India it kinda makes me curious about what these beings are, and what will be the relationship between the sisters.

I'm still not sure if I like it or not. The way the writing describes things (focused more on situations rather than introducing the characters or giving some background), and the type of relationship between the FMC and the people around her is not the type of story I usually like. Imho, it makes things a bit heavy to read.

I'll still read one or two more chapters and will update my feedback based on it.

Thanks a lot for taking the time to play. Means a lot.

As I had replied to FatGiant in the game's thread, I can see how I shot myself in the foot by keeping the description so vague.

But it was intentionally made that way, so when the first "big reveal" happens, the players would feel just as shocked as the character.

Still, I understand how the decision might keep players away from checking out the game itself, and I'll try to make description that works better without compromising on the surprise too.

I understand the criticism about the slice-of-life / fluffy portions not clicking for you and almost taking you out of the game. And how the two shades of the game feel too different from each other.

Unfortunately, that's just the tone I'm going for with this series. So, there won't be any changes to the game on that regards.

Still, I'm glad you liked the magical parts of the story and found the cultural angle of it intriguing. Lots more of that to come in the future.

I hope I can do a good enough job to convince you to stick with the game in the future update(s).

Once again, thank you for the feedback. Much appreciated

 

[Raife]

I rewatched _Mad Max: Fury Road_ last night, which is pretty much my favourite action movie. It's hard to beat for pure spectacle and imaginative vision. But the thing that gets overlooked is the quality of the relationship-building between Max and Furiosa... especially the authenticity of the rapid buildup in intimacy between characters who start as antagonists.

MF:FR is not a romance, but the dynamic involving the two leads is something at AVN devs often miss in their romances. Respect, vulnerability, and intimacy are at least as important in romances as sex and attraction... and the way George Miller's characters show those feelings to each other during the second half of the film is worth emulating.

What's all the more remarkable is that so much of the relationship building is visual and non-verbal. The two actors do most of their communicating without words... not just in the final scene (which always gets me), but in nearly every scene after they start trusting each other.

It would be great to see more of that in games. Some devs _do_ get it, and have experimented with how to convey real intimacy (hat tips to Impious, Dark Blue, and Talaero) but MF:FR is a good template for others.

 

[jufot]

Just tried out Dancing Colors. It's about a nerdy stargazer guy doing... well, stargazing. It feels calm and atmospheric, and avoids a bunch of the usual tropes, like the jock best friend who is just a kind, normal dude; the girl friend who really is a "girl who is a friend" despite dating the jock; the mother who is completely desexualized etc. Episode 1 is very brief, and it's hard to tell where it might end up, but it's off to a good start.

 

[FatGiant]

Just tried out Dancing Colors. It's about a nerdy stargazer guy doing... well, stargazing. It feels calm and atmospheric, and avoids a bunch of the usual tropes like the jock best friend who is just a kind, normal dude; the girl friend who really is a "girl who is a friend" despite dating the jock; the mother who is completely desexualized etc. Episode 1 is very brief, and it's hard to tell where it might end up, but it's off to a good start.

I looked at it when it launched, the Cheating in future tags sealed it's fate.

Peace

 

[jufot]

I looked at it when it launched, the Cheating in future tags sealed it's fate.

I hadn't noticed that. We don't know who will be cheating, but even if it's an LI, I'm still interested because for once we might get a proper cheating storyline that isn't tropey netorare nonsense like humiliating the MC.

 

[FatGiant]

I hadn't noticed that. We don't know who will be cheating, but even if it's an LI, I'm still interested because for once we might get a proper cheating storyline that isn't tropey netorare nonsense like humiliating the MC.

Since you said that the "friend" dates the jock... maybe that's it.

I don't know... I'm yet to see a story here where the Cheating tag leads to anything of any value. All I've seen so far is pandering to the netorare crowd while narrowly avoiding it. All I know is that, unless there is a clear explanation of what the tag refers too, I will not touch it and will always press Ignore Thread.

Also, if a story needs to involve cheating for shock factor, or as a plot point, there's very little chance that it is any good. My opinion, I know.

Peace

 

[Bombmaster]

Since you said that the "friend" dates the jock... maybe that's it.

I don't know... I'm yet to see a story here where the Cheating tag leads to anything of any value. All I've seen so far is pandering to the netorare crowd while narrowly avoiding it. All I know is that, unless there is a clear explanation of what the tag refers too, I will not touch it and will always press Ignore Thread.

Also, if a story needs to involve cheating for shock factor, or as a plot point, there's very little chance that it is any good. My opinion, I know.

Peace

Good take, still cheating opener, is fine right?
is one reasonable motive to have a non vanilla MC. Starting from trauma/Betrayal
(allowing redemption or corruption esque plot)
I kinda dig, this way you have a pass to be edgelord. *in plot*

 

[FatGiant]

Good take, still cheating opener, is fine right?
is one reasonable motive to have a non vanilla MC. Starting from trauma/Betrayal
(allowing redemption or corruption esque plot)
I kinda dig, this way you have a pass to be edgelord. *in plot*

Yeah, but since this is in the Future Tags, doesn't look like it.

Peace

 

[Hildegardt]

All I know is that, unless there is a clear explanation of what the tag refers too, I will not touch it and will always press Ignore Thread.

Can we please not let this thread get infected with this entitled rhetoric, too? It's the last safe haven on this site.

 

[FatGiant]

Can we please not let this thread get infected with this entitled rhetoric, too? It's the last safe haven on this site.

What do you mean?

 

[Tlaero]

So, I'll wait for Tlaero opinion, paired with Arisushi clear interest in the story, maybe I can find something that grabs me.

I've been following Twin Eclipse since Arisushi first posted about it here, but we've been mostly talking in Private Messages.

I'll play Ep3 tonight, but I enjoyed the first two. I think there's room for a variety of stories and story-telling techniques in this genre, and I'm happy that Ari's going her own way.

Tlaero

 

[Cskin Games]

I rewatched _Mad Max: Fury Road_ last night, which is pretty much my favourite action movie. It's hard to beat for pure spectacle and imaginative vision. But the thing that gets overlooked is the quality of the relationship-building between Max and Furiosa... especially the authenticity of the rapid buildup in intimacy between characters who start as antagonists.

MF:FR is not a romance, but the dynamic involving the two leads is something at AVN devs often miss in their romances. Respect, vulnerability, and intimacy are at least as important in romances as sex and attraction... and the way George Miller's characters show those feelings to each other during the second half of the film is worth emulating.

What's all the more remarkable is that so much of the relationship building is visual and non-verbal. The two actors do most of their communicating without words... not just in the final scene (which always gets me), but in nearly every scene after they start trusting each other.

It would be great to see more of that in games. Some devs _do_ get it, and have experimented with how to convey real intimacy (hat tips to Impious, Dark Blue, and Talaero) but MF:FR is a good template for others.

(not really, I just *really* wanted to use that image)

 

[Tlaero]

Arisushi I continued our conversation in Private Messages.

I like where the story is going. I like the setting. I like the writing. And I like what I've seen of the plot so far.

Arisushi's financial situation forcing the change in artwork is unfortunate, but, while I like the expensive images better than the home-drawn ones, I think Arisushi's art is surprisingly good. It's at least as good as Camp Klondike's art, and I played that game for a long time.

Tlaero

 

[Hildegardt]

What do you mean?

I mean this cringe customer attitude. Devs shouldn't feel compelled to explain the use of genre tags imposed on them by a piracy forum, especially because the loud minority on here gets toxic towards anything not cookie cutter.
F95zone is an (un)fortunate reality of the porn game niche. It's nice that devs get to put their games in front of a large audience, but placating the section of commenters that are obsessed with the tagging system is pretty much always a bad idea for the devs that have an actual story to tell.

I don't want to come across as hostile, but I'm getting annoyed by people's need to announce when they're ignoring threads or deleting games from their harddrives. At best it's a little bit of whiny entitlement. At worst, and we can see this all the time, it's people banding together in attempts to bully devs.

 

[Deleted member 2577953]

I've been following Twin Eclipse since Arisushi first posted about it here, but we've been mostly talking in Private Messages.

I'll play Ep3 tonight, but I enjoyed the first two. I think there's room for a variety of stories and story-telling techniques in this genre, and I'm happy that Ari's going her own way.

Tlaero

Oh.. just now seeing this. (Thank you for giving Twin Eclipse the thumbs up.)

Also, I'm a guy. (Sorry if the profile pic threw you off )

 

[FatGiant]

I mean this cringe customer attitude. Devs shouldn't feel compelled to explain the use of genre tags imposed on them by a piracy forum, especially because the loud minority on here gets toxic towards anything not cookie cutter.
F95zone is an (un)fortunate reality of the porn game niche. It's nice that devs get to put their games in front of a large audience, but placating the section of commenters that are obsessed with the tagging system is pretty much always a bad idea for the devs that have an actual story to tell.

I don't want to come across as hostile, but I'm getting annoyed by people's need to announce when they're ignoring threads or deleting games from their harddrives. At best it's a little bit of whiny entitlement. At worst, and we can see this all the time, it's people banding together in attempts to bully devs.

Did I ask anything from the Dev? I am not obsessed by tags, but, there are things I simply learned that don't agree with me, both game wise and story wise. You want to tell a story, fine, tell it. I've read many, will read many more. But, those weren't tags imposed on the Dev, those are tags that the Dev CHOSE themselves.

So, people should simply accept anything, with absolutely no critical sense, just because somebody was charitative enough to create it? In your view, saying that I will not read this or that because there are themes that I have learned by experience that don't agree with me, makes me a bully. And your entire rant about my choices, isn't?

How dare I, right? How dare I to even have the gall of telling people in a forum thread that I don't want to read things that glorify acts that I detest. Whatever those acts may be. How dare I ask for a clarification of what is there, when I didn't even ask for anything from the Dev, but from the fellow readers.

If a Dev doesn't know that some themes are controversial, it's probably a bad omen for what they are writing. If they do and decide to include it, then, asking for a clarification isn't bad form. I don't need to have the whole story plan or to be fully spoilered, just a why that is there, besides the obvious that it is there because they want.

Would this happen in dead trees media? No. You'd get to the middle of the book, stumble into a bad (for your tastes) plot point, and would have to decide if you'd continue to read or not. I, as a compulsive reader, many times clenched my literal teeth and pushed on, since I couldn't go to the author and ask, what is your idea here? where is this going? So I pushed on.

Now, now we can. That it may irk some authors, OK, but, it is their choice, both to include and to explain it. I, now, have the choice to consume their art, or not, based on any criteria that I stipulate, even before I spent any money on it. It is the reality of this new medium.

Apparently, from your comments, you either want people to not have a choice, or, you want people to shut up about their choices. You want a return to the Dead Trees media? You want gag orders on people. And I am the bully?

Peace