Ren'Py Abandoned Where I Belong [v0.1.0 Beta] [Elementario]

Elementario · Jul 10, 2019

tonny said:
Quick time event failed... then I quit.. played too many games now, with those in, just makes me sick everything else looked good tho

Yeah, most probably gonna remove that in the next patch.
Btw just so you know, failing QTE has no bad repercussions at all and only the bath events have QTE which can be repeated.
Sorry to see you go, still...glad you liked other things in the game...

tonny · Jul 10, 2019

Elementario said:
Yeah, most probably gonna remove that in the next patch.
Btw just so you know, failing QTE has no bad repercussions at all and only the bath events have QTE which can be repeated.
Sorry to see you go, still...glad you liked other things in the game...

Maybe i'll try again then

just too much stuff in the game right now for my head, I like it simple

Elementario · Jul 10, 2019

tonny said:
Maybe i'll try again then just too much stuff in the game right now for my head, I like it simple

Yeah I get that a lot

I should have made a better tutorial so as to not throw everything at once on the players.
But, it is my first time...so I hope you forgive me, I am trying to do better now.
Anyway, thanks for giving the game a second chance, hope you like it

tonny · Jul 10, 2019

Elementario said:
Yeah I get that a lot
I should have made a better tutorial so as to not throw everything at once on the players.
But, it is my first time...so I hope you forgive me, I am trying to do better now.
Anyway, thanks for giving the game a second chance, hope you like it

Well if its your first time, then you did very good

there is a lot worse out there

and one thing many people forget is to put in a guide line, like your to-do list, in games where you have so many options on where to go

Elementario · Jul 10, 2019

tonny said:
Well if its your first time, then you did very good there is a lot worse out there and one thing many people forget is to put in a guide line, like your to-do list, in games where you have so many options on where to go

Thank you very much, yeah the guide line too should have been more fleshed out.
I plan to add a hint system in the next patch, so that players have a general idea on what to do and where to go (At least in the initial stages)
Thank you for understanding. I hope I can make the game more enjoyable and easy to play...at least I am trying to do that just hope it does work out xD

McWoodz · Jul 11, 2019

Default name is Eric.
Behave yourself.
Dropping E-Bombs is no way to start a game.

Elementario · Jul 11, 2019

McWoodz said:
Default name is Eric.
Behave yourself.
Dropping E-Bombs is no way to start a game.

I am aware of the "Eric" trope but I honestly thought it was hilarious xD
Even my "Eric" will end up with a lots of women, so why the hell not?
Plus the name kind of stuck, Eric-Elaine.
But ya mostly because its fun

botc76 · Jul 13, 2019

Alright. First I want to say that I agree with many of the other posters here that it's great how positive Elementario deals with criticism.
You even stay polite and try to look for positive, constructive points in the more "engaging" comments and that's applaud-able.

I just checked out your game and while I liked the looks of most characters and the way you write and tell your story (and your story as well, at least where it differs from the usual stuff here).
I did give up however, not because I disliked it, but because the ui, the actual playing seemed to complicated.
Others have already said a lot about it, so I have nothing really new to add, just that it really felt like a hindrance for me to get into the game.

I hope you can simplify it enough so that it can still do the things you need, but still be uncomplicated to play and enjoy.

Please don't take this negatively, I'm really impressed with the many things you thought of in your first attempt, it's obvious you put a lot of effort into it, but not everything works as one hopes in the long run, especially when it comes to accessibility.

I look forward to give this a try again.

Elementario · Jul 13, 2019

botc76 said:
Alright. First I want to say that I agree with many of the other posters here that it's great how positive Elementario deals with criticism.
You even stay polite and try to look for positive, constructive points in the more "engaging" comments and that's applaud-able.

I just checked out your game and while I liked the looks of most characters and the way you write and tell your story (and your story as well, at least where it differs from the usual stuff here).
I did give up however, not because I disliked it, but because the ui, the actual playing seemed to complicated.
Others have already said a lot about it, so I have nothing really new to add, just that it really felt like a hindrance for me to get into the game.

I hope you can simplify it enough so that it can still do the things you need, but still be uncomplicated to play and enjoy.

Please don't take this negatively, I'm really impressed with the many things you thought of in your first attempt, it's obvious you put a lot of effort into it, but not everything works as one hopes in the long run, especially when it comes to accessibility.

I look forward to give this a try again.

Thank you very very much for the feedback.
You know, its easy being nice to criticisms and such but its really hard to be nicer to someone who's already being so nice xD
But all joking aside, getting a few nice comments every once in a while feels really great. So, thank you for that

I am really glad to know that you see potential in this game, and I really do want to make it better and playable...but due to some personal problems I am enable to give as much time to the game as I would like to give.
I really need to work on UI and I will get to it as soon as I can.
Right now, I am working on the non-sandbox version of the game right now (Because some of the players demanded it), and hopefully it will be done today by the end of the night.

Once that's out of the way, I can finally get to work on the traversable map, polishing the tutorial, a hint system and of course the UI.
Sadly these things can take a while...(The downside of a sandbox game)
But, I will try my best to deliver it as soon as I can.

Thank you so much for the support and for being so nice

And its okay, I won't take it negatively, its a fair criticism which I totally agree needs to be fixed soon, so please feel free to point out anything that seems a bit...well, unplayable and I will do my best to fix it.
Thank you again for feedback and the support, I hope that you will like the next version a bit better.

gupt07ash · Jul 14, 2019

didn't know what to do after i bought the cake and one other thing out of the three for the bitch's birthday to get her to talk so yeah deleted. animations were really good but i hated the timed choices

Elementario · Jul 14, 2019

gupt07ash said:
didn't know what to do after i bought the cake and one other thing out of the three for the bitch's birthday to get her to talk so yeah deleted. animations were really good but i hated the timed choices

First of all thanks for the feedback, sorry to see you go but still thanks for trying it out
Okay, so a few things to address,
First, after you bought the cake, you can just go home, as I have mentioned several times in this thread, in-game and in the developer notes that please use the skip button to skip to the event, if you have already done that and don't want to talk to other just sleep in the bed till the time passes, I wanted player to interact with characters that's why I gave some time, but in the hindsight it can get a little repetitive.

Glad you liked the renders, but there are no timed choices in the game at all, yes there are some QTE events but they are repeatable and has no negative recursions whatsoever.
Anyway, thanks for playing the game, hope you have a great day.

gupt07ash · Jul 14, 2019

Elementario said:
First of all thanks for the feedback, sorry to see you go but still thanks for trying it out
Okay, so a few things to address,
First, after you bought the cake, you can just go home, as I have mentioned several times in this thread, in-game and in the developer notes that please use the skip button to skip to the event, if you have already done that and don't want to talk to other just sleep in the bed till the time passes, I wanted player to interact with characters that's why I gave some time, but in the hindsight it can get a little repetitive.

Glad you liked the renders, but there are no timed choices in the game at all, yes there are some QTE events but they are repeatable and has no negative recursions whatsoever.
Anyway, thanks for playing the game, hope you have a great day.

Hi developer
I sure loved your game and I'll play it again when it's not in beta

Elementario · Jul 14, 2019

gupt07ash said:
Hi developer
I sure loved your game and I'll play it again when it's not in beta

Thanks for giving the game another chance

The non-sandbox version of the game is completed for chapter 1, but there is still some polishing to do and some renders to add, but most probably I will release it today, I hope you like it.

Fission Mailed · Jul 16, 2019

The sandbox thing wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't so illogical. Too many turns around the living room (4 walls, 8+ clicks?!), walk into "random" rooms and instead of clicking back/down to go back you have us randomly spin in place with a closed door appearing out of 'nowhere'...had a few other issue's with it but that's all I can remember right now.
Your tutorial section needs a proofreader, most of it's okay but a bunch is just "WTF?".

Much as I like RenPy, I think what you're trying to make would be much better on an engine designed for sandbox type gameplay like Unity. It'd be a lot easier to do an engine switch now while the content change is on the small side rather than 5+ updates down the road when you realize RenPy just can't do what you want (I bet you can with Python which RenPy is a subset of, but I'd also bet Unity could do the same thing with less work).

McWoodz · Jul 16, 2019

Fission Mailed said:
Much as I like RenPy, I think what you're trying to make would be much better on an engine designed for sandbox type gameplay like Unity. It'd be a lot easier to do an engine switch now while the content change is on the small side rather than 5+ updates down the road when you realize RenPy just can't do what you want (I bet you can with Python which RenPy is a subset of, but I'd also bet Unity could do the same thing with less work).

While i agree the navigation is overly complicated i totally disagree about switching to Unity. I personally am almost as likely to entirely avoid a Unity game as i am an RPGM. Plenty RenPy games are easily navigated in sandbox style, it's just a matter of finding a setup that suits the game without making the player feel kinda dizzy and nauseous.

Elementario · Jul 17, 2019

Fission Mailed said:
The sandbox thing wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't so illogical. Too many turns around the living room (4 walls, 8+ clicks?!), walk into "random" rooms and instead of clicking back/down to go back you have us randomly spin in place with a closed door appearing out of 'nowhere'...had a few other issue's with it but that's all I can remember right now.
Your tutorial section needs a proofreader, most of it's okay but a bunch is just "WTF?".

Much as I like RenPy, I think what you're trying to make would be much better on an engine designed for sandbox type gameplay like Unity. It'd be a lot easier to do an engine switch now while the content change is on the small side rather than 5+ updates down the road when you realize RenPy just can't do what you want (I bet you can with Python which RenPy is a subset of, but I'd also bet Unity could do the same thing with less work).

Well, I am aware of the these problems and I will get around to fixing it soon.
This was my first try. I have definitely learned that sometimes what feels good to you may not seem good to everyone else (Learned it the hard way xD)
I understand I made some mistakes and I will fix it soon, I promise.

About changing to Unity...well the simple thing is I have zero knowledge of coding, I learned Ren'Py, rendering, everything while trying to make this game, I think changing the engine and learning everything again will be a huge waste of time.
Plus I think Ren'Py is very versatile, what I am trying to do can work with Ren'Py I am just not that good at designing it.
It works properly the only problem is it looks ugly.

Anyway, huge thanks for your feedback and for trying out the game. Also, sorry for the late reply.
I know a lot of people are disappointed I hope I can do things better from now on.
Hope I can make make the game enjoyable and I hope you will check out the next version

Elementario · Jul 17, 2019

McWoodz said:
While i agree the navigation is overly complicated i totally disagree about switching to Unity. I personally am almost as likely to entirely avoid a Unity game as i am an RPGM. Plenty RenPy games are easily navigated in sandbox style, it's just a matter of finding a setup that suits the game without making the player feel kinda dizzy and nauseous.

Haha true, I too prefer Ren'Py games more than Unity, UE4 or RPGM.
And yes, sandbox can be done in Ren'Py, the important thing is make it look good (Which I suck at xD)

Elementario · Jul 17, 2019

Elementario said:
Most probably I will release it today, I hope you like it.

Well, its been a while since my last reply and... Well, first of all I wanna apologize.
I am really really sorry, I know I said I will release the game 3 days ago but let's just say things are not really going as I planned.
Because of some personal problems in my life I can't give as much time to the game as I would like...
The Linear version was completed a day before I posted the above message, but a good friend of mine (Whom I asked to test it out) gave me a really good idea (Which I absolutely had to do) and so I decided to make few renders.
The only problem was I wasn't getting enough time to create the renders and render them.
I am not trying to make excuse (Well, I am trying)... I am just trying to defend why I said that I would but didn't deliver the version at the right time.
Again, I am really sorry for the delay and I will try to do things on time from now on.
Hope you accept this apology and I hope you enjoy the Linear version of chapter 1.

Elementario · Jul 17, 2019

So, as you all may or may not know, I decided to make a Linear version of the story I made in the sandbox version.
Well, the thing is since the story and renders were for the sandbox version, adapting it into a Linear version doesn't seem as smooth as I'd like.
I tried to make it as good as I can, hope you guys like it.
Please try it out and let me know what you think of it, criticisms and feedback are always welcome and appreciated, hope you enjoy