I enjoyed this. As is typical in romance sims, I find myself trying to jive the personality traits and attractions of the player-character with my own and it can cause some awkwardness. I don't think that is solvable, but it was a layer I noticed throughout the game. The characters felt distinct from each other and the player-character felt distinct themself. I would have probably ended up hanging out with Marian, but the player-character seemed to get along with Bree even though they had differences (which is a great sign for chemistry!). The one thing I really wanted this game to have was an option to talk to Marian about her tattoo. It seemed like a great opportunity to talk about Democratic Socialism and instead we ended up talking about dream-homes.
Just finished my first playthrough (#teambree!) Really enjoyed this, especially since I've recently realized that I quite like visual novels. Pfail pretty much summed up my feelings, but I'll add that I think it's impressive that even though the choices are the same for each character you can still get a real sense of who they are (or at least who you think they might be) from their answers.
This is really great in just about every aspect. For me, the most striking part is the artwork and the characters. Everything looks like a lovingly made cartoon or comic, and it's impressive how your style is visible through each character's distinct look and mannerisms. I wound up matching with Sue and it actually felt like talking to someone I'd be friend with in real life. I think that's an awesome achievement. I would have played this game for much longer to see how the relationships could develop.
As far as constructive criticism is concerned, I only have two points. I would've liked a bit more variety and consistency with the sound. When the background loop fades out during the conversations, it pulls you out of the immersion. I think it could have been good to find way of incorporating other sounds as well, maybe as feedback for a characters positive or negative reaction. Just a thought. :) Oh, and also I'm sure this was more of a time issue, but it felt unnatural to have all of the same dialogue options for each person. More variety would have helped with the immersion.
Regardless, this is really fun and slick to play. Great work!
Your critique is totally fair. I actually did consider doing more with sound but I am also super bad with that sort of thing and immensely impressed by people who are good at music/sound design. For instance, I couldn't even figure out what kind of software to use to make the background noises loop...
As for the lack of variety in the topics, I...well. It's a fair point I hadn't even considered because I am autistic and don't...actually know what people would talk about in this sort of situations because it just doesn't come naturally to me. I also have too much pride to ask other people lmao. This, I guess, is something to work on as well.
This was fun! I think I found all the endings (assuming there were four). I saved the "no romance" playthrough until the end, and was expecting it to be kind of awkward picking all the unsociable responses, but I actually appreciate that even in that scenario, the interaction feels friendly. The no romance ending does a pretty good job of subverting the expectation that starting a relationship is the win state, which is nice. I'd pretty much never consider speed dating in real life, but this game's helped me understand why some people would, which is also cool.
I'm trying to come up with some constructive criticism, but there's honestly not much that comes to mind. More #content would always be good, of course, but in some ways it's nice that the game is short enough to accommodate several fast playthroughs. Oh wait, I do have a criticism: socks are a cool gift for hip young people okay? Also, sharks are gentle ocean friends that wouldn't harm a puppy.
Thank you so much! To be honest I wish there was more #content, but as it turned out a lot of my energy went towards coding instead of writing. Anyway, thanks for playing!
ETA...I agree on the socks & sharks part actually.
Comments
I enjoyed this. As is typical in romance sims, I find myself trying to jive the personality traits and attractions of the player-character with my own and it can cause some awkwardness. I don't think that is solvable, but it was a layer I noticed throughout the game.
The characters felt distinct from each other and the player-character felt distinct themself. I would have probably ended up hanging out with Marian, but the player-character seemed to get along with Bree even though they had differences (which is a great sign for chemistry!). The one thing I really wanted this game to have was an option to talk to Marian about her tattoo. It seemed like a great opportunity to talk about Democratic Socialism and instead we ended up talking about dream-homes.
If I ever make a dating sim or VN again I'll ensure to include an option to talk about Democratic Socialism ;) thanks for your comment!
Just finished my first playthrough (#teambree!) Really enjoyed this, especially since I've recently realized that I quite like visual novels. Pfail pretty much summed up my feelings, but I'll add that I think it's impressive that even though the choices are the same for each character you can still get a real sense of who they are (or at least who you think they might be) from their answers.
Thank you!! Also, yes, visual novels are fun (which is why I was so determined to make one myself)!
This is really great in just about every aspect. For me, the most striking part is the artwork and the characters. Everything looks like a lovingly made cartoon or comic, and it's impressive how your style is visible through each character's distinct look and mannerisms. I wound up matching with Sue and it actually felt like talking to someone I'd be friend with in real life. I think that's an awesome achievement. I would have played this game for much longer to see how the relationships could develop.
As far as constructive criticism is concerned, I only have two points. I would've liked a bit more variety and consistency with the sound. When the background loop fades out during the conversations, it pulls you out of the immersion. I think it could have been good to find way of incorporating other sounds as well, maybe as feedback for a characters positive or negative reaction. Just a thought. :) Oh, and also I'm sure this was more of a time issue, but it felt unnatural to have all of the same dialogue options for each person. More variety would have helped with the immersion.
Regardless, this is really fun and slick to play. Great work!
Thanks for playing and for your response!!
Your critique is totally fair. I actually did consider doing more with sound but I am also super bad with that sort of thing and immensely impressed by people who are good at music/sound design. For instance, I couldn't even figure out what kind of software to use to make the background noises loop...
As for the lack of variety in the topics, I...well. It's a fair point I hadn't even considered because I am autistic and don't...actually know what people would talk about in this sort of situations because it just doesn't come naturally to me. I also have too much pride to ask other people lmao. This, I guess, is something to work on as well.
Thanks again!
This was fun! I think I found all the endings (assuming there were four). I saved the "no romance" playthrough until the end, and was expecting it to be kind of awkward picking all the unsociable responses, but I actually appreciate that even in that scenario, the interaction feels friendly. The no romance ending does a pretty good job of subverting the expectation that starting a relationship is the win state, which is nice. I'd pretty much never consider speed dating in real life, but this game's helped me understand why some people would, which is also cool.
I'm trying to come up with some constructive criticism, but there's honestly not much that comes to mind. More #content would always be good, of course, but in some ways it's nice that the game is short enough to accommodate several fast playthroughs. Oh wait, I do have a criticism: socks are a cool gift for hip young people okay? Also, sharks are gentle ocean friends that wouldn't harm a puppy.
Thank you so much! To be honest I wish there was more #content, but as it turned out a lot of my energy went towards coding instead of writing. Anyway, thanks for playing!
ETA...I agree on the socks & sharks part actually.