Post by The Star Legation in The Star Legation comments

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Hi Rikka,

Thank you so much for the wonderful review! I'm so glad you enjoyed the characters, story, animation, sound effects, and music! It's really rewarding to hear you respond to the characters like you did. I'm also really happy you noticed the expressions and felt they added to the game. I do hope voice acting will work out through the Kickstarter, but even if it doesn't, I'm trying my best to make the characters dynamic through their expressions. I even have some very subtle "micro-expressions," for moments with the human ladies when Trey says something that affects their reputation score with him. Behind the scenes, there are variables tracking his choices with every character, and the reputation he has with each affects how the story will play out at the end. The female characters have brief little expressions that--if you watch closely--indicate whether Trey's comment was a positive or negative adjustment to the relationship.

I appreciate your constructive criticism of some of the little game details. One thing that I will try to emphasize more somehow is the information in the README file that comes with the game: there is a way into the options from the game, anytime you like--if you mouse to the left of the icon in the lower right of the screen, you'll see the options icon appear, and you can go in and adjust things easily. The game engine I'm using to build this game doesn't allow for options to be accessed from the game menu once you've started (weird, I know), so this was my work-around. I could make the options icon visible, but I prefer to minimize UI options on the screen to keep things more immersive.

Sorry that the Flirt option felt off to you, I noted that. Trey can be played several ways, and I know outright having the option to flirt might have seemed off, but there was an opportunity in the dialogue at that point that I think some people would have tried to take advantage of if they were feeling interested in Sarah. But rest assured, in the rest of the game, the "flirtation" feels more organic. I might re-examine that moment and see if there is another way I could write something on that choice button that would feel obviously like a flirt, but still be short enough to fit on the button.

I did see one other person get a little confused with the weapon-choice-by-mouse moment at the beginning, so I'd added those highlights in there. The mouse does change to a hand when you move over those areas, but that's the best I can do--several months ago I looked into changing the mouse during that part of the game, and the limitations of my game engine make changing that problematic. (I'm not much of a programmer, unfortunately.) Maybe I'll make those highlights brighter, or even flashing, to be more obvious.

Thanks again for leaving such a nice review and for sharing your experience with my game. I'm so excited to finish it and share the entire story! It's also on Steam, if you wanted to wishlist it there to be notified of the exact release, but I'm hoping to complete the game by summer 2021. If you'd like to play more before then, there is a "Special Access" award on the Kickstarter that will allow backers to play an extended demo, with roughly another hour of content.

It really made my day to hear your thoughts, thanks for playing my demo!

Best,

Andy

Corefun Studios, LLC

Aubadide4 years ago

I'm mindblown that you've actually done so much to the game now that I know you're just starting out as a programmer of sorts. The micro-expression addition seemed like a touch of genius to me! I'll be keeping that in mind when I get back in your game!

Oh, don't worry! I've noticed the option icon as well, it's pretty visible. It's a good decision, and now that I thought about it, your simple dialogue box also contributed to that too in making the game effectively even more immersive. The option I'm referring to is the sound settings. I can't seem to find them in the option icon, but I suppose that also comes with the engine.

I am no programmer or a game developer so this is only a suggestion. From many visual novels I've played, I recalled some of them color-labeled a dialogue with the flirt option or they come up with a simple three to five word liner that can still fit the "Flirt" word next to it. I'm sure you'll be able to find a way that fits to your game.

If it's something about highlights, one thing I recalled as to why I didn't notice it was a clickable item at first was probably due to the choice of color, as it blends like a part of the CG. But there's a no problem then if the mouse turn to a hand, it may have just been my cursor at the time hahaha.

Thank you so much too for valuing my review, I didn't expect you would take all in so I appreciated that as a player. I hope my feedbacks have helped you somehow :D

Added in my wishlist! There's no need to rush in making a masterpiece like this and I'm looking forward all the same once this will be released sometime next year. I'll keep the Special Access in mind, as this is on top of my VN list.

Wish you all the best too. Cheers! 👊

The Star Legation4 years ago (1 edit)

Hi Rikka,

I'm so glad you like the micro-expression idea! Hopefully that will add to the game--I didn't want to include a reputation tracker because I'm going for realism and immersion. I'm so glad you noticed my minimalist approach to the message bar, too!

Regarding the sound options menu, I still don't think we're talking about the same icon. There are 2 in the lower right of the screen, but one is hidden, and that's the sound settings icon. You have to mouse over the area to the left of the planet icon (in the right corner of the screen.) I've included a photo showing what happens when you move your cursor there:

I realize that not everyone is going to read the README (and it might even be hard to imagine what I'm talking about without seeing this photo?) So, if you have any suggestions about ways I can let the player know about this better, please feel free to share. I could leave it visible, but I really prefer it remain hidden if possible.

Interesting that the highlights around the items weren't noticeable--that's probably my attempt to keep things subtle again. One reviewer commented that they liked that function, but hoped to do more of that in the demo and only saw it once. I'm considering adding more point-and-click into the game, especially for battle scenes.

I just double checked the weapons scene to make sure the mouse turns into a hand when in that area, and it does, but only over the weapons. Maybe that's why you didn't notice it? Once you mouse past the weapons you'll see it change. But I do understand that if you don't know to do that, it could be a little counter-intuitive.

Thanks so much for the encouraging words, I really, really appreciate it! I've been disappointed that the Kickstarter for voice acting hasn't been moving very quickly, but when people that play the demo say such nice things about it, it's an encouraging reminder that this is going in the right direction. Thanks for adding The Star Legation to your wishlist, I'm really excited to finish the game someday and to hear what you think about the full experience. It's so hard to contain myself and avoid sharing some of the major events that happen in the story!

Best,

Andy

UPDATE: the full version of the game now has a tutorial at the beginning which details where the hidden sound-options button is: it's hidden underneath the menu icon that is persistent through the game. Just move your mouse pointer under the icon during the game and you'll see the sound options icon appear. You can adjust your sound settings any time during the game.

itch.io

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