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Tofu Sheets Visual3 years ago (1 edit)

As always, thank you for a very thorough and honest review! This project was extremely experimental, so I knew I was running the risk of it not being everyone's cup of tea, especially since I decided against RPG Maker this year. I will admit the modifier made it a little more difficult to work with, and this game didn't end up as interesting as it  could have been. Nevertheless, I am still proud of it, but I definitely see where you're coming from when in comparison to my previous projects. It's my first time really taking advantage of RNG but I probably should've added a bit more choice points to make it more fun and engaging (duly noted next time I try something like this!). No visuals was actually done on purpose (as I'd always wanted to experiment with making a text game but with audio), although I originally wanted to include a few cheesy MS Paint stick figure arts here and there to give it a minimalist visual style (but ran out of time, haha).

Once again, thank you for your honesty, it's very helpful feedback to take away from what I can possibly do better next time! Thanks for giving this game a go and leaving your thoughts~

P.S. I added how to save on the front page now since you pointed out you initially didn't know you could. I probably should have put that heads up earlier, but I thought it was a given the Esc key opens that up, but then again, SBIG games often don't work like normal games so it probably would've been smart to point it out anyway lol.

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XCVG3 years ago(+1)

So I wrote my last review in a bit of a hurry and I'd like to take some time to reply and clarify a few things.

I kind of got the impression that it was a more experimental game, but thanks for confirming that. I think a lot of the ideas were interesting and have potential, they just didn't quite work out or didn't quite work together.

I think adding unpredictability can work- arguably, it's one of the things that make games work to begin with. It can be difficult to do, though, without feeling unfair to the player. It feels unfair here because it's effectively a coin flip whether you continue or get sent back to the beginning- there's no means to recover and no interesting alternate path (at least in most cases- the ending might be randomized when you get there?). I think more choices would help, but more importantly, more complex use of randomization to send players down different paths that all ultimately lead to an ending.

Going back to a previous save is a crutch, though one that I think would be acceptable for an experimental jam game if it were a bit better implemented. I'll admit I was thrown a bit by the interface here; Ren'Py usually has a prominent action bar which wasn't showing, and I was worried hitting ESC to open the menu would break the game (this is pretty common in SBIG games).

A text/audio only game can work, but the narrative just isn't engaging enough to carry it, at least for me. I think that particular point is going to be the most subjective one- for some people it will fall on the other side of the line (and some no doubt will find it even less interesting). I don't think a game without graphics is inherently bad, but I do think it's inherently risky, since there's so much riding on the narrative (and, to a lesser but still significant degree, the voice acting).

I'd argue that the premise and tone of the story don't really fit with the minimalist visual style, but again, that's something that's going to be highly subjective.

The length of the game and its repetitive nature really work against it here; if it doesn't quite hit the mark for the player it quickly becomes a drag rather than ending on a relatively high note. I think in the end this is probably my biggest point of contention; as an experiment it just runs too long. This is also where I can give feedback that's actually actionable: keep highly experimental games short. This means less work for you the dev as well on a concept that might not work out.

On that note there's probably a bit of an audience expectation thing going on. This might actually be considered short for a visual novel, but it's quite long for an SBIG Jam game.

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Tofu Sheets Visual3 years ago

Once again, thank you for your honest thoughts! Haha well this uses NVL-style instead of the usual ADV-style (where text bar is at the bottom), the buttons are still in the exact same place at the bottom and I never mess with any of the keyboard commands, so rest assured anytime I use Ren'Py the ESC key will not break anything, but I do understand your hesitation at first. Note you can always press the *Skip* button (also accessible from the Settings menu) to skip seen text to speed through stuff so you don't have to go click happy.

I do agree that this game being bad or good will be clearly subjective. Some people who had played it were having fun with the RNG, seeing if their luck would play out to get them to an ending, and some were frustrated like yourself. I had a friend though who's RNG luck was ridiculous and didn't even reach a game over until her third playthrough lol. So yeah, this game is definitely a 50/50 by far, you either love it or you hate it, one or the other. Mm, probably having the RNG lead to other sorts of endings aside from game over screens during the trials would've been a good idea, duly noted for next time!

Haha hilariously enough, this game is actually much shorter than my previous SBIG entries, especially shorter than Crystal Captor which took on average 1 hour to an hour and a half to finish, but yes, perhaps I should've done a more prototype on this particular concept but honestly on my end I felt like it was a bit too short whilst you feel it was a bit too long, so I think the length is also pretty subjective. 

Anyway, thank you for your honest feedback, even if it is more on the very critical side--I'll be taking a few of your suggestions into consideration for next time! I also think it may help i next year I just outline a story ahead of time instead of hinging the last minute on a modifier. CC ended up the way it did because I purely went wild without a modifier stopping me (since it was the pre-modifier age), and RCRV I already had its concept in mind and worked with the modifier into the story. Next time I think I will outline what I really wanna do, and if the modifier works for the story, great, if not I could implement it somehow as a minor side thing or passing mention but not make it a focused plot point. I will admit I had been suffering writer's block the past few weeks, so that may also be why this game ended up the way it did, but it also really helped me to unclog my brain and get the muse flowing again, so if one thing positive came from this, it's that haha.

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