Skip to main content

On Sale: GamesAssetsToolsTabletopComics
Indie game storeFree gamesFun gamesHorror games
Game developmentAssetsComics
SalesBundles
Jobs
TagsGame Engines
(2 edits) (+1)

to whomever it concerns please don't brigade me for this one, last time was enough lol

There's a lot to unpack on this one.

First of all, while I get the shitpost value Unagi has gone for, it's overdone and unpolished.



UI and accessibility

The UI has some huge scaling issues. In the main menu there's lines too close to text and the contrast level of the main menu makes it so people with lowered sight literally cannot see it: It's grey text on a grey background. I suggest looking up HTML Webpage contrast guides - they translate very well to VN and game UIs. This also goes for some of the nametags; Wilberto/Haris's nametag are both overlayed with white, this kills the contrast needed for easy reading.

Next up with the actual ingame UI, some parts suffer the same issue. Yellow text on white background, or black spinning text whenever an advanced text-tag is applied. This is fixable by reading the documentation of Wattson's text tags, and definitely within the authors skillset.

Following; The narrator text is underlined, which makes it very difficult to read for me. I read quite fast generally, but the underlining of entire sentences makes it difficult. I'd suggest changing the color of the textbox or so instead.

There are broken links in the about section of the game, throwing errors instead of actual sources. On a side note, for music files: If you're licensing something in a way where you cannot redistribute, you *need* to package em. A .rpa package is fine, but you cannot have the actual tracks available without any kind of obfuscation or pickling.

And to finish off my UI review; It's too large. Some names cover half the screen, and the textbox is more than a third of the screen with white-ish transparency which makes it very brutalist in style - it's hard to take your eyes off it to see the actual game visuals.



Art and in-game visuals

First of all, aside from the pre-made sprites for the Jam, the one added sprite and the CGs are quite good. There are however some issues (most likely due to coding, but art issues in the end nontheless). Mainly with the main character's (Preston) eyes: they overlap whenever he has a shirt on in most expressions.

The transitions are kind of cool, and the twaining visuals are clear.
That said, it'd be interesting to see what it looked like with a clear direction for transitions: A theme. This swaps scenes, this affects characters and so on. Progression, if you will.
It's clear Unagi has had a lot of fun making them, so spend more time polishing the presentation, not just the transitions next time and you'll hit higher!

Story

Right. We're thrown in without a lot of explanation, and there's pronouns to keep track of in a way that's not just character based, but lore based: as well as the entire concept of twaining and what benefits it might give. To put it bluntly: Thrown in to learn it as we go with hints can work, but not when there's this many things to keep track of. It just makes it difficult to follow, paired with the underlined narrator text I had to spend more time trying to understand what the text was, than what it meant. 

What I did appreciate however was the puns. Pro-twain (protein) and citrusy (spelled citrussy pls!) was funny af.

Also, a very arguable note: Being 29 does not make someone a daddy.

Coding
Just took a quick look since your files are unobfuscated, you might want to look into repeat and advanced ATL blocks. I also feel like a screen could have done the transition texts (timeskips etc) more justice than the nvl mode.


All in all, it'd be interesting to see what Unagi could do if he actually tried avoiding the shitpost status and took reference from successful things. He's clearly quite innovative, but it seems to more often than not channel in a downwards direction and then spiral on itself.
All in all, it's a little disappointing because it shoots itself in the foot by going too far in so many ways; Base ideas can be good, but if you don't polish your base enough and mix too many things together it's like mixing too many colors: it just becomes a grey goo.
The thing that stuck out, and could have carried this was the twaining concept - it's a cool one, and Preston's struggles can easily be tied to how many people feel in their lives; and that's not even mentioning being gay. It's all a little undeveloped though; Add more story *details*.

2/5 total.