itch.io

Feel free to share a link, would love to read your review :)

Argue with your Prefrontal Cortex, insult an art critic, befriend the elderly.

A Hint of Purple is a short visual novel about queer love and art. Follow Maya, a once-celebrated painter now paralyzed, as she struggles to accept her new reality and its effects on her relationship.

Features:

• An emotionally rich queer story told in the form of a visual novel.
  
• Hear from a diverse cast of characters, each with their own unique stories and perspectives.
  
• Engage with Maya's inner struggles by conversing with her Prefrontal Cortex, providing a unique and introspective look at her mental and emotional state.
  
• A short but sweet experience that respects your time. (~1hr)

Play it here! https://dormin42.itch.io/a-hint-of-purple

I'm looking for feedback on a short interactive story inspired by Disco Elysium, I'll randomly pick from the first 5 posts that offer feedback and gift that person a Steam or Itch game of their choosing that's $20 or less. Playtime is approximately ~40min.

The story: A famous painter finds themselves paralyzed from head to toe, unable to communicate with the outside world they see their relationship in a new light.

I'm looking for feedback on the story and presentation. The more detailed and honest feedback the better. I'd love to hear what's working and what's not. The planned final release will be free and will include music, backgrounds, and some light sound effects. Thanks!

Download Link 

Recommended background music for your playthrough.

Edit: Updated the download link since the last one stopped working after someone claimed it. Still getting used to how Itch.io private links work.

Thanks so much! I really appreciate you taking the time to leave feedback, I've been thinking about adding voices in your head, that don't actually use skill checks but present themselves in a similar way to the Disco Elysium skills. So far I've been thinking of skills along the lines of Artist's Eye, Anxiety, Empathy, Ego. So when you have a thought that might fall into any of these categories you see a unique portrait attached to it just like Disco. That way I don't venture into RPG territory which would definitely be too ambitious for me.

Btw I took some time to play and send some feedback on the game you shared, hope it helps! I can see you took a lot of inspiration from Disco as well :)

Art

The art is very charming, the overall feel is comforting and inviting. Reminds me of Stardew Valley. Not much else to say on it other than well done!

Story

I went into this blind, so I may be missing context from previous chapters. I would've liked a more enticing or obvious goal other paying back the tavern-keeper. It wasn't immediately clear to me that I had amnesia, I think if this is the character just waking up from amnesia I'd want some more focus/distress regarding that. The characters and lines of questioning were very simple, I didn't find them to be very engaging because I didn't have a reason to be curious about them. This may be a matter of taste because I felt the same way about the characters in Stardew Valley and I know a lot of people really connected with those characters. Your characters provide a lot of exposition/background about themselves, but I would've found them more interesting if the conversations revealed more about their personalities/outlook. The conversations with the Blackknight and Notnott where the most entertaining for me because I felt they had stronger personalities. There were a couple of humorous observations when observing the inanimate objects that I enjoyed, I felt it gave me some insight into my character which I appreciated.

I talked to all the characters in the Tavern and could not figure out how to progress, I assume I need to leave the Tavern and get money but I couldn't figure out how aside from going to the main menu and clicking on another chapter, which I think would skip me past what I was supposed to do. (I'm assuming  those chapters are all available for debug purposes, and for people returning to the game)

UX/UI Feedback and possibly bugs

• I wasn't sure why I was presented with 4 different places to start in, I take it that these are different levels that are supposed to be played in linear order so I started with the Tavern in the top left
• I wasn't expecting pressing the X in the top right of the game window to take me back to the main screen
• I expected the X on the top left of the dialogue window to close it, and/or exit the current conversation but it did not
• The portrait of the current character talking matches their normal pixel art, I was hoping to see a more detailed representation of them
• The dialogue window completing overlapping characters depending on their placement isn't ideal in terms of presentation, but the portraits help with that
• When you have only one option to select it's at the bottom of the dialogue window, which results in me having to switch between reading the top and bottom of the window. Gets a bit fatiguing, it'd be nice to have these closer together
• When you talk to objects it wasn't immediately clear to me that the text I was reading was from myself, since all text you see there up until that point is from other characters
• When you finish asking a person a question it returns to the top of the dialogue tree and you hear the character repeat themselves, this can be a bit unnatural if you ask them multiple questions in a row. Repeating their first line of dialogue makes sense if you stop talking to them, and then go back to talk to them imo

I know I nitpicked a lot of UX stuff but overall the game feels very polished!

I'm looking for feedback on a short interactive story: Paralyzed from head to toe, a famous painter finds themselves humbled by their new reality. Unable to communicate with the outside world, they see their strained relationship in a new light.

Link to Story

I'd love to get feedback on the overall story and characters. The full release will primarily be text-based, with portraits appearing for the different characters. Think Disco Elysium's dialogue system and portraits, pictured below, without the background visuals. Thanks so much for your time, any feedback would be very much appreciated!