this isn't something ive ever seen an idle game be the vessel for. i love it! props to you both!
korrie!
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thinks about this 5ever. as a serial non-project-finisher who is also adjacent to some of the other things in here, I can definitely relate XD
I'm glad [ ] finally published a project diagetically!! and big props to you for making me feel so much for her--from the fun ui and background changes (the colors!! the error screen!! text coming off the box! etc etc I know you're familiar with them all but they're just neat!), to her realisations about herself looking back, to the cool sprite representations, to how everyone's voices feel so alive from just their snippets. I'm glad I read it ^^
and wishing the best for all your projects too, both future and past!
Such a charming game! I loved the visuals, paper is such a physical medium to call attention to: something to be tossed, crumpled, torn apart--and in arts and crafts, something to create and project an image on to. Even something you can make a box from :P
I'm trying not to lean on the read too much, but the mention of BPD really lends a tint to this, haha. Chewing on all the different perspectives, especially come a "new" character (to us, at least) at the very end! You'd think that'd give us a nice "objective" break on things, but--well, the "endings". I like to think both are true, in their own ways, to different people. There's only one ending for Sara, after all!
Thank you for sharing it ^^
strange thing where the fn+arrow key movement doesn't work. are we meant to not do it in the beginning?
closed it, and now when starting the game the elevator door won't even open anymore, and trying to pick a new floor or call help won't do anything. if anyone knows how to progress from here lmk!
edit: ah, you have to press z in the 3D view!
You're asking for comments, so here's some for QoL stuff you might want to consider:
* Resolution kind of breaks text on wider screens (I saw this on 1280 x 600, no idea what others)
* I do appreciate trying to switch up the make-a-drink formula of this game genre, I wish there might be something more visual / interactive to it--while its more unique, repeatedly retyping is tedious, and it loses out on the connection building a drink part-by-part does in something like VA-11 Hall-A or Coffee Talk. Maybe some measure of autocomplete would be nice, at the very least?
* I wish there was an instant text option, especially during the cutsceney portions.
Now personal opinion comments, from getting through like 1/5 of it: first off, nice, strong aesthetics! Definitely drew me in, and congrats on making just. A wholeass game. Some bits of humor were fun. I liked the dialogues when you flubbed things up, and reactivity (when there was some, I didn't get deep enough to see if it made story changes); small UI things like micro & soft, 69 + forvirgins are overplayed jokes, but it does seem like the kind of thing a person designing a system for themselves would do for a chuckle.
Also, on the occasions they do happen the interplay between different characters was a nice break from people monologuing their philosophies at Ezel.
That said, the characters really don't do it for me (which is again a personal thing, there's definitely an audience for this). Ezel has some interiority, which is interesting (there's even a "consciousness" within him, nice) but it's oozing with insecure harem protagonist energy. Everyone might have different quirks to set them apart, but act in the service of the same ideas.
Setting-wise, outside of gesturing to events of the time and popular media and music, and war as a "you need to man up!" kind of device, what does your story have to say about the 1980s? Obviously, not every work needs to explore the setting in too much detail, but this is very much the kind of story that benefits from it; instead, it feels like something looking back on the 1980s with today's lens (jokey bits about "hah, could you imagine having games on your phone?" included). In VA-11 Hall-A or Coffee Talk it's a fictional world divorced from our own, we're drip-fed pieces of it through details characters mention, or newspaper snippets. In contrast, we know, or think we have the general gist of, what 1980s Miami is; it's a nothing detail to the average reader. So that's your chance to bring your perspective to the table.
Wheres the love for Miami, America in general, outside of as a vague concept? Nobody talks about sports, local music scenes, religion, clubs, businesses, politics. Nobody is even counterculture or contrary, nobody is overtly bigoted (except for increasingly tedious "Hah, women amiright?" jokes) in a story that's ostensibly about different and diverse opinions, that has a *warning* about different and diverse opinions. You have an ensemble cast that you could play off each other and their different perspectives on the setting: why not have them argue, have Ezel intervene?
I'm not asking for the next Disco Elysium or anything, and maybe these things crop up in the latter half, but if begun early it's the sort of thing that would build intrigue for the rest of the story, and it could be done alongside the flirting.
This far in development, it's probably too late to revise the structure, but it's a perspective to keep in mind for future projects at least?