itch.io

I really like it! The writing is so clear and absorbing!

Lovely! Thanks for checking in!

Haha! Thank you! I still have a lot to learn!

Thank you so much! I'm trying to iron the little things out and you're feedback is super helpful!!!! I wasn't expecting anyone to get onto this build so quickly aaaaaaaaaah!

Yeah, it's been down a while so I could fix a few things! Will announce here and Twitter when it's ready for the public again!

I haven't seen Squid Game but I do recommend Ultimate Survivor Kaiji and Liar Game which kind of beat them to it... 

Just sayin'

Beautifully immersive and compelling game! Really sucks you in with its well-paced twists and world-building.

Highly recommend!  

Truly a gorgeous game. Immediately engaging premise and amazingly well made! 

Yes! Thoroughly! But even with the same tools I couldn't put something together as well as you have! It's really well done!

Just a message to tell you I'm here! I'm interested! I'm reading!

Well done on such a wonderful project!

This game is amazing! It's so much content and such a high level of polish! I really want to scream about how good it is! 

Really cool that you were able to make this on Renpy! It really feels like a very well-made point-and-click game that I would play many years ago. I love the art style and the animations (How did you do that? I'm genuinely envious.) 

Heh, I completed it... but I'm not exactly sure HOW. 

Hey! I have a pair of eyes! Me! Me! 

Wow! Looks amazing!

BTW - If you haven't checked in on the game for a while, please have a look at how it's developed. Things have really come together recently and I'm pretty excited to share (Although I don't want to ruin the surprises...)

Hey all, 

I was just playing with options on the site (as I was uploading the most recent build.) and I pressed this button, which seems to have deleted all of your lovely comments! Whoops! 

Anyway, interested in seeing what this looks like and hearing from you all soon.  (No really, I miss chatting to you guys.) 

-Liam 

A really sweet way to start my day! 

Ah! Thank you so much for the feedback and encouragement! I'm actively working on the game and will certainly track down the cursor issue! 

You getting this far is already a huge inspiration and I'm really excited to see where you go from here. 

加油!

Cheers Eugene!

One of these days I'll have to write a post about exactly how much variance is going on beneath the surface. I plan to have the criminal of each case randomized, for example, although I'll focus on having playable chapters done before going back and adding alternatives.

Best of luck! I'll be in there getting myself a slice.

Yes! I've noticed that there are loads of great artists listed on those sites from Indonesia in particular - The only thing slowing me down is the goal of having an all-HK based team but I might have to put that aside for the time being. 

It's funny, for all negative buzz around AI art stealing human jobs, the human artists I've found seem to run a mile from what seems like easy money, to me. 

Mein Gott, that Victoria theme goes hard! I'm invested in the story and the characters and I'm very sure that something bad will happen to the characters whose stress I neglect... but whenever I'm given the choice I basically auto-click on Victoria because the music gives me such a rush!

I'd say that a lot of the soundtrack does really well - especially in the prologue - but there's one track that I find quite irksome to my ear, it's got kind of a square piano sequence to it - Might be something I'd feel less negatively about it I heard it less frequently (And also I'm always in a groove with the Victoria theme and sad to hear it end.) 

Ah, I've just got to the bit where Lily finally enters the picture... that's such a deep hook! I'm completely engrossed! Such wonderful storytelling! 

And then THAT theme. I'm so sold on this! I'm putty in your hands.

That's such great feedback! Thank you so much! It's all in a janky dough-like state but I'm pumped for pushing onwards.

Its a bit of a Goliath of a project logistically and I'm so glad you rolled back through the crashes... there are many in there, I'm sure and I'll endeavour to defeat them all one day. 

There is however, no bread. Literally unplayable.

Also, Android and IOS versions upcoming. 

早晨! Shout out an MTR station and I'll try to write a crime case specific to that area!

I spent a while attempting to model humans on Blender but now I just use Mixamo. It automatically rigs models and you can export a bunch of animations. It's really easy.  You can find a free anatomically-correct model on Turbosquid, rig via Mixamo and export the animations as FBX and that covers all my needs, really. 

Thank you! You've made my day!

i don't think that you're doing anything wrong. The vast majority of game developers (and authors, musicians, artists etc) are in the exact same situation and I'm actually quite jealous of you having this experience at a young age. Many much older people are still trying to grapple with these things and although many people offer easy answers, it's all very chaotic. 

The thing I'd say is to branch out in whatever ways you're comfortable doing so. Community building is a skill set of its own and it's unfortunately very distinct from the skill set of game development. Actions that could take five minutes your end might be enough to reach people and your post is already a good start. 

For my part, I first went out trying to make the numbers go up but I've realized that I'm far more satisfied by meeting individual people who I get along with and can have great conversations with. I think in the long run, that's better motivation to me. 

I'm rambling, but I think it's an important thing: find a mindset of networking that you can do that feels natural and the numbers will take care of themselves (or will stop mattering)

Sorry, I also should have clarified - I'm now aware that you had a readme file with suggested settings etc, and I ignored it. I actually enjoyed the framerate as it was for me throughout the game before that point because it went along with the drunk disorientation vibe I was getting. I was playing on default settings because I felt they were fine at the time. 

My PC isn't really for games, btw. It's quite old and clunky, so I wasn't expecting things to go very smoothly. 

I was really enjoying myself up until the stepping stone section - Something about the frame rate and platforming just turns me off and I can't even make it past the first jump! 

I'd say that it's surprisingly fun after the first few moments - I found the very first room a little frustrating (I only escaped after turning the brightness up.) and then I found it a little too tricky to interact with objects - particularly door handles.

But ignoring that, I really just enjoyed the vibe of it. I don't necessarily agree with Majid RM about needing a story - For me it was just like being on a fun ghost train. I don't really need more than that. I really appreciate the surreal artistry you've put into it and I think you've done really well pacing things; There's enough variety in there and I really enjoyed some of the abstract puzzle-logic. Really makes you feel like you're drunkenly stumbling through a nightmare. 

In terms of players, I think we're basically like everywhere else. Obviously, there's a massive demand for mobile games because people do a lot of commuting and want something brainless to click on. Many people have a Playstation or Switch at home.

In terms of game-making, I find that a surprisingly large amount of game development happens here and covers several genres and types. Although these games don't wear their HK origins proudly. I used to work for a company that would make games purely aimed for Portuguese audiences like Brazil and would never consider translating them into Chinese, for example. 

I've also worked for a HK-based company that brands itself as German... for... no reason? They feel like HK doesn't suggest quality to customers and try to hide their origins. Bit weird.  

Hey guys, 

Since I started hanging out in the forums, I've been seeing a few creators with HK flags or Cantonese names. 

Don't be shy about saying hello if you're around! Maybe we can get chatting about the HK indie game scene! 

Really impressive!

Hi all, I'm Liam. 

I'm a writer and creative writing teacher in Hong Kong. I'm making an episodic crime visual novel in order to try to give my students and fellow HK-based writers an outlet for their writing talents. (We have very, very few platforms to write here.)

Very interested in chatting to anyone (Especially if you're also in HK) and always happy to provide feedback!

I used to work for a company writing visual novels and they had various guidelines on how to write them that we had to stick to.

For example, be mindful of how many clicks players have to go through before getting to the hook of your story. Because of this, we would write stories in Excel cells rather than a Word document so you can more easily track the number of lines.

 Generally, a good rule of thumb is to have the inciting incident happen within the first hundred clicks. I would aim for much earlier than this, if possible and try to front-load the opening moments with hints to exciting directions to where the story may go, foreshadowing the romance, the danger, etc.

Regarding romance, I found the book "romancing the beat" invaluable help in providing a tried and tested structure to my stories.

Anyway, good luck and happy writing! I'm very happy to give my worthless feedback on anything you come out with!

Really beautiful. Well done to everyone that worked on it!