A quick review after playing! TL;DR, loved it a ton!
This game is so well done, especially for a free V 1.0. The story, puzzles, and character artwork are fantastic, which like, everyone is saying so I won't stay on for too long; but what I haven't seen is the comments on how well the UI and Music are done? Like, deadass, the polish and commitment to the Subway UI are so iconic and really immerse you in the world, which is amazing for the high-energy/high-stakes tone of the game. Really taken aback by how clean and how much love was put into every visual aspect. The music has all of the qualities I love in the Zero Escape OST while still standing out for itself -- unironically, is this playlist available on any music streaming services? Would love to add them to some study playlists or just enjoy them on their own 😅 Please check this out as it's filled with polish and charm. Great work from everyone involved, and can't wait to see what y'all do next. Way to go!!
Want to better understand what's going on in Idol Hell? Check out this classic gaming instruction guide through modern means! The page is now downloadable below all the Demo versions as a simple PDF. If you have any further questions, please drop them below and we'll be happy to update the guide accordingly! :D
We've heard the theme complaint a bit, and I kind of agree with it. Like you mentioned (and thanks for that btw!) the "role reversal" was how we first got the idea for the game, BUT I think after that point we kind of let ourselves get swept up in the silliness of the game and didn't really look back. I'm sure we could have done a better job reinforcing the theme, i.e. our gameplay doesn't reinforce it, but I also stand by the decision to just run with the idea since the 48hr window didn't really let us slow down. Fair criticism, but we hope people have fun regardless since that was our #1 goal :D
LOL, totally forgot about that line, but I'm so glad someone found it funny because I liked it a lot. Fruit Ninja and Flappy were particularly fun to write for, have to love a hot-headed mess 😅
This game looks so fun! It looks like the team did a great job capturing the high energy and style of the Zero Escape, so excited to try out the game in just a few days!!
LMAO, originally Fruit Ninja's route was going to end with a comment "wishing she was romanceable," but I voted against it since the game doesn't have any meta-humor. You are so based for wanting this tho. Fruit Ninja is so iconic; honestly found the VN genre to be a weird one to write for, but Fruit Ninja's dialog just wrote itself. Her design is just so great!
Adding my perspective to Fumple and Manny; basically, we were all in a call slamming down tons of ideas, and someone threw out Flappy Bird. I immediately was like "Oh god no, basically every iteration of Flappy Bird has been done already ... other than like, a dating sim ig." It was an out-of-pocket remark, but people started joking about it. People in-call kept throwing out hilarious joke after hilarious joke, so as the writer I thought, "This idea has a lot of content to work with -- could actually work as a memey VN." I do remember thinking "How does this fit the theme?" realized the reversal of Flappy Bird could be "You want to hit the pipe" ->"You want to ram the pipe" and the idea suddenly didn't seem too silly. Still, we kept 3 other ideas, ever endeared to this game the more we talked, but it was when our artist joined the call and sent some concepts that we decided to full-send. Once Buff Flappy concept was sent, it was a done deal LOL.
Also so happy to hear you really enjoyed this! Thanks so much!
Totally! Something I think all of us on the team would want to look into. WIshing we could have gotten that done, but the time limit just caught up to us. Thanks so much for playing and all the kind words! :D
We didn't expect to make one either, the idea got brought up, concept art was drawn, and we just didn't have any choice LOL. Glad to hear you had fun with it too! :D
If this game ever gets Streamed, I'll consider 2023 a year well spent 😆. So glad you enjoyed the baddies, #FruitNinjaSweep, and thank you so much for the kind words! :D
That's a great idea and one I can't believe we didn't think of! Not sure if there's enough demand to touch this game going forward, but that would absolutely be something to add. Thanks so much for playing!
We were hoping to add something like that, but it got cut due to time constraints. Even our options had to get pulled because of the deadline. Thanks for playing though!
Ahhh sorry about that 😅. We nerfed the difficulty from the original a bit, but it's still the same idea. We would have liked to play with the rng or include more accessibility, but building a VN from scratch took a little longer than we thought and that 48 hr time limit caught up!
