itch.io

A nice demo. Looking forward to seeing more. Here's what I think, so far:

• Okay, so getting injured is your biggest liability. Injured people have to recover and that takes time, which takes resources.
• Resources are generous, which is okay for the demo. Area balance is okay, but could be better balanced as more features are added.
• They really should be able to assign themselves on their own when idle, then reassign as they want to do something else.
• There's a bug/exploit where fast-clicking the commit to expedition queues up a duplicate.
• Everyone is very cute considering how old they must be. 
• The animations are the key point, here.
• The AI voices are off...doesn't feel right with some of the script.
• Overall, I like the core ideas behind their characters, but their personalities are pretty one-note. The choices you make as the MC should be a little more influential or defining of your character so you can better-or-worse relate to the others.
• There's the usual uncanny valley and consistency issues with the art and voices, but there isn't much way around it.

Thanks for working on these - would appreciate an environment pack of snow, water/sea, canopy, and other nature materials.

Really like this project! Glad to see you're back. One little step at a time.
Just some issues with the GUI that could use work:

• Some menus are lacking clear feedback for their current state, making them hard to navigate or close.
• Some menus can put the game into a state where it's displaying the wrong item (break mode orgasm buttons during seggs)
• Very occasionally, the game will enter a screen or menu that will require a restart. 
• Tooltips should be very common for any screen element you can click.
• Mouse dragging of items and keyboard list navigation would be good.

Here's some issues and suggestions, in general:

• The quest menu's entries should be clickable to see what I had done so far, even after completion.
• Body morph support for Muscles and Pregnancy would be great.
• Is there support for selling items? That'd be helpful.
• The meat and potatoes for the game really does involve the personalities and dialogue options. Definitely work hard on all of those.
• Since developing and guiding personalities and roles will be important - organizing it by a Core Personality -> Type A/Type B/Etc seems like the best way for players to understand how they can work with each person.
• Base/temple upgrades would be good. 
• Speaking of guests, I hope that recruiting guests has a much different set of outcomes/events than captives. Ideally, I can see the various characters in four groups: Indoctrinated vs Initiated and Captive vs Invited.

Despite difficulties, I think it's a keeper and glad I tried that month. Cheers!

Appreciate the work you're putting in during the OSC!

I like the general setup, but there's some common problems that I think should be fixed sooner than later:

- The French -> English translation isn't really as much of an issue compared to the prose sounding like it was written by AI (including the little ticks of flawed details that AI will use when describing certain things) and the lack of coherent progression in facts of the story. The MC talks about how they've discovered all of these things with others, but it's not clear when they even learned such things.
- The general visual style of the game sticks out, but the AI renders can be inconsistent. Worse yet is a sense that no one is really progressing on a permanent basis, making character progress and grinding seem very disappointing monotonous.
- The lack of presence of others in the game world can be troublesome and makes the player wait or skip days. 
- I'd suggest replacing the grindy menu options with options that change color or status when there's something new to talk about. The way things are worded and logically arranged - it's much cooler to search areas for things that might help explore the town or investigate.

Oh. 

It's live service? 

Nope! I'll let this cook.

I would, actually. For others, I also have with the similar rationale. I appreciate your understanding. I can only promise that I'll keep going and make it a cut above the rest.

It is. But let's make some things clear: 

- I'm broke. I'm tired of begging for support without putting something in people's hands.

- I'm not ripping people off with patreon early access. 

- I'm not kickstarting the game at a $30,000 artwork goal just for an indeterminate development time.

- I know for a fact that incredibly few people donated to OHYAD's Free Twine version.

- I also know for a fact that raising the price later does not work to get more game done or get food into my mouth.

- And I know for a fact that there's games my audience ARE spending more than that money on - over months - with lower standards and way more hustle than mine.

I'm going to be joining sales. I understand the doubts and criticism, but the reason I'm doing this is because I know the other ways do not work for me.

And with that? Name your price. Let's hear it. I'll write it down.

After some time playing it (0.0.5), I have some thoughts for this rough cut:

Essence and Cores: Should have more than one way to get them, for sure. If you can carry them, you can find them or obtain them. Tasks, quests, barter, etc. 

Time shards: I'm okay with this mechanic provided there's a serious reason that consistently gets applied. Again: if they can be gained, they can be exchanged or earned in various ways. 

Bigness and Smallness: These both have to have serious meaning, otherwise the whole setting is a glorified Clicker Game. That your friend there starts as huge to begin with is kind of a false start. What is drawing people to be so huge, and how does entropy work in that situation?

We're the MC, so we should have agency and ambitions, too: We should feel weak, small, and want to grow, as well. Or, perhaps there are other ways to realize whatever ambitions we could have as the player. Anyways, can't say I'm in love with the model, but keeping cores for myself would be nice. 

Font (personal peeve): Change the GUI font as fast as possible!

Growth animations and mechanics: A little opaque right now, but if there are sectional responses to the beam - our subject, whoever it is, should be able to stand still so we can aim. The wobbling effect should be a bit more subtle, but it's a good indicator of activity.

World: The pop-in on the flora is dramatic. As well, while it's a small time loss - preventing the clock from starting until the scene is loaded and we can orient ourselves in the game world would be nice.

Finally: .....would love some equal opportunity stuff, maybe if you have someone on the team if it's not your thing.

Interesting. Since this is 3D and a fresh start - make use of every bit of character tech you have with the gameplay. Manipulate the bones of the rig, the textures and materials of things. While this isn't my bag, if it's good or interesting - it's worth making and trying. Good luck and work hard! Don't be afraid to get help.

Apologies for not answering this quickly, but it needs to be said, I think:

Pretty much. I'm not willing to go full NSFW for a few reasons and a lot of uncertainty.

Noticed the game on sale on Steam - would hope for you to bring it here or to GOG! Congrats on the release!

Awesome to see something like this! I don't see a download button, but would appreciate something that would run locally on both windows and SteamOS/Linux.

I'm very glad you stuck with it. Keep going.  I know this can be very hard, but when all else fails - there is ONLY the things you love to do. 

That's steep, but I've seen what you and the team was capable of when you were using Twine. I believe in some kind of Karma, so just don't let me down. 

For those whining - would any of you like to donate $30,000 of commissions up front? With no product? I thought not. You guys have no idea how and difficult and expensive this really is to deliver to expectation through just commission or contract.

As a heads up: Once I deploy the RenPy version, I will be deleting a lot of comments, and I ask that bug reports stay out of the main comment section.

Fixed that up, and a companion small issue. Will look around for similar and push update. 

Yeah, I'm not doing AI with IOP or TCON.

I'm willing to admit that: That's what's happening to OHYAD right now. It's cheap, consistently "satisfactory", and fast. I'm likely never going to get the money to make original artwork for the game, and I don't know how I feel about asset packs other than very uncomfortable. At least the music is mine!

https://www.renpy.org/doc/html/nvl_mode.html
Here's the documentation for it - NVL mode puts more text on the screen, so it's really good for monologues and longer narration.

Hi! I liked that you made this an emotional story, but want to offer some feedback so you can improve it.

- There are several inconsistencies with the AI Artwork. I know this is common, but it demands attention.

- Try to make use of the NVL mode of RenPy for longer bits of exposition or narration. You can make the NVL textbox customized like the rest of the game, so it won't interfere so much with seeing the background.

- Consider finding a nice font. Default font makes me sad. 

A lot going on here, as there's two people on this one - but the result is a solid OST with nice variety. People have been doing well with the network, save, and shop theme for this jam! Good job.

Tense, contemporary club music but with the mood to match the situation. Some of these aren't my cup of tea, but if this were a game - if the MC was written with the right personality, the right action, right visual style and level design? I can kinda see it. You have one long night of trying to get you and your gear out of there. Pretty good!

Thanks, but i have to admit that that figure is a bit off. I was about 1.6 pieces done when I took a break, started the itch project and got that squared away, finished the second, and then the next morning I finished the third and added it. Still - I DO tend to wrap early.

I envisioned something more like Ace Attorney. Obviously less silly, but yeah. I'm glad everyone seems to get it!

I liked this a lot - the transition in pace and energy really let me visualize what the MC was doing to leave the planet. Very good job!

We had similar ideas! This definitely as a Peturbator vibe to it. Maybe it's because of the filters and mixing - but it seems like the sound is very confined - as if I'm on a mono TV or a GBA. If that was  a design choice, it should probably be written on the project. 

Thumbs up!

It's a shame the jam was short and you only had time for a single track to convey the idea. If you had time to do four in this style and arrangement? This would be awesome. 
For what you have? I think it conveys it fairly - the MC is assailed by his own intrusive thoughts in a dizzying experience.

I knew someone was going to do this, and I have no complaints! Good job! It works!

In a world....destroyed by Gacha. The only way to save it...is to roll the gacha...

Really like the style!

When I listen to stuff like this it reminds me I need to work on dynamics of the mood - swells in sound and expression that usually aren't available with all my synths. I really gotta get working on my real instruments. Nicely done - although I would personally like more details about the ideas at play in the submission.

As an abstract, standalone piece, I really like it and think it would make for a great cinematic or cutscene. It has the quality of mid to late 20th century music, and I think you pulled it off well.

Bright, enjoyable, and comfortable. Nothing wrong with that IMO.

Could be improved with a bit of hall reverb or something to fill out the orchestra's sound and power to expectation. 

The music fits the theme and narrative, which is something I always look for.

707+Industrial sounds+I AM THE VOICE INSIDE YOUR HEAD makes for a dark and dangerous experience at machine speeds. I have a bit of a personal bias, but backing up a bit, the narrative is complete, I'm glad I'm not the only one that went with a dark tone. Some aspects of freedom can be terrifying, but imprisonment is far worse.

I liked this! I can't say it fits the theme very well but if this was all improvised and you let it rock through all the patterns as arranged in the screenshots? Not bad at all. Reminds me of energetic anime game music - maybe Touhou! 
TOOT! 

Hello, I'm Starsickle. Things have been slow recently and most of my problems involve money, so I'm posting to let people know that - on top of my own commissions - I am also available for paid/commission/revshare opportunities for music, editing and consulting for scripts, and maybe more depending on the project and price. It does not have to be large, but breaking work up into pieces would be good.

Probably doesn't need to be said, but for clarity: I would prefer projects I would enjoy.

I'm a multi-skilled solo dev -  you can check the links and projects in my profile for examples of my work.

• Favorite games ever: Xenogears, Morrowind, Everquest, FF6,
• Education: CSE and Technological Systems Management 
• Most raw experience: Java, Python, Scripting languages
• My Music: Lots of digital music.
• Current Language Focus: Python
• Want to improve in: GODOT, C# 
• Arcane Knowledge: BASICV2, Java, others.
• Hates: C++ Dev Environment Setup on Windows. 
• Fight Game Characters: Litchi Faye Ling, Cammy, Baiken

Will check those out and try to fix them!

EDIT: I've spent some time around the parts you were having trouble with, and they'll be improved and hopefully more clear in the near future.

Definitely liked this one. Definitely like Mecha stuff. Impressed you managed so much in so little time, including stings and transitions.

I have a soft spot for LoFi. Cool beans on using Famitracker! Also liked the visualization.

It grooved consistently through the whole thing, which I liked!

I liked that the second half wasn't the "wrong" part - the music righted itself in the second half!