I was wondering if anyone else here plays the amateur sim games on sites like Newgrounds, etc? The Sim Girl game was great even though the creator didn’t finish it. Love Hina and now Galaxy Angel are also fun to play. If you want to play Galaxy Angel though, go to the Forkhead site for the download as I couldn’t get the Newgrounds version to play. Just think that it’s good to have these game options. Anyone care to share their favorite game sites?
I visit Newgrounds.com too. I liked the Simgirl, EVA 4 and Love Hina sims, but now with Galaxy Angel, I’m kind of tired of it. I wish they would quit all that damned drug referencing. It’s just not funny anymore (for me it never even was), and I’m tired of it. Also, the game is pretty buggy.
[This message has been edited by Benoit (edited 11-21-2004).]
I think the main site is down at the moment but
http://www.lemmasoft.net/forums/
is a good place to get original english games. Usually not adult though.
Finally got a book that can aid me in my conquest of finalizing my female character designs. I’m particularly bad when it comes to females . Once that’s done I can polish off my storyline and either make my manga into something real or turn it into a game… yipee!
quote:
Originally posted by Benoit:
I visit Newgrounds.com too. I liked the Simgirl, EVA 4 and Love Hina sims, but now with Galaxy Angel, I'm kind of tired of it. I wish they would quit all that damned drug referencing. It's just not funny anymore (for me it never even was), and I'm tired of it. Also, the game is pretty buggy.[This message has been edited by Benoit (edited 11-21-2004).]
Yeah, I was working on Milf in the Galaxy Angel game just now. As soon as I got her to "close friend" and talked to her, the game went into an infinite dialogue loop and I couldn't go any further...
I would suggest not playing the game until the next bug fix comes out. It really sucks to play for several hours and then run into a bug that kills the game. [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/frown.gif[/img]
The bug I encountered was not being able to increase my HP by drinking those drinks. It only worked on the day you drank them. But if you went to sleep, your ‘upgrade’ was gone.
Other reported that it just restored HP (probably because theirs weren’t full, while mine was at that moment).
Dark - I have the same problem with Milf when I get enough relationship points to date. I was able to play through to her end once.
Endymion(& anyone who has created a game) - I always wondered if I created my own game if knowing the ins and outs of the game would take away from the experience of playing the game. What has been your experience?
Benoit - I would also like the same changes plus not fighting with the girls.
quote:
Originally posted by keller:
Endymion(& anyone who has created a game) - I always wondered if I created my own game if knowing the ins and outs of the game would take away from the experience of playing the game. What has been your experience?
VERY interesting question. I sometimes wonder this myself.
quote:
Benoit - I would also like the same changes plus not fighting with the girls.
Not fighting with the girls? But it's fun! [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/biggrin.gif[/img]
Milf bug update. I was able to successfully date Milf using the following guidlines. Once relationship points reach 1,000, do not select talk or give unless on a date. With relationship points between 900-999, give her flowers. If you try to date her when the relationship points are too low, you will run out of options before you get the 100 date points needed for a successful date.
Once you reach “slave” relationship level, you should be able to speak with her again. I waited until 20,000 relationship points just to be safe.
This guideline works well for the standard mode but I found myself about 1,500 relationship points short with just a few days remaining in hard mode. I finally used a cheat in order to complete hard mode. Maybe this will save someone some headaches over this bug as the game is fun when its’ working properly.
keller - Well, I guess to the naked eye the idea could seem to pose somewhat of a problem. After a game is completed though, you have a sense of satisfaction knowing that you did it by yourself or with the aid of a few others. But I have wicked bad memory when it comes to some things, and remembering paths to games one of them. So playing a game I just made would probably give me a ‘blank’ mind, so I could play the game like I just bought it or something… even if I knew or remembered every little thing in the game I would still enjoy it. I still play games I know every little bit to and find them as awesome as when I first played them.
On a side note, my game is on halt, so I can work on the character drawings…I’m a perfectionist so one little thing scraps the sketch. Also I’m putting a good percentage of my time into the planning of my Anime/B-game review site.
Thanks for the reply Endymion. In theory I thought that the person who would be playing a game would be in a good position to create a concept for a game that they would really enjoy. To actually develop the concept, even using predesigned game engines, would be a tremendous challenge. Then if the game was completed, would they still enjoy playing the game or would they know it too well after all the hours put into it. I’m encouraged to hear that you enjoy the games you create.
Playing it yourself is never quite the same, of course, since you can’t really judge how hard or easy it is.
The worst bit is testing-while-building. Bad enough that to test things you have to play through every single choice every direction to be sure it all works right, but when you’re the programmer and you find a mistake then you have to fix it, rebuild, and immediately do the playthrough again to get back to where you just were to be sure you fixed it… That’s more boring than just standard beta-testing. They at least get a break between runs.
Thanks for the input Papillon. Your insights addressed one of the areas I was concerned with should I create my own game.
If you don’t mind my asking, with these headaches, what would you say makes creating your own game worthwhile? I don’t have a programming background so I would be facing a massive learning curve in creating my own game. I’m hoping that experiences of people who have created their own games will shed some light on whether I would having a good gaming experience once I completed my game.
well, for me, it’s simple - Nobody but me will make the games I want to play! Even I can’t quite make the games I want to play (can’t afford a good artist, don’t know where to find one if I could, am still learning many things) but I can try and I can continue to improve.
And if I can inspire others to work on similar games, then even better - maybe I can eventually get someone other than me making the stuff I want to play!
As far as the learning curve goes - There’s already one program out there for making visual novel games (RenPy, can be found on the forum link I posted earlier). I’m also willing to make my engine (the multiple-choice-story part of it) available after my current project is finished, or to program other people’s games for them if they provide the necessary resources. (The art and the story-tree)
The programming part of a visual novel is not difficult at all. Writing all the storypaths, keeping track of the way they interact, and storing them in a fashion where you can actually read them, that’s trickier. If you don’t keep folding back to the central storyline, you’ll get completely lost.
[This message has been edited by papillon (edited 11-28-2004).]
Papillon- Thank you so much!!! Your post was so encouraging that I have decided to work on my own games.
What type of game(s) are your favorite(s)? Are the games you create the visual novel type you mentioned? Also, are you at a point when you would consider sharing your games with others?
Sorry for all the questions; just a little stoked now.
What I’m currently working on is basically a visual novel, plus a map screen to choose your location sometimes (breaking up the monotony of clicking and reading).
What I’d like to play are games that are very girl-focused with a combination of fun but not too hard gameplay and a good story. Princess Maker and Angelique are the names I point to fastest here, but I’m also a big fan of Planescape Torment, Fallout, the old Sierra Quest games… I’m an RPG fan but I find a lot of what’s coming out these days in the RPG field to be a little dull. Too big, maybe. Big budget shiny 3D (I don’t really like 3d) slightly cliche etc etc etc.
I’m still waiting for my copy of Brave Soul (because a certain company, NOT PP, has been jerking me around) but while I expect I will enjoy playing it I also expect that the storyline won’t exactly focus on the kind of heroine I’d want to be and the combat will probably get dull.
But really, the game news that excites me most these days is when somebody translates a new japanese SNES rom. I think my console gaming tastes largely got stuck at the SNES.
As for bishoujo games, they’re fun, but they don’t quite scratch the itch I’m reaching for. Games that are focused on a guy choosing between girls are never quite going to be what I want. I know there was an Utena game on the Saturn - making it doubly impossible for me to play it, no saturn and no Japanese. But the very thought of a story-based Utena game gets me all excited.
I currently have some finished games available, but they are not VNs. - http://www.hanakogames.com/ - Each one is a learning process and gets me that little bit further along.
Sadly, what I need most is money and artists. It’s a pain knocking yourself out trying to make your own art as best you can and then still being consistently put down for it not being good enough. Well, if people would give me infinite money I would spend it hiring better artists…
quote:
Originally posted by papillon:
Games that are focused on a guy choosing between girls are never quite going to be what I want. [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/smile.gif[/img]
Well there's always the X-change series...
*ducks flying object and runs away*
Seriously though, have you played the Sailor Moon RPG and Magic Knight Rayearth for the SNES? Those games sound like they would be right up your alley. I'd also suggest the Lunar series on the PS1, though these two aren't as girl-focused as the ones above.
[This message has been edited by Dark_Shiki (edited 11-29-2004).]
I have played the Sailor Moon RPG, yes. It was fun, although I got sick of the combat after a while and turned on the cheat mode to just blow through the story and see what happened. Haven’t found the Rayearth one yet.
I’m still waffling back and forth on whether (and how) to add an adult patch to my current project which is, at the moment, pretty much innocent girl-friendship stuff. Not sure where optional nudity could be inserted without looking blatantly gratuitous. Or just give up on having it make sense and let you unlock the pictures for each girl by winning her path.
If you feel adding adult material would compromise the story, you could just have some sort of fan service gallery that opens up when you win a path, sort of like Day of Love does. I swear, I would’ve completely written off the game if not for that saving grace. Or possibly there could be some sort of side story that opens up when you beat the game, perhaps in the future of the main story, where the adult material could be more comfortably inserted. That way any “censoring” to make it available to a wider audience wouldn’t interfere with the main story.
[This message has been edited by Dark_Shiki (edited 11-30-2004).]
@ papillon
If you need help with art I could send you some of my samples. I can help with storylines as well if needed.