Date Warp (GxB, non-H)

Visual Novel Community Visual Novel Talk
#1

Five days ago, Janet left her dormitory to go on a date. Her very first date, with a nice young man with a good reputation.

She never came back.

What went wrong? Where did she go? And will she ever be seen again?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvLPA1qO134 - opening video
http://www.hanakogames.com/datewarp.shtml - game webpage with demo downloads and character profiles

Phew! Well, there’s my latest. Demos should be uploaded, HOPEFULLY everything works, let me know if you encounter any problems.

No twincest, no lesbians, so I don’t expect too much excitement here. :slight_smile:

#2

seriously?

Yeah, yeah, I can see that you can skip it but… cries

#3

Is that one of those slider puzzles? Hmmm okay. :slight_smile: Looks really tough to try, though… lolz.

#4

Well, I actually grabbed the demo and the slider crap isn’t too bad, but I start to suspect the novelty will wear off after a while (how quickly depending on how many choices there are in this game, of course) I guess on the bright side, it does make you think longer about the choices >_>

Good production values. I hope there’s more consistency in the CGs than there was in Fatal Hearts.

“Be Angry” “Be Flirtatious”

#5

No - I hate slider puzzles! It’s rotation. You rotate the wire bits to make a connection to the choice that you want to pick. Everything that’s currently connected lights up, and you have to light up the choice before you can select it.

After you’ve previously reached a choice you can auto-skip to that choice on a later playthrough, so you only have to solve each puzzle once for each choice in it.

All the CGs are done by one artist, so it should at least be more consistent than FH. :slight_smile: However, the CGs, the sprites, and the backgrounds are done by different people so it’s still not a 100% perfect match. Someday I will be able to afford studio rates…

#6

Hmmmm… Part of me applauds small business for trying to expand the market in areas such as this one (visual novels). But on the other hand, quality of both story and graphics is a huge sticking point for said games, since what would be the point of supporting something doomed to fail? I just took a look at the maker’s website and looked at a few of the games there. While I’m not going to pass judgement on something I haven’t even played yet, I’d like to see what everyone else thinks about this game and the others there, too.

#7

grin You have no need to buy my stuff if you don’t like it. However, many people have made the ‘doomed to fail’ argument about PP or Mangagamer as well, and I do make a living selling games. This is my fulltime income.

#8

The story sounds interesting and the art looks nice. It’s a GxB game (we need more of these). I’ll try the demo and see how much I like the story and the choice system.

#9

It depends really on the games. As the sites grown, the quality of the games has improved, at least for games from her website (some of the affiliate games…). Anyway, there are demos for all of the games.

#10

Nice setting, I’ll download the demo n let u ppl know my opinion.

#11

Btw, just a qn: neither Date Warp nor Fatal Hearts are depressing, right? 'Cos I just spent a good while playing Leaves which was depressing like hell. And even cried after that(something that rarely happens, mind you). :lol:

I might need to stock up a bit on “happier” games.

To those who bought FH and this game: what’s the contrast like, in terms of writing? Not asking qns about graphics 'cos let’s face it: even Higarushi(first game) did not have any good graphics… lol. And probably a number of those highly-rated VNs too. :stuck_out_tongue:

#12

Um… Not Narcissu-level depressing. But they are not cheerful happy sugar sparkle everything is great games. Expect a number of bad and bittersweet endings, although each is guaranteed to have at least one big-happy ending.

If I’ve made anyone cry, they haven’t told me about it. A few people have reported being scared, or feeling bad/guilty, but not crushingly depressed. :slight_smile:

#13

Ooh that’s okay, then. Btw, can I say this? I really like the Wire puzzle: very intuitive and sensible/logical and you kind of figure out how and why the puzzle is not working without any need for sound effects.

Also, this means there’s no “random trial and error” in some VNs I’ve tried. (Which sort of makes little sense, game-wise.)

Like the different characters and their tones: very very different and good. :slight_smile: The writing seems interesting so far…can I keep Linds? :stuck_out_tongue: He’s a very mysterious and slightly flirtatious man. :stuck_out_tongue: And he looks cute. =P Also, 'cos … I’ll be frank: he’s old enough to not make “liking him” too illegal. =P Nah… just kidding about that. :stuck_out_tongue: He’s probably younger than me and it’d be interesting to … tie him to a chair while we have dinner together, and make him surrender all sorts of answers(non-sexual style). :lol: “If you don’t tell me the answer, then I’m going to force your mouth open and stuff this(caterpillar or something else) down your throat. And so, you can’t blame me for dreaming about freaky monsters… dancing around in your stomach for days.” :mrgreen:

Also, the rest of the cast seem kinda interesting and secretive too. And there seems to be something up with Bradley too. =P Can I say that I really like the premise so far? Sure, it’s nothing that innovative but the development seems very promising. Of course, I’ve only played for a short while though so this seems a bit biased yet there’s this really meaty atmosphere that seems somewhat intriguing from the start. And note: I got nothing against “dating sims” as long as the writing ties the romance and character interactions into the plot. Also, as a city girl, this reminds me never to knock on the doors of some large and giant house. :lol:

The art= cool… it’s not bad. :slight_smile: It looks good and the characters’ poses really convey their mannerisms and so on. I also like the animations… :stuck_out_tongue: Well, at least the animation kinda flows.

Music = well, i’ve only heard one track so far… nice… :stuck_out_tongue: Did you write the score on your own? Cool. :slight_smile: K, heard some more… the main theme in the main window is kinda techno-ish but cool as well.

Btw, I hope I find out what that meter was about. It came up when I first met the guy in rags and that bratty kid. But then, it didn’t appear when I responded to Linds… strange.

Also, just a note(just something very strange that’s occurring): I think it’s probably 'cos I’m currently using someone’s ancient laptop which is like p4 1.6ghz with 256 mb ram lol… (while my pc is being fixed), soo… for some reason, the game hits 100% cpu at times in full-screen mode. Fortunately, this has not happened so far in windowed mode 'cos for a good while, it was taking up about 100mb of ram.

And finally, it’s a “direct download” version you’re offering, right? 'Cos my country tends to have problems with sex and I’m tired of waiting months for a cd to arrive through snail mail. :stuck_out_tongue:

Lucifiel from the other forum. I apologize… can we like, stick to this thread… lolz.

#14

I think you may have missed the “non-H” modifier :slight_smile:

As far as I know, none of papillon’s games are adult.

#15

That doesn’t mean there’s no chaining people to chairs though! :slight_smile:

(Nor does that mean absolutely no sex… but nothing on camera. Bare chests is the most you’ll see.)

I didn’t compose the music, it’s all purchased from outside sources. And yes, it’s a download. BMT has options where you can pay extra to have them send you the file on a CD if you really really want to, but all you get is a blank ugly CDR that you have to pay a lot more for, and they keep the extra price. It’s not at all useful!

#16

I knwo that… =P It’s just my imagination going wild. :stuck_out_tongue: Seriously, you should’ve known that when I started rambling about “live caterpillars”. :lol:

Ooooohhhhh… kinky! :lol:

Linds… =P =P =P Well, that’s fine. :slight_smile:

Dear Papii, thanks for the clarification: even though it is possible to ship the game to Singapore, I wouldn’t want to, anyways. :stuck_out_tongue:

A few phrases: M*A and err… censorship. =P They kinda screen the mail sometimes, see… and if you get caught… well…

Seriously, I’ve heard nightmare stories of people being called up to not just pay fines but to actually explain themselves, and for a session of “interrogation + correction”, possibly involving writing “correction sheets” like writing "I must not " for a few hundred times or if not, some sort of moral essay. The sad thing is, most of the people who’re doing the questioning are like totally embarrassed and kinda like “urge” you(indirectly or in very low tones) to hurry up and get it over with. :lol:

And afterwhich, your mail will probably be screened more vigilantly. Yup… so not worth the effort. :lol:

Well, you did make some good choices with the music 'cos they sound kinda lively. Edit: I hope my “comments” about your game don’t seem too long-winded?

#17

I found the Lucy ending in Fatal Hearts to be really touching. I just wish we got to see their relationship grow. I didn’t like how it suddenly ended after the car scene though; it felt too abrupt.

Anyway, I’ll DL the demo for Date Warp and see how I like it. Props on the catchy OP song.
…And was this the game that was going to have yaoi? 8)

#18

This will be coming soon in an update.

This was the game that was going to have more yaoi in it than it ended up having.

Early on I had plans for Linds to forcibly kiss Bradley (to throw him off balance during the part where everyone distrusts Bradley)

I do have a tendency to write somewhat abrupt endings… I like things being open-ended and tend to get annoyed at endings in other games that insist on spelling everything out. For example, there’s a game (I won’t name it because I’m spoiling the plot) that is about this horrible lovecraftian curse that’s been affecting a family through generations, and you play a woman trying to save her husband from the latest manifestation of the horribleness, and there’s a huge battle at the end but if you’ve done everything right you manage to banish the demon and save your husband and you’re going to escape, yay. Then it fades out and shows just a quote of the prophecy/whatever that mentions that this curse affects the family every generation. So I, the player, go “Ooooooh, yeah, and the demon will come back eventually. Cool.” Then, to my annoyance, the game fades back in and does this whole long scene with the woman discovering that she’s pregnant and worrying that the curse will come back and affect them again. And I’m just like “I already got that, why are you dragging it out and hammering it in?”

But I know many people complain about my tendency to cut off endings right after the climax, so I suppose I should try to work at having more fluffy epilogues for cooldown afterwards.

#19

So how much yaoi is in the game? Are there gay male characters in it? Just wondering cause the gayer it is the faster I’m going to get around to getting it.
I’m planning to get it anyways, it looks great, but I’m just saying :stuck_out_tongue:
A cool down fluffy epilogue can be a nice touch to really give you a sense of closure.

#20

mild spoiler only, nothing too big, but:

There is one explicitly bisexual male character, another who is uncertain of his sexuality, and some innuendo involving a third. The main character is female, so very little actual male/male action can really get screentime, but Janet suspects something’s going on between some of the boys, and there’s at least one ending where… but that would be telling!