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[vitorlanna]

Resource management: check. The resource is love. Your relationship with each party member, how many party members you have, meeting new ones and breaking up with old ones. I'm not sure if this can be further explored with more resources, like gold and an overall love stat.

About the resources, I think an interesting thing to think about might be the resources a relationship need, like time, energy, commitment. I'm not sure how you'd go about that, but something to think about xD

Also I'd like to comment on the cover art. There was the suggestion of making the characters with no identifiable gender, and i'd like to second that - maybe doing just silhouettes, perhaps just the hearts and weapon/shield colored/shaded?
If there is a default gender pairing in the cover (such as male/female), it may give the initial impression that that's what the game will be about, and people may not read further to find out that that's not the case.

[AD1337]

...multiple types of love...

Thanks for taking the time to write ideas. I'm sticking to "romantic love" in Roguemance, but it's interesting to think about this stuff. There will be different intensities of love, but I'm still not sure how relationships will evolve, commitment and stuff like that.

Hey Lucas!

Loved the poems, they are a great idea (the car one is really funny)! The heartipelago looks lovely as well!

Wondering how "Procedurally generated love interests" will work on the game. This will be comunicated mainly through dialog? Would be nice to see the mechanic changing depending on their love interest as well.

Hoping to play it on the next PAIN! I'll definitely post more feedbacks after playing it

Hi! I hate text and dialogue in games, so everything will be communicated through mechanics as often as possible. Sorry for not showing you the game last time! 

About the resources, I think an interesting thing to think about might be the resources a relationship need, like time, energy, commitment. I'm not sure how you'd go about that, but something to think about xD

Also I'd like to comment on the cover art. There was the suggestion of making the characters with no identifiable gender, and i'd like to second that - maybe doing just silhouettes, perhaps just the hearts and weapon/shield colored/shaded?
If there is a default gender pairing in the cover (such as male/female), it may give the initial impression that that's what the game will be about, and people may not read further to find out that that's not the case.

Those are good resource ideas. For now I am letting the prototype and mechanics decide how many resources are needed and how they interact. The cover art is still an issue. I don't like hiding the characters, my current idea is to show different couples in the differently sized Steam banners.

Speaking of Steam banners, here are a few rough composition tests. Big, medium and small sizes. It's a cave with a heart-shaped entrance.







Just a rough sketch to see how the title + art would look. Also a version with the title above the characters:



Which one looks better, title above or title below? Not sure.

And if you're reading this, please post your feedback and ideas! As you can see, I reply to every comment.

[MrHassanSan]

Nice work! :D I like both approaches almost equally, but the one with the title on top reads just a liiiiiittle bit better to me for a couple reasons:

1. With the title on top, it's more obvious that the two characters are holding hands rather than just standing back-to-back. It's not a huge thing, but it's a nice little touch that might be lost if the title's in the way.

2. The title-on-top drawing gives the illusion of a bigger physical space, because you can see more of the environment around the pair. As a result, it's more obvious to me that they're in a cave (at first I thought they were just on an abstract magenta background with a heart-shaped spotlight).

I'm really excited about seeing more concept art!


EDIT: Actually, I'm just realizing you've literally drawn more cave-ness in the last picture, and changed the shape of the heart too! Both are nice touches in terms of better perception of space.

[AD1337]

Nice work! :D I like both approaches almost equally, but the one with the title on top reads just a liiiiiittle bit better to me for a couple reasons:

1. With the title on top, it's more obvious that the two characters are holding hands rather than just standing back-to-back. It's not a huge thing, but it's a nice little touch that might be lost if the title's in the way.

2. The title-on-top drawing gives the illusion of a bigger physical space, because you can see more of the environment around the pair. As a result, it's more obvious to me that they're in a cave (at first I thought they were just on an abstract magenta background with a heart-shaped spotlight).

I'm really excited about seeing more concept art!


EDIT: Actually, I'm just realizing you've literally drawn more cave-ness in the last picture, and changed the shape of the heart too! Both are nice touches in terms of better perception of space.

Thanks for the feedback!



Actually working on the painting. Still need a lot of work, this is probably my most detailed piece ever.

[Pixel Noise]

That is absolutely excellent. Really compelling art! And it fits the narrative of the game perfectly.

[AD1337]

That is absolutely excellent. Really compelling art! And it fits the narrative of the game perfectly.

Thanks!  



Finished the cover art. I'll come back to it later on, so if you have any critiques let me know!  

[TonyManfredonia]

As I mentioned on Twitter:

Absolutely spectacular. I love the distinctness of it. Male and Female off to battle! Works perfectly for the concept!

[AD1337]

As I mentioned on Twitter:

Absolutely spectacular. I love the distinctness of it. Male and Female off to battle! Works perfectly for the concept!

Thank you!

Here's a process gif:

[MrHassanSan]

Oooh I was at MAGFest and missed this update. Absolutely gorgeous.

Do you think the in-game art style will be more or less what you've already shown us? I mean, you're so early in development it might be hard to say. But I'm interested to know if you already expect a major art shift?

[AD1337]

Juiced some stuff. Grass, flashes, particles, stuff like that. Art should be similar, just better.







I am considering trying to turn the combat into real-time (with cooldowns). I think it would be interesting and worth testing. Would solve a few problems and open up cool possibilities.

[TonyManfredonia]

Realtime could be fun! I like that idea.

[AD1337]

Yeah, the problem with real-time is that it might be easier to not hit your partner, which was one thing I really loved about the prototype. Yes, I liked that the player could hit their partner and be hit by them. It was the biggest highlight of watching people play, it really brought up emotions.



Juicing the environment. I think a lot of work can still be done to make this scenario prettier. I'm not sure about some of the darker colors. I think one thing that would be fun to is make the environment procedural (right now only the grass is random). Random background, random ground, random sky, random clouds, random wind, random bushes... it would look slightly different every time. But for now, the important thing is to get just this one to look pretty. Random can come later.

[MrHassanSan]

The potential to hurt your partner while trying to defend them (and yourself) is a really cool concept. What problems were you having that might be solved via real time combat?

That is some tasty looking juice, btw.

[AD1337]

The potential to hurt your partner while trying to defend them (and yourself) is a really cool concept. What problems were you having that might be solved via real time combat?

That is some tasty looking juice, btw.

Biggest problem is players understanding how the simultaneous turns work. For example, that an enemy blocks the same turn you attack. I've seen some confusion with that.

Another problem is players noticing that the squares under the characters represent their next move.



Here is a new background in action!

[MrHassanSan]

I understood the squares represent the next move, but the speed at which they appear and disappear in that GIF is a little confusing.

It might help to slow down the squares' disappearance by gently fading out instead of just immediately deleting them from the screen. (But then, you might also have to add some time between each move so the fade-out doesn't bleed into the next action).

You could also try having the squares flash green (or pink haha) as each move happens so the player can better connect their existence with the action on-screen. Since the player will still have some squares colored white, this might also help them get used to the fact that colored squares represent simultaneous moves.

I did have a combat-related question:

When there's no square beneath a character, does that mean they've chosen not to do anything for that turn? If so, I'd suggest making a "no action" graphic so that it's more clear. To differentiate from the other squares, maybe you could color that differently too?

[sbeast]

I'm liking the updates, the game is making good progress! Also, have you made any considerations about the music/sound yet?

[AD1337]

I've been working on a couple of enemies:





Yes, the first one is a flaccid penis and the second one are blue balls. I did say enemies were gonna be relationship issues. I think the penis could be more subtle, but the blue balls are fine I think.

I understood the squares represent the next move, but the speed at which they appear and disappear in that GIF is a little confusing.

It might help to slow down the squares' disappearance by gently fading out instead of just immediately deleting them from the screen. (But then, you might also have to add some time between each move so the fade-out doesn't bleed into the next action).

You could also try having the squares flash green (or pink haha) as each move happens so the player can better connect their existence with the action on-screen. Since the player will still have some squares colored white, this might also help them get used to the fact that colored squares represent simultaneous moves.

I did have a combat-related question:

When there's no square beneath a character, does that mean they've chosen not to do anything for that turn? If so, I'd suggest making a "no action" graphic so that it's more clear. To differentiate from the other squares, maybe you could color that differently too?

Yes! I do need some kind of fade or something. Yeah, if there's nothing beneath them, they do nothing. I could also do an empty square instead of no square at all. Or a square with 3 dots, like they're waiting. Could work.

I'm liking the updates, the game is making good progress! Also, have you made any considerations about the music/sound yet?

Thanks! Nope, but I've noticed almost everyone who posts here are musicians looking for work. I don't know if this is a thing with Roguemance or all devlogs, but it's kinda weird and TIG wasn't like this a couple of years ago. Nothing against musicians, I do need to figure out the audio eventually, just stating a fact I've noticed. I wish there was more diversity!

[AD1337]

I designed a new site over at Roguemance.com

It contains alpha sign-ups and more information about the game.

How do you like it?  

[sbeast]

Thanks! Nope, but I've noticed almost everyone who posts here are musicians looking for work. I don't know if this is a thing with Roguemance or all devlogs, but it's kinda weird and TIG wasn't like this a couple of years ago. Nothing against musicians, I do need to figure out the audio eventually, just stating a fact I've noticed. I wish there was more diversity!

Good question, I'm not entirely sure. I've only been using the forum quite recently, so I'm not sure what it was like years ago. I also have an interest in art/graphics, but music is my main thing 

[MrHassanSan]

For me, I honestly just really want to play this game--the theme is unique and well-presented. So besides our chat from months ago, I just try to leave non-music-related constructive criticism to make the wait shorter.

So on that note!

1. I love the designs for the different characters! Especially those enemies. I wasn't certain if you'd make the game hokey or raunchy, but uh...I guess I have my answer now 

2. From a consumer's standpoint, I'd want to know if the game's coming out on Win/macOS/Linux. You might not know that info yet, but if you do it might be nice to add that to the site!

Congrats on deciding on a release date! I'll set a timer.