Thanks so much! Glad the pace kept you invested!
Agashi
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Wow, I admire your passion for android/AI fiction and I'm really glad this game was able to scratch that itch for you! ;) I'll try my best, but I don't know if anything I say is going to do justice to such a long, well-thought-out comment!
It's wonderful to hear you enjoyed the AI aspect of the game in particular, since it's something I really wanted to approach in a certain way. I was mostly inspired by androids from film: Vision from the Avengers, David from Prometheus, Roy Batty from Blade Runner... I even borrowed quotes from the last (book and movie) for the ending titles. :) I've always been really enamored with the idea of these manmade creatures experiencing humanity and - in some cases - showing that they themselves can exemplify humanity's best traits... I'm glad I'm not the only one drawn to those types of stories!
Thanks so much for the recommendations (I'll definitely be checking out some of the romances you mentioned) and the kind words in your review. I'm sorry you had to wait so long for a reply. I admit I was a little intimidated, haha...
Thank you so much for taking the time to review and leaving such compliments! I apologize I've taken so long to respond! :( Thanks really have to go to the wonderful dev team we put together for this project. Everyone did their part beautifully and I think players have really responded to that.
As far as Silas and his backstory - I actually DID include more in the first draft of the script (about his creator and his life with the corporation), but the way I wrote it ended up sounding too forced... To keep the dialogue natural - and to meet the Nanoreno deadline - I took out some of the details and left things vague.
I'm really flattered that the game moved you and Silas left you wanting to know more about him! ^^
There's no official guide, per se, but the easiest way to get the other endings is:
--------- SPOILERS ----------
For the Romance end - Put off going back into cryogenic sleep until the last possible moment and then make sure you ask Silas to promise you that he'll be there when you wake up. If you don't see a dialogue option to make him promise, you have to continue insisting that you won't sleep...
To get the "normal" end or the non-romance/non-friendship one, just go back to sleep right away and make sure you DON'T ask about Silas after you've been rescued.
Thank you very much for taking the time to do a full playthrough! I know as far as VNs go, this one can be quite bulky/hard to read through because of the writing style.
Any bugs you encountered can be reported here on the stickied thread. And as far as the stat-raising events go, these are trackable via the "attributes" button just above the textbox, next to the save/load options during gameplay. :) Very easy to miss, especially for veteran VN players who are already familiar with most Ren'Py games' typical GUI layout...
And thank you for the generous play-testing offer! I may just take you up on that when the time comes to put out the call for beta-testers! xD
Hello! I really appreciate you wanting to enjoy the game enough to ask for a version that you can play on your chromebook, but unfortunately, I don't believe the Ren'Py Engine (which is what we're using to make the game) can create builds on that platform. I'm not the programmer, but from what I've read, it only uses Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and iOS. Sorry about that. :(
Haha, I'm pretty terribly about posting official updates, but since you asked... Progress is progressing at a slow, but steady pace at the moment. We experienced a few setbacks due to some team members leaving the project, but we've adjusted with replacements and everyone is working hard to make up for lost time. I can't honestly say we're right on track, but we're trying our best. ^^'
As for what I'm doing right now; I'm currently knee-deep in putting together the content that'll be going into the digital artbooks and walk-through guides. I'm really excited about them!
Ah, no reason to be sorry! There is, in fact, a distinct lack of GxG romance in this title, unfortunately... Something I hope to implement in my next big project...
Basically the game was initially conceived without any lesbian romance options because I wasn't confident about my ability to write it. That being said, during the Kickstarter campaign, I did ask players to vote on whether the fourth love interest would be a male or female character. The vast majority of players voted for another guy, so that's how we ended up with four men...
My decision to include Lliria as a mini-route - even after that - was mostly because I still wanted to offer those GxG fans something.
I understand it isn't a perfect solution :( , especially for fans of Jeisa, Bianka, or Phedre, but I tried my best to balance the requests of players with the amount of work I could devote to them and still honor the promises I'd already made... I hope you understand?
Thank you very much for the kind words about the rest of the game. I'm really flattered you took the time to make an account here just to make your concerns heard. :)
This review really made my day. I think it's wonderful that you identified so strongly with Silas, and that his struggles made sense to you... I do imagine much more in terms of character growth for him in the future, but I'm content to let the story lie - as is - for now.
Thank you so much for the kind words and the support. They really mean a lot to me. T-T
It would indeed be really bad if the company found out... I like to think that Silas and MC made a decent life for themselves on the run though. The universe is a huge place; easy to get lost in. So long as they didn't cause any trouble after getting away, I think they'd be fine. :)
And I'm not sure if this might help set your mind at ease or not, but... Silas didn't really 'go rogue' per se... You remember the blast that took out their first ship, the Spirit? It was strong enough to hurt MC severely and I believe she wonders at one point if it could be the root cause of Silas' malfunction. There is also a subtle moment in Silas' dialogue later on where he mentions that his creator... personalized him. MC ponders whether or not any illegal tinkering might have occurred, but it's only mentioned briefly. Either of these things could have made Silas the way he is; or possibly a combination of BOTH.
It's left ambiguous, and I think it works best without me trying to over-explain the exact hows and whys... but I think it's safe to say that Silas' circumstances are pretty unique. ^^
Thanks for the comment! I've been waiting to talk about this for a while, if you can't tell. Haha...
LOL I play games the same exact way! To the point where I try to predict which romances I'll like the best (in games with more than one) and "save" those for last. xD
I really appreciate you taking the time to play all the way through each route and give us your thoughts! I'll be the first to admit that the non-romance/non-friendship end was something of a casualty to the time restraints of Nanoreno, so I'm glad to hear it was satisfying to you, even if it wasn't great. ^^' Thank goodness the other two routes left you with a good impression of the game!
Thank you very much for the feedback!
o.O Ah, don't say such things!! Lol, thank you for the kind words and yes, I might have liked to make the game longer, but then we would have had to answer a lot of awkward questions:
- How will the rest of society accept their relationship?
- Won't the company that bought Silas' commission want him back since he's technically their property?
- Will Silas' malfunctions not get worse over time?
- How would MC and Silas... uh... consummate their love?
- Would they?
Haha, I decided pretty early on that I wanted the players to be able to imagine the answers to all of those questions on their own. I hope the element of unknown will keep people thinking about this little game of mine longer. ;) Thanks so much for leaving a comment!
Ah, thank you for taking the time to play and leave such a detailed review~! It occurs to me that I probably should have made a designated "review" thread for this purpose before now... ^^' but anywho...
I'm really glad you enjoyed the writing, the choices, and the art! As far as the stats - or "attributes" - go, they'll come into play more and more as the game goes on. They factor into different situations that may crop up occasionally, depending on your choices:
- High strength may save you in potentially life-or-death situations
- High charisma may allow you to negotiate your way out of political strife
- High intelligence may help you solve certain mysteries more quickly
- To be clear, the game doesn't really PUNISH you in these situations if you don't met the stat requirement, but you'll have to be a lot more careful to plan ahead and cover your bases...
- Toward the end of the game, the stats also play into your romances (there's a minimum stat check of 60 Charisma for Emry, 60 Strength for Teiran, and 60 Intelligence for Noah) to ensure that you and your love interest are at least somewhat compatible
- They are checked a final time at the end of the game to see how you go about resolving the final conflict. You will succeed or fail depending on your choices, your strengths, and your weaknesses.
Hope that answers your questions regarding the attributes system! Finally, to address your concern with the bug - this was actually just an example of me cutting corners. ^^' I thought I was pretty careful in that one to avoid calling the children 'orphans' in the actual dialogue that follows after that choice (that way it could apply to either option), but if it slipped in there by mistake, I'll definitely fix it in the full version of the game!
Thank you once again and I hope you enjoy the final product when it's done!
Ah, that's really great! I'm glad you enjoyed the game enough to get all the different endings! ^^
AND THANK YOU SO MUCH for mentioning the events surrounding his malfunctions. I tried really hard to keep those things consistent and recurrent without shoving them down the players' throats. xD I wasn't sure how successful I was at striking a balance with it, so I'm super excited and relieved to hear that it worked for you, at least, hahaha...
Cheers!
Haha, I'm really glad to hear you enjoyed it! Android love is a huge guilty pleasure of mine and I was happy to explore it here... The idea that humanity might have to be redefined if AI ever becomes advanced enough has always been super fascinating to me after seeing movies like Ex Machina, Prometheus, and Blade Runner, so I'm happy I got to share that with everyone. :)
Thanks for leaving a comment! ~ ♥
Hello! I'm actually the writer of This, My Soul and I'm really appreciative that you took the time to play through this whole Nanoreno project of ours! :) Er, while I certainly wish you had enjoyed it more than you seem to have, I can definitely see why it wasn't to your taste.
Part of it might possibly have been because you got locked into the non-romance path pretty early on, and I think it's the friendship and romance paths that have been the most popular? I admit I put a little less polish and effort into that route than the others, as most of the potential players seemed like they would be more interested in the romance... but that's my own fault and yours is still a totally valid way of playing through the game. A little less emotionally fulfilling, though, as you could see... :/
The other two paths (particularly the romance route) also contain more information regarding Silas himself and WHY he is the way he is. Again, this is a bit unfulfilling for players only interested in the non-romance route, but I pretty much figured that anyone playing that path would be uninterested in getting to know Silas and figuring out what his mysteries were. He is, as Angel kept helpfully pointing out, a robot, lol.
I still really enjoyed your stream though! I was pretty embarrassed at times, but it made me laugh at others. Thanks again for taking the time to do this and I'll work to improve on my content in the future!
- Lee Almonte aka Agashi
Haha, there's just one CG that is only unlockable in the Romantic End. You can technically get the kiss scene and still get the "Tears in the Rain" ending which is the Friendship end. It's just a friendship with romantic seasoning ;) This is part of why I avoided simply labeling the endings in the game as normal, friendship, romance, etc... There's a lot of grey area and depending on how you play, your "friendship" with Silas could potentially unfold more romantically than the happy, romantic ending!
But regardless, the happiest ending is called "Do Androids Dream?" and it sounds like you were right on track until the very end where you have to:
------- SPOILERS -------
Put off going back into cryogenic sleep until the last possible moment and then make sure you ask Silas to promise you that he'll be there when you wake up. The sneaky android will take matters into his own hands if you don't...
To get the "normal" end or the non-romance/non-friendship one, just go back to sleep right away and make sure you DON'T ask about Silas immediately after you're rescued.
I hope the true romantic ending will help heal you're broken heart, at least a little! ^^ Thanks so much for leaving a comment, and if you do decide to finish the other routes, please let us know what you think! Bad or good, I always appreciate feedback.