Evertree Inn by Thom Baylay

[ThomB]

@namijoan

One thing I have a question is with the mana check- it can really get in the way of users who focus on developing their magic stat first. While other checks are pretty unlimited as long as you have a high stat in them, magic users have to have a high magic stat as well as retaining a fair amount of mana, which can be a challenge. If you want to include the mana stat, maybe it could be a good idea to allow more opportunities to increase total amount of mana.

Hmmm… that is a really good point about the Magic/Mana stats. The idea with mana was to prevent Magic from becoming an over-powered stat since often it deals with threats and problems far more quickly and efficiently than the others. However, if people consistently run out of mana then that makes it too under-powered. How about if selecting the Magic bonus at the end of a chapter also gave a boost to mana? That way people focusing solely on magic will get a little back each chapter depending on their success (Something like every 1% increase in Magic also gives you back 5 mana).

[Claymore]

Hi, congratulations with the (almost fully) release of your game.
I just finished my first playthrough and I loved it! It was surprisingly divers with multiple investigation scenes and a lot of character interaction. I romanced the gardener and it was a very sweet romance. Mrs. Dupree’s reaction when my MC mentioned she was gay and later Leah’s confession that she liked girls was a nice touch. At first it made me wonder why Mrs. Dupree reacted when I mentioned it but afterwards I was like ‘Ooh, so that’s the reason’. It made the story more engaging because your earlier choices actually change something later on.

Stat wise the story was actually quite rewarding, I did not get every clue (I believe I was missing 4, 5 and 7 at the end). Evenso i got multiple stat boosts for discovering other things so I did not feel left out.
To respond to your earlier post about the mana/magic stats. I played as an elf (+ magic) and used perception in combination with magic (I had no stealth so invisibility was a nice alternative, also thunder magic :). This way I could uncover clues and solve most conflicts without my mana draining too fast.

One possible random comment, are you planning to release your game on Steam? The investigation scenes are practically begging for achievements. Don’t feel forced to do so though, it is your game afterall.

One small edit, I did not find any grammar mistakes and the writing was very good in my opinion. So I think you did a very good job.

[namijoan]

Seems like a good idea to me

[Mr_Fabulous]

I actually registered just to say how much I enjoyed this one. It has that rare magic where every choice a player makes seems perfectly suited to the narrative, balancing narrative context with the right amount of player freedom. Having only finished my first playthrough I can’t speak to the variety of story branches but I do certainly appreciate the lack of artifice expressed in the writing.

Characters genuinely feel like they are living separate, distinct lives and the almost classical investigative procedure does alot to mask characters who could feel like too-obvious branches in the story. The player character and stats break with convention in that there’s no easy way to build your character into a stereotype, in fact the narrative itself works against the easy typecasting to create the impression of an everyman character who only acts as a detective by circumstance (How do I always end up in these situations?)

The romance (with Leah) feels well developed and adds significantly to the story, the more overtly sexual passages (with other characters) feel like the parlor mystery takes a fun step into classical noir but never comes off as cringey. I’ll wait for a release before exploring it any more (I missed out on clue 8 completely but got everything else and an unambiguously happy ending) but I just had so much fun with this, I really hope you continue with the fantasy mystery theme.

[AAO]

I have a question about the game.

Is there ANY way to heal yourself? There’s probably a healing potion or two in the inn,and I’m sure your mage MC will know a few healing spells.But so far,I haven’t really seen any way to heal yourself.

[ThomB]

Thank you again for all the latest feedback. I’ve now updated the game with the corrections people mentioned before as well as those I’ll now mention below. Thank you again to everyone for this. Your feedback means a lot

@AAO Thank you for the terrific feedback and I’m glad I tick the boxes. As far as healing goes, the answer is no, there aren’t many ways to heal yourself, although I have now added the possibility of choosing to recover some hp with an end of chapter bonus instead of upgrading a stat.

@cyanide Thank you! I have rephrased to hopefully avoid confusion between the specific herbs of divination and the idea of more general spell casting materials which is what chapter 5 is referencing (i.e. your magic stat takes a hit)

@namijoan Great point! I have now updated the magic bonus so that it will also give you some mana too. Hopefully you still have to be careful with usage but this way, if you are solely focusing on magic and no other stat, you won’t be so at a disadvantage. That said, the game still does reward having several high stats rather than one stat maxed out as not every stat can be used to deal with every problem.

@Claymore I agree and I would actually like to include achievements but I have no idea how. I couldn’t see the guidelines for it on the website so I wondered if that was something to be added closer to publication…

@Mr_Fabulous Wow! Thank you! Really glad you enjoyed it and I have every plan to continue with the same theme!

Thank you again to everyone and I hope that the corrections work out well.
T x

[Eiwynn]

@ThomB

I would actually like to include achievements but I have no idea how. I couldn’t see the guidelines for it on the website so I wondered if that was something to be added closer to publication…

This might help:

@Jacic

This is a line of code from my startup file.

*achievement hero visible 10 Superhero
   For the good of all mankind.
   You became a super hero.

So the first line is what the achievement is (Superhero) and how many points you get for it (10) and it’s set to visible so it’s not a hidden achievement. “hero” is the code for the achievement.

The second line is what the description is.
The third line is what the description changes to once you’ve achieved it.

At the point in the story where you want an achievement to be reached type:
*achieve hero

Make sense?

+20 characters.

[ThomB]

Amazing, I’ll experiment with that tonight.
Thank you.

[AwkwardNature]

Question for the 2 chapter It keeps replaying the same scenes from the first, is that suppose to happen? And so far I really like this game, even though you put one of my worst fears lol it’s up there with spiders and killer clowns😂

[ThomB]

@AwkwardNature

Question for the 2 chapter It keeps replaying the same scenes from the first, is that suppose to happen?

I’m really sorry but I don’t think I understand what you mean. Do you mean that it keeps returning to offer you the same Choice options for exploring because yes, that is supposed to happen? You can explore any part of the inn in any order but it shouldn’t let you repeat a scene. If you find that happening please let me know which scene and how you got there! Because that needs to change haha.

And now I’m wishing I’d included more spiders and clowns

[AwkwardNature]

oh damn… I mean I fear puppies and kittens​:joy:. And yeah I’m the second chapter it starts over you know all the clues you had before but your replaying everything like for example you take a shower, pick out how your mc looks again, you talk to Leah and you ask her the same questions you did when you first meet her and then it adds on to the relationship status you had when you first talk to her. And I’m sorry for the mess up writing I’m do, im super horrible at texting lol.

[ThomB]

Hey! That could be because I just updated the game files in the dropbox! I’m really sorry if that corrupted your save! Sorry!
It shouldn’t do it again but you may have to restart if you want to avoid any unfair double boosts to stats etc.

And actually my apologies to anyone else who was playing when the files were updated. I didn’t realise it would do that

Thom

[AwkwardNature]

Lol ohh okay cool thanks. no sweat, don’t mind starting over at all its a entertaining game.

[Claymore]

Hi, I found a minor typo, right after you survived the attack of the cursed furniture in the inn.

You know that she’s more affected by the loss of Isaria than he’d ever admit but you also know that you can’t leave yet, not without knowing why all this happened. Daisy is female btw.

[moonwalkerdragon]

Make I ask who the ROs are and what they are attracted to?

[Baam]

Well, shit. I loved this so much. The story was shorter than I would’ve liked but it was great all the same, greatly written. The character’s creation was a bit simple to my taste but it was descriptive enough. And Leah? Shit, I fell hard for her. I even feel bad to try out the other RO’s. I would’ve loved to name my sword but it’s more of a whim of mine so nevermind it. 9 points of 10. I applaude you brother

[ThomB]

And the next wave of replies:

@AwkwardNature Hope you didn’t have any more troubles!

@Eiwynn @Claymore Thanks for the advice and help with trophies. I will be adding some to the final version pending feedback from Hosted so thank you very much for the help there. Hopefully they will be fun with a range of easy and challenging which will reward multiple playthroughs.

@moonwalkerdragon There are 2 ROs. Their gender depends on the PC’s preference. Lamuel/Leah Dupree, the human child of the inn’s owner. L. Dupree is always a human and will confess to being either straight, gay or pansexual depending on the PC’s chosen gender; Dandy/Daisy Thorne is a guest staying in Room 5 who is either a gnome or a half-elf depending if the reader chose to be a short or tall race. D. Thorne is always pansexual. . Hope that answers your question

@Baam Thank you for the feedback. I think length was sacrificed in favour of breadth for this one but it’s also my first try so maybe my next project will be longer! And very glad you liked Leah!

Thank you all. I’ll probably take the tester offline some time over the weekend but until then please continue to enjoy and any comments or help identifying those last lingering typos are always appreciated!!

T x

[moonwalkerdragon]

Here’s a dumb question: what does pansexual mean ? I skipped a lot of PSHE in school.

[cyanide]

Thats what I am! Pansexual is sexual attraction toward no gender in particular. It basicaly mean that the person is more important than the gender. Its different from bisexual in the sense that pansexual is a lack of recognision of your partner gender where bisexual specify that there is one. I’m very happy that pansexual characters are mentioned because its not extremely known.

[idonotlikeusernames]

Dandy is crazy awesome! And I love that how due to unfortunate circumstances for his original traveling companion he can become our trusty half-elf companion at the end.