RATiO: The Seraphica -- LAST UPDATED: 6/22/18 (WIP)

In the stats page, there's a section in which it defines what becoming a vampire or werewolf would do to the players stats.

You might want to hide that so people won’t know in advance that they can transform on the job.

1 Like

Well we know now.

+20 characters

   If you had been paying attention to the thread, you'd have already known,

since the author has already mentioned that PCs can be transformed.

 But when the game gets to the stage of having players instead of playtesters,

I think the author might want players to be surprised.

Awesome game :smiley:

glad you included asexual a question though if I pick that I can still romance people right?
because if the asexual isnt aromantic we still like romantic relationships

1 Like

I’ve played though a bit of it so far. Random thoughts:

The game options screen is a nice touch. I’m not sure why we have the option to turn physical descriptions off for romance-susceptible NPCs. That’s a remarkably specific preference. The effort made to accommodate different genders is admirable. I like how the player gets to pick which gender neutral pronouns to use. The range of skill and interest options convey the impression that this is a huge game world with a lot of possibilities.

Being detail-oriented comes at a price, though. This is a long character creation. It takes forever to get to the present day. You are asking for more patience from the player than a typical choice game, and definitely more than a typical casual game. Deferring the action for so many screens leaves me making choices about a character that I have little or no reason to care about. I wound up using a random number gen to make many of the character choices because it did not seem to matter which choice I picked.

A lot of choice games avoid this by starting the story as soon as possible—often before any stats are established. That way, we have some sense of the consequences of our choices. It might be a good idea to go back later, once you’ve written some more chapters, and reorganize the character creation section. Keep the concepts and the characters. That’s great stuff. But find a way to weave the main story (not just the back story) more thoroughly into that initial character creation.

Some nitpicky stuff:
– You might consider adding some kind of description to each monster in that long list of interests that the player can choose from. I’ve loved mythology and monsters since I was a little kid, but I still had to google “crocotta,” and “ghoul” can mean almost anything.
– When you introduce Sabrina, you ask the player for an opinion on the monsters that the hunters fight, but the player has yet to interact with a monster. All we have are brief descriptions in the codex. This might be an opinion that should be deferred until the player has some experience with the hunted.
– Why is the organization called RATiO instead of RATO? RATO sounds more like a pseudo-governmental initiative. RATiO sounds like a trendy restaurant that serves a lot of flavored martinis. Is there some kind of hidden meaning involving math? Is the organization’s goal to maintain a particular proportion of hunters to hunted? I haven’t played all the way through yet, so maybe the name’s meaning is explained at a later part of the game.

2 Likes

I’ll make sure to look into that story scene and see if I can improve it. As for Jamie’s preference, s/he is able to be romanced by both genders, but s/he does lean more toward his/her own gender. So while s/he isn’t opposed to dating the opposite gender s/he is more attracted to his/her own gender.

I haven’t decided whether I was going to hide those, yet. Though it was on my mind! For now I’m leaving them up for the testers. :smiley:

Definitely! Asexual characters will be able to romance people just like anyone else.

Firstly, thank you for such in-depth feedback! As for the NPC descriptions, I know some people like to imagine casts and appearances on their own. usually in the form of skin color and region. Because it’s yet to be a pain to code in, I figured why not?

I actually didn’t even think about this, so I’m glad it was brought up. I’ll look into a way to rearrange things and get some better pacing in the beginning. Actually, the wheels in my head are already turning as I type.

Ah, yes! That was one of the things I forgot to do! I’ve added it to the list of updates. Thank you for pointing it out.

I’m not sure I’ll put something like this in later, but there will be multiple ways to advance on the MC’s feeling about the hunted and the hunters anyway. As I’m looking into weaving the character creator in with the main story I’ll decide on this as well and determine whether I keep it or not.

RATiO is an acronym for Revolt Against the Occult. I don’t particularly like the sound of RATO as it comes out RAT-O in my head. While trying to figure out acronyms I thought RATiO sounded the most catchy so I went with it.

2 Likes

In the Hunters Handbook in the codex, there seems to have been an accident with the Bolding in skills. For quick witted, it’s bold way up to ‘used for’ and the [ /b] is visible.

Love it, but found some mistakes

I believe you mean backlash

I believe some coding went wrong here

1 Like

So it WASN’T just me who saw it!

Your game is fantastic! :smile: I found delightful the variety of options in skills, traits, discussion choices and the supernatural choices. I really enjoyed the way the plot flows and the npc’s. The game has so much potential. Keep up the good work! I’m really excited for the continuation! :blush:

I was wondering if, when you said the crush would be resolved in the second episode, do you have to bring it up at the party? Or can you decide not to mention it but still have the discussion in the second episode?

I apologise if that question didn’t make any sense.

I’d also like to thank you for adding the asexual option-this is the only game I know f that had implemented that aspect. So thanks!

And last, great job on the demo! I haven’t played the whole thing yet but I’ve enjoyed it so far. ^^

1 Like

The attention to detail, the variety of choices, the story line just everything is amazing I sincerely hope you continue this, amazing job​:+1::clap:

So far I love the game but I found some spelling errors. When I chose to have Jaime as a girl later in it will say he instead of she. That’s the only errors that I found the rest of the game is awesome so far.

Quite good! I’ll be following your work with interest! A few spelling errors, but nothing that can’t be fixed during testing!

@lightdrago3 Thank you! I didn’t notice the backlash one, but I fixed the other error last night, as someone mentioned it. I just haven’t uploaded the fixed yet. Good eye, though!

Thank you for your support. :smile:

It makes perfect sense! And yes, you’ll be able to have a conversation about liking Jamie during the second episode even if you haven’t admitted having a crush on him/her.

I knew I’d have trouble with that, as I wrote I found myself constantly forgetting my code the gender pronouns on NPC’s. Darn me.

May I ask where, or around where, you saw the error?

May I ask what spelling errors you found? And thanks for the compliment :smile:

2 Likes

Have to say, I absolutely LOVE the game, and I have a feeling this could be the next ZE. Can’t wait for more!

Omg this game of yours… officially my favorite WiP !! I really like the story! The characters, the mystery and all. I can’t wait for more!!

Man, the potential for this game is pretty cool.

I just imagine going demon hunting with psychic shield and high resistance, to counteract possession, and screwing up their day.

Or blasting a wendigo with fire.

ANYWAYS, when the MC is choosing what creatures they were interested in and learned about, could you perhaps add a confirmation screen with details when you click an option?

Having to constantly google what the creatures are is pretty immersion breaking. Plus you can’t even check to see what they are in the codex without knowing what they are from that selection first.

Man this is really good. I can’t wait for episode 2! Its like Unnatural except i can actually play it! I really like how there’s a lot of opinions though I had no idea how to do the whole nene thing… Poor her i killed her… Why did i pick wraith?! I had no idea how to exorcise them, they werent even on my codex! Anyway it was awesome.

I think to save her you need something like empathy, and the more people-oriented traits. Maybe secret keeper.