I’m surprised at how high one’s relationship can get with another character within three chapters, given that they’re not even halfway through their journey.
I think it’s understandable with Rem and Aja since you went to The University together, but I’m assuming that this is the first time MC has met Kel. Not that I have any objections to raising rapport with Kel; just an observation. Of course, feel free to correct me if I’m wrong in my assumptions.
Aside from that, my opinion of this WIP still stands: good writing that pulls you in and envelopes you in the story, interesting cast that actually makes me more intrigued with the game, and above all, Kel best boy.
Ahh thank you for playing again! And for the feedback, and the stat screenshots, those are super helpful!
Glad the additional Kel dialog met with your approval. I went with your “anyone catch your eye…” suggestion as well as one additional one to hopefully give a full range of options haha. Hopefully have added enough slow-moving romance choices for the other main ROs as well.
And that’s a good observation about the approval ratings. I think what you have may be the highest possible approval rating for Kel in the game at that point, meaning you went through almost every dialog option with him, spent the whole day with him, and didn’t do or say anything around him that he disliked too much. It still may be that that’s too high an approval rating even for the maximum, and I will need to make some adjustments, so thank you for pointing that out I’ll keep you in mind for Kel beta-reads in the future as well, if you’re still interested
Loving the look of this! I especially like the magic system. It’s a refreshing change from the usual clichés. Enjoyable as such clichés can be. I shouldn’t worry too much about the relationship stas. When you first meet someone, it’s not uncommon for feelings towards them to shoot up pretty quickly. In fact I’d say that’s the norm. Especially so where romantic feelings are concerned. Falling head over heels for someone, in a matter of days, is actually pretty common. It’s happened to me on several occasions in life and twice this led to long term relationships, lasting many years. One of whom is my best friend, although no longer in a relationship. In real life, attaining those strong feelings isn’t really the issue. It’s common. Maintaining those feelings is the issue. Occasionaly they may deepen and grow into a strong relationship. More usually, they’ll decline, sometimes rapidly, sometimes slowly. I often find it strange when people seem to view a slow, slow build of feeling towards something wonderful, as the ‘realistic’ path. In my experience, it’s the much rarer path. It definitely happens but it’s much rarer than the more usual rapid increase in feeling, followed by either a deepening or a lessening of that feeling.
You bet I ran through every possible dialog option with Kel.
I’ll always be interested in beta reading this game, especially for Kel’s route. Feel free to DM me here or on Tumblr whenever you feel like it.
I don’t know how many chapters you’re planning for Magician’s Voyage, but maybe you could use the first 3 or 4 chapters as a relationship-building section. Then, as the story progresses, the player may be able to unlock unique dialogue or sub-paths based on the characters that they have high relationships with. It would give more credence to the high relationship stats in early game.
Seems like you already have some subplots in mind for the characters, like Aja wanting to work in The Library and Kel wanting to live with the polar nomads. I imagine that they would let players who have high relationships with them see a side of them that they otherwise wouldn’t have showed if they had a middling relationship, as we do with real life relationships.
While doing this could increase replay-ability, it also ends up as more work on your part, huh Either way, with the flow of how the story’s going so far, I believe that you’ll do what’s best for the story. In the end, it’s your story to tell, after all.
Thanks! I had a lot of fun working out the magic system so it’s nice that folks seem to be enjoying it
And yeah, that’s been similar to my experiences as well. I know there have been times when I’ve spent an entire day with someone and come out of it thinking, “OK this person seems great, and I like them very much” whether for friendship or romantic reasons. It’s probably not unreasonable for some people to get “70+ approval” by spending a whole day together and helping each other with things that are important to them (as is the case with Kel, lol)
I’ll just have to see if the high approval stats actually translate well into game mechanics in this case.
Ok great. I’ll contact you when I have more stuff to show for the new additions
And that’s a good idea! I’m already planning on doing some things like that (ie there will definitely be parts of the game that will only be accessible with high enough approval ratings), I’ll just have to figure out to what degree they’ll come up. I’m trying to go for realistic interpersonal interactions, so approval ratings and the player’s choices will definitely influence the way the npcs view the player character and interact with them. (& sometimes an extra scene or two might crop up if the right approval rating + choices are made)
Right now I’m planning on having around 7-8 chapters, plus an additional “bonus” chapter that’s only accessible in some playthroughs
Progress update for those who don’t follow the blog: I’ve started roughing out a new branch!
This one will be the final added branch in the Pordezzo section. It will focus on Luc and Ines, and intersect with some of the already existing Pordezzo branches in fun ways. I’m hoping to have something to share with you all in a month or so🤞
After that, it will be back to the main storyline: resolving the airship battle and continuing the voyage
It’s super good from what I’ve seen of the demo, can’t wait!
Though I am a little confused on how the hybrid magic will work, do we need to be good at both schools involved, or do we just need to focus on the new hybrid magic stat? Or is it a combination of the two?
You’re actually not the first person to ask this question! Which means I probably need to figure out a way to clarify it better.
The way I’m envisioning the system right now, having separate skills in two base magics won’t necessarily mean a higher skill in the hybrid magic, if your character doesn’t know how to combine the base magics properly.
So if you want to get really good at GreenFielding, you would need to focus on increasing GreenFielding specifically. That said, by studying the hybrid form, the player will get small stat boosts to the base magics as well, so it would be unlikely you’d end up with a character who’s very good at GreenFielding, but very unskilled at Greening and Fielding separately, for example.
So, studying the separate schools won’t automatically teach you how to combine them properly, but by learning the hybrid form, you will gain some knowledge of the base magics as well.
I hope this makes sense. I’m definitely open to further input & ideas on the mechanics. I want to end up with a system that’s understandable and enjoyable for players, so if folks are finding it confusing at the moment, I either need to clarify it more in-game, or clarify the exact mechanics better for myself (probably a little of both haha)
I speed ran your game multiple times to see if I could best Aja with my snapdragon sword, which again, your setting and worldbuilding is leagues ahead. Seems like its a trap option because she practices fire bending in her spare time lol. Is the way to win to buy an axe? She says she owes me a weapon so I’m curious if you’ll follow up on that or if I’ll be buying some snapdragon seeds at my local flower shop
Haha! The “firebending” is meant to be a really advanced Fielding technique, that I’m hoping to explore in more detail later. We’ve already (in some playthroughs at least) seen that Fielding can be used to generate heat, and the “spark” comes from the idea that raw magic can be used like electricity. Later in the game, the player will be able to do more with these aspects of Fielding.
It is possible to best Aja with just the snapdragon sword. I’ll hide the solution in case people want to play around with it themselves. You need to first “distract” her by immobilizing her feet, and also have a high Greening stat (I think it needs to be < 45 ). Then you can successfully yank her sword away.
The ax is only wieldable with a high strength stat. It’s something you can purchase at the weapons shop if you have high strength. You’ll probably have to regrow your own sword again, although there are other seeds that can be used. I think so far in the game there is a fiddlehead sword, snapdragon sword, and maybe one other that is slipping my mind at the moment. (There will also be other, unrelated magic swords )
Had a brief setback that prevented me from writing for a week or so (injured my back and shoulder ), but I’m recovering now and have resumed progress!
I’ve been learning a lot about about Luc & Ines as I focus on them in this branch, and finding ways to have their stories intersect with other Pordezzo branches & plot points.
Currently, I’m almost halfway done with the rough draft of the new branch. So far it’s about 7,000 words, and will likely be at least twice that once it’s completed.
Hi all! I’ve recovered from my injury (yay!) and getting nearer the end of the rough draft for the new branch (word count is around 12,500 so far, and still growing).
I’m also planning on using beta readers for the next update. I know @edelclere had expressed some interest, so thought I’d put out some feelers to see if others might be interested as well.
I’m still very new to this and haven’t used beta readers before, so no worries if you’re interested but not experienced. We can figure it out together lol.
My plan is, once the next update is finished (likely in the next few weeks or so), I’ll make it available to beta readers for testing before sharing publicly on the forums or elsewhere. I’m interested in both high level (e.g. pacing, continuity, character) and low level (e.g. game bugs, spelling errors, etc) feedback.
Thank you all for the very thoughtful and insightful feedback & criticism the game has received so far. I look forward to hearing y’all’s thoughts on the newest additions <3
If you think you might be interested in beta testing, or if you have any questions, feel free to comment here or message me privately
Today I completed the rough draft of the new Prodezzo branch! As it stands it’s 16K words, but that will likely change as things are added and cut during the editing process in the coming weeks. After those edits, the chapter will go to beta readers, and then will be published here on the forum.
Also, I still have a few slots open for beta readers, if folks are interested. As I mentioned earlier, I haven’t used beta readers before, so no worries if you’re interested but don’t have experience. We can figure it out as we go. I’m interested in high level (pacing, continuity, character, etc) as well as low level (game bugs, spelling errors, etc) feedback. Feel free to reply here or message me if you think you might be interested
Thank you Frowning! I look forward to sharing the game with you and any others who may volunteer for beta reading. I appreciate all the effort that goes into giving feedback <3
Apologies for the recent radio silence! I was held up for much of October with work and a non-if-related project. I’m now back to working on the new branch, which currently stands at a little over 20,000 words. I’m about halfway through my first edit, and hoping to get the draft out to beta readers some time in November
Thanks all, for your continued interest and support
Unfortunately, I didn’t make the progress I was hoping for last month. (I was bitten by a venomous spider, and had to spend a few weeks recovering. It was a whole thing.) I’m doing much better now, but the release has been pushed back again.
To hold everyone over, here’s a rendition of the ROs I made in artbreeder. From left to right, top to bottom, there’s Aja, Rem, Grusk, Kel, Luc, and Ines:
I’ll keep you in mind for Kel beta-reads in the future as well, if you’re still interested
I shouldn’t worry too much about the relationship stas. When you first meet someone, it’s not uncommon for feelings towards them to shoot up pretty quickly. In fact I’d say that’s the norm. Especially so where romantic feelings are concerned. Falling head over heels for someone, in a matter of days, is actually pretty common. It’s happened to me on several occasions in life and twice this led to long term relationships, lasting many years. One of whom is my best friend, although no longer in a relationship. In real life, attaining those strong feelings isn’t really the issue. It’s common. Maintaining those feelings is the issue. Occasionaly they may deepen and grow into a strong relationship. More usually, they’ll decline, sometimes rapidly, sometimes slowly. I often find it strange when people seem to view a slow, slow build of feeling towards something wonderful, as the ‘realistic’ path. In my experience, it’s the much rarer path. It definitely happens but it’s much rarer than the more usual rapid increase in feeling, followed by either a deepening or a lessening of that feeling. 
Either way, with the flow of how the story’s going so far, I believe that you’ll do what’s best for the story. In the end, it’s your story to tell, after all.
)
), but I’m recovering now and have resumed progress!
