Release date?

Forum for the Loren Amazon Princess spin-off games
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jack1974
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Re: Release date?

Post by jack1974 »

No for sure not this year. Maybe in 2-3 years, not sure.
Madance
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Re: Release date?

Post by Madance »

T____T
...But we know it will be worth the wait ^_____^
Kharlene
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Re: Release date?

Post by Kharlene »

DunKalar wrote: Mon Feb 06, 2017 6:11 pm Wouldn't this make the game boring and strongly reduce the motivation for replay?

I found the end of Loren/Elenor fitting. The game stated that there are two ways for an amazon / queen to die: Step down for her daugther or be killed. So Loren was granted an honorable death in the world of the amazons. It is the way of life she wanted to live.
They had the same discussion with Mass Effect 3. Everything lies in ruins and Shepard dies. Well, if the Milky Way would not have survivved on it's last breath, the whole story about the reapers attacking and eradicating all live would have not been credible.
If thepeople only accept happy endings with their character, I can understand from a business point of view to supply them with it. But it will also limit the writer's freedom for the story. Thus I think you should make the happy ending either very hard to reach or sell it as an "upgrade" for those, who cannot get along with a "not-so-snuggly"-ending.
You've missed the point being made earlier, it's not about people being fearful of getting a"bad end" and demanding only "happy endings", it's the fact that when it comes to gay and lesbian literature and media the "bad end" is the cliche--the commonality--the typical ending. It's the most common ending result, which is why you'll find many critics and literature buffs within the community exhausted by it. Pick up a piece of literature that entails a gay and/or lesbian relationship bet on them coming to terrible end and you' won't only break even--you'll make a great profit with those winnings. It's beyond a trope--to reiterate--it's a cliche.

That's why I stated in my previous post--the more unique ending for a gay relationship would be a happy one, because the Games of Thrones-style endings where one of them or they all die or commit suicide or viciously separated by family and/or circumstance or come to a terrible break up or (the one that oft amuses me most) one of them just decides they're not gay anymore; or even the Watchmen's they die within the first few minutes of the film is your typical representations of gay relationships outside of humorous camp (which is why I love Adrian in that movie, but if the writer's had him romantically hook up with someone, I'm willing to bet they would've killed'em rather than him being the mastermind behind it all). Now you take all of that reaching back literal centuries of media and literature--you can--I hope begin to understand the fatigue. It's why the movie Imagine Me & You I've watched a hundred times over because whether gay, bi, or straight everyone got a happy ending, this cheesy, campy lesbian romantic comedy is one of the handful of media portraying gay couples that ends happily. Think about that, when it's a romantic comedy following every common trope and cliche that every romantic comedy possesses, yet because it does so it's one of the movie's that breaks the mold for being "unique" in gay representation by virtue of simply giving them a happy ending common to the romantic comedy genre--that's a bad sign.

Take a person who went to high school and watched their friends die in a drive-by, then their first love dies from measles, their closest friend dies from a broken neck via an abrupt slip in the shower--then this person goes to college, their friend and roommate commits suicide, they meet someone who begins to rekindle love in their heart but that person gets run over by a truck, a classmate they enjoyed talking to dies in a plane crash--then graduate from college and begin a career, but then they get a call from the police because a robber murdered their parents, but then they get home steeling themselves to deliver the bad news and discover that grandma (their mother-in-law) took the wrong medication and went on a drug induced psychotic murderous rampage killing their spouse and kids... And by the end of all this repeated unending tragedy the person had witnessed and suffered through, you come along and tell them it should be harder for them to experience happiness in their life. What do you think that person's response is going to be?

Don't give me this "it's not realistic" nonsense. Entering a world with hordes of demons and all powerful Necrolords and defeating them a magical sword tosses out any form of realism or "being realistic" to begin with, hence why it's called "fantasy" and "fiction". You want realism? I work 10-12 hours a day 5 days a week, I have a wife whom I come home to after that, and we then just sit on butts and watch Netflix and/or I play video games for the rest of the night, then we go to bed. There's reality for yah'. There's genuine realism. Reality--realism--what's defined as "realistic" is mundane--it's the everyday--the commonality--the status quo. What makes fantasy and sci-fi genres such a powerful medium is the fact it oft flies in the face of--and scoffs at realism--the mundane--the common--the expected. What makes great fantasy and sci-fi stories isn't the fact they adhere to some form of realism but instead demonstrate something you otherwise may have never considered possible, whether that touches upon an aspect of reality or not in the end is immaterial. Realism--in my eyes--is the biggest limiter and handicap.
Kharlene
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Re: Release date?

Post by Kharlene »

Aleema wrote: Wed Feb 08, 2017 1:56 am Kharlene, you are very right about death being a tired trope in lesbian/gay fiction. Jack wrote ideas for some of the epilogues, but I am only to blame for Loren's epilogues. I didn't see it as a bad ending, I'm sorry. I pictured them very old when this happened, it wasn't like 5 years later. It was more like 30+ years. They had a full life together and Loren finally grew weak/old enough to be respectfully challenged. She knew it was going to happen - everyone did - and she made peace with Elenor, arranged for living, etc. ... but you are absolutely right that it completely falls into that ugly trap and I can see why you are upset.

I am definitely an advocate for "everyone gets a happy ending! (if you earned it)" because the first time that you reach an ending is very important to the story. Replayability be damned, your first ending will color your entire experience. Your playthrough was tarnished and that's my fault. So I want to personally say that I am sorry.
There's nothing to apologize for, you wrote what you felt went with the Elenor/Loren route. Had I known it was decades after the events you playthrough, I would have initially thought differently as that provides a completely different context to it--as it indicates they've lived full lives. I caught that it mentioned it was "many years" later when the duel occurs, but in mind, Elenor and Loren were around 18-20 or so years old when the events of the game takes place (I can't recall if the story mentioned how old they were)? So even adding 10-15 years later that still leaves them in their upper-20s to early-30s (or even add 20 years to that and it puts them in the upper-30s or just pushing 40), lived--but still fairly young by all accounts. So even with the mention of many years, I' was still thinkin' they were both still pretty young. But that's my own failing for misinterpreting the intent.
Elysian
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Re: Release date?

Post by Elysian »

I'm sad there's still no release on the horizon, but I'd prefer to wait longer for a higher quality product, rather than getting something that's rushed and potentially less polished. After all, it's so common for big games companies to skip out on things they'd planned to implement, either because they were aiming for a certain release date or for other practical reasons, and I always think 'I'd have forgiven the extra wait, if you'd given me extra cool stuff to make up for it'! Indie developers have more flexibility, so it makes sense to take advantage of it.
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jack1974
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Re: Release date?

Post by jack1974 »

Like for all my story-based games, the delay is mainly due to writers. To write a good story, time is needed, though in this case I also had to change writer (and there's the usual risk of going into the endless loop: writer too slow->change new writer->writer too slow->change new writer and so on). If I could write the games myself, this game (and many others) would have been out already 3-4 years ago :lol: but sadly that's not an option.
However it also makes sense to wait because I might be able to use a new RPG framework which is still not finished and that could make the RPG part more interesting (for the small amount of people who also cares about the RPG gameplay!).
Alex81
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Re: Release date?

Post by Alex81 »

jack1974 wrote: Sat May 27, 2017 1:03 pm If I could write the games myself, this game (and many others) would have been out already 3-4 years ago :lol: but sadly that's not an option.
However it also makes sense to wait because I might be able to.
With all the other work you have to do, I understand this :)
Though, some of those you've written are among your better games (like the original Planet Stronghold was good (!!) (^^ And though early, and ...not up to par with your recent games, I also had many laughs playing Card Sweethearts, fun writing!). => I think your games would've sold still...though, then ...all the management, scripting, social media you do would've suffered)
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jack1974
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Re: Release date?

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Thanks though Card Sweethearts wasn't written by me :)
After the current batch of games are done I'm rethinking to resume writing the games and then having a good editor check all the texts and rewrite/reword the text better. My writing skills wouldn't be good enough for my current standards :mrgreen: However maybe using this system would be faster since I would do the creative work and the editor would only have to fix my poor grammar/writing!
Elysian
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Re: Release date?

Post by Elysian »

It's a shame Aleema won't be the writer this time around, since she did such a good job with the first game, but my number one wish is only that the characters retain their same charming personalities. Though since I write fanfiction, I shouldn't doubt anyone else's ability to make that happen!
jack1974 wrote: Sat May 27, 2017 1:03 pm However it also makes sense to wait because I might be able to use a new RPG framework which is still not finished and that could make the RPG part more interesting (for the small amount of people who also cares about the RPG gameplay!).
I care about the RPG gameplay, too. I've been playing RPGs a lot longer than visual novels, so I enjoyed the aspects of building a party and fighting battles. If a player spends time on that themselves, I think it helps to create more of a connection with the characters' struggles, rather than simply taking a few seconds to read 'they slew many foes but eventually reached their goal'.

Though I do appreciate story mode, of course, for replaying to see other choices.
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jack1974
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Re: Release date?

Post by jack1974 »

I tried everything to have Aleema write this game too, but at one point you need to go on (otherwise the game would be even more late than it already is...).
Once I finish this and PS2 though I am quite sure I'll never ever again make a sequel. It's too stressing, and no matter what, people will always compare to the first, especially if was popular, so seems really a "no-win" situation :lol:
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