Magical Diary Alpha/Preorder
I just finished my first play through up to the XXX part (unfortunately that name is misleading). It was really good! I actually felt like stuff I did actually mattered and/or effected what was going on (which is sadly absent in other life-management and/or Visual Novels I've played).
My only slight complaint was that the girls seemed remarkably open to same-sex relationships for someone their age (Ellen seemed more concerned that I was her roommate). I guess if I were to use TvTropes' terms I'd say the game falls into the Everyone is Bi realm. I'm just saying that at that age a lot of people are beginning to make decisions about their sexuality, and frankly, many of them might not have even considered the fact that they might be gay or bisexual. Of course, I'm no expert, and rewriting large portions of dialog would be taxing to say the least. So feel free to disregard this suggestion entirely.
P.S. Sorry for double posting
My only slight complaint was that the girls seemed remarkably open to same-sex relationships for someone their age (Ellen seemed more concerned that I was her roommate). I guess if I were to use TvTropes' terms I'd say the game falls into the Everyone is Bi realm. I'm just saying that at that age a lot of people are beginning to make decisions about their sexuality, and frankly, many of them might not have even considered the fact that they might be gay or bisexual. Of course, I'm no expert, and rewriting large portions of dialog would be taxing to say the least. So feel free to disregard this suggestion entirely.
P.S. Sorry for double posting
Actually, unless I haven't uncovered some hidden dialogue to the contrary, I'm pretty sure Virginia falls into a different trope entirely. Asexuals, yay!
I've made a couple other characters to explore some of the paths not taken with the first one (and see if I encounter any breakages), and I have to say...each time I get to the Initiation it's more and more disturbing. (Note: what follows are my opinions and perceptions, and there may be content planned or implemented that I haven't seen yet that addresses these concerns.)
On the one hand, I found the second time through that you can skip it. On the other hand, when you find Potsdam, she damns your actions with faint praise by telling you point blank that you won't have as many friends because you didn't go through the ritualized bullying. At least your roomies give you a break...eventually. Oh, and you don't get the stress reduction from the party at the end of the week, either. So go through the bullying and get rewarded...don't, and get (abstractly) penalized. Yay?
And are there really no seniors who refuse to take part? Where are they? I'd think the MC would be more likely to run into them during her week alone, and have an opportunity to strike a rapport with them. If the tradition is so thoroughly entrenched that none of them question it...holy crap, it sounds like brainwashing >.<
I think what seals it for me, though, is when the MC writes her letter home, if you do go through the initiation she balks at writing about it because her parents might think it was bullying. That's because it is. Pure and simple. Creepy with a capital C-R-E-E-P-Y.
I've made a couple other characters to explore some of the paths not taken with the first one (and see if I encounter any breakages), and I have to say...each time I get to the Initiation it's more and more disturbing. (Note: what follows are my opinions and perceptions, and there may be content planned or implemented that I haven't seen yet that addresses these concerns.)
On the one hand, I found the second time through that you can skip it. On the other hand, when you find Potsdam, she damns your actions with faint praise by telling you point blank that you won't have as many friends because you didn't go through the ritualized bullying. At least your roomies give you a break...eventually. Oh, and you don't get the stress reduction from the party at the end of the week, either. So go through the bullying and get rewarded...don't, and get (abstractly) penalized. Yay?
And are there really no seniors who refuse to take part? Where are they? I'd think the MC would be more likely to run into them during her week alone, and have an opportunity to strike a rapport with them. If the tradition is so thoroughly entrenched that none of them question it...holy crap, it sounds like brainwashing >.<
I think what seals it for me, though, is when the MC writes her letter home, if you do go through the initiation she balks at writing about it because her parents might think it was bullying. That's because it is. Pure and simple. Creepy with a capital C-R-E-E-P-Y.
spoilery!
Potsdam's speech is supposed to be telling the player that they've just lost Damien's route. If you make this choice you cannot pursue Damien, and I want that to be obvious quickly so that you can still roll back and go the other way if that's not what you meant to have happen.
The abstract penalty was not intentional; I can add something to the non-party event to balance it better. The rest - no comment!
Potsdam's speech is supposed to be telling the player that they've just lost Damien's route. If you make this choice you cannot pursue Damien, and I want that to be obvious quickly so that you can still roll back and go the other way if that's not what you meant to have happen.
The abstract penalty was not intentional; I can add something to the non-party event to balance it better. The rest - no comment!
Latest patch, playing on windows XP professional, windowed mode. Have the game playing on 1440 x 900 resolution.
Every time a full screen transition happens a vertical stripe appears in it that shows the background behind it. Almost looks like the background color bleeds into it. It's a little to the left of the center of the screen, and doesn't go away until after the transition is over.
I went to fullscreen mode and the transitions went fine, no stripe.
Every time a full screen transition happens a vertical stripe appears in it that shows the background behind it. Almost looks like the background color bleeds into it. It's a little to the left of the center of the screen, and doesn't go away until after the transition is over.
I went to fullscreen mode and the transitions went fine, no stripe.
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Spiky Caterpillar
- Posts: 410
- Joined: Thu Dec 04, 2008 3:34 am
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Can you get a screenshot of it and upload to http://spikycaterpillar.dreamhosters.co ... pload.html , along with the opengl.txt file (should be in the same directory as the game exe)? Was it OK with older versions? (And which version is it? I've had three alpha patches briefly up today.)Riviera wrote:Latest patch, playing on windows XP professional, windowed mode. Have the game playing on 1440 x 900 resolution.
Every time a full screen transition happens a vertical stripe appears in it that shows the background behind it. Almost looks like the background color bleeds into it. It's a little to the left of the center of the screen, and doesn't go away until after the transition is over.
I went to fullscreen mode and the transitions went fine, no stripe.
Question~ Is there a way to earn money? I've been brown-nosing like mad and getting a lot of credits, but haven't figured out a way to earn money yet.
Maybe it was an error on my end?
Although... now, I'm getting an event with Damien, where you play flowerstones? After the event, when it goes back to the menu.. I look at my spellbook (or inventory or diary), then close out. It immediately restarts the whole event again. It's looping. I'm not sure what to send.. if you can tell me how to send save-games, I made one right before I got the event for the first time. If I hit next week instead, it goes on like normal. This is on version 0.2.69.3.
It seems to leave some graphical... stuff too.
When closing out of diary: http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c327/Cylana/diary.png
When closing out of inventory: http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c327/ ... entory.png
Sorry, I reset my computer afterwards and haven't been able to reproduce it since. It was alpha 0.2.59.3 though!Spiky Caterpillar wrote:Can you get a screenshot of it and upload to http://spikycaterpillar.dreamhosters.co ... pload.html , along with the opengl.txt file (should be in the same directory as the game exe)? Was it OK with older versions? (And which version is it? I've had three alpha patches briefly up today.)Riviera wrote:Latest patch, playing on windows XP professional, windowed mode. Have the game playing on 1440 x 900 resolution.
Every time a full screen transition happens a vertical stripe appears in it that shows the background behind it. Almost looks like the background color bleeds into it. It's a little to the left of the center of the screen, and doesn't go away until after the transition is over.
I went to fullscreen mode and the transitions went fine, no stripe.
Maybe it was an error on my end?
Although... now, I'm getting an event with Damien, where you play flowerstones? After the event, when it goes back to the menu.. I look at my spellbook (or inventory or diary), then close out. It immediately restarts the whole event again. It's looping. I'm not sure what to send.. if you can tell me how to send save-games, I made one right before I got the event for the first time. If I hit next week instead, it goes on like normal. This is on version 0.2.69.3.
It seems to leave some graphical... stuff too.
When closing out of diary: http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c327/Cylana/diary.png
When closing out of inventory: http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c327/ ... entory.png
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Spiky Caterpillar
- Posts: 410
- Joined: Thu Dec 04, 2008 3:34 am
- Contact:
Ah, so THAT'S what was causing the flowerstones event to repeat. (I was calling it inside the menu, and not checking to see if it had already been called - oops.)
Flowerstones should no longer repeat in 0.2.69.4. I'm not sure what was causing the vertical bars during transitions - I suspect something's using a stale GL texture somewhere, though, and 0.2.60 changed the way window sizing was determined, which could hide texture bugs.
If you run into anything else that needs savegames, you can send them to http://spikycaterpillar.dreamhosters.co ... pload.html .
In the game so far, there's one point where you can borrow money if you're out, but there's no non-allowance way to earn it.
Flowerstones should no longer repeat in 0.2.69.4. I'm not sure what was causing the vertical bars during transitions - I suspect something's using a stale GL texture somewhere, though, and 0.2.60 changed the way window sizing was determined, which could hide texture bugs.
If you run into anything else that needs savegames, you can send them to http://spikycaterpillar.dreamhosters.co ... pload.html .
In the game so far, there's one point where you can borrow money if you're out, but there's no non-allowance way to earn it.