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The Man, the Alien, and the AI's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Stealth | #4 | 3.753 | 4.333 |
| Narrative | #7 | 3.849 | 4.444 |
| Sound | #16 | 3.272 | 3.778 |
| Overall | #18 | 3.133 | 3.617 |
| Harmony | #19 | 3.368 | 3.889 |
| Kink | #20 | 2.983 | 3.444 |
| Horny | #25 | 2.791 | 3.222 |
| Aesthetic | #26 | 3.079 | 3.556 |
| Novelty | #29 | 2.694 | 3.111 |
| Play | #32 | 2.406 | 2.778 |
Ranked from 9 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
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Comments
This was fun! Your sprites worked okay, but, if you continue working on this, it might be fun to work with an artist. Also, for some reason I went into this under the impression that it was a story about gay guys so I gave my character a guy name. I don't think I realized I was a girl until Dash started calling me kitten, which was... a little uncomfy, but I guess that is the point of Dash.
As a queer person, I tried to flirt with the person who seemed the least straight, which was my gorgeous glowing orb, Hubert. Hubie, I affectionately dubbed him. ^_^ I ended up liking Dash too, it was fun to see his shocked face whenever I told him he was an ok dude, and a future flying around space with him seemed like more fun than being stuck on Earth with either Hubie or Eric.
Thanks for the feedback! This was the first time I've used a sprite creator instead of either stock photos or my own (admittedly amateur) art. I've considered asking around for artists on other projects, but I'll fully admit that I'm scared to ask around and also I don't know how to do compensation. It's all one big learning experience for me. Eventually, I'll build the courage.
Yeah, I tried to mention that the main character was a girl in order to prevent confusion...I may have failed on that account. xD Also, that's interesting about your views on the boys. I'll admit, I didn't think about their sexualities beyond "they're attracted to the player." And that attraction isn't even regarding the player's canonical gender, its more towards the personality (and, in Eric's case, history). Cool how that worked out. (^__^) And yeah, Dash is a bit of a wild child. He was kind of hard to write without making him seem way too forward. Same with Hubert and his kinks, most people aren't into overbearing AIs like that. So it's great to hear they turned out enjoyable in the end!
Hope my response makes sense and doesn't sound too weird, I'm more tired than usual when I wrote this up. Again, thanks for the review!
the narrative style here is interesting — it feels very terse, mostly a brief sentence at a time, but it also seems to work for what this story is doing. the narrative crams a lot of worldbuilding and development into a relatively short time, but if it were significantly longer, it could easily get lost in the weeds and detract from the real theme? i think you've hit a surprising sweet spot here
i admit i did some yelling at the screen every time eric's programming career allowed him to hack advanced alien technology or somesuch, but that's the kind of yelling i enjoy doing, so that works out honestly
but i enjoyed this! a brief jaunt through an unfamiliar universe, and high stakes that never take themselves too seriously.
PS: there seems to be a running theme wherein the background accidentally makes eric look three feet tall. i assume you're using stock photos here and have to kinda take what you can get, and also it's really funny, so please do not fix it
Thanks for the feedback! I do enjoy writing enough backstory to explain the weirdness of the scenario, but not so much that it overwhelms the characters (I did this a lot in my last dating sim, Kalzrak, to explain why a robot is walking around a Skyrim-esque world). It's fun. Especially when you're coming up with BS at the last minute.
And I'll fully admit: Eric's magic hacking skills were because I'd written myself into a corner. I knew that Dash and Hubert could deal with the alien planet and its weirdness, but Eric was at the mercy of everything. And since I'd already decided the endings would be the player + their choice making a final stand, I was like "Eric has to be able to do something, or else his route is a bad end." Which, in hindsight, could've been interesting. But oh well, every day is a learning experience for the next game!
I also actually was going to adjust everyone's sizes to match the backgrounds a bit better (especially Eric in the mess hall), but kept putting it off and submitted it and then remembered oh hell I was supposed to do that. xD
Again, thanks for the valuable feedback!
That was a lot of fun! I don't usually play visual novels but this one was really fun. I also like how Valley 7 looms over the narrative from a very early point. that really added some intrigue. The characters are well-written and there's plenty of fun content, romantic and otherwise. There's a very warm tone to the story overall, and I liked the sense of humor. Well done!
Thanks for the detailed feedback! I'm glad the warm tone shone through, I was going for something a bit more light-hearted than my last dating sim (serious, Kalzrak got pretty melancholy and I don't know why). Again, thanks!
Nice writing and fun characters... Hubert was my fave! Lots of good things to say about this, it flows well and has a polished feel... VNs aren't usually my thing but I really enjoyed this one. :)
Thanks for the feedback! I was worried about the overall flow, so I'm glad to hear it was a good pace for you! And I'm glad the Hubert turned out likable; one of my biggest worries was that his kinks might be off-putting to players. While I'm interested~~ in overbearing AIs, most people are frightened. So again, glad to hear that you liked him!
Feedback really helps me figure out how to improve my future games, so again thanks!
Very character oriented writing, I like that!
Lots of choices for scene variations. The [flirt] tag makes it a little too easy to get each character's ending. Maybe flirting should backfired occasionally?
I would like to see some of the backgrounds and characters resized to fit each other a little better. That said, the visuals definitely add a lot to the immersion of the game, I don't think it would have the same effect if it was a text adventure without them.
Character naming should probably happen at a slightly later point in the story or give the player a visual. There's not really enough to go by when the prompt appears.
My favorite parts were Dash hiding the spaceship under a tarp, the telepathic massage and alien morphology lessons.
Thanks for the detailed feedback! It's very useful and highly appreciated, as this is only the second time I've tried to write something romantic/saucy (and the first time I've had multiple suitors to choose from).
Yeah, there was a lot that I'd wanted to add/edit but didn't have the time to (darn you, job!). One thing I'm sad I didn't get in was more suitor interaction, like if you're courting two guys at once then they get snippy with each other out of jealousy. And more complex flirting, since like you said it's really easy to figure out the right paths, Then again, there's a paranoid part of me that figures if the lovey-dovey stuff WASN'T pointed out, then people would wander into a romance with someone/something they didn't want to and then my name goes down the drain. As I mentioned before, I'm still learning the finer parts of dating sim writing. ^^;
Again, thanks for the feedback!
I have been collected
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