Love is the Way to My Heart - CLOSED

It is a status bar that will display few things, such as time/date, at the bottom it shows what gifts and/or favors you have, and in the middle will pop up variable changes. For instance, if you take Kelsey for a walk and spend personal time with her, you will see +Intimacy, +Activity Level, +Health, -Calories. It is to give the player a sense of what each action does and what it affects since I don’t want certain variables to always be on display i.e. intimacy level, hunger level, calories, activity level, self-esteem level, etc.

I appreciate your input! I will make a “tutorial” page within the game to show players how to read and understand the status bar. :slight_smile:

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Ah it isn’t that confusing so I’m not sure how important a tutorial would be, but if it doesn’t take away much time from other parts of the game then it can’t hurt to have one.

Also the “+Activity Level, +Health, -Calories” kinda peaked my interest. Since certain activities can make your partner burn calories / be more active, is it going to be possible to have a “fit partner” playtrough where the partner will stay at the starting weight or becomes even more fit? It is a weight gaining game so that’s probably not the focus of the game, but it sounds like a silly / fun option.

Actually, yes! You can increase, by doing certain activities together, increase her activity level (i.e. decrease her laziness) and thus will always burn more calories than the average person. Since this game is based on the modified Harris-Benedict formula which takes physical activity into account, I have provided a means of increasing and decreasing each woman’s level based on activities done. So, technically, yes, you could have a fit partner all the way to the end. :slight_smile:

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That’s pretty cool, it makes the game feel way more realistic when you have that option. Once all the weight gain text/events have been implemented, will a few “weight loss text/events” get added to the game in the spare time?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to force the project into that direction with my questions, it’s just rare to see a WG game with this scope so I’m just trying to find out what’s possible and what’s not.

Originally I also intended to ask about “will the partner’s personality change during the game?” but the whole “increase her activity level (i.e. decrease her laziness)” already answers that. So yeah once again congrats for this amazing game idea, if you guys can actually make this game, then I have nothing but praises for you.

Good luck with the project. :slight_smile:

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I’m sure that I will add that down the line. I’m mainly trying to flesh out (no pun intended) the core scenes and events so that I can at least get a demo out to this community. The suspense in all of you must be tremendous! I know I make it sound to be the greatest game of all time, but honestly it is just going to be the greatest IF of all time :laughing:

On a serious note, I am trying to get the core scenes done so that I have a demo for you guys. There probably won’t be a weight-loss option in the demo, but at least you will be able to see the potential of this game and know that I am not BS-ing (not sure if swearing is allowed on this forum) you guys. I, along with my team, am pouring my heart into this game and will make it an experience to tell your friends about. I have a tendency to “go big or go home” and since I am already home I might as well go big! :slight_smile:

You aren’t adding any extra un-intended work for me and my crew: I had the idea in my mind but just haven’t implemented it yet.

You have been a great supporter since the beginning, and have given me lots of input and critique, so I thank you and hope to keep hearing from you!

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"since I am already home I might as well go big! " Just be careful with your blood pressure, if you get too big we’re not going to get a game after all. :smiley:

And thanks, I’m happy to hear my suggestions /critiques aren’t annoying you. I’ve seen a few devs before who had a mindset of “it is my game so shut up with your opinions”.

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I’m an extrovert, so talking to people and hearing criticism is fantastic for me! I love to hear from the community! I encourage all of you to submit your critiques and ideas. Yes, I have the ultimate say in what will and will not be, and what will and will not get added, but I will always listen (in this case, read) your thoughts! Reply as many times as you want; doesn’t bother me in the slightest. :slight_smile:

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Yo I just wanted to say that you guys are making some great progress! I’m not sure if you remember me but I had volunteered awhile back but left because I was too busy. I’m still busy now but I wish you guys the best of luck, and I apologise again for bailing

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Seeing it in context, I feel like the font for the word “heart” doesn’t really fit with the rest of the text - probably partly because it’s a written in a constant width unlike the copperplate/wedge nibbed rest of the text, and it isn’t as heavy - almost seeming to minimize it.

I like the overall look, and it’s good to see this coming along. Maybe make the dialogue text a tad darker? I like that you’ve not just relied on colour for the status changes, but personally I find the positive colour a little hard to pick out from the background - yes, I have a form of colour blindness.

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I’ll see what other fancy font there is for “Heart”. I really want “Love” and “Heart” to stand out without using the same font twice. Just to give it a little personality.

The body text is Candara Light, which is easy on the eyes and easy to follow, but like you have stated looks really thin next to other fonts. I will see about using another easy-on-the-eyes font that will not seem too heavy and not too light.

The green and red really makes the status bar “pop”, but I agree, too. The green is too . . . well . . . green! I will darken it slightly, but I am trying to avoid a dull color. I want the aesthetic to be light and inviting when people are playing it, not dull and platitudinous! Hahahah! It’s been a real fight trying to find the perfect balance of color and fonts!

I thank you for your input and time spent following this project!

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Of course I remember you! How could I not?

Listen, don’t feel bad for making your life a priority: I am not upset in the least bit! I understand and hold nothing against you.

Thank you for your following and words of encouragement! I appreciate it! You are always welcomed back if/when you want. :slight_smile:

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I don’t know if the colors are placeholder too but I’ll say it anyway. And if not you would have figured this out when you’d have really started to play the game or looking for typos and other related stuff.

Gray text on a lighter gray for background isn’t the best choice, it’s tiring to look at after a while. It would’t hurt to give the option to change texts and background color (maybe just night and day presets).

Since I hate the sun and I mostly play these games at night, personally I simply prefer the “default” colors of Twine: black background, white text, blue choices, etc.

And you could even think about giving different colors to the dialogues depending on who is talking. For example: main character - light blue, girlfriend - pink (not every girl needs to have its custom color, unless you’re planning on having a lot of very complex scenes with 2+ different romanceable girls at the same time), random npc - brown.

This is just an advice, but colors are very important for text games. You don’t have to choose the colors now but you should put down some variables so you can easily change them later when it will be time to polish the interface.

Good work!

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I’d definitely give Google fonts a look, maybe something like Charm would work for “Heart”?

It’s also worth looking at Google fonts for the body of the text. Candara Light is a Microsoft font, so it will most likely not be available to Mac and Linux users and you’ll have to code fallbacks to other sans-serif fonts. One of the big plusses of Google fonts is that they are open, and you can embed them into your page with some simple HTML & CSS - and it will work and look the same on any platform.

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I have used Google Fonts and it is a bit overwhelming to skim through Hahahaha! I will take your advice, though, as I didn’t think about Linux and Mac users! I definitely want this game to be enjoyed by everyone! Also, Charm looks fantastic! Thank you!

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Forgive me, I had thought that I already responded to this post!

I have been playing around with text fonts, colors, and background colors since the beginning; it is quite the balancing act! And I have thought about using colored dialogue texts just to spice things up, but I am still unsure about it. I will Look into it once more.

Thank you for your input!

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UPDATE #3

Hello, WG community!

We have been working hard on the project lately, despite all of us being back to our normal every-day lives and jobs; we’ve been going through and reformatting to the new GUI that I posted about 9 days ago, which is taking some time to do, plus the restaurant scene is taking a butt-load of time! It’s okay, though, because in the end it will be worth it.

Other than that the project is progressing somewhat slowly, but nonetheless progressing. I have been making a point to work on it at least an hour a day, plus more time on the weekends, and the rest of the team is doing the same. We hope that you guys see the continual work we put into this and know that this project is alive and well. Stay tuned for more updates as they come!

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LITWTMH Update #4

Hello, WG community!

I wish I had some good news, but sadly I don’t. The demo that I had high hopes for releasing before December 31st might not make its debut until 2021. :frowning:

I know, I know, it really sucks and I am very sorry to say this, but recently a few of my writers hit a rough patch and I lost some help. I do understand and acknowledge that personal life comes before a WG game/IF, so I am not upset with them, but it is a bummer to push back a schedule. I feel as though I let you guys down, too. This does, however, leave room for more team-mates to join us if anyone else is interested. We could use the help.

This does NOT mean that I am abandoning the project at all; rather, it means I will just be working extra hard with those that remain to get a demo out ASAP. I ask that you guys continue to give us support and please be patient. The game is progressing and things are being done, just a little bit slower now. I might consider a demo to a demo (demo-ception?!) where it will be extremely limited and only have a handful of options and paths to take plus an early ending, but it would at least deliver to you guys something to see and appreciate.

I thank all of you for the support and love! This community is bar far one of the best I have ever been a part of!

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Don’t feel too bad. Real life happens, unfortunately. I’m sure everyone understands that and appreciates you being open about the setback :slight_smile: I’m also sure that when the demo finally comes, it’ll be worth the extra wait.

(And IMO, nothing wrong with a very bare bones demo. The first demo of my own game (I seem to remember calling it a pre-alpha alpha) was literally a couple of scenes with placeholder images, but it was enough for people to judge whether they liked the concept.)

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Well for starters hi, hello i just recently found this post and im really excited. But i have a few questions, are the scences you are going to have effect how the background look? Also will their be a sorta nightmode? since the bright white background is definitly not easy on the eyes especially at night. Also is this game just for PC downloads, browsers, etc? Finally i have but one suggestion can you make the word “heart” a vibrant red i think itll make it pop very well with the right font.

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Hello! I am glad that this post has you excited!

I’m unsure with the scenes for the moment, but a night and day mode is interesting. I am not that skilled with Twine to know how to do that quite yet, but it may be something I add later on when I figure it out.

Yes, this is a web-browser game.

I can certainly look into it.

I hope you stick around for a while! This project is going to be a good one!

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