Hydra's head

[WeeklyJournaling]

Hydra's head is the first episode of a fantasy series of Visual Novels.

Iancu is a boy who lost his mother to an angry mob, led by Zolef. Now Iancu has to find what remains of his family in another city. He has five days to get there on time.While fleeing through the forest, he crosses paths with two shady assassins. How will he find his way now?









Download.  https://mew-mew16.itch.io/hydras-head-episode-1

[Stupot]

I really love the style.

I do think the text looks a bit hard to read against the backgrounds, but other than that it looks great.

[WeeklyJournaling]

That's a good point. Thanks for letting me know

Fixed!

[Creamy]

Congratulations for the release. I finished the episode.

Not sure if AGS is really suited for a browser game at this resolution. This episode is very short, yet it took 1 minute to load on my computer (I timed it). You could use an engine like Renpy and get better results. The few interactions required to move forward didn't add much and - dare I say - confused me.

Spoiler

Pushing our mother in the pit? Using the book on the forest?

[close]

It was alright because the game is signposted.

Nice style. I turned the voices off but that's what I generally do in amateur games. Yes, I'm quite picky - I even turn them off in professional games sometimes.

About the story: pretty standard heroic fantasy so far. It's too early to judge.

Keep up the good work!

[WeeklyJournaling]

Thank you for your feedback!
I chose to make it play in browser before having enough episodes for a greater resolution game for Windows.
I'm afraid of making bigger games since I'm a beginner and I could overwhelm myself trying to keep track of everything.
As for the voice acting xD totally understandable. I'm thinking of trying to find people interested in  joining. It's hard for me to make the characters distinct. Especially men voices sound weird since I'm a woman.
Thanks for playing

[Rik_Vargard]

I just played this game.

Technically, I agree mostly with @Creamy. It's not easy to get how the logic works (perhaps an explanation on how the game works in the beginning?) but I got it. By chance.
Once I replayed it did somehow make sense.

I really liked the art a lot. Some of those animations are really so cute!
Which is intersting because of how the story goes.
I also liked how you put the dialogs together with the characters and their talking animations.
I think that it's a good idea to start with short episodes.

It feels like, you know, the five first minutes of a TV series episode and then the Intro with the title and logos start, and then, here we go.

I'm curious to play the next episode. 

[WeeklyJournaling]

Thanks for your input! I'm glad you enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to releasing more
I started working on my first backgrounds and character animations already.
I've thought more about what Creamy said, and I want to make an experiment: not use voice acting in the next one. I want to see if the voice acting detracts from the enjoyment of the game (acting isn't my strong suit).
Thanks again and have a great week! 😁👍

[Rik_Vargard]

Ah yes, the voice acting. I think it was really OK (especially the whispering parts).

I don't mind voice acting, but naturally I'm that player that likes to "imagine" the voices. I think it creates a more personal experience.
And while I see the work you put into the voice acting, I'm wondering if at this point, the stress and work it needs does make sense?

[WeeklyJournaling]

Exactly what I was thinking! It gets tedious to match the voices and it's extra work. I think a song in the background will do just fine instead.
And like you said, when we imagine voices for characters they fit better.

[heltenjon]

I also played this, and I agree with the others that the art is cool, and that the interface is a tad confusing. 

There seems to be no need for walking around or examining things, and interaction and talking could easily be the same action. Of course, it could be that you are planning things for later episodes that make the Sierra template the better choice for the whole story, but I think you could consider rather using the BASS template, and even so, perhaps simplify it to using only left click and inventory. Having the small "me" walk around in the background while the portraits show was only confusing.

I struggled when I was told to use the notebook, and didn't notice the marking where I was supposed to click. Clicking everywhere eventually made the game progress. Later on, the circles of colour are more visible. But this is not supposed to be a puzzle, I guess, so simply clicking while she's holding the book seems enough to tell me that she's using it.

The art and animation style I liked. It stands out and give the girl character. The two assassins a bit less so, but they make up for it in dialogue. I liked that

Spoiler

they were late for the execution. Very nice story idea.

[close]

We've seen too little of the story to tell yet, but if the goal is to trigger the players' curiousity, you succeeded. I want to know more of the story.

Whoops, Iancu is a boy, not a girl, you write in the game description. I'm not familiar with names in your language, so I guess I was fooled by your voice. 

[WeeklyJournaling]

Thank you for your interest
Yeah, it needs more work and I wanted to copy a bit from the game little two shoes where it's a blend of rpg and visual novel.
It seemed like a good walk around making a bigger character with walk animation.( If it's smaller it's more forgiving)
I agree that it was less than ideal, that's why for the next one I made a bigger walk cycle for the characters.
Thanks again for your feedback!
Have a great week

[heltenjon]

Thank you for your interest
Yeah, it needs more work and I wanted to copy a bit from the game little two shoes where it's a blend of rpg and visual novel.

You may be interested in checking out Marion's games, as she frequently makes games with AGS that mix these genres. She also changes viewpoints occasionally, like you did when you command the executioner in one scene, so you could steal get inspired by some of her techniques.

[WeeklyJournaling]

Thanks for the suggestion! I'll check it out