QSP Abandoned Saint Petersburg Adventures [v1.02 test] [toolkitxx]

[toolkitxx]

So...
Some feedback

1. The UI is broken for me. Does not look like in the screenshots. As if no formatting was done.
2. Alarm app isnt clickable.
3. Next day at school, error on interaction with students and nothing to do.
4. Overall location navigation is more than tedious. I understand that you're proud with "the code" being scale-able and in 1 place, but if the concept is bad... then it doesnt matter how optimized it is.

I see a lot of pictures and etc in the folders, so i assume the game has content (question mark) ??
This looks more like a proof of concept than an actual game.

Screenshots look very good. Props on that, but that's literally all the "game" can provide (if the formatting actually works for people).

Thanks for the feedback.

1. Would you mind attaching a screenshot? 'Broken' is not really helpful to find out was is wrong
2. Correct - module is still disconnected
3. Error correct as content isnt connected - on list
4. Noted

 

[3xpurt]

Well said and also describes something technical in the background that is hard to overcome unless one completely ignores the advantages of using qsp as base. I have been testing several solutions and will continue to find more ways but some things are just not that easy to do as in other languages while others are simply very powerful in qsp. The easy technical solution would be to drop all qsp related connections and use a side-navigation purely based on html and css. A nightmare to maintain. Sticking to pure qsp ways will mean that the simple keyboard-only navigation will also fail everytime there are more than 9 actions at a time (there is no keyboard shortcut for 10 or above). One could create an entire extra framework or modify the qsp base to overcome that . All those options are outside of my scope both time wise and with the base idea of maintainable code in mind.

P.S. There is by the way no need to click even with my menu system. Regular arrow keys will move up and down too and enter will select the highlighted option.

If you're comfortable in another engine, then you could always move to something else and replicate the QSP style. Alternatives would be to use Awesomium, like SOB, Big Kuyash and Provicial Girl, which would get you away from that terribly buggy qqsp client.

When I code for QSP, I'm forever having to cut back what I want to do, just to make it playable. Things like you say, the 10 action limit, or keeping action menu names reasonable in size (qqsp doesn't resize content properly within it's frames). It's like those mobile phone menus that almost every QSP sandbox game has, it's nice to keep everything compact, but it can be very limiting at the same time, and can end up easily cluttered.

Something else to consider when designing a pretty interface, is keeping the client with a white background is terrible on the eyes during those late night sessions. Keeping the interface simple allows for easy application of themes.

At least if you are coding it all yourself, you should be able to keep all the code neat and tidy, and not having to translate the original source from Russian is going to be a massive advantage.

 

[toolkitxx]

The qqsp client isnt really buggy - its actually lightyears better than the classic one. Sonnix's player eliminates the need for awesomnium - i can use full html5 which i actually do. SVG , CSS and QSP is basically what the framework uses.

I havnt finished the base css completely but there is a nightmode version people can switch too soon - so that is already in the making.

There are too many examples of code that is barely maintainable by the authors themselves less being able to let others contribute to it. As a sandbox game heavily relies on massive content and stable framework functions collaboration of some sort is mostly inevitable thus my thinking ahead.

 

[Olivia_V]

Will the storyline with the cute redhead twin finally lead to an actual relationship with the protagonist?

 

[toolkitxx]

Will the storyline with the cute redhead twin finally lead to an actual relationship with the protagonist?

Lol - i am not sure how to answer that actually since this is not a one-to-one recode of what has been done before. But i can promise cute readheads as i have a personal thing for them.Which of the two do you mean btw?

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?

 

[egib]

when i try to interact with anyone on the school entrance i get the this error for first character (alena) Location 'qst_6' Found!
and the next one Location 'qst_7' Found! and so and so and Location 'qst_11' Found! with the last one (Svetlana)

 

[toolkitxx]

when i try to interact with anyone on the school entrance i get the this error for first character (alena) Location 'qst_6' Found!
and the next one Location 'qst_7' Found! and so and so and Location 'qst_11' Found! with the last one (Svetlana)

Thanks for the feedback. I left the first schoolmates in already without connecting their content yet as some modules needed for that are still disconnected. Can be ignored for now.

 

[lilyp]

Thanks for the feedback.

1. Would you mind attaching a screenshot? 'Broken' is not really helpful to find out was is wrong
2. Correct - module is still disconnected
3. Error correct as content isnt connected - on list
4. Noted

Well, i do like that you can take criticism, so here's a lot more of it.

Disclaimer
I have played Girl Life.
Pretty sure this is your inspiration especially since the cast is pretty much the same with a few tweaks.
Using Windows 10, programmer background.


This is game start screen.

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# Character creation

1. Name input
After writing the name and pressing enter, it's very tedious to have to click on the green checkmark as well.
I suggest having the player input both names, one after the other and then display them with 2 options, continue or change.

2. Picking glasses
Green checkbox does nothing.
Not very intuitive for most players that they need to click on "Define hair..."
It also breaks the flow you literally just introduced with the names.

3. Hair color
Red is way too bright.
White either needs an outline or replace with silver and darken it a bit.
Again, having to click on finish character breaks the flow.


# Formatting

This is main game screen.

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This also happens to be the layout i'm using in the Girl Life playthrough.
I have no idea if there's a profile saved somewhere and it's importing it.
Either way, this needs to be fixed somehow. Both layout and css so that players with previous QSP experience dont get fucked.

This is what i mean by lack of formatting. I have no idea what the cause for this is.

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These are the settings i'm using.

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# Navigation

While i get that this looks very usable it does get pretty tedious.

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1. General UI
When interacting with a few objects inside that location, it works.
For the mirror for example... it's perfect. You do exactly what you need.
The end result however is lacking.

For example
You do save loading a new screen with mirror options but it's pointless if you just load a pretty much empty one once the action has be done.
You're better off having the player click on Mirror, load the mirror screen with picture and options, click on an option and a text result or whatever in that same screen. Then the player just clicks back to exit.
Current way, 3 clicks with 1 screen of not that much action result information.
Suggested way, 3 clicks with 1 screen of all the information related to the mirror + the result of any action.

2. Traveling
It's very cumbersome.

For example
I want to travel to school.
- Click on Where to now?
- Click on staircase
- Click on Where to now?
- Click on staircase entrance
- Click on Where to now?
- Click on residential area
- Click on Where to now?
- Click on Community center entrance
- Click on Where to now?
- Click on school

That's a total of 5 clicks on "Where to now?".
Holy shit. People are gonna get tired of this so fast. I mean, there is A LOT of traveling in Girl Life. I dont see myself playing it for tens of hours if i have so many extra steps for something so basic.
Especially since the next screen needs to load, brain needs to process where you are right now and wtf is displayed on the screen, and only then continue onward.
I also suggest you had a shortcut to exit the building faster because... fuck my life.
Also, please make districts or something. It's really not intuitive and feels stupid that i need to go to community center before i can arrive at school. It needs to be a bit more streamlined and fluid than this.

And yes, i am aware that your UI layout would break completely if you would implement my suggestion.
I know that you want to improve aspects of your source of inspiration (Girl Life), but... if it's not broken, dont fix it.
The overall navigation and layout in that game was working. Could use a few improvements, but it was a lot better than your implementation.
The main issue i had with the game was the boring and pointless school life void of anything but TONS of click click click.


This will be all for now.
You're definitely in the right direction. Keep up the good work.
But i do suggest:
- a bit more QA testing
- a bit more content for the first release (else people will only remember the faults)
- improved navigation and traveling


Hope this helps !

 

[egib]

how to start the quest ? all I have manged to do is travel between places , look into mirror and hug mom and what is the app to sleep is is the sport trophy/ cup when I press it I get, code:111 desc:location not found. I think I have pressed all other buttons and can not find the app

 

[toolkitxx]

Well, i do like that you can take criticism, so here's a lot more of it.

Disclaimer
I have played Girl Life.
Pretty sure this is your inspiration especially since the cast is pretty much the same with a few tweaks.
Using Windows 10, programmer background.


This is game start screen.

You must be registered to see the links

# Character creation

1. Name input
After writing the name and pressing enter, it's very tedious to have to click on the green checkmark as well.
I suggest having the player input both names, one after the other and then display them with 2 options, continue or change.

2. Picking glasses
Green checkbox does nothing.
Not very intuitive for most players that they need to click on "Define hair..."
It also breaks the flow you literally just introduced with the names.

3. Hair color
Red is way too bright.
White either needs an outline or replace with silver and darken it a bit.
Again, having to click on finish character breaks the flow.


# Formatting

This is main game screen.

You must be registered to see the links

This also happens to be the layout i'm using in the Girl Life playthrough.
I have no idea if there's a profile saved somewhere and it's importing it.
Either way, this needs to be fixed somehow. Both layout and css so that players with previous QSP experience dont get fucked.

This is what i mean by lack of formatting. I have no idea what the cause for this is.

You must be registered to see the links

These are the settings i'm using.

You must be registered to see the links

# Navigation

While i get that this looks very usable it does get pretty tedious.

You must be registered to see the links

1. General UI
When interacting with a few objects inside that location, it works.
For the mirror for example... it's perfect. You do exactly what you need.
The end result however is lacking.

For example
You do save loading a new screen with mirror options but it's pointless if you just load a pretty much empty one once the action has be done.
You're better off having the player click on Mirror, load the mirror screen with picture and options, click on an option and a text result or whatever in that same screen. Then the player just clicks back to exit.
Current way, 3 clicks with 1 screen of not that much action result information.
Suggested way, 3 clicks with 1 screen of all the information related to the mirror + the result of any action.

2. Traveling
It's very cumbersome.

For example
I want to travel to school.
- Click on Where to now?
- Click on staircase
- Click on Where to now?
- Click on staircase entrance
- Click on Where to now?
- Click on residential area
- Click on Where to now?
- Click on Community center entrance
- Click on Where to now?
- Click on school

That's a total of 5 clicks on "Where to now?".
Holy shit. People are gonna get tired of this so fast. I mean, there is A LOT of traveling in Girl Life. I dont see myself playing it for tens of hours if i have so many extra steps for something so basic.
Especially since the next screen needs to load, brain needs to process where you are right now and wtf is displayed on the screen, and only then continue onward.
I also suggest you had a shortcut to exit the building faster because... fuck my life.
Also, please make districts or something. It's really not intuitive and feels stupid that i need to go to community center before i can arrive at school. It needs to be a bit more streamlined and fluid than this.

And yes, i am aware that your UI layout would break completely if you would implement my suggestion.
I know that you want to improve aspects of your source of inspiration (Girl Life), but... if it's not broken, dont fix it.
The overall navigation and layout in that game was working. Could use a few improvements, but it was a lot better than your implementation.
The main issue i had with the game was the boring and pointless school life void of anything but TONS of click click click.


This will be all for now.
You're definitely in the right direction. Keep up the good work.
But i do suggest:
- a bit more QA testing
- a bit more content for the first release (else people will only remember the faults)
- improved navigation and traveling


Hope this helps !

Quick and easy - you didnt set the option properly in the player as described on the first screen right in the bottom. Your screen shows no buttons (links instead) and dark static text. I also posted that info in the spoilers on the first page of this thread.

Your assumption is pretty much wrong about Girl Life . This is its own and i just credit my source of inspiration which very much is the original ETO itself and its storyline. GL is just a mod of ETO itself and we have been over this already with the mod which is not this game. So any direct comparison is fine by me when it comes to taste etc but anything else is simply a wrong assumption.

Most if not all of your points are welcome feedback. Some will be immediate no with the current code base and the overall goal for the development. 1 man , 24 hours per day and all that...

 

[Olivia_V]

Lol - i am not sure how to answer that actually since this is not a one-to-one recode of what has been done before.

Good, because I wasn't a big fan of how that storyline progressed. I just wanted her to be the protagonist's girlfriend. I think Katja was her name.

But if she's not in this, are there at least going to be lesbian options?

 

[lilyp]

Quick and easy - you didnt set the option properly in the player as described on the first screen right in the bottom. Your screen shows no buttons (links instead) and dark static text. I also posted that info in the spoilers on the first page of this thread.

Your assumption is pretty much wrong about Girl Life . This is its own and i just credit my source of inspiration which very much is the original ETO itself and its storyline. GL is just a mod of ETO itself and we have been over this already with the mod which is not this game. So any direct comparison is fine by me when it comes to taste etc but anything else is simply a wrong assumption.

Most if not all of your points are welcome feedback. Some will be immediate no with the current code base and the overall goal for the development. 1 man , 24 hours per day and all that...

Indeed, setting the proper options did fix it.
Must admit, didnt really see that you wanted people to do it.
All the bad formatting in the first game screen distracted me from reading it.
Also, please move this info from "developer notes". It's much more important than that.
Add a big red line of text and mention this for all to see.

Regarding your inspiration, i meant no harm. I dont know what ETO is or what Girl Life uses.
The only thing i did, was try to compare what i deemed to work as UI and game flow in Girl Life to your game.

Not many games are using QSP and yours has potential. I'm pretty much drooling for some actual content and i just wanna help improve the final product.

 

[Deleted member 563623]

The concept is very promising but for me most options either do nothing (trying to eat for example) or result in an error (trying to talk to the girls at the school) at the moment, so maybe i'll try again in a few versions...

 

[ilovenudemods]

110% support female protagonist games with a ton of options.

Can't wait to give this a try once the next update drops!

 

[Dropdude]

Needs a lot more content. Only one character has a decent amount of pictures.

 

[toolkitxx]

Indeed, setting the proper options did fix it.
Must admit, didnt really see that you wanted people to do it.
All the bad formatting in the first game screen distracted me from reading it.
Also, please move this info from "developer notes". It's much more important than that.
Add a big red line of text and mention this for all to see.

Regarding your inspiration, i meant no harm. I dont know what ETO is or what Girl Life uses.
The only thing i did, was try to compare what i deemed to work as UI and game flow in Girl Life to your game.

Not many games are using QSP and yours has potential. I'm pretty much drooling for some actual content and i just wanna help improve the final product.

I talked to Sonnix about that setting already and he is probably going to make it the default in his next compile. Placing it on the very first page is really a big red line as i had people test it before making the thread and was aware of that problem. Will also place it in the installation spoiler just in case.
I havnt even seen any actual Girl Life for nearly a year as i have spend all my available time with the technologies that are in the current result which i called hoops and loops in another post. I am aware of that some stuff appears to have some rough edges but this is also the first work that does some stuff uniquely. NPCs have schedules and get moved around by code constantly - they are always somewhere and dont just get 'beamed' into a place for 1 event. That is hooked into the contact list and so on - there is some complex shit in the background that simply doesnt allow some stuff that seems obvious for an outsider. I do listen to the feedback and it doesnt go unheard but i am also a guy who puts his work where his mouth is

 

[toolkitxx]

Good, because I wasn't a big fan of how that storyline progressed. I just wanted her to be the protagonist's girlfriend. I think Katja was her name.

But if she's not in this, are there at least going to be lesbian options?

Rest assured my friend - there will be. Unavoidable with a female protagonist The girl you find as actor number 7 - Natasha ingame - is already set to be the MC's best friend and confidant and lewd stuff will happen

 

[toolkitxx]

how to start the quest ? all I have manged to do is travel between places , look into mirror and hug mom and what is the app to sleep is is the sport trophy/ cup when I press it I get, code:111 desc:location not found. I think I have pressed all other buttons and can not find the app

The text for the picked up phone was the key to start the quest. It suggested to open the vital health app - the one with the heart icon

 

[toolkitxx]

Might I suggest adding a different way to navigate, so we don't have to click twice to move one room? Maybe another menu we can reposition somewhere specifically for navigation. I noticed while playing it was said the map will eventually be used for fast travel purposes. Maybe when that system is implemented, each location you go to could have its own smaller map displayed as an interactive image like the phone, which lets you click on a room/part of the property to go to it. At this point, you would use the large map to travel to a different location/building such as the Clinic, School, or Home. And the small map to move around within a specific location/building such as going to the living room, bathroom, leaving the apartment, or the back of the school, front of the school, field and entering the school.

TLDR
You travel to the school, clinic, community center, home, gym etc via the large map.
You then navigate within those locations through a small map, specific to each location to move around the property.
On the smaller map, in the corner there could be buttons to walk to the nearest bus stop for faster tavel to distant locations, and logically a Taxi number in the phone to call or an Uber app on the phone, which could lead to some events with Uber drivers instead of the plain old Taxi's.

I have been spending some time with your suggestion and i might actually be able to pull something similar off without destroying the entire code. Its just parts of what you describe but it might work if its just for navigation purposes. Wont be via the map but as top- or bottom-navigation in the main screen. When i find some extra time i will try to test it on some volunteer dummies.

P.S. Adding the screenshot would help - this is really not pretty but roughly what you described:

 

[dasgerd]

After you visited the clinic and swallowed the chip is there any more content i gone home in the kitchen and after the hunger bar appears the game bugs out i can not eat in the kitchen and no option works..?