Life Sim Beta
A downloadable game for Windows
Thank you for choosing to be a Beta tester for our game. Life Sim [Working Title] is a unique social sim created by our brand new studio. The game you are about to download is a very rough build. We hope you have fun as you travel the sights and get to know people, but as you play, please be on the lookout for any issues you encounter in the game. Our in-game logbook will allow you to report these bugs directly to our development team. Your reports and feedback are very valuable to us. We appreciate your time and hope that, even in its current state, you have fun with this exciting new project.
Thank you for playing the Beta of our game.
---------- Here's the real description. Please Do Not Read Until You Have Completed The Game ----------
Okay, so obviously this isn't a Beta of anything. What you just played is a proof of concept for an idea I've had since around 2014. I was inspired by games like Pony Island and The Stanley Parable and conceived a scenario where a video game tutorial gradually falls in love with the player and begins trying to muscle in on their life.
I have never written anything in my life and certainly never attempted to (or even thought about attempting to) make a video game before. I was inspired to make this proof of concept by watching Yahtzee Croshaw's Twelve Games In Twelve Months series, which I highly recommend. It really is amazing what a little discipline and a good concept can produce in a short amount of time.
I've been getting some feedback and it turns out this works pretty well as an idea (Typos aside. Sorry about those). If I ever make a completed version of this concept, I would do much more to expand this idea. I really want to create an actual interface where the list is concerned. Have actual boxes you can check or something rather than just another obvious choice box. But more importantly, I would create more options where the Tutorial is concerned.
Life Sim Beta was made in about two weeks and in that time I could only create a scenario where a straight male who has a significant other and a pet will get the intended experience. And even then, only if they provide the real names of all the people involved (What do I do if they input joke names? Haven't figured that out yet).
Given the chance to make a full game, I would attempt to add much more diversity in that regard. Create more options for more types of people. Maybe even include a scenario where you can side with the tutorial against the dev team.
I'm glad to see so many people had fun with this idea (Again, typos aside). I think it has a lot of potential. My obvious inexperience in writing and game development clearly shows, but I'm happy to see so many people enjoying the game regardless. Thank you all so much for your advise and I hope you all had fun.
Created By Cri
Music: https://www.bensound.com
Sounds: http://ZapSplat.com
Sprites by sutemo: https://itch.io/profile/sutemo
Backgrounds by Noraneko Games: https://itch.io/profile/noranekogames/
Desert Background by Digital Moons: https://digitalmoons.itch.io/
Simple Notebook Paper image by Cougarmint: https://opengameart.org/users/cougarmint
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Comments
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I have to agree with Tutorial; they should really add more options, more variety, when they get around to completing this game. It'd be a lot more interesting, and I'd be able to immerse myself better if they did. After all, it was kinda limited, and I wasn't able to follow the route I wanted to—
Please note: The above is intended as a joke, though I did think it was kind of sweet for Tutorial to be that devoted to her job. Very well done; I was a little miffed at first (since I hate when the screen shakes, in general), but got more used to things as I went along, and caught on to how it was going to go. Interesting concept, and well played! I didn't expect that ending, to avoid spoiling it, but it was a good way of handling things. Self-aware games (Visual Novels, especially) are quite the tricky subject, and you handled this one well.
Thank you kindly. As someone who has never so much as typed a code into DOS, it came out better than I expected.
So glad you had fun.
I love the story although I would have preferred we were given more dialogue that would make us care for Tutorial.
This game has a lot of potential. I hope one day you come pick this game back up.
I have been wandering around itch.io looking for assets and I randomly stumbled upon your comment on the page's of your characters' designer, so I decided to give your "demo" a go.
I must say that I am really impressed. I will leave a couple of suggestions, since you are interested in polishing the game!
- I would reduce the number of screen shakes and probably remove the drum sound that accompany them. It gets old rather quick :)
- Maybe because I am not an English native speaker, but the use of "them" not to assume gender detracted a bit from immersion. I would have been happier to be able to choose the pronoun myself
- The "drama" soundtrack is the weakest of the pack. It works, but, mmm...
- I like the rage outburst of Tutorial, but.... Considered the more nuanced reference games you picked, I think it should have started more subtle and ramp up during the game.
These are my suggestions. Overall I didn't expect to be surprised by the game, but I had a wonderful time.
Keep up with the good work!
Thank you so much for your kind words and feedback. The one I agree with the most are the pronouns. Given more time I would have tailored the experience to anyone of any gender or preference. Life Sim Beta was a hobby project that I left open to coming back to. Sadly, I doubt I will come back to this anytime soon, if at all. But considering I have never done anything like this in my life, I think it turned out fairly well for what it is. You never know, maybe I will pick it up again. And If I do, I will take your notes on board for sure!
Thanks again and take care. :)