ACT Patreon Active [Azurezero] Yuki's Tale

[azurezero]

Hiya, it's been in development for a while already, so I figured it was finally time I announced it.

Introducing Yuki's Tale, A fantasy themed metroidvania.

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Story
Yuki, a blue haired kitsune, is dropped into the dungeon below her village for the crime of wanting to leave and explore the world. As she fights her way though the dungeon, the darker side of her village is laid bare.

The game is a spin off of damsel quest, focusing on the origin story of a minor character from Damsel Quest 3

fetishes: sprite sex, animal girls, tentacles, group sex, pregnancy, cumflation,


Controls
Arrow keys to move
X to Jump
C to shoot


Notes
options menu still needs a button to return to the main menu, so avoid it for now.
the hooker enemy also needs her sound effects for the grapple still.


So far i focused on the enemies with sex grapples, but the game might need some more generic enemies included to make the dungeon more fun and challenging to traverse.


game over cg? (ANIMATED EXAMPLES NOW INCLUDED)
I'm not sure if these pictures will still be used, because i might redraw them to be a less harsh. I'm fond of the heart eyes stuff.

Spoiler

The above pictures wont be used in the game, i wasnt really happy with them.


I've been working on animated cg game overs for the game but they wont be being added until the game is done, just because it already takes 2 minutes to compile every time i want to playtest.

also you can use an xbox pad. but im not sure how effective it is yet

 

[azurezero]

Re: Yuki's Tale (demo)

im also after general feedback so be sure to post your thoughts, i have had people test the game, but not enough for proper feedback

 

[ilmncsm]

Re: Yuki's Tale (demo)

It might just be me, but I can't download it off itch.io. When I click on the Download button nothing happens at all. Not entirely sure what is happening here.

 

[azurezero]

Re: Yuki's Tale (demo)

It might just be me, but I can't download it off itch.io. When I click on the Download button nothing happens at all. Not entirely sure what is happening here.

it works for me but i uploaded it to mega

You must be registered to see the links

lets hope that i dont get hacked again

 

[Inspector_Whatsup]

Re: Yuki's Tale (demo)

Hm, I gave your little demo a spin, and I see potential in it. It's a bit rough so far, but not aggravatingly so. Now, I know I'm still fairly new here, so please don't be mad at me.

The visual style is neat. A bit minimalistic, but I think that makes it quite charming. The animations are nice to look at, and the H-scenes follow suit without much quality deviation. The effects (especially the snowball impact effect) are a bit jarring to me, since they don't fit the rest of the visuals that well, but that's more nitpicking than anything.

What kinda threw me off was the combat design. Enemies are relentlessly fast and aggressive, which really caught me by surprise. It's not really fun to encounter Slimes since they're rather fast and hard to track down, unless you have the initiative (by rapidly shooting them at point-blank range as soon as they drop from the ceiling), but once they get moving, chaos ensues. The werewolf(?) and the alraune were more manageable, and the hook girl was kind of a cheap trap, but easily disposed of once you knew what was ahead. The boss was fine, if a bit boring, but had a bit too much health for my taste, and either lacked an actual defeat animation, or it didn't trigger for me (Yuki just kneeled in place, and the boss continued attacking). Either way, until I got the dodge roll, combat was kinda unforgiving.

Outside of combat design, I found most of the map gimmicks very simple, which is a positive since it's only the starting area, and I can see how those could get trickier as the game goes on. Platforming was a lot of fun to me due to the way the dodge roll worked. It's pretty satisfying to just jump dodge-roll all over the place, and it gets even better when you reach previously impossible ledges. A really fun addition that reminds me of Kurovadis' implementation of the same mechanic. Possibly an inspiration? One little thing to point out here: the hint signs are confusing. Not with what they say, but where they're placed. Going left is half a death sentence with a roadblock, but no hint signs are found to the right. Was that intentional? Cause it doesn't do much except for weirding me out at first.

The music was okay, nothing to write home about, but fitting enough to not kill the mood. The voice clips get a bit annoying to me after a while, since they repeat rather quickly.

As for bugs and glitches, I haven't found anything particularly noticeable or problematic, but I also didn't try too many things to trigger stuff.

Overall, I liked what I saw, and with a bit of polishing and finetuning, I could see this become a really fun little game!

 

[azurezero]

Re: Yuki's Tale (demo)

Hm, I gave your little demo a spin, and I see potential in it. It's a bit rough so far, but not aggravatingly so. Now, I know I'm still fairly new here, so please don't be mad at me.

The visual style is neat. A bit minimalistic, but I think that makes it quite charming. The animations are nice to look at, and the H-scenes follow suit without much quality deviation. The effects (especially the snowball impact effect) are a bit jarring to me, since they don't fit the rest of the visuals that well, but that's more nitpicking than anything.
hmmm I'll consider dropping the snowflakes then.

What kinda threw me off was the combat design. Enemies are relentlessly fast and aggressive, which really caught me by surprise. It's not really fun to encounter Slimes since they're rather fast and hard to track down, unless you have the initiative (by rapidly shooting them at point-blank range as soon as they drop from the ceiling), but once they get moving, chaos ensues. The werewolf(?) and the alraune were more manageable, and the hook girl was kind of a cheap trap, but easily disposed of once you knew what was ahead. The boss was fine, if a bit boring, but had a bit too much health for my taste, and either lacked an actual defeat animation, or it didn't trigger for me (Yuki just kneeled in place, and the boss continued attacking). Either way, until I got the dodge roll, combat was kinda unforgiving.
she kneeled in place? she didnt get bondaged? the loss animation has its own screen after you hit enter normally.

Outside of combat design, I found most of the map gimmicks very simple, which is a positive since it's only the starting area, and I can see how those could get trickier as the game goes on. Platforming was a lot of fun to me due to the way the dodge roll worked. It's pretty satisfying to just jump dodge-roll all over the place, and it gets even better when you reach previously impossible ledges. A really fun addition that reminds me of Kurovadis' implementation of the same mechanic. Possibly an inspiration? One little thing to point out here: the hint signs are confusing. Not with what they say, but where they're placed. Going left is half a death sentence with a roadblock, but no hint signs are found to the right. Was that intentional? Cause it doesn't do much except for weirding me out at first.

The music was okay, nothing to write home about, but fitting enough to not kill the mood. The voice clips get a bit annoying to me after a while, since they repeat rather quickly.
I'll see about adding more of a gap between them for the moans, but i love the ones she does for jumping and shooting

As for bugs and glitches, I haven't found anything particularly noticeable or problematic, but I also didn't try too many things to trigger stuff.

Overall, I liked what I saw, and with a bit of polishing and finetuning, I could see this become a really fun little game!

answers in bold, for the most part I am seeing kurovadis as a thing to aim for but the dodge roll is something i only recently added, it used to be the dash ability from my dash game. I knew the dodge roll would be way more fun though, so even though i knew id be compared to kurovadis, i tried my best to sprite the roll animation.

polish wise im a bit troubled because i cant do good paralax scrolling, im sure you noticed the pillars in the boss room looked odd.

since adding the dodge roll i put it before the boss instead of after, but before that the health bonus you get by heading left at the start really helped beat her.

oh and though the dodge roll is similar to kurovadis, bunny must die is more of an influence for me. i could never ever beat the first boss on kurovadis

 

[Casual19]

Re: Yuki's Tale (demo)

I don't know I kinda like the game over cgs as is. The harsher tone gives off a more in distress feel, which I'm in to. Heart eyes are nice and all, but I feel thats better used for the occasional situation rather then all or most of them.

 

[azurezero]

Re: Yuki's Tale (demo)

I don't know I kinda like the game over cgs as is. The harsher tone gives off a more in distress feel, which I'm in to. Heart eyes are nice and all, but I feel thats better used for the occasional situation rather then all or most of them.

it's just the main threat of being down there is being made into a baby maker by the wolfmen. and they use an aphrosiac to help enforce that.

the tone of the game is pretty harsh... but i'd still like to see her forced to enjoy the situation.

i also want the style of the drawings to be consistent with her future self

You must be registered to see the links

 

[Casual19]

Re: Yuki's Tale (demo)

Its your call, I just thought I'd throw in my two cents since it seemed you were on the fence.

 

[azurezero]

Re: Yuki's Tale (demo)

It's your call, I just thought I'd throw in my two cents since it seemed you were on the fence.

I was worried about announcing the game at all to be honest.
You only get one first impression. No idea what i can do to make it look more polished.

 

[ilmncsm]

Re: Yuki's Tale (demo)

Well I tried downloading it again today, and it worked fine, didn't even need the mega link, so I have no idea what was up with that.

About the game, I have to say I swear I remember playing a demo of this before, is this not the first time you released a demo for this? This is clearly the first thread about the game, but I swear I played this before. I could also have sworn in the older version you could charge your attack to launch a lance shaped bolt that did double damage. Am I going insane, or did you release this before?

Whether you did or not, I really enjoyed what you have so far in the demo. The combat is mildly frantic, but so long as you understand the enemies behavior you can deal with them just fine. Also if you pay attention the slimes shouldn't be able to get the drop on you, because when they are on the ceiling they drip, and you can use that to tell where they are.

On the subject of game over CGs I say go with what feels right to you man. I like what you showed us, but I also really enjoy the heart eyes that you've put in your other games, so I know that whatever you put in the final game I'll enjoy it either way.

 

[azurezero]

Re: Yuki's Tale (demo)

Well I tried downloading it again today, and it worked fine, didn't even need the mega link, so I have no idea what was up with that.

About the game, I have to say I swear I remember playing a demo of this before, is this not the first time you released a demo for this? This is clearly the first thread about the game, but I swear I played this before. I could also have sworn in the older version you could charge your attack to launch a lance shaped bolt that did double damage. Am I going insane, or did you release this before?

Whether you did or not, I really enjoyed what you have so far in the demo. The combat is mildly frantic, but so long as you understand the enemies behavior you can deal with them just fine. Also if you pay attention the slimes shouldn't be able to get the drop on you, because when they are on the ceiling they drip, and you can use that to tell where they are.

On the subject of game over CGs I say go with what feels right to you man. I like what you showed us, but I also really enjoy the heart eyes that you've put in your other games, so I know that whatever you put in the final game I'll enjoy it either way.

I think i've only released it to patrons before... since i've been afraid of ruining my chances with a poor first impression.

 

[ilmncsm]

Re: Yuki's Tale (demo)

I think i've only released it to patrons before... since i've been afraid of ruining my chances with a poor first impression.

Well I'm not one of your patrons, but think I remember how I got my hands on it. There was a mega link somewhere to Demo's and discontinued projects that I'm pretty sure you posted somewhere a while back that I grabbed out of curiosity.

Just double checked my H-Folder, and managed to find it, so I do have an older copy of it from somewhere. I could have sworn it was you who posted it, but it was a while ago that I got it, so I honestly don't know anymore.

Either way, I'm looking forward to seeing more of this project.

 

[azurezero]

Re: Yuki's Tale (demo)

Well I'm not one of your patrons, but think I remember how I got my hands on it. There was a mega link somewhere to Demo's and discontinued projects that I'm pretty sure you posted somewhere a while back that I grabbed out of curiosity.

Just double checked my H-Folder, and managed to find it, so I do have an older copy of it from somewhere. I could have sworn it was you who posted it, but it was a while ago that I got it, so I honestly don't know anymore.

Either way, I'm looking forward to seeing more of this project.

Ah that makes sense... either way i hadnt gone out of my way to show it to anyone. shame my mega got hacked, some of those discontinued projects had no backup.

i definitely need to add some generic enemies, but i absolutely need to get damsel quest 3 done... so it might be a while before i have more news for this one.

im wondering if i should just use the standard metroid set of enemies.
like, thing that dives down from the ceiling , or the thing that sucks back up to the ceiling after it dives...
hell, im even considering bats at this point... I probably need to put a little more thought into the setting. bats do make sense but it feels like a cop out.

 

[Ayra]

Re: Yuki's Tale (demo)

I finished everything in the demo, so commenting time!

Overall, my impressions are pretty positive. It's not as smooth as Kurovadis is, but it's still quite solid. Stage design looks pretty good so far and the game is fun to play. I'll most likely buy this game when it comes out. Kudos!

With that said, here's some feedback in no specific order:

1) I love the slime drops as warning, it's far less cheap this way!

2) Why are the tutorial prompts on the left side at the start when you need to complete the right side first?

3) As first enemy type, the slimes are probably too mobile. Kind of a rough introduction, especially before your damage go up. The damage is fine and so are the other monsters imo.

4) Not sure the sure-kill "acid vat" is a good idea. It's the first instance of that acid but it is fatal due to no exit(and checkpoint is a ways back) but all the following instances have a way out.

5) I died horribly on the boss the first two tries and won easily the third time. Main reason was getting used to the roll; maybe it'd be preferable to have the player have a bit more roll usage before the boss could help. Checkpoint is close though so it's not a big deal.

 

[azurezero]

Re: Yuki's Tale (demo)

Answers in bold.

I finished everything in the demo, so commenting time!

Overall, my impressions are pretty positive. It's not as smooth as Kurovadis is, but it's still quite solid. Stage design looks pretty good so far and the game is fun to play. I'll most likely buy this game when it comes out. Kudos!

With that said, here's some feedback in no specific order:

1) I love the slime drops as warning, it's far less cheap this way!

2) Why are the tutorial prompts on the left side at the start when you need to complete the right side first?
the boss used to be really hard without the dodge roll, so the extra health upgrade to the left helped a lot

3) As first enemy type, the slimes are probably too mobile. Kind of a rough introduction, especially before your damage go up. The damage is fine and so are the other monsters imo.
I'll see about changing where the positions, but theyre pretty easy to handle if you know how they act, they only move along the ground faster than you if theyre close enough but theyre easy to jump over, they only jump if there's sufficient distance

4) Not sure the sure-kill "acid vat" is a good idea. It's the first instance of that acid but it is fatal due to no exit(and checkpoint is a ways back) but all the following instances have a way out.
It's a trap, I'm putting an item in it that you cant get until later when you can wall jump out again, its supposed to be slime.

5) I died horribly on the boss the first two tries and won easily the third time. Main reason was getting used to the roll; maybe it'd be preferable to have the player have a bit more roll usage before the boss could help. Checkpoint is close though so it's not a big deal.
Hmmm I wasnt really sure what to do for the dodge roll tutorial. currently it dodges pretty much everything so i figured a boss might be the best training ground for it... the long spike corridor is a more comprehensive one, cause its pretty hard to get through it without the roll

maybe i should remove the signs alltogether? except for ones that would actually be in the dungeon?

 

[Ayra]

Re: Yuki's Tale (demo)

Thinking back on it, the boss is probably fine for roll tutorial.

The slimes are easy once you understand them; the problem is that they are the very first enemy you see. At that point, the players are starting to learn the physics and controls of the game. I can easily see some people instant rage-quitting at feeling overwhelmed in their first minute of play.

Regarding the slime vat, having to return later to get an item is fine. The problem is that it's the first time you see that slime and the savepoint is a long way back. If there were some slime earlier in a non-fatal situation, the player could learn without dying that you can't swim and that it damages you. Damage traps are fine: death traps not so much unless there is a very close checkpoint.

I think I'd keep the signs (the down-jump from platform one is important) but have them on the right path and block off the left path nearly immediately behind a dodge-ability check. You want to have players accomplish something early on. Going on the left path right away and waste time and effort is not good for the very start. Get people to the dodge skill as the tutorial, make them accomplish that for satisfaction-sake. Once that's done it can open up safely and have players find their own way.

Well, that's just my suggestions: your game, your choices of course! It's just that I feel it would give a better first impression to players trying the demo.

 

[azurezero]

Re: Yuki's Tale (demo)

Thinking back on it, the boss is probably fine for roll tutorial.

The slimes are easy once you understand them; the problem is that they are the very first enemy you see. At that point, the players are starting to learn the physics and controls of the game. I can easily see some people instant rage-quitting at feeling overwhelmed in their first minute of play.

Regarding the slime vat, having to return later to get an item is fine. The problem is that it's the first time you see that slime and the savepoint is a long way back. If there were some slime earlier in a non-fatal situation, the player could learn without dying that you can't swim and that it damages you. Damage traps are fine: death traps not so much unless there is a very close checkpoint.

I think I'd keep the signs (the down-jump from platform one is important) but have them on the right path and block off the left path nearly immediately behind a dodge-ability check. You want to have players accomplish something early on. Going on the left path right away and waste time and effort is not good for the very start. Get people to the dodge skill as the tutorial, make them accomplish that for satisfaction-sake. Once that's done it can open up safely and have players find their own way.

Well, that's just my suggestions: your game, your choices of course! It's just that I feel it would give a better first impression to players trying the demo.

I can't block the left path, because sequence breaking is already a thing. with a trick you can get to the rest of the game past the area where you need the roll to beat the switch/door. I'll see if i can add slime somewhere safe then

also, can you guys try pressing 1 and tell me if that helps with the feel of the game? pressing 2 after that is total darkness mode that might be used in an area but i kind of like the way things look with 1

 

[azurezero]

Re: Yuki's Tale (demo)

I feel like i jumped the gun with this demo. the enemy density is too thin, i need more generic non h enemies just to make the combat more interesting.
and i released the demo without any real purpose to the game.

in kurovadis youre made immediately aware of your situation with the world map under attack screen, and the demo covers more than one location. wheras I just have a bunch of grey and orange caves...

the barrels are part of the narrative but since you dont get to see the area that becomes obvious yet...it's kind of moot.

I really wanted to do better than this.

 

[Jesus]

Re: Yuki's Tale (demo)

I feel like i jumped the gun with this demo. the enemy density is too thin, i need more generic non h enemies just to make the combat more interesting.
and i released the demo without any real purpose to the game.

I have to disagree. One of my greatest pet-peeves is non-H enemies in a hentai game.
For me, the difficulty is just right - The enemies have clear attack patterns that are easy to learn and hard but not too hard to react to. My favorite type of game is just that - where every enemy is a threat that CAN fuck you up, are easy to learn how to fuck THEM up, but not so easy to execute the whole fucking them up while not getting fucked up yourself. If anything needs dialling back, it's the speed of the slimes and the damage you take in CR.
I only played as far as the first boss so far though. I like her patterns, I don't like how much health she has, especially since you have to go through and get the dodge-roll before fighting her every time.
Your sprites have improved too, even though as far as I can tell they're about the same size as in your previous game, somehow you've managed to do more with them.

I really wanted to do better than this.

For what my opinion's worth to you, you're already doing better than your last game (Which mechanically, I found a lot more fun than the shit spewed through DLsite and lapped up), that's what counts in any real endeavor or creative process. To quote Pat McNamara "If I cloned myself yesterday, can I kick my clone’s ass tomorrow?". I think the answer is yes, proverbially.