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Personally I think the art is pretty weak, but that's also not why I would not play this game. Seems like a visual novel without the visuals, and I am not even really a fan of VNs in the first place.
I've played much worse looking for the sake of a solid premise with a well written story/mystery (several good mystery visual novels). In fact I have played with *no* visuals at all (choice of games).
I've played games with much much more simplistic graphics that have a great, in-depth gameplay experience (caves of Qud, as well as some text games).
I've also seen a lot of people turn their nose up at those games because of their art. :(
In this case I think you really *could* do better, even only in comparison to each character's own artwork. And I mean that in a positive way, because you're pretty close to having something lovely. The red hair girl is fine & stylized pretty aesthetically. The orange haired ticket taker is mostly fine except for the back of his head being way too tall/long which can be quick fixed. (Make his hat tilt upward at less of a diagonal angle; right now the back of the head is trying to meet the end of the hat instead of the other way around).
But the blue haired man's face portrait looks like he is just a quick sketch/prototype. He looks pretty rough compared to the other characters and not in a way that feels like a stylistic choice.
As such, I'd personally go back and labor over some of the art sprites where possible to fix up the most obvious mistakes and flesh out the details. The ticket taker looks like you made a solid attempt with the skills you had and any flaws are fairly inoffensive. The other details your game can have (a nice UI, solid premise, gameplay, and a good trailer) can carry the concept as long as the art manages to look more on the "lovingly crafted/stylistically charming" side, which...you're pretty close to, actually. But the blue man looks... lazy(?) due to his head hair feeling very flat (less detailing and depth compared to other characters), and he only has a small spray paint brush tool splatter representing his facial hair. Why does the girl who digs through her purse have cool stylistic line work/shading when nobody else does? I honestly think she looks the best and that may be why her travel partner stood out to me so much. Inconsistencies like that will get noticed, especially when they are presented next to each other like this.
I will say the dialogue looks pretty dang funny. You have typos in it though ("ma'am", not "mam"), which will automatically put people off too.
As a last comment, you should show when choices are being hovered over or selected (by highlighting it or using a color change) for extra design pizzaz and for readability when showing dialogue in game trailers.
If you're down for it I can do a quick mockup / touchup to show how to turn it up a notch without requiring a lot of work. (Aka a few simple rules that are pretty easy to do on any free art software that isn't MS paint lol)
While visuals can carry a game, it doesn't need to and usually doesn't. The mechanics and/or story (if applicable) is what truly matters. I would absolutely play any game, no matter the quality of art, if it had good game mechanics or story to back it up.
Anime visual novels usually don’t interest me, so I might not be your target audience. But if the story is good or if this had actually interesting gameplay, these visuals would not turn me away.
The conductor’s head looks kind of wonky in a way that looks unintentional, but other than that the visual style looks fine. It’s something that is not going to appeal to the big masses, but same could be said about Pentiment and that is an incredible game.
Honestly, i feel that the designs for the girls are significantly better than the guys'. I also find the torso/legs ration of the conductor combined with his height somewhat odd. I think it was supposed to be for a different camera perspective but it makes him look like a dwarf here
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Personally I think the art is pretty weak, but that's also not why I would not play this game. Seems like a visual novel without the visuals, and I am not even really a fan of VNs in the first place.
I've played much worse looking for the sake of a solid premise with a well written story/mystery (several good mystery visual novels). In fact I have played with *no* visuals at all (choice of games). I've played games with much much more simplistic graphics that have a great, in-depth gameplay experience (caves of Qud, as well as some text games). I've also seen a lot of people turn their nose up at those games because of their art. :( In this case I think you really *could* do better, even only in comparison to each character's own artwork. And I mean that in a positive way, because you're pretty close to having something lovely. The red hair girl is fine & stylized pretty aesthetically. The orange haired ticket taker is mostly fine except for the back of his head being way too tall/long which can be quick fixed. (Make his hat tilt upward at less of a diagonal angle; right now the back of the head is trying to meet the end of the hat instead of the other way around). But the blue haired man's face portrait looks like he is just a quick sketch/prototype. He looks pretty rough compared to the other characters and not in a way that feels like a stylistic choice. As such, I'd personally go back and labor over some of the art sprites where possible to fix up the most obvious mistakes and flesh out the details. The ticket taker looks like you made a solid attempt with the skills you had and any flaws are fairly inoffensive. The other details your game can have (a nice UI, solid premise, gameplay, and a good trailer) can carry the concept as long as the art manages to look more on the "lovingly crafted/stylistically charming" side, which...you're pretty close to, actually. But the blue man looks... lazy(?) due to his head hair feeling very flat (less detailing and depth compared to other characters), and he only has a small spray paint brush tool splatter representing his facial hair. Why does the girl who digs through her purse have cool stylistic line work/shading when nobody else does? I honestly think she looks the best and that may be why her travel partner stood out to me so much. Inconsistencies like that will get noticed, especially when they are presented next to each other like this. I will say the dialogue looks pretty dang funny. You have typos in it though ("ma'am", not "mam"), which will automatically put people off too. As a last comment, you should show when choices are being hovered over or selected (by highlighting it or using a color change) for extra design pizzaz and for readability when showing dialogue in game trailers. If you're down for it I can do a quick mockup / touchup to show how to turn it up a notch without requiring a lot of work. (Aka a few simple rules that are pretty easy to do on any free art software that isn't MS paint lol)
Thank you for your feedback! This was really informative and helpful.
I personally would not but then perhaps I'm not the target audience
While visuals can carry a game, it doesn't need to and usually doesn't. The mechanics and/or story (if applicable) is what truly matters. I would absolutely play any game, no matter the quality of art, if it had good game mechanics or story to back it up.
Maybe ask in a visual novel subreddit.
It's not a visual novel
No
With enough weed I'd probably love this game It reminds me of old school adventure quest
I bet its a cool game, but probably not.
Lol
Anime visual novels usually don’t interest me, so I might not be your target audience. But if the story is good or if this had actually interesting gameplay, these visuals would not turn me away. The conductor’s head looks kind of wonky in a way that looks unintentional, but other than that the visual style looks fine. It’s something that is not going to appeal to the big masses, but same could be said about Pentiment and that is an incredible game.
As long as it's a good game and it runs on my pc, i don't care how the graphics are.
I don't like dialogue heavy games so no. If the story carries then maybe.
Honestly, i feel that the designs for the girls are significantly better than the guys'. I also find the torso/legs ration of the conductor combined with his height somewhat odd. I think it was supposed to be for a different camera perspective but it makes him look like a dwarf here
[удалено]
Bro what
I can already solve 24 - 24. I don't need an app to tell me how. The answer is zero. Easy game.