You have something good here, don't ruin it.

[towards0]

I made an account to tell you guys that you seriously have something great here, but with whatever the hell you're doing on the character introductions, you're killing yourselves.

"Lena is meticulously analytical, eager, and tactless almost to a fault. Naturally, she's the star reporter of the school newspaper."

Stop it right there. No need for more than that. I don't know what THIS is:

She enjoys long walks in the woods, hardcore rap music, mango Fanta, and red meat. Her favourite films are Ravenous, Delicatessen, Alive, Violent Shit, and Twilight.


Each thing gets more and more unnecessary. If you cut 2, maybe 3 sentences from each of the introductions that contain THIS junk, people would be more willing to hype your game, myself included. But this is targeting 'lol xd so randumb exdee" kids and girls who like Skrillex and claim to enjoy dubstep.

I mean it sincerely; just take those bits off and you guys will be way better off. This isn't Sexkittens on newgrounds, this is supposed to be a serious VN.

[ILY]

I'm fairly certain those extra things in the bios won't show up much. If at all
Lots of projects like this have fun facts/extra information in the bios.
And what's wrong with it really?
Plus, why are you trying to tell them what their project should be like?

[Worthington]

We've chosen to not go indepth with our character bios, so we're revealing surface elements of their personalities. How each writer wants to do that is up to him or her. I don't really see the connection between that and "randumb exdee kids". At this point, we don't care about hype or publicity, either, and the quality of the product will speak for itself.
Thank you for your comments.

[Zarich]

But this is targeting 'lol xd so randumb exdee" kids and girls who like Skrillex and claim to enjoy dubstep.

What is this I don't even...Seriously, what is this I don't even...

But really, adding in the other information gives the devs something fun to do. Telling about some likes and dislikes gives us a more in depth look on the character,, what they do. It is all fun.

[Malkav]

I mean it sincerely

[Brasse]

I don't see the problem. Personally, I'm rather fond of those extra sentences. If anything, the blood groups, weight, height etc. are superfluous, but not all previews feature them.

[kosherbacon]

stuff

Thank you for your concern, but...

It's far too early to say that we're "killing ourselves." Even if there was no hype, no followers of the project, and no blog, our VN project would still be underway one way or another. People who genuinely lose interest now and continue to be uninterested at the time of release are the sort of people who would never have been satisfied one way or another. Either way, word is spreading, and I'm sure many naysayers will come back around eventually. If not...

That's okay! All the devs at Somnova are in it for fun. We want to create a VN that we ourselves can be proud of. The character blog posts were just as much a fun activity for us as they were actual publicity. We got a kick out of writing them up, we counted the hours between each and every debut, and it's been exciting so far.

Not that we're not mindful of our intended audience. Consider my position, if you will. My path girl is a tomboyish pettanko with facial restraints. I couldn't exactly hide her defining visual traits, nor could I go into depth about her problems and such without spoiling the hell out of things. One way or another, people were going to be put off, so... why not have some fun while I'm at it and put some fluff into the bio? Regardless of what reception the characters have gotten so far, we're certainly better off now than if we just went with a name and a picture. Trivia is fun, and either way, it got people talking. You can't make everyone happy, you know? So why not goof off a little? Personally, I'm surprised people were pissed about Twilight like it's still a cool thing to do.

This isn't Sexkittens on newgrounds, this is supposed to be a serious VN.

Serious =/= nofunallowed.

Again, thank you for your concern.

Lena is now into brostep.

[ShotgunNinja]

too long, didn't repeat

Fuck yeah, kosher. You tell 'em.

[MDV]

Each thing gets more and more unnecessary. If you cut 2, maybe 3 sentences from each of the introductions that contain THIS junk, people would be more willing to hype your game, myself included. But this is targeting 'lol xd so randumb exdee" kids and girls who like Skrillex and claim to enjoy dubstep.

You're wrong on the targeting part. Many people, and you seem to be one of them, read way too much into the titledropping and other trivia in the character previews. Thanks for the feedback though. You're not the first one expressing your concern about titledropping and meaningless information in the previews, and I think it's a valid point of criticism. Is has been discussed by the devs.

But again, people read way too much in the trivia. I find it hard to believe that anyone seriously thinks Twilight or any other dropped title will play a big role in Lena's story and we'll be repeating how awesome it is many times to please fans. But since some people at least seem to pretend to do just that, I'll keep repeating that's not the case.

[imperial.standard]

Lena is now into brostep.

Cool mcAwesome - can't wait to watch Lena doing the brostep dance animation in the game!

[TheLastMelody]

The only way too ruin this, is if the devs stop doing this, that's the only way they could ever ruin something they do for fun.

[Mr Immortal]

If I'm honest, the trivia is just...well...trivial. Whether these tidbits are cannon or not at this point is irrelevant. I mean, I like Voltaire, even though it is completely against my personality to do so. Not everything a person likes or enjoys needs to make sense or even be a cliche thing that kind of person should like. Like shy people who enjoy S&M.

[encrypted12345]

Trivial details are trivial details. Just because someone likes Twilight doesn't mean that she is an idiotic fan girl. A disturbing amount of honor students from my old mostly Chinese American high school love Twilight for reasons completely unrelated to the quality of the writing.

So I've heard anyways. In any case, it's how the devs will develop the characters that will make this VN interesting, not necessarily the first impression of a character.

[Genero6]

I'm pretty sure that preview didn't include Twilight just because they wanted everyone to know she liked Twilight, it included that series of movies to tell us something about her personality in a more creative way than just a straightforward description. C'mon, no reason to focus on it.

[ILY]

I'm pretty sure that preview didn't include Twilight just because they wanted everyone to know she liked Twilight, it included that series of movies to tell us something about her personality in a more creative way than just a straightforward description. C'mon, no reason to focus on it.

Then we can think about how the:

"lol xd so randumb exdee" kids and girls who like Skrillex and claim to enjoy dubstep.

Dislike twilight so his post makes even less sense...

[QbertEnhanced]

They're character introductions. The idea is to establish a character, I don't think any of our writers have done anything bad. They went about establishing a personality in the way they felt best without giving anything plot related away.
Hell, it seems to have worked. If you, for example, hate everyone who reads Twilight then that character is probably not for you. Not everything has to conform to your own little conceptions of what is and isn't acceptable.

[HeDanny]

ok, I've read OP's post like 4 times now, and honestly have no idea what most of that says. I must be more out of touch with the lingo of kids these days than I thought.

Despite that, I ... think OP is trying to say they don't like the character bios? If that is the case, then it is with no small sadness that I agree. None of the characters really appeal to me much either at this stage. In fact Lector-tan kinda turns me off.

Still, early days yet! I'm still excited for the finished product. Just.. a little less so than before the bios started coming out.

[SemiPolish]

Methinks that some people are reading too far into the character bios. Granted, I would prefer that the writers don't use pop culture references in the actual story, which I feel is meant to be a tad bit deeper than, say, the average modern novel, but I can't imagine that the preview bios will act as the axis about which the various arcs rotate. I would worry more about the in-story character development than the chance of a fleeting Twilight reference.

[Al Capwned]

They are just little tidbits of almost irrelevant information. they're there to try to get people to identify with the characters, cause if can't idntify with the characters why read or in our case play. If you don't like the bios don't read them. I like'em, because I like back story and I'm a back story kind of guy.

[MDV]

They are just little tidbits of almost irrelevant information. they're there to try to get people to identify with the characters, cause if can't idntify with the characters why read or in our case play. If you don't like the bios don't read them. I like'em, because I like back story and I'm a back story kind of guy.

How does that even work? One reads the bios before deciding if they like them or not, not the other way around.