The Missing Tickets - Synopsis

Story: Jasper invites Augustus to a baseball game with her, only to find out that her season tickets have gone missing.

Relationship Type: Non-romantic (play as Male and Female characters)

Length: Each part of the game (main game and extra stories) is about 10-25 minutes.

Positives: Very well designed game, light-hearted and fun to play, one-person project.

Unusual Features: The main game functions like a large-scale minigame, as do the extra stories.

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The Missing Tickets - Review

Warning: This review may contain some spoilers.

Unlike the other mystery/detective games from the Lemmasoft forums, The Missing Tickets is a light-hearted investigation of a ticket theft, rather than a murder. This is in no way a serious game, as can be seen when the motives of the culprit are revealed, and when playing I really got sucked into The Missing Tickets’ infectious sense of fun. Whilst the story in places is a bit short, this is made up for by the enjoyable and effective way in which it is told.

The characters are mostly based on real life stuffed animals, and this comes through in some of the designs (and I imagine partly in their personalities as well). All of the character sprites are coloured very brightly, which lets them stand out well from the darker backgrounds. Although the character sprites and their personalities aren’t overly refined, this approach works very well in a VN like this.

What struck me most while playing was the overall layout of The Missing Tickets. From the non-static main menu (which doubles as an introduction) to the information sheets on each character, everything is very well designed. The information sheets in particular might be worth including in future mystery games, to reduce the amount of note-taking that a player needs to do.

Whilst playing the game, certain choices will unlock one of the four bonus stories (minigames). Three of the extra games are very short, but Midnight’s extra story (a dating sim type game without the dating) is more substantial and fairly challenging, with multiple endings and three different statistics to juggle.

Overall, The Missing Tickets combines a fun experience with some very effective design features (which are worth looking at for any potential game creators). If you’re looking for an enjoyable way to spend 20-30 minutes, then The Missing Tickets is well worth downloading.

Review by Ignosco

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The Nettestadt Troll - Synopsis

WARNING: This synopsis contains adult content.

Story: You play the role of a young woman, Katja, in the quaint hamlet of Nettestadt, in medieval Bavaria. Peace once again comes to the town after a failed uprising. But there is a new fear for the townspeople: The Nettestadt Troll. To appease this lost soul and leave the town alone, you are sent to live in an isolated cottage outside of town as the troll's concubine. The troll turns out to seem very human. As your relationship with him progresses you are granted certain freedoms. You use this opportunity to investigate to see if, indeed, the troll was someone you knew from the past.

Relationship Type: GxB

Length: 90 minutes

Positives: Solo project finished in two months, high quality in all game elements, very effective use of Ren’Py, first OELVN H-game.

Unusual Features: Minimalist approach, mystery/detective element to the game, several mini-games, character sprites only shown to the side in a ‘head-graphics’ type approach, female protagonist but at places has more of a BxG feel.

Sexual content: Some rape (not graphically depicted). Softcore H-scenes (genitalia are not shown and are described by euphemisms).

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The Nettestadt Troll - Review

WARNING - This review contains adult content, and some spoilers.

One of the problems I’ve had with Hentai games is reconciling the sex scenes with the story. These two elements are in some ways diametrically opposed to each other, and in some of the Hentai games I’ve played, some of the scenes seem to have no direct purpose in terms of the overall plot. One way to avoid an awkward juxtaposition of is to have a plot with sex as an important element, and this is the approach that The Nettestadt Troll takes. To quote DaFool, ‘The Nettestadt Troll is a story whose primary objective is to uncover: “Just who the hell am I having sex with?” ’. The game is not remotely close to a sex-romp though (the Hentai appears only after unmasking the troll in the endings), and more time is spent on establishing the backgrounds for each character and showing the abduction by the troll, the gradual development of a relationship between them, and Katya’s attempts to discover who is behind the mask.

The Nettestadt Troll does contain some mature content. There are two visually depicted H-scenes, one on each characters path after the troll has been unmasked (only topless nudity is shown, and the genitalia are described by various euphemisms. On another note, to unlock the 4th H-CG for each character, Katja needs to have acquired the herbal aphrodisiac.) The other sexual encounters (some of which involve rape) between the Troll and Katja are not visually depicted, but are described. On the whole, all of the mature content is tastefully done – however if you feel like you will be offended by it, it’s best not to play this game.

The creator of a solo project has some advantages over a team project, the biggest of which is total control. Having the ability to write, draw, program, compose etc all the elements of your game will ensure that it remains as close as possible to your vision. The obvious downside is the vastly increased workload, but in return it is possible to strongly unify the different elements of the VN. What I found particularly effective was the combination of the backgrounds and sprites. The zoomed-in backgrounds would not work especially well with a full-body character sprite, and so a head-graphic off to the side is used instead.

Perhaps the strongest of the game’s elements are the graphics, although every part of this game is of a high quality. The headshots used for the males and females are done partially by a pallet-swapping technique, but all of the characters are strongly distinctive and attractive. However, throughout the story, no one component seems to dominate, and what comes across a lot of the time is a strong unity between all the elements. For example, the first time Katja encounters the Troll, while out searching for the key in Chapter 2, the player knows that at some point in the minigame (exploring various areas of a map), that Katja will encounter the troll - but it is unclear when it will happen. The overall feel created by the ominous music and dark backgrounds culminate in the on-screen appearance of the troll’s CG. I should note that there are also some other menu based mini-games included, which integrate well into the game, particularly where you try to unmask the Troll in Chapter 5.

One of the other big achievements of The Nettestadt Troll is its utilisation of some of the more recent Ren’Py features to keep the overall download side of the game under 7 megabytes. By splitting the large backgrounds (which generally function as the maps) into four quadrants, when Katja journeys to a particular area within the maps’ area, by zooming in to the particular quadrant, effectively, another background is created from the original. Also, some of the ‘shading’ features within Ren’Py are used to produce alternate states of backgrounds (such as the grey backgrounds for the flashbacks). This efficient, minimalist approach to game creation is well worth considering, as it saves effort on the creators’ part, and can make the game more accessible to those using dial-up connections.

The Nettestadt Troll’s development thread is very extensive and the overall approach that DaFool took during the game’s development might be worth considering. The game was scaled down several times over the course of the thread, to ensure that the VN would be completed within the self-imposed deadline (two months). This approach is the same as that taken for NaNoRenO (make a complete VN within one month), and in both cases, the time-limit and the associated pressure are important factors in ensuring the games’ completion (and generally, games that aren’t completed by the deadline are usually left unfinished). In some ways, The Nettestadt Troll is a compromise from the original premise, but what’s far more important is that it’s a complete VN.

The above paragraph is not trying to demean The Nettestadt Troll or take away from DaFool’s amazing achievement. Almost all free games to a greater or lesser extent are compromised versions of what the creator would ideally have in mind, and the final version of this VN is still of a very high quality. The script can also be opened using Ren'Py - with the programming for the minigames and the use of the zoom function being well worth examining.

Overall, The Nettestadt Troll is a well-made love/detective story, designed to appeal to both sexes. Unless you would prefer to avoid games with adult content, this VN is well worth playing.

Review by Ignosco

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