Birth of a Man by BiOniKMonSTeR

[raw]
made by BiOniKMonSTeR for LD 41 (COMPO)

Visual Novel / Clicker.

Hey Everyone!

This is my first compo challenge! I have found this very challenging, especially because of the theme :"Combine 2 Incompatible Genres". As I was digging into my head to find the best ideas, I stopped my mind onto this concept.

The concept of "being a male". Being a male is caused by hormones, I won't get into details ;), but the more hormones you "deliver" the more "malish" you'll become. This game is a Visual Novel, where our player (a man) will go to his new Highschool and meet some people (mostly girls). I have a vague approach saying that girls like viril men, with beard and muscles so I said why not? Let's make a game where the player hits some balls to gain "Virility Power" that he will be able to spend to upgrade his physical attraction in order to seduce girls.

I hope you followed me on that, the concept is kind of quirky :D

Inputs are easy : Click to Win!

Capture d’écran (54).png Capture d’écran (58).png

Ratings

Overall 685th 2.429⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Fun 669th 2.357⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 703th 2.075⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Theme 700th 2.19⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 654th 2.31⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Audio 510th 1.816⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Humor 306th 2.738⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Mood 625th 2.175⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Given 12🗳️ 9🗨️

Feedback

Epiin
23. Apr 2018 · 01:01 UTC
...sigh
Jammin
24. Apr 2018 · 09:00 UTC
Well let's just say that... it's special...
Nehvis
24. Apr 2018 · 09:09 UTC
I didn't think that clicking testicles could be such fun :D
Matt Pattabhi
24. Apr 2018 · 22:53 UTC
Bro this is soo wrong LOL.
🎤 BiOniKMonSTeR
25. Apr 2018 · 07:07 UTC
Thank you boys :D. Making wrong games is so much fun! ;)
mrwillowb
27. Apr 2018 · 15:44 UTC
Oh boy lol
smaganik
02. May 2018 · 14:09 UTC
That's how jam games should look like)
EkkoEkko
02. May 2018 · 14:26 UTC
haha its so fun to play. the art are simple but this thing give the game a fantastic gameplay. Good Job!!
Altron
02. May 2018 · 15:21 UTC
Definitely ...interesting... idea :D but funny, just sometimes it felt somehow buggy (parts of the text not showing properly, etc.)
🎤 BiOniKMonSTeR
03. May 2018 · 11:30 UTC
:D Thank you boys/girls! Yeah sorry for the text bugs, I had to rush it at the end and didn't check everything out. Texts are so long to correct... By the way, I'm sorry that it is a bit repetitive...
Kwisarts
09. May 2018 · 21:39 UTC
"I don't have anyother" This typo makes the sentence sound kinda cute.
Since bugs and the like have been addressed, I'm going to give my opinion on several things regarding the content:

(Note that it's mostly nitpicking. being able to squeeze all that in 48 hours must have been pretty hard and that's already impressive on its own)

* Feels weird that the player is called "me" considering he already has a back story and that in most cases the chances to identify to him might be low. I mean, I get that it's because it's the character we play and that it's the most simple to recognize, but i still found it odd. Might be just me though.
I see the character being called "me" so I assume it's a fairly neutral being that I should be able to identify with. But then the character is awkward (since it's still a teenager/kid) and has a backstory. So it makes it harder to identify as such. Most of the times in dating sims, the player being "me" would just choose answers (that correspond to their actual personality - limited by choices of course) and that's what kinda makes their backstory. Here, I feel like "me" should have a name (so that we can "roleplay" as them)

* Some conversations feel a bit too awkward/unnatural, but that's probably because the game was made in such few days. Building a story in 48 hours while making it feel natural is a challenge; though most of it was pretty nice!

* From what I experienced, the game ends after we managed to pass time with Florencia. Which makes me wonder what was the point of the end of the day's mini game? I mean, I get that it's your character reaching maturity and stuff but... it feels like it had 0 impact on the game or any part of it. Not to mention that it becomes a nuisance to wait everytime for the counter to deplete once we got everything to the max.

* Every day it's the first day of school apparently. Oh well.

* Several different branches lead to the same place, which is a bit redundant. (all the bits that bring you to the running part with the girl I forgot the name of)

That said, as I said, it's impressive that you had so much text made in 48 hours while the Florencia part felt like it was a nice reward for unlocking "the end". This part was better written than the rest and was kind of interesting. It felt also nice to see new backgrounds.

The game is interesting and the story isn't bad. Too bad the "gameplay" relies on a mechanic that doesn't seem to be related to the story itself.
Aerosavior
09. May 2018 · 22:33 UTC
Very confused on the game... after I upgraded everything once I seemed to no longer be able to upgrade anything. Don't know how the upgrades are related to the daytime activities. No matter which storyline I selected I ended up in the gym half the time, and nothing seemed to progress the narrative that reset each day... Promising start to a game
goffmog
11. May 2018 · 14:19 UTC
A few thoughts on the gameplay:

When things are fully upgraded you should probably not show the testicle clicking mini-game anymore otherwise it just becomes something you have to wait through in between days

It's too easy to accidentally skip text at the start of the next day, or even select menu options by accident if you're still frantically clicking when the night ends.

I also always ended up in the gym no matter what I did.

Upgrades seemed not to affect the story gameplay at all, just like in real life. So I'm going to assume that this social commentary on masculinity is intentional.
machrom
11. May 2018 · 20:18 UTC
Wow....just wow xD
🎤 BiOniKMonSTeR
14. May 2018 · 20:30 UTC
first of all thanks for playing the game! I have taken into consideration all your remarks and I really appreciate that you took the time to help me (especially @goffmog and @Kwisarts !!!).

48h hours is kinda short indeed :D. I haven't had time to polish some of the links between the 2 game phases.

You may have not seen it but the upgrades actually have some influence on the Florencia interactions. For example, if you don't have the arm tier 2 upgrade she says :"you are not the muscle guy...". Or if you have the mouth tier 1 (braces) she (Florencia) says a thing about it.

Thank you all again for playing!!