SoftWar Cyber Fight Demo

How on the bloody hell did you did that much with just Ren'py??!! Big respect and admiration for that, i didn't even finished my VN using Ren'py while you have made a VN combined with a RPG combined with a CardGame O.O Once again respect and wish you big luck!

Great game, hope to see the full version one day!

Just as a little feedback, I'd liked to be able to turn of the camera shake. Also default volume for voice was too low, and the dialog sound effect got a bit annoying after a couple minutes. Although this can be tuned in the options menu, so no big deal.

ayo quick question why you got the mac tab buttons on the windows/linux version

So I played SoftWar demo. Honestly I am amazed that this was made in Ren'py. Here are some of my concerns while playing:

Story:
The characters are pretty nice. As a programmer myself, I can relate with the humor that was put into this game. The main character is also kind of funny. Though I haven't played much of the game, I can see myself playing this if certain issues are addressed. The introduction and setting is pretty good. The delivery is nice too, I found myself semi-cracking up with the punchlines and the added with the whip sound effect. ILY's character is pretty likeable as well.

Art:
Being a visual novel, the art is key. The artstyle is pretty consistent so far. The backgrounds are done pretty well. The characters have a unique artstyle, but I think it adds to the comical effect of the main character. Idk if it was intentionally made to be humorous but I find it to be. For the battle part, I love the sprites of the enemies. They're very cute and would love to see more of them in the game. Although I have to say this, I found ILY's mouth movement pretty weird. But lisa's A-ok!

Audio:
The audio seems to fit with the theme. It wasn't distracting and pleasant to the ears. I personally love ILY's theme very well. Though I kinda caught off guard hearing ILY's voice on some parts. Though I think she fits ILY's character well.

Gameplay:
The visual novel parts are your standard VN sequences. There are choices too early on, which is great. Although I find it questionable that you have to be on the computer to access the dialogue UI. I know that the dev probably meant it to be integrated, but I had an issue where I was skipping and it didn't stop until the battle started and there was still a skipping prompt visible but I couldn't access the dialogue UI. Of course this is still a demo, so there are bugs present. Another issue I had was with balancing. The Trojan Horse was the first enemy of the game and should serve as the tutorial for the Soft War Battle. Instead, what I played was pretty much unbeatable. Even after trying 6 times. I think most players would drop the game if they find the first enemy unbeatable. The battle needs more tutorial elements. I didn't know what the values of the cards meant and what the other parts of the UI meant.

Final thoughts:
I really want to play more but I got gatekeeped by the first enemy of the game. I think I have above average gaming skills yet I still kept losing, how much more for more casual players? Will take a look again if the issues are fixed or the first enemy to be more balanced. But yeah, I hope you take this with a grain of salt, these are just constructive criticisms that I noticed while playing the game.

I am a little sad that I came across such a miracle only now.

:D

Hi I've just finished the demo and I can say that the game keeps me interest. Below, are my opinions about the game.

UI:

- Although there are aspects of the UI that can be improve and clean-up, overall its simple and good enough for players to understand.

- Although the choice of the sound effects in the menu screen is not good for me, it kind of hurts my ears but this is personal issue for me. I don't know if others find it as well.

- Its quite colorful and alive with all of the different designs but I got this itching feeling that the background images are a bit off , out of place or somewhat empty for me.  (including the menu screen)

For me it feels like I'm in a different game (I'll just focus instead on cute ILY), perhaps compare the current background images to a more 2D draw background? 

BattleSystem

- The idea of a card-based battle system is not new and while taking inspiration from different card based system is good and all. I think the battle system can be unique to this game. 

- Reminds me of Rock Man and Yu-Gi-Oh, while these games are great perhaps you can expand your battle system that gives the players more option to strategies destructive and defensive measures with considerable risk so that players won't abuse the system mechanics.  

- I think the text can be adjusted a little smaller so that the "Function Window" can properly fit the text and ease the eyes of the players. 
  
- I've encountered some graphical issue in the battle system.

1. The cards sometimes gets too big when I select them (I think its a bug)
2. The enemy health shows a negative number while I think the majority of other players don't mind this, I think its a good idea to just keep it at zero if it's negative.
3. The placement and feel of the battle system is somewhat ok for me but I do hope you improve them as sometimes it is a bit bland...

- ILY, this character is sooo cute and lovable I believe ILY got some other nasty backstory other than the history of the ILOVEYOUVIRUS, maybe while progressing the game you might able to hack your way into her heart and relieve something ... overall she's a good character. 

- John and Lisa, while these characters aren't that bad and all I think having expression images would bring out their personalities and intentions a lot. 

- The animation on Lisa (going up and down) is somewhat wrong to me, you only move the character if they are doing something or a something came from a situation. With ILY it makes sense since she is floating in John's computer. 

- I think there should be some character consistencies in the art direction for ILY, John, Lisa and other characters, as they are somewhat different in style and design but for the enemies they are alright and are consistent. The differences can sometimes hurt the game, well for me it can.

Story: 

I think the direction of the story is alright perhaps you can improve the dialog of the characters?

Dialog:

- I think you should not implement a dialog choice if the choice is only 1. 

- Consider having interesting dialog choices, including the perverted side of John hahaha, well its a possibility hehe. 

Music and voice acting: 
- The voice. I barely heard it 
- Music is somewhat ok for the Demo 

For now this is all that I can think of, the overall score for the version 1.1 of Softwar is  (7 / 10)

Keep it up man, you are on my watch list ;)

Great game 10/10 imo XD

i love the game, it's really interesting even though it's just a demo! And the best part is, It's also an rpg! I was surprised because i thought this is gonna be a normal visual novel game like Katawa Shoujo but i like the twist you put into this game

I would love to collaborate with you and your team on the production of this game

Hope you guys are open for suggestions and ideas

Note : The music was quite loud though i didn't hear ILY quite well but i'm sure it can be easily fixed

From POF Otakun

~Metasploit Kun

Game looks amazing cant wait to play and give some feedback! follow up comment coming soon lol :D

Hey, I just finished the demo and it's really nice! Here's a run-down on my thoughts as a fellow indie programmer...

Story:

Well, the story about a moe girl virus isn't really new but you made it look interesting by introducing the SoftWar and seems like a good anime plot. And also integrating the history of the Iloveyou virus was a nice touch (since it came from a computer school in Philippines in the 2000s).

Characters:

I love your character, especially ILY! She's so cute! I love how the characters were drawn and animated (as a fellow indie programmer, you did an awesome job!). Though just one thing though, isn't Lisa at least be a bit weirded about ILY affecting John's computer? I dunno, maybe it's just me. I also love the design for the Trojan virus and the USBs. It's so cute!

Gameplay:

The introduction of card battles was cool. It feels like I'm playing Yu-gi-oh or any TCGs and also I love the visual and spoken puns (I'm a punm@ster). Though there was just this one time when the dialogue box overlayed with the cards and clicked on it to make it disappear only to click the card behind it. It's just a minor graphical slip but I guess it doesn't harm that much.

Voice Acting:

I love the voice acting, though it startle me at times when it plays since it plays unpredictably (especially if I'm on headphones) but nevertheless, the voice acting was great! It's comparable to a full fledged commercial visual novel.

System:

There's just one thing you need to do as a programmer, you have to encrypt your game files since it will be vulnerable to plagiarism. I stumbled upon the assets of your game (the script and some in-game files) but don't worry about that. I made that mistake as well, as well as Dan Salvato so I guess it's not to late to encrypt it before someone else takes your idea. Just a friendly advice from an co-indie gamedev.

OVERALL SCORE: 9/10

You still have a lot of things to do and I'm looking forward to it! Also the fact that you're Filipino and creates indie games like me. I'm looking forward to the full version! This looks so promising and good game material!

More power to SoftWar!!!

All of these feedbacks are just my personal opinion so here we go:

GUI 10/10
- So smooth
- Cute
- Computerized love it it
- That red circle on the upper right always gets me hahaha

Sound effects
- the keyboard sound effect doesn't sound like a keyboard at all but I guess it's just my imagination

Voice acting
- I can barely hear the voice acting I can adjust the settings but.... isn't it convenient if the sounds are balanced right in the beginning? ( I guess it's me)
- not satisfied with "This Attack, receive it"
- I'm satisfied with the rest of the voice acting

Music
- it's too loud that I could barely hear the voice acting Well I adjusted the music volume to solve that though (I guess it's just me)

- The music is awesome it really fits the game's theme

Story
- Nice way to start the story
- the story is not passive, it's interesting to read every line!
- As a programmer I love the story
- wow no typo cool
- No fault grammar, I like it
- OMG there's a battle! awesome

Art 10/10
- Wow Moving lips animation awesome
- Wow the character blinks as well
- cool art style
- John doesn't look angry when he is angry make him more aggressive when he's angry (my personal opinion) 

Glitches (non-game affecting)
- black line sometimes appears in the textbox 

Personal Suggestion:
- You should encrypt the file so that the file size won't be that big 

- it doesn't looked like an indie to me it actually looks like a AAA game made by a big company well i guess that's what happens if you have more that one staff in the development

- Overall I enjoyed the demo, as a programmer I loved it 
and I like the puns as well hahaha

I wish there was a  Microsoft Windows version....

The art's pretty cool (those little USB things were soooo cute), would be down to play more softwar battles^^

I loved the stylization of the menus and UI! The characters and models are drawn very well and I really love Ily's design in particular. I'm interested to see how fleshed out the card battle/RPG system will work. I did a little playthrough of the demo so I hope it's somewhat entertaining! Keep up the great work!