Nicole 0.8.1 (demo preview)

[jack1974]

Grab it here:
http://www.macgames.biz/games/Nicole-0.8.1-all.zip (zip file containing version for all the supported OSes: Windows, Mac & Linux)
PLEASE NOTE THAT THE FINAL GAME IS NOT YET READY. THIS DEMO WILL ALWAYS END, IS JUST A SORT OF "PREVIEW"

A few notes:
1) You can play until the 24th October (in-game time of course) and see the first 3 scenes with each character. Other scenes are done but they will never show up for now in this preview.
2) Everything is still WIP, but if you find any typos or mistake, feel free to report it since will help. I wrote some descriptions myself, so probably those needs some work!
3) In this version you can't do any of the jobs. Even in the final game they'll be unlocked after some time, and based on some events. After you play Ted fourth scene for example you'll be given the store clerk job to greatly increase the Diligence stat.
4) You can still raise the stats doing other secondary activities, but the big boost is given by the real jobs. Anyway in my playthrough I was able to raise Zeal to 78 when the demo ended. Considering that's about 30% of the whole game time, I believe should be possible to reach the >900 values required to unlock the romance endings when the real jobs unlock. But probably more testing and tweaking will be needed!
5) the Clues stat is a special stat, separate from the others, that keeps track of Nicole's progresses in finding out more about the mystery. The idea is that every 100 points or so, you'll see a scene where she discovers something. Once you reach >900 in that stat, you can unlock the extra mystery endings (they're currently still missing).

That's it - writer said will finish Jeff by end of month, and I hope he can do also the mystery scenes/endings by end of September, because it's when I want to release the game. It was supposed to be out in June/July...
For the yuri version, I'm going to hire soon another writer so we can at least speed things up!

p.s. the version 0.8 had a crash bug after 3 days this one should be OK!

[obsessedwjpn]

The first screen of text says:

"All the new sights and sounds of college caught me surprise as soon..."

You should add "by" in there. Example:

"All the new sights and sounds of college caught me by surprise as soon..."

On the activity description page,

The bathroom description reads: "Your dorm bathroom is big and comfy. A good way to relax is doing a bath at the end of the day."

Replace "doing" with "taking"

The cafeteria description reads: "The biggest cafeteria of the campus, where everyone go to eat, drink or spend some time with friends."

The biggest cafeteria on campus would read more smoothly and since everyone is plural, it should be "goes" instead of "go"

Sorry to write down so many notes...hope this helps.

[obsessedwjpn]

When Nicole is in her room and first reading the article about the students disappearing she says:

"It'll be alright. I just have to find my ways to the classes and everything will run smoothly from there."

Take out the s on the word way.

Also, when describing the activities after that. It is written:

"When the morale or energy is low, your perform worse at each activity."

your should be you'll or you will

Hope this helps!

p.s. when Nicole is looking around for her bio class and gets lost she says:

"I'm going to be stuck here fivever, I just know it!"

I think that should be forever?

[jack1974]

Thanks, going to check and fix

[Valorous_Roland]

Isn't "fivever" some kinda thing that's like... Cutesy? Like saying "adorbs" instead of "adorable". I don't think it's wrong to have a college girl say it, especially if she's kinda immature or cutesy.

On a more grammar elitist note, "I'm going to be stuck here fivever; I just know it!"
As "I just know it!" is a full sentence, technically it should be a semi-colon, not a comma. But it's not like people are going to stare and say, "Hey! That should be a semi-colon! What's Jack thinking!?"

[obsessedwjpn]

I have never heard any young person use the term "fivever"....

Maybe you are thinking about how sometimes young people say forevs for forever?

[thesleepykitten]

Fivever is California slang. (I hear it a lot.)

[Valorous_Roland]

Some of my friends use "fivever" (I don't, though). I hear it a lot in the freshman grade, too.

Normally, it's used for love (like, "I hope we're together fivever!"), like, longer than forever, but I've seen it used like, "This class is fivever!"

I'm not saying it's right or anything, but I hear people say it. Kinda like YOLO.
(...I can't believe I just typed "yolo"...)

EDIT: And I'm not from California, so it obviously must have spread.

[thesleepykitten]

I'm at the age where slang just confuses me. :,) I know nothing. XD

I won't reveal any personal details, but the writer is very familiar with slang in the US, as least where they're from.

There's only a few slang terms IIRC that Nicole uses, but the slang can be edited out if it's too confusing. (It's a part of her charm and personality though and it even gets brought up in certain scenes...)

[Valorous_Roland]

I like it, actually. It makes her sense for her to talk like that. It gives her a charm and character that're different.

Most of the time, the slang people my age use confuses me...