As a demo game Chromatose has been a really great game, you get to meet other characters with different emotions and powers, a game that can impact the story base on the decisions you pick. All I can say is, it's a great game, the attack system is confusing when you first play the game, but as time goes on you'll get the hang of it. Chromatos is a great game I hope to see the full release of this game. Also the end made me think hard for a minute, wether to pick Izzy and go to the real world or pick Isaac and Lilith so I can save the other people that are trap in a coma. Anyways great game i'll lend you my support and I have a high expectations on this game.
This game is amazing! After playing for only a few minutes, I was ensnared by the story and art style. It has the vibe of an extremely well-made Persona game (especially the menu), but more centered around Social Links/Confidants. I can't wait to see the finished product, and I would pay good money for it!!
Pros and cons are down below from my first expression (first hour):
Advantages (from the 1st hour of gameplay with very slow reading):
1. Very interesting idea! It's mysterious, interesting and catchy - I really want to know more! So, the game catches you right off the bat - that is hard to do! Well done!
2. Art style is awesome! I very like it!
3. The characters feel bright! I mean - they are very different from each other and unique. The art style adds a lot to each one of them.
4. Each floor is amazing! I only peaked a bit but I love them! Will definetely play more!!
Disadvantages (from the 1st hour of gameplay with very slow reading):
1. There was a bug when I walked outside for the 1st time - white shadow appeared behind top half of the main hero - you can see that in the vid.
2. The monologues of the main hero feel a bit excessive. It feels like he repeats the info we got over and over again - that frustrates a bit.
3. It's hard to understand the concepts of the battle. Maybe I am stupid and I will get it eventually - but right from the start I feel lack of examples. Maybe it would be nice to add video examples of the things that you explain in the tutorial?
Overall, the game is awesome! As it is still in development, I thought my feedback from the first hour of the game might be useful for the developers. At least, I hope so! If it was useful. I will write another comment after I play some more or finish the demo with different perspective of a person finished the game) Atm 5/5
Hey! Thanks for the reviews! I'm glad you're enjoying it so far!
To address your cons:
1. Yep, that's been addressed in recent beta builds I believe. Thanks for the report!
2. Any repetition is just in the interest of making sure nobody gets left behind or confused by the story! Especially since sometimes people put the game down then come back to it-- I'd hate for them to be lost!
3. It's a little tricky! Generally speaking, you win by playing as many right-side-up cards as possible as quickly as possible, and all the tips you need are in the tutorials, which should be read carefully (and conveniently can be re-accessed via the pause menu!) Alternatively, there is also the 'Rebalanced' difficulty that makes combat a little easier! I am thinking about putting in some animated examples in the future to be a little more clear, though the updated demo that I brought to conventions has been pretty effective at being less confusing haha
Thanks for the playthrough too! Will have to check it out sometime
That bug is caused by running out of memory— closing any memory-hungry programs you may have open (like google chrome) will reduce the chance of this happening.
I played the demo and this game sucks you in. Normally, if I take a break to eat like I did in the middle of playing this game, I lose interest, but this one constantly had my attention. The actual fighting mechanics are cool (and this is coming from someone who sucks at fighting in these types of games), and the storyline has me hooked. Plus, the visuals are amazing- even within the first couple of minutes!
Apple recently added another step to publishing non-appstore games for MacOS that retroactively broke previously working versions of games. I'll take down the broken version for now, and I'll try to get a working version back online.
Not sure what's going wrong because I didn't have this problem in the 1.4 build but in 2.0 for windows the game hangs when I get to Quentin's first area fight - battle music plays and a pair of monsters just kind of wiggle back and forth and the cards never appear, just the arrows which do light up in response to me pressing them.
EDIT: Closed the game out and re-opened it and it worked? Not sure if a one time thing or what.
Hey! Thanks for the bug report, that’s a really rare glitch that can pop up, working on trying to replicate it so it can be patched out. But as you said, closing and reopening the game always fixes the problem
Very intriguing story! I really liked the art and feel to the game :D
How long have you been working on this game? :)
I don't know if you've heard of Game Development World Championship before (gdwc2019) but it's a competition for indie game developers where they can submit their games and it's free! It's great if you want some more visibility for the game and it only takes a couple of minutes to join :)
I very much liked what I saw. However, I was ultimately only able to see it - it ran too slowly on my computer (Macbook Pro), so I ended up watching a playthrough. Hoping by the time a full release is out I have a new computer that can run the game better, or that the game is able to load better on my computer.
But yeah great job on the demo, and good luck with the Kickstarter!
From what i played, i'm impressed on a whole new level. Amazing demo that even forty minutes in was some of the best content i've played. Props for creating a solid demo!
I played the demo on a whim while looking through Kickstarter VNs, and I'm so impressed. The demo is a solid 2 hours with polished art, story, and music. Even the loading screens are gorgeous (I love Quentin's sinking school!), and there's so much attention to detail (e.g., Izzy sitting far away at the start but sitting a little closer after extended conversation). If the demo is this good, I'm confident the devs will release a smoothly running game.
Since it's spring break for me, I ended up playing through the demo twice. And I made a Kickstarter account for the $25 pledge because I really want beta access. Personally, I hope this game succeeds because I'm already itching to discuss it, and I'd love to see a fandom develop for it. I would definitely recommend trying out the demo!
Hello, this game looks phenomenal but it wont get past a certain point. At first i downloaded the itch.io version but it wouldn't get past the Gloscow National Hospital loading screen without something about missing textures coming up and then it exiting itself out.
Since that didn't work i tried the steam version and it got farther but once the first battle was about to start more popups showed up, now one with saying missing shaders and another missing textures one.
Alright, thanks for the info, I know exactly what the problem is thanks to your in-depth report --
Your game is crashing wherever it hits a prefetch script -- whenever the game adds animations/textures to your computer's memory, and it's doing this because I suspect your computer does not have enough memory to run these prefetch scripts. So there's a few options available:
Try playing the game on a different computer (if possible)
I've made you a special build of the game that doesn't use any prefetch scripts, so the game will load assets as it arrives at them. This will cause the game to run slower whenever an animation appears for the first time per session, but it shouldn't outright crash anymore: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1GxONn7KBXi-1xqS1-9PNddSQ2mJyKPna
If all else fails, there is a fantastic stream of the whole demo so you don't have to miss out while I work on making the demo more accessible: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/396103765
By slow do you mean each asset will take a while to load into the asset? And you said but this is a new computer with barely any memory taken up so I don't know why that would be the cause. But regardless thank you for making a version just for me !
It's no bother! And oh you have a new computer? How strange. No idea why the game is having problem with RAM then, but the thing I know for sure is that your computer can't handle prefetch scripts (The difference between the Steam and itch versions is when the prefect scripts are first used, at the hospital loading screen for itch, at the first battle for steam, exactly where you said your game crashed) so I removed prefetch scripts from your version. When I mean slow, I mean that when a big animation appears for the first time, your game might stutter a little bit, but then it'll go back to normal (this will usually only happen the first time you see things like "Space to enter door" or for battle animations. Beyond that you shouldn't see any difference)
I haven't made it all the way through this demo yet but I am super loving it! Enough so that I've dashed right on over to the Kickstarter page to back it!
The setup and aesthetics are gorgeous, the characters are all wonderful (Quentin is right up there with my favourite all time characters already) and the card-based battle system is a delightful challenge!
Add the great story to that mix and this is something that is looking to be an awesome experience! So please keep up the awesome work, and I look forward to seeing the final game after you smash that Kickstarter target! =)
Dang, sorry to hear that. There's tons of art/animations in the game so it can be a little rigorous on slower computers sometimes.
I'll work on getting the game a little more optimized for slower computers -- there is however a FANTASTIC stream of the whole demo so you don't have to miss out in the meantime: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/396103765
Sure, I can actually build a Linux version whenever— I just don’t have anything running on Linux so I wouldn’t be able to playtest atm afaik. But sure, I’ll try to get around to that ^^
Thank you for the effort ! If you can get the Linux version made i'll spread the word to try to get people trying it to test it. Hopefully get some backers out of it.
I just finished porting CHROMATOSE to Linux, so feel free to playtest! I could use any bug reports you come across since I can't playtest the port myself -- I'm running it on a virtual machine so I'm getting speeds of .02FPS and can't test the whole thing.
I gave the Linux demo a try and had no issues myself in about an hour or play. I shared the campaign on Reddit and Mastodon so hopefully it helps in the next 12 days. Thank you for the effort regardless.
Ok, I'm sorry but I feel like I have to share my experience. I loved the prologue, the concept seemed great to me, love the design, enjoy the dinamics of the battle (although I was hoping for something a lot different when I read it envolved cards). But it was SO buggy! Especially when walking and battling. It froze so much that I couldn't get past the second battle (the locker one). I actually had to run task manager and the game wouldn't even let me do that. I look foward to seeing a more polished version in the future, because the game actually seemed like a good game (and it was, when it ran smoothly for the first minutes). Best of luck to the developers trying to fix those problems! Hope I can play it and leave a more optimistic comment in the future.
It sounds like your game is running dramatically slower than it's supposed to. I've watched a bunch of videos and live streams of the game, and there haven't been performance issues like this before like in this video . The sections you're describing as having problems are when the game is adding images to your computer's memory.
Are you running the game from a D: drive? A user reported that when they tried running it from their D: partition, they had ridiculous load times on animations (10 sec+) but moving the game folder to C: and running it from there greatly improved performance.
Are you using a particularly slow computer? That would affect how quickly the game can load animations.
If neither of these work, what specs are you running + what version of the game do you have? This info might help me figure out what the problem is.
A fun, mysterious romp! I'm not much of a gamer so I went in a bit worried about my skills but dang if I'm not grateful for that Rebalanced mode.
- SPOILER FREE -
I like the story so far and the characters are all interesting. While my second favorite character is hands down P, AKA best butt-kicking monster-harassin' lass, my absolute favorite to my surprise was the main character himself! The MC is so likable that playing made me curious about what he would say and how he'd interact with the characters moreso than getting to know the other characters. (Even though I was interested in them too!)
Since the mystery is multi-tier and the MC himself doesn't know his own backstory, getting to know him as a character is a fun, interesting ride.
Of all of the mysteries of their pasts, I am most invested and curious about unveiling his.
That's it, that's all I have to say! I'm definitely looking forward to the future release.
I like the story and the characters but I feel like the combat needs more reworking. It's kinda frustrating when your cards become unusable every second. Also it feels like the partner's only ever draw bad cards. And everytime you lose you start with less time so you might as well just reload your save if you're stuck.
Noted! I’m rolling out updates every other week, so I’m addressing feedback over time. For now REBALANCED difficulty is a great way of getting to experience the story without getting bogged down in combat if you aren’t crazy about it ^^
I hate to be posting such a generic comment (I really like the game so far, I just lose often so I haven't progressed much and can say anything substantial) but...
Escape key brings up the pause menu, there’s an option to save or load files from that menu! There’s also a handy auto save slot you can load if you forgot to save for a while ^^
Looking forward to seeing this little gem develop. So far its an interesting game that hits on some quality moments so far. I really hope this game goes far!
Working on episode 2 right now. I'm wondering how far does the demo currently go? I've gotten as far as Primadonna at the moment. The story is really intruiging so far.
If you’ve met Primadonna but haven’t completed her battle yet, your play through still has (in order, because of how you answered the opening questions):
-Defeat colossus (P’s boss)
-Unwind with P by talking to her after beating colossus
-Meet Lilith (game automatically brings you to her after beating either boss)
-Return to Quentin and beat her boss, Depth Knell
-Unwind with Quentin by talking to her after beating her boss
-Meet Isaac
-Final decision
The average player takes about 2-3 hours to complete the entire demo ^^
Thank you! That helps me make some decisions as far as pacing goes. Looks like there's quite a bit for content yet. My last question is, would you be alright if I post any and each episode I make here? If the game is that long, I'll likely have about 4-5 episodes if I commit all the way through. Just released part 2 now.
Hello! I'd like to see if you'd take voice actress work for free. I want to volunteer to get my voice out there, for some job experience, and thought, since this game doesn't have very many voice files, I could help out! If you'd like, could you please email me at: searlemillerjayden@gmail.com ? I'd really appreciate it.
Really wonderful that you're willing to help out indie devs! I'd suggest having an online portfolio with links (YT/Vimeo/SoundCloud/etc) with samples of any previous voice work that you've done in the past (free and/or paid work). I've helped some artists on my Discord server with getting (free) online portfolios set up.
This game is awesome! It has a fascinating story and a variety of game mechanics that gave me a new challenge on how to deal with the monsters. I love to see more of the game when’s it’s fully released! 20 / 10
Haha I haven't worked on a Persona game before, though one of my main inspirations is Shigenori Soejima, the artistic director behind most of the ATLUS games you've heard of (Persona, Catherine, etc).
Thanks for the LP! I got a lot of useful information from watching you play it blind, and I'm glad you thought the battle engine was fun and interesting -- I watched the whole thing ^^
Finished! I think I've seen everything there is so far, I might be wrong. But what I did see is excellent so far!
First, some bugs...
Is the test supposed to flash "garbage" before it shows up? Because when I move on to the next bit of text, green lines or writing or pictures flash in the text box before the text appears. If it's intentional, I have no problems with it. Sometimes the character busts got discolored. I took a few screenshots of what I mean, and I could put them up if you want. But basically there's a few green blocks of shading on the characters' faces. Other than the game lagging momentarily here and there, there's no other bugs.
Now! The puzzles are good. The underwater one was my favorite I like to call this kind of puzzle "the laguna race puzzle". These are my favorite kind! For the locker puzzle, that was good too! I'd not seen something like that before, it was fun to figure out. It would be very cool if there was like a Logic segment where Leroy figures out the truth of Lillith, Isaac and Izzy, liar-truthteller style.
The areas of each person looked good aesthetically. Pity there wasn't flavor text, to examine your surroundings! Though it would be bad to dilly dally in the school. The Rage Cage was fun, I actually liked that part the best. I really took a shine after the bar scene.
First I tried to clear Quentin's part without exploring, and I failed the Depth Knell (if I remember correctly its name) again and again and again. Until finally, at the comments I realized I could explore other areas, and got Primadonna's cards! And I beat the Depth Knell after losing only one more time :p. The fight was difficult but fun, and not rage-inducing like when I so foolishly tried to fight with only Quentin's and Leroy's cards.
I would say all of the characters had traits I recognized but were not irritating. Lillith and Isaac were cold, but it was well-done, and believable. I like them a lot, Lillith especially! Her way of death, though...harsh. What a way to go. Quentin was shy, but not obnoxious. And Primadonna was fiery but not condescending.
At first, I thought the White Marks would be ones who committed suicide, but nope :p. I am eagerly awaiting to see how Leroy will get them and everyone out!
Those errors do sound bizarre, I haven't heard of them happening before. If you kept the screencaps, they would be very helpful if you could send them via PM on twitter, discord or here. Would you by any chance be playing on an older computer?
You're welcome! I always try to leave good comments on game I truly like. And I have screenshots of the green boxes, but not of the flashing text. When I play through the demo again (because I totally will) I'll try to capture that. I can give you the screenshots I have when I come back from work.
I played this game on my 2014-bought desktop. :P It runs windows 8. I had many other things open at the time (Chrome, various programs, etc) so it's possible they conflicted. Or maybe the game works best when other programs are closed.
Didn't get to finish it yet, but I love the VN sections so far^^
Since it's a demo it comes with a few minor bugs:
The mirror image in the first scene with Quentin starts with the wrong sprite for her.
Even if you are already on the same floor, pressing the button will start the elevator again. (necessary, because it's unloading when entering the elevator?) If you exit the elevator and then reenter and press the button of the same floor you're on, you'll end up at the "next" floor. The colors for the white and black button are flipped inside the elevator compared to the elevator button UI
Using the menu while standing in front of the elevator (and maybe in other interactable places) will actually interact with things (like make you step into the elevator.)
Also, you might need to consider tweaking combat a bit. I'll focus on Quentin's world and the combat there for this example:
As far I see, if your time top left hit's rock bottom, you start a 10 second timer to get back up, before you lose. Your time is reduced both with inverted Quentin cards and by "redrawing" your hand. Redrawing might be necessary, because the main skill of the enemies is to permanently lock your hand cards from being used. But you of course can't redraw, if the time is already at 3 and the 10 second countdown is ticking. You're basically done for at that point. When playing normally you might avoid using the inverted cards, because of course it would be bad to loose time, even if you can regain it with the one or other right oriented card. I lost maybe 7 matches (including a reload from autosave) and won 2 or 3 by playing "regularly" with just Leroy's and Quentin's cards.
But then I figured out a way that completely breaks combat, which you might want to consider "fixing": Press all arrow keys at once at the start of the battle and keep them pressed: You'll automatically use all cards, no matter what they are, hold or regular. It is impossible for monsters to "lock" card slots that are empty (because cards come in one at a time), even if you end up at the final countdown, chances are, you still have enough cards coming in to get the time boost you need (I rarely fell that far down though), or if they lock, you have enough time left to unlock them again via redraw and then boost back up. Similarly the battle with Primadonna, the one slot from which you played the inverted bomb stays "unlocked"so you can just play until you get a regular bomb to unlock all slots again.
Both cards have a synergy, since Quentin would need the unlocks and Primadonna would need the extra time, but this "easy" workaround right now makes it obsolete.
It might be a bit harder to find the right balance there, but maybe if you actually locked the slots instead of the cards that would help with some things. Also, maybe I missed it, you could hint at the necessity for Leroy to go "explore on his own" to return to the hub, so people are guided to meeting all characters/getting all types of cards first, before tackling the more intense fights.
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As a demo game Chromatose has been a really great game, you get to meet other characters with different emotions and powers, a game that can impact the story base on the decisions you pick. All I can say is, it's a great game, the attack system is confusing when you first play the game, but as time goes on you'll get the hang of it. Chromatos is a great game I hope to see the full release of this game. Also the end made me think hard for a minute, wether to pick Izzy and go to the real world or pick Isaac and Lilith so I can save the other people that are trap in a coma. Anyways great game i'll lend you my support and I have a high expectations on this game.
This game seems amazing, but the game crashes in the first battle with the telephone, even when reinstallling and restarting the game.
Very excited for the full release of this one!
This game is amazing! After playing for only a few minutes, I was ensnared by the story and art style. It has the vibe of an extremely well-made Persona game (especially the menu), but more centered around Social Links/Confidants. I can't wait to see the finished product, and I would pay good money for it!!
Pros and cons are down below from my first expression (first hour):
Advantages (from the 1st hour of gameplay with very slow reading):
1. Very interesting idea! It's mysterious, interesting and catchy - I really want to know more! So, the game catches you right off the bat - that is hard to do! Well done!
2. Art style is awesome! I very like it!
3. The characters feel bright! I mean - they are very different from each other and unique. The art style adds a lot to each one of them.
4. Each floor is amazing! I only peaked a bit but I love them! Will definetely play more!!
Disadvantages (from the 1st hour of gameplay with very slow reading):
1. There was a bug when I walked outside for the 1st time - white shadow appeared behind top half of the main hero - you can see that in the vid.
2. The monologues of the main hero feel a bit excessive. It feels like he repeats the info we got over and over again - that frustrates a bit.
3. It's hard to understand the concepts of the battle. Maybe I am stupid and I will get it eventually - but right from the start I feel lack of examples. Maybe it would be nice to add video examples of the things that you explain in the tutorial?
Overall, the game is awesome! As it is still in development, I thought my feedback from the first hour of the game might be useful for the developers. At least, I hope so! If it was useful. I will write another comment after I play some more or finish the demo with different perspective of a person finished the game) Atm 5/5
Hey! Thanks for the reviews! I'm glad you're enjoying it so far!
To address your cons:
1. Yep, that's been addressed in recent beta builds I believe. Thanks for the report!
2. Any repetition is just in the interest of making sure nobody gets left behind or confused by the story! Especially since sometimes people put the game down then come back to it-- I'd hate for them to be lost!
3. It's a little tricky! Generally speaking, you win by playing as many right-side-up cards as possible as quickly as possible, and all the tips you need are in the tutorials, which should be read carefully (and conveniently can be re-accessed via the pause menu!) Alternatively, there is also the 'Rebalanced' difficulty that makes combat a little easier! I am thinking about putting in some animated examples in the future to be a little more clear, though the updated demo that I brought to conventions has been pretty effective at being less confusing haha
Thanks for the playthrough too! Will have to check it out sometime
Cheers
Hi! i'm a fan of your work and because of this i would know if in the future, will this game comes on Steam
Sure will! Our steam page is actually already up, if you wishlist it, you should get a notification when it releases!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1003900/CHROMATOSE/
Strange, i didn't notice it before and i assure you that i explored almost all of the content of the store... anyway i put it in the wishlist. Thanks
Is this game still being worked on?
Yes, the game is still in active development!
Do you plan on the full version being free? Because this looks super exciting and I'd love for more people to have the opportunity to try it ou
Hey!
The full version is going to be $15, though the 2-3hr demo will remain free!
I've only played from the start, but I'm falling in love already! Excited for the full version!
I want to play till the end, but I seem to be getting this error every once in a while :(
Hi!
That bug is caused by running out of memory— closing any memory-hungry programs you may have open (like google chrome) will reduce the chance of this happening.
Cheers
So in this game you fall into a coma from sugar overdose after eating too many fruit gushers, correct?
yeah
Who is the artist for this? the work is amazing and i'd love to follow their twitter/insta.
I am! Glad you like the art— I usually post to @ChromatoseDev
The linux version dies at the second question at the falling segment at the very beginning of the game with the following error:
Thanks for the report!
The linux version has been giving me trouble while compiling, should have a solution with the next update
I played the demo and this game sucks you in. Normally, if I take a break to eat like I did in the middle of playing this game, I lose interest, but this one constantly had my attention. The actual fighting mechanics are cool (and this is coming from someone who sucks at fighting in these types of games), and the storyline has me hooked. Plus, the visuals are amazing- even within the first couple of minutes!
i tried to do what you told me for my mac but it is still not working. what can i do?
Hello!
What is the error message that you get when you try to open it?
Interesting, I just checked it myself.
Apple recently added another step to publishing non-appstore games for MacOS that retroactively broke previously working versions of games. I'll take down the broken version for now, and I'll try to get a working version back online.
Thank you for your report!
do you know when I can get the Mac version? Also I am looking forward to this
Working on it now, should be up and running in a few days
Alright, I've reuploaded and tested a new build. As long as you move it out of whatever folder you download it to, you should be able to play it now
looks like someones been playing smt
Not sure what's going wrong because I didn't have this problem in the 1.4 build but in 2.0 for windows the game hangs when I get to Quentin's first area fight - battle music plays and a pair of monsters just kind of wiggle back and forth and the cards never appear, just the arrows which do light up in response to me pressing them.
EDIT: Closed the game out and re-opened it and it worked? Not sure if a one time thing or what.
Hey! Thanks for the bug report, that’s a really rare glitch that can pop up, working on trying to replicate it so it can be patched out. But as you said, closing and reopening the game always fixes the problem
Thanks again for your help
The Linux version doesn't work for some reason. I tried to run it but it doesn't do anything.
Will check it out, thanks!
Very intriguing story! I really liked the art and feel to the game :D
How long have you been working on this game? :)
I don't know if you've heard of Game Development World Championship before (gdwc2019) but it's a competition for indie game developers where they can submit their games and it's free! It's great if you want some more visibility for the game and it only takes a couple of minutes to join :)
Having an issue with text rendering on Linux. Appears to work if the window is not resized after launch, but otherwise I have no text.
5.1.2-arch1-1-ARCH, i3wm, started from itch.io linux client.
I very much liked what I saw. However, I was ultimately only able to see it - it ran too slowly on my computer (Macbook Pro), so I ended up watching a playthrough. Hoping by the time a full release is out I have a new computer that can run the game better, or that the game is able to load better on my computer.
But yeah great job on the demo, and good luck with the Kickstarter!
From what i played, i'm impressed on a whole new level. Amazing demo that even forty minutes in was some of the best content i've played. Props for creating a solid demo!
I played the demo on a whim while looking through Kickstarter VNs, and I'm so impressed. The demo is a solid 2 hours with polished art, story, and music. Even the loading screens are gorgeous (I love Quentin's sinking school!), and there's so much attention to detail (e.g., Izzy sitting far away at the start but sitting a little closer after extended conversation). If the demo is this good, I'm confident the devs will release a smoothly running game.
Since it's spring break for me, I ended up playing through the demo twice. And I made a Kickstarter account for the $25 pledge because I really want beta access. Personally, I hope this game succeeds because I'm already itching to discuss it, and I'd love to see a fandom develop for it. I would definitely recommend trying out the demo!
The battle system is very interesting. I liked it a lot. Would buy the game only because of it.
Hello, this game looks phenomenal but it wont get past a certain point. At first i downloaded the itch.io version but it wouldn't get past the Gloscow National Hospital loading screen without something about missing textures coming up and then it exiting itself out.
Since that didn't work i tried the steam version and it got farther but once the first battle was about to start more popups showed up, now one with saying missing shaders and another missing textures one.
I really want to play this game, please help
Hello!
Thanks for the error report. Can you copy paste the error message for me? If I can get the exact text it'll help me figure out what the problem is. ^^
After playing it through again this is the only popup i got:
Win32 function failed: HRESULT: 0x8007000e
Call: GR_D3D_Device-> CreateTexture2D at line 423 in file \TexturesM.cpp
Alright, thanks for the info, I know exactly what the problem is thanks to your in-depth report --
Your game is crashing wherever it hits a prefetch script -- whenever the game adds animations/textures to your computer's memory, and it's doing this because I suspect your computer does not have enough memory to run these prefetch scripts. So there's a few options available:
Cheers ^^
By slow do you mean each asset will take a while to load into the asset? And you said but this is a new computer with barely any memory taken up so I don't know why that would be the cause. But regardless thank you for making a version just for me !
Sorry, for bothering you.
It's no bother!
And oh you have a new computer? How strange. No idea why the game is having problem with RAM then, but the thing I know for sure is that your computer can't handle prefetch scripts (The difference between the Steam and itch versions is when the prefect scripts are first used, at the hospital loading screen for itch, at the first battle for steam, exactly where you said your game crashed) so I removed prefetch scripts from your version. When I mean slow, I mean that when a big animation appears for the first time, your game might stutter a little bit, but then it'll go back to normal (this will usually only happen the first time you see things like "Space to enter door" or for battle animations. Beyond that you shouldn't see any difference)
I haven't made it all the way through this demo yet but I am super loving it! Enough so that I've dashed right on over to the Kickstarter page to back it!
The setup and aesthetics are gorgeous, the characters are all wonderful (Quentin is right up there with my favourite all time characters already) and the card-based battle system is a delightful challenge!
Add the great story to that mix and this is something that is looking to be an awesome experience! So please keep up the awesome work, and I look forward to seeing the final game after you smash that Kickstarter target! =)
It unfortunately runs way too slow on my computer. So i have a feeling my computer's probably too old to run this game. :(
Dang, sorry to hear that. There's tons of art/animations in the game so it can be a little rigorous on slower computers sometimes.
I'll work on getting the game a little more optimized for slower computers -- there is however a FANTASTIC stream of the whole demo so you don't have to miss out in the meantime: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/396103765
Cheers ^^
That's amazing! Thank you very much!
Any plans for a Linux version ?
Sure, I can actually build a Linux version whenever— I just don’t have anything running on Linux so I wouldn’t be able to playtest atm afaik. But sure, I’ll try to get around to that ^^
Thank you for the effort ! If you can get the Linux version made i'll spread the word to try to get people trying it to test it. Hopefully get some backers out of it.
Hello again!
I just finished porting CHROMATOSE to Linux, so feel free to playtest! I could use any bug reports you come across since I can't playtest the port myself -- I'm running it on a virtual machine so I'm getting speeds of .02FPS and can't test the whole thing.
Cheers ^^
I gave the Linux demo a try and had no issues myself in about an hour or play. I shared the campaign on Reddit and Mastodon so hopefully it helps in the next 12 days. Thank you for the effort regardless.
No problem! Glad Linux users have a chance to play now.
And thank you for sharing to reddit and Mastadon, I appreciate the plug.
I encountered an issue with your mac demo. I tried to run it and it threw a pop up saying "No Game Found!!" and refused to run.
Hey!
Did you move the game folder out of the downloads folder? If you put it anywhere else it should run ^^
that seems...really weird. O.o
but i'm willing to give it a tr
Ok, I'm sorry but I feel like I have to share my experience. I loved the prologue, the concept seemed great to me, love the design, enjoy the dinamics of the battle (although I was hoping for something a lot different when I read it envolved cards). But it was SO buggy! Especially when walking and battling. It froze so much that I couldn't get past the second battle (the locker one). I actually had to run task manager and the game wouldn't even let me do that. I look foward to seeing a more polished version in the future, because the game actually seemed like a good game (and it was, when it ran smoothly for the first minutes). Best of luck to the developers trying to fix those problems! Hope I can play it and leave a more optimistic comment in the future.
Hello, thanks for the comment!
It sounds like your game is running dramatically slower than it's supposed to. I've watched a bunch of videos and live streams of the game, and there haven't been performance issues like this before like in this video . The sections you're describing as having problems are when the game is adding images to your computer's memory.
Also, did you extract the game from the .zip before trying to play it?
Thanks,
Akabaka
A fun, mysterious romp! I'm not much of a gamer so I went in a bit worried about my skills but dang if I'm not grateful for that Rebalanced mode.
- SPOILER FREE -
I like the story so far and the characters are all interesting. While my second favorite character is hands down P, AKA best butt-kicking monster-harassin' lass, my absolute favorite to my surprise was the main character himself! The MC is so likable that playing made me curious about what he would say and how he'd interact with the characters moreso than getting to know the other characters. (Even though I was interested in them too!)
Since the mystery is multi-tier and the MC himself doesn't know his own backstory, getting to know him as a character is a fun, interesting ride.
Of all of the mysteries of their pasts, I am most invested and curious about unveiling his.
That's it, that's all I have to say! I'm definitely looking forward to the future release.
Part two. Forgot to post it here. xD
I like the story and the characters but I feel like the combat needs more reworking. It's kinda frustrating when your cards become unusable every second. Also it feels like the partner's only ever draw bad cards. And everytime you lose you start with less time so you might as well just reload your save if you're stuck.
Noted! I’m rolling out updates every other week, so I’m addressing feedback over time. For now REBALANCED difficulty is a great way of getting to experience the story without getting bogged down in combat if you aren’t crazy about it ^^
Cheers
I hate to be posting such a generic comment (I really like the game so far, I just lose often so I haven't progressed much and can say anything substantial) but...
How do you save files?
Escape key brings up the pause menu, there’s an option to save or load files from that menu! There’s also a handy auto save slot you can load if you forgot to save for a while ^^
Thanks a lot! Finally met Lilith! :D The story keeps getting interesting!
Looking forward to seeing this little gem develop. So far its an interesting game that hits on some quality moments so far.
I really hope this game goes far!
Great video! I thought it was really funny.
I'll be posting it around in the Chromatose community. Cheers!
P.S. You should check out the twitter/discord so you can stay in the loop on updates since a lot of content is coming down the line!
https://twitter.com/ChromatoseDev
Working on episode 2 right now. I'm wondering how far does the demo currently go? I've gotten as far as Primadonna at the moment.
The story is really intruiging so far.
If you’ve met Primadonna but haven’t completed her battle yet, your play through still has (in order, because of how you answered the opening questions):
-Defeat colossus (P’s boss)
-Unwind with P by talking to her after beating colossus
-Meet Lilith (game automatically brings you to her after beating either boss)
-Return to Quentin and beat her boss, Depth Knell
-Unwind with Quentin by talking to her after beating her boss
-Meet Isaac
-Final decision
The average player takes about 2-3 hours to complete the entire demo ^^
Thank you! That helps me make some decisions as far as pacing goes. Looks like there's quite a bit for content yet.
My last question is, would you be alright if I post any and each episode I make here? If the game is that long, I'll likely have about 4-5 episodes if I commit all the way through. Just released part 2 now.
Sure! I'll also retweet and pass around as many videos as you make on my twitter/discord.
Will take a watch later ^^
Hello! I'd like to see if you'd take voice actress work for free. I want to volunteer to get my voice out there, for some job experience, and thought, since this game doesn't have very many voice files, I could help out! If you'd like, could you please email me at: searlemillerjayden@gmail.com ? I'd really appreciate it.
Really wonderful that you're willing to help out indie devs! I'd suggest having an online portfolio with links (YT/Vimeo/SoundCloud/etc) with samples of any previous voice work that you've done in the past (free and/or paid work). I've helped some artists on my Discord server with getting (free) online portfolios set up.
This game is awesome! It has a fascinating story and a variety of game mechanics that gave me a new challenge on how to deal with the monsters. I love to see more of the game when’s it’s fully released! 20 / 10
Hey! Thanks for the let's play! I'll add it to the presskit ^^
Glad you enjoyed it so far!
Hmmmmmm
Did you work on a persona game in the past? I notice how it's taken some of the Persona art style. Beyond that, solid gameplay and story so far.
Haha I haven't worked on a Persona game before, though one of my main inspirations is Shigenori Soejima, the artistic director behind most of the ATLUS games you've heard of (Persona, Catherine, etc).
Thanks for the LP! I got a lot of useful information from watching you play it blind, and I'm glad you thought the battle engine was fun and interesting -- I watched the whole thing ^^
I have to agree that the 'Persona' aesthetic is quite prominent in this game. I don't mind and I like it! :)
Looks cool :) I'll have to check it out later!
Edit:
Finished! I think I've seen everything there is so far, I might be wrong. But what I did see is excellent so far!
First, some bugs...
Is the test supposed to flash "garbage" before it shows up? Because when I move on to the next bit of text, green lines or writing or pictures flash in the text box before the text appears. If it's intentional, I have no problems with it. Sometimes the character busts got discolored. I took a few screenshots of what I mean, and I could put them up if you want. But basically there's a few green blocks of shading on the characters' faces. Other than the game lagging momentarily here and there, there's no other bugs.
Now! The puzzles are good. The underwater one was my favorite I like to call this kind of puzzle "the laguna race puzzle". These are my favorite kind! For the locker puzzle, that was good too! I'd not seen something like that before, it was fun to figure out. It would be very cool if there was like a Logic segment where Leroy figures out the truth of Lillith, Isaac and Izzy, liar-truthteller style.
The areas of each person looked good aesthetically. Pity there wasn't flavor text, to examine your surroundings! Though it would be bad to dilly dally in the school. The Rage Cage was fun, I actually liked that part the best. I really took a shine after the bar scene.
First I tried to clear Quentin's part without exploring, and I failed the Depth Knell (if I remember correctly its name) again and again and again. Until finally, at the comments I realized I could explore other areas, and got Primadonna's cards! And I beat the Depth Knell after losing only one more time :p. The fight was difficult but fun, and not rage-inducing like when I so foolishly tried to fight with only Quentin's and Leroy's cards.
I would say all of the characters had traits I recognized but were not irritating. Lillith and Isaac were cold, but it was well-done, and believable. I like them a lot, Lillith especially! Her way of death, though...harsh. What a way to go. Quentin was shy, but not obnoxious. And Primadonna was fiery but not condescending.
At first, I thought the White Marks would be ones who committed suicide, but nope :p. I am eagerly awaiting to see how Leroy will get them and everyone out!
Wow! Thanks for all of the notes ^^
Those errors do sound bizarre, I haven't heard of them happening before. If you kept the screencaps, they would be very helpful if you could send them via PM on twitter, discord or here. Would you by any chance be playing on an older computer?
And I'm glad you enjoyed the game ^^
You're welcome! I always try to leave good comments on game I truly like. And I have screenshots of the green boxes, but not of the flashing text. When I play through the demo again (because I totally will) I'll try to capture that. I can give you the screenshots I have when I come back from work.
I played this game on my 2014-bought desktop. :P It runs windows 8. I had many other things open at the time (Chrome, various programs, etc) so it's possible they conflicted. Or maybe the game works best when other programs are closed.
Edit: Some screenshots.
Really awesome :D
Didn't get to finish it yet, but I love the VN sections so far^^
Since it's a demo it comes with a few minor bugs:
The mirror image in the first scene with Quentin starts with the wrong sprite for her.
Even if you are already on the same floor, pressing the button will start the elevator again. (necessary, because it's unloading when entering the elevator?)
If you exit the elevator and then reenter and press the button of the same floor you're on, you'll end up at the "next" floor.
The colors for the white and black button are flipped inside the elevator compared to the elevator button UI
Using the menu while standing in front of the elevator (and maybe in other interactable places) will actually interact with things (like make you step into the elevator.)
Also, you might need to consider tweaking combat a bit. I'll focus on Quentin's world and the combat there for this example:
As far I see, if your time top left hit's rock bottom, you start a 10 second timer to get back up, before you lose. Your time is reduced both with inverted Quentin cards and by "redrawing" your hand. Redrawing might be necessary, because the main skill of the enemies is to permanently lock your hand cards from being used. But you of course can't redraw, if the time is already at 3 and the 10 second countdown is ticking. You're basically done for at that point. When playing normally you might avoid using the inverted cards, because of course it would be bad to loose time, even if you can regain it with the one or other right oriented card. I lost maybe 7 matches (including a reload from autosave) and won 2 or 3 by playing "regularly" with just Leroy's and Quentin's cards.
But then I figured out a way that completely breaks combat, which you might want to consider "fixing": Press all arrow keys at once at the start of the battle and keep them pressed: You'll automatically use all cards, no matter what they are, hold or regular. It is impossible for monsters to "lock" card slots that are empty (because cards come in one at a time), even if you end up at the final countdown, chances are, you still have enough cards coming in to get the time boost you need (I rarely fell that far down though), or if they lock, you have enough time left to unlock them again via redraw and then boost back up. Similarly the battle with Primadonna, the one slot from which you played the inverted bomb stays "unlocked"so you can just play until you get a regular bomb to unlock all slots again.
Both cards have a synergy, since Quentin would need the unlocks and Primadonna would need the extra time, but this "easy" workaround right now makes it obsolete.
It might be a bit harder to find the right balance there, but maybe if you actually locked the slots instead of the cards that would help with some things. Also, maybe I missed it, you could hint at the necessity for Leroy to go "explore on his own" to return to the hub, so people are guided to meeting all characters/getting all types of cards first, before tackling the more intense fights.
Good luck with further development :D
Really raising the bar for what indie visual novels can do! Wish I could play it on my Mac :(
Don’t worry! A Mac version is in the works!
Thank you so much! Glad to hear it!