Full Circle With Date Ariane
I came up with a complicated plan for the Renpy version of Date Ariane, too complicated — like another multi-year project complicated.
Sometimes you just have to take a step back and decide what is most important. While many of the ideas I came up with are cool, there are only really two things that I want to actually do: 1.) Make a version of Date Ariane that can be played on a tablet, and 2.)update the pictures with all the cool new models, poses, outfits, and lighting tricks I learned while doing Something’s In The Air.
I realized that I can accomplish both goals by simply updating the current HTML version of Date Ariane, and I can probably accomplish my goal in a few months rather than years.
I already have a “proof of concept” in the introduction portion of Date Ariane online. Instead of hidden links that don’t show up without mouse hovering, I have visible links pushed off to the sides or below to be as unobtrusive as possible. The pictures are much prettier, too. What I am not showing on the online demo is pictures 1000 x 600 pixels instead of 800 x 500. Trust me, it looks even better. I’m positioning all text proportionally instead of exactly so I can use even bigger pictures in the future if I want to. I’m also trying to make it HTML 5 compliant so it works with all future browsers.
I haven’t decided if I will change the game any beyond the updated look, though it is probably inevitable that it will.
Date Ariane Games 
do you know “Quest”?: http://textadventures.co.uk/quest/
Quest — good for generating prettier versions of the old (carbon dated) text games. Some of these games were very good in their time but many of them hinged on finding and having obscure items at just the correct time. Also, many of them suffered from not being obvious which “command” words could be used. Figuring out the puzzle(s) could be fun, but continuously walking into walls or getting “I do not understand” or “I don’t think you can do that” replies was frustrating. Renpy is more work but definitely more attractive and cleaner looking.
Yes, but Quest has a touch screen mode with hot spots and control bar on the right side of the screen. An easy convertion step, perfect for Ariane Date Sim, I think.
So far so good, you need to do the rest! I don’t think fans are asking for anything more than what you are doing which is character and design updates.
Currently, I’m revealing links in the pictures and making the pictures 1000×600. The hard part is editing all the “pic” files. I used a bulk editor to change the pictures, but the pic file changes have to be done one at a time. I’m currently in the 50’s right now.
Once I’m done editing the pic files, I’ll upload what I have done, and over the next few months I’ll upload new pictures as they are completed.
1000×600? Really? We’ve almost 2014. Why don’t you make the pictures 4k-ready and offer a resolution of let’s say 4096×2304? Unlike real actors, rendered characters do not suffer from increasingly higher resolutions: Where real actors fear that high resolutions emphasise their blemishs and skin flaws, renderd heroines look even more beautiful in hi-res. Compare the current Lara Croft to the one from 1996: Higher resolutions are a good thing! If necessary the browser may scale down such large pictures on smaller displays, but I’m quite sure DA would look nice in 4k.
Just do new pictures / renders, but save some time and skip the link revealing! The tablet-friendly adjustments sort of ruin the gameplay sustainably: Having all possible choices available at a single glance makes DA a click-thru rush and no longer a point-and-click adventure. Exploring the scene by hovering over potential items and peu à peu discovering new alternatives made DA so much fun, which now is spoilt.
I doubt that a tabletified DA will keep having those long-term motivation the classic DA used to have. I mean, there is no tablet version of Day of the Tentacle either, isn’t it? Well, there is no 4k version as well, but I hope you get the point. By the way: Are you actually old enough to know Day of the Tentacle without googling it?
While its true that “rendered characters do not suffer from increasingly higher resolutions”, internet download bandwidth does suffer. I’d like to go to 1280×720 which is what “Something’s In The Air” uses, but there has to be space below for quotes and 1280×600 is too widescreen especially since most of the pics are centered around one character, so 1000×600 seems like a good compromise on all fronts. I can fairly easily increase the resolution even more if needed in the future.
Links are positioned using tables using ratio based settings, while the old image map based links require exact settings which have to be adjusted manually with every picture change. Putting links off to the side is the best way to do it. As for making them visible, touch screens is a good reason, however making them invisible again, is a simple style change which I may make available to those that want it when I release an eventual offline version.
I think this is a good idea, and I’m looking forward to the update being completed. Personally, a ‘refresh’ of the models/images is something I would be quite happy with 🙂
Hello dear, there’s a way to download your game?