Starswirl Academy (My Little Pony based VN)

[Nosebleed]

Someone commented this on our facebook page and I just had to create some form of topic about it.

 

I don't think any of you know this but I, among other things, enjoy watching My Little Pony (wow much shock), call me a brony if you want to but it's not really a major part of my life, just something i like.

And so i was quite surprised to find out someone is actually making a Visual Novel based off of MLP with human characters and a school setting.

 

The novel is titled Starswirl Academy

 

Here's the trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrZjQaY5CJc

 

I like the fact they used humanoid characters and not ponies to reach a wider audience. I think even for people who are not into MLP this can actually be worth it depending on how many references they make to the show but if they're smart they'll keep it to a bare minimum and just go all out and write an original story.

 

Hasbro actually contacted the team for legal purposes and they changed the character names. But the fact that Hasbro the creator of the MLP Friendship is Magic tv series actually went out of their way to aknowledge this is pretty impressive.

 

The game is made with the Ren'Py engine from what I read. Looks like this engine is becoming somewhat popular for individual developers that want to make their own visual novels which in my opinion is a great thing. Praise you Ren'Py.

 

There is already a free demo available for PC, Linux and OS X which lasts 1 hour on autoplay. There is also an android version.

You can get it here for free

 

More info here

 

How do you feel about this?

[Flutterz]

How do I feel about this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BUkYuwkqoM

[Nosebleed]

How do I feel about this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BUkYuwkqoM

My thoughts exactly.

 

It seems like it'll be your average highschool romance since there seems to be a male protagonist (Curse you for not making this full on yuri!).

But i'm not really upset about it (though it would have been 20% cooler if it was full on yuri) I mean as a fan of the franchise actually having some romance put into it would be quite nice to witness (even if it's not yuri).

I'm going to play this demo later on today and await for further updates.

 

They seem to be looking for writers as well so I'm guessing it's still a work in progress. (Please add yuri..)

[Kaguya]

Not my kind of thing, but I guess it's fine? Have fun if you like it. I'll skip this one, though- can't see myself enjoying this. 

[FruitsPunchSamurai]

I always turned on My little pony when i saw it showing on tv. That's just how fun it is to watch it. Would've been nice if it was full yuri but mehh.

[BookwormOtaku]

As a casual brony (I mainly just watch the show and read the comics) I'm really interested in seeing how this turns out and eagerly await the finished product, though I admit I'm a bit more interested in My Little Investigations thanks to my being a Phoenix Wright fan:

 

http://www.equestriandreamers.com/

[Nosebleed]

My Little Pony has so many fanmade spin-offs it's rather impressive. The biggest project i've ever seen is the MMORPG Legends of Equestria

 

I think MLP kind of needed a VN though. I mean there's so much shipping in the fandom it just deserves a nice highschool romance VN. Of course this is different than the actual series and doesn't use ponies but still. I liked the artwork as well.

But only time will tell how good it'll be. It'd be nice to have a KS MLP version.

[Mevvrynne]

Hrm....I honestly don't know what to think about it.  I have some friends who watch my little pony (actual hardcore bronies) and have tried to get me to watch it, but I always turned away from it.  If people find it enjoyable then by all means let it be a thing but I will probably avoid it.

[FruitsPunchSamurai]

My Little Pony has so many fanmade spin-offs it's rather impressive. The biggest project i've ever seen is the MMORPG Legends of Equestria

 

I think MLP kind of needed a VN though. I mean there's so much shipping in the fandom it just deserves a nice highschool romance VN. Of course this is different than the actual series and doesn't use ponies but still. I liked the artwork as well.

But only time will tell how good it'll be. It'd be nice to have a KS MLP version.

The artwork is beautiful for it, and the voice acting is pretty good as well. It does have a pretty big fanbase so this would happen eventually

[Nosebleed]

The artwork is beautiful for it, and the voice acting is pretty good as well. It does have a pretty big fanbase so this would happen eventually

I really hope it has voice acting. It seemed like that voice was just for the trailer. But i'm keeping my hopes up.

If they do voice acting it'd be really amazing and I'll probably enjoy it 10 times more.

 

There also might be an 18+ version at some point. They didn't fully deny it

Q. Is there adult (NSFW) content in the game?

A. The primary release is rated wA<14 under the Voluntary Media Rating system. That's just a bit higher than a "T" ESRB rating. That said, we don't use the same morality scale they do. They'd probably slap us with an "M".

 

 

[MiyukiMiya]

Well, I was coming in this topic to complain, and thought it was sort of decent, then saw no yuri.

Don't know what to do now.

[Flutterz]

Well, I was coming in this topic to complain, and thought it was sort of decent, then saw no yuri.

Don't know what to do now.

Complain about not knowing what to do?

[FruitsPunchSamurai]

I really hope it has voice acting. It seemed like that voice was just for the trailer. But i'm keeping my hopes up.

If they do voice acting it'd be really amazing and I'll probably enjoy it 10 times more.

 

There also might be an 18+ version at some point. They didn't fully deny it

it'll be awesome if it has voice acting, and doesn't really matter to me if it has h-scenes or not, but it would be better for me if it has lol.

[ServeTheServant]

Just wondering, I don't really follow MLP, but I noticed in the trailer that the MC is named "Tom" -- is he named after a rock?  

http://mlp.wikia.com/wiki/Tom#Tom

[garejei]

I watched the first two seasons of the show, thought it was fine. Don't really care for this VN, though, I may be overly skeptical but I doubt it will be really outstanding.

 

Just wondering, I don't really follow MLP, but I noticed in the trailer that the MC is named "Tom" -- is he named after a rock?  

http://mlp.wikia.com/wiki/Tom#Tom

 

Yes, the MC is the rock.

[Steve]

English voice acting in VNs just doesn't work for me! So much butt clenching during the video xD

 

But shout-out to DEAR HEAD MASTER SOLOMON (the cruel) for the very few people who might get it xD

[Nosebleed]

Just wondering, I don't really follow MLP, but I noticed in the trailer that the MC is named "Tom" -- is he named after a rock?  

http://mlp.wikia.com/wiki/Tom#Tom

Doubt it. Tom was a huge boulder picked up in some episode during the season 2 debut if i'm not mistaken. Didn't have much plot relevance either.

Though it'd be hilarious if it was based off of that.

 

One thing i disliked was how they renamed the characters. I mean I get that Hasbro asked them to change the original names because of legal reasons but the alternatives just.. don't click with me. They could have done better.

 

 

It's actually confirmed that there will be an 18+ version.  It used to say that it their FAQ, but I guess they just wanted to sound more professional and cite the primary release's rating.  I've been following Starswirl Academy for a while, and before they changed they FAQ it said that the secondary release would be the 18+ version.

Oh that's nice. I'll be looking forward to the second release then.

[Nosebleed]

Alright I'm playing the demo now and I have some first impressions.

 

First off the technical stuff.

It needs a main menu

Every novel, no matter how simple it is needs a menu of sorts on the title screen. That is the basics of the basics. 

It is impossible to go to the settings due to the nonexistence of a main menu. There is only a "click to start" button in the title screen and you have to start your game and then from there you have to right click and there you have to go to preferences. That is too complicated and unecessary.

Second thing: I did not find the auto mode. I don't even know if there is one. There are literally NO options on the text box which is kind of annoying.

Edit: I have found the auto mode now that it was pointed out to me, you need to hover above the top right corner of the text box in order to view the options. Though i personally prefer the buttons there at least they took the effort to put them.

 

Third thing. In order to do anything like skipping and taking screenshots etc you need to memorize an entire menu of hot keys. You literally can not view that menu at any time other than when you click start new game which is rather annoying. I could not memorize all the hot keys and it was a pain. 

Memorizing this is not fun. 

It would be really nice if an option was added to view this at any time.

 

And lastly the thing that bothered me the most. YOU CAN NOT SAVE. DO NOT DARE TO SAVE!!

I don't know if it's just me but i was halfway in the demo probably and i tried saving for the sake of it and the entire Ren'Py engine crashed. It literally just gives you an error log and you are forced to quit the game. I hope this will be fixed later on but even for a demo this is kind of unacceptable.

Edit: Quick saving works, saving doesn't.

 

Edit of the edit: Saves are working fine now, the game needs to create a log file in the directory so I'm guessing i was missing that.

 

Now on to the first impressions:

 

Story: Little to non existent so far. The demo was really small and all that was going on was the introduction. A good thing though is that they packed the entire introduction in 1 hour so that's not too dull considering this will be a full length VN. But no major plotline was revealed.

 

Characters: Okay i'm just going to get this out there i absolutely hate the character names, They are just god awful i can not get used to them when i  think this is based off of MLP. But that's just a minor thing.

Their personalities were actually a nice representation of what they are like in the series although Rarity and Applejack didn't get much of a role there. Pinkie Pie is just like always. Same thing as Twilight Sparkle. Celestia had this odd aura as a school principal but not a bad one. I can't wait to see Luna and the cutie mark crusaders (they were just mentioned not shown). One thing i liked is how they incorporated the cutie mark thing as badges you put on your shirt's collar. It was a neat idea.

The one thing i'll say though is the protagonist is really average and dull. They need to make more sprites for his face because he always has the same dull expression in the textbox and yet he's having all sorts of reactions to things. That doesn't help much when trying to convey emotions.

That's as far as i grasped on the characters.

 

The art: As depicted earlier. It was really good actually in my opinion. The sprites were colorful and vivid and the backgrounds although not to fancy still conveyed the overall idea. The sprites made it for me.

I wish they would have shown at least one CG. I really hope they have CGs for the full release.

 

The sound: Please please pleaseee add more music. There were only 2 songs going on in the background. Not that they were bad but they got repetitive. The first one in particular had this abrupt ending before looping, please fix that in some way with a fade out at least. And also there are moments when there's no sound for minutes and it just becomes incredibly awkward. Again i know this is just a demo and i'm hoping they add more BGM but right now the sound wasn't the best thing ever.

 

Overall it wasn't a bad first impressions but it wasn't the best ever either. It was too short to form a clear and concise  opinion about it. I loved the art and the characters seem well adapted but at the same time there wasn't enough time to develop that and have clear proof of the concept. The sound wasn't the best thing ever. There are a lot of technical issues that i hope get solved. But overall i will try the full release or further demos once they are out because i want to know more of the plotline since there wasn't any in this.

[BookwormOtaku]

Maybe there'll be a fan made patch to change the names back

[Wavedash]

I don't usually post on forums about our game, but I figured since I'm already on this site I'd make an account for my alternate identity and hit a few points.

 

 

The popup menu is up to the right of the text box. It includes the autoplay option.

 

The controls screen was added because there were so many people doing YouTube let's-plays that couldn't figure out how to work the basic features. We've got a lot of players who've never touched a visual novel before so we had to figure out a quick solution to help them out.

 

Like the demo says, music is very much a placeholder. People were so antsy to get a demo that we decided not to wait for the full score. Same goes with some of the art. Tom especially will have more sprites later.

 

The names weren't a rush job. We've always had some in the back of our minds, but when you go from names that everyone knows, not everyone's gonna like them.

 

Saving should have been fixed in this version of the demo. Was there a particular place you tried to save that crashed it? Perhaps PM me the crash log?

[Nosebleed]

I don't usually post on forums about our game, but I figured since I'm already on this site I'd make an account for my alternate identity and hit a few points.

 

 

The popup menu is up to the right of the text box. It includes the autoplay option.

 

The controls screen was added because there were so many people doing YouTube let's-plays that couldn't figure out how to work the basic features. We've got a lot of players who've never touched a visual novel before so we had to figure out a quick solution to help them out.

 

Like the demo says, music is very much a placeholder. People were so antsy to get a demo that we decided not to wait for the full score. Same goes with some of the art. Tom especially will have more sprites later.

 

The names weren't a rush job. We've always had some in the back of our minds, but when you go from names that everyone knows, not everyone's gonna like them.

 

Saving should have been fixed in this version of the demo. Was there a particular place you tried to save that crashed it? Perhaps PM me the crash log?

I might have sounded harsh don't get me wrong i know it's a demo I just wrote what i first thought of while playing it. Thanks for pointing out where the options were because i really couldn't find them. Personally i prefer when the options are clearly there and you don't need to hover them to see them but that's just me. And it's also not noticeable in scenes with bright backgrounds like this:

 

Also right now the saves are working. I really don't know what happened it fixed itself (?)

I noticed it created a log file in the main directory. Maybe that was missing before or something. I'll edit my post and write this out.

 

I don't have any problem with the control screen itself but with the fact i have to memorize it all at once. I'd like an option somewhere in order to view it anytime i want in case i forget some keys.

 

Again i'm loving what you guys are doing and i'll play all the updates you post. These were just first impressions.

[Wavedash]

Yikes. That menu over the Headmaster. Noted. I'm a firm believer in the opposite of your thoughts on the options being clearly visible. I think the UI should only be there when you need it. More refinements necessary, obviously.

 

Yeah. You're not coming across

 

I might have sounded harsh don't get me wrong i know it's a demo I just wrote what i first thought of while playing it. Thanks for pointing out where the options were because i really couldn't find them. Personally i prefer when the options are clearly there and you don't need to hover them to see them but that's just me. And it's also not noticeable in scenes with bright backgrounds like this:

 

Also right now the saves are working. I really don't know what happened it fixed itself (?)

I noticed it created a log file in the main directory. Maybe that was missing before or something. I'll edit my post and write this out.

 

I don't have any problem with the control screen itself but with the fact i have to memorize it all at once. I'd like an option somewhere in order to view it anytime i want in case i forget some keys. 

 

Again i'm loving what you guys are doing and i'll play all the updates you post. These were just first impressions.

Yikes. That menu over the Headmaster. Noted. I'm a firm believer in the opposite of your thoughts on the options being clearly visible. I think the UI should only be there when you need it. More refinements necessary, obviously.

 

Yeah. You're not coming across as harsh at all. Criticism is required in order to make something even better.

 

I tried the demo on my Mac, and at least before the demo was updated with the new names, I was unable to save.  It didn't crash, it just wouldn't save anything.  Not a huge problem, since it was just a demo, but I hope that won't still happen in the Mac release.

That's even weirder because our programmer works on a Mac.

[Nosebleed]

Yikes. That menu over the Headmaster. Noted. I'm a firm believer in the opposite of your thoughts on the options being clearly visible. I think the UI should only be there when you need it. More refinements necessary, obviously.

My problem with it was, as i stated, I couldn't find it and i had to have it pointed out to me in order to find out where the auto button (and other buttons) were.

Maybe having it included in the controls would be nice. I won't hate it if it only shows when hovering I just want to know where it is when i want to use it.

 

I'll look forward to further updates.

[Wavedash]

@Zenophilious: I don't think he's running Mavericks. That may be it. Are you sure you were on the save menu and not the load menu?

 

@Nosebleed: Agreed.

[Nosebleed]

Tested it on my tablet (Android 4.2.2)

First Ren'Py novel i tried on my tablet actually. Though the aesthetic and overall performance were similar it seems to have some lag issues where it freezes periodically. I'm going to see if it's my tablet (it's likely) but it's hard to play when it freezes every 10 seconds. If i don't abuse the touching it doesn't happen as often, if i double tap too much it just freezes briefly.

 

Nonetheless rated it 5 stars on the app store.