Jesus christ this interior is nightmarish, imagine working at this place for multiple hours a day, your eye will bleed from the colors. Also it's apperantly a "Lousiana Kitchen" which seems to be a place that primarily deals with fried chicken.
Anyways I made a background for that too, though it doesn't come as well due to those places having a penchant for colorful mosaics. At least it's not eye searing.
Sorry for the double post but I don't get the art direction for this game. They're promoting the fact that they have 13 different artists and characters with completely different art styles a la Spiderverse, except while Spiderverse had competent artists that knew how to blend everything together, these artists are just mashing several different artstyles and characters that they couldn't even be arsed to zoom in/out so they actually look like they're standing side to side together in Ren'Py.
Sorry for the double post but I don't get the art direction for this game. They're promoting the fact that they have 13 different artists and characters with completely different art styles a la Spiderverse, except while Spiderverse had competent artists that knew how to blend everything together, these artists are just mashing several different artstyles and characters that they couldn't even be arsed to zoom in/out so they actually look like they're standing side to side together in Ren'Py.
There's a reason why you usually stick to a few artists when it comes to these types of games. Because then, as you said, you just have a mix-match of art that doesn't serve to accomplish anything or blend together well. This isn't some avant-garde game looking to be different for the sake of the setting. We're supposed to take this as normal, day-by-day, dating sim. And while distinguishing yourself from the crowd is good, this game suffers from a clear lack of tonal direction and consistency. Literally a case of too many cooks in the kitchen. And for what purpose? I would get it if it was split up into teams to work on certain art directions for each element (UI development = 1 team of 2 or 3 artists, Character Portraits = 2 artists, etc.) but it feels like they just got each artist to do each element separately. Not only is that inefficient, but it's really distracting. It would also explain why the backgrounds, characters, and UI is all over the place. It feel less like a collaborative effort and more of a reason to not have some sort of proper management.
I hate how the official twitter for the game itself is 90 percent memes. It's got to the point where it's near impossible to find anything regarding how the game works.
Like ok we get it, all your characters are gay, fat, black, and ugly late 20somethings who dress and act like gsa kids, but what about the game itself? What special mechanics does it use? What does the gameplay look like? Will we get to chose which pronouns we want for each character? (assuming that the two people programming this mess know how to even do that) What are the character's real personalities besides shitty memes? When will an actual trailer come out? What about the countless other details you've left out? The devs assume we already know these things, and that's one of the biggest reasons the game will fail.
Also, the character design is some of the blandest shit I've ever seen. For comparison's sake let's compare a competently designed character, like Black Lagoon's Balalaika, to Ashlie Kolum, one of the Validate characters.
Here's a picture of Balalaika.
The moment you look at her you can tell what she's like and what she does. The cigar/business suit combo is associated with mobsters, and is featured in every piece regarding the mafia. The military coat and body language paired with her scars tells you that she not only fought a war, but was scared from said war and despite that, she's a leader and a force to be reckoned with.
Now let's look at Ashlie.
The moment you look at her you see and feel...nothing. Anyone looking at her would assume this was a drawing of some e-celeb or a background character. She looks very bored, uninterested, and annoyed so maybe she's an...instagram model? blogger maybe?
Nope she's a professional gamer.
That's right. This stone faced plainly dressed girl is an epic gamer! What do you mean you didn't know that already? Just look at her! She must know lots about gaming!
But seriously, I've seen better "gamer" designs in the most generic of moe shit anime. Even if they actually are going for the "semi-ironic twitch thot" character, it comes off as lazily done and rushed so they can pull a "gaymerz r raycist" joke or something along the lines of that. This character goes to show that they don't care about how the characters actually look and how it makes the player feel/think about them and more about "muh diverse characterz n artstyle n sheit". It's a real shame considering Ashlie is the only female character that remotely looks feminine.
Edit: Didn't feel like double posting so i'll just dump some stuff I found.
Some more hating on whitey.
Plus some cringe worthy tweets from the head dev's two twitters.
I hate how the official twitter for the game itself is 90 percent memes. It's got to the point where it's near impossible to find anything regarding how the game works.
It's one of the main things I've noticed coming from these types projects. They seem to hate any sort of business sense whatsoever. Common things like having a separate account for memes that don't meddle with business OR not shitting on the majority of the population...these are things a normal business would cut ASAP, but nowadays you have people like these who are so willing to expose themselves and all their dirty laundry to everyone without considering the repercussions. Want to shit on white people on main? Fine, but don't be surprised when people avoid your game like the plague. It doesn't matter what you stand for, people don't like others constantly being malicious. Especially for a GAME ACCOUNT.
What special mechanics does it use? What does the gameplay look like? Will we get to chose which pronouns we want for each character? (assuming that the two people programming this mess know how to even do that) What are the character's real personalities besides shitty memes? When will an actual trailer come out? What about the countless other details you've left out? The devs assume we already know these things, and that's one of the biggest reasons the game will fail.
We know for a fact there isn't going to be any because as you said, the devs aren't making a game that's worth selling. They're making a game they expect people to already buy. It's business 101 to understand the concept of supply and demand, but the developers fail to deliver on any of this. We barely know ANYTHING about this game. The characters aren't interesting, the music is bland, and the bgs are really unappealing.
The moment you look at her you see and feel...nothing. Anyone looking at her would assume this was a drawing of some e-celeb or a background character. She looks very bored, uninterested, and annoyed so maybe she's an...instagram model? blogger maybe?
Nope she's a professional gamer.
That's right. This stone faced plainly dressed girl is an epic gamer! What do you mean you didn't know that already? Just look at her! She must know lots about gaming!
Legitimately went back to check Ashlie's bio and now I'm even more drawn to fact about how poorly this game convey's character personalities and interests. No, not every character needs to be a walking stereotype, but even Japanese High School VNs can convey what a character is going to be like when you first meet them (and most of the time, they use the same template with very little change physically minus hair color/eyes). Nothing about Ashlie, even in a subtle way, conveys that they are a gamer. They could even be really subtle with this too. Maybe have her wear a Triforce necklace or some sort of badge or whatever. It would be a nice easter egg to show that she has any interests. But what we have is just another generic character. So generic, that she could literally be an NPC. Her design is so bland that it blends in with the other art.
The other characters also have this issue, but when are people going to understand that walking around and spouting memes IS NOT a personality? Saying stuff like poggers or cash money not only is very cringy but horribly dates your game by several years.
I don't really see that good of a reason to go MOTI. It's looks terrible and it's an exercise in pandering, but most of this shit will be ignored until the game actually tanks and the devs blames transphobia as the only reason why.
I assume for the French one they read about Reunion and Mayotte on Wikipedia and decided she would be from there for extra obscurity points. While they're full-fledged regions of France, I'm guessing their character isn't a first-generation French immigrant and I have no idea why they think an American with ancestors from there would consider themselves ethnically "French."
I can go pick up a dog turd because it's free doesn't mean because it's free it's suddenly any better then buying said dog turds from a overweight danger hair.
