Amberose's Live Thoughts on Your Stories

Absolutely :slightly_smiling_face:

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Oh I forgot to tell you! You will love this even more… I got up early today when compared to other days thinking that you might review my story today.

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Hehehe you’re right. I do love that even more lol :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

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Thank you so much for your feedback :blush::blush: I will definitely make some changes to the scenes, this Is my first episode so I was trying to get the hang of things, I really appreciate your suggestions & honest opinion, it’s really going to help me. I’m so glad you like the story!! Again thank you so much :grin:

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No worries :slightly_smiling_face: Glad you found it helpful!

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@dkr_episodes College Days: Faking it

Woop woop, return customer!

  • Oooh fancy CC background and overlay.

  • I only picked up on this because I’m blonde and was looking for my hair colour, but the only options for Hailey’s hair in “light” are strawberry blonde or that peachy blonde colour, which I thought was weird considering you said skin tone was the only thing that couldn’t be changed… Which is another thing I want to ask about. I’m guessing limb overlays?

  • The first line in the actual story is a question… but doesn’t actually have the question mark (small thing, you can change this without it affecting the contest)

  • I like the use of transitions to make it look like stage lights flashing.

  • I’m loving whole Pirate Pizza thing. I think the backgrounds are super cute and the fact that her actual role is out the front singing. It’s a nice motif which I’m thinking, based on the intro, will carry on.

  • Hailey looks soooooo terribly sad at the end of that scene, but kind of in a cute way and you’ve got me wondering what animation that is??

  • There was one small thing that stuck out to me with the TV scene, and that was that the reporter was in front of the school’s overlay, so her elbow stuck out a bit. (Changing the layers won’t affect anything for the contest.)

  • Woah, wtf?? That night to day transition looked amazing!

  • I liked that you had all the background characters in that scene as she’s going to work the next day… There was one that looked a little too close to the car that drove past, but that’s not really an issue, it just sorta made me fear that there would be a car crash.

  • Mr Puccini’s dancing :joy:

  • I’m imagining your script must have a few spot placing commands because I can see you’re using my favorite reaction face, which is a sitting animation, so I know you’re going back and forth between sitting and standing, but it’s worth it because it looks good.

  • No staff? Lol, what’s the point of even opening and running this business.

  • She can’t even make a pizza? Puh-lease! who can’t make a pizza, it’s easy…

  • Hailey’s thinking “who orders pizza at 11am?” and I’m just like “oh, that’s me at least once a week at work ahaha”

  • Oh wow, she really can’t cook pizza… Nice fire overlay btw, and then having the sprinklers go off was genius.

  • The puddles were a nice touch, but the actual drip and splash were a stand out.

  • Lol, there he goes firing more people… I feel like he should just close his business, but that’s neither here nor there.

  • At the crossing road, the characters look like they’re scaled too big. When you zoom out, you can see that Hailey could probably cross the street in two steps if she tried to.

  • Ooh, he took the wrong bag, didn’t he? Side note: I’m guessing this is why blonde wasn’t a hair colour option before?

  • OMG! I mean… I knew what this story was about from the description but I was not expecting it to go down this way. I really can’t decide if I should call parents or not…

  • Eh, I decided not to. I await my bad ending lol :joy:

  • Wow, episode 1 was pretty long actually - but in a good way, you covered everything. Like if this were a TV show, that would be a great pilot.

  • … that awkward moment when you credit yourself as if you are not you for overlays and backgrounds hahaha

  • In the shower, the narration bubble covers Hailey’s face a bit… I know she’s not talking, but it still just kinda looks weird not seeing her face…

  • I meant to say this before, but I like that some of these choices are gaining personality traits.

  • Oh damn, I didn’t even notice this at first, but you have a very subtle overlay in that shower and it makes it look like there’s actual water droplets on the characters… especially Carolyne.

  • Small thing… So MC finishes shower and she opens the door to get out… But right before that Carolyne and Brian were in there and just exited left without the door.

  • I’m a little surprised that you’ve put a character wearing a headscarf in a short sleeved dress for the party scene. It’s not really appropriate.

  • I really like that you made the hair dye choice actually matter. I wonder what would have happened if I didn’t dye it :thinking:

  • I find with a lot of multiple love interest stories, the first one you meet always seems to be the “good” one, but I kind of like that Hailey’s already developing a lil crush on Alan… I think it will make choosing between them harder.

  • Hahahaha, I laughed at Brian’s fall.

  • The “woozy” background was cool! I really understood what Hailey was feeling because of that.

  • That fade in actually frightened me a bit… it was so dark for so long and all I could make out was Jacob’s tattoo and it looked like a really close close-up of an eye to me lol

  • I was about to point out she left in her undies… I’m glad she realised hahaha

  • What happened to her tattoo? The bird one?

  • What’s with the whistle Carolyne’s wearing? And later Hailey has it too.

  • Jacob’s hand when he’s carrying her (the limb overlay) looks really red… Is that because of the filter?

  • The washing machine scenario is gold

  • Oh wow, an ex boyfriend? Is it weird that her ex knows it’s her straight away but her own mother isn’t questioning why her “dead” daughter’s hair has changed colour?

  • I’d recommend changing Police1 and Police3 display names to either blank or detective something or officer something… (I’m pretty sure this is considered a small change so you could do it without it affecting the contest)

  • Me at the end of episode 3: :open_mouth: MURDER?

So overall I really enjoyed this. If it were a TV show, it would definitely be something I’d watch. I can see a lot of potential plot holes though, so I’ll be interested to see if you have any plans to explain these… Things like where are Olivia’s parents? Why couldn’t Hailey’s family tell it wasn’t her… even the fact that they probably don’t sound the exact same when singing could be a plot hole, but since it’s episode and they don’t have voices, I feel like you can get away with that one lol.

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I also put characters in towels! :heart_eyes:

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@Cheye - The Art of Broken Hearts

  • My first question has got to be about what MC is wearing during customisation? Lol

  • It’s cute that you have a little Monday splash that matches the theme of your cover.

  • Is it mean if I say Lila looks like the joker?

  • Small typo during the narration right before the choice: “Do i usually sing in school bathrooms?” - The ‘i’ should have a capital letter.

  • The transiton to a dream felt a bit random… Maybe have MC look tired as if she’s about to fall asleep first so it doesn’t seem random when she wakes up? Because I thought she was day dreaming.

  • I think the length was a bit on the short side. I don’t think enough of the plot was revealed in the first episode alone (And also, DON’T apologise for it being your first story on episode at the end of it either. Just don’t. There’s nothing to be sorry for.)

  • I love that with your outfit choices, you always have the same four “styles” but they’re always a bit different.

  • What is up with these questions? I feel bad for Drew because she has to answer them lol

  • Ok, so the somewhere in dream land part felt less random this time. It actually made me laugh when I saw that it was Drew in this dream.

  • After she picks her outfit, MC changes back into a different outfit that I hadn’t chose for her to wear that morning.

  • Woah, Lila’s costume looks great with that change of hair. I don’t know her too much, but I feel like it really suits her personality.

  • You know… For someone who planned the party, Julia isn’t very dressed up haha

  • Back at the party scene, two of your background characters are at the wrong layers. Pirate girl is smaller, but she’s been placed in from of superhero chick.

  • Hahaha, I’m actually loving the recurring dreamland scenes now. They’re a great thing to use as a staple in your story.

  • She really can’t sleep in her own bed though, can she?

  • Just a small thing, but the overlay doesn’t completely cover the cashier’s legs so we can see them at the bottom of the screen.

  • Hahaha, I knew it would be Rose in the dream this time.

So even though I found the episodes pretty short, I did quite like it. I didn’t think I would because it sounded like a sad story from the title but (so far) it’s just been kind of fun, and lighthearted. Your splashes really stand out to me because they’re all matchy matchy. I’d just say to get rid of the author notes at the end of each chapter though, because you have nothing to be sorry for!

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Awe thanks!!! I really appreciate your input!!! I’m glad it wasn’t a total bummer haha :heart: But really, thanks, You’re awesome!:smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

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Also, was it in chapter 3 that the outfit thing happens? So I can go back and see what’s wrong there.

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Aw, you’re welcome :kissing_heart: I’m pretty sure it was in episode 3, when they’re at the shops picking out their Halloween outfits

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Thanks!! And thanks again for taking the time to read/ write out a review!! It means a lot!

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You’re welcome! :blush:

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@viviwrites - CYBER

I don’t want to start off by telling you I have high expectations or anything, but I was keen to start this one because it was actually already on my list before you requested, it sounds really unique… and also in the couple of weeks it’s taken me to get up to this, I’ve seen people speak really highly of this, so yeah… I’m pretty keen.

  • Yes! Futuristic setting, woop woop. I will never tire of seeing how other people envision the future.

  • I noticed when CCing that you’ve opted out of included any unnatural colours (like hair dye or lipstick colours) and I think that’s really smart in terms of characterization because like you say in your description “you are a gamer with no life” so it sorta makes me feel like a plain Jane - but in a good way.

  • The helmet is a nice looking “futuristic” headset.

  • Like that for Silver you limited the hair colour to “silver” tones. In case you were wondering, I changes eye colour and eyebrow colour to silver and also picked an ash skin tone.

  • Whaaat? Those light sabers look so cool.

  • Hahaha, the way MC introduces Luna as her best friend in the game reminds me of how I think of my forum friends. Lol

  • I’m not sure how I feel about Leon… I love the name, hate the hair, love his face, hate the fact that he’s singing… On that note, it felt a little weird to me that there was a concert happening within the game initially, but then the more I thought about it, it didn’t really seem so out of place, but makes me worried that these people are literally living inside this game. I wonder how much time has passed.

  • Idk what pose HOST is doing when he prepares for his huge announcement but I feel like I’ve never seen it before and I really like it.

  • Episode one was like a nicely done ontro to basically set the plot. I really liked the use of text effects at the end too.

  • It’s nice that you call your episodes “games”. Very on theme.

  • The phone drop was on point and the camera shake was a nice touch.

  • So the fight was a dream?

  • I found the changing of outfits was a little slow moving for my taste. That’s not really a big deal since there were only two choices, but if there was more, I’d probably have just picked the first one I try on because I’m not bothered to wait for zooms ahaha

  • I love that your car interior is an overlay and that you’ve actually put it in font of a looping background. Te car interior kind of looks futuristic too.

  • Ah, so the dream was a memory…

  • Ooh, Adrian. I’m guessing he’s either a rival love interest for people who don’t like Leon’s hair (me) or he is Leon…

  • I’m just now noticing that nearly every background is a custom one so far.

  • The “twicth” channel was a neat idea. I like the overlay too, makes it more realistic.

  • Your reader messages explaining the jargon you’re using makes me laugh. It’s nice you offer a quick definition so your readers who don’t know already can be brought up to speed.

  • The silhouette black shade looks kinda weird when the character’s also wearing clothes haha.

  • I don’t think I actually commented on this yet, but I was thinking it… With your intro, the small flicker that makes it look like it’s glitching looks awesome.

  • For someone who is trying to hide their excitement, Adrien just looks kind of… I don’t know what the right word would be… Um, idle, I guess… Maybe add another animation to make it look like he’s actually struggling to contain his excitement? A hold_in_pee animation would be great… Sucks it doesn’t exist :frowning:

  • Wait, how does he know she’s in a predicament?

  • I find that blue spinning TV screen soooooooooo soothing. Like I could stare at it all day, it’s just relaxing to watch.

  • When Luna, Leon and Silver are in that lounge area and Luna suggests Leon join forces with Silver, she says “He’s the in top 30!” You need to swap “in” and “the” around.

  • The day to night transition was EVERYTHING!

  • I liked how you were introducing the other players. I even had my sound up and found it was timed perfectly to match the overlays.

  • “We’ll eventually have to kick every last one of them’s butt to win anyway” - consider rewording this to flow better. Maybe “every last one of their butts to win” ?

  • Side note: If this were in real life it would really piss me off thay they automatically progress just because she’s in the top 10. So unfair.

  • Xenon = Xander = guy on the other end of Adrien’s call = somethinggg, I just don’t know exactly what yet.

  • Oh wait. Is Knight Adrien? But who is Leon…?

Well, I was right to have high expectations, I actually feel a little bad because I didn’t really write down many notes - but that was just because I was enjoying it and also didn’t pick up on many errors. I think it’s a great original idea and I look forward to reading more. There really wasn’t much I could fault… In fact, there is only one thing that I can say might need improvement, and that would be that I felt there was a lack of diversity. Everytime a new “main” character was introduced, they were white. The only POC I saw were as backgrounds characters in the game. I would like to believe that in the future, where your story is set, that we had come much further in terms of equality, so it would be nice to see other races and cultures included a bit more. Other than that, I think you’ve produced a fantastic story.

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Thank you so much for your review.

  • Adrien guessed she was in a some kind of predicament because she was acting like it, ha ha. The reason why he was idle when nervous is that I think the animations available are too dramatic for a guy like him.

  • The MC is actually Asian, not white, but I do understand your point of view about diversity. Most of the introduced characters were Hispanic/Asian as well, not white. :sweat_smile: I also already pictured what most of my characters would look like, so I’m hesitant to change them now.

  • I will definitely fix the grammar mistakes.

Again, thank you for your kind words about my story and for taking the time to do this :blush:

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You’re welcome! :slightly_smiling_face:

Just quickly on the MC being Asian… Whilst I noticed when she was first introduced that she did look Asian, the fact that I could customize her did sort of take that away, because the reader can change her to look any way they want. But I get that you have a vision for you characters. Maybe you do need to mention somewhere though the setting of your story? (I’m guessing now that it’s a country in Asia? Sorry if you already mentioned it at the beginning and I missed that detail) just to explain that a bit more because, unfortunately, even though Limelight has been expanding their features which allow you to represent different races a lot better, it’s still hard to know that most of the characters were actually Hispanic and Asian just from face value… Especially considering a lot of your characters are avatars in the game, so it’s almost like they have customized themselves, if that makes sense.

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I thought the tan/brown-ish skin kind of tells the fact that they were Hispanic :sweat_smile: I didn’t wanna mention where the MC is at because I don’t wanna get too real-world specific (if you get what I mean). All the readers should know is that she’s living in a futuristic city with people from many races & cultures, I guess in real life this would be the US. I know the CC kind of takes away the fact that the MC is Asian, but then again, I want people to have freedom customizing their characters, and the point of that is to be, well, inclusive. I hope this explains it better :slight_smile:

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Sorry, no haha :sweat_smile: I only thought Scarlet might have been maybe Hispanic because of a few words she said, but then I actually doubted myself because I felt like since she was in the game that it might not have been her true self (like how when I CC on episode, I don’t always make it look like myself). But the tan skin alone would not have told me that. But yeah, that’s a valid reason for not mentioning location, so I get you on that

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@sally.episode96 - College Days: College of Suffering

  • The title of this reminds me so much of my own Uni College days.

  • I’ve been trying to be less judgey about author notes, but gah, I’m sorry, I still hate them… Even though it’s interesting to know this is based off of your own experience, you really shouldn’t say “even though the first three episodes seem short” because that acts as a deterrent.

  • The mother’s CC confuses me a bit. We’re only allowed to do skin tone and lip colour? Why is that?

  • Nevermind, now that I’ve done father and brother too, I think I understand why.

  • So when MC first changed, my eyes literally went wide eyed because I thought she was changing into her bikini LOL, but I think it’s great you included “underwear” without making it feel like she was taking too long to get dressed.

  • Oooh, I love how the road is actually busy with traffic.

  • I was wondering why when it came to the choice about admitting it was a copy or not, the “pretend you didn’t know” option was gold?

  • Oooh mini game - I love it!

  • In the car, a few speechbubbles were covering MC’s and her dad’s face. I’d recommend spotting them above their heads with the tail on the bottom. (I’m not sure if this is considering a small change though, so best to wait until after contest)

  • I kinda hate the shoes MC is wearing with the towel… But since they’re kinda like thongs flip flops, I’m guessing that’s actually there for sanitary purposes? Possibly because of a college shared bathroom? In which case, I will sacrifice the fashion for that.

  • The way MC talks about her dad is actually really relateable to me. This won’t be the case for everyone, but it sure is for me.

  • Episode one was a good length and I liked how it ended with “we need a miracle”… Even though that wasn’t a cliff hanger, it still had a sense of foreshadowing.

  • In episode 2, when we meet Ameera, consider zooming closer up so we don’t see their legs shift from sitting animations to standing animations (Again, better wait until after contest for this change)

  • Ugh, why is Mrs Havill such a bitch?

  • Yay, another mini game!

  • Just a small thing, I think most readers would probably benefit from all the answers being given prior to the game. For example, having MC studying it the night before. Because for most people (including myself) the quiz is just random guesses. At least if you had actually mentioned it in the episode, I wouldn’t be able to blame you if I fail this. Does that make sense? I feel like I explained it weirdly…

  • Wait, I just noticed the correct answers are a shade darker :woman_facepalming: Do I need my eyesight checked?

  • I really appreciate that each class has a different background but still looks like it’s all part of the same college.

  • So in Trent’s CC I spotted an error. On the eye colour page, you haven’t added the [shouldPaginate: YES] code in, so the done button and the change-eye-shape button appears twice.

  • Did I just read that right? “It’s happening again?” What are the odds of MC meeting two people she already knew hahaha

OOoh, I just realised I barely wrote anything for episode 3… Guess I was enjoying it too much? To be honest, I couldn’t really find much to fault. There was a decent amount of choices, it was the perfect length for me, and it was really nice to see MC had to face some real life problems too, like the copy of the document and the money troubles. I am really looking forward to seeing more mini games when you continue, because I thought that was really good to include.

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First of all thank you so much for your review. I know it takes a lot of time and I’m grateful that you did it.
I have some tiny-tiny questions, though, if that’s okay with you.

On the TV scene, the only glitch you noticed was that the reporter was in front of the “music academy”? If yes, that was the plan, if no maybe I didn’t understand your remark correct and I have to recheck the scene.

Oh my Gosh, about the shower and the tattoo you’re right! I have no idea why I didn’t notice it before. I sent an email to episode team to ask them if I can change that. Otherwise, I will fix it after the contest is done.

For the plot holes you mentioned, I have some things planned. Although I didn’t quite understand the part about “Where are Olivia’s parents?” or " even the fact that they probably don’t sound the exact same when singing could be a plot hole". I mean, she was in her way to enroll in college, which is in a different city than her hometown (it will be more clear in episode 4) and this was her first year in college so she didn’t have any acquaintances there. It would be lovely if you can explain me a little more what you mean, so if there are things that aren’t clear enough or things that I haven’t think about, I can fix it.

Thank you once again :slight_smile:

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