VN Others Finding Color in the Ashes [Alpha v1.15] [MooncatcherStudios]

4.90 star(s) 29 Votes

Soulcatch

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Game Developer
Sep 28, 2023
91
168
I feel like I got stuck for the Dryad after trying to help her that requires restored greenhouse but my greenhouse slot was currently filled with foods already
You can clear a greenhouse slot by clicking the little X in the rop right corner. Just be aware you will lose whatever resources you already spent on that slot (seeds + mana / flowers)
 
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Apr 10, 2018
54
57
This and Sin spire are the some of my most anticipated games of this year. Finding Color In the Ashes has a great premise and overall the vibe to this game is cozy and mellow. The dice-roll combat is also awesome too, simple yet addicting. On the side note, the dryad-related quest has very rare rng as I'm halfway through fall and I've only encountered her twice.

A question though will you be implementing some nightcrawling stuff in the future? The tea selection has sleep tea and nightcrawler tea in it and I figured that Lucy would be "nightcrawling" the protagonist when her desire reaches max or the protagonist on Lucy once they become a good enough mage to bypass the barrier.

Can we visit the city on the prologue in the future with Lucy?

Last, but not least do you plan on publishing this on Steam in the future?
 

Soulcatch

Newbie
Game Developer
Sep 28, 2023
91
168
This and Sin spire are the some of my most anticipated games of this year. Finding Color In the Ashes has a great premise and overall the vibe to this game is cozy and mellow. The dice-roll combat is also awesome too, simple yet addicting. On the side note, the dryad-related quest has very rare rng as I'm halfway through fall and I've only encountered her twice.

A question though will you be implementing some nightcrawling stuff in the future? The tea selection has sleep tea and nightcrawler tea in it and I figured that Lucy would be "nightcrawling" the protagonist when her desire reaches max or the protagonist on Lucy once they become a good enough mage to bypass the barrier.

Can we visit the city on the prologue in the future with Lucy?

Last, but not least do you plan on publishing this on Steam in the future?
Thanks, really happy to hear you are enjoying the game.

Dryad is supposed to be a mid game hire, and what you have available to play right now is mostly early game, so yeah doesn't feel great and I've had a lot of feedback to that effect. No worries, I hear you, it'll hopefully feel better when I signpost it a bit better and once the other mid game content is in (A lot of it will be in the next update).

I'm going to expanded night activities, for sure, but everything in steps. Still a lot of general content to add, but I'll get to it when I get to it. Night time visits from lucy will absolutely be happening more in the future (there is one very specific set of circumstances that can cause it right now, but it's very underbaked).

Visiting the city would be cool. I don't have any plans for it right now, but honestly like a day trip/week trip at some point wouldn't be very hard to add and could be cool. I'll throw it on the list.

And yes, the game will absolutely be getting a steam release. I have it up on itchio right now because it lets me put it out for free so people can check it out and give feedback. And I've largely been very happy with the feedback I'm getting. People seem to generally like it, and (for the most part) when I get complaints, it just doesn't seem to be the game for them (and that's perfectly fine, life's too short to waste playing games you don't like!).
 

Soulcatch

Newbie
Game Developer
Sep 28, 2023
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168
Soulcatch
Just wanted to say how much I like Lucy's design.
I mean... just look at that smile.
View attachment 4632921
Don't know if you're a solo dev or a group, but whoever made her made a really good job.
Haha, thanks. The art / coding / design is me, and our other guy does SFX + music.
Lucy seems to get a lot of love, and I have to say that makes me very happy.
 

Maki_

Newbie
Dec 7, 2019
19
13
I think I'm pretty much caught up so I would like to say I think this game is really excellent and I'm looking forward to further updates. I really like the characters and game mechanics, and I think the story has a lot of potential.

If you don't mind I had some thoughts about potential content or features I'd like to see added to the game. First I think each guest party should only be able to appear once per night, it kind of takes you out of it a bit when all three guest slots are the rookie adventurer party, and getting more than one of the barbarian party just destroys my alcohol stocks in a single night.

Second could you add some sort of highlight to the monster presence when it gets really high? I often find myself focusing on some other task and it sits at max for like a week before I remember to go kill things. Maybe one for when a primary resource gets low too.

Third I think the Chat option in the companions page should give a little bit of affinity or interest but only be available once per day. They can take quite awhile to progress and having that reliable gain regardless of if you have the time to go read books with Ellie for several days would be nice, especially later when we get more companions and they have higher affinity caps. Some more platonic scenes with them would also be nice, just a hangout or two for some extra characterization.

Lastly just some of the sex content I'd like to see. Scenes in the bath randomly with Lucy or one of your other companions. I'd also like to see something with the guests who visit, maybe after they've visited enough you could do something with the girls in the party. Just a personal preference but I'd like for her to open her mouth at the end of the blowjob. And if you cum inside her during sex I think there should still be some in her womb in the xray after that. I'd also like the ability to stop sex without having to use up all of your energy at night.

Thanks again for the great game.
 

Soulcatch

Newbie
Game Developer
Sep 28, 2023
91
168
I think I'm pretty much caught up so I would like to say I think this game is really excellent and I'm looking forward to further updates. I really like the characters and game mechanics, and I think the story has a lot of potential.

If you don't mind I had some thoughts about potential content or features I'd like to see added to the game. First I think each guest party should only be able to appear once per night, it kind of takes you out of it a bit when all three guest slots are the rookie adventurer party, and getting more than one of the barbarian party just destroys my alcohol stocks in a single night.

Second could you add some sort of highlight to the monster presence when it gets really high? I often find myself focusing on some other task and it sits at max for like a week before I remember to go kill things. Maybe one for when a primary resource gets low too.

Third I think the Chat option in the companions page should give a little bit of affinity or interest but only be available once per day. They can take quite awhile to progress and having that reliable gain regardless of if you have the time to go read books with Ellie for several days would be nice, especially later when we get more companions and they have higher affinity caps. Some more platonic scenes with them would also be nice, just a hangout or two for some extra characterization.

Lastly just some of the sex content I'd like to see. Scenes in the bath randomly with Lucy or one of your other companions. I'd also like to see something with the guests who visit, maybe after they've visited enough you could do something with the girls in the party. Just a personal preference but I'd like for her to open her mouth at the end of the blowjob. And if you cum inside her during sex I think there should still be some in her womb in the xray after that. I'd also like the ability to stop sex without having to use up all of your energy at night.

Thanks again for the great game.
Thanks for the feedback! Glad you like the game.

1) What I would prefer to do is have alternate art for the different types of parties, so its more obvious that the 3 rookie parties are 3 different parties. This is something that will likely happen in time, but is just a low priority thing at the moment. As for barbarians destroying your stocks, the exact resources needed aren't finalized but also the groups you see right now are summer groups and the next update is going to have more fall gameplay, which includes entirely new guest groups with a different evening mechanic entirely.

1742131758466.png

1742131893493.png

2)Highlighted areas of the UI when there's trouble is a really reasonable suggestion, and you aren't the first to bring it up. The monster presence + resources + temperature are all things that I can do a better job reminding people to pay attention to. I'll definitely add either color or a little animation to those at some point.

3)Yeah companions are in early development and far from finalized. The chat button on the projects + companions pages not giving you anything feels really bad, because chatting with guests + lucy always gets you something. I completely agree and this is more a product of the game being alpha and feature incomplete than anything. But you can only give feedback on what you are playing, not what I'm intending, so I appreciate you bringing it up regardless. But I'll definitely expand on this as I can.

4)Bath scenes are coming, 100%. Just haven't had time to add them yet. Guest scenes are far less likely, but not impossible. Just very low priority because I have a lot of companion + lucy scenes left to add and I want to prioritize those. As for specifics like poses / actions during sex, I'll try to add more variety as I can. There are so many scenes left to add, and I'm still missing dialog in most of the scenes, just consider those heavily work in progress for now. The ability to stop sex early has been on my list of to do for a while, I'll try to get it added sooner rather than later.

Haha, I know most of this amounts to "coming soon!" but that's just how it is. I still love hearing the feedback ,and hopefully you got some answers here to your questions.
 

alteros

Member
Jul 25, 2018
256
207
Damn, there are a LOT of things on screen. That said I really like these sort of slice of life games with a bit of mystery so this'll probably be up my alley anyway.
 

Maki_

Newbie
Dec 7, 2019
19
13
Thanks for the feedback! Glad you like the game.

1) What I would prefer to do is have alternate art for the different types of parties, so its more obvious that the 3 rookie parties are 3 different parties. This is something that will likely happen in time, but is just a low priority thing at the moment. As for barbarians destroying your stocks, the exact resources needed aren't finalized but also the groups you see right now are summer groups and the next update is going to have more fall gameplay, which includes entirely new guest groups with a different evening mechanic entirely.

View attachment 4651529

View attachment 4651536

2)Highlighted areas of the UI when there's trouble is a really reasonable suggestion, and you aren't the first to bring it up. The monster presence + resources + temperature are all things that I can do a better job reminding people to pay attention to. I'll definitely add either color or a little animation to those at some point.

3)Yeah companions are in early development and far from finalized. The chat button on the projects + companions pages not giving you anything feels really bad, because chatting with guests + lucy always gets you something. I completely agree and this is more a product of the game being alpha and feature incomplete than anything. But you can only give feedback on what you are playing, not what I'm intending, so I appreciate you bringing it up regardless. But I'll definitely expand on this as I can.

4)Bath scenes are coming, 100%. Just haven't had time to add them yet. Guest scenes are far less likely, but not impossible. Just very low priority because I have a lot of companion + lucy scenes left to add and I want to prioritize those. As for specifics like poses / actions during sex, I'll try to add more variety as I can. There are so many scenes left to add, and I'm still missing dialog in most of the scenes, just consider those heavily work in progress for now. The ability to stop sex early has been on my list of to do for a while, I'll try to get it added sooner rather than later.

Haha, I know most of this amounts to "coming soon!" but that's just how it is. I still love hearing the feedback ,and hopefully you got some answers here to your questions.
This all sounds excellent, looking forward to the next update
 

Crescens

Member
Aug 19, 2016
137
129
Just a random thought but what do you think of adding different scenes for the early game to spice it up?

Like random pervy scenes that could just pop up while you are grinding out the days. Not exactly sex scenes but something like an upskirt or maybe catch her going into the bath. This could be a way for you to incorporate the guests without having to write actual sex scenes for them.
 
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Soulcatch

Newbie
Game Developer
Sep 28, 2023
91
168
Just a random thought but what do you think of adding different scenes for the early game to spice it up?

Like random pervy scenes that could just pop up while you are grinding out the days. Not exactly sex scenes but something like an upskirt or maybe catch her going into the bath. This could be a way for you to incorporate the guests without having to write actual sex scenes for them.
Little things like this are easy to add. I have the framework for them, but just not a lot of content yet. Once I get more of the core systems fleshed out, I'll spend a lot of time adding polish, which will mean little scenes like that. Thanks for the suggestion!
 

Crescens

Member
Aug 19, 2016
137
129
Right now my only problem with the game is I've played through it three or more times and I find myself just skipping through days. So really anything that makes one day stand out from another would have a huge impact for me.

edit: Honestly it might also be in how I play the game where I kinda just buy stuff from the vendor rather than spending time cutting trees or what not.
 
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Jan 13, 2018
64
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Got to the end of the demo and the early game grind is killer. You need reputation/condition to get customers for more gold. But without gold, you can't buy materials needed to keep your inn in good condition. So until you save up enough gold to buy materials to maintain the inn, you're stuck with a crappy inn that doesn't attract customers and the few customers you're able to get don't pay much gold. Add on top of that the wood and food you need to get on the daily in order to keep up your daily activities, and you're juggling multiple dwindling resources as you're trying to raise your stats to be half competent in battle. The worst part is finally saving up enough materials to really start maintaining the inn only for no adventurers to show up and by the time you've been foraging for food after spending all your time repairing, the condition is back down to 0. Once you get to the point where you can do alchemy with Lucy, then you're finally able to get a decent source of income selling potions each weekend. Once you get past that initial hump and have your combat stats at least at 50, then it's smooth sailing but the grind just feels like a time tax before you're able really start enjoying the game. I really want to like this game more because the genre and gameplay loop is right up my alley but currently I just don't think it lives up to the hype.
 
Last edited:

keitaka

Newbie
Feb 5, 2019
63
38
Got to the end of the demo and the early game grind is killer. You need reputation/condition to get customers for more gold. But without gold, you can't buy materials needed to keep your inn in good condition. So until you save up enough gold to buy materials to maintain the inn, you're stuck with a crappy inn that doesn't attract customers and the few customers you're able to get don't pay much gold. Add on top of that the wood and food you need to get on the daily in order to keep up your daily activities, and you're juggling multiple dwindling resources as you're trying to raise your stats to be half competent in battle. The worst part is finally saving up enough materials to really start maintaining the inn only for no adventurers to show up and by the time you've been foraging for food after spending all your time repairing, the condition is back down to 0. Once you get to the point where you can do alchemy with Lucy, then you're finally able to get a decent source of income selling potions each weekend. Once you get past that initial hump and have your combat stats at least at 50, then it's smooth sailing but the grind just feels like a time tax before you're able really start enjoying the game. I really want to like this game more because the genre and gameplay loop is right up my alley but currently I just don't think it lives up to the hype.
in 1.11 i played a few weeks at 0 condition until my character was able to kill something.
 
4.90 star(s) 29 Votes