- Thread starter Erosion
- Start date
2021 and still can't believe this masterpiece is abandoned. Not gonna lie, best quality work I've seen on this website so far, too bad.
- May 11, 2017
- 3,109
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I remember playing this game when it first came out. I thought to myself, "Wow this game is amazing!" Such good renders and an interesting story and wanted to see where it was going. I like the choices in the game, and I thought it was going to be the next big thing. I thought this was going to be one of the top games for sure. This game was going to revolutionize adult gaming! Beautiful...
Flash forward a couple of years... I play the game one more time just for old times sake... In the meantime I got into game development myself. I have a different perspective on everything.
I have a much more critical eye...
If this was released like a week ago, and the developer was still on here.
I would say something like, "Nice demo, that is a good start of a game dude. Keep up the good work, looking forward to the next release. Also, avoid the rape and incest stuff. Take it down like right now and patch it right away or Patreon is going to bust your balls big time."
Developer is gone though... Like long gone missing 2 years. Whatever happened happened... It's clear the project is not going to continue and the developer has sort ghosted it. So I can be more critical as I'm not gonna fuck someones business. It's a post mortem situation here.
Kinda confused that Graphtron says it ended June 23rd 2020, but it still has 18 patrons like my game Damaged Goods does. I'll race you to 20!
The game hit $1,000 bucks in support in it's prime and that is imrpessive for a first release. This thing could be making $10,000+ now if it wasn't abandoned.
I noticed the developer was a team as they used "we" on more than one occasion when talking about the developer.
The bad:
I don't like that it doesn't have animations, and noticed a bit of grain on some of the images, but it's not that bad of grain and can be fixed in photoshop.
Another thing I didn't like about the game is that they show this school environment and meet this cast of school mates, but remember it's the last day of school. Realistically that environment and those people are gone even if the game did continue. It's like building a house just to burn it down.
Flash forward a couple of years... I play the game one more time just for old times sake... In the meantime I got into game development myself. I have a different perspective on everything.
I have a much more critical eye...
If this was released like a week ago, and the developer was still on here.
I would say something like, "Nice demo, that is a good start of a game dude. Keep up the good work, looking forward to the next release. Also, avoid the rape and incest stuff. Take it down like right now and patch it right away or Patreon is going to bust your balls big time."
Developer is gone though... Like long gone missing 2 years. Whatever happened happened... It's clear the project is not going to continue and the developer has sort ghosted it. So I can be more critical as I'm not gonna fuck someones business. It's a post mortem situation here.
Kinda confused that Graphtron says it ended June 23rd 2020, but it still has 18 patrons like my game Damaged Goods does. I'll race you to 20!
The game hit $1,000 bucks in support in it's prime and that is imrpessive for a first release. This thing could be making $10,000+ now if it wasn't abandoned.
I noticed the developer was a team as they used "we" on more than one occasion when talking about the developer.
The bad:
I don't like that it doesn't have animations, and noticed a bit of grain on some of the images, but it's not that bad of grain and can be fixed in photoshop.
Another thing I didn't like about the game is that they show this school environment and meet this cast of school mates, but remember it's the last day of school. Realistically that environment and those people are gone even if the game did continue. It's like building a house just to burn it down.
- Oct 20, 2019
- 2,023
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I disagree with you. Even if this game would come out today, it will be the top one in my list. A bit of grain isn't bad actually, it gives more depth to the image and it doesn't look too plastic or too photoshopped. The analog films in 35mm have a bit of grain and they still look better than the digital ones, for many people. Grain can be an aesthetic preference, not necessarily a flaw.
It's a matter of taste. The photographer in the following first photo only takes analog ones (with grain and almost no photoshop, that's part of her charming). That model, Alexis Ren, loves her work, she has tons of her photos in her instagram.
The second one is a photoshopped digital photo, that to my taste looks too artificial and plastic.
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About your other point, why doing an scenario for just one time is a bad thing? On the contrary, that gives it more production values. They tell what the story requires to be told and don't eliminate places and scenes just because it's easier using the same places several times.
Respecting the animations, the devs usually make animations only for the sex scenes, because it's more time consuming and that episode only had a blowjob by a side character.
Maybe it's not your intention, but you sound a bit cocky with your comment. Actually, more devs should learn from this VN, which uses cinematic techniques like montage: the order in which the images are presented taking the type of shots (long, medium, close-ups) into account. For example, the immersion and feelings that I got in the club scene when Eleanor meets and feels attraction for the mysterious girl, I haven't experienced it in any other VN in this site. I mentioned something about it here https://thef95zone.info/threads/high-life-ep-1-erosion.15637/post-3214185
This VN has also a top photography, I did an analysis here https://thef95zone.info/threads/high-life-ep-1-erosion.15637/post-3518833
If you say that you are not that impressed now, maybe because nowdays there are VNs with more realistic models, well the devs did another kind of renders after episode 1.
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- Jul 24, 2019
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- Jun 5, 2017
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I think the film grain actually gives it some charm. And it didn't need animations for what it had. In fact, animations might even break the sense of contemplation that permeates the chapter. And, I don't think animations add all that much to the experience relative to the effort required to build them.
In fact, I'd say that this was almost picture perfect in the synchrony of word and imagery. Not a single phrase wasted, not a single image unnecessary. Animations would have been superfluous at best, annoying at worst. The writing is so good that I wouldn't want the storytelling to break stride for some 3D model humping. It was most unfortunate that the team member to go down was the writer, because her work was what made this VN so compelling. I think the two guys who did the art knew that as well.
On the second point, there are implications that most of the schoolmates given significant screen time (the shy boy, the friends, the bad girl) were bound to resurface later.
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- Apr 14, 2019
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The fact that this game thread has nearly 100 pages of posts, for one release; and some from 2 years after it has been abandoned shows how much potential it had. Such a shame...and MC really reminded me of Emma from Hillside.
- Jun 5, 2017
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I think it was the writer that couldn't continue. And it was a game whose charm lay substantially in the writing.
- Jun 5, 2017
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Then it wouldn't be "High Life" anymore. Her writing was the heart and soul of the project.
Interesting. Personally, I thought the biggest reason why High Life was so well-received - was because of its astounding visuals. (The carefully framed scenes, the beautiful models, the wonderful lighting, etc.)
Of course, the writing played a very important role in it's success too. But (based just on what I had seen so far) I always thought it was the visuals which sealed the deal for everyone.
Hearing your opinion has now made me curious - which of the two really impressed everyone the most?
- Jun 5, 2017
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There are a ton of well-rendered games on this forum that are scripted by horrible to somewhat decent writers. Granted, the visuals for High Life are top notch, but the the reason the game ages so well, despite being abandoned, despite every other dev getting better and more powerful rendering tools in the time since, is the writing.
The gap between this and the best-rendered games on this site is small. One can even argue that the visuals have been surpassed by the top games here. But the gap in the writing between this and those games is as large as it has ever been. The only other game I've encountered here whose writing comes close is "A Summer's End", whose writing has garnered attention even outside this niche. But even that pales in comparison to what this could have been.
- Jan 14, 2018
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I think it's a tough call, but I would agree with Olivia_V above and say it's the writing, but only by a nose. However, I disagree that other games have "caught up" visually, at least from what I've seen - They have higher fidelity models now, sure, but I'd argue few games match the... I guess directorial efforts in setting up the overall scenes, and that's why the game looks good, beyond throwing more polygons or horsepower at the screen.Interesting. Personally, I thought the biggest reason why High Life was so well-received - was because of its astounding visuals. (The carefully framed scenes, the beautiful models, the wonderful lighting, etc.)
Of course, the writing played a very important role in it's success too. But (based just on what I had seen so far) I always thought it was the visuals which sealed the deal for everyone.
Hearing your opinion has now made me curious - which of the two really impressed everyone the most?
- Oct 22, 2017
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During their brief resurrection last year, the member of the team that communicated with me was Megan the writer. Just saying. IF it's still going then she's still a part of it. And yes, her writing is definitely one of the things that set this game apart, I think she was/is dedicated to telling a compelling story which happens to have sexual content, rather than the story being a means to an end to get to those sexual events.
- Jun 5, 2017
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No it wasn't. And I'm not taking seriously any recommendations in writing quality from someone who botches "run of the mill".
- Jun 5, 2017
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At least she's ok now. Yeah, I don't think it'd be the same game if they tried coming back without her.
I agree on the writing part, this was the first game on this site that I truly was interested in.
Such a shame it game was abandoned. Deep in my heart I still hold hope it would be revived and reach the promised potential someday.
Such a shame it game was abandoned. Deep in my heart I still hold hope it would be revived and reach the promised potential someday.