SBESTER'S PROFILE

I've been an active member for quite a few years now. I started my RMN career by releasing the Eden Legacy Trilogy of games (each entry took 4 months of nonstop work) within one year, and I've gradually shifted to creating other games as well. I now have 3 flagship series: Eden Legacy, Fragile Hearts, and Mafiosi (being remade for commercial release as Crime Opera). I'm pretty much solely focused on the Crime Opera series of visual novels right now, as my band and job currently take up most of my free time.

Currently working on
-Crime Opera Trilogy (Mafiosi 1, 2, & 3 edited, with all original resources)
-It's a secret...
Crime Opera II: The Floo...
The kids have grown up, and they're becoming quite dangerous.

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Surreality: Fabrication Of Time Review

Thanks for the review!

This game really was a mess, even I can admit that lol. While I spread development over a few months, I tried to make sure the actual development time (hours put in) amounted to roughly the same as Esoterica, much to its detriment as I didn't fully realize enough of... well, anything lol. I think everyone who tried it felt the same as you do. I'm also sure there's something else that can be done with the general idea, so maybe one day I can revisit that. We'll see!

Fragile Hearts 2: Shattered Dreams Review

Omg I need to log in here more often again, so sorry to have not seen these reviews til now!

Thanks so much for your feedback! It's still a dream of mine to revisit these and improve them taking all the suggestions I've received over the years and finally completing the trilogy. Unfortunately, Crime Opera has taken over all my free time, and it will still be a while yet before I'm able to come back to these. I do still have hope, however!

Esoterica: The Dreamlike Review

Holy, two reviews in one week! Feels like a resurgence of sorts!

Thanks so much for playing and reviewing! And apologies for the graphical problems. I was pretty lazy with those, admittedly, as I was under time constraints for the contest it was entered in. Still embarrassing to this day, however :P

Esoterica: The Dreamlike Review

Thanks for the download, playthrough, and review!

Admittedly, as a game, this one isn't great. I made it over the course of like a week or something for some event or contest, so the actual gameplay blows pretty hard lol. Glad you enjoyed the story though, as it was one I had had in my head for a while before making this. I think I originally planned to make it into a novella or something, but then this event came along and I figured I'd try some experimenting with it. I should really play this again and maybe rewriting it as a novella could actually happen.

There was a sort of follow-up/pseudo-sequel to this game called Surreality, although I must warn you it's twice as weird and by all accounts a worse game lol. It was based on a freaky dream I had, and shares some of the odd themes found in this game.

:)

Crime Opera: The Butterfly Effect Review

Thanks again! I've been eyeing up your game as well, looks pretty awesome. I will have to try it out.

I did have some help editing the sprites for the third game, as my buddy is a graphic designer. I contemplated having him edit ones from previous games later, but with the new versions coming it didn't seem like there was much of a point. I'll post some previews very soon :)

Crime Opera: The Butterfly Effect Review

Thanks so much for the review, and I'm glad you enjoyed it! I will be fixing up all of your points of criticism for the new editions next year, which will have original art and music as well as edited and additional material. I hope you enjoy the sequels even more :)

Rot: A Kinetic Novel Review

Kinetic Novel means there are no choices involved.

An Earthly Inheritance Review

Best review title ever.

Fragile Hearts 2: Shattered Dreams Review

Hmm, I guess some people just don't take criticism well. Comes with experience, methinks.

Basically, I'm taking notes from the Yakuza and Mass Effect games, where there's a main story that ends up being fairly linear (unlike FH2), but there will be a ton of sidequests that *actually* matter and will change different aspects of the game as you progress. I'll be sticking with 3 main towns and will rely less on boring, straightforward dungeons that I've been using in the past. Kinda Harvest Moony, I suppose? It's just conceptual right now, but I'll be sure to update as the game takes better shape.

Fragile Hearts 2: Shattered Dreams Review

Wow! I never expected such a detailed summary!

First of all, thanks so much for playing both of these games and reviewing them together. That looks like it was a lot of work! I probably would've just thrown down a big empty maze instead. Much easier ;)

I can't argue with you on any of these fantastic points. Partly because it's been quite a while since I played these gems (and I can't remember if any of it is true), and partly because it's a Saturday night, and that means I'm drunk. No, wait... it's coming back to me... yes, I can vaguely remember eating many dinners and desserts while mindlessly tapping the z button as I playtested these battles. I recommend playing them that way, actually, as it's quite convenient. Anyways, as I'm sure you're well aware, these were never meant to be brilliant 'games', but rather relied more on the comedic scenes to keep players invested. Humor being such a subjective thing, some people really like it, and some don't. It's unfortunate, but it's also the reason Dane Cook is somehow still allowed to exist, and I'm sure he's thankful for that. I understand that a lot of people saw the potential for them to be great 'games' as well, and so I have tried to continue improving aspects of both games every time I play through them.

I'm going about part 3 quite differently, and hope that it truly will elevate it to being a better gaming experience. It'll be more sandboxy, won't have the exhausting mutliple routes (which were the major reason for some of the lazy maps that you saw in FH2), but it will still incorporate your choices in interesting ways. It's also my intention to do another big update for FH2 and its problems that you listed when I do finally release the third game, whenever I get the time to do that. I'm pretty heavy into writing my Mafiosi series right now, but I have started yet another playthrough of these games in the hope that it'll inspire me to dive in to development. I think enough time has gone by that the jokes will be on the level of the first game again... either that, or I've lost my knack completely and the only real joke will be the game itself. Time will tell.

Thanks again!