Recent reviews by Tinker Jet

Okay, so to be clear, I highly recommend this program, but make no mistake: it is a learning curve and some things may make it more complicated for someone with zero background in coding/programming so I will be brief.

~ CONS ~

THE DOCUMENTATION IS OUTDATED AND POORLY WRITTEN.
While there are a few good tutorials sporadically throughout and reading through will still give you a basic understanding of how to use the program, a lot will need to be figured out yourself. YouTube video tutorials have largely been my saving grace, but my butt had to be saved at least once by a programmer friend who was able to apply their logic to solve a problem I was facing.

WHILE NO PROGRAMMING IS REQUIRED TO USE VN MAKER, UNDERSTANDING BASIC CONCEPTS WILL HELP YOU.
Visual Novel Maker relies a lot on certain programming logic flows, so understanding conditionals (if, else, else if), variables (numbers, text, very basic math), and switches (*cough*booleans*cough*) will actually be useful.

IF YOU WANT TO WORK FROM ANOTHER COMPUTER, YOU WILL REQUIRE A DIFFERENT CLOUD SOLUTION.
Steam will not save or auto-save your work so you'll need to incorporate other solutions. Personally, I use Dropbox because I like how it syncs my work to multiple devices at once.

YOU WILL RUN INTO BUGS.
Thankfully, the developer has been very responsive, but some things take longer to address than others and this can be frustrating.

~ PROS ~

VN MAKER COMES WITH ITS OWN ASSETS, WHICH CAN BE USED FOR COMMERCIAL RELEASES, FOR FUN, OR JUST AS PLACEHOLDERS WHILE YOU CREATE OR WAIT ON THE FINAL ASSETS.
Unfortunately, I struggled to even get started in other visual novel creators, not necessarily because they're overly complicated, but they tend to come entirely bare bones and then rely on you to have all of your assets (even if you're using placeholders) ready to go. Thankfully, Visual Novel Maker comes with its own assets. I don't intend to use many (if any) of the assets that come with it in the final product, but having placeholders that you can switch out quickly once you're ready means that you can just jump in and start creating. You will get a good idea of how your story will flow just from having everything ready for you.

IF YOU ARE HIGHLY VISUAL, THEN YOU WILL BENEFIT FROM THE LIVE PREVIEWS.
Assuming you have all of your own assets ready for another program, you will hit another snag. The vast majority of your workflow will most likely be inside a text document which, in my case, only serves to slow the creative process down. It might be worth noting I'm not a total stranger to this type of workflow since I've worked with HTML and CSS, but Visual Novel Maker gains an immediate advantage in that it's able to play back my work without me having to export it constantly.

VN MAKER SUPPORTS ANIMATION.
While Visual Novel Maker isn't the only visual novel creator that supports animation, it's the only one that I've been able to find that doesn't require a subscription, DLC, or overly complicated workarounds to use the feature.

YOU WILL HAVE MANY EXPORTING OPTIONS!
Platforms that can be exported to are: Windows, MacOS, Linux Ubuntu, SteamOS, HTML5 (web), Android, and iOS, which is a big deal if you want to reach the widest possible audience.

TL;DR:
While it isn't without problems, I can unambiguously say that it is the best currently available.

A worthy sequel of To The Moon.

A Bird Story is the next entry in line from To The Moon, except instead of playing from the doctors' perspective, you're playing from the patient's.

Understandably, this gives this game a different feel. There are no puzzles to solve or things to look for within the levels and you are quite literally guided or forced down paths. (To The Moon was linear, but there was still some poking around to be done along with simple puzzles to solve.) This makes it feel more like an interactive movie.

That said, it does focus on a mechanic we became familiar with near the end of To The Moon, which was the world changing and rearranging around the patient and the patient going on interacting with their new environment. It makes the game fascinating in certain ways.

Story-wise, it starts with a young boy going through the motions of daily life. This makes the beginning feel a little tedius, but then he finds a bird with an injured wing and delights in taking care of it. It sounds cheesy (and it is), but it makes for a lovely little piece that can be finished in about an hour.

Personally, I had to be in the right mood to enjoy this game. (I hated it the first time, but enjoyed it the second.)

If you're planning on going in with the standard set by To The Moon, don't. You'll be disappointed by default. Otherwise, I do recommend giving it a fair shot.

Another To The Moon holiday special that adds meat to the series we love.

Here, it's implied that Neil has personal problems and Eva's family provides a little support for the holiday.

There are ominous occurrences throughout and a fascinating twist at the end.

Given that it's free, you can't go wrong.

Since it's a holiday special, it takes the form of an office Christmas party and the shenanigans that ensue.

It's reflective, but also easy-going.

Given that it's free, you can't go wrong.

At its heart, it's a story first and a game second, but that's nowhere close to being a bad thing.

You have to gather memories, solve a few simple puzzles, and use momentos to connect the past and present of your patient, an elderly man on his deathbed.

You piece it together as you go backwards. You know how it ends, but the journey is one of incalculable joy and abject misery backed by a loving soundtrack.

It has a few bugs here and there, but they are not game-breaking by any stretch of the imagination.

I would recommend this game to everyone who doesn't have a void where their heart should be.

I truly feel that I got the most out of this game because I played the original as well. (It's available as a free download. The graphics are quite outdated, but it was still a charming piece to experience for what it is.)

In Octodad: Dadliest Catch, you play an octopus dad looking out for his human wife and children. You will perform everyday tasks with difficult controls.

Pros:
- Awesome music.
- Sweet, heartwarming story with good writing.
- Good voice acting.
- Fun cartoon graphics.
- The controls are wonky on purpose, but once you learn the mechanics, the game becomes much easier to breeze through. I left this under Pros because it adds a worthwhile comedic element to the game. (It's not a shooter; you don't need tight controls.)

Neutrals:
- Most characters don't actually have all that much depth, though given the scope of the game, I don't see why that would be an issue.
- It's a short game.
- You likely won't require a walkthrough to finish it.

Cons:
- You'll probably want to murder the game during the initial learning curve.

Okay, I'll be honest: I screwed up. I had just finished the magnificent game, "Papers, Please", and was looking for something dystopian and interesting with a story to tell.

I did not get that with this game. That's my problem; no one else's.

That said, it is very good for what it is. The puzzles require a lot of observation, trial, and error. The game's graphics are simple and I didn't run into any glitches while I played. That works out in the game's favour for obvious reasons. (No one likes glitches, okay?) It even had nice music to accompany it.

If you just want to farm achievements, you can also do that very quickly with this game and a walk-through.

Would I recommend it? That's tough to say. I generally enjoy puzzles, but didn't find myself invested in this game while I played.

TL;DR:

If you're looking for something similar to "Papers, Please", you won't find it here.

If you're looking for some intricate puzzling, then you certainly will.

If you want to be an achievement hoarder, then here you go.

I have been a huge fan of The Sims since childhood. I know a lot of people call The Sims 3 bland but for me, it rarely gets bland. There are still a lot of bugs that need sorting out, but the game is still fun for what it is.

I just started playing this game the other day. Initially, I started playing it because I wanted the Achievement associated with it but then, after I got the Achievement, I realized that I couldn't stop playing.

An absolute gem is this game as you go on psychedelic adventures whilst playing the role of the sarcastic (and fun) yet hard-working Razputin.

+ The voice acting is good.
+ The music is good.
+ The gameplay is excellent.
+ The writing is witty.
+ The concept is unique.
+ You won't get bored.
+ You'll actually get a full-length game for the cost, not a game that'll be over in an hour or two.

Down side:

- If I could murder the camera, I would.