Catching Fireflies
A downloadable game for Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android
"On a warm summer night, Isabella hears someone outside her window. It's Phineas, who has something special to show her."
A fanmade game of a Phinabella fanfic created by shopgirl152 on AO3. Go give it a read: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3240083
It's highly recommended to turn down the game's music volume before beginning to play, as for some reason, it's VERY loud
I created this game to help me learn a bit of coding. Turns out I got a bit carried away in the process. Always thought it would be fun to make a game, and it was!
Download
Install instructions
Should be as simple as download the file, locate the zip file in your computer's built-in search engine, and open up the zip. Now, there have been issues with opening the file from what I heard, so you may have to install something (like Ren'py) in order to play the game. Please let me know if you're having difficulties and I'll see if I can't solve the issue!
Comments
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a game with a trolly premise taken seriously, with a plot where nothing but the act of catching fireflies and then going home happens.
like. nothing happened. i was half-expecting dr doofenshmirtz to come along and fuck shit up, but i've seen both this and the fanfic that it was based off of: it's just uneventful. like that's not inherently bad, i like a lot of uneventful games, The Longing being an example of one. however, this was just... boring. It reminded me of Gerry, a movie where two dudes lost in a desert wander aimlessly for most of the time.
Catching Fireflies is the Gerry of visual novels.
plus like, i was expecting this game to be stealh satire, like what Nyan Neko Sugar Girls was, but... nah. this was serious. The artstyle, the dialogue adapted into fangame form, etc... No indication of satire was found. The soundtrack was oddly repetitive as well. like i can understand having motifs/lietmotifs, in-fact i'm a huge proponent of that, but it shouldn't be the same theme played in different forms.
no disrespect to the developer by the way, i'm sure they put a lot of effort into it, and i respect that. it's just.. wow.
4/10
I wanted to stay true to the fanfic I was creating this game off of, so I didn't take much creative liberties with the game's story. It's not meant to be a thriller or satire or whatever else you must've had in mind.
Considering I did most everything in the game, yeah I had re-used a lot of the same stuff because I didn't want to pour THAT MUCH time into one single project, especially since this was a passion project, not a monetized one. I had taken the melody from "What Might Have Been" and implemented it in the soundtrack as a sort of easter egg. far easier than producing an entire original score on my own.
This was never meant to be this five hour long, over the top and extravagant game. It was to help me practice coding, which I had stated in the description of the game. I ended up getting pretty far with the project, and decided to finish and share it.
This game doesn't pique your interest, I understand and respect that. I'm just confused why you would play the game likely already knowing you wouldn't enjoy it. it's meant for Phinabella fans that want a cozy, fluffy visual novel to play. The game is pretty self explanatory on what it is.
1. i'm not saying yo have to spend fucking days laboring over a single game. i'm not saaying that you have to be jon brion. i'm just saying: you should make the soundtrack not just the same theme repeated over and over again.
2. reviews shouldn't be only positive. i think that game developers should learn how to take constructive/negative critique, because it can help them grow as creatives. as long as they're civil, it's good critique.
1: I understand the soundtrack is "repetitive". As I said earlier, I didn't want to spend a long time creating an original score for a non-monetized game. You want more unique music but more unique music = more "days of labor." So do I spend more time on a soundtrack or not?
2: I was trying *not* to take your review offensive, and I can even agree with you on your music point. You are *slightly* teetering between constructive criticism and just downright negative commenting. Again, it seems like you're looking for something in this game that just isn't supposed to be there. I'm sure there's plenty other things that will appeal you. This isn't one of those things, and that's fine.
How nostalgic