Ren'Py A Family Venture [v0.09 V1 Beta] [WillTylor]

[-CookieMonster666-]

I just started playing the game from this update. Overall I quite like it! But I find the structure of the game pretty confusing. A lot of times I had no idea how to trigger certain events even when looking at the walkthrough or other people's comments on the forums.

Eventually I just dug into the script and figured it out for myself. Certain events advance the plot, increasing a variable called Progress. Events are often tied to Progress and don't appear unless that's high enough. The problem is that there is zero indication at what things increase progress and what doesn't.

What that ends up with is that we have a sandbox structure with multiple girls, and the player might want to go after their favorite one only to find that they can't actually get anywhere no matter how high they raise affection or submission because to you need to do another event with another character first.

I feel like the easiest way to make this more clear is just change the in game hint system to label all the events that are REQUIRED to advance the plot as "Main Quest" or something along those lines, just a simple indicator to the player that it's important.

Everyone is different ofc, but I never found this to be as difficult as you describe. There have only been a few events — fewer than 5 I think — where I didn't figure it out on my own, and I have not gone into the code at all. I only looked here and found the answers that I didn't find on my own. Plus, the developer and others who know the game much better than I are on this forum. So I'm not sure why you weren't able to find the answers you wanted, but you can always post here to ask specific questions.

 

[Puddihaha]

Question: Am I the only one who can't see this scene in Sidneys gallery? I tried lock/unlock gallery with the phone, and changed NTR/Loyalty route but no difference. What scene is this? How do I unlock it? (all other scenes are there) thanks

 

[-CookieMonster666-]

Question: Am I the only one who can't see this scene in Sidneys gallery? I tried lock/unlock gallery with the phone, and changed NTR/Loyalty route but no difference. What scene is this? How do I unlock it? (all other scenes are there) thanks

View attachment 2143991

That's the scene where Jacky comes into the MC's room and almost catches him and Sydney in bed together. Jacky says a grown woman shouldn't go to her brother for protection. I don't remember which option it is, but either defending Sydney or letting her have it is probably the trigger for that. Here's how it will look once you have that:

 

[badwolf716]

please help. i already have the ball gag.

but still keeps telling me i cant start photoshoot without ball gag.

 

[WillTylor]

please help. i already have the ball gag.

but still keeps telling me i cant start photoshoot without ball gag.

Will you dm me your save so I can take a look?

 

[KlausTheHybrid]

How the hell is that possible.

 

[-CookieMonster666-]

Cum naiba este posibil asta. View attachment 2144440

In English?

 

[Knewclear]

In English?

How the hell is that possible.

 

[chipsiup]

Everyone is different ofc, but I never found this to be as difficult as you describe. There have only been a few events — fewer than 5 I think — where I didn't figure it out on my own, and I have not gone into the code at all. I only looked here and found the answers that I didn't find on my own. Plus, the developer and others who know the game much better than I are on this forum. So I'm not sure why you weren't able to find the answers you wanted, but you can always post here to ask specific questions.

That's... not good game design? The game shouldn't need you to go to an external forum in order to figure out how to advance the plot.

Take for example the thing I was stuck at. I didn't know how to actually get to actual sex scenes with Sid. I had already done all of the park events, but I couldn't go anywhere further with her. I know there's a scene at the club with "Charlie the Chin" but it wouldn't come up for me no matter how many times I visit the club. I was quite stuck, searching the forum didn't help either.

Eventually I figured it out after looking at the code, the "Charlie the Chin" event won't happen unless Mandy and Camille have moved into the house, and them moving into the house is dependent on some other events being finished first. So the thing I was interested in, actual sex with Sydney, was gated behind various other events, and I had no way of intuiting that.

 

[xapican]

Cum naiba este posibil asta. View attachment 2144440

In English?

With Anorexia and not using "cheap Toilet paper holders"

 

[-CookieMonster666-]

That's... not good game design?

I think it depends entirely on what the developer intended for the game. This particular part could have been made clearer, that's possible. However, saying the game design is poor based on the fact that you didn't figure something out yourself is obviously an assessment colored by your experience. "Good" is a subjective term, especially since you don't know how the game's design compares with what the developer intended it to be. And given that most of the time I was (and others also were) able to follow along just fine, the data suggests something other than the point you've tried to make.

The game shouldn't need you to go to an external forum in order to figure out how to advance the plot.

Whether or not this happens can't just be boiled down to any specific individual figuring something out. So a crossword puzzle is poorly designed because finding one word out is dependent on having already discovered another before it? Is a murder mystery game poorly designed because it wasn't painfully obvious who the criminal is before the denouement? Players are always going to have varying levels of analytical thinking, attention to detail, tolerance for putting one task on hold to handle other tasks for a while before returning to what's been unfinished.

In the specific example you gave, I would argue that might instead be less effective playstyle. When you couldn't get a particular event to trigger, did you continue to bang your head against the wall to figure it out rather than moving on to other things? For the record, I'm not criticizing your playstyle. I'm just saying that a difference in how we approach things in a game might be a greater contributor to the difficulties in moving the game forward. Eventually Camille and Mandy do show up, and then the event you weren't able to get would have become available.

Additionally, generally if a particular event isn't triggering, it's always possible there's a bug. Bugs usually don't have to do with game design but something else entirely, such as a forgotten reference to a variable / trigger or even a typo (e.g., giving the wrong variable or label name).

So the thing I was interested in, actual sex with Sydney, was gated behind various other events, and I had no way of intuiting that.

Broadly speaking, if you can't get an event to happen, I think the most logical conclusions are: (1) not enough variations in how to trigger it have been attempted; (2) the event happening is contingent on other progress elsewhere being made first; and (3) there might be a bug somewhere stopping the event from triggering.

 

[-CookieMonster666-]

With Anorexia and not using "cheap Toilet paper holders"

I see. Well, I disagree with the anorexia bit, and I think the toilet paper holder is clear to anyone who knows basics of physics and the quality of the holders IRL.

 

[macacodocrime]

How the hell is that possible. View attachment 2144440

She doesn't believe in the laws of physics!

 

[strenif]

The event tracker system certainly could use improving. There are a few spots in the story that are common tripping points for the type of players who want to rush through everything. At some point it'll get reworked but not right now.

 

[Havik79]

How the hell is that possible.

Spoiler

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OK let me see if I am understanding this, you play as (let's be honest) a 15-year-old male, with a 12-inch cock, fucking your (again honest) 16 and 14 sisters, and you are being blackmailed by a female cop, who is spying on your family thanks to you spying on them, your also sexually involved with the cop even though you hate her, your fucking another (being honest) 14-year-old cheerleader, your getting handjobs and eating your mums pussy will end up fucking her, getting handjobs, blowjobs, boobjobs from your aunt, your cousin is encouraging you to corrupt your aunt, who she is also molesting with you, your sister in her sleep, sexually active with you, will end up fucking said cousin, your aunt and mother are anal freaks, and every female in your family is a massive squirter, and your question of disbelief is a tiny girl standing on a toilet roll holder.

 

[strenif]

Just going to say it again.

Ryan is 19 and I'm pretty sure it's around 9 inches actually if this DAZ measuring addin is right. He's not that tall so it looks bigger.

Lauren, Mandy and Megan, are in their senior year of highschool and are 18.

Sidney came home from collage and is 21

This isn't a wink wink sort of thing. That's the ages. No patch, no age selector. Ages 18, 19 and 21.

Jacky would be in her 40s. Cami's age has never been addressed.

 

[TommyTuba]

How the hell is that possible.

OK let me see if I am understanding this, you play as (let's be honest) a 15-year-old male, with a 12-inch cock, fucking your (again honest) 16 and 14 sisters, and you are being blackmailed by a female cop, who is spying on your family thanks to you spying on them, your also sexually involved with the cop even though you hate her, your fucking another (being honest) 14-year-old cheerleader, your getting handjobs and eating your mums pussy will end up fucking her, getting handjobs, blowjobs, boobjobs from your aunt, your cousin is encouraging you to corrupt your aunt, who she is also molesting with you, your sister in her sleep, sexually active with you, will end up fucking said cousin, your aunt and mother are anal freaks, and every female in your family is a massive squirter, and your question of disbelief is a tiny girl standing on a toilet roll holder.
View attachment 2145621

Very funny!

 

[-CookieMonster666-]

Just going to say it again.

Ryan is 19 and I'm pretty sure it's around 9 inches actually if this DAZ measuring addin is right. He's not that tall so it looks bigger.

Lauren, Mandy and Megan, are in their senior year of highschool and are 18.

Sidney came home from collage and is 21

This isn't a wink wink sort of thing. That's the ages. No patch, no age selector. Ages 18, 19 and 21.

Jacky would be in her 40s. Cami's age has never been addressed.

Yeah, I get that often in adult games the reality is that the actually 14-year-olds are claimed to be 18-year-olds, but I never felt like that with this game. The ages are specified, as you say; it's not being used as a way to circumvent censorship. Just judging by appearance alone, I'd say Sydney would be at least 19, and Lauren, Mandy, and Megan would be at a minimum 16. While some are not specified,

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shows many 16-year-olds who look younger than the girls in the game. I'm surprised with how often people make assumptions based on appearance generally, age being a common mistake.

 

[strenif]

Yeah, I get that often in adult games the reality is that the actually 14-year-olds are claimed to be 18-year-olds, but I never felt like that with this game. The ages are specified, as you say; it's not being used as a way to circumvent censorship. Just judging by appearance alone, I'd say Sydney would be at least 19, and Lauren, Mandy, and Megan would be at a minimum 16. While some are not specified,

You must be registered to see the links

shows many 16-year-olds who look younger than the girls in the game. I'm surprised with how often people make assumptions based on appearance generally, age being a common mistake.

The dev's theory is all the movies and TV shows have teenagers played by actors in their 20s. So our perception of what an 18yo actually looks like is pretty warped. Take the girl from Slither

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If you told people she was 18 here they'd say 'ya that seems right'
But she was 24 when she filmed this scene.

 

[Bunny-Hunter]

Full save available or gallery unlocker?