No, it's not really optional because if you don't do it you miss out on content and quick scenes. The game CLEARLY tells you to learn how to cook. Correct? So. Any content that has scenes or even quick pics is NOT optional. If you don't do it, you miss out on content. So, the cooking is not really optional. Not imo. The cooking just needs to be simplified is all. For example, have the recipe on screen at the store, click on the recipe and it puts all the food for that recipe in your cart to make it so you don't have to buy everything individually. Done. Easy.
I'll see what I can do about that.
One example. At the beginning when it says to explore the house, it doesn't say "Go Look for the Attic". I wandered around over and over and never found the attic, so did not know what to do. I only read about it on here to find out about it. I don't want to set clicking over every area of places to find what I am supposed to find. The game should tell you exactly.
This one actually infuriates me. The first screen you're ever greeted with when going out of your bedroom tells you exactly where to click, with a big dotted circle and a big arrow pointing at it:
Sorry but if you still can't find the attic after that, there's nothing more I can do for you. Except maybe color the arrow in red.
The screen needs the player to click a "continue" button, too. So you *actively* have to ignore the message to not know where to click... So for that one, I'm at loss. If you know what I'm doing wrong please share, but I'm *not* making the font any bigger
The masturbation in bed scene for example. You cant click to progress it, you have to set and watch the animation. That's the kind of thing I am talking about. What I suggest is that you have the animation going but also have text clickable for conversation while the animation is going. Many other renpy games do that and it works better.
Yes, this is probably due to the fact that I make "pseudo" animations, not animations. I code those pseudo-animations (which are basically 3 renders) in a very basic and barbaric way, and I'll probably improve that system in the future.
Furthermore, if people have to rely on mods to make the game enjoyable, because this game is much better with the 3 mods available, then the mods should be part of the game already. Just simply give people the choice to turn them off or on. Playing a game is something people do for fun. Fun being the key word here.
The 3 mods that I know about are the infinite money one, the not time-skip work one, and the gallery mod. I'm assuming you're refering to those 3.
Currently you don't need more than the starting hundred bucks to see all the events. The players are not supposed to guess that, so I can see why someone would grind in hopes to keep the mood up and see more events, that's fair.
One I failed to see though was the fact that players would be worried to miss events as they were working on the computer and time was passing.
This was actually pointed out to me by Spanky himself IIRC, who made that mod. This is actually not possible to miss events while working, as important event that are scheduled with trigger automatically on their schedule even if you're working, and other events you can just trigger regularly by talking to characters.
It's hard to guess those things from the player's point of view when you're the dev, so that's where actually good, constructive feedback helps. Sadly on here I rarely (not never!) get this constructive feedback, and some people will even reduce their feedback as low as 2 words (and feel smart afterwards).
The gallery mod is an obvious net positive of course, but it's not something I can just poop out. It requires time to make, and I just haven't had time to make it yet. Spanky has actually been kind enough to take from his own time to make it. Maybe I'll link it in along with 0.4 when it's ready, and if Spanky is generous enough to update it. Or maybe I'll update it myself. Who knows.
