Ren'Py - A Home in the Desert [v0.4.1] [Misarmor]

Great writing. This dev really knows how to bring these characters to life, and make an interesting story that isn't afraid to get a little silly at times.
Good graphics, both in environment and character models, for a Daz Ren'Py game.
Great niche of fetishes. It's not every day you see an incest-centric game, especially with a futa protag.
Speaking of, great protagonist. She manages to be a delightful pervert without being a total creep or sex criminal. Struck a great balance with this one.
As of 0.3, gameplay is uninteresting. This game seems to present itself as a mix of survival and management, but there's not much to manage at the moment, and what there is to do isn't thrilling gameplay.
Content is lacking.
Overall, there's not much to see here, but what there is is clearly high quality. The dev has skills and is evidently trying to make the most of them. I only hope they keep developing.

Perhaps, after reading the description and looking at the preview images, you will want to get acquainted with this project, but this is absolutely not worth doing. This game doesn't even deserve to be downloaded, let alone waste your time on it. There is absolutely nothing in this game except a bunch of bugs, and all the erotic content can be seen in the pictures on the main page of the game. Such a product should not be released even for an intro version, but, apparently, this game has been in development for quite a long time.

In a word - terrible.

This game reminds me a lot of another game - Starfield. Let's take a closer look at these projects.

1) Starfield completely lacks the spirit of space adventure, exploration, the feeling of a discoverer, instead there is a stinking bunch of uninteresting content generated by a neural network. Likewise, in Home in the Desert, instead of hot scenes, interesting heroines and situations, there is a stinking bunch of completely unnecessary game mechanics, parameters, some recipes, etc. Only this whole bunch was generated not by a neural network, but by a person, but this does not make the “bunch ” any less smelly.

2) Just as Starfield, which was created on an outdated game engine, is full of bugs, idiotic conventions and restrictions, so Home in the Desert is full of bugs due to the fact that the developer cannot properly balance and optimize all the garbage introduced them into the game.

3) Some Starfield fans claim that the game gets better after 10, 20, 100, 1000000001 hours of play and you should “just give the game a chance.” The situation is similar with Home in the Desert - the game has been in development for more than a year, but it is still ABSOLUTELY empty, and the developer keeps urging us to wait “a little more” until he introduces a couple more game mechanics, mini-games, meaningless events, etc. and then of course he will add erotic scenes - ONE, or maybe EVEN TWO!!!!! In a word: give the game a chance!

4) Completely disappointed expectations. In Starfield, instead of an exciting adventure, we got a dummy, with similar locations, the same type of quests, an uninteresting main plot and poor dialogues. The situation is similar with Home in the Desert, we are offered a lot of uninteresting activities, culinary recipes, stupid mini-games (I wonder if the developer will add a mini-game for cleaning the toilet?), but there is nothing for what we actually play porn games.

This is all very sad. Perhaps over time this review will lose relevance and the developer will fulfill all his promises (the likelihood of this is EXTREMELY SMALL!): wincest, pregnancies, futa relationships and much more, but for now the rating is only 1, it’s a pity that a 0 rating is not provided.

This has a lot of potential but currently it is extremely bare bones... The story, setting and characters are interesting but there isn't much content... And whatever content there is, is very spread out because of which the game feels very empty... I believe as the development progresses and more content is introduced, the game will become very good, but right now the game does feel barren like a home in the desert...

Review [v0.3a]

Pros (technically):

• Amazing arts in geral;
• It has some interesting game mechanics, such as the food purchase system and the house's climate control system.

Pros (personal):

• Good plot;
• Characters' personalities are good, especially the MC's;
• Futanari MC big dicked xD.

Cons:

• Few characters;
• Difficult to understand what to do if you skip some important part of the dialogue;
• Although the system of buying food is interesting, I felt a great difficulty in consolidating the missions and keeping the fridge full;
• The story is still very short the development of the game is progressing in short steps.

Recommendations:

• Improve the food system. Something can be added that warns that a specific type of food is missing from the fridge, or else a recipe showing the food routine of each member of the family;
• It's easy to see the author's ambition in not wanting to do just another VN. But perhaps this ambition is holding back the game's development too much. So far there isn't 1 sex scene... I hope the author manages to develop the story more, or the negative reviews will continue.

Game is not what i would consider playable at the moment. Its a fun concept, and it has potential, but what you already have clearly needs a lot of work.

Got an instant game over even though I basically bought two of everything at the shop. pretty sure you can make sandiwches from bread, butter and meat...

Dev needs to take a step back, look at the most important content and then build outwards from that. Otherwise he's going to head down a spiral leaving everything broken.

Im going to add this to the watchlist for now, just because i like the concept and renders, but I doubt i'll be back in a long while.

The game has a lot of power, with good renders and character design, but that's it, the gameplay is confusing, boring and has many bugs, it puts a bugfix that from what people say didn't fix anything, almost half a year for an update which brought almost nothing if not nothing of interesting content because the dev focused on making the sandbox mechanics and managing which, as I said before, have many bugs, are confusing and do not attract attention at all, so let's remember that this is supposed to be a porn game.

maybe in the future I decide to raise the rating but for now it is not worth wasting time and patience on this

Played v0.3.

Saw the bad scores and thought, man it cant be that bad the renders look pretty good. I'll just cheat the system and beef up my characters stats and inventory.

Nah, the gameplay is still really bad. The mechanics feel unclear and or buggy. The sandbox events are too brief and uninteresting.

I only leave this review in the hopes the dev does a drastic change in direction, stops overcomplicating the gameplay. And just let the game be what it looks like it should be.

i'll revisit this in the future if it does a rehaul of its mechanics. I'll leave 3 stars only for the character design and renders. Also appreciate the use of sound, decent selections there.

Update: Played a newer version with some sex scenes and a clearer outline of the cooking mechanic. It's starting to come together better, but hope they don't rely on dream scenes too much. Raised to 4 stars.

v0.3

An ambitious game when it comes to gameplay. Renders are pretty good tied with the few teasing content currently available. UI and gameplay will continue to need polishing but if done to completion it can be a fun game.


judging the game as it is right now. as development progresses, the rating will be updated if need be

Gameplay
it's understandable dev wants to build the foundation before anything else. it's more future-proof and also is the bulk of the work apart from rendering.

• the game heavily incorporates stats which influence characters and outcomes
  • the roll checks further this mechanic into some probability which insists you grind/increase stats
• while i enjoy having startup perks to customise your character, and also appreciate the flavour text next to each stat; if these perks are consequential to a fun playthrough then there needs some concise info on each stat of how it affects gameplay before you know which perk you want
• the management side of the game (upkeeping morale via cooking and regulating house temperature) still requires further development before thoughtful judgement can be made
  • as it is right now; it just showcases a sample of what it has to offer on gameplay
• a good bit of placeholders, some being:
  • the end of day summary mentions that the girl took a bath, which adds to their morale, though there is no management of this feature
  • the lust and energy bar being unaffected in the HUD
• Mini events merges short sweet sexy moments with roll checks
• The Riley bathroom minigame takes too long but is hot fun feature though it will lose its appeal after the second replay if it's always the same

Writing
dev promises to focus more on this along with sexy scenes in next version so what is currently existing is next to none

• the story is built into the quests you get, survival being a main theme but also some other interesting character specific stories tied in
  • most quests have the "In development" text next to it so currently there isn't anything to sink your teeth into except for the beginning of your mom's backside backstory
• small bits of extra humour
  • reading Alice's bookmarks... looking at you "amouranth farts"
  • calling a retirement home "Last Stop"
• characters yet to be explored
  • a futa protag amongst normal girlsis interesting from a writing standpoint. Alice (MC) being the only futa offers loads of interesting family dynamics, some already featured:
    • she's called "Mustang" by her mom
    • Riley teases her and seems use to her sis' futa cock (not much scenes to base this on though)

Visuals and Sound
the dev has the renders on lock - quality 3dcg and music

• the lighting in this game really makes the space and characters worthy of looking at
• considering the work put into designing the house, the walls look way too pristine for a rundown abode
• the girls are well designed and unique enough
• a lot of music, some sound like originals
  • personally like the soothing evening music
• some sfx included when it makes sense

Content
the bane of this version lol and also what, to a great extent, makes the game average right now

• not much sexy stuff currently
  • what's there is pretty good in the form of teasing but so short
    • coupled with the amazing lighting
  • current content involves (in descending order): Angelina (mom), Riley (older sister)
• having the management side (for now, temperature) affect how the girls present themselves is immersive and (figuratively and literally) hot
  • even though the weather affects what the girls wear, there is a lack of sweat on their skin
  • the textures on their warm weather outfits looks lower quality too
• tags worth mentioning:
  • baked in incest, ogling and voyeurism,
  • futa on female down the road, and hints of old bastard corruption

Other

• UI design - menu pages and tutorial screens (all the damn arrows) look tacky compared to the polished 3d rendered images
  • a UI update from an artist could solve this
• if this is a house in the middle of nowhere, having the girls missing randomly and reappearing for some hours breaks immersion. hopefully with developments they can fill each hour but at least for now, some sort of illusion of presence would be good
  • suggestion: whether it's in writing or unclickable images of the girls in the various rooms, heck even a locked door, would solve this
  • characters only appear if you go shopping so you should force this quest as you would get game over anyways without shopping

The game gives good samples in all aspects but lacks the content to validate it currently.
Gameplay being a huge part of this is still in the works, and there are more interesting features yet to be added, along with the lack of substantial story/lewd content is concerning as each requires it's own time.

Alas if dev pulls it off, the sky is the limit when it comes to story and sexy content:

Other major suggestions:

• a way to record and get to know what each girl requires for their morale, e.g. Eve (butch aunt) doesn't find spaghetti fulling - it would be useful to have that info available in some immersive (through interaction) as well as the UI info on the girls (their character page) being updated as you learn about them or have it there already since MC already knows (some of) them
• make Eve optional

Practically zero sexual content, UI does not reset when starting a new game or even deleting all saves. Unlimited ways for game to crash. You gotta give something to look forward to besides the MC just jerking themselves off

There isn't much content here right now, but there is some real promise.
A futa protagonist with hints of some management sim coming later. Two of my favorite things.

The models look good and the story looks like it could go somewhere interesting.

Keeping an eye on this one and looking forward to more content and updates!

At the current stage of the game, I can only give this game 2 stars.
The 2 stars are for the renders and for the potential f the game.
Why 2 stars? The game play isn't very intuitive. The first quest itself almost made me quit and delete the game and looking at the game thread, I was not the only one.
Also too much time doing nothing. Simply clicking on the clock to advance time. It doesn't help that many things are "under development" or "not implemented" when you click on them.
The Dev should've developed and fleshed out more of the game before releasing it
The MC's horse dick is also rather ridiculous. IMO it takes away from the game

Terribly confusing house to navigate only to find there are next to no scenes in the game. There is a quest log that tells you to go places but they are hard to find as nothing is labelled and you essentially have to scroll over every pixel of the image hoping to find something new you can interact with. At least give the options outlines or something. Took way too long to find the basement as you would have no reason to assume the trigger to go outside is in the corner of the living room as they don't even give you a hint the only entrance to the basement is from outside or that there is even a door leading outside from the living room. It's all just way too confusing just trying to navigate the house so it doesn't give me high hopes that they'll make an enjoyable sandbox game. Wish this was just a VN.

Edit: Just played for another 20 minutes and still haven't found a single scene. The only thing I could possibly have left is to have breakfast with my sisters but for some reason the option to join them is grayed out. No explanation or anything of course. Can't seem to find them at any other time or figure out what I can do to continue. Don't waste your time on this mess.

[v0.3.1] Your family is down on its luck. You're forced to move to a rundown home in the desert as it's all you can afford. With your mother, your two sisters, and your aunt all needing support, it is decided that you should be in charge of the household finances and strategies. Guide the family so you can climb out of poverty. Oh, you also have a penis and hyper active sex drive and want to fuck all your family members. Should be easy, right?

This game has gorgeous visuals and spectacular models for the women. The characters are varied but are all VERY sexy. The MC is hung and cute and you want to help her fuck her family. This game is fantastic with its setup, kinky tone, and fantastic visuals.

HOWEVER, the gameplay is open world and extremely grindy, You spend almost every day 'working' on the laptop in your room with very little character interaction. You have to purchase individual ingredients to make several meals for the family every day. You have to monitor the heating and cooling systems of the house every day. Every family member has stats that need to be maintaned. Actions of the MC are decided by 'random' dice rolls and stat balancing for stats you are not told how to control or increase. The game design is a MESS.

To make matters even worse, the development is SLOW. I think I played the first version almost a year ago and played it again now, and they only added ONE MORE SEX SCENE (which was a dream ffs). Guess all the development is going into designing and implementing more features to waste the player's time and grind the story to a halt.

What an incredible waste of talent! This game will be great some day, but at this rate it won't be for several years (and with mods that streamline the game!)

5 because this game has extreme potential, needs more content tho (and fast, please)

Models are great,
Setup is great,
Only 1 dick in scene (so far),
Player was introduced into awesome collectable system,
Main character is fighting hers lust therefore player is slowly introduced into more erotic/sexual content and I love sexual tension,
Also - humor - light, funny, potent

Idk, I like everything except the fact that there is no content

EDIT: one could argue that player is "slowly" introduced into sexual content, but I love the environment when characters are unaware how sexual or indecent they look, like poking nipples and so on. And they act normally, like they didn't notice. But still feel shame in some more vivid sexual situations

EDIT EDIT: I've struggled a lot to find the attic, seems like others did so too. So I can understand why people put bad rating for that, but it's really good anyway. Still waiting fot the update, btw

This game is at an early stage, but I very much like the ideas and the renders. Also the dev is quite active here and seems to work hard on his project. I'm really looking forward to future updates, very promising!

Pros- Great models, good core to it, great writing as well,

Cons- just needs more scenes and make getting to content less complicated, but I think that issue is mostly just because it's early on in development.

The renders are very nice and I especially like the look of the protag. The quest system and bone of the the game are however quite shaky. The quest system is obtuse with very little info and being purposefully vague. Finding items you will need is annoying because you can't pick them up or interact with them until you fin out exactly what you need to do with them forcing you to backtrack. I was super annoyed to find out that there was literally nothing to do except spam the +1h button 500 times until a week passed.

Good bones. Like the models. Running around blindly trying to find out what you have to do next is not fun. Hovering over everything to see if you missed a highlighted point is not fun. A lot of work left to be done

I'd like to give this a good review but in it's current state (0.2d) I cant.

That one click-map is too hard to find. It doesn't cover the thing you'd expect to be clicking on and most of it is covered up by the UI anyway - could this be a resolution issue? 16:9 vs 16:10?
When you find the item that you need, the game could easily give a hint as to where you need to go rather than saying "I don't need this right now", which is a hint in the WRONG direction. Also, when you're outside, you can't see the place you need to go! That could be another good point to place a hint, like you can hover over it and the MC goes "I wonder how I can go there".

It seems I can't continue playing after finding the letter because the game errors once I open the inventory.

I also don't like the long forced (mostly uninteresting) sequences that you can't easily skip through.

The renders are good, the MC looks interesting, but without some basic QoL this game is currently unplayable.

Edit: I extracted the game files and there doesn't seems to be a whole lot more content than the intro and exploring the house; no H-scenes certainly.