Ren'Py - A Home in the Desert [v0.4.5] [Misarmor]

A Home in the Desert [v0.4.5]]
You play as a Futa MC navigating the responsibilities of adulthood while living with a hot wincest family in the middle of nowhere, with a boner meter.

Gameplay and Mechanics
Game is a grindfest, work for a day to make enough to shop and cook for a day and manage the fucking heating of the house. Is this my life simulator? I want a porn game lmao.
Mechanics like cooking and recipes are just unnecessary and too much micromanagement that detracts from the fun.

Story
Good fundamentals for a potentially great story but its taking too long to develop when you have to balance this story with the other aspects of the game. There are good side branches too but wastes too much time with no reward.

Characters
All models are hot af, I personally don't like Eve that much, but that's personal preference, but the unique personalities don't really collide well, why are the other 2 sisters fucking already? Where is the corruption? Needs to blackmail the slut mom for the beginning.

Graphics and Sound
Visually, this game is stunning. The renders are top-notch, and every character looks deliciously tempting.
The soundtrack is decent too—ambient piano and soft rock set a nice vibe.

Replay Value
Not there, story is too linear, not even branched dialogues. Unless you like to skip days and grind making money, its not for you.

Personal Opinion
I want this game to succeed because it has everything I love—futa babes, taboo relationships, hot and steamy family dynamics. But it needs more content and less grind to deliver on its promise.
The dev seems ambitious (which is great), but they’re spending too much time on mechanics instead of giving us what we really want.

Pros:

• Amazing Models all babes are hot af.
• Futa MC, very rare in VNs
• Loved the "Motion Sensor" to know where everyone is, saved a lot of time.

Cons:

• Too Grindy, seriously, cut it down
• Next to no sex
• days are repetitive, need filler events to spice things up.
• Story feels slow and linear

Potential Additions:

• Can go wild with kinks and taboos, use the basement, tie your slut milf, breed and milk her ass...ETC
• Side quests that unlock new scenarios or characters

I finished what was already completed in its progression.

The story sets a solid foundation for the main character to achieve a better life for herself and family.

The 3D renders are exceptional, the ability to interact and be placed into the drivers seat makes it all the more worthy of pursuing the story. Thankfully it doesn't hold back from the taboo side of the spectrum.

I hope the developer continues to update this game for it to reach its fullest potential.

I was so excited to play this game. With a futa protag and a bunch of hot women around them, I was so hyped. But the gameplay killed this game and ruined any enjoyment I may have had. This game has promise, but I'm not trusting it do evolve into much.

Reviewing as of v0.4.5

Pros:

• The models are hot and well-made
• Story is alright. Tangible and somewhat easy to follow.

Cons:

• Gameplay is abhorrent
• Almost no NSFW content at all! It's been in production for about 2 years now!!!
• Extremely grindy and boring
• No need for all of these systems like cooking, shopping, etc. The dev is doing too much with nothing.

Conclusion:
Skip. Pass. Delete. Ignore. Sleep.

Just started playing this for a bit. I see quite some 1-star reviews, which I find a bit harsh. That you can give to utter crap, which this is not.

Soundtrack is nice/good. Nice selection of ambient, piano & soft rock. Together with the renders/visual gives a nice vibe IMO. It's nice how there's taken care of the morning, day/afternoon & evening setting/vibe.

Only got 1 lewd scene until now which had pretty decent sfx, so that's nice as well.

The free roam mechanics are quite elaborate. Some nice aspects to it, and some ('sandbox' game common I suppose) somewhat tedious (e.g. checking schedules/times). I'll have some suggestions for the dev. There are some issues like the map that doesn't seem to work 100% (red areas but nothing going on).

Will extend & refine review when I played a bit more & give a more grounded rating. For now giving 4 stars for the potential.

The game looks good, no lie. But it's empty inside—no content, nothing to keep you hooked. There are features listed in the "quest" menu as "coming soon," but if you haven't added them, why put them there? Right now, the only thing this game really needs is tons of content. Since Feb 1, 2023, there’s been no real progress.

>really poor story and poor story execution
>gameplay wise it is SHIT
>at some point at the story, it jumps the out of nowhere and you can get lost (as long as I remember)
>mc is kinda derp
>3dcg is looks really looks cool and good at someparts but you can clearly see when the dev wanted to speed up things

I really want this one to succeed, I really do. But after 1 ½ years of development with almost no NSFW content and a very boring grind, I’m not very hopeful.

The story is alright, but nothing special. A family has financial troubles and has to move, and the main character has to pick up the slack. However, there are apparently some shady characters in the shadows, or something like that. You've heard it a hundred times already.

But let's be real, there's one and only one reason people play these kinds of games, and if the Dev doesn't deliver in that regard, the story could be a Shakespearean masterpiece and no one would care.

The character models look very pretty, in my opinion. Everyone except the aunt. I really don’t like her buzz cut. I like short hairstyles, but the prickly hair is really ugly. Other than that, everyone looks very attractive, which makes the lack of content even more frustrating.

I understand the appeal of a slow burn, but usually with a slow burn, the Dev makes up for it with some voyeurism or a throwaway horny side character to spice up the story.

So my suggestion to the dev would be to dedicate some time to creating more of these scenes. Right now, this really isn’t a game I could recommend to people because it just feels like a waste of time.

Almost everything in this game feels unnecessarily dragged out. The money grind, the need to go shopping and all the build up that leads to nowhere. The story is ridiculous and the characters make no sense.

Seems like one of those games where the dev is delaying the action as much as possible to milk out the patreons as the updates are slow and there is literally no content.

All that story and repeatable garbage storylines for next to no sexual content whatsoever... pointless and waste of time... The one scene was actually a dream scene... and there is no build up to actual sexual interactions between characters.

Too many unnecessary systems like shopping, cooking, etc. These systems take up development time that is wasted on non-essential features. If I play this kind of game, it’s not to go shopping.

It’s annoying how these games add useless, drawn-out features, with updates every 10 months where nothing interesting happens, only to be abandoned and never finished in the end.

This game is about 1 part titties to fifty parts grinding the money system. I'm required to earn about 5.75k in a system where you click 'Work 2 hours' until it's night time, click sleep, pick how long to sleep (it literally doesn't matter except your character says they feel tired if you sleep less), then there's the overnight sequence where you make a dice roll per family member to see if you can detect that they feel cold or not overnight (it literally doesn't matter) and the characters get an overall mood thing for the day. Except for the day I forgot to buy food at the grocery store (oh yeah you have to do that too), the family seems perfectly stable while I do nothing but slowly grind money. Since I ran out of food once, I know I did at least 3 weeks of cash grind (which was probably maybe 40ish minutes of real life), saw that I only got about 40% of the way to the goal and deleted the game.

I know not every game is going to be for everybody, but this one was so confusing in its time management that I felt like I really should review it.

The potential is there, the content is lacking however. I didn't realise that Eve was also a futanari, I was really hoping that Alice would be unique in that regard.
The characters are well realised, the writing is good, the grind is real...haha, reminds me of real life!
This game has all the ingredients to be great, but menus and sub-menus need work and it requires a lot more content.
It's a good start with a promising future...I hope the developer sticks with it.

Very promising game. Good renders, sexy models, futa.
This is all with the good things.
This managment cooking and isolation payment is ruining everything. The game over for such game is a downgrade.
The dev should take an example of House Chores. Make it more simple.

The potential. The fucking potential of this game.

I'm a simple girl. I like futas, I like lesbians, I like hot babes. Incest isn't normally my thing, but damn if I don't want to see Alice/MC bone her entire family. Much like the MC with her family, the dev is dragging me further into degeneracy.

However, the game needs some work. Granted, it's only v0.4.

Cons:
-As others have said, grindy. Very grindy. You spend most of your time burning hours by clicking the same buttons to work from your laptop. The new extra expense especially hurts. This could be alleviated by adding in more scenes to break up the monotony, which I assume the dev is working toward. But for now, there's not much to do but work, shop, and cook with little payoff.
-As mentioned above, few scenes. Granted, early build. But it should be mentioned. I'm not expecting full sex this early, but more spying/peeking scenes for the early days would be awesome. Maybe more of MC secretly masturbating while watching her family. MC keeps talking up how much she's always horny and how they tease her, so it would be nice to see that happening.
-Story. There's a story now about a puritanical politician who hates our lovely MC for only wanting to bone her family. Right now this is a 'con' because it's a bit cringe and I can't tell where we're going. But if done right it can easily become a 'pro' and benefit the game.
-More complexity in the management. I am 100% the only person asking for this. But more recipe variety, more utilities to manage, and more unhappiness would make the game more of a challenge. So if it's not added, I get it. But I found it way too easy to keep everyone at 95-100 happiness.
EDIT: Minor issue, but the temperature conversion is a bit off. The Fahrenheit temps are a bit too low for the equivalent Celsius. It was confusing when it said it was 57 degrees F in the house but the sisters were complaining it was too hot.

Pros:
-Hot characters. All of them. 10/10, perfection. Eve, Riley, Angelina, and Emily (my favorite), and Alice are all fantastic.
-Futas. That's it. Massive dicks on hot chicks. Personally never been a fan of 'full futas' so the lack of pussy doesn't bother me. Plenty of other pussy in the house. (And really, really, really hope we get some scenes between Eve & Alice eventually).
-Good systems. Yes, I complained about the grind. But because right now there's little else to do. But once the dev adds more scenes/images, that will solve itself. Grocery shopping is simple but fun. Managing the utilities is straightforward with room to expand. But Misarmor said they wanted to get the groundwork and mechanics set first, and it looks like they succeeded.
-Kinks/content. So far, promising. Once more, not much content, but what is here is great. I love the 'special sauce' scene. Really hoping the dev has plans to make more use of that in some way. Like the family getting used to the taste and craving more. The perving scenes are good. The dream sequences are fun. The dev appears determined to go full degeneracy here and I am 100% on board.

This could easily be a 5/5 game in time. Right now, I think it's worth trying if you're really, really into the premise. But be warned that you will hit a content wall pretty quickly. But I am eager to see what the dev does next.

Fine game, but still it's very short.
There are 3 woman and 2 futanari (with testicles) with limited content for 4 of them.
With more content and real futanari (with both penis and vagina) this can be really great game.

What I liked about this game is that, unlike most games, it has meaning. When playing, you remember the Buddhist wisdom that a person is a soul burdened with a mortal body. It doesn't matter that you are small and thin, the youngest and all that. You were reborn in the body of a weak girl, but remained a fighter responsible for your family. Futa content in this case is just very appropriate and the character's reactions do not look far-fetched. The game is about life, it's just that the characters in it are not ordinary, but this makes it more credible, oddly enough. Thanks to the author, I wish you health and inspiration and I hope that the plot will develop and not turn into a banality .

As it stands, this game offers almost zero content, packed into hours of boring grind that seems to intend to have you micromanaging every aspect of everyone's lives. It's just not fun.

That said, take out the management, take out the grind, and you MIGHT have something interesting. The writing, while certainly stretching credulity pretty far at some points, isn't terrible. It could use some work, but it's not a lost cause by any means. The renders are good. There's a solid base there, but it's completely overshadowed by the pointless grindfest and massive lack of actual content.

If they spent half the time they did on renders and writing that they seem to have spent working on boring, pointless mechanics, this game would be significantly better. The fact is, porn games and normal games are two intrinsically different beasts. If you want to make a normal game, where you can focus your efforts on mechanics and game design, go do that. But that's never going to work for a porn game. People play these games for the renders and the story. That's it. If you have to grind to get the content, then you've made a bad game. That might sound harsh, but it's just the truth. Especially in a game like this, where the "gameplay" isn't engaging or fun. It's just tedious.

I doubt the devs will actually listen to this feedback, so this will probably be the last time I check this game out, but I hope they do listen to it, and stop shooting themselves in the foot. Don't fall prey to the sunk cost fallacy, it's not to late to change directions.

At the moment, there is not as much sexual content in the game as we would like, since the developer is still busy implementing various systems. Currently, it remains for him to implement the MS statistics system well. I think that after the introduction of the systems, the development of sexual content will go faster.

+:
No complicated grind: It's easy to make money in the game, and you can do it at any time.
Simple to understand systems: I bought food and forgot about it. I think girls will get their food preferences later in the future.Installation of air conditioning and heating: It can be installed on an automatic machine, and you only need to monitor the tax.
High—quality characters and surroundings: The characters and surroundings look good, and personally my favorite character is Emily.
Not a bad story: The plot immediately makes it clear what the character needs to do to achieve his goals.

-:
There is little sexual content: dreams, masturbation and attractive characters so far all that the game provides
Linearity: So far, the game is quite linear, despite being positioned as a sandbox.

Conclusion:
It should be understood that this is a beta version, and the systems will be developed later, at the moment this is only a general idea of them, which does not greatly interfere with the perception of the main content. In the future, the game should turn into a good sandbox, demonstrating the quality of 3D and game systems.

The game is boring and grindy. It's full of mechanics (like shopping and working) that add nothing and, if removed, would improve the game. Often, it's confusing and you don't know what to do, and to unlock progress you have to apply a frustrating trial and error method. There are no satisfying rewards because there's hardly any content. The developer doesn't have a roadmap and gives the impression that he doesn't know what he's doing. In this update, he decided to redo the game to add, supposedly, 40 new events. Honestly, I have seen less content than in the previous version (except the onlyfans event) but with more grinding. It's ridiculous that almost 2 years of development, the product is in the state it's in.

The mechanics of this game are pretty boring but the characters are so hot that it made me want to play until the end of the content.
I just hope that from now on development focuses more on the strength of the game: the characters and giving us more scenes with them rather than on new mechanics that might make the game even more tedious.