Ren'Py - A Home in the Desert [v0.4] [Misarmor]

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.

v0.3 Review, edited for v0.4 at the behest of the dev
As other reviewers have mentioned, visually it's great and the models look good, but god I didn't think it'd be a desert of content too.

The big issue is that you have to put A LOT of work (compared to most AVNs) for little benefit. The story is incredibly vapid and has as many holes as a sponge, and the gameplay is extremely tedious, requiring a lot of steps for even just one day. This means that the payoff here is ONLY the sex scenes, so the fact it's so minimal is just disasterous to the experience. This project has been going for a year and a half, and there's just too little to justify it. Think about how little content is in it now, and how much would be left for it to actually be completed?

Ultimately I give it a 3/10, and it's heavily carried by the visuals.

EDIT V0.4:
I got a passive-aggressive message from the developer that didn't find my review satisfactory, so I will provide his comments and answer them individually, just for him.

Just to be sure. You have reviewed 0.4, right? Not 0.3?

I had not, I was reminded of the dissatisfaction I felt for the game by it appearing in the recent category. That is why I mentioned the version. Specifically to make sure people knew that while my experiences were accurate FOR THAT VERSION, things may have changed. I was not obligated to add the version, I did so as a courtesy.

And in any good review, examples are usually present. What plot holes?

A famous producer (the father of the MC) is accused of sexual harassment by an actress, and supposedly his two choices are either a) give away ALL of his money, or b) go to prison. That's not how civil suits work. Why would he agree to a settlement he can't afford? Anyone with an actual lawyer, hell anyone with any knowledge of their own finances, wouldn't agree to that. Why would him refusing lead him to prison time? How are you starting your story by showing a fundamental lack of understanding for the crux of your premise?

This false accusation then apparently leads to the father and mother, a woman who is apparently a famous actress, to divorcing. Why? It's never specified, because the dev insinuates they're false with him saying "it was her word against his". If the accusations were real, why not state as much? Otherwise the mother just looks worse off because they COULD be fake and she's just divorcing him, especially with the description of her feeling cheated on rather than BEING cheated on.

Then the ENTIRE premise, involves this family of FIVE deciding to go into the middle of butt fuck nowhere, with NO CAR, to...do what, exactly? They BOUGHT the house, it wasn't as if she got it in the divorce or it was part of some family assets, they spent MONEY on a home that was dilapidated and RUN DOWN, it is in the MIDDLE OF NOWHERE. So we aren't gonna stay in the city and the mother isn't gonna try and revitalise her career, while the 3 daughters and aunt also work? You've taken dynamics that have already been explored before in AVNs, and instead of going the logical routes with them, you try to fit this 'square peg in a round hole' and put them in a desert??? Why wouldn't you have them renting some small house with 2 bedrooms and an attic or basement? They could spend 30k on a home, that means they can afford rent for AT LEAST a year.

Keep in mind, this is all JUST THE SET UP. But to be nice, I won't mention the plot contrivance of the MC finding pictures of his mother conveniently placed in a box in the attic of a house in the middle of buttfuck nowhere with a pamphlet to the exact place the original owner is.

What "many steps" do you feel you have to make in one day?

In a game where the main problem demonstrated to the player is the delapodated home, you'd think they'd take advantage of the location, and have you perhaps find the classic bicycle and ride into town to find fun and creative ways to get materials to fix the house yourself, to show a sense of progress. Instead, the developer has decided what you should spend most of your time doing is managing your fucking groceries to micromanage the families "saiety and satisfaction". What's worse than a poorly designed business management game? Doing it IN A HOME.

Your day consists of making breakfast, going on a run to the grocery store, trying to balance out the number of groceries you can get and match it with the money you have, going back to work for a bit, then going to cook dinner, then working again so you can buy more groceries. It is quite possibly one of the most boring loops in any AVN I have ever played. There's the newer introduction of a store, but this is a part of other AVNs slapped onto this one. Again: the actual setting has not been taken advantage of, instead the store is ON THE COMPUTER. Instead of pre-emptively setting up quests and making the grocery system, make a rudimentary town that we can actually explore, expand the world in a meaningful and engaging way instead of us waiting around for something to happen.

The worst part is, this system was entirely voluntary. There is no one else that has a system like this, because everyone else understands that literally no one wants to use a system like that. It is literally a waste of time. It is a pointless exercise in disguising the fact this game barely has any real content.

I will repeat my prior point too, that this content is not worth the effort. The characters are shallow and vapid, and the backstory introduction is essentially exactly how they are for the rest of the content shown. This means you're not excited to see what hot scenario they'll make, you're just hoping you actually see some sexual content. Once again, the models are GOOD, the sex scenes can be HOT, but that is the only positive in the game. Hell, even navigation is a chore due to the way the pictures are framed, you have to move your cursor around to specific corners and walls to get anywhere. Sometimes it's an entire side of your screen, sometimes it's the corner of a couch, sometimes it's just one specific part of the bottom of your screen.

The UI is also a fucking mess, the user being given about a dozen different tabs, half of them being fucking useless. You know how most games usually only add new tabs when they become relevant? Yeah, that's for a reason.

Next up is the choices! It's essentially a kinetic novel, so why so many devs including this one decide to obscure it with largely meaningless choices is beyond me. There are literally examples of multiple choice, and the ones you choose being eliminated until you pick the one that progresses the story.

Thanks.

You are welcome. Glad to waste my time again. 2/10

Not a bad game. Good mechanic, little too much mechanics, too few little sex. The story kind of put on halt due to most active quests having little to not implimented. Kind of feels like a tease. I think I discovered everything. I'm not sure. I will follow up in maybe 1-2 years and see how much more content there is. I feel at this point it's a little too soon to have a proper assessment

I liked the game. I only would improve the animations, if I remember correctly they were just two frames back and forth. Everything around those animations is great. The dialogs and situations show the dev's great understanding of eroticism. The UI is nicely designed, but the UX I didn't find that intuitive or attention graving. The story has some unique aspects that make it worthwhile. The management aspect of the game was easy. You just send your sister to buy food every day, keep the air conditioner on and cook one of the first plates you learn over and over again. So, it can get repetitive without much challenge. Maybe that's because of the lack of content. If the story is completed in an in game week, then there's not that much management to be made. I'm really looking forward to more updates 'cause I'm loving the characters and their models.

Not a lot of content but what is there shows promise.

From a gameplay perspective the managing of the household looks like it could be quite interesting once it's further along, and particularly once it has more ramifications on the relationships with the NPCs and the lewd side of things.

The artwork is quite good and the writing is reasonably engaging while mostly evading the pitfall of being overly verbose that a lot of VNs fall into.

I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes in the future

It´s an interesting game, the level of complexity makes it a bit more fun to play. The MC feels more interesting than most futa MCs in this platform so that is a bonus...

But still, the game feels very empty. Most of the interesting content is not repeatable, which makes the complex tasts very underwhelming. You have to spend some time trying to understand how to manage the house chores and your work and I like that concept, but all of that makes barely any difference at the end of the day which means that there´s no reward.

I think the game feels like a demo, because it shows a premise of the core game. But with the little content available right now, it is not supposed to satisfy anyone. But still deserves 2 stars because it has potential to be much more interesting, it just needs more work from the developers.

Futa MC is my main kink, Big dick peaking through pants is another great add. Good renders, decent story. Only reason I'm not giving 5 stars is I cant tell what I have in the fridge when I'm going shopping.

Just in the beginning but with much potential.
I cant wait to see where this goes and hope for the best. I like where this going and like the art work. I hope this game does not go abandoned. Hopefully.

I'm enjoying the gameplay so far. It seems like it's going to be a neat management game.
I'm definitely here for the futa wincest element.

The corruption element had me worried as I found out that the family members are to be used by males as a form of making money, which was a huge turn-off for me.

However, it appears now that the plan is for there to be two possible alternatives:

1. An alternative path where it is look-but-can't-touch, where the family earns by being looked at but not engaged with anyone. Leaving them only for the MC to touch and have sex with.
2. Skip the male usage path outright. So they won't have a job, and it falls on the others to earn more. Leaving all the LIs for the MC again.

Either or, it alleviates the core issue I had.
Regarding the lack of sex content at this stage, I do not mind it myself. The build-up and payoff are half the fun for me.

Otherwise, the gameplay and management style are fun and enjoyable, and it looks like it will be more fun as it progresses.

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