Ren'Py A House in the Rift [v0.7.10b1] [Zanith]

[mathiau]

Are all the sex scenes dreams?

Most aren't

 

[demonbra]

You don't have to go to extremes and make everyone a "sex bomb", but these characters should evoke positive feelings in the player (call it empathy, sympathy or whatever). And if they're also attractive and desirable, that means the game's author has done a good job. Personally, I have no feelings for Blair and her looks and especially her face are completely ugly. Might as well have added a female gnoll or a female ogre. The only question is, does anyone besides the developer need them here? To me the addition of Blair looks like an attempt to fill a void due to the lack of new ideas for really and interesting yet lovable characters (Azraesha, Caitlin, Lyriel).

Even the muscular Naomi is not repulsive to me, despite the fact that I am not a fan of 'motherly caring sex'. Naomi is needed at least because of her touching care for Caitlin and because she has a rather interesting character and at times funny lines. The author managed to make even the female orc quite likable and create an interesting story around her. And why the game needs Blair with a very ugly "controversial" appearance, I don't get it at all.

If you look a few pages back you can see an opinion poll that was made on their patreon. 70% of the subscribers like her.
So at this point it doesn't matter if people like you (or me, as I'm a not interested in her either) like her.
I posted this yesterday, but I get that everyone doesn't like to scroll the thread back :

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Find it interesting...

 

[Cartageno]

Are all the sex scenes dreams?

With the main girls mostly no, with other girls mostly yes.

 

[Stan5851]

If you look a few pages back you can see an opinion poll that was made on their patreon. 70% of the subscribers like her.
So at this point it doesn't matter if people like you (or me, as I'm a not interested in her either) like her.
I posted this yesterday, but I get that everyone doesn't like to scroll the thread back :

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Find it interesting...

I saw this post of yours yesterday and your reaction and I largely agree with it. Although to be honest, I personally don't care what those proverbial 70% of the game's patrons like. I have my opinion, you have your opinion (although in many ways it coincides) and we are entitled to express it without being guided by that group of subscribers and their interests.

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[Motoko Kusanagi]

I thought Naomi can be grating at times but then Blair came along and turned it up to 11. They should have cut the rope when they had the chance.

 

[demonbra]

I saw this post of yours yesterday and your reaction and I largely agree with it. Although to be honest, I personally don't care what those proverbial 70% of the game's patrons like. I have my opinion, you have your opinion (although in many ways it coincides) and we are entitled to express it without being guided by that group of subscribers and their interests.

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I understand your point. I'm not a huge fan of HH to be honnest. Played it quite a lot before, but I don't watch it anymore. So, I understand what you said about it but I can't say I agree. But it's fine. Different tastes and all that.

What I understand a lot less is Zanith's strategy.
The outline of the game was writen from the start from what I understood. But if the plan was to have women for very specific kinks, why didn't he go for this from the start ? It almost a 180° turn. The only thing worse would be to add NTR or futas banging PC's ass. No one would be expecting that... (for now at least).
Did he fear not to gain support with a game with these girls and started with more conventional women? Did he changed his mind along the way ? Did he found that people with more unorthodox taste pay more and focused on this audience ? Did he just didn't thought about it ? Or does he simply don't care at all and simply do what he has in mind ? IDK. Only he could answer.
But it is breaking the implicit contract as it is very different from what could be awaited with the begining. I saw it pretty much from the start and I just loved Azrae and the ambiance. I found it so enjoyable and after seeing so many mind control/half-rape games. But when the elf arrived with the rape dreams... I started to have a lot of doubts I would enjoy the game after all. And the events proved me I was right. I'm just not the target audience. Or not the one he chosed to focus on at least.

 

[voyeurkind]

Every developer doesn't create games to appeal to the lowest common denominator. When one does decide to do a game that doesnt follow the established rules of what makes a game popular, it's highly likely that there will be aspects of the game that don't appeal to everyone playing that game. To me, this is one of those games. Zanith could easily have populated the house with the most common archetypes and perhaps made it much more popular, but it seems as if that's not what he wanted to do.

If you read back through this thread, it probably won't surprise you to see that almost every single character has their fair share of both detractors and supporters. IIRC, I even remember people saying bad things about Rae ftom time to time.

I like Rae. I think she's fun and sexy.

Cait's really cute, particularly both her naiveté and shyness contrasted with her willingness and enthusiasm to throw herself at anything she's interested in.

I'm on the fence about Lyriel. I like the way she looks, but I generally dislike tsunderes and that aspect of her I find annoying.

I'm not a fan of Naomi sexually as I find femdom to be a turn off, personally. However I do think she's an intriguing character and I'm interested in finding out more about her.

I don't feel like I know enough about Blair at this point to make a judgment. I don't particularly find her physically attractive, but I haven't decided if I like her or not yet. Her integration hasn't gone smoothly, but who's has? I'm guessing anyone thrown into such a situation would have a very difficult time adjusting. I do like her openness about her sexuality.

It's difficult at this time to like Yona, simply because we don't know much of anything about her, and I'm hoping this gets addressed ASAP. She was brought in to the house, apparently assumed it was the afterlife and just accepted her fate until she realized that her circumstances were different. Unfortunately it seems there's been zero progression with her for what seems lije a year(I'm sure it's been less than that). The tusks make her visually unappealing to me, but I'm not writing her off completely until there's more character development. It's entirely possible she'll end up a favorite.

I think there's a lot of time left in this game so I'm willing to be patient and see where it goes. I also accept that it's an unusual game with unusual characters and that all of them won't appeal to me. Still, I'd rather have this than another lifeless rip off of the latest VN to make a lot of money.

 

[demonbra]

Every developer doesn't create games to appeal to the lowest common denominator. When one does decide to do a game that doesnt follow the established rules of what makes a game popular, it's highly likely that there will be aspects of the game that don't appeal to everyone playing that game. To me, this is one of those games. Zanith could easily have populated the house with the most common archetypes and perhaps made it much more popular, but it seems as if that's not what he wanted to do.

If you read back through this thread, it probably won't surprise you to see that almost every single character has their fair share of both detractors and supporters. IIRC, I even remember people saying bad things about Rae ftom time to time.

I like Rae. I think she's fun and sexy.

Cait's really cute, particularly both her naiveté and shyness contrasted with her willingness and enthusiasm to throw herself at anything she's interested in.

I'm on the fence about Lyriel. I like the way she looks, but I generally dislike tsunderes and that aspect of her I find annoying.

I'm not a fan of Naomi sexually as I find femdom to be a turn off, personally. However I do think she's an intriguing character and I'm interested in finding out more about her.

I don't feel like I know enough about Blair at this point to make a judgment. I don't particularly find her physically attractive, but I haven't decided if I like her or not yet. Her integration hasn't gone smoothly, but who's has? I'm guessing anyone thrown into such a situation would have a very difficult time adjusting. I do like her openness about her sexuality.

It's difficult at this time to like Yona, simply because we don't know much of anything about her, and I'm hoping this gets addressed ASAP. She was brought in to the house, apparently assumed it was the afterlife and just accepted her fate until she realized that her circumstances were different. Unfortunately it seems there's been zero progression with her for what seems lije a year(I'm sure it's been less than that). The tusks make her visually unappealing to me, but I'm not writing her off completely until there's more character development. It's entirely possible she'll end up a favorite.

I think there's a lot of time left in this game so I'm willing to be patient and see where it goes. I also accept that it's an unusual game with unusual characters and that all of them won't appeal to me. Still, I'd rather have this than another lifeless rip off of the latest VN to make a lot of money.

Not sure if your message is specifically ment to me or Stan5851 but if it's the case you totally missed my point. I don't know how I could be clearer so I won't try to rephrase.
I whish you a nice day.

 

[UnDeaD_CyBorG]

Remembering back, there was a point in time where the author seemingly felt a bit burnt out, and pondered what to do as he had plans for so many potential characters, but had a choose just a select few (one per free room in the house) to not overtax himself.
I'm sure in the few thousand posts there's plenty about original and current plans.
And some things were changed over the course of time. Retroactively, I mean.
Only thing I wonder is if a story will ever see its conclusion, but I suppose I'll give it two more years.

 

[Eefmeister]

Blair is such a boring looking and acting character, I hope we get someone else soon or go back to the other girls

 

[Crusader of Romance]

In the case of characters that aren't actually part of the house.

Most aren't

With the main girls mostly no, with other girls mostly yes.

Awesome. I'll try the game then. Thanks!

 

[Cartageno]

So maybe you should think about what is worth improving in your own game to achieve better financial performance. Both there harem and here harem, the difference in release date of these two games is only 1 year, in favour of Harem Hotel.

I mean you say "what is it worth" but generally there will always be one more successful than you (I can show you numbers above Harem Hotel). Not everyone can be Beyoncé or The Beatles - because it ain't their style of music (yes, you mention the harem similarity - but I could also point out a huge difference in e. g. the prevalence of BDSM) or just because you cannot pull off the same style.

Lest we forget, the "most successful" are not always the most acclaimed, which is a common topic in multiple threads. So whether making a "better" game (by whatever metric) would result in more Patreons also ain't a given.

Weaknesses of A House in the Rift (for me)
1. The presence of some characters that are either not at all interesting, or annoying with their behavior (Naomi), or are not sexually attractive (Naomi/Blair). I don't mind talking about life with smart playgirls, but we are having an Adult game here after all. And it's not a bad idea to combine outward beauty, sex appeal and depth of personality in one character(s).

For me it is quite different: The "beauty" of always the same type of girl gets boring. I do like if girls are somewhat unique. I skip many milf games because I've already had sex with that character hundreds of times in dozens of games. They may not be exact lookalikes but they just have the same vibes.

Considering your second point: you already mention yourself that more girls might become problematic - even though some people can pull it off. But considering how right now we have two characters with just bare bones development and one more which isn't too deep either, I'd argue that more won't be received better by players.

Generally I would argue, for players it is better if there is a smorgasbord of choices than if there are only variations on American Cheese. Even if it means that sometimes an individual game does not live up to what you want it to be.

 

[Brine_Basilisk]

I mean you say "what is it worth" but generally there will always be one more successful than you (I can show you numbers above Harem Hotel). Not everyone can be Beyoncé or The Beatles - because it ain't their style of music (yes, you mention the harem similarity - but I could also point out a huge difference in e. g. the prevalence of BDSM) or just because you cannot pull off the same style.

Lest we forget, the "most successful" are not always the most acclaimed, which is a common topic in multiple threads. So whether making a "better" game (by whatever metric) would result in more Patreons also ain't a given.



For me it is quite different: The "beauty" of always the same type of girl gets boring. I do like if girls are somewhat unique. I skip many milf games because I've already had sex with that character hundreds of times in dozens of games. They may not be exact lookalikes but they just have the same vibes.

Considering your second point: you already mention yourself that more girls might become problematic - even though some people can pull it off. But considering how right now we have two characters with just bare bones development and one more which isn't too deep either, I'd argue that more won't be received better by players.

Generally I would argue, for players it is better if there is a smorgasbord of choices than if there are only variations on American Cheese. Even if it means that sometimes an individual game does not live up to what you want it to be.

200% this. It's honestly quite selfish for the audience to demand such uniformity with the cast. There are a million games under the sun that use the generic "same-face" and "same-body" that you see everywhere else. I appreciate that Zanith does something different even if some of the girls don't do it for me for one reason or another.

The game would be so boring if they all were just copies of Rae. A good window into what the game would be like with that design philosophy is when Cait meets her dorm friends or when El meets her elf barmaid friends. I for one got supremely bored with those characters after just a few minutes.

Give the people into fit girls a bone...we get literally nothing most of the time. If it bothers you so much, 95% of the market is already catered to your vanilla tastes. I'm not into short-stacks but I'm glad Blair is in the game for people that are really into that. Everyone needs to stop being so greedy and impatient let the artist work on their game. It's an excellently made piece of art that should be respected.

 

[Makelele 777]

The Android version crashes at the start

 

[afedvfe]

200% this. It's honestly quite selfish for the audience to demand such uniformity with the cast. There are a million games under the sun that use the generic "same-face" and "same-body" that you see everywhere else. I appreciate that Zanith does something different even if some of the girls don't do it for me for one reason or another.

The game would be so boring if they all were just copies of Rae. A good window into what the game would be like with that design philosophy is when Cait meets her dorm friends or when El meets her elf barmaid friends. I for one got supremely bored with those characters after just a few minutes.

Give the people into fit girls a bone...we get literally nothing most of the time. If it bothers you so much, 95% of the market is already catered to your vanilla tastes. I'm not into short-stacks but I'm glad Blair is in the game for people that are really into that. Everyone needs to stop being so greedy and impatient let the artist work on their game. It's an excellently made piece of art that should be respected.

I agree with both of you, just wanted to add one thing

I don't think Zanith added a shortstack for the sake of it, or to cater to a specific audience, or an orc for that matter. I feel they had that very idea/goal from the beginning, as it seems like there's a girl for every "species" in a Tolkien kinda way.
That, IMO, is quite positive if true, as it means the author did not dramatically change their view on the game midway, meaning we don't end up with immersion breaking plot-holes and the like

 

[Cartageno]

I agree with both of you, just wanted to add one thing

I don't think Zanith added a shortstack for the sake of it, or to cater to a specific audience, or an orc for that matter. I feel they had that very idea/goal from the beginning, as it seems like there's a girl for every "species" in a Tolkien kinda way.
That, IMO, is quite positive if true, as it means the author did not dramatically change their view on the game midway, meaning we don't end up with immersion breaking plot-holes and the like

Yeah, I always had the impression that the major idea was "one representative of multiple classic types". Naomi as a pirate may be from a different setting and I don't remember too many Succubi in Tolkien's work (then again, the female Ents are canonically extinct and dating a Nazgul might really be a fringe taste), but this inherent diversity is part of the whole idea instead of having a red haired, a blonde, a brunette, and a black haired elf. Not that that couldn't work in itself.

 

[afedvfe]

Yeah, I always had the impression that the major idea was "one representative of multiple classic types". Naomi as a pirate may be from a different setting and I don't remember too many Succubi in Tolkien's work (then again, the female Ents are canonically extinct and dating a Nazgul might really be a fringe taste), but this inherent diversity is part of the whole idea instead of having a red haired, a blonde, a brunette, and a black haired elf. Not that that couldn't work in itself.

Yeah, sadly no succubi in tolkien's works iirc ahah i'd imagine they'd have a great many ways of getting the one ring

 

[batanegra]

i can't find the naomi bikini image, anyone can give me a hand and tell where i could find it? if it's in the pool sunday, the bikini doesn't show and the gallery app doesn't say what day i can get it

 

[Master of Puppets]

I don't think Zanith added a shortstack for the sake of it, or to cater to a specific audience, or an orc for that matter. I feel they had that very idea/goal from the beginning, as it seems like there's a girl for every "species" in a Tolkien kinda way.
That, IMO, is quite positive if true, as it means the author did not dramatically change their view on the game midway, meaning we don't end up with immersion breaking plot-holes and the like

I'm sure that she's been planned from the beginning. Definitely it seems like years ago when we first heard about what the plans for all six girls were, this was back when there were only three of them and we voted on which of the other three would come to the house first. Spoilers, Lyriel (or 'submissive tsundere elf girl' as we knew her at the time) won that vote.

 

[mordred93]

i can't find the naomi bikini image, anyone can give me a hand and tell where i could find it? if it's in the pool sunday, the bikini doesn't show and the gallery app doesn't say what day i can get it

do a search on the thread (for me) or check the first post, there is a link to my guide - which has where you can find everything.