VN - Ren'Py - Completed - Acting Lessons [v1.0.2] [DrPinkCake]

Good

- Vn feels polished with the interface and audio. 3dcg looks good. Teeth could use some fixing however.

- Branching choices are implemented well.

Bad

- Women are poorly written. Random sex scenes thrown in one after the other. Feels like lazy writing to fill a set number of sex scenes for each release.

- Liam stands out, steals the show, but hard to imagine leaving innocent Megan alone with him.

- Not a good sign when the most fascinating character is male and none of the women come close.

(Review of v0.2.0)

the quality of the game made me make my first post after lurking for awhile. The story is above and beyond for games like this, and the renders are very high quality. It is also a pretty funny game, with moments that made me laugh, and I didn't expect what was going to happen a lot of the time. A+

Acting Lessons serves up a slice of life visual novel that features some fairly unique branching and decision making for a game made in the West, along with highly engaging characters.

The player is prompted to choose one area of focus out of three available, and while is has been done before, the game actually implements decisions and scenes where these choices pay off, instead of the usual business of creating a single branch and ignoring the specialization for the remainder of the game. Despite the fact that a single choice can alter scenes later in the game, the developer has their options completely covered, with completely separate scenes or modifications to a common scene. There's a lot of work put into this branching, from simple coding to a really large grip of renders.

The best feature of the game might be the characters, each with their own personality and ability to charm the player. It also has Liam, possibly the greatest bro character ever written for an erotic game.

From a technical perspective, the variety and expressiveness is a highlight. The character models themselves are all done competently, though the Melissa character is a complete smoke show. The developer is moving to 1920x1080 resolution for 0.3, which will definitely be a welcome change. And while some of the music will be familiar, it is inoffensive and, in my view, most welcome, as it is usually skipped in Ren'py games.

If you are looking for a visual novel that is light on fetishes but heavy on story, characters and technical competency, Acting Lessons should definitely be on your watch list.

Top notch writing. Among the best I've seen around here. Great renders and beautiful, enticing twists to boot. Best newcomer I've seen so far this year. Definitely considering becoming a patron of it.

Edited Review due to complete change of direction for the game:

I can't stress this enough, if you have a problem with soap opera level of drama and tragedy and the game completely abandoning any form of realism in an attempt to become more realistic (isn't it ironic), you might be better off not playing at all. I know I have wished, I'd never seen this before.

This game is good up until the end of Episode 6.
Yes, there are a few instances of weak writing (always with the Story or decisions the characters make, never with how the characters speak or act with each other. ), but they can be overlooked due to the pure fun you have with Liam and the sweet Romance you have with Megan and Melissa, with Rena being a good alternative LI.

Then the game turns dark to an extent that simply shouldn't be done out of the blue.
I don't care if the dev planned it like this from the start, if so not making it clear something like this was gonna happen is just a big fuck you to Players. I wonder if in the final Episode there will be one ending with three different colours!

The dev spend 5 episodes making us care about these characters and setting everything up for one of the very few believable three-partner relationships in games or on film and then he turns it into a horribly depressing Melodrama, only to turn that into an absolutely weak and cliched Thriller.

Look, if we had known from the start that there would be no happy ending for what to everybody seemed to be the main route and then decided to play, that would have been great, but for months the dev let himself be praised for writing great romantic fluff and spreading happiness with his lovely and sweet female characters all the while knowing that those praising him were due a mighty kick in the balls.

And that sucks. plain and simple.
It even made me think at one point, if this was supposed to be a lesson, something like "there's no way a romantic relationship between three people will work in the end, thus one of them has to die."
A bit like how you can't help but wonder why so many homosexual characters in media aren't allowed to have happy endings.


It's a pity, if the game had at least offered a secret ending where you wouldn't have to make that one devastating choice, this would probably rate five stars in my book.

Good looking model and the story is actually pretty good. It is still a bit short but it is definitely promising. The lighting in the nightclub scene is not always the same so I think it needs work, but aside from that there were no other issues during my run with it, which is always a good thing . I will support it on Patreon.
Visuals 9/10 (THe developer did promise a boost in resolution for his next update)
Story 9/10 (so far it seems solid)
Gameplay 10/10
Sound 8/10 (good sound FX but the ringtone could be better, music is fine)

Quite good game. Nice storyline, nice characters. It's kind of boring in the beginning to be honest, but it's really nice afterwards. Can't wait for an update. It left us at a cliff hanger, as always! Thanks for sharing! And much appreciation to the developer!

First inpressions are very good, an original story which makes a change, Renders look good and definately has potential.. Can't wait to see where this one ends up.. It's definately one I'm considering donating/patron.

I'm new to the adult games world and games like Acting Lessons will let me come back over and over again. I really like this game, the story is addictive, girls look great and lucky for me no walking around using a joystick or keys, just click en see the results of your actions, I even became a patreon. 5 out ot 5 for me.

great, unique, petite model, great writing, lots of choices, lots of content, good story, very good use of facial expressions ... very solid ... definitely well above par. some scenery recognizable from msn and other vns, but lots more that seems original

This game has so much promise. While the MCs back story is a bit silly, the amount of choices and the characters make up for it. Megan is very good female lead and her model is very hot. Cannot wait to see in which direction this game goes, but by the looks of it, its going to be a big one if the dev commits to it.

This was an insanely good start to a game. You start with already few dream porn sequences and a flashback.

- Renders are well done
- Renders are well placed
- The writing is thrilling and well done

It's nice to see devs still put hard work into making good non-incest games.

This is just the beginning but there is a lot to like in this game. I like all the main characters so far. It's rather well written and not too unrealistic (it's still a game after all). Definitely worth keeping an eye on.

Awesome! Very promising start! Beautiful models great renders and already quite a lot of content for the first version. I especially like the solution of including hotter scenes in the form of flashbacks and dreams. That way it doesn't get boring and the story can move on in a more realistic way anyhow.