Ren'Py Abandoned Apartment #69 [v0.07] [Luxee]

[Rutonat]

His storytelling issues didn't really harm Parental Love though, while I think the sandbox style is holding back A69 from becoming a better game. I still think that despite being the earlier game, PL looks far more polished, developed, and immersive than A69. Although the way A69 is set up as "this is all a flashback and you're running around to unlock memories" thing is a part of that. There is no flow from point A to point B in the game. It's "here's point A, then here's point B".

Just because the end result appealed better to you doesn't mean there was no struggle on the part of the dev. Maybe you don't like sandbox type games and woudl rather have a long, continuous story that keeps going without asking you to choose a place to go or something else. But that doesn't mean it inspires or motivates Luxee to do it that way.
Just because the end result appears fine never means the creator doesn't have issues with the process, it just means the creator had enough integrity to keep the project going until it finished, rather than dropping it like others do.

If Luxee thinks that avenue might help them struggle less to come up with the various character's stories, if that means more inspiration, more motivation, then in the end the finished game will show better results, as the difference between and story you forced yourself to write and one you wanted to write is easy generally shows pretty easily.
As someone who loves to write, I can assure you that when you don't force yourself, the whole final product is a lot smoother, then.

Also, if Luxee want to try another method to see if they get better results or more frustration, that's a great thing. Not every creator can be good at the same thing, and maybe it'll let them know if that type of game suits their skills better, or even the opposite.

As for the whole thing being a flashback, I don't see where the issue is with that. It's fairly easy to forget it is a story told by the MC, after a bite, since it doesn't get slapped in your face every few in game days.

 

[Corambis]

Just because the end result appealed better to you doesn't mean there was no struggle on the part of the dev. Maybe you don't like sandbox type games and woudl rather have a long, continuous story that keeps going without asking you to choose a place to go or something else. But that doesn't mean it inspires or motivates Luxee to do it that way.
Just because the end result appears fine never means the creator doesn't have issues with the process, it just means the creator had enough integrity to keep the project going until it finished, rather than dropping it like others do.

If Luxee thinks that avenue might help them struggle less to come up with the various character's stories, if that means more inspiration, more motivation, then in the end the finished game will show better results, as the difference between and story you forced yourself to write and one you wanted to write is easy generally shows pretty easily.
As someone who loves to write, I can assure you that when you don't force yourself, the whole final product is a lot smoother, then.

Also, if Luxee want to try another method to see if they get better results or more frustration, that's a great thing. Not every creator can be good at the same thing, and maybe it'll let them know if that type of game suits their skills better, or even the opposite.

As for the whole thing being a flashback, I don't see where the issue is with that. It's fairly easy to forget it is a story told by the MC, after a bite, since it doesn't get slapped in your face every few in game days.

I was playing Parental Love from the first update, so I'm not going based off of the end result. There were stumbles along the way, but nothing that really stood out to me. At least not more than any other game, and many of those were not related to what Luxee is describing. The big controversies I remember were changing hair colors a couple of times, making asses too big, and just choices for what was in the story, versus how the story was told.

And Luxee is free to make the game however they see fit. However, that doesn't mean they're going to make a better game. I can applaud someone for trying something new, while also responding honestly that I don't think it worked that well. And I don't think this worked well. It's not nearly as good as PL, again speaking as someone who was playing from the first update of that game. It's also not a successful implementation of a sandbox game, because it's not a living, breathing world you can explore. I still love someone else's comparison to "The Langoliers", alluding to how the world feels dead and unreal. The sandbox just exists as the physical embodiment of a replay gallery for what looks like an interesting game, except you never get to see that game.

 

[exazubi]

Agreed - I like the Nea character because she is pretty, well written, and unique. If you have played many games on this site, you start to see the characters blend together and the games don't stand out. When a game stands out, that is when people like it.

This is exactly why i hardly play vanilla/harem titles anymore. They are interchangeable, basically always the same. I've just seen too much of it.

I think THIS game stands out and stands out precisely because of Neah. Apart from this it still gets lost in the crowd. But only because it has hardly had any atmosphere so far. I hope that will change. The storytelling is very good.

 

[Rutonat]

This is exactly why i hardly play vanilla/harem titles anymore. They are interchangeable, basically always the same. I've just seen too much of it.

Some of them have some interesting characters, but they're hard to find because the presentation often doesn't really look like much. Bad Memories is another one that really stood out to me thanks to how Ellie was written and her originality.

 

[Mathesar]

This is exactly why i hardly play vanilla/harem titles anymore. They are interchangeable, basically always the same. I've just seen too much of it.

I think THIS game stands out and stands out precisely because of Neah. Apart from this it still gets lost in the crowd. But only because it has hardly had any atmosphere so far. I hope that will change. The storytelling is very good.

Some of them have some interesting characters, but they're hard to find because the presentation often doesn't really look like much. Bad Memories is another one that really stood out to me thanks to how Ellie was written and her originality.

I think part of the problem with harem games is they give every girl exactly one kink, or she is there to represent an aesthetic, and most of those are pretty vanilla. So you'll have one girl that likes oral more than the rest, one that's into anal, the one with curly red hair, etc. The cast gets bloated to cover all the bases and none of the characters get enough screen time to properly develop. A smaller cast where all the girls are into several things would help a lot. You could write a very forward masochistic redhead with a thing for exhibitionism, but most devs instead create one slutty girl, one masochist, one redhead, and one exhibitionist, each with a quarter of the screen time and a tenth of the character development of putting all those kinks on one package.

 

[Rutonat]

I think part of the problem with harem games is they give every girl exactly one kink, or she is there to represent an aesthetic, and most of those are pretty vanilla. So you'll have one girl that likes oral more than the rest, one that's into anal, the one with curly red hair, etc. The cast gets bloated to cover all the bases and none of the characters get enough screen time to properly develop. A smaller cast where all the girls are into several things would help a lot. You could write a very forward masochistic redhead with a thing for exhibitionism, but most devs instead create one slutty girl, one masochist, one redhead, and one exhibitionist, each with a quarter of the screen time and a tenth of the character development of putting all those kinks on one package.

Which is exactly why I love this game as well as Bad Memories. Characters have depth.

Let's be honest, A69 doesn't exactly have a "small cast", yet not a single character seems to be two dimensional. Sure at first they seem like they fit a cliché, but quickly they show more and are well written, even if it stays basic. For example, the little sister's best friend (I forgot her name...) isn't especially complex as far as concept goes. It's a young girl that has a big crush on her friend's big brother. That's a cliché you can see even in real life. Yet it's written in such an adorable way...

Bad Memories, on the other hand, as a smaller cast with less cliché-ed archetypes (not by too much though), and yet they're also masterfully written and get deeper and deeper as the game progress, on top of having an oddball (Ellie in that case, being an unusual concept, like Neah is to A69).

Classic archetypes aren't inherently a bad thing. It mostly depends on how well they're written.

 

[exazubi]

I think part of the problem with harem games is they give every girl exactly one kink, or she is there to represent an aesthetic, and most of those are pretty vanilla. So you'll have one girl that likes oral more than the rest, one that's into anal, the one with curly red hair, etc. The cast gets bloated to cover all the bases and none of the characters get enough screen time to properly develop. A smaller cast where all the girls are into several things would help a lot. You could write a very forward masochistic redhead with a thing for exhibitionism, but most devs instead create one slutty girl, one masochist, one redhead, and one exhibitionist, each with a quarter of the screen time and a tenth of the character development of putting all those kinks on one package.

It has less to do with the fetishes. Most of these games just have zero story. A short scenarion is created. After that, it's all about getting into the girls' panties as quickly as possible. The LIs often have no everyday life, no background story. Almost nothing happens in these games. There is no reason to fall in love or to get to know the women better. They are just meat. Often we just play through it once and move on. We often don't even read through the dialogues, we just click to the next lewd scene. There are just far too many games of this kind that are basically all the same, apart from a few variations. And if you've seen the same thing over and over again, you become more demanding.

Good stories are half the fun. And that's missing in a lot of games.

 

[BlasKyau]

This is exactly why i hardly play vanilla/harem titles anymore. They are interchangeable, basically always the same. I've just seen too much of it.

I think THIS game stands out and stands out precisely because of Neah. Apart from this it still gets lost in the crowd. But only because it has hardly had any atmosphere so far. I hope that will change. The storytelling is very good.

I agree that Nea has a good development and a worked story behind her. She's definitely a good character, but I think people at the thread already know my opinion about starting a romance with her.

In any case, without a doubt she is the character with the most emotional charge and the deepest story in the game.

 

[Ghostface Reborn]

I agree that Nea has a good development and a worked story behind her. She's definitely a good character, but I think people at the thread already know my opinion about starting a romance with her.

In any case, without a doubt she is the character with the most emotional charge and the deepest story in the game.

try dipping your toes in it... I did and others did--one person I debated with felt the same way until I offered him the WVM game.

 

[BlasKyau]

try dipping your toes in it... I did and others did--one person I debated with felt the same way until I offered him the WVM game.

In this one I already made the choice and preferred the route where there is no romance with Nea.

The game you're referring to sounds familiar to me, I don't know if I've played it (I think not).

 

[BlasKyau]

all I'll say is this:

You must be registered to see the links

This video has already been recommended to me on some other occasion. Certainly not by seeing it I have changed my tastes.

 

[Motoko Kusanagi]

Kinda wish I didn't take a peak at the tracker to see progress. Looks like maybe June for A69 if were lucky.

 

[Ifartedtoolong]

It more depends on when they finish PL update. 4 Things haven't even been touched yet 3 things are half done. March is almost done so if they were to finish it in March/April you'd most likely be looking at June/July if you figure in a 3 month time frame for the apartment 69 update to be done.

 

[k!nek]

We must be patient but i have hope that new update will be in first half of april

 

[Corambis]

We must be patient but i have hope that new update will be in first half of april

Unless you're talking about the update for PL, as Ifartedtoolong said it would likely be 3 months after that update comes out for A69 to have its update. Zero work has been done on the next A69 update based on what Luxee is reporting; it's all the Parental Love update. Although I wouldn't be completely surprised if Luxee announces they're getting burnt out on A69 and needs to take a break or has a new game they want to try for a bit.

 

[Shark_inA-chiar]

Unless you're talking about the update for PL, as Ifartedtoolong said it would likely be 3 months after that update comes out for A69 to have its update. Zero work has been done on the next A69 update based on what Luxee is reporting; it's all the Parental Love update. Although I wouldn't be completely surprised if Luxee announces they're getting burnt out on A69 and needs to take a break or has a new game they want to try for a bit.

Parental Love update??
i thought is was a done game why the hell is he working on it then?

 

[Rutonat]

Parental Love update??
i thought is was a done game why the hell is he working on it then?

Updating some scenes, changing some to animations, and remaking some renders, apparently. Basically tweeking to "finish" the game rather than having a "complete" one (i.e. it having an ending).

 

[Bev_]

Parental Love update??
i thought is was a done game why the hell is he working on it then?

You can check out full list of changes and progress

You must be registered to see the links

.

 

[JGNeon]

Speaking of which, it was just updated today:

 

[Corambis]

Parental Love update??
i thought is was a done game why the hell is he working on it then?

Personally, I think a part of it is that Luxee needed a break from A69. Partway through PL they took a break to write the first update of A69. In fact, they wanted to switch to A69 at that point and put PL on hold, but that got voted down by their patrons. Now that they've been working on A69 for a while, the itch to do something different and recharge creatively must be pretty high. And maybe it gives them time to figure out what they want to do with the game, especially with killing off Nea for a huge portion of the players and the potential for extra work that causes them. Working on PL probably seems like a vacation in comparison, plus there are some unresolved things from that game. I was always disappointed that Jenna losing her virginity in the flashback stuff was just basically covered with two renders and a little narrative text.