Actually they didn't take time off to do the first version for apartment 69 they did the first version of apartment 69 at the same time they were doing the wife only update for PL. Because they knew most were not on the wife only route so they released the first upload of apartment 69 at the same time they releases the wife only update for PL so that people that were not on the wife only route had something to play.
I remember there being a gap. Rainces took a month off from PL to do the first update for A69. This was after their unsuccessful attempt to add a trans character to PL, which they had put to a vote and was voted down. Then they put PL on hold and did A69 for that first update. Then another vote came on if they should just do A69 full time. That got voted down. Then another vote if they should alternate. Voted down. So they went back to PL and finished it.
I could be remembering this wrong though. Maybe they did do the wife route and A69 concurrently. I don't think I've even played the wife route, so maybe that's why I remember it as time off from PL.
Corambis
You can see when they were uploaded by looking at their website as it lists all uploads for each game there.
V0.01: 717 Images - 27 September 2018 first upload of apartment 69.
V0.7: 189 Images - 27 September 2018 wife only route update.
PL kept winning the polls but I think if they would of kept doing the polls apartment 69 would of won because the last poll they did apartment 69 almost won so if they would of had another one I think apartment 69 would of won. But they decided to finish PL instead.
You can see when they were uploaded by looking at their website as it lists all uploads for each game there.
V0.01: 717 Images - 27 September 2018 first upload of apartment 69.
V0.7: 189 Images - 27 September 2018 wife only route update.
PL kept winning the polls but I think if they would of kept doing the polls apartment 69 would of won because the last poll they did apartment 69 almost won so if they would of had another one I think apartment 69 would of won. But they decided to finish PL instead.
It looks like you're right. Although based on image count that doesn't seem like much of an update for PL. I don't remember there being much for A69 in the first update either, so we kind of got two partial updates released at the same time.
The problem with the polls is that once you ask a particular question, it's hard to go back and ask for it to be voted on again until it looks like you're fishing for an answer. Luxee definitely wanted to focus on a trans character, but they did respect the fact that his fans at the time weren't as interested after a couple of votes on it. I've seen other devs put up votes that really forced the answer based on the choices, but Luxee never did that. He respected that it was the fan's choice and didn't try to force his own plans down our throats. Were there to be a vote now of starting up another game or focusing on A69, I'm sure that A69 would win. It's what people are familiar with. I'd personally maybe vote for the other game, depending on what it was going to be. If it was another incest visual novel romp like PL, I'd be all over that. But I fully understand if A69 fans aren't.
AAAAAAAA NEA IS THE CUTEST BEAN EVER I CANT EVEN HANDLE IT! Must love, and protecc, and empower... Ugghhh I haven't been invested in a character like this in a LONG time... I love her so much.
- Sep 12, 2018
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HI there Man i Hope you read ths And i hope you put anal sex in this game
- Sep 28, 2020
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There was some in Luxee's other game, so there's no reason to think there won't be any in this one at some point.
Especially considering Nea's situation.
- Oct 22, 2017
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Luxee answered this right at the start of this game. He said it was his solution to a personal problem with storytelling.
He said that when writing in a typical novel style, he felt compelled to write in chronological order (everything else would mean to update earlier parts of the game, forcing us to replay or loose content), and more important, he felt compelled to write everything there was, like documenting everything that was going on.
So he wanted to break free from those two, being able to write what he had ideas/inspiration for without breaking the game flow, and also skip time when nothing interesting happened.
His personal solution of choice at that time was using the sandbox elements we have right now.
Open either the character screen and click each one and look and see what it says or click the character icons and look. Both places should tell you if there is more content for someone or not.
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".
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Well, I'd assume, that he recognized his issues during PL, but was 'stuck' with the way he had designed its structure.
I (and he as well for that matter) never said, his current solution were perfect or even had to make sense to anyone else.
This was just what he told us, when he was asked about why he was doing A69 the way he is.
I'm actually with you in that I like the flow of PL better, there are actually very few sandbox games out there I really like or think wouldn't be better without those elements. There are a few like A69 where I'm OK with them, though.
Luxee did a lot to make it less sandboxy by now - and will hopefully continue to do so.
What he said he envisioned was that instead of blending out, from interesting scene to scene, you mostly know what scenes are available and can continue where you like - just like he can continue writing where he likes. From what he said, even sticking to a more classic novel approach (still hoping from scene to scene), the story would still have ended being more disjointed in separate scenes than one large flowing story.
You/I can like that or not, but A69 would most likely never have had a structure similar to PL, and if the sandbox elements we have right now are a technical help for Luxee to develop the story by being more flexible/free in what he writes, I'm all for them - especially knowing all this about how he (didn't) want to tell this story.
Maybe I'll not like what he does with A69 in the end - but I strongly believe him forcing himself working on it in a format he doesn't like and has issues with, wouldn't have made a good A69.
I also don't think he always made the 'right' choices - I was really happy when he initially told us we would have three Nea routes, for I wanted her in my game, but not romantically. Removing my preferred third choice, just one? update later ...
For now, the positive aspects outweigh the negative ones for me personally - but that might change - they almost did already until he reworked the teacher scenes.
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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.
- Dec 12, 2020
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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.
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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.