VN - Ren'Py - Being a DIK [v0.10.1] [DrPinkCake]

What can I say about this game other than the fact that it is close to perfection to the point that I can no longer view it simply as a fap material, because it is far greater than that. Story's more captivating than some of the AAA games (non-erotic of course) I've played, every character has SOUL and you literally care every (hot) girl (MG or SG) in this game. The only issue I have might be the development period it can take between episodes but consider the fact that the game is solely developed by DPC himself and the sheer quality he presents, I just have to build my patience a lot more.

The story of this game is moving and the modules are detailed. The characters in the story are very distinct and delicate, especially J & M, who is very understanding. Thank you very much for making this game, I hope it will have many seasons, and I look forward to playing it soon. ~ thank you

I love this game this story. Thank you.

Wonderful, absolutly wonderful. The best game i've ever played. Dr.Pincakes its my favourite developer. The graphic design its beatufiul and the story is so captivating. Its perfect like ero novel, but its excellent like a video game.

The number 1 AVN. Plot, lewd scenes, characters, and renders are top tier. Updates may take awhile, but that’s because Dr. Pink Cake is making sure what he’s giving us is the best he can do. The replay value is also amazing because you can have so many different paths. When this game ends, the number of hours I’ll have put in this game will be absurd

Probably the best game on this site. There is not much to say, other than this is close to perfection. The author really is a master in his craft. The only thing I wish was other love interests (like Jade) that are not mains would have more screen time, but it is what it is.

I played this game from about the beginning of season 2, replayed it about 10-15 times. And during the next replay, I realized that I had not left a review about this game. It's time to fix it. (Interlude Season 3 version)
I like to describe my emotions and thoughts in as much detail as possible, but I will try not to make a huge wall of text. If for some reason you haven't played this game yet and decided to read a few reviews before starting it, then I can say in short: You simply must play this game.
And now for those who are interested in reading more about the benefits of this game:

• Story - 4.5 out of 5. (Minus half a point just because I prefer more fantasy themed games) What can be said about the Story? Quite a common picture when a guy ends up in a university away from his home and does not know what to expect from it. As you can see from the tags of this game, there will be no fantasy and mysticism here. This is a completely ordinary story of the life of an ordinary guy in a far from ordinary university. (At least it is very different from my university haha) The text is written professionally, no mistakes or shortcomings. No haste or too slow development of events. Everything goes exactly the way you want. Even though I know the plot almost by heart and have played this game more than 10 times, I don't feel like pressing the "skip" button. I find it interesting to read a really well-written story every time. Everything from drama, adventure, humor, unexpected plot twists and other things is present here. In order not to spend too much time on this topic, let's move on to the next one.
• Graphics and Animations - 10 out of 5. Seriously, this is the only game I've ever played in which the graphics are so beautiful and high quality. I've played most of the games that have high quality graphics, but in my opinion none of them are close to this game. The combination of graphics, animations, angles, a wide selection of poses will not leave absolutely anyone dissatisfied.
• Music - 5 out of 5. In my review of another game, I said that I rarely pay attention to music. But this is practically the only game in which the music is so wonderful that I even saved a few melodies and tracks to my computer. Each piece of music fits perfectly with the scene it plays in.
• Characters - 5 out of 5. My favorite part of this game. It's very rare to find games where the characters are written so interesting that you literally fall in love with many of them. In my memory, there is not a single character that would be similar to others. Everyone has their own personality, their own goals, motives. Each character is really memorable and alive, you really empathize with them. This is one of the few games where I love the main and secondary characters equally (Hello Lilly, Riona and Camille, I love you.)
  About the Main Character: here the player has 3 options for how the main character will behave throughout the game. DIK, CHICK or NEUTRAL. Either you are a playboy, an alpha male, a party-man, a bad boy who is not afraid of fights, will not refuse weed, will do some kind of prank or something else. Either you are a calm and kind guy who tries to avoid what I wrote before, with good manners, a knight on a white horse if I may say so. Or you are not defined with an "evil" or "good" side and you play a neutral character who combines things from the first two personalities. The choice is yours! It is also worth mentioning that this is not just a choice that makes little sense and mainly changes the text component of the game. Depending on your choice, you will be loved and respected by some characters, but at the same time, other characters will not be delighted with you. (hello to some characters and goodbye to others) roughly speaking.
• The amount of content is more than enough. Trust me. (and this is far from the end of the game, although we are slowly moving towards it) With all the characters, there will be more than enough lewd scenes and content.
• Gameplay - 5 out of 5. This is not just a Visual Novel in which you click on the LMB and that's it. This game combines elements of a visual novel and a sandbox. And the game does it just brilliantly. You won't get feelings like "too much free roam" or "get bored just scrolling through the text". Also, during the free roam elements, access to the phone is opened. To be honest, this is incredibly interesting and cool stuff. I've always loved being able to call or text characters. Not to mention the mini-games, which are also good in their own way, although I did not give them too much time and attention. Do you want to go to the social network where all the characters live, see their photos and leave comments? Guess what? You can do it!
• I guess I'll finish with the review, it turned out to be quite long.
  Summing up, I can say with confidence that among ALL the games I have ever played (and there were quite a lot of them), this game proudly takes the first place.

Just finished season 2, and I will try to keep this review succint:

- This game has SOUL. This is the gold standard of adult games, and it's plot is EXTREMELY engaging. I never cared so much for fictional characters as much as in the game, to the point you worry about what's going to happen.

- Each character is nuanced, but there are some who truly steal the spotlight: Dad (Neil) and Derek are AMAZING, and Derek especially caused me to laugh whenever he was onscreen. Also, every char has a motif, and those fit very well with the game.

- As for the main girls, they are very nuanced as well. This game was a rollercoaster of emotions, as my MC got the feels for all the main girls, but eventually it dwindled to 2. This progression, defined by choices made blindly during the gameplay, felt very natural and satisfying.

- I truly recommend trying a blind run in your first playthrough. It's really exciting not planning what's going to happen, and be surprised by the results. As one character says very early (Dad, I think?), follow your heart and you'll be surprised about how the plot and relationships evolve.

- All in all, I rate it 5/5, as it's a masterpiece.

Being a DIK is a VN about a poor boy going to college and joining a frat. Frankly, I'm not sure why I'm even bothering to drop a review on it. It has over a thousand reviews currently and I doubt anything I'll say about it will be novel, but here it goes anyway.

Being a DIK is basically the height of erotic VNs. The renders and girls are absolutely beautiful, the choices matter a great deal, and the story is engaging and fun.

I think it's the story and characters that really break the bank though. While the art is gorgeous, many other VNs can compete. However, very few VNs will make me feel as strongly about the characters as Being a DIK. All of the characters, not just the girls, have strong personalities, interesting quirks, and goals they're trying to achieve. Even the "villains" of the story are irritatingly sympathetic once you understand what they've been through. There are times where I'd push Quinn off a cliff, but it's easy to see how her experiences have shaped her.

Every complaint I could manage to muster is just nit picking. I'm not a huge fan of the mini-games or I-spy segments, but they're uncommon enough that they actually break up the story well, and they're skippable if you really hate them. A lot of that is also the completionist aspect as well, as finding everything in the free-roams can be a pain... I just want to.

The only other issue I could mention is the file size. The game is nearly 19 GB. I suppose that's what comes with quality, but it can be a little annoying when you're trying to fit a 100 GB game or two on your hard drives as well. Once again, really a non-factor.

Overall, if you haven't played this game yet... why haven't you? I have a hard time coming up with any game on the site that competes with it, and most of them have less content. It's phenomenal.

I have to be honest with this comment because this game struck a chord with me. Lately I was only looking for sex games with the best graphic quality, I only cared about the sexual scenes but with Being a DIK things changed, since one of the characters that is related to the protagonist made me change my mind without warning; from waiting to see good sex scenes to feeling a deep desire for love. Unfortunately if you go in with the mentality of fucking them all and if at some point you fall in love you won't be able to break up with some girls, that made me a little angry because I felt like I betrayed one of them and it was like that. In the end the only option was to start the game again. (and if you don't know how to play guitar you probably want to learn thanks to this game)

First two chapters were put together very well. The graphics are great. The story is very good but could have been much better. I felt it was way too easy to get into all the girls panties on the main girls and way too difficult to score with the side girls. There are no consequences for creampies in this game. Very few girls have pubic hair. Was not a fan of the interlude surfer chick character. But hey, sure she is shown for a good reason. I just did not enjoy playing as her character. I was not a fan of the 2 choices I had for love interests for the MC at the end of chapter 2 and took the better of the two options. Wasn't my choice of a love interest though of all the characters he was already involved with. Sure wasn't going to be one of the ones he paid for sex though. Funny Isabella was an option but not Envy or another girl aside from Sage. Would have enjoyed pursuing some internal conflict through banging Heather or Sally. Sadly Jill was also not an option. Would have liked to cause turmoil in that little Rich Pricks life like him discovering me banging Jade with that trouser snake he was so afraid of having laid eyes on. Characters were way more personal in Pink Cakes other game than this one. But that being said its still there for it to get to that level of involvement here. Like the friendship between Derek and the MC. Like the friendship building with the other DIK's with the repairing of the mansion storyline. That said I did not like the story bubbles in the interlude at all. That was rather cheezy. Look forward to seeing how Chapter 3 turns out. Overall the game is definitely worth playing if you are looking for a fun game. There is a story here although its not as defined as it could be. Free Roam is not the free roam I am used to in other games. It is very task oriented and limited in nature here and is restricted to small areas, Derek does provide a lot of humor. Would have also enjoyed it if Ass Man got to shag a few of the feminazi's in the Gender Studies class as well along with Derek. Such as Dany while she was broke up with Jamie. Wendi needed to ride the hog at least once so she could see she was really deeper than the 6 inches she thinks she is. Ah the potential that was missed. What you can do is very fun. Hope that the next chapter does not limit the character even more than he ended up at the end of 2.

[Interlude Season 3]
Being a DIK is the best 3d style visual novel at the moment. You will experience a lot of emotions and worry about the future fate of your character while playing the game. In this game, decisions actually play a huge role and on them depends the further course of the game. The game also has a lot of mini-games so you will not get bored it surely!

The animation and detail is amazing, the choices and how they affect the playthrough give this a solid amount of play time across multiple saves. The things you find, if you look hard enough, are rewarding and worth the time.

Undoubtedly the best game I have played. Awesome renders , beautiful models , lewd scenes are very hot. I started playing this game for fap reason but soon the story got me. Instead of fapping I was playing the game for the story. If you want high graphics game with a good story then this game is definitely for u. Can't wait for season 3.

Great renders, interesting stories, and many characters with different personalities. This game is worth playing.

But with so many characters, most girls have no pubic hair, which is really unreasonable. And if you don't play with mod, you can't enjoy all the fun. You have to spend time playing again to play another routes.

So my rating for this game is only three stars.

Thank you for introducing me to this game which I subsequently purchased.
The decisions we make really influence the outcome of the story. I had a lot of fun with Derek. I hope that the story will end at the end of the school period with the awarding of diplomas, lots of parties and twists in the scenario. Thanks to the F95 community for allowing me to discover this game. Thanks also to those who translated it because in English class, I was a bit like Derek.

The gold standard for quality in the world of erotic visual novels

What is the phenomenon of this game? Being a DIK is a porn novel that is known even outside the adult gaming community, it is in the top 250 on Steam and has reviews in the gaming media that bypass this genre. Why such popularity?
This game is a real AAA in its genre. Not just a porn game where you can jerk off to sex animations. This is an amazing story with a living, thoughtful world, characters that seem like real people and a plot that doesn't let go. It was as if I got into this college of Burgmeister and Reus, personally experiencing everything that happens. This is a first-class American teen comedy from the 90s: tons of vulgar humor, a minimum of political correctness like in most modern games that seem sterile and insipid; it's a breathtaking shower of student adventure, drama and youth experiences. And of course a lot of sex, which is here as a nice bonus to the plot. Unlike Acting Lessons, which made you cry, this game guarantees a lot of good mood and laughter.
The graphics are very cool - there are no renders of such a high level in more than one game.
The soundtrack has been added to Spotify for a long time - it really fits into each scene and brings the game to life.
And even the gameplay does not let you get bored - there is a mixture of a visual novel with periodic sandbox modes, an in-game phone in which you can spend hours, your own Twitter and Tinder, a music player, a chat with characters - all this adds life to the world.
And constantly new mini-games add variety to the gameplay.
This is what a quality porn novel should look like. By far the best game and no one could beat the quality of DrPinkCake. All other similar games look like Bollywood parodies.

Acting Lessons was a wonderfully sad and poignant story about love and loss...

'Being A DIK' is all about being young and stupid...something I know a lot about...now that I am old and stupid. I have played over a thousand hours of this game and I don't know how Dr. Pinkcake is going to be able to tie up all the threads he has created and woven into the storyline. He has created a monumental headache for himself, if he ever decides to finish this game, which we all hope isn't going to happen yet. It's complexity is unmatched by anything I have played so far, the writing can get sketchy at times, but on the whole, it's well done.

I am not a fan of college based VN's, but this is excellent stuff. Multiple choices, paths and storylines make this essential VN gaming.

The game is really good the story gets you and it feels connected with the characters. Humor is also good and the choices matter and it really is a premium game in the lewd category which everyone should try once

3.5 / 5.0

[0.8.2]

TL;DR – minor spoilers are hidden

PROS
+ Enthralling yet mostly lighthearted story full of humor along with mysteries and intrigues to be explored.

+ Writing in terms of language.

+ The story-driven nature of this novel implies semi-realism (with assumptions and simplifications) at least to a certain acceptable degree without typical power fantasies.

+ Basically relatable and likable non-creepy protagonist.

+ Non-linear walkthrough with multiple variations in the subplots.

+ High quality renders.

+ A lot of lewd scenes and they all are decently (not outstandingly though) animated.

+ Music selection. A plenty of licensed tracks that fit right in with the ongoing events and atmosphere.

+ Getting to the lewd scenes isn’t based on stereotypical porn fiction crap like blackmail & extortion, corruption & molestation, mind control, magic power etc.

+ A lot of male and female characters – everyone with different personalities. The vast majority of them do matter for the story and either contribute some value to the plot advancing or add joyful moments to your experience.

+ Definitely not related people getting laid with each other.

+ No grind. There is a simplified money function but you can completely ignore it without major consequences.

Mixed impressions
* The role play mechanics revolving around regular choices forging your "status" (behavior inclinations) and rare major decisions forging your affinity (basis of personality).

I appreciate the dev's effort and personally view it as a merit, but it turns out contradictory and unpolished: at times it leads to illogical or even weird outcomes, let alone the volume of content available: logic and common sense frequently become hostages of the in-game conventions. On the other hand, this karma model secures the great non-linearity.

* Humiliation content in Episodes 2-4 is rather over the top and unavoidable in most cases as it’s an integral part of the story beyond your control over the protagonist. The narrative could’ve justified this kind of coercive content in a more convincing fashion.

* Unbalanced screen time of the main love interests. Some heroines get a remarkably higher number of both lewd and non-lewd scenes (renders, animations and dialogue lines) notwithstanding your choices and current route. Although it might be an advantage if you are into specific lucky heroines.

* Free-roams. They tend to supply us with a bunch of fetch quests and grind opportunities. Occasionally they can be meaningful for the story and relationships advancing.

* Female characters outfits. Given we are in a porn fiction it can’t be called a shortcoming. But all those overly skimpy or provocative outfits, even on the staff members and women of relatively strict morals, might appear too unbelievable, incongruous and simply comical in a bad way even for an American Pie tier of movies, which in turn might ruin your experience to some extent. Very often a female’s manner of dress contradicts her own personality established throughout the story and this is glaring.

Perhaps I exaggerate with this one, but first off, it’s meant to be a story-driven novel in a slice of life college setting that is supposed to stick to its semi-realism.

* Mini-games. Some of them like brawling are quite worthy and interrelated with certain plot incidents or they just bring in fun and variety. By and large they are not rewarding enough. Since they are optional they can't be deemed a flaw.

* The way how the relationships are shaped. Broads fall in love with the protagonist way too fast for no apparent reasons. Unlike the dev’s first novel – Acting Lessons – and many other novels it's at least somehow disguised and has some grounds.

CONS
I won’t dwell on minor and out of plot flaws like the torturous free-roam navigation and unrealistically oversized or over-exaggerated (in other aspects) proportions of certain heroines.

- Limited control over the protagonist in the established circumstances.

- Forced content with a few main love interests outside of their routes that is not duly justified by the narrative and doesn’t feel plausible. You have to over-exploit your suspension of disbelief to suck it up.

- Overuse of caricature characters. Caricature means a one-dimensional and hardly believable character intended to be a comical relief. A small number of supporting caricature characters in the cast are fine – they bring funny moments to your walkthrough. But their number is rather excessive.

Worst of all, several major characters fall into this category too. Caricature nature of our protagonist’s rivals and antagonists belittles them as characters, deprives us of any tension and thus spoils impression from the story as a whole.

- Contrived and ridiculous drama for the sake of drama. Note that I don’t question its necessity for a college comedy adventure as well as I don’t mind drama at all but it should pull you in and get you to empathize with suffering characters. That happens when reasons for drama are convincing and ensured by compelling arguments. Instead, it looks like if the novel aims to engage teenage and emotionally fragile girls who are definitely not the dev’s target audience.

Unfortunately, a lot of drama arcs and scenes dumped on us are poorly handled from the story standpoint: they have a weak foundation and rely on such means like nonsensical inexistent laws, comical overestimation of commonplace problems, our lack of control over the protagonist or all together.

In result, you just don’t buy it and the drama causes bewilderment and alienation from those troubled characters rather than empathy. This side of the novel is one of its weakest spots. For instance, the laughable drama renditions we encounter in this novel are nothing compared to one abandoned curly girl’s drama in that glossy cyberpunk mercenary novel – a subplot within a totally different undramatic genre.

- Approach to the plot handling and direction. The dev deliberately keeps us in the dark, artificially entangles the plot and strips us of sufficient control over the protagonist – even against common sense – in order to prepare the ground for dumping plot twists and shocking revelations further as well as to subvert our expectations, which becomes an obsession – sort of an end in itself. Such plot contrivances are a putrid infection of this novel. In the end a good intention to set out a coherent plausible and appealing story gets undermined by such the approach.

Most of the plot ambiguities and secrets would’ve been already uncovered and explored if the protagonist could ask simple and reasonable questions or spent a couple minutes to find out whom he even communicates and hangs out with, what their basic background is. A candid conversation would quickly dislodge most of these contrived intricacies and wreck this artificial plot twists conveyor.

For instance: even a high school student would proceed with caution and ask relevant questions if he stood overnight at a married bombshell woman’s home – at a very minimum for his own safety’s sake. Same goes for the deliberate concealment of many characters’ surnames. That’s a cheap writing trick of keeping your story thrilling.

Notice that the plot entanglements in this novel along with your inability to pry and exercise caution are not strengthened by any appropriate plot points like, for instance, one redhead bombshell's mystery in that neon-lit mercenary techno-thriller novel, which is thought out from the narrative perspective and substantiated by valid points when the prying is an available option but it won’t even work out for good reasons. Unluckily, that is clearly not the case here.

- Writing in terms of distinctions of characters in wording and speaking patterns. Most characters speak like if they rooted from a same person with the same vocabulary and phrasing or like if they are entities processed by a same hive-mind. That is the case when a non-professional enthusiast outside of jobs that require a lot of communication (so to say – writers in the line of duty) takes on designing and scripting a large scale story with dozens of characters while staying a one-man team and neglecting third-party contractors despite availability of funds.

This novel desperately needs a seasoned writer who would diversify and enliven dialogue lines of many characters so you would perceive them as undeniably, distinctively individual personalities. The dev apparently underestimates it. Ironically, this side of the novel loses against the one in that notorious overhyped abandoned sandbox about a scrawny creep brutally revenging his ostensibly sinister teacher for her [non-] rejection, and there is no wonder because that creator doesn’t hesitate to hire an experienced third-party contractor.

Further notes
* Even though the dev states that the novel has been planned to be a lighthearted college comedy at its core blended with mostly off-screen and non-grave crimes without atrocities and tragedies, I recognize subtle indicators and portents that he is tricking us into thinking this way – the novel will appear lighthearted only by his own standards and not for the audience.

And his standards are no doubt cruel to put it mildly – to bypass spoilers and nausea I won’t mention one particular little-known atrocity in his previous novel, which the overwhelming majority of players neither found out nor realized.

* Furthermore, the dev asserts he designed and mapped out the story beforehand with only insignificant and cosmetic alterations adopted since the development start. This seems untrue because it means he on purpose set up a major dramatic subplot locked onto inexistent laws and an almost impossible situation.

Much more likely that his plot twist frenzy did him a disservice and led to a hilarious state of play: one of the patrons’ most favorite girls turned into the least favorite following his yet another “breathtaking” reveal but she still gets the most screen time including both renders and dialogue lines and this state is irreversible. This weirdness might’ve never happened without the dev’s addiction to plot twists for the sake of plot twists and in fact is the outcome of his miscalculation in the scripting caused by his misestimation of the target audience and his heavy reliance on unnecessary plot twists mindlessly.

Conclusions
* I recommend you to give this novel a go. Most likely it will draw you in, especially if you seek for a story-driven experience and not a sexfest. The story is indeed enjoyable.

* This novel is considered No.1 in the adult segment. I am inclined to agree taking into account its massive volume of content – in TOP 3 undoubtedly.

* Get ready for disappointments and subverted expectations.

* To dodge spoilers I also advice you to not play the dev’s first novel – Acting Lessons – until he completes this one.

That’s not because you with high probability will be frustrated and get an unpleasant aftertaste – the reason is that playing the dev’s previous creation gives you insight into his writing stunts and plotting tropes from inside so you can project them onto this novel and, of course, spoil your experience.

* I rounded up to 4 stars due to the scale and content quantity that shouldn't be disregarded. If the interlude episode is counted too then my final grade descends from 4 fading stars down to 2.5 collapsing stars.

Absolutely gorgeous, all the characters feel alive and are very lovable.
The sex scenes are very well made and beautiful.
The romances and taboos are gripping and wholesome. I just really love this game, this is my favorite.
Really waiting for the next update. Keep up the very hard and good work.