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

My god, WHAT A GAME! As others have said, this is an incredible first episode! This one episode alone puts many other games to shame. The plot is enjoyable, the renders of the girls look FANTASTIC (just look at the banner!), parts of the game are absolutely hilarious and gave me a good laugh, and the personalities of the characters all feel unique and endearing. I can't wait for more!

This is on a whole other level.

The teen movies vibe is strong, the humor is on point, the music too.

Almost don't care about the "other" stuff, it was just a pleasure following the story and the characters.

Huge quality UI, mini games, renders, animations. As I said it's just on an anoter level



I'm not a huge fan of the dik/chick meter though, because that kind of system is too binary, and kinda forces you to play as an extreme or an other. I guess we'll see in the future if the inbetween is as interesting as the too polar opposites, or if there is no inbetween at all.

Great game by a great developer, Fantastic renders, great dialogue, Fun gameplay because it has features i have not seen in any of the other ~196 games i've played before.
Once something happends it takes a 180 u-turn the other way and doesn't go the way you expected it to go! I will for sure see this game through!

This game goes and confirms what I thought after finishing AL, Dr Pinkcakes and his team are the most talented adult indie dev around, this game solidifies that in such a way that you cannot doubt it any longer .
AL was a masterpiece and Being a DIK is a masterpiece in the making, and that's no fluke, the writing is on another level to what we are accustomed to in these games, genuinely funny, heartfelt and touching, (none of the usual grammatical errors or lazy google translate engrish here) the character building and relationship building is second to none, the music is very very well chosen, the girls are all very different and beautiful (thanks for the realistic boobs, tired of seeing stupid proportions in these games, feels like half the devs on this forum have never seen boobs in their life), the renders and animations are top notch, absolutely phenomenal, wow wow wow .
Hats off to everyone working on this game, you guys are brilliant, keep it up and you will be the golden standard all other adult devs strive to meet, and sadly fall short of .
I cannot recommend this game enough, without a doubt the best intro .1 on this forum .

I hope this makes other devs realize that mind numbing grind is not needed!!! gtfo of here with that already...
Games are meant to be fun! ohh and the writing shouldn't look like a 15 year old's wet dream, a little effort goes a long way .
I cannot stress this enough, your game or VN isn't supposed to read like a child's badly written essay, scribbled down hastily one hour before class starts... if you cannot do that you shouldn't be writing games or VN's in the first place .
Visual Novel ! take a hint if you cannot spell or cannot have someone check your grammar and spelling and you are incapable of writing an interesting/compelling story with original/witty dialogue and characters you are making the wrong type of game...
I sincerely hope to see other devs step up their game .

Rant/off

Thank you for raising the bar yet again @Dr PinkCake and team .

Besides "amazing renders, beautiful girls, college setting (which I love), unusual story because of fraternities, dad, Jody from intro" -
I really loved that this game feels like actually game, some quizzes+cheating exams+buying "cheats" from different people+free roam+studying something that u are bad of for example for me english exam was really hard because it is not my native language but still I loved it as a challenge +choices+mobile phone with some nice games+not just a fuck fest.

For a 0.1 episode i give it 5/5, i wish it stayed like that.

That game is amazing ， a quite extraordinary experience，the game material optimization is very good, BGM is very nice, there is a small game to give DIK extra points (can cheat), the most important is still CV, into the game experience yourself!

Absolutely Amazing, in fact after playing it right now I am inclined to even say perfect. It shows that a lot of work, thought, effort and talent went behind it.

So the game is a fresh breath unlike the same constant goods, it has great visuals, A very solid and promising story with great potential and a lot of possibilities, new and unique characters with proper personalities,

Best of all it does includes gameplay, but unlike confusing, complex, boring grinds, it is very entertaining, seamless, grants satisfaction, minigames are great.

Totally recommended

Wow, what a start to this game! Honestly, I'm not sure where to start as I'm not a reviewer, so this is going to be more of an what comes to my mind.

Might as well start with:

The good. (No particular order)

- Renders are absolutely incredible. There isn't a single scene with a bad render or something that sticks out badly. Of course some renders are better than others. (Compare your dad's house to the college)

- Story is fun and kept me interested. Of course it isn't fleshed out yet but I'm looking forward to the next update!

- The girls are all different. There's the first crush, girl next door, the slut(s) and so much more. Having a hard time to figure which girl I'm going to pursue when the game proggresses. All seem to have things you like and things you don't like. Which is very refreshing! There isn't the obvious right choice.

- Animations are really good! From the sexual ones to the blinking during conversations. Adds a really nice element to the game and makes the girls (and other characters) feel alive and not just some sex dolls to get you off quickly.

- I like the DIK and CHICK scoring system. It gives meaning to your actions and keeps it logical. Why would a known CHICK suddenly act out of their character and do a massive DIK thing? Also, this system gives replayability to the game. Atleast 3 different routes to play through! Neutral, CHICK and a DICK. And I did all those routes and they had differences. Not huge ones yet, but exclusive animations and lines from the girls. I like it!

The neutral

- Music was super freaking loud when I first started the game. Scared the shit out of me.

- Not sure about the voice acting just yet. I'm a fast reader and when I was clicking through the dialogue, the voice lines sometimes overlapped. But the voice actress was good and if I just slowed down, I would enjoy it.

- The minigames. Now, this would be a con but thankfully DrPinkCake is a good dev and made an option to skip them. Sadly, there's a downside to it as you won't get exclusive renders.
Also, I think the sliding puzzle in your phone is sometimes impossible to complete. I used a program to help with them (Yes, judge away lol) and sometimes it would say that there wasn't any possible solutions. But that could be just an user error from me. Also, the puzzle should have the timer removed, I don't want to stress over some easy puzzle and feel dumb as shit. (Okay, I might have been drunk when I played this)

The bad

- None. Yes. None. I honestly and confidently can say that to my tastes, this game doesn't have any massive negatives. Of course you could argue that it is short, but that is given. Of course it is short as it is being developed.

____________________________________________________

All in all. And incredible game with some new techniques that I haven't seen in other games, such as: well voice acted characters, a large music library, very nice details and animations and minigames.

5/5

Deserves 6 stars

How i could not give a 5 stars rating ?? How ? By missclicking the number of stars ?? Nah not even with eyes closed. By finding a failure ? Let me look...well I find nothing I can complain about....

The dev really nailed everything !! O.O

The story (it's not really epic, but kind of fun)
The writing (perfect)
The characters (perfect)
The renders (perfect)
The musics (nice but a bit too much on the rockish side though, more variety would be welcomed)
The gameplay (fun)
The DIK CHICK rating (it's impact seems quite low tho')

To sum up :
---- Characters personalities :
---- Renders/Graphisms :
---- Story/Writing :
---- Background/Atmosphere :
---- Animations :
---- Sex scenes :
---- Gameplay :
---- Contents/Updates :

Incredible characters in a really fun game ! Where is the 6 star option ?

I usually run away from "First Release" games and such thing, but OH BOY, this was a nice pick up!

Just a qucik look at the Release Notes could tell you that this game have lots of work behind, it isn't the standard "Milk Release" where developers just release a couple of renders and a set up history to catch the attention of the public and check if he can arrange a few new supporters for his patreon.

Not this time, on my first play of every first release I just skip the whole content to see how much of it has, but when the PC just met his crush I had to stop the skip and glance how good her render was... and it was totally worth it.

Renders - 10/10 I would say, many kind of female characters: you like big boots? you got it, you are and ass guy? good for you, here theyy are, Red heads? You too my friend... MILF, Teen, EMO... GOSH SAID, it even had ANAL on his first release.. how many games do you know that had anal on his first chapter?.

History - Ok, im a very critic player when it comes to history, and I can't give this game a 10 on this topic, but it doesn't mean that the history is bad, no, I wouldn't say that.
The trama is good, it has loop holes and sings that I find that a bit irrelevant and it could be improved, but all in all I would say I'll like where things are heading and it's a shame that we will have to wait a couple or months for a chapter 2, or at least that's what I think about how long it would take.

Game Mechanics - I like them! Leeting you choose if the PC is a rude smart-ass or a classy man is pretty nice for me, but I feel that right now it has a small impact overall, I played for a total dick and just missed one scene, so I hope things will develop different with every decission you make on the game.

There a few minigames on the game, and I dont like minigames... Math/logicall is ok, I'll say its nice to have those break points in the game, but the english and fighting one... thouse are a bit annoying, specially the english one having in mind that many people are native english speakers, and even for me that I find myself with a nice english level, it's a bit hard to score a perfect at that without cheating.
The fighthing one.... I didn't bothered with him and just console-cheated the whole game.

Well, that's all, I'll keep an eye on this game for sure, and hope for it to became a top game on the site!

When you close the game after going through this episode, you understand what a tremendous job was done on this game, I admit honestly, this is the best start of the game of this genre in my memory. Even the blind will see what a huge potential this game has.
The narrative delays you and you can’t tear yourself away from the game. During the passage you experience a spectrum of different emotions and as for me, this is the best indicator of the quality of the product, as it finds a response within you.
The plot, characters, renders, music, main menu, smartphone interface, mini games, everything is done at the highest level.
This project raises the bar for the quality of games in this genre to a new level!
Dr PinkCake you are damn talented! I wish you great success and a sea of new ideas. You are an example for developers!

Review of v.0.1.0

What a great initial release! Coming off of Acting Lessons, I had high expectations for a new Dr.PinkCake release, but this actually exceeded them. It raises the bar in so many ways and hopefully the few blemishes can be polished up in future updates.

So, what's to like?

Stunning models/renders - My personal favorite - Maya.
Great presentation - The UI aesthetic, music and environments all serve to reinforce the setting of the game.
Great writing - The story and characters all have an atypical depth and complexity to them. Most of the interactions and events seem at least plausible as things real people might do/say and things that might actually happen to them.
The way the MC is presented (even when he's being a DIK) feels relatable. So many games get this wrong and when they do, the story may as well go out the window as your motivation ends up just being , "execute the necessary actions that get the desired content".

What's not so great?

The minigames are a mixed bag - I enjoyed the "Math" one and the "Gender Studies" memory game was OK, but the "English" one was less enjoyable, the "Brawling" was meh and the sliding block puzzle was pretty much impossible in the time limit provided (I guess I don't have the right brain for it).

The voice acting is weak - It's not that it is so bad, but everything else about the presentation is so good that it really falls flat in comparison.

Overall, though, as you can tell by the star rating, top-notch work by Dr.PinkCake. Well worth playing and well-worth a Patreon sponsorship if you have the means.

Being A DIK [v0.1.0] [Dr PinkCake]
Wow, the last game(acting lessons) was an emotional rollercoaster, and this game is already starting to become that too! (kudos to you DrPinkCake)

Top
+story; it just gets me every time. I really get secluded from the World and get absorbed in to this game. Really good job on that.
+good looking girls; really not a single girls is badly designed
+Dialogue is also top tier
+pacing; is on point ( not to rushed nor too slow)
+minigames; work great and are fun to do.
Really good job overall i really appreciate this game.

Tip
-some choices; for example when you get to chose that you ‘prefer milfs’; your dream sequence auto means submissive mc/femdom. (i pref milfs; yet i dont like femdom)’
-i mostly choose to play the goodguy, which seems in regard to the other choices, not the most rewarding.
-could do with a few characters who have some bigger size tits/ass ( like the librarian)
-maybe some scenes?( though i get that it is the First realease)

Its allround a very well designed game, it has much potential and i eagerly await the next update.
(PS i hope the mc will get a bit of fortune in the next update)
Keep up the good work!!

OK, like many others have already stated, this game has a lot going for it.
The visuals are stunning, and most of the models are breathtakingly beautiful.
The music is good.
English is excellent, and a lot of the banter between characters is quite funny.

Alas, beautiful pictures, cool music and funny one-liners are not enough to make a great game.
Minigames are not my thing, luckily there's an option to ignore them.
Music, though well chosen, gets repetitive and distracting after a while.
None of the male characters (MC's father excepted) are sympathetic. The mandatory "buddy/sidekick" is more annoying than friendly (where's Liam when you need him?).
The story progresses the same way whichever path you choose (yes I played 3 routes Massive dick/Neutral/Massive chick).
Some of the choice options in certain situations make you feel how much the MC is railroaded into events he has no control over. (not going to spoil it for those who haven't played it yet)
This lack of control over the MC's actions is what I regret the most, since the setting and cast ensemble have a lot of promise.
I wanted to rate this one 3.5 stars, but apparently the rating system doesn't do half stars...

Excelent improvement on Acting Lessons.
Great, very nice renders.
Nice animations.
Nice scripting and characters.
Like the mechanics.
The music is great.
Sexy chicks, easy morale system.
Two routes (dick o chick)
Best v 0.1 I played so far in a year.

This game is another masterpiece in making from the creator of Acting lessons. That game is absolutely a stunning game both story-wise and visually.

This title (v0.1) has beautiful visuals and an excellent beginning of a story. Simply one of the best starts for a new game on this site! Maybe this will be the game that will overthrow DrPinkCake's previous title as the best game on this site?

Really good..

The girls are beautiful, the story are interesting and the jokes are good too I love how the dev always have 1 hilarious friend for the MC in his game.

Game mechanics is also good, I love the free roaming part of the game. It makes the game more alive, not just like a visual novel.

Just hoping the dev can focus on a good story and not too much tragic ending like his previous game

Good job!

Wow best 0.1 version i've ever tried.

Pros:

• Awesome renders.
• All the characters look detailed.
• Interesting story with a bit of humor in it.
• Plethora of angles,poses on each scene.
• Scenes feel alive(there's background ppl).
• Masterpiece animation-s.
• Alot of minigames,which are also skippable for ppl that dont like them.
• 2(maybe 3) possible routes.
• A lot of collectables secrets.
• Proper english.
• A uuuuuuge amount of BG music.

Cons:

• None!
• Ok maybe the image puzzle minigame could be a bit easier.

This game seems to be a proper masterpiece.
This guy doenst just milk patrons with small updates every month.Also the releases are episodical.I haven't checked the previous game from this dev but now i definetly will.Prolly in my top 5 dev teams for this kinda games.Would pledge without second thought

This game is fantastic. It's only v0.1 (1 episode) and already has more content than a lot of games on this site. The renders are all amazing, the girls look great and seem to have actual personalities. The story is interesting and believable and I actually laughed out loud numerous times during gameplay (that dude Derek is a fucking treasure).

The only bad thing I can say about this game is that I can't wait for an update (which will probably take very long if the creator keeps his standards - it's obvious a tremendous amount of work went into creating this game so far). Also, it seems a walkthrough would be VERY helpful since there are multiple paths depending on the personality you develop as you go through the game.

Going away to college


The good

• Creative and funny intro
• Good looking (and even animated!) renders
• Animations
• UI / phone (apps)
• Decent writing, very few typos
• Romance (I'm a sucker for romantic scenes like cuddling with Maya while watching a movie).
• Overall production quality

The so-so

• Main girls (nice, but none of them got me really excited - even some of the side characters are more appealing).
• Girls - while not being easy "prey" - still fall too quickly for the MC (and in some cases for no apparent reason).
• Music (some fits the scene nicely, some quickly gets annoying).
• (Partial) voice acting (well meant and done, but not my cup of tea - rather annoying than immersive).
• Dick / chick mechanism (good idea, but somehow half-baked - there should be a third choice option: acting nice = neutral).
• (Timed) mini games (some are fun while others at least are not too bad).
• Dreams & special renders (nice, but I'm not a fan of showing the "goods" before we really earned them).
• The story so far is okay, but not especially compelling - there are also some inconsistencies.

The improvable

• Deriding critics of Acting Lessons ("whiners") during the intro (not a confident and mature way to deal with criticism).
• Parts of the story feel forced on the player (like pursuing Josy).
• A lot of humour is on knee-slapper or even lavatorial level.
• Not much variety in body shapes (most girls seem to have big boobs and sometimes also unnatural looking wasp waists).
• Skin sometimes looks like sandpaper, kinda off-putting.
• (Return of the) one-dimensional clerk jerk (low effort laughing stock character).
• Dad calling the MC "son" sounds weird.

Overall a pretty good VN which appears like it was made by an established studio with a considerable budget.