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

Based on Episode 1. Real rating is 3.5 star which is above average, unfortunately the thread doesn't allow 0.5 star rating so 3-star it is.

I'll go with the good things first because they are obvious. This game is beautiful. VERY beautiful. A lot of effort and care are clearly put into the game. I appreciate this very much.

However, this is by no means a perfect game as many has given 5-star rating. There are clear weaknesses as well. Mini-games are interesting but still very flawed. None of the NPCs are really likeable, and the "buddy" NPC (Derek) is honestly one of the most annoying characters in any game. This really negatively affected my enjoyment of the game.

But the biggest flaw of the game for me is that every character is suspicious, and this is not a whodunnit mystery game where you have to catch the criminal. This is really not a good thing because you're forced to overthink things.

"Is she really nice?"
"Is he a friend?"
"Can I trust them?"
"What if he'd backstab me?"
"Should I betray her?"
... and so on

This is the downside of a game that we know will have a twist. You can trust nobody, and it's made worse because you're locked into the DIK/CHICK characteristic scoring system which might not actually really represent your intention.

So why the 3.5-star rating if there are so many big weaknesses? Because I can't give average 3-star for a game that is visually extremely beautiful. It really is that beautiful. It's just a shame that the characters and story are not anywhere as high quality.

One of the best games I've run across here. Excellent renders, decent English and grammer, meaningful choices, no noticeable bugs, at least a couple of hours of content for the first posted version. Very well done.

Ok.. so where do I start with this masterpiece...
So the fact that only the 0.1 update cause this much of a stirr tells you all you need to know really.
The intro to the game brought back Detroit: Become Human vibe.. And that was hell of a game.. + Mr.PinkCake unique sense of humour.. Anyway to start with the review.
As I have said its only 0.1 but it already has huuuge amount of content and got me checking F95 every second for if the new update had been released.
The story so far is amazing.. He already warned us that it will be another heartache so Im at the same time dreading and impatiently waiting to see what kind of EPIC end this game will end.. But I hope we are looong way from end, because this game if it is to be judged by ACTING LESSONS(WHICH IS PROBs THE BEST GAME ON HERE{Alongside the likes of Depraved Awakening and few others} ) and the first update, its gonna be hell of ride.
The most amazing thing is that he managed to surpass the quality of his previous game.
What people NEED TO KNOW AND UNDERSTAND, that this is not a 10/10 porn(erotic game) IT IS 10/10 GAME... It transcends the simple porn games with great, arching story and THE BEST animations so far I have seen..
Im not spoiling anything for anyone so I wont talk about story, but I will say its kind of refreshing to see this..
Yeah, sure those incest and ntr fetishes are cool and everything, but it feels great to play something somewhat realistic, and this story is just that..
Just.. I am in AWE what ONE guy managed to do with the help of you guys.. And he deserves all the support you are giving him and more.. MUCH MORE.
-- And yea, Im not patreon but its down to my financial state and not to me not being willing to PAY him for his work. If there is anything I would spend money IF I could and that its not bills and food it would be to support Mr. PinkCake.
JUST BRAVO

Blockbuster Porn.
Chapter 4 and 5
BaDIK consolidates its position as the best porn game ever elevating itself to a level of quality where we want something that its not featured but they made it so good that where left asking why. What am i talking about? The story and the characters are really great, even the secondary characters are very well written and this is where its starting to be annoying. I like Camila, i like Quinn, the teachers are great and i have a thing for the striper milf. I hate that i cannot trully pursue them. Why am i stuck with Josy? Of course this only happens because an astounding job is being made with the characters and you end up wanting it all. Fingers crossed for a change in the future! Can´t wait for more!
Chapter3
Hell week is awesome. Honestly everything is awesome. Combat got super hard in v0.3. Keep it going.
Chapter 2
I guess my complaints weren't just my own. Everything i said was wrong got fixed in chapter 2. The MC is using his guitar to get some pussy, is kicking ass with his fighting and is face fucking his teacher in is dreams.
Because he´s a DIK and that how its done.
Ok he´s a maggot but the spirit is there.
The story, the laughs and the fun went one up in this chapter. I am really loving the game now. If i have to nitpick, id say there was no faping... so probably thats worse?
Best game out there right now.
Chapter 1
This is the feeling i get from this game. A lot of work is put into animations, renders and game details. The result is that you get a game very polished that plays great. Story-wise there´s already a foundation for a very long game, with lots of characters, places and stuff to do. The intro already warns you against heavy drama, so be ready for it. Like in his previous game you wont probably be able to avoid it so be warned. While this game is already in my "most anticipated" list i´ve got some nitpicks with it. The MC acts like a pussy with his guitar (really tears?). He learned fighting from his dad, he dresses and moves like he learned an aggressive style, like kick boxing or muay thay, but he acts like a pussy. Every guy that i know that practices muay thay, if i gave them a wedgy, they would cave my balls in. Even if my friends outnumbered him 10to1. Just saying. Other thing that i dont understand is that my MC is a dik (dominant) but he gets punked around and humiliated, even in dreams.
Still, very much like this game.

Boy, was I in for a surprise when I first started playing this game. In summary, this game is simply awesome! The renders are fantastic, the story line is almost like a movie in which you decide which way to go. The scenes are very well made and there are already (I'm reviewing version 0.1.1) a great number of really hot scenes. The build up is perhaps a bit slow, but that could be me since I can be very impatient, at times. There are already so many different paths the story can evolve that makes the game very promising! Too bad there are already some choices you can't select if you don't have sufficient points. In my opinion there's no way you can already get the necessary amount of points, playing the game. Is that an error or a promise for which way(s) the story can evolve to? That being said I can conclude that this game is without a doubt one of the best Ren'Py games around. Developer, chapeau!

Its a very interesting Story. I Like to have the option of beeing a DIK or normal or a CHICK and it has consequenzes. All the girls look rly nice and different. I played it several times to look how to unlock the dik und chick choises. Nice CGs, they look rly smooth und appealing. Nice Mecanics with the free roam and directed Story. I am rly looking forward to see more.

only missing sexual content (Especially looking forward to have kinky stuff with the sexy librarian)

Excellent game great renders love the story telling and the ability for the MC to be whatever it is he wants from a regular Joe to a complete idiot of course this doesn't come without consequences but that is the beauty of the game you're given just enough rope to hang on or hang yourself..and man there are 4 I have my eyes on waiting to put my hands all over..Just brilliant

Another great game from DrPinkCake, I loved the previous game Acting lessons, and this is another piece of art, Once again really well done for a first episode, hope to see more of it,

Enough content for 1 episode, he sure did a good job upgrading his skills in making such a wonderful game, animations are good, voice acting too, please don't stop making such games.

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.