Ren'Py - Bindr: Kink Dating [v0.20.7] [bindr]

Accidentally discovered this gem while browsing the Daz3D artwork thread, but I am very glad I did.

As far as the story goes, there isn't some vast, connecting storyline, so if you're into that, this is not the game for you. It seems like it's all about the individual relationships but it's hard to say anything since it's still a fairly early version, but I am personally glad there is more focus on quality fap material than the usual over-the-top stories we get with fairly cringe writing. I am hoping to see it expanded, but it's certainly not why I'll be waiting for the next version.

The rendering in this game is basically second to none, I've been lurking on F95 for years and it's always weird and lifeless eyes, stiff poses etc. None of that here, There is some grain here and there, which can be chalked up to limited GPU time (I'm a failing artist myself), but other than that, amazing.

The optional voiced aspect, I can't say I'm a huge fan of AI and stuff, but it gets the job done. It's very good at times, very jarring at times as well. But I live with my parents so I can't be leaving any of this up so it's mostly muted on my end.

As for content, there's a nice selection of girls already available for dates, from what I can see, only one girl is marked as an exclusive. My personal favorite would be Elizabeth, I especially liked her heels and the effort put into making believable dangling. And would love to see more Rebecca in whatever comes next.

i like it so far
good events really good and simple interface
events can be chosen and the ai voice is good
hope to see a market and some more places to visit and even a job to attend
also home can bee bigger with multiple rooms so girls can move in

Ok, I see a lot of positive reviews, and they're quite eloquent, so I download the game, launch it and I'm met with a preface describing what to expect from the game - an incredible amount of work going into renders, other complete VNs pale in comparison! Wow, big hype! I see positive reviews, the game sets me up for a thrill ride. Unironically hyped.

Paywalled schmaywalled, if the content is good then it's one way to support the project!

Match with first girl... renders are... really really average, noticed scuffed lighting on several occasions... writing is... meh, cringe and kinda Skyrim NPC like? Can skip no problem. Generated voices are cool at first, it's a little rough, but nothing prepares you for the comedic delivery during sex scenes that made me burst out laughing instead of the other burst.

My first girl has a follow-up scene with her friend and that scene is just awful. Not because of the kink but because of how insanely anti-climactic it is, literally. I'm like "????", "HUH?!", "This it?".

I expected some top-quality animated sex scenes, those are quite common and are big selling points when done right. A cute ahegao or a well-done lewd/horny face helps sell the fantasy. I haven't seen either in this, there are no videos/animations, only static images. Alright, there are several lewd animations after all! 3 animations, 4 seconds total, barely worth writing a correction in the review. (Edit: I revisited the scenes to double-check if I'm not being too critical, faces are generic/goofy, and the writing and AI voice don't help)

There's a big focus on males being dominated so tread with care.

You can go to one more location and trigger an event, that's the whole sandbox.

It's missing that one thing that makes you care, it just feels very generic and is a hard pass for me. There isn't a story to immerse yourself in, no relationship building.

Best dating app simulator game I played so far.

The game heavily focuses on D/S relationships and hookups, so you should not expect too much vanilla in here. The game mechanics are fairly easy and well integrated, you can swipe right or left just like with real dating apps, and then start chatting. The sandbox system with an option to advance the time is really simple as there are only two locations, however, for now it seems a bit unnecessary to have, but I am sure there will be more to it in the future.
The renders are really good and you can tell there is lots of work put into the creation of each unique character, their clothing, as well as the different locations. The game is full of variety, as in characters ethnicities or fetishes. (bondage is main one)
Also for me this is the first game where I genuinely enjoy the implementation of AI voices.

My main criticism would be that the dialogues feel a bit rushed and there could be more description of the surroundings, the emotions and feelings of the MC etc.
(often there is just one sentence for one render)

Regarding people complaining about paywall characters: The dev mentioned that the locked characters are eventually be avaible for the public, so you might just want to wait for a few versions. Also it is every devs good right to try and make a living out of their work and this dev certainly does not overdo it.

Good concept, good renders. I've seen this idea before but it never gets completed, it always gets abandoned. But the immersion is fun and putting kinks in there makes it unique for video games, just need to balance out the realistic vs. video game aspect which this game is solid enough on.

Choices need to be more obvious, and with the text setup the vehicle is there for that. As it is, it has both unavoidable maledom and femdom. Sometimes you do get a choice, but other times you do not. That's just a matter of QC and being consistent, so it can be fixed.

Characters are getting paywalled however. That's also not something I love, I can understand it and I don't think it's worth taking stars off. Ultimately it's an f95zone thing because obviously, someone can leak the full games on here. It's probably on a delay but this early on there's not enough regular content so maybe it's more of an annoyance now.

The renders are great. Could be longer, more text/dialogue too to set stuff up, but it's fine as proof of concept and starting out. A good base, so average, with potential for more. I've waited to post a review but I think it's fair now to give it an average rating, 4 versions in or whatever we're in now.

There is AI voice which...I don't know what it adds. AI has gotten really good over time but it still needs to work from a large sample size. For the type of dialogue in this game, I don't think it has samples to work from, so it's stilted and weird. Plus it's not even taking advantage of created chars, it's just the voice dumped in. I would say this is a negative right now.

I'll be somewhat surprised if this game is still getting updates in a year. It's an ambitious project and the dev has been transparent, but sounds like they're trying to make the game financially viable. Which I get, I'm not against that at all. However it's hard to build a subscription base and I'm sure most games that do succeed are in the red for a long time first, and it's the dev's hobby. Feels like this dev wants to be in the black and that's what will motivate them, which I don't think is easy for an adult game, with its niche audience and potential consumer base. But good luck to dev nonetheless.

7/25 update: Been going back and forth on the rating. I think it's a 3.5 but do I give it a 3 or a 4? I've changed it once before and I'm changing it back down to 3. In the future I might bump the score up if it warrants it.

8/13 update: Knocking it down to 2 stars. Every girl feels samey, the voices only seem to get worse, there's no story or anything else, just hookups with all the girls acting pretty much the same, saying the same types of things, the sex scenes are all the same, and nobody has an issue whatsoever with him whoring around except one girl asks about how many girls. Apparently saves are not carrying over either so every update you're supposed to replay through all the old content.

Dev and his fans have shown extreme hostility to negative reviews and any criticisms, which is always also a red flag. I probably won't bother following this project, if it's around in a year or two maybe I'll check if it ever got better, but as of now I think sure play it one time but then take a pass on it. Really not worth the one time either but if you're getting it for free off here at least it won't cost you money.

I just had to give a five Star Review. The game is great.
I love all the Kinks, it is like it was made for me. Thank you so much.
The renders are great and the girls beautyful. Oh and how I love the normal chest sizes. Oversized and unrealistic chests are something of an absolute turn down for me.

PS: The dev is allowed to paywall character. He uses a lot of time and effort for this and it is his right to get something out of it. If you don't like it, you can always simply make a better game for free.... (sorry for the mini rant, but I dislike people who complain about free content...)

Bondage is pretty much my jam and this game delivers, I especially love the renders. Super realistic and pleasing to the eye. I don't have the money to support yet so I wanted to encourage the developer to make more of this and better if possible.

The ML/AI generated voices are pretty good most of the time, some weirdness here and there, but from what I understand, it's next to impossible to control.

And my vote is to concentrate on the high quality fap material, if that matters at all!

Unique concept and well designed. BDSM isn't really my thing, but I heard so much about this game that I had to check it out. It's exciting to find a fully voiced game. That being said, however, when you put voiceover in sex scenes, the actors need to be on point and really engage. One actress did a decent job, but all of the other artists were monotone and did not at all sound like they were actually having sex. The poor delivery not only failed to immerse me, but ended up doing quite the opposite and taking me out of the scene completely.

So having voice is a really nice novelty, but the lack of either story or mechanics makes it kind of boring. I mean if you want to live out the fantasy of meaningless hookup culture with not an ounce of chemistry or personality I guess that's fine but not for me.

One of the best games currently, with an original concept and beautiful girls.
All kinks could be explored in this game and you can chose only those interesting for you
Great idea, great concept, fabulous game

This game is one of the best ones in this website and has the potential to be THE best one. Even in early stage it still has some spicy content with good renders including both maledom and femdom.

The only minus (for me at least) was the forced femdom content with detectives. I think it would have a better experience if there was a maledom option as well or at least a warning before entering the scene so players who don't like the content or fetish of the scene to be able to skip it.

overall its a good game and defiantly deserves 5 stars

I must say that I haven't come across a game as thrilling as this in a long time. The concept is fantastic, and the execution of the game is even better. The render quality is good too, plus added voice acting on top is a nice touch. I'm eagerly waiting for new updates to see what the developers have in store for us, and being able to choose a role, like dominant or submissive, is a wonderful feature.

I like the concept of a fetish filled app, although I only met possible choices of domina, submissive, feet and bondage. Hopefully we'll get more fetishes.

I have the following issues with the game:
1. When pressing the skip button and I get to the point where the MC sits on the bed and is on the phone I immediately get thrown out and into the main menu.
2. Whenever I click on a woman and talk, I have to roll back and do it again, otherwise I won't be able to continue the conversation.
3. We need some way of glossar/notes that describe the fetishes in this app.
4. It would be nice to get the option of rejecting a woman afterwards. One woman seems to have both a dominant and a submissive path, so I thought maybe another one has the same (since I couldn't interprete the signs inside the app) structure but it turned out she was straight up a dominatrix. Which is fine but I'm not into it so I had to rollback and ignore her. Now we're matched but I can't reject her and don't wanna embrace her.
5. Maybe more details/pictures in those bios would be good.
6. More choices with outcomes are needed. I played with a mod that shows possible variable changes after each choice and it seems there are close to no differences when chosing a different approach.

All in all I see potential in this game but it has many things - most notably bugs - that need to be adressed. I would honestly only give it two stars though, but since I wouldn't call it "poor" but rather "needs more work to be done" I'll stick with three stars.