VN Ren'Py Blood Spirals [Ep.2 v0.2.3] [Modern Degenerate]

[SomeDudeInABasement]

I don't really get this game. I am fine with if a game is story focused but this game seems to ramble on about totally irrelevant stuff.



Why am I learning about a divorce of some side character?

There seems to be nothing really happening in the story. Barely any tension.


I mean the two LI are interesting and all that but its all kinda boring real life stuff. Basically almost every scene.

It feels like you sitting on the grandstand of a racetrack with a race going on and the game forces you to focus on the knitting of your grandmother next to you.


The Atmosphere of the game seems to be interesting. The characters are reasonably interesting. But the story is really boring.

 

[Alias#2]

I think you answered your post yourself SomeDudeInABasement. "I don't really get this game."
That is why you think it is boring.
There is nothing more to be said. .

 

[ModernDegenerate]

I think you answered your post yourself SomeDudeInABasement. "I don't really get this game."
That is why you think it is boring.
There is nothing more to be said. .

The game does ask a lot from the reader.

If someone can't discern that the detail over Angela's exclusion from the congregation is specifically revealed to challenge Emily to reflect on her own life (and sexuality), and how it might lead to painful conflict with her pastor - then the game is not for them.

Which is absolutely fine. Part of the reason for me making Blood Spirals is that I am sick to death of every piece of narrative media being designed for "everyone" - and thus becoming a soup of disappointment and missed opportunities.

 

[SomeDudeInABasement]

The game does ask a lot from the reader.

If someone can't discern that the detail over Angela's exclusion from the congregation is specifically revealed to challenge Emily to reflect on her own life (and sexuality), and how it might lead to painful conflict with her pastor - then the game is not for them.

Which is absolutely fine. Part of the reason for me making Blood Spirals is that I am sick to death of every piece of narrative media being designed for "everyone" - and thus becoming a soup of disappointment and missed opportunities.

Thanks for at least engaging with the criticism, unlike the individual you were quoting. Personally, I always hate the "Well if you don't like it then go away" crowd. It can never lead to any constructive discussion or improvement.

A AVN with the BDSM and Maledom Tag will always attract people like me that are looking for Games with that theme. This does not mean a game has to be a fuckfest riddled with sex scenes but a game that explores these dynamics.

The promo material of the game infers a certain dynamic that the gameplay really doesn't provide. While there is a warning that the game is story first the promo material subjectively heavily suggest that the maledom/bdsm is a major theme. Which is not really represented in the gameplay in my opinion.

Before saying any more I have to preface that I only played Blood Spirals until the Butterfly Scene. So I haven't seen everything yet.

My personal soup of disappointment so far? In the AVN Sphere there are a lot of Games with the Tag Maledom and/or BDSM that are really just tag traps. There are very few games that actually put the theme front and center while not just going full fuckfest with barely any story.

A subjective majority of them earning these tags because a man speaks harsher once in a sex scene or because there may be some handcuffs involved or sometimes subjectively for no reason at all.

When it comes to Blood Spirals there seems to be an attempt at exploring these dynamics? One could probably argue a more realistic and grounded one with the sub still having preferences and a mind of her own.

My main criticism around the game so far (until the butterfly scene) is pacing, I think. There is a bunch of talking, people getting to know each other. And just because it may seem "realistic" it does not automatically mean its interesting.

The other issue is that a good portion, not the majority, of information about characters is not really that interesting or more importantly coherent to the story. And I don't mean in the plothole way but more in the fact that you through your characters withhold a lot of information that might make the player more interested in what is going on.


You have a MC that was a gangster but now doesn't want to be anymore looking. Kinda lame, but ok.

You have a woman that seems to be connected to the underground that has family issues but doesn't tell more. Could be interesting if we knew more.

You have a woman that has apparently been "abused" without we knowing more specifically how.

And they all just meet. That's kinda it. They decide they want to become friends.

Cool. And now what?

Maybe this makes it a bit more clearer. The Characters are ok to good. But where here is the story?

Is the story they hunt for Jobs?



You have two options here now.

You can tell me tough luck game is not for you and ignore what I said.

Or you can acknowledge the fact that I took the time to write all this means that I at least seem to have a general interest in the game and that you will likely get similar feedback in the coming years. I am not saying here you should change a single word in the game because of what I've written here. But if it made you ponder for just a moment then it was worth writing this.

 

[Merlin-Magic]

I don't really get this game. I am fine with if a game is story focused but this game seems to ramble on about totally irrelevant stuff.

View attachment 5402776

Why am I learning about a divorce of some side character?

There seems to be nothing really happening in the story. Barely any tension.


I mean the two LI are interesting and all that but its all kinda boring real life stuff. Basically almost every scene.

It feels like you sitting on the grandstand of a racetrack with a race going on and the game forces you to focus on the knitting of your grandmother next to you.


The Atmosphere of the game seems to be interesting. The characters are reasonably interesting. But the story is really boring.

I thought about your post a lot. I also wrote this before coming back here.

I am going to take a wild guess here... but I suspect you never played though the entire game.
I am not trying to change your mind about the game. This story may not be for you.
Especially if you expect immediate gratification and are expecting a shallow story.

I wrote this more so people might know what to expect, even though the description is pretty accurate.
First of all, this story is in no way simplistic. There is also a LOT going on. More on that later.

The author of this story makes no attempt to translate this game into the "Kings English".
On the contrary, there is a lot of lingo in the game. I suspect that most if it is authentic.
I cannot vouch for everything since I live no where near London.
At one point I thought I might need a translator and I like to believe that I understand English very well.
In some ways it is similar to Shakespeare. You have to read for a while to get the "old English".
In this game, you have to read for a while to get the "Modern Degenerate" English.

I said author rather than developer, because that is what the writer calls himself and it fits this story a lot better.
In many ways, the entire game is pretty authentic and at the same time, the story is not just thrown into your lap.
You have to think about... pretty much everything. The story is pretty complex with a lot going on at the same time.

I do not understand much of what makes the universe work. That does mean that I find it boring.
I fact "boring" is a word that I never use. Before I ever get to that point, I try to find what I was missing
in the first place. That always makes things... not so boring and there is always something.
That something may not be for me, but it does not make it boring.
I think "boring" comes more from a lack of understanding.

I have played hundreds of games and read thousands of books. It is not easy to surprise me.
But... when you add in the choices in this game, it was very hard to predict the outcome of this story.
That alone makes it intriguing to me. I can normally predict a story in the first 25%.
While this makes it great for me, many others could easily become disillusioned with the story and just give up.
Especially toward the beginning. It gets much better, later when you learn more of what is going on.

The choices in this game make a big difference in the relationships with the characters. More so than in many games.
Making the wrong choice can lead to utter confusion. Every choice is a test. You should think carefully about every one.
You may laugh, but even the choice as to whether you should add air to the tires or change the oil on the motorcycle is a test.
A test, that if you failed in real life could be dangerous if not fatal.


The story is also unbelievably funny at times. That alone drew me in. I love humor in any form.
This game has humor in spades. I did not even find it too subtle. I could be wrong about that.
I am sure some of the humor may be too subtle if your English is not very good.

This is one of the best stories I have found in a while. While serious thinking may not be necessary,
you will get a lot more out of the game, with that in mind.

Enough said. You are welcome to your feelings and I will not judge you for them.

 

[ModernDegenerate]

Thanks for at least engaging with the criticism, unlike the individual you were quoting. Personally, I always hate the "Well if you don't like it then go away" crowd. It can never lead to any constructive discussion or improvement.

A AVN with the BDSM and Maledom Tag will always attract people like me that are looking for Games with that theme. This does not mean a game has to be a fuckfest riddled with sex scenes but a game that explores these dynamics.

The promo material of the game infers a certain dynamic that the gameplay really doesn't provide. While there is a warning that the game is story first the promo material subjectively heavily suggest that the maledom/bdsm is a major theme. Which is not really represented in the gameplay in my opinion.

Before saying any more I have to preface that I only played Blood Spirals until the Butterfly Scene. So I haven't seen everything yet.

My personal soup of disappointment so far? In the AVN Sphere there are a lot of Games with the Tag Maledom and/or BDSM that are really just tag traps. There are very few games that actually put the theme front and center while not just going full fuckfest with barely any story.

A subjective majority of them earning these tags because a man speaks harsher once in a sex scene or because there may be some handcuffs involved or sometimes subjectively for no reason at all.

When it comes to Blood Spirals there seems to be an attempt at exploring these dynamics? One could probably argue a more realistic and grounded one with the sub still having preferences and a mind of her own.

My main criticism around the game so far (until the butterfly scene) is pacing, I think. There is a bunch of talking, people getting to know each other. And just because it may seem "realistic" it does not automatically mean its interesting.

The other issue is that a good portion, not the majority, of information about characters is not really that interesting or more importantly coherent to the story. And I don't mean in the plothole way but more in the fact that you through your characters withhold a lot of information that might make the player more interested in what is going on.


You have a MC that was a gangster but now doesn't want to be anymore looking. Kinda lame, but ok.

You have a woman that seems to be connected to the underground that has family issues but doesn't tell more. Could be interesting if we knew more.

You have a woman that has apparently been "abused" without we knowing more specifically how.

And they all just meet. That's kinda it. They decide they want to become friends.

Cool. And now what?

Maybe this makes it a bit more clearer. The Characters are ok to good. But where here is the story?

Is the story they hunt for Jobs?



You have two options here now.

You can tell me tough luck game is not for you and ignore what I said.

Or you can acknowledge the fact that I took the time to write all this means that I at least seem to have a general interest in the game and that you will likely get similar feedback in the coming years. I am not saying here you should change a single word in the game because of what I've written here. But if it made you ponder for just a moment then it was worth writing this.

A lot of your issues are actually not as a result of being outside of the target audience - but through a lack of patience.

Shortly after the butterfly house is a major BDSM scene, revealing a certain character's hardcore predelictions (that have put many players off the game).

Also, episode 1 is the entirety of act 1 of the story - it sets up the conflicts that need to be explored in episodes 2 and 3, and resolved in episode 4 - you may already be taking this into account, but my reading of your opinions are that you're not willing to endure my chosen setup - which is fine and an area where we might not align.

I will say that if you kicked off with a message like this, I would have responded directly, and you wouldn't have met with dismissal from someone else. Your original contribution was made in such a way that it could be read as insulting those who did enjoy it, whilst also making it impossible for me to engage with directly without coming off as super-defensive about my own game - which is never a good look.

Consider my point of view for the following statements:

You have a woman that seems to be connected to the underground that has family issues but doesn't tell more. Could be interesting if we knew more.

You have a woman that has apparently been "abused" without we knowing more specifically how.

And they all just meet. That's kinda it. They decide they want to become friends.

Cool. And now what?

It sounds like (I'm not putting words in your mouth, this is my interpretation alone) you read 3/4 of the first act of a three-act drama and are expecting to get the act two and three explorations and revelations already.

My honest feedback to this is that you're likely someone who will benefit from waiting until the game is completed. The pace picks up as the story moves forward - there are more events, roadblocks, and surprises acting as launch pads, with stuff moving faster and faster, with the occasional pit stop for breath or sex.

It's not a spoiler for me to say that the "hunt for jobs" is not the story. It is the futile rage against the paths they never wanted to walk. The story is about finding the true enemies to their health and happiness, and finding the courage to deny them. You won't get all the details from me right now - but most of the cards are on the table by the climax of episode 3.

At the same time, this is my style. I prefer to have things obscured to engage my imagination, and work at unravelling things myself as I read - therefore it is how I present my own stories. That might not be for you, but it is an axiom for my work and so will not change - even though I will refine the presentation as I improve over time... Hopefully.

 

[SomeDudeInABasement]

The choices in this game make a big difference in the relationships with the characters. More so than in many games.

Making the wrong choice can lead to utter confusion. Every choice is a test. You should think carefully about every one.

You may laugh, but even the choice as to whether you should add air to the tires or change the oil on the motorcycle is a test.

A test, that if you failed in real life could be dangerous if not fatal.

Thanks for engaging in the discussion. Tastes differ and what I wrote on both of my posts is obviously subjective.


In regards to the choices I can say from a purely technical perspective that its for the most part a point system with some choice booleans and a path activation.


Meaning that over time the dev will loose the ability to effectively make choices distinct in terms of consequences. Not all of them but many. Because eventually different players will have accumulated a wide enough range of points where it becomes hard to impossible to attribute a certain point score to certain choices.


This does not invalidate your take but contextualizes it for the future.

It sounds like (I'm not putting words in your mouth, this is my interpretation alone) you read 3/4 of the first act of a three-act drama and are expecting to get the act two and three explorations and revelations already.


My honest feedback to this is that you're likely someone who will benefit from waiting until the game is completed. The pace picks up as the story moves forward - there are more events, roadblocks, and surprises acting as launch pads, with stuff moving faster and faster, with the occasional pit stop for breath or sex.


It's not a spoiler for me to say that the "hunt for jobs" is not the story. It is the futile rage against the paths they never wanted to walk. The story is about finding the true enemies to their health and happiness, and finding the courage to deny them. You won't get all the details from me right now - but most of the cards are on the table by the climax of episode 3.


At the same time, this is my style. I prefer to have things obscured to engage my imagination, and work at unravelling things myself as I read - therefore it is how I present my own stories. That might not be for you, but it is an axiom for my work and so will not change - even though I will refine the presentation as I improve over time... Hopefully.

My initial statement was made in confusion and boredom. And I think in this aspect my feedback is valid.

What is it that they say? You have 100 Pages in a novel to convince the reader to read the rest of it.


And while your opening scene was slightly confusing and reasonably interesting the story imo dropped off after the first sex scene. And that is still my honest take.

A lot of your issues are actually not as a result of being outside of the target audience - but through a lack of patience.

Its really good to hear that there is more interesting stuff coming. I will continue playing/reading.


I personally always found the take of a consumer of any media having to have "patience" always kind of.. arrogant? Maybe its the wrong word. Hopefully you get what I mean.

Of course there is certainly some leeway for stories to also have a infodump once a while or a scene that is purely to show a quirk of a character. I would count the introduction of our LI in the mall/burger joint as that for example.


I am just one person with one opinion. But maybe one of the few that will take the time to write about it. We will see.

Overall I stand by what I said about the content I have played so far. While the characters are ok to good the scenes lack some like actual overarching goal or story. Some tension. Some shit going on. Anything.

That's just my opinion.

I will likely finish the two episodes and come back here. Maybe write a review then. (Small note on that I intentionally didn't write a review but instead wrote into the thread. Not something everyone does.)

 

[Alias#2]

Thanks for engaging in the discussion. Tastes differ and what I wrote on both of my posts is obviously subjective.


In regards to the choices I can say from a purely technical perspective that its for the most part a point system with some choice booleans and a path activation.


Meaning that over time the dev will loose the ability to effectively make choices distinct in terms of consequences. Not all of them but many. Because eventually different players will have accumulated a wide enough range of points where it becomes hard to impossible to attribute a certain point score to certain choices.


This does not invalidate your take but contextualizes it for the future.










My initial statement was made in confusion and boredom. And I think in this aspect my feedback is valid.

What is it that they say? You have 100 Pages in a novel to convince the reader to read the rest of it.


And while your opening scene was slightly confusing and reasonably interesting the story imo dropped off after the first sex scene. And that is still my honest take.







Its really good to hear that there is more interesting stuff coming. I will continue playing/reading.


I personally always found the take of a consumer of any media having to have "patience" always kind of.. arrogant? Maybe its the wrong word. Hopefully you get what I mean.

Of course there is certainly some leeway for stories to also have a infodump once a while or a scene that is purely to show a quirk of a character. I would count the introduction of our LI in the mall/burger joint as that for example.


I am just one person with one opinion. But maybe one of the few that will take the time to write about it. We will see.

Overall I stand by what I said about the content I have played so far. While the characters are ok to good the scenes lack some like actual overarching goal or story. Some tension. Some shit going on. Anything.

That's just my opinion.

I will likely finish the two episodes and come back here. Maybe write a review then. (Small note on that I intentionally didn't write a review but instead wrote into the thread. Not something everyone does.)

You certainly do not lack in intelligence. That is no longer in question.
I also want to thank you for your post. It was interesting.

Maybe my feelings about the game differ because I have seen a lot in my real life and had many identities.
In some ways I have lived many lives. It is not easy to change from one to the other. Sometimes you conscience forces you too. I have been there.
Just like the MC in this game, I would be a much richer person, had I decided to cave and make a deal with the devil.

 

[ModernDegenerate]

What is it that they say? You have 100 Pages in a novel to convince the reader to read the rest of it.

And you've worked through two hours of a ~12 hour story...

There's an incompatibility here - what you find interesting, versus what I find interesting. I love the interpersonal dramas going on in the scenes you find boring. The way Emily awkwardly reacts nervously to the MC's abrupt change in demeanour when they get too in depth on his boxing career. The way Aneta teases, and tries to get under his skin, all while she gets more and more excited as he easily raises the stakes. These moments are interesting to me. It's why I wrote them. It's perfectly fine that you don't enjoy them, but they won't change.

I personally always found the take of a consumer of any media having to have "patience" always kind of.. arrogant? Maybe its the wrong word. Hopefully you get what I mean.

I do. I've felt the same about other stuff. The reason I chose to use the word patience is that (after reading your second comment) what you seem to be looking for in the game, literally starts happening in the very next scene after you stopped.

Whether that means you enjoy the rest of the story or not, is open for debate. It's very likely that it's still not going to click for you, if you got nothing from it after the group sex scene.

Overall I stand by what I said about the content I have played so far. While the characters are ok to good the scenes lack some like actual overarching goal or story. Some tension. Some shit going on. Anything.

I can't respond to this without coming across as defensive. All I'll say is that I can't help but think you've not picked up on a lot of the internal elements - which I use your inability to grasp why Angela's difficulties are extremely pertinent to Emily's storyline as proof of. I see tension in every scene. It's interpersonal, not external, but it is there.

That could very well be my failing in how I have presented the work - but you're the only one who has communicated this articulately, so it is hard to collate a consensus.

I have had other, different criticisms, that I could see and was able to implement changes in episode 2 - but you're the first to say you find it boring, without that being in a comment that is completely unconstructive.

 

[SomeDudeInABasement]

I am currently working on going scene by scene until the end of episode 1. From what I have played in Episode 2 I can say it drastically improves because we finally have a story. Like some stakes. Some drama. Some goals.

Its going to take me a while to get my thoughts together into a coherent texts.

I can say that the feeling of boredom is mainly a pacing issue. I articulated this early on and after having gone through parts of episdoe 1 a second time I can still confirm this take.

As I said. I will get into more details in the future.

One last thing I want to reiterate is that people like me who criticize usually don't do it to bash a work. Its because they care.
And I do too. Because a AVN game with a BDSM/Maledom focus and the attempt of a good story deserves all the support it can get imo.
Because I can definitely see the attempt on not trying to she away from non-vanilla aspects in AVN Storytelling.

 

[Belphegor666]

Played Ep 2 v0.2.3 – rather linear visual novel with a male mc. You play a former criminal who’s trying to leave a life of organized crime. Sadly crime doesn’t want to let him go.

Firstly the good parts: The story is pretty good, the writing and dialogue is excellent (the people speak like actual people for a change), the girls are pretty and the sex scenes hot. The music also works well. The creator also seems to have plot at least partly planned out as he claimed that there would be four episodes – not more, not less.

The bad – it’s the creator’s first game and it shows: renders and animations are often rather uncanny and fucked up (f.E. mc has tiny hands in the first chapter). I personally don’t mind, as I am more interested in good writing, but others might. He also visibly improves as the story goes on and I do prefer that he drives the story forward than try to improve old scenes (and get the game stuck in development hell like so many other games).

I do recommend reading the creator’s summary as the mandatory heroines might be offensive to some (one has a rather colorful sexual history – but does stop sleeping around if you tell her to, the other looks rather young and has a history of sexual abuse)

There is some (avoidable) sharing if you’re interested in that.

Bdsm wise Aneta likes being dominated and hurt. Sadly the creator stated that “her fetish for punishment comes from an unhealthy mental state that she will have to confront over the course of the story”. I hope that does not mean that she’ll lose interest in bdsm, as that’s the main reason I’m interested in the game.

Has some domination, rough sex and one hot scene with a cage and light whipping. There is also one light lezdom scene if you don’t tell her not to sleep around. All in all there aren’t many sex scenes because the story has priority (I’m fine with that)

The other heroine is vanilla only.

A walkthrough or a guid mod would be really helpful because the game makes it really easy to miss shit if you accidentally miss some points or make a single wrong decision. Also the (sex) scenes with Aneta feel like a minefield because it feels really easy to make wrong decisions and lose relationship-, wall- or influence-points with her. (might be better later on, once you have an idea how many points of which type you need later on and what they’re good for).

Still check it out if you like good writing and an interesting story.

__________________________________________________

Hey ModernDegenerate - I really liked your game. I'm mostly a lurker but since you seem pretty active in the community I thought I'd just ask you instead of worrying-

her fetish for punishment comes from an unhealthy mental state that she will have to confront over the course of the story

Does that mean that Aneta will completely lose interest in bdsm once you help her with her issues or just that she'll develop a healthier attitude?

 

[ModernDegenerate]

Does that mean that Aneta will completely lose interest in bdsm once you help her with her issues or just that she'll develop a healthier attitude?

First, thank you for the thoughtful post. It is much appreciated.

Secondly - no she will not lose interest in bdsm as you help her with her issues - however, the pain element of some bdsm practices has been a fixation on punishing herself, and that will be phased out if you choose to 'break down her walls'.

Tomorrow the public update will talk a little about how this also affects sharing content, so if you're interested in that element too, I'd encourage joining the Patreon as a free member to check that out.

Again, I'm glad you're enjoying the VN and willing to endure the teething pains as I get to grips with things. I promise to do my best to improve, although I will admit animation is proving resistant to my attempts to do so, so they might remain janky for the duration - but I'll do my best!

 

[Merlin-Magic]

Animation has always been a problem and it is so time consuming, that it is often not worth the trouble if the animation turns out badly. Many just try to do the animation directly in DAZ if they are already using DAZ. This is very limited and rarely very good. Blender works very good but the translation from DAZ is a bitch and much can be lost.
I know I am stepping in a pile of shit here, but many developers are turning to AI for animations. They are not perfect and just the mention of AI turns some players into raving lunatics. Lately, I have seen some pretty good AI animations. The biggest advantage is that they are non linear and do not repeat the same motion over and over. They also save a LOT of time which can then be used for other things. AI will continue to get better, and like it or not, it is the future. The time saved is just too valuable.
The best animation I have ever seen was made in Blender. Nothing has ever approached that animation. It was as real as real life in every respect except the fact that one character had eyes that glowed. Blender has all the physics built in so if you know what you are doing (a year of practice) it will be great.

 

[SomeDudeInABasement]

WALL OF TEXT INCOMING!
Did chatgpt write this? Yes
Did I spend several days now going through the game with it coming along to write down my perspective? Yes.
Did I read and manually edit this? Also, yes. This text is my text.

Spoiler: Wall of Text!

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Practical scene-level tweaks (high impact, low effort)

Spoiler

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[Alias#2]

My first thought: I hope the dev has time to make his game. Reading and digesting all this will take a lot of time and I doubt he will want to ignore it. I know being a critic has it's place but OMG, this is a lot .

My second thought: Maybe this guy should make his own game. Use some of that creativity for something... well creative .

 

[ModernDegenerate]

WALL OF TEXT INCOMING!
Did chatgpt write this? Yes
Did I spend several days now going through the game with it coming along to write down my perspective? Yes.
Did I read and manually edit this? Also, yes. This text is my text.

Thank you so much for this. I know you pass it off as ChatGPT, but there must have been significantly detailed notes for the LLM to be able to produce this. I appreciate it.

You'll be glad to know that (as I work on the soundtrack) you've had me noticing how much of a lull in the main plot occurs at the beginning of episode 3 (partly due to all the pieces shattered at the end of episode 2, which you are all still yet to see), even before making this post. I'm currently unsure how to go about sorting this out - but I'm thinking about it. Just desperately trying to get all the music I need for the whole game before Suno is litigated into the ground by Universal.

I will say that despite this, I have no intention of "fixing" already released scenes - at least not until the whole game's first "draft" is completed - but you have definitely picked up on a lot of things I agree with - a couple of which I was already halfway towards figuring out.

I can't really sacrifice the time (I'm already eating into today's dev time posting here because I overslept) to reply in detail to all the points that deserve it - but I will make one mention of the choice structure being "fail state" rather than "option." I agree with you in that a VN is better suited to the "option" design - however, "fail state" is by far the least time consuming to implement. I am already experiencing frustration with the bloat of the choices that are genuinely optional creating significantly more work, and a fear of going over my allotted development time. I don't want to be a developer spending a year on updates, and so sacrifices must be made - especially right now while I am new and my income covers a single one of my monthly bills and not much else. Speed is paramount. I wish it were otherwise.

I just want to thank you again for this - there's a lot here that will influence future Blood Spirals updates, and even more so my next game (where it's still in incubation and feedback like this can really influence the direction, it's harder for BS because it's already done on paper, and there's a limit to changes that can be made with the story).

 

[SomeDudeInABasement]

I can't really sacrifice the time (I'm already eating into today's dev time posting here because I overslept) to reply in detail to all the points that deserve it - but I will make one mention of the choice structure being "fail state" rather than "option." I agree with you in that a VN is better suited to the "option" design - however, "fail state" is by far the least time consuming to implement. I am already experiencing frustration with the bloat of the choices that are genuinely optional creating significantly more work, and a fear of going over my allotted development time. I don't want to be a developer spending a year on updates, and so sacrifices must be made - especially right now while I am new and my income covers a single one of my monthly bills and not much else. Speed is paramount. I wish it were otherwise.

I just want to thank you again for this - there's a lot here that will influence future Blood Spirals updates, and even more so my next game (where it's still in incubation and feedback like this can really influence the direction, it's harder for BS because it's already done on paper, and there's a limit to changes that can be made with the story).

Glad to see you took it in good spirit.

Let me say this:

A good KN Story is 10x better than a half baked one with mediocre choices. Choices should come naturally from the story not be forced.
Removing a choice for the player to not feel frustration is always better.
If the choice didn't trigger a new label then consider just not having it.



I tried to give you low effort high impact improvement points that you could make. Its entirely up to you how or if you want to implement them.

I simply wanted to have another BDSM/Maledom AVN have a better chance to succeed.

I will continue to play the second episode this weekend. As I mentioned in my text: You already improved at the end of EP1 and got better in EP2. Its probably because now there is an actual story happening.

My main wish: When you write future sex scenes let the characters be more vocal. That would already fix so much in them.


EDIT:

Finished EP2 Part 1.

Spoiler: Notes

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[fh321]

I just ran through act 1, and this is a pretty 'heavy' game. Dark, dystopian. I was very glad that the dev put in options to reject the two 'main' women, which i chose to do at every opportunity (feel free to reply with spoilers, won't bother me). And you know, I'll probably give the next release a shot, mostly because I'm invested in Rosa and want to see her have a good ending.
As for the main 2 girls, it's not that they're written badly, or that i necessarily find them gross or something (though the visuals in this game are very poor - specifically the laugh-out-loud hilarious scene of the midget picking the MC up and jamming his face into the MC's crotch.... like that's some sort of power move ). I rejected the 2 LIs because 1) the MC, for all you can make him try to do the right thing, is a criminal who endangers everyone around him, and 2) Aneta specifically is unpleasant and basically demands the MC participate in her kink or GTFO. So fuck that.
The writing is a bit overboard, and I ended up skipping a fair amount just to get to the point faster. I've found myself doing that in my own writing when I have a vision for nonessential characters that a reader can't be expected to understand, but I like the character too much to give them the passing role they deserve. So the bloat can be intimidating and might impact reception of this effort.
All in all, kudos to the dev, and please keep allowing us to tell the 2 LIs to fuck off. It'd be really disappointing if we're forced into a romance with them, and I'd like to see how this story plays out.

 

[Chasm666]

Are there any plans to add a gallery? I like having one so I can see if there is any content I haven't unlocked. Like does Emily have any scenes yet?

I remember the MC talking about Emily as being a purely platonic friend but I don't remember making that choice

 

[ModernDegenerate]

Are there any plans to add a gallery? I like having one so I can see if there is any content I haven't unlocked. Like does Emily have any scenes yet?

I remember the MC talking about Emily as being a purely platonic friend but I don't remember making that choice

It's a bit complicated to implement a gallery because most sex scenes are influenced by variables that you would have to confirm to view. If one comes, it will be after the game is completed with all four episodes. I will be implementing a guide post-v0.3 dropping to make it a bit easier for those who wish to have their hands-held to ensure the best possible outcome.

MC talks about Emily like that because it is what he believes is true. It isn't, Emily's anxiety and sense of "always being wrong" makes it hard for her to express herself truthfully. She definitely has feelings for MC - but she can't communicate that at present - especially when she knows Aneta also has interest in him.

This internal conflict is a major part of the next update... Success in it might make it a good time for a scene...