HTML - Abandoned - Casting Director [v0.041 Alpha] [Old Dirty Dog]

The premise and gameplay are simple, and the grind it not to bad. Plotline and events are good, and the actual nudity and porn are fun and find a good balance between having to work for it, and not being locked away behind hours of grinding.

I'm writing this review for people like me who look at the screenshots and then read the reviews before deciding whether to download a game. I think the second screenshot (the one with "a girl named Sydney") gave me an impression of the game that turned out to be inaccurate.

The first thing that caught my eye about that screenshot was the picture of a woman who looked "too pretty for porn." Well, that's because she is. For casting calls, the game uses clothed images, naked images, and sex gifs that aren't the same people. They're coordinated by category, so the naked image for Sydney would be still be blonde, but it wouldn't be the same woman. If you look at that screenshot and think, "hell yeah, I'd love to get her clothes off," too bad. When you press that button, you just see a different woman naked.

The second thing that interested me about that screenshot was the percentile chance of success. This is just my own personal preference, but it's something I wish more porn games did, and it's something I've tried to incorporate when I dabbled in maybe making games of my own. I like the idea of seeing your success rate gradually increase, instead of going from no to yes in a purely binary fashion. This game is closer to that than most stat-grinding games, but it still falls short of what I would find satisfying. The big problem I have with it is that there's no variation in the success chances. If the chance for a blowjob with one of the auditioners for the indie film is 60%, then they'll all be 60% (at your current charisma level). The women you're casting have no distinct personalities or temperaments, none of them are easier or harder than any of the others, none of them like the sex more or less than any of the others, etc.

Between those two factors (the lack of coordinated visuals and the one-size-fits-all success chances), the element of the game where you're getting with the women who audition for you just doesn't feel immersive or interesting. Which is a problem since, given the name, it seems like that's kinda supposed to be the main focus of the game. Based on the other reviews (which are typically quite high-scoring), it seems like most people connect more with the writing of the scripted scenes with recurring characters (who do have coordinated images). But I didn't come here for a dating sim, I came for the power fantasy of a casting director abusing their position for sexual gratification (what can I say, I like using sex games to live out fantasies that I would never want to do in real life), and that part of the game seems really half-baked and unsatisfying.

Awful game, absolutely no creative visual content, only screenshots stolen from mainstream porn videos. Which means you won't even be able to immerse yourself in the game since most girls are easily recognizable. Moreover an html game with barely any interactivity or dynamics, almost no videos and no open world with interactive content. The story is cliché and boring as hell. It's only bare text with random porn images from time to time. You're clearly far better off actually watching porn than wasting your time in this non-game.

(Version Reviewed: v0.041)

Casting Director was my favorite HTML porn game. Come back, ODD.

I liked the story of Casting Director. We start off as a failed movie actor who was forced to become an Assistant Casting Director. After getting enough contacts, we start our own agency. The game allows us two types of events - repeatable ones and story ones. I think the story events are quite well written. The repeatable ones gets boring after you play a few updates. I think the dev could've chosen less recognizable faces for the LIs and perhaps even go for some more depraved kinks. The scenes after the first few releases became a lot more tamer.

Overall - 8.5/10. Hope ODD returns.

Rare is it these days, in our searches for something, anything to beat our collective meats to, to find something special, to find a diamond in the crusty, spunk covered rough. Casting Director is just that, an original story with an original plot, as hard as that is to find nowadays.

To the Dirty Ol' Dog that gave us this gem, come back to us ya bastard. We miss ya

Simple, well written and with a solid story that is engaging without being in the way of well... The main reason for downloading the game in the first place. I have not gotten far in the game and while it is not finished as of yet I believe that it has a strong concept and the dev knows where he is going with it.

Extremely fun and captivating game. It's not finished which is the only reason I haven't given it 5 stars. It has got great humor in it as well. Your deal is you are a casting director like the title. You manage stats such as reputation, charisma, stress, style, and notoriety. You also pay for an apartment and an assistant every month so money is important too. It's real porn with good English text. A decent amount of content to for being unfinished. Hope they finish it.

This is an okay but flawed game. You are a casting director and click buttons to have them suck you off and fuck them. My problem with this game is that there is very little real corruption; it's mainly just click here to fuck x girl with x % chance and get a gif of you fucking them or not. Got old for me really quickly.

Considering the batting average of HTML games, I never expected one to be arguably the most well-written AVN on the site, let alone one with real porn images. Though admittedly there's not much competition as the vast majority of amateur devs here have no discernable writing talent. But both the writing and Rpg gameplay aspects (I guess you can call them that, as you're gaining skill points) are actually pretty impressive for a solo project. Well done so far.

I really like this setup. it happens to fast but in a smart way and story line is funny you know your way around words. Also good job on de pics found. Thanks for the game, I'll keep checking your updates.

Probably the best real porn game I've ever played. Certainly when we're talking about story and humor. If you want to have a good laugh and a good fap to some of the favorite porn stars, you should give this a try. It has a lighthearted feel to it. I hope the game will see completion.

[Alpha 0.038]
Nice selection of Realporn, with a good mix of stills and gifs.
Love the story writing and the option to choose aggressive or less aggressive options.

Gameplay is simple and gets easier as you increase stats.

This is one of the best HTML games I've played. It's probably only slightly behind Degrees of Lewdity and Free Cities. There's a plethora of content, the writing is extremely solid and punching well above its weight. The setting does SO much heavy lifting... every situation is believable, your characters actions and the actions of those around him make sense, it's very satisfying to experience. I would say it's better than most of the writing in a game like CoC or TiTs. The few gripes I have with it are just a symptom of being so early in development, however when I exhausted the content in this game I felt completely satisfied. It took me about five sessions over a few days to finish the content. Definitely worth the download!

Probably like most I was expecting this game to be walls of meaningless text with some decent porn gifs. Also like most I was pleasantly surprised to find a game filled with believably realistic characters, entertaining dialogue, and very intriguing but short story arcs. None of the porn feels forced into the scenes and the decisions feel very real especially when characters you've had sex with start butting into dates with your your current partner.

tldr Was good fun, me like the girls and want more.

I admit I was a bit apprehensive when I started this. Obviously the subject matter is quite sensitive and even besides that, I've been let down by Twine games before. That said, I have come to love this game. The development of the primary characters has been fun to watch, and every update leaves me with a deep curiosity about what will happen next. I also appreciate the amount of control you have over your own actions, and enjoy keeping a Clean and a Dirty save to explore the different paths without compromising the story I'm trying to build.

PS - Please bring back Pennie for an event! Alexis Fawx is always appreciated

Reviewing this at 0.038 Alpha. So far into the development of this game, I have little in the way of criticism. With some obvious degrees of porn/game logic, it's fairly grounded compared to a lot of fantasy scenarios. It is, as the name would suggest, largely about the revolving door a casting couch where our hero will spend his days.

If I can give credit to a couple of concepts in this game that might not be easily repeated, the theme of a casting director gets around two major issues at once.
First of all, while scenes are being set, narratives beginning, characters being developed, the player gets to more or less instantly see a fair amount of porn. Nice. And it feels organic because there's something of a fail rate, and there's enough reason for it to suspend disbelief for. In some games you can feel like you're working either too hard or not hard enough. CD sidesteps this by essentially having enough window dressing to keep you interested as you work on the women with whom you form actual relationships.

Second thing is that games in which there is stat management (in this, money, stress, and our "notoriety" that leads to game over if exceeded) can be grindy. Can't do this, can't do that, got to get more money and exp. CD, rather than drop the grind, fills the grind out with a shit ton of decent quality porn. The day job is, after all, convincing women to strip, suck, and fuck their way to success. Minor criticism, I'd like to see a bit slower progression in this aspect. Not in terms of acquiring resources, but in terms of what you get from the aspiring actresses. Feels a little like one day you're seeing topless shots to the next day it's anal and money shots, and taking a bit more time to build to it could be done with some extra still shots as you get to the slutty auditions.

Outside of the grind we've got the usual array of characters. An obvious romantic interest, a slutty secretary in need of training, a bossy MILF, and your girlfriend's colleague who straight up wants to bang you because she hates you girlfriend. This is pretty well utilised by the developer, as the different characters of the women allows the player character to fairly naturally take on different roles with each. Sometimes you can be the nice guy, sometimes you can take the dominant role, and there's no feeling of inconsistency - it's all part of the double life of a guy who's overwhelmed with opportunity.

Final note to this, the start of the game felt a little brutal with the demand to acquire money. Even this fits somewhat well with the progression of the game, and the fact that you're still getting good visuals as you do it takes a lot of the edge off, but for new players I'll point out that after the first few in-game weeks that things really take off in a big way.

The only thing the game currently lacks is more story.

Pros:
Enjoyable writing style, good development of multiple major characters. We get insight into MC early and he is built upon as the story goes on.

Really enjoy the "quest" framework for keeping track of storylines. It's a great way to go about it.

Realistic setting with believable characters. Effort is made to convince us that everything that happens could realistically happen.

Effort was made to provide varied images into rote repetitive jobs in some areas so it's slightly less boring.

Cons:
Images don't have consistency nor correspond to text super well due to using screen captures of real porn. Sometimes the same character goes from caucasian to black visually.

Images are low-quality gifs instead of being something visually stimulating or immersive.

Personally for me, too many dude side characters that have extensive roles. Just feels so pointless and unenjoyable to read about them in the context of this game. I like dudes as background to establish setting and fill out the world but so many of them have major scenes... and it's not even NTR... they're just there, not what I came here for.

Grind even on easiest difficulty is pretty awful and you'll have to click on the same button with the same outcome often unless you cheat. I take off no stars for this on this game vs other games because of the built-in cheat-code. Apparently, the grind is to annoy people into paying, which I actually like as there's an actual business purpose to it. If it supports the development of a game like this with good writing then it's all good! I only hate the grind in games where it's just pointless and unavoidable and a waste of time.

No tracking for endings or paths, maybe this'll come later. If it turns out to be essentially a kinetic novel then it's a real con, but I'll reserve judgment since it's just alpha.

But my main impression of this game is one with strong writing, and that's 90% of what matters.

Excellent writing, excellent kinks. What more is there to say? Well it looks like there's a 200 character minimum I have to hit so there's that... Idk man, I binged through this game over the weekend and had a great time with it. Got to explore a lot of deeply gratifying fantasies that I hope I never get an opportunity to do in real life, lol.

Enjoyable, even unfinished. Some humor, the cheesy lines always give a bit of a smile. And there's no shortage of directions to go as things progress.

I'm hoping that more options for Mackinzee open up after she's broken in future releases. As well as the other characters you get to interact with either starlets you're coaching or the gf or her rival.

And I'm curious to see how the main story progresses.

[v0.038 Alpha]

An HTML game where you play a casting director out for revenge. It's fairly well written and there's already a lot of side quests and interesting main storyline, and the mechanic of using your casting position to abuse your power and access sex scenes is interesting Really liked this one.