Hey all, my irl job has been keeping me busy, so apologies if some comments were missed - in big part thanks to all comments, the development of the v2.0 has been going super well (the nights have been long...) - the new build has way less sucky parts (like overexposed intro) or things that don't make sense. The interface will fully be done too.
I promissed you to at least take a look at it, I did. As I'm german and was in the military, you'll get only the
(imo) bad stuff -
"Kein Anschiss ist Lob genug!"
1. The Sandbox: The state it currently is in, you could have also gotten rid of it. Meaning, while one can choose what to do next it doesn't really matter what and in which order you do it. So it's just bloat.
2. You introduce too much stuff and too many characters at once. In writing cyrcles it would be called a
"Loredump". A common mistake first time authors do, especially in fantasy. It kills the pacing of the story and turns many ready off, or in case of Ero-Games to
"skip that shit".
3. It's never good to tease at options that aren't yet implemented. I know many do it for
"replayability" and/or
"get next update plx!" but honestly big turn off for me. Also, if ones story/plot is good enough people will replay it anyways, no matter if you have one million choices and/or teasing shit.
So that's that, for now.
I'm fine with any phrasings, as long as the feedback makes sense xD Surprisingly, only few ppl texted me with the feedback, where I was like "how am I supposed to respond"
1. Mostly correct because the content from the Characters page can't be initiated yet (cause it's not done), and the Stats page also wasn't done (it will consist of choices & faction info). On the contrary, if you read over the comments, people didn't hate the system itself - which was essentially the main thing I wanted to check, given that some really hate Sandbox xD
2. Yeah, that was the biggest thing I messed up - not really hiding it - the intro is entirely redone, and more adult stuff is added throughout - I went way too heavy there, trying to introduce a lot to hook ppl. That one is close to being addressed in what I think is in a good way
3. The v1.5 was kinda barebones, so I wanted to show that there will be plenty of extra pathways, it won't really be the case in the next builds since a lot of the placeholder stuff will be removed. Idk about that one, I feel like as a new dev, there can be an argument to also leave in some stuff to say "hey, it's not a kinetic thing, alternatives are coming!" But I get the annoyance too, many games just tend to grey the options out.
I'm editing the save file myself, can ı bypass this somehow?
It is a built-in engine issue, rather than dev-defined, if you edit a save on a device and play on another (or sometimes on the same one) - it triggers internal safety measure. I will see in the next build if there are any ways to kill it off, but it's deep within the engine itself. The game doesn't really have enough content to edit saves yet xD
First off, im a big fan of monstergirls, so having the girls being somewhat chemera with the eyes and such seems cool. Monster eye thing. Tho they not really real chimeras, but more its the term used for them.
I played plenty of those as well xD I was in deliberation at whether I should make them look human-like or not, but I figured any significant deviations might lead to a beastiality tag which isn't the focus. Powers/eyes are the preferred ways to show distinction.
Sadly, I feel like theres just too many choices, I sometimes thing did I just kill someone I not suppose too ? like I killed Emmy at first and took the other girl, then thought, should I have not killed her ? so I replayed it back and she dies anyway, kills herself . I dont really like the idea the story takes totally diferent paths, that will miss content with other girls. If your heading to the same goal but just doing things differently then should be ok.
Not sure what to say about choices since it's the hook - variability, small or large - not interested in making a kinetic story, but at the same time, you will still experience all of the important bits just in different ways.
If you try capturing Emmy, she kills herself, if you let her go, she escapes and will appear later.
Feels kinda odd we can impregnate them right off the bat, and the idea sounds fun, putting little chimera girls into them. But nothing really should happen as its just early into the game and theres that thing about being against the law, so I guess theres going to be repercussions ? but how badly will it effect the MC?. Would he be strong enough to pretty much do what he wants? So im confused if I should go for it or not. I do wnat to raise the girls corruption stats.
It doesn't make sense
yet, but it will in the next version once all factions are properly introduced, and you see what it means to impregnate someone in the world. It's not a fairy tale! If anyone bothered reading the lore about Hematarchs, it makes a little sense, but the details are coming xD
lastly, is there going to be any full blooded chimera mosnter girls ?
Ehhh, that one is difficult to answer, cause if I make a single scene that isn't fully humanoid, it might turn off lots of players... I do have some good models though... I'm leaning toward a no, but it's a big question of what users/various publishing platforms allow, I kinda have to build around it (which does cause some frustration to players cause some things wouldn't be added cause of guidelines xD)
If knocking every LI up is an option there are definitely players that'll go for it.
It's me, I'm players.
What's the point of playing adult games if you can't knock everyone up? And here, it also unlocks a faction story, which you will see soon...
If you keep comparing me to Desert Stalker, people will have way too high expectations..... But yes xD
Capturing her results in suicide, letting her go - and she will reappear at some point, as your loyal doggy, or something else...
Yes finally an android version
Never did Android builds before - glad to see it seems to work for everyone. And surprisingly to me, 35% of downloaders seem to play Android versions - never expected I should be putting it as a focus.
Show the alignment numbers ...
I am super exhausted, but thanks for the long message, a lot of the things you point out are the directions I'm going for. Super quickly from your message:
See how anarchy & redemption look almost the same?
Basically for restrictive choices, instead of allowing only the top value, allow values that are close enough to the top value to choose the choices as well.
Once stats is done, it will be super clear, I hope, I've also written out a system that does a similar thing to what you described with alignments but a little differently for each faction/world
My bad was using too many numbers. I didn't mean make the numbers important, I meant don't rely too much...
I'm a number's guy too, so I get your focus on them, but absolute numbers really don't play much of a role, it's primarily which one is the largest for specific activities/factions, etc.
And back-end more or less remains the same, I just have large lists for each characters that I access by quickly changing variables at choices - not that difficult, and couple extra functions to update proportions, etc.
Now for reaction/dialogue checks like you mentioned above with Yuna, it's best to stick to single variable checks like anarchy>x (currently used in Luna stoping MC's car scene) since lumping both redemption & corruption as "spineless puppy" wouldn't be good.
Ya, I will be writing a lot more of those in v2.0 that creates some fun dialogue non-choice deviations based on factions/alignment, like an example with Luna.
It's a time thing - didn't have any to make lots of those, but I want it to be one of the coolest narrative points of the game, and should be pretty unique with what I know about adult games.
Only use the highest alignment check if you have dialogue variants for all 7 possible alignments & use it rarely, like in important scenes involving multiple factions.
Otherwise just check if a single variable is high enough for 2 alternative dialogues - much simpler.
Yep! I call those [status_check] which checks alignment data, and returns corresponding line on which alignment is the highest like Luna example.
Here's a remade opening example, with explanations...
Like while she is introducing the 2 mafia girls, MC talks about the 3 girls she took before & how the mafia aren't happy with her. The scene shifts & you get a 2d memory scene of 3 girls attacking the MC. Then the mc gets the choice of how he handled them.
I like the direction you are going for, but I decided to go les narrative heavy, so all scenes that were described are now quick visual flashbacks, and introduced with the text later. I almost finished it - and it's much better. The rest kinda follows what you are proposing - I am thinking of how to throw in a couple of sex shots as some teasers, I realize the v1.5 doesn't have that much (especially now that I have a new dick model lol)
This gives the choice more impact as the players are seeing the event and deciding it's outcome directly instead of being narrated by unknown characters. ("Show not tell" is a common advice you'll find for visual media storytelling.)
Not my strongest skill, but slowly getting better xD especially seeing what ppl like/don't like here
These 3 scenes (mafia, ink & rebel) contain dialogue about the 'present' (mc going after morgana) & the 'past' (what mc did before in those 3 choices). In these flashbacks just refer to the 'past' events & how they felt/reacted to it...
I have rearranged them, all convo stuff in different locations will now go for later in the game when the first story split occurs after the inquisition. Makes a lot more sense and less lore-heavy.
Guess I kinda went with what I prefer over general consensus
Extra:
It's just a map currently. Make people have to find & click on Silver & Saya in the bar from amongst a lot of background figures, & you may get some complaints. Currently the map can be replaced with a menu:
"go to bar":
"go to library":
I like this but only if I get an ultradetailed custom-drawn map of Versai by a really good 2D artist. I tried hiring someone for it, but what they drew was trash.
Otherwise, I will keep those icons for now - but I know that a lot of games only show the location once you hover a mouse over it, but a lot also have written icons to make it easier.
Same here, I like all the numbers & details. If any improvement is possible, I'd say don't make it so text heavy from the beginning & open up more characters, details & info as you get to know them. Character bio's that start with little info but add more text as you learn more about them & make choices regarding them, basically growing alongside your play-through, is the best IMO.
Rather than text reduction, it's primarily about reducing the over exposition for the next version, and introducing more unique accents/phrases/terms, etc.
Like instead of just changing Alive: to false on the left side, You could also add a color coded red bold line "Was killed by [mcName] infront of the abandoned Albert mansion" or "Was knocked up by [mcName] on the [preg_day]th day they met"
It didn't fit in my previous design size-wise xD Working on improving those things, it's not difficult.
I'd say make an identity for those choices. Remove the ones from Mia battlefield or other choices that just affect alignment, keep it for important choices like choosing faction (lone wolf vs inquisitor) or choices which will heavily shape the story...
Lol, you caught on how I want to do it with important / less important choices, that was the whole idea with those visual square buttons, to signify that this is a big thing.
You actually don't need to. Sometimes movies will start like this: A bomb is about to go off. A father tells his son "I love you". Then the scene rewinds to 10 hours ago & they are having breakfast.
You missed an opportunity to say "a father tells his daughter 'I love you' ..."
And the new intro follows a similar approach, start at battlefield with exciting culmination, go back to Morgana with Kiri who is spying on you and making report on your journey.
Exposition is not bad by itself, you just have to avoid characters just standing & saying stuff dryly. Showing the information is a good way to get through exposition - maybe have a fight involving said powers while someone is explaining the powers? Flashbacks to live through the exposition directly is also a good option. In the above remade opening, I used a kidnapped girls rescue operation fights to maintain the pace & tension, used flashbacks to get the players more invested in the choices made & introduce the 6 characters in relation to the MC & then I had enough pace left that I could squeeze in the 3 shortened talking scenes.
Users pointed well that the reason it didn't work that well cause there were too many characters you don't care about yet - I just use exposition as a term to encapsulate.
The problem here was not the length, but starting with 6 unknown character introductions, back to back long exposition scenes & vague choices for a character not even seen yet...
Outside of what was mentioned above, you need to keep in mind, that for users, as a new dev, I need to also show the scope of what I can do, which was a big reason why I went for this opening. But, I now realize there was a better way to do it, which you will see.
I like inks. Chim, not so much. Seems like a lazy shortening of Chimaera. Also with the majority of the cast being Chimeras themselves, I don't think it'd fit for more 'official' characters like Hestia or the ruling humans to use it. Simple slurs like this aren't really degradatory, more like just referring to them. It'd fit the chimera hunter soldiers the best, but they are a majority of chimera, so it doesn't hold. Just use "mutt" or "beast" for true insult/degradation IMO
That's in progress, I really like ajin (subhuman) as a term, but it doesn't fully work here. I will try looking for something similar.
There's only 3 alignments & more than 3 factions...
You predicted what the Stats screen will be about, and as you pointed out, it wasn't finished. Faction has specific alignment, but it doesn't mean that you can't experience them with whatever different alignment you have, it will just be different.
Phew, thanks everyone for responses, I try responding when I have free time on my hands.
Cheers, the new release is shaping up well, I hope it will be better received! Always room for improvement!
