Ren'Py Chronoromancer [v0.7] [Chronoromancer Studio]

[kunamatata99]

Hahah You got me.. Im secretly into NTR.. and just wanna Surprise it on people! 2000+ hours of coding .. just for that! ..You know what.. you are WAY too worried about this. It is only a game .. relax. Don't worry. It is likely better off you go and play another.
Take care...
And Happy New Year

But from what you’re saying, if an NTR fan offered you money to add that content to the game, you would do it. What a sellout dev, lol. Obviously I’m not going to play a game where they’re going to add NTR, especially if the dev isn’t going to be clear about future content. Good luck

 

[Chronoromancer]

But from what you’re saying, if an NTR fan offered you money to add that content to the game, you would do it. What a sellout dev, lol. Obviously I’m not going to play a game where they’re going to add NTR, especially if the dev isn’t going to be clear about future content. Good luck

Hmmm.. you're right! .. give me $1000 bucks - I'd add it. Why not? I don't enjoy NTR, but I also am very open minded to other peoples kinks.
Thanks for the luck. Take care

 

[Adamsomebody]

hey, so I just wanted to say I tried your game and I love it. ive been searching here for a week and this is the first game i feel like I can really stick to. thank you for the upload!

 

[siath70]

But from what you’re saying, if an NTR fan offered you money to add that content to the game, you would do it. What a sellout dev, lol. Obviously I’m not going to play a game where they’re going to add NTR, especially if the dev isn’t going to be clear about future content. Good luck

Technically, there is NTR in the game if you run the brothel. It's just hidden, kind of out of sight out of mind right now. I mean you're gathering girls you'll sleep with and putting them in a brothel.

The Dev has chosen not to show this side of things and gives you an option to run a hotel instead.
In a way the Dev is catering to both sides by doing this. I myself wouldn't mind being able to peek or see some of the girls having sex, but I also enjoy NTR/NTS type games.

I'm hoping there will be pregnancy also.

I like the game wonderful work, keep it up.

 

[Liselsia]

i hope we can have a casual mode that does not have the doomsday counter tho =/

 

[Chronoromancer]

Technically, there is NTR in the game if you run the brothel. It's just hidden, kind of out of sight out of mind right now. I mean you're gathering girls you'll sleep with and putting them in a brothel.

The Dev has chosen not to show this side of things and gives you an option to run a hotel instead.
In a way the Dev is catering to both sides by doing this. I myself wouldn't mind being able to peek or see some of the girls having sex, but I also enjoy NTR/NTS type games.

I'm hoping there will be pregnancy also.

I like the game wonderful work, keep it up.

First.. thank you very much for your kind words and support ) It means a lot really.. building a game is a lot of work!

To clarify my thinking on this:

I consider NTR specifically the kink of taking, or something being taken. That aspect isn't in the game, and I wouldn't want to mislead anyone searching for it. I'm not against it - there are plenty of successful NTR games out there - but I want to be accurate about what Chronoromancer actually offers.

NTS is a different conversation. Honestly? When I look at my Itch.io analytics, "brothel" is the #1 search term that leads people to the game. Sometimes I wonder if I'm missing out on a community by not having more complete brothel mechanics. Could NTS content happen eventually - a girl trained to service a prince, relationships that develop outside the player? Maybe.

My long-term goal is to build the biggest adult game I can. Over the next five years, I'm not limiting myself. We're only at v0.7 - I'm still laying the foundation. Eventually I'd love a female protagonist option, all kinds of relationship paths, an expanded universe. So I won't constrain the game into being "NOT" something. People who need that certainty probably won't enjoy the ride anyway. My wife, Vixen, really wants the game to start having story paths and kinks that she will really enjoy, and how can I say no to that? )

What I can promise: the game is here to stay, updates every two weeks, and I'm open to growing it as broad as possible. Thanks for enjoying it!

P.S. Im working on a spinoff, small game based on my games universe. A strict brothel management game, very playable by android. Mostly focused on Animated Chibi-Sprite versions of the NPCs in the main game. This one will be very NTS when completed! But , still 3 months away from an initial release..Thanks again

 

[Chronoromancer]

hey, so I just wanted to say I tried your game and I love it. ive been searching here for a week and this is the first game i feel like I can really stick to. thank you for the upload!

Thank you for playing and your kind words!!

 

[Chronoromancer]

i hope we can have a casual mode that does not have the doomsday counter tho =/

This will come in time ) Likely after I complete V1.0. Thank you!

 

[DoofusWombat]

So Far I like the idea of the game so good job on the concept so far, I do wish for the best and hope you can deliver without burnout as so many good games end up being abandoned.

Just a few things I wanted to mention after playing a bit that make me feel somewhat hesitant to want to jump in for full support.

First of all I would like to suggest adding more content to existing characters before adding more, the sheer volume of characters planned will make the game wide as an ocean but deep as a puddle. No matter which character someone likes they will feel as though there just is not enough content for them as is. I am aware this is an early build, but that makes it even more important to pull people in with characters and their development. After playing some of the game even the most developed characters felt rather empty. If the focus ends up in flooding more characters without fleshing out the existing ones more it will just lead to little attachment to the game characters and their stories.

Another issue that seems to be a big deal for a lot of people is the whole NTR / NTS thing particularly the brothel. Personally my point of view is that all is fine as long as its by choice, just the current choice is unsatisfying for both sides. The idea of hotel or brothel is there but both feel lacking, not the development side but more the concept of one or the other. For example if someone chooses brothel they may want some characters to not work there while others they would be fine with. I personally felt really bad about basically forcing Sophie to the brothel to "save" her, while someone like Vixen who is basically already doing the same thing I am fine with. Every single character should have the option to work in the brothel or somewhere else Deciding the type of relationship and which content you want for each character. Thus they should have other options, maybe buy other businesses, like as is maybe you can start with hotel or brothel then buy the other later on. Same with the other places like the tavern to offer more options giving each character the option to work at various places, to keep things simple maybe just work on some relationship value based on which they work at with generalized scenes based on that single value so there is no need to make as many individual scenes. Basically choosing NOT to put them in the brothel when you could do so should give a relationship boost, while each girl added should give the largest income bonus. Other options would be say adding characters to help out at the shrine would increase meditation training bonuses, tavern could give money and maybe intel, influence, or something else like training, farm could solve Honey issues and increase food production thus maybe higher population in modern times? Also need actual scenes for all options from brothel customers to them serving drinks, dancing, or even working at the shrine, farming whatever all of which adding to stats based on the location.

On another note is the time differences seeing things carry over would be a nice touch. In which case the whole sterile thing is unnecessary, if I am recalling correctly there are about a thousand years between each time period so that is what 30-40 generations? Not really incest at that point. It would be interesting to have things from medieval time change characters or businesses in modern or future time. Could vary things based on where they work and who the father is (brothel after all). A lot of examples are based on brothel as that is currently the only business the character owns so works best as an example since the hotel would have no need to be mentioned as anything special, but all of this applies to hotel and any others too. So Maybe if you choose to buy and depending on how many characters are staffed in brothel you would have wider connections between people to counter void, but they would lack depth as a trade off? Hotel would be neutral, any others would vary on what they do. Then have carry overs for each that works a little differently so say in modern times there could be some call girl system with the hotel instead of brothel? In the future some underground thing that would give a larger connection boost than in the other time periods to reflect the disassociation of human relationships. Basically have each time period reflect changes from the previous in the characters and locations even if it is just in stats and numbers.

Two points that kind of coincide here are the time limit and the lack of clearly defined mechanics. First of all and this is even more true in early builds, the time limit somewhat ruins the experience in general. Very few games of any type are improved by time limits especially any kind of sandbox. The problem stems from no longer being able to explore the world, game mechanics, or characters as you please and instead looking for the most efficient way to work the game mechanics and reach the goal. Now that can be fun in its own right when you want to do so, but being forced is a different matter. Even more so as you can manipulate time, the lack thereof feels like a burden that stops you from just interacting with the characters you want to or just going around checking what is going on wherever you feel like at the moment. Mechanically there is little explanation on how to reach whatever the goal is the main story may have suggestions but say you want to efficiently make money, you have to go through trial and error. What about stats, what they do, how to raise them, which ones you want, same for skills and so on. This even extends to characters, there is a rather dire need to have a little icon over a location showing the face of any and every girl at that location. It becomes such a hassle to remember where every girl is at a given time and this will only get worse when there are more to keep track of, adding in the three time periods and when you want to find a certain character you may have to spend a few days looking for them. Which once again adds to the issue of the time limit. While I understand the idea to give a sense of stakes, I also cannot help but feel it doesn't really add much of value for what it takes from the player. Perhaps some kind of easy vs normal mode option that turns off the time limit.

From the start I have to say the writing needs some work as well, in general it feels like there is not enough dialogue with the characters, and what is there tends to feel empty while the "jokes" feel out of place. Now I am generally chalking this up to the game being fairly early in development so I am not to worried but I figure it bears some mention. The main gripe here would be the way you farm relationship points by just clicking an option x number of times, getting a one liner and seeing some hearts on the screen. This ends up both as a waste of your time limit in game and feels empty and tedious as a mechanic. Fewer interactions with more dialogue would go a long way to alleviate both while making the characters feel far more fleshed out. While only tangentially related to the writing itself I feel spending more time in the modern era perhaps even before the actual story begins with time traveling to work out each mechanic and slowly interact with characters as a sort of "tutorial" might be helpful for players to get into the game without being bombarded and rushed with mechanics and sandbox elements while a time limit looms. In other words write out a sort of daily life of the protagonist so it can explain things gradually while also upping the ante for the coming conflict by clearly laying out the stakes by making people feel more invested.

Perhaps a small gripe that isn't important but does feel noteworthy enough to mention is the character sprites when talking. The way they shift perspective and pose feels... odd at best. I personally feel a better approach would be to take a given prompt for a main pose then shift expressions and maybe hand positions only to prevent the jarring changes every other line of dialogue.

Apologies for the length and rather presumptuous... criticism? Regardless I rarely bother to post and am only doing so as I like where you are going and truly wish you the best and most success possible even if everything I mentioned is ignored.

 

[Chronoromancer]

So Far I like the idea of the game so good job on the concept so far, I do wish for the best and hope you can deliver without burnout as so many good games end up being abandoned.

Just a few things I wanted to mention after playing a bit that make me feel somewhat hesitant to want to jump in for full support.

First of all I would like to suggest adding more content to existing characters before adding more, the sheer volume of characters planned will make the game wide as an ocean but deep as a puddle. No matter which character someone likes they will feel as though there just is not enough content for them as is. I am aware this is an early build, but that makes it even more important to pull people in with characters and their development. After playing some of the game even the most developed characters felt rather empty. If the focus ends up in flooding more characters without fleshing out the existing ones more it will just lead to little attachment to the game characters and their stories.

Another issue that seems to be a big deal for a lot of people is the whole NTR / NTS thing particularly the brothel. Personally my point of view is that all is fine as long as its by choice, just the current choice is unsatisfying for both sides. The idea of hotel or brothel is there but both feel lacking, not the development side but more the concept of one or the other. For example if someone chooses brothel they may want some characters to not work there while others they would be fine with. I personally felt really bad about basically forcing Sophie to the brothel to "save" her, while someone like Vixen who is basically already doing the same thing I am fine with. Every single character should have the option to work in the brothel or somewhere else Deciding the type of relationship and which content you want for each character. Thus they should have other options, maybe buy other businesses, like as is maybe you can start with hotel or brothel then buy the other later on. Same with the other places like the tavern to offer more options giving each character the option to work at various places, to keep things simple maybe just work on some relationship value based on which they work at with generalized scenes based on that single value so there is no need to make as many individual scenes. Basically choosing NOT to put them in the brothel when you could do so should give a relationship boost, while each girl added should give the largest income bonus. Other options would be say adding characters to help out at the shrine would increase meditation training bonuses, tavern could give money and maybe intel, influence, or something else like training, farm could solve Honey issues and increase food production thus maybe higher population in modern times? Also need actual scenes for all options from brothel customers to them serving drinks, dancing, or even working at the shrine, farming whatever all of which adding to stats based on the location.

On another note is the time differences seeing things carry over would be a nice touch. In which case the whole sterile thing is unnecessary, if I am recalling correctly there are about a thousand years between each time period so that is what 30-40 generations? Not really incest at that point. It would be interesting to have things from medieval time change characters or businesses in modern or future time. Could vary things based on where they work and who the father is (brothel after all). A lot of examples are based on brothel as that is currently the only business the character owns so works best as an example since the hotel would have no need to be mentioned as anything special, but all of this applies to hotel and any others too. So Maybe if you choose to buy and depending on how many characters are staffed in brothel you would have wider connections between people to counter void, but they would lack depth as a trade off? Hotel would be neutral, any others would vary on what they do. Then have carry overs for each that works a little differently so say in modern times there could be some call girl system with the hotel instead of brothel? In the future some underground thing that would give a larger connection boost than in the other time periods to reflect the disassociation of human relationships. Basically have each time period reflect changes from the previous in the characters and locations even if it is just in stats and numbers.

Two points that kind of coincide here are the time limit and the lack of clearly defined mechanics. First of all and this is even more true in early builds, the time limit somewhat ruins the experience in general. Very few games of any type are improved by time limits especially any kind of sandbox. The problem stems from no longer being able to explore the world, game mechanics, or characters as you please and instead looking for the most efficient way to work the game mechanics and reach the goal. Now that can be fun in its own right when you want to do so, but being forced is a different matter. Even more so as you can manipulate time, the lack thereof feels like a burden that stops you from just interacting with the characters you want to or just going around checking what is going on wherever you feel like at the moment. Mechanically there is little explanation on how to reach whatever the goal is the main story may have suggestions but say you want to efficiently make money, you have to go through trial and error. What about stats, what they do, how to raise them, which ones you want, same for skills and so on. This even extends to characters, there is a rather dire need to have a little icon over a location showing the face of any and every girl at that location. It becomes such a hassle to remember where every girl is at a given time and this will only get worse when there are more to keep track of, adding in the three time periods and when you want to find a certain character you may have to spend a few days looking for them. Which once again adds to the issue of the time limit. While I understand the idea to give a sense of stakes, I also cannot help but feel it doesn't really add much of value for what it takes from the player. Perhaps some kind of easy vs normal mode option that turns off the time limit.

From the start I have to say the writing needs some work as well, in general it feels like there is not enough dialogue with the characters, and what is there tends to feel empty while the "jokes" feel out of place. Now I am generally chalking this up to the game being fairly early in development so I am not to worried but I figure it bears some mention. The main gripe here would be the way you farm relationship points by just clicking an option x number of times, getting a one liner and seeing some hearts on the screen. This ends up both as a waste of your time limit in game and feels empty and tedious as a mechanic. Fewer interactions with more dialogue would go a long way to alleviate both while making the characters feel far more fleshed out. While only tangentially related to the writing itself I feel spending more time in the modern era perhaps even before the actual story begins with time traveling to work out each mechanic and slowly interact with characters as a sort of "tutorial" might be helpful for players to get into the game without being bombarded and rushed with mechanics and sandbox elements while a time limit looms. In other words write out a sort of daily life of the protagonist so it can explain things gradually while also upping the ante for the coming conflict by clearly laying out the stakes by making people feel more invested.

Perhaps a small gripe that isn't important but does feel noteworthy enough to mention is the character sprites when talking. The way they shift perspective and pose feels... odd at best. I personally feel a better approach would be to take a given prompt for a main pose then shift expressions and maybe hand positions only to prevent the jarring changes every other line of dialogue.

Apologies for the length and rather presumptuous... criticism? Regardless I rarely bother to post and am only doing so as I like where you are going and truly wish you the best and most success possible even if everything I mentioned is ignored.

To start, I'm flattered to have such an in-depth response with a lot of valid advice for me to consider. I need a bit of time to digest all of this and think through what you've said. A lot of it reads like a gradual development plan, and I really respect that

Quick question though - which version are you playing? I ask because one thing you mentioned (finding where characters are) should already be partially addressed. When you hover over map locations, NPC portraits should appear showing who's currently there based on the time of day. I think I introduced that on V0.6 - the map hover shows which known character is at a location. Or are you suggesting something more elaborate than that?

That said, you raise a lot of great points. I'll spend some time properly digesting everything and come back with a more thorough response. Thanks again for taking the time to write all this out - it's clear you care about where the game is heading, and that means a lot.

 

[DoofusWombat]

Oh sorry I last played 0.5, which would explain the difference there, I just checked on 0.7 and see what you meant. Thank you for that as it makes everything so much easier to navigate. Could it be better? Sure, everything in the world can be improved in one way or another and there would be no end. But honestly at least for me I don't care much as long as the mechanic is there to make life that much easier when navigating the various screens.

Also Thank you for bothering to read that giant wall of text. As much as I tried to simplify and shorten the mess of things I was thinking while playing through the game it still ended up longer than I wanted. I am just glad you didn't seem to take offense to what could have been seen as a ton of criticism. In my opinion if you are going to point out something is wrong or doesn't work at least offer some input on how to go about changing or improving that which can come across badly sometimes.

 

[Chronoromancer]

Oh sorry I last played 0.5, which would explain the difference there, I just checked on 0.7 and see what you meant. Thank you for that as it makes everything so much easier to navigate. Could it be better? Sure, everything in the world can be improved in one way or another and there would be no end. But honestly at least for me I don't care much as long as the mechanic is there to make life that much easier when navigating the various screens.

Also Thank you for bothering to read that giant wall of text. As much as I tried to simplify and shorten the mess of things I was thinking while playing through the game it still ended up longer than I wanted. I am just glad you didn't seem to take offense to what could have been seen as a ton of criticism. In my opinion if you are going to point out something is wrong or doesn't work at least offer some input on how to go about changing or improving that which can come across badly sometimes.

First off, I didn't see it as a wall of criticism at all. You clearly played the game deeply - some of the things you mentioned are pretty far into the content. And honestly, a lot of your suggestions align almost perfectly with where I want this game to go. My vision for an eventual V1.0 is exactly what you're describing: a complete world where all NPCs feel finished, there's a full story, and nothing feels like a grind.

I do have some obstacles I'm aware of, especially with the brothel/hotel situation you mentioned. And I totally get it - "here we are saving Sophie off the street... to have her work in a brothel" or Jade being sold by her father. Yeah. I understand that tension more than anybody.

But here we are in an adult game world, and people do enjoy brothel management. I genuinely want to please everybody, including myself - it'll just take time to sort out. One approach I've been considering is that in this specific fantasy world, working at a brothel isn't what the modern stigma suggests. It could be high-class, clean, friendly - the job itself being more like massage, bonding, and healing. In this fictional world, people are generally more open and not strictly monogamous. So comparatively, it might actually be one of the better jobs available in the Medieval Era. That's how I try to frame it mentally. But that doesn't mean I disagree with you - and your idea about specific job assignments actually helps a lot with this.

We ARE working on depth alongside breadth. I know constantly clicking "talk" feels like in-game time-wasting, but I keep introducing more ways for NPCs to interact with the player. Recently we added a dating system - players can invite NPCs to different date locations, each with unique conversations that unlock more story. There are only 6 date types so far, but the system is set up so every NPC can have multiple date options. The Christmas update added 25 various tasks and gift-giving spread across many NPCs.

The overall idea is to keep growing the game so that over time, the dullness of repetitive actions evaporates. Eventually there should be so many things to do - all with interesting narratives - that it never feels like a grind.

Yes, we do add more characters, and I realize it thins things out. But they're characters I intend for the complete 6 districts. So what you hope this game grows into is exactly what I hope it grows into too. A fun, complete world with NPCs that aren't boring, with enough in-game rewards that players don't feel time-crunched - just inspired to play and choose which direction to grow.

I really like your job differentiation idea too. Eventually I'd love to get to the point where novice workers could apprentice with experienced ones and learn skills. Sophie could train under Blinky the Wizard, or Valkyra the Knight, and become an adventurer who earns money that way instead. Or apprentice with Sandra to be a performer, or Vixen to be a socialite.

So yeah - I'd love to pursue all these routes, and I will. Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts. It genuinely means a lot that your vision aligns with mine.

 

[DoofusWombat]

Glad to hear your viewpoint and vision for the future of the game, and just so I am as clear as possible I never wanted to suggest you restrict your characters in number or any other way. Rather suggesting that priority should be laying mechanical groundwork along with the development paths of the existing characters before adding many more. Mostly for the sake of players feeling invested over a long time, rather than just waiting for a final or near final release. Or to put it another way hook people in with the content with likable characters. After you have the game and characters as they are working it would be a lot quicker and easier to add more characters in the future as you would have a general path of development, events, as well as the assets needed for each all set already. More or less I am just worried that the supply of constant new characters to add more or attract more new players would keep from ever really making any truly satisfactory as an individual character. I guess it is more a worry of focus on quality or quantity, many types of actions may not be as impactful as a single good few paragraphs of dialogue.

Just my opinion here but no matter the character to truly make their existence in the story have value they essentially require enough character development that a player would want to sit down and read a story or play a game with them as the sole heroine or even main character. Just one good character can make everything work. A good example I think might be the Fate series, in which Saber essentially made both the series and company. The other characters then used this springboard to continually built off of her. Of course people may like other characters as tastes vary for each individual so it is important to have variety and I look forward to all the new characters you have planned. There is already a lot to work on from the perspective of your limited development time as is. So from my perspective I would rather read more about how the characters think and feel, their thoughts and troubles so I feel more invested than click a bunch just to get to dates and H scenes before moving on to a different character. I personally want to read more about almost every character, from simple things like say talking to them at work. A good example being Summer, where an option to just sit there and talk while she watches over the beach and she gradually reveals more would make me feel a lot more invested in the future of what is to come next for her and most of the others.

As far as the brothel goes I do feel the stigma is necessary for the story itself. For example Honey has a much more meaningful conversation with her father than Sophie did with the various people she knows. It gives meaning to the action that Honey is trading something because she finds greater value in what she gains, it gives value to her choice and weight to her actions along with depth to her character. In general I feel that is one of the biggest problems with many brothel management games, they feel almost as sterilized as playing and RPG where you go through a slum but they either have prostitutes or brothels you cannot interact with or do away with that aspect of society all together. The sense of immorality along with potential repercussions for example pregnancy especially in the medieval age where contraceptives are lacking makes the world feel more real by nature of negative to the positive. This is why I felt Honey had far more significance to her choice than Sophie, if the friends that Sophie talked to were more hesitant and conflicted but maybe resigned in the end would have made her choice more heartfelt.

That does make me think of a possible means to achieve both however. Rather than make things open to the point where it would be easy to question the need for a brothel in the first place maybe a mechanic that achieves the same over time. For example at the start there is a strong stigma against any form of sex work perhaps spurned on by Void to separate people or just due to the nature of the times. However by assigning girls to the brothel it would make a value go up which increases the social connection between characters. Perhaps it would also make a good way to mitigate some of the time limit as well if there is a say bar that is being filled instead of a set day limit (essentially something that is already present? Not sure if it was implemented yet but characters did mention this). On the other hand going a harem route would give some but much less social connection and at the same time slow down the Void corruption to reflect less influence due to much deeper relationships? In addition various characters could also have stats that influence these parameters based on their own situation. Sashina for example after the brothel is established might somewhat hesitantly offer to work there as a means to do her part to fight the Void. If you take her up on that she would give a greater bonus to the social connections as she knows the stakes and thus puts more effort into this. Conversely if you choose against it she would in dialogue push back a bit about the stakes involved maybe but generally be happy about it resulting in a large relationship bonus and a significant training bonus. Basically separate the methods of confronting Void into manipulating the populace or taking on the burden yourself directly. Then reflect those choices in each time period, so if you put emphasis on the brothel gradually people would find it more acceptable in the Medieval times and even more so in the modern times. Visa versa as well where if you choose not to or fewer to work in the brothel it is seen as less acceptable and thus has more resistance later.

All that said I really like the apprentice idea as well I think that would help a lot both from a mechanics standpoint and character development standpoint. I am glad to hear what you plan and that it is something to be hopeful about for the future, with so many games being abandoned or turning into patreon milking farms it is hard not to be rather wary. Even more so when it comes to finding something interesting to be hopeful about. So thank you for the responses, I am glad that you are already thinking about most of the things I was worrying over.

 

[Chronoromancer]

Glad to hear your viewpoint and vision for the future of the game, and just so I am as clear as possible I never wanted to suggest you restrict your characters in number or any other way. Rather suggesting that priority should be laying mechanical groundwork along with the development paths of the existing characters before adding many more. Mostly for the sake of players feeling invested over a long time, rather than just waiting for a final or near final release. Or to put it another way hook people in with the content with likable characters. After you have the game and characters as they are working it would be a lot quicker and easier to add more characters in the future as you would have a general path of development, events, as well as the assets needed for each all set already. More or less I am just worried that the supply of constant new characters to add more or attract more new players would keep from ever really making any truly satisfactory as an individual character. I guess it is more a worry of focus on quality or quantity, many types of actions may not be as impactful as a single good few paragraphs of dialogue.

Just my opinion here but no matter the character to truly make their existence in the story have value they essentially require enough character development that a player would want to sit down and read a story or play a game with them as the sole heroine or even main character. Just one good character can make everything work. A good example I think might be the Fate series, in which Saber essentially made both the series and company. The other characters then used this springboard to continually built off of her. Of course people may like other characters as tastes vary for each individual so it is important to have variety and I look forward to all the new characters you have planned. There is already a lot to work on from the perspective of your limited development time as is. So from my perspective I would rather read more about how the characters think and feel, their thoughts and troubles so I feel more invested than click a bunch just to get to dates and H scenes before moving on to a different character. I personally want to read more about almost every character, from simple things like say talking to them at work. A good example being Summer, where an option to just sit there and talk while she watches over the beach and she gradually reveals more would make me feel a lot more invested in the future of what is to come next for her and most of the others.

As far as the brothel goes I do feel the stigma is necessary for the story itself. For example Honey has a much more meaningful conversation with her father than Sophie did with the various people she knows. It gives meaning to the action that Honey is trading something because she finds greater value in what she gains, it gives value to her choice and weight to her actions along with depth to her character. In general I feel that is one of the biggest problems with many brothel management games, they feel almost as sterilized as playing and RPG where you go through a slum but they either have prostitutes or brothels you cannot interact with or do away with that aspect of society all together. The sense of immorality along with potential repercussions for example pregnancy especially in the medieval age where contraceptives are lacking makes the world feel more real by nature of negative to the positive. This is why I felt Honey had far more significance to her choice than Sophie, if the friends that Sophie talked to were more hesitant and conflicted but maybe resigned in the end would have made her choice more heartfelt.

That does make me think of a possible means to achieve both however. Rather than make things open to the point where it would be easy to question the need for a brothel in the first place maybe a mechanic that achieves the same over time. For example at the start there is a strong stigma against any form of sex work perhaps spurned on by Void to separate people or just due to the nature of the times. However by assigning girls to the brothel it would make a value go up which increases the social connection between characters. Perhaps it would also make a good way to mitigate some of the time limit as well if there is a say bar that is being filled instead of a set day limit (essentially something that is already present? Not sure if it was implemented yet but characters did mention this). On the other hand going a harem route would give some but much less social connection and at the same time slow down the Void corruption to reflect less influence due to much deeper relationships? In addition various characters could also have stats that influence these parameters based on their own situation. Sashina for example after the brothel is established might somewhat hesitantly offer to work there as a means to do her part to fight the Void. If you take her up on that she would give a greater bonus to the social connections as she knows the stakes and thus puts more effort into this. Conversely if you choose against it she would in dialogue push back a bit about the stakes involved maybe but generally be happy about it resulting in a large relationship bonus and a significant training bonus. Basically separate the methods of confronting Void into manipulating the populace or taking on the burden yourself directly. Then reflect those choices in each time period, so if you put emphasis on the brothel gradually people would find it more acceptable in the Medieval times and even more so in the modern times. Visa versa as well where if you choose not to or fewer to work in the brothel it is seen as less acceptable and thus has more resistance later.

All that said I really like the apprentice idea as well I think that would help a lot both from a mechanics standpoint and character development standpoint. I am glad to hear what you plan and that it is something to be hopeful about for the future, with so many games being abandoned or turning into patreon milking farms it is hard not to be rather wary. Even more so when it comes to finding something interesting to be hopeful about. So thank you for the responses, I am glad that you are already thinking about most of the things I was worrying over.

Haha okay.. a lot for me to take in ) .. I will need to tackle all this stuff, step by step. Let's start with this idea "I personally want to read more about almost every character, from simple things like say talking to them at work. A good example being Summer, where an option to just sit there and talk while she watches over the beach and she gradually reveals more would make me feel a lot more invested in the future of what is to come next for her and most of the others."

The brothel things are important too .. but I think the most efficient strategy is to complete it, then develop it properly. Complete in the sense that, well, complete the layout I have planned and designed in the core system. Once it is fully developed, I can start developing the story, adding ethics and choices, player choice jobs ..and get that all going But thatis a couple updates a way to dig into.

So lets focus on your first idea, and see how it works out I actually completely agree .. I do want more developed characters. So how about , you choose one that you personally would like to see more personal interaction with.. Various conversations about them etc.. basically what you said. More of a build up before the meat and potatoes ) And I'll try it for the next update, and see if it is sufficient, or still lacking.

So which character do you suggest?

 

[siath70]

I honestly do not see a problem with how you save Sofie or how Jade is sold. Nothing being said about how the King forced his scribe to manage your place and she also forced to work in the brothel.

I like the fact you rescue Sofie, she was left out on the street by all her 'friends' in the cold for how long. Not one of those bastards offered her a place to stay or helped feed her? The MC comes along and does that, she repays him by working for him.

Let's look at it this way. How many times might she have sold herself to get food or been raped? Now she has a place to stay with a roof over her head and a full belly. You could say she chooses her clients or she can leave any time.
Part of the fun in a game like this is filling in the little gaps in the story with what you as the player want. It's great having fleshed out backgrounds, but leaving some stuff up to interpretation allows players to see things how they want.

It's not like you take these girls tie them up and let everyone have their way with them.

Something that can be done is give the character another option for them if they don't like that aspect. So instead of Sofie 'working' in the brothel maybe she is a maid in the brothel that helps you keep it clean. Same for Jade, just give people an option, if they choose to have them do non sexual work then remove the brothel stats on the stats page and list them as maids or cooks or something.

I would suggest to you, that you finish your game the way you want and then maybe add options for people to turn things on or off and have other choices for characters. You can take notes of what people like or don't like, then maybe slowly add it or create options for people to remove it.

Somethings I would like to see:
I would like pregnancy, maybe something like how the moths and such are handled. Just a stats screen that tracks your descendants and helps the timer. Of course showing the girls pregnant of course, like a pic or two nothing major.
I would like to see the brothel girls in situations with others.
I would like to see a setting for the timer to be extended. It feels very rushed for me at the current time limit and I really want to enjoy the game.

 

[Chronoromancer]

I honestly do not see a problem with how you save Sofie or how Jade is sold. Nothing being said about how the King forced his scribe to manage your place and she also forced to work in the brothel.

I like the fact you rescue Sofie, she was left out on the street by all her 'friends' in the cold for how long. Not one of those bastards offered her a place to stay or helped feed her? The MC comes along and does that, she repays him by working for him.

Let's look at it this way. How many times might she have sold herself to get food or been raped? Now she has a place to stay with a roof over her head and a full belly. You could say she chooses her clients or she can leave any time.
Part of the fun in a game like this is filling in the little gaps in the story with what you as the player want. It's great having fleshed out backgrounds, but leaving some stuff up to interpretation allows players to see things how they want.

It's not like you take these girls tie them up and let everyone have their way with them.

Something that can be done is give the character another option for them if they don't like that aspect. So instead of Sofie 'working' in the brothel maybe she is a maid in the brothel that helps you keep it clean. Same for Jade, just give people an option, if they choose to have them do non sexual work then remove the brothel stats on the stats page and list them as maids or cooks or something.

I would suggest to you, that you finish your game the way you want and then maybe add options for people to turn things on or off and have other choices for characters. You can take notes of what people like or don't like, then maybe slowly add it or create options for people to remove it.

Somethings I would like to see:
I would like pregnancy and I would like to see the brothel girls in situations with others.
I would like to see a setting for the timer to be extended. It feels very rushed for me at the current time limit and I really want to enjoy the game.

Thank you for your feedback!! .. ) Do you know there are in game crystals that allow you to extend the timer by 10 days each?
There are two places you can enter redeem codes and exchange crystals.. At Seraph's place , near the weather tower in the future era and also at Lillian's lair.. near the back alley in the medieval era.
Youcan use the code: WELCOME .. will giv eyou 5 crystals .. You can trade that for more days.. or skills.
In game, there are plenty of ways to get crystals. Maxing girls, some minigames, breeding caterpillar goals

Thank you for your feedback with Sophie. And the way you describe it, is how I want to think about it. IT is a morally grey area.. But so are adult games! .. In fact.. This entire site, is a site, promoting morally grey things, so ya.. it is fiction

AS for Pregnancy .. it is coming. Just, in a couple months. I have a narrative plan.. I just don't want to give away spoilers. Games like Summertime Saga, they have been around for years, pregnancy, well Im not sure when it started, but it is more of a later game aspect I guess. Lots of people suggest it. It is coming down the road for sure There is already a little bit now, it is more of a joke then real.

Thank you very much!

 

[siath70]

Thank you for your feedback!! .. ) Do you know there are in game crystals that allow you to extend the timer by 10 days each?
There are two places you can enter redeem codes and exchange crystals.. At Seraph's place , near the weather tower in the future era and also at Lillian's lair.. near the back alley in the medieval era.
Youcan use the code: WELCOME .. will giv eyou 5 crystals .. You can trade that for more days.. or skills.
In game, there are plenty of ways to get crystals. Maxing girls, some minigames, breeding caterpillar goals

Thank you for your feedback with Sophie. And the way you describe it, is how I want to think about it. IT is a morally grey area.. But so are adult games! .. In fact.. This entire site, is a site, promoting morally grey things, so ya.. it is fiction

AS for Pregnancy .. it is coming. Just, in a couple months. I have a narrative plan.. I just don't want to give away spoilers. Games like Summertime Saga, they have been around for years, pregnancy, well Im not sure when it started, but it is more of a later game aspect I guess. Lots of people suggest it. It is coming down the road for sure There is already a little bit now, it is more of a joke then real.

Thank you very much!

I had no idea about the crystals. I keep running out of time because I keep working on my stats to help with the girls and suddenly I'm almost out of time. So I was hoping that a sandbox mode or a difficulty option to extend the time would be added in the game options.

I have never see the future world my time runs out before I get there. LOL

 

[Chronoromancer]

I had no idea about the crystals. I keep running out of time because I keep working on my stats to help with the girls and suddenly I'm almost out of time. So I was hoping that a sandbox mode or a difficulty option to extend the time would be added in the game options.

I have never see the future world my time runs out before I get there. LOL

Hahah well.. you can go to the Future era on Day 1 ) .. Just go there next time you play .. go to the weather control tower .. follow that to the cloudy path .. Type in the redeem code: WELCOME .. trade for time. ) Then.. use that time.. and earn more crystals! .. There are people playing, that are on day 400 that I know about.

While you are there.. you can enter the Redeem code: HALLOWEEN ... its a free code.. and unlocks the Halloween mansion .. It's fun!

 

[DoofusWombat]

Haha okay.. a lot for me to take in ) .. I will need to tackle all this stuff, step by step. Let's start with this idea "I personally want to read more about almost every character, from simple things like say talking to them at work. A good example being Summer, where an option to just sit there and talk while she watches over the beach and she gradually reveals more would make me feel a lot more invested in the future of what is to come next for her and most of the others."

The brothel things are important too .. but I think the most efficient strategy is to complete it, then develop it properly. Complete in the sense that, well, complete the layout I have planned and designed in the core system. Once it is fully developed, I can start developing the story, adding ethics and choices, player choice jobs ..and get that all going But thatis a couple updates a way to dig into.

So lets focus on your first idea, and see how it works out I actually completely agree .. I do want more developed characters. So how about , you choose one that you personally would like to see more personal interaction with.. Various conversations about them etc.. basically what you said. More of a build up before the meat and potatoes ) And I'll try it for the next update, and see if it is sufficient, or still lacking.

So which character do you suggest?

First off I am extremely flattered you think it worthwhile to listen enough to even ask me to suggest a character. That said I wouldn't want to set a bad precedent for you going forward so I would suggest making another patreon poll to find which character is most popular. Or in your opinion which makes the most sense for the narrative going forward. Thank you for even bothering to listen and interact in general, this is something most devs either don't bother doing or turn any form of suggestion or critique into a flame war as they entrench themselves deeper. Your attitude is rare and a huge breath of fresh air so try not to burn out and turn into what most become after dealing with people for so long. I know I probably couldn't be that open minded so I commend you on being great PR on your own.

Now I would like to apologize as I feel I have done a rather poor job in expressing myself clearly. When I talk about character development, story, and interaction I don't mean you should drop everything else or not focus on the core you already are. The core mechanics and general development are the most important by far. What I wanted to convey is more a trade off in time spent on new characters instead spent on developing the large number of existing characters, at least for a few updates till the existing ones are a bit more rounded out. Which also would make new characters more exciting. Rather than an actual critique as most of what you mentioned you had planned aligned with what I already felt was the intended case, it was meant more of a suggestion for how to make things most appealing in the interim while you work on everything. When looking at changelogs there are a lot of "new characters" in updates, while existing characters could do with a lot of love from their dev to kind of solidify the foundation moving forward.

A more visual way to think about it would be imagining a kids coloring book, you the dev can see the full picture, and know you just have to fill in what is already in your head once you have the time. For us the players we see only a small part of the whole just a few lines and have to imagine what is going to fill the rest, could be waifu, could be cthulhu, we don't know yet. When you think about it many characters have about as much as a paragraph of text and a few images, Summer being a good example. While others that are better developed like Sashina still don't have that much more, maybe a few paragraphs and some extra images. I figured the lowest effort from a development standpoint would be to add more depth to interactions with fewer of them which is why I suggested that method. I don't expect a full VN level of development as my comparison to Saber may have implied as that would be consigning you to a lifetime of development with all the characters you would need to write. So what I meant was more instead of adding new unfinished pages to the character coloring book just filling in those blanks gradually, not even saying you have to dedicate a full update to complete a character, can be single events here and there that builds on what is already present. Essentially giving us progress with existing characters over new characters alongside the planned updates. Mainly as I worried about over time losing interest because of too many characters and too little attachment to each one.

Kind of similar to how the time limit may be more of a constraint now without full game mechanics at play than it would be in the final version. For me a good example would be modern era downtown there was some girl in a black dress with black hair that would show up randomly, no idea how to interact with her despite wanting to. So I had to make a choice to prioritize doing other things to work against the time limit rather than goofing around trying to figure out what is going on with that character.

Back to brothel I completely agree. I was mostly mentioning things now as setting them up is easier early in development rather than after you have systems in place that you may want to go back and change or adjust in the future. Was mostly just hoping to offer a some opinions in the hopes of offering the perspective of someone on the other side playing the game blindly. Kind of how you mentioning the perspective on sex and sex work being more open is what made me think of how to split and integrate that, disregarding whether that idea is good or bad to other people.

I honestly do not see a problem with how you save Sofie or how Jade is sold. Nothing being said about how the King forced his scribe to manage your place and she also forced to work in the brothel.

I like the fact you rescue Sofie, she was left out on the street by all her 'friends' in the cold for how long. Not one of those bastards offered her a place to stay or helped feed her? The MC comes along and does that, she repays him by working for him.

Let's look at it this way. How many times might she have sold herself to get food or been raped? Now she has a place to stay with a roof over her head and a full belly. You could say she chooses her clients or she can leave any time.
Part of the fun in a game like this is filling in the little gaps in the story with what you as the player want. It's great having fleshed out backgrounds, but leaving some stuff up to interpretation allows players to see things how they want.

It's not like you take these girls tie them up and let everyone have their way with them.

Something that can be done is give the character another option for them if they don't like that aspect. So instead of Sofie 'working' in the brothel maybe she is a maid in the brothel that helps you keep it clean. Same for Jade, just give people an option, if they choose to have them do non sexual work then remove the brothel stats on the stats page and list them as maids or cooks or something.

I would suggest to you, that you finish your game the way you want and then maybe add options for people to turn things on or off and have other choices for characters. You can take notes of what people like or don't like, then maybe slowly add it or create options for people to remove it.

Somethings I would like to see:
I would like pregnancy, maybe something like how the moths and such are handled. Just a stats screen that tracks your descendants and helps the timer. Of course showing the girls pregnant of course, like a pic or two nothing major.
I would like to see the brothel girls in situations with others.
I would like to see a setting for the timer to be extended. It feels very rushed for me at the current time limit and I really want to enjoy the game.

While I do agree with most of what you said in all honestly especially how rather annoyed or even outright mad I was at all the people who supposedly cared about Sophie my issue was more how there was no real choice. Was Sophie in a better situation thanks to you? Sure, but conversely that also means she has no real choice in the matter, and since you don't either unless you choose hotel it feels almost like enslaving a naive and innocent little girl. It felt too predatory to me for the brothel side while it makes perfect sense for the hotel side. It is sorta the same with Jade, or any other future girl. I am fine with slavery and such being explored, but I just wanted an option or method to choose an alternate way of treating them based on how I feel about individual characters. As far as the scribe you can argue both ways but in the end it was still her choice at least to the degree she didn't feel it necessary to run away.

 

[siath70]

While I do agree with most of what you said in all honestly especially how rather annoyed or even outright mad I was at all the people who supposedly cared about Sophie my issue was more how there was no real choice. Was Sophie in a better situation thanks to you? Sure, but conversely that also means she has no real choice in the matter, and since you don't either unless you choose hotel it feels almost like enslaving a naive and innocent little girl. It felt too predatory to me for the brothel side while it makes perfect sense for the hotel side. It is sorta the same with Jade, or any other future girl. I am fine with slavery and such being explored, but I just wanted an option or method to choose an alternate way of treating them based on how I feel about individual characters. As far as the scribe you can argue both ways but in the end it was still her choice at least to the degree she didn't feel it necessary to run away.

There are 'Real' choices:

You have options you know, even in the game as it is, you can opt not to recruit her and any other girl that you don't want to 'exploit' for the brothel.

Nothing if forcing you in game to go recruit anyone.

You can make up whatever you want, maybe you visit her daily and feed her and give her some money. Same goes for any other girl you don't want to recruit.

You need to think outside the box, the Dev has given you all the tools to 'not' recruit anyone to the brothel. The choice is in your hands. You're free to romance and such anyone you want, except for one NPC I know of. You can recruit any NPC that is set up to recruit or not, nothing forces you to click anything about coming to the brothel.

You're looking at Sofie and seeing an little girl, I look and see a young woman who needed a leg up and someone I could save from dying in some cold dark alley. Her 'friends' sure weren't helping her...

The brothel is also described as an entertainment place, nothing says she is fucking anyone but you. She could just be dancing or serving drinks to customers, you're free to look at things however you want and in whatever way makes you feel better.

At the end of the day it's a game and nothing more.