I apologize that i was a bit verbose,and you misunderstood my point, to rephrase it better- i LOVE the cryptic bits, it's why i am being honest with things even though it's disheartening, what i hate is the school bits, where there is no puzzles or interaction variety, like i said- they are making the game worse in their current state. Doesn't matter if people enjoy the narrative or not, the fact that they are both mandatory and devoid of variety is what kills it.
Anecdotally:
I lost my save file between the updates, and having to replay the same thing where i am locked off by countless invisible walls, having to go through the same motions for half an hour(yes, with message skip) before I'm let into the freeroam mode only to discover that with all the dialogue you piled on you failed to explain that the dreams you get now depend on your stats, locking me into a dream you get from low health that feels like "this is the end of the demo" as the FIRST dream did not leave a good impression, i wouldn't be suprised if a lot of new players experience something to the same degree, you promise Yume Nikki, but that game starts by throwing you in to freeroam first, and never pulls you out of it,wich is what arguably made it so popular, it's abstract and liberating.
I'm not an industry veteran, but from my humble 6 years of gamedev experience, i would suggest one of three options to go with:
1.Skip scene button, by far the easiest one and the least involved, nobody is going to blame you for implementing it,and you get to make the rest of the game the way you wanted it without any real need for change outside of that.
2.Make the school segments memories you have to find. Not only is that more engaging for players and more in line with the Yumme Nikki style of gameplay, it also will draw them in more since it will require investigating to piece everything together, you can do a lot with that, especially in terms of deception and omission of information.Moreover- this will allow people who already seen it or just came to a porn game for porn to skip out on them with no detriment
3.Make the school segments interactive. Throughout all the cutscenes my first and preveiling thought was "what if i just left?" and the games answer always was the very artificial "i can't leave right now! i have to experience social embarrasment!" wich really grinded my gears.This is obviously the most labourious option, but allowing players to choose no will give at the very least replayability to an otherwise unremarkable cutscene.
Understandable, especially since I promised the last save system will be robust. I added the shortcuts to the new cutscenes because of this, but I did not consider people that don't care about the narrative would try and play this version.
I actually found a bug that would sometimes loop the low health dream a second time, and then I assume your health got low enough to trigger a third one. So I'm very sorry about that. Testing fringe cases is incredibly hard, but if it makes you feel better, you're the only reason I've discovered this bug. Will make a hotfix for it when I can.
I'll address your 3 points and suggestions
1.
Sounds good, but I don't know what how to handle the dialog options then. Despite what you say there are choices that do have an effect, both immediate flags and ones for future use. If nothing else, some affect stats.
Why not just disable the story altogether then? Maybe it's time to make an actual title screen with the option to rather than rely on players reading through my notes.
I don't think the skip function is that grating.
2.
I don't like that one. I have a personal aversion to flashbacks and prequels, but I won't get into that.
It's also incompatible with the story I'm trying to tell.
There's also a gallery available. Why not just use that if they really think my spritework is worth jerking off to without any context.
While the story segments appears to be going in a sequence, that's only because I want people to see them. In a more complete state they will occur once certain aspects are achieved.
3.
Come on, if you say you've been doing gamedev for so long you should understand why this is impossible. "what if I just left?", well maybe you run away and join the circus and have an epic tale of wandering around the country as a knife juggler, but that's a whole other game. I know it's an exaggeration, but you can extrapolate from this on how every little deviation will require a new narrative. I've already deviated gender swap and trap versions and now have to maintain both of them.
I suppose these restrictions can be removed and let the MC just leave, and then what? Create some generic bad end that prematurely ends the game? I hate those. Everyone hates those.
Just disable the narrative? That's actually not half bad an idea. Remove the narrative completely if the player wanders off. They won't have anyone else to blame but themselves if they didn't pay attention to the story. But you know what? They will blame anyone but themselves anyway. In a perfect world, I'd consider this to be the perfect solution.
Maybe I'm wrong here, but I think what you want is for the PC to be more aggressive and assertive. That clashes with the fetish, but I guess it's a viable option.
I understand you don't like the plot and think the characters are generic drivel, which is fine. I've had enough good feedback that it doesn't deter me and I understand it's not for everyone. If I had dollar for every time someone says school setting are overused in Japanese media... why, I might have an actual budget.
But why encourage me to integrate it into the game even more then? Wouldn't your ideal solution be to just disable the story altogether?
Because the way I see it, the people that are unhappy are just that because I'm investing time into making these story elements instead of doing porn/puzzles.
What I mean is you've said that the game is getting worse with each version and a lot of people agreed, but that's objectively untrue. The save system is leagues better than what used to be there, the control scheme keeps getting better, animations, clothes, poses are still getting added, etc. So it's a rather easy conjecture for me to make on why people would claim that.
I keep getting this error every time I try to run, how do I fix it?
View attachment 3747853
Try the YYC version. If that doesn't work read the config.ini and do what it says.
Actually, the day time story line should be give clues and unlocking helps to solves puzzles, something like talk to students and investigates around town to learn about clues what to do in the mansion dream, like who is the mysterious woman, you are disguises into.
Maybe watch TV/search internet to unlocking new items form picking up that help in lab level would be a better way to the game.
Or maybe as a level selector, to gain access to a certain type of dream you need to be interacting with specific people/object before sleep, the last thing you do would directly make you to be going into an appointed dream, not randomly selected.
I don't think there's enough gameplay to warrant that. Once the other areas are done - sure. I like the idea of adding hints in the real world.
Since I haven't even started making the 4th area yet, it could be a good gimmick for it. i.e having to do thing in the real world to influence the puzzles inside.
I may be dumb and just not know how. But a way to move the needle to different inventory slots would be nice.
I guess I can make it so you can drop it and pick it up. I wanted to fool proof it so people don't throw it away, but I doubt that's necessary. I'm sure someone somewhere will find a way to softlock themselves regardless.
I'll add an inventory sorting system to the feature wish list.
