Ren'Py Abandoned Coming Back Home [v1.1.2] [Hidden Life Studios]

1.50 star(s) 6 Votes
Dec 20, 2020
228
432
Depends how it's implemented, if there's hints, or some way to know where you need to be it's fine, but randomly clicking places hoping to find something is annoying.
No hints, the sandbox brings nothing new to the story. It's the same as the previous release, but you can move about the house and yard. It's still just follow the story to the end with no other options.
 
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Lysergic

Well-Known Member
Aug 18, 2018
1,404
1,728
Why does the dialogue box option not do anything? Some of the text is against a white background, it's damned near impossible to read with a clear dialogue box.
 

JohnSheridan

Member
Apr 13, 2018
302
603
Depends how it's implemented, if there's hints, or some way to know where you need to be it's fine, but randomly clicking places hoping to find something is annoying.
No sandbox game is implemented well. It is either search for content, skip time to wait for content, get to a point where it says 'you must progress with other characters in order to further the story with this character', grind away repeating the same thing over and over until you have enough points to see a few more renders then grind away again.

There is no such thing as a fun to play sandbox game. Sandbox is just a regular Visual Novel with roadblocks and speed bums along the way.
 

Lust0ne

Member
Jul 24, 2020
239
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View attachment 2016486

Overview:
You were forced to live 7 years away from home, your only happy place. But, now, you are going back home, and everything will be as perfect as you wish.​

Thread Updated: 2023-01-26
Release Date: 2022-12-20
Developer: Hidden Life Studios - - - - -
Censored: No
Version: 1.1.1
OS: Windows, Linux, Mac
Language: English
Genre:
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Installation:
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Changelog:
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Developer Notes:
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DOWNLOAD
Win/Linux: - - MEGA - PIXELDRAIN - WORKUPLOAD
Mac: - - MEGA - PIXELDRAIN - WORKUPLOAD
Other:
COMPRESSED* - ANDROID*
*This unofficial port/version is not released by developer, download at your own risk.

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I'm surprised no Impregnate tag. Looks good though ;)
 
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Hidden Life Studios

Newbie
Game Developer
May 17, 2019
83
301
Eh, sandbox is great as long as it doesn't come with excessive grind imo. You are playing a game, and not reading a book after all.
We hate grinding, so we'll avoid it as much as possible.
We used Sandbox to indicate that the player has total freedom of movement and choice on the direction the story will take.
Furthermore, as soon as there is a need, we will publish an official walkthrough where the best ways of obtaining things that would require a minimum of grinding (eg: earning money) will be indicated.
 

Hidden Life Studios

Newbie
Game Developer
May 17, 2019
83
301
I don't get it,what version is now?1.1.1 or 27v1.127 ?Either did i download wrong version or the game just content only one day?
I don't know why people reffers to a 1.127. We never called a verion that way. The only possible confusion is between 1.1.1 and 2.0
 

Hidden Life Studios

Newbie
Game Developer
May 17, 2019
83
301
Depends how it's implemented, if there's hints, or some way to know where you need to be it's fine, but randomly clicking places hoping to find something is annoying.
There will be hits, we hate grinding and searching for how to progress the story.
 

Hidden Life Studios

Newbie
Game Developer
May 17, 2019
83
301
I'm surprised no Impregnate tag. Looks good though ;)
There will be impregnation, if you want to. The thing is that it's a so common tag that we didn't put it there, along a lot of other common tags.
When impegnation will be in the game, the game will be tagged as such.
 

Hidden Life Studios

Newbie
Game Developer
May 17, 2019
83
301
Ik i just found out... maaaan why these devs gotta tease tf outta us
Is funny how everyone get mad cause 1.1.1 adds nothing more to the story than 1.0, when the 1.1.1 version is a supporter only update and, where we published it, we stated CLEARLY that this update adds a lot only in terms of code and foundation, and has nothing more to the story.
 

Hidden Life Studios

Newbie
Game Developer
May 17, 2019
83
301
No sandbox game is implemented well. It is either search for content, skip time to wait for content, get to a point where it says 'you must progress with other characters in order to further the story with this character', grind away repeating the same thing over and over until you have enough points to see a few more renders then grind away again.

There is no such thing as a fun to play sandbox game. Sandbox is just a regular Visual Novel with roadblocks and speed bums along the way.
We agree. We hope to be the only exception, but we have to learn along the way, so every help is welcome.
Things like "Sandbox bleah" or "This update adds nothing" are useless. We already know that. Thank you.
People that pinpoint bugs or, like you, explain why sandbox is bad, instead, are very helpful.

So, let us explain what we have in mind for our sandbox.
Search for content: it's like the whole point of sandbox. But going around clicking everything is pointless. There will be an official walkthrough asap and, in the game, there will be tiers of hints, where the player decide how much he wants to be guided.
Skip time to wait for content: what is the points of this? I mean, it has some sense but, the only need for it is to "Next event with char is a midnight swim. You cannot have it in the morning". Except that, there is no point in waiting.
Progress with other char first: WHY? Like, if you have to have an event with two chars, just warn the player that if they don't progress with one of the chars, some content might be skipped or avoided or unavailable, but don't prevent the player to play the event anyway. In too many games you have to progress with a character that you don't have interest in, only to be able to progress with another one.
Grinding: there will be some minor grinding, but what is the point of repeat something only too many times to get a scene? Every grinding in our games will be easely skippable, if you want to.

Said that, I hope to have clarified how the sandbox tag in our game will be. We welcome advices and critics, but, please, avoid repeating over and over "Sandbox bleah". Thank you.
 
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A.K.A87

Member
Feb 3, 2021
331
799
Eh, sandbox is great as long as it doesn't come with excessive grind imo. You are playing a game, and not reading a book after all.
Just..... NO. I was Reading a Visual Novel with a option to take the story into a direction here and there.
Not a game by a long shot.

As far as your sandbox is great comment : Fuck no. Don't think i need to elaborate further on that to get my opinion on sandbox games across.

+ i am not the only one that says Fuck No to sandbox. the watch and follow went from 300+k to 214 k with 1 added tag.
Now depending on how the sandbox get done, really light almost non existent sandbox it might stay there. Grindfest galore however and that number will keep dropping.
 
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Hyperserver

often the biggest step forward is to "step back"
Donor
Jun 30, 2018
3,077
8,244
We agree. We hope to be the only exception, but we have to learn along the way, so every help is welcome.
Things like "Sandbox bleah" or "This update adds nothing" are useless. We already know that. Thank you.
People that pinpoint bugs or, like you, explain why sandbox is bad, instead, are very helpful.

So, let us explain what we have in mind for our sandbox.
Search for content: it's like the whole point of sandbox. But going around clicking everything is pointless. There will be an official walkthrough asap and, in the game, there will be tiers of hints, where the player decide how much he wants to be guided.
Skip time to wait for content: what is the points of this? I mean, it has some sense but, the only need for it is to "Next event with char is a midnight swim. You cannot have it in the morning". Except that, there is no point in waiting.
Progress with other char first: WHY? Like, if you have to have an event with two chars, just warn the player that if they don't progress with one of the chars, some content might be skipped or avoided or unavailable, but don't prevent the player to play the event anyway. In too many games you have to progress with a character that you don't have interest in, only to be able to progress with another one.
Grinding: there will be some minor grinding, but what is the point of repeat something only too many times to get a scene? Every grinding in our games will be easely skippable, if you want to.

Said that, I hope to have clarified how the sandbox tag in our game will be. We welcome advices and critics, but, please, avoid repeating over and over "Sandbox bleah". Thank you.
honest question:
If you KNOW that senseless clicking around is useless... and you already KNOW that you will have to put a walktrough to exactly tell players when, where and how to progress the game...
... then why adding sandbox at all?
You can keep the extra work and script a straight ordinary "oldschool" VN and have the same effect.
You basicially say that your sandbox will be a "guided path" (by walkthrough) - so please abandon wt and sandbox and do a nice VN.
Just saying: a sandbox where you NEED a walkthrough is EXACTLY that kind of sandbox we player complain about.
Sandbox games are hard to make the right way and definitively NOTHING for new developers for their first game at all.
(just my humble opinion)

EDIT:
Just to show you that there is absolutely NO reason to do a sandbox at all. A sandbox is nothing else but a normal VN with senseless clicking.
I show you why:
Let's have for example 10 locations with 5 sub-locations. Lets say at location 3.2, 5.3, 2.1 and 8.4 are events.
So in sandbox you have 4 events in 50 locations - you click through the 50 locations to find one of the 4 events - that's just boring.
You can do the SAME outcome without sandbox in a normal VN:
Once you reach that point, just open a menu:
"what do you want to do now?"
Choices:
1.) go to event 1
2.) go to event 2
3.) go to event 3
4. ) go to event 4
-> no senseless clicking, no sandbox needed (no citymap enviroment and no in-location-navigation), easier to code, but SAME effect.

Developers still think that sandbox gives players more free space to decide, but it never does. It always adds grind and senseless clicking.
The few good sandbox games, which actually really add the possibility to do several paths aside each other on free decition of players choice, are more than rare and VERY hard to code. Actually it's really nothing for new developers, and also big developers who know exactly what to do actually struggle to create good sandbox games.
So i would really advice to quit NOW as there is just few content, rather than later when a huge part is already done, which probably will mess up everything and maybe lead into a need to rework the whole game. Getting lost players back after they left your game is nearly impossible - already shown by other games which had to be abandonned because nearly no one supported anymore after a messed up sandbox-grind-feast.
 
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1.50 star(s) 6 Votes