I like the game, but it kind of feels like a ...huge waste of potential.
Imo, it could have been fantastic, receiving far more attention and financial support, as more linear VN with more scene renders and focused story.
So instead of Go To work/Have Lunch/Talk to npc, Rinse-Repeat, diluted narrative routine... story would be something like from the "Devil's Advocate ( movie).
MC, who left home at young age, alienated from his mother/sister, unsuccesfull in life, gets in contact with Devil/his "Dad", who takes him under his wing ( with an ulterior plan, as you later find out), teaching you how to seduce women, become a financial shark/freaking oligarch. And you'd have two main, basic routes: either more loving/Charm Casanova ( where you use no powers or coercion) or Corruption/Lust, Marquis the Sade, balls-to-the walls Depravity path. Or stride the line somewhere in between. Lose your soul, but have a hell of a good time while doing it..or find a way to save yourself and outplay the Devil.
Instead whole thing with the Devil ( that makes it more unique), feels bland and kind of pointless. Npc reactions are something like:
"Huh, so your dad is the Devil? Well..ok. Are we still for lunch together?"
Even MC has the same reaction when he learns the truth. Game would be pretty much the same without it.
This is one game where I'd like to see a full re-master/rewrite.
Thanks for the feedback! I really appreciate it.
You've definitely touched on things I would do differently if I could go back in time.
I started Devilish Business with very little practical experience in programming, and really only attempted my own game because Vren included the un-obfuscated source code with his game Lab Rats. I made my own small mod of Lab Rats as a personal project and found that I really enjoyed solving the coding problems I made for myself.
I took what I learned from that and started my own story, initially with zero plan to release it publicly. But once it reached about 100,000 words (enough for a sizeable novel) I decided that other people might want to try it out.
It was absolutely
not ready for release. There was almost no art, no
endings(!), very little polish, and I still hadn't figured out how to code some of the gameplay elements that would make it a worthwhile "game". It was (and remains) basically a decent "choose your own adventure" novel with superficial gameplay elements.
I had really lofty goals for it at the start: a morality/alignment system (there is actually some placeholder code for this in the game), magic/no magic routes, castable spells, random encounters, etc. But things got dropped along the way, either from my lack of coding skill, lack of time, loss of interest, or influence from early backers. I see now that releasing it without those gameplay elements already included forced me to rush to "complete" the game, which made me quick to chop off pieces that were slowing me down.
Now that the game has almost 300,000 words of story content, it's a very daunting task to tear it apart to add the gameplay elements it deserves, especially as I don't exactly have a ton of free time lately.
But maybe you've given me the kick in the ass needed to give it another look, so thanks for the valuable feedback!
