VN Ren'Py Abandoned Estate : Dominate [v0.36.1] [Henissart]

[KMJ96815]

Nah, I kinda have to agree. I don't get why people go into a femdom game thread asking for non-femdom content. I don't go into vanilla/incest threads asking to add NTR content. This game was obviously made from a femdom perspective, so I don't really understand this need to ask the dev to make a different game.

I don't know, I think the potential of this game being so great is that it can straddle so many various things beyond a simple femdom/maledom type paradigm. It's really easy to create a good femdom game with just sub scenes over and over and it's also easy to create a simple maledom game with similar content. What this game is doing is layering on many levels specific character relationships, numerous power struggles, difficult choices, and dom/sub choices/scenarios on many different levels and to make it even better, there are actual choices that allow some player agency to experience different types of results for their MC. The real genius of this game to me is the psychological and subtle pressures that are being experienced by the MC. He is having to juggle multiple emotions, situations, and people in an unfamiliar and pressurized environment where he has little control but he has barely enough control to try to take risks (or not) and make meaningful decisions that have different outcomes. The game would be incredibly boring to me in comparison if it was just the MC shuttling from room to room to endure one femdom scene after another on a rails/forced situation with no real decisions/choices.

I don't recall a game where for example the MC can literally spank or be spanked in such a way that the entire gameplay experience fundamentally alters despite being relatively similar with images/scenes (a smart way for a dev to recycle assets well while still delivering extra choices/story content). Even within that split there are one or two more layers beyond that so it's just really well done with the complexity while still being simple from a dev/assets/rendering time point of view. The game will I still believe have more femdom and that makes sense given the setting but that doesn't mean the MC can't win his own little battles as interesting story choices and maybe even down the road one of his "happy" endings from a dom perspective is that he somehow manages to carve out a nice situation for himself with the family, etc.

My wife is a Patron already and she seriously wants me to move my money from City of Broken Dreamers to this game as she is arguing that game already is hitting 5k a month and she is worried this game won't finish without more support. She is starting to convince me to be frank so we shall see in August but I would just add here and not take away from the other game. (always do Patrons on 1st day of month as a smart policy) I don't think there is any way either of us would do this if it was a fairly linear simple game, whether femdom, maledom, or lesdom, or whatever. The choices and pressure of making decisions within this high pressure environment with beautiful writing, rendering, and well developed characters/motivations is why this game shines, just my two cents.

 

[slider]

I loved the second chapter and I'm really glad that you managed to keep the quality of the first one. Elisabeth's presentation has been fresh enough and it brings the promise of an interesting character that will put the servants in very uneasing situations.

While I'm sure any future newcomers will be as engaging as the characters presented so far, I hope that we'll have some time to explore the dynamics of the manor with only the existing staff because I cherish them all already and each one has an enormous potential and deserves all the screen time you can give them.

As for my experience of the game so far playing a horny, gentle and submissive guy, I couldn't be happier. The public punishment scene was lovely and Anja's attitude towards it feels great anyway you choose to go.

Regarding future dialogue options that can end up in a punishment scene, I think it would be nice if, in addition of having the MC to explicitly accept or ask for being chastised, we'd have the possibility of presenting a convincing excuse that earns forgiveness or a mediocre one that ends up with the MC getting punished against his will.

 

[Henissart]

Played the second update and there's is not much to say besides praise all the elements of the game, everything that I hoped for happened, continued improving and develop. Easily one of my favorite games that I'm looking forward to. The thing that I would like to shine most light upon is the way you written Elizabeth, everything she said just had me grinning the entire time, the way she fucks with peoples heads is wonderful. I hope you continue being inspired and maintaining such high quality throughout.
I'll send you few bucks on Patron in next few days.

Thank you! I think Elisabeth is a much needed counterpart to Isabella when the Mistress is not around. As much as I love Isabella, she can be pretty relentless.

I don't know, I think the potential of this game being so great is that it can straddle so many various things beyond a simple femdom/maledom type paradigm. It's really easy to create a good femdom game with just sub scenes over and over and it's also easy to create a simple maledom game with similar content. What this game is doing is layering on many levels specific character relationships, numerous power struggles, difficult choices, and dom/sub choices/scenarios on many different levels and to make it even better, there are actual choices that allow some player agency to experience different types of results for their MC. The real genius of this game to me is the psychological and subtle pressures that are being experienced by the MC. He is having to juggle multiple emotions, situations, and people in an unfamiliar and pressurized environment where he has little control but he has barely enough control to try to take risks (or not) and make meaningful decisions that have different outcomes. The game would be incredibly boring to me in comparison if it was just the MC shuttling from room to room to endure one femdom scene after another on a rails/forced situation with no real decisions/choices.

I don't recall a game where for example the MC can literally spank or be spanked in such a way that the entire gameplay experience fundamentally alters despite being relatively similar with images/scenes (a smart way for a dev to recycle assets well while still delivering extra choices/story content). Even within that split there are one or two more layers beyond that so it's just really well done with the complexity while still being simple from a dev/assets/rendering time point of view. The game will I still believe have more femdom and that makes sense given the setting but that doesn't mean the MC can't win his own little battles as interesting story choices and maybe even down the road one of his "happy" endings from a dom perspective is that he somehow manages to carve out a nice situation for himself with the family, etc.

My wife is a Patron already and she seriously wants me to move my money from City of Broken Dreamers to this game as she is arguing that game already is hitting 5k a month and she is worried this game won't finish without more support. She is starting to convince me to be frank so we shall see in August but I would just add here and not take away from the other game. (always do Patrons on 1st day of month as a smart policy) I don't think there is any way either of us would do this if it was a fairly linear simple game, whether femdom, maledom, or lesdom, or whatever. The choices and pressure of making decisions within this high pressure environment with beautiful writing, rendering, and well developed characters/motivations is why this game shines, just my two cents.

Cheers, I think this captures what I want to do pretty well. I've never set out to make a femdom game. What I want to make is a game about domination, submission, humiliation and teasing, that happens to be set in a scenario that features several women holding formal power over you. In some respects that's pretty much the definition of a femdom game of course, which is great because I love it, but I have not much interest in genre restrictions and have every intention to also write a version of the MC that does not get on board with the situation and tries to resist. To what degree you can succeed with that and in what manner we'll see. I won't turn the scenario on its head though.

Honestly, my hope is that more people go into this with a more open mind and try out different options. Perhaps you'll find that there are facets to like in most 'routes'. Not to mention that the point of tracking individual variables over the usual points based approach is that you don't have to choose a 'pure' version. I've written a pretty extensive dialogue block today that only triggers when you push Heather on the first evening, let yourself get spanked on the second, but don't have the submissive flag set. It's probably a rare combination and I have no idea how you would call such an MC, but it's there.

I loved the second chapter and I'm really glad that you managed to keep the quality of the first one. Elisabeth's presentation has been fresh enough and it brings the promise of an interesting character that will put the servants in very uneasing situations.

While I'm sure any future newcomers will be as engaging as the characters presented so far, I hope that we'll have some time to explore the dynamics of the manor with only the existing staff because I cherish them all already and each one has an enormous potential and deserves all the screen time you can give them.

As for my experience of the game so far playing a horny, gentle and submissive guy, I couldn't be happier. The public punishment scene was lovely and Anja's attitude towards it feels great anyway you choose to go.

Regarding future dialogue options that can end up in a punishment scene, I think it would be nice if, in addition of having the MC to explicitly accept or ask for being chastised, we'd have the possibility of presenting a convincing excuse that earns forgiveness or a mediocre one that ends up with the MC getting punished against his will.

Elisabeth was probably the final main character. It's possible I'll add another one, but I have no current plans for it.

Side characters will appear, but even with those I want to be careful. One reason is the limited screen time you mentioned. The other is that the scenes I like to write work better the more invested you are in a character, and the more you know about them and their relationship to the others in a scene. Side characters dropping in and out again will always fall short there.

 

[Incognito Guy]

Side characters will appear, but even with those I want to be careful. One reason is the limited screen time you mentioned. The other is that the scenes I like to write work better the more invested you are in a character, and the more you know about them and their relationship to the others in a scene. Side characters dropping in and out again will always fall short there.

I hope we'll get to see Isabella's friends. I'm curious to see how she acts towards people more on her level, and if she lets them be on that level for long.

Also how long do you expect to take between updates? Not pressing, just wondering.

 

[Cryptor]

and 18.500 words

toooo much, we want sex

 

[Seagal]

Sounds like there isn't any sex scenes or anything yet. Is it worth playing now or just waiting until it gets more developed? Very interested in the game, and likely becoming a patron also as long as that first impression is good.

 

[Bolero]

Sounds like there isn't any sex scenes or anything yet. Is it worth playing now or just waiting until it gets more developed? Very interested in the game, and likely becoming a patron also as long as that first impression is good.

It is 100% worth playing, the game does not have sex scenes but it has a couple of sexy scenes done right, with a nice renders and it is setting the stage for the sexy scenes that will come in the future perfectly.
It is not a random game that will give you a cheap sex scene in the first 5 minutes of gameplay, it rather builds the relationships and it makes you want to see more of the sexy women in the game, which is exactly what I like, no cheap sex scenes before you even know anything about the characters, just for the sake of buying players.

 

[Seagal]

It is 100% worth playing, the game does not have sex scenes but it has a couple of sexy scenes done right, with a nice renders and it is setting the stage for the sexy scenes that will come in the future perfectly.
It is not a random game that will give you a cheap sex scene in the first 5 minutes of gameplay, it rather builds the relationships and it makes you want to see more of the sexy women in the game, which is exactly what I like, no cheap sex scenes before you even know anything about the characters, just for the sake of buying players.

Thanks for the reply. Well, I'm generally a fan of Nukige and not a fan at all of slow burn games. I wouldn't guess that this would be a slow burn game, but I like games that start fast with the sex and stay that way the entire way through. A plot that's basically just there to drive you from sex scene to sex scene.

I guess I'll give it a try now based on what you said, and see what I think. Hopefully it catches my interest enough to check back on future updates. It sounds like something I would want to support, but I want to see the writing and length of the sex scenes (don't care about animations or not. CG count and writing during sex scenes is more important to me) before I put any money down.

 

[Seagal]

Well, I did end up reading it... somewhat. I started skipping after the MC was working on the tree in the yard, and you meet the other daughter. Just kind of lost interest at that point purely because I was expecting it to end soon, and just wanted to see if there was anything left. I fully intend to start over and re-read everything at some point when the game is a bit more developed.

I'm a huge fan of Starless, and it felt at times like this game was almost straight up copying it. Not that that's a bad thing mind you. I actually like it, a lot in fact. I expect this game to be bit lighter and certainly less extreme.

So just my initial feeling is that this isn't going to be a slow burn game. If it is I'll be extremely surprised and disappointed. I expect the sex to start up pretty quick here and continue on until the end.

I kind of want to go ahead and become a patron now, but there's just not enough here yet for me to throw my support behind it. It looks extremely promising, and I have a feeling this is gonna be a very good one, but I need to see the sex scenes and the writing in those first.

Character wise, I really didn't like Heather (is that her name?) much. Hopefully Mrs. von Stern will be the clear star of the show here, and have the most content. I can already tell she will be my favorite by far, like Marie was in Starless. Young Mistress Isabella was also good and will likely be my second favorite.

Looks good though Henissart and I'll definitely be following this.

One suggestion would be to not add in anymore characters or side characters. You got a very good base right here, and the content focus should be on them. Adding more would have a negative affect. You have the Head Mistress, the two daughters, the maid, and the ugly duckling best friend. You don't need any more than that.

As for sex scenes, the more the better. The tone has already been set with what kind of game this is gonna be. There are sooo many situations and scenarios you can explore here, so don't skimp out on them.

I don't know what your plan is because we haven't seen a sex scene yet, but animations in my opinion should be of low priority. Focus on CG count per scene and the writing. Length of the scenes are important. Some games the sex scenes feel like they're over before they even started. Having these high frame animations increases development time by a lot and doesn't really add nearly as much as individual CG count and writing does. My favorites, and pretty much all the great Nukige and other Visual Novels don't have any animations at all, so don't get baited into the animation trap.

Good luck, and I'm sure I'll be on board and supporting you soon enough.

 

[gregers]

I have no idea what the dev's main intent is, but there's more/better male dom content so far than in half the games on this site with a male dom tag, so good enough for me - and like I said, it's pure: apart from some verbal rudeness/smugness, MC has so far dealt and never received during my runthrough. And if Heather and Anja are already getting physically handled/outwitted by MC, there's at least a chance the Big 3 may at some point become vulnerable.

You may have found the brother's treatment of his sister/childhood friend a touch extreme, but I found it delightfully evil. I have great admiration for the younger sister's style (she has the killer instinct when it comes to inflicting humiliation, as evidenced by the way she went after Heather's weight and Anja's age, both to great effect), and I fully expect her to become a partner in crime...or if I'm lucky, a menu item, along with her patronizing mother.

I may have missed something (bounced around the evening scene with both sisters), but my experience of the shaving scene and especially the spanking scene was the exact opposite: The MC not being dominant, taking control of and responsibility for the situation, but just a shitty weakling, ceding control to everyone around him, relying on the fucking maid to bail him out of trouble. That's also why I bounced from the game: Best of luck to the dev, it's a very well done game, but not for me.

 

[Avaron1974]

I like some of it.

I started out expecting a tamer version of Starless and for the most part that's what I got, the biggest downside for me is the MC had far too much control.

All through Starless you make certain choices leading towards a certain ending but for most of it you are left wondering how he'll get out of it and if anything terrible is going to happen to any of them .... for those that haven't played it, lots of terrible things happen.

Here I don't have that suspense. Just act like a dick, problem solved.

The biggest selling point for Starless in the domination stakes is the mother is all powerful in that house. You can defy her, you can suck up to her but you can't beat her. No matter what you do she will always win if you try.

The suspense there was seeing how to get out of it at the other side with the best possible outcome.

This doesn't have that kind of character. She sure acts like it but the more the game gets going the more you see it won't stay that way so any intrigue was lost for me.

It looks like it's going to be more male dom than anything as it goes on.

 

[Heisenberg867]

I may have missed something (bounced around the evening scene with both sisters), but my experience of the shaving scene and especially the spanking scene was the exact opposite: The MC not being dominant, taking control of and responsibility for the situation, but just a shitty weakling, ceding control to everyone around him, relying on the fucking maid to bail him out of trouble. That's also why I bounced from the game: Best of luck to the dev, it's a very well done game, but not for me.

Maybe yes, maybe no. Too soon to say. Did you ever play the Corporate Raider series by SelectaCorp? Terrible visuals but brilliant male dom plot. You start off at the very bottom rung of a corporation completely filled with dominant women who believe in female superiority, and especially initially, there's some time spent getting your nose rubbed in that fact. Over time you become all-powerful, but for 90% of the game, you've got women above you who you have to placate/find ways to bring down. It doesn't detract from the experience because you know the shoe's eventually going to be on the other foot.

It's the same so far in Estate. You show up at pretty much the bottom rung of a house with five women in it, and like the opening of Corporate Raider, you're just a small fish trying to survive in a shark-filled pool. It makes it better narratively that you can't just immediately take full control. What you can do is start to lay the groundwork for your eventual ascent.

Now, it's unclear how far the dev intends to let you ascend, but for an opening episode (or two), there's reason to hope that we're seeing the MC just beginning to hatch out of his shell.

 

[Seagal]

I like some of it.

I started out expecting a tamer version of Starless and for the most part that's what I got, the biggest downside for me is the MC had far too much control.

All through Starless you make certain choices leading towards a certain ending but for most of it you are left wondering how he'll get out of it and if anything terrible is going to happen to any of them .... for those that haven't played it, lots of terrible things happen.

Here I don't have that suspense. Just act like a dick, problem solved.

The biggest selling point for Starless in the domination stakes is the mother is all powerful in that house. You can defy her, you can suck up to her but you can't beat her. No matter what you do she will always win if you try.

The suspense there was seeing how to get out of it at the other side with the best possible outcome.

This doesn't have that kind of character. She sure acts like it but the more the game gets going the more you see it won't stay that way so any intrigue was lost for me.

It looks like it's going to be more male dom than anything as it goes on.

It's way too early to be making those kinds of criticisms. Lmao at you making that post after playing what is basically a demo. You're comparing it to a 40+ hour long intense novel that you've already played. This novel here is not even in an infant state.

It's also not Starless. While clearly a lot of the inspiration and ideas for this game come from Starless, it's still it's own game. But again, it's way too early to make that post and start judging or thinking you know the characters at this point.

"All through Starless you make certain choices leading towards a certain ending but for most of it you are left wondering how he'll get out of it and if anything terrible is going to happen to any of them .... for those that haven't played it, lots of terrible things happen.

Here I don't have that suspense. Just act like a dick, problem solved. "

I don't even get what you're saying here... Just act like a dick and the guy is out? I didn't get that impression at all, and it's clearly said from the maid "IF you leave" not when, which the MC questions in his thoughts.

 

[Heisenberg867]

One suggestion would be to not add in anymore characters or side characters. You got a very good base right here, and the content focus should be on them. Adding more would have a negative affect. You have the Head Mistress, the two daughters, the maid, and the ugly duckling best friend. You don't need any more than that.

I don't know what your plan is because we haven't seen a sex scene yet, but animations in my opinion should be of low priority. Focus on CG count per scene and the writing. Length of the scenes are important. Some games the sex scenes feel like they're over before they even started. Having these high frame animations increases development time by a lot and doesn't really add nearly as much as individual CG count and writing does. My favorites, and pretty much all the great Nukige and other Visual Novels don't have any animations at all, so don't get baited into the animation trap.

I agree in a big way with this part of your comment.

I think all too often devs get side-tracked into adding to the game horizontally when they should really be focused on working more deeply with what they've already got. In this case, there's already a very "classic" cast: the boss, the bitch, the sweetheart, the peer, and the servant. There's a ton that can and should be done with that, especially because fewer characters allows the dev to maintain real choice. When there's a dozen love interests running around, managing all the possible interactions becomes impossible, and the narrative becomes much more shallow.

Likewise, I agree that (speaking for myself) I don't really care about animations at all, and usually skip through them quite quickly. I would happily trade them for a higher quantity of still-frame shots.

 

[KMJ96815]

I like some of it.

I started out expecting a tamer version of Starless and for the most part that's what I got, the biggest downside for me is the MC had far too much control.

All through Starless you make certain choices leading towards a certain ending but for most of it you are left wondering how he'll get out of it and if anything terrible is going to happen to any of them .... for those that haven't played it, lots of terrible things happen.

Here I don't have that suspense. Just act like a dick, problem solved.

The biggest selling point for Starless in the domination stakes is the mother is all powerful in that house. You can defy her, you can suck up to her but you can't beat her. No matter what you do she will always win if you try.

The suspense there was seeing how to get out of it at the other side with the best possible outcome.

This doesn't have that kind of character. She sure acts like it but the more the game gets going the more you see it won't stay that way so any intrigue was lost for me.

It looks like it's going to be more male dom than anything as it goes on.

I kind of got a completely different impression but understand what you are saying if you went the "dom" route this episode. I absolutely feel like there will never be any ending where the MC is the top "male dom" of the house so to speak. The most dom ending I am realistically expecting is that somehow the MC is allied with one or more of the daughters somehow but still subservient to the Head Mistress with the absolute most dom ending I could even imagine is that MC maybe gets with Isabella or something as a couple perhaps or as a member of the family at the end but still not at the top. No way I expect an ending where the MC is actually in control of everything. Just no way. But I expect most endings to be more troublesome for the MC if things go a certain way. I especially feel like there is quite a bit of femdom more than maledom given the tags in the code you can receive for choices and how the renders/script have been designed so far. (tags like feet, sub, etc)

I don't think the MC will ever get over the main mistress and it's hard to judge her yet because she hasn't been in the game controlling that much yet. I think you have to see her a little more to get an idea. I like that the MC can be forced into submissive choices but also try and squeeze out of trouble in any little way he can. It gives real player agency which Starless actually didn't have all that much other than very short endings that differed based on really only a choice or two within that very long narrative. A few minor choices also tweaked scenes here and there, but it was basically the same experience for most people. A lot of scenes were mostly experienced by most players the same way although you might miss scenes not making certain choices of course. A lot of the content to me was on rails and basically forced, where here just the spanking scene alone I think I figured out four different experiences, with two very major differences obviously. I feel like you are actually wanting a more pure sub game where you have choices but they just impact the level of sub degree you endure scene by scene versus more varied outcomes? I don't mind anything from Starless other than the sheer disgusting gross stuff which really is in sharp contrast with this setting which gives a more elegant/pretty vibe which I think attracts some different people. (including females, I know three females now (all three will likely be Patrons soon) personally loving this game, and they never play this kind of stuff)

 

[Henissart]

I hope we'll get to see Isabella's friends. I'm curious to see how she acts towards people more on her level, and if she lets them be on that level for long.

Also how long do you expect to take between updates? Not pressing, just wondering.

Time between updates will depend on how long a release has to be to feel cohesive.
So, longer if it needs to have an arc spanning several scenes, shorter if it doesn't.
Maximum is supposed to be about 2 months though.

Well, I did end up reading it... somewhat. I started skipping after the MC was working on the tree in the yard, and you meet the other daughter. Just kind of lost interest at that point purely because I was expecting it to end soon, and just wanted to see if there was anything left. I fully intend to start over and re-read everything at some point when the game is a bit more developed.

I'm a huge fan of Starless, and it felt at times like this game was almost straight up copying it. Not that that's a bad thing mind you. I actually like it, a lot in fact. I expect this game to be bit lighter and certainly less extreme.

So just my initial feeling is that this isn't going to be a slow burn game. If it is I'll be extremely surprised and disappointed. I expect the sex to start up pretty quick here and continue on until the end.

I kind of want to go ahead and become a patron now, but there's just not enough here yet for me to throw my support behind it. It looks extremely promising, and I have a feeling this is gonna be a very good one, but I need to see the sex scenes and the writing in those first.

Character wise, I really didn't like Heather (is that her name?) much. Hopefully Mrs. von Stern will be the clear star of the show here, and have the most content. I can already tell she will be my favorite by far, like Marie was in Starless. Young Mistress Isabella was also good and will likely be my second favorite.

Looks good though Henissart and I'll definitely be following this.

One suggestion would be to not add in anymore characters or side characters. You got a very good base right here, and the content focus should be on them. Adding more would have a negative affect. You have the Head Mistress, the two daughters, the maid, and the ugly duckling best friend. You don't need any more than that.

As for sex scenes, the more the better. The tone has already been set with what kind of game this is gonna be. There are sooo many situations and scenarios you can explore here, so don't skimp out on them.

I don't know what your plan is because we haven't seen a sex scene yet, but animations in my opinion should be of low priority. Focus on CG count per scene and the writing. Length of the scenes are important. Some games the sex scenes feel like they're over before they even started. Having these high frame animations increases development time by a lot and doesn't really add nearly as much as individual CG count and writing does. My favorites, and pretty much all the great Nukige and other Visual Novels don't have any animations at all, so don't get baited into the animation trap.

Good luck, and I'm sure I'll be on board and supporting you soon enough.

It's slow burn in the sense that I don't want to ruin the pacing by doing hardcore scenes right off the bat. But in the long run erotic scenes of all kinds will become the majoriy of the game. Not as a string of pure sex scenes of course, but a release could absolutely be several connected scenes that are all 'fetish', in one way or another, with all character development taking place during those scenes.

Animation will almost certainly not be part of the game. I don't think it's worth the necessary tradeoffs for any 1 dev project anyway, but in the case of Estate : Dominate it fits even less. My kink scenes are all very long, elaborate and verbal. A very short, silent loop somewhere in the middle of that would feel entirely out of place.

 

[muzzi]

I know it's early, but any update on the next release?

 

[jamdan]

I know it's early, but any update on the next release?

End of August, although there was a small bug fix released today.

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[the66]

just fyi, i've updated my unofficial android port of Estate: Dominate v0.17.1.

 

[Wumpar]

Anyone have the update?