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

[crashbangwhallop]

Mega download anyone?

 

[Princess Groundhog]

Chastity belt equals murder, check.

On a serious note, as stated from the outset, and Henissart please correct me if I'm wrong, but humiliation was one of the main kinks for this game. So chastity and puppy-Heather having tea time and being put in a cage is all part of that. If that don't jump-start your engines, this is clearly not a game for you.

Of course, Heather is my ginger-queen and I want only to cuddle with her, but it's also super hot what she's had to endure so far, which I feel is just the tip of the iceberg. Same with the brother, his trials and tribulations will be just as intriguing as Heather's I'm sure, so I can't wait.

As has been said earlier, I think some of those complaining aren't really reading the story. There's physical humiliation and domination, and there's also verbal or cerebral. Elizabeth excels at that specifically and her scary mind is a treasure trove of certainly devious things she would like to do (mainly to Heather, it seems - with her brother's help, eager or reluctant).

This is so delicious it's like a giant ball of cotton candy the size of the entire estate

 

[thanks for the demos]

Was it necessary to make the mistresses german? Most players are confused by names like Stern or Herrenhaus.
In general Germany is known for 2nd World War, Nazis, Concentration Camps and tanks and submarines, maybe also for beer and sausages. Germany is a good background for WW2 war games, but for an erotic novel?
The erotic literature I heard of is dominated by french and english authors with some classics like de Sade, story of O or some english 19th century stories about how to spank/whip other people. I don't remember any german erotic literature.

I would prefer to not use any nationalities nor specific names to not deviate the audience from your story ... so players can embed your story more easily into their own erotic context.

Philistine! You forgot Pretzels! How are you supposed to enjoy your beer and sausages without pretzels?
(Also physics, engineering, a bunch of influencial modern philosophers and writers... amongst them Sacher-Masoch, the guy after whom masochism was named )

I quite like the setting (had to look up a few things myself, but learning new stuff is half the fun. The other half is masturbating, obviously). The whole 'tell-tale name'/Starless reference only really works as a bilingual english/german pun. Also, the prussian/german ultra-authoritarian stereotype fits the characters pretty well.

 

[f96zonetrooper]

No. In a sandbox game, every character has to be written mostly independent of any other, to give the player the option to choose how to progress. You end up with linear story lines for every character, that make no sense in relation to each other. They live in parallel dimensions more or less, barring the occasional 'shared event' you can unlock.
Estate does the complete opposite. All characters are entwined, and their relationships with each other develop as much as yours to them.
There's also the issue of agency. People here like to complain that they don't get to choose what to do all the time. But that's an essential part of the scenario. You're a servant, after all.

I don't want to deny that entwining all characters in a VN is art.

But if the player wants to see all the content, he has to play ED several times with all different decisions and different approaches to each character based on available options. At the end he has all the content unlocked in the gallery where all the characters are no longer entwined.
A sandbox game is a little bit like a theme park where people can choose what they want to see (and can repeat what they like) compared to a guided tour where they only see what the guide selected and where they cannot go back.
Doing a sandbox game does not necessarly mean to keep all content simple and separated. Events can be complex and can involve different characters in different roles. Relations between characters have not to be fixed and can change over time in different directions if necessary. The player usually has (repeatable) options to change relations by doing other characters favors or by pissing them off. It is just important that most/all events can be repeated from inside the simulation, not by accessing a galery or by loading savegames.

There are several popular sandbox games on this site, just not in this Starless-context. No need to decide now, just think about the option and maybe ask the patrons if there is a demand.

 

[ZTex]

Of course, Heather is my ginger-queen and I want only to cuddle with her, but it's also super hot what she's had to endure so far, which I feel is just the tip of the iceberg. Same with the brother, his trials and tribulations will be just as intriguing as Heather's I'm sure, so I can't wait.

Oh hell no...
Normally i'm right there with you but this....


Heather must be protected and freed at all cost.

 

[Princess Groundhog]

Haha well I'm sure she will be freed, but not until something quite humiliating happens... That's what cliffhangers are for! And as I noted earlier, I could be mistaken but it felt like in the submissive brother path Heather was given a little more agency by the mistresses, so it's possible they'll turn her into a more dominant figure for the submissive and accepting brother. Which would be super hot. While, on the flip side, she was more demure in the dominant path and that's where I assume most of male domination here would be coming from, the brother either on his own or on orders from the mistresses dominating his sister (like with the shaving).

 

[Ninjaman2]

Sandbox games are overdone and thin out content in a bad way. VN with choices ALL THE WAY!

 

[Twistedrem]

I’ve never liked the sandbox style for these. It always feels so pointless to me. Like, never once have I been like “man, I am so glad that I can click to walk around, instead of just clicking my way through a story and enjoying myself.”

 

[zh]

I don't want to deny that entwining all characters in a VN is art.

But if the player wants to see all the content, he has to play ED several times with all different decisions and different approaches to each character based on available options. At the end he has all the content unlocked in the gallery where all the characters are no longer entwined.
A sandbox game is a little bit like a theme park where people can choose what they want to see (and can repeat what they like) compared to a guided tour where they only see what the guide selected and where they cannot go back.
Doing a sandbox game does not necessarly mean to keep all content simple and separated. Events can be complex and can involve different characters in different roles. Relations between characters have not to be fixed and can change over time in different directions if necessary. The player usually has (repeatable) options to change relations by doing other characters favors or by pissing them off. It is just important that most/all events can be repeated from inside the simulation, not by accessing a galery or by loading savegames.

There are several popular sandbox games on this site, just not in this Starless-context. No need to decide now, just think about the option and maybe ask the patrons if there is a demand.

Please noOOOooOOOOOOoooooooooo
How many game has been spoiled by this sanbox thingy...
The games started very good and seemed awesome on the first updates... And then, SANDBOX ?
Please no. It's the WORST thing that could happen for this game. . If you want to repeat some scenes, just reload a save. That's easy.
Oh, and the Patreons generally hate when the nature of the game which they supported change all of a sudden...

 

[masteraaran]

Haven't played the game yet, deciding if I want to invest the time into it at this point of development. Quick question: Is there any sex in the game yet?

I'm encouraged by the hints I'm seeing of a dominant path being available, because I like the idea of being dominant over another character, even beneath a mistress that we both serve.

Just wondering if there is any sex/penetration/etc in the game, or if I should hold off because it's not there yet.

Thanks.

 

[ZTex]

Just wondering if there is any sex/penetration/etc in the game, or if I should hold off because it's not there yet.
Thanks.

Still early days so that's not in yet.

 

[Incognito Guy]

just as the sub MC will be forced into a more dominant position here and there.

That's going to be interesting.

 

[Interracial UglyB NTR Fan]

There's also the issue of agency. People here like to complain that they don't get to choose what to do all the time. But that's an essential part of the scenario. You're a servant, after all.

I think people who have issue with the latest update fall into two camps;

those who understand dom = guy who complies but doesn't like it and waits for an opportunities

and those who think dom path = avoid all punishment and become head of the family

first is easy to please with simple narrative changes, a few lines of text at key choices and some unique scenes, as where the later would require a massive amount of work in a complete story branch and you can explain that, wish em well and ignore them

for me the issue of agency wasn't that he couldn't avoid being caged/punished because as you said he's a servant with no power/leverage yet but more so that the dinner scene felt like a big moment and no choice to dom and at least defend yourself even if it still lead to caging didn't feel real or in line with a dom route, especially when the MC a few minutes prior had the choice to say being subservient didn't come naturally etc

the dinner scene IMO has issues and in general is controversial/jarring because up until now the writing was so good but this is all just my opinion that I'm sharing cause the games good, you seem to care and has potential to be great, maybe its just me so take it for what its worth

 

[Dongus420]

One of my favourite games on here, really interesting concept.

Regular updates too.

Can't wait for more.

 

[f96zonetrooper]

Please noOOOooOOOOOOoooooooooo
How many game has been spoiled by this sanbox thingy...
The games started very good and seemed awesome on the first updates... And then, SANDBOX ?
Please no. It's the WORST thing that could happen for this game. . If you want to repeat some scenes, just reload a save. That's easy.
Oh, and the Patreons generally hate when the nature of the game which they supported change all of a sudden...

You probably didn't read my first post.
The idea is to make a second game as sandbox spin-off using the already available art and 3d models, not to change current game midways. The sandbox would not affect players of the VN in any way.

 

[Henissart]

I think people who have issue with the latest update fall into two camps;

those who understand dom = guy who complies but doesn't like it and waits for an opportunities

and those who think dom path = avoid all punishment and become head of the family

first is easy to please with simple narrative changes, a few lines of text at key choices and some unique scenes, as where the later would require a massive amount of work in a complete story branch and you can explain that, wish em well and ignore them

for me the issue of agency wasn't that he couldn't avoid being caged/punished because as you said he's a servant with no power/leverage yet but more so that the dinner scene felt like a big moment and no choice to dom and at least defend yourself even if it still lead to caging didn't feel real or in line with a dom route, especially when the MC a few minutes prior had the choice to say being subservient didn't come naturally etc

the dinner scene IMO has issues and in general is controversial/jarring because up until now the writing was so good but this is all just my opinion that I'm sharing cause the games good, you seem to care and has potential to be great, maybe its just me so take it for what its worth

Since I'm already writing 3 entirely different MC's, it's impossible for me to make huge subdivisions within the paths. Which means that the dominant MC is fixed to be a particular 'flavor' of dominant.
The easiest way to describe it, and there are many allusions to it in the script, is 'wolf in sheep's clothing'.
I mean lines like: 'I hate being praised like I'm her silly lap dog... Well, even lap dogs have wolf in them. Waiting.' or 'I won't have room to play if I don't look like a good little servant in the meantime.'

That's the reason the dom MC is less verbal about his displeasure than the neutral MC. Neutral MC doesn't plan to scheme, so he's free to argue about things with the Mistress, which he does. Dom MC pretends more to be fine, so he can have the element of surprise later.
I'm sure some players won't enjoy more subtle, scheming domination anyway, but I think part of the issue is also a simple lack of reading comprehension.

 

[kenkko]

Will we get a sequel of this game? Id think it'd be interesting if the MC started their own "house" and turned the tables on the Sterns in the sequel.

 

[Henissart]

Will we get a sequel of this game? Id think it'd be interesting if the MC started their own "house" and turned the tables on the Sterns in the sequel.

I'm something like a 1/4 into this game, can't say I've really thought about what comes next. I kinda doubt I'll make another full game after this one though. I finish what I start, so I'll complete this, but piracy for adult games is so bad that it's simply not viable to do this long term, unless you make one of the few big 'mainstream' games. And even most of those aren't worth it, relative to the amount of work involved. I'll probably just go back to my real job and do smallish things on the side for fun.

 

[EdPokol]

piracy for adult games is so bad that it's simply not viable to do this long term

Rel 4 was posted here by Eldar within 1 hour after its release on Patreon for paying patrons. Henissart has a point.

 

[Arthas12]

Amazing update, and what a game this is turning out to be!
Really impressed by the quality of the writing as well as the art.
Keep up the good work!