Fans of Newlife, can you tell me which parts of the game you like and which parts you could do without?

[UCheatedUrself]

In case of confusion, I'm referring to the life sim java game by SplendidOstrich. Now anyone who's played the game should know that there's a few elements of it that have elaborate detail and focus to them, even though the game has such sparse content and a lack of some basic things one might expect. A few examples are the intricate and gratuitous clothing system and the dancing "minigame". And on the broader content side, there's a lot of focus on stuff like the whole gender swap thing, pregnancy, voyeurism and the newest obsession of the dev, lesbian relationships. My understanding is that these are content niches that only appeal to certain groups of people.

What I want to know is, which of these do most fans of this game care for and which could they do without? Or rather, which would you sacrifice for a larger array of general content? I'm asking this because the game I'm developing is quite similar to newlife and I want to appeal to a similar audience, especially the ones who are dissatisfied with Newlife and its content schedule (or lack thereof).

Personally, I never liked all the gender swapping/trans content. I rarely ever played with the male start and even when I did, it didn't really add anything to my experience. It was just a constant narration over the actual of events of the game. I realize that that's the core concept of the game, but I have a feeling that that's never what people liked the most about it. And I want to see how right I am.

 

[quiboune]

If someone was to remake Newlife or create a similar game there are two things I'd consider essential: the pregnancy system (with fertility tracking and manipulation, the evolution of pregnancy, birth and how the kids don't vanish but show up every now and then in some short events) and the relationship system (unique characters, traits that unlock certain events and lock others, change how the relationships advance and how certain interactions go). But I'd also consider the combination of those two necessary, mainly how that game allows the MC to be dating a character, go out with another that tries to knock her up through trickery and sabotage and then come back pretending the partner is the father or straight up saying he will raise it anyway because he's a doormat while continuing to see the homewrecker.

Personally, I never liked all the gender swapping/trans content. I rarely ever played with the male start and even when I did, it didn't really add anything to my experience. It was just a constant narration over the actual of events of the game. I realize that that's the core concept of the game, but I have a feeling that that's never what people liked the most about it. And I want to see how right I am.

I agree totally, that start is all fluff with no content. I do think the feminization could be fun if it was going from a lesbian tomboy to a bisexual slut, so completely different.

If you do take on this challenge, and I hope you do, I wish you good luck and Godspeed!

 

[pyrolisk]

If someone was to remake Newlife or create a similar game there are two things I'd consider essential: the pregnancy system (with fertility tracking and manipulation, the evolution of pregnancy, birth and how the kids don't vanish but show up every now and then in some short events) and the relationship system (unique characters, traits that unlock certain events and lock others, change how the relationships advance and how certain interactions go). But I'd also consider the combination of those two necessary, mainly how that game allows the MC to be dating a character, go out with another that tries to knock her up through trickery and sabotage and then come back pretending the partner is the father or straight up saying he will raise it anyway because he's a doormat while continuing to see the homewrecker.


I agree totally, that start is all fluff with no content. I do think the feminization could be fun if it was going from a lesbian tomboy to a bisexual slut, so completely different.

If you do take on this challenge, and I hope you do, I wish you good luck and Godspeed!

The relationships, characters, traits, and stuff is absolutely the most important part of NewLife. I always selected the "infertile" trait, so the pregnancy stuff is a nonissue for me. Never played with the trans/gender swap start either.. and honestly.. the lesbian interactions weren't super important as well, though hooking up with the office bitch was kinda fun. Mainly just the unique interactions is what I played for.

 

[Fer99]

Honestly I do not care about any of them, i simply like the crude and/or chauvinistic relationships

 

[UCheatedUrself]

I absolutely agree that the relationships and character personalities are the most important. That's what makes this game for me and the main thing I want to focus on. The pregnancy stuff is also super vital since it grounds the game world and characters and makes them feel more real. That's the main thing I like about pregnancy mechanics in these sorts of games really. Makes it feel more like a game and less like porn, but does it in a sexy way instead of a tedious one.

 

[Solomon Grundy]

I absolutely hate pregnancy as a fetish, and it absolutely must be something I can avoid if I'm even going to consider a game like this.

 

[International]

If someone was to remake Newlife or create a similar game there are two things I'd consider essential: the pregnancy system (with fertility tracking and manipulation, the evolution of pregnancy, birth and how the kids don't vanish but show up every now and then in some short events) and the relationship system (unique characters, traits that unlock certain events and lock others, change how the relationships advance and how certain interactions go). But I'd also consider the combination of those two necessary, mainly how that game allows the MC to be dating a character, go out with another that tries to knock her up through trickery and sabotage and then come back pretending the partner is the father or straight up saying he will raise it anyway because he's a doormat while continuing to see the homewrecker.

In additional to all this, Newlife's pacing is radically different from all the other life sims. There's no daily showers, no brushing teeth, no navigating to the same place a hundred times. You just see a couple interesting things per a week. Because of that, it's an easy game to just hop into and play for a bit, and still get to a relationship or pop out a couple kids. It's one of the few games that you can play through having a litter of kids in a reasonable amount of real time.

Not counting the scenes, my top 3 parts of Newlife are:
#1. Impregnation and pregnancy content
#2. The sex system
#3. The pacing

 

[SOONSOON]

In case of confusion, I'm referring to the life sim java game by SplendidOstrich. Now anyone who's played the game should know that there's a few elements of it that have elaborate detail and focus to them, even though the game has such sparse content and a lack of some basic things one might expect. A few examples are the intricate and gratuitous clothing system and the dancing "minigame". And on the broader content side, there's a lot of focus on stuff like the whole gender swap thing, pregnancy, voyeurism and the newest obsession of the dev, lesbian relationships. My understanding is that these are content niches that only appeal to certain groups of people.

What I want to know is, which of these do most fans of this game care for and which could they do without? Or rather, which would you sacrifice for a larger array of general content? I'm asking this because the game I'm developing is quite similar to newlife and I want to appeal to a similar audience, especially the ones who are dissatisfied with Newlife and its content schedule (or lack thereof).

Personally, I never liked all the gender swapping/trans content. I rarely ever played with the male start and even when I did, it didn't really add anything to my experience. It was just a constant narration over the actual of events of the game. I realize that that's the core concept of the game, but I have a feeling that that's never what people liked the most about it. And I want to see how right I am.

Honestly, as a woman, I think the pregnancy part is really important aspect of the game. But, instead of skipping the time, if the MC is at home, maybe some more NTR scenes can be inserted. Also, if married then just like the MC can observe her husband having sex, i think scenes should be inserted for the husband spying on the MC when she cheats on him as well, and depending on the personality of the husband, it can play out. Moreover, scenes for incest by rapid growth of the kids and also cheats to speed up the gestation, if incorporated, would be amazing.

 

[Amnelis]

Agree that the pacing & basic gameplay loop are two major aspects of why I enjoy the game, I also like that there's no corruption meter or the like. So if you want to play a virgin who ends up getting sweettalked by a asshloe NPC she's not forced into a bimbo personality.

Some things I think would be interesting to see being implemented:

• Surnames. Every character, including the PC, having a surname. When getting married you get the option to take your husband's name, depending on his traits he would demand you to do so.
• Major NPCs having family members. Your boyfriend, boss, the office rival, etc could have relatives for you to interact with. Hooking up with the Boss' 18 year old son, losing your virginity to your boyfriend's father, becoming the office rival's step mom, etc.
• PC having family members. Having a father or brother would be pretty hot. If they're sleazy they could flirt with your female friends right in front of you, or you could try to set them up with someone, both ending with the choice to spy on them while they're fucking. If they sleep with your office rival she could use that to humiliate you or even becoming your step mom.

 

[darkduck09]

Why didn't you add "the developer programmatically cock blocked themselves into a corner of slow development and uninspired updates because they spent all of 2 seconds thinking about the structure of the game" as an option? Newlife is a great game. The main issue is the developer, who just can't keep up. If you're going to make a singularly text-based game, you HAVE TO, HAVE TO, make it easily moddable so people can keep making shit while you update major mechanics and systems.

 

[Z3r0K00l]

I voted lesbian but my major problem with the game is the severe lack of content and glacial pace of development.

 

[starlightlullaby]

Just throwing in my two cents since I love this style of game.

The pregnancy is 100% the most important thing for me personally, and its kinda why I love these types of games.

As a woman you can do stuff in these games and live out fantasies and situations in safety, and that is enjoyable to me. Being forgetful with birth control, having one too many drinks, not shutting someone's crappy behavior down and dealing with the consequences -- these are all things that are part of everyday life for us, but its fun to play a game where you can make (or not make) those choices and experience the consequences. Pregnancy is a huge part of that. You can make the right choices but if you're meek and quiet, easily trusting, drank a little too much, or forgetful, it's one of those things that can happen. In a game where the focus is being a woman, it would be weird to remove something that is one of if not the biggest things we have to manage for nearly half our lives -- our fertility.

It, along with the sex system are the best parts of the game because it allows (some) level of control that other HTML or similar games that use porn images do not allow. In those types of games, your choices during sex is generally pull out or don't pull out. The scenes play the same. In this game, there's a huge difference between actively cheating, sleeping with your boss, getting off with the annoying coworker, getting blasted out of your mind in the club and coming home (or getting fingerblasted in the club), etc etc. You can control if you're an active participant or just taking it. You can control (somewhat, which is what I like) what happens and if and how you get pregnant (and you can control this too through traits). I know this is a lot to talk about sex in a porn game, but its important because it allows your character to express her femininity during sex.

The random events are the things that make this type of game for me. As another person stated earlier, there's no brushing your teeth bs, its more of an overview of chunks of time with important events. These events showing you the results of your action or inaction is what keeps me playing, to see something new. It's also probably why we all stick around. More choice and consequences can only make a game like this better. Getting caught doing the cheating, going to the bar to let your hair down OR get wasted, more scene with friends and maybe even a similar screen with enemies that actively try and sabotage your life. Your rival knows you and your husband are happy and childless, so she sabotages your birth control. Stuff like that.

The male start and transition stuff is okay, but I've never done a male start . I probably never will to be honest. In many of these types of games you're always a guy. When I can play a game as a woman I do. With text based games there's a lot of imaginative play, and being able to play as a woman and understand those experiences is sexy and fun. It's different as a male character for me. Character traits and looks and descriptions are important to because it allows you to be 'you' or someone else, if that makes sense.

Always happy to help and answer more questions if you have them. I'd love to see something better come out of the stagnant pile of potential Newlife has always been.

 

[badlulu]

A game with the general shape of Newlife and greater ability to add and modify content would be great. I think the biggest thing it was missing was nonconsensual versions of scenes and specific NC events.

 

[chainedpanda]

I first played the game a looong time ago. I could be totally wrong, but I don't think it had the genderswap opening back then. I tried it again much later and it was added. So, I suspect that the genderswap stuff was never actually intended to do anything but instead a troll. Many people, included myself, used to ask to have a male protagonist for the game, hence why the intro was added.

That said, what I'd ultimately like to see is a male version of the game. I just can't get into female protags, even though I really enjoy life sims.

 

[badlulu]

I first played the game a looong time ago. I could be totally wrong, but I don't think it had the genderswap opening back then. I tried it again much later and it was added. So, I suspect that the genderswap stuff was never actually intended to do anything but instead a troll. Many people, included myself, used to ask to have a male protagonist for the game, hence why the intro was added.

That said, what I'd ultimately like to see is a male version of the game. I just can't get into female protags, even though I really enjoy life sims.

The genderswap was the original beginning. Female start was added later.

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[chainedpanda]

The genderswap was the original beginning. Female start was added later.

You must be registered to see the links

Ah, I see. Knew there was only one start, but over thought it I guess.

 

[FrogFrozen]

I mainly play the game as "Cute, loving girlfriend gets picked up by playboy and made a sexfriend"-simulator. I always do the "Start as a woman" option. I'd have to pick the genderswap one as the worst of the four because at this point, even Lesbianism has more content and comes up more than the genderswap stuff does. In terms of my preferences, I'm fine with all 4.

My main enjoyments here are the text-only nature of the game, its pacing, it abstracted unimportant things down and most of the complicated stuff is where complications need to be. I like how nearly all of the sex content is just 1-on-1.

I wish there were more scenes like that custom content coffee shop scene where a girl is trying to get you too horny to be able to resist her guy friend's advances. A higher number of scenes like this in general where your PC can be seduced into having sex would be nice for variety. Not just getting drunk, blackmailed, losing a game, being a slut, etc.

I've seen most of my complaints already mentioned by others, so I'll just mention a couple things that irk me and a few suggestions.

Spoiler: Complaint 1

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Complaint 2:
I'll mention that the clothes system is one area of detail that could use some abstraction. There's currently way too many outfits that all do the same things and it can be a huge pain in the ass to find the exact "Pink Short Pencil Skirt" that you need when only one shop even sells the damn thing.

At the very least, the ability to custom order clothes from a computer in the apartment would be nice.

Suggestion 1:
The hair customization in New Life affects absolutely nothing, but the selection is poor. Its fine as just flavor, but if its going to be just flavor, I'd like to see a massively expanded selection of hairstyles.

Suggestion 2:
I've mentioned this once before in the actual NL thread, but I'd like to see body customization expanded with height options. For additional flavor/attraction settings. Also, because a short girl with light body weight getting thrown around and absolutely manhandled by a big muscle man is pretty hot.

 

[archer3334]

I've been playing since I think 2018 if that helps.

• I have zero interest in the gender swap stuff and have always played starting as a woman.
• Trans characters could be a lot of fun, either meeting them or the PC being an actual trans woman (just so long as it's not the sissy shite that's polluting the internet these days)
• The pregnancy stuff is fun because of the risk to the PC. It is realistically the only risk to the PC in this game.
• Voyeurism/NTR does not interest me in the slightest. I would much rather have the game do actual swinging or group sex though watching and being watched consensually in that context could be fun.
• Lesbian relationships - I'm really here for this and have only played that way since it became an option. Just wish it were done better.