That is the story of 90% of games on this site. Great potential but its either under developed or milked or just abandoned.
HTML Female Agent [v1.20.1p] [Crushstation]
Yeah like letting the MC get drunk and fuck patrons (maybe even out of the bar like with the stag party earlier on and with the hostel inhabitants) and go wild and THEN the agency is like "wtf" could make sense but don't think we've done anything out of line of the mission.
- Mar 1, 2020
- 109
- 298
Why is her thong always wet when someone gropes her? Dissapointing update once again. I had hoped that the MC would be a strong female character capable of making her own choices, but this is turning out to be the same as all other female protagonist games on this site where the MC gets molested and she "likes it".
- Aug 18, 2018
- 349
- 724
some speculation, the reason the MC is being portrayed as such a nympho with every action taken is probably due to Crush feeling crushed (heh) between two sides:
- you have the audience expecting a sex game with sexy times with every update;
- and you have Crush clearly having a set story he wants to tell getting in the way of player interaction and freedom.
And I'm guessing this, compounded with the slow roll-out of updates, makes Crush feel the need to include intimate moments and hot developments in every update whilst advancing his narrative one step at a time, character agency be damned.
EDIT: Question to those who have worked with Twine/other HTML-based games, how easy would it be to mod a 'sandbox' game made through these frameworks? I honestly think a good way Crush could buy himself quite a lot of time if it were possible for him to set up a sandbox part of the game first (playing around and interacting in Bangkok collecting info and building connections), whilst letting modders fill in blanks, as he drip feeds us the main story.
I'm confused. Which of those sex scenes required weeks of agonised rewrites? They were like three paragraphs long and repeats of what we've seen before.
It's relatively straightforward if you know what you're doing and put some effort and creativity into it, but this current iteration is the result of five years of ongoing game design and he's still struggling with something as basic as how to add choice-based gameplay to his CYOA game. Setting up the sandbox first would probably have been the most sensible, sustainable thing, but a) Crush doesn't know how to do that and b) Crush doesn't seem to want to learn how to do that. I really doubt there's going to be any sandbox in FA at all.
I think the dev might have jumped ahead with the MCs panties getting wet so soon. She has worked there a total of 4 days and she's already soaked when the first customers trickle in the door.
Personally, I like the "MC likes it but has a hard time admitting to herself" storyline but this being advertised as an RPG I wish there was a choice to mold her character more. Seems the kinks you get to choose in the beginning seem to do very little. I would understand her getting wet being submissive/exibitionist but without those kinks, I would see her as a stronger female character. As of right now you only get an unlocked response with kinks that is nothing more than a flavor. Events are railroaded in the same direction regardless of what you have chosen.
Shame most of the pre-Bangkok content got scrapped. The last time I checked this game out was 2 years ago and it has made minimal progress since then. This being a text "game" it should already be Completed with added branching content of sorts.
- Oct 25, 2017
- 271
- 588
I know it's cool to hate on this dev but even if he's kinda slow he's delivering some pretty cool content tbh. I love the spy setup (I'm a huge nerd for real life technical details in fiction) and the lewd scenes are pretty hot. I hope they can tie in the 1.11 update by the next one. I enjoy playing through it all.
And yes, right now the choices have very little consequence. It might take a while for the story to branch out (or at least give us some lasting visual consequences like bruises, tattoos, accessories that need to be wear when working, you know, the little stuff matters a lot for this kind of game) but I'm excited.
And yes, right now the choices have very little consequence. It might take a while for the story to branch out (or at least give us some lasting visual consequences like bruises, tattoos, accessories that need to be wear when working, you know, the little stuff matters a lot for this kind of game) but I'm excited.
- Oct 25, 2017
- 271
- 588
It's actually more difficult than you think. He's making a full on movie-like screenplay here, and if you look into it, most screenplay writers barely finish a page per day. Of course, there's that old saying "write drunk, edit sober" but sometimes this approach results in even more rewrites (and outright scrapping a route entirely) than just the slow regular writing. It's quite difficult to find the right words when you want quality, and honestly I feel like Crush does a pretty good job at that. The setting, the research, timeline, pacing, it's all there. It really just takes time. It's expected for his approach (in-depth detailed story).
But it brings another point that this guy got right:
It's difficult to keep such an intricate story horny at all times. It's obviously going to have ups and downs. I kinda feel bad for him because he put himself in a horrible situation. He needs to deliver sizeable updates, which means writing more of the well-researched technical-procedural story (which takes a shit ton of time) AND he needs to make it horny for his patrons who are already impatient from his previous mistakes. He's screwed.
I'm not a patron and I'm probably not gonna join as well but I have to thank the guys who are subscribed because I'd really hate to see this project die out. At this point I'm getting more interested in the story than the smut itself lmao.
- Feb 21, 2019
- 205
- 710
Women can get wet in a situation where they are mostly angry... their body can have a visceral reaction to stimulation despite not consenting or not liking it. A lot of women go through feelings of shame after rape/molestation because they didn't want to feel any physical stimulation or pleasure at all, and their bodies reaction is what men use to justify those behaviours 'you must have liked it because your nipples were hard and you were wet so you are just a whore' etc. (common theme in japanese games).
So panties getting wet? not a big deal and probably expected and more likely due to exhibitionism... if the character herself finds out she enjoys exhibitionism that's not really a problem either. One can enjoy certain aspects of an experience and dislike other aspects (like being groped).
The game naked ambition has a card that calls this shameful lust etc (oversimplified)...
But yeah, there is an eb and flow to games, there will be moments where you need to position the character within the story more before you can actually advance the type of sex scenes that will be happening. The update was probably a month too long, but overall it's still better than the 6-8 month "updates" of the past where nothing actually advanced and it went on like this for 2 years. Now there is at least story progress.
People need to understand the game will be linear for awhile because managing and adding branching story lines is like developing a new game for each branch. I think crushstation is just trying to get a decent foundation in first before he branches with paths and options in the sex scenes.
So panties getting wet? not a big deal and probably expected and more likely due to exhibitionism... if the character herself finds out she enjoys exhibitionism that's not really a problem either. One can enjoy certain aspects of an experience and dislike other aspects (like being groped).
The game naked ambition has a card that calls this shameful lust etc (oversimplified)...
But yeah, there is an eb and flow to games, there will be moments where you need to position the character within the story more before you can actually advance the type of sex scenes that will be happening. The update was probably a month too long, but overall it's still better than the 6-8 month "updates" of the past where nothing actually advanced and it went on like this for 2 years. Now there is at least story progress.
People need to understand the game will be linear for awhile because managing and adding branching story lines is like developing a new game for each branch. I think crushstation is just trying to get a decent foundation in first before he branches with paths and options in the sex scenes.
Last edited:
- Aug 7, 2017
- 149
- 359
You must be registered to see the links
Hey guys! After a tough ordeal, I needed to lie down in a dark room for a bit. And today, I have risen. But that's just another coincidence...right?
The good news is that feedback on 1.15 is positive and constructive. Our awesome Analysts have provided some good ideas on how to improve the scenes, and found plenty of small bugs to stomp.
I'll be doing that over the next 12 days: general release of this episode will be Friday 29th April.
Okay, that's all for today! I've got some ideas for how to speed up production of the next episode, but we'll get into that after the general release. Have an amazing Easter, everybody, I love you all!
- Jan 10, 2018
- 2,466
- 3,338
After the really excellent v1-14, I thought this one missed the mark in a couple of ways. First, there was a lot of writing that was unnecessary. We really didn't need the second "coyote walk" because it was not much different than the first one. Crush could have summarized it in a line. That was true for a lot of the bar scenes in this update - just say that "the night went on much like Monday until..." and then describe the new event (like the naked wrestling). But, when describing the unique scenes, Crush needed to put a lot more flavor into the writing, like he did in 1-14. Most of the bar writing is longer than it needs to be to just say what is happening, but drier than it needs to be to be really interesting for the reader. As someone suggested above, the story needed a lot more inner voice about submitting to Conner.
I agree with the argument that our agent is "getting into this" sexually a little fast, even if she is an exhibitionist or whatever. HCC should be a very scary place to work for her, given what she knows of its owners and managers. More work days with less description of each day could get her to the point where she is somewhat inured to the danger, with no more writig than we have now.
The break-in was the best part of the episode. Lots of inner voice stuff, writing for the senses, appeals to emotion, and interesting technical detail. Someone asked above why the break-in was undertaken like "a cross-border operation," but the story makes it clear that these guys are in tight with Bangkok organized crime, so this was a potentially very violent operation. It made sense to be prepared for major opposition.
But the complaint that there are not meaningful choices here is actually an unfair one, since we knew going in that this whole series of episodes were just the setup for the choice-making portion of the game, and adding meaningful choices at this point would just slow down the progress on story development. It's a bit ironic that people simultaneously complain that he isn't slowing the story down by giving the player meaningful choices and thus creating multiple branches to be written before the story can advance, and also complain that the story is moving too slowly!
I have encouraged Crush to keep writing this story free of meaningful choices until he gets to the end, and then come back and add choices and branches. There are games here with little meaningful choice that do quite well (see, for instance, Divergence, Beyond the Singularity) and many, many abandoned stories that had too many "meaningful choices" and thus so many branches that the developer's moral broke when contemplating how complicated finishing the story would be.
Criticisms of the pace of writing are well-founded, I think, but the pace of Crush's writing is what it is. It's not like he can be criticized for suddenly slowing down. Those for whom the pace is unbearably slow should just forget about the game for a couple of years, because the pace doesn't look like it is going to change.
I agree with the argument that our agent is "getting into this" sexually a little fast, even if she is an exhibitionist or whatever. HCC should be a very scary place to work for her, given what she knows of its owners and managers. More work days with less description of each day could get her to the point where she is somewhat inured to the danger, with no more writig than we have now.
The break-in was the best part of the episode. Lots of inner voice stuff, writing for the senses, appeals to emotion, and interesting technical detail. Someone asked above why the break-in was undertaken like "a cross-border operation," but the story makes it clear that these guys are in tight with Bangkok organized crime, so this was a potentially very violent operation. It made sense to be prepared for major opposition.
But the complaint that there are not meaningful choices here is actually an unfair one, since we knew going in that this whole series of episodes were just the setup for the choice-making portion of the game, and adding meaningful choices at this point would just slow down the progress on story development. It's a bit ironic that people simultaneously complain that he isn't slowing the story down by giving the player meaningful choices and thus creating multiple branches to be written before the story can advance, and also complain that the story is moving too slowly!
I have encouraged Crush to keep writing this story free of meaningful choices until he gets to the end, and then come back and add choices and branches. There are games here with little meaningful choice that do quite well (see, for instance, Divergence, Beyond the Singularity) and many, many abandoned stories that had too many "meaningful choices" and thus so many branches that the developer's moral broke when contemplating how complicated finishing the story would be.
Criticisms of the pace of writing are well-founded, I think, but the pace of Crush's writing is what it is. It's not like he can be criticized for suddenly slowing down. Those for whom the pace is unbearably slow should just forget about the game for a couple of years, because the pace doesn't look like it is going to change.
It's definitely possible for a game to be both linear and developed conspicuously slowly at the same time, as we have seen lately. Such critiques are not invalid or wrong in any possible way whatsoever, although they could be repetitive. It's humorous to even try to lessen the impact of these two perfectly valid and appropriate critiques, but that is why this thread is funny. I definitely am only going to try this game again once many story branches are present, which will keep me away from the game for many a year. Still, I need to do something during my retirement years.
- Aug 21, 2018
- 2,190
- 3,582
Hey at least something is going forward. Not that it is enough for what? 6 Month?
When you think about other games that render THOUSANDS of screens and write at least the same amount (probably 3-4x times as much) in that time.
I mean ... we get some AI portraits and some photos of Thailand ... the rest ist pure text... it is just insane that the game still has patreons supporting it.
When you think about other games that render THOUSANDS of screens and write at least the same amount (probably 3-4x times as much) in that time.
I mean ... we get some AI portraits and some photos of Thailand ... the rest ist pure text... it is just insane that the game still has patreons supporting it.
No. Having branching choices that change the story is literally what separates a game from a novel. How many years has Crush had to plan what those choices will be and how each branch will go? Does anyone else remember the storyboards and roadmaps? How has there been so little planning with so much documentation? Is this even an RPG? No, instead we get to choose which Swiss Canton we hail from because that influences our ability to appreciate chocolate. No, instead we get to simulate the sexual history of the protagonist and other trivia. Sex minigames that are essentially clickers are not engaging and actually take more time to create than a simple scene with a choice between a blowjob and a hand job.
- Jan 10, 2018
- 2,466
- 3,338
I'm don't think that adding choices between blowjobs and hand jobs would add anything at all to the game.
The argument that this isn't a game because there are no story-changing choices yet assumes that the entire game will be, when finished, as lacking in choice as the story so far. I see no basis for such an assumption. Is this an RPG yet? No. Will it be one when done? That remains to be seen. The plan is to have it be something along those lines (though likely without leveling).
The story maps we saw a year-plus ago had the MC becoming a prostitute immediately upon arrival in Bangkok. A year ago, Crush decided that that was rushing things, and so he altered the story to add the "intro" section we are now seeing to get her from arrival to bar girl via the topless bartender job. There really aren't any choices to be made yet in the story, since it has to end in her becoming a bar girl/prostitute for the rest of the story to work.
So, criticisms of the slow writing are certainly apt, but criticisms about the inability of the player to derail the story are not. Choices that add complexity in routes to the same end would just slow own the story progression without adding anything other than an illusion of choice. There are plenty of games with the illusion of choice here at F95, if that's what you want to see.
I personally don't always like choice games - very few games pull off choices/branches real well. It usually means you have to choose content to see and replay the game or load saves to see other stuff. This is why for the vast majority of the good games that exist.... there are multi-mods. Puzzles are also not too popular in these types of games, and RPGM with excessive walking and grinding fighting/sandbox games are also usually poorly created. Very few sandbox games are actually good. Very few choice games are actually good and they come with cheats/multi-mods/or minimally a gallery unlock even when they are. Very few RPGM/puzzle games are actually good... Seeing a trend here? The criticism I see in this thread should and can be applied to tons of other arguably better games - so end of the day your arguments are hypocriticial and just motivated by shitting on the developer for past behaviours. The game could be better sure, the update was about a month too long, some things could have been cut/focused on less and other things expanded... but i wouldn't say this update was 'A wife and mother' levels of atrocities here.
Everyone agrees - including crushstation - that the game is not an RPG currently.
My opinion is that the game needs to push on the art department. Describing scenes fully 100% with text especially when those scenes having nothing to do with the protagonist... isn't as good as maybe lightly describing a character/scene that was drawn out by the artist. It wouldn't be too difficult for Female Agent artist to draw up a paper doll of eight or so strippers, and some other main characters so then crush doesn't need to write 200 words describing what they are wearing or the scene... their figure and clothing can actually appear on the right of the screen (while kates paperdoll is on the left).
Last edited:
- Aug 6, 2016
- 35
- 82
Contrary to Crush's assurance I thought sex scenes in this update were rather short and stale. I copypasted first one into a single file
You don't have permission to view the spoiler content.
Log in or register now.
The whole idea of comparing lack of choice, illusion of choice, and choices with lasting consequences seems to be beside the point at best. Games are entertainment, and the best goal is to have entertaining elements in the game: whichever of the 3 possibilities just mentioned simply needs to feel entertaining. The idea of one being better than the other need only focus on two things: which one will be the best entertainment, and which one can Crush do? I've been of the opinion that Crush gets in his own way, and that he has plenty of talent that gets squandered in various ways. Some of the worst obstacles are ones created by oneself. This is assuming that he wants to create efficiently and effectively. I can only take his word at face value on that.