- Jun 20, 2022
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- Thread starter NeonGhosts
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- Jun 20, 2022
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- Aug 14, 2018
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Info: updated my Android port to v0.55 (+ made a "Mod only" download for PC now, too)
- Oct 6, 2020
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Probably right. I meant her mom will part some of those gold-digging skills onto her daughter and "help" her get more out of the deal than she otherwise would. At least that's my impression so far. If this just turns into a contract lending out an asset it is as terrible as you say.
- Oct 24, 2018
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I'm pretty sure the annoying influencers are mostly there to move the MC towards getting involved with the pink haired hot tub gal/trainer. Although there are also relationship variables with the two influencers...so who knows that that will result in.
I was also a bit frustrated at the amount of content, even though I knew it was coming after reading about the sheer amount of paths NeonGhosts was having to deal with at the end of the last update. What got me was the MC doing the check list for the day, which teases what is coming...and then having to wait for it.
Bridge episodes aren't sexy, but they're necessary at times for most games that have decent stories, and NeonGhost's writing is way above the majority of the games here.
It looks like we should get some fireworks in the next update, and I really do appreciate not having the dev cycle stretch out too far between updates. It's nice to still be familiar with the story when an update drops, rather than vaguely trying to recall who did what and when.
- Mar 1, 2023
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Either I didn't pay attention because I played this game like once, or I am just stupid...But what is the difference between Vanilla version and the non vanilla?
And why it looks like the last update added like 5 minutes of gameplay despite being in development for a while? Or is it just a teaser of some sorts?
And why it looks like the last update added like 5 minutes of gameplay despite being in development for a while? Or is it just a teaser of some sorts?
- Oct 24, 2018
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- Mar 14, 2020
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No clue, I'm playing the good path rn (hopefully there is a Gallery Mod in the future so I don't have to replay so many branches as I'd like to know the alternate options i.e. visiting Nicki over Risa, or the Sleazy Path).
I'd love to bang Brittani's Mom, it'd be funny if there's an option to do them both.
Had to skip Nicki's visit for Risa. Would love to bang her on that counter fr in the future.
Streamers are annoying af, would just fuck the female streamer out of spite to dump her later.
What I want to see most is a scene with Wren, lol.
I'd love to bang Brittani's Mom, it'd be funny if there's an option to do them both.
Had to skip Nicki's visit for Risa. Would love to bang her on that counter fr in the future.
Streamers are annoying af, would just fuck the female streamer out of spite to dump her later.
What I want to see most is a scene with Wren, lol.
- Oct 23, 2016
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I think Machete makes a valid point, because this is what the experience can be like and tbh, not through any fault of your own. You are just doing your best to create the best game you can.
My advice isn't to disregard constructive criticism or what people say they would enjoy more, but there has to be a compromise between offering significant decisions and opening up so many paths that you are killing yourself fitting them all into the game.
One thing I would always advise in this regard is to take a look at what many japanese VNs do (let's face it, they've created the genre and have decades more experience with it) and restrict the branching paths severely up to a point, so that you don't have to create several completely different routes, but instead it mostly comes down to some players seeing one scene and missing another (but again, still restricted in scope, it shouldn't go so far as to people seriously missing out on content in a new update).
In one sentence, avoid the paths diverging too much until a point relatively late in the game. Personally, I don't even get why you would listen to people complaining about choices not really making a difference. I happen to like your game because they do. In one of my first posts in this thread I mentioned how impressed I was with how you managed to use the same images to write three completely different paths. This is the strength of this game, your writing and characterization. Don't write yourself into corners that severely limit your ability to progress, without restricting the access to content on some routes. Whoever asked for something like that, can't be the majority.
And I'm not telling you how to write your game, hell, you do it so much better than I ever could, but the wise thing to do would have been NOT to let the previous update end in so many different ways, but instead move the paths back together at the end.
I think most people understand the restrictions of branching paths, you can't have a large number of diverging paths AND have a speedy development AND still experience most content. It's just not possible, and it leads to games either going at a snail's pace or a drastic cutback in pathing.
I don't know if you are a fan of "Where The Heart Is" and that game sure has its detractors as well, but that was a thing that Cheekygimp was really good at, limiting the pathing options for a long time (mostly to whether you are going after a specific girl or not, so that the path would just be missing specific scenes with specific girls) and always finding a way to cut back on them, to keep the branches manageable by leading them back together at certain points.
What you describe seems to me as if you took the branching a bit too far for both your workload and game development.
I'm not suggesting an illusion of choice, but I am definitely advocating a limitation of the branches that the decisions lead to.
You probably know all of this already, but maybe you lost a bit track of it, and maybe it is also good to read that someone is willing to accept certain limitations for the sake of your sanity and that being able to experience most content seems to be what most people want in the end, compared to vastly diverging paths pretty early on in the game.
I think most people playing these games realize the limitations of branching paths and how easy they become hard to manage.
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- Apr 7, 2020
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I agree that it's a good thing that the story branches and gives meaning to your choices. The problem is if the choices (lecit choices) take you to a dead end mid game.
Allow me an example.
Let's say an hypotetical game has 12 chapters and 5 girls to pursuite.
At chapter 2 you may chose to give a ride to girl A or see the concert of girl B, you choose the latter and it closes route A
At chapter 3 you chose to be nice to girl C instead of being a jerk. Being a jerk was the 'right choice' (awful concept), the route seems to go on but it closes by chapter 4, you can't do anything to recover.
At chapter 5 the route of girl C closes because you flirted with girl A in chapter 1 (and girl A route is closed by now)
At chapter 6 you decide to go in the threesome scene that girl D and E are begging you to do since chapter 2. But if you go for it they are pissed (plot twist!) and it closes both routes. If you don't and route C is closed girl E is pissed ant the route closes.
Still at chapter 6 route D closes because you have been nice to girl C in chapter 3.
In chapter 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 all MC has to do is he wake up for the morning, go through some general chatting scene with secondary character or direcly back to bed again, and then the game ends after 2-3 more hour of no content with a bad ending.
It's an extrame example but it happened to me in a game.
Can we agree that such a gaming experience sucks? And maybe the story was even good and the first 6 chapters were a lot of fun, but the overal game economy has been mismanaged.
All i'm saying (and recommending to NeonGhost) is to pay much attention that the 'conseguences' of choices don't lead to excessuve dead ends.
Can it happen to Friends in Need? It is very possible
It's more or less already happened to me in this last chapter and NeonGhosts is speaking of character leaving the story due to dark choices. It's a risky strategy. Having character leaving if they are mistreated is very logical storywise, but we must take in account 2 things:
1) After some characters leave, what's left to play?
2) Dark path is something you CAN choose in the game. Yet it leads to early bad endings? Then it is not a choice. It's play nice = win the game, play jerk = lose the game. So it's no choice at all to begin with.
And mine, i repeat, are not critics for the sake of it. Mine are recommendations to NeonGhost to keep his project on a virtous path.
I'm not saying he has to do as i say. But if i'm making any valid point here, he should at last consider the implications they have.
- Aug 5, 2016
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My point exactly. And it's not about sex scenes. It's about having some game to play
Anyway, sure not too late for a course correction eventually.
- Aug 5, 2016
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The game is great how it is, it doesn't need changes imo. Basically there are three paths:My point exactly. And it's not about sex scenes. It's about having some game to play
- Dark, fast and nasty. Expect dead ends with the girls or worse.
- Corruption, this is the middle ground. Sort of use the girls but give them something so they stay around.
- Romantic, fee fees talks and walks in the park
Everyone should know by now how the western vn scene works. There are two types of devs, big updates one time a year or shorter ones every 2 or 3 months, Neon is the later. Players can wait until the game is finished or wait a few updates before playing again if they think updates are short.
Anyway, NeonGhost is doing great for a new dev imo.
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- Apr 7, 2020
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If dark path implies bad ending it's no choice, as i pointed earlie. It's a wrong path that makes you 'lose the game'. If dark path is something you are supposed to be able to follow, of course you can't get to a super happy ending, but at last the story should go somewhere that gives the player some payoff.
This is just how writing stories work.
But even if you want to write the bitter story of a man on a self destructive path that is going to end bad, it is still supposed to end, you know... by the end of the story. Not 2/3 of its run.
It's kinda like if in (the original) Star Wars Luke died in the Cloud City fighting with Darth Vader and the third movie was a serie of disjointed short stories of how the rest of the characters die of age in poverty hiddend somewhere on the outer fringe of the Empire.
But even this way it's a passable story. It's more like the rebels all go home and, like, sit down and start reading a newspaper or take naps for 2 hours.
- Apr 26, 2020
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We've all played the type of VN you're describing where there are two choices and the other is a game over (waifu academy is a great example) FIN is very obviously not the type of game you are describing. It's a non linear story where decision matters and you have to actually think as a player as opposed to clicking through text until a false decision is presented. You can play every path, starting a new game and skipping text you have already read is a option, even if you're too busy somehow, like you complain, the updates are short so it shouldn't be an issue.
- Oct 23, 2016
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Lol. Neither has there been any really nasty criticism (that I've seen, it could be the mods were just so fast and did it so meticuously that I missed all of it) nor does Neon strike me as the type of dev that gets discouraged by that. He seems to have a well-balanced head on his shoulders.
There is also a huge difference between people not particularly liking something and voicing their criticism about it, and about people who come into every single thread of these forums trying to force devs to change their vision of the game.
The difference being one group says "hey, I didn't like this and that, because of that and this, and maybe you could consider checking if this couldn't be done differently to better the game and everyone's experience." while the other one is more like.
"I don't like this! This is XXX! Two years ago when this game started, you wrote you don't think you would go and do this or that, and I took that as a solemn promise on your part, therefore you are now a liar and a cheat, because something that I consider to be the one thing you promised you wouldn't do, just happened! Now your game is shit, you are shit and if you don't retract the thing I didn't like, my friends and I will harass and insult you on a regular basis until you do."
And in my experience, it is the later that leads to a lot of devs giving up, not the regular criticism that is to be expected in any creative endeavour.
You have to be realistic with this, as a dev, if you go and put your creative work out there, you will always get criticism and not all of it will be fair or be rational or constructive, that's just how it is.
When a dev gives up just due to that, then sadly they were not cut out to be a creator of any kind.
You have to be able to deal with that, as much as with the praise (and mind you, there are also tons of devs who can't deal with praise, surrounding themselves with nothing but an echo chamber that happily helps them to run their project against a wall and killing it creatively, this can be just as dangerous as the other way around).
I love this game and one thing I can say for sure that even if something happens I might not like, I trust Neonghost to still turn it into a great story. Not everything has to be exactly to my liking, as long as overall the game hits the right strides.
This is one game that will definitely see some money from me one way or the other, whether I buy it once it hits Steam or GOG or support the patreon for some time. It's one of the really exceptionally well done VNs on this forum.
