Ren'Py Guest House [v0.2.2] [Soft Whisper Games]

3.70 star(s) 11 Votes

Do you want me to delete everything after Chapter 1 and revert the game back to a kinetic novel?


  • Total voters
    482
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Dec 9, 2020
464
1,250
I wonder what's up with the discrepancy between my Patrons and people on f95. I ran a poll asking for feedback when on the game mode and people voted that they liked it by overwhelming margin. I honestly figured most people would say they didn't like what I was presenting in 0.2.1, but that's not what the final result was in the poll. Anyway, I can do whatever since the game is pre-release. I'm just trying stuff out to see how people react. I was able to get quite a lot done in this update, but if everyone hates it, I can just bin everything after 0.2.0 and go from there...

Kind of feel like people aren't really giving it a fair chance though. Main story events will still be rendered in full 3D. The characters sprites you see in talk events are just to help move things along. I spent quite a bit of time writing dialogue and rendering scenes, so I'm hoping people can appreciate all the hard work that went into this update. I was able to flesh out a ton of new plot lines and implement the start of some interesting quests. I actually planned everything out really carefully so each girl's main story event would tie into the next phase of the game. The idea is to implement a certain # of talk events in the friend phase, then allow the user to play through each girl's main story event so they can unlock the girlfriend phase, then begin implementing Jiho's main story so the player can unlock the final harem phase.
Do whatever you think is best for you and your game in delivering the story you want. I was just completely shocked that sandbox was a popular request because for most games I've seen/played it's a complete turn off for players, especially when it's poorly done. There are games that tried to insert sandbox in the middle of the game and became a mess like The Class Next Door, that destroyed the game. Or you could end up with something decent like Desert Stalker or Lust Academy which is a very good one.

You will have to keep a few things in mind to make it an easy step for players. Easy navigation whether that's getting from room to room or having mini filmstrip navigation menus. A one click access to a quest log or hint system of some sort if you have a lot of people to visit in different places to keep track of parallel story lines. Minimal amount of clicking, having to click through 2-3 empty rooms or hallways to get from place to place is quite annoying. If you start using full screen maps make sure to mark where people are, or if events are available. Players don't like getting stuck in loops of empty clicking looking for stuff to do.

From what I've seen in this game's sandbox so far, Rooms are clearly marked, but it's like 5 rooms with 1 conversation per girl, and 1 room with 2 conversations, nothing else, no events, nothing that ends the loops that states end of content or what to do next. Yes I know it's early days with that, and what you have planned, but there isn't much there, and it doesn't leave a good impression, so you'll have some backlash over that, hopefully your patreons are happy, cause well they voted for it.
 

Demoness_Kiss

Forum Fanatic
Jun 9, 2017
5,279
7,288
...i'll join the "fuck the sandbox"-group:

The sandbox wouldn't be a problem if there was a solid hint-system, no you only added one character that makes no sense to have(regardless of how liked or disliked she may be)(because seriously, a secret roommate that lives there illegally when we already have like 4 love-interests?Meh, some will like it, some will not, i'm in the middle: i care enough to talk about it, but not enough to get mad over it) and then added nothing else but a bunch of rooms and the characters in it for having short conversations (nothing that pushes the plot forward). You pretty much wasted your time.
 

steven bart

New Member
Jun 8, 2017
3
0
Can some one help me please after going to the temple with every one she said let's go and grab food back at our house ? where am i suppose to click for the food please
 

divingmedic

Engaged Member
Aug 15, 2023
2,092
2,823
...i'll join the "fuck the sandbox"-group:

The sandbox wouldn't be a problem if there was a solid hint-system, no you only added one character that makes no sense to have(regardless of how liked or disliked she may be)(because seriously, a secret roommate that lives there illegally when we already have like 4 love-interests?Meh, some will like it, some will not, i'm in the middle: i care enough to talk about it, but not enough to get mad over it) and then added nothing else but a bunch of rooms and the characters in it for having short conversations (nothing that pushes the plot forward). You pretty much wasted your time.
As you said sandbox is not bad as long as there is a hint system on what to do or where to go next, plus the new character just showing up? Did I miss her getting introduced into? Kinda strange to just have a new character plopped down in the game with no intro or reason why she is there.
 

Demoness_Kiss

Forum Fanatic
Jun 9, 2017
5,279
7,288
As you said sandbox is not bad as long as there is a hint system on what to do or where to go next, plus the new character just showing up? Did I miss her getting introduced into? Kinda strange to just have a new character plopped down in the game with no intro or reason why she is there.
the REAL reason why saves are broken: the new character gets introduced during the beginning of the game(MC is unpacking and he notices her hiding in the closet) meaning: new values just for her, that may fuck-up old saves because every else of the game is the same, after you have that "let's go see some monuments of Seoul"-event you get the exploration/sandbox and that's it, i can't find anything else aside repetitive chats with the characters in their rooms and the landlady is missing.
 

5mithers

Member
Aug 3, 2019
111
90
After playing back through from the beginning (with some heavy use of the CTRL button during the Korean history lesson section), it seems like the sandbox content so far is short chats with each of the girls. Past that there is zero new content. I guess most of this update was just the restructure around the new future money making format for the subscribers.
 
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steven bart

New Member
Jun 8, 2017
3
0
After playing back through from the beginning (with some heavy use of the CTRL button during the Korean history lesson section), it seems like the sandbox content so far is short chats with each of the girls. Past that there is zero new content. I guess most of this update was just the restructure around the new future money making format for the subscribers.
How do you get pas the lunch bit please ? She said let's go back to grab some lunch but their is nothing in the dining room. can you help me please
 
Mar 22, 2020
285
138
Another vote for scrapping the text box here ... dev might like the look, and spent time/effort on the UI, but give us the option to use the default or transparent text box..
 
Last edited:

Crosaith.

Active Member
Nov 18, 2017
933
2,154
"Due to popular request on Patreon, sandbox mode has been integrated into the main game."

Lol wtf dude? How does adding sandbox make the game better? You're spending dev time on something that makes the game more time-consuming and tedious. Shouldn't you be trying to make the game more enjoyable and fun?
 
3.70 star(s) 11 Votes