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

[TigerWolfe]

Just to balance things out I'd like to chime in since I like kinetic novels and don't like major decisions. Branching stories just annoy me if they hide content. What works for me, if there needs to be choices, is flavour choices where player decides how the MC is going to solve a problem or how some situation plays out as long as ultimately the story will end up at the same place. Of course the option to reject certain LI is also ok as long as it is then honored and the story doesn't make the player feel like crap about it. Also dom/sub/vanilla choices are ok too, again if the story stays pretty much the same, even though they reduce the content in each update.

I rarely find any interest in VN's that have huge decision trees because the amount of content on the path I like is just a small part of any update and I don't see the fun in replaying just to try all options when those options are not something I enjoy.

Also I hate fake harems where you can have a harem but only some specific combination of LI's but that usually falls under a decision tree, just a more annoying variant.

I agree with many of your words.

I'm not playing to repeatedly watch the same animation, if I wanna get my rocks off I go find a vid of Natasha Nice, I play these games/read these novels for some relaxing titilation while doing light reading.

Ideally I just click through the screens at my reading pace and see the whole story/snag all the womens, happy harem ending hurray, on to the next game.

Despite that, I think dev should focus on what they're most interested in, as that'll be better for the game's sake and the dev's. If that is something sandbox-y please go as little gringo as possible (allow things to repeat sure, but don't require us to repeat the bj scene ten times with no dialogue changes to get the 69 scene) and please make sure the hint system is SO clear, I'm tired from braining to pay my bills all day, I'm not out here trying to Sherlock my way to some digital boobies, I don't have the spoons for that.

 

[indio68]

so i don't understand how is that no choices and less elelments and variable makes updates to take very long time.........i don't get it really. i don't like poor made sandbox that make me lost and i need to spend time in cliking everywhere to find what needs to be done....

 

[someyoungguy]

so i don't understand how is that no choices and less elelments and variable makes updates to take very long time.........i don't get it really. i don't like poor made sandbox that make me lost and i need to spend time in cliking everywhere to find what needs to be done....

One of the things the dev mentioned before that made them want to make a sandbox vs KN was that due to the way they develop the story portions of the game, organising all the story elements into a linear narrative takes a lot longer than whatever their current, more comfortable and familiar, process is. I didn't go back to the actual comment, so this is from memory, but I seem to recall them also saying or implying that publishing it as a linear story would make them feel like they'd have to include a lot more filler scenes to make the pacing of the story feel appropriate. In the case of a sandbox, they could add those scenes anytime they thought of them, and it'd be possible to add them without requiring players to restart to see them. The way they talked about it gave the impression that they thought the writing alone for KN format would take them much longer than an entire update cycle they way they've been working.

 

[Chucke1992]

there only a few games on here that i enjoyed and were sand box such as : harem hotel,Hail Dicktator & the anomalous dr vibes
then there the hybrid ones like : badik & desert stalker , its not really a sandbox game but because they have the free roam sandbox options they do get the tag

The thing is that a proper entertaining sandbox requires much more effort than just a kinetic set of choices - Harem Hotel, Hail Dicktator etc. have sandbox where each repeatable conversation is akin a short cinematic where you have a pair of renders to imitate the activity. It is not like just a static picture with a person talking to you.

Yeah, I was going for a simpler version of Harem Hotel with a smaller scope, but I guess no one like it... I'm feeling pretty down, so I'm going to take a minute. Maybe run some polls.

Trying to aim at Harem Hotel is commendable but it will require a lot of effort. The main issue with sandbox is that you need a decent amount of content from the very beginning - comparable to 1-2 chapters of a regular cinematic. And it has to be repeatable.

All of the characters seemed great, the graphics were good, the situation was ready for a light hearted harem but the wikipedia dump just killed the flow.

Yeah, actually I was curious what was the purpose of the history lesson. MC arrived there to breed, not to read

 

[trauts]

looks like old saves won't work because the switch to sandbox (2.0 -> 2.2)?

i serious doubt that sandbox takes less time to code, because you'd have to code for:
1) which day of the week
2) time of day
3) location to trigger the event
4) AND any prerequisite(s) have been completed to trigger the next event or action
5) any other condition the dev may want to add.
if the dev is new in coding, all the above can get really messy and may get abandoned just because the amount of work to debug and fix the bugs.
where kinetic novel has less code to deal with, which in turn, will have less bugs.
as far as i know, what is most time consuming is the rendering. it sounds like the dev want to do sandbox so that there's less rendering?
i'm not a big fan of sandbox because most are poorly coded, but i'm not opposed to it if it's well coded with clear/descriptive hints/guides that lists what step(s) you can do to advance the story line, i.e. max's life, harem hotel, dark magic, mythic manor, desert stalker (just to name a few)
at the end of the day, i think it's really up to the dev to write what he/she wants, after all, it's their artistic creation.
you know which i'd vote for.

 

[Leelaverse]

So I'm going to be very critical, and would like to state that I did play all of it. Some players like making decisions on who their love interests are, and making choices that can impact the story (even if it's not major), and there are players who don't mind KN novels and reading a story a dev creates, just pick a side for your game and live with the results of it.

Sandbox gets a lot hate, and it honestly seems like a lazy way to appease people who don't like KN novel that want choices, it's very bare bones with shitty mouse hovering navigation, and there's nothing that shows progress or a "things to do" like feature, so it's overall aimless. An easy thing you could've done was kept the format the same and do things like 'My New Family' or a ton of others where really the choices only decide if you want a certain girl and possible future impregnation if that's something you might add.

 

[Anteron]

Sandbox can be OK if it's really open world, but if it's "find the one place to go to advance the story" it's just a pain in the ass. Grinding is an absolute "game sucks" thing.

 

[Crosaith.]

Wait... so the options are sandbox or kinetic novel? This would've been a kinetic sandbox? What a waste of attractive character models.

 

[Draugo]

Like others stated before people are upset because we actually liked the beginning of the game. I know it's hard but that's not a thing to take badly and as little of a positive it is, you made something that was interesting. Much worse would be if no one cared at all.

Critique is hard both to give and take and basically no one comes to forums like these to give well thought of pre formatted critique. It's always pretty much straight thought to text and it can be harsh and it sucks. Part of the reason is how people generally are (me included) and part is because it's rare for the developer to actually read these threads and engage so no one really even expects their message to amount to anything.

 

[Harvick4]

i have played some sandbox games that are good. i am not saying this game isnt good tho. you could def balance it out it tho, too much grinding. free roam is good for some things but not everything. other than that i love the renders and animations are good as well. just please dont make it too grindy if you plan on keeping it sandbox!

 

[morti mati ba]

Bruh wtf am I supposed to do after I've talked to everyone in the freeroam mode? Am I stuck or was that the end of the update? After coming home from the palace or whatever

 

[Anteron]

Yeah, grinding absolutely sucks, but then no choices do, too. I really don't get how anyone can like a KN. That's a tag I filter out. As others have said, something like a VN with choices is the best (but no sandbox, unless it's truly open world where you can do more or less what you want rather than guessing where to go to advance the story. And having it that you have to go somewhere at a specific time is really, really bad. Actually having time in the game at all is usually bad.)