- Jun 28, 2022
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Sandbox, time to bail
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Ren'Py Guest House [v0.2.3] [Soft Whisper Games]
- Thread starter Soft Whisper
- Start date
Yeah, I figured I could introduce some player freedom, but experimenting with the format is rustling some feathers. I don't mind too much either way, but it does suck to throw what I've done in the trash. Once I finished coding + rendering everything, I really enjoyed play testing this update. It actually feels like a "game" now, but I can see where people are coming from. They want more of what I showed in the intro and don't want to have to unlock events manually.
Soft Whisper, I am impressed by the quality of the animations you added to your project. Although the poses are similar to some other products, the breast physics in this game looks outstanding compared to almost every other game I've tried. It feels like a real-life natural breast bouncing. Thanks for your hard work!
Thank you! A few of them are store bought, but most of them are custom animations that I worked super hard on. Did you try any of the sandbox animations out? I was planning on adding sex animations in the next update.
Not a fan of sandbox but I HATE kinetic novels. If I want something with no choices, I'd watch porn. Much better graphics. I just downloaded today, and if it ends up a non-game I'll just delete.
- Jan 2, 2023
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you're a right kinetic novel isn't a game.. never was.. its a novel always was
adding a few choice's doesn't really make it a "game" ether IMO just a Novel with branching story's
only the true sandboxes (aka talk x5 to get next scene) or RPG's (stats,travel maps etc.) i'd considerer it going into the term "game"
- Oct 28, 2018
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you can make a kinetic novel and still give the players some choices, like ones that will sliughty change conversations the mc has with the girls; or give the option for the player to choose if a girl is shaved, trimmed or has a full bush
I'm starting to wonder if some of the negative feedback is coming from players who didn't finish the update. While this format allows me to speed up the development cycle, there's also a ton of potential for adult content. Almost no one commented on the "house rules" I plan to implement. The next few updates could be fun to play through since I've thought of an easy way to implement pregnancy content. Almost no games have been able to implement this properly without breaking the story, or are just perpetually stuck in "coming soon" phase. Because I plan to add a feature that allows the player to go back into a previous phase of the game. That would allow you to switch between a pregnant harem and non pregnant harem seamlessly as many times as they want. If you're playing a kinetic novel, that sort of content would take a long time to implement and only show up at the very end... But maybe that's what everyone wants? Does everyone want a linear story and nothing else? No ability to pursue relationships out of order? Just straight through, every girl has to wait in line? I'm fine with that, but a KN is going to take longer since every single scenario will have to be captured in full 3D.
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- Oct 28, 2018
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i played through the game completely, did everything to get the harem going. the only thing i didn't see was the new girl and with no hints, i have no idea where to even look. like others said, most sandbox's become a grind fest and that's what having to talk to the girls all those times is. i don't usually criticize avns i play because i only play those that i think i might like and if i don't like it, most of the time i don't even finish the current content. but i really like this vn and was looking forward to how it would unfold , but was disappointed when the sandbox element came up as it came out of no where and as i said in a previous post, 99% of the time sandbox's break the immersion for me, im sure there are others that are like that as well. not discounting the hard work you put in to do the coding for the sandbox, but i hope you remove it and go back to the regular VN format. as of right now this game is incorrectly still tagged as a VN, but with the sandbox that comes after the prologue and first chapter, it no longer qualifies as a VN, but as a game. i wish you luck with which ever path you decide to take.
- Feb 8, 2023
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I did. My advice is to keep using ready assets, sometimes giving them an extra touch the way you did with what we already have in the game, but not to overdo the number of custom animations. You know better than me how time-consuming it is to render full HD 30 FPS animations. Creating custom animations could potentially drain you much faster. I respect your work, and personally, I don't want you to overwork yourself.
I'm truly impressed by your use of available tools. Don't get me wrong, leveraging pre-made assets is a smart strategy to conserve time and resources (so, potentially equaling more frequent updates for demanding supporters, which leads to better loyalty and a chance to get even more patrons), allowing you to focus on more innovative areas like gameplay, character development, and storytelling. Your masterful handling of physics in animations, in particular, is a testament to your skill in harnessing software and takes generic assets to the level of a masterpiece with your hard work.
Keep things up! Don't let negative criticism discourage you. Game development is a creative process, and everyone has their own preferences. Your passion and dedication are evident, and I wish you continued success!
Will wait for future updates.
Thanks for staying with F95 community!
sandbox or something no one is asking for, great poll (sarcasm). we want choice based vn not some click [here] to go [there], then click on [girl], then click option [talk] then repeat with next girl. worse sandbox breaks saves more often meaning if you follow along with updates you get screwed over. this leads people to wait for full release, which then allows the vocal minority to input stupid fetishes that ruin the game.
all i can say is think about the primary purpose of the medium you are using and the fact that this is all a porn game. renpy is a story telling visual medium the primary purpose to to tell a story with visuals shocker i know. so what purpose does sandbox serve in that. nothing it just inflates playtime which for some people make this feel like more of a game. this is just porn with choices not a game. just so you know i cheat in every single sandbox i do play, which inst many. what that means is the sandbox games i do play i go out of my way to remove as much sandbox as possible.
While sandbox VN can be fun, it ends at the point, where the player isn't given any indication, what to do or when the current content is at its end. Add to this the fact, that I actually needed to go into this thread, just to get to know, what to do, makes it a really bad implemented sandbox, like too many others. Sandbox is always fine, if you have content to back it up with repeatable, non-necessary content, to fill some gaps (aka time slots). But there has to be some kind of indication, what the player is supposed to do. And repeating the same thing 5+ times for a little progression?? That's called grinding and it just inflates the time the player has to spend and will drive a ton of people directly away, because in these games, it seems that just a small amount of people like grinding. For me, it's breaks immersion. I'm also on the fence. While I'm on board for the "do what YOU want and not what polls are asking for" crew, because it's your game, I would also be a little more happy, if it wasn't converted into a sandbox game. And considering, that you think, that making it a sandbox would speed up your development, I have to say, you're dead wrong on this, because in 90% of all cases, it slows things drastically more down, than a VN and even more so than a KN.
- Oct 28, 2018
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kn's still get the VN tag, but sandbox games do not, unless they have a vn mode
- Jul 12, 2022
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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 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.
You can still easily undo it but you have to understand that a game that starts by having an actual story with scenes and story beats and all that jazz suddenly becoming "click the girl 7-10 times and now she's your girlfriend" is a letdown? Like there was almost exclusively text-dumping at the end.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.
You were already on the right track with how the game started off. That's why people are upset, because you changed something that worked into something worse, not because people hate the entire project.
At the end of the day you need to do it the way you believe in. If you believe in this change you'll just have to bear with it. If you felt better about where the game started, it's fairly easy to go back. But I have to say, I sensed no inspiration at all from the latest update whereas the initial updates had character to them.
Also it's probably better to ask your audience in the future before committing to some large change. (Just don't ask whoever told you to make it a sandbox, they don't know what they're talking about). Once a game has established itself, after just a few updates, the people that are following the project at that point do so because they more or less like it the way it is. Changing the way the game is after the fact is a huge risky proposition and shouldn't be done without serious consideration and probably some community feedback.