Ren'Py Guest House [v0.2.3] [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.

 

[LadySpider]

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.)

 

[god_kane]

I tried again after a while but i am still forced to bail after a couple of minutes.
The introduction and Ms Kang is way too ridiculous. I don't want to see a LI naked in the first 30sec... Where's the build-up?? i juste hate it
I am so sad because the models, premise and settings look totally what i would enjoy.

 

[Soft Whisper]

looks like old saves won't work because the switch to sandbox (2.0 -> 2.2)?
View attachment 3978480
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.

Well, I was planning a way around the more complicated sandbox elements. Day and time changes would only happen during main story events. Each main story event would dump you back in the living room the next morning Sandbox takes longer to code, but coding isn't what's slowing me down right now. It's my damn PC rendering these images for hours at a time. It's absolutely killing my creativity. If I utilize 3D sprites for filler content, then I can world build the boring stuff in a timely manner and focus on rendering the main story events once I've added all the lewd content to the game. So you'd get most of the sandbox adult content setup from the start. The framework would then be in place for 3 story events per girl... So 3x5 girls is 15 fully 3D rendered main story events. The phase one main story event for Jisoo would be her introducing the protagonist to the world of kpop at her studio, the phase one story event for Jiho is her asking the protagonist to help her write the Guest House novel (it's currently in 3D sprite formate, but I'll redo this in full 3D), the phase one story event for Ms. Kang is giving him a tour of the palace, the phase one story event for Sujin is her introducing him to a failing love hotel,the phase one main story event for Hyuna would be a date where she takes the protagonist to watch some busking before her DJ performance. Then everyone would be ready for phase 2 and the protagonist can then ask each girl to be his girlfriend. This option is already available since Hana's main story event is the only one I've completed (well, I'm probably going to recapture this scene in full 3D once I find a daz asset that looks appropriate). I haven't wrote phase 2 scenes yet, but phase 3 would be each girl's ending OR a harem ending if you don't mind Hyuna's camgirl content.

 

[robbaniak]

R.I.P.

 

[6string420]

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.

Yeah, for sure. Most definitely aren't probably trying to be supportive and or helpful. Well, maybe some are. In Forums now of days, most are just blatantly stating their opinion, rather it's really true or false, with no regard on how they might effect someone. People, obviously have even less of a filter for their words than they would in real life. Because, there is basically no consequences saying mean or hurtful things while online, because of the anonymity. People tend to a bit more thoughtful if said interaction could have negative consequences towards them for their words or behaviors. Though, that doesn't mean that their comments have less of an effect on someone, or hurt less, just because it's online. Most should at least try to take this into account, if they would like it if someone did or said the same to them. It seems the values people had around 20 or more years ago are quickly becoming a thing of the past, and it's really saddens me to see this kind of behavior, either be it in person or online, no one seems to treat each other with much respect now a days. Also, most people don't seem to have that many morals either. So, to me at least to future, while the technology may be great, it seems very bleak to me. That said, I'm downloading the update now, and I'll report back as to what I think about the sandbox. For the dev to get a better introspective look into the game's development. Not that I think more words have any more weight than others. I will just be sure to be courteous and at least give constructive criticism, if I have any. I think Soft Whisper has done a great job so far and I really like this game. So I'd like for for both to succeed on this site and any other.

 

[Issikka]

While i like parts of the game and update, the sandbox was just not that straight forward with no hints and no idea as to what to do, i ended up botching my game somehow and got so frustrated i deleted it without completing it fully.
Sandbox needs to be really well thought out and implemented to work, either with true free roam or a solid hint system that guides you though the story imo.

 

[joryh]

It's rare to see even single korean characters much less an entire game with the Korean aesthethic so this seems like a breath of fresh air. Good luck with your game!

Be nice if their names weren't fucked up. Last names come first, not only for Koreans, but many Asian countries. It's hardly a secret to anyone with a smirch of Asian exposure.

 

[Soft Whisper]

Yeah, for sure. Most definitely aren't probably trying to be supportive and or helpful. Well, maybe some are. In Forums now of days, most are just blatantly stating their opinion, rather it's really true or false, with no regard on how they might effect someone. People, obviously have even less of a filter for their words than they would in real life. Because, there is basically no consequences saying mean or hurtful things while online, because of the anonymity. People tend to a bit more thoughtful if said interaction could have negative consequences towards them for their words or behaviors. Though, that doesn't mean that their comments have less of an effect on someone, or hurt less, just because it's online. Most should at least try to take this into account, if they would like it if someone did or said the same to them. It seems the values people had around 20 or more years ago are quickly becoming a thing of the past, and it's really saddens me to see this kind of behavior, either be it in person or online, no one seems to treat each other with much respect now a days. Also, most people don't seem to have that many morals either. So, to me at least to future, while the technology may be great, it seems very bleak to me. That said, I'm downloading the update now, and I'll report back as to what I think about the sandbox. For the dev to get a better introspective look into the game's development. Not that I think more words have any more weight than others. I will just be sure to be courteous and at least give constructive criticism, if I have any. I think Soft Whisper has done a great job so far and I really like this game. So I'd like for for both to succeed on this site and any other.

Sometimes criticism can be good if they're not directly insulting someone. If people want a kinetic novel, then I want them to vote that way and make it clearly known to me rather than just leaving a comment saying RIP or posting an emoji of a sinking ship. I want to listen to everyone's opinion and make an informed decision. They could be completely right that a kinetic novel is the correct route to take. I just want to see that clearly reflected in the poll. Atm, it's very evenly distributed, so it kind of loops back around to "what do I want to do?" ... Which kind of defeats the purpose of the poll. I probably should have left out that third option.

Be nice if their names weren't fucked up. Last names come first, not only for Koreans, but many Asian countries. It's hardly a secret to anyone with a smirch of Asian exposure.

Very true, but they're speaking in English. Women I met in Korea introduced themselves using the standard first name, last name as a courtesy since they were speaking to a foreigner. However, they immediately let me know that their names were reversed in Korean.

 

[HiHaHo]

Sometimes criticism can be good if they're not directly insulting someone. If people want a kinetic novel, then I want them to vote that way and make it clearly known to me rather than just leaving a comment saying RIP or posting an emoji of a sinking ship. I want to listen to everyone's opinion and make an informed decision. They could be completely right that a kinetic novel is the correct route to take. I just want to see that clearly reflected in the poll. Atm, it's very evenly distributed, so it kind of loops back around to "what do I want to do?" ... Which kind of defeats the purpose of the poll. I probably should have left out that third option.

i still stand by my: you decide what you want to do on how to do it...
having others decide on what and how to do your avn will be harder ,whether you go kinetic VN or sandbox free-roam doesn't matter because both have their own fanbases with a bit off overlap maybe.
(you just started with 0.1 which was VN styled so you attracted that fanbase first and those are watching the thread,so you changing to sandbox from kinetic is of course going to upset some people who aren't into that)

Mostly im concerned about your process here in general, trying to envision your own story into your own AVN will be more doable and probably better quality then trying to make a AVN based on polls & opinions off 10-30 people on the internet.
a good example would be the DEI/WOKE games,series & movies that have been made the last few year and have been/are airing
massive disliked and were big financial losses.

Any and all feedback is relevant ,sure some might be phrased rudely but they are not responsible for your mental well being or emotional state.
I'm going to assume you're a Man and one off basic things most men learn is that your emotions need to be regulated/controlled.
failing to learn that important lesson will lead to highly emotional man which is easily manipulated and tend to be prone to unnecessary violence etc. these "men" are more akin to a fully grown boy then a Man. a man acts on his Logic & morality and after that if its relevant at all his emotions.

da Vinci,van Gogh ,Rembrandt & other artists didn't go around doing polls or asking how and what to do , They did what and how they wanted to.
We are the consumers! not the artists
You are the artist!! the responsibility to write the fiction,to make the art & renders fall to you.
and if you deliver a quality product you can make a living off it,if a few people don't like it, Fuck em! then your product isn't for them.

all this indecisiveness plus back & fourth is only making me doubt you more that you can deliver a decent quality product(avn)
TLDR:

ignore the small amount off people who have interacted because were mostly focking degenerates who couldn't write a decent story or make a quality render if our life depended on it
MAKE THE FOCKING DECISION ON WHAT AND HOW TO DO IT YOURSELF AS THE DEV!!!!
WE ARE HERE TO CONSUME THE AVN NOT TO CREATE IT

-disclaimer i am no shape or form responsible for your emotional/mental state or how you have received my opinion and assumptions