Ren'Py Guest House [v0.2.3] [Soft Whisper Games]

[Soft Whisper]

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

Understood... I'm giving it a few days to marinate. Will decide by the 1st. In the mean time, I'm adding an in game guide so people understand what I was going for.

 

[jly]

The problem with sandbox games isn't that sandboxes are good or bad. It's that sandboxes are hard.

With single amateur developers that are developing the game as they go, what happens almost all the time is that they put in a ton of energy and effort upfront to build a sandbox world, then have no idea how to fill it.

Successful open-world video games require huge teams and lots of planning and organization, so that the world doesn't just become copy-and-paste encounters. With amateur games, most developers just don't have the time or experience to do that. You end up with abandoned areas or time-slots as the story develops, especially when there are multiple LIs. The dev decides to develop a longer plot with a character, but that character only comes home every day after work at 5 PM, so now there 10 events in a row that only trigger at 5 PM on weekdays and players have to skip time repeatedly just to trigger those events. Or harem plots where the player has to woo one member at a time, resulting in 20 days of waking up, going to location X, talking to that character, going to sleep, repeat.

KNs are much less ambitious but much more likely to successfully achieve their goals.

 

[Soft Whisper]

The problem with sandbox games isn't that sandboxes are good or bad. It's that sandboxes are hard.

With single amateur developers that are developing the game as they go, what happens almost all the time is that they put in a ton of energy and effort upfront to build a sandbox world, then have no idea how to fill it.

Successful open-world video games require huge teams and lots of planning and organization, so that the world doesn't just become copy-and-paste encounters. With amateur games, most developers just don't have the time or experience to do that. You end up with abandoned areas or time-slots as the story develops, especially when there are multiple LIs. The dev decides to develop a longer plot with a character, but that character only comes home every day after work at 5 PM, so now there 10 events in a row that only trigger at 5 PM on weekdays and players have to skip time repeatedly just to trigger those events. Or harem plots where the player has to woo one member at a time, resulting in 20 days of waking up, going to location X, talking to that character, going to sleep, repeat.

KNs are much less ambitious but much more likely to successfully achieve their goals.

True, but there are no time slots in my game. Days change automatically at the end of main story events and hold no real meaning. It's kind of hard to explain, but the game is based on 3 different phases, where everything in each phase happens within a few days of each other. The scope of this project would be much smaller and utilize a limited sandbox format. Assuming, I decide to go that direction. Might just switch it back to a KN.

 

[rvlfycpydgdcttfren]

I dont really get what to do to progress the story. After i woke up the day after arriving i spoke to each girl 6 or 7 times in their room at which point they became my gf, then i did each activity once and then... is that the end?

 

[Nimbus Commando]

Like personally speaking would I get with a cam whore no it would be like getting with a prostitute so no way but so far I like the game story is fun Lis are good plus love me an Asian woman.

 

[HiHaHo]

I dont really get what to do to progress the story. After i woke up the day after arriving i spoke to each girl 6 or 7 times in their room at which point they became my gf, then i did each activity once and then... is that the end?

You don't have to do it in this exact order, but here's a guide:

Step 1: Complete Ms. Kang's phase 1 main story quest (she's in the kitchen). This will eventually be expanded to include Jisoo, Sujin, and Hyuna's main story quest.

Step 2: Exhaust Jiho's talk events and then ask her about her new book. Ask her to be your girlfriend. Then finally ask her how to build a harem.

Step 3: Leave Jiho's room and begin exhausting each love interest talk events in their respective bedroom. Hold the CTRL key to skip through their dialogue.

Step 3: Click the button that says "Will you be my girlfriend?" on each girl.

Step 4: Enjoy everyone's lewd animation sets.

Step 5: Report back to Jiho and tell her that everyone is your girlfriend.

Step 6: Speak with Ms. Kang so you can begin passing house rules (the update ends here).

Step 7: Wait for the next update.

 

[Anteron]

Yeah, I'm stuck there. Talked to each of the girls, but it had said to come to eat, but nothing in the dining room. That's the not good kind of sandbox, where you have to pick the right place to go and what to do isn't clear.

 

[Hfap5]

Sandbox games on mobile are a bummer. Devs should evaluate that statistic sooner if there are more PC or mobile players

 

[5mithers]

A few notes:

1. The new "hidden" girl content only shows up if you play from scratch as others have mentioned.
2. For the sandbox stuff, the only gripe I had was zero indication of anything changing. If I interact with a girl 2-3 times, and zero changes, that indicates to me that I'm doing the wrong thing. In general game design, if you (as a player) are looping the same dialog over and over, you are doing the wrong thing. This is usually an indication you need to try and find something else to do to progress the story.

So yeah, Soft Whisper my suggestion would simply be: If you stick with the sandbox, indicate that something is progressing when interacting with the girls. The fact that your unofficial walkthrough includes the worlds "Hold CTRL to fast forward through the dialog" would indicate that this is grind for grind's sake. Not for actually progressing the relationship of the girl. If each interaction involved a slightly more friendly interaction, etc... That would make more sense from a progression standpoint.

 

[Soft Whisper]

A few notes:

1. The new "hidden" girl content only shows up if you play from scratch as others have mentioned.
2. For the sandbox stuff, the only gripe I had was zero indication of anything changing. If I interact with a girl 2-3 times, and zero changes, that indicates to me that I'm doing the wrong thing. In general game design, if you (as a player) are looping the same dialog over and over, you are doing the wrong thing. This is usually an indication you need to try and find something else to do to progress the story.

So yeah, Soft Whisper my suggestion would simply be: If you stick with the sandbox, indicate that something is progressing when interacting with the girls. The fact that your unofficial walkthrough includes the worlds "Hold CTRL to fast forward through the dialog" would indicate that this is grind for grind's sake. Not for actually progressing the relationship of the girl. If each interaction involved a slightly more friendly interaction, etc... That would make more sense from a progression standpoint.

The "hold ctrl to skip" instructions are a joke since people don't like to read. The talk events are meant to be entertaining world building events, but I guess ppl just want to smash. Also, I'm not sure what you mean by a more friendly interaction?

Yeah, I'm stuck there. Talked to each of the girls, but it had said to come to eat, but nothing in the dining room. That's the not good kind of sandbox, where you have to pick the right place to go and what to do isn't clear.

I worded that poorly. She just meant: let's go back to the Guest House sandbox because the main story event is over.

 

[Mrjackhammer95]

Damn those poll results are about as close to 33% that I think I have ever seen.

 

[Juerhullycin]

saw the new updated thought about giving the game a spin and then saw that it got tagged sandbox

 

[5mithers]

The "hold ctrl to skip" instructions are a joke since people don't like to read. The talk events are meant to be entertaining world building events, but I guess ppl just want to smash. Also, I'm not sure what you mean by a more friendly interaction?

Usually in Renpy, the default behavior is to only be able to skip text you have seen before. If you are ablt to hold CTRL to skip through the text, that mean that nothing has changed.

My "more friendly" comment was again, a suggestion of showing slightly different interactions each time.

I.e. (Dumbass examples I can think of at the moment):
Interaction 1: General interaction.
Interaction 2: Maybe a comment about how it's good to chat more often.
Interaction 3: Something about how they enjoy the chat with you.
Interaction 4: Perhaps generally more flirting, etc.
Interaction 5: Something about how they wish that you two would get closer, etc.
Interaction 6: Saying they wish they could find a boyfriend like you.
Interaction 7: Option to ask her to be your girlfriend.

Basically, any indication of progress/change over time, rather than the exact same identical text each time through which shows zero indication of change.

Imagine a webpage where you click a button, but it gives you zero feedback on whether you actually clicked it, if it did anything when you click it, etc. That's what repeating dialog that has zero changes is. It's not great UX.

 

[Anteron]

Usually in Renpy, the default behavior is to only be able to skip text you have seen before. If you are ablt to hold CTRL to skip through the text, that mean that nothing has changed.

My "more friendly" comment was again, a suggestion of showing slightly different interactions each time.

I.e. (Dumbass examples I can think of at the moment):
Interaction 1: General interaction.
Interaction 2: Maybe a comment about how it's good to chat more often.
Interaction 3: Something about how they enjoy the chat with you.
Interaction 4: Perhaps generally more flirting, etc.
Interaction 5: Something about how they wish that you two would get closer, etc.
Interaction 6: Saying they wish they could find a boyfriend like you.
Interaction 7: Option to ask her to be your girlfriend.

Basically, any indication of progress/change over time, rather than the exact same identical text each time through which shows zero indication of change.

Imagine a webpage where you click a button, but it gives you zero feedback on whether you actually clicked it, if it did anything when you click it, etc. That's what repeating dialog that has zero changes is. It's not great UX.

And it DEFINITELY shouldn't need that many interactions to advance. Grinding in adult games is a Very Bad Thing.

 

[Soft Whisper]

Damn those poll results are about as close to 33% that I think I have ever seen.

Yeah, I thought everyone wanted a kinetic novel because of the massive # of complaints in the comment section. Apparently, it's half and half. So I'm going to have to make the decision based on a tie. Which makes it more difficult for me since I was just going to say, okay, this was my bad. I'll redo everything and make it a KN again... but sandbox is actually leading by like 4 or 5 votes. So now I'm starting to feel like it depends on the player. Some people prefer sandbox and some people prefer a novel. Whichever decision I make, it's going to dissapoint someone.

 

[TigerWolfe]

Whichever decision I make, it's going to dissapoint someone.

The trouble with making stuff

 

[CaptDaddy24]

Yeah, I thought everyone wanted a kinetic novel because of the massive # of complaints in the comment section. Apparently, it's half and half. So I'm going to have to make the decision based on a tie. Which makes it more difficult for me since I was just going to say, okay, this was my bad. I'll redo everything and make it a KN again... but sandbox is actually leading by like 4 or 5 votes. So now I'm starting to feel like it depends on the player. Some people prefer sandbox and some people prefer a novel. Whichever decision I make, it's going to dissapoint someone.

Just make your game your way....Make it fun for you,don't worry about what everyone wants.

 

[Anteron]

Yeah, I thought everyone wanted a kinetic novel because of the massive # of complaints in the comment section. Apparently, it's half and half. So I'm going to have to make the decision based on a tie. Which makes it more difficult for me since I was just going to say, okay, this was my bad. I'll redo everything and make it a KN again... but sandbox is actually leading by like 4 or 5 votes. So now I'm starting to feel like it depends on the player. Some people prefer sandbox and some people prefer a novel. Whichever decision I make, it's going to dissapoint someone.

How about a novel, but one with meaningful choices? Kinetic novels are stupid and a waste. Why do that when you can just watch porn if you don't want choices? I think a lot of the sandbox votes, myself included aren't pro-sandbox but anti-kinetic novel.

 

[TurhaanKoitatte]

Fucking camwhore. Forces me to delete this. It ruins the whole vibe of the game. I have no interest in the whole game anymore. Because of that shit, this time I'm less annoyed with the fucking sandbox.

 

[RyukXaos]

Yeah, I thought everyone wanted a kinetic novel because of the massive # of complaints in the comment section. Apparently, it's half and half. So I'm going to have to make the decision based on a tie. Which makes it more difficult for me since I was just going to say, okay, this was my bad. I'll redo everything and make it a KN again... but sandbox is actually leading by like 4 or 5 votes. So now I'm starting to feel like it depends on the player. Some people prefer sandbox and some people prefer a novel. Whichever decision I make, it's going to dissapoint someone.

I missed the poll but sandbox is the better option, especially to add in repeatable scenes. Most of(not all but most) of the people against sandboxes just skip the dialogue to get to the scenes anyway. Sandbox would provide a better opportunity for worldbuilding and character development other than the characters just feeling like they only exist in the parts of the story they show up in.