Ren'Py - Happy Summer [v0.6.7] [Caizer Games]

This game was amazing and one of those gems that rating of the game here doesn't bring the justice it deserves. I really enjoyed it and played it free mode, where you don't have to care about your needs (I think those are just unnecessary tasks and should not have implemented in the first place). All in all very pleasant surprise and I recommend to give this one a try and see if you like it as much as I did.

There are some game breaking bugs on the build I played 0.6.7 where characters just dissapear into void and never come back, but I expect those to be gone in future builds, so I won't let it affect to my rating of the game.

The graphics in this game is quite good. The characters look very appealing and the animations look very good. The gameplay is not that great but not bad either. The corruption is quite fast but it is not bothering. The bas side, that amount of content is a bit low from game started in 2019.

The game has a very long start, but when it starts having sexy scenes, the animations are great. Happy Summers has been developed for quite a long time and would expect to have tons of bugs, but actually its largest downfall still lays in its lack of good quest tracking to progress the game. The scenes in the game are hidden and could be greatly improved by QOL update rather than new scenes.

TL; DR
Do not even think about touching this game if you value your real time and want to play something to get off or enjoy. Graphic part seems welcoming, what's behind it is absolutely unsightful.

[V 0.6.4]
Doesn't respect your time. You pass 80% of the game eating, showering, pissing and working with no end in sight, no upgrades nothing.
Then you have to watch the same scenes again and again to progress.
I'm not exaggerating, it's really boring.

I know I'm in the minority when i say this, but I just really enjoy this game. Is it a slow burn? Absolutely but I'm a sucker for slow burn, I get bored if the build up is to fast and I simply stop playing the game if i feel like the game moves to fast. I play these games for the story, the adult content is just a added bonus for me.

There is a fair bit of grind in this game, again for me that's what i like in sandbox games i feel it's more awarding in the sense you are building towards something, but i can understand that some people don't enjoy that.

I enjoy the renders i find them very beautiful especially Rosie's character model, i know some may find it a little dated but its refreshing to see that the DEV rendered what they wanted to render and not just what they thought other people may enjoy.

The erotic scenes are extremely beautiful and rewarding, i also enjoy how sensual the scenes are and not simply driven by lust but by the love you cultivated with the Love Interests throughout the story.

I've been a fan of Caizer Games for years ever sense i played "My Lovely Sara" i just love their style and pacing of their stories and i hope nothing but the best for them.

I really like games/VNs with a leisurely unfolding story. It doesn't matter if you don't get to sex until the third or fifth hour of gameplay - an interesting, deep story and detailed character development can make up for it. What do we see here (the game has been in development for over five years)?
- A sterile, empty plot, or rather, almost no plot at all.
- graphics are relatively good for the level of 2019-20, now it looks somewhat archaic.
- Completely uninteresting two-dimensional characters.
- the project can not fascinate, hold the attention of the player, because quite quickly the strongest attack of boredom.
- the project is developing so slowly that I am not sure that it will be completed by, say, 2030.
At the same time, I admit that this project will have its apologists, probably because of the cute physiognomies of the female characters.
I refrained from evaluating this project for a long time, but now, after five years, I can rate it two points out of a possible 10.
Can I recommend it to others? At this stage, no, unless after a couple of years, perhaps the developer will surprise us with an unexpected plot twist, so it's better to wait. But I personally doubt that there will be any pleasant surprises waiting for us.

The game started with a lot of promise, updates were a bit slow but the content was getting better. I would have personally liked it if they had just kept it to the sister and daughter but that is more preference. The biggest issue is that over time the updates have gotten lazy.
Some of the monthly updates were so sparse that there is no way it took more than a day to do them. The biggest issue however is that when we finally do get some scenes the quality has had a stead drop from questionable angles to extremely poor lighting to the last update listing 2 animations when its just 1 animation sped up.
It is very disappointing because it started out good but at some point the dev decided it was better to put in minimal work to milk the project as long as possible.

Frankly, the first version I played was really good and I couldn't wait to see more but after several versions, I feel like I'm going in circles because there is no explanation on what to do and you have to look for the walkthrough on the internet to move forward. The worst thing is when the game bugs when you switch to the new version and you have to start a newgame... Also, you can't revisit the interesting scenes when you finally get there.

Game Grind lead to anohter set mother of Grind and another Grind Large.. game is "gameplay what to grind" What sex? this game should be add to "hall of Blue ball"
Story? what story? grind yes..
Graphic okay.. is Grind
Music/sound is Grind... you hear it is grind and set of blue ball...

Recommendation.. Grind is Not key of successful porn game. SEX is Vaginal Anal mouth handjob... should change game name to "Summer of GRind"

It is boring and very repetitive. There is no depth or real story to the gameplay. Long update waits with very little added contents each time. I have decided to stop playing at 0.5.5. It is just not worth my time continuing.

Boring, long game with no action and takes forever for updates, Gameplay is stale and requires unrewarded grinding. Had potential 2 years ago. Today the models have been used in better games that only took 1/3 the development time.

The game takes a long time for an update and has little action. I've been following this game for 2 years and I'm still waiting for an interesting scene with Rosie. Perhaps this game is not the main focus of the author.

Happy Summer left me disappointed due to its lackluster story and absence of captivating scenes. The narrative felt dull and unoriginal, failing to provide engaging plot developments or memorable moments. Additionally, the absence of compelling scenes diminished the overall enjoyment and failed to create a sense of immersion. Unfortunately, these aspects prevented me from fully appreciating the game's potential.

at this point you should know what's up or if your still blind let me point it out for you... this dev is milking his patrons and backers and giving you next to nothing in return! the game has nice renders and the girls are cute! however the updates release show that the dev is putting in the bare minimum of effort to keep those who want to see vaginal sex with Rosie happen paying their bills! I was on the hype train myself for a while and hoped that things wouldn't turn out like this devs other games!

This dev doesn't have a good track record when it comes to finishing games and this is unfortunately the route I see this game heading too! my prediction is that this game will end up just like MLS (My Lovely Sara), and just before the MC and Rosie actually go to have sex for the first time... the dev will end the update on a cliffhanger and tell you the sex is coming in the next update! unfortunately that next update will never come and he will abandon this game to start another and the cycle will begin again!

perhaps on a slim chance, i may be wrong and the dev will eventually get around to giving his patrons what they have been dying to see for several years now and Rosie will finally get to become a woman! ive long since lost hope of seeing the MC actually have sex with Rosie, let alone seeing the game reach a conclusion!

in the end, my overall reaction/ rating of the game broken down by category is as follows:
Graphics/ renders - A tier! amazing looking characters and i have to give credit where credit is due! its not S teir but its pretty damn good! a nice mix of toon/ anime and 3d.

Gameplay - C tier! nothing new and stand out here. its a sandbox with areas on the map to visit and you link up with certain characters at certain locations at certain times to grind exp points for your relationship... blah blah! C tier, average nothing new to see here and the grindy nature takes points away from any fun aspect it might have had.

Playability - B tier! its not difficult to figure out what to do. the game even has a built in guide/ walkthrough that lets you know what you need to do next.
Story - D tier! what do you expect its an adult game! the story is barely there and just stands as a skeleton to hold all the cock-teasing together! you'll get some back story on the characters and then build some relationship levels then a bit more story and more relationship levels, rinse and repeat!

Adult Content - A tier! here's where things get tricky! if I'm grading the game on available content, then what's in the game is good! however...!! what people are expecting to see and what's been given in game at this point are two different things! I cant grade what's not in the game, but to those reading this who haven't actually tried the game... you should know your going in to be blue balled! the last time I played this game there was rubbing and grinding but no actual penetration. (some have commented in discussion that there is some sex in the game now but just not with Rosie) so just be warned!

Recommendation - Don't Bother! as stated above, if you go in knowing you'll probably never have sex with Rosie and your ok with that then be my guest! give it a shot! its your time and there are certainly worse piles of crap out there you could decide to play, but if your looking for the sexual content with Rosie its not here chief! the cock tease is real in this one and you probably wont see a whole lot of sex action, but if that's not a big deal to you then the handjobs and pussy grinding is still well rendered and the girls are cute! the grindy nature of the gameplay will feel like work as you grind relationship levels! I would personally recommend avoiding this one and finding another game with cute girls because in my opinion this one doesn't deliver!

I think it's a good game with good dynamics, good graphics, quite good actually, I don't like that it's so underrated, but ok, it's life. The monitoring of what to do has been improving a lot and I hope it continues like this.

Happy Summer [v0.5.3] [Caizer Games]
Review of version 0.5.3 of the game. The game is not complete and maybe in the future it will change completely.

Currently I think it's the slowest game on the site.
Very few scenes. Repetitive and boring game (every time increasing the % of girls is torture).
The game also offers the possibility to keep daily life stats stable, which of course makes the game even more boring.
The overall graphics aren't bad, but aren't incredible either.
I do not recommend the game.

The game itself is completely barren. There are no sex scenes, no choices/paths related to characters. The only thing that can be considered gameplay is where you manage your characters happiness, food, etc... but this are just one click time forward functionality which time forward not really serves a purpose. The in-game time mechanic also only effects where certain events(althought I call them events and they are technically events, it is just some interactions between characters that are related to time of day but from logical perspective there is no reason they should be time sensitive there is no reason you shouldn't be able to talk to Rosie at any time about the things you talk in the events I don't know how to better explain this).

[I recently wrote a response to another player in the HS discussion thread about how had argued that since we are all playing for free, we should - instead of complaining - go off and play other games. The following is a bit of a response to that opinion.]

Some people [such as myself] were former Patreons who excitedy paid to support the game, and grew disenchanted when the dev set a release schedule that made the movement of the continents seem almost rushed. A release schedule, I might add, that the dev chose not to explain or apologize for. AT ALL. I suspended my Patreon donations to Caizer after waiting 6 months for any substantial development of the game. I won't be back until the dev releases an update that is on par with virtually every other game out there; at least every 2-4 months.
There are going to be people who haven't paid for any of the games they play [and offer unasked for critique], that's true of any game. There are devs here who release slightly different versions of their games. There is a basic release - usually seen here and other places that is meant to attract players/patreons to invest in the game. Then there is a Patreon-only release, which often contains extra scenes, dialog and plot development, which is almost always released much earlier than the free version and pretty much never gets released for free. This appears to be a standard practice.
What is not a standard practice is someone like Caizer, who - in the beginning and for several months afterwards - promised a pretty ordinary release schedule before growing silent and releasing the barest minimum content.
A developer who has a change of circumstances [limitations coming about due to family, medical or work situations] doesn't necessarily need to go into detail about what changed, but they do need to explain that circumstances have in fact changed.
And we can clearly see from the release of mini-game within HS that the dev does in fact have the time to devote to a significant release...if he wanted to. It is crystal clear that Caizer is releasing the barest minimum of content so as to keep the Patreon/Subscribestar money flowing
Additionally, if the developer isn't a con man, they either limit or do away with Patreon donations until they can match that payment with performance. Anything less than that feels fraudulent and opportunistic.
I am sure that a LOT of other players feel this way; they do play other games, but keep coming back here because they have hope that their hope, interest and generosity is someday rewarded with an update worthy of the definition. And - like anyone who has been conned, they get pissed about reminded of the fact that they are indeed getting conned. If I were Caizer, I'd be very worried that just about every other game has a release schedule and quality of content that champions over Caizer by an order of magnitude. People are growing disillusioned by Caizer's shameless opportunism. He grandpappy would call him a cad and a scoundrel. I just think he's one of those people who never, ever leave a tip.

Currently, this game's current saving grace is the quality of the art. But with the advances in AI, that isn't going to preserve Caizer's last remaining grip on his supporters. His development 'career' is living on borrowed time. I hope the developer realizes this. It won't just be his current game that we abandon, but - due to such a shitty track record - we will apply the current level of pessemism towards any future game he might be considering.

v0.5.3
Lots of grinding, I wasted more time to get the MC's mood good for progressing with girls than enjoying the game's content. I don't recommand this game for someone seeking a decent amount of content.