I rather liked the “in media res” wedding prologue. Feels like you are stepping into the shoes of someone and any sort of formal introduction would feel out of character.
Perhaps, too, the character relations screen could be beefed up with more bio and how the MC meets them as they are introduced.
I can’t think of a single at the moment that does the introductions well primarily due to the nature of development of these games. With long periods between updates no matter how well they were introduced the players will forget some characters. I often resort to the character bios screens, if available, to refresh my memory.
I agree that the relationship screens could benefit from several improvements. They have the potential to be much more useful than they are currently. Personally, I think there are too many clicks required to access a character right now. One idea I have is to organize all characters into a mosaic-style screen, prioritizing the most important household members first. Idle characters could be displayed at 50% transparency, hovering over a selected character would be at 0% transparency, while their household members would be at 25% transparency. This setup would make it easy to understand who shares a house with whom. Implementing this would take some time, but I believe it would be worthwhile.
Additionally, I could incorporate zodiac signs for each character and create a notes section where you can jot down details you learn about them. For instance, if Millie mentions loving pancakes in Episode 3, that detail would be added to her note. Then in Episode 4, if you decide to create a bed and breakfast for Millie, you might choose between making her omelette, pancakes, or cereal.
When I started playing, I was surprised there wasn't an introduction. It was a bit of a shock having all the information presented at once. However, since they are teenagers, I thought maybe they don't have much history to introduce.
Perhaps you could include a Prologue chapter where they are at school or the mall, and you can calmly introduce who each one is and a bit of their personalities. I had difficulty distinguishing my relatives, my friends, and the staff at the party.
But the game as it is did not affect my experience, because in chapter two all my doubts were cleared up.
I'm glad Episode 1 provided you with more understanding. At some point, I'll need to remake The Prologue to update all the characters. I might also expand its content by adding more options and possibly remove the porta-potty scene entirely. This should make the game less cringeworthy, more professional, and improve the overall experience.
I think Fresh Women did a good job of introducing the characters that felt fairly natural but didn't get bogged down in exposition.
Granted none of the ladies lived with the MC, and I didn't play until the entire first season was done, so I don't know how it looked in Dev.
Honestly, I think the lack of content in the game is what is holding it back the most.
Probably too early for early access on Steam, that's what the majority of negative reviews there seem to indicate.
Once it gets a few more updates under its belt it will probably be fine.
Theoretically, it's a positive sign that people are interested in the game and eager for more content. Additional content will be added over time. While some developers release larger batches of 3 to 5 Episodes per season, I plan to release 9 Episodes, with each one expanding in size. Some reviews may be influenced by delays, which is understandable.
The Steam store page has always provided information about the estimated playtime for The Prologue and the combined length of The Prologue and Episode 1, along with details about the current release version.
Therefore, people were realistically aware of the current content length and what the full release will involve.
Moreover, it's a great deal to purchase AVNs on Steam with a one-time payment and receive all future updates. The release timing for Episode 1 on Steam was aligned with all Patreon tiers due to the delay. Many people pay $25 a month to access the latest releases 1 to 2 weeks before lower tiers. Purchasing the game now for $7 (or $5 on sale right now, the cheapest price was $4 in June) is a reasonable price compared to a cup of coffee that lasts only 5-10 minutes. The game stays in your library forever and will continue to improve and expand.
Unfortunately, many negative reviews on Steam don't fully understand how much they can impact sales and the potential for stable investment for solo AVN developers who pour significant resources into their projects. Negative feedback can hinder steady progress, including the addition of new assets for future releases. Let’s hope that after Episode 2, the game can shift from a “Mixed” to a “Positive” rating on Steam. Recent months have seen more wishlist deletions than additions every day, which is understandable—who wants a “Mixed” rated game on their wishlist?
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Thank you for the feedback. However, Ariel wants more!
Scene Creation: Approximately 1 hour
Render Time: 33 minutes
Post-Processing: 3 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour and 36 minutes
Iterations: 2,000 (Forced Stop)
Resolution: 2880 x 3840 pixels
GPU: NVIDIA RTX 4090 FE
CPU: Intel i9-14900K
RAM: 128 GB DDR5
