Ren'Py Harmony Girls [v0.4a Public] [Osirian]

[Osirian]

First off, thanks for the game! Looks and plays great so far.

Now for a few thoughts, if you are interested:
Personally, I think the pacing of the game is roughly OK. It may also be a bit slow in the beginning, but I would say that is normal, since you need to find your way through the mechanics and not always do everything optimally. So, imho the overall rate of new content comes at a good pace so far. Also you provide help with what to do next.
I mean, there are impatient people who rather have all the content instantly, but if the gameplay keeps me entertained I find it a lot more rewarding if the unlocking of new content is paced well, rather than too fast. It gives a better feel of achievement. I wouldn't balance the progress in a game on those, they can have a gallery unlock, if they don't need a game just a quick wank ;p
That said, the fine tuning of this should be done closer to finishing the game anyways, since new game play additions may disrupt this, needing you to rebalance the pacing or certain parts of it again anyways.

Generally, I didn't perceive the game as too grindy. The Claire games are grindy, Eastern MMOs are grindy, but compared to those your game seems fine to me in that regard. The perks and generally the various stats and unlocks that influnce a scene give it a better variety than most porn games while your game blances free (sandbox) gameplay and pre-scripted route also quite well. Similar to what Tuition Academia managed to do – not too much freedom so it distracts, but enough to not make you not feel railroaded and with plenty of choices.

Overally, the perk system and mechanics in the scenes make this more of a strategy game than an story based novel-like game. That is a nice variation of the usual fare, and imo that is where you should concentrate. By making the scenes and interactions a bit more "strategic". The current system is a bit random, but the directions is good.

The content in regards of sexual variety so far good and I like to option to turn off certain aspects of it. Thanks for that.

The option to change the outfits in the scenes is great (good options so far) and .... maybe a bit more variety in the future?
Also the current are often quite similar.


So a few suggestions based on my thoughts above and a few comments:

1.) Expand the perks – more options are always good. Also maybe you need to specialize, as to what direction you want to go with a character – which is admittedly kind of already in (character preferences), but more in regards to the individual perks.

2.) As already mentioned, the movement is a bit inconsistent and the map pretty much gets useless in the latter current version of the game. My suggestion is to use the map as a "main screen". You have the house with its rooms (in list form?), let's say on the left of the screen and the other locations are on a map taking up the rest of the screen. So you would replace the view of your room and use the map to make the choices that are currently offered by the list menu. You could have seedier sections of the city (making security maybe important, but maybe offering more xp?) and more secure ones with better paying clients, and the option pops up and disappears just like in the list. Your own room could be used to make the videos and the managment part. Giving you a visual enhancement of the "doing the company from home". Also the morning/day/evening/night-cycle can be also done on the city view.

3.) As mentioned above, I think the meat of the game is still the scenes and how you manage to get the best out of them. So making the game-play less grindy and less repetitive (you are on the right track there imo) would be quite important. More variation for renders of the clients and maybe make the challenge system a kind of "customer preference", so you have to adapt your skills to the situation (basically like now, just integrate it into the scene in a more immersive manner). The basics are there actually, you just need to expand upon them.

Alright, that's it for now. Thanks again for the great game and my best wishes for the further development process.

I am looking for ways to make the video making gameplay different and I want to spice it up. I'll be brainstorming ideas for that once I've worked out some other issues with the game.

My first issue is with the map as well, but I've pretty much decided how I want to go about that. Instead of traveling to places through the map, there will be a drop down menu that allows you to interact with a character, and you'll travel to their location and open the interaction menu. There will also be a drop down menu to perform various actions, like working out, drinking at the bar, etc. Those actions will be expanded in the future. So you'll still be moving throughout the various locations, but you won't have to travel there manually.

As for the grind, I've created 3 different difficulty levels, with the current state of the game considered the hard difficulty. Medium will have girls stats, perk points, and subscriber gains increase as you max other girls. Easy will see a significant boost to all of those and make the grind almost non-existent. For those who just want to enjoy the story, easy mode would be for them. For those who enjoy gameplay, hard mode and the challenge mode are designed for them.

I have lots of content I'd love to add to the game, but my focus for the next update has been overhauling the animation system to remedy the performance issues. Thanks for the suggestions and I hope you continue enjoying the game!

 

[Osirian]

Preliminarily referring, something like a skill tree (similar to typical RPGs) could be introduced (ex. using solo, lesbian, MF and group, sub-trees). Because as it stands, once we have all 5 traits at level 5, we catch a lot of skill points that cannot be used (for example, Lilith in my safe has 121,000 perk points to use; Claire has 90,000 of them and Jamie has almost 50,000 points to use). So, it seems that the current state should be expanded.

In addition, I believe that, it will allow for the possibility of character customisation, making it possible to go through the game several times, with gameplay that would not be linear.

I've removed the excess perk points for the next update. Instead, you'll gain a benefit on medium difficulty settings where maxing those perk points will cause other girls to gain perk points quicker. As for a skill tree, I'm hesitant to add something like that as I want to keep complexity down, as this is a porn game after all. I am considering ways to spice up the gameplay, but I'll need to spend some time brainstorming ideas. And as for non-linear gameplay, I've stayed away from it as games which do so tend to have development times that extends into many years or even the better part of a decade. I understand the appeal of it for replay value, but currently I prefer the linear storyline for the game.

 

[Corradon]

I am looking for ways to make the video making gameplay different and I want to spice it up. I'll be brainstorming ideas for that once I've worked out some other issues with the game.

My first issue is with the map as well, but I've pretty much decided how I want to go about that. Instead of traveling to places through the map, there will be a drop down menu that allows you to interact with a character, and you'll travel to their location and open the interaction menu. There will also be a drop down menu to perform various actions, like working out, drinking at the bar, etc. Those actions will be expanded in the future. So you'll still be moving throughout the various locations, but you won't have to travel there manually.

As for the grind, I've created 3 different difficulty levels, with the current state of the game considered the hard difficulty. Medium will have girls stats, perk points, and subscriber gains increase as you max other girls. Easy will see a significant boost to all of those and make the grind almost non-existent. For those who just want to enjoy the story, easy mode would be for them. For those who enjoy gameplay, hard mode and the challenge mode are designed for them.

I have lots of content I'd love to add to the game, but my focus for the next update has been overhauling the animation system to remedy the performance issues. Thanks for the suggestions and I hope you continue enjoying the game!

Thanks for your reply. Can't wait to see what you will come up with

 

[Corradon]

... as this is a porn game after all.

Well, true, but the last few years have shown that sex games and bad/boring gameplay don't necessarily go hand in hand. Also here on this site you can see some very nice work with intriguing stories, engaging characters and at least OK gameplay. That said, as mentioned above, I think your game is on right track, and could provide a good balance of "lewd simplicity" yet interesting enough gameplay.

I understand the appeal of it for replay value, but currently I prefer the linear storyline for the game.

First, linear gameplay doesn't necessarily equal to no replayability. There are quite a lot of "linear" games which people have played through mutliple times (Tomb Raider, Half Life, Halo, Dishonoured, etc.). If the experience is good, why not? So you don't necessarily need extra assets or complex paths of choices.
Second, I think that your game has already the groundwork laid for a better replayability. Take for example the "video creation" menu. As it is now I can pretty much do every activity on a given day. If you would only do a certain number of actions then you'd need to be more selective, which could offer different experiences on a later play-through.

Of course you know what available time and resources you have and so far you've done a solid job with those. So, don't take this as a criticism of you current work. Do what you feel is right for the game.

 

[Burner_Account_1239]

Instead, you'll gain a benefit on medium difficulty settings where maxing those perk points will cause other girls to gain perk points quicker. As for a skill tree, I'm hesitant to add something like that as I want to keep complexity down, as this is a porn game after all.

Personally, I think character building and development, is something that brings quite a bit of fun, and is a differentiating factor for your game. It makes it so that even the objectively existing flaws in the current state of the game (such as repetitive scenes or a miniature sandbox), don't detract from the gameplay.

Regarding the tree or alternative forms of character development, in my opinion the fact that we are dealing with a pornographic game is not a disabling factor. Because, further stages of character development could, for example, unlock further animations, fetishes or progress to further levels of perversion.

Obviously, these are very preliminary thoughts, but they are based on one thought pertaining to the game. And that is that I believe that each new update should mean more options in character development. This could, for example, be correlated with new activities, which would mean a higher difficulty level.

Because, in my opinion, a situation in which we are faced with Lily/Claire/Jamie with totally doped-up stats who easily get, the highest score undermines the strongest aspect of the playability of the game.

And to conclude, I am aware of the limited resurgence, and don't take this as a criticism because it still must be pointed out, that there is highly unique aspects, in this game.

 

[Osirian]

Personally, I think character building and development, is something that brings quite a bit of fun, and is a differentiating factor for your game. It makes it so that even the objectively existing flaws in the current state of the game (such as repetitive scenes or a miniature sandbox), don't detract from the gameplay.

Regarding the tree or alternative forms of character development, in my opinion the fact that we are dealing with a pornographic game is not a disabling factor. Because, further stages of character development could, for example, unlock further animations, fetishes or progress to further levels of perversion.

Obviously, these are very preliminary thoughts, but they are based on one thought pertaining to the game. And that is that I believe that each new update should mean more options in character development. This could, for example, be correlated with new activities, which would mean a higher difficulty level.

Because, in my opinion, a situation in which we are faced with Lily/Claire/Jamie with totally doped-up stats who easily get, the highest score undermines the strongest aspect of the playability of the game.

And to conclude, I am aware of the limited resurgence, and don't take this as a criticism because it still must be pointed out, that there is highly unique aspects, in this game.

I'll be doing some brainstorming to find ways to add some extra excitement to the minigame and how it plays. I do agree that in it's current form, it's too easy to max arousal with girls that have maxed stats. That being said, I don't think adding complexity or difficulty each update would be the remedy. I'm not sure what a solution would look like as I'm focused on changing other parts of the game, but it's something I'll certainly be looking into in the future.

And I do want to clarify that I'm not limiting aspects of my game just because it's a porn game. I just don't want the game systems to be overly complex, which can be off-putting to a lot of players. The unique aspects of the game already results in a lot of unfamiliar gameplay that requires some learning. To add a lot of complexity on top of that can feel overwhelming to players. I already have changes to the tutorial in mind because many people don't read it.

I know that a lot of returning players familiar with the game system would be seeking new additions to gameplay that are exciting. I want to cater to those players along with newer players. I'll spend some time in the future looking for changes that can be fun and exciting for returning players while also not overwhelming new ones.

 

[Osirian]

Osirian I really like your game, I see a lot of potential here. So, I sent you a message a week ago telling how to get a boost in patrons, did you read it?

I read every message and reply to my posts on this website. There's already a lot of information floating around about Oppaiman and it's not something I'm interested in. Thanks for looking out, though.

 

[swest159]

Any idea when the next update will be out? Loving the game

 

[Osirian]

Any idea when the next update will be out? Loving the game

This update cycle is going to take a little bit longer as I've been converting all my animation images to webm. My best guess prediction is it should be out in later November.

 

[jack dulton]

How to Challenge Game is played? I don't get any points no matter what I do...

 

[Osirian]

How to Challenge Game is played? I don't get any points no matter what I do...

It does look like I need to provide a tutorial and add clarification for challenge mode as you aren't the first to be confused. Challenge mode is customizable, so you can increase the difficulty by putting points into challenges located in the "challenges" tab. As you put points into those, your slut level will increase. If the slut level is higher than the highest slut level you've completed, you'll earn challenge mode perk points when you max the 10 arousal orbs while making a video. You can see the potential reward you'll earn at the bottom of the "challenges" tab. At the start of the minigame, you'll need to enable challenge mode when prompted. I'm considering making this a checkbox in the video screen. Hopefully that clarifies things!

 

[Osirian]

Harmony Girls Animation Rework Update​

Spoiler: Update

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