I really feel like the training was more an "excuse" more than anything to link one sex event to another.
Maybe I was too eager to play a training game and I had too much faith in it with the beginning of the story, I thought "yeah, gonna be hard, Joel doesnt give a shit and Alanna is a bitch" and then all of a sudden they fucked every day and night and I didnt need to ask myself "do I just let her be to reduce stress ? Do I push it to gain some points ?" anymore...
You're right.
I had some problems with House Arrest. First, until a short time ago, I did not earn much in Patreon and had to spend my time with several other things. This left me with no time to make the game (I still spend 50% of the time with Solvalley), so I literally skipped several events to deliver some relevant content, especially to the patrons.
For example, in the original plans, there would be an event in each room of the house before each promotion. In addition, Alanna would be tested several times during the game and instead of Joel simply saying "Congratulations, you passed the test", each test event would generate a different outcome (and it was in these events that I intended to make Alanna's personality evolve into good or bad).
In this way, I would partially solve two problems you mentioned:
1. As the test events would have different outcomes, the player would see greater consequence for the training he gave to Alanna. The training part would have more meaning and not only serve as an excuse between scenes.
2. The romance between Alanna and Joel would not escalate so fast and progress would be less abrupt.
The problem is that this type of project would not be feasible for me. So I decided that House Arrest would be a short and simple game. What I did then:
A. super fast progress
B. Only three tests for the whole game, instead of for each promotion
C. tests do not have different outcomes, only determine which end the player will see
The problem is that the training part lost much of the sense and the potential of the game was devalued. But it was an option I had to make to finish the game (the reason why so many games are never finalized is that the authors always try something more complex than they can do).
However, things are getting better for me, with what I get at Patreon I can spend a lot more time on my games. This means that I can start giving a little more depth to them. I already started doing this in Solvalley, adding features that in future updates will give much more value to the game.
Maybe I'll do it with House Arrest too. It all depends on how things will continue to progress. Fortunately a considerable number of people find my games fun (even though they are extremely simple), and I am getting out of poverty. I'm still a beginner, I'm learning a lot and I hope to be able to make games that have a more significant gameplay in the near future. Of course, without big pretensions, I work alone in an amateurish way, so it is not in my plans to make great games that are comparable to what professional teams do.
Bye!
And sorry for the wall ...
