Ren'Py - Idol Island [v0.06] [Wizard's Kiss]

Great Idea, really bad implementation. The survival grind takes up 95% of the time you spend in the game. I'm not here to play "The Forest". If it even felt like you were making progress the grind might be ok, but i searched for food and water for an hour and occassionally found some, but after an hour my food was 2 and my water was 4. I'm done.

Girls/Models/Sexy Sister: 5/5

Gameplay/Mechanics: -1000/5

These mechanics were introduced in 0.2, I assumed when I played and quit 0.2 cause mechanics suck that dev would fix it...no such luck. Game is unplayable, but not unsalvageable.

Fix the forest system please. When we find a location...aka fruit tree/mushroom/coconut tree and River let us just go directly there rather than wander through the forest like it's our first fucking time off the plane. also need to give like 3 times more rations per item in order to allow us to actually play the game. OR only take 1 food and 1 water per day. OR have the trees respawn every day and increase their frequency in the search and then make the river one of the locations you can just go to. in 1 hour of play I got to train ONE girl ONE time and then search the forest like 20 times for rations before I gave up. Not fun.

For V0.03

First of the good

• The English seems competent. I had no real issues understanding the dialogue. I do think conversations flow a little more but overall not bad.
• The renders look good and the girls look good.
• The sandbox is basically limited to the camp. (three screens) even if it grows a little when the game grows I don't think it will be too bad.
• While not a thing I care about there is voice acting.

Then the bad

• The coding while seeming competent has a bug that allows hovered screens to stay put sometimes (the zen screen stayed up the entire playthrough).
• The hunger/water minigame makes the game unplayable. There is literally no way to get enough food and water to keep you from dying.
• The issues above seem to indicate a quality control issue. Has the dev played their own game enough for these issues to crop up. running out of food and water did only take a couple of days.
• The hunger/water minigame is tedious. I get where the dev is going with this but only 1 in 5 screens have something in it and of those only 1 in 5 have something you need. with the rest being something that will lose you health.
• The protagonist is so unlikable that a lot of players will be turned off by him in the first few seconds. close the game and never look back. (I only survived by gritting my teeth and clicking through without reading.)

My advice to the dev

• I'd rework the intro a little to make the protagonist a little more likeable. He does not have to be an amazing guy or even the good guy. As dungeon keeper proved in the 90's "It is good to be evil." However especially in a first person game where you expect the audience to identify with the protagonist there needs to be something likable or some sort of reason why we want to forgive them for there flaws.
• More playtesting. I can imagine the tooltip bug going unnoticed but the water/hunger minigame issue should have come up.
• Rethink not just what game mechanics you want to throw into the game but how to keep your audience engaged. The hunger/water minigame is a great way to make sure your players will quit the game right now.
• I don't know if the voice acting is done via AI or a real person (line delivery feels a little flat tbh.) If you are using voice actors I'd let the voice acting lag a little behind the game update. It allows you to change any major issues without having to pay actors twice to record a changed line.
• Lastly if I was the dev I'd make Avery optionally female. I think that would increase the reach immensely with minor changes at this time. To limit dev time just have the female Avary languish a bit. I doubt many people mind a short story line while it turns away a big part of the player base when they are male. Up until now you'd only need to make minor changes including reworking one or two renders for this to work.

This game has derailed. It started off with a decent premise, but even in the initial release, the story became weird and convoluted, seemingly in an attempt to justify the title. Characters act very strangely and extremely, it's very unrealistic and offputting. The game then transitions into one of the most user-unfriendly sandbox mode (untagged), plagued with a horrible UI, RNG, unclear objectives, and unnecessary resource management gameplay and other annoyances like inventory limits. Other important missing tags include incest, gay/trans and bestiality(?!). So far the game doesn't feel very idolly, although I guess we are on an island. The only good part about the game is at the start, before they get on the plane.

Good ideas, interesting kinks list, a good variety of characters including a femboy.

The MC talks like an absolute cringe lord but it's deliberate as far as I can tell so that's fine, especially if actually has some character development along the way!

Could be really awesome when its done. Make what you want to make, don't worry about people being mad about kinks, make the contentious stuff optional if possible but as long as it's all this level of quality it will be cool to see a game with some more spicy stuff.

Nice plot, narration, art, and screens. Kudos!

Thanks for the game. Will watch for updates.

I wonder what MC will be wearing when his clothes are torn from all hunting and scavenging? ;p

Suggestion: Forest navigation can improve with key bindings

Looks amazing! Don't let it become abandoned. With more content and an elaborated story this game will be one of the best.

The voice acting is interesting, I liked it too. I usually doing modding on games for myself. The voice acting would be the best if the voices could read the actual texts defined in the game files. (I know it isn't feasible with Ren'Py, but with AI it can be achieved. If I ever try to make some game voices, it definitely will be AI generated.)

v0.02

Caution, this is more like a demo.
There is no sex or much more the prologue. maybe a touch after the prologue.

That said, I quite enjoyed it and look forward to more.
I think the small amount of gameplay so far is good. If it focuses too hard on it, it will instead become tedious.

The voice acting really made me enjoy it more.

There was a bit too much internal thinking on the MCs part when speaking was in order. Since he is supposed to be a shut in, I guess that makes sense.
Still frustrating.

On that note, there is no choice making as of yet. It is a linear experience and mostly like a kinetic novel with a bit of clicking here and there.

I was enjoyingit though and hated reaching the ending.

So, some day I'll come back to this when it is done or closer to being worthwhile.

Good stuff so far.

Reviewed version 0.02

I 180'd so fast on this game I think I'm entitled to compensation for whiplash.

It starts off with a goofy but promising premise. You are shipwrecked on a desert island with a bevy of beautiful ladies, but to keep things from spiralling out of control you convince them that it is all just a reality TV show. Hijinks, presumably, ensue. The renders are decent and the girls have distinct personalities that you might look forward to exploring, along with the rest of them.

Then the first major update hits. You realise where the dev is trying to go with this, and its bad. You spend most of the update in the poorly designed free roam section, clicking through different sections of forest until you find another item that won't fit into your inventory. You occasionally meet wolves that you kill by spamming the "attack" button until the RNG is happy. Eventually you return to camp for another story section and by then all you're thinking is "does whatever comes next justify the boring gameplay I just subjected myself to?"

And the answer is no.

The game could still be salvaged if the developer took a step back and asked "what makes this thing fun?" But until then I'm giving it one star for the game, plus one star for being competent with Daz.

Idol Island is a pretty decent game with good renders and hot women, and one of the first games where I actually liked the voices. Overall, it is a good release with good, light humour and banter.
I will be reviewing the game in the following three sections:
1) The content
You play as a young guy who lands a job at an idol agency. You get the opportunity to manage a bunch of hot girls, one being your sister, but you don't find that out early in the game. There is also a sexy MILF, and there are a lot of chances for sexual content. Your plane malfunctions, and you end up on an island with all these beautiful women.
2) The visuals
This game has a decent amount of sexual content, and the models are varied. There's something for everyone. Lewd scenes are also there, and you get one hot bondage scene with the MILF, Laura.
3) The playability
This is a fun game with nice writing and a good story. The story itself isn't pretty special, but it has a lot of potential for future sexy content and lewd scenes. You can also fight a wild beast in one scene where they showed a preview of some game mechanics. I think it was done well. The game is fully voiced using AI, and I think the voices fit perfectly. The MC does act a bit childish, but it all fits into the narrative.

Very good, very well made, i like the setup, only issues are that its currently too short, but i expect that too change eventually, and that the MC is a neet specifically, not a fan of that, but other than that the art and renders are top notch and the story is very good, I know its not going to stay as a VN, and im happy with that, but the writing here is very good compared to most other VN's, so i wouldnt be sad if that was the route this took

Rating based on where it is not what it can turn into. Could easily turn into 5 star. The overall storyline seems enjoyable. The MC story and some of his lines are more than a little over the top but some are so over the top that they become funny. This is kinda like watching an X rated teen comedy with slightly crazier lines.

If it wasnt for the voices and renders I would definitely rank it lower, but I agree with the statement by the Dev. If these are truly AI voices they are amazing! Adding this to my watch list for sure. Hopefully updates are regular and it doesnt become an abandoned title.

As an introduction, it is a good game. The MC behavior is too childish and difficult to root for him. It is difficult to see the pictures clearly with the background. I will look for future updates with a solid story.

Excellent intro to what seems to be a promising game.

Animation: Animation and UI is solid and pretty standard for renpy. This game is voiced which is a nice touch, only time will tell if the voice acting fits the story and characters accurately.

Gameplay: Game play is standard renpy with some hints at combat and management. There is a brief combat scene, but the rest is still undetermined. That being said given the story and quality so far optimism seems fair.

Story: The story waisted little time moving forward. Grammar is good and all characters make sense when they have dialogue. The plot isn't ground breaking, but its a hentai game. It's far worse to have a pseudo-intellectual plot, then just write it as it should be. The writers had fun with the characters so far, and they seem somewhat believable. All in all a great job for a start.

Characters: A lot of potential romance interests off the get go. The diversity in the characters is pretty good, and there should be something for everyone.

Overall: Excellent for an intro to the world and game. Content is not heavy yet, but we will see as updates come.

Even though this is very short I already love it a lot. A very interesting scenario with adventure, sex and survival, a unique way of writing, nice voice overs, great renders and a freaking hot employee. This game will definitely be a great one when developed further.

Now that's when i say:
HERE WE GO AGAINNNN!!

Good renders
Excellently voiced
Enjoyable light comedy
voice controls are great
dialogues are much better than any other game i have played so far
lighting is good
scenes are good
one of the few games that made it to my top 1% games list and yeah this is on no.1 currently
amazingly done overall for the project
CONGRATS TO DEV FOR SUCH AN AMAZING PROJECT!

GOODLUCK!!

Amazing! First off the voice acting, the male VA is a 10/10 performance. He actually sounds like Spider-Man at some points and his execution of lines is well done. Laura's VA is also good (however there are multiple lines where the audio is muffled. (although is seems to just be a bug that is easily fixed)

The story itself while done before is written and told in a way that keep the players attention with comedy and being able to relate to the player character by also not knowing anything about idol training and just bullshiting his way through out the game.

And speaking of that it reminds me of the Overlord anime where the MC is underqualified and everyone is gaslighting themselves over what he does and it is hilarious.

The graphics alone are really good and the shading is done well.

Overall a 5 star game the I for the first time EVER might actually donate to. (I have never donated to a game before (Especially an Adult one) so I am going to wait for a few more updates first)