HTML In Her Own Hands [v0.8.1] [Surprise & Delight Media]

[Surprise & Delight]

Hi there, everyone!

One half of Surprise & Delight here! Just popping in to say that, as the writer, I so appreciate your thoughtful posts. While a patron poll helped shape the focus of this last release (along with a few other improvements and "surprise" content scenes), I am always watching here to get a little more of an idea about your interests for our adventurous female protagonist.

We'll be posting a bit more here on how we're moving forward, bringing the storylines together a bit more cohesively and making sure that player choices and game statistics ripple through the game as it's played. (If only there were more hours in a day, days in a month, and so on, for us developers with outside jobs!) I'll let the programming half of S&D talk a little bit more about our intentions in another comment.

Thanks for playing In Her Own Hands and then taking the time to post. We love to see y'all interact with each other, even if it is to help each other out a little. We are intentional in how some paths are unveiled. It is a game, after all, so she is going to have to develop the relationships and plot how/when/where she might take things to another level. My one tip: there's a rhythm to her life with her roommates and interactions with others (days, times, locations), so you may want to note that before you click on through to another scene. Get inside Becca's mind...and we'll keep adding to the game to minimize the grind. Her experience and "sexcapades" are unfolding each day!

Surprise & Delight

(I'll let you guess which one I am! LOL)

p.s. edited to add: I hope you enjoy the Devilish Dad storyline and scenes. We really want our sex-positive protagonist to explore BDSM in a way that reflects a healthy interest in all sorts of consensual kink. I, for one, am down for it and looking forward to her adventures!

 

[JennyWild]

Is their any content with roommates apart from the one with Bobby in the beginning? I have more than 100 for both friendship and atractivness with Shaun but I cant do anything when I flirt with him.

 

[kioeclipse]

Is their any content with roommates apart from the one with Bobby in the beginning? I have more than 100 for both friendship and atractivness with Shaun but I cant do anything when I flirt with him.

Not sure ive been to the club with him 3 times outside of the sex from club, inget an error when going tomflirtnwith him in his room.

 

[Dracula21]

I have over 100 affection and friendship with Shaun still can't get anything

 

[Surprise & Delight]

Not sure ive been to the club with him 3 times outside of the sex from club, inget an error when going tomflirtnwith him in his room.

You get an error?

 

[JennyWild]

Not sure ive been to the club with him 3 times outside of the sex from club, inget an error when going tomflirtnwith him in his room.

How do you go to the club with him?

 

[Nutluck]

I recently played again, i am liking the improvements but I have some feedback. That will have to wait till later as I have to leave for work. I am just leaving this as a reminder to myself to come back and give feedback when I get home.

 

[Odin's Eye]

ive never had a sister call me... what is the requirement for that?

You have to be in the bedroom on the weekend (I think it's Saturday but it could be Sunday) and she'll (randomly?) have a phone conversation with her sister. The first time is after you do play-time with the roommate who has a gf. The next is (I think) after you've been shagging/naughty often enough to tick some hidden nympho threshold. This is the conversation where the MC complains about wanting sex all the time and the sister tells her she needs a dildo to learn what she likes rather than letting the bloke do whatever. The sister then googles sex shops in the MC's area and it's downtown where you buy the vibrator that will let you lower the main innocent stat again.

Honestly, this right here is pretty much what I'm talking about. I know one of the devs just posted above me in saying how they're creating a game that has a time/date rhythm to it but if that's the case - put a note system in the damn game! The help/hint page is, quite honestly, atrocious and doesn't help beyond bare basics.

A rhythm system within an NSFW/XXX game is fine. Man of the House did this perfect and there never felt like there was a grind. This was because even if we didn't know the direct steps to unlock new scenes, we knew the times of everything so we could plan it out. Roommate A is usually (allowing for some RNG extra moments) TV watching on certain days, roommate B on other days. Abby is only really available on Friday and Saturday evenings BUT she might be open to party during the week. And the phone calls can happen wherever the MC is when they're supposed to.

But the player knows NONE of this. And I'm sorry, but it takes a special type of game for me to get the notebook out to make my own notes in order to hack/understand a system. IHOHs is nowhere near good enough for me to try working out the time-table of the events through grinding and experimentation if the game doesn't provide a tracker for it.

Edit: Terrible spelling errors.

 

[Nutluck]

Ok here is some feedback

1) Right now the numbers for friendship, corruption, attraction etc. All feel like they have no meaning. I am sure they do but from a player point of view the numbers don't mean anything, since they go over 100. So is 100 corruption a lot? or does it go up to 1000? etc. I think you need to make what the numbers mean a lot more clear for feedback for the player. It would help with the grind feeling I think, since right now it is hard to know if you are even making progress.

2) I like the idea of the laundry system but I think you need to expand it. Split all the clothes by image as their own clothing item. So say there is 10 images of thongs in the game make each one their own set clothing item with a attached image. That would then add more reason to go shopping and care about laundry. Buy a certain color style skirt, make sure your sexy black thong is washed for date night etc.

3) To go along with the above I think you need to give reason for using the shower, brushing teeth, eating etc. Right now you can easily not do any of them for weeks with out anything happening, which feels weird with a game with has laundry. I am just saying either go light on the sim aspect or go all in. Just IMHO.

4) I would suggest just having only one job for now and focusing on it, filling it out with events, npcs to interact with etc. Right now the jobs feel .... very grindy and pointless as very little happens other than you earn money. Which with the clothing system right now you don't really need money except for rent. So expanding a single job to make it more intersting and then adding stuff to spend money on I think would help.

5) Someone else touched on this above. Adding more options especially in the sex scenes. Example the couch bj with Bobby. Maybe have just a hand job option or a blow job, then option to not let him cum on you, cum on your face or in your mouth. Then option on the last one to spit or swallow. All of them could then impact corruption, inhibition, what Bobby thinks of you etc.

Anyways I like the direction of the game, the above is some suggestions feedback that I think would help the game.

 

[International]

p.s. edited to add: I hope you enjoy the Devilish Dad storyline and scenes. We really want our sex-positive protagonist to explore BDSM in a way that reflects a healthy interest in all sorts of consensual kink. I, for one, am down for it and looking forward to her adventures!

I just hit some of those scenes, and the writing is good. I really like that the gifs aren't the same ones I see in tons of other games.
I was considering skipping DD, because his general character is not really what I'm into. But I still wanted to say the scenes were good

The general idea of sex positive "corruption" and non-rapey progression is nice to see. Enjoying different aspects of sex shouldn't come from traumatic experiences. Fun and playful slutty should be more common than horrifically broken slutty.


BUG: Clicking on Characters then Check Texts leaves me in a loop of clicking Done and Return. I have to use the back arrow to get back to a main scene.

Edit: Are you twitter banned? The link in your sig doesn't work.

 

[Surprise & Delight]

I just hit some of those scenes, and the writing is good. I really like that the gifs aren't the same ones I see in tons of other games.

The general idea of sex positive "corruption" and non-rapey progression is nice to see. Enjoying different aspects of sex shouldn't come from traumatic experiences. Fun and playful slutty should be more common than horrifically broken slutty.

Thanks so much for the feedback. We really strive to make our female protagonist into a real person with a voice and personality. She's got a lot ahead for her in her journey... and that will definitely take some twists and turns depending on player's choice.

And, who says a woman can't be in charge of her sexual choices, even if it takes her into all sorts of situations? We firmly believe that you can explore vanilla, kink, bdsm, fetish, and more by choice versus coercion, force, incest, or traumatic experiences, as you said. That may not be someone's game preference, but that's why there are lots of games to choose from!

I'd probably say that I drive my dev partner crazy with my standards for the media. I want the game to be fresh and unique!

Finally, thanks for the tip on the issue with Done and Return from the sidebar. We've struggled with that because it returns the player to the previous page, which does exactly as you said - leaves you in a loop from which you have to back out. In fact, we'd love to put a few other things in the sidebar - or expand what's there, so if anyone has a tip on how to not have this bug, we welcome your tip here or to us directly at bugs@surprisedelightme.com

Thank again for the thoughtful comments!

~ Surprise & Delight

 

[International]

Finally, thanks for the tip on the issue with Done and Return from the sidebar. We've struggled with that because it returns the player to the previous page, which does exactly as you said - leaves you in a loop from which you have to back out. In fact, we'd love to put a few other things in the sidebar - or expand what's there, so if anyone has a tip on how to not have this bug, we welcome your tip here or to us directly at bugs@surprisedelightme.com

Thank again for the thoughtful comments!

~ Surprise & Delight

I don't know how to structure the logic to return outside the sidebar menus. BUT there are a lot of twine sandbox games. Download as many of those as you can, open them in the appropriate version of twine, and see how they deal with info pages. Your posts and comments say that you've already done part of that, so do some more digging on the programming logic. The extent of my twine knowledge is just making a cheat mod for life choices, but I did that by looking at a few different games to get pane refreshes and variable updates correct. It was clunky, and I'm sure there's a better way to consolidate the logic, but it worked.

 

[Dracula21]

ny tipps how to get to the shaun content?

 

[mopoke]

How many hours till I get to content? Been playing for an hour and all I do is go to work.

 

[Surprise & Delight]

How many hours till I get to content? Been playing for an hour and all I do is go to work.

You should absolutely have encountered opportunities for content. It is a game, so the people you meet, schedule of your roomates, dates and events ahead will influence your content. Have you tried getting coffee? Or visiting the clothing store? Changed jobs?

Also, just so we know, did you just download and start 0.3.2 or started from a saved game and used our TickTok feature to load saved games?

 

[Surprise & Delight]

ny tipps how to get to the shaun content?

Pay attention to where Shaun is at home, esp. on the weekends.

 

[deppenjaeger]

yeah iam still trying to find content,.. did the bar job.. that resulted in relatively fast dropping inhibition and a few abby scenes...the coffee shop guy that you HAVE TO talk to to get any content at all.. at least nothing else triggers for me before i talk to taht stalker (thats the biggest creep in the game) and one of the reasosnt i missed so much content in the beginning,. i found him creepy..so after driving me home (which i didnt want him to do in the first place) i just hit back and never again went to the creepy coffee shop (till i knew i have to and then just sent him away finally). nothing else gets triggered though.. abby content dried up, sister stopped calling, jasmyn content reached the end,...talking to shaun is only possibel in his room... nothing else (in my other playthroughs i could talk to him in the kitchen with way less score than now) for some reason the game says something along the lines "hey now i know his training shedule.. funnily enough he never is there... when i choose to be a waitress in the caffee in another game i couldnt lower inhibition nearly as low but had for some reason more content with the boys at home with lower stats, never had contact with my sister at all,...and so on..
that the MC isnt smart enough to write things in a "notebook" like training times,.. or a schedule like date with x on sunday afternoon... i mean besides a single mention in the "preface" which is skippable you dont even know if you have to pay rent,.. or how much rent,.. or when?

dont get me wrong i really like the game,.. the storylines i ve seen so far are great, the characters are nicely done and the pics/videos fit the characters and arent the run of the mill you find in every other game.

what bugs me is the missing "notebook" or the ability to call someone, or visit someone..
i mean for example... "mc smokes weed -> finds weed shop -> thinks she would like to buy some but doesnt know what to buy -> i should ask my sister -> so with all that siad... WHY DOESNT SHE CALL HER SISTER????? it just doesnt make any sense AT ALL and even when the sister calls her the next time that unlocks something else and ignores the drug aspect completeley because you cant ask.. or why cant she ask abby with which she smoked the weed in the first place?

i mean i like that the game doesnt say "go to x use action y to trigger quest update z" i bet thats what the least of us want..

and lastly i would love to have somewhere under characters maybe mentioned if you reached the end of content for this character in the used version of the game. i mean you have to grind weeks worth of workdays to maybe be lucky and get 1 event update... so you never know if you are thorugh with the events for the character or if you just have to grind another 1-2 months

man that sounds like hate rant if i ever heard one... dont get me wrong its an awesome game,... there are just 2-3 points that annoy the hell out of me .. sorry mate

 

[Surprise & Delight]

yeah iam still trying to find content,.. did the bar job.. that resulted in relatively fast dropping inhibition and a few abby scenes...the coffee shop guy that you HAVE TO talk to to get any content at all.. at least nothing else triggers for me before i talk to taht stalker (thats the biggest creep in the game) and one of the reasosnt i missed so much content in the beginning,. i found him creepy..so after driving me home (which i didnt want him to do in the first place) i just hit back and never again went to the creepy coffee shop (till i knew i have to and then just sent him away finally). nothing else gets triggered though..

Ahhhh... So first, interesting feedback on James! But that may be the explanation because going out with him is key to an event that then really unlocks most of the content (that's not work, daily schedule) for the rest of the game. I don't want to spoil it, but it makes sense from a plotline.

Sorry, trying not to spoil things for you or others!

 

[Odin's Eye]

Ahhhh... So first, interesting feedback on James! But that may be the explanation because going out with him is key to an event that then really unlocks most of the content (that's not work, daily schedule) for the rest of the game. I don't want to spoil it, but it makes sense from a plotline.

Sorry, trying not to spoil things for you or others!

I really appreciate you being involved in this thread as the game's developer but there seems to be a pretty obvious problem after reading some of your replies.

Artistic Vision vs Reality of Game.

Practically everyone here has commented on the fact that events are easily missed. You've almost always come back with "it's how we're designing the game and the plot. Keep going places and meeting people, you'll find things as they unlock." Which isn't that helpiful.

It's coming across that you're trying to make a pretty big open-world where content is missed/found on numerous playthroughs like some of the really impactful games have done over the years. I commend you for this. The problem is, there's not nearly enough easy content to find for it to be okay that some things get missed and a week or more in-game time has to be played before the chance of getting said content comes around again.

Hideo Kajema - Metal Gear and Death's Stranding creator - is an "artiste" where everything is an expression of his vision. He gets away with it because, for the most part, there is still a game to be played for every new creation he releases. There's still something fundamentally game-like in his sensory overload of creativity so people who don't want to spend 20 hours looking for one hidden easter egg won't miss out on entire plot lines.

The issue isn't the plot of IHOH being spoilt, the issue is your player base is having trouble even moving along the plot's journey.

I have a feeling you're wanting this to be a cross between an open world sim and a interactive novel. But the novel part (where certain things have to happen at certain times in certain places after certain events have happened) is fundamentally getting in the way of players enjoyment and the open-world aspect of IHOH.

Case in point- You've just said that the majority of the content is locked behind the James event yet you, the Developer, has given the player the "choice" of not doing the very event that unlocks the true game itself. Do you see the problem here? You can't have it both ways unless the "b" branch of options have just as much content as the "a" branches do.

 

[Nutluck]

I thought of another bit of feedback. When you talk to Bobby or Shaun in their room, why do you have to leave it every time and then able to go back and repeat it? Why not just have it so when you go to them and you hit flirt with them, it then has options of
leave - what happens now
keep flirting - lets you stay and just keep flirting
just chat - which would switch you to just chatting to them

then do the same with chatting, it would cut down on a lot of clicking when trying to grind their friendship/attraction numbers.