Unity - Inner Self Development Program [v0.8.7] [Carnile]

I originally rated this game higher, but recently it's been an unplayable mess. I can't even save anymore, so the numerous bugs make the game literally unplayable since I have to start over from day 1. There's no skip dialogue button, the UI buttons are too small with limited keyboard shortcuts. The actual content is so limited after so many years, that it's actually insulting. Like I said initially, I absolutely detest how the character looks as well. Somehow, the dev can't even make a settings page WITH sound volume in it. You have to be in a session to adjust volume, but then you can't access the main settings anymore. What looked like some novel features almost half a decade ago are now dated mechanics, and yet we're no closer to "one week" of content than 4 years ago.

In short, a disappointing timeline, and I've really tried to enjoy the game. Godspeed, dev.

The game feels like a missed opportunity, with the developer obsessively polishing and gold-plating every detail, but neglecting the core experience that players crave. Instead of listening to the community and expanding the storyline to add depth and engagement, they seem fixated on superficial aesthetics and technical perfection. As a result, what could have been a compelling adventure ends up feeling shallow and unfulfilling, leaving fans disappointed and longing for a game that truly values meaningful content over shiny distractions.

Promising, but I can't give it more than 3/5 currently. The navigation is not great, with lots of unused space and confusing layout inside the university. The minigames are fun, and the scenes are well made. The theme of the game is niche, but welcome. There isn't much actual content or how long this goes on in the current build (0.8) and there's not much to do aside from main objectives. I'm really excited to see this game grow and hopefully come to a full release, as there's lots of potential.

This 5 stars is mostly for how beautiful the game is

There is no much of progression, but visual design and art is very good

the only downside is speed of development. I hope author will start progress story instead of never-ending rework

The game itself has some potential, but it's hindered by three main things:

1) The controls are janky at best and near unplayable at worst. The lack of an auto-skip keybind means that every conversation is a slog to get through. Meanwhile, others aren't remotely untuitive, such as the wardrobe or shaving. The lack of a clear indication of where you need to go for things is also a pain to work around.
2) The boxing of the character into a "fem" path is unimaginative and boring. The form should be interactable.
3) The mini-games - the weight lifting and "conditioning", especially - are horrendous to play and incredibly tedious.

The pacing is very slow and kind of a slog to get through, which is a shame because the models are nice.

As an aside; the writing is also pretty questionable times. The "classes" in particular portray a very weird idea of feminisation that borders on homophobic and misogynistic, suggesting that women and submissive guys should never answer back, smile timidly and do nothing more than stand there and look pretty.

There's a difference between being feminine and submissive and lacking any notable character traits or ability to protect yourself, which the dev has clearly not bothered to take into account. Instead, you're given ridiculous tasks that make little to no sense and your character just nods their head and goes along with it. This mentality extends to the game itself, where you have no autonomy in what tasks you do or don't complete and how they affect you.

Whilst I get that this might be for some people, it's a very surface level depiction of feminisation and one that seems to be inspired by very strange stereotypes.

I'm torn about this "game".
First, it should receive the label "VN" because it's not much of a game, it's pretty much a railroad.
Then, it's unnecessarily grindy in places.
But there are beautiful graphics, a wonderfully polished interface, very high technical quality.
the story itself doesn't progress much before the "end of content" message comes, yet the version is 0.7.9

Just be warned. The developer spends more time "polishing" and "reworking" existing content than actually providing new content. And this results in "save" games being completely worthless, because they're no good with the next release.

The UI for this game is maddeningly inconsistent. Sometimes, stuff isn't intuitive or explained at all (like the wardrobe system). Sometimes, you need to hit a tiny little circle in the upper left corner of the screen opposite from where you've been working. Sometimes it's the upper right corner.

You have to use the spacebar to advance, because you otherwise have to click on a tiny button in the dialogue box to proceed. And you have to wait an excruciating second after each line of dialogue has appeared before the button actually works.

There is no way to skip over pauses that are there merely for some perverted sort of dramatic effect. I play games to escape from real life, not relive drudgeries like waiting patiently for responses to texts. The navigation through the school makes no sense and there are no clues as to what is where.

But the "conditioning" sessions. Oh my God. They take forever and don't do anything but make you click on moving bubbles for what seems like hours. There is no payoff, and no clue as to what you're affecting. Should you avoid the bubbles you don't want? Should you click everything? What is the damned metronome for?

Even the opening screen is a lose. You see that the dev calls this "pre-Alpha" which is kind of ridiculous in and of itself. Then you get a black screen for seconds, to the point where you think the game has crashed. No notice. No "wait a second" alert.

It's clear that the dev has a vision of some sort, except it isn't really because so much stuff changes with each "release." The "skill tree" is a good example. There was nothing wrong with the old one--you could see all of the relevant values, it actually made sense, and was different and visually appealing. Now it's a whole different interface that takes up whole sets of scrolling screens and you're not quite sure what you can and can't set. And you can't see what the previous values in the tree are.

And...the bugs...smh.

All of this is so egregious because the core of the game itself isn't bad, if a bit trope-y and monotonous. The artwork is attractive. It's just not FUN. The process of playing this game for the last six releases has been to go through the same monotony to advance to a point in the game (which can take an hour or more) just to get a couple of minutes of new material. It wouldn't be nearly so terrible if there was a way to skip all of the damned forced pauses and dialogue you've already seen a hundred times before.

So, I don't recommend. Not until the "reworking" madness ends and the dev actually makes progress on the game itself.

What was a niche kink is steadily growing. I'm happy to see more and more content pop up. Some good, some bad. This game is definetly a work in progress. But it has the potential to be one of the good ones.
Keep up the good work!

The average glacier moves faster than this developer. Why even bother posting updates if they're this small. Check it out in a decade, make it a century to be safe. Oh and you have to start over again every single miniscule patch.

First off, this game should seriously have an epilepsy warning. That shit caught me off guard and could have been very bad.
Second, the writing, or lack thereof, was seriously awful. Honestly, I'm not even gonna bother waiting for updates because i dont have any hope fot this game.

It seems each update the Dev reworks or removes story items. The game is actually shrinking. Art work is great but it appears this dev is milking people who actually are paying for this game. By the time this game comes out you could have bought 15 or 20 full price AAA games.

I'm giving this game a 5 star because it's annoying seeing so many people give it low scores because of the rate of release. This is not the dev's only job and I don't know why some people on here feel as if they must drop everything in his/her life just to finish a game they can fap to. Would I like it to be faster? Yes, but I'm not going to hold that over him.

As for the game itself it shows HUGE potential, the art is entirely unique and it shows a lot of promise for content and customization down the line. If you want the best experience wait a few months for it to get a lot of updates though, as new releases generally have you restart your save to prevent issues, also it does have a bit of content right now but I'm willing to bet in a few months we'll have enough to give you a few hours of play.

Hope this game goes all the way, it's one worth keeping an eye on.

This game has incredible potential, and a good bit as is, so check it out!

It does need more consistent plot progression with each update (and more frequent updates) if the dev wants to build (and keep) a subscriber base. This game would take off like a rocket if a public version were provided here ~1 month after paid launch and release updates every 90 days or so. I really hope they see the potential for their game and take the risk to invest more time. I recommend the dev take a look at Becoming a Femboy's growth over the last year. They follow the methods above and it's pretty incredible how much that game has blown up (x10) as far as subscribers in about 6 months or so. I think this game could do that too.

Some specifics:

1. So immersive! Art is awesome!
2. I'd prefer maybe a 3rd the length of the laptop minigames.
3. The new workout minigame is a great path that I hope is unpacked and leads to the introduction of a new masculine character to interact and train with. Hopefully the current figures are placeholders that will be replaced by fully drawn characters.
4. The mobile texting is really well done and the IU is great.
5. The new navigation at the school is a damn maze! Holy crap it's hard to find the exit!
6. Hopefully new releases will progress the plot of the main character. That's really what is needed since after a year, it still basically ends at the exact same spot in the storyline.

Pros: Excellent renders, a lot of attention to detail, VERY immersive, nice music and fun mini games.

Cons: It's been years since first release, yet zero progress. Only some casual release which fixes bugs or restarts the game completely from scratch due to small change somewhere. Saves are not compatible, you have to grind for hours just to see that a few seconds of new gameplay was added. Navigation is not intuitive. Initial test seems to not have any effect on the game afterwards. This makes the game completely linear.

Story is very trivial, but laid out in a very good way. Sometimes you think that you're conditioning the character, but sometimes it is the other way around. Unfortunately, dev progress is too slow so I'll check it not earlier than in two years.

First played this nearly 2 years ago, shortly after it was released. I loved the art and the gameplay, thought it was super promising and hoped for a lot more content to come!

2 years later, the dev has added.... one scene. And it's now been 6+ months since last update. Sadly this seems to be yet another semi-abandoned patreon cash farm in the feminization genre. I honestly can't recommend it at this point given the extremely limited content.

A great gam e, which hopefully sees further development. Some of the things you have to do right now are a bit repetetive, but that is almost to be expected from such an early release. I have high hopes for the future of this game.

its a joke every update you have to start again as the saves from the last update dont work with the new and having to do the lot again for about 5 minutes new play i think its just a bad joke so i give int one star but only as it will not let me give no stars
the game v0.7 only took me 33 minutes from start the where the last update ended so you can work out yourself how little is in each update and having to do it all again each time has pissed me off i will not play it anymore

I won't comment on the story itself, however, I do want to say that this game can be just slightly better by reworking one thing (manifested in multiple ways), which is the delay in which a character does something and the next step.

For example, someone texting the MC? There is the "typing" animation then a text, same for MC replying. I don't know why these things can't be more instantanous. Same thing for when the character is speaking with someone. Also maybe add SPACE or CTRL as a skip dialog option.

Best thing to do, is to cut 50% of the timer on these filler animation, and add a general skip button.

The first thing I think anyone is going to mention... bugs. While I experienced no bugs while playing, and I've played through twice now, that doesn't mean they don't happen-- and we all hear they happen often.
However, this is obviously still very alpha and while development might take a long time for this game it really is one of my favorites. I don't understand how most people hate the conditioning mini-game, it's very easy to understand and I really appreciate the interaction it brings. Especially because the porn shown in the conditioning levels is actually great porn too!

I can't give this game five stars no matter how badly I want to and that's because of the amount of content for a little over two years of development, while supposedly still being very game-breakingly buggy. But I'm not going to knock Carnile for that! Sometimes the best projects took the longest and really everything about this game ESPECIALLY the artwork is so superb. I think it's a great combination of player interaction and has tons of great porn in it. I SERIOUSLY look forward to this project's further development.

If it simply wasn't for the lack of content this would HANDS DOWN be my favorite game on here. Absolutely has the potential to be a banger and a crowd favorite.

This game is an absolute dumpsterfire.

From softlocking, to random, unconnected events just popping up such as Karina taking your phone and ridiculing you for looking at a dick pic whilst at home when the event was clearly meant for College, to the decision to reset everyones progress every signle update, I can't in good faith recommend anybody wastes their time on this absolute mess. Dev needs to take a serious look in the mirror, because it's unacceptable.

To have good art and an interesting storyline is not enough- it needs to actually work for one thing, and it's evident to see that this developer has absolutely no intention of playtesting his game before release, and just churns out crap for the sake of it- waiting until everyone else diagnose all the problems with the game before actually addressing them, which in itself takes months. Joke.