VN Ren'Py It's Just a Game [v0.4.1] [DigiDec]

[Carnagie]

Like the touchups on the mother's scenes, she was a little off before in her bimbo scenes.

Anyway, for the update, things were a bit tough to mentally-navigate because of how the scenes jump, but I think that'll be less of an issue if we start hitting narrative sections.

Given what you've said under the spoiler, it might be better to give some decently long sections of real life/"real life"? As is, the disorientation from disconnected snippets undermines even the discussion/argument MC has with Qai that's meant to overlay it all. Some time spent with 'amnesia John', the version of him cut off from memories of implant stuff, would do a lot to build out the skeleton of the broader narrative.

 

[dgreen1108]

Spoiler: Too Bad

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[SuperPerv96]

could somebody please show me a picture of the mc's mom?? i would really appreciate it

 

[PickerLewd]

I loaded my game for the first time in v0.4.1 and I remember saving in the last scene of the previous version.

Is it ok to start with the MC lying on a bed and Claudette waking him up as if she were his mom?

 

[DigiDec]

I loaded my game for the first time in v0.4.1 and I remember saving in the last scene of the previous version.

Is it ok to start with the MC lying on a bed and Claudette waking him up as if she were his mom?

That's where the last one left off.

could somebody please show me a picture of the mc's mom?? i would really appreciate it

She's the blonde girl wearing the pink sweater in the banner gif, but her appearance changes some throughout the game.

 

[RandomGuy99]

I'm so glad everyone seems like the latest update!

There's probably a decent argument to be made here for doing less frequent but larger updates, not in a 'take my toys and leave' sense, but so that at least you all get to see bigger pieces before you decide how much you hate it.

I'll layer the spoilers some here in case you don't want too detailed of an answer about some of the questions/concerns. Long story short - the MC isn't going to be stuck in the sims for the rest of the game, not everything in this update was a simulation/hallucination/dream.

Spoiler

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The entire story of knowing which part is real or not is very confusing to us players. Perhaps only you and small minority here can discern which scene is in real world or which part is edited in MC's mind. Of course, those very obvious part of SIM we can tell. Try to dumb things down, assume all players are 2 years old and visually make it obvious.

Also there was no hint or indication of Izzi. The hairdo was change abruptly, i for one dont know if that is a real Izzi/fake Sim Izzi of someone's SIm/Izzi's version of her self perception in her Sim/"Isekai-ed Izzi"/Izzi in MC's edited perception/real world Izzi just really change her hairdo etc. Some people will say, obviously that is real world Izzi with new hairdo. But bear in mind the MC is not a realiable narrator with the implans messing his perception so what is the real situation here? The danger of this type of story is, players can sometimes over think things or speculate too much that is different from what is obvious to the author's perspective.

Players's need a certain level of Omniscience (Separated from Players using MC Pov of course). You can have certain story plot or part of the story with the Players guessing or confuse but not a huge chunk of it. Having players's confuse or lose track of what is happening in the story is a fast track way to make people lose interest or dislike the story.

 

[longjohngold]

Jumping back in for the new stuff was like having a fever dream. Normally it takes you a little bit to get back into a game and remember the various characters, etc. but here with all the jumps and not knowing what was realworld / sim / memory really left me with no clue as to what was going down.

I'm guessing some earlier stuff got worked around too, because I had a save at the moment you see the hot lady at the pool but that bit doesn't seem to be there any more.

 

[Slothi]

So I want to start off by saying I really like the game. Even the meta stuff in act 2 works pretty well over all.

The choices between going into 1 sim versus the others doesn't really make sense to the narrative when it really feels like you need to watch all of them to understand the character's journeys with how the sims are being altered by them.
Its a little weird in act 2 that were going into sims of characters we barely know.

 

[Bernard89]

Futa or Trans... futa zzz

 

[DigiDec]

Futa or Trans... futa zzz

Both?

Jumping back in for the new stuff was like having a fever dream. Normally it takes you a little bit to get back into a game and remember the various characters, etc. but here with all the jumps and not knowing what was realworld / sim / memory really left me with no clue as to what was going down.

I'm guessing some earlier stuff got worked around too, because I had a save at the moment you see the hot lady at the pool but that bit doesn't seem to be there any more.
View attachment 4321161

Yeah, I switched that scene up since it was kind of confusing, so it starts with Stella and Xiang inside talking instead of Stella approaching her at the pool.

So I want to start off by saying I really like the game. Even the meta stuff in act 2 works pretty well over all.

The choices between going into 1 sim versus the others doesn't really make sense to the narrative when it really feels like you need to watch all of them to understand the character's journeys with how the sims are being altered by them.
Its a little weird in act 2 that were going into sims of characters we barely know.

Thanks, it's nice to know that not everyone hated it.

I've talked a lot about why I forced the decision between sims, it's mostly a pacing/tone-setting thing. There's a mod if you want to see them all and it won't hurt my feelings if you use it. I started off Act 2 with Hanna because I wanted to give a smaller character some screen time and I want to space out the trans/futa content since I know some players aren't interested in that. Candi got her scene this update because that's who my subscribers voted on.

The entire story of knowing which part is real or not is very confusing to us players. Perhaps only you and small minority here can discern which scene is in real world or which part is edited in MC's mind. Of course, those very obvious part of SIM we can tell. Try to dumb things down, assume all players are 2 years old and visually make it obvious.

Also there was no hint or indication of Izzi. The hairdo was change abruptly, i for one dont know if that is a real Izzi/fake Sim Izzi of someone's SIm/Izzi's version of her self perception in her Sim/"Isekai-ed Izzi"/Izzi in MC's edited perception/real world Izzi just really change her hairdo etc. Some people will say, obviously that is real world Izzi with new hairdo. But bear in mind the MC is not a realiable narrator with the implans messing his perception so what is the real situation here? The danger of this type of story is, players can sometimes over think things or speculate too much that is different from what is obvious to the author's perspective.

Players's need a certain level of Omniscience (Separated from Players using MC Pov of course). You can have certain story plot or part of the story with the Players guessing or confuse but not a huge chunk of it. Having players's confuse or lose track of what is happening in the story is a fast track way to make people lose interest or dislike the story.

So, I know that in a previous post I pointed out some of the real vs 'real' vs fake portions but at this time you really aren't supposed to be sure what, if anything, was real. The MC is disoriented and confused, the sequence was disorienting and confusing.

I'm not in a rush to adjust anything there. I don't mean to sound dismissive of anyone's criticism about it but I think once some of the stuff I have planned gets into the game and you all have more context/perspective it will stop being an issue. Some of you might remember the initial release when some people were complaining that this was going to be an NTR game about Ness mind-controlling the MC's loved ones.

And yeah, I don't want to turn people off the game but I'm also trying to get you guys new content as fast as I can. The story isn't entirely straightforward and it won't always provide immediate answers. To be honest it's getting a little tedious to go through this every update. I would've thought that anyone who made it all the way to Act 2 would've already decided the game isn't for them or be open to the idea that they might have to wait for answers to some things.

I want to make releases public reasonably soon after I release them behind a paywall. I want to engage with you guys and I am very open to good faith criticism. Most of you are capable of that but some of you should probably just move on. The detached disdain and snarky condescension (or worse, comparisons to House MD*) is a waste of everyone's time. I'm not going to hit back because I don't want to start a flame war in this thread, I don't want anyone to think they aren't allowed to criticize the game, I've got thick skin, I don't mind some jabs at my expense and I don't stake my self-worth on the approval of internet strangers, so while that means I can take the abuse that also means I can just move on and ignore this thread.

Anyways, Merry Christmas

Spoiler

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[DigiDec]

No guys my story is totally amazeballs, you people are just too dumb to get it

I get it man, you don't like the game. Thanks for the review, sorry things didn't work out, it's not you it's me, let's stay friends.

Why are you still here though?

 

[enzo ferrari]

It's just a game

 

[RandomGuy99]

Both?


Yeah, I switched that scene up since it was kind of confusing, so it starts with Stella and Xiang inside talking instead of Stella approaching her at the pool.


Thanks, it's nice to know that not everyone hated it.

I've talked a lot about why I forced the decision between sims, it's mostly a pacing/tone-setting thing. There's a mod if you want to see them all and it won't hurt my feelings if you use it. I started off Act 2 with Hanna because I wanted to give a smaller character some screen time and I want to space out the trans/futa content since I know some players aren't interested in that. Candi got her scene this update because that's who my subscribers voted on.



So, I know that in a previous post I pointed out some of the real vs 'real' vs fake portions but at this time you really aren't supposed to be sure what, if anything, was real. The MC is disoriented and confused, the sequence was disorienting and confusing.

I'm not in a rush to adjust anything there. I don't mean to sound dismissive of anyone's criticism about it but I think once some of the stuff I have planned gets into the game and you all have more context/perspective it will stop being an issue. Some of you might remember the initial release when some people were complaining that this was going to be an NTR game about Ness mind-controlling the MC's loved ones.

And yeah, I don't want to turn people off the game but I'm also trying to get you guys new content as fast as I can. The story isn't entirely straightforward and it won't always provide immediate answers. To be honest it's getting a little tedious to go through this every update. I would've thought that anyone who made it all the way to Act 2 would've already decided the game isn't for them or be open to the idea that they might have to wait for answers to some things.

I want to make releases public reasonably soon after I release them behind a paywall. I want to engage with you guys and I am very open to good faith criticism. Most of you are capable of that but some of you should probably just move on. The detached disdain and snarky condescension (or worse, comparisons to House MD*) is a waste of everyone's time. I'm not going to hit back because I don't want to start a flame war in this thread, I don't want anyone to think they aren't allowed to criticize the game, I've got thick skin, I don't mind some jabs at my expense and I don't stake my self-worth on the approval of internet strangers, so while that means I can take the abuse that also means I can just move on and ignore this thread.

Anyways, Merry Christmas

Spoiler

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I think i can say i speak for a lot of folks here that we appreciate you sharing ideas and releasing the game to the public so early. You're a rare dev.

That being said, there is a a lot of good stuff in this game and as you can see by the game rating. This game is well liked.
For this episode, you can see a lot of people being critical (myself included) as a sign that we want this game to be successful and giving feedback what does not work with the players. Take it with a pinch of salt. Not all feedbacks are helpful or good (mine included) but you have roughly an idea what the general players feel.

Perhaps a suggestion is to adjust the pacing or extend development time for certain episode to avoid the problem like this episode. Alternatively, you can always include an omniscient narrator to explain whats happening.

I guess you have certain part of the story designed that way and have the proper justification for it but as players we can only give feedback on the current episode and will never have the full picture. Who knows maybe in a few episode people might praise this section of the story. Bouncing ideas with dev's are fun so please stay with us

 

[RandomGuy99]

This dev is considered good at exchanging ideas and communicating. Some dev here in the forum cant take simple criticism and start flames war. So this type of dev need protection as endangered species

 

[Vasy]

As ever, a not insignificant population of these forums struggles mightily with the line between constructive criticism, and piling on. I also can't fathom how people don't realize that running off devs who are willing to engage in good faith on these boards is a negative for all of us. This VN is far from perfect, but if you hate it, just withdraw.

 

[Raksha17]

To me the update was not as bad as some people here make it seem to be. But it did not feel like a great update either.

The comparison brought up to dream sequences falls a little short in my opinion as sims are acutally something that characters remember and has influence on the real world. (Although I'm not sure if the Claudette one is actually her sim as she's easily booted off by QAI)

With that said I went through it a couple of times to find out why I did not feel great about the update. My conclusion is that it felt like filler. We were introduced to the idea of the "game" QAI is trying to play. After that we get two big scenes with minor characters and a couple of quick fire scenes. To me it felt that afterwards we were at the same point as the beginning of the update: QAI is trying to play the "game". So it felt like with the one execption of the "game" nothing relevant was really progressed this update. (I know that is not 100% correct as we learn a small detail after Candi's sim but the feeling is still the same).

Maybe once we know more about the "game" and see some real world consequences it won't feel as much of a filler as now. I don't know. Just standalone right now it felt like filler.

 

[DigiDec]

To me the update was not as bad as some people here make it seem to be. But it did not feel like a great update either.

The comparison brought up to dream sequences falls a little short in my opinion as sims are acutally something that characters remember and has influence on the real world. (Although I'm not sure if the Claudette one is actually her sim as she's easily booted off by QAI)

With that said I went through it a couple of times to find out why I did not feel great about the update. My conclusion is that it felt like filler. We were introduced to the idea of the "game" QAI is trying to play. After that we get two big scenes with minor characters and a couple of quick fire scenes. To me it felt that afterwards we were at the same point as the beginning of the update: QAI is trying to play the "game". So it felt like with the one execption of the "game" nothing relevant was really progressed this update. (I know that is not 100% correct as we learn a small detail after Candi's sim but the feeling is still the same).

Maybe once we know more about the "game" and see some real world consequences it won't feel as much of a filler as now. I don't know. Just standalone right now it felt like filler.

This is pretty understandable. Claudette's scene was originally much larger but I cut out a ton of it (it wasn't working to have this extended scene before the first conversation with Qai) and I'm partially using the minor characters' scenes to space out the headliners. If I had released this entire portion of the game as one update it might have prevented some of the confusion/criticism. But the whole portion probably won't be finished until this Spring.

This is why my talk about delaying releases isn't meant as some kind of punitive thing, it's an acknowledgment that larger pieces of the picture at a time would probably be more enjoyable. I don't want you guys to have to wait forever though, so it'll end up being a lesser of two evils decision. I'll make the judgment call once I finish up the next few sequences and get a better idea of what the different timetables will look like.

 

[PickerLewd]

The quality of this man or woman is very high, although his or her plot is not very comprehensible at the moment, good things are sure to come.

Changing the subject, the scene of the MC with his girlfriend and the masseuse is a top ten of F95 for me, very high quality .

 

[wivers]

I've just found this game, and I love it.
great renders, a solid story that allows for a lot of kinky scenarii, and best of all: we get to play bdsm scenes as a dom without feeling like criminals or monsters. That's very rare... most often the bdsm is either ultra tame, or the "dom" is actually written as a violent rapist. I'm afraid enough to come off that way IRL if I fuck up, thanks.

I like these game to enjoy kinky scenes without having to triple check myself or over-correcting (or just keeping to vanilla stuff to be safe), not to feel like I'm awful.

Also, so far the kinkiest scene have been simulations, so no aftercare (I haven't reached the end of the content). Big loss, I'm a sucker for well-earned cuddles, tight hugs, and words of affirmation. That's the best part (and that always makes me feel great!).

 

[Slothi]

Thanks, it's nice to know that not everyone hated it.

I've talked a lot about why I forced the decision between sims, it's mostly a pacing/tone-setting thing. There's a mod if you want to see them all and it won't hurt my feelings if you use it. I started off Act 2 with Hanna because I wanted to give a smaller character some screen time and I want to space out the trans/futa content since I know some players aren't interested in that. Candi got her scene this update because that's who my subscribers voted on.

Yea I actually really liked what you got so far. Its a good mix of character body types, nice amount of plot to 'plot'. Good range of kinks and even some vanilla content for those that want that. Also its a refreshing setting/genre. Plus the girls actually act differently to each other and aren't all 100% instantly after the MC. (I liked how Ness slowly builds to the MC)
I do wish we spent more time with Candi or (I forgot her name the trans girl in the fantasy) before we got her sim, as it would have made their kinks in the sim more interesting to see once we see them.

I think the only negative I really found was the jump to seeing your sisters BDSM lifestyle the first time was pretty jarring, the issue I mentioned before about the multiple sims, and the mom's 1st sim could use a little more.