Played till the end of episode 2, so now I have even more feedback
There quite a progress from the first episode to the second, it's like you leveled up doing the second one. But I have some things to say.
Thanks for the praise on the renders. As one, if not the main goal in the beginning was to learn daz, I'm happy to hear I learned a thing or two. You have to keep in mind, I'm teaching everything myself.
Renders still good but troubles with lighting still goes on. Even on one scene, dinner with Caro, on one angle it's a bright day, in another angle it's already twilight.
The story.. well let's say, it will make more sense if you play the whole picture in version 1.0. I tease the ending more than once throughout the game but as I'm now working on E3, I don't remember every tease from E1 clearly. But that doesn't mean the story will be the best one you've ever played.
It's a personal one. The game is also more about many many personal references to my life and not just about the story. The story is a tool, as are the renders. I create this game to talk about my thoughts about my life.
Well, it's good you're making the game to not just make some money or gain popularity, you're trying to say something to people who play.
Storytelling in second episode is much more like storytelling. Problem with transition still goes on but now I see story, I see MC's development, I see relationship blossom. And at last, for the first time MC asks for a phone number, in previous episode girls just say "Call me" and no one gives MC her number. I even say I like it now (unlike episode 1). Maybe because it's no fun to play as dumb depressed loser, maybe because story has some structure at last. But unresolved issues from the 1st episode are still lingering over me: unknown addiction, best friend who, it seems, only briefly know MC (and vice versa), MC's history before Hawaii is still a mystery. Second episode is better than first but I believe you can make both episodes good. Both are parts of one game, it's only good if the first one will be no worse than the second.
The map.. well as I said in the game and I think as you played E1 you read it, it states I just wanted to implement a map. If you played the game Sisterly Lust, my map is similar how he did his game. In his game you're often in your room and then you have a menu with multiple options of scenes, which you can play after another. That's also how the map works.
Why the map though? Because I wanted my game to have a map as I had fun with a map in Milfy City. No other reason. I do things in this game because I want to, not because I need to.
I played Sisterly Lust and I see no resemblance. You see, Perverteer's game is room-centered, one scene always going on in one room (not literally sometimes), no movement between rooms in one scene. Game has a really simple story with choices centered around making some points with girls player like, nothing more. It seems your game has more serious story and there's movement between locations in one scene. Approach Perverteer used just cannot be used in your game, it's like slicing a bread with the axe. You can do that, but it's better with the knife.
And in the choice of scenes in Sisterly Lust... well, not long after beginning of the game choices become matter, if you choose one scene, you don't see another, player must choose one girl over another. Not that's really matter in the game, it's harem game and it means happy end in unavoidable. Again, your game looks more serious, with actual story.
Thing I don't get with the map is why names of the scene in upper right corner are not clickable. It takes time sometimes to find clickable icon on the map and player needs to guess what scene is hiding beneath icon. It's confusing. Maybe it's better to give player some direction (not names of the scenes but something self-explanatory, for example, not "Happy ending" but "Trip with Paolo") or make names of the scenes clickable. So if player wants to find an icon, he will do that, if player don't - he'll click the name of the scene he wish to play. Or maybe combine both variants.
No transition.. I'm not entirely sure what you mean, because I tried to take care of transitions between new sections of the game, like when you get a new map with new icons. There should be little transitions scenes. But I'm not sure what you mean exactly.
I'll try to explain. Your game lacks one character - it's storyteller. You may think it's MC but there's a thing: MC tells us his thoughts, he speaks with others, we are making choices for him, but he's not telling us what is going on. What does it mean? Here's two examples:
Scene in your game
MC thinks
MC talks
NPC talks
MC thinks
Scene in many other VNs
MC arives on the scene
MC thinks
MC talks
NPC talks
MC thinks
MC doing something
MC leaves this scene
It may seems small, the difference only in few strings but these strings are storyteller's words. Players don't watch a movie, we see static pictures and some text, nothing more. So we need to read what's going on, what our alter-ego is doing. Usually it's MC's words pointed at reader. Something like "I arrived on a place of our date late, she already stood there. She's here before me, I certainly late, isn't it?" And in the end "I kiss her goodbuy and left". Without these transitions changing location is really confusing, like some date with a girl in your game, one frame - they're are going to eat, next frame - they're somewhere else deciding where to go next. It's like player is walking in the darkness and he/she is sometimes seeing flashes of lightning. Story (just like spice) must flow, not jump like rabbit.
Choices.. when I upload E3 you will know more about how I handle choices in my game, please keep in mind this is version 0.3 and you said you only played E1?
E1 is more of an introduction to the game than anything else. Even in E2, you will see that there are choices which will get you entirely different scenes, even longer ones and on multiple occasions. If you want even more than that, I'm sorry.
Yes, in episode 2 choices matter. But what abour earlier? I chose variant with MILF to not continue, then suddenly she's still in MC's life, he knows her number (he never asked for that) and both want to go on. If there's no real choice why making choice at all? What's worse, choices in sex scenes. Player must guess what's hiding behind your desciption (and I never could have guessed that "be courageous" means anal), choice has no meaning, player needs to click it all anyway to see choice "Cum". Frankly speaking, such system is a turn off by itself. Sex scenes are beatufilly rendered (beside one animation where girl unnaturally flying over MC), together with text it's exciting to see/read but then I see that stupid menu. In such games sex scene's choices needed for direction, for maximazing player's pleasure. If player wants to fuck that beauty in missionary position then he choose "Missionary" (not something like "I want to lead") and after that he supposes he can choose where to cum. Maybe there are individuals who wants to see all animations and poses, but for part of players inability to continue after one pose and a necessity to see it all is a turn off and not something exciting.
That's a really long post, it's better to finish. There's two little things. One: MC with Caro near the pizzeria. There's a menu with prices. And I saw prices in euro. In Hawaii islands. I don't remember ever seeing a price in cents in modern USA, but I suppose it's not cents. Second thing: when MC riding a bike with someone he always give his helmet to passenger. Bike has no windshield. Is it supposed to look that stupid or there's something I don't see here? It's not a care for passenger, 'cause in that way there's high risk of traffic incident where passenger can be hurt. Helmet on driver's head protects not only driver but his passenger as well, wind in the face is not some trifle you can forget about.