Ren'Py - Abandoned - Learning Curves [v0.1.2] [Monjo Games]

I couldn't play past 10 minutes.
The UI was always in my way.
The models look lifeless. The body proportions are great but the face spoiled the experience for me.
The outfits weren't sleazy and I hardly ever got my attention.

Maybe the slow burn is not for me. I didn't check if the models get better later in the game.

Pros
Decent renders
Bouncing boobs

Cons
Biggest one is MC, he’s both a moron and looks part frightening and part sickly. I guess if your audience is 14 year old boys, this mc might be relatable but otherwise, come on.

Story is your typical incest with big boobed momma, controlling older sister and fun younger one, plus older sister’s friend who makes the MC even more moronic when she’s around than he normally is.

And guess what, we’ll be the photographer for the older sister who treats us like shit for her insta/onlyfans. First time did this on a Monday and then had to wait until following Monday to progress.

Sandbox elements are weak. Everything is pretty straight forward quest wise except you have to wait for certain days/times for main events and everything else is a possible random event. Closet and computer in your room are pointless objects to click on. Because of the way random events occur, when doing a story event and need to follow the sister and her friend from kitchen to living room, you end up seeing the younger sister there instead. If you click on her, it’ll do her random event and then trigger the 2 girls you were meant to see there.

To fix/redeem this, you’d have to make the MC at least reasonably mature even if he’s a virgin. The sandbox also needs work to address it’s shortcomings.

One of the best games I have ever played, the truth is the graphics are very good and even though there is a lot left to add, you are on the right track to be one of the greats. I look forward to the updates and believe me they are completely worth it. Greetings and I hope you don't leave this game unfinished. I'm your fan

There are not many games in very early stage when i finish it and just want more. This game has a huge potential if you like a light story more focused in funny moments and sexy stuff.

The game mechanic is around repeating certain actions to keep seeing more and more of that scene.

The girls are great, specially the house girls. And this game also has very good animation physics.

I like the way the game is right now, but maybe adding a tracker to know what content is still unseen would be better for most ppl. And this game also need a gallery to watch scenes that cant be repeated.

As of v0.1.2


PROS

• Good looking models

CONS

• Story is quite boring.
• It's an unlabeled Kinetic Novel.
• Another moron MC

CONCLUSION

Good looking but no choices, no point. MC is one of those autistic ones who just stare at women and you have no influence over the story (such as it is) or LI routes.

This was a great start!
I'm interested to see where this one goes. I'm giving it a 5- star for potential. I enjoy sandbox games like this. Even the slow burn repeatable events are interesting to me.
Let's see what kind of stamina the developer has.

Clearly inspired by Power Vacuum but removing the most... uncomfortable part of it in favor of just the humor/sexy sides, and with a great sense of pacing too. What a great start!
I'd love to see more house interactions, I really liked the slow progression with them, quite unlike anything else I've tried yet.

This game has a lot of potential, was fun to play the demo. Storywise the game is going in a good direction.

Would suggest improving image resolution and adjusting some of the location interfaces as movement feels clunky in some areas. For example, the hallway just outside MC's bedroom is shown from two different perspectives depending on which area you came from before. Imo this is unintuitive and should always show one perspective for consistency.

Review for Learning Curves v0.100

Overall: 3/5 - It's OK, but a bit light on content to get a really good feel for the game. I usually wait for the 3rd update before trying a new game. I thought there would be more because of all of the tags, but it's pretty typical. I'd recommend waiting another 2 updates before trying it.

Story: 2.5/5 - What's there so far is a cookie-cutter vanilla incest story. Nothing really original, but that's not really so bad. On the downside, the MC looks like he's 25, but acts like a 13-year-old virgin.

Writing: 4/5 - The writing is good, but the style is bland. The English is good. There are very few typos. E.g., I remember seeing the word "leave" written as "leavy", but it means the dev cares enough to use a spellchecker.

Renders: 2.5/5 - The models are pretty, but also a bit too similar, even Jenny and Anna who are unrelated look too similar to Amanda and Claire. The renders are all blurry/grainy. Both the backgrounds and characters look this way. In some renders, the characters seem to be rendered separately and placed into the scene vs. rendered as part of the scene. It looks better than sprites, but it doesn't really look good. The hair looks weird too, like it's also rendered separately and blurred where players should be able to see through it.

Animations: 3/5 - The animation quality varies a lot. Some animations look good and some look poor because they're not smooth. I do like the animations that occur during conversations instead of just lewd scenes.

Content: 3/5 - The quantity of content is about right for a first release. The quality of the content is a little low, though. The lewd content so far is mostly "disposable." I.e., dreams/imaginings or content not with the main characters. The hottest scene in the game is the two sisters fully clothed and fighting over the remote on the couch.

Gameplay: 2/5 - Gameplay isn't really fun and needs a lot of work.

• The sandbox is mostly boring/empty, it's tedious/slow, and it's poorly executed.
• It takes time to figure out how to navigate the house. Players will figure it out after playing for a while, but when a game is in development with updates every month or longer, it really sucks for players to re-learn it on every update. It would be nice if when hovering over a hotspot, it displays some text saying where it leads, or have some map-like user interface in place of or in addition to the hotspots for navigation. Also, the slow fade-out/fade-in transitions when navigating from room to room are painful and need to be removed.
• Progression through the repeating events doesn't always give players feedback so they know that they're actually making progress.
• There's no way for players to tell if they've seen all of the content in repeating events.

Bugs 4/5: There aren't many. Here's one that I remember:
After the scene where MC makes iced tea for Claire and takes it out to her by the pool is complete, going into the kitchen and clicking on the refrigerator can cause MC to say, "There's some iced tea in the fridge." ... "Alright, now I just need to bring this to Claire". I first noticed it after the scene with Jenny and Claire in the kitchen, but it happened more than that. It eventually stops, though.

Other feedback:

• There is a task of getting dressed in the morning on the first day, but never again. It seems like the idea was lost at some point.
• The front door needs a "return" option like the computer and wardrobe have, although I'm guessing it will eventually lead to a city map or something.
• The hallway outside of the MC's bedroom has two angles. It needs a way for players to turn around from the angle facing away from the MC's bedroom.
• The game occasionally goes into an auto-play mode where it automatically moves to the next render/animation every 2 seconds or so. I found this annoying because I would accidentally click and miss animations, but rolling back didn't just go back one render/animation it went back much further.
• Amanda's room is always locked at night, but unlocked in the morning, even though she hasn't woken up, yet.
• The streets look like they're in an Asian country, but everyone in the game is Caucasian.
• The MC makes Margaritas with... Vodka.
• The first release is version 0.100. Don't make up a new software versioning system for your very first game. The first release should be 0.1.0, then if you need to fix bugs, you can make a 0.1.1, 0.1.2, etc. The second release will be 0.2.0, and so on. If you keep it going for 50 updates/releases, you might get 0.50.0. You can still fix this...

Body renders are amazing, but the face of the protagonist is absolutely horrifying. He stares directly at the "camera"/screen frequently with this "I'm a mannequin that's going to come alive and stab you thirty-seven times" look. Absolute boner-killer.

v0.100

For a first release this game hit the ball far in the outfield, scoring the runner up to 3rd base. However, not quite a Home Run. Let's dive right in.

Learning Curve is a game by developer Monjo (who may be 1 person or a team...not sure) where Ned (the MC) returns to town after his father's death to become a teacher. Guess where he's living at? If the answer is Mom & sister ding ding ding!!

Jill (landlady/mom) packs serious cake. Holy shit
Amanda is the younger tenant/sister gets along great with Ned.
Claire is the older tenant/sister dislikes Ned, also showed signs of being a tsundere.
Anna is the student Ned dreamed about, and likely his girlfriend later on. Nice lady, nice figure, basically the only character I consider normal.

Game had a few funny moments I was not expecting. Couple of 4th wall breaks, Amanda eating chips had me howling (do not change a thing), and of course the Fight Scene between the sister was also hilarious. Reminded me a bit of the game Above the Clouds, but sexier.

Now the flaws. Hate to be "that guy" but Jill doesn't look her age. Put her next to Ned and he looks older. She looks like in her late 20s. Doesn't need much change maybe tanned skin & add lines by the side of her eyes. Just a thought.
Maybe it's my PC but I found the framerates a bit laggy/choppy during the animation scenes. Seems to be less than 30fps. Needs to be smoother, if possible.

Pros

- CAKE!!
- Fap worthy animated sex scene
- Humor
- i-patch not needed

Cons

- Sandbox game
- Confusing house navigations (should have a map)
- Low framerate animations (again maybe it's just me)

Verdict: The biggest thing going for this game is the sandbox. IF done correctly it can be possible to make it bearable should it stick around. I've played a few of them and most of the time I barely mind it as long as the payoff doesn't drag. Framerates could use a touch up. Girls are pretty hot so I know their sexy time will be fap worthy later on.

This game has the potential to be a big player here so yes download it try it out, and feel free to support the dev. Cheers

-In game guide is none existent. It just tells you to keep going things over and over to progress. Which leads to.....
-Endless and pointless grind, which is not fun at all. I am SICK of grind in renpy games now. It's enough already. It needs to stop.
-Horrible Navigation. No way to know what room is which. You end up clicking continually to figure out how to get anywhere. I am not going to remember where things are every few months the game is updated.
-Time of day needs to actually SAY the time of day, not just having a pic with sun. It can mean many things.
-No replay/Gallery. I am amazed that SO many devs do NOT put this in their games. It frankly perplexes me. It should be in every, single, game,....DAY ONE.

Characters and such are ok. Imagery is quite dated and really has no lighting. It's nice to have the option to pick names and what each character is.

I had such high hopes for this game based on the images and comments but this game is so disappointing. There is no map, the rooms have no names, and you are given directions to go to a certain room, but all you can do is aimlessly walk around the house hoping that you find the room you are supposed to be in to continue the story. I am hoping later episodes have more direction and and rooms are clearly marked.

omg, i actually laughed untill i had tears running down my cheeks after seing the animation with the two sisters fighting over the remote.
I'm looking forward to see the game further down in development,

Story:

The story or lack of the phrase immediately opens up and shows what kind of main character you'll be dealing with. There are some attempts at humor or maybe not, now our main character isn't a midget(Nothing against that community) but he does come off as a bumbling idiot. Particularly around women. It's old and played out, he looks 30 plus in the face but behaves like a teen. If this was a manlet, I'd let it slide the whole update was him creeping and perving. There really isn't nothing else to this game. He does tutor a character Anna, so maybe that's his main squeeze? I don't know. But this is heavily tropey. Nice asses though. There was a sex scene but it's not really enjoyable because they were both drunk so it was like flashing of the scene.

Gameplay:

It could use some work as far as navigating around. Like once you leave your room you have go forward in order to go backwards. A map would fix that problem and eliminate unnecessary clicking. The game does have a tip bar that let's you know when the game update ends but other than that you just have to click to find everything content wise.

Animations:

Okay.

Models:

Asses and tits.

Overall:

Nothing special thus far, guy sees skimpy girls, guy pervs on them, the end.

Learning Curves [v0.100] Review by Tauro Thurius

Here's my take on version 0.100:

Nice start. I like the artwork, and that you see some progress versus just grinding. I look forward to seeing you updates on this.
I do feel like there is very little content with Claire so far, but perhaps that is simply a matter of the content in release one versus your overall plan for her.

Great and fun game for an initial release.

The game stands out with the physics animations, but it has other strong points as well: the girls, the dialogue, the fun story, the short scenes (especially the sisters fighting).

Eager to see how the game develops further.

While the content level is to be expected from a first release, the game has good bones. Renders are fluid and cg looks decent. Excited to see where this goes.

One major issue that's been stated already is navigation is a chore. This could really benefit from a navigation bar or buttons if the house layout made any sense.

The very few fluid animation there is, are quite good quality like the pussy grinding being the most fluid one so hopefully keep that up. But please drop the sandbox crap. It's not 2014 anymore and noone likes it.