Let me just say I hope you stick to this project. While Patreon is obviously a no go, I've seen RPGM shota games on Subscribestar making over 5k USD, which is a nice amount if you ask me. More and more ppl are migrating to SS because of Patreon restrictions, and it should have a big enough base to support your project.
I used to have a SS page, but I didn't like some of the billing stuff of the platform - it felt a bit unreliable, so I deactivated it to stick with fanbox only, where there is less bureaucracy. My Patreon page got nuked within a couple months, their guideline team or whatever it's called went after my twitter profile and suspended me based on that (I had literally no post on Patreon). That was the first strike to my motivation tbh.
Plus, we may be filthy pirates, but if there's one thing this site is great for to developers is bringing awareness. Maybe being here can be a turning point for your project given some effort, who knows. But you definetly have the talent to make this work. Best of luck to you
Yeah, I don't mind piracy, I'm a privateer sailor myself. Piracy is unavoidable, that's why I have a 100 JPY (~0.70 USD) tier in my fanbox for sea otters, so it serves as a tip jar for those who got the game from 3rd parties and still want to support.
I've once consulted with moderators about posting the game here but it was rejected, it was probably like 1 year and a half ago, or something like that. I see this forum as the largest western platform for eroges, successor of Hongfire and ULMF, so it was also a punch in the guts back then. But welp, it is what it is. Luckily I had already found a small but closely tied supporter base because of some art commissions I've done and they kept a roof over my head.
If anything this history (and slow progress) only proves that this project is not going to die, no matter what is thrown at us. It's my actual passion and I hold it in very high regards. As I said in other occasions: I'll keep working on this even if I become homeless.
Once again, I wholeheartedly thank OP for bringing up this game, even if the thread eventually gets deleted or whatever. It's already reached quite a few people. That's what I needed for a long time.
(I'm writing this whilst sleep deprived and with a huge brain fog, so forgive any mistakes in my posts)
Love the game since I found and played it from other site, good luck with the development and hope to see the next update in the near future. Hopefully you will gain more support since you got a thread on f95 now
If otter_san visits this thread, perhaps we can report bugs and suggestions for dialogue improvements here.
For exemple in V0.3d/ 2nd day : He will become Gordo later (which means fat in spanish) but until now have been called "Boy with Glasses", so "Fat boy" falls from nowhere here IMHO.
If otter_san visits this thread, perhaps we can report bugs and suggestions for dialogue improvements here.
For exemple in V0.3d/ 2nd day : He will become Gordo later (which means fat in spanish) but until now have been called "Boy with Glasses", so "Fat boy" falls from nowhere here IMHO. View attachment 1898413
Yeah I'm watching this thread and paying attention to all feedback. Back then he was supposed to be fat, but it made him kind of a 'joke character', I changed that but forgot some lines. Funnily enough, I've fixed most of the typos ever since (from multiple people proof-reading) but apparently no one noticed this one. And as you may have noticed from my posts here, I make lots of grammar mistakes and type like a dunce overall.
To be honest I thought more people would've seen through their names.
Oh wow, I wasn't expecting to see a game thread for this project around here, considering the genre/tags. Though, I'm glad lots of you found out about it and apparently liked to some degree.
Gonna take the chance to address some of the things pointed out here (and people who gave direct feedback via Discord). - Slow development & my dev. ideology
Starting out with the elephant in the room, yes, I am aware about how slow the development pace has been for this game. There are lots of reasons why this happened, a bit of an "agitated" real life (I'm about to move for the third time since I started this project) mixed with the fact I never saw a bright future for this game, no matter how good the final version is - given that each time more /straightshota/ stuff are forbidden everywhere. I don't have a big enough follower base to make it succeed on its own. Very often I found myself watching
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to muster some motivation and stick to my convictions.
Speaking of convictions, I have set a few rules for this project. I follow them even if it may cost everything, which are:
● Never sell-out: this is a straightshota game, not some jack-of-all trades meant to please everyone with a collection of kink that may not mix well with each other;
● Quality over production time: maybe I give too much control to my creativity blocks regarding writing, but I'm always willing to spend as much time as needed to have an organic story and interactions;
● People must be able to play it one-handed: no complicated mechanics and no extensive grinding. People should be able to not lose their boner doing random things in-game just to progress the story. The whole gameplay (at least up to the "release version") shall not consume a single neuron. Which on itself is enough to add a lot more weight to the narrative, because I can't just artificially insert playtime via grinding or running around the map a hundred times talking to every NPC alive until they find out what to do. In fact, you can also skip all dialogues that it won't affect how long it takes for someone to know what's next. The whole thing is supposed to be an "on rails" theme park ride. The small maps are meant to help out with this too.
- Save issue
That was an issue when I zipped this version to upload, instead of deleting the 'Save' folder contents I deleted it whole thinking RPGM would re-create it automatically. Though, for the next version I've reworked the whole load/save screen to support unlimited save files and a little better visual clarity on each file.
- Lewdity pace
I too thought that she went a bit too harshly from oblivious about lewdity to thirsty for cummies. It was something that not only bothered me but also felt like leading me to dead ends for the subsequent H events, as in it would require a huge amount of mental acrobatics to get her to do lewd stuff. I was considering making her go 100% predator mode and maybe a little abusive but didn't feel quite right either. This new narrative I'm writing is supposed to have elements that help release her from the moral shackles, with help of her craving for human warmth.
But the end goal was always turning Laura into their plaything, or rather, developing a mutual lewd relationship between her and all three boys, with no boundaries whatsoever. That's how she finds happiness.
- Mini-games
During the main story they are mostly meant to be concluded with no effort, though, they are designed to have high scores that will unlock extra scenes once the game is released. Though, for now I would rather focus on using my limited effort on progressing the main story. As mentioned above, this game is meant to be played one-handed, to keep that boner fresh.
I'll make sure to add some text clarifying that to the player (some people went super far in the "rythm" minigame, feel kinda bad for them, even though the score made during the main story is supposed to count towards unlocking the extra scenes).
- Animations
This one is a bit of an issue, though I would like for the game to be animated in every CG, it's a bit of an unrealistic goal considering my current limitations. There are also some more "technical" implications that make it not super viable, such as angles and how some scenes are composed. Maybe in the future I'll get to animate every single one of them, but it's not priority.
- Some cutscenes feel like an eternity
I've halved the wait times for most of them. I hope this should be enough to make them more endurable.
- Choices are not really choices
Choosing different boys always lead to the same exact events. I understand that's not optimal but I want to keep the game as linear as possible. Never been a fan of replaying eroges myself just to get to an specific event -it always makes me feel like I'm missing out on the good stuff or that had I chosen a different thing my perception of the game could be better. I'm too much of a "what if" person, and this reflects in my writing style. But... yeah, I could make them deviate a little bit from the default route according to the shota's personality and I intend to make that happen, but just not right now. Writing the main thing is already painful enough for me, the plan is to come back later and change that once I have a decent enough product in general.
- Final words
This is basically my first project, I've learned a lot since its start, and I hope you guys are willing to give the game another chance once the new version is out. And boy, it's EXTRA hard to keep the game entertaining solely using the characters and their interactions. Not trying to sound arrogant but I believe I've been doing a decent job so far with all the oddities, jokes and occasional mini-games.
I'm really glad many of you caught EXACTLY the atmosphere I wanted to set, not only that but in general your analysis was super spot-on with what I had planned. This makes me super optimistic due to the confirmation that we're on the right tracks. I've polished several parts of the game to improve this sensation (such as making the world more lively, portrait for the boys to express them better and other subtle things).
By the way, my DMs @ discord are always open, if you have any suggestion regarding the story, feel free to hit me up. It's mostly from talking to people that my brain engages into "writing mode". Help with writing is always welcome, considering it's the source of 90% of my hiatuses.
EDIT:
By the way, I forgot to express gratitude to OP for making this thread. It certainly shone some light and hope for the project, should step on the gas once I am done moving IRL (next week). Thanks a lot to everyone for their feedback.
Never seen that one happen. But I would assume it's your OS not giving RPGM the rights to read the external file I use for the speeches, maybe running as admin should help.
That's something that bothered me big time, one of the reasons I'm rewriting that portion of the story. Sometimes it's hard to know that the big picture is not really implemented like I had in my mind and some interactions/happenings are a lackluster/not as dramatic as I imagined. My intention was to speed things up because I intend to make them completely open sexually between themselves eventually, but the execution was kind offputting.
I'm going in the rewriting process with the idea that there must be more occasional nudity and better fillers before she even voluntarily shows her boobies. Might not accomplish it on the first (or rather, second) attempt but will keep trying until it's in a decent spot.
Besides the crash when there are no more baits, I want to report a little bug : During the dialogue, invalid code EV4301A, B .. E are found instead of usual text.
otter_san
I must admit: Your game is the first porn game I've every played in the past 5+ years, where I actually like the characters, their behaviour and the entire writing.
There was no second where I thought about skipping a dialog (and I'm the skippiest skipper in this world when it comes to this type of games - I, with every cell in my body, hate to read 30 minutes dialog and then get one booby grope scene as reward)..
Keep on otter_san - will look up for more games/updates made by you
Love the demo.
Hope I see more of this game.
To give some suggestions, I recommend you seek inspiration from Mischief war in your interactions with the boys.
I too would like to see a lot slower burn as far as her corruption goes. Instead of taking it over a few days It would be nice if it took place over months. Possibly add in a wide variety of outfits for different stages and locations. Another Idea for you would be to look into a job for her. (since you have a Shota theme how about at the school as a part time instructor? one she could get after starting her relationship with the boys?) Another path you may want to explore is the boy's control over her / bragging / behavior one would expect form boys. (Ie, not just the interactions with her but the ones with other people outside of their club and the changes it could make to their group dynamic.) To add one final point, you could have her fall deeper into the boy's clutches by having them be her bridge to the rest of the world. (Cant get a job, the boys help her get one. Need something fixed at home, the boys convince a handyman to come fix it, ect.)
otter_san
I must admit: Your game is the first porn game I've every played in the past 5+ years, where I actually like the characters, their behaviour and the entire writing.
There was no second where I thought about skipping a dialog (and I'm the skippiest skipper in this world when it comes to this type of games - I, with every cell in my body, hate to read 30 minutes dialog and then get one booby grope scene as reward)..
Keep on otter_san - will look up for more games/updates made by you
Love reading this, I'm a skipper myself (usually I try to read character introduction then I skip until I find a "fappable" H scene) so I probably know that feeling. I'll try not to disappoint with the next updates.
Love the demo.
Hope I see more of this game.
To give some suggestions, I recommend you seek inspiration from Mischief war in your interactions with the boys.
I too would like to see a lot slower burn as far as her corruption goes. Instead of taking it over a few days It would be nice if it took place over months. Possibly add in a wide variety of outfits for different stages and locations. Another Idea for you would be to look into a job for her. (since you have a Shota theme how about at the school as a part time instructor? one she could get after starting her relationship with the boys?) Another path you may want to explore is the boy's control over her / bragging / behavior one would expect form boys. (Ie, not just the interactions with her but the ones with other people outside of their club and the changes it could make to their group dynamic.) To add one final point, you could have her fall deeper into the boy's clutches by having them be her bridge to the rest of the world. (Cant get a job, the boys help her get one. Need something fixed at home, the boys convince a handyman to come fix it, ect.)
I'm adding AT LEAST 1 week with occasional nudity and getting her mental ready to lewd. Even though, it's a super hard job to balance build-up with action, considering that in the end this is a fapping game. Having a lot of build-up adds a huge weight to how entertaining the interactions must be.
Anyways, as long as I have good ideas about what they can do in between events (fillers), it should be fine. I loved your suggestion btw, I was torn between making her reject society and making the end goal re-integrate her, but I guess the latter sounds more fitting. Instead of making her completely depressive and intimidating, I'm trying to make her interactions with outsiders show a bit more of interest on her part of befriending them, instead of being a ball of (justified) hatred all the time.
If you would like to go more in-depth on the ideas you have, we could have a chat @ Discord. We probably have a similar vision.
