Ren'Py Lust Academy [S4 v4.6.1d] [Bear in the Night]

[-CookieMonster666-]

Will willow get any love this season or is she just out of the game?

Crap, remind me who Willow is. I could pull up the game, but since you mentioned her I figured you'd be a good person to ask.

 

[Nemo56]

Crap, remind me who Willow is. I could pull up the game, but since you mentioned her I figured you'd be a good person to ask.

The fairy from the shop who helps MC with some rare resources and basically annoucned she wants to make him her future husband or something like that.
Hopefully she has a potion in her store that will increase her size, otherwise the MC will split her her in half. Poor Willow ...

 

[The Senior Perv]

Crap, remind me who Willow is. I could pull up the game, but since you mentioned her I figured you'd be a good person to ask.

A Nelwyn farmer who is the protagonist of the 1988 movie of the same name... ops, wrong Willow.

 

[-CookieMonster666-]

The fairy from the shop who helps MC with some rare resources and basically annoucned she wants to make him her future husband or something like that.
Hopefully she has a potion in her store that will increase her size, otherwise the MC will split her her in half. Poor Willow ...

That's right! Yeah, she's cute. I also hope more happens with her this season.

A Nelwyn farmer who is the protagonist of the 1988 movie of the same name... ops, wrong Willow.

Oh, I just always referred to him as "peck". I guess I should stop being so bigoted.

 

[Eticketjedi]

Crap, remind me who Willow is. I could pull up the game, but since you mentioned her I figured you'd be a good person to ask.

This is one of my big issues with this game (and plenty of others). We're waiting on content with some girls that have been in the game since season one, and they keep dumping more in there. The character screen is at 50-55 characters and I think 40 of those are current or potential love interests.

 

[-CookieMonster666-]

This is one of my big issues with this game (and plenty of others). We're waiting on content with some girls that have been in the game since season one, and they keep dumping more in there. The character screen is at 50-55 characters and I think 40 of those are current or potential love interests.

Yep. The sudden, magical "retiring" of characters who have to go on safari or to an elite study or whatever is over-the-top also. Do you know how many people at university, even incredibly smart folks, had to take a full semester or longer off because of special opportunities (rather than a loved one being ill or something)? I'll give you a hint: I can count them on one hand, and I don't have to use any fingers. But somehow the MC in this game creampies a girl with "special opportunity" sperm. (Now that I think about it, that sounds like some Chad's line to convince a girl to let him into her pants.)

All of this boils down to the game having way too many LIs and not a big enough team to manage all of them, even in a single semester at Cordale. But they've painted themselves into a corner, so I guess this will be par for the course going forward.

 

[someyoungguy]

I knew lots of people in college who got opportunities to study in special programs that involved them leaving campus for a whole semester or even a whole year, but those people don't just completely disappear from your life when that happens, so it still breaks immersion in the game because you go full radio silent with people that you supposedly care deeply about and seem to care deeply about you. It also breaks immersion because establishing that there are things like magical fellowships and exchange programs seriously begs the question why we're not getting more one-off characters every term. If so many students are leaving here for prestigious opportunities far afield, and this is actually a prestigious magical university instead of some bottom rung school for people who happen to have magic but couldn't cut it elsewhere, then there should be at least as many students showing up for these kinds of programs as are leaving for them. If the school is really as prestigious as they imply, there should really be a lot more fellowship and exchange students here

 

[-CookieMonster666-]

I knew lots of people in college who got opportunities to study in special programs that involved them leaving campus for a whole semester or even a whole year, but those people don't just completely disappear from your life when that happens, so it still breaks immersion in the game because you go full radio silent with people that you supposedly care deeply about and seem to care deeply about you. It also breaks immersion because establishing that there are things like magical fellowships and exchange programs seriously begs the question why we're not getting more one-off characters every term. If so many students are leaving here for prestigious opportunities far afield, and this is actually a prestigious magical university instead of some bottom rung school for people who happen to have magic but couldn't cut it elsewhere, then there should be at least as many students showing up for these kinds of programs as are leaving for them. If the school is really as prestigious as they imply, there should really be a lot more fellowship and exchange students here

I'm surprised you know so many who left. I knew of people leaving, but nobody I knew personally ever did. It seems like every other witch or wizard the MC knows is taking off because something's come up. Maybe it's more immersion-breaking for me, then. It's completely foreign to my own experience at university. It is what it is, I suppose.

You do bring up a good point. If Cordale is so amazing, why does everyone leave to go elsewhere? Maybe the opportunities only exist in the first place for the characters because they're in attendance at Cordale. I'm not sure, but I'm definitely not a fan.

 

[someyoungguy]

I'm surprised you know so many who left. I knew of people leaving, but nobody I knew personally ever did. It seems like every other witch or wizard the MC knows is taking off because something's come up. Maybe it's more immersion-breaking for me, then. It's completely foreign to my own experience at university. It is what it is, I suppose.

You do bring up a good point. If Cordale is so amazing, why does everyone leave to go elsewhere? Maybe the opportunities only exist in the first place for the characters because they're in attendance at Cordale. I'm not sure, but I'm definitely not a fan.

Yeah, usually schools with students good enough to be in programs like that also have their own programs like that. They're usually related to opportunities to study with a particularly prestigious department or professor, from what I've seen. So many people leaving, but none coming in makes it feel like the school is either just now trying to participate in wizard academics at that sort of level (after hundreds of years lmao) or can no longer command the respect required to draw in the highest quality professors or students, which is weird because the two most prominent professors in the game are supposed to be like savants in their fields of study. So it does seem strange no matter how you look at it.

 

[fengyuan]

Season 3 Unable to convert the game to Chinese

 

[Nemo56]

All of this boils down to the game having way too many LIs and not a big enough team to manage all of them

Same as in a episodic TV show. When the cast gets too big, there's not enough time for everyone in one episode. That was a major problem with Batman '66. Of course 3D models are not contract actors and don't get payed on a monthly base or have guaranteed screentime, but still someone has to create content for them and if the writers and artists concentrate on a few, the others will be ignored - which will usually enrages their fans.
Sending them away in the first place in my eyes is a good solution for the problem.

The devs go in a good direction, they actually have a plan how much they will put in a semester (or season), which is good to estimate costs and time and is more professional than what many others do. If they now got some better writers and translators ...

 

[-CookieMonster666-]

Same as in a episodic TV show. When the cast gets too big, there's not enough time for everyone in one episode. That was a major problem with Batman '66. Of course 3D models are not contract actors and don't get payed on a monthly base, but still someone has to create content for them and if the writers and artists concentrate on a few, the others will be ignored - which will usually enrages their fans.
Sending them away in the first place in my eyes is a good solution for the problem.

The devs go in a good direction, they actually have a plan how much they will put in a semester (or season), which is goot to estimate costs and time and is more professional than what many others do. If they now got some better writers and translators ...

I agree about it being comparable to a television show. It's a problem for those, and it's a problem for this game as well.

Some of what you say would make a lot more sense if they would retire lesser characters, like Grace or Gabrielle, or if they would avoid introducing new characters to replace old ones (Naomi leaves but Dakota shows up; Audrey leaves but Penny arrives). You're not really managing the problem of too many when you immediately add another when one's removed. And it's the same with Season 3: Lily and Naomi are both gone now, but Audrey's back, we still have Grace and Gabriella, and we now have the new class: Kayla, June, Eva, and probably Wendy.

So sorry, but I don't think what they're doing is working even remotely well for managing their bloated character roster.

 

[Nemo56]

What you have too in a game like this: As many LIs as possible. Most players would not care if MC ends up again with Lily or not, so it's safe to send her away. Grace and Gabrielle don't have been conquered yet, Gabrielle's story is somewhere half way, Grace's just started.
New girls need to be added to conquer, so those already conquered must go - with very few exceptions who are most players favorites (like the big Non-Sister).
But even such a prominent character who's story isn't finished yet could go on 'vacation' and return later, that would keep her fans waiting for her (and paying).

The shows with the cast growing too big didn't have that problem from the beginning, but more and more people were added over time.
Check DCs arrow verse, the character count is insane, they started however with only a handful of people. At some point they started to "send away" characters to spin-off shows and would return once in a while. If you have the capacity to do that, that's also a good solution. Of course that won't work in a story like this where everything must revolve around one character.

What this game badly needs is better writing. The characters co-exist, but easch one is quite flat, they also hardly ever interact. It became better in season 2, but there's still a long way to go. Since everything is optional without any trace of consequence (like in other games), everything feels very shallow and insignificant - which it is. The amount of people is not really the problem, it's how they are handled.

 

[someyoungguy]

The thing about the too many characters management problem is that it's only a problem because they're trying to make two games at once, the sandbox and the VN. In a real sandbox, having extra characters wouldn't really be a problem because the player could just ignore the ones they weren't interested in. This isn't a problem inherent to the game, story, or number of characters. It's a problem the dev team has created for themselves by the way they approach creating the game. With good writing, the number of characters introduced so far wouldn't be a problem to juggle in either a sandbox or VN with well managed branching, but doing it while making two games simultaneously would be a nontrivial undertaking even for a studio. That's part of why it feels so unsatisfying for characters to just disappear. You're probably predominantly playing one of the two games you're being offered, and the total number of LIs introduced so far is by no means overwhelming. There are harem games with dozens of LIs where you can end up with more LIs than have been introduced in this game, so obviously the number by itself isn't the problem. It's a two part problem of poor resource management for the dev team and that the writing gets weaker every season, which could be related to the former problem

 

[Bear in the Night]

Bear in the Night Amelie is the best character for me in the game .
I love Amelie. She is freaking awesome. I really love femdom in non femdom games. It's a different feeling and Amelie gave
an awesome feeling. I enjoyed all the conversation, the build up before action. I love how she slowly seduce him to become her sub. I enjoyed that prosses very much.
The femdom scenes written really well. Dialogues makes the scenes more erotic and exciting to play. The writing and the good renders made the scene enjoyable. I am sad that no Amelie scene in season 3 so far. Waiting for more scenes with Amelie .
I have question, I'll put that in spoiler.

Spoiler

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Hey!
Thanks for good words, but I can't really answer your questions, rn
But, I'll send your wishes to our writers

 

[Bear in the Night]

What you have too in a game like this: As many LIs as possible. Most players would not care if MC ends up again with Lily or not, so it's safe to send her away. Grace and Gabrielle don't have been conquered yet, Gabrielle's story is somewhere half way, Grace's just started.
New girls need to be added to conquer, so those already conquered must go - with very few exceptions who are most players favorites (like the big Non-Sister).
But even such a prominent character who's story isn't finished yet could go on 'vacation' and return later, that would keep her fans waiting for her (and paying).

The shows with the cast growing too big didn't have that problem from the beginning, but more and more people were added over time.
Check DCs arrow verse, the character count is insane, they started however with only a handful of people. At some point they started to "send away" characters to spin-off shows and would return once in a while. If you have the capacity to do that, that's also a good solution. Of course that won't work in a story like this where everything must revolve around one character.

What this game badly needs is better writing. The characters co-exist, but easch one is quite flat, they also hardly ever interact. It became better in season 2, but there's still a long way to go. Since everything is optional without any trace of consequence (like in other games), everything feels very shallow and insignificant - which it is. The amount of people is not really the problem, it's how they are handled.

I agree about it being comparable to a television show. It's a problem for those, and it's a problem for this game as well.

Some of what you say would make a lot more sense if they would retire lesser characters, like Grace or Gabrielle, or if they would avoid introducing new characters to replace old ones (Naomi leaves but Dakota shows up; Audrey leaves but Penny arrives). You're not really managing the problem of too many when you immediately add another when one's removed. And it's the same with Season 3: Lily and Naomi are both gone now, but Audrey's back, we still have Grace and Gabriella, and we now have the new class: Kayla, June, Eva, and probably Wendy.

So sorry, but I don't think what they're doing is working even remotely well for managing their bloated character roster.

Yeah, usually schools with students good enough to be in programs like that also have their own programs like that. They're usually related to opportunities to study with a particularly prestigious department or professor, from what I've seen. So many people leaving, but none coming in makes it feel like the school is either just now trying to participate in wizard academics at that sort of level (after hundreds of years lmao) or can no longer command the respect required to draw in the highest quality professors or students, which is weird because the two most prominent professors in the game are supposed to be like savants in their fields of study. So it does seem strange no matter how you look at it.

By the way, when we discuss "poor writing," are we referring to awkward dialogue or a weak overall storyline? These are two distinct issues. If everything was poor, I doubt you would continue playing our game Currently, we are focusing on improving our dialogue system, so if that's what you're referring to, we're making progress in the right direction.

 

[-CookieMonster666-]

By the way, when we discuss "poor writing," are we referring to awkward dialogue or a weak overall storyline? These are two distinct issues. If everything was poor, I doubt you would continue playing our game Currently, we are focusing on improving our dialogue system, so if that's what you're referring to, we're making progress in the right direction.

I haven't spoken about "poor writing", so I can't help you with that specific thing. But generally, I personally disagree with both of the above posters: I do think the number of characters is a major problem and not just a symptom of something else. There are so many characters that I forget names. There are so many characters that any I cared about early in the game lose their attachment to me as a player. There are so many characters that things like the primary storyline of the game get slowed considerably because updates focus more on some that are practically irrelevant other than a small discussion or sex scene somewhere.

When I say "practically irrelevant", I'm not talking about very obviously small side content, like the twins' massaging in Dale or the Mushroom Girl from the forest.

I think the better course would be to limit the character totals to allowing manual interactions of only a limited number, maybe 10 or 12 if you really want to have a lot anyway. In other words, sure the MC can speak with someone before, during, or after class. However, unless they are a primary LI or part of the main story, such interactions should be automatic and brief generally.

As mentioned earlier, a big problem ensemble television shows run into is that very few characters get much screen time at all, despite their importance more generally. But it's worse with a game, because it feels like there's very little point to interacting with many in the cast. That also means more resources are being spent on storylines of practically no consequence instead of those more directly tied to the MC, whether his love life or the greater overarching plot at Cordale.

I enjoy the game overall, for sure. I just get frustrated that about the time I start really to get into a character's story and the MC's interactions with them, they disappear. Sure, you could bring them back after a semester or two, but for me much of the impact of building a relationship gets lost with absence. It's the same as RL where long-distance relationships tend not to last for very long. Characters' absences make me care a lot less about them later on, even if there's a good reason for their being away.

Anyway, I can't speak for others, but that's my personal feeling with things. I enjoy the game overall (I only play the sandbox mode), but there are way too many characters to interact with to be reasonable in my opinion. And for any that you do develop a connection with, you should be prepared to forget all about them after a semester or two.

 

[Nemo56]

By the way, when we discuss "poor writing," are we referring to awkward dialogue or a weak overall storyline? These are two distinct issues. If everything was poor, I doubt you would continue playing our game Currently, we are focusing on improving our dialogue system, so if that's what you're referring to, we're making progress in the right direction.

The storytelling for each story arc is shallow, but acceptable, the thing as a whole ... meh. The dialogs sometimes are a matter of fast forwarding.
Maybe something's lost in the translation as well and is not as bad in the original.
It's "good enough" to buy it, so I did.

And last but not least (not about the game quality, but production and management): The way you treat paying customers ... The latest update for S2 hasn't been published on GOG yet.
Don't tell me it's GOGs fault. If other devs can do it, so can you.
There's one dev in specific that always publishes on all platforms (the ones I know of are: Epic, GOG,Steam,itch,gamejolt,zoom) the same day. So it's definitly doable.

 

[someyoungguy]

By the way, when we discuss "poor writing," are we referring to awkward dialogue or a weak overall storyline? These are two distinct issues. If everything was poor, I doubt you would continue playing our game Currently, we are focusing on improving our dialogue system, so if that's what you're referring to, we're making progress in the right direction.

The story first season was good. Good premise, good art, and okayish writing. I'm not sure if maybe you were being cheeky or outright joking, but assuming that good writing is what gets or keeps players playing a porn game is a faulty assumption. It's the porn. Each successive season's writing since the first has gradually, but noticeably decreased in quality. Imo, to me, it seems that after the first season writing has been more about trope chasing and artificially building drama between characters rather than pursuing storylines effectively and developing relationships between characters. I don't think it's the system for the dialogue that makes it feel contrived and shallow, as much as the dialogue that's in the system.

The first season was probably one of my favourite games on this site while I was playing it. I was really excited to play the second season, and your pacing of updates seemed to line up favourably with the pacing of story per season in such a way as to make it seem that following the game would be a relatively immersive experience in the world. But I thought the writing would get better each season through a combination of the lead writer getting more experience, better translations (because the game seems translated, and idk if it's written in English or no), and gaining more writers to allow for more complex storylines while keeping up with the dev cycle. Especially after the game was put on Steam, this seemed like the direction it would be going.

Reading the game, though, it's seemed like the opposite of all those things has happened. The relationship with each LI somehow seems shallower and less personal every season. LIs disappear and reappear from season to season with explanations that don't make sense within the setting. The storylines seem somehow rushed and plodding at the same time. The translations (if the game is even translated, Idk for sure) somehow seem even worse, with more and more words and phrases seeming like either wild typos that happen to still be words or very badly translated, leaving you feeling like you're missing out on a lot of the intended meaning. Given that, it could be that all the seeming flaws in the writing could just be a result of really terrible translation. The overall structure of a work isn't usually that badly affected by translation errors, but this text is delivered piecemeal enough that perhaps that is the whole of the issue. Translations are usually better when the translator is a native speaker of the language being translated to and fluent in the language being translated from.

Hoping the writing would improve and the lewd scenes are the only reason I kept going into Season 3. But the writing is getting to the point where it's getting difficult to even get into the lewd scenes anymore.

I enjoy the game overall, for sure. I just get frustrated that about the time I start really to get into a character's story and the MC's interactions with them, they disappear. Sure, you could bring them back after a semester or two, but for me much of the impact of building a relationship gets lost with absence. It's the same as RL where long-distance relationships tend not to last for very long. Characters' absences make me care a lot less about them later on, even if there's a good reason for their being away.

Anyway, I can't speak for others, but that's my personal feeling with things. I enjoy the game overall (I only play the sandbox mode), but there are way too many characters to interact with to be reasonable in my opinion. And for any that you do develop a connection with, you should be prepared to forget all about them after a semester or two.

I sort of both agree and disagree with CookieMonster here. I don't think having too many characters to keep track of is a problem if all or most of the characters are optional, and there were clear indications when interaction with a particular character was required for story reasons. But LIs disappearing seemingly at random for flimsy reasons that don't make sense in context of the story is a big problem. I think it's fine to serve up LIs buffet style and let the players have to choose the ones they want to romance/spend time with. I've seen that sort of structuring of the romanceable characters make choosing who to spend time with and the resulting relationships feel more impactful, as well as increasing replayability for those who feel that they're missing out. I've played some games that have done that successfully.

I think a big part of the frustration I have is that it seems like the game is getting more successful, but the quality is dropping. The team makes time to remaster old seasons and create DLCs for them, but the characters become less articulate and more generic while the plotlines are all over the place. I don't know how big the team is, so I can't say this is what caused the drop in quality, but from the outside, it looks like poor resource management is dividing the team's attention and resulting in a lower quality product. It's clear there are very talented artists and developers on the team. The writer(s) that came up with the premise and expanded it for Season 1 did a good job. Maybe the writer(s) need more help or time to properly develop story ideas and dialogue. Your publishing pace is pretty quick for a project of this scope. In a lot of ways it seems that the team should have the resources to make a better story because they were doing it once, but aren't anymore for some reason despite the game's apparent success.

 

[Gamesstar]

Hey!
Thanks for good words, but I can't really answer your questions, rn
But, I'll send your wishes to our writers

Thanks, I appreciate the reply