VN Ren'Py Maid to Please [v0.14.2] [Tutbork]

[ImperialD]

found your game today .... and i gotta say it was pretty awesome ... patiently waiting for the next update ......
love the renders .... amazing storyline kudos Dev(s)

 

[Allan Trumbull]

Interesting...
But will wait for more contents

 

[WastedTalent]

As always, I appreciate honest opinions. I might not agree and I might not follow advice, but I appreciate the opinion.

The first upload was on Jan 31, so we're not even four months in. Can we pretend I update every 4 months and this was the second update?

Sounds reasonable I guess lol. Good luck moving forward.

 

[Nicke]

Any pregnancy planned for the future?

Here's the deal with pregnancy: I want to do it. I intend to do it. But! And it's a big but. Once I start doing pregnancies it will be a lot of extra work. Every render with any girl that's pregnant, will need two versions, one where she is, one where she isn't. If there's two girls in a scene and both have optional pregnancy ... and so on.

For this reason, it will come very late in the game. So I wouldn't sit up at night waiting for it.

found your game today .... and i gotta say it was pretty awesome ... patiently waiting for the next update ......
love the renders .... amazing storyline kudos Dev(s)

Phew, them are kind words.

 

[Nicke]

So I have a question for anyone who's inclined to answer:

Sometimes, there will be a branch in a conversation/scene depending on which stat is higher with a girl. There's two ways to handle this.

A: The scene just proceeds without telling you there was a variation to the scene.
B: You must still click to confirm.

The advantage of A is that it 'flows' better and the advantage with B is that you know there was a different dialogue/images you did not see.

Which approach do you like better?

 

[Uzhirian]

So I have a question for anyone who's inclined to answer:

Sometimes, there will be a branch in a conversation/scene depending on which stat is higher with a girl. There's two ways to handle this.

A: The scene just proceeds without telling you there was a variation to the scene.
B: You must still click to confirm.

The advantage of A is that it 'flows' better and the advantage with B is that you know there was a different dialogue/images you did not see.

Which approach do you like better?

A for me. I'd rather have less clicks with info about branches presented else-how (like in the choice as per how you do it for beth's affection vs submission or you could just have some info pop up at the top of the screen or whatever.)

Great update by the way. I'm really enjoying this game.

 

[ImperialD]

So I have a question for anyone who's inclined to answer:

Sometimes, there will be a branch in a conversation/scene depending on which stat is higher with a girl. There's two ways to handle this.

A: The scene just proceeds without telling you there was a variation to the scene.
B: You must still click to confirm.

The advantage of A is that it 'flows' better and the advantage with B is that you know there was a different dialogue/images you did not see.

Which approach do you like better?

A ... for the reason you've stated

 

[Nicke]

A for me. I'd rather have less clicks with info about branches presented else-how (like in the choice as per how you do it for beth's affection vs submission or you could just have some info pop up at the top of the screen or whatever.)

A ... for the reason you've stated

Okay, thanks for the feedback!

I feel that the way I stated my question might have been a bit misleading. I did not mean to suggest I'd turn the game into more of a kinetic novel. The larger point based choices will remain.

Let me give an example of what I mean: Hannah is coming over to do some yoga with Beth. The doorbell rings and you open the door. Now Hannah might look down shyly as she greets you (sub) or smile happily at you (aff). It tweaks her character around the points you've chosen for her so far.

I guess the answer is even more obviously A though?

 

[Uzhirian]

Okay, thanks for the feedback!

I feel that the way I stated my question might have been a bit misleading. I did not mean to suggest I'd turn the game into more of a kinetic novel. The larger point based choices will remain.

Let me give an example of what I mean: Hannah is coming over to do some yoga with Beth. The doorbell rings and you open the door. Now Hannah might look down shyly as she greets you (sub) or smile happily at you (aff). It tweaks her character around the points you've chosen for her so far.

I guess the answer is even more obviously A though?

I think the question was clear enough. To expand on my thoughts for your above example;
1. Having a confirmation if you can't change anything would be fairly pointless. So clicking to confirm you got the sub version of Hannah's door greeting would be awful. That approach might only be useful in a situation where you were making a choice that would set/lock Hannah into a particular path (or conversely, if a choice would flip her out of that path onto another if that is possible). Personally, I still think the less annoying approach would just to be having the choice itself tell the player that the option would enable/lock that path going forward.
2. I think if you are concerned people won't know they are on a specific path and others are available, you could like other games build that info into the LI/character profiles (which you already have the base setup for that shows their points).

 

[gregers]

As long as it doesn't turn into a stupid murder subplot. That would be completely incongruous with the tone of the game so far, but there are a few story elements that could be developed in that direction.

I should revise my previous statement: This seems to be exactly where we're heading, tonal incongruities notwithstanding.

I don't mind crime drama, but it's a bit of a shift from the opening of the game being pretty much all light and fluffy, slightly humorous relationship stuff.

 

[Nicke]

I should revise my previous statement: This seems to be exactly where we're heading, tonal incongruities notwithstanding.

I don't mind crime drama, but it's a bit of a shift from the opening of the game being pretty much all light and fluffy, slightly humorous relationship stuff.

Perhaps it will be a light, fluffy, and slightly humorous murder plot?

I feel like I'm spamming the thread, sorry for that. I have f95zone open in the background pretty much always when I'm working in Daz or writing.

 

[Darkmetal]

Those updates are way too short. It's not worth downloading for each of them.

The reason for monthly updates is to a degree for myself as creator. It helps with my motivation and working morale to have "short" term goals to work towards (a monthly update, in this case).

As I've only started with this version, I have not experienced this first hand (yet). Perhaps an imperfect middle ground is to provide an "v0.xx to V0.xy update only" style patch alongside a full version with each new release for those that are already up to date with the game?

8 releases out and still no lewd scenes. IDK what your intentions are but most slow burn stories have at least had a handy or bj in as many updates sometimes more.

A lot of Devs use the one and done side chick solution to get early lewd scenes in rather than compromising the pacing for the main girls. Not saying this dev should or should not do that, but I must confess that I actually half thought the waitress, who was like putty in MC's hands during their tete-a-tete whilst Matt was away washing his beer stain could be one such. Alas it was not to be, instead of a BJ in the alley behind the bar, we had to save that annoying kid ....

There's two ways to handle this.

A: The scene just proceeds without telling you there was a variation to the scene.
B: You must still click to confirm.

If there are no choices to be made, definitely A. If there is a choice, then the way it is done now (menu with both alternatives shown with their respective minimum requirement needed to activate) is perfectly fine IMO.

Perhaps it will be a light, fluffy, and slightly humorous murder plot?

And why not indeed. Some of the best murder and vengeance stories are comedies. A Fish Called Wanda; Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels; Snatch etc. Now you've just got to pull off a Python/Guy Ritchie

 

[Tumai]

I feel like I'm spamming the thread

Not possible when you are the game Dev . More communication/engagement with the community always better then less.

 

[botc76]

So I have a question for anyone who's inclined to answer:

Sometimes, there will be a branch in a conversation/scene depending on which stat is higher with a girl. There's two ways to handle this.

A: The scene just proceeds without telling you there was a variation to the scene.
B: You must still click to confirm.

The advantage of A is that it 'flows' better and the advantage with B is that you know there was a different dialogue/images you did not see.

Which approach do you like better?

I absolutely hate one click "choices" as I feel they unnecessarily interrupt the flow of the story, but, if there would indeed be an alternative option at a different score, then that is important information.
So in this case, definitely show that there could be a different option, with the right score.
Alternatively, if there is a branch, but the MC can't really make a decision about it, it just depends on the point he has, then you could of course just pop in a message about "x score not high enough for y girl to achieve variant branch" or something like that, this way the players would get the information, but wouldn't have to click an icon, when there's no real option.

 

[JackMiejov]

So I have a question for anyone who's inclined to answer:

Sometimes, there will be a branch in a conversation/scene depending on which stat is higher with a girl. There's two ways to handle this.

A: The scene just proceeds without telling you there was a variation to the scene.
B: You must still click to confirm.

The advantage of A is that it 'flows' better and the advantage with B is that you know there was a different dialogue/images you did not see.

Which approach do you like better?

None. Try these:

C: Show both choices, but make one grayed-out/un-selectable, so it's more obvious the player missed something.

D: Show both choices, allow the player to choose any of them, but if a choice isn't possible, then have some narration that tells the player why the choice isn't available (e.g., "Bob doesn't trust you enough") and then go back and let the player make a different choice.

 

[gregers]

C: Show both choices, but make one grayed-out/un-selectable, so it's more obvious the player missed something.

That's what the game already does when it comes to choices. Doing it every time there's a variation in the dialogue seems like a great way to kill immersion.

 

[LGM]

Looking good so far. However...

There are a few slipups relating to names. Changing the MC's last name still leaves the dad's last name as Frost (Miko calls him that), which I doubt is on purpose. A little later, in the scene where Hannah crashes into the tree, she calls out to the MC in all caps (twice, I think), which is always "JACK". Try using [mc!u]. She also calls him "jack" once, probably a typo that wasn't caught by find-and-replace. Finally, Jessica's name appears in one random line before she's introduced, as she's checking out the dent in her car.

Besides that, there is the occasional small error, like series <> serious. And there's an 'h' missing on every instance of "Uhuh".

Anyway, I'll be sure to check this out again in the future. Good luck.

 

[Nicke]

As I've only started with this version, I have not experienced this first hand (yet). Perhaps an imperfect middle ground is to provide an "v0.xx to V0.xy update only" style patch alongside a full version with each new release for those that are already up to date with the game?


A lot of Devs use the one and done side chick solution to get early lewd scenes in rather than compromising the pacing for the main girls. Not saying this dev should or should not do that, but I must confess that I actually half thought the waitress, who was like putty in MC's hands during their tete-a-tete whilst Matt was away washing his beer stain could be one such. Alas it was not to be, instead of a BJ in the alley behind the bar, we had to save that annoying kid ....

And why not indeed. Some of the best murder and vengeance stories are comedies. A Fish Called Wanda; Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels; Snatch etc. Now you've just got to pull off a Python/Guy Ritchie

People haven't objected to downloading it again. It's still a small game. It's more that the content I can produce in a month can be played through in 15 minutes.

I adressed the throwaway side-chick sex earlier in the thread. It's just not what I want to do because I've found it uninteresting and unrewarding in games that have it. Sometimes a waitress is just a waitress.

Python/Ritchie class writing is asking a lot. I mean, I barely speak English ...

That's what the game already does when it comes to choices. Doing it every time there's a variation in the dialogue seems like a great way to kill immersion.

I am indeed leaning towards this conclusion too. Choices are necessary if it's to be called a game. Too many minor choices would probably just get annoying instead.

 

[Nicke]

Looking good so far. However...

There are a few slipups relating to names. Changing the MC's last name still leaves the dad's last name as Frost (Miko calls him that), which I doubt is on purpose. A little later, in the scene where Hannah crashes into the tree, she calls out to the MC in all caps (twice, I think), which is always "JACK". Try using [mc!u]. She also calls him "jack" once, probably a typo that wasn't caught by find-and-replace. Finally, Jessica's name appears in one random line before she's introduced, as she's checking out the dent in her car.

Besides that, there is the occasional small error, like series <> serious. And there's an 'h' missing on every instance of "Uhuh".

Anyway, I'll be sure to check this out again in the future. Good luck.

AWESOME! Finally some typo reports! I fixed all these. If you see any more, please write'em up here or pm me or something. I'm pretty blind to my own mistakes sometimes.

The internet seems to suggest that the correct way to write it is Uh-huh.

 

[LGM]

The internet seems to suggest that the correct way to write it is Uh-huh.

You're right. Not sure what I was thinking... Maybe I was distracted by the way you wrote it. "Uhu" is the German word for a specific kind of owl. Oh, and a brand of glue.