HTML Making a game, gauging interest. Alchemy shop gameplay (SPH/Romance + optional NTS/Cuck)

[Felonious Flipper]

So, I'm making a text-based game in Twine.

The themes/genres I'm going for are SPH/NTS/Cuck oriented, but more of a lighthearted, grounded(ish, I mean, it has cuck harem vibes), sweet/romantic skew. Also: There is APH(average penis humiliation).

Any NTR/NTS content will be avoidable, though there are characters you can't get in a relationship with, so they will continue to fuck other people.

There's no chastity, cheating, denial, etc. Though there will be options for more outright humiliation and more direct cucking stuff, and characters that lean more that direction naturally. But generally, characters do like and are genuinely attracted to you, but sometimes they have preferences you don't fill... Anyways: just figured I'd put all that out front to filter interest.

The premise is you work in an alchemy shop, making potions and getting to know some characters. At the moment this is mostly slow burn content. Like I said it has a romantic skew to it, so there's buildup. The idea is you can still get through it quickly. I try to make it as skim-friendly as possible, but there is a lot of text. Thinking about ways to make it more readable.

I'm going to probably keep making this for my own enjoyment and satisfaction. But I would like to see if there's some interest or if I'm just over here sniffing my own farts. I'm not a bad writer and the game seems at least semi-functional, but I would enjoy critique or at least a bit of feedback on who out there if anyone would enjoy it. Or just get roasted, that's fine too.

In terms of what content there is:

• Some sexual content.
• You can make potions and turn them in as tasks for money. There aren't many recipes in the game yet since I don't plan on adding more until they actually have a purpose, but it's a functional modular system, so more are easy to add.
• There are three characters atm. Two of them have a few long scenes, another is a slightly different story.
• Spicy content changes depending on your chosen dick size. Choose your length and girth at character creation and scenes change accordingly. Right now it doesn't affect more than a few scenes. But it will be relevant, and different dimensions are differently important to different characters. General categories include (with some crossover): tiny, small, chode, average, pencil, and above average.

What is there to... do?

• Some nice scenes, in my opinion. But again, unsure if actually good or self-indulgent stink.
• Make money. Buy ingredients. Make potions. Profit. Go to the baths for more energy to make more potions and more profit.
• Okay there will actually be things to spend money on by the time I actually upload a damn thing. Brothel activities, for one. Gifts for friends.

My questions are as follows:

• What interest is there in this as presented?

 

[RedPillBlues]

As someone who mainly plays romance games, this doesnt sound very romantic. I understand that romance can be subjective to a certian degree, but I wouldnt advertise this as such

 

[Felonious Flipper]

As someone who mainly plays romance games, this doesnt sound very romantic. I understand that romance can be subjective to a certian degree, but I wouldnt advertise this as such

Thank you for your feedback! Like you said, it is subjective. Though I'm guessing your issue is with the other things, which were very clearly advertised in the title. Romance is a central part of many NTR/NTS games. It can be one of the main draws of what makes it exciting and taboo. I respect your opinion, though I don't see a valid argument as stated in your post to justify taking romance out of the title, though I welcome another perspective on your point.

Again, I very clearly stated the other genres, so that people who want to avoid those know to stay out of the thread. That's how it works, right? Ah, and I reported my OP so that a NTR tag can be added, if that's an issue. I read that was a thing I should do.

Anyways! Again, thank you for your feedback! More is always welcome.

Edit: I feel like some of my response feels defensive. I don't mean to accuse you of hating on anything. I genuinely think you were quite respectful. But I'll let my post stand.

 

[Baronluck]

What's the game's hook or twist? What interesting or clever ways can you use the potions? If it's just to fulfill basic requests from clients then it doesn't sound interesting to me. But let's say you're either dying or have some insatiable lust condition that you're trying to cure. That's a motivation to make different potions to find the cure or best treatment. Maybe you could collect certain ingredients on dates to specific locations or collect certain fragrances or fluids (idk) from your dates. Then make new potions that have different effects on yourself or others which would change the conversations, physical traits, attraction levels, types of dates, and available areas. It all leads you closer to resolving your condition. Or maybe something's wrong with your oshi and you have to make potions to cure them.

If you can make the game compelling in some way so people will say "interesting, that's different", then you have something to work with. Once you do, post a link to the game so people can try it out. I'd try it.

 

[Felonious Flipper]

What's the game's hook or twist? What interesting or clever ways can you use the potions? If it's just to fulfill basic requests from clients then it doesn't sound interesting to me. But let's say you're either dying or have some insatiable lust condition that you're trying to cure. That's a motivation to make different potions to find the cure or best treatment. Maybe you could collect certain ingredients on dates to specific locations or collect certain fragrances or fluids (idk) from your dates. Then make new potions that have different effects on yourself or others which would change the conversations, physical traits, attraction levels, types of dates, and available areas. It all leads you closer to resolving your condition. Or maybe something's wrong with your oshi and you have to make potions to cure them.

If you can make the game compelling in some way so people will say "interesting, that's different", then you have something to work with. Once you do, post a link to the game so people can try it out. I'd try it.

That's good advice. I think so far I've made it a bit tame and grounded (which is to my taste), but I know conflicts make things interesting. I do like the main focus being on the romance elements for the time being while I actually get content in the game. Anyways, I already have some usable potions, but they're just like "add energy which you use for daily activities."

Among my plans are:

• to add things like invisibility potions (so players can be lil creeps if they want)
• Possible afflictions like ED or premature ejaculation, which the player can solve with potions (or let stay a problem...)
• Rare ingredients you have to either buy for a lot, or get from special locations.
• Puzzles to figure out rare potions (incomplete recipes you have to deduce the final ingredients)
• NPC opinions on the player due to actions. Some of this may be locked off due to stats, which you can use potions to bypass.

I'm not sure I want potions to do things like increase dick size, make yourself taller, etc. That might be not in line with what I'm going for. But I'm definitely considering it, especially if it's only temporary and hard to do. I do like the idea that you can either use one of the rare ingredients to help one of your love interests OR use it to benefit yourself in some way like that.

Thank you for your feedback! It's good. I'll take it into consideration. If there isn't much interest I'll still end up just making the story to suit my terrible taste, but I may end up posting it anyways down the line.

 

[Baronluck]

That's good advice. I think so far I've made it a bit tame and grounded (which is to my taste), but I know conflicts make things interesting. I do like the main focus being on the romance elements for the time being while I actually get content in the game. Anyways, I already have some usable potions, but they're just like "add energy which you use for daily activities."

Among my plans are:

• to add things like invisibility potions (so players can be lil creeps if they want)
• Possible afflictions like ED or premature ejaculation, which the player can solve with potions (or let stay a problem...)
• Rare ingredients you have to either buy for a lot, or get from special locations.
• Puzzles to figure out rare potions (incomplete recipes you have to deduce the final ingredients)
• NPC opinions on the player due to actions. Some of this may be locked off due to stats, which you can use potions to bypass.

I'm not sure I want potions to do things like increase dick size, make yourself taller, etc. That might be not in line with what I'm going for. But I'm definitely considering it, especially if it's only temporary and hard to do. I do like the idea that you can either use one of the rare ingredients to help one of your love interests OR use it to benefit yourself in some way like that.

Thank you for your feedback! It's good. I'll take it into consideration. If there isn't much interest I'll still end up just making the story to suit my terrible taste, but I may end up posting it anyways down the line.

Sure, there's nothing wrong with making a game for yourself. It's fun and you still get dev experience.

 

[duiop]

• Possible afflictions like ED or premature ejaculation, which the player can solve with potions (or let stay a problem...)

I love SPH and premature humiliation, is it possible for the relationships to be purely teasing/humiliation perhaps using an extension rather than getting cuckolded?

 

[Felonious Flipper]

I love SPH and premature humiliation, is it possible for the relationships to be purely teasing/humiliation perhaps using an extension rather than getting cuckolded?

Yeah! That kind of thing is very up my alley. That's actually my main plan for one of the characters. With possible options for more.

Sure, there's nothing wrong with making a game for yourself. It's fun and you still get dev experience.

Agreed. I've learned a lot already, just from this project.

 

[duiop]

Yeah! That kind of thing is very up my alley. That's actually my main plan for one of the characters. With possible options for more.

Love to hear it. I'll excitedly wait for an SPH game not an NTR game with a tiny bit of SPH. You mentioned dick size customization will it be ranging from small to large or will it be like micro penis to average given the themes of the game? Will there be shrinking in game either from the girls or as a side effect from the potions? Will the sex scenes be femdom with stuff like feet/pegging etc or will it be more vanilla with just a side of teasing? Will the game have SPE or will it all be humilation?

 

[Felonious Flipper]

Love to hear it. I'll excitedly wait for an SPH game not an NTR game with a tiny bit of SPH. You mentioned dick size customization will it be ranging from small to large or will it be like micro penis to average given the themes of the game? Will there be shrinking in game either from the girls or as a side effect from the potions? Will the sex scenes be femdom with stuff like feet/pegging etc or will it be more vanilla with just a side of teasing? Will the game have SPE or will it all be humilation?

Don't hold your breath! It'll be a little while yet before I post anything-- though I appreciate the excitement lol. I'll tag you once I post, though!

But yeah, the focus is less on the NTR/NTS elements, though that is a strong theme of it. I'm not as much a fan of cheating, so anything along those lines is either them fucking other people while you aren't together, or you willingly doing netorase/sharing/open relationship stuff. My plan is to make it as avoidable as possible.

In terms of customization, it's currently tiny/small/average/above average in both length and girth. Different characters will have different preferences for those stats.

Shrinking is an interesting idea. That would be a ways off, though I don't dislike the idea. There's a lot of other stuff that needs doing. I currently have plans for one femdom character, though even that content is likely to be pretty vanilla with teasing, as per my vanilla-ass taste. Once I have something to post and get some more feedback I'll see how all that develops.

As for SPE, my style is pretty grounded: meaning, most characters feel bad humiliating you outright until they're used to it, so there's a balance of SPE/implied SPH. Think "hey, you're long enough to just barely hit my g-spot, so it's ok!" contrasted with using a dildo/extender on them/seeing them with another partner and seeing how they react to that hitting their deeper spots and filling them up. Though of course the humiliation can get more specific/purposeful from there.

 

[xjustforx22]

Hey, I really like this idea, the kinks and gameplay you mentioned are quite niche. Starting some of the NPCs vanilla and progressively having them lean into the kinks more and more would be really interesting.

As for content : i support the SPH/SPE and humiliation but I dont really care for cucking, it would be nice to have some choice to avoid that content, or have the NPCs avoid it based on your reaction towards it. Also some feet content mixed with SPH would be nice since it is quite rare combination in games and the kinks you mentioned are already heavily femdom oriented so its nice match IMHU.

I love the idea of influencing your physical / mental state with the potions, MAYBE even and going on dangerous quests to get the ingredients : it is nice option for some more heavy humiliation or femdom. And last but not least, there is SHIT-TON text games that have very good writing, but they SERIOUSLY lack in art and renders, so it is just full screen with wall of text for 10 or more slides.... It doesnt have to be VN with just little text window on bottom, but every location, named NPC, bigger event and sexual event SHOULD have render or some form of art/picture. Also portrait in corner with your current appereance (reaction to NPC cooment, mood, haircut, bulge in pants...) and equipment would be nice addition, not too hard to make and it will liven up the game GREATLY. I also think it is highly beneficial for you to not have too mcuh text on one slide, since the players will enjoy the game for longer and nobody gets overstimulated with pages on pages of text.

 

[Felonious Flipper]

Hey, I really like this idea, the kinks and gameplay you mentioned are quite niche. Starting some of the NPCs vanilla and progressively having them lean into the kinks more and more would be really interesting.

As for content : i support the SPH/SPE and humiliation but I dont really care for cucking, it would be nice to have some choice to avoid that content, or have the NPCs avoid it based on your reaction towards it. Also some feet content mixed with SPH would be nice since it is quite rare combination in games and the kinks you mentioned are already heavily femdom oriented so its nice match IMHU.

I love the idea of influencing your physical / mental state with the potions, MAYBE even and going on dangerous quests to get the ingredients : it is nice option for some more heavy humiliation or femdom. And last but not least, there is SHIT-TON text games that have very good writing, but they SERIOUSLY lack in art and renders, so it is just full screen with wall of text for 10 or more slides.... It doesnt have to be VN with just little text window on bottom, but every location, named NPC, bigger event and sexual event SHOULD have render or some form of art/picture. Also portrait in corner with your current appereance (reaction to NPC cooment, mood, haircut, bulge in pants...) and equipment would be nice addition, not too hard to make and it will liven up the game GREATLY. I also think it is highly beneficial for you to not have too mcuh text on one slide, since the players will enjoy the game for longer and nobody gets overstimulated with pages on pages of text.

Thanks for your response!

The two current 'main' NPCs will start vanilla and progress as you continue with their content. I do plan on cucking content to be both late-game and optional. One of them will date other people while you pursue her, but will stop (unless you want her to continue) when you get in a relationship. There is another side character that will only have casual sex with you while doing the same with others.

Right now I'm working on a new alchemy system that is pretty modular, with a "toxicity" mechanic that may lead to side effects if not managed correctly. ED/PE content is possible.

Thinking about how gathering rare ingredients will work right now. I've received multiple recommendations to have dangerous locations you can go to collect stuff. I'm getting an idea for an adventurer character, one who might be pretty disappointed with the player if they can't keep up. We'll see about that.

I'll be honest, I just have no interest in feet. There's one femdom character and one who might lean that way with the PC depending, so maybe I put in some content of that variety. We'll see. That's kinda dependent on if people are actually interested in a game with no art. On that point...

I am someone who gets overstimulated by lots of text (though some of my favorite games are mostly/all text). I'm working on trying to make it as readable as possible. Right now character dialogue is colored which helps a lot, and I try to make as many transitions as possible to reduce the text on screen, but that's the extent of it atm.

I am not an artist... So unfortunately art in general is almost out of the question. I will not use AI "art," seeing as it's almost impossible to avoid it being unethical and unfair to artists. I'm not a fan of stock images, they take me out of it. 3dcg turns me off in a way almost nothing else does. And no art is better than my terrible art imo. I'd rather my project be niche than bad. I could be wrong there, but... I don't know.

Anyways, I agree with you-- you're right that there should be art. I just personally can't make it happen. I would love to find some other way, but I don't see how, other than just... getting good at art lol. You say a portrait system is "not that hard to make" but I really have no skill to make it anything but impossible, much less hard.

Thank you! I really really appreciate your feedback! This is all really helpful in putting my goals in perspective with what other people might want.

 

[xjustforx22]

1 - The two current 'main' NPCs will start vanilla and progress as you continue with their content. I do plan on cucking content to be both late-game and optional. One of them will date other people while you pursue her, but will stop (unless you want her to continue) when you get in a relationship. There is another side character that will only have casual sex with you while doing the same with others.

2 - I'll be honest, I just have no interest in feet. There's one femdom character and one who might lean that way with the PC depending, so maybe I put in some content of that variety. We'll see. That's kinda dependent on if people are actually interested in a game with no art. On that point...

3 - I am someone who gets overstimulated by lots of text (though some of my favorite games are mostly/all text). I'm working on trying to make it as readable as possible. Right now character dialogue is colored which helps a lot, and I try to make as many transitions as possible to reduce the text on screen, but that's the extent of it atm.

4 - I am not an artist... So unfortunately art in general is almost out of the question. I will not use AI "art," seeing as it's almost impossible to avoid it being unethical and unfair to artists. I'm not a fan of stock images, they take me out of it. 3dcg turns me off in a way almost nothing else does. And no art is better than my terrible art imo. I'd rather my project be niche than bad. I could be wrong there, but... I don't know.

Anyways, I agree with you-- you're right that there should be art. I just personally can't make it happen. I would love to find some other way, but I don't see how, other than just... getting good at art lol. You say a portrait system is "not that hard to make" but I really have no skill to make it anything but impossible, much less hard.

1 - Nice, always good to have choice in content that brings extremist shitstorm in players

2 - It was just suggestion, I get that it wouldnt be easy to work on som content that is not for you, the 1 character is good enough if there will be enough of other contents that we both mentioned earlier

3 - Great, I am glad you see it this way - it would be sad if game with this potential would end up played by few enthusiasts who dont mind obssesive reading.

4 - Have you considered using the AI just as placeholder to better present your vision, then if the game is liked maybe colaborate or comission somebody from DeviantArt for example ? Since you are not good in art I would propose to comission some from the get go, but considering you are starting from scratch, with no previouss fin. support nor Patreon I guess it could get quite pricey depending on the size of the game and how much of art it would have in it.

PS: Do you have some VEEEEERY rough estimate of first playble version ? 3-6 months ? a year ? Just asking, I get it if its too soon to say.

 

[Felonious Flipper]

1 - Nice, always good to have choice in content that brings extremist shitstorm in players

2 - It was just suggestion, I get that it wouldnt be easy to work on som content that is not for you, the 1 character is good enough if there will be enough of other contents that we both mentioned earlier

3 - Great, I am glad you see it this way - it would be sad if game with this potential would end up played by few enthusiasts who dont mind obssesive reading.

4 - Have you considered using the AI just as placeholder to better present your vision, then if the game is liked maybe colaborate or comission somebody from DeviantArt for example ? Since you are not good in art I would propose to comission some from the get go, but considering you are starting from scratch, with no previouss fin. support nor Patreon I guess it could get quite pricey depending on the size of the game and how much of art it would have in it.

PS: Do you have some VEEEEERY rough estimate of first playble version ? 3-6 months ? a year ? Just asking, I get it if its too soon to say.

1. True lmao. I can't wait to post, make the content avoidable, put genres in title, tag the post, do everything correctly and still get people foaming at the mouth.

2. It's ok! I appreciate hearing what people want from this genre, because my desires are pretty vanilla all things considered, lol. If like, 5 people want to play my game and they all want feet content, I'll put it in.

3. Don't get me wrong, in its current form there's a lot of reading. It's... a process lol. I'm going to do some experimentation on how I can direct the eye where it needs to go and make it easy to skim.

Edit: Right now, I'm making it obvious when there's a transition from "character building, relationship development, etc." to "spicy content" so players who are playing for that can basically skip through to what they want. And the spicy sections will be formatted differently for ease of reading. That's another good way to balance the workload for myself.

4. I can't see myself shelling out money for commissions... Paying artists fairly is pricey. For good reason. Anytime I even try to do art I receive incredible amounts of psychological damage. In terms of AI art as placeholder, I very much believe in the inherent nature of human indolence. "Start as you mean to go on" is basically the motto of our species. If I use it, I can't take it out without replacing it with something. Which means I only do a few renders or I make a disappointing update in the future taking out a bunch of art... It feels lose/lose to me.

Technically, it's playable now. You can walk around town, do a few things. You can have some cute scenes with two people, get a decent ways into their route. It's just not very deep, and I'm halfway through overhauling the alchemy system to make it more of a puzzle/actual game system. The old system just is kinda lame, still functional though, in its limited way.

At my current rate of progress, I could see releasing something I could be proud of people seeing within the next two months.

 

[duiop]

It's ok! I appreciate hearing what people want from this genre, because my desires are pretty vanilla all things considered, lol. If like, 5 people want to play my game and they all want feet content, I'll put it in.

As someone who requested it earlier I would rather you stick to writing fetishes that arouse you there are plenty of examples of devs throwing in fetishes they don't have to target a niche and the result is almost always lackluster.

Don't get me wrong, in its current form there's a lot of reading. It's... a process lol. I'm going to do some experimentation on how I can direct the eye where it needs to go and make it easy to skim.

Honestly I'm fine with just text I'm a fan of erotic fiction and enjoy games that are largely text based, though my opinion may not be representative.

 

[Baronluck]

1. True lmao. I can't wait to post, make the content avoidable, put genres in title, tag the post, do everything correctly and still get people foaming at the mouth.

2. It's ok! I appreciate hearing what people want from this genre, because my desires are pretty vanilla all things considered, lol. If like, 5 people want to play my game and they all want feet content, I'll put it in.

3. Don't get me wrong, in its current form there's a lot of reading. It's... a process lol. I'm going to do some experimentation on how I can direct the eye where it needs to go and make it easy to skim.

Edit: Right now, I'm making it obvious when there's a transition from "character building, relationship development, etc." to "spicy content" so players who are playing for that can basically skip through to what they want. And the spicy sections will be formatted differently for ease of reading. That's another good way to balance the workload for myself.

4. I can't see myself shelling out money for commissions... Paying artists fairly is pricey. For good reason. Anytime I even try to do art I receive incredible amounts of psychological damage. In terms of AI art as placeholder, I very much believe in the inherent nature of human indolence. "Start as you mean to go on" is basically the motto of our species. If I use it, I can't take it out without replacing it with something. Which means I only do a few renders or I make a disappointing update in the future taking out a bunch of art... It feels lose/lose to me.

Technically, it's playable now. You can walk around town, do a few things. You can have some cute scenes with two people, get a decent ways into their route. It's just not very deep, and I'm halfway through overhauling the alchemy system to make it more of a puzzle/actual game system. The old system just is kinda lame, still functional though, in its limited way.

At my current rate of progress, I could see releasing something I could be proud of people seeing within the next two months.

You could partner with someone on here who can do art. See the Recruitment and Services section.

 

[Felonious Flipper]

As someone who requested it earlier I would rather you stick to writing fetishes that arouse you there are plenty of examples of devs throwing in fetishes they don't have to target a niche and the result is almost always lackluster.

Honestly I'm fine with just text I'm a fan of erotic fiction and enjoy games that are largely text based, though my opinion may not be representative.

You're right that I should temper my desire to do things I don't feel the personal drive for. Not to mention...

Writing scenes is hard enough, given that there is a decent amount of different branching content already depending on player length and girth. And just a little of that becomes rather complex rather quickly. So I'm definitely going to focus on the main point of it, which is SPH (and secondarily/optionally NTR/NTS).

And art is definitely going to go on the backburner until it seems worth it, so we'll see how that goes. It's good to know about that Recruitment forum though! If I reach a point where I'm just really proud of it, I might cap it all off with some art. We'll just have to see. For now, if being text-based makes it too niche, oh well! At least some people will enjoy it.

 

[Nameyo]

Do you have any ETA of first release?

 

[sanahtlig]

This is the place alchemy do happen

This might sound witty to you, but leaves a terrible first impression as the heading of your first screenshot. Many viewers will see Engrish--in a text game--and immediately hit the back button. I happened to stick around for the second screenshot to see that you can, in fact, write a complete sentence.

As commented previously, you need a hook or some overarching goal to strive for. The potion system as currently implemented just sounds like a money grind. That doesn't sound fun. Any gameplay elements you introduce need to be fun or there's no point in having them. This sounds like it's shaping up to be a dating-sim of some sort which is not my favorite type of game, as they can be tedious and repetitive. Tie relationship levels directly to money ("gifts") and you commoditize and devalue the romance. What could be more interesting is to make the player balance competing interests (progressing as an alchemist vs. pursuing romantic interests). For example, there might be limited time so you can't just grind your way to success. If you're striving to make humiliation a major theme, tune the gameplay so it's quite hard or even impossible to succeed at everything, or even most things.

 

[Stolas_Ars]

Looks very promising. Keep up the hard work