Ren'Py Monster Girl Dreams [v26.7a Alpha] [Threshold]

[littleowen]

Just tried this after years and there's barely any story advancement. Is this one of those "just milk the patrons forever" games?

The progress is glacial (or at least feels like it to me) but every time i have downloaded the game there as always been something new, so its in a weird place for me where i DESPERATELY want the story to move forward but cannot in truth say that the game is not being worked on and that they are just milking for money while sitting on their asses.

It drives me nuts, i am basically vibrating with anticipation for something, anything to happen that i can really sink my teeth into since i found this game pre-laberint, i love it to bits and i fucking hate how slow it's going

 

[JigglyPal]

The progress is glacial (or at least feels like it to me) but every time i have downloaded the game there as always been something new, so its in a weird place for me where i DESPERATELY want the story to move forward but cannot in truth say that the game is not being worked on and that they are just milking for money while sitting on their asses.

It drives me nuts, i am basically vibrating with anticipation for something, anything to happen that i can really sink my teeth into since i found this game pre-laberint, i love it to bits and i fucking hate how slow it's going

I love really wanting to complain, but not finding much that you feel you can reasonably complain about.

 

[TMA987]

The progress is glacial (or at least feels like it to me) but every time i have downloaded the game there as always been something new, so its in a weird place for me where i DESPERATELY want the story to move forward but cannot in truth say that the game is not being worked on and that they are just milking for money while sitting on their asses.

It drives me nuts, i am basically vibrating with anticipation for something, anything to happen that i can really sink my teeth into since i found this game pre-laberint, i love it to bits and i fucking hate how slow it's going

I mean from what I gathered reading here the content you referenced isn't even actually written by the dev? If that's the case and you consider how simple the scene art is for the most part it is actually glaciar. Guess I'll just forget about it and check back in 20 years if I'm even alive and care/remember this by then.

 

[NinjaNamedBob]

Trisha content, yippe
Atleast it's not ceris, despite how utterly boring i think trisha is atleast its a change, alot of people like her

She's basically the most bland waifu in the game with basically zero personality. What does that say about the people who like her?

Just tried this after years and there's barely any story advancement. Is this one of those "just milk the patrons forever" games?

Yes, but no? It's hard to really defend it after a year of minor bugfixes and extra character stuff, one of which is basically just a side content character. Actually, Venefica took a year out of the main story progression, too. I'm sensing a pattern, and it's not good...

The progress is glacial (or at least feels like it to me) but every time i have downloaded the game there as always been something new, so its in a weird place for me where i DESPERATELY want the story to move forward but cannot in truth say that the game is not being worked on and that they are just milking for money while sitting on their asses.

That's basically it, if we're being honest. It's being worked on, but there's no forward momentum. It basically Threshold is doing a foot race but every time he sees a path that takes him off the established route, it ends up costing him a position and more time. At this point, he's dead last but insists going down every path will put him back in first, and it's frustrating to see another developer get lost in the weeds rather than staying on the track.

It drives me nuts, i am basically vibrating with anticipation for something, anything to happen that i can really sink my teeth into since i found this game pre-laberint, i love it to bits and i fucking hate how slow it's going

I got on this boat when it was just elves and alraunes in the forest. Back then, Threshold actually put time in and pumped out content fairly consistently.

I love really wanting to complain, but not finding much that you feel you can reasonably complain about.

Really? I can give you 5 reasons.
1) The glacial development cycle as opposed to past years.
2) The fact that the only significant content update was over a year ago.
3) Threshold once again focusing on additional side content rather than developing the main game.
4) The obvious pandering to waifu gooners rather than finishing the game.
5) The lack of self-awareness in recognizing that he's spent over a year doing minimal updates and has effectively been stringing his supporters along, though I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and say it's unintentional.

I mean from what I gathered reading here the content you referenced isn't even actually written by the dev? If that's the case and you consider how simple the scene art is for the most part it is actually glaciar. Guess I'll just forget about it and check back in 20 years if I'm even alive and care/remember this by then.

That's what actually grills my steak. The content isn't even his, and it's from a donation tier. Like, bro, honor your primary comittment, which is writing the primary story and content and add side content, etc after you've finished developing the game. For as crappy the practices are in the AAA arena, at least they release a game before they start releasing additional content. Well, for the most part.

 

[JigglyPal]

Really? I can give you 5 reasons.

I didn't say that there weren't reasons to complain about the game, I said that I loved that the guy I responded to wanted to complain about something but was incapable of finding their own reasons to.

 

[NinjaNamedBob]

I didn't say that there weren't reasons to complain about the game, I said that I loved that the guy I responded to wanted to complain about something but was incapable of finding their own reasons to.

I mean, it's probably a misunderstanding on interpretation. I saw them expressing a few complaints while fairly assessing the dev as still working on it. It's a position I can empathize with. I don't think Threshold is milking supporters, either. It just sucks that he's basically slowed progress and hasn't added much since.

 

[Noah Neim]

She's basically the most bland waifu in the game with basically zero personality. What does that say about the people who like her?

It's actually its own fetish, alot of twitter artist caught onto the plain nancy trend, where by its name they'd make plain looking ocs that you'd expect in the background. Some fail as they make the 'plain' glasses wearing librarian have 'hidden' massive tits and ass like it doesnt go against the premise itself entirely, i guess the definition is lowered down to plain face.
I kinda agree with the plain nancy fetish sometimes, i found myself wanting more of the plain characters in anime atleast, not entirely in a fetishistic context though

 

[NinjaNamedBob]

It's actually its own fetish, alot of twitter artist caught onto the plain nancy trend, where by its name they'd make plain looking ocs that you'd expect in the background. Some fail as they make the 'plain' glasses wearing librarian have 'hidden' massive tits and ass like it doesnt go against the premise itself entirely, i guess the definition is lowered down to plain face.
I kinda agree with the plain nancy fetish sometimes, i found myself wanting more of the plain characters in anime atleast, not entirely in a fetishistic context though

Ah, so the massive tits and ass are unnecessary additions, like adding a dick to what is a confirmed female character. I never understood the tendency to make something worse by adding one's own fetish. That said, I understand her appeal a bit better, but I do have to align with your perspective. Plain characters are fine, even welcome in any setting. I can't imagine fapping to them.

 

[Master of Puppets]

Ah, so the massive tits and ass are unnecessary additions, like adding a dick to what is a confirmed female character. I never understood the tendency to make something worse by adding one's own fetish. That said, I understand her appeal a bit better, but I do have to align with your perspective. Plain characters are fine, even welcome in any setting. I can't imagine fapping to them.

And yet you have Tabitha in your signature. Isn't she basically just the same? Shy and plain?

 

[Mirkuzzo96]

someone have the save files for this game when u are near to fight vs enemies?

 

[Noah Neim]

And yet you have Tabitha in your signature. Isn't she basically just the same? Shy and plain?

Those hips are anything but plain

someone have the save files for this game when u are near to fight vs enemies?

Which enemies man, be more specifc

 

[NinjaNamedBob]

And yet you have Tabitha in your signature. Isn't she basically just the same? Shy and plain?

No? She's a shy introvert who you have to take time to get to know. She's cute as heck under all the shy, and she's very clearly a closet pervert on top. Plus, as Noah Neim points out, those hips are not plain. Oh, and she's appeals to my fetish, so y'know...

 

[Master of Puppets]

No? She's a shy introvert who you have to take time to get to know. She's cute as heck under all the shy, and she's very clearly a closet pervert on top. Plus, as Noah Neim points out, those hips are not plain. Oh, and she's appeals to my fetish, so y'know...

So maybe you should lay off attacking other people's fetishes?

 

[Sacred_Lamb]

Seems like another "milk the patrons" game, wtf are you doing for 7yrs with just a light novel-esq sex game. Mofos acting like they're build the engine from scratch or writing the next Romeo & Juliet. Fuck outta here, tired of seeing this type of shit and the idiots that defend it.

 

[2561642]

I think people are being a bit generous with excuses for the dev here. The first time I played this (like 5-6 years ago, I believe), I also looked into modding it, and IIRC the codebase was... I'll just say messy. Already remnants of old abandoned internal systems floating about that new stuff didn't use (but some old, apparently forgotten stuff still did) and quite disorganized with poor labeling/documentation. Hallmarks of a haphazard, easily distracted dev 'style' - makes discussion of how fast it 'should' be going a bit moot (it's just not adequately capable of 'going' in the first place). I may be misremembering it, though, it's been a while and I was looking at a lot of bad game code at the time. Can blur together easily.

I only recall liking a few characters in this... specifically I remember liking Perpetua and Kyra, the lizard girl that actually wanted to fight you instead of fuck-'fight' you. I liked the manticore, too, but I don't remember her name.

I also recall returning to the game a couple years after first playing it and finding almost nothing new besides a few more largely uncompelling OCs that didn't fit all that well into the existing world, and basically zero progress made on a cohesive narrative front (the main quest halted in basically exactly the same place - right around getting the first 'badge,' IIRC). That return also gave me the distinct impression that the dev had legitimately forgotten that certain characters, unfinished encounters, and dropped threads even existed.

That return after a couple of years was also few years ago now. Little appears to have changed.

So yes, it appears from the outside like the patrons are being strung along. Even if that isn't the intent, narrative completion or even narrative progression appears so low a priority it can be largely ignored and/or forgotten for half a decade in favor of adding yet more new threads to later leave hanging. This game is not sustaining itself on mechanical depth, so I'm unsure how sustainable ignoring the narrative is. Perhaps the side characters are enough to satisfy the patrons.

Regardless... you cannot do project development by breadth-first search, no matter how much time you can afford to commit to it. You will always add unfinished tasks faster than you complete them.

So, without playing any updates since a few years ago or reading the last 3-4 years of the thread, I'm going to make several predictions:

1. There's still only one badge.
2. 6-7 years in, Kyra remains largely forgotten in, IIRC, "wait for the desert zone approximately ten to fifteen years from now, and no that's not hyperbole given the current pace" limbo despite her encounter chain ending with her basically tee-ing up an invitation to her forest camp.
3. Those ninja girls in the first (maybe still only...?) dungeon/labyrinth/whatever still don't have CGs. IIRC there were a few other missing CGs, which are also probably still missing.
4. We've progressed about half a zone transition further into the main plot (half because the 'new zone' is still barebones and empty) over the last ~5 years.
5. Most of the content updates for long stretches are handfuls of single sex-scene additions to random NPCs with increasingly esoteric triggering requirements (not as random a guess as it might sound - this is a weird holding pattern that T.I.T.S. seemed to fall into sometimes. my best guess is it's just a 'this is what the dev/writer was getting off to this month + it's a cheap thing to add to keep the project looking alive' sort of thing).
6. Still can't romance Perpetua.
7. The manticore's content hasn't been added to.

How'd I do?

 

[Raysi]

I think people are being a bit generous with excuses for the dev here. The first time I played this (like 5-6 years ago, I believe), I also looked into modding it, and IIRC the codebase was... I'll just say messy. Already remnants of old abandoned internal systems floating about that new stuff didn't use (but some old, apparently forgotten stuff still did) and quite disorganized with poor labeling/documentation. Hallmarks of a haphazard, easily distracted dev 'style' - makes discussion of how fast it 'should' be going a bit moot (it's just not adequately capable of 'going' in the first place). I may be misremembering it, though, it's been a while and I was looking at a lot of bad game code at the time. Can blur together easily.

I only recall liking a few characters in this... specifically I remember liking Perpetua and Kyra, the lizard girl that actually wanted to fight you instead of fuck-'fight' you. I liked the manticore, too, but I don't remember her name.

I also recall returning to the game a couple years after first playing it and finding almost nothing new besides a few more largely uncompelling OCs that didn't fit all that well into the existing world, and basically zero progress made on a cohesive narrative front (the main quest halted in basically exactly the same place - right around getting the first 'badge,' IIRC). That return also gave me the distinct impression that the dev had legitimately forgotten that certain characters, unfinished encounters, and dropped threads even existed.

That return after a couple of years was also few years ago now. Little appears to have changed.

So yes, it appears from the outside like the patrons are being strung along. Even if that isn't the intent, narrative completion or even narrative progression appears so low a priority it can be largely ignored and/or forgotten for half a decade in favor of adding yet more new threads to later leave hanging. This game is not sustaining itself on mechanical depth, so I'm unsure how sustainable ignoring the narrative is. Perhaps the side characters are enough to satisfy the patrons.

Regardless... you cannot do project development by breadth-first search, no matter how much time you can afford to commit to it. You will always add unfinished tasks faster than you complete them.

So, without playing any updates since a few years ago or reading the last 3-4 years of the thread, I'm going to make several predictions:

1. There's still only one badge.
2. 6-7 years in, Kyra remains largely forgotten in, IIRC, "wait for the desert zone approximately ten to fifteen years from now, and no that's not hyperbole given the current pace" limbo despite her encounter chain ending with her basically tee-ing up an invitation to her forest camp.
3. Those ninja girls in the first (maybe still only...?) dungeon/labyrinth/whatever still don't have CGs. IIRC there were a few other missing CGs, which are also probably still missing.
4. We've progressed about half a zone transition further into the main plot (half because the 'new zone' is still barebones and empty) over the last ~5 years.
5. Most of the content updates for long stretches are handfuls of single sex-scene additions to random NPCs with increasingly esoteric triggering requirements (not as random a guess as it might sound - this is a weird holding pattern that T.I.T.S. seemed to fall into sometimes. my best guess is it's just a 'this is what the dev/writer was getting off to this month + it's a cheap thing to add to keep the project looking alive' sort of thing).
6. Still can't romance Perpetua.
7. The manticore's content hasn't been added to.

How'd I do?

Poorly. We'll be expecting your next draft in a few days, good sir. But really, I don't disagree with a lot of these. At this point, we're just yelling at clouds.

 

[Deviton123]

Is it viable to play the game without penetrating any of the monster girls during battle?

 

[Master of Puppets]

Is it viable to play the game without penetrating any of the monster girls during battle?

Depends what you mean, if you mean not initiating penetration yourself, then yes. If you mean avoiding it completely, then no, the girls will initiate themselves.

 

[Noah Neim]

I only recall liking a few characters in this... specifically I remember liking Perpetua and Kyra, the lizard girl that actually wanted to fight you instead of fuck-'fight' you. I liked the manticore, too, but I don't remember her name.

Kaia

So yes, it appears from the outside like the patrons are being strung along. Even if that isn't the intent, narrative completion or even narrative progression appears so low a priority it can be largely ignored and/or forgotten for half a decade in favor of adding yet more new threads to later leave hanging. This game is not sustaining itself on mechanical depth, so I'm unsure how sustainable ignoring the narrative is. Perhaps the side characters are enough to satisfy the patrons.

Making a discord server is the greatest shit you can do to cultivate your fanbase, then they become disgustingly loyal to you no matter what

6-7 years in, Kyra remains largely forgotten in, IIRC, "wait for the desert zone approximately ten to fifteen years from now, and no that's not hyperbole given the current pace" limbo despite her encounter chain ending with her basically tee-ing up an invitation to her forest camp.

"The character i like has no content!" can apply to so many others though like camilla, i've experienced the feeling before. Sometimes devs just dont care anymore about them, that's it, their story and relevance is over and they wont receive any updates, sad but what can you.

Still can't romance Perpetua.

Not sure if you updated recently, but perpetua does have some "new" content in the slime village, not romance but for a charcter like perpetua who's going to be a long term character and only get proper expansion way later to get some conent is good i guess

The manticore's content hasn't been added to.

Same case with Kyra

Is it viable to play the game without penetrating any of the monster girls during battle?

I mean you can play any way you want, if you intiate penetratio first though mgs will be the ones to do it for you and you'll have to break out of it contrary if you did it first. but you have plenty of options

 

[NinjaNamedBob]

So maybe you should lay off attacking other people's fetishes?

Nobody was attacking anyone's fetish. I have the opinion that Trisha is boring and unappealing. I don't get her appeal. Maybe lay off saying stupid shit?

I think people are being a bit generous with excuses for the dev here. The first time I played this (like 5-6 years ago, I believe), I also looked into modding it, and IIRC the codebase was... I'll just say messy. Already remnants of old abandoned internal systems floating about that new stuff didn't use (but some old, apparently forgotten stuff still did) and quite disorganized with poor labeling/documentation. Hallmarks of a haphazard, easily distracted dev 'style' - makes discussion of how fast it 'should' be going a bit moot (it's just not adequately capable of 'going' in the first place). I may be misremembering it, though, it's been a while and I was looking at a lot of bad game code at the time. Can blur together easily.

I've been talking to Threshold the last few days and he's said something similar about characters and code. Suffice it to say, he's addressing it, but I personally having the opinion of "if it's working, focus on making it aesthetic afterwards." Warehousing, construction, etc have the same rule. You don't mess around unnecessarily with something that works.

I only recall liking a few characters in this... specifically I remember liking Perpetua and Kyra, the lizard girl that actually wanted to fight you instead of fuck-'fight' you. I liked the manticore, too, but I don't remember her name.
I also recall returning to the game a couple years after first playing it and finding almost nothing new besides a few more largely uncompelling OCs that didn't fit all that well into the existing world, and basically zero progress made on a cohesive narrative front (the main quest halted in basically exactly the same place - right around getting the first 'badge,' IIRC). That return also gave me the distinct impression that the dev had legitimately forgotten that certain characters, unfinished encounters, and dropped threads even existed.

Funny thing.

While Venefica was something that took much longer than planned, 3-4 months?, and was done in the process of me effectively overworking and burning out, I find the comparison the the last year plus of consistent work to that to be very weird. But even then she does play an aspect into the overarching narrative of the game.

I'll let you form an opinion on that.

That return after a couple of years was also few years ago now. Little appears to have changed.
So yes, it appears from the outside like the patrons are being strung along. Even if that isn't the intent, narrative completion or even narrative progression appears so low a priority it can be largely ignored and/or forgotten for half a decade in favor of adding yet more new threads to later leave hanging. This game is not sustaining itself on mechanical depth, so I'm unsure how sustainable ignoring the narrative is. Perhaps the side characters are enough to satisfy the patrons.

I should just post Threshold's portion of the conversation relating to this. I'll also note that this is generally without proper context in relation to the conversation, so one shouldn't interpret it as making excuses or other malicious behavior. At worst, you can accuse him of getting lost in the sauce.

Well the Eros district which is the entrance location of the Capital, which once fully complete will be effectively a dungeon of sort, came out on April 30th of this year in regards to main progression? So I'm not sure where that mentality on the last one being in 2023 is coming from. Which 'main progression' is additionally a term that I think doesn't really encapsulate the kind of game MGD is or the way it's ever been developed. Leaving area's threadbare with no depth isn't something I want to do for the sake of rushing to the finish line, side quests and side content are of equal importance to the finished product. As well as giving content to existing characters people want to see more of, especially in some cases like Trisha where she's not fully fleshed out or finished in the first place. Development to the game can additionally include all kinds of things that aren't going to look like they're working towards the end even if they really are, such as balancing changes.

Regardless... you cannot do project development by breadth-first search, no matter how much time you can afford to commit to it. You will always add unfinished tasks faster than you complete them.
So, without playing any updates since a few years ago or reading the last 3-4 years of the thread, I'm going to make several predictions:
1. There's still only one badge.
2. 6-7 years in, Kyra remains largely forgotten in, IIRC, "wait for the desert zone approximately ten to fifteen years from now, and no that's not hyperbole given the current pace" limbo despite her encounter chain ending with her basically tee-ing up an invitation to her forest camp.
3. Those ninja girls in the first (maybe still only...?) dungeon/labyrinth/whatever still don't have CGs. IIRC there were a few other missing CGs, which are also probably still missing.
4. We've progressed about half a zone transition further into the main plot (half because the 'new zone' is still barebones and empty) over the last ~5 years.
5. Most of the content updates for long stretches are handfuls of single sex-scene additions to random NPCs with increasingly esoteric triggering requirements (not as random a guess as it might sound - this is a weird holding pattern that T.I.T.S. seemed to fall into sometimes. my best guess is it's just a 'this is what the dev/writer was getting off to this month + it's a cheap thing to add to keep the project looking alive' sort of thing).
6. Still can't romance Perpetua.
7. The manticore's content hasn't been added to.

The problem as far I can see is Threshold has one major issue, which is that the scope has exceeded his capabilities to produce content and make QoL changes while also closing prior threads so he can focus forward. He has brought people on to help, but from what I've gathered, he has a select few who have been consistent in terms of their output, and others who have either been unreliable, who don't care to work on the actual game itself, or a few other reasons that prevented him from retaining their services.

How'd I do?

Lack of kitsune cuddles 0/10