VN Ren'Py My Dorm [v0.21.2 S3 Ch.1] [Tropecita Games]

[Vidal the king of Pervert]

No I've played plenty of harem games before. I just have a pet peeve for harem games that try and have their cake and eat it. Like try and paint the regular guy as a benevolent hero for hooking up with all these girls at once, rather than just being honest and admitting it only works because porn logic.

I can't comment on the Harem part of the game because I only play the monogamy route

in fact, if a Harem game does not have a monogamy option I do not play it

 

[Vidal the king of Pervert]

I have to say that I'm starting to feel uncomfortable with this conversation and the extent to which it has taken on a life of its own. I mean, let's be honest; it's a pretty safe bet that we're all guys here, and we all know that women generally can identify and name thousands of colors, but most men can only visually identify and name about a dozen and a half colors or so (with apologies to the handful of "renaissance men" who are outliers that can identify many, many colors). If we're not careful, the Masculine Squad is going to show up at our door and confiscate our Man Card . . .

I didn't get my man card I got a card that says try again next year you pussy

does that count

 

[xapican]

.....

Blaugrün In German, they are pragmatic like the portuguese i guess.

 

[TigerWolfe]

I have to say that I'm starting to feel uncomfortable with this conversation and the extent to which it has taken on a life of its own. I mean, let's be honest; it's a pretty safe bet that we're all guys here, and we all know that women generally can identify and name thousands of colors, but most men can only visually identify and name about a dozen and a half colors or so (with apologies to the handful of "renaissance men" who are outliers that can identify many, many colors). If we're not careful, the Masculine Squad is going to show up at our door and confiscate our Man Card . . .

Mine was taken years ago, it's over rated.

 

[Trope95]

Cheating? On who? Please, explain. He hasn't cheated on any girl because when they have decided to start a relationship he has been sincere and has told them there are more girls. Yeah he starts doing that after the first couple of girls he hooks up with but for the first couple of relationships I'm pretty sure he doesn't mention anything to begin with. Might have just been Erika and Nora? I think Nora is first hookup so obviously that's fine, but he pretty clearly doesn't mention anything to at least Erika after that or the scene where she's surprised to catch you with Nora doesn't make any sense.

Well, it's a porn game. I think no one is here to read a faithful version of Snow White. Yeah fair enough it's expected in a porn game. I'd just prefer it without the half hearted attempts to make it sound like it makes sense. If it was just gung-ho in your face about it, it'd be easier to just go "oh ok it's a porn game so it's fine" but when it tries to make up a rational explantion for why everything is operating on porn logic it kind of falls apart.

Right now only 12 want to share, and some of them not so willingly. I don't remember rendering or writing dialogue for the extra 8+ sharing girls you talk about. Obviously the game isn't finished yet but given it's a harem porn game I'm assuming at some point all the girls who are introduced agree to share the MC.

I'd be fine if the game leaned into and the MC admitted he was just being a horny bastard but I'm supposed to believe the MC is a saint for letting all these girls bang him at the same time. At one point the cousin even catches you cheating on her with mum (No cheating on Erika, since they aren't in a relationship yet) and she talks to your mum about it. We get the absolutely absurd explanation that banging other people immediately after talking about entering a relationship (But not entering a relationship, Erika tells the MC she has a lot of things to think about before doing it) is totally fine as long as you didn't explicitly say it wasn't allowed (Please, re-read that conversation. Martha says it's not cheating if Erika and her then mysterious man haven't explicitly entered a relationship because Erika had to sort her thoughts). And this is coming from the MC's mother who starts the game being furious about her husband cheating on her without saying anything?! (She was in a relationship. Erika wasn't) Yeah I get the point of the conversation and what it's trying to say. I'm just not convinced any real person would actually say it and if the dialogue isn't convincing why bother including it? Just as a token effort to justify the harem? I'm not saying this is an unreasonable position for a porn game to take, I'm saying this dialogue seems like it's trying to convince the player that this is a reasonable position an ordinary person might take. Maybe I'm out of the loop but my understanding is that outside of a porn game, if you ask someone out and they ask for a little time to think about, they're definitely not going to be happy about you eating out their mum or anyone else immediately afterwards. So either we're operating on porn logic and this is fine in which case this dialogue is pointless because porn logic is already assumed to be in effect in a porn game or we're operating on real world logic and this is just an unconvincing justification for the MC to be banging everyone.

I don't know you, but when I'm not interested in someone, that person doesn't disappear from the world; I would have a big problem since I'm not interested in most people who produce the food I eat. You can choose if a girl enters your harem, not if she vaporizes or is abducted by aliens.
Imagine if you play a monogamous playthrough how much you should wait. It becomes a choice. Or imagine if your favorites were the ones left out of the game. I've stuck these two points together since they're connected.

You can still minimize interactions with people in reality. This also isn't reality it's a game, specifically a porn game. Even if we ignore people who just skip through all the dialogue for everything, if you're not interested in adding a girl to your harem you're going to be even less interested in listening to her tell you her life story.

I tried playing a monogamous play though for a bit mid way just to see what it was like. Unfortunately because of the choice to leave all the dialogue in for the girls you reject it becomes a horrible slog. At least if most of the one on one dialogue of the girls you reject was hidden it'd be a bit less painful. For instance if you reject Alexa why do you still go jogging with her later?

That's why all of them are optional. You can say they're optional but you still have to sit through all their dialogue scenes which make up the vast majority of the game.

6 hours? A lot of CTRL pressing, right? I don't even know what CTRL pressing does? From context I'm guessing it skips the dialogue? If you're asking if I read all the dialogue, then yeah pretty much all of it, I got a bit lazy with it towards the end and started only skimming the dialogue of characters I wasn't interested in.

The next issue is that there are just too many girls in this game. The game starts off with just 6 (5) family members but the number quickly balloons out of control until theres something like 16 girls (There will be. 7 girls haven't arrived yet) just staying at your dorm/house + another couple of handfulls living elsewhere in the area. Yeah my bad I think I misremembered the family members because I included scarlett. There's what Nora, mum, Emma, scarlett, 2 cousins, ex girlfriend, singer, cop, friends mum and sister, clothes shop girl and the 4 dorm students introduced? So 16ish girls already with 7 more entering the house and maybe even some more side girls down the line?

Anyway I wouldn't say this is a shitty game by any stretch and you clearly put a lot of work into it, but there's plenty of room for improvement which is why I gave it 3 stars. I wouldn't even say changing the things I didn't like about it would necessarily improve it since a lot of them are just things that annoyed me personally.

If you're looking for actually constructive criticism then the dialogue as a whole could use some polishing especially since it's such a large part of the game. Especially at the beginning the dialogue is very stiff and unnatural and some editing there would definitely help. Probably trimming out some of the more repetitive stuff would be useful as well.

Bold white my old answers, normal white your answers to them, and bold teal my new answers.
Cheating? On whom? Please, explain. He hasn't cheated on any girl because when they have decided to start a relationship, he has been sincere and has told them there are more girls. Yeah he starts doing that after the first couple of girls he hooks up with but for the first couple of relationships I'm pretty sure he doesn't mention anything to begin with. Might have just been Erika and Nora? I think Nora is first hookup so obviously that's fine, but he pretty clearly doesn't mention anything to at least Erika after that or the scene where she's surprised to catch you with Nora doesn't make any sense. Norah greenlights him to be with other girls while she makes up her mind (café scene on Saturday). Erika, on Friday after the kiss, says that she doesn’t want to start a relationship yet because she should think a lot about it. No cheating on any of them, since they aren’t in a relationship at that time.

Well, it's a porn game. I think no one is here to read a faithful version of Snow White. Yeah fair enough it's expected in a porn game. I'd just prefer it without the half hearted attempts to make it sound like it makes sense. If it was just gung-ho in your face about it, it'd be easier to just go "oh ok it's a porn game so it's fine" but when it tries to make up a rational explantion for why everything is operating on porn logic it kind of falls apart. My response was to your comment about the harem being open only one way being porn logic. The MC tries to make a harem (not a polyamorous relationship) in the most just way inside the genre (porn harem without NTR or sharing). I think there aren’t a lot of ways to do it and the MC looked the best to me. From my point of view, a harem in real life is undesirable. In a game…

Right now only 12 want to share, and some of them not so willingly. I don't remember rendering or writing dialogue for the extra 8+ sharing girls you talk about. Obviously the game isn't finished yet but given it's a harem porn game I'm assuming at some point all the girls who are introduced agree to share the MC. I don’t think a harem game should convince the player that 28 girls want to share him. It’s the premise since it’s a harem game. It’s like saying that Star Wars tries to convince the viewers about light sabers or Jedi existing. Even convincing three girls would look implausible to me.

I'd be fine if the game leaned into and the MC admitted he was just being a horny bastard but I'm supposed to believe the MC is a saint for letting all these girls bang him at the same time. At one point the cousin even catches you cheating on her with mum (No cheating on Erika, since they aren't in a relationship yet) and she talks to your mum about it. We get the absolutely absurd explanation that banging other people immediately after talking about entering a relationship (But not entering a relationship, Erika tells the MC she has a lot of things to think about before doing it) is totally fine as long as you didn't explicitly say it wasn't allowed (Please, re-read that conversation. Martha says it's not cheating if Erika and her then mysterious man haven't explicitly entered a relationship because Erika had to sort her thoughts). And this is coming from the MC's mother who starts the game being furious about her husband cheating on her without saying anything?! (She was in a relationship. Erika wasn't) Yeah I get the point of the conversation and what it's trying to say. I'm just not convinced any real person would actually say it and if the dialogue isn't convincing why bother including it? Just as a token effort to justify the harem? I'm not saying this is an unreasonable position for a porn game to take, I'm saying this dialogue seems like it's trying to convince the player that this is a reasonable position an ordinary person might take. Maybe I'm out of the loop but my understanding is that outside of a porn game, if you ask someone out and they ask for a little time to think about, they're definitely not going to be happy about you eating out their mum or anyone else immediately afterwards. So either we're operating on porn logic and this is fine in which case this dialogue is pointless because porn logic is already assumed to be in effect in a porn game or we're operating on real world logic and this is just an unconvincing justification for the MC to be banging everyone. You talk about ordinary people and real life. How many (western) harems do you know about in real life? The genre per se needs some suspension of belief and some extraordinary people. Just like Star Wars.

If I ask someone out in Real Life and she says she needs to think about it, it won’t work, since she’s not as invested in me as I’m in her. In a game, as a player, I can wait for a couple of updates.

I don't know you, but when I'm not interested in someone, that person doesn't disappear from the world; I would have a big problem since I'm not interested in most people who produce the food I eat. You can choose if a girl enters your harem, not if she vaporizes or is abducted by aliens.
Imagine if you play a monogamous playthrough how much you should wait. It becomes a choice. Or imagine if your favorites were the ones left out of the game. I've stuck these two points together since they're connected.

You can still minimize interactions with people in reality. This also isn't reality it's a game, specifically a porn game. Even if we ignore people who just skip through all the dialogue for everything, if you're not interested in adding a girl to your harem you're going to be even less interested in listening to her tell you her life story.

I tried playing a monogamous play though for a bit mid way just to see what it was like. Unfortunately because of the choice to leave all the dialogue in for the girls you reject it becomes a horrible slog. At least if most of the one on one dialogue of the girls you reject was hidden it'd be a bit less painful. For instance if you reject Alexa why do you still go jogging with her later? If you reject Alexia on the first chance you have to start a relationship with her, you go jogging with her for the second chance most girls have.

That's why all of them are optional. You can say they're optional but you still have to sit through all their dialogue scenes which make up the vast majority of the game. Until the second chance shows up. From then on, their presence is somewhat reduced.

6 hours? A lot of CTRL pressing, right? I don't even know what CTRL pressing does? From context I'm guessing it skips the dialogue? If you're asking if I read all the dialogue, then yeah pretty much all of it, I got a bit lazy with it towards the end and started only skimming the dialogue of characters I wasn't interested in. The average reader reads around 200 words/minute without having to click every 14 words on average. Compensating the clicks with the paths you don’t have to read, that would mean 1,250 minutes with the current text (250.000 words). That’s 21h. That was the reason for my comment.

The next issue is that there are just too many girls in this game. The game starts off with just 6 (5) family members but the number quickly balloons out of control until theres something like 16 girls (There will be. 7 girls haven't arrived yet) just staying at your dorm/house + another couple of handfulls living elsewhere in the area. Yeah my bad I think I misremembered the family members because I included scarlett. There's what Nora, mum, Emma, scarlett, 2 cousins, ex girlfriend, singer, cop, friends mum and sister, clothes shop girl and the 4 dorm students introduced? So 16ish girls already with 7 more entering the house and maybe even some more side girls down the line? The total number was announced on release day, so no one could say I lied; if I retcon it now it could be problematic for my rep.

Anyway I wouldn't say this is a shitty game by any stretch and you clearly put a lot of work into it, but there's plenty of room for improvement which is why I gave it 3 stars. I wouldn't even say changing the things I didn't like about it would necessarily improve it since a lot of them are just things that annoyed me personally. I didn’t answer for you to change your rating, since you have good points in your review, and some I agree on (the ones I didn’t quote). I answered because there were some aspects of the review that didn’t look correct or looked like a misunderstanding.

If you're looking for actually constructive criticism then the dialogue as a whole could use some polishing especially since it's such a large part of the game. Especially at the beginning the dialogue is very stiff and unnatural and some editing there would definitely help. Probably trimming out some of the more repetitive stuff would be useful as well. For sure the dialogue, especially at the start of the game, will be changed in one form or another when the game is finished. Doing it now only would be punishing returning players who already have played through the start and most of them won’t play it once again, but it would delay the new updates. I should be thankful for your deep review and the time you spent writing it. It’s good to know what doesn’t work for some players so the next game will change some of the aspects of My Dorm for the better. For example, I won’t do another 28 Lis game ever.

 

[TigerWolfe]

Purely conversational responses.

Even convincing three girls would look implausible to me.

I don't think it's really viable irl without the financial aspect, the fact that billionaires often go the mistresses or a jillion baby mamas route rather than a harem might indicate even in an "ideal" situation it's untenable... Although based off what I've seen most people that wealthy probably don't have the emotional/empathetic capabilities to have a "loving" harem.

I did see on a tiktok live once 5 people, 4 of whom were women, that claimed to all be in a polycule together, so maybe it does happen irl.

The average reader reads around 200 words/minute without having to click every 14 words on average. Compensating the clicks with the paths you don’t have to read, that would mean 1,250 minutes with the current text (250.000 words). That’s 21h. That was the reason for my comment.

I read about 600 to 700 wpm on screen and 800 to 900 on paper (without "speedreading") so, it's not unpossible. I'd imagine AVNs as a media form are more likely to attract us voracious readers.

 

[keefer43]

I have to say that I'm starting to feel uncomfortable with this conversation and the extent to which it has taken on a life of its own. I mean, let's be honest; it's a pretty safe bet that we're all guys here, and we all know that women generally can identify and name thousands of colors, but most men can only visually identify and name about a dozen and a half colors or so (with apologies to the handful of "renaissance men" who are outliers that can identify many, many colors). If we're not careful, the Masculine Squad is going to show up at our door and confiscate our Man Card . . .

Yeah I hate when that happens...

 

[Vidal the king of Pervert]

Purely conversational responses.


I don't think it's really viable irl without the financial aspect, the fact that billionaires often go the mistresses or a jillion baby mamas route rather than a harem might indicate even in an "ideal" situation it's untenable... Although based off what I've seen most people that wealthy probably don't have the emotional/empathetic capabilities to have a "loving" harem.

I did see on a tiktok live once 5 people, 4 of whom were women, that claimed to all be in a polycule together, so maybe it does happen irl.


I read about 600 to 700 wpm on screen and 800 to 900 on paper (without "speedreading") so, it's not unpossible. I'd imagine AVNs as a media form are more likely to attract us voracious readers.

AVNs also attract people that can't read at all

cough like me

by the way, does anybody know when the update is coming out

 

[Trope95]

Purely conversational responses.


I don't think it's really viable irl without the financial aspect, the fact that billionaires often go the mistresses or a jillion baby mamas route rather than a harem might indicate even in an "ideal" situation it's untenable... Although based off what I've seen most people that wealthy probably don't have the emotional/empathetic capabilities to have a "loving" harem.

I did see on a tiktok live once 5 people, 4 of whom were women, that claimed to all be in a polycule together, so maybe it does happen irl.


I read about 600 to 700 wpm on screen and 800 to 900 on paper (without "speedreading") so, it's not unpossible. I'd imagine AVNs as a media form are more likely to attract us voracious readers.

That was what I meant. A loving (classical) harem with a male (or female) cornerstone would be implausible IRL. A polyamorous relationship like the one you write about, even with only one male, is different and more sustainable.

I read relatively fast on paper (around 500-550 w/m in ideal circumstances without speedreading). I haven't measured it on screen because it depends a lot on screen width, text contiguity, font, and a lot of other factors. If I should look at the images of a VN my speed decreases sensibly.

AVNs also attract people that can't read at all

cough like me

by the way, does anybody know when the update is coming out

At midnight (CEST) the post on Patreon will become public. I'll try to synchronize the update time here.

 

[xapican]

Vidal the king of Pervert
Depending on which Timezone you are, +/- 5hrs. plus time what it takes to update the OP. Trope said it would be 24:00 hs (12:00 p.m) CEST If I'm not misstaken,
All what was said above
I was teasing Satou yesterday about if his leftovers after a hard day will play the Update

 

[Vidal the king of Pervert]

That was what I meant. A loving (classical) harem with a male (or female) cornerstone would be implausible IRL. A polyamorous relationship like the one you write about, even with only one male, is different and more sustainable.

I read relatively fast on paper (around 500-550 w/m in ideal circumstances without speedreading). I haven't measured it on screen because it depends a lot on screen width, text contiguity, font, and a lot of other factors. If I should look at the images of a VN my speed decreases sensibly.


At midnight (CEST) the post on Patreon will become public. I'll try to synchronize the update time here.

God damn it I will have to be out of my wheelchair and in bed by 8:00 I'll probably have to play it

tomorrow but how am I supposed to sleep tonight

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

 

[xapican]

how am I supposed to sleep tonight

With your eyes closed, and your hands on the blanket or just imagine "Sheep" on a Field......

Spoiler: Sheep on a Field......

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[TigerWolfe]

If I should look at the images of a VN my speed decreases sensibly.

I have aphantasia so since I won't be able to visualize the scenes later I probably linger on the visuals less than most. I do still enjoy them though as purely written media doesn't put pictures in my brain.

 

[FatGiant]

I think that Expectations are a good thing to have, but a terrible way to judge anyone else's work.

This game and it's dialogues (remember that English isn't the writer mother language) are some degrees above almost all that is available around here.

The story may have some... let's say "issues"... that can easily be attributable to the genre and the necessity to make such an impossible situation "believable" when in fact it isn't even plausible. In that context, I find the effort made by the author to be quite rewarding.

For me there are 3 very different obstacles to make this story realistic. Namely: 1- Incest (if you play it as it's meant to be); 2- Harem (we all know it's a fantasy and that's that); 3- Clones with LONG lives.

Yet, the review we've been presented with, decides to focus on the fact that none of this is possible because no girl/woman would ever allow the MC to cheat. Come on. Saira was in a Open Relationship with the MC and neither made use of the fact (is this believable?), Eileen never stopped wanting him (yeah right), Norah manages to lose all that weight and have no traces of it on her body, and so on, and so on...

It isn't perfect? No. Should it be? Absolutely NOT. Is this a literary tour de force that will compete with Nobel prize writers? AhAhAh No.

What it is is a very good story (in it's very convoluted genres), that makes a serious effort to be acceptable (and it is).

Like I said, Expectations are nice to have, but, if you use them to measure anything, it will always disappoint you. Am I saying that you should lower your expectations? No. I'm saying that you shouldn't let them interfere with your enjoyment of something.

Because ultimately, this is the goal. Turn off reality and enjoy a story with some lewds. And this very simple goal is achieved (for me at least).

Peace

P.S.: I am a bit AFK made changes in my meds that are messing me up, I need to stick with them.

 

[Trope95]

Updated OP links. Enjoy!

Spoiler: Changelog

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[Bob69]

My Dorm [v0.10B.3] [Tropecita Games] - Update only

The patch may break your game, use at your own risk.
If you missed it you can find the old Update only patch HERE.

Universal: v0.10A.1 -> v0.10B.3 [393 MB]

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Spoiler: How to install the patch:

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Please @ me or quote this post if there is a new version that doesn't show up on the "Latest Updates" page.

 

[Satou Pendragon]

Thanks for the Update Trop.

 

[Trope95]

It isn't perfect? No. Should it be? Absolutely NOT. Is this a literary tour de force that will compete with Nobel prize writers? AhAhAh No.

P.S.: I am a bit AFK made changes in my meds that are messing me up, I need to stick with them.

Oh, shit. I wanted my Nobel prize!
Get well soon, FatGiant we will be here waiting for you.

 

[Trope95]

News!
This update has made me change the planned tags. I've added one at the end of the list in the OP that events in this update will trigger down the road. The use of that tag will be somewhat different from what I've seen in other games (remember my list of played games is very short, so perhaps it's not too original).

 

[TigerWolfe]

News!
This update has made me change the planned tags. I've added one at the end of the list in the OP that events in this update will trigger down the road. The use of that tag will be somewhat different from what I've seen in other games (remember my list of played games is very short, so perhaps it's not too original).

Elaborate please!?