There's two possible ways to develop a game. One is to develop every possible path at once, meaning player choice can matter from the beginning but the game creeps forward in tiny increments and it's literally years to see any real plot development on any path. Tons of games around here do that, and the only way to really enjoy them is to peek in once a year or so and see if your favorite path has gained more than a few minutes of game play.
The other way is to develop one or a few paths at length, then go back and add other paths. Means the game is only going to appeal to people interested in the path you're working on, but those people are going to be satisfied and keep coming back for more. And then when you add another path the people into it will add to the people who liked the first one, etc, etc.
I'm pretty impressed that Le Stag is being able to manage the dom, sub, and balanced paths, writing all those very different scenes, while keeping the development pace way ahead of most games.
It's an NTS game. Her getting action outside the relationship is the entire point of the game. Offering paths that involve the player saying no to the action would be a major addition that was away from the central plotline.
He's said that in time there will be other options, but it's just not reasonable to criticize an NTS game that is in active development for not offering non-NTS options that would require major side threads.
Making the point of putting in useless choices, if I say no I don't want to see a pic or whatever, I shouldn't be forced to accept it.
The Dom path in this game is anything but Dom. Laura does what she wants when she want no matter what your say.
She makes the rules you follow her like a puppy, she doesn't ask you to sleep with someone she just does it.
If you're going to have a Dom path, then make it a Dom path, not some half ass Dom path where you are actually a Sub.
She tells you later when things really start to get rolling, we have to define our boundaries, it NEVER happens.
You could take the paths out of this game and make it a KN, they have no effect on anything that happens in the story.
So what is the point? She fucks who she wants, she decides no condom all around, she decides when and how you'll get pictures or if she'll tell you the story and when.
You even get an option, She's all horny at the bar and she tells you I have to fuck someone, option 1 is I get home to you, which might be a while (guess they don't have cabs). or Option 2 I go fuck Oliver at Ashley's. The choices you get are You choose and Option 2. Her choice is option 2, because yeah she can be bothered to get a cab.
So there is no choice, either way it fuck Oliver, who is then an ass to you and you can't even tell him to fuck off and he'll never fuck Laura again.
If you're going to offer choices then make them mean something. Worst thing is to give an illusion of choice.
There is no Dom path in this KN, all the choices are illusion, unless you're telling Ashley to stop sending you pics, for some reason that actually matters. You have no control over what Laura does or doesn't do even though you're supposed to be the Dominate person.
If the MC was a Dom he would have final say, he would choose who she wore a condom with and not. He would chose who she slept with and when.
Right now this is a story of Laura and her boytoys, the MC doesn't matter to her one bit as long as she is getting fucked when and where she wants.
So again, good luck to the Dev, the AI renders are amazing.
I just don't like playing games where I am offered a choice or a path and it means nothing in the long run.
Was it frustrating a little bit?
