Java Newlife [v0.8.10] [Splendid Ostrich]

[Anexia]

Okay, but seriously, how can you consider a 6 year old game to be in its infancy?

Simple, it lacks enough content for me to label it as anything else by my own standards. I think of the potential the game can have in the future if it keeps updating (albeit even at a slow pace) and cross check it with the content it currently has. If it doesn't add up to 1/4th the potential it can have as a game, then I consider it in infancy. It isn't easy coming to a conclusion as such, considering the game is a life sim with potentially infinite possibility to grow as long as they keep coding scenes in, but same time it isn't so hard either. So far the game has the basic foundations to be a playable game with a ending that has tiny variations pending on very few of the life choices you made during your life in game. Outside of that, the game lacks substantial amount of content, scenes, variations, consequences, and boons to make it feel like your choices in the game of a life sim truly matters, thus I consider it a infant game even with 6 years of development. This is not a smack at the developers, but a term of hope to see much more out of the game. Hope that answered your question. Then again, you can also consider it a excuse of my own to not write a 1 to 2 star review for a game I genuinely enjoyed playing, simply because it hasn't reached my standards as a player/reviewer/gamer for what a more complete life sim game should feel like. Think about it for a moment, if I gave you a phone app game that had tic tac toe on it, you would consider it a complete game with that alone, but if I promised that your choices in tic tac toe had potential boons or consequences later that present more choices to maybe upgrade to chess or bejeweled, but I have not implemented that feature yet, would you still consider it a complete game? When I see a life sim game, I base my grading/review of the game off of what I've seen other life sim games accomplish and if I felt the choices made in the game really feel like they mattered to the life of the sim in the game. Then again if ethics have taught me anything, it is impossible to go from what is to what ought to be. So, take the answer as you will.

P.S. I would also mention, to give credence to my assessment: A game can still be in its infancy for 6 years as it depends on issues of if the developers are getting screwed in other departments, thus not being able to work on the game. Bad choices to cut existing content instead of reworking it can do this too. Slow development, or lack luster additions each patch contribute to a games prolonged infancy as well. For example: Skullgirls was still a baby for awhile because Konami screwed them over legally. Then after a couple years the developers branched off from Konami and just published the game themselves and finally were able to develop on it more. Never take the time of a game being in development as a indication for it's completion. I stated it before, and I will state it again: Progress requires time, but time does NOT denote progress.

 

[bluepandabear]

I'm an opinionated person, so I'd like to jump in on this discussion.

I think people are getting this idea that there isn't any content because it's simply so easy to do everything this game has to offer. Looking at Girl Life, I tried playing legitimately and getting money when I could, going to school, following my parents, etc just to build up and get to all the "good" stuff. But it got extremely tedious. It's cute for a bit, but when I'm on day 55 and I happened to gain a little weight and now my clothes don't fit and I have to go to the store and buy new clothes or get mine resized, I just get kind of irked. Especially when I have to go into 2 sub menus just to realize my character is currently dying of thirst. So I instantly turned on basically every cheat I could and did what I want to reach the content I was after.

Conversely, New Life spouts a quick tale of genderswap, and now I'm plopped into a world and can instantly go to a bar and have sex with a dude. And even then you can still play off a story. Dressing up your character. The guys you pick. How you react to situations. There's still stuff there. However, unlike Girl Life where you had to spend 3 real world hours to get fucked by the dude in your class, Girl Life just demands you get a job and then your boss starts ogling you.

I think the worst thing about New Life is just how much content is locked behind very specific circumstances. It feels very difficult to unlock them, even when you know exactly what you need to trigger them, since there's still that element of chance. Like getting the Tonya event to trigger just feels like a battle of patience and trying to get all the right pieces into place and it still not working when your guy just happened to also be boastful.

I think these events are cool for repeat playthroughs, but even now they feel rather difficult to get triggered. Other than that, I do think the content level is currently fine in New Life, it's just so easy to get to (outside of the extremely specific scenes) that the content feels small.

 

[squiddysquidsquid]

One thing that I will give New Life credit for is that it has the option to be a bad person. The sex scenes are eh whatever, but being able to be just be naughty and have the game actually wrap up at a point is a positive. Being able to con your (a bit generic) friend into becoming a porn star instead of you is kind of entertaining! Making your boyfriend/husband impregnate your shy work friend is also sort of entertaining. Those moments of chaos are rare, but they're a highlight in the otherwise dull life sim genre of going to the gym/cooking class/dance class/club/once in a while a bar scene.

Games like Accidental Woman are like absolute chores to maintain as a gameplay mechanic. Wow I have to buy furniture that takes a zillion clicks from some store so my character can't kill herself if they have a certain trait (and even then, if you can't get the right one), never mind the absolute clusterfuck of a UI that manages to be as ugly as it is useless. New Life's UI isn't Jony Ive quality, but it's at least not random gifs everywhere.

Having hair length/more detailed body descriptions would be a nice positive (more body type variety that makes actually grinding the gym worth it, have the guys be more favored to certain body types (eg taste)), and wouldn't really take that much work. Arrange the clothes by color or type, or just something more than just rather random rolls for content. Going shopping as a gameplay mechanic because you specifically want a black shirt is garbage.

I don't know what I would do for sex scenes that wouldn't take another 4 years of development for. Like could you get a 3 way or something? Get drunk and make out with your best friend who has a "curious" tag? Something to spice it up a little when that's the primary form of "game."

Also side note: If you're grinding in Dark Souls, you're playing it wrong! That's what makes it so fantastic!

 

[stochastic]

Those moments of chaos are rare, but they're a highlight in the otherwise dull life sim genre of going to the gym/cooking class/dance class/club/once in a while a bar scene.

Obviously it can't be all chaos or it would just feel random, but I agree that the game could use more opportunities to do appalling things to NPCs.

Games like Accidental Woman are like absolute chores to maintain as a gameplay mechanic. Wow I have to buy furniture that takes a zillion clicks from some store so my character can't kill herself if they have a certain trait (and even then, if you can't get the right one), never mind the absolute clusterfuck of a UI that manages to be as ugly as it is useless.

Fuck that whole UI. It's pretty sophisticated for a Twine game, and I honestly think it's fairly impressive from a technical standpoint, but it's terrible to actually play with. I also agree on the number of clicks thing; not enough devs think much about how many clicks it takes to do a thing, or why it takes so very very many to accomplish simple tasks you could express in one sentence.

Going shopping as a gameplay mechanic because you specifically want a black shirt is garbage.

There's a lot of quality of life stuff that could be done for wardrobes in general. It's not just finding the stuff you want (I'm often on the lookout for short work skirts and thin lowcut blouses), but arranging it: If you want to, for example, remove all the underwear from your work outfits but not anything else, the process is super tedious, especially if you want the outfit names to be accurate.

Also side note: If you're grinding in Dark Souls, you're playing it wrong! That's what makes it so fantastic!

That's fair. I just went with the first game I thought of that has levels and upgrades that you can grind for, and I figured that a difficult erotic game you have to "git gud" in so you can see some tits made for a funny mental image.

I'm mostly responding to calls for skills that aren't fun to level up and don't unlock interesting new content (we already have enough of those, really) and poking fun at people who really want more plot because they can't tell the difference between a VN and a game.

 

[FrogFrozen]

Going shopping as a gameplay mechanic because you specifically want a black shirt is garbage.

There's a lot of quality of life stuff that could be done for wardrobes in general. It's not just finding the stuff you want (I'm often on the lookout for short work skirts and thin lowcut blouses), but arranging it: If you want to, for example, remove all the underwear from your work outfits but not anything else, the process is super tedious, especially if you want the outfit names to be accurate.

All this a thousand times. I swear specific colors are impossible to find for some pieces of clothing. I remember someone suggested the idea of a tailor you could give custom orders to. The type clothing, the specific style (blouse, shirt, tanktop, etc.), color, the specific stats, etc. would all be something you could specify, pay extra for, and then get the clothes next week.

 

[squiddysquidsquid]

I don't even think it needs a special tailor. Just throw it all out there (like an actual store!) and let people pick what they want.

 

[TheBigWater]

Like for that old game where there is only text... there is not to much to do..

 

[FrogFrozen]

Okay, I've been trying off and on for months in my spare time. I cannot for the life of me get my PC to fall in love with someone that doesn't fuck her brains out every single day. Romantic, Low Self-Esteem, custom NPCMan with Interesting, Caring, specific body build she lusts after, etc. Dates every week.

I've even edited minidates and the cooking class to give LoveVLargeUncapped and LikingVLargeUncapped (I assume these are the biggest ones). Then turned Minidate fire chance from 100 up to fucking 3500 so they happen constantly.

She'll fall in love for a single day and then immediately go back down to "For some reason, you feel a little happy when you think of him." Then she'll never fall in love with him again.

 

[megh]

Okay, I've been trying off and on for months in my spare time. I cannot for the life of me get my PC to fall in love with someone that doesn't fuck her brains out every single day. Romantic, Low Self-Esteem, custom NPCMan with Interesting, Caring, specific body build she lusts after, etc. Dates every week.

I've even edited minidates and the cooking class to give LoveVLargeUncapped and LikingVLargeUncapped (I assume these are the biggest ones). Then turned Minidate fire chance from 100 up to fucking 3500 so they happen constantly.

She'll fall in love for a single day and then immediately go back down to "For some reason, you feel a little happy when you think of him." Then she'll never fall in love with him again.

Yeah I think he recently futzed with the love length and duration, and it's really hard to maintain, probably needs to move it back a bit.

 

[TheDepressoExpresso]

did the developer take a huge break or something? i took a quick look through the comments but i didnt really understand what happened...why is the game in the same-ish state from like 1 year or so?

 

[i107760]

did the developer take a huge break or something? i took a quick look through the comments but i didnt really understand what happened...why is the game in the same-ish state from like 1 year or so?

He's just incredibly slow. Always has been as far as I can remember. Personally, I'm just ignoring the game until like five years have passed, and maybe there'll be something exciting.

 

[TheDepressoExpresso]

LOL what a joke

 

[ray3dave]

I had a longer post a while ago about missed opportunities. Instead of fleshing out the stuff which come naturally with the game (e.g. people running into the MC having sex in the clubs toilet with a vast amount of consequences - and there is much more on that level) most of the updates concentrate on ridiculously specific constructions to open rediculously specific scenes. As long as the "daily life" sex opportunities are not covered and fleshed out it just does not make any sense. I like some of the newer stuff, but still the game is missing out a lot of MUST HAVE situations.

 

[portrapoodle]

Anyone know what was said in his post on the 13th?

 

[Tau_Iota]

I have to say, I have been following this game since 2014 and in the beginning it was so great. I was a patron until 2019 (yes I was a sucker), and it's such a damn shame. I absolutely love the game, but it's almost like an old car thats exterior is beautiful (not the ui, but just the game itself) but has an engine thats just rust. Because the coding for submitting a scene just makes it ridiculous considering you're doing it for free (or submitting it, while ALSO paying him to make the damn game). I was one of those suckers paying for "updates" so I feel it's fair for me to say that SO literally just milks money and doesn't give a rats ass about his patrons. Any love he had for this project died a loooong time ago, and if he had any morals he would either shut the game down or pause charges for his Patreon until he can offer a substantial update for this game. Because unless he uses this as his main income (it's been mentioned before that he very well could work a 40 hour work week while working on the game like he is currently), there's absolutely no justification to keep charging people for these poor excuses for updates.

People love to harp on The Company's dev for the Year of John (which honestly is fucking hilarious, because every time I hear it Johnny Sins pops up in my head with this shitfaced grin) but you can't take away from that dev that they actually put out work and actively communicate (IIRC, I stopped most subscriptions last year because of my life up-ending itself). I mean shit, Karryns Prison's dev does WORK and bug fixes fly out the first couple days after release. And that's with amazing art plus translating so many lines to boot. Oh, and using RPGM in such an amazing way. First time I played it, almost forgot it was RPGM.

TL;DR (because it's my Friday so I've been drinking) lul SO sux hard; bad dev, better devs out there

 

[soulsacrifice]

New version is out with a "hunk" office character and 4 events related to him as well as new "kiss" options for sex scenes.
I bet it's going to be another one of those "minor" updates that he took so long for.

 

[portrapoodle]

Could anyone drop the update?

 

[Shtradha]

New version is out with a "hunk" office character and 4 events related to him as well as new "kiss" options for sex scenes.
I bet it's going to be another one of those "minor" updates that he took so long for.

I don't even know what the exact conditions are to trigger the 0.6.6b events and I've been trying all sorts of variations. Going to be a ton of fun to not be able to trigger any of the variations of any of the new scenes in 0.6.7...

 

[gobbet]

I don't even know what the exact conditions are to trigger the 0.6.6b events and I've been trying all sorts of variations. Going to be a ton of fun to not be able to trigger any of the variations of any of the new scenes in 0.6.7...

I believe you just need to go to work at the generic office job with high stress.

 

[Shtradha]

I believe you just need to go to work at the generic office job with high stress.

No there's apparently another one for being nice and cute when walking outside; a woman with a cake will come up to you and depending on how social you are (or some other trait, who the fuck knows?) you can ask her to be a model for her company.

And there's also one for babycrazy ones...