For a 0.0.11 prototype, I must say that this game is very promising ! Admittedly, the content is – for the moment – brief but already solid and engaging. I played it a number of times and I can easily tell that I’m really hyped to see the next step and, I hope, the achievement of this game.
The drawings and the art in general are dallying and pleasing to the eye (I’m not a detractor of IA in art when it is used wisely and well, and this game is a perfect case in point !). The gameplay is simple but extremely effective with an interesting concept.
I played Lost to Monster a lot, so I’m confident for this new project and I wish you a lot of success in its achievement. I’m certain that you will create an awesome game !
In a modest way, I take this opportunity to share some ideas, in which I would have added some suggestions already mentionned by other players. This will thus allow for a complete summary of everything that has been suggested so far.
Of course, these are only suggestions to potentially improve already very pleasant basics, if they are indeed feasible and depending on development priorities (you remain the sole master of development and we are optimistic about your skills!)
About the gameplay :
First of all, I just want to specify that some ideas are complementary to one another, but I will list them by indent, so it looks a little bit cleaner.
- Speed up the recovery : this was mentioned several times so I won’t dwell on it and only specify that it is essentially accelerating the regeneration of HP which is a bit slow (the energy regen is correct and may perhaps require adjustments during future updates, if necessary).
Moreover, to take up the idea of another player, it might be interesting to add, during the regeneration phases, an image where the heroine (let’s call her Camellia) is waiting rather than a shaded screen. And why not, modify this image according to the heroine’s arousal, up to an image of masturbation for example (if the arousal is between 50 and 75).
- I find the grab’s mechanism really effective (by « grab’s mechanism », I’m talking about, during the fights, Camellia can be grabbed by ennemies and a small comics bubble appears with a malus of energy or of arousal) since it allows to diversify the fights and spice them up a bit. In fact, in the current state (and this is not a criticism, it’s just a current aspect of the prototype), this kind of encounters does not yet have a significant impact, nor any real recurrence since the fights are quite fast.
Then, increasing Camellia’s HP as well as those of the enemies could be a good idea to facilitate their occurrence in the future. Especially since, if energy is necessary to perform actions, then one must rest to regenerate it. And this adds a little more spice/challenge since some enemies can grab us and reduce (or remove) the regeneration points normally obtained. Moreover, this could accentuating the grabs occurrence that increase the arousal, which offers an alternative to defeat alone.
- Regarding the levels and the enemies, I have two complementary ideas:
° Implement an experience system by killing enemies, which would increase HP and energy of Camellia by a certain amount depending on the difficulty of the defeated enemy (which also gives a «purpose» to fight enemies). By the way, regarding the mechanics of lust, it’s possible to add a kind of small debuff of damage depending on the level of arousal (in parallel with the gain of stats by fighting enemies, knowing that hitting them also reduces the arousal, which offers a certain balance to the gameplay).
WARNING : this debuff must not be too important because it could also lead to a soft lock. Something like a percentage of -10% damage between 50 and 75 arousal and -20% damage between 75 and 100 arousal might be relevant. Knowing that the arousal bar is fixed and that it decreases depending on the damage inflicted while fighting enemies, if we add to this the enemy mini grabs which can increase arousal and/or reduce energy, we obtain a simple but effective gameplay mechanic, while avoiding – I think – a certain frustration.
° Implement several floors with stronger enemies depending on the reached floor. And by extension, the stronger the enemies are, the bigger the reward is so we get a high risk, high reward system (but since we fought the enemies from previous floors, we should have enough HP and energy to face them). To navigate from one floor to another, it would be enough to take a staircase (nothing exceptional but it’s always efficient). In addition (and to quote another player) : « it will add some kind of end goal once your done exploring so that you can "finish" the old map and start with a new one and maybe carry over the clothes you find ».
- In addition (perhaps more for a version already advanced in development), add a merchant (similar to the events with a sign other than an exclamation point to distinguish it, or with a different color at least) allowing to buy certain items that would confer temporary buffs (healing, energy, damage bonuses...), or even buy clothes (read the indent below) and this money would be obtained by defeating enemies, which adds a new simple but effective gameplay mechanic (always with an amount depending on the difficulty of the opponent).
WARNING : I do think that it is better to avoid integrating a concept of losing money in case of defeat because it tends to frustrate many players!
=> Moreover, this merchant could appear in some kind of intermediate floor that serves as a bit more of a "rest area" with dedicated events (baths, taverns, etc... read the specific section of About the events and encounters ). But it would essentially depend on your possibilities during the development or your desires because it may not be a must have.
- The clothes could offer an armor statistic that would facilitate progression, both to fight enemies by protecting Camellia’s HP, but also potentially to avoid grabs generating arousal (it would depend on the clothing worn . For example : the bikini does not protect from arousal and does not give a lot of armor but it is cheap and easy to find in the first floors; on the other hand, the dress could offer improved stats [let’s keep sexy outfits diversity ! Obviously, the idea isn’t to put on Camellia a heavy knight’s armour just to give her 100 stats of armour xD].
The clothes would take some damage before you do as a way to reward for finding and putting them on in the first place. And these clothes would be destroyed when the armor reaches 0. To quote another player, « this could lead to a gear progression system and incentive to open chests or encounters ».
- Idea taken from another player : « Beside enemy variety, you could also make to that the enemies are in groups from 1 to 3(or more?), resulting in different fights and more scenes ».
- Speaking of enemy, adding a mimic among the chests could offer one of the most pleasant surprises (since with the ideas previously mentioned, the need to search the chests is more important).
WARNING : for the surprise to remain pleasant, it seems more coherent to make it a simple event that can increase arousal, and not necessarily lead – at the beginning in any case – to a possible pregnancy to avoid the frustration of being – literally – fucked by an unfortunate RNG, especially if the other gameplay mechanics are indeed retained.
For example: you come across a mimic in a high level floor, you find yourself pregnant (with the ideas of buffs and debuffs ; read the indent below) so you get a debuff that prevents you from facing other enemies and as a result, you keep loosing with every encounter, so it becomes some kind of frustrating soft lock.
- The idea of adding buffs and debuffs in case of pregnancy has been raised several times (and you also indicated that « we will get more stats after each pregnancy, but also debuffs depending on the pregnancy type ») and to resume an idea already mentioned, I think it would indeed be relevant to add a debuff that reduces the statistics (because birth leaves a woman feeling exhausted IRL).
WARNING : do not put a debuff that is too large or can stack indefinitely (only a temporary debuff) because it could lead to an involuntary soft lock ! For example: Camellia is too tired because of the debuffs to face enemies and if we are in an area with dangerous enemies, we fall into an endless loop of defeats.
- For the final floor, having a good and bad ending depending of the number of birth and arousal (the one will naturally goes with the other I guess)
- To conclude, an excellent idea proposed by another player about quality life of playing : make the game entirely playable with only keyboard and/or mouse. (for example, press space bar to progress during the dialogue events)
About the events and encounters :
- Right now, the two available events are great and it’s a mechanism that deserves to be preserved and deepened. To do this – besides adding new events (read the indent below) – I think it could also be interesting to incorporate a mechanics of benefits with risks.
To take a concrete example, during the tavern event, you can work as a waitress to be able to rest in one of its rooms (and why not specifically add to this event the possibility of winning some gold coins ; if the previously mentioned merchant’s mechanism is retained?). If we accept, in this case, we can instantly regenerate all our HP and energy, but we take the risk of increasing our arousal (which can lead to a debuff during the next fights) based – why not – on a modification of an event within this event, id est:
1° Base event : we work in the tavern and we get grabbed during the service so it leads to a small increase of the arousal, but we will regenerate HP and energy (as well getting some golds).
2° Same base event BUT with a little modification in the end when Camellia goes to sleep : an unexpected visit leads to a sexual intercourse, which leads to a more significant increase in arousal, but we will still regenerate HP and energy, as well as getting gold (the percentage of appearance of this event n°2 would be less important than the one of event n°1).
=> Thus, it would give a more important choice to accept or refuse (since currently, refusing does not really have any beneficial interest) [a similar mechanism could be applied for the event with the cult].
- By the way, I have other ideas for possible events (which I will not list or detail because this message is already way too long xD! But I could if you are interested obviously). For example, it would be possible to have an event:
° Where we meet the heroine of Lost to monsters (the reference to this excellent game will surely please all those who follow your work since your beginnings!) ;
° Where we meet a « doctor », in order to offer – notably – an opportunity to get rid of the impregnation. Moreover, this would offer a solution to the request made to integrate an impregnation system (to which you had replied that: « For now, I just plan to make an event where she gives birth, there will probably be an event for each type of pregnancy but I won't have a system where she takes care of her offspring, that would be too complicated »). And I would like to mention an idea from another player that I found interesting « but maybe some kind of system that force you to start at the beginning of the map -if floor level is implameted- with special event depending of the baby » ;
° Where we fight an enemy to win a certain amount of gold, but with the risk of a defeat that can increase the arousal ;
° Where a bath is discovered, which would instantly eliminate the arousal OR reduce it, in case of sub-event (to give an example similar to that one in the tavern: a creature has a percentage chance of appearing and having sexual intercourse with Camellia, which would not increase the arousal but would lead to a simple reduction in the arousal).
=> WARNING: for these events, I don’t think including a risk of impregnation is a good idea because it could be counterproductive, especially for floors with high-level enemies (except for really specific events with an important reward in return for the big debuff).
About the interaction :
During defeats after fighting an enemy, I find that the dialog boxes are very good currently. But if I were to add a small improvement, it would consist of modifying the dialogue according to the level of arousal. For example (and I will directly resume a dialogue box of the game, in case of encounter and being defeated by the fighter with chains around his body):
° Between 0 and 50 arousal (current dialogue after defeat):
« Gnh ! Don’t touch me, you crazy bastard ! ; - The dark gods demands new offspring, whore. You will help me in this task. ; - Ah ! Bastard! What do you think you’re doing ?! ; - Be grateful ! Once I’m done, you’ll receive their blessing ! ; - Gasp… N… No, don’t put in it ! Aaah ~ ; - Yes ! A perfect womb for their childs to grow in ! ; - Aaaaah~ ! Fuck~ ! Your whole dick is inside me ! I can feel your balls hitting my pussy ! ; - Accept the pleasure, whore ! Accept their gift ! Accept their childs ! ; - Aah~ ! Please, slow down ! Aah~ ! ; - I can feel their power flowing through me ! ; - Yes ! Their semen is now flowing in your womb! Soon, a new servant will be born ! ; Let the offspring grow in your womb, whore ! The dark gods will reward you for such an honorable deed. ; -Aah~ !... Ok, just let me go… Please... »
° Between 50 and 75 arousal :
« Gnh ! Let me go, you bastard !
- Spread your legs, whore. You will see your duty fullfilled.
- Aah~! Fuck! This can’t keep happening to me !
- You should thank me! The dark gods will be pleased !
- Aah~ !… Not again… Please… Just… pulled it out ! Aaah ~ !
- Your womb will carry their childs! Achieve your life’s purpose!
- Fuck~! Your dick… it’s too much… I can’t handle it… Aaaaah~ !
- Serve the dark gods and their great scheme ! Carry their chids !
- Aah~ ! Please, don’t… don’t stop ! Aah~ ! Yes~ !
- Receive their blessing, you whore !
Here it is ! Keep every drop inside your womb and carry their child until the creation of their new world! The dark gods will keep an eye on you, divine whore !
-Aah~ !… Yes~ !… That was… good~ !… Gnh~!... »
° Between 75 and 100 arousal :
« Mmh~! Come on, show me what you’ve got~ !
- Be prepare, whore. The blessing of the dark gods will flow into you.
- Aah~! Yes! Give it to me! Give me all of it~!
- Your devotion will satisfied the dark gods. Your deeds will delight them !
- Yes~ !… Yes~ !… Keep going~ ! Push harder~ ! Aaah yes ~ !
- You’re doing well ! You’ll be perfect to carry their child !
- Aah~ ! Fuck me~! Yes~ !… Harder~ ! Your dick is so good~ ! Aaah, yes~ !
- Savour their mighty power, whore ! Enjoy the pure extasy !
- Ooh, yes~ ! Cum inside me ! Ruin my womb and fill me ! Aah~ !
- You have earned their blessing !
Take it all ! Don't let any of the divine seed drop off your womb filled to the brim ! Let it create a new servant for the dark gods and carry him until his arrival to the new world.
- Gaah~ !… Yes~ !… I want to bear their child~ ! Please~ !… »
Here is an overview of what the idea could lead to being implemented, with potentially similar variants for each enemy encountered. Only the facial expression of the base image may need a modification in that case, because I suppose it would generate far too much additional work, if you also had to change the entire image each time.
On the other hand, it would be useless – in my humble opinion – to do the same for the options of erotic satisfaction during the choice to fight or fuck (since they already depend on the level of arousal), as well as during events with a yellow exclamation point (since the image depends primarily on the event encountered rather than on the level of arousal).
Other players thoughts :
- « You need a detailed birthing system and make the baby reflect the fathers traits to know what knocked her up ». Personally, I do enjoy the idea of the «body tattoo» already implemented in the game, as well as the change of text in the comics bubble that appears at the bottom left of the screen. However, this is only a personal opinion and I don’t know if it is shared by all the players, so it’s up to you!
- More generating maps, and without closing the game (you already working on it!)
- Better way to impregnation (but not a priority right now thanks to the cheats I guess ?)
There you go ! If you have read everything so far : BRAVO ! That was one hell of a wall of text xD
But I hope you’ll have understood everything (english is not my mother tongue) and I hope these few ideas may prove useful during the development of your game.
In any case, I believe in this project and, for sure, I’ll keep an eye on it to follow its evolution. I’m looking forward to its achievement and I wish you good luck !
Keep up the good work ~
