VN Ren'Py Our Home [v2.19.2] [Old Hiccup]

[JJJ84]

So, my thoughts/reactions on the game (hence, not exactly a review) after trying it out to some extent;

This post is not to bash the dev and his work, but to give honest constructive feedback.

(game was played on VN mode)



The beginning of the game felt promising.
There was a sense of mystery as to who MC's father is, and especially I liked the part there may be corruption in the Police department linking to Norah.

While there were couple of aspects that I wasn't fond of (such as Patreon code appearing in-game, as well as the MC frequently breaking fourth wall) and some remaining sandbox elements felt a bit awkward (one part, I was actually lost what to do and went circles around until I figured it out lol), I was hoping story would keep me engaged.


And I'm sad to say,....... it didn't.


The whole opening chapter starting with MC working at Norah's house, while I felt quite iffy about that I pushed on thinking things will move onto more serious side.
I think I might have seen a glimpse of that when the arc with elderly man and his granddaughter came out.
Emily's family company being in trouble was also something that had me slightly intrigued.

However, what engagement I may have had with the story took a nosedive when I went into Julianna's gym arc.
For the past 2 days, I've been struggling to get through (and still haven't finished it) and this has been dragging the game for me and couldn't finish it.

Now, I'm a player who really loves conflict, drama, conspiracy, mystery, chaos in my games, and love it when my MCs are put through the wringer.
So part of this could be that I may not be the target audience of this game whom may be more into "slice of life."

But honestly, I feel the whole lump-sum LI release approach of storyline reveal (i.e.. Norah → Coffee shop girl and her grandpa → Julianna), is becoming more of detriment to the game than benefit.

For example, with Julianna's gym arc, it seems MC spends at least couple of days with Julianna (and her daughters Ruby and Priscilla it seems), and it feels like his meet with Emily or other characters seem pretty much forgotten.
It gives me the impression that the storylines are......disjointed only in their own little bubbles, instead of being interconnected, even slightly?


Makes me wonder whether the story might have been better felt distributed had I played sandbox mode, but the whole point of me going through it with VN mode was to avoid the grind and just enjoy the story on its own.



So sadly, I'm dropping the game.
Wouldn't say it's the dev's fault though.
As I said before, it could be possible that I'm not the target audience intended.
But yeah.
Regardless, I wish the dev the best of luck with the game.

 

[OldHiccup]

So, my thoughts/reactions on the game (hence, not exactly a review) after trying it out to some extent;

This post is not to bash the dev and his work, but to give honest constructive feedback.

(game was played on VN mode)



The beginning of the game felt promising.
There was a sense of mystery as to who MC's father is, and especially I liked the part there may be corruption in the Police department linking to Norah.

While there were couple of aspects that I wasn't fond of (such as Patreon code appearing in-game, as well as the MC frequently breaking fourth wall) and some remaining sandbox elements felt a bit awkward (one part, I was actually lost what to do and went circles around until I figured it out lol), I was hoping story would keep me engaged.


And I'm sad to say,....... it didn't.


The whole opening chapter starting with MC working at Norah's house, while I felt quite iffy about that I pushed on thinking things will move onto more serious side.
I think I might have seen a glimpse of that when the arc with elderly man and his granddaughter came out.
Emily's family company being in trouble was also something that had me slightly intrigued.

However, what engagement I may have had with the story took a nosedive when I went into Julianna's gym arc.
For the past 2 days, I've been struggling to get through (and still haven't finished it) and this has been dragging the game for me and couldn't finish it.

Now, I'm a player who really loves conflict, drama, conspiracy, mystery, chaos in my games, and love it when my MCs are put through the wringer.
So part of this could be that I may not be the target audience of this game whom may be more into "slice of life."

But honestly, I feel the whole lump-sum LI release approach of storyline reveal (i.e.. Norah → Coffee shop girl and her grandpa → Julianna), is becoming more of detriment to the game than benefit.

For example, with Julianna's gym arc, it seems MC spends at least couple of days with Julianna (and her daughters Ruby and Priscilla it seems), and it feels like his meet with Emily or other characters seem pretty much forgotten.
It gives me the impression that the storylines are......disjointed only in their own little bubbles, instead of being interconnected, even slightly?


Makes me wonder whether the story might have been better felt distributed had I played sandbox mode, but the whole point of me going through it with VN mode was to avoid the grind and just enjoy the story on its own.



So sadly, I'm dropping the game.
Wouldn't say it's the dev's fault though.
As I said before, it could be possible that I'm not the target audience intended.
But yeah.
Regardless, I wish the dev the best of luck with the game.

I deeply appreciate your detailed and honest feedback about the game. I greatly value people like you who express their opinions in a constructive and friendly manner, with a genuine interest in helping me reflect on my development choices and striving to create something even better.

Juliana's arc, along with Marta's and Danielle's, runs parallel to the main story, which revolves around Emily and the protagonist (MC). Some decisions I made were strategic, with a focus on the game's sustainability. For instance, Juliana's arc was chosen by our $10 Patreon supporters, who expressed interest in exploring that story further. Although Juliana's arc isn't directly tied to the main narrative, it introduces actions at the end that involve Wilson, the police chief, who is also connected to Norah's story. These events add details about Wilson's corrupt personality, serving as background for the main story.

For those who prefer to focus solely on the main plot and avoid these side stories, I always offer the option at the start of a new storyline to choose whether the player wants to explore these parallel arcs or not. This initial choice makes it clear that ALL content related to that character will be ignored in both VN mode and free-roam mode. This allows you to concentrate only on the content you truly want to explore. However, there are characters like Emily, Willian, Mirella, Lana, Emily, and Sabrina for whom this option is not offered, as they are directly tied to the central plot.

Unfortunately, allowing supporters to choose the content they want to see is a way to keep the game's development sustainable, as only $10 supporters have this opportunity. Over the past seven months, this approach has generated around $490, which allowed me to finance the purchase of a new graphics card (lol). I know this choice might disappoint some people, but thanks to this strategy, I was able to include more intense scenes in the game without compromising the main narrative, which will take longer to introduce those scenes. Also, thanks to this, I managed to improve the quality of the renders. I still have many months ahead to finish paying off that graphics card, but I see a wave of growth at the moment, so things might change in the future.

I hope that with these explanations, I can convince you to continue playing, offering the option to skip Juliana's arc and go directly to the missions with Emily, which occur after Juliana's arc.

In version 2.20, which I just released, the focus is entirely on the protagonist's story, a choice made by our $10 supporters. We are considering the possibility of changing the release dynamics so that every quarter, we release three character versions and one main story version. However, this is still an idea in development, as it's already a big challenge to release monthly versions, and adding a fourth version within three months could be quite demanding for us.

I agree that in VN mode, there might be a break in the story's rhythm, as it can be abruptly interrupted by another event. However, I believe it’s possible to work around this, considering that in real life, we often deal with several situations at once. Unfortunately, this dynamic isn’t something I can change without directly impacting the entire game. The best I can do right now is to offer, at the start of each character’s story, the option to skip all of it, and I will make sure that if you choose to skip, you won’t miss anything important from the main storyline.

Once again, I sincerely appreciate your feedback.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

The other way to directly influence this is by becoming a $10 or $30 supporter, which gives you voting power. This ensures that everyone has the opportunity to choose the order in which content will be developed. There are stories for almost every character, though some content, unlike this small part of Juliana's story, will have no relation to the main storyline. Juliana's story still has some connection because of the relationship between Karina and Wilson.

 

[tmu500]

Hopefully the new update be here soon. Keep up the great work

 

[SamOldSnake]

Sory, Mirella, but this boy's heart belongs to Emily!

 

[Mravac Kid]

Is there a patch or something to stop people talking about their "tennants"? It's really jarring and often nonsensical.
*EDIT* Yes, I've noticed there's an option to change them manually, but that's quite a bit of a hassle considering how many there are.

 

[mrjessan]

is there any walkthrough exists? galery mod would b very good

 

[Malicre]

Is this guy my spirit animal?

 

[mypossiblepasts]

I have to chime in my opinion and open old wounds, because my autistic adhd brain likes to fixate on those details whether I want it or not...

Determining if my game is really close to the end would be complex, and it could give the wrong perception about the content.

That's a great point there - having to assess own progress when the goal might not even be yet defined - that would be often impossible and possibly - putting arbitrary limits on author - becoming this self-restricting idea.
So fully agree, butt...

It would be much more accurate to write "0.2.19.2" or even "0.02.19.2" as the version.

This post, while worded badly - much more accurate is subjective statement - carries the sentiment I'd argue to be commonly shared.
And I say that, because it does not raise any conflicts with your approach:

That's why I use semantic versioning.

• Whenever there is a bug fix or minor patches, the version will be something like (v1.0.1, v1.0.2).
• Whenever there is an addition of new content that doesn't impact your save, the version will be something like (v1.1.0, v1.2.0).
• Whenever there is a big change that might break old saves, the released version will be something like (v2.0.0, v3.0.0).

Because - as clearly seen - combining both is just a matter of moving the 'decimal point' one step to the right.
It allows to maintain the semantic versioning - it's just:
v0.1.0.1 -> v0.1.0.2 instead of:
v 1.0.1 -> v 1.0.2

But in that '0' in the beginning it also includes the most important information from the pov of customer.

One might say here - didn't you wrote few lines above that it's stupid and even impossible to track a progress of developement?
Well, yes, but only a priori. It doesn't need to be even fully accurate, but don't you think, that - granting the developement is not interrupted - there probably would be a time in the future when you can say - 'yeah, more or less this game is complete'?
Maybe some polishing will be done, additional chapters written that close the loose end, but it's a story on it's own right now - this is where you switch the 0 to 1, and people know that they can get a complete start to finish experience ;3

 

[Nimbus Commando]

Honestly, I can't be bothered to manually add the relations, so are there any patches.

 

[Saint Blackmoor]

I would include this as a review but decided against it because I didn't get too far into the game before stopping.

There is too much visual activity and distractions. I applaud the DEV for his technical prowess. IMO, it needs to go on a visual and audio diet. There is a MOD here that has a similar style of "more is better," thus everyone's going to love it mindset.
Some people like nihilism, some people like confetti-ism... I just made that word up. Hope you get the point.
This game leans far closer to the latter for my taste.
But that's my taste. Simple is better. Storytelling rules. But it's difficult to see the story through the confetti.

It probably comes from reading thousands of books in my life and recently discovering the visual storytelling genre.

My feeling is that in today's hectic world, we need more simple and less confetti.

 

[OldHiccup]

I would include this as a review but decided against it because I didn't get too far into the game before stopping.

There is too much visual activity and distractions. I applaud the DEV for his technical prowess. IMO, it needs to go on a visual and audio diet. There is a MOD here that has a similar style of "more is better," thus everyone's going to love it mindset.
Some people like nihilism, some people like confetti-ism... I just made that word up. Hope you get the point.
This game leans far closer to the latter for my taste.
But that's my taste. Simple is better. Storytelling rules. But it's difficult to see the story through the confetti.

It probably comes from reading thousands of books in my life and recently discovering the visual storytelling genre.

My feeling is that in today's hectic world, we need more simple and less confetti.

Thank you for your comment.

You mentioned an interesting concept that I'd like to understand better. What exactly are you referring to? Currently, our GUI is quite minimalist, as we've removed many unnecessary features that we had before. What remains includes:

• Notifications (related to Relationships, Money, and Music)
• Animated Introduction of characters, which has already been removed from the main game but is still present in the prologue, which is being reworked.
• Sound effects.

The other features that enhance the game are entirely optional. They are not constantly imposed on you, appearing only if you choose to view them, such as the character information and the protagonist's memories.

I don't see many other areas where I could simplify further. However, if these elements are critical to your decision to stop playing, I understand that some aspects, like the sound effects, are essential and cannot be compromised.

Simultaneous notifications only occur if you press the "Control" key while playing; otherwise, they only appear at very specific moments.

If I’ve misunderstood your feedback, please let me know exactly what you're referring to, and I'll do my best to improve.

 

[Old Grumpy Wolf]

Thank you for your comment.

You mentioned an interesting concept that I'd like to understand better. What exactly are you referring to? Currently, our GUI is quite minimalist, as we've removed many unnecessary features that we had before. What remains includes:

• Notifications (related to Relationships, Money, and Music)
• Animated Introduction of characters, which has already been removed from the main game but is still present in the prologue, which is being reworked.
• Sound effects.

The other features that enhance the game are entirely optional. They are not constantly imposed on you, appearing only if you choose to view them, such as the character information and the protagonist's memories.

I don't see many other areas where I could simplify further. However, if these elements are critical to your decision to stop playing, I understand that some aspects, like the sound effects, are essential and cannot be compromised.

Simultaneous notifications only occur if you press the "Control" key while playing; otherwise, they only appear at very specific moments.

If I’ve misunderstood your feedback, please let me know exactly what you're referring to, and I'll do my best to improve.

I'm not a fan of the current. I'm old, with bad eyes and I actually preferred the generic Ren'py GUI. Easier on the old eyes. But as with another game I play, I try to stay out of the menu system. lol

 

[OldHiccup]

I'm not a fan of the current. I'm old, with bad eyes and I actually preferred the generic Ren'py GUI. Easier on the old eyes. But as with another game I play, I try to stay out of the menu system. lol

I focused on his comment regarding aspects that occur as the player progresses through the story, mainly because the preferences menu isn't a place where the player spends much time.

Typically, you set up the game according to your preferences and, after that, you rarely return to the menu unless you need to load a save or save your progress.

The options available in Our Home were designed precisely to cater to as many preferences as possible. Previously, these options were fixed, based on what I considered ideal. However, after listening to some feedback, I decided to make most of the preferences customizable.

For example, previously, the custom save name was mandatory; every time you saved, I required you to choose a custom name for the file. Now, there's an option that allows you to decide whether or not you want to use a custom name.

As these customization options were added, the list of preferences grew, making it necessary to organize them into logical categories.

Specifically speaking about the preferences, they are also organized in a more intuitive way. For instance, if you want to adjust a sound setting, you won’t be distracted by other preference options, allowing you to focus solely on what you want to adjust.


What I mean is that I don't believe the preferences or how they are organized should be a determining factor for continuing to play or not. I think other things are more relevant to maintaining interest in the game. That's why I'd like to better understand what exactly made him stop playing. If the reason he stopped playing is also affecting other players, then by improving that aspect, I can reduce churn among other players.

From what I understand of your comment, it seems like you can handle the preferences menu well since you don’t visit it frequently.

 

[Saint Blackmoor]

Thank you for your comment.

You mentioned an interesting concept that I'd like to understand better. What exactly are you referring to? Currently, our GUI is quite minimalist, as we've removed many unnecessary features that we had before. What remains includes:

• Notifications (related to Relationships, Money, and Music)
• Animated Introduction of characters, which has already been removed from the main game but is still present in the prologue, which is being reworked.
• Sound effects.

The other features that enhance the game are entirely optional. They are not constantly imposed on you, appearing only if you choose to view them, such as the character information and the protagonist's memories.

I don't see many other areas where I could simplify further. However, if these elements are critical to your decision to stop playing, I understand that some aspects, like the sound effects, are essential and cannot be compromised.

Simultaneous notifications only occur if you press the "Control" key while playing; otherwise, they only appear at very specific moments.

If I’ve misunderstood your feedback, please let me know exactly what you're referring to, and I'll do my best to improve.

These are only my opinions. I'm probably the oddball here. I do have some thoughts on how I would do things. But you, as you said, you have whittled down the game already. I'm a proofreader here; I would be happy to help if you would like suggestions.

 

[Saphfire]

Did the update end with Mirellas call? If so, how does this update have 2k new renders? It felt more like 200...

 

[OnlyFriend]

prologue has a bug, I didn't see MC hugging Amelia

 

[OldHiccup]

prologue has a bug, I didn't see MC hugging Amelia

This scene has been removed from the game, and the prologue is being reworked. The hugging moment is completely disconnected from both the MC's personality and his relationship with Amelia at that point in the story. In hindsight, I realize it was foolish to include such a scene at that stage of the game, although if he eventually develops his relationship with her, he might be able to grab her butt later on.

 

[OldHiccup]

These are only my opinions. I'm probably the oddball here. I do have some thoughts on how I would do things. But you, as you said, you have whittled down the game already. I'm a proofreader here; I would be happy to help if you would like suggestions.

I’m always open to hearing suggestions for improvements. You can send them to me a message if you're willing.

 

[Ara-sH]

Anyway to unlock Gallery ?

 

[Canto Forte]

This is the most disconcerting thing you can do to a story about long time teacher, especially a female teacher and her long time student - not to mention they lived in the same house and AMELIA WAS A MOTHER IN ALL INTENSES AND OURPOOSES to everyone in that place.

Especially before they would possibly part ways deffinitively - MC did not arrange any room and board and Amelia, as a mother figure and a respectable female guardian should have arranged something - MC is just booted out of the life he ever knew as a human being, living in a place with rules and poeple and guardians who were the people to look up to - MC is given the proverbial boot and he goes for it - no place that hires people would ensure room and board unless they advertise it and for young people, especially their first job, most would take advantage of them and put them in probation perios without pay - so MC is totally delusional.

This scene has been removed from the game, and the prologue is being reworked. The hugging moment is completely disconnected from both the MC's personality and his relationship with Amelia at that point in the story. In hindsight, I realize it was foolish to include such a scene at that stage of the game, although if he eventually develops his relationship with her, he might be able to grab her butt later on.

I’m always open to hearing suggestions for improvements.

You take away the humanity that we had to cling to the whole prologue, MC being a total shut in as he kept pining for a girl he did not seee or hear from in ten whole years, despite being in a place with many other people just as needy as him, if not clingier - refusing a hug between a long time motherly Amelie and a totally clueless shut in MC - it just takes us out of it: female teachers love being hugged and cheek kissed by their pupils - MC has grown under her eyes decades - this is disheartening to see the hug being taken out as a choice between such close like family individuals - get your head out of the gutter for a second and make these characters behave as humanly as possible, with emotions and actions accordingly.