VN Ren'Py Pale Carnations [Ch. 4 Up 4 Public] [Mutt & Jeff]

[79flavors]

i hope for monthly update and more contents.

Oddly enough, I'm hoping NOT for monthly updates. Unless the whole script is already written.
This first prologue looks WAY more than a month's worth of work - and I'd like to see future releases be at least 80% of this level of content. If that means 6 weeks, 8 weeks, or more... I'd be fine with that.

Hitting artificial deadlines for the sake of a "monthly release" can often mean shortcuts... Shortcuts I wouldn't want to see taken with this level of quality.

i think this game has bright future, good luck

Hopefully.

My only concern right now is whether the pair of developers are able to keep on top of their variables. Primarily having a workable solution for the stats system. I know they've talked about trying to avoid falling for a min/max based stats system - so they have at least put some thought into it. But there are still little things, like Felicia only calling you "Daddy" if you follow a very specific route. That one is easy, because it's only a pet name. But choosing to focus on Felica at the disco actually rewards less Felicia reward points than if you go down the other route.

The solution, as always, is to have "good" content for picking non-optimal choices. But then you fall into the time-trap of developing two (or more) high quality, well considered, well balanced, well rendered paths that a lot of players will never see. Then unimaginative players berate the developers for "small" releases, when the reality is that overall - that release is actually bigger... it's just that those players didn't see all the "other" content. Personally, I like those games which offer the moral dilemma of picking between two equally bad choices. If anything the whole "Daddy" thing is probably a good example of that, in so much as I'm left with a choice of picking between Felicia calling my character Daddy -OR- going into the next release with slightly higher stats.

 

[TD1900]

I was wonderting game has animated sex scenes or not?

Afraid not. It's usually 2-3 images linked together with dissolves to give an impression of movement, but it's not anything close to what I'd call animated.

Hitting artificial deadlines for the sake of a "monthly release" can often mean shortcuts... Shortcuts I wouldn't want to see taken with this level of quality.

You don't have to worry about us rushing out releases to grow support. This is a creative outlet and hobby for both of us, not something we see as a viable primary source of income. Not to suggest we don't put in a workday length of hours, cause we do, but working with someone as talented as GIL has given me the chance to work on my dream VN. I'm not going to diminish that by cutting corners.

That said, as a player, I also just personally prefer slower, substantive releases over the short monthly updates some games do.

 

[LeoneedNya]

Promising start even w/o animations game looks rly good

 

[gyupapaa]

Hell, sitting at 49...I'll make it 50.

 

[kenobikid]

I'm seriously digging the art. It's really good even without animations!

 

[heavy1handed]

Looks like all the links are down

 

[GIL3D]

Looks like all the links are down

They're not? All links are up.

 

[darkslayer5]

Pale Carnations [Ch. 1] [Mutt & Jeff] - Original Size: 900MB

Compressed version for PC (289MB):

You must be registered to see the links

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done by UnRen v0.8 (Sam@F95zone) & Cruncher v0.4.1 (bas@F95zone)

This compression is unofficial. Compressing process reduces image/audio/video quality and can break the game, be aware of that.

 

[TessSadist]

This isn't really entirely my kind of game, but this is a really good first release! I hope it gets more traction on this site and more people play it!

 

[jenosmaverick]

great game right from the start

 

[TuffSub]

I enjoyed the 1st episode very much, and am looking forward to the future episodes. TD1900 and GIL3D - very well done, thank you!
The graphics are amazing. The devs gave a lot of attention to details (especially where the female characters are concerned), and the end result is beautiful. As for the male characters, they are less refined, but that doesn't bother me personally too much. The music is nice - nothing to write home about, but helps maintain the atmosphere.
The storytelling is done well, which is far from trivial for the genre. I felt a bit railroaded, as the MC's choices may take him on a subplot, but the main plot is invariant (the path choice between Kathleen and Hana after the show notwithstanding), but that's a legitimate choice for the devs, especially in what is (after all) a novel, more so when it's just the first chapter. A few language mistakes, and a few lines attributed to the wrong character, but nothing really serious (devs: if you tell me how to retrieve the texts en masse, I'd happily list corrections).
I used the walkthrough (thank you, randomname42) after going through the game as a checklist of sorts, to see if I missed anything interesting through my choices, and re-played a couple of scenes - so that's one way of using it without breaking the immersion. I look forward to walkthroughs for future chapters as well.
The mechanics of game-play are pretty good, but could use a few tweaks. A few off the top of my head:
- There are too many "..." text lines, IMHO, which don't seem to serve any purpose other than forcing the player to give another click.
- Inactive choices are displayed but cannot be selected (the first example is on May 8, when meeting Kathleen for the first time, if the MC is not a social butterfly), which (to me) breaks a little of the immersion - I wouldn't display them. Of course, when left with a single option, there's no point in a player interaction, and I'd either skip ahead or convert the interaction to an internal monologue.
- Maybe (even probably) it's just me, but a keyboard only option could be nice. I hate the actual clicks of the mouse, and while for the most part hovering over an option with the mouse and hitting "enter" instead of the LMB does the job, you can't go to the menu without the RMB, and you can't save without actually choosing the field for the description of the save file.
- The planned "current stats" menu option sounds like a good idea. What about a "hints" option, that would describe the stats impact of a choice, in brackets, within the actual screen?
A few content issues that I saw mentioned above and felt should be addressed:
- The NTR issue (I've had to look it up to understand what it is)... For me personally, it's a non-issue. I support and practive polyamory IRL, and really don't see why anyone would need such exclusivity in a game or a story. That being said, it's different strokes for different folks, and I doubt there will be too many decisions branched within those scenes, so maybe a setting to skip those scenes for those who want it would do the trick?!
- The femdom/lezdom issue. I actually encountered the game thanks to the female domination tag. When the sexual act is the main issue, then I guess the focus on Fm vs Ff would be significant. I think that in this case the power dynamic is the main issue, and so the significance goes more to the dominant female than to the person she is dominating, both in the second and in the third game, and in some of the other interactions as well.
- The context of the sex club, of prostitution, is a problematic one. Even if it's "high end", it's still (as the devs put it, in one of the options on the Hana path near the end of the chapter) taking advantage of women in desperate situations. So very mono-hetero-normative and patriarchal. I don't really see a way around that (and let's face it, it's part of real life too), but there are some things that can be done to tone down the gender bias a bit, leaving mostly the wealth gap as an issue. Adding male... service providers(?!) to the club, would help, even if the MC doesn't interact with them. Adding gay interactions, even if it's in the background, would help. Adding female club members (Kathleen, as the Madame of the club, doesn't count), would help.
Really, this VN has so much potential, I'm anxious to see how it unfolds.

 

[Hrk19]

I enjoyed the 1st episode very much, and am looking forward to the future episodes. TD1900 and GIL3D - very well done, thank you!
The graphics are amazing. The devs gave a lot of attention to details (especially where the female characters are concerned), and the end result is beautiful. As for the male characters, they are less refined, but that doesn't bother me personally too much. The music is nice - nothing to write home about, but helps maintain the atmosphere.
The storytelling is done well, which is far from trivial for the genre. I felt a bit railroaded, as the MC's choices may take him on a subplot, but the main plot is invariant (the path choice between Kathleen and Hana after the show notwithstanding), but that's a legitimate choice for the devs, especially in what is (after all) a novel, more so when it's just the first chapter. A few language mistakes, and a few lines attributed to the wrong character, but nothing really serious (devs: if you tell me how to retrieve the texts en masse, I'd happily list corrections).
I used the walkthrough (thank you, randomname42) after going through the game as a checklist of sorts, to see if I missed anything interesting through my choices, and re-played a couple of scenes - so that's one way of using it without breaking the immersion. I look forward to walkthroughs for future chapters as well.
The mechanics of game-play are pretty good, but could use a few tweaks. A few off the top of my head:
- There are too many "..." text lines, IMHO, which don't seem to serve any purpose other than forcing the player to give another click.
- Inactive choices are displayed but cannot be selected (the first example is on May 8, when meeting Kathleen for the first time, if the MC is not a social butterfly), which (to me) breaks a little of the immersion - I wouldn't display them. Of course, when left with a single option, there's no point in a player interaction, and I'd either skip ahead or convert the interaction to an internal monologue.
- Maybe (even probably) it's just me, but a keyboard only option could be nice. I hate the actual clicks of the mouse, and while for the most part hovering over an option with the mouse and hitting "enter" instead of the LMB does the job, you can't go to the menu without the RMB, and you can't save without actually choosing the field for the description of the save file.
- The planned "current stats" menu option sounds like a good idea. What about a "hints" option, that would describe the stats impact of a choice, in brackets, within the actual screen?
A few content issues that I saw mentioned above and felt should be addressed:
- The NTR issue (I've had to look it up to understand what it is)... For me personally, it's a non-issue. I support and practive polyamory IRL, and really don't see why anyone would need such exclusivity in a game or a story. That being said, it's different strokes for different folks, and I doubt there will be too many decisions branched within those scenes, so maybe a setting to skip those scenes for those who want it would do the trick?!
- The femdom/lezdom issue. I actually encountered the game thanks to the female domination tag. When the sexual act is the main issue, then I guess the focus on Fm vs Ff would be significant. I think that in this case the power dynamic is the main issue, and so the significance goes more to the dominant female than to the person she is dominating, both in the second and in the third game, and in some of the other interactions as well.
- The context of the sex club, of prostitution, is a problematic one. Even if it's "high end", it's still (as the devs put it, in one of the options on the Hana path near the end of the chapter) taking advantage of women in desperate situations. So very mono-hetero-normative and patriarchal. I don't really see a way around that (and let's face it, it's part of real life too), but there are some things that can be done to tone down the gender bias a bit, leaving mostly the wealth gap as an issue. Adding male... service providers(?!) to the club, would help, even if the MC doesn't interact with them. Adding gay interactions, even if it's in the background, would help. Adding female club members (Kathleen, as the Madame of the club, doesn't count), would help.
Really, this VN has so much potential, I'm anxious to see how it unfolds.

actually no no matter what happens the devs should not tone down anything just to appease some feminists.
they can play another game if they feel offended.
devs,dont please dont change anything in the story to appease women or feminists

Oh forgot to add, this is fiction the sex club is no issue at all and should not be seen as such,
remember fiction is not reality.
play another game if it offends you

 

[Ragnar]

- The context of the sex club, of prostitution, is a problematic one. Even if it's "high end", it's still (as the devs put it, in one of the options on the Hana path near the end of the chapter) taking advantage of women in desperate situations. So very mono-hetero-normative and patriarchal. I don't really see a way around that (and let's face it, it's part of real life too), but there are some things that can be done to tone down the gender bias a bit, leaving mostly the wealth gap as an issue. Adding male... service providers(?!) to the club, would help, even if the MC doesn't interact with them. Adding gay interactions, even if it's in the background, would help. Adding female club members (Kathleen, as the Madame of the club, doesn't count), would help.

Maybe you should play other games if this one offends you.

 

[TuffSub]

Hey, HRK19 and Ragnar, I just wrote what I feel are stronger and weaker points to this game, and what I think would make it better. I took the time to think before I wrote, because (as I mentioned) I liked the game so far, and I think it has potential. It's up to the devs to decide what they want to adopt and what isn't worth their hassle. I wasn't offended by the game. However, HRK19, I take it that if the devs do decide to male gay content (even if it's optional), you would first be offended, and then follow your own advice and play other games instead?!
But on the off chance that you actually had something in mind when you offered that I should play other games instead and weren't just trying to tell me to go F myself - what games would you both suggest?

 

[Hrk19]

Hey, HRK19 and Ragnar, I just wrote what I feel are stronger and weaker points to this game, and what I think would make it better. I took the time to think before I wrote, because (as I mentioned) I liked the game so far, and I think it has potential. It's up to the devs to decide what they want to adopt and what isn't worth their hassle. I wasn't offended by the game. However, HRK19, I take it that if the devs do decide to male gay content (even if it's optional), you would first be offended, and then follow your own advice and play other games instead?!
But on the off chance that you actually had something in mind when you offered that I should play other games instead and weren't just trying to tell me to go F myself - what games would you both suggest?

use the tag function,find it yourself.
there is nothing wrong with the prostitution thing.
its part of the story.
removing it or toning it down would only ruin the game not make it better because its centre to the story of the game.

 

[ioriya]

Hey, HRK19 and Ragnar, I just wrote what I feel are stronger and weaker points to this game, and what I think would make it better. I took the time to think before I wrote, because (as I mentioned) I liked the game so far, and I think it has potential. It's up to the devs to decide what they want to adopt and what isn't worth their hassle. I wasn't offended by the game. However, HRK19, I take it that if the devs do decide to male gay content (even if it's optional), you would first be offended, and then follow your own advice and play other games instead?!
But on the off chance that you actually had something in mind when you offered that I should play other games instead and weren't just trying to tell me to go F myself - what games would you both suggest?

Feminism shouldn't be anywhere near these games. We have enough of that in life. So keep those suggestions out of circulation and let the people tell their story. We have game communities like these because it's not swallowed up by rabid feminist soyboys or manwomen.

 

[rgevake]

Wow dude, this game is something already.

 

[andrew04]

Really, really good start!

 

[Ragnar]

But on the off chance that you actually had something in mind when you offered that I should play other games instead and weren't just trying to tell me to go F myself - what games would you both suggest?

The one from my signature, Offcuts, is a great option if you want vanilla romance.

 

[smackdab]

This thing oozes quality. And admittedly, a lot of other things as well. I do like it.