JohnJG

Engaged Member
May 17, 2018
2,285
2,561
I haven't played Personal Trainer for a while but I was not disappointed today catching up. I forgot how many laughs there were to be had. My face is literally hurting from the quality of jokes.

'Let Freedom Ring' felt so wrong but so right and funny. Cheers Domiek :LOL::ROFLMAO::coffee:
 
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Avaron1974

Resident Lesbian
Aug 22, 2018
24,898
85,031
The problem here is the same scene will play over and over even if you are following the schedule for a particular woman. It makes literally zero sense story wise having the same conversation with your cousin at breakfast over and over day after day, or her in her room watching the same show every night on a laptop regurgitating the same lines.

The same can be said with your boss telling you she's working on financial reports practically all day every day and can't chat. Also, the woman pretending to be caught under a table you can have sex with. You get the same scene every time. It would be better to just not have these people available at these times, but then it would mess with the schedule system I guess. Note: these are just a few of many examples of this.
I'm trying so hard to keep a straight face....

You complained about events you don't need to watch.

You don't need to talk to Dani every day, the hint system that tells you exactly what to do will tell you when you need to talk to her.

Same for scenes, you don't need to click them every time you see them.

You don't need to talk to the cousin at breakfast time.

You complained about repetitive things that are only repetitive because YOU made them so. They are all optional. That's your failing not the games.
 

Ted Danson

Newbie
Jun 4, 2017
21
81
I'm trying so hard to keep a straight face....

You complained about events you don't need to watch.

You don't need to talk to Dani every day, the hint system that tells you exactly what to do will tell you when you need to talk to her.

Same for scenes, you don't need to click them every time you see them.

You don't need to talk to the cousin at breakfast time.

You complained about repetitive things that are only repetitive because YOU made them so. They are all optional. That's your failing not the games.
By your logic the way to avoid any problems with this game one just needs to not play the game. It seems like because you are a fan of the game you've decided to blame me for poor game design.

It's repetitive by it's very nature, not by anything I'm doing. By leaving in scenes and dialogue that no longer fit the story line and have already been viewed.

I wouldn't need hints or a walkthrough if elements of the game that are completed or no longer relevant were no longer available for viewing. The whole point of playing the game is to actually play it myself and not have to rely on a guide of some sort to avoid seeing repeat scenes that shouldn't be there to begin with.

If that much guidance is needed to avoid the repeat scenes why not just have proper game flow like many other games on here?
 

Avaron1974

Resident Lesbian
Aug 22, 2018
24,898
85,031
By your logic the way to avoid any problems with this game one just needs to not play the game. It seems like because you are a fan of the game you've decided to blame me for poor game design.

It's repetitive by it's very nature, not by anything I'm doing. By leaving in scenes and dialogue that no longer fit the story line and have already been viewed.

I wouldn't need hints or a walkthrough if elements of the game that are completed or no longer relevant were no longer available for viewing. The whole point of playing the game is to actually play it myself and not have to rely on a guide of some sort to avoid seeing repeat scenes that shouldn't be there to begin with.
A lot of those are patreon scenes there for a bit of fun.

Of course i'm blaming you, you keep clicking on things and repeating them. That's on you.

If that much guidance is needed to avoid the repeat scenes why not just have proper game flow like many other games on here?
That's how the dev decided to create it.

The guide isn't there to avoid repeat scenes, those are easily avoided as demonstrated by everyone else that's played.

If the game was a normal VN like many others on here people would be whining for a walkthrough. As it stands people ask for one now even with the hints telling them what to do.

If people have legitimate complaints I don't care if they totally despise games I love, i'm a big girl, I don't mind if people have different opinions to me.

I have absolutely no qualms about mocking someone that keeps repeating the same things then blames the game for said person repeating the same things then somehow manages to reach for the moon and bring me liking said thing up like that makes any difference whatsoever.

There is a system built into the game that helps you. If you decide not to use that and continuously repeat the same thing then that's not a failure of game design, the tools are there to aid you, it's still on you.

No matter what mental gymnastics you attempt, it's all on you.

I liked you in Cheers though.
 

Ted Danson

Newbie
Jun 4, 2017
21
81
A lot of those are patreon scenes there for a bit of fun.

Of course i'm blaming you, you keep clicking on things and repeating them. That's on you.



That's how the dev decided to create it.

The guide isn't there to avoid repeat scenes, those are easily avoided as demonstrated by everyone else that's played.

If the game was a normal VN like many others on here people would be whining for a walkthrough. As it stands people ask for one now even with the hints telling them what to do.

If people have legitimate complaints I don't care if they totally despise games I love, i'm a big girl, I don't mind if people have different opinions to me.

I have absolutely no qualms about mocking someone that keeps repeating the same things then blames the game for said person repeating the same things then somehow manages to reach for the moon and bring me liking said thing up like that makes any difference whatsoever.

There is a system built into the game that helps you. If you decide not to use that and continuously repeat the same thing then that's not a failure of game design, the tools are there to aid you, it's still on you.

No matter what mental gymnastics you attempt, it's all on you.

I liked you in Cheers though.
It's not all me because as you just stated "That's how the dev decided to create it".

I didn't keep repeating things endlessly, I obviously figured out what was going on and stopped at a certain point. It's still poor game design to even allow the player to click through something that makes zero sense story wise though.

It would be just as easy to not have a character at a location at a certain time instead of having it repeat. The hint system wouldn't need to be relied upon then. The schedule system just doesn't make sense to me when there isn't enough content to fill that schedule if you take out the repeating scenes.
 

Domiek

In a Scent
Donor
Game Developer
Jun 19, 2018
1,903
9,580
By your logic the way to avoid any problems with this game one just needs to not play the game. It seems like because you are a fan of the game you've decided to blame me for poor game design.

It's repetitive by it's very nature, not by anything I'm doing. By leaving in scenes and dialogue that no longer fit the story line and have already been viewed.

I wouldn't need hints or a walkthrough if elements of the game that are completed or no longer relevant were no longer available for viewing. The whole point of playing the game is to actually play it myself and not have to rely on a guide of some sort to avoid seeing repeat scenes that shouldn't be there to begin with.

If that much guidance is needed to avoid the repeat scenes why not just have proper game flow like many other games on here?

You're absolutely right to not like the game, if it's not you're thing then no one can tell you otherwise. There are also game design choices that I've made which I would not do for my next game, that much is true. It's all part of the learning experience of doing something new for the first time.

What's rubbing me the wrong way is the tone of your criticism. You've stated what's wrong as if you have the answers, yet your comments make me think that you don't. There is no way for me to make every single interaction non-repetitive without hiring some nerd from Google to write an AI that generates new content on it's own. Maybe I can write some procedural code that jumbles some lines together so they're new every time. Yet that still would be repetitive because the interactions would not truly be new or of any value.

Let's say I manually create new breakfast conversations, one hundred of them. You will eventually stumble upon something you've already seen. I'd have to ask myself why I'm delaying developing the rest of the story just so the player can have more non-essential dialogue over eggs.

It sounds like you prefer visual novels. Linear story progressions that always move forward. This is a sandbox game, repetition is inherent to the genre. I've created an in-game guide so those who don't care about free-roam can jump straight into the linear story. A lot of people seem to appreciate this. Those who still want to explore can do so as well.

It's totally okay that you don't like this game, I never even expected this many people to like it. It was always intended to be a learning project and nothing more. You're even ok to criticize it. I even encourage it as I've learned a lot from feedback. It just comes off as arrogant when you use words like wrong and proper when it's clear that you're really just criticizing a sandbox for not being a visual novel.

The irony, of course, is that I tend to agree with you. I don't like repetitive scenes either, which is why I've implemented tools to help the players avoid it should they choose so. That's something I'm actively avoiding in the design of the next game without going full linear visual novel. Of course that's still a long ways out but it's something that's definitely been on my mind.
 

Ted Danson

Newbie
Jun 4, 2017
21
81
You're absolutely right to not like the game, if it's not you're thing then no one can tell you otherwise. There are also game design choices that I've made which I would not do for my next game, that much is true. It's all part of the learning experience of doing something new for the first time.

What's rubbing me the wrong way is the tone of your criticism. You've stated what's wrong as if you have the answers, yet your comments make me think that you don't. There is no way for me to make every single interaction non-repetitive without hiring some nerd from Google to write an AI that generates new content on it's own. Maybe I can write some procedural code that jumbles some lines together so they're new every time. Yet that still would be repetitive because the interactions would not truly be new or of any value.

Let's say I manually create new breakfast conversations, one hundred of them. You will eventually stumble upon something you've already seen. I'd have to ask myself why I'm delaying developing the rest of the story just so the player can have more non-essential dialogue over eggs.

It sounds like you prefer visual novels. Linear story progressions that always move forward. This is a sandbox game, repetition is inherent to the genre. I've created an in-game guide so those who don't care about free-roam can jump straight into the linear story. A lot of people seem to appreciate this. Those who still want to explore can do so as well.

It's totally okay that you don't like this game, I never even expected this many people to like it. It was always intended to be a learning project and nothing more. You're even ok to criticize it. I even encourage it as I've learned a lot from feedback. It just comes off as arrogant when you use words like wrong and proper when it's clear that you're really just criticizing a sandbox for not being a visual novel.

The irony, of course, is that I tend to agree with you. I don't like repetitive scenes either, which is why I've implemented tools to help the players avoid it should they choose so. That's something I'm actively avoiding in the design of the next game without going full linear visual novel. Of course that's still a long ways out but it's something that's definitely been on my mind.
I got pulled into this thread by someone quoting my review and posting it here. My tone is indicative of being called out in the thread for my review.

It's nothing against you or your game. I was just trying to let people know what my opinion was and what I saw from playing the game.

I do like sandbox games as well as the more linear visual novels. I just prefer in sandbox games when a certain path or dialogue is exhausted it's removed as an option until there is something new there to see. Rather than have dialogue or a scene repeat the exact same way again because it doesn't fit the story anymore as everything else around it is progressing forward.
 
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Domiek

In a Scent
Donor
Game Developer
Jun 19, 2018
1,903
9,580
Rather than have dialogue or a scene repeat the exact same way again because it doesn't fit the story anymore as everything else around it is progressing forward.
Sounds like it's not necessarily the repetition but old interactive scenes not being updated to match the rest of the story, which is fair criticism.
 

Ted Danson

Newbie
Jun 4, 2017
21
81
Sounds like it's not necessarily the repetition but old interactive scenes not being updated to match the rest of the story, which is fair criticism.
Yes. That's more what I'm talking about. Perhaps I didn't articulate it as well as I could have.
 
3.90 star(s) 163 Votes