VN Ren'Py Abandoned Secret Boss: New Neighbours [v0.2] [PaperBoyProductions]

[Kitchentable]

Don't get discouraged, especially by postings on here. It's always that the majority of postings
on a game's thread are complains about this and the lack of that or vice versa.

And sadly quality and uniquness does not always get the recognition and buzz that it deserves.
Just as in real life. Often it's the loudmouth talking horsecrap that get noticed first.

Create the game you feel like and tell the story you want to tell, because only then,
you yourself are 100% into it and that will show and people will notice this and support you.

Some games with quite a few backers were intially released a couple of years ago.
They didn't start out with 800 or whatever subscribers.
Keep on steadily releasing quality content and people well take notice
and the more folsk notice the more supporters you will get.

 

[Purple Lagoon]

Having to replay a game for all content won't sit well with the shallow ADD crowd

What's ADD?

 

[WhY NoT?!]

The game will need a walkthrough because at some point you can go on 3 different paths...
Good story, nice renders... keep up the good work dev and you will make it.

 

[Kitchentable]

What's ADD?

ADD = Attention deficit disorder. If memory serves right it once was only ADD
but nowadays it's ADHD = Attention deifcit hyperactivity disorder.

But I might be wrong there. Ain't no psychoiatric-something.


What I wanted to express with that, is that in my personal perception
more and more people are not willing or able to read more than 2 lines.
And on a next level they don't want to put in any effort themselves
but have everything served to them.

Like those folks asking for a walkthrough for a VN instead of finding out themselves
if certain decisions or combinations thereof lead to different outcomes or endings.

That was like the integral part of the japanese VNs of old.

To me that's the same like playing an RPG with cheats or hacking in an online shooter,
it takes the meaning out of the game.

Renpy has that (for me typical japanese function) of skipping already read content.
It is exaclty meant for these multiple paths/endings settings!!

And if you don't give 2 jacks about the story or reading in general,
you can always use UNREN to extract the renders and animations.

 

[Skylaroo]

I'm just giving my feedback to the dev here. I think the game so far has been GREAT! The plot is interesting, and the characters are intriguing enough that I want to know more of them. In short, I am invested into the game and I want to know how things will unfold.

But unfortunately, nowadays starting up a great game doesn't automatically equate to getting enough support, and this is what I saw with the Patreon number. What also needs to be considered is how to present the game to get people excited enough to make them want to support you.

So a few constructive criticisms that I'd like to raise here are:

1. The branching of the story. Having story branches is not a bad thing, but if the branches are too big, they could easily hide your new content because not everyone might find the new content if they aren't making the right choices. In my opinion, if you want to keep the branches, try to make it shorter and more obvious. Something like choosing between going out for dinner (path1) or staying at home (path2) or attend a party (path3) where the paths are only for that night and they are obvious enough so that players would know where to go back to try out the other paths. At the moment, I feel like the game's paths are not as obvious, and that's why you get negative reaction such as "update is too short" from some people despite actually having good amount of content.

2. The second one is update timing. I can understand that you have limited hardware and it isn't easy to stay motivated with low number of patrons, but here's the problem that you have to solve. Why? Because the longer you take between updates, the more likely people forgot about your game in this extremely saturated market of adult game. So the question is whether you can provide better and quicker update or not. This ties back to the first point I made about branches and how to present the update. To me, you should be focusing more on keeping the story going rather than on the branches. Realistically speaking, the number of renders you can make in a month is the same until you get better hardware. So the key is to ensure that you use the renders in a better way. How can you create longer (more "meaty") update by using similar number of renders? You'd have to do some extra maneuvering with how you tell your story. Maybe not every small thing needs individual renders. Maybe some part of the story could have more dialogue going on. Maybe some renders could be re-used more. Or any other thing you can think of.

Basically at the moment, your game is like a new small cafe that just opened. You're serving good food, but you aren't making enough profit because people don't quite know your cafe. Your game not only needs more exposure, but you have to ensure that the game leaves good impression when you do get the exposure. To get the exposure, you have to update more regularly and each update cannot be too long in-between. To leave the good impression, you need to maintain good quality of your game.

I wish you the very best, PaperboyP Honestly, your game is better than 90% of the games here. I can't do much other than help promote your game. Keep it up!

 

[Purple Lagoon]

This ties back to the first point I made about branches and how to present the update. To me, you should be focusing more on keeping the story going rather than on the branches. Realistically speaking, the number of renders you can make in a month is the same until you get better hardware. So the key is to ensure that you use the renders in a better way. How can you create longer (more "meaty") update by using similar number of renders? You'd have to do some extra maneuvering with how you tell your story. Maybe not every small thing needs individual renders. Maybe some part of the story could have more dialogue going on. Maybe some renders could be re-used more. Or any other thing you can think of.

A possible way to handle this, is how it's done in " Our fate - A new family" (by CedSense): although there are 4 main paths (protective/romance/domination/corruption), all the renders in the first half of the game are identical for all paths! Only the dialogues and underlying music change. This is done with great effect.
Unique renders for different paths occur only later in the story.

 

[Skylaroo]

A possible way to handle this, is how it's done in " Our fate - A new family" (by CedSense): although there are 4 main paths (protective/romance/domination/corruption), all the renders in the first half of the game are identical for all paths! Only the dialogues and underlying music change. This is done with great effect.

This is a good idea, but I'm not sure how it'd work on Secret Boss because the paths in Our Fate are basically revolving around the same character. Correct me if I'm wrong, they were all relationships between MC and the daughter so the game could use the same renders of MC and daughter. On the other hand, Secret Boss' paths, as far as I know, are about 3 different characters which makes it impossible to use the same renders. That's why my suggestion was to make the branches smaller.

Unique renders for different paths occur only later in the story.

The key thing that the dev should pay attention here is that he needs to buy time to build his fanbase first. Once the fanbase is there and the support is strong, then the dev can be a bit more picky (ex: taking 1-2 week extra in development time to increase quality/quantity of the update by making more detailed branching paths).

I just hope the dev isn't disheartened because there are definitely games that only gain traction after 4-5 releases. So while it's hard to start, he's already on the right track that the quality is already good. It's just more about how to appeal more for the players so that they want to support him.

 

[somebodynobody]

PaperboyP

Foobar2k is a music player but also converts audio files. So you can put your .Wav in there, right click, convert, ..., click output format on the right, set to something like opus, the highest you need for near "CD" quality would be 128kbps VBR, but you can go much lower, just listen to them to make sure they sound good enough to you. The rest is straight forward.

Should save you some space.

You must be registered to see the links

Slight criticisms, the faces look somewhat odd, especially the eye area, like when MC catches Katrina and puts her on the couch and does a slight closeup of the face with the eyes closed. The eye area looks odd.

Some other things that seem flat, are like Katrina's shoes on the couch. A lot of the rest of things look fine, but small oddities

I think as a first timer in the game making department you may want to not have such diverging paths. Like having lottie come over and just chat on couch, vs the photoshoot. Feels like they could have been 1 thing instead.

Onto the question of whether to let this alone and make something more popular.

Could you do that? What games become popular aren't really a formula. If you truly think you could do that though, I don't see why not, but I would say maybe keep this one around on a back burner or alternate releases, so you don't burn out on a single game.

 

[ShiroOkami2]

Who else left that package on the left just to see if she would trip over it or not? Enjoying this game, the diverging paths at the end of this update...hope you know you setting up alot of work for yourself haha am truly grateful you're carrying on with this, hope you get more patreons soon. Some fan signatures wouldnt hurt, then fans could help advertise game with you. PaperboyP for the win, liked the change in dialogue when he is buying the company makes more sense as successful business man

 

[Kitchentable]

Some fan signatures wouldnt hurt, then fans could help advertise game with you. @PaperboyP for the win,

I wholeheartedly agree! Unfortunately my picture editing skills go only as far
as adding a handrawn arrow to a picture using paint. :/

 

[somebodynobody]

If you need someone to make some sigs. There's a thread for that.

https://f95zone.to/threads/gfx-request-thread.57341/

 

[Kitchentable]

The awesome and talented Raminita made fan signature for this game:

https://f95zone.to/threads/gfx-request-thread.57341/post-4054268

So all props and thanks to her.

 

[Kitchentable]

Stop liking my posting. Follow the link and like Raminitas posting with the signatures in it.
Pretty please!

 

[justjoe2k]

Looks like Paperboy started with a good concept. So your on with a good start paperboy.

 

[cariadult]

Like it, not an 18 years old boy as protagonist, no incest yet(not from MC's perspective), and good story

 

[XXboku91]

Hey thanks for the great game, I loved the story and where this is going. You got yourself a Patreon sub.

 

[ShiroOkami2]

now f95 just need to let us us more than 2 sigs again then we'll be golden, also link the fan signatures on the main page.

 

[Crossfire260]

Please tell me that the creator did NOT just shut down his patreon and give up on the project!

 

[Purple Lagoon]

Oh damn

 

[Crossfire260]

Well so much for seeing Katrina's glorious ass in the future...