Ren'Py Serenia [v1.0c] [OffWhite Studios]

[JJ993]

Personally I think this is probably the best new game this year. The art may be AI generated but the quality is excellent and consistent. The gameplay is genuinely fun and the storyline engaging even independent of the adult content which is also excellent. Combat can feel slightly linear currently but it sounds like you have plans to flesh this out slightly more in future updates. I actually like the limit on mana early on and the need to balance spells with melee in combat, it fits with the notion that you are only just learning to use magic offensively and cannot yet simply nuke anything you like on a whim. The forest and dungeon maps are great fun to explore and I love the D&D feel.

I disagree entirely with the NTR comments that others have made - witnessing or even enabling non-con sex between an NPC that you are not in a romantic relationship with (or even currently part of your hare/slave etc) and another NPC is not NTR and people need to get over this. I think the changes to allow some of these characters to potentially be rescued may help give a bit more sense of agency but equally you clearly have an overarching corruption arc which I don't think you should feel compelled to compromise.

10/10 overall and very keen to see where this goes with subsequent chapters!

 

[Bowlcutcultmember]

At the very least I think Anno should've had a shield and distraction type spell in his possession at the start of the game. It fits what he taught his students and matches what he said the Queen allowed. It was a bit strange to start the game and see literally 0 spells in his possession. No *offensive* spells was fine though, since that was his entire point to going into the forest.

 

[coinstarrunner]

This is the fourth game I played brand-new today that opens with the entirely useless time-waster of characters breaking the fourth wall to explain to you that you are, in fact, playing a game. This lewdgame trope needs to die.

 

[ChubbyFatBoy]

Thanks for sharing your feedback. Scene order is something I did want to change but since so many events are woven together, it became a really heavy lift to change without breaking things and I had to live with keeping them as they appear.

I agree the non-con comes at you hard and fast right at the start (no pun intended). I was worried it would turn a lot of people off, but then I figured - if you don’t like the first scene, there is a good chance you won’t like the following scenes.

In the end, I thought it may be good for players to filter out there early, and that they might appreciate knowing the tone of the game up front and not waste time or feeling like they got bait and switched.

I also added some notes on the main post regarding themes and put in some thumbnails which show those scenes.

Chapter 2 will have much more MC action, but probably keep a similar tone. It’s not going to be a dating sim, etc.

Edit - I’ll also add I made the early scenes like 2 years ago and are not as well done as I’d like. The final scene of Chapter 1 is one I made recently and is a better reflection of how I’d do a scene today with my current skill level. (E.g. Many animations but quicker transitions, does not jump right into sex, more set up, etc)

Well catching up on some of the thread so far and seeing as how you look to be open to change at least a few things up. My response feels a wee bit redundant.... but fuck it! Yes it's going to filter people out and that's fine. Like you said, it's better to let people know things ahead of time, but! What I was pointing out wasn't really about that. I mean unless this was done on purpose, and I'll get back to that in a bit.

As it stands, it's not just a question about whether someone can deal with rape or voyeur. It became a situation of how much can you deal with it, when it happens back to back to back.

Spoiler: Full disclosure!

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I played the game knowing some stuff since I read the comments. And after a bit, even I had to question things. Like I believe in some of your earlier comments. You pointed out that you wanted the MC to feel weak at 1st. So he would then have a reason to seek out power. That makes sense to a degree. But after things not only keep happening 1 way. Combined with the parts where you're just watching like with the piggy. Or the bar scene where iirc, the MC wasn't even close enough to see, so it's just shown for the sake of it. The frog and tadpole thing where it kinda just happens. Then combined with some of the dialogue. It starts to become a question of, is this really for a story setup? Or is this just what gets the rocks off so it was put in.

And that's fine if it is. Going back to where I left off in the 1st part. If this was all done on purpose and was how it was meant to be. Then my entire comment can be disregarded. But seeing as how you're open to making some changes. And I believe you said it wasn't really supposed to be the main stuff. That's where the disconnect comes in. Because even if later chapters will turn things around. What people are seeing now is that content back to back, in a pretty indulgent way. Then with the MC's scenes so sparse. Though fair enough he'll get more later on. But sparse scenes that are also behind all this other stuff you have to see and can do nothing about. It's going to give off the impression that this is the kink. This is what you're primarily supposed to get your rocks off to. So it's not just filtering those not into it, which is fine. It's also going to filter those who are fine or can deal with it. But at a certain point might be like.... ok I get it.

 

[OffWhite Studios]

Well catching up on some of the thread so far and seeing as how you look to be open to change at least a few things up. My response feels a wee bit redundant.... but fuck it! Yes it's going to filter people out and that's fine. Like you said, it's better to let people know things ahead of time, but! What I was pointing out wasn't really about that. I mean unless this was done on purpose, and I'll get back to that in a bit.

As it stands, it's not just a question about whether someone can deal with rape or voyeur. It became a situation of how much can you deal with it, when it happens back to back to back.

Spoiler: Full disclosure!

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

I played the game knowing some stuff since I read the comments. And after a bit, even I had to question things. Like I believe in some of your earlier comments. You pointed out that you wanted the MC to feel weak at 1st. So he would then have a reason to seek out power. That makes sense to a degree. But after things not only keep happening 1 way. Combined with the parts where you're just watching like with the piggy. Or the bar scene where iirc, the MC wasn't even close enough to see, so it's just shown for the sake of it. The frog and tadpole thing where it kinda just happens. Then combined with some of the dialogue. It starts to become a question of, is this really for a story setup? Or is this just what gets the rocks off so it was put in.

And that's fine if it is. Going back to where I left off in the 1st part. If this was all done on purpose and was how it was meant to be. Then my entire comment can be disregarded. But seeing as how you're open to making some changes. And I believe you said it wasn't really supposed to be the main stuff. That's where the disconnect comes in. Because even if later chapters will turn things around. What people are seeing now is that content back to back, in a pretty indulgent way. Then with the MC's scenes so sparse. Though fair enough he'll get more later on. But sparse scenes that are also behind all this other stuff you have to see and can do nothing about. It's going to give off the impression that this is the kink. This is what you're primarily supposed to get your rocks off to. So it's not just filtering those not into it, which is fine. It's also going to filter those who are fine or can deal with it. But at a certain point might be like.... ok I get it.

Thanks for your comment!

When I first set out to make the game, I had a rough idea of a wizard who goes around and sleeps with a wide range of girls. However, as I started writing, it sort of morphed into the prologue of that story. To add filler, I made a bunch of scenes (kinda at random) then strung them together into a plot I was happy with.

So, most of the scenes were designed without Anno in mind. I tacked him on later, because I needed some way to get the player from scene to scene. After I did that so many times, people started to feel that was the kink, when that really isn’t the intention. I just needed a set up for them.

My mistake was not considering the pacing. It’s flipped, the start is super hardcore and the second half has all the vanilla sex.

I’m trying to fix it now and you probably read the changes I have in mind (mainly letting Anno stop these scenes). I think adding a sex scene for Anno early on would do wonders, but I can’t figure out how to make that work for the current story. He needs to be single when he meets Zuri. The intro is also pretty short and does not give me a lot of time to work with.

Another thing I didn’t anticipate is how many people wanna kill Gup and the Orcs. The Orcs are bad but they are kinda friendly to Anno (in their own way). Orc scenes are a common with fantasy hentai, so I thought more people might like their scenes. Some do I’m sure, but also a lot wonder why they can’t murder them immediately.

as for Gup, that scene is just a silly one off that does not have much plot impact. I will probably allow Anno to stop that one as well, since the editing will be minor and Gup isn’t planned to be long term characters.

I personally like variety of scenes, so I’ll keep that in the game. I’ll just move them to 25% and not 75% in chapter 2. I also will be much more conscious of writing them in a way that does not trigger anyone.