VN Ren'Py Onhold Soles of Lakeview [Prologue] [Soniram]

[7767]

Overview:
Madeline wasn't able to get into college after high school. Flunking a
class does that. A sheltered life and a secret obsession are hampering
her growing into a young adult. This mostly kinetic story will follow
the story through Lakeview, a summer prep course that helps young
women get back on track, but things always seem awry when they
are connected to the strange, distant and magical realm of Endara......

Spoiler: Game Info

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Thread Updated: 2022-10-03
Release Date: 2022-10-03
Developer: Soniram

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Censored: No
Version: Prologue
OS: Windows, Linux, Mac, Android
Language: English
Other Games: The Apothecary
Genre:

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Installation:

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Changelog:

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Developer Notes:

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The game is very short in it's current form, being only maybe 20-30 minutes long.
It is a prototype to get feedback on various attempts at improving several aspects of game design.
Feel free to leave feedback and suggestions. They are given appropriate weight.

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Development Thread

​

 

[BaasB]

Godspeed, Soniram


Avaron1974

 

[Crow Armbrust]

THX

 

[Gusmaum]

Now thats some good stuff

 

[xmilteach]

thx

 

[Avaron1974]

View attachment 2079113
Godspeed, Soniram


Avaron1974

Thankyou muchly, sweetness.

 

[77icew]

Cool game .. i like if some girls wrapped her legs around M.C.1s waist, or hips

 

[Meowmadam]

Questionable age of the characters lol.

 

[Rosvos86]

Finally a foot fetish focused game... Best of luck dev!

 

[Deleted member 4963437]

FEET. But damn it. It's lesbian.

But one thing, can people PLEASE stop rushing to make their games? Like, it's not a race to put out games or anything, F95zone isn't ceasing operations in the next 10 days. I want to play games that at least HAVE enough content so I can actually play something and leave a decent review. I'm pretty sure people are willing to wait even 1 year if it means that they can play a spectacular porn game.

Now for the actual game, I feel as if the dev didn't spend much time fine-tuning the characters and their looks, some decent effort was put into the UI, I'll say. However the game menu should be darker because the text is hard to see in Preferences and other game menu screens. The window is just named "A RenPy Game"? Seriously? The transitions are really slow.

How old is the MC? She still lives with her Mom and goes to school. The school is just a default Koikatsu school. If she was going to college, at least make it look like a college. I assume she's high school age? In the game, the quick menu is broken when going into one of the game menu screens. I am not even sure if this game is beyond repair, you can tell the dev rushed this.

This is a quite fine example of WHY you shouldn't rush your games. If you need to set deadlines, set realistic ones. Don't be sad if you can't meet your deadlines. You probably set too much expectations on when you can finish your games in time. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don't rush your games. I've worked on the game I'm making since March and I was going to release it on October 1st and yet I couldn't reach that deadline. Might have to release it on January. Rushing a game will only deliver bad results. All the good games you see on F95zone and Itch.io had taken a lot of time to make and fine-tune. Don't beat yourself up if it takes too long. It will all be worth it in the end.

Godspeed and good luck dev, however I think you were a bit too speedy in making this game.

EDIT: It appears MC is around college age, but apparently she couldn't get accepted into college so now she has to go to a high school? How strange.

EDIT 2: Apparently it's a summer school.

 

[Soniram]

Well, since I guess it needs to be spelled out...

Spoiler: Spoiler, I guess?

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Yeah, it is 'rushed'. It's a side project. This is the best way I can get feedback before I dump weeks and weeks into this and then find out I'm screwing something up. I can't notice all the mistakes so I need others to give me their thoughts. Thank you for the criticisms.

 

[Deleted member 4963437]

Well, since I guess it needs to be spelled out...

Spoiler: Spoiler, I guess?

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Yeah, it is 'rushed'. It's a side project. This is the best way I can get feedback before I dump weeks and weeks into this and then find out I'm screwing something up. I can't notice all the mistakes so I need others to give me their thoughts. Thank you for the criticisms.

Ahhh, makes sense! Thank you for the clarification. I hope I wasn't too harsh, as this game really has great potential but come on, the user interface has SO many problems, did you not even notice it? For me, I'd rather stick to one game instead of developing multiple side stories while the game is incomplete, unless you are willing to dedicate your time to completing the side stories instead, so then you don't have to worry about updating the side stories WHILE you're working on the game.

Trust me, it's tempting, and I often like to work on other stuff which ends up giving me less time to work on a game, and it's how you can't meet deadlines. Like I said, potential, but can this really be considered a "game"? What you could do is post a development thread so at least you can share snippets and snippets of the games contents while working on it and ask people on their thoughts, maybe share snippets of code or dialogue to see what might need to be changed. Hire multiple people to work on your project so then deadlines can be met quicker (I know this isn't really feasible if you are practically broke and game development is your only source of income).

Like I said, potential, but do spend some time fine-tuning and fixing mistakes before releasing if you want to be speedy, instead of posting this rough draft of a 'game' to the public.

Imagine if this were a test paper, and most of the answers are completely incorrect, or if not, empty. No teacher would accept that

 

[Soniram]

Ahhh, makes sense! Thank you for the clarification. I hope I wasn't too harsh, as this game really has great potential but come on, the user interface has SO many problems, did you not even notice it? For me, I'd rather stick to one game instead of developing multiple side stories while the game is incomplete, unless you are willing to dedicate your time to completing the side stories instead, so then you don't have to worry about updating the side stories WHILE you're working on the game.

I did not notice any issues with the interface. Everything looked fine and worked fine in the launcher. Feedback is what I was looking for in these matters. My coding knowledge is limited at best.

I understand what you would rather do, but my situation is not the same as yours. I am waiting for the bug reports on my 0.3.1 version released to patrons on my main project. Outlines for 0.4 release are done. It was a good time to put together a testbed of what I had amassed over the past several months and make a development thread. I did, announcing it in several places. I got one person's critique back on the visuals, which was my main concern. I took their concerns and evaluated what needed to be changed. Keep in mind, this is one person over several forums of asking for feedback.

The only recourse I had was to release a demo/prologue to get more feedback so I could further the project. I did not want to spend months making a game that would fall flat because, as you pointed out, there's issues with the menus. If I had released a huge game that had obvious flaws like that, what would your reaction be? "This dev can't even be counted on to make a solid menu!" I would surmise.

Trust me, it's tempting, and I often like to work on other stuff which ends up giving me less time to work on a game, and it's how you can't meet deadlines. Like I said, potential, but can this really be considered a "game"? What you could do is post a development thread so at least you can share snippets and snippets of the games contents while working on it and ask people on their thoughts, maybe share snippets of code or dialogue to see what might need to be changed. Hire multiple people to work on your project so then deadlines can be met quicker (I know this isn't really feasible if you are practically broke and game development is your only source of income).

Like I said, potential, but do spend some time fine-tuning and fixing mistakes before releasing if you want to be speedy, instead of posting this rough draft of a 'game' to the public.

Imagine if this were a test paper, and most of the answers are completely incorrect, or if not, empty. No teacher would accept that

SoL's prologue is released to garner critique and criticism. Yes, it is short. I need feedback to improve it. I wasn't getting it, so I took this step. I may not be a good developer, but I know how my mind works and how I operate. What works for you may not work for me. I'm sure your game will be excellent and will receive tons of attention and money right away. I sincerely hope you are getting broad feedback on your project to allow you to fine-tune it and make it better. I hope I get the same here.

I appreciate the input on the menu problem, as it was honestly something that did not seem a problem while building. It will be addressed. If you find any other problems with the functionality, have tips on lighting, suggestions on designs and mapping, or general critiques about any other facet of the game, it would be greatly appreciated if you DMed me, posted here, or post onto the development thread.

 

[shiroslewdalt]

alhamdulillah

 

[Deleted member 4963437]

I did not notice any issues with the interface. Everything looked fine and worked fine in the launcher. Feedback is what I was looking for in these matters. My coding knowledge is limited at best.

What operating system were you using if you didn't see it? I have no idea how that had gotten unnoticed.

SoL's prologue is released to garner critique and criticism. Yes, it is short. I need feedback to improve it. I wasn't getting it, so I took this step. I may not be a good developer, but I know how my mind works and how I operate. What works for you may not work for me. I'm sure your game will be excellent and will receive tons of attention and money right away. I sincerely hope you are getting broad feedback on your project to allow you to fine-tune it and make it better. I hope I get the same here.

If you're really looking for criticism and feedback, then here I'll make a list because I see a lot of flaws in this game.

• The screens are.. very broken to say the least. The text is barely visible, the colours do not match at all, and the bright green text in the help menu is nauseating, especially when combined with the dark blue text. Font choice is quite bland, and the user interface in general, not that appealing.
• Textbox is small, and the textbox opacity slider is literally bigger than any other slider. It doesn't need to be that big. Make it as small as any other slider.
• Transitions are pretty long to say the least. Try making them shorter. Instead of using "dissolve", lets say you can use "Dissolve(0.3)" so then transitions don't have to drag on and bore the reader.
• Most of the character's proportions are practically left unchanged, and practically the only body sliders modified were the breast scale.
• Lipstick colors are quite strange. At least make it somewhat blend in with the skin?
• Default Koikatsu school. It makes it hard to know if these characters are actually of age, considering that the Koikatsu school is a high school. There aren't much college maps around here, so that's why you may have to manually assemble one yourself. It takes a lot of time but can differentiate your game from other Koikatsu-based games.
• Lack of visual effects. The game feels bland and boring since it appears all you're using is default Koikatsu effects. If you are using a modded environment, you can using Vanilla+ or KKUTS (both are shaders) or even use PostProcessingEffects (a plugin). If you really wanted to step up your game, you can use ReShade, to make your scenes look nicer.
• And the colour scheme in the user interface is REALLY off. The image is a somewhat greyish scene featuring the MC and her friend from high school sitting next to each other, in a living room, with an obviously dark grey couch. I'd suggest changing the colours in the user interface to a greyscale colour, because it really looks off with all those colourful colours.

Now I don't want this to discourage you. If you really want to know what your game is good at, however, I made a short list of pros.

• The girls are really cute. Despite them looking quite sloppy, their character designs are really cute, and yes I would smash, but I'm not lesbian sadly.
• Story is like, GREAT! A lot of potential and not going to lie, I would read. Too bad it's so short, even for a prologue.

Those were like, the only things I could think of sadly.

 

[_tewi]

feet

 

[Soniram]

Okay, so I'm doing some experimentation with some shaders and lighting effects. I've got some test images done. I'm not really a good judge on what "looks good" for most people. Let me know what you think...

Spoiler: Test Images

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These are by no means finished images, but just some to see if it is an improvement over the prologue images.

EDIT: Wasn't happy with the tongue. Made a new one.

Spoiler: New Tongue

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[rimarakuiscoming]

Everything looks great! I would make the MC's feet bigger (or look bigger) in the first pic to try to reflect the MC's real size. I think that the second tongue pic looks fantabulous, too. I'm looking forward to getting into it!

 

[77icew]

Okay, so I'm doing some experimentation with some shaders and lighting effects. I've got some test images done. I'm not really a good judge on what "looks good" for most people. Let me know what you think...

Spoiler: Test Images

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These are by no means finished images, but just some to see if it is an improvement over the prologue images.

EDIT: Wasn't happy with the tongue. Made a new one.

Spoiler: New Tongue

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Good

 

[Deleted member 4963437]

Okay, so I'm doing some experimentation with some shaders and lighting effects. I've got some test images done. I'm not really a good judge on what "looks good" for most people. Let me know what you think...

Spoiler: Test Images

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These are by no means finished images, but just some to see if it is an improvement over the prologue images.

EDIT: Wasn't happy with the tongue. Made a new one.

Spoiler: New Tongue

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Oh, that's a great improvement! It fits perfectly with the scene, almost Honey Select-like. Great job, dev!