VN - Ren'Py - Completed - Something to Write About: The Author [Ch. 7.1] [STWAdev]

A Hidden Gem of Storytelling and Character Depth!!!
I jumped into Something to Write About: The Author anticipating a decent visual novel, but I ended up completely engrossed. The writing is amazing—far exceeding the norm for the genre. The characters are believable, their growth is natural, and the manner in which the story is presented holds your attention from beginning to end.
If you enjoy a good, solid, character-driven story with some genuine interactions, this is definitely worth your time. STWAdev hit this one out of the park. I would highly recommend it!

I played this AVN a long time ago, and at the time, I really liked it. I recently decided to go back and play it again since it had been a while and unfortunately, it did not age well.

Don't get me wrong, the writing is strong and this is an early example of how an AVN could have a story as well as some fapping, but when you compare this to some of the AVNs out there today, it is hard to rank it among them.

I don't want to be too critical and let's face it, this game probably inspired a bunch of new developers. Plus, the dev's next game is much better than this one so they did learn a few things and made some improvements to their processes.

Anyway, worth a download to try it if you never have.

Great game, with a nice story and AMAZING girls

It lacks sound, wich is a little disapoiting, but after awhile you get used to it
Also lewd content is not so great imo, but the game overcome this with good writing especially in the girls' relationships with the MC

The last one is the greatest stength of this game in my opinion. All the girls are good looking, well written, and have beliaveble personalities. It felt a bit unrealistic the way the dev tried to maintain all of them interested in the MC, but it was not a major issue.

Great game, strongly recommend playing it!!

Started quite slow, to the point where I was getting a bit impatient, but the story picks up. Not too much lewd shit, which is not a problem for me, just thought I mention though. Characters development not too bad, but could have gone a bit more deep with some.

Played this 2 years ago,Loved the lis and the issues that this vn entailed,lack of music didn't bug me since I play without sound.anyway,loved all endings and how complete it felt
Also love writing here ....Can't wait for enhanced edition that is coming so I can replay

Has a very high score that it hasnt earned.

Renders are ok, good for the time. English quality is good, not engrish. Story is so so, with every woman the mc meets magically throwing themselves at him because they dont have lives of their own - a bit cringy for my tastes

The models are the greatest letdown - all the women have short or shaved hair and a few not shown in previews are outright masculine and not aimed at straight men. The BTBA blonde is the hyper extreme I guess added to try and balance things but for my tastes is also hyper unattractive and misshapen

Took me a minute to think about merits of rating. In a sense that 5 stars would be a "masterpiece, one of a few" - that's not it. However, if I took a more laid-back attitude here and understood 5 simply as a "quality story, totally worth it's time" - that would be exactly it.
Looks good, story holds, girls are interesting and with personality. Classic types are sneaked in here and they can't hide (there's your "cheerleader alfa perfect beauty", "shy quiet ardent romantic" etc.) - but it's done not in a gaudy, banal way; they don't feel at all like a walking stereotypes, it's just enough. I liked that.
One of the not-so-good things that causes mixed feelings is the way the "routlessness" of it works. Now, free choices in itself are good - it's immersive, it keeps you engaged, I much prefer it to a passive kinetic lock. The problem is, here it feels like it makes you to constantly miss out, as if those choices don't quite interact with each other in a congruent way. On a threesome "path", there are moments where you have/can pick one of the girls, which is treated in the same way as if it was only her, which leaves you effectively blindsided to an equivalent bit of story from the other girl, and there's really no reason for it. I don't think it should be like that. I feel if you go A+B it should converge into AB, rather than arbitrary piece of A + arbitrary piece of B the way you want to stitch them. Didn't try to harem, but I imagine this would feel even more split up there.
The second thing is that it doesn't quite feel like there is enough intimacy with whom you are going for - not in quality, but in quantity. Truly, I'd say this is - in at least an equal part, if not more - the story about a group of friends, rather than a love story. Which implies harem (if you are with all of them - it's a constant love story, right?), BUT then you run into abovementioned issue of "partiality". Moreso, there's NO harem ending. Which implies the opposite?... So what is it? It feels a bit confusing and not quite put together in that way.

All-in-all, I say it's a pretty good slice-of-life (but not a long one) with a decent replay potential.

[SHORT REVIEW]

The Author is a really confusing AVN. Is this supposed to be an AVN? Because to me, it looks like a standard depressed looking novel made by a young adult who just experiencing adult life. This VN also has too many pep talks, too many “hangout together with friends” scenes, too many “reflection about ourselves” talk, too many unnecessary drama, etc. I came here to be entertained, not because I needed a psychiatrist or motivational speech. The most important thing that I find it lacking is that this VN doesn’t have enough romance/dating moments for each girl. For example, everytime I want to spend my day with Aoife alone, out friends always trying to tag along with us. This happen so many times and it’s really frustrating. I remember after playing arcades with the gals and I wanted to spend my time in bed with Aoife, suddenly the whole thing shifted into taking care of Kimmy for two months. I hate getting interrupted like this, I know that they have their own problems but I hate to be their guardian angel for 24/7. The MC himself also kinda broken, because he tried to jump from the bridge and failed, and it costs a girl to lose her visions. Playing under his perspective is hard because I do really feel bad with Dru. His little fight with Christine is a little bit weird and unnecessary either like two kids fighting for an XBOX controller.

I swear to god, this VN makes me scratching my head more than usual. I never go harem mode with this kind of “AVN” and yet, it’s still giving me that vague feeling. Is it a harem? No. Is it a “each women have their own path” kind of VN? Also no. I might replay this game later to see if everything happened because I was missed something during choices or this is literally how the game's supposed to be (just replayed some of the paths, and yes it turns out this is how the game supposed to look like) . The Author is not supposed to be an AVN or a general VN in my opinion, it should've been written as a light novel book or a Wattpad novel.

Two stars, very disappointing.

Amazing! and completed? Count me satisfied.

The girls are different and beautiful, the renders are great, and the writing is nice.
I even learned something from playing this game! (it's the fricking Irish name pronunciation).

Definitely would recommend.

Nice story , good render
some good twists
Very well made branches that leads to different endings
but very vanilla , some spice is missing
I liked that author tried to deal with mental illness issue but i liked it more in Leap of Faith

Loved this game, really enjoyed it. This is dev's first game I believe, so there's gonna be areas where improvements can be made, but overall its actually pretty good, although one thing's for sure, this game is not so much a sex game, but a game with sex in it. The LI's in this game are all unique and different, they feel alive and loveable, with great character progression as well, making the H scenes with them feel really rewarding. The main strength about this game is the story and the characters, it also deals with some real world issues that many may have faced. While there isn't any crazy things happening in the game, it does feel relatable, and have some great lessons and message from it as well. I got to admit though, I skipped some dialogue on my first run, decided to try the game again, and going only with Aoife, but even then, it was enough for me to enjoy this game. There's just so much to like about her, beautiful, kind, big hearted, sexy, she's just perfect. Highly recommend you get the audio mod when playing this game, it makes it so much more enjoyable.

"Everybody here, we all have our own problems. If we support each other we'll get through it. That's what I believe at least." -Aoife

Pros:
-Good story and renders
-Great character growth
-Amazing love interest
-Aoife!!
-Choices that matters

Cons:
-Some grammatical errors here and there
-Lack of animations (short and simple H scenes)
-Not enough H scenes
-No music
-MC's skin color seems to change through the game

If you enjoy a great VN with well written characters and a good story then you really should play this game. Like others in the genre this is not mainly a sex game but a game with sex in it. But the writing made it all up for me what it may lack a bit in animations.

This game is hard to rate because some stuff is awesome and some stuff is bad and having to rate a game out of 5 stars based on that is difficult but I'll try. First, the good stuff. The girls are all hot, there's a ton of sex, and there's a lot of dialogue and it's generally well written. Also, there is a lot of content here so if you like the content then you'll love this game.

Now, for the bad. I'll begin by saying that the MC's skin color seems to change throughout the game and at first I didn't even know who I was playing as. At the start you seem to be tanned, and then you turn hispanic and then black and then hispanic and it wasn't until later that I figured out that it was due to the lighting changes throughout the game. And that I think is the perfect analogy to describe the writing. Scenes shift in and out and there are constant flashbacks ranging from weeks to months to even 9 years. When you are having the information dump be blinked around between so many different time frames it gets confusing. If you're going to write a story and have characters be established with one another due to past events, limit the flashbacks or have it be discussed better. The flashbacks are also not in any type of order so you will have flashbacks to talking to Chris 2 weeks ago and then 2 years ago, yesterday, and then 9 years ago. It is disorientating and I think it harms the overall plot narrative. This also leads me to another problem that I think is somewhat related. Having to choose between the girls at certain points is a disconnect from when the game at times feels like a harem game, and it does feel like that's what it was going for. Even Chris comments on your harem literally calling it a harem. So this means that, again, it just seems disjointed. Overall it's not a bad game at all and in some aspects pretty good. I just feel like the chaotic story telling and having to choose between girls in my harem dampened the experience for me significantly.

The first you need to know is that the MC is black, very unique and i love it, rarely do i get to play a game where i can play as myself.

Positives:

• Plot: The storyline's simplicity is turned into an engaging journey by the developer's execution. Each uncomplicated tale weaves together, forming an incredibly captivating game.
• Characters: The standout charm lies in the characters. Their portrayal feels incredibly authentic, and each one undergoes a unique character development. The progression of each girl's story is enthralling, making intimate scenes feel like rewards for emotional investment rather than mere desires. The subtle shift towards a pseudo-harem theme later in the game highlights the eventual choices we must make.

Negatives:

• Grammar and typos are noticeable throughout the game.
• Limited animations, particularly in intimate scenes, although it didn't bother me significantly.
• Underutilized plot elements, like the MC's ex, leave potential storylines unexplored.

Outdated graphics, looks like 2015 (see episode 3 and boat trip scenes.) Almost all girls look ugly (except Aoife), sex scenes are very few (if you play without mod that lets you pick all girls and not just one) there's one sex scene in every episode....which is very weird as the game plays and feels like harem game (all girls fling themselves at you for no reason at all.)

Sex scenes are a joke here, short and anticlimatic, there's no build-up, no sense of achievement, girls look even uglier than usual (titjob scene with Aoife is just two frames of action, one frame she placed it between her boobs, next frame her face is covered with white substance, there's no cumshot.) All scenes are like that, lazy short, few frames of action, there's no choice over positions or anything - very lazy graphics job there... (next scene with Aoife is just you masturbating her, she makes stupid grim face which means she had orgasm.)

It all feels like someone forgot to implement adult material in an adult game and 5 minutes before the release decided to add two frames of "adult" action. If you want many different positions, different outfits, different fetishes and decisions which to use/see - you won't find it here.

And if you add that horseshit dialogue you had to skip through to get to those "adult" scenes (ironically, writing in a game titled 'Author' is terrible) you'll get really pissed off.

I liked this VN, I think it's very good actually, despite not having any music/sound or animations and some renders being not that great, in my opinion the story, well written plot and interesting characters are what make this AVN enjoyable and engaging (I couldn't stop reading xD).

That tomboy was pretty fun calling the MC "dude" the whole time, loved the drama as well, also I appreciate that choices matter here, there is replayability if you don't want to miss out any content (I think it's impossible to see everything in one playthrough).

Overall it was very entertaining, it's a solid 7.5.

Definitely gonna check out Unbroken.

The story was really amazing, the characters all had unique back stories and personalities and each character had a decent ending.
Though i wish Dru had the chance to have surgery to maybe fix her eye sight since we do now have the surgery.

Story. 9.5/10
Characters. 9/10
Sex. 7/10
Art/renders. 7.5/10

The story is decent mostly vanilla stuff, very little drama, i dident really like that you dont know MCs hole story from that start, it feels stupid that MC is so pissed at hes childhood friend/girlfriend and you have no clue why, and all you see is that friend helping MC constantly shes even the hole reason MC got published as an author, not only that hes also living in her appartment and she got you a job at a school, so nothing at all makes sense for a very long time and heres the kicker it never will.....

Also the backstory dident make sense to me, MC tells hes childhood friend/GF that he loves her and they start dateing and next you see him telling Chris hes with someone else, seems weird, even if she did go to college they where together for 2 months as a couple i would guess and been friends forever seems wierd that it would just fizzle out as MC said since they managed to stay very close friends even though they broke up?

The most crazy part is MC trying to kill him self just because hes new girlfriend was cheating on him, i mean really it could have made sense if she was killed or something but from cheating that would drive him to drink which he did, but to kill him self thats plain stupid, he still had hes childhood friend and just got published so everything else was perfect.

And thats not the only stupid part, there was absolutly 0 reasons for him to be so pissed with Chris none what so ever, all she ever did was being a friend which makes the hole story break apart from day 1.
And this is also why i went from 3 stars to 2 stars its just really poorly written.

Backstory needs alot of work to make any sense.

Also the choices dosent really matter much, not sure why they are there in alot of cases, the only ones that matters is if you want to be with one of the girls or not.

Then your building up relationships with other girls all while having the feeling he should be with hes childhood girlfriend whos been helping him her hole life, which again makes no sense as to why hes doing that and it just get annoying not knowing what happened.

Also i dident really like any of the girls other then B she was the only one that looked normal to me, everyone else has huge tits which is just a big turn-off to me, every time i see them i almost trow up a little in my mouth due to the clothes they got on, it looks so extreemly stupid that a top or t-shirt or whatever is like Glued to the outside of the tits its like vacuum sealed around the tits....who on earth got the idea for that making it look so unrealistic, alot of games shows it like this i just dont get it.

I also tried solo route with the shy lin something but she barely had an ending so that was pointless, also it felt like hard work trying to go solo with her since your constantly get options with all the other girls no matter how many times you tell them no.

Also the lack of animations dosent help the game, same goes for the 0 music to set the mood, it just makes it more boring when its all silence, i know this might be the creators first work but even i can do music in scenes with renpy and i only spend 10 mins looking into it when i thought about giving novel making a try so its not hard at all and plenty of free music out there.

But still it is worth playing the game its not great but not bad either which is why i gave it 3 stars to me it really just is average.

Absolute winner. The renders are good, and the writer actually knows how to write. Good characters, plot, reveals, etc. The various love interests are great, and the outcomes are delightful.

I'm enjoying the next game as well. Consistent high quality from this dev.

Not bad for a 1st time dev. The visuals were not bad, neither was the story. Audio was absent, but that's okay for a newbie dev to ignore.
Still it didn't come together very seamlessly with the transitions being inconsistent & same for the expressions & other minor things.
Overall a decent story alongside a slideshow of decent images. Hopefully the dev gains experience in the future to make the next games a much better experience.

As a story & individual pictures I'd give: between 3-4 stars.
As a game: 2 stars.
In average: 2.5 stars rounded up to 3 stars on account of it being a inexperienced game maker's 1st attempt.
Good Luck in the future.