Ren'Py - Stellar Dream [v0.60] [Winterlook]

DISCLAIMER: This is a review for the 0.60v,so it will be more lenient on many issues and will be changed when the game is completed,treat it as such.

An encouraging game,at first glance it doesnt have anything wow about it,the setting,graphics,characters,etc. Are nothing you havent seen before,which is one of the weak points of this game,that it doesnt really innovate and bring something really new,yet it does have a ok story which although personally I feel its not developed enough and relationships both are too many,without any consequences and too fast,basically you can romance anyone,without any effort and their paths arent mutually exclusive either,they dont contribute to the gameplay much either.

Might seem unfair but to give an example would be Karlsson's gambit,I like that you need specific stats and sequences of events to get certain romances/paths,also it does come with certain limits. I found out that this dev also made fate of Irnia so its weird that this game is a downgrade in many ways from that game,which lacked combat and worldbuilding like this but had engaging and fun characters and paths.

Plot is very linear and not really different ways to finish quests,however the story is pretty good but not replayable.

Characters feel pretty shallow,music is generic but suprisingly good. Not much in terms of sex,nothing wow or never seen before despite there being new alien species. Combat is basically a chore and not well though out.

The best content honestly is the exploration of new planets,the content on the ship itself was okayish but not as fun. The purple amazons are pretty sexy but didnt really like the snake people,the gnomes/dwarves are ok but not my cup of tea.

Overall you should give it a try,when its finished preferably, unfortunately its not as good as fate or Irnia and kinda dissapointed about the regress of quality.

animated 2dcg with good art is always an A++ for me, however. This game has a ton of progression-locking bugs and the interface is very janky. I constantly find myself going backwards to go forwards, not knowing what time it is, not being able to find NPCs in their prescribed locations. Time advance on visit instead of interactions is annoying. I currently have no main story quests and four sidequests that I can't complete. Are they incomplete dev-wise? Am I missing something obvious that the hint system isn't telling me? Who knows! Certainly not me.

I like this game, wish it could be more rewarding for evil characters or non fetish character, but its nice, hope to see future versions of the game with more clear indications for choices and more corruption/sex options
character design is still a bit questionable

Solid writing, good premise and atmosphere, lots of characters to interact with, good artwork and situations. Interface is a little clunky and could use some improvement, but a great game overall so far
Worth checking out for those who enjoy erotic visual novels.

One of winterlook's weaker game when it comes to story writing, not sure if it's due to winterlook repeating the same kind of story multiple times but i loved the previous games.

Art style is as per usual great but the love interests bodies are getting to ridiculous proportion

One of the best games out there

I just think the incest part was too quickly, the taboo part is very essential for this tag, and taking its time helps build this "taboo" thing

I will keep looking forward for the next updates

Art 5/5. Love how the game looks. It simply looks fantastic.
Story 4/5. Story definitely wasn't bad there are some paths that are a little weird and don't make to much sense, but overall the story is pretty good. The incest relations fall a bit short for me. I find it a bit to quick and ez to start hooking up with your family members. I personally like it when the game makes you work for it. Outside of that the other stories are well written and game gives you fun interesting choices. Makes the world feel more real.

Main con of the game is that the game is kinda unplayable without a walkthrough / guide, if you want to see all the scenes. It is pretty easy to lock your self out of content or even soft lock yourself to a bug.
All that being said I loved the game(wish there was more content, as always) it is worth a pick up. Also sexy alien girls

I love this game. It's pretty vanilla, which normally is a big turn-off for me, but this is just a really well-made game.
Story: 3/5
There is a story here, and the over-arching plot is actually pretty solid. The dev does a good job of making the universe immersive and being creative with the setting.
It's a fairly standard harem/dating sim type game. Every female character (wait - is it really EVERY female character? I think it is!) is all about letting the MC get in their pants without much in the way of effort.
Characters: 4/5
The characters are well-written enough to be memorable, which is a real achievement given just how many love interests this game has. That's a sign of how good the dev is at creating believable, sympathetic characters.
Visuals: 5/5
I really love this dev's artwork. I find the 2D art really aesthetically pleasing. There's a fair amount of diversity in body types (not just the alien/monster girls, hahaha, but the human ones too). Great stuff.
Overall: 5/5
The dev takes a lot of the positives from his previous release and made a bigger, better story. I am not sure there is much in the way of interactivity outside of "Yes I want to bang the alien girl/No I don't", but there's enough there that you can feel like you're affecting the story. The combat/equipment angle provides a bit of 'gamification' that adds a veneer of functionality on top of all the porn.
In short, I really enjoyed this game. The dev knocked this one out of the park if he got me to enjoy a harem game!

The positives:
- Good writing, little typos, decent story. Plot is space colonization with family and of course alien sex.
- Music is good but repetitive.
- Art is consistent, if you're into chunky women you'll love it.
- Combat is forgettable, and yes that's a positive for sandboxes.

The negatives:
- The sandbox. Plenty of bugs left and right to progress.
- The game will put you on empty screens after pressing "leave".
- The classic actions -> sleep mechanic, made worse because you can't tell the time with the terrible clock.
- The first mission nukes your quests compelling you to finish everything before moving forward, which leads to my next point.
- Buggy and often incomplete journal.
- There's a number randomly placed on the map. It's your money.

review based on 0.50 version
PRO:
- good art
- acceptable code
- good ui
- author have some finished games in portfolio and zero abandoned. thats mean - high chance for that game be finished (srsly, how many authors have such results?)
- most of choices stored in variables, thats mean future save compatibility after update.
NEUTRAL:
- only near 30% game done by code/story
- preg is planned, but now its just a placeholder cuz ***_rel must be higher than 90-99
CONS:
- most of choices stored in variables, that also mean this is not only an forteil, but also a nachteil- u ll spend huge amount of time by tracking consequences of choices,
- game have problem in structure- they separated by expedition. as example- u must start quest with doc BEFORE expedition, but that quest unfinished, so u ll got FAILED quest AFTER expedition. aaand when doc`s quest ll be finished in next updates, u ll load ur old save aaaand u ll miss content from that quest and ll got some future problem with doc.
- no w/t, guide or faq. but thats rly needed cuz most actions have many consequences, even sinple item like ration or cookie is important(srsly- read the code!)
- currently karma stat is useless

just a good game, but dnt use save from previous versions- u ll miss content or got some bugs in future

I may agree with some of the reviewers regarding lesser character depths. At the same time, I like the art style. Although shallow character developments, but animations, milf seductions were right to the point. I really enjoyed the progress the game makes over time and how the relationship is built over time and how it transforms into lust were really well made. Best of luck to dev. Anyone who wants to enjoy some good animations with good storytelling, go for it.

Review for v0.49

The dev's previous game, Shelter, didn't capture me much because it was a essentially just a mindless fuckfest with shallow writing. Has that changed with Stellar Dream? Not at all. But I pretty much had that expectation going in.

Where Stellar Dream does do better than its predecessor is in embracing its sandbox nature. Make no mistake, this is still very much a fuckfest with near non-existent character/relationship development and overall simplistic writing that only just manages to be serviceable for me. But the fact that the games seems to be embracing that nature more has turned this from an ignore to an honestly enjoyable game when I'm in the mood for something like it.

It's much more open. You have a lot of freedom in who you want to pursue and when, while seemingly having a couple different routes for almost every character (though I didn't fully explore them). The art is the real saving grace here. It feels much more polished and consistent, and just looks good in general. I'm liking the character designs and the aliens thus far are really hot (bonus points for a snake woman tribe). It is nice to have multiple ways to handle things.

The sex scenes are fine, but the dev's use of condoms in a bunch of scenes is actually ass. The animations, while nice to have, also feel choppy to the point of being jarring sometimes. I'll also say I don't like that the conversations are basically structured as playing 20 questions every time you interreact with someone. Kinda annoying after awhile.

I'd recommend this only if you're looking for a sandbox fuckfest with nice art and want a base level of context/setup for scenes. Lovers of deep characters and writing will not find that here.

S.H.E.L.T.E.R. was an amazing game, the only thing it was lacking were animations, but now with Stellar Dream, you have a better game, and it's logical due to by time the developer gets more professional. Something that I would like for him to improve, is the quantity of production. He could become one of the bests devs it only depends on him, investing the money you earn in order to create more animations and develop more parts of the game would be the best option for him. but without a doubt we are in fornt of one of the greatest game ever created by a human being, the story its just marvelous.

Great game, lot's of fun content with different paths and options for people to choose what they want to see - can actually make choices that lead to different paths and affect the story, and there isn't really much you're forced to do so if you don't like something or a character you can easily avoid pursuing them. Great art and the grammar is good too, overall a really great game so if anyone has spare cash please support the devs!

Great art, great progression, and an interesting variety of characters.
good corruption vs romance mechanic.
looking forward to see this game get more and more content.
Still a very worth playthrough even though its a fairly new game with less content than other games.

The art of the scenes is very good. If you don't look at the animation. These are just a few frames. Very low level. The story is not bad.

It's a bit of a grind. It is not clear when it is day and when it is night.
The characters are pretty hot.

Let's see what will happen next.

Loved it , played through it 5 times and it was fantastic.
Also from the same creator I recommend S.H.E.L.T.E.R.
You can corrupt or just be romantic also , amazing anyway.
Oh and it has a gallery that lets you replay every scene.

The artwork is great and the story is good so it has potential especially if the issues are adressed.
One being the condoms >< and a very slow lewd animations that are made up of only a few frames, which makes the game pretty much unfappable unless you are a 12 year old.

Excellent so far! The art is fantastic, and each scene has several images. Easy to use interface, and the dialogue and characters are well written. The skill point system is well made and feels rewarding without taking too long. all in all pretty good!

Ok, I don't leave reviews often, but this game deserves one.
If you played the previous game from the developer this one is basically every good thing about S.H.E.L.T.E.R plus a bunch of upgrades.

+ The art is godlike as always.
+ The variety of girls is high enough to please different tastes.
+ This time the developers decided to go all-in with different species adding alien humanoid and monster girls which is fckin great.
+ You have different paths for most of the characters.
+ The sex scenes now are animated, even though it's still not a fulltime high framerate animations, more like 4 to 5 frames. And the scenes themselves in general are longer and have a better variety of poses.
+ The pacing for the incest content is great.Your mother and sister don't throw themselves at you 10 minutes into the game. That's the thing I also liked about S.H.E.L.T.E.R and I expect this aspect and relationship building in general to be great in this game too.
+ Finally the UI and general navigation is great. A rare sandbox RenPy game where moving from point A to point B and doing quests doesn't piss you off.

= The combat system is ok. Nothing revolutionary that makes you want to play the game just for the battles but it's not bad either.

– The only con I can think of is if you're into hardcore fetishes like forced sex, watersports, humiliation and so on this game doesn't have this type of content and probably won't, as it's something S.H.E.L.T.E.R also lacked and It seems that the developers are not into this kind of stuff.

To conclude: a great game, imo one of the best on this site. Can't wait till the full release. The fact that's there're 3 (!!!) planets makes me hyped for the amount of content the developers are aiming for!