I wrote a longer message about this on my Patreon if you'd like to read it.
Did so and I completely agree with it. You can't please everybody and attempting to do so will see this game join the long list of abandoned ones, after you burn out trying to do the impossible. If a full studio like Inceton regularly drops the ball in this area, what chance does a lone author have?
Corruption is the theme of the game, but players want some degree of choice in
how Riley gets corrupted. Will she do anything for money and throw her marriage away after becoming a nymphomaniac, or will she fight to preserve it, after making some hard choices on the way? Will the husband always be blind to her actions, or will he be forced to realise that he screwed up and Riley is his only way out, so he blames himself rather than her? Players always bitch about devs reusing renders for sub paths, but that can save a lot of time if the choices aren't too different. For the first part of the game I easily made far more money than I needed (think I was up to $800+ before the first payment?), so more unexpected payments/costs (possibly linked to player choices?) could increase player tension and make the weekly payments something to fear, so the player has to wear the consequences of their decisions. I spent every weekday morning in class because I thought there'd be major consequences for missing them, which doesn't appear to be the case. Maybe that's a mechanic that appears in the future?
Keep a firm vision in your head of where the game is going, but listen to player feedback about how things might be improved mechanically, rather than altering your vision in a futile attempt to satisfy everybody. Something as simple as a contact updating with useful info after progressing the plot (like an NPC only being available on weekday afternoons, for example) would make it easier for players to plan their actions, rather than going through a frustrating loop of repeated attempts that will never succeed. Much like mice in mazes, players like to be rewarded when they find the right path and can reuse it in future.
