I'll put my replied in this color, so they can be spotted easier
Yea I'll do the same.
I used it a couple of times, but it seems to keep saying the same kind of things, so I gave up quickly. I assume it needed to be used at specific locations, or after certains events happened, but since I could find neither, I gave up. Navigating was pretty difficult, but the complete lack of direction on what needed to be done, made it really impossible for me to figure out what I needed to do, or what was where. I mean I saw a shadow thing move, I tried following it, and nothing happened. That seemed like the logical thing to do, but well... I guess not
That's fair. It does say the same thing in a number of places, but it's essentially a hot and cold system. I suppose without being familiar with the layout of the prison, knowing where you might go to avoid being "Far" as it says, may be difficult. Like I said before, some people have had no issues with this, others get completely stopped by it. I seem to have accidentally created some kind of left brain / right brain test or something lol. I think for the next one I want to avoid it being a question of finding a key to a specific location. Instead, I want it to be more based on using the equipment described in the guide to look for clues at to what type of ghost it is. It's not for a while yet anyway, possibly not even this year. Hard to say.
What could remedy is, is a very basic hand drawn map, of places already explored (with marks of numbers of exits on the room). The Mc could basically state that to avoid getting lost, he'll just take a piece of paper, and make a simple basic map of places visited. I mean, that's what I'd do in a large unknown place in that situation. Another way to do it, but this one is probably more complex, is to be able to have the name of the rooms once we've visited them, on hover on their exit trigger point. It's a lot less elegant and immersive than a makeshift map in my opinion though.
Doable. Actually implementing it would be a bit strange since I guess I'd have to make him draw the map as he goes around, but I think I know how I'd do it. It might be something I think about doing when I've got writers block or something. (I try to fill that time with non writing stuff for the game).
I don't think the next one I have planned will require it so much, but that remains to be seen.
You could put a notifications (optional, as in, we can enable to disable it in the options), to give small indications like "love, soft, hard), and then another note saying leads to scene, or lead to scenes later. While it certainly not ultra elegant or immersive, players know that way that they miss content "now", but they're not closing a route, and will get another scene later.
Sounds kinda like a built in walkthrough mod. There's a guy in my discord (Lapdragon) who's making a walkthrough mod at the moment actually, though with how some of the choices are, it's a bit complicated to say what each one does, in the choice itself. Strange one really. I could create something which is a bit like a directors commentary that you can click for each choice, and it'll tell you where each option goes, but that might be a bit much. I'll think about it. One thing I've noticed is that for those who already support the game, the general consensus is "continue story before going back to improve previous things". But then the improvements potentially bring in new supporters. Guess it's a matter of managing priorities, and how I can use my time best. These changes would take a bit of time anyway so I think I'll wait until 0.21 has been out a bit longer and then decide what to do.
I totally understand how you're treating the development of the game as you indicated, and that is perfect. However, like you said, when we play "release after release", well, many of us will feel like "there were only text updates to X character", and then the ones that picked the long term choice without knowing, will end up saying they got something... and it'll alternate between players having scenes or not in each releases. This is pretty normal and typical for choice based scenes I'm afraid. Which is why the indications on the choices would probably be the best option I recon. Like I said, make it fully optional, so people can play with choices only like you have it designed, but have the option to see some indications on choices. Just my suggestion of course. This is pretty much was many of the biggest modders do for Renpy games, they add either the points or route options, so we can keep track of what is what
Who knows, some modders might be willing to give you a hand with this. I believe some of them get the game early, so they can have the mod ready for the game's released, but I could be wrong about that.
Yeah, the nature of the type of game I'm making does kinda mean it's always gonna have some stuff which sets up things the player can't possibly know about yet. I personally don't mind that, but that's because I know that nothing that gets set up is like horrible stuff like the girls getting gang raped or something. I hear stories of devs who suddenly make changes like that, and the player has already opted in to it without having any way of knowing it was gonna happen. Imo that's bullshit. When I give choices which may or may not setup stuff in the future, it may lead to a bad situation, but never one with a long lasting negative effect which could otherwise be avoided. At least no traumatic shit. The 2 "Bad" choices for Riley's party are probably about as traumatic for the girls as it'll get, and those situations exist specifically so the player can save the girls and be big hero man. As said above, I have actually got a guy making a mod at the moment, but as you might imagine, the specifics of 0.21 do make it a bit difficult xD ("Got a guy" makes it sound like I commissioned it or something. I didn't, he's just a generous person who offered to do it.)
I suppose the tough part is that I don't really try to make a "best choice" as such. At least not in the long term. (Spoilers for Riley's stuff if you haven't played all her outcomes in 0.21)
To use Riley's stuff as an example, sure, 2 of the endings result in you getting access to her sex scenes for 0.21 (Though one of them doesn't allow you to take her virginity). These two could be considered the best ending. However, the two worse endings aren't bad as such, they're just different. One of them results in you still getting the opportunity to enter a relationship with her, and the other one just results in you guys sleeping together, setting up a conversation the next morning, which will lead in a romantic kinda direction, eventually resulting in different scenes, which essentially achieve the same thing. Likewise, deciding not to take her virginity when you first get the chance, doesn't mean you won't get to take it, it just means you didn't take it this time, which will open up an option to do it differently later on. Maybe if you're letting Cassie and Riley have their lesbian fun, then you'll end up taking their virginities at the same time if you decide not to take them at the first opportunity. Who knows. The only way to really know what the best choice from the players perspective is, is for them to know exactly what scenes happen, and exactly how to trigger each one. At that point, what they're gonna want is a walkthrough.
I guess my point is that for some scenes, I could drop hints, but for others, it's more difficult. Without spoiling I obviously can't give people exact direction as to what each choice will do down the road, but I've tried to promote the idea that there aren't any bad choices, only choices with less immediate rewards. It's certainly not an approach that everyone will like, since people have become very used to making choices based on what they expect to get out of it, rather than how they feel at the time. I guess that's how choices work kinda, but hopefully you can get what I mean.
Well, so far, you're doing it just fine in my books. Aside from the cute asian spanking, to which I'd have made it so the MC can not go overboard, but aside from that one, I believe you're doing perfectly fine on the speed at which things evolve. What I would suggest for when things really starts getting... Dicey? Is to have the MC struggling with his conscience, but not like a typical beta manga wimp, he seems like a good enough protagonist, and I believe you can manage to have him develop and have some interesting internal battles. I mean, he's a bit pervy, but at his age, surrounded by pretty cute girls, some of them being clearly into him and fine with sharing? Yeah, no normal young man wouldn't be at the very least a bit pervy
Yeah so Hikari's spanking was originally something of an intro to how the story can be changed based on how you conduct yourself in the punishments (At least the interactive ones). However, because it's the first time the system was introduced, I didn't want to make it too too easy to accidentally cut off her path, hence why you have to basically be the biggest dickhead possible to actually do it. My intent isn't for the player to suddenly become some domineering sadist overnight, but I do have to make his corruption somewhat quicker than it would otherwise be, just because otherwise we're gonna end up with some really lame scenes where he's meant to be in a position of power, but is just kinda shit at it. It's a difficult one, because yeah some of the stuff I've got planned is a lot more intense. Nothing insane (No car batteries and crocodile clips kinda stuff), but a lot more intense than just a simple over the knee spanking. That said, the attitude of the MC will be a bit different depending on who the character is to a certain extent. As you might imagine, I plan to let players lean into absolutely destroying Olivia if they want when they eventually get the chance, but then I also plan to give them a lot more reasons to do so before then.
Writing is hard lol
That's what I guessed happened, and it is fine with me, hell just riding a horse can lead to a hymen pop. But then, maybe instead of virgin, you could have a line with "vaginal sex" and its counter. 0 meaning she never got a cock in there. Alternatively, since it's the kind of school where this would likely happen, you could have a gyneco check on the girls at some point, and they talk about never having a cock in there, and a potential for flashback/storytelling as they explain to the doctor what happened? Just an idea of course, this is pretty minor... but.... since you wrote.... what follows:
Might do at some point, dunno. It's one of those parts of life that I hadn't really intended to explore, kinda just because it doesn't feel all that necessary. I think it's for the same reason that a lot of porn games have anal sex scenes, but no prep for it. And they don't have female characters peeing after sex, and that kinda thing. Realistic, yes. Hot, probably not (Though I'm sure it has an audience)
