i've been thinking about something related to this for the past several months.I recently did a new Dog Days of Summer playthrough and I'm curious what people here think of it. As was the case in previous playthroughs, I find myself having very mixed feelings about it because there are about as many things I dislike about the game as I like.
For the uninitiated, the MC of the game is Vivian, a college student who at the start of the game is reassessing who she is and what she wants out of life. Most significantly, she is becoming increasingly aware of her attraction to women. Hijinks are sure to ensue!
The most unique aspect of the game is definitely the branching which is so extensive that almost every playthrough feels unique. Good Girl Gone Bad was obviously a huge inspiration for the game...to the point that you'll likely find certain characters uncannily familiar if you've already played GGGB. Our very own bacienvu laboriously created a walkthrough for the game that you should definitely take a look at if you have any doubt about the game's complexity (or just need help).
In addition to the impressive branching, I appreciate how several of the characters are written and the believable college setting. Viv is a very relatable main character who is easy to root for particularly during those times when she is facing down her own fears and overcoming self-doubt and inertia. Characters like Desiree and Evaline in their best moments feel like real people I could have met on campus back in the day. The game does a pretty decent job of depicting university life compared to so many AVNs where colleges seem more like high schools.
I've decided I would've liked Dog Days a lot better if it were more grounded. The moments in the game I enjoy the most are just Vivian being Vivian: hanging out with friends, soberly and sometimes melancholily contemplating her life and worrying about the future, and wandering around campus doing college student stuff. The slice of life material tends to be quite well-written and enjoyable when it appears. On the other hand, the GGGB style over the top scenarios often feel forced and uncomfortable here when they occur. For instance, Vivian can help another student write a paper for a class she's struggling with. Depending on your choices, the teacher for the class notices the student's improvement, suspects Vivian's involvement, and then decides Viv needs some mentoring so she can become a domme with a harem of her own. WTF?! That said, like GGGB it's interesting to see the surprising turns the game can take and the unexpected significance of some of our choices in the game.
DDS also loves putting intrusive sexual thoughts into Vivian's head whether it fits the moment or not. For instance, Viv's best friend Desiree crashes at her bestie's place when she is distraught over breaking up with her boyfriend. Our MC's horniness levels hit the roof which in the moment basically makes it seem like she doesn't give a shit about Des as a person. It would've been so much better if Viv had had a stray sexual thought and dismissed it so she could worry about and care for her friend in her time of need. Somehow, though, the Des route still ended up becoming my favorite.
On that note, the game could IMO also use more characters who aren't love interests or fuckable who could contribute to the story in other ways. DDS like a lot of other lesbian games creates a world where most characters are lesbian or bi women and all tend to be very interested in the MC given the right choices. There's certainly nothing wrong with fantasy in AVNs, but I think the story would've been improved if Vivian had a few friends and family members who weren't romantic options. It would have been interesting to see her navigate through and interact with heteronormative society while at the same time also connecting with the queer community to find love, solidarity, and/or hookups. Alas, there probably wouldn't be any sapphic sororities in that version of the game...
Even with all the branching, I found myself sometimes wishing for choices that weren't there. I would've liked to avoid the supercilious, supernatural Tara altogether instead of having to watch her order Viv around. Also, it would've been nice if we could indicate the MC doesn't see her mom as a potential LI instead of having intrusive thoughts about her regardless of choices (the route isn't forced, just the thoughts).
My friend Kali wrote an interesting review of the game that's well worth reading. I don't entirely agree with her critique of the MC's appearance (though I did rather like Viv's pre-makeover look better and her new wardrobe is definitely a bit out there in typical AVN fashion), but she's absolutely right on about the lack of proofreading in the game and makes a number of other really good points. The typos and misspellings, a few of which are so extreme that you might not even understand what word was actually meant, are ever-present and glaring. It's quite surprising given the loving care that's shown in other aspects of the game design such as the branching and the rendering (because Viv's appearance can be modified at certain points, many scenes actually have multiple versions).
In order for devs to make $ from patreon, they need to attract patrons that are willing to continuously pay month after month during the game development.
While updates are theoretically always a payday for the devs, having loyal patrons that pays month over month i think might be extremely important.
For the past several months I was thinking which games i will drop and which game i want to still pay. It got me thinking what are the considerations for me to drop patreon support. And I reached a personal conclusion that it is based on how much I want to see the game continues.
From there I see that broadly there are 2 types of how renpy AVN games attract patrons.
Those that attract patrons through it's story. Where patron's focus is to see the story continuation. An example of this would be Deluca Family that despite not having that much scenes so far with the main cast.
The second is those that attracts patrons through it's sexiness. One of the major example of this for me is Summer Heat. Despite having 5 releases, there are very little story s of yet. Patrons are not sustaining it to see it's story, it's because it's hot.
I can't comment on Dog Days of Summer specifically because I haven't play it but taking EndlessNights comment about the existence of tonal shift between the ongoing story and then abrupt jump to lewdness is applicable to the average games that I've played.
Take Arson Betrayal. While there are scenes that does make narrative sense and adds to the story, other scenes doesn't have to be there. Almost none of Deluca's scenes with the side characters needs to exist. And not all Projekt Passion's scenes adds to the story either. The scenes exist because sexy scenes are needed to attract patrons of the second category.
These 3 are all games that actually have a story to tell.
On the opposite side of this 3 games, despite Eternum having a story to tell, it decides to lean really heavily towards presenting sexiness first, Even to the point that the narration itself takes a backseat.
There are also games that managed to put both story and sexiness equally upfront where the sexiness adds to the narrative and the story works better because there is sex in it. The 2 element adds to each other and thus manage to attract both patron category.
There are very few games I've played so far that are equally strong on both ends like this.
I think those that are, the settings of the story mainly revolves around sex. Pale Carnations being the single biggest example of this because the story itself is about lewdness, front and center. "College games" genre being another example of this with BaDIK being the most successful.
I would say Our Red String manage to both tell a simple story and the sexiness really adds to the story too.
It's a major improvement compared to Good Girls Gone Bad with regards to it's story development too.
I think there is something to be said here on how developers
might need to construct believable settings of the story where the settings could then manage to put both "a story to tell" and sexiness equally front and center, and thus hopefully cast a wider net of patrons ensuring game development continuations.
There are many games where I think sexiness is not needed within the story.
Unraveling August is still entertaining to read based on how the character's lines are written, and the game would actually be better story-wise if Chapter 1 does not happen the way it did (one of the 2 sister is outwardly lewd towards the MC).
For Unraveling August, it actually feels "jarring". And this jarring feelings or a tonal whiplash is probably what EndlessNights means for Dog Days of Summer.
There are renpy AVN games where it's narrative would actually be better if it's less sexy.
Chapter 1 is actually a detriment to Unraveling August's narrative, and so does Ch 1 of Arson Betrayal too. Neither does Mad World need almost any of the scenes we got. And for Deluca, it needs no scenes at all.
The story to all these still works even without most of the scenes.
I hope in the future there are more games that manage to make both elements equally essential to the game so it could attract the widest net of patrons. Because so far, there aren't that many from my view.
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