VN - Ren'Py - Summer Heat [v0.5.1] [Naughty Fox Games]

Amazingly well made game. Renders are good, story is interesting, characters (although a bit typical) are thought true and feel realistic enough. Gameplay is that of a VN plus some free roam and use of phone.

Literally no downsides, well done and certainly deserves support.

Review is for v0.3

I often don't leave reviews due to the time investment they take to properly convey my opinion of a VN. However, Summer Heat is one of the few that gripped my attention. Before getting into the breakdown of the pros and cons I'd like to compliment the developers for producing an already strong VN and wish them best of luck in future updates!

Alright, time for the breakdown...

PROS:
Writing Quality:
First off, whoever the author behind the story is, they deserve the highest level of praise for the incredible quality. It's clear right from the start that time was spent workshopping plot and how each character fits into it. While it's not clear if they're following Freytag's Pyramid I'd be surprised if they weren't considering the level of care given to the plot. The lack of spelling mistakes and grammatical errors also leads me to believe that the script is being reviewed and edited before an update is launched. In other words; these devs have their shit together.

Visuals:
As if a strong author wasn't enough, there also seems to be a talented artist on the team since the quality of each render is phenomenal. While Daz provides pre-made models it's evident that the artist has modified each model to maintain a consistent level of quality, which is a rare occurrence even in some of the most popular VNs. I also remember one of those developers (Belle) mentioning that the harder part to properly render are the eyes, and yet the devs behind Summer Heat have mastered them. The overall quality for each model is top notch and more than deserving of praise.

Characters:
And finally... the characters. While this could technically be appended to the writing quality section, the level of care that went into each character is more than deserving of it's own section. While we're still early in development, the level of quality that went into each character is evident as each feel completely distinct. I, as the audience, feel invested in learning more about each of the LIs. Even more, despite Mia gaining an advantage due to her relationship with the MC, the other three (3) LIs can easily compete with her as all of them boast a unique persona which help them to stand out. Even the background characters feel fleshed out despite their relatively short screen time and low impact on the story as it currently stands. Fantastic quality and generally well-rounded characters across the board; A+.

CONS:
Slow Burn:
The only downside (which could be argued as a pro) stems from the slow burn this VN seems to have. Three (3) versions in and it feels like we're still pretty far from initiating sex with anyone. While I personally don't view this as a negative I included it in the "cons" section to temper expectations. We most likely won't see any significant sex scenes for another version or two (2) depending on where in the plot we are currently.

CONCLUSION:
Overall I definitely recommend supporting the devs on Patreon. The quality of Summer Heat puts it high up on my recommendation list, as evident by the completely lopsided (and unbiased!) breakdown. I'm excited to see where the devs take us next!

Quite short at the moment but one of those games that you can immediately tell has been made with care and skill.

Gorgeous renders, fun characters, very competent writing with some great laugh-out-loud moments.

Keen to see where this goes.

V 0.3
Game look really satisfying so far
Pacing and writing seem good, all characters seem to have different personnalities (best friend is a bit tropey, but it works) and the renders look really nice.
Waiting to see what comes next.

v0.3

Yes! Yes! YES! I have no idea how I missed this VN, but I'm loving it so far. Give me more weird awkward artsy shit like this please! This reads like no other VN due to how real it feels. Meeting a bunch of random people and living together is awkward as hell and this VN nails it right off the bat!
The dialog is a perfect balance of unimportant small talk and meaningful conversation.
Don't even get me started on the ambience! This is the most incredible sound design I've heard from a visual novel. It's really good graphicly and the characters look fantastic! Plus, they're all clearly thought out, so no unintentionally annoying characters or relying on overused tropes to make the characters feel unique. On top of that, the characters actually interact with each other and care about the decisions you make. This is some premium monogamous romance right here. There's just so much good stuff going on here that it is hard to put into words without doing a full essay on it.
Summer Heat is the perfect amount of realism and porn mixed together with the right amount of indie film vibes.
Easily one of my favorites! Assuming the quality doesn't drop at any point, I can see this being one of, if not, the best visual novel.

Very nice game! The renders are just lovely and the ambience is great! Fun interactive elements too! The characters are all charming, if quite thirsty! Some pretty good humor so far too! Looking forward to seeing where this all goes!

Beautifl renders, seems to be a compelling story in the making.

Girls are stunning and have distinct personalisties.

It builds up slow which is a nice change of pace compared to the games where every girl wants to jump you and your monster cock the second they see you.

There's no fap material here yet though, the most you can see is some really hot breasts of a woman that seems to build up to some cop femdom action.

Overall a great start, hope it continues.

It absolutely has the potential to be a 5 star game, at the moment there just isn't enough content to know for sure.

Recommended to play this from discord and I'm honestly glad I did when I did. Summer Heat shits on a lot of games I'm just going to be honest lol.
*Knockout gorgeous babes
*High quality renders
*Intriguing story
*And then it's a horror to top it off
I know what I'm looking forward to for the next couple of months and years if we're lucky.

Quite an intriguing and promising start. Good plot, pretty realistic - girls don't jump into your bed as soon as they see you. Three episodes have already been released and there are no sex scenes in the game, but I think it's worth the wait.
Good variety of girls and non-linear storytelling choices.

Renders look amazing, there are not many games with this level of graphics. And this despite the fact that the game is the first project of the developer. I wish the creator all the best in development, good luck.

First of all, I have to give a huge compliment and praise to the development team. Thank you for this great game.
I have only recently become aware of this NV and would like to recommend every player to try it out for themselves:
- Those who like light-hearted romantic visual novel with the right timing of humor, great quality renders and background music.
- slow-burning romances like (with the Main LI), there are so far hints for girls who are not inclined to get together faster with the MC for interpersonal interaction for adults.
- like the developers who pay a lot of attention to details, so you won't find a lot of text here, nor will you encounter unnecessarily boring and unnecessary renders. So in the situations and moments you will find a lot of gestures and poses that speak for themselves without unnecessary text. So if you don't care about that and just want to quickly skip everything, then you are definitely wrong here.
- Music and sound effects are also available and always fit well to the respective situation or moment.
- So there are choices quite early ingame, which so far have the effect that you get for example: moments, scenes and dialogue with char A or B. So someone who would like to set up a harem in the game, is wrong here, because as I said the paths set a certain route.
- Free roaming - it's superbly implemented and the GUI is great, the hidden rewards to unlock are a great idea. Dialogs that develop the char sub-stories and the ability to access the ingame smartphone are great done
- Varied women for every taste, with girlfriend since childhood days, high school girls, young women, milfs and nerd. They all have different faces, bodies, hairstyles, hair and eye color, personalities. Great job, developers!

In summary, this NV is tops for me so far, with its render, music, soundeffects, story, chars and I look forward to future updates on how the main and side storyline will progress.

A lot of promise in a short time. The renders are spectacular. The character building is at a fine pace for me as nothing is automatically given to you. I look forward to future releases. Good Job.

As others before me have already stated. A very impressive VN is in the making here, indeed.

Pros:
- Girls look amazing

- Unique looking Environments I haven't seen before, the Developers must have built some of these from the ground up themselves

-Really good writing, didn't spot a single grammatical error at all (I am still extremely shocked by this, should be a standard though)

- Plot is intriguing so far, as well as the girls personalities.

-Ui is really clean and presentation is excellent. Renders are also fabulous.

The only thing I am worried about thus far, is the MC's daydreaming. Granted, his daydreams didn't show anything too revealing of the girls yet (like Ms Hill for example) but I hope the developer won't make it a habit and go further with the lewd content through the MC's subconscious/daydreaming. I hate when a VN show's lewd content with the girls through a dream sequence etc as it kills all of the anticipation of it actually happening for real, so hopefully we won't see anything like that in the MC's future day dreams, should he have any more of them.

All in all, very impressed with this so far. The renders are exceptional, writing is virtually flawless and the girls look fantastic. Hope it remains this way in the future, I for one can't wait for more of Summer Heat.

Well done Northpx!

Very good start. Will definitely look out for future updates and more content.
Not so much going on at the moment, but already interesting enough to be convinced that this one is fun and that the heat is about to rise.

Just finished playing through ver0.3 and have to say that so far the character models and dialogue that follow them are amazing. I don't have any problems with what is presented so far. Though in the long run a concern would be the branching storyline, but that is later down the line.

While short (as of 0.3) this looks quite promising. The renders are excellent and there's an effort to introduce the characters and their personalities. The writing is good and while it's impossible to say where the story might go or what scenarios might come up, I think there are plenty of good opportunities.

The photoshoot idea is an interesting one... It might be interesting if the photos that you could take were limited by the relationship status with the person. At the moment there's only really Bree to use as an example, but there isn't really any reason not to just take all the photos.

Wow this is actually an incredible VN. It has it all, excellent story progression, good and perfectly-timed humor, gorgeous love interests that actually have unique characteristics... and don't even get me started with the renders - jeez, probably the best ones I've seen, and trust me I've played way too many Daz3D games.

As someone who enjoys "monogamous romance", I really liked how the LIs actually show a bit of jealousy when you speak to the other LIs. I've never seen that in other VNs with multiple LIs, even non-harem ones; usually they just don't care. Hoping it stays that way, where in the latter stages of the game you can only pursue one of them (which I'm very optimistic about since the planned tags mentions multiple endings and not harem! Woo!)

I usually don't give out five stars like it's nothing, but this game really has it all whilst not having any negatives - at least none that I've noticed, which is a good sign if the game is so good you don't even realize any errors. On the more personal side, this game ticks all the boxes for me.

Oh and I'd like to add that it's okay and BETTER if updates take longer. I noticed it's already the third update but still has the length of just a prologue. I'd much rather an update every two, three, or even four months if it means that the update is well-polished and at a respectable length.

Alright, that's enough dickriding. Highly recommend the game and I wish the developer the best!

As of v0.3

4 of 5 Stars!
Technically 5 Stars but missing Linux support in a Ren'Py game has to cost something.
Dear Dev don't lock out a potential Patreon, especially if it's just a bloody checkbox when building.

On to the game itself.

The Pros:

• Stellar presentation, in every aspect.
• The story itself hasn't really picked up yet but you get some hint of mystery for both the general story and the characters stories.
• Characters look great & differ in their looks.
• Environments look great, fit well and are not your usual run of the mill.
• The UI is elegant and easy to navigate.
• The Freeroam mode is rare and if available serves an actual purpose. Be it to find secrets or to chat with characters.
• Solid english, no Google Translate nightmare.

The Cons:

• Some may find the lack of lewd content a con but given how it's presented i personally don't mind.
• Not very long, yet.

Summary:

Visual appealing VN with a possible intriguing story that might offer great replayability (too early to make a fair assessment).
And it's the first game that blew my mind when i scrolled back at a certain point, just to see that the dialog suddenly changed. I didn't even know that this was possible, great work.

Give it a shot and consider chipping in if you can. Would be a shame to see the Abandoned tag on this one.

It's been a long time since I've taken interest in a new games after playing the "classics", but that one caught my attention from the start.

The renders are ridiculously good. One of the best I've seen. Realistic with a touch of stilization.

The setup is great, we have a goofy fun friend and beautiful girls around. Some dating app, summer, bright colors all around - what's not to like!

About the things that needs work - dialogs might have been little more sophisticated.

Hopefully the game will go the same beautiful way it starts for many month to come.

Note to the creator: Please don't make us chose only one girl. Or two. There should be at least 3 girls in a loving weird relationships with mc!

I don't even know where to start. This is without a doubt the best erotic game I've ever played. The fidelity with which the characters are presented and developed is unparalleled.

The script is rich and faithful to the context created, the characters and their expressions integrate the realism of the world which is presented to us, and the subtlety of the choices towards the story enhances the personality of the MC and the others.

It's amazing how you can create scenes within the silence and pauses, it's only 3 updates, but I can already see the maturity of the plot. It reminds me of a Japanese concept called "Ma 間", which values the negative space of an image, the silences of a song, the doorway that allows us to pass through it. Without these voids, the world would be saturated with unrecognizable meanings.

Furthermore, the quality of the game's technical aspects is excellent. Not in the sense of being the best on the market, but because they fit perfectly into the story created, the "enough" that elevates, that generates wealth in simplicity, so there is more time for the reader (player) to focus on the features of the world itself.

I wish you the best of luck, and that you work hard to maintain the desired quality.

Amazing game so far! The models looks great, and the storytelling is sound. Its almost refreshing to have the first few updates w/o any adult content (other than unlockable found items) as it really focuses on the story. Lots of different plots unfolding here .

Eve is obviously he best so far, but your mileage may vary