Ren'Py - Summer like a Dream [v0.12b] [Puydev]

Version: Ch2

HISTORY: ?/5
CHARACTERS: ?/5
ART: ?/5

I'm giving this rating just to give this game a little bit of a pump. To be honest, there's little to no content to be juding here. The first update has no sex scene, only a few scenes showing a few characters that are displayed in the game. So, with that in mind, I'll be judging by what I saw.

As usual, you're a young guy who's life is a little bit boring. Summer comes, and your mother sends you away to be with some childhood friends family (?). There, you'll be living with 3 women, one milf, a short haired hottie and a fit blondie.


There's really very little to judge in this game. The art seems good enough, but I notice at many points that the characters would change a bit of their appearance. Not a gigantic deal for me, but I know many people who could freak out over that. Also, for me, the idea of the design of the characters does look genuinely good. It just needs some working to make sure that they look like they're supposed to, instead of changing a bit every new scene.

Regarding the scenary, it's ok. Not very well done, really simple, not well thought but surely functional. Doesn't really catch your attention.

I didn't had enough of the characters to make a judgment, but it's all in the DEVs hands to make them singular, original and alive. I'm counting on you, DEV!

Overall, it doesn't seem to be a bad game, and the idea is general (which is okay) and can turn to be something really nice. I think the only mistake the DEV did was releasing it so unpolished and incomplete like that. It wouldn't hurt to make some more content, maybe a route for one of the girls, just to give a bit of the real taste of the game.

Anyways, I won't be rating this game, as I can't say it's good or bad for now. I hope the next updates will make it clear!

TL;DR: I'd say don't waste your time on this one yet, but it's so little time that it really doesn't matter. Not much to like about it right now, but hopefully the dev gets useful feedback and adapts.

Seriously though...It takes fewer than 150 clicks to go from "Start" to "That's All" and several of those are just for sandbox navigation. If you look at the preview images, you've basically got it. Dev did provide a walkthrough, which I appreciate, but it just underscores how little content there is right now.

The art style is inconsistent in multiple ways. There are at least 4-5 different styles, and probably as many different approaches to composition. When a character is in bed, then they're actually touching the background. Otherwise, it's inconsistent variations of foreground sprites on a backdrop.

Where some devs are too wordy, this one is not wordy enough. As short as this version is, we are still told why MC is sent away for the summer (more on that later), have time to travel there, meet host mom and both sisters (in distinct interactions) and peep through a door. It's like someone wrote an outline of a story, then decided to just use that.

The premise is also flimsy at best. MC - who is at least old enough to drive through the night by himself - gets kicked out of the house for the summer, because he wants to play video games, but his mom thinks he's lazy. For no discernible reason, mom decides that MC has to go live with his childhood friend that he doesn't talk to anymore. Oh, and mom has time to remind us that their dad died recently, so it's just the 3 women living together, alone. And that's the plot. Go live with 3 hot girls because your mom said so you skinny, lazy boy.

Because everything is so rushed, none of the characters' personalities are really established. MC is basically just an observer floating along. Mom is sweet, the sister is a tease, and the actual childhood friend is shy, but you never feel that. You just know it because you're told.

The editing is also terrible. Tons of typos, incomplete and mismatched punctuation, missing capitalization, and stilted, unnatural language.

I appreciate that dev also released an Android version from the beginning, but it's unclear whether it's been play-tested. There are a number of times where text doesn't wrap properly, so some of it just disappears off the end of the screen. Might not be an issue if the text started closer to the left side, rather than 20% of the way across the screen.

Last thing I'll say is that I worry this game is going to turn into a nightmare of a sandbox. There's already arrow navigation to go to different parts of the house, then click on the door, then click on the things in the room. Right now, it's really not bad. But as the game grows and there are more locations, I hope dev stays aware of how much clicking it will take just to move around.

Overall, it's a first effort that leaves a lot to be desired. I almost didn't even bother reviewing it, but hopefully dev can make use of some of the feedback to fix things now, before the game gets bigger and it's harder to change.