Ren'Py - Summertime Saga [v21.0.0 wip.4468] [Kompas Productions]

I've kept up with this game pretty much since the very first release. It has been nothing but a disappointment. At one time, the art style, the premise, the gameplay, etc. were top tier; back before the porn game genre was near as popular as it is today. I was excited for this game.

The story is now old and tired, the artwork is now subpar as compared to contemporary games, the content now lacks anything novel, the mini-games are stale, boring, and basic, nothing about this game stands out anymore. Not the gameplay, not the quality, the artwork, the fetishes, the characters are all one dimensional and unengaging, not the narrative, not the setting. Nothing. It's now basically the Dollar General version of school harem/incest games. And, to top all of that off, the dev came nowhere close to finishing the game after years and years of development and has now decided to entirely rework the game from square one, so now there is not even any content.

You are MC, you have a large Johnson, something bad has happened, you must make money, your mom and sister have the hots for you. Maybe. Who knows. Also, the aunt is a freak, and you're in school. There are some hot girls there. They may or may not like you. Also, is your teacher flirting with you?

This is an honest to god, 100% accurate description of this game now, and the game is as bland and tasteless as the description itself. It's the unfinished Hallmark channel movie of porn games now.

I played this game through many iterations until I finally gave up on it. At the time, every new update required a new complete replay (I assume that was eventually fixed) and each new update introduced new characters. The thing that made me finally stop playing it wasn't the replays from the beginning but that there was supposed to be an overarching goal for the main character and yet, summertime would stretch on forever and he seemed utterly unconcerned with the big mystery, the payments to the mob or anything else. It was just a story of the developer either getting distracted by new ideas or keeping the game going for as long as possible rather than driving it to completion and beginning a new project.

For a long time, it was one of the best games in there and it would still be if the game was abandoned. It would also be better if it was abandoned,

Remake the game, after giving nothing for 2 years, then changes basically nothing in that remake.

All the shenanigans of the dev because he doesn't want to lose money and just plain laugh in face of people... seriously....

From being one of the best games for a long time to now being an excuse for quick money grab and being a shit show, it's kinda sad.

This was the first porn game i ever played that had 2d-comic-esque graphics. I absolutely loved the artwork, since it was pretty niche at the time. Its been a long time since then and a lot more games have come out trying to recreate the feeling of Summertime Saga. However, in my experience i havent found any game that does so.

But even then, the creator of this game is a money-grabbing monkey. I cant remember the last time i played this game with new scenes in it. Its been, what, 2 years? since pre-tech and not only did the newest update not introduce anything new (except a new source code) it didnt even feature any of the past content except for a few characters.

The new engine is utterly unnecessary and i legitimately cannot tell the difference between new and old. The only reason im not giving it 1star is because i luckily didnt pay a dime and will happily continue not to do so. I just feel bad for all the supporters, and the money he has made off them, while dilly-dallying and doing the absolute bare minimum.

I don't have much to say, this is the biggest h-game i know, and i think it's the "most mainstream", it has lots of scenes, characters, story, options and etc. The only problem is the developer milking the game to the limit, but in the other hand it's free, he is getting money from people who want to support it, so it's up to them not me. Anyway: Recommend.

Since I first played this game, I had recently graduated from High School - I liked the game, thought it was charming and sometimes came up in the back of mind from time to time. I have since received my college degree and this game is still unfinished. Not even that, but turns out they're remaking the entire game from the ground up? What a joke.

Let's just call this what it is: A creatively devoid cash cow with headache inducing production. Stop giving this game attention, your money, and most importantly, your time. All which could be spent on more ambitious, more passionate projects.

Don't be fooled by the charming art - a pile of sh*t covered in glitter is still a pile of sh*t

no new content everything is deleted . i dont understand why they call it update when there is new content and even there is no content they have deleted everything , also no music this is terible !this is the last time i will download this game

v0.20.16 Review

I didn't expect much but I was surprised how much I was invested in this game, especially since I'm not particularly into free roams or grinding.

The characters, writing, stories, and scenes are all very good. It's a bit dated but has aged like fine wine, especially with the main sub mod installed.

Recommend this for people who are into the VN-type games to give this a shot. It's corny and funny but has its charm.

I like this game always have. Artwork work is unique. Characters are pretty diverse for this type of game. And the scense are well animated. Story is basic but interesting. I can't speak for what's on the devs mind as I don't have telepathy.

However I think in the best case scenario Summertime Saga is his baby and he wants to make it the best he can. The problem is in doing so he has killed all the momentum he once had behind the game. He should have finished the game before he did any tech updates. Completed the story and tied up loose ends. Then all the tech updates and whatever 21.0.0 is supposed to be should have been put into a new game or at best a sequel.

Worst case what everyone else says is true and he is money hungry and milking his subscribers dry while doing minimal work.

Either way he's killed what could have been a faithful fan base and possible future subscribers.

But not gonna lie as long as I don't have to pay for it I'm going to keep downloading the updates because at the end of it all I like the game.

Game's garbage. In the 2010s, many of this kind of game were normal. Make a game, produce scenes and characters, if it doesn't go anywhere, declare it abandoned. It doesn't have be complicated, it doesn't have to be very good, but Summertime Saga's art was. Its writing was serviceable.

But, something changed in the last couple years. Now games exactly like Summertime Saga have adopted a twisted version of the already unethical live service model. Instead of keeping a steady stream of drip fed content or chopping up a completed game to sell you piecemeal, what Summertime Saga and its ilk does is literally tell you to go fuck yourself. You pay me, I give you nothing, and in fact, I'll take back the stuff I've already put out.

After two years of inactivity, the dev has actually stripped almost all content out. The gameplay is not complicated, its a point and click adventure game made in an engine that practically does the work for you. There's no reason that we don't have a completed game with the resources available to create this!

So the game is trash, the art is mid, the writing is mid, and you should avoid getting attached to it, because it will not be completed in a reasonable amount of time. Literally go jerk off to anything else. This will only make you mad and take advantage of you if you consider supporting it monetarily.

V.21.00 rating is actually a zero. The tech "upgrade" is a tech downgrade instead, The current one you can play with cheat mode but what you get is a severely chopped version of the actually good game with most of the game not there anymore. The "improved" graphic quality actually gives me a headache and none of the scene is better quality than the older much more full content version. Why would you take an almost completed game and turn it into a dumpster fire product instead? I was massively disappointed in the direction the DEV went with his game. So much for me wanting to play it now as at the rate of his upgrades it will take another 5 years to reach a worse looking version of the older version before the tech upgrades. Worst move ever in my opinion. Its an opinion and you can either agree or disagree.

Evaluating the product we have in hand today, the aspects that can be highlighted are:

gameplay: The gameplay revolves around maximizing the protagonist's attributes and earning money to buy items in the game, however the "normal" and "difficult" options are blocked, leaving only the "cheat mode" option for new players .

story: the story is being completely retold part by part, leaving behind some elements, characters and choices that were already established in previous versions.

sounds: currently the game does not have a soundtrack during gameplay, leaving the player with no distractions other than the game itself.

dialogues: in general, some dialogues can become a little confusing or not make sense, depending on which character is being represented at the time, this mainly happens with the protagonist's family members, where due to the dialogue they can be represented as 'landlady' or 'friend".

In general, it becomes more viable to play the version before this one, as it does not present the problems mentioned above.

[v21.0.0] 0-Stars
Don't' buy into the tech-update bs. Just an attempt at the developer to prolong a project that should of been wrapped up years ago. The "Tech Update" is just an attempt for the dev to continue getting support while doing the disgusting practice of slowly re-adding pre-existing, removed content, over a long period of time. Literally been years just to make the game widescreen instead of fullscreen. Now the update is finally out, and they have removed all the content down it's bear bones beginning, and are now going to slowly re-add every character route, one update at a time. This is how the game originally developed, releasing one characters route per update, and the Dev thinks it's a good idea now to try and do it all over again with the same content, but now in widescreen. Like that makes a fkn difference while we are wacking off.
It's also hilarious how the visuals have been degraded in the update, when the dev has been boasting better visual quality the whole time.

I've lost hope in this game, and I'm just gonna take the older version as the completed game. I'm done waiting for this BS to get new content. Sorry Rhonda, we care, but not this much.
This dev has completely lost my support.
Un-subbed.

[v20.16] 5-Stars
The game is fun, and has lots of memorable moments. Definitely a great game worth a play through or two. Lot's of choices, mini-games, and a decent enough story to keep your attention outside the adult content.

The game/thread gets 2/5 Stars for Poor. As the project gets a poor rating due to terribly greedy decisions during development. As this thread is both the old version of the game and new version bunched together. I gotta rate it together.

In the supposed tech update, the art has become worse, the first image of the character called Jenny looks like a joke and shows the lack of regard for the quality of the product and this after what it seems to be like one or two years with no actual update. Also most content is removed. Seems like a scam for money. Not worth it.

Unlike the previous update, the "tech update v21" removes too much content to really validate a positive review, or in any case, earn the status of being called an update by itself.
And Likewise, when you deliver a test in blank, your score is 0.

In the music side, the game is mute, our characteristic soundtrack is no longer there. And there are no types of sound effects either.

The artstyle is cute, I think is the only positive thing, although, that would be the case if not for the amount of re-use of all material in this project, and even some downgrades. What a pitty.

In the gameplay deparment, right now, there is... nothing. So, it is more like a quick erotic light read accompanied by a few clicks from the user's part.

So, all in all, a very humble.. "something". I cannot, in good conscience, recommend this... waste of money, waste of passion, and most importantly, waste of your time.

In development for 8 years.
Only 1 day of content,Very short and the changes are not big or something that the player can apreciate.
Scenes have quality, but not justifiable with the time.
A lot of bugs.
I don't recommend playing it.

Horrible update, Art style somehow degraded.
New update killed all the progress, Annoying bugs, It's just a husk of it's former self. Characters look weird, Can't access the old game, Saves getting buggy

This used to be THE porn game. Like easily one of the best of all time. The Tech update was the beginning of the end. Instead of giving storylines to existing characters (Ronda, Annie, Judith) we just got more new characters and scenes for characters that already had a ton (more Odette scenes but no 3ways with Eve or Grace???). And now to top it all off after 3+ years they removed 90% of the game. Originally this was a 5 star game, now it's just embarrassing

the game has regressed a lot in terms of development velocity. changing tech stack makes sense if it can be done without compromising content and even with content being paused. this is a major regression - going backwards in content after a long development cycle for tech update.
i know the game is free here, but i won't recommend investing your time and attention on this one. its no longer the VN i remember from its earlier days.

I will first talk about 20.16 alone which is 4 stars easily. Old? Sure. But good.

There is a nice variety of love interests, good scenes and a lively sandbox by AVN sandbox standards. Main downsides to me were the main story going basically nowhere so far, the old feeling and the update times being so slow it may as well be a running gag. Good fun for what it is with lots of content.

21.00 as a tech update removes an insane amount of the games content. The benefits of modern features like widescreen do not justify this version yet to me at all. It adds next to no new content on top of this. A wait time of two years for this is extremely disappointing and updating the tech to match the content of the 20.16 will likely take ages.

To anyone that has already played this, don't bother downloading 21.00 until its caught up with 20.16 in content. If you have never played the game before you can choose. Older game with loads more content in 20.16 or follow the development of 21.00 as it plays catch up so you get those quality of life improvements.

3 stars overall and if it takes years for this new version of Summertime Saga to have the same content as 20.16 I will drop it to a 2 without question. Disappointing.