Ren'Py Summertime Saga [v21.0.0 wip.5258] [Kompas Productions]

[undefiniert]

Has the author mentioned something about if he'll continue to require the players to each time start a new game when he releases a new major version of SS? That's quite tiring...

That's quite normal, since the story and the game evolves. New variables get set and will be required for lots of stuff, you would miss in old saves.
In that game you can simply cheat in the dev phases, so you can mostly concentrate on parts you want to enjoy.

 

[caspian90]

Does the game have any Felching content?

 

[Omnikuken]

Not only would you miss on stuff, the engine isn't made to cope with stuff being altered prior to save point.

Also hittting new game and skipping the 1st 3 days to unlock free roam is the epitome of man's suffering playing games. Takes a buttslapping 5 mins each 3 months. The pure pain it generates warrants the sheer amount of whining we get every time a new build is released

Does the game have any Felching content?

Nope, MC doesn't do that and the 3somes we got don't involve much interaction between girls

 

[TheGrandMasterCory]

To Badjourasmix and srksrk 68, THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!

Basically everything you guys said in your posts quoted below are exactly the points I'm trying to get across.

The premise of this game was always you go around town and fuck every girl and get them pregnant. I'm not even completly against having branching paths, as I said before I like the idea of helping Erik get with June.

According to j4yj4m, the original goal/intent was to make this game a dating sim where the player is essentially forced to have the MC choose one school girl to focus on for each playthrough - while supposedly having sexual access to all other non-school girls.
Basically, from my understanding, the player would essentially have to make a playthrough for each school girl in order to get all her content- so having an Eve save, a Roxxy save, a Ronda save, a Judith save, an Annie save, a Mia save, and so on.

But, according to j4yj4m again, DarkCookie was pressured by the playerbase to take the game in a more harem direction.
The reason I'm tell you this is not because I know this to be the absolute truth (I don't), but because there are some who will argue against your assertion that the premise of this game was "always [that] you go around town and fuck every girl and get them pregnant."

I also agree with you that having some branching in the game is a cool idea.

But this whole thing of "oh it doesn't make sense for him to be with Eve and then cheat on her with Grace and Odette", he is cheating on her with half of the town inclunding his family. The same thing with Judith, "oh if you get Judith you shouldn't get the latinas", but it's ok to be fooling around with all the other girls? None of that makes sense. It's a silly porn game.

This is where I STRONGLY agree with you here, Badjourasmix.
It does NOT make sense to get all bent out of shape about the MC cheating on a girl with girls in her social circle, when he's already cheating on her with half of the other girls in the town.
At the end of the day, this is just "a silly porn game" and even having discussions about the MC's supposed lack of loyalty is taking things a bit too seriously.

For me the appeal of this game was always the fact that it never took itself too seriously. If you choose Eve or Mia, it doesn't make sense for you to be having sex with any other girls aswell. But the game encourages it, if you're playing the main story and you have finished other girls stories you are forced to have sex with Tina you can't refuse her, isn't that cheating too? You can still have interesting characters and stories without the need of locking content out.

Once again Badjourasmix, you hit it out of the ball park with your commentary.
The game encourages the MC's "cheating" behavior because that is how the game works.
There's no point in complaining about this.

In addition, being able to have sex with all the girls in a single playthrough doesn't take away from any of those girls.
You are also right about the overall story not needing to lock out content in order for it to be interesting and engaging.

Having linear stories doesn't equal bad stories, the same way having branching paths doesn't equal good stories. This isn't meant to be a hyper realistic game, you have monster girls and magic. Enjoy the game for what it is. Porn games don't need to be this intricate web of choices. Just make the stories fun and enjoyable with good sex scenes and you will have a great porn game.

And yet again, you are correct. Great commentary.
Although I would like to see more branching (to an extent), the game becoming completely linear won't automatically kill it or kill all the fun you can derive from the game and its stories.

The problem is that there are certain people that don't like what the game currently is (a harem-style game) and want it to be something different (a VN/dating sim).

You're totally right. Except that MC saved the tattoo parlor

You are not alone. For me, being able to have every girl in town makes half the fun playing the game. I am completely confident DC will find a way to make that happen in a plausible way.

Well, the MC and Eve saved the tattoo parlor. Not just the MC alone.
Should Grace now be able to date her little sister because they won't go bankrupt?

Plus, every primary girl has both the MC getting to know her personally in addition to helping her out.
We just don't have that with Grace and therefore, she isn't really a primary girl in my opinion.

In addition, I want to thank you for letting me know that I'm not the only one who enjoys the MC getting to be with multiple women in a single playthrough.
I feel like this has always been a major/main selling point of these types of games.
That's the reason why so many of them on this site are harem-type games.

Yeah that is that makes this type of games fun, you get to experience fantasies that would be very hard to experience irl. Like going around having sex with every single girl. IRL no one really wants to bang their moms but people like porn games with incest.

This is the crux of what I was trying to get across.
Being able to make out with one beautiful girl in French class and then another during the same class without any consequence is a fantasy very few us get to live out in real life.
Many of us are just average/below-average people who are trying to live vicariously through the MC.
If I want to solely focus on dating one girl at a time, I can just do that in real life.

 

[TheGrandMasterCory]

Well now the question is, will DC abide by the poll or will he ignore it? If he doesn't have any intention of going by the results of the poll, there is really no point it making it in the first place. He will only get more complaints in the future.

I disagree with the assertion that "if he doesn't have any intention of going by the results of the poll, there is really no point it making it in the first place."

I believe that when you are a developer of a certain game/project, you should use consumer polls to guide you.

What I mean by this is, the user polls should NOT be the be-all and end-all decision makers for a developer.

Instead, if you are a developer, polls should be used as (1) an indicator of how well-received your current direction with the game/project is with the audience/customer base and (2) a predictor of how users/customers will generally react to the decisions you make regarding the game/project.

If I was DarkCookie, I would recongize that only a slight majority of players (54%) want there to be no branching and remember that I, as the developer, want there to be more branching.
Based on all this, I would simply tell everyone that I will continue to add branching choices into the game since (1) I don't leave decisions entirely up to user polls and (2) I know there is a sizable portion of my playerbase (46%) who will be happy or at least, content with there being more branching in the game.

 

[Badjourasmix]

@TheGrandMasterCory
I agree with you that he probably shouldn't make decisions based solely on patreon polls. But I think one of the reasons why he decided to make the poll, was that people were always complaining about the branching paths in his chat when he streams, and he would dismiss it by saying that the chat wasn't an accurate representation of his fan base, basically meaning most of you aren't patrons and I care more about the opinion of my patrons. Which is fair, patrons are the ones making it possible for him to continue developing the game. But now with this poll he can't really say that, because, even if it's by a small margin, the majority of his patrons want more linear stories without content being locked out. So now every time he decides to add branching paths in game people will always refer to this poll.

 

[TheGrandMasterCory]

@Badjourasmix:
It's indeed the level of writing that actually matters in my opinion. Sure, the game is full of strange stories and things, but DC said again and again that he wants characters to have a purpose and that he wants them to act in charcter. Of course you'll take shortcuts etc. at times but there's just so much you can do without making it just look badly constructed. There's simply a line to walk until immersion breaks and things become random and somewhat boring. Until now the game was great in managing that compromise.

He had many great compromises which I personally really liked, like Jenny staying bitchy, Debbie not fucking Jenny, Mrs. Johnson rewarding MC for getting Erik June as GF, Mia being happy because Harold and Helen were back together, etc. and now it looks like much of that is going out the window and we'll end up some cheap harem stuff. I may be damaged by reading quite a few manga in the past, but having a perfect protagonist who gets all the girls is just so extremely boring and at least for me there's almost no redemption. Many other games at least compensate with an abundance of sexual content but SS can't deliver really that for obvious reasons, which is probabably why the writing is actually important to me.

As said, it's my opinion. I canceled my pledge and I'll see how it develops.

With this post and the one you made before it addressed to me, I now understand where you are coming from j4yj4m.

I completely agree that there are indeed some routes/storylines that require branching in order for them to feel authentic.
I also understand that you don't have to be able to get every girl in a single playthrough in order to have fun.

Lastly, I partially agree with your assertion that "having a perfect protagonist who gets all the girls is just so extremely boring and at least for me there's almost no redemption."

While I do agree that adding more weight and consequences to the MC's choices could make the game more interesting and make it feel more impactful, there are certain problems I have with your quote such as:

1) It's a bit of a strawman to argue against having a "perfect protagonist," when no one (certainly not me) is asking for that. We don't want a completely "perfect protagonist." We just want one that isn't so like us, isn't so weighed down by responsibilities and consequences like ours, that there's no point in us trying to live vicariously through him.

2) The protagonist getting all the girls doesn't have to be boring so long as the story is engaging, the gameplay is fun, and the game makes you, the player, work hard in order to obtain those girls.
Getting all the girls in one playthrough doesn't have to automatically mean "boring game."
Getting all the girls in one playthrough doesn't automatically make the game bad.

3) Your "no redemption" assertion is confusing. Who or what needs to be redeemed?
It's a silly porn game that allows you to pull out entire shovels and guitars from your small red backpack!
Why should there be some form of "redemption?" What kind of redemption could there be?
This part of your quote really doesn't make any sense to me at all.

Even so, I understand your complaints and your worries.
All I can say to you is that you shouldn't be too quick to cancel your pledge since there is no guarantee that DarkCookie will go through with the No Branching decision.
And even if he does, there is no guarantee that you won't still derive enjoyment from the game because of it.

 

[TheGrandMasterCory]

@j4yj4m
I think the reason why so many people like the game and why it is still so popular is because the game never really took itself too seriously, it always had a more comedic tone and had these crazy stories that would never happen IRL. Basically this game is every teenage boy's wet dream where you go around having sex with all the girls and they all fall in love with you.

This quote encapsulates exactly how I feel about Summertime Saga.

I just want to play a game where I can earn a six figure per year salary while delivering pizzas in an expensive sports car

I want to play a game where numerous girls exclusively fall in love with me, all at he same time, and bear my children.

I want to play a game where I can have unprotected sex with as many beautiful girls as I can get, whenever I want.

I want to play a game where every attractive girl thinks I'm also attractive, handsome, sexy, and/or cute.

I want to play a game where I can simultaneously have multiple girlfriends who all genuinely like and desire me.

And I want to do all this without the real-life consequences and troubles that come with even attempting this kind of stuff, let alone achieving it.

I just want the American Teenage Boys Wet Dream (and I know I'm not the only one) and Summertime Saga provides that like no other game does.

 

[MrShadowDUH]

I just want to play a game where I can earn a six figure per year salary while delivering pizzas in an expensive sports car

I want to play a game where numerous girls exclusively fall in love with me, all at he same time, and bear my children.

I want to play a game where I can have unprotected sex with as many beautiful girls as I can get, whenever I want.

I want to play a game where every attractive girl thinks I'm also attractive, handsome, sexy, and/or cute.

I want to play a game where I can simultaneously have multiple girlfriends who all genuinely like and desire me.

And I want to do all this without the real-life consequences and troubles that come with even attempting this kind of stuff, let alone achieving it.

I just want the American Teenage Boys Wet Dream (and I know I'm not the only one) and Summertime Saga provides that like no other game does.

Personally, I don't want that. Its an overplayed and overused concept that leads to a game that might be entertaining, but is entirely flat story wise. Nothing has any real value cause there aren't any consequences for your actions, just get every girl. I also get that its all a fantasy and a "silly porn game", but does that mean that there can be no lewd game that actually challenges your decision making? It hinders the growth of western visual novel/lewd games, which is already miles behind what Japan is able to do.

 

[TheGrandMasterCory]

Does the game have any Felching content?

Had to search up what "felching" means!

I don't mean to kink shame but if you're asking about the male MC doing that stuff, all I can say in response is

 

[TheGrandMasterCory]

Personally, I don't want that. Its an overplayed and overused concept that leads to a game that might be entertaining, but is entirely flat story wise. Nothing has any real value cause there aren't any consequences for your actions, just get every girl. I also get that its all a fantasy and a "silly porn game", but does that mean that there can be no lewd game that actually challenges your decision making? It hinders the growth of western visual novel/lewd games, which is already miles behind what Japan is able to do.

First, I'm very honored that the first comment you seem to have ever posted on this site since you joined on May 3, 2020 is in response to one of my own. Thank you for this.

Second, I understand where you are coming from and believe this is all a matter of personal preference.

Like I've stated before, the fact that you can get every girl in the game doesn't automatically mean the game's storytelling will be bad or "flat."

The fact that the MC will have multiple simultaneous lovers doesn't mean that he won't face some limited consequences that make the game more intriguing/interesting/immersive.

I'm just saying that there is a reason why people play these games.

Making the MC work endlessly at the pizza shop to pay child support to the numerous women and girls he impregnated, all while having to deal with the multiple STDs he's contracted may make for a more consequence-heavy, realistic game.
Hell, it may even make for a more impactful story, I'll grant you that.

But it probably won't make for a porn game that people feel they can, or even want to, immerse themselves in.


Edit: Everything here and below is the edited portion of this comment.

Just as a response to your claim that Western porn games are "miles behind what Japan is able to do," the reason for this isn't because Western porn games don't have enough choices or challenging decisions as you seem to imply.

This disparity is probably due to the fact that Japan actually treats its porn industry with respect unlike Westerners.
Thus, Japanese porn game makers receive notable corporate backing. In turn, this allows them to create elaborate games, while Western porn game makers such as DarkCookie must heavily rely upon Patreon backers which isn't always much.

 

[Badjourasmix]

Personally, I don't want that. Its an overplayed and overused concept that leads to a game that might be entertaining, but is entirely flat story wise. Nothing has any real value cause there aren't any consequences for your actions, just get every girl. I also get that its all a fantasy and a "silly porn game", but does that mean that there can be no lewd game that actually challenges your decision making? It hinders the growth of western visual novel/lewd games, which is already miles behind what Japan is able to do.

I think that games that have a lot of choices and have consequences are fine, I've played my fair share of them. The thing is that this game wasn't really heavy on that kind of stuff to begin with. Erik's story for example even if you decide to go for the girl that he is interested in, the game doesn't really punish you, you bang the girl and he keeps being your friend. When I used the term "silly game" I didn't mean it in a bad way, and I don't think anyone is using it in a bad way either. I personally meant it as in, you can see that the dev is just having fun with the characters and isn't taking things too seriously. All the characters are very stereotypical, look at tony for example, he is italian looks like super Mario and has a brother named Luigi. And all the stories are very ridiculous. That is what made me and so many others like the game.

 

[MrShadowDUH]

Making the MC work endlessly at the pizza shop to pay child support to the numerous women and girls he impregnated, all while having to deal with the multiple STDs he's contracted may make for a more consequence-heavy, realistic game.
Hell, it may even make for a more impactful story, I'll grant you that.

But it probably won't make for a porn game that people feel they can, or even want to, immerse themselves in.

I wouldn't want this game to be this hyper realistic either. Too much realism makes games tedious, Red Dead Redemption 2 is a good example of this. However, I don't want every girl to ultimately boil down to the same exact thing. Its good that Jenny stays a selfish bitch and doesn't just love you at the end of her route. Its a colorful cast of wacky, but realistic characters that all serve their purpose, be that comedic, sexy or romantic. Boiling them down and making them just another pretty face that gets MCs dick wet makes it all feel a bit shallow. It just reeks of lost potential, especially since SS has pretty good writing for what it is.

I think that games that have a lot of choices and have consequences are fine, I've played my fair share of them. The thing is that this game wasn't really heavy on that kind of stuff to begin with. Erik's story for example even if you decide to go for the girl that he is interested in, the game doesn't really punish you, you bang the girl and he keeps being your friend. When I used the term "silly game" I didn't mean it in a bad way, and I don't think anyone is using it in a bad way either. I personally meant it as in, you can see that the dev is just having fun with the characters and isn't taking things too seriously. All the characters are very stereotypical, look at tony for example, he is italian looks like super Mario and has a brother named Luigi. And all the stories are very ridiculous. That is what made me and so many others like the game.

Just because some parts of the game are silly and ridiculous doesn't mean that the entire game needs to follow this logic however. SS is a massive game, even in this alpha state. Make it a brilliant open world adventure that shows a little bit of everything, like Grand theft auto 5. It takes itself serious too, however also has sex jokes everywhere and constantly references aliens. Make it a healthy mix and don't focus on just one thing. Hell I won't even mind if the Harem aspect is in the game, I just don't want it to be the *only* endgame. Let there be an option to actually get a canon ending for every girl and everything afterwards is non canon towards that play through. Maybe I just care too much tho idk.

 

[Squark ⚧❤️]

Ugh. I can't believe I have to

Spoiler: UGH

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This is way too convoluted.
Why is it fixed in a way that I can't even approach the guy about it?

 

[Omnikuken]

^ Because you're doing more than 1 route at a time ...............

 

[srksrk 68]

Does this mod also includes both branches for mia and helen, june, mrs. johnson like for ikaruga mod?

What mod are you talking about?

This quote encapsulates exactly how I feel about Summertime Saga.

I just want to play a game where I can earn a six figure per year salary while delivering pizzas in an expensive sports car

I want to play a game where numerous girls exclusively fall in love with me, all at he same time, and bear my children.

I want to play a game where I can have unprotected sex with as many beautiful girls as I can get, whenever I want.

I want to play a game where every attractive girl thinks I'm also attractive, handsome, sexy, and/or cute.

I want to play a game where I can simultaneously have multiple girlfriends who all genuinely like and desire me.

And I want to do all this without the real-life consequences and troubles that come with even attempting this kind of stuff, let alone achieving it.

I just want the American Teenage Boys Wet Dream (and I know I'm not the only one) and Summertime Saga provides that like no other game does.

I agree wholehartedly. Except that i am not a teenage boy. I am well in the second half of my century

For me, this is just a game. My life does not depend on it. But that's also the reason that I can imagine to make it into everything I want, once it's finished. That's why I mod it.

 

[srksrk 68]

Ugh. I can't believe I have to

Spoiler: UGH

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This is way too convoluted.
Why is it fixed in a way that I can't even approach the guy about it?

Erm... this is fixed once you played it. Afterwards, just go to the cookiejar to have that scene immediately...

 

[Squark ⚧❤️]

^ Because you're doing more than 1 route at a time ...............

I figured it out.

Spoiler

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srksrk 68, I played this slot fresh from the beginning after deleting my existing saves. And I already figured it out, see the spoiler in this post.

 

[srksrk 68]

In theory, every doubt about MC being allowed to bang any girl can be remedied by answering two questions at the beginning of the game, or latest when answers become relevant:

1. I am OK with a harem situation.
2. I want to have my decisions to have consequences on my future sexual relationships.

I the player answers "yes" on question 2, any girl figuring out that he banged another girl will drop him. Easy as that. If he answered "no" on the first question, he wil not be offered any sex after the first girl he banged at all.

Who wants a porn game like that?

 

[srksrk 68]

srksrk 68, I played this slot fresh from the beginning after deleting my existing saves. And I already figured it out, see the spoiler in this post.

Please help me out. It's late and I am drunk. What are you talking about?