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

[j4yj4m]

Personally, I hate branching paths in porn games. 90% of the time it's completely unnecessary and I'm glad DC shifted away from it in general. I mean why choose one when you can have it all? This is like sort of a harem type game after all, so that's kind of the point. Not to argue or anything. Just a point for discussion.

I think we pretty much disagree here. Branching matters when you want to have certain stories. I totally agree that you won't need branching if literally every girl in the game is a "bitch"/polyamorous and doesn't care if MC fucks 25 other chicks besides her or if you've got a very limited and very well balanced cast.

But if you want to have a larger cast and meaningful stories you'll need branches, or you'll end up with characters like for example Eve/Grace here or like Myrtle in What a Legend!, where you've got situations which are pretty stupid and where there's no real way out. Sure, many people wouldn't mind the cheap way out but I'm kinda happy that DC do didn't that, even though it likely means that Grace will probably stay as neglected as she is because of it.

Last but not least I'd just like to mentioned that SS wasn't supposed to be a harem game for the very first years until DC actually agreed to move a bit in that direction. But as far as I'm aware it ultimately won't be possible to get anything in one playthrough anyway, given how DC seems to imagine the prom. You'd always need ~9 different saves to get every prom ending.

 

[Sthr ▚ nix]

NOICE.

 

[srksrk 68]

Have they fix the screen to be wide & the text to be big yet?

If you need larger text, my mod provides a customizable font size.

 

[srksrk 68]

I think we pretty much disagree here. Branching matters when you want to have certain stories. I totally agree that you won't need branching if literally every girl in the game is a "bitch"/polyamorous and doesn't care if MC fucks 25 other chicks besides her or if you've got a very limited and very well balanced cast.

But if you want to have a larger cast and meaningful stories you'll need branches, or you'll end up with characters like for example Eve/Grace here or like Myrtle in What a Legend!, where you've got situations which are pretty stupid and where there's no real way out. Sure, many people wouldn't mind the cheap way out but I'm kinda happy that DC do didn't that, even though it likely means that Grace will probably stay as neglected as she is because of it.

Last but not least I'd just like to mentioned that SS wasn't supposed to be a harem game for the very first years until DC actually agreed to move a bit in that direction. But as far as I'm aware it ultimately won't be possible to get anything in one playthrough anyway, given how DC seems to imagine the prom. You'd always need ~9 different saves to get every prom ending.

We had this quite some time before. For me (and many others) the best thing of this game is that MC can get whatever woman he meets. Without questions and without consequences. His Magick Dick makes any doubt obsolete.

I already have enough reality in real life

 

[ImTransAndTiny]

But as far as I'm aware it ultimately won't be possible to get anything in one playthrough anyway, given how DC seems to imagine the prom. You'd always need ~9 different saves to get every prom ending.

I don't mind if I can play that far into the game, save, and then play each of the endings from there. (It's like in Love & Sex: Second Base, where you can save when you've done everything and then propose to each of the girls to see their ending.) I don't want the branching to begin a long way back, so that going back to try the other branches means replaying a bunch of other people's routes that this person's route depends upon.

 

[j4yj4m]

We had this quite some time before. For me (and many others) the best thing of this game is that MC can get whatever woman he meets. Without questions and without consequences. His Magick Dick makes any doubt obsolete.

And that's fine, there are plenty of really nice games with that concept out here. I just don't think it's good if people try to convince devs to abandon their original concept and to add harems where they don't fit.

And I don't think it's got anything to do with real life, but it's simply a question of a well written story and consistent characters.

 

[CUNTBLAZER420]

And that's fine, there are plenty of really nice games with that concept out here. I just don't think it's good if people try to convince devs to abandon their original concept and to add harems where they don't fit.

And I don't think it's got anything to do with real life, but it's simply a question of a well written story and consistent characters.

You can have a well written story and characters without branching paths and forced choices. People have been making them for thousands of years. In fact DC and sploosh have done it as well on multiple occasions. I mean credit to their writing that side characters like Grace have any character or romantic interest at all. In most of these games you wouldn't even remember her name. In fact I'd argue that their writing has gotten immeasurably better since they did away with the choices and started focusing more on the routes' lead characters. I mean take the Mia route or the Mrs. Johnson route for example: I almost forgot they exist personally and no one ever argues for their characters. But the Roxy Route? I remember. The Eve route? I remember. The Jenny? The Debbie? The Dianne? The main? Less so, but still I still remember them more than I remember Mia's mom or the chubby nerd girl from those routes. And neither of those choices ended up feeling good or fleshed out or meaningful in any way anyway. The choices in the game so far just don't have a good track record. Better to do away with them completely or just shoehorn them in at the very end in a way that you can just save and reload to get all the endings.

 

[DarkDaemonX]

We had this quite some time before. For me (and many others) the best thing of this game is that MC can get whatever woman he meets. Without questions and without consequences. His Magick Dick makes any doubt obsolete.

I already have enough reality in real life

But it does make it so there are tons of continuity errors, which is annoying.

 

[Omnikuken]

You can have a well written story and characters without branching paths and forced choices. People have been making them for thousands of years. In fact DC and sploosh have done it as well on multiple occasions. I mean credit to their writing that side characters like Grace have any character or romantic interest at all. In most of these games you wouldn't even remember her name. In fact I'd argue that their writing has gotten immeasurably better since they did away with the choices and started focusing more on the routes' lead characters. I mean take the Mia route or the Mrs. Johnson route for example: I almost forgot they exist personally and no one ever argues for their characters. But the Roxy Route? I remember. The Eve route? I remember. The Jenny? The Debbie? The Dianne? The main? Less so, but still I still remember them more than I remember Mia's mom or the chubby nerd girl from those routes. And neither of those choices ended up feeling good or fleshed out or meaningful in any way anyway. The choices in the game so far just don't have a good track record. Better to do away with them completely or just shoehorn them in at the very end in a way that you can just save and reload to get all the endings.

Jenny is alone in her route. Debbie doesn't have a "real" route. Diane needs a reremake too. Main route wasn't for 1 girl

But it does make it so there are tons of continuity errors, which is annoying.

Sandbox game with 20+ routes all at once is prone to have some wonky bits laying around

 

[CUNTBLAZER420]

Jenny is alone in her route. Debbie doesn't have a "real" route. Diane needs a reremake too. Main route wasn't for 1 girl

Your point being?

 

[j4yj4m]

You can have a well written story and characters without branching paths and forced choices. People have been making them for thousands of years. In fact DC and sploosh have done it as well on multiple occasions. I mean credit to their writing that side characters like Grace have any character or romantic interest at all. In most of these games you wouldn't even remember her name. In fact I'd argue that their writing has gotten immeasurably better since they did away with the choices and started focusing more on the routes' lead characters. I mean take the Mia route or the Mrs. Johnson route for example: I almost forgot they exist personally and no one ever argues for their characters. But the Roxy Route? I remember. The Eve route? I remember. The Jenny? The Debbie? The Dianne? The main? Less so, but still I still remember them more than I remember Mia's mom or the chubby nerd girl from those routes. And neither of those choices ended up feeling good or fleshed out or meaningful in any way anyway. The choices in the game so far just don't have a good track record. Better to do away with them completely or just shoehorn them in at the very end in a way that you can just save and reload to get all the endings.

Ultimately it's all about variety. And as said, you can hardly have a really nice and deep "classical" romance arc if the girls goes "ah, whatever, I don't care whome else MC fucks" right after that. These choices enable certain plotlines which else just aren't credible.

When it comes to Mia and Mrs. Johnson, it's just the case that they aren't reworked yet and as such simply lack the depth of let's say Roxxy's or Eve's story (these where 50 to 60 day updates instead of the 120 days+ we get nowadays). In fact both of these stories are so old, that they were actually written by DC himself before Sploosh even joined the team. So it's not really a surprise that nothing is fleshed out. That's gonig to change once they are reworked. As of now it looks like the choices will stay but in a slightly different way (at least that's what DC said). Next to that Judith's story will probably get a choice, too.

Edit: What I mean by that is that you can just write better and more unique stories. I actually liked things like bringing Helen and Harold back together or getting Erik a girlfriend. It's just something you don't see in that many other games and it actually adds a really nice touch to these stories.

But yeah, in some sense these old stories probably incapsulate quite a bit more what SS was supposed to be back when DC wrote everything by himself and it certainly wasn't a classical harem game.

 

[CUNTBLAZER420]

Ultimately it's all about variety. And as said, you can hardly have a really nice and deep "classical" romance arc if the girls goes "ah, whatever, I don't care whome else MC fucks" right after that. These choices enable certain plotlines which else just aren't credible.

When it comes to Mia and Mrs. Johnson, it's just the case that they aren't reworked yet and as such simply lack the depth of let's say Roxxy's or Eve's story (these where 50 to 60 day updates instead of the 120 days+ we get nowadays). In fact both of these stories are so old, that they were actually written by DC himself before Sploosh even joined the team. So it's not really a surprise that nothing is fleshed out. That's gonig to change once they are reworked. As of now it looks like the choices will stay but in a slightly different way (at least that's what DC said). Next to that Judith's story will probably get a choice, too.

Granted, yes, Sploosh wasn't on the team yet, but my point still stands. Choices are overrated and a waste of time. And obviously they shifted away from them for a reason and I don't think they'll be coming back, even for Judith. In fact when they eventually do redo the old routes, I wouldn't be surprised if they took them out altogether. Having choices would just mean more dev time and instead of one great route you'd get a decent route that splits into two mediocre parts. Its really, really hard to write satisfying branching storylines and most games that try generally end up suffering because of them. There's always standouts that use them to fantastic effect, but I don't think Summertime Saga would be one of them.

 

[DarkDaemonX]

Sandbox game with 20+ routes all at once is prone to have some wonky bits laying around

Wouldn't have been an issue if it had branching paths instead, or a certain order it makes you do paths in, VN style, which would make a harem path possible.

 

[Omnikuken]

Your point being?

You were going on about newer routes having better side girls. Then listed a bunch of really old routes that you didn't like/remember. I only pointed out that all the routes you listed were indeed really old and/or only had 1 girl in them. Or in the main route's case, wasn't focused on 1 particular girl, so you can't have 1 path that encases every1 involved with massive stories

 

[CUNTBLAZER420]

You were going on about newer routes having better side girls. Then listed a bunch of really old routes that you didn't like/remember. I only pointed out that all the routes you listed were indeed really old and/or only had 1 girl in them. Or in the main route's case, wasn't focused on 1 particular girl, so you can't have 1 path that encases every1 involved with massive stories

I was just talking about the routes in general. I apologize if I wasn't clear enough about that and I'm aware that they are older routes (with the exception of the main story) and not to be held up to the standards of the newer routes. I was mostly just trying to prove a point that the routes are better when they're more focused on one girl. Giving you "the girlfriend experience" if you will. And I feel that direction generally benefits the side characters too. They are written mostly to prop up the routes' main chick and it works fantastically. Again, I'm sorry I wasn't more clear about that.

 

[j4yj4m]

In fact when they eventually do redo the old routes, I wouldn't be surprised if they took them out altogether.

Well, that's not DC's current position at least, but you are of course entitled to your opinion. In fact DC himself always favoured these choices.

As it currently stands his plan seems to be to have a split in Mia's branch between Helen and Yumi, while Mia will be available in both cases (Harold always gets the other one in that case), while in Erik's case there's only going to be a choice between June and Mrs. Jonson, while each scenario would be meant to have a threesome option with the other as optional alternative.

I see that we won't agree here anway, but I'll repeat myself insofar, as that there are certainly way better harem games than SS.

Edit:

I was mostly just trying to prove a point that the routes are better when they're more focused on one girl.

Which isn't really a point that's up to discussion, though. The number of girls per route is basically set and won't be changed (3 to 4 per update for the next 3 school girl updates). The question is just how you distribute their scenes. The art that's required hardly changes and ultimately that's the only limiting factor for any update which isn't the tech update.

 

[CUNTBLAZER420]

Well, that's not DC's current position at least, but you are of course entitled to your opinion. In fact DC himself always favoured these choices.

As it currently stands his plan seems to be to have a split in Mia's branch between Helen and Yumi, while Mia will be available in both cases (Harold always gets the other one in that case), while in Erik's case there's only going to be a choice between June and Mrs. Jonson, while each scenario would be meant to have a threesome option with the other as optional alternative.

I see that we won't agree here anway, but I'll repeat myself insofar, as that there are certainly way better harem games than SS.

Edit:

Which isn't really a point that's up to discussion, though. The number of girls per route is basically set and won't be changed (3 to 4 per update for the next 3 school girl updates). The question is just how you distribute their scenes. The art that's required hardly changes and ultimately that's the only limiting factor for any update which isn't the tech update.

I said "more focused" not solely focused. Yes there are 3-4 girls per route but the routes' main focus will be one of the "main" girls, Rhonda, Annie, and Judith. Everyone else is a side character within their respective arcs. Yes they will all get scenes and stuff, but the scene distribution and story focus will be heavily swayed to the main character of the arc. That's how Roxy went, that's how Eve went and I guarantee you that's how the rest will go as well. You will never see content lockouts again. I'm doubling down on that. That may not be what the game started out as, but that's almost certainly how it's going to end up.

 

[Omnikuken]

Let's save that post and bring it back next year for R(h)onda's update

 

[PokeIssau]

Hi guys, I have the online gallery (so to speak since it's just the animated scenes) of the Summertime Saga cookie jar.


I usually make them for myself since sometimes I want to see some specific scene but for whatever reason I can't/want to open the game, would you guys like me to upload it here? I have already shared some of the ones I have made, here and here you will find a couple of them.
If you guys don't want, I will keep them for myself or upload it in a separate thread

I leave you some previews.

Spoiler: Previews

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cheers

 

[Count Morado]

Hi guys, I have the online gallery (so to speak since it's just the animated scenes) of the Summertime Saga cookie jar.

I usually make them for myself since sometimes I want to see some specific scene but for whatever reason I can't/want to open the game, would you guys like me to upload it here? I have already shared some of the ones I have made, here and here you will find a couple of them.
If you guys don't want, I will keep them for myself or upload it in a separate thread

cheers

There's an already well-established Fan Art thread linked from the OP that would have a lot of folks wanting more of your work.