Ren'Py Summertime Saga [v21.0.0 wip.5605] [Kompas Productions]

[Dave98424]

I lost interest in this game years ago and basically forgot about it. Does the sister ever stop being a bitch to the MC ?.

 

[APoc1]

Sploosh joined the team for 0.14.3, which was Aqua's update. The main coder did actually change 3 times (4 times if you include DC, who did it at first), which is part of the reason why there's now a tech update happening.

Last but not least I'm still not really sure what people actually expected from this specific update. They managed to add scenes for 3 very minor characters, giving each of them a bit of character and some background, while not breaking Nadya's character. That's all that was really needed if you ask me, given that they weren't ever supposed to get more than these few lines in the first place.

Next to that one should remember that Nadya and Jeb are actually real people from Russia/Ukraine and I'm pretty sure that Jeb actually helped with parts of the dialog. As said above, there may simply be some cultural differences at play in some details, which make it harder for people form western europe or even the US to appreciate it.

Okay so DC started the concept and wrote the first parts of the game and then hired sploosh that can explain some of the tone changes I suppose.

As far as what people expect from updates this is the web many folks just want someone to hear them complain because they are disappointed they can't finish the game on "their time line" and then you get the I got the game for free milkers adding their chaos to the mix and in the end you get a chaotic pile of posts with a few people who are willing to rationally discuss game aspects without getting hyperbolic about it. kind of like going to a flea market 95% of the shit there is junk but you may find some good stuff if you look.

 

[Badjourasmix]

yeah i especially noticed this during the main story which was so weird tonally. you've got all this dialogue you can't take serious at all from ricardo and keanu reeves to tony seeing you as his son and asking you to impregnate his wife while he watches because you delivered pizzas for a week for him... and suddenly the game introduces human trafficking, murder and MC standing there with a gun about to shoot some russian mob boss like in a korean thriller or something. it was just weird. i was so sure during the whole time that MC's father would still be alive and to stay true to the game's tone he disappeared for some dumb reason that's actually sort of funny but nope.

honestly i wish DC would hire a decent writer, he definitely has the money for it. the game still being written by non-pros is his decision.

I think for most character stories in the game, the writing is fine. But yeah it's hard to take the main story seriously when it involves murder and human trafficking and at the same time most of the characters are parodies of IRL people and dialogues are still very comedy oriented.

 

[halluva]

All three of them play the cold Russian stereotype to the goddamn hilt

I have to imagine that whoever wrote their dialog is the same person that turned Eric and his mom into a bunch of Jewish stereotypes and caricatures. Seriously, the scenes in his basement hit me like a ton of bricks; at no point before then were they at all written like that and then suddenly they're walking off the comic pages of Der Stürmer

 

[j4yj4m]

yeah i played the whole main story from the beginning. i guess i just didn't like the game gettind darker or making an attempt at a more serious story at all. tonally it made no sense to me that you go from talking to keanu reeves to having sex with a cow and suddenly the game becomes a semi serious thriller. it didn't work for me at all and i wish the game would have stayed tonally consitent throughout.

It's odd that I was never bothered by that, but maybe that's because I knew that DC wouldn't go as far as to add actual rape and stuff. I actually likedt that MC was shown as somewhat decisive and serious compared to his usual self. To me it underlined, that there have always been these two different main objectives, one that deals with the death of his dead and one that deals with this whole prom/dating thing. It's kinda fitting how you describe it, it's like a thrillerish on one side and american pie on the other.

so yeah i totally expected MC father to still be alive and as for him being okay with fucking MC his daughter and wife. i mean much much weirder shit happened in this game. like MC impregnating half the towns female population with no repurcussion or MC having sex with a fish or cow girl.

or maybe everyone would just agree to keep this shit a secret from your father, i don't know i'm sure a halfway decent writer could have made it work

Really? To me that last part would have been worse than being dead and really unfitting for the game. DC usually really tries to be good to MC's buddies/friends (like Terry, Harold, Erik, etc.) and to not cuck them. I vastly prefer to have some closure than having to deal with this whole NTR aspect. I mean, there's a reason why there's no dad in 95% of incest games.
It would have been strange if every man in town is suddenly ok when MC fucks their wife. You can do that once or twice, but not like 4 or 5 times.

For a game that gave a lot of depth to tertiary characters like Grace in just a few short scenes, the writing is shockingly disengaged. I think the team is just as sick of the small pre-tech crap as the rest of us.

I'm sorry, but that comparison is off. Grace is a pretty popular secondary character, with multiple appearances across several quests and stories, while these three were literally just added to the game, so the warehouse isn't just full of dudes.

 

[McSlut]

I think for most character stories in the game, the writing is fine. But yeah it's hard to take the main story seriously when it involves murder and human trafficking and at the same time most of the characters are paradies of IRL people and dialogues are still very comedy oriented.

it kinda blows my mind that the writer(s) even attempted to make this story serious. STS was the best when strictly about MC being horny and trying to get into every girls pants and on the way getting into funny or dumb or (in the case of eve) romantic situations. nothing more, nothing less.

btw i hate how MC is written nowadays. like he's objectively a pretty scummy person, with multiple girlfriends who he all impregnates simultanously and (literally) also having sex with everyone and their moms. why are the writers always trying to make him this morally infallible character even though his actions are pretty evil. it's like MurkyTurtle said, he frees a couple women from human trafficking then fucks them the same day. now i don't have problems with that per se and i'm not offended at all, i just hate how the writers still trying to make him a morally pure. he always randomly stumbles into these sex scenes instead of being moitvated by his own horniness which would make much more sense. it's really hard to explain but it really takes me out of the game.

 

[kameohawk]

Again, I think these pre-tech updates are a mistake, it's all just additional animations with existing characters. I think the tech update will be out before the end of the year, I could very well be wrong on that. People can argue whether the tech update was necessary or not, but I do think it will make the game better.

tech updates are needed. Especially if you've been ignoring refactoring of your code. the problem here is it's taken the dev all this time to the point it is obviously to all but the most deluded that he's half arsing the work.

In software development terms you try to keep your code clean as you work but eventually you'll accumulate up enough tech debt that you might want to stop for a sprint or two and hammer the backlog to clear out the wee problems before they become big problems and ultimately make future development easier.

Downing tools for a 2 week sprint to clean up house is one thing. To stop forward momentum of the project melts my mind. But then if you're getting money for it regardless then why not?

 

[Marphey]

yeah i played the whole main story from the beginning. i guess i just didn't like the game gettind darker or making an attempt at a more serious story at all. tonally it made no sense to me that you go from talking to keanu reeves to having sex with a cow and suddenly the game becomes a semi serious thriller. it didn't work for me at all and i wish the game would have stayed tonally consitent throughout. so yeah i totally expected MC father to still be alive and as for him being okay with fucking MC his daughter and wife. i mean much much weirder shit happened in this game. like MC impregnating half the towns female population with no repurcussion or MC having sex with a fish or cow girl.

or maybe everyone would just agree to keep this shit a secret from your father, i don't know i'm sure a halfway decent writer could have made it work

Well some here posted once that DC are adamant about balant cheating and that's why you will either have Tony scenario where he is totally ok about you fucking and impregnating his wife or like Helen situation where you have to break their relationship first.

 

[Omnikuken]

it kinda blows my mind that the writer(s) even attempted to make this story serious. STS was the best when strictly about MC being horny and trying to get into every girls pants and on the way getting into funny or dumb or (in the case of eve) romantic situations. nothing more, nothing less.

btw i hate how MC is written nowadays. like he's objectively a pretty scummy person, with multiple girlfriends who he all impregnates simultanously and (literally) also having sex with everyone and their moms. why are the writers always trying to make him this morally infallible character even though his actions are pretty evil. it's like MurkyTurtle said, he frees a couple women from human trafficking then fucks them the same day. now i don't have problems with that per se and i'm not offended at all, i just hate how the writers still trying to make him a morally pure. he always randomly stumbles into these sex scenes instead of being moitvated by his own horniness which would make much more sense. it's really hard to explain but it really takes me out of the game.

You technically have to wait at least 1 week between buttstuffing Nadya for the 1st time and then being able to get the new batch 5 scenes (as said in the changelog) .....

 

[Bestinian]

Is Mia's route still useless? I haven't played in years and was hoping to have a better scene of her losing her virginity and have her story be more about her than her mom.

 

[itsyeboii]

I don't expect this game to have top tier writing or be deep or anything. But I have to agree with RootingForRoz , the game always had goofy writing and not always the good kind of goofy at that. So when the game tries to take itself serious, whether it is MC trying to be alpha or romantic, or the game itself, it just feels so off and is sometimes cringe inducing.

I'd like to see more focus on the lewd and H-scenes, just give us more content and the padding won't be as bad. But personally, this content/dialogue dynamic we have now is not it. If the biggest chunk is going to be dialogue then make it enjoyable, otherwise put in some more lewd stuff. That's just my opinion tho.

 

[Marphey]

I thought the tech updates were originally supposed to be 1-2 parts in order to improve the pace of development.

Really disappointed as one of the earliest supporters. Started support when I was a junior in college, and now I'm almost 28. All I want is Annie content lol.

I am also almost 28 but i want her mom.

 

[McSlut]

Well some here posted once that DC are adamant about balant cheating and that's why you will either have Tony scenario where he is totally ok about you fucking and impregnating his wife or like Helen situation where you have to break their relationship first.

i'm fine with no cheating and i don't need MC to become completly evil. i just hate how randomly he stumbles into sex scenes with everyone now. why can't he be horny and proactive looking for pussy? much more relatable than h-scenes almost always being initiated by the female. i remember it being more like this when STS started developing. like MC was horny for mia so he checked her out on the telescope. he was horny for his mom and jenny so he sneaked into the shower. i think this is part of why i think the writing has become much worse.

 

[jish55]

I thought the last pre-tech update would be the last pre-tech update.

 

[APoc1]

Well some here posted once that DC are adamant about balant cheating and that's why you will either have Tony scenario where he is totally ok about you fucking and impregnating his wife or like Helen situation where you have to break their relationship first.

In some cultures you are not cheating until you are married having multiple girls does not constitute cheating in those cultures. In the case of Tony and Maria its more like swingers then cheating with the impregneting aspect thrown in to justify the act kind of a gray area. Its mostly in western cultures that you find this notion that you are required to be faithful to your girlfriend.

 

[j4yj4m]

btw i hate how MC is written nowadays. like he's objectively a pretty scummy person, with multiple girlfriends who he all impregnates simultanously and (literally) also having sex with everyone and their moms. why are the writers always trying to make him this morally infallible character even though his actions are pretty evil. it's like MurkyTurtle said, he frees a couple women from human trafficking then fucks them the same day. now i don't have problems with that per se and i'm not offended at all, i just hate how the writers still trying to make him a morally pure. he always randomly stumbles into these sex scenes instead of being moitvated by his own horniness which would make much more sense. it's really hard to explain but it really takes me out of the game.

Well, that's honestly down to the player for the most part. It's still a sandbox and we are free to play MC as we want. Sploosh actually even talked about cleaning up the main story at some point, so MC wouldn't have to fuck anybody to solve it, if that's what the player wants.

Their goal, as stated, is to enable "true one girl routes" for the main girls, if the player choses to take them. You just have to keep in mind that about 50% of the playerbase, among them for example quite a few people here (looking at srksrk 68), want to be able to get as many girls as possible - or even all of them - in one playthrough.

There's simply a limit as to how far DC will be able to make everbody happy. It's an immanent problem, simply because there are just so many chracters. The only way to really solve it would be to add strict routes, so MC can be consistent within that route without ways for the player to switch into another scenario. But as said, that's not what's on the menue.

Those who really want total consistency will likely have to play real VNs or kinetic novels - SS will probably never reach that level.

Edit:

i'm fine with no cheating and i don't need MC to become completly evil. i just hate how randomly he stumbles into sex scenes with everyone now. why can't he be horny and proactive looking for pussy? much more relatable than h-scenes almost always being initiated by the female. i remember it being more like this when STS started developing. like MC was horny for mia so he checked her out on the telescope. he was horny for his mom and jenny so he sneaked into the shower. i think this is part of why i think the writing has become much worse.

That's honestly a very fine line to walk, between being horny and between being one of these pretty stupid and really creepy, borderline rapist MC's as there are like hundreds of them around. I'd guess that's actually the reason, why they limited that approach and not elaborated it much further.
I have to say that I'm quite happy that they did that.

 

[Omnikuken]

Well, that's honestly down to the player for the most part. It's still a sandbox and we are free to play MC as we want. Sploosh actually even talked about cleaning up the main story at some point, so MC wouldn't have to fuck anybody to solve it, if that's what the player wants.

Their goal, as stated, is to enable "true one girl routes" for the main girls, if the player choses to take them. You just have to keep in mind that about 50% of the playerbase, among them for example quite a few people here (looking at srksrk 68), want to be able to get as many girls as possible - or even all of them - in one playthrough.

There's simply a limit as to how far DC will be able to make everbody happy. It's an immanent problem, simply because there are just so many chracters. The only way to really solve it would be to add strict routes, so MC can be consistent within that route without ways for the player to switch into another scenario. But as said, that's not what's on the menue.

Those who really want total consistency will likely have to play real VNs or kinetic novels - SS will probably never reach that level.

Guess the game being a harem sandbox is hard to understand for some people ..... Unless they start blocking routes (which won't happen and would defeat the point of the game) once you go out with 1 girl, many duders around here will stay mad about nothing (big surprise). It's as if actually reading what the game is and figuring out it won't please every1 is too much for the majority of the thread (another big surprise)

 

[Tauro Thurius]

I think the main concern for many folks here is not the harem route but a sudden change of tone when it comes to the story, derailing the whole plot from lighthearted adventures of a high schooler orphan to murder mystery. However, to games' defence the plot introduction starts with MC's dad's funeral and him being killed by some mysterious people. The murder mystery was always a part of the plot, regardless of how lighthearted the whole adventure feels. Remember how Raz's goons break into MC's house, literally hit Debbie and threaten them.

 

[McSlut]

That's honestly a very fine line to walk, between being horny and between being one of these pretty stupid and really creepy MC's as there are like hundreds of them around. I'd guess that's actually the reason, why they limited that approach and not elaborated further.
I have to say that I'm really happy that they did that.

if their goal was making the MC not creepy they really failed, the STS MC already is one of the creepiest main characters i've ever played as. i think what makes him so creepy to me is the dissonance between his actions and the stuff he says or thinks. he impregnates eve and her sister and when they talk about he is like "why don't you keep the child? we'd be one happy family!" or something. i think it would be less creepy if he was just like "man i really fucked up, i fucking impregnated my girlfriend, her sister and her best friend. oh well i was horny as fuck and i'm gonna make it work as long as nobody finds out"

 

[j4yj4m]

if their goal was making the MC not creepy they really failed, the STS MC already is one of the creepiest main characters i've ever played as. i think what makes him so creepy to me is the dissonance between his actions and the stuff he says or thinks. he impregnates eve and her sister and when they talk about he is like "why don't you keep the child? we'd be one happy family!" or something. i think it would be less creepy if he was just like "man i really fucked up, i fucking impregnated my girlfriend, her sister and her best friend. oh well i was horny as fuck and i'm gonna make it work as long as nobody finds out"

As said, it's a sandbox. Do you really expect them to add a perfect scenario/dialog for every possible situation MC could be in? Let alone at this stage of development?

I'd actually agree that Eve's route does need a choice/split to enable a better story for Grace and Odette, but your standpoint seems pretty extreme.

If you want to have a better experience, maybe just not impregnate Eve, Grace and Odette in the same playthrough? Or ignore Odette and Grace completely, if you can't bear to cheat on Eve? That's what a sandbox is for.