VN Ren'Py Completed Sunshine Love [Ch. 3 v1.01i Extras] [MrDots Games]

[sorco2003]

well - we don't give a fuck about number of stars at all in general.....
BUT:
Even we (Dots creator team) agree that SL is the worst of all 3 games. I don't say that SL is bad at all, but still to be fair the other 2 games are definitively better. So it's more than fair that SL has lower ratings then Melody or DMD.
I already said in a previous post that a 1 star rating isn't right, same as a 5 star rating wouldn't be fair.
I could elaborate why SL is worse than the other 2, and tell the reason for that, but that's internal and even though no excuse - so i refrain from doing that.
Just say because we restructured the workflow and changed the way we develop the story and scenes, we are pretty sure, the next game will be much better again - and if people do ratings based on the new experience and NOT being biased early just because of SL or anything from the past, i am sure the ratings will show that. The first changes can already be seen in SL (the scenes with shortcake near end of the story) which were already build by the new "style". But visuals are just one of the points we gonna change - that's a promise.

EDIT:
Maybe i can tell one of the main changes related to workflow though:
For the past 7 years, we always aimed for a monthly update and set a deadline very early. We managed to hold nearly every deadline and only missed 3 within the whole 7 years - 1 of them due to technical issues - 1 of them (the last one of SL) we delayed to move to x-mas as one of the reason - and 1 of them we had to delay because we wanted to add one scene and didn't manage to get it done in time. All other releases were on point.
No other developer team has been that reliable - and we know, people honor our reliability.
But things have changed. Animations are expected to be much more detailed, longer and look more realistic. The render quality improved because of new engines and assets, but they need more render time. There are more girls demanded which ends in more pathing (SL had more datable girls than Melody and DMD together) - and much more.
This deadlines and grown dev time and all lead to more "rushed" updates, also sometimes we had to take scenes out just to be done in time for deadline.
But we decided that can't be the way to go anymore - we need to focus back on quality - so we get rid of deadlines like we used to set. The future updates will be out when done, and most likely that will not be on monthly base anymore because of the bigger workload. We still try to get updates out as soon as possible, but we feel the urge to do the updates again exactly like we want them to be instead of "rushed" versions for the deadline.
In short: expect the new game in a 2 monthly update cycle (maybe few less or even more).

Beyond what you say, which are technical aspects that dented the production and therefore the final quality, on a personal level as a story and as a game itself, why do you find SL worse than Melody and DMD?
I always find it important to highlight intellectual honesty, for me it is a rare attribute and I wanted to congratulate you for it.

 

[Hyperserver]

Beyond what you say, which are technical aspects that dented the production and therefore the final quality, on a personal level as a story and as a game itself, why do you find SL worse than Melody and DMD?
I always find it important to highlight intellectual honesty, for me it is a rare attribute and I wanted to congratulate you for it.

it's hard to put it all together - there are many details.
So for example the facial expressions. As there are so many different girls in there in SL we basically didn't new facials for every scene but used the same basic few ones for different scenes again, and used "average" expressions which could be used in more than one situation. That worked for the first games. But after time those facials are well known and the game visuals feel like worn out and already known/seen.
What worked fine in Melody and also particulary in DMD 6 years ago, is outdated today as circumstances have changed. We kinda missed to adjust much earlier i guess.
In the new game we try to get rid of them.
Another topic has been the textwalls. So for example the "cooking lecture" in SL. Some people just get bored reading such stuff. Better focus on the core of the story rather than fleshing out non-story related stuff.
Another example: We often let the character "think about stuff" visibly like "hmm... do i really want to peek - it's immoral to peek on your sister ...". It's the player who plays the game - we should let the player have his own thoughts about why he should do the one choice or the other. Like we did it has been like lecturing the player how he has to think - and that's wrong.
Third point we need to change: In all 3 games, we had MC being kind of insecure at first - which made players angry. Even the MC changed his insecurity later on, the players were already upset.
In the new game this has to be different - also because of the story plot we need a player with spine and willpower right from the start, or the whole story will not work (can't say more than that right now).
There are also some changes in workflow, which player will not notice, but which will lead to a better quality overall as we guess.

I hope that answers at least partial your questions.

EDIT:
One other point why SL hasn't been the quality of DMD or Melody is, that the creative member who had the whole story arcs in mind, and who is responsible for the main story plot at all and brought that story up, had to leave the team right after release of the first updates due to personal reason. So to be honest it was close to stop SL at all at that point, but we decided to continue and had to improvise here and there - that might be the reason why SL especially after some updates felt kind of "weird".

 

[cxx]

So iv read some of the comments, and I don't really get what the devs expected... You write her as dissatisfied and throw in NTR vibes, then wonder why a vanilla community gets upset????

if you mean older sis and vicky then don't remember players yelling ntr on dmd when dee was having sex with elena before dee's daddy found out.

 

[BHell]

According to the official walkthrough, there's a hidden bonus scene in the Victoria ending:

NOTE: If you also have the Sis path ON, then there will be a bonus montage
threesome scene featuring, the MC, Victoria and your Sis during this ending.

But is this scene actually reachable through normal gameplay (i.e. without meddling with relationship status in the menu)? I'm asking because getting to the 125 of 135 points required for the Victoria ending seems to depend heavily on the whopping +30 points you get in her solo scene at the end of episode 2, which is mutually exclusive with being on the Sister path, and I don't think it's possible to even remotely make up for those points in the threesome scene and the scenes leading up to it.

The only way to have it occur and still have the story play out somewhat naturally would be to manually switch the Sis path off for Victoria scenes in episode 2 and back on again outside of those, which I doubt is how anyone plays the game.

Unless I'm overlooking something here, that certainly seems like an oversight, if not a bug.

 

[Ceesko]

I think this game is rated worse than Melody (despite Melody, DmD and this basically having the same level of writing more or less) is because by his third game which is this people are starting to see Mrdots is not a good writer and always writes bland, stuttering or bafoon protagonists.

Another problem of his writing is his tendency to write every thought that comes into any characters mind. All of his 3 games have bad writing with boring Protagonists who speak a lot yet say very little, with the biggest saving grace of the games is the renders of the girls.

 

[Hyperserver]

I think this game is rated worse than Melody (despite Melody, DmD and this basically having the same level of writing more or less) is because by his third game which is this people are starting to see Mrdots is not a good writer and always writes bland, stuttering or bafoon protagonists.

Another problem of his writing is his tendency to write every thought that comes into any characters mind. All of his 3 games have bad writing with boring Protagonists who speak a lot yet say very little, with the biggest saving grace of the games is the renders of the girls.

basically what i said already here: https://f95zone.to/threads/sunshine-love-ch-3-v1-01i-extras-mrdots-games.49330/post-12745648

Even though you are right, we already are aware about these facts, and admitted to it. Also i already told that THIS is exactly why even WE think SL is the worst of our 3 games - you are kind of late to point that out - lol

EDIT: And you are also right about the fact, that MrDots is a "bad writer"- he isn't even english native - that's why he doesn't write the scenes (textlines) at all. He does the rendering and the coding - not the scene fleshing out and also not the dialogues XD. That's Hearsz (or at least that's how it used to be).
New workflow would be that we all sit in teams, discussing about a scene setup. Then Dots will do the rendering - then Hearsz will do the writing, and we all discuss again the result to apply changes if necessary. So it's not a defined separated workload - it's way more teamwork than before.
Oh - and let's not forget about Mistress - who does the same as MrDots (rendering and coding).
I for my part do basically "creative work", like scene setup, background stories, idea input, proofreading, feedback, internal critics .. and so on.
So for example the main side character in new game will more or less be shaped by my doing, but been polished by team work.

 

[cxx]

According to the official walkthrough, there's a hidden bonus scene in the Victoria ending:

yes there is and you should get enuf vic and sis points to do that path but there's 3 options and easiest of those is to use sancho mod to see all endings (A LOT of those).

 

[Hyperserver]

According to the official walkthrough, there's a hidden bonus scene in the Victoria ending

yes there is and you should get enuf vic and sis points to do that path but there's 3 options and easiest of those is to use sancho mod to see all endings (A LOT of those).

And not to forget that the requirements for the endings were adjusted/lowered. If you have the newest version of the game (1.01), you should be fine.
If you downloaded the game early (around x-mas), then you still might have version 1.0 - if that's the case, i advice to re-download.

 

[cxx]

well on my play i had 3 endings unlocked before editing stats.

 

[BHell]

yes there is and you should get enuf vic and sis points to do that path but there's 3 options and easiest of those is to use sancho mod to see all endings (A LOT of those).

And not to forget that the requirements for the endings were adjusted/lowered. If you have the newest version of the game (1.01), you should be fine.
If you downloaded the game early (around x-mas), then you still might have version 1.0 - if that's the case, i advice to re-download.

Thanks. I do actually have the 1.01 version, but I was planning out another playthrough to check off some paths/endings I'm still missing, based on the walkthrough. So I assumed the numbers in there were still accurate and wondered how it could work out.

 

[cxx]

Thanks. I do actually have the 1.01 version, but I was planning out another playthrough to check off some paths/endings I'm still missing, based on the walkthrough. So I assumed the numbers in there were still accurate and wondered how it could work out.

well like said, easiest is to install sancho mod and then sancho gallery and play each ending 1 after 1 after 1 after zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

 

[Hyperserver]

Thanks. I do actually have the 1.01 version, but I was planning out another playthrough to check off some paths/endings I'm still missing, based on the walkthrough. So I assumed the numbers in there were still accurate and wondered how it could work out.

easy way: start chapter 3 NEW and don't load a savegame - input 350 as value for every girl once you are asked for input - and have enough points for all combinations you want to see. Use tablet character menu to toggle paths to your likings/needs.

 

[cxx]

and keep incest enabled or endings drop quite "a bit".

 

[Lil Caster]

Devs thought we wouldn't notice the Saul Goodman joke at the end if Nicole's dialogue.

 

[Hyperserver]

Devs thought we wouldn't notice the Saul Goodman joke at the end if Nicole's dialogue.

you wouldn't believe it how many references we put into our games which weren't noticed at all.

So for example: the name of our next game is already mentionned somewhere in SL

Or a scene in SL actually shows a real place about few hundred meteres away from where i live - several Simpsons refernces .. and so on

 

[cxx]

well we are too busy to see anything else than mc's sisters tits and ass and enjoy ashley's comforting.

 

[rciik]

So for example: the name of our next game is already mentionned somewhere in SL

When can we expect any information regarding his new game?

 

[Hyperserver]

When can we expect any information regarding his new game?

in a few weeks - mid-end February at earliest

 

[Durkzinh]

115 charges and mr goldbridge that ending was unexpected

 

[cxx]

115 charges and mr goldbridge that ending was unexpected

what do you mean?