Nice game start.
Really like the cartoony look.
And a zombie based game where people are aware of that theme, where not everyone never heard of that concept before ...
On the matter of sandbox/mini-games.
I voted (for "keeping it, but simple") before playing the game.
This in itself is a hint. Those tags are damn broad and can mean almost anything in a VN on here, from hinted-at to full-on main-theme. Like with the changed corruption tag mentioned.
So, especially if you already played a few games with a specific tag, you (I) might misjudge drastically what it means for a new game - and the more bad (personal opinion) implementations I have encountered already, the more other things have to jump out at me from the preview to make me give it a try.
As others mentioned, there are tons of games that have badly implemented sandboxes and/or mini-games. Technically or story-wise.
And like with everything else, vocal minorities tend to generate a bad impression that impacts way more than it should.
At least in my mind, those games that give you no clue/log/whatever, expect you to have like 98%+ right choices, that are badly labeled or hidden behind time constraints you aren't aware of, and others, scare me off games that make heavy use of sandbox elements.
Despite there being games around like "Echoes of Lust" or "Neko Paradise", that give you some information of where you stand with each character, and some knowledge the MC would have about how to proceed.
Same with mini-games. Searching forever to find a few non-highlighted pixels almost colored like the background to click on is no fun.
But both used right can greatly enhance my gaming experience and lighten the game play.
The question always is, is it needed? Does it benefit the gaming experience? Is it just filler or actually tied to what else is going on. At what level is it implemented? The shallower, the less it is just an alternate "click", but the more complex and difficult they become, the more we go away from "Visual-Novel" towards "Point-And-Click Adventure". And while I enjoy those too, I have much less time for gaming than say 10 years ago. I'm more looking towards the story (however much real story that entails) on here, than using my evening for "solving just one quest/riddle more" unless I'm specifically aiming for that kind of game, which I do much more rarely now than some years back in general.
That said, I played "Shag the Hag" in mostly one go despite hating too much grind - but the game somehow really got to me.
After having played the game and loving it
, I can say, this level is totally ok for me - a little more most likely too.
Both blend into the story pretty well and don't distract from it or stall it. It breaks it up a little and they are nicely done.
As long as the feel of them keeps like this, go wild!
Just don't make it into something meta where we are up against the mechanic/implementation, please.
