Ren'Py Tentacle Slave [v0.45] [Mouseguru]

[domacleod]

Either the game is impossibly hard-coded to do things on a specific day else you get softlocked (in which case, why make it a sandbox game? Just make it a visual novel with no choices if there are no choices to make anyway) or there is no way to get the ball event to trigger, which means that there is no way to advance at all.

If there are events that MUST trigger else you get softlocked, make it so they happen without player input.

If I have to follow a walkthrough from the beginning of the game, that's not a game, it's a visual novel with extra steps, and I'd rather avoid the alt-tabbing and just read the visual novel if that's the case.

Can't comment on the quality of the content as there was barely any that I got to experience.

Oh and neither sorceress nor alchemist seem to actually do anything beyond flavor text, haven't tried witch.

Sorceress can fight in the arena, but the magic spells are useless, they never hit, you need a dagger and a lot of training to reliably win. The spells are literally just taking up screen space. "I cast Stab"

Alchemist can gather ingredients and make potions.
You can make a potion of health, doing the self-evident thing, a potion of "soothing" which reduces your arousal, trying to drink the thorny vine tea gives no result other than text that says you made tea (which is.. weird, because you already had tea and you clicked the drink button)
There are a few recipes that exist but don't work:
- Soothing requires Chasteberry, but if you try to make it from the recipe screen it doesnt work - you can do it from the ingredients screen by clicking on chasteberry
- Lust seems impossible to make. Shows no ingredients.
- Breast growth seems impossible to make. After 10 minutes of "Search the forest" I found no "breastfruit".
- Energy seems impossible to make. Shows no ingredients.
- You can make penis growth potion, presumably to turn yourself into a futa. However after 60 penis growth potions and a repeated "has no effect but some heat in your pussy" and waiting for 20 days after (imagining it might take time for the potion to work), still nothing happens.

You can't make anyone else drink any potion.

Despite you having a shop that you own as an alchemist, you also can't sell those potions anywhere.

Health is restored automatically when the day ends, arousal can be dealt with in multiple ways, so the fact that you can go gather ingredients and make a total of 2 working potions (health and soothing) by /hoping/ you get the right ingredients (as the other ingredients have no use and you aren't guaranteed to find any ingrident) is completely moot, as you can spend the same amount of time dancing at the bar instead, which gives you money to spend on weapons and training, or masturbating at the bar, which gets rid of your arousal without you needing to put in any effort than "be in town at the time the bar is open".

I hope it gets a lot more fleshed out in future releases. I've wasted about an hour and a half on this by now. If you have to follow the walkthrough to the letter I'm done bothering. Softlocks have no reason to exist. Plus the walkthrough is now outdated by 15 versions.

 

[mouseguru]

Either the game is impossibly hard-coded to do things on a specific day else you get softlocked (in which case, why make it a sandbox game? Just make it a visual novel with no choices if there are no choices to make anyway) or there is no way to get the ball event to trigger, which means that there is no way to advance at all.

If there are events that MUST trigger else you get softlocked, make it so they happen without player input.

If I have to follow a walkthrough from the beginning of the game, that's not a game, it's a visual novel with extra steps, and I'd rather avoid the alt-tabbing and just read the visual novel if that's the case.

Can't comment on the quality of the content as there was barely any that I got to experience.

Oh and neither sorceress nor alchemist seem to actually do anything beyond flavor text, haven't tried witch.

Sorceress can fight in the arena, but the magic spells are useless, they never hit, you need a dagger and a lot of training to reliably win. The spells are literally just taking up screen space. "I cast Stab"

Alchemist can gather ingredients and make potions.
You can make a potion of health, doing the self-evident thing, a potion of "soothing" which reduces your arousal, trying to drink the thorny vine tea gives no result other than text that says you made tea (which is.. weird, because you already had tea and you clicked the drink button)
There are a few recipes that exist but don't work:
- Soothing requires Chasteberry, but if you try to make it from the recipe screen it doesnt work - you can do it from the ingredients screen by clicking on chasteberry
- Lust seems impossible to make. Shows no ingredients.
- Breast growth seems impossible to make. After 10 minutes of "Search the forest" I found no "breastfruit".
- Energy seems impossible to make. Shows no ingredients.
- You can make penis growth potion, presumably to turn yourself into a futa. However after 60 penis growth potions and a repeated "has no effect but some heat in your pussy" and waiting for 20 days after (imagining it might take time for the potion to work), still nothing happens.

You can't make anyone else drink any potion.

Despite you having a shop that you own as an alchemist, you also can't sell those potions anywhere.

Health is restored automatically when the day ends, arousal can be dealt with in multiple ways, so the fact that you can go gather ingredients and make a total of 2 working potions (health and soothing) by /hoping/ you get the right ingredients (as the other ingredients have no use and you aren't guaranteed to find any ingrident) is completely moot, as you can spend the same amount of time dancing at the bar instead, which gives you money to spend on weapons and training, or masturbating at the bar, which gets rid of your arousal without you needing to put in any effort than "be in town at the time the bar is open".

I hope it gets a lot more fleshed out in future releases. I've wasted about an hour and a half on this by now. If you have to follow the walkthrough to the letter I'm done bothering. Softlocks have no reason to exist. Plus the walkthrough is now outdated by 15 versions.

Thanks for the extensive feedback.

Sooo...first things first. As a solo developer, I had high initial aspirations for this game, but ended up with a development cycle that was impossibly long. So much so that, despite noticing a LOT of the same issues that you've experienced, it's taken me YEARS to even partially finish the next release, let alone address all of the outstanding quality of play issues.

* Missing the ball is indeed a softlock. However, it only locks you out of *one* questline, and there are other ways to accomplish things in the game. That being said, I'll think about ways to work around that - such as notifying the player if the ball is happening soon, or notifying them if they accidentally missed the ball (in which case they can undo/backtrack and go there).

* There are several event chains associated with the sorceress class that are actually part of the upcoming release. I think SOME of the unique sorceress content is already in the game, but I'll need to check. In any case, if you want to get better at sorceress spells, practicing at the Arena is a requirement. Just like practicing weapons training is, to improve accuracy with the dagger.

* Alchemist is probably the least-developed class. There are certain potions you can't craft YET in the game - such as breast expansion - because breastfruit only become available once you have a certain encounter and get captured in the forest. You'll know it when it happens. If your companion(s) get away, they'll bring back some breastfruit after the event concludes.

A penis growth potion only works if you actually have a penis to begin with. There are a few ways in the game to get one, including an event chain that starts with visiting Sensua at the Church and asking her about her cock.

Thorny Vine Tea makes your nipples fuckable (which allows other things to fit in those fuckable nipples later), but you need to drink three servings. If you do that before the getting captured in the forest event and make the right choices, you'll come out with...a special set of items to put in those fuckable nipples.

I don't recall what Lust and Energy potions need offhand. I'll check and report back on that later.

The alchemy shop was also supposed to have a lengthy event chain and give you income every so often from unique events and potion sales, but again, that development fell by the wayside in favor of other content. At some point, likely years in the future, I'll finish this game and the alchemy shop will make Alchemists a bit more fun and interesting.

* The Witch class has several unique scenes that involve curses, including ways to get ADDITIONAL companions.

 

[domacleod]

Thanks for the extensive feedback.

Sooo...first things first. As a solo developer, I had high initial aspirations for this game, but ended up with a development cycle that was impossibly long. So much so that, despite noticing a LOT of the same issues that you've experienced, it's taken me YEARS to even partially finish the next release, let alone address all of the outstanding quality of play issues.

* Missing the ball is indeed a softlock. However, it only locks you out of *one* questline, and there are other ways to accomplish things in the game. That being said, I'll think about ways to work around that - such as notifying the player if the ball is happening soon, or notifying them if they accidentally missed the ball (in which case they can undo/backtrack and go there).

* There are several event chains associated with the sorceress class that are actually part of the upcoming release. I think SOME of the unique sorceress content is already in the game, but I'll need to check. In any case, if you want to get better at sorceress spells, practicing at the Arena is a requirement. Just like practicing weapons training is, to improve accuracy with the dagger.

* Alchemist is probably the least-developed class. There are certain potions you can't craft YET in the game - such as breast expansion - because breastfruit only become available once you have a certain encounter and get captured in the forest. You'll know it when it happens. If your companion(s) get away, they'll bring back some breastfruit after the event concludes.

A penis growth potion only works if you actually have a penis to begin with. There are a few ways in the game to get one, including an event chain that starts with visiting Sensua at the Church and asking her about her cock.

Thorny Vine Tea makes your nipples fuckable (which allows other things to fit in those fuckable nipples later), but you need to drink three servings. If you do that before the getting captured in the forest event and make the right choices, you'll come out with...a special set of items to put in those fuckable nipples.

I don't recall what Lust and Energy potions need offhand. I'll check and report back on that later.

The alchemy shop was also supposed to have a lengthy event chain and give you income every so often from unique events and potion sales, but again, that development fell by the wayside in favor of other content. At some point, likely years in the future, I'll finish this game and the alchemy shop will make Alchemists a bit more fun and interesting.

* The Witch class has several unique scenes that involve curses, including ways to get ADDITIONAL companions.

Not sure if you mean there are other ways to accomplish things in the game in the next release or in this one - I haven't been able to find anything else to do that isn't just fighting tentacles, sucking dick at the bar for money and/or jizz, training your slave (with barely anything happening during the training itself, I assume the text is placeholder?) and "becoming a model" which isn't actually becoming a model, it's a dance competition. Tried exploring the forest for 10 minutes straight (10 irl minutes), tried winning vs forest tentacles, tried losing vs forest tentacles, tried going to every location in town at every hour of the day, tried waiting for 10 days at the cabin without repairs, tried waiting for 20 days at the cabin with full repairs, tried defending against tentacles in town, tried walking boldly, tried being careful, nothing new ever happens.

I mean something new does happen sort of, when I defended several times and then tried walking boldly, tentacles ran away instead, and i was told to go look for someone who might know what that means (..the tentacles are afraid? does that need to have a more thorough meaning?), at which point here is still no new interaction anywhere, not in town at any hour, not in the forest at any hour or place. According to walkthrough this is how you're supposed to find the noble quest, but I got the noble quest before I did that. And in regard to that quest, there doesn't seem to be any way to advance that quest in any way if you missed the ball.

In regard to being notified of the ball happening soon - you are able to talk to the catgirl at any time of day, meaning it can be literally impossible to attend because you don't already have a dress. That event either needs to be done completely differently or made to initiate on its own without player input. If missing the ball leads to a different storyline, give the player a choice on screen "attend ball" or "skip ball", then if they pick attend ball make it happen on its own without player input. Point is it's not a choice if you can't be aware of the choice you're making and can accidentally visit the catgirl at the wrong time of day meaning it's impossible to make a choice either way.

I get what you're saying, grand design, didn't manage to put everything in, it takes time. I'm just commenting on what I'm seeing, and it isn't currently something I'm seeing promise in. I hope there will be major improvements, there are few games in this specific genre, but I'm not saying "do it faster" or "do everything". I'm saying it might be better to skip the sandbox aspect and just put in one path, add more paths later if at all since you're working on it alone.

 

[mouseguru]

Not sure if you mean there are other ways to accomplish things in the game in the next release or in this one - I haven't been able to find anything else to do that isn't just fighting tentacles, sucking dick at the bar for money and/or jizz, training your slave (with barely anything happening during the training itself, I assume the text is placeholder?) and "becoming a model" which isn't actually becoming a model, it's a dance competition. Tried exploring the forest for 10 minutes straight (10 irl minutes), tried winning vs forest tentacles, tried losing vs forest tentacles, tried going to every location in town at every hour of the day, tried waiting for 10 days at the cabin without repairs, tried waiting for 20 days at the cabin with full repairs, tried defending against tentacles in town, tried walking boldly, tried being careful, nothing new ever happens.

I mean something new does happen sort of, when I defended several times and then tried walking boldly, tentacles ran away instead, and i was told to go look for someone who might know what that means (..the tentacles are afraid? does that need to have a more thorough meaning?), at which point here is still no new interaction anywhere, not in town at any hour, not in the forest at any hour or place. According to walkthrough this is how you're supposed to find the noble quest, but I got the noble quest before I did that. And in regard to that quest, there doesn't seem to be any way to advance that quest in any way if you missed the ball.

In regard to being notified of the ball happening soon - you are able to talk to the catgirl at any time of day, meaning it can be literally impossible to attend because you don't already have a dress. That event either needs to be done completely differently or made to initiate on its own without player input. If missing the ball leads to a different storyline, give the player a choice on screen "attend ball" or "skip ball", then if they pick attend ball make it happen on its own without player input. Point is it's not a choice if you can't be aware of the choice you're making and can accidentally visit the catgirl at the wrong time of day meaning it's impossible to make a choice either way.

I get what you're saying, grand design, didn't manage to put everything in, it takes time. I'm just commenting on what I'm seeing, and it isn't currently something I'm seeing promise in. I hope there will be major improvements, there are few games in this specific genre, but I'm not saying "do it faster" or "do everything". I'm saying it might be better to skip the sandbox aspect and just put in one path, add more paths later if at all since you're working on it alone.

I understand what you're getting at.

At this point, it would take too much effort to rip out the sandbox stuff and turn it into a pure AVN -- time I *already* don't have to spare, due to IRL being a beast. But I'll work on implementing at least some of your suggestions for the next release...which, if I'm being completely honest with myself and how fast (slow?) development is moving, is at least six months away.