HTML The Contest at Houndgate [v2.5 Hotfix 1] [EroFlair]

[nejfan]

That's actually a pretty good suggestion. NPC conversations are planned, and so far I believe Lukas is the only "mobile" NPC with there being a chance of missing him at the college.

My worry, though, is adding too many city cells/rooms, as a focus of the game is to avoid "Life Sim" mechanics. While they can be immersive, IMO they usually end up too grindy/pointlessly time wasting and get in the way of my smut. That's why certain things are just "Yes/No" states like the PCs energy, time, or cum on the body as opposed to being rechargeable bars or percentages. "Do a thing, thing happens, go to bed, do next thing" is the game loop, and the simpler the better I believe, at least for now. With that being said, a little more life to the city wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing

I'm glad you enjoyed and the game stands out to you!

100% agree on that, clickfests become really tiresome.

Yeah good luck with the game, looking forward to seeing how it's developing. Was actually kinda surprising to see a twine game so well thought out.

 

[bunnybunnybun]

I've been trying to track this bug down, but I'm having trouble. Is it after you complete the new quest?

and before it seems. I reloaded before I took the mission but after I joined, and there's no 'leave' option. just talking to the 3 people

 

[RenZReh]

Just a little advice, and if you don't care about it, I already don't.

Don't focus on sissification, women with dicks that dominate, etc. Let it be, but don't end up going only that way.

A lot of porn shit that used to be good became fucking suckers after they shifted their development in that direction.


Good luck with your project

 

[EroFlair]

Just a little advice, and if you don't care about it, I already don't.

Don't focus on sissification, women with dicks that dominate, etc. Let it be, but don't end up going only that way.

A lot of porn shit that used to be good became fucking suckers after they shifted their development in that direction.


Good luck with your project

There will definitely be an update or too focusing on those, but rest assured the end goal is to never focus on one thing/niche in particular.

 

[huntermoon]

There will definitely be an update or too focusing on those, but rest assured the end goal is to never focus on one thing/niche in particular.

smart i've only seen 3 games, 4 if you count flash games use that method, 1 is a vn, 2 is ironically the first text based rpg i ever played, 3 is a flash game tho i cannot find it for the life of me and 4 is kinda stuck in alpha on really slow development, so all in all, i look forwards to trying this game

 

[HazedSS7]

I've a soft spot for this game and I've noticed this thread has been dormant for a while now and there hasn't been any posts on SS since the last release.

Any updates to share by the dev?

 

[EroFlair]

Hello all

"Game's not dead" post. Been dealing with a lot of life stuff so haven't been able to get much done, but I'm back in my groove now. Thank you for the patience.

I've a soft spot for this game and I've noticed this thread has been dormant for a while now and there hasn't been any posts on SS since the last release.

Any updates to share by the dev?

Nothing of note, been working on the new area. Trying to stop feature creeping.

 

[Bowlcutcultmember]

The writing is honestly way better than what I expected, the setting is great too. The name of the game itself puts it in a odd place in my mind, though. To me, it makes the game seem like it's going in a different direction than what it actually is. "Houndgate" gives that vibe that'll it have a huge focus on furry content and be another attempt at a CoC1 style TF romp, but the actual game is more-or-less seeming to be it's own respectable take on a high fantasy setting.

I can tell the prologue was your baby when it came to the writing, you did a bang up job with it. Though I agree with what the other guy said that a "verbal only" route to the dom path is sorely missing. I get you wanted the PC to be "barred" from the bar at the end of it, but IMO there's no need to do that, because the PC already has the "call to adventure" that is the flyer.
I know there's that classic trap where you can end up re-writing things till the cows come home if you let yourself, and the game is already 2, going on 3 years old, but I think a verbal dom path would be a nice addition to it.

The only general negative I have to say is I really didn't expect the game to be so lacking in content after the prologue. It was so baffling to see the scene guide after seeing all the locked character slots in the jounral, that I instinctly thought "well, obviously the scene guide is out of date!", but uh, nope, it was not.

After my playthrough, I only have one stand-out writing suggestion: Give a warning/hint to the player before they access content that requires a skills check. You don't have to red word of death it, but even a simple exchange in a preceding conversation like "you'd better keep up on your swordsmanship before you start taking missions" would be a good idea. This applies to any of the other skills.

I hope 2025 is a better year for progress in this game, because I really do love the writing, and I wish there was much, much more to read!

I also have some hopes/humble suggestions for the current and future characters in this, but since your last post mentioned avoiding feature creep, I'll keep them away, for now. The fact that you mentioned not being super focused on breasts does kind of damper my hopes, though...

 

[EroFlair]

The writing is honestly way better than what I expected, the setting is great too. The name of the game itself puts it in a odd place in my mind, though. To me, it makes the game seem like it's going in a different direction than what it actually is. "Houndgate" gives that vibe that'll it have a huge focus on furry content and be another attempt at a CoC1 style TF romp, but the actual game is more-or-less seeming to be it's own respectable take on a high fantasy setting.

I can tell the prologue was your baby when it came to the writing, you did a bang up job with it. Though I agree with what the other guy said that a "verbal only" route to the dom path is sorely missing. I get you wanted the PC to be "barred" from the bar at the end of it, but IMO there's no need to do that, because the PC already has the "call to adventure" that is the flyer.
I know there's that classic trap where you can end up re-writing things till the cows come home if you let yourself, and the game is already 2, going on 3 years old, but I think a verbal dom path would be a nice addition to it.

The only general negative I have to say is I really didn't expect the game to be so lacking in content after the prologue. It was so baffling to see the scene guide after seeing all the locked character slots in the jounral, that I instinctly thought "well, obviously the scene guide is out of date!", but uh, nope, it was not.

After my playthrough, I only have one stand-out writing suggestion: Give a warning/hint to the player before they access content that requires a skills check. You don't have to red word of death it, but even a simple exchange in a preceding conversation like "you'd better keep up on your swordsmanship before you start taking missions" would be a good idea. This applies to any of the other skills.

I hope 2025 is a better year for progress in this game, because I really do love the writing, and I wish there was much, much more to read!

I also have some hopes/humble suggestions for the current and future characters in this, but since your last post mentioned avoiding feature creep, I'll keep them away, for now. The fact that you mentioned not being super focused on breasts does kind of damper my hopes, though...

Thank you for the feedback! Really glad to hear you have enjoyed the game.

A more verbal/gentler dom PC in some scenes is definitely a good idea, not everything calls for a stiff hand on the bottom! And your suggestion for a hint on skill checks is a good one. I do want a certain element of 'surprise' to when a player fails a check, but I think a happy medium is giving a popup when you pass or fail a check so you know you can go a different route on another try (after all, the intent of the game is to be replayed over).

Also, I'd love to hear your character suggestions! I can't promise to slap a new NPC into the next update, but my feature creep fears apply to coding in things like dynamic nail growth and hair-brushing minigames. Nothing wrong with hearing out a little creative input

 

[Bowlcutcultmember]

Thank you for the feedback! Really glad to hear you have enjoyed the game.

A more verbal/gentler dom PC in some scenes is definitely a good idea, not everything calls for a stiff hand on the bottom! And your suggestion for a hint on skill checks is a good one. I do want a certain element of 'surprise' to when a player fails a check, but I think a happy medium is giving a popup when you pass or fail a check so you know you can go a different route on another try (after all, the intent of the game is to be replayed over).

Also, I'd love to hear your character suggestions! I can't promise to slap a new NPC into the next update, but my feature creep fears apply to coding in things like dynamic nail growth and hair-brushing minigames. Nothing wrong with hearing out a little creative input

Yeah, the pop-up, or just the fail check screen giving the requirement would work. What I was saying was more something like what happens when you ask about the thieves guild. Let's say the person/place required levels in Charm. Well, a line akin to "this person is easy to charm" or "he/she is quite the silver-tongued talker". Granted, this could easily become very unnatural, and since there's already a spoiler scene guide in the game...

Do you have a pre-definied list of races in the world, or is more a "I add what I want, when I want it" situation?

I'm not sure how The Guard system will work, but I assume it'll sort of be based on what partner you pick? EG, one will be more corruption/pervy, one would be more traditional.
Anyway, one of the character ideas I had for a partner in the townguard was a horse-girl. I kind of get a western/cowboy "justice-minded" type when I think of possible archetypes. She could be either dom or sub-focused, there's good arguments for either tbh. You could also put in an Easter egg if you give your Adventurer's guild horse her name before meeting her.

The other character idea was a female dogkin, with one bit of her character being a slight focus on multi nipple/multi breast content. Not her sole focus, mind you, but just one aspect of her character. There's a lot of ways you could go about her, but I kinda like the idea of a dog-girl being one of the possible long-term romances for the PC, since it's kinda poetic with the name of the game and all. I don't know enough about the long-term romances you plan for the PC to really figure how she'd slot in.

The good thing with both of these characters is they'd slot in with the current Greater/Lesser system for anthro characters.