- Thread starter .StaringAtTheSky
- Start date
Nevermind, found my problem, it was not on the first 2 floors, it was the fourth one.
- May 12, 2021
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Amazing tags, even more amazing planned tags until I saw sandbox and repeatable events 
- Mar 24, 2018
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I'm struggling to imagine how it would look like since the 'key', if I may say so, to my storytelling is that most characters, with some exceptions, have their own 'arcs' and stories.
And this is what I a genuinely interested in discussing since I feel like my 'sandbox', for the most part, lacks what some people find annoying. There is no grind, no blind wandering, no useless stats that don't do anything. I believe that it serves more as an instrument to 'transition' from one story to a completely different one. But I would love to hear other people's thoughts on that.
- Mar 24, 2018
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Once I started working on this game for some reason I got really interested in adding many different references, some are more subtle than others and I quite liked it. It doesn't matter where the reference comes from. It could be games, music, TV shows, movies, anime... Characters' names, posters, or direct quotes. I'm really curious if players will catch some of them or all of them and if it gets the giggle or a smile out of people, then it means I did it right...got bored decided to play the new version and I gotta pause and say extra points for the Velvet Velour poster on the MC's wall
anyone that remembers VtMB1 is certainly bound to make a good story
what's wrong with sandbox?Amazing tags, even more amazing planned tags until I saw sandbox and repeatable events
Sandbox usually means that you have to spend 80% of the time watching the same scenes, reading the same dialog, and playing the same shitty minigames until you finally get some story advancement or new sex scene.
- Apr 20, 2018
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if you need to restart the game because of variable changes like with this update you cant even skip to the new content because you need to click your way through the sandbox once again. Depending of the needed resources and/or stats with the whole ass grinding also once again.
Sandboxes also "hurt" the over all flow/quality of a story because you need to design the events to not reference previous events; or the dev enforces a playing order for events which defeats the purpose of a sandbox
just my two cents I haven't and wont be playing this (not my jam) but the issues with sandbox are in the design itself not one particular game
just my two cents I haven't and wont be playing this (not my jam) but the issues with sandbox are in the design itself not one particular game
- Mar 24, 2018
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Appreciate your input. You are right about the flow of the events and sandbox, but it is exactly the reason why I chose sandbox. Because I need different events not to have connection to previous ones since different characters have different stories and some of them do not interfere with each other. In this case sandbox proves useful.
preface this by saying im not attacking you
but from the sound of it no characters (other than MC) will have any influence on any other ones? or maybe just aren't required to connect but can connect? To me (who again has not played because im not a fan of maledom/humiliation or mind control) it sounds almost like a series of stories featuring the same main character taking place in the same world as oppose to one story with multiple characters.
- Mar 24, 2018
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Oh, yes, you are right. It's like watching a tv show with multiple seasons, but at the same time( I hope it's a good analogy). Obviously some characters know each other and connected, so their events are intertwined. But some are completely oblivious to each other. Because the main focus of the game is sexual, the stories are there to simulate a situation for different kinks and fetishes. And of course if a story might benefit from a comment on a situation that happened in a different story line, it all might be connected through some condition checks and etc. So I wouldn't need to restrict access to eventspreface this by saying im not attacking you
but from the sound of it no characters (other than MC) will have any influence on any other ones? or maybe just aren't required to connect but can connect? To me (who again has not played because im not a fan of maledom/humiliation or mind control) it sounds almost like a series of stories featuring the same main character taking place in the same world as oppose to one story with multiple characters.
Always gotta ask because not every Dev makes intelligent design decisions lmao. You seem to have a plan but are still open to talking with the community which is a huge plus, wish you best of luck!
- May 4, 2017
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wont lie, this vastly reduces my interest in this title.... Plot is king, the sex is there but should never be the center stage, at least to me. If I wanna just fap theres actual porn for that. And HS is like the WORST platform for 3D CG sex out there, the least erotic looking and janky as hell interactions between characters. A good story that just also happens to include sex situations is far more enticing. Esp when it utilizes mind control in an intelligent way. (nothing worse than someone just going *BWAMO* yer a mindless cock addicted whore now)
- Mar 24, 2018
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Well, it doesn't mean the stories aren't there. What I tried to say, and perhaps poorly expressed myself, is that there is no one narrow and specific story, but more like the stories of MC's adventures , and they contain different, not moral, but I would say different purposes. I will take an example from what's already in the game and also from what I'm planning in the future.
There is obviously a planned story about revenge, that will have a theme of manipulation, gaslighting, humiliation, etc. But it doesn't mean there won't be a story, you will learn a lot about the past, about some things that were not explained in the prologue.
And there is also a story about school, let's take the teacher for example, obviously, this story really doesn't have a lot in common with MC's past and the 'magical' part of his life, but rather how in my world this school works, what sort of people go there, how you can push their buttons. So you could say that these two storylines are not really connected, which is why sandbox is very useful since you have different avenues to explore and you decide which interests you more, the first one or the last one.
And about the last bit where you go boom and the character is mind-controlled. For that purpose, I introduced this narrative that the MC is really weak at the beginning and gradually becomes stronger. So that at first, you can slowly corrupt 'easy' characters but as the game goes further the speed of corruption and also the 'importance' and the 'strength of will' of characters get bigger. Because the tempo of the game as the development goes further and the players' progress gets more advanced they will naturally feel the power and influence of MC become mightier.
Hope I expressed my direction of the game as eloquently as I could.
Will there be stronger hypnosis, like turning the women in mindless, emotionless servants?
- Mar 24, 2018
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Yes, as your power gets stronger or if the character's story reaches a certain point there will be some characters who will be turned into servants with no mind of their own
- May 4, 2017
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Thats better, I sorta see why you want the sandbox but at the same time I feel this could be done in a normal VN style youd just be jumping around a bit, but we're doing that with the sandbox as well....
I also get what ya mean about like the cousin and the teacher being separate stories but at the same time the MC is the thread that binds, at some point he's going to consolidate power and bring his harem together where the plots could and probably should begin interacting more (but thats a good long way off in terms of development time I know)
And yes, having been weakened and all is great but barring the need to just sledgehammer someone into a drooling flesh doll, mind control(in general sense not your story specifically) shouldnt just be fire once and you win. That's just boring as hell both narratively and mechanically. Sure sometimes, esp some annoying rival, needs a good hammering. At the moment you are doing really well with the mind control elements in my opinion. Nudging thoughts, emotions and actions down a path where the target remains themselves just with little tweaks to align them with their master