Dev-Update first, some answers after that.
Hey everyone,
Chapter 2 is out for a few days now and besides a few minor issues and typos, the release has been pretty flawless. I honestly expected more problems.
That means the guys who tested the Beta version did a great job. Thanks again for the help, guys.
Time to look back and think about what went well and what could be better.
The release went pretty well, obviously. I reserved this week solely for bug fixes, explanations, and so on. In the end, I was able to start working on Chapter 3 because I got bored of doing nothing
So far, the feedback has been pretty positive, which is great.
It's good to see you guys enjoying it. Overall, I'm pretty happy with how that Chapter turned out. Of course, there are always flaws or things you could've made better but that's just part of the learning experience.
Speaking of the learning experience. One thing I did learn for sure was, Chapter 2 took too long. Don't get me wrong, I spent pretty much every free hour I had on the game, it just got too big.
Since I expect (the planned) Chapter 3 to be even bigger, I decided to split it into Chapters 3 and 4. So instead of Chapter 3 being the end of Book 1, it'll be Chapter 4.
I seriously hope (and try), the next update will not take half a year but I also am not going to scrap ideas or content, that seems important to me because of self-imposed deadlines.
That being said, I think I found a pretty good spot in the story for the split. You might have noticed, that I try to end Chapters with kind of a bang. And the spot I have in mind for the Chapter 3 ending fits that pattern quite well.
Long story short, expect Chapter 3 to be a bit smaller but also released faster. At least, that's the plan for now.
What else can you expect for Chapter 3?
You might've noticed that I changed the main menu. And that the rest of the menus don't really fit the new style.
The reason is, that I planned to rework the menus for Chapter 3. But I made such good progress on the main menu, that it got done before the Chapter 2 release.
I decided to include it in this release so you can get a first look at what is to come.
I will continue to rework the submenus and eventually the UI elements (like choices etc).
I think that's it for now.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I'll answer as best as possible as long as it's not containing any story spoilers.
Giving this a spin the beginning seemed familiar and I think I played it before (was there a demo?)
and while the visuals and animations and those little animations (which I find really great as they add
to the prodction value) were great, the story was just some dude going to work, to lunch, back home,
for a jog and having issues with his lady but now, BAM, the story gets cranked up to 11!
What confuses me highly though is the dev taking the father out of the picture and yet there is no
mentioning of wincest!! You can NOT ignore the unwritten rules and tropes of AVNs...ah, just kidding.
Bit of a shame though as both the sister's and mohter's character models look damn fine.
4 main LIs...I get it from the menue screen why they are that. Elea needs some explanation though how she fits in
but the other three are cleary part of the supernatural world.
Not trying to be the negative shitter, I just find it a bit mean towards the spunky bartender Kate
or the demon ass kicking huntress Kari. They need our loving too!
Anyhow, great follow up to the initial version I played. A big and positive surprise
.
Great work, intriguing story and again I love those littel animations like Kaija shaking her head.
On a side note...bloody heck, I have to re-read the Dresden Files I got reminded of nothing.
Thank you very much for the kind words.
Not only can and will I ignore the unwritten rules of AVNs, but I can also even start mocking them.
Re-reading the Dresden Files is always a good idea. I actually did that when I started working on the game.
I want to say thanks for the game and even more thanks for being one of the few devs to respect the player enough to allow skipping the animations to which I am truly grateful. I realize its a lot of work for those bits but I confess I get real irritated by animations that have no way of being skipped. That aside the story is interesting and I'm always happy to see a game without incest so fingers crossed that you make it across that distant finish line.
Thank you. I hate overruling the player. Be it unskippable content, blocking rollbacks, or hard pauses.
If the player whats to skip, who am I to deny him that? The only hard pauses I used are in the startup "disclaimers" to make sure they're actually on the screen for a while (we all know how the internet is...) and a 1-second pause at the start of the longer animations to prevent accidental skipping.
I downloaded this because the premise looked interesting and I was NOT dissapointed.
1) No harem? Well damn... Initially I was kind of turned off by the renders, but they grew on me quickly. I think Fiona is my favorite with Kaija a close second. Mac's cousin is also gorgeous, and as a "side piece" I'm guessing eventually we can get with her without repercussions.
2) It appears we have met 3 of the 4 main LI's (though the annoying elf Medb may be LI 4 since she had points assigned to her at the end of chapter 2 and chapter two was the way of water).
3) I absolutely have a love/hate relationship with achievments.... On the one hand I am a completionist, on the other I HATE searching through choices to find what I missed... After competing CH2 I have 2 hidden achievments left. Looking at the gallery one of them appears to be tied to a side character, the other is god only knows where. I REALLY don't want to scroll through trying to find achievments, honestly I have better uses for my time. I'm not saying give a walkthrough, but maybe some type of hint system?
4) I echo what has been brought up before, losing points for a playful smack on the ass is counterintuitive. Also, losing one of the very few (at this point in the game) sex scenes is just bad. Especially since Kaija is your current girlfriend who loves you and, if you choose her path, whom you love.Personally I would not penalize the shower sex and, also, I would have added the scene in the Templar HQ even though it isn't "appropriate" inappropriate sex is the cornerstone of any good adult VN!
In short, this is one of those games I wish I'd discovered around chapter 10, someone would have an achievment guide, there would be plenty of lewd scenes in game. Right now, only a few days have passed since the MC found about about the crazy shit behind the curtain and it's rather frustrating.
Anyway keep up the good work, your story telling is excellent, rendering above average, I notice no significant plot holes (which is nice) and things seem to be progressing logicially. Well done.
Going to copy/paste this to game review.
Thank you for your thoughts and the long feedback. I totally get your "problems" with achievements. I use them as a hint to show if you missed some content/scenes but it can be a nightmare for completionists if you can't find the "last one". I sent you a DM with a few hints. If that doesn't help, get back to me and we'll figure it out.
At some point, there will be an official walkthrough. I just need the time for it. Or better the motivation to spend hours with Office...
I do not know if developer will read this or if someone already mentioned this but sound settings not working and there should be option to disable that annoying save naming...
Other then that it looks promising.
I do.
Yep, the sound settings don't work. I have fixed that in my development branch already. Still, thanks for bringing it up, tho.
The save naming... well some people really want it, and some people get annoyed by it, I guess?
But I can check if there's a smarter solution to it.
Cheers,
Ceolag
