VN Ren'Py The Theater of Sinners [v0.3 ALPHA 1] [JustXThings]

[longjohngold]

I didn't notice it was just a beta-> final release... but the game is so damn good I'll happily take 1 extra event.

 

[slavegal]

Expecting Paula to go back to Rebecca and accept her fate frankly, playing too many different protagonists only weaken the immersive experience

 

[JustXThings]

Holy shit this game is fantastic! Love the writing, love the pacing, love the corruption and domination theme (although I am more male dom than fem dom, hope we see more in that direction eventually!). Honestly I also kinda adore the shift to cartoon art for the "dev has to explain something" bits - helps separate the realism from the dev stuff, keeps it interesting, and provides some levity. Well done. The whole game feels like a fresh take on my fav genre, domination

I have a few comments/questions though.


Questions:

1) I am somewhat unclear on how your saving points mechanism operates - I saw I missed a submission check at one point with Mr. Irvin, despite at that point only having approx. one choice to make. I therefore assume that the points are saved across runs? When? How? Because I tried to start a new game a few times, each time picking up two submission points from the Mr. Irvin scene, then restarting to quickly add more submission points. However, this never got me to a sufficient level. Do I have to finish the game each time or some such? If I save right before the end and then push it into point collecting territory, can I then load up again and push it repeatedly? Will that save all my points over the entire run, or recent stuff, or ... basically I am intrigued by your system, but I don't quite grasp how it works and therefore how to progress with it. Please post an explainer on the main page so everyone can understand how to operate the system.

2) Will a player always be told if they failed a check, or will it just pass by without notice if they lack the stats?

3) If I want to try a new direction for a character with a new game start, will I struggle if I chose the other direction from previous runs? To rephrase, does taking submission lower domination and vice versa, or are they separate tags that add up over time and can be used in various runs separately?

4) Are relationship levels also persistent like sub and dom levels, or are relationship levels run specific?


Suggestions:

1) A way to check your character stats. It would be nice to know how much progress you have made towards whatever goal you want.

2) Rather than restarting the game each time (if that is in fact the mechanism to save persistent points) it would be nice if each scene could ALWAYS be replayed - a game run never has to "end," it just fills in chronological gaps that you can revisit at will. The game would basically be more like a gallery that you fill in as you progress, which dovetails nicely with your "events" based progression. You could have it so you see how far down the timeline each event is this way as well. Would also make it much easier to, say, build up the stats you want, or check out a scene you didn't pass the check on before, without have to restart the entire game. Even for good games that can be a bit obnoxious. (These chronologically ordered events could be where you list possible outcomes/routes in said event, so players can see if they missed content per suggestion 6 further down.)

3) As I alluded to in question 3, I think having sub points and dom points stack up independently, rather than competing, makes a tone of sense. Because they can be used differently over separate runs (if I understand the system correctly, which is unlikely lol), doing it this way would make it easier to test out certain paths you can't do on the other run. Meta progression can be an excellent tool, but grinding points can quickly become a problem with a lot of games.

4) Although I am glad you have an almost non-existent textbox, I would honestly prefer it literally not existing at all, and judging by other games I think this is something you could quickly and easily add to the choices in preferences and let players decide. Just a thought.

5) I saw at some point you said no to the 15 year old daughter being included but... pretty please with a cherry on top?!?!? Alternatively, this strikes me as the ideal kind of thing to offer to players through an optional menu in the beginning or alternatively make them download and apply a patch.

6) Even if you don't want to point out a guide or a cheat sheet, it might be nice to have a list of all possible paths so players don't miss out on, say, some kinky Maude action without even realizing it was an option. This is true for failed checks and for hidden path options. You don't have to tell players how to access some juicy option (although frankly I am very much on team "fapping games should be easy and basically play themselves" since, well, I am too "busy" to think much if they are good ), but knowing generally that there is a "Maude path that requires some assertiveness" can prevent players from missing content purely because they didn't even know to look for it, rather than choosing not to put in the time. For example, unless it is clear to me that there is a viable alternative path on a choice like "masturbate or don't masturbate," I will always choose masturbate and could potentially miss content without ever knowing I did. I would like to avoid that as much as possible.

7) While almost all your characters are excellent, Jurgen's model is immersion breaking level bad. I don't care too much if a character is ugly if that is what you intend, but Jurgen has a comically out of proportion nose and eyes. Honestly that character, and any scene with him, needs a total rework. Sorry, just thought you would want to know. (The content of the scene was great, just specifically his model really needs to be redone along with the few scenes he is in.)


I think that covers my initial questions/concerns, holy shit great game! I think you do an excellent job making each scene, even in the same convo, slightly different. Often I find that devs take the easy road with their renders and just leave characters in the same position as much as possible to save time and effort, but telling the story really is in the little movements that don't even consciously register as a new render unless you are looking for them. Your story is great (but needed a male dom protag lol), your visuals are great, the way you are trying to experiment with time is pretty great too. I think you could use a little work with the user interface aspects of your new but clever system, to make it easier to work/figure out. Keep up the 5/5 star work! Will rate when you have a few more updates, but it's already top notch in my book. BTW I dunno if you handle the English since you said it isn't your first language, but whoever does is pretty damn good at it! Only a few places that looked like typos or forgotten words, rather than a fundamental English mistake. Shoutout to you or whoever does your final writing, they have a talent for making dialogue feel real which is often the hardest thing even for native speakers to get right.

What the heck man... you wrote more words in this post than me in the whole VN =D

The points system is actually very simple. Points obtained in one branch of the story affect the others. Have you played a corruption story where the protagonist is giving blowjobs left and right in one branch but still seems conflicted about some guy touching her thigh in another ? I hate that !!! Here if Paula goes all the way with Irwin (metro guy), then she won't give you the choice of escaping from Mr. Smith (bench guy).

In the canon story (the one in my head), Paula masturbates to the dream... is a bit late and cannot sit with Mr. Smith, therefore her submission doesn't increase. When she finds Irwin in the tube her corruption is too low and it gives you the option to raise it (let him spank you, or not). On the other hand, if you don't masturbate to the dream, then you will sit with Mr. Smith and have the opportunity to raise Paula's submission before meeting Irwin. If you raise it enough, then Paula will allow the spanking without menu and you will see the "submission passed check" message.

If you check on the my initial messages in this post (there are not that many), you will find the chronology and a mini-guide of how to get all variations. I'll add links to the main post later.

I'll check your suggestions. I want to improve the user experience in the next version, so I'll be adding quite a bit to make the game easier to navigate.

You don't like Jürgen ? Come on, he looks like an insect. He is the perfect character for this kind of games ! I get what you mean though. I might give it some thought.

 

[shrillbill]

You don't like Jürgen ? Come on, he looks like an insect. He is the perfect character for this kind of games ! I get what you mean though. I might give it some thought.

Yeah I don't care if he is an ugly bastard, it's just his features shouldn't be so distorted as to be inhuman. In a world of realistic people there are bound to be ugly assholes, but NO ONE has features that exaggerated.

I see now about the point system, the way it was described I thought points persisted between different playthroughs. It seems what you actually have is a system where points persist within the same run, but affect the game substantially throughout said run and between character arcs.

 

[Bernd L]

I like the game ... a lot ... and I'm not even so much into ugly bastards
Somehow I can relate to the ugly bastard having a shit day and wanting to spank that cute redhead-brat in the train for beeing disrespectfull

 

[baka]

I really like the Paula route. thats the only one I follow carefully. not that interested in the others.
so far its quite good and not too much yet. hopefully u hold on more before the fuckfeast starts.
usually once u start fucking its not that interesting anymore.
and I hope there will be other male routes added, maybe an obese ugly shy dude.
maybe he helps her with something and she want to repay with kindness. he's a virgin and everybody hates him.
so she want to help him and that will lead to all kinds of "moments".

 

[dolfe67]

4.62GB for a v0.2? Thx to the compressor people

 

[JustXThings]

And if I’m reading it right, the update you start in October will be centered more on Paula?

Yes. The next content update, or most likely the next two, will focus on Paula. That will last probably until the end of the year, beginning of next year.

0.2.Final established the groundwork for Rebeca-Agnes relationship which sets up the season ending in 2-3 events (Rebeca meets Paula). But going directly there leaves Paula way under-developed. So far, we know a lot about Rebeca, but we know nothing about Paula. Plus Irwin (metro guy) and Richard (Agnes husband) also need some spotlight and they are pure Paula events for now.

 

[sincinbearcity]

I'm usually more of a male protag guy (and male dom), but holy hell your writing of Rebeca's scenes makes me forget about all that. Turns out it's still hot when a girl doms another girl so utterly

 

[Scorpius888]

love the lesbian stuf with rebeca she is gorgius. as im a man i dont like to chase or get chased by dicks. when i normaly play as a male mc there is only one dick involved i dont share. and the master slave dynamic is some great writhing . when you start a patreon page i will happely join. love your work !

 

[Codex07]

Love the story,i love how you write rebeca attitude and behavior sadism like that

 

[dolfe67]

Yeah I was surprised by the writing, it's quite good, especially Rebeca's character. Paula's story is a bit too much, but we can say it's because she was sexually bullied. Agnes' is extremely believable.

 

[cloudfw]

Ok, first thing first, this game is great - very well written characters, a lot of hot sex scenes, interesting presentation.
This said, while it hits a lot of right buttons for me, it also pushes some negative ones - I like to identify myself with a character, and in this game it is definetly Rebecca for me. Thus while Agnes corruption is extremely enjoyable, and Olivia is a delight, Paula's scenes are, again purely for me, mostly something to endure till the meeting between her and Rebecca happens. This said, even this is somewhat enjoyable from a gameplay point of view, to take at least some submissive choices to keep her submissive when this meeting happens while at the same time not letting Smith doing too much to her - ideally keeping Paula hot, bothered and mostly not under Smith's thumb till she and Becca meet, would love such a path, even if it is probably an unrealistic expectation.

Frankly, this game is one i would wait for a 0.3 release and support it on patreon/subscribstar if I liked it and it had one.

 

[Codex07]

The fact that many people love rebeca,now ik there's lot of masochist here

 

[dolfe67]

The fact that many people love rebeca,now ik there's lot of masochist here

Sadists you mean. We love to see her manipulating others, we're not really role playing a specific character here

 

[cloudfw]

The fact that many people love rebeca,now ik there's lot of masochist here

Depends on whom people are identifying with, since this game does not exactly give us a predefined MC.
People who are identifying with Paula or Agnes and like Rebecca probably do have masochistic tendencies, while people identifying with Rebecca probably have sadistic ones.

And I suspect most people liking Rebecca do so because they like to see the story from her, sadistic, point of view.

 

[dervalle007]

I love olivia, hope to see more scenes with her.

 

[sirlee]

anyone know how to get scene 201 of jogging in the game?

 

[changeling]

Noted. But I cannot upload any other hosts for the time being. So hopefully some charitable mod adds some other mirrors.

Thanks for sharing your game. That's already a great VN in my opinion.

Keep up the great work!

 

[JustXThings]

anyone know how to get scene 201 of jogging in the game?

You need to max Mr. Smith level.

Do all jogging events with Mr. Smith alone. Then the 'waiting for Anton' event. Then do the jogging event with Mrs. Agata.