Zanurah

Member
Jul 10, 2022
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Didn't the dev say he was going to change a shit ton of the gameplay loop in coming updates? I can't remember exactly, but i think he said something about reinforcing the current gameplay loop to some extent.

Also, agree with you on most your points, most h-games have close to no gameplay. Thornsin is one of the few that's managed to do it well. Only other games i could say would have to be Iris, corrupted saviors, or maybe Alien quest eve. Reducing it further would be a great mistake. The game is also not that hard once you get a feel for the movement mechanics, even on the hardest difficulty.

I do wonder why people who just want to look at the sex scenes don't just go on rule 34 vid and just watch gallery vids there, or xvideos. Don't mistake me, i agree a gallery should be in place. But i feel like people are asking for something that's practically already here.
Sinisistar + its sequel, Princess Reconquista and The Agnietta have better gameplay, among others. I still remember how much fun I had defeating the first boss in Agnietta especially. Wolf's Dungeon's gameplay is also surprisingly good despite its brush with only being difficult because of its very unforgiving controls. As for Thornsin? Eh... it's still far too repetitive and lacks weight to justify fighting hordes of the same enemy type per region. Same goes for Night of Revenge.

But then that's a problem with most games made specifically with the Unity Engine. Animations just feel too unnatural and appear 'floaty' compared to say pixel animated accomplishments like the other games I listed.
 

Krongorka

Well-Known Member
Sep 22, 2017
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But then that's a problem with most games made specifically with the Unity Engine. Animations just feel too unnatural and appear 'floaty' compared to say pixel animated accomplishments like the other games I listed.
I'll just note that game engine doesn't have to do anything with animations. TS/NoR animation is handled by Spine animation software. As far as I know multiple engines does support it (Unity, Unreal Engine, GODOT, cocos2d), but animation "look and feel" depends mostly on developers.

Don't get me wrong, I'd love to play good games with pixel animations. Tight controls and accurate collisions are most important. Unfortunately I've seen too much games which didn't have neither of those.
 

Zanurah

Member
Jul 10, 2022
286
651
I'll just note that game engine doesn't have to do anything with animations. TS/NoR animation is handled by Spine animation software. As far as I know multiple engines does support it (Unity, Unreal Engine, GODOT, cocos2d), but animation "look and feel" depends mostly on developers.

Don't get me wrong, I'd love to play good games with pixel animations. Tight controls and accurate collisions are most important. Unfortunately I've seen too much games which didn't have neither of those.
Thanks for clarifying! I'm not well versed with engine specifics and couldn't help but notice that games that had the issues I speak of use Unity, so I only assumed it was related to it. So, Spine animation software, eh? At least it has a name...
 

Krongorka

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Sep 22, 2017
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Thanks for clarifying! I'm not well versed with engine specifics and couldn't help but notice that games that had the issues I speak of use Unity, so I only assumed it was related to it. So, Spine animation software, eh? At least it has a name...
Esoteric Software's Spine 2D, as they actually call it. Yeah, it's basically 2D/Sprite based but with skeleton rigging. TS's dev use latest iteration which also supports physics module which applies to hair/tits/clothes/etc.

TSgirl.png

^ PS: didn't know they actually set her clothes as a separate entity, huh... *loli tag *cough*
 

TJ412

Member
Sep 24, 2018
267
332
there's also a difference in philosophy going on here about what games (and hentai games) are or should be.
That's the long and short of it - I personally would never play a game resembling Thornsin, or really any of my most favorite H-games, if they weren't H-games. Don't get me wrong - some of them are actually mechanically sound, original and plain fun. I just feel that, unless it's in direct service to to the "H" part, it's a "wasted" effort. I feel stronger about that with H-games that go heavy on the story and dialogue.

I just don't think a permadeath system is suitable for the purpose, at least in this implementation. A common critique of many action-oriented H-games is that dissonance and conflict between wanting to lose to see the porn, and wanting to progress through the game (to be able to see the rest of the porn, usually). The more painless that choice, the better.

So yeah, a gallery should absolutely be a part of the game - if I'm playing to win, I'm never gonna want to see those animations otherwise, when doing so brings me so much closer to having to do everything over again. One of the things I was trying to highlight with those examples is that all those games enable the player to go through many, many such steps towards failure before there's any real danger of being reset, and that's if we don't factor the ability to save-scum through each of them (though in AAL, only between missions). Apostle Angel Liebe pretty much lifts the map generation, floors etc from Rogue, but yeah I suppose it doesn't really count as one without permadeath. The others I mentioned definitely aren't, they're traditional linear H-RPGs.


Thornsin isn't helped by the compartmentalisation of enemy-types to each level, and having those levels be in the same, linear order - I think it'd be better if you had more freedom of choice of which "biome" to start in, and which to go to next - and reasons for and against choosing each of them. Eg. a mission-based framework.

It also outright prevents the player from easily losing to enemies they want, when they want, with many of the abilities and powerup effects being completely outside their control. At a certain point you just get so powerful the difficulty becomes trivial, but that conflict still exists until you clear the game. Just means that if you want to be efficient about seeing all the animations, you're probably best off getting to the last level and working your way back - which is incredibly time-consuming, with Thornsin's level & encounter design and progression.
 

Widobob

Member
May 28, 2024
126
52
I can't wait for the next update. It introduces lactation, right? I'm waiting to download the new version before playing the game again.
 
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really solid game for once. decent sound etc good artwork. animation is not amazing but its good enough. sadly its censored and lacks a gallery. it reminds me of alien quest.
 

Pentagone Cat

Newbie
Feb 4, 2023
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Esoteric Software's Spine 2D, as they actually call it. Yeah, it's basically 2D/Sprite based but with skeleton rigging. TS's dev use latest iteration which also supports physics module which applies to hair/tits/clothes/etc.

View attachment 4506890

^ PS: didn't know they actually set her clothes as a separate entity, huh... *loli tag *cough*
Are you using paid version? or the crack one. I mean Spine 2D program.
 
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Paid one. I bought pro license when it was cheaper just to look at how NoR animations work and to make mesh edits when I still made videos, but never really studied it until recently.
The trial version of spine is 4.2. Do you think thatll work with thornsin or not? it doesnt seem like it would
 

Krongorka

Well-Known Member
Sep 22, 2017
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The trial version of spine is 4.2. Do you think thatll work with thornsin or not? it doesnt seem like it would
It's easy to test. I'll attach unpacked source project files for several TS's animations/objects to this post. Try to open projects files with that demo version.
I believe current trial version actually allows you to do things to some extent, but I'm not sure what limitations they set up for it.
As for how to find out which version you'll need to open projects even before you try to load them in in Spine: open .json file and look at numbers in the first line:

4238.png

And now you know which version developer used to export the file. Keep in mind that TS's Spine usage is not constant and they change versions from time to time.

Oh and TS also use a not-so-trivial texture packing/unpacking method which I explained here before, but in short - unpacked sprite resolution is much higher than it's used in-game, while included .atlas file use different texture dimensions. I didn't figure it out, so in the attached example textures are upscaled to a required resolution, but you can't repack them properly for game specs as is.
 

Princeslayer

Active Member
Jun 10, 2020
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If that suspended mid-air scene had some breast groping and a better angle to see her belly and all the sexual momentum, i'd like it even more. Sad that they didn't include anything more than a image of the "Pseudo-futa" action, i hope that they show more in the next one.
 
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