Ren'Py Under Your Spell [v0.2.0p] [Shady Characters]

[MarshmallowCasserole]

About to please ask for player updates, as everyone seemed of the opinion it would be good if gameplay is optimized. I guess this answers that, unless others have something diff. to share?

Are you the second dev? Hmmm, are you really going to re-write the main screen's UI after over 6 months of development?

But you know what, let's give it a try, why not. Let's start with save files.

Actually no, let's start with name selection. Why don't you have a default choice, especially when you're expecting not just a name, but a family name as well? At least you check if I enter two empty strings, that's good. Anyway, ' of the noble house ' never fails to fit in any setting. Stay classy, dear '

Now, saves. RenPy allows you to write and read a custom JSON in your saves. Use it for most relevant stats of the player (skills, money, ingame time, maybe some route locks)

You must be registered to see the links

I think i even have a working code snippet somewhere, but it's really small, and shouldn't be hard for you to write on your own

All right, the main screen. So right now, you need 10 clicks to get through a single day's schedule. That's unacceptable.

Spoiler: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10

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There's also no reason to gray out a class already taken. What if I want to move Conjuration to 2nd slot? And if your game does not actually differentiate between slot 1 and 2, then this part can be simplified to a double selection checkbox.

So, what can be done to make it bearable?

• You should make the activities selection panel always visible
• Activities selection panel should have a static screen position, and not act like a submenu of currently selected slot
• Fill the empty slots automatically, top to bottom
  • highlight what slot is currently being populated
  • enable/disable activities by availability depending on the current slot, don't do several lists
  • once a slot is populated, add a quick clear button (X)
• Players should be able to plan for entire day in the morning
  • Afternoon should be filled with slacking by default. You should be able to plan the whole day by quickly selecting just 2 classes
  • You can make a break in the midday and return to this screen to give an opportunity to revise choices for the second half, that's fine, that's just one confirmation if the plan is sound
• Add at least two quick plan templates: yesterday and day before yesterday
  • Preferrably this should work separately for weekends and regular days. So on Tuesday you want to repeat Monday and Friday; on Saturday you want to repeat previous Sunday and previous Saturday
  • A quick summary of stat changes that happened last time these schedules were executed would be very helpful

Spoiler: 1-2-3-4-5 or 1-2

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

Now, narratively.

I understand Eric is your exposition machine, but try to make him more consistent. One day he's suggesting you court high achievers of your house because if you're chosing a waifu for life-u you aim for the best, and then in his next scene he's suggesting you should give bear girls a chance "YoU cAnT bE PiCkY!" STFU Eric, it's all your fault.

Also, the initial timeskip makes no sense, why do you start the game on 16th? Just move your ritual to 13th, it's already a Friday. Come on. ALSO the spooky poem setting the deadline to 1st of May instead of Ides of May is just lame, but that's just my opinion.

Also, there's absolutely fuck to do before you get selected by the goblet of fire Cup of C'thun mcguffin, seriously, these two weeks should have a shit ton of introductory events. It just makes no sense to have 2 weeks of grind and not showcase at least 75% of your waifu roster. They share classes, eat in the mess hall, right? Introduce your cast! I've got one (1) event with an actual girl in the first two weeks, and I've tried all the activities at least once, which is probably an absolute waste of time in terms of actual stat management. You should just grind magic and knowledge non-stop, right?

That's all I have having played 2 in-game weeks before getting tired of clicking, but that should be some food for thought at least.

 

[swiver]

Are you the second dev? Hmmm, are you really going to re-write the main screen's UI after over 6 months of development?

But you know what, let's give it a try, why not. Let's start with save files.

Actually no, let's start with name selection. Why don't you have a default choice, especially when you're expecting not just a name, but a family name as well? At least you check if I enter two empty strings, that's good. Anyway, ' of the noble house ' never fails to fit in any setting. Stay classy, dear '

Now, saves. RenPy allows you to write and read a custom JSON in your saves. Use it for most relevant stats of the player (skills, money, ingame time, maybe some route locks)

You must be registered to see the links

I think i even have a working code snippet somewhere, but it's really small, and shouldn't be hard for you to write on your own

All right, the main screen. So right now, you need 10 clicks to get through a single day's schedule. That's unacceptable.

Spoiler: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

There's also no reason to gray out a class already taken. What if I want to move Conjuration to 2nd slot? And if your game does not actually differentiate between slot 1 and 2, then this part can be simplified to a double selection checkbox.

So, what can be done to make it bearable?

• You should make the activities selection panel always visible
• Activities selection panel should have a static screen position, and not act like a submenu of currently selected slot
• Fill the empty slots automatically, top to bottom
  • highlight what slot is currently being populated
  • enable/disable activities by availability depending on the current slot, don't do several lists
  • once a slot is populated, add a quick clear button (X)
• Players should be able to plan for entire day in the morning
  • Afternoon should be filled with slacking by default. You should be able to plan the whole day by quickly selecting just 2 classes
  • You can make a break in the midday and return to this screen to give an opportunity to revise choices for the second half, that's fine, that's just one confirmation if the plan is sound
• Add at least two quick plan templates: yesterday and day before yesterday
  • Preferrably this should work separately for weekends and regular days. So on Tuesday you want to repeat Monday and Friday; on Saturday you want to repeat previous Sunday and previous Saturday
  • A quick summary of stat changes that happened last time these schedules were executed would be very helpful

Spoiler: 1-2-3-4-5 or 1-2

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

Now, narratively.

I understand Eric is your exposition machine, but try to make him more consistent. One day he's suggesting you court high achievers of your house because if you're chosing a waifu for life-u you aim for the best, and then in his next scene he's suggesting you should give bear girls a chance "YoU cAnT bE PiCkY!" STFU Eric, it's all your fault.

Also, the initial timeskip makes no sense, why do you start the game on 16th? Just move your ritual to 13th, it's already a Friday. Come on. ALSO the spooky poem setting the deadline to 1st of May instead of Ides of May is just lame, but that's just my opinion.

Also, there's absolutely fuck to do before you get selected by the goblet of fire Cup of C'thun mcguffin, seriously, these two weeks should have a shit ton of introductory events. It just makes no sense to have 2 weeks of grind and not showcase at least 75% of your waifu roster. They share classes, eat in the mess hall, right? Introduce your cast! I've got one (1) event with an actual girl in the first two weeks, and I've tried all the activities at least once, which is probably an absolute waste of time in terms of actual stat management. You should just grind magic and knowledge non-stop, right?

That's all I have having played 2 in-game weeks before getting tired of clicking, but that should be some food for thought at least.

WOW! like a blowdryer exploded in my face ,lol, so that's what being a dev feels like?!

No mate, was wondering was others though as I been waiting to try it until it's further developed... Thanks though, it does answer me

 

[angevarg674]

Also, there's absolutely fuck to do before you get selected by the goblet of fire Cup of C'thun mcguffin, seriously, these two weeks should have a shit ton of introductory events. It just makes no sense to have 2 weeks of grind and not showcase at least 75% of your waifu roster. They share classes, eat in the mess hall, right? Introduce your cast! I've got one (1) event with an actual girl in the first two weeks, and I've tried all the activities at least once, which is probably an absolute waste of time in terms of actual stat management. You should just grind magic and knowledge non-stop, right?

I seccond the FUCK out of this. There is NOTHING to do. It's just endless grind without a direction. At least sprinkle in a couple of normal events with the girl I'm supposed to care about. I played about 2 weeks of this and manged to meet 1 girl (glasses). It was the best girl and I'm happy for it, but still. At least give us a "on X day on Y class there's Z girl" hint or something

 

[Bran99]

Enjoyed it. Felt like the Trial of the Mind was made easier stats wise. Wonder if there will be any plans on a Bassant route. Would be interesting as you compete against each other. Also would not mind seeing Eric and Thorgny interact