Another thing that I want to ask is about the phone chat itself. Atm, I'm actually in a dilemma on how I want to write the phone chat for next update. Umm how to explain it.
In your opinion, should I just make the phone conversation in a way so that you only make choice on what to reply on the important stuff, or should I make it like BaDIK where you choose for each reply in the phone chat? Which one do you think is better?
If the other replies would be adding different flavor text, yes to the player choosing all replies.
If they don't. I would say reply only on the important stuff.
If the other replies would be adding different flavor text, yes to the player choosing all replies.
If they don't. I would say reply only on the important stuff.
Noted! And of course, if player choose each replies, then each reply would've been in a different tone Otherwise, there will be no use of adding those choice in the first place
Noted! And of course, if player choose each replies, then each reply would've been in a different tone Otherwise, there will be no use of adding those choice in the first place
From what I understand BADiK has each reply in the phone chat, and the choice given doesn't really have any consequence in the chat which is followed afterward, nor does it have any influence in the main story with each of LIs.
Also, BADiK's phone chat or voice phone call responses which have impact/consequence in the main story of LI (i.e. Important stuff), they are always fixed and have no choice to begin with anyway.
From what I understand BADiK has each reply in the phone chat, and the choice given doesn't really have any consequence in the chat which is followed afterward, nor does it have any influence in the main story with each of LIs.
Also, BADiK's phone chat or voice phone call responses which have impact/consequence in the main story of LI (i.e. Important stuff), they are always fixed and have no choice to begin with anyway.
With the phone calls pov, there are various ways which devs do it, so you have 2 options;
1) Just completely stay on one character's POV, with the other person on the line not seen.
2) POV switches back and forth between the 2 people conversing (though switch is at a reasonable pace, not frantic).
3) Split-screen with both POV shown at the same time.
Now, all 3 have their possible disadvantages each;
1) As it's said the other person on the line is not seen.
I'm assuming this is your least favored approach.
2) Switching back and forth could work, but doing too much switching actually detracts from the experience rather than adding it. You've really gotta find that perfect balance with the switch & not overdo it.
3) Split-screen while both characters can be seen at the same time, because both characters are sharing the same screen space (roughly halved), the space for character and the environment shown becomes quite limited.
With branching, while I wouldn't say I'm an expert, I will say the following.
All branches while initially split must eventually converged (until the next branch lol), and when converged they should still follow the roughly same path, with slightly different variant scenes to reflect the player's choices in each of their said branches.
And I'm actually glad that you're thinking of choices and branches for this game.
I always preferred narratives which do that, over the just linear stories (not saying linear tales are necessarily bad, just that I prefer having more choice driven consequences in my games).
Regarding Weekly dev log, I'm not sure.
Sure, while I won't say it's necessarily bad with just talking, but visual genreally tends to make dev posts more interesting.
Also, perhaps you can talk about other stuff like music being used in the game etc?
As well as how some sections of the game like the gallery/bio sections etc etc?
But in terms of a weekly dev log, here are examples of how Lazy Bloodline (dev of Dropout Saga, a game I'm nowadays playing) is doing it, given he recently started weekly dev log format
Granted, each dev's approach of developing their game is somewhat different, but even so, I hope taking a look at his past 2 weeks dev logs can give you a rough idea of how you should set up yours.
With the phone calls pov, there are various ways which devs do it, so you have 2 options;
1) Just completely stay on one character's POV, with the other person on the line not seen.
2) POV switches back and forth between the 2 people conversing (though switch is at a reasonable pace, not frantic).
3) Split-screen with both POV shown at the same time.
Now, all 3 have their possible disadvantages each;
1) As it's said the other person on the line is not seen.
I'm assuming this is your least favored approach.
2) Switching back and forth could work, but doing too much switching actually detracts from the experience rather than adding it. You've really gotta find that perfect balance with the switch & not overdo it.
3) Split-screen while both characters can be seen at the same time, because both characters are sharing the same screen space (roughly halved), the space for character and the environment shown becomes quite limited.
With branching, while I wouldn't say I'm an expert, I will say the following.
All branches while initially split must eventually converged (until the next branch lol), and when converged they should still follow the roughly same path, with slightly different variant scenes to reflect the player's choices in each of their said branches.
And I'm actually glad that you're thinking of choices and branches for this game.
I always preferred narratives which do that, over the just linear stories (not saying linear tales are necessarily bad, just that I prefer having more choice driven consequences in my games).
Regarding Weekly dev log, I'm not sure.
Sure, while I won't say it's necessarily bad with just talking, but visual genreally tends to make dev posts more interesting.
Also, perhaps you can talk about other stuff like music being used in the game etc?
As well as how some sections of the game like the gallery/bio sections etc etc?
But in terms of a weekly dev log, here are examples of how Lazy Bloodline (dev of Dropout Saga, a game I'm nowadays playing) is doing it, given he recently started weekly dev log format
Woahh! Thank you so much for the reply! And yes, the approach that I go with is back and forth between the POV. I hope I didn't over do it lol. Bcs there are times when I switch POV after one line of dialogue
And as for the Choices and Branch, I always want to make a game where your choice actually matters and actually change the course of the story. Hence why I'm going with the multiple route approach. And yes, even though there's a multiple route in the story plot, there's always a limit line that prevent the story from going out of control. I remember playing one game that has an absurdly lot of route but Dev didn't manage each route properly that end up making the game weird and confusing. That's why I'm trying my best to carefully write in a way that it didnt make player confused.
Heyy! It's been a while since I write something lol. I have so many stuff that I want to post, but most are NSFW so I can't really post it on Patreon public post. But then I remember that I could post it here, so I think I will start posting stuff that I can't post on my patreon page here. And maybe I could get some feedback along the way to warm up the thread a bit before the first release
So I've just made some changes to our MC. I honestly didn't realize that the MC is pale. In a way, it's good to realize this kind of stuff, but also a bit annoying because I just found out about this now after all the images are done lol xD. But either way this is a good progress nonetheless. But what do you think? Is there anything else that I should adjust? Is it too muscular?
Heyy! It's been a while since I write something lol. I have so many stuff that I want to post, but most are NSFW so I can't really post it on Patreon public post. But then I remember that I could post it here, so I think I will start posting stuff that I can't post on my patreon page here. And maybe I could get some feedback along the way to warm up the thread a bit before the first release
So I've just made some changes to our MC. I honestly didn't realize that the MC is pale. In a way, it's good to realize this kind of stuff, but also a bit annoying because I just found out about this now after all the images are done lol xD. But either way this is a good progress nonetheless. But what do you think? Is there anything else that I should adjust? Is it too muscular?
I honestly think he looks fine either way. If you want a piece of advice for building a game, or any product for that matter, i would tell you to launch early and iterate fast. Don't try to make some perfect product on launch, just put something together in a month or two, launch it, and then release updates every 2 to 4 weeks (or even faster) based on user feedback and metrics. Relevant metrics in your case would be things like Patreon sub count, download stats, social media engagement (likes on twitter, number of posts in this f95zone thread, discord members/activity). Just release small updates and see what effect they have on your numbers. Ideally your updates should be so small that if one is received poorly you wouldn't feel bad about just reverting it.
I honestly think he looks fine either way. If you want a piece of advice for building a game, or any product for that matter, i would tell you to launch early and iterate fast. Don't try to make some perfect product on launch, just put something together in a month or two, launch it, and then release updates every 2 to 4 weeks (or even faster) based on user feedback and metrics. Relevant metrics in your case would be things like Patreon sub count, download stats, social media engagement (likes on twitter, number of posts in this f95zone thread, discord members/activity). Just release small updates and see what effect they have on your numbers. Ideally your updates should be so small that if one is received poorly you wouldn't feel bad about just reverting it.
This is, arguably, the worst advise i've ever seen anyone give on this site and on a site with ntr and incest arguments, that's saying something.
Small updates are one of the most complained about things. They don't bring in subs, on the contrary they have people wait for several update before they download so they haven't wasted their time. People will not pay for an update that takes them 10 minutes to finish.
Why do you think they bigger devs release massive updates at longer intervals and still bring in the money. It's because the wait is worth it and so is the money.
Not to mention you are giving advice to a dev that's on a remake of his game when the original was already doing well. It's the dev that wanted the remake not the players, we all gave him shit for it, still do.
Very few devs can release updates every 2 to 4 weeks on a sustainable level and it's the one thing the big devs advise not to do. You burn out quick when you try and push like that.
This is, arguably, the worst advise i've ever seen anyone give on this site and on a site with ntr and incest arguments, that's saying something.
Small updates are one of the most complained about things. They don't bring in subs, on the contrary they have people wait for several update before they download so they haven't wasted their time. People will not pay for an update that takes them 10 minutes to finish.
Why do you think they bigger devs release massive updates at longer intervals and still bring in the money. It's because the wait is worth it and so is the money.
Not to mention you are giving advice to a dev that's on a remake of his game when the original was already doing well. It's the dev that wanted the remake not the players, we all gave him shit for it, still do.
Very few devs can release updates every 2 to 4 weeks on a sustainable level and it's the one thing the big devs advise not to do. You burn out quick when you try and push like that.
I honestly think he looks fine either way. If you want a piece of advice for building a game, or any product for that matter, i would tell you to launch early and iterate fast. Don't try to make some perfect product on launch, just put something together in a month or two, launch it, and then release updates every 2 to 4 weeks (or even faster) based on user feedback and metrics. Relevant metrics in your case would be things like Patreon sub count, download stats, social media engagement (likes on twitter, number of posts in this f95zone thread, discord members/activity). Just release small updates and see what effect they have on your numbers. Ideally your updates should be so small that if one is received poorly you wouldn't feel bad about just reverting it.
Hmmm... for this matter I have to agree with Avaron1974 . Doing small updates and fixing the game along the way isn't really a good idea. While it works on a sandbox game, doing a short updates on a full VN game is not a good way to go. I'm not saying what you said is completely wrong though. There are a lot of Developer that actually did that in this site. But just like in real life, people/player judge you from your first release. If it's a bad first release, then most will probably won't touch it again until they heard that it has improved a lot from other players.
For me, I'm quite anxious about this first release. The fact that this game has not been updated for years kind of make me overthink about stuff. I am confident with the new story and graphics, but there's this worry about how people gonna react to this first release. And the fact that there will be no Lewd Scene or some Fan Service on this first release kinda make me even worried about it xD.
Hmmm... for this matter I have to agree with Avaron1974 . Doing small updates and fixing the game along the way isn't really a good idea. While it works on a sandbox game, doing a short updates on a full VN game is not a good way to go. I'm not saying what you said is completely wrong though. There are a lot of Developer that actually did that in this site. But just like in real life, people/player judge you from your first release. If it's a bad first release, then most will probably won't touch it again until they heard that it has improved a lot from other players.
For me, I'm quite anxious about this first release. The fact that this game has not been updated for years kind of make me overthink about stuff. I am confident with the new story and graphics, but there's this worry about how people gonna react to this first release. And the fact that there will be no Lewd Scene or some Fan Service on this first release kinda make me even worried about it xD.
the ideal would be find a balance between short and long updates, because from a gamer's point-of-view waiting like 2 years for an update is just as bad for a short update that took a month to be made and takes 10 minutes to play it.
Personal experience: Mythic Manor's developer one time(last year or 2 years ago) declared when he started to work on the new update after like 10-11 months of just making monthly fanarts of his own game, it took him one month to finish the development of his update(maybe 40 days in total) the update(like many of his releases)was like 3-4 main-girl's events and 2-3 events about already existing side-girls + a new event for a completely new side-girl; You see where i'm going with this? He wasted nearly a year doing whatever he wanted, and only truly worked on his game for a month. And he admitted that it's pretty much what he does. So find a balance, work the time you need but don't waste that time, or never declare that you spent 90% of your time on some extra-content that it just to please your subscriber, because the main reason people will subscribe to you is for the game itself, the pretty pictures are an extra.
the ideal would be find a balance between short and long updates, because from a gamer's point-of-view waiting like 2 years for an update is just as bad for a short update that took a month to be made and takes 10 minutes to play it.
Personal experience: Mythic Manor's developer one time(last year or 2 years ago) declared when he started to work on the new update after like 10-11 months of just making monthly fanarts of his own game, it took him one month to finish the development of his update(maybe 40 days in total) the update(like many of his releases)was like 3-4 main-girl's events and 2-3 events about already existing side-girls + a new event for a completely new side-girl; You see where i'm going with this? He wasted nearly a year doing whatever he wanted, and only truly worked on his game for a month. And he admitted that it's pretty much what he does. So find a balance, work the time you need but don't waste that time, or never declare that you spent 90% of your time on some extra-content that it just to please your subscriber, because the main reason people will subscribe to you is for the game itself, the pretty pictures are an extra.
This time, my target is consistency. After this first release I will aim to release an update every 2 months, or 2 and a half months if you count all the testing phase before public release. But this time, I don't want to put a number on how much new images each update should have, probably around 750-1k images per update but it won't be 1 Eps per update like what I used to do.
Why? Because this will be a multiple route game. And doing all the route in one go will take months to make. And yes, I know that long update is good and worth the wait. But you can't avoid the facts that a long deadline could also become a trap hole for a lot devs. I mean, you as a person who active a lot on this site probably know about this problem already.
I've been keeping this to myself, in an effort to tone down my assholery, but if you're already considering redoing stuff... I can't take that dude seriously. That haircut is just way too goofy. It's the bowl cut's uglier brother who lost a fight against a pair of clippers.
I think the idea behind rapid small updates is to maximize exposure in order to reach out to a greater number of potential subscribers. I know I've been checking the latest updates page daily, often several times a day, for an embarrassing length of time and I still find "new" stuff that has been in development for years. In the grand scheme of things the difference between an update every two weeks and an update every four weeks is a +0.0.1 on the version number. A months work is a months work.
Heyy! It's been a while since I write something lol. I have so many stuff that I want to post, but most are NSFW so I can't really post it on Patreon public post. But then I remember that I could post it here, so I think I will start posting stuff that I can't post on my patreon page here. And maybe I could get some feedback along the way to warm up the thread a bit before the first release
So I've just made some changes to our MC. I honestly didn't realize that the MC is pale. In a way, it's good to realize this kind of stuff, but also a bit annoying because I just found out about this now after all the images are done lol xD. But either way this is a good progress nonetheless. But what do you think? Is there anything else that I should adjust? Is it too muscular?
Honestly, I feel the one on the left (from the first image) is better. The new design (right from the first image + second image), the muscles look too drawn with the distinguished lines.
Unless you're aiming for MC to look like somewhat steroid using bodybuilder type, I'd advice against the new design.
The original, with looking toned, but slightly faded visual I find to be a lot better.
I honestly think he looks fine either way. If you want a piece of advice for building a game, or any product for that matter, i would tell you to launch early and iterate fast. Don't try to make some perfect product on launch, just put something together in a month or two, launch it, and then release updates every 2 to 4 weeks (or even faster) based on user feedback and metrics. Relevant metrics in your case would be things like Patreon sub count, download stats, social media engagement (likes on twitter, number of posts in this f95zone thread, discord members/activity). Just release small updates and see what effect they have on your numbers. Ideally your updates should be so small that if one is received poorly you wouldn't feel bad about just reverting it.
Sorry, but I'm with Ava on this one & I'd strongly advise any dev to not listen to what you just said, ever. No dev should sacrifice quality over speed.
And yes, while there are some devs who are able to release decent updates every 2 to 4 weeks, those devs are rare exceptions and not the norm.
Dev's focus with this remake is to increase in quality. So I'd strongly advice against rushing releases just for sake or speed.
And while the dev is free to take into consideration other people's advice; revert/changing back after almost every 2~4 weeks feedback in my mind just spells trouble for the game with the dev getting pulled left and right constantly.
Eranfer in essence should already have his own vision/plan for the large part (which he shouldn't change, given it's his game), and only should make slight adjustments/changes on pretty minor stuff which has small consequences.
I mean not like I think the new haircut is the greatest out there (it's just fine, I guess), but if you think that's goofy then my guess is that you either haven't played this game's OG version or remember the OG version's MC haircut.
Besides, even if the new haircut is somehow goofy, there are other games where the main protagonist has goofy hair yet that really hasn't affected the game (such as Tales from the Unending Void with its MC hair).
I've been keeping this to myself, in an effort to tone down my assholery, but if you're already considering redoing stuff... I can't take that dude seriously. That haircut is just way too goofy. It's the bowl cut's uglier brother who lost a fight against a pair of clippers.
Nope, I won't go down into that rabbit hole again. I've learned my lessons. What I did is mostly just adjusting the Main Character for my next update because there will be some lewdy scene where I have to show the MC without his clothing. There's also a problem where his skin get too pale for an outdoor or daylight scene, this again is a problem that I have to fix because an update after this first release will have a lot of daylight scene.
As for the hair... yeah. I think it's a universal problems to all Honey Select games. Especially in HS2, we only have few options for male hair. And this is the best one that I could use atm. At least until I learn and port my own hair or commission one.
Honestly, I feel the one on the left (from the first image) is better. The new design (right from the first image + second image), the muscles look too drawn with the distinguished lines.
Hmmm... I kinda understand your concerns here But don't you think the new muscle looks more natural and realistic? The previous one that I use was a default HS2 muscle while the new one is from mods. My concern with the old muscle is that it kinda look blocky and cartoony especially on the chest and abs area where all the abs look exactly the same. But yeah, I will try to tone down the muscle intensity a bit more and see if it helps!
Eranfer in essence should already have his own vision/plan for the large part (which he shouldn't change, given it's his game), and only should make slight adjustments/changes on pretty minor stuff which has small consequences.
Exactly! The reason why I ask for this kind of stuff here is mostly because there are stuff that me as Developer can't see right away after I made something. Sometimes what I think is "good" could be weird af or even bad after quite some time. And that's why players feedback is important for me. Mostly to point out if there are stuff/mistakes that I miss/need some improvement along the way.
I mean not like I think the new haircut is the greatest out there (it's just fine, I guess), but if you think that's goofy then my guess is that you either haven't played this game's OG version or remember the OG version's MC haircut.
Oh and also are you both JJJ84 and Avaron1974 interested for joining the Beta Test? I kinda need someone who can be blunt about stuff so I could understand what I should improve from my game after this first release xD.
