Others VN Engine Dev & Render Feedback

[Hentami]

(if for any reason this has been posted in the wrong section, apologies and please move/delete as needed)

If you have the time dear reader, perhaps you could give some feedback on , 'The Casting Couch' using a developmental VN engine. Feel free to private message if you would rather your feedback not be public.

Be as honest as you can with your experience.

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Take on the role of a newly started backroom casting couch agent and build your porn empire.

(?)- did the tutorial provide enough understanding of game mechanics
- if not, what was missing
- (did you know you could hide the entire GUI with RMB?)

(?)- Overall, what part(s)- if any - did you find confusing
- (what could be done to make that part less confusing)

(?)- Did you enjoy the interactive sex with mouse
- (if not what if anything could be added to improve it)

(?)- Was map/scene movement confusing
- (if so, what could be improved)

(?)- Did you feel you were starting on an Open Ended Story, Story on Rails, combination of both experience, or you dont care.
- if so, why - if none why

(?)- Did you understand you could earn offline bonus(s)
- (if not, where could that be added or how better worded)

(?)- What was your favorite moment or part if any
(?)- What was your least enjoyable moment or part if any


[Project Goals]
- main storyline
- random events
- progression system / event barriers
- offline progression
- achievement markers
- upgrades to work towards

(?)- Did you find the above project goals in the game
- if not, which ones did you feel didnt exist or were not properly displayed

(?)- Any final thoughts on the gameplay and mechanics?

(?)-Any final thoughts on the game experience as a whole?

(?)- Did you encounter any bugs you would like to share?


TL/DR - Tell me what you did and didn't like about your experience


Thank you to anyone for your time and feedback!
All the best, Hentami
**disclaimer - bugs/typos/crashes - who knows..

 

[Droid Productions]

Looks good; let me download and have a look

 

[Droid Productions]

Some quick thoughts:
1. I start the game; immediately it wants me to "press space to play" (after a non-interactive couple of frames of loop). Everything else seems tied to the Mouse; why would you make this one tied to the keyboard? I've only got one hand, the other one is... occupied.

2. Since you specifically asked about the tutorial screen, I go there immediately. Since I haven't started the game yet I don't have the context to 'stick' any of the information. I'd start with a summary of the game premise, and only document functionality the first time it's actually required (and only AS required)

3. The screen is full of information, but honestly most of it could be better represented in-game with a mouse-over (so when I mouse-over 'Money: 500', show a little bar somewhere that says "You use money for lots of things, spend it wisely".) That puts the information where I can use it. You can also pop up a little tutorial bubble (with opt-out for future ones) the first time you're in a situation where the user doesn't know what's happening (like the first time I open up the gambling screen or the promote social media platforms).

4. You're explaining a lot of obvious stuff, which makes things a lot busier than it needs to be. "This is your company name" or the fact that clicking the button that says "Social Media Accounts" will "open your Social Media accounts" is the kind of thing that's self-evident to the player. Focus on the stuff that's not. That the phone is "settings" is actually useful information, but the settings text is hidden behind the phone. Also there's no actual settings (I was looking to see if I could speed up the text)

5. When clicking through dialog, things feel a little sticky. I click to continue, but because the next string only starts unrolling after a one-second delay it feels like I need to click multiple times.

6. The social media screen in general; I'm not quite certain what you're going for here. Sitting there watching a bar go up without doing anything isn't very rewarding to the player. Does this mean that the game runs 'realtime', and there's a clock I need to burn through waiting for the girl? If so, time should probably be shown somewhere in the UI. I'd personally look at making that screen atomic (so my act is 'promote->facebook->done' in a single step, without having to sit limp-dicked at that screen for several minutes watching it increase 1% every 3 seconds)

7. Gambling screen. Here you've got the information, but it's not really explaining the game. I've got 3 crates. Inside one is 15$, 5$ or -15$ (the spread on this is positive, btw, which in theory always makes gambling a positive investment). The problem is more related to thematic integration; it feels like an F2P reward sequence, not gambling. The rest of the world is a lot grittier and more real.

8. So we get to the meat of the game; the idea of a casting couch is actually really cool, and the renders are largely nice. I wish I had a little more player agency on the way (giving me some basic chat options that raise/lower Claire's mood, rather than just clicking through). I also wonder if you escalate a little quickly, and getting a little more pushback as she undresses ("oh, yeah... I'm a little shy", "I've never done this before", "You're not going to put this online, right?") would make the final reward more satisfying? I guess it does match with what you've written; Claire remains in total control over the casting couch process ("Fuck me baby, I'm going to suck your dick", etc). Most casting couch scenes reverse the positions of power on that, but that's a stylistic choice.

9. I get to persuade/bribe/fondle her. I guess I'm supposed to persuade until that doesn't work any more, then bribe the rest of the way? Having some tutorial chunk here would be good. Returning to the idea of agency, it might be worth looking at how 'scenes' in the porn movie are unlocked. Right now it's all-or-nothing: persuade->bribe->fondle [everything]. What would happen if persuading/bribing was used to unlock individual chunks ("I need you to take of your top now, Claire". "Oh, do I have to? I feel a little shy..." [persuade][bribe][return][exit]). That way actually achieving the apex scenes ('entering her virgin ass') feels like it's a reward for good/aggressive play, not just automatic. You could also use that to calculate revenue on the movie (the more perverted scenes you talked her into the 'better' the movie, but possibly you spent so much money bribing her that it's never going to be profitable).

10. Once I'm done with Claire, the world opens up with no real explanation. Will Wright talks about a pyramid of choices; if you open things up gradually the user isn't as confused. Especially since none of the other options actually do anything, it might be a useful tutorial funnel to walk the player through the process of going world-map, then going home (all other options locked out), then falling asleep and starting the next day (or spending time with the maid, though I'd probably unlock that on day 2 or 3; the player has enough things on their hands at this point).

And, this is where I run out of game I can't find another girl to talk to (spa doesn't work, school doesn't do anything, maid is locked at 10%, and the girl in the lounge is flipping me the bird .

Looks an interesting premise, and no crashes or obvious bugs. You've got a lot of debug functionality hanging around (for example in the computer, in the secretary screen), that you probably want to put behind a keyboard shortcut or settings menu for testing with players.

Good luck, and look forward to seeing the next iteration of the game!

 

[Hentami]

An absolute huge thank you to

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, implemented as possible and updated.

Here are 3 renders, if anyone has the time - could you rate them as acceptable or unacceptable and which one (if any) you like the best (assuming background is irrelevant)

Thank you for your time!

 

[Droid Productions]

Not sure if the assumption that backgrounds are irrelevant is a true one; you're going to need to see the art in context to look at things like shadows and lighting, as well as what color scheme make sense. Right now B looks good, but that's likely because it feels like an overhead light (roadside?) on a dark night

(Note, IANAA)

 

[Cyan]

An absolute huge thank you to

You must be registered to see the links

, implemented as possible and updated.

Here are 3 renders, if anyone has the time - could you rate them as acceptable or unacceptable and which one (if any) you like the best (assuming background is irrelevant)

Thank you for your time!
View attachment 64758

A.- Borderline ridiculous. Her clothes are almost glowing, and her skin looks like shes been covered in baby-powder. It looks really off, I dislike it.

B- Looks much better, though it seems from the picture that the light is coming from the left side/her right side? The origin of the light looks different on all 3 models so it's difficult to say whether it's a quirk from the lighting or if there's some issue with the skin/shading.

The warm lighting really softens up the picture and makes her look good.

C- Looks great too. It's almost like it's a mix of A and B. There's still a weird skin issue that makes it look like shes covered in baby-powder, but the soft white light works in a different kind of way. I'd be concerned about using this model in brighter areas though, else it might end up looking weird like A.

So B/C are my favorites.