I guess I savor games with compelling stories, because I've spent considerably more than 40 minutes on the 0.3 additions over the last couple of nights.
The game continues to be wonderful. The arc of Holly's feelings for the MC is sweet and sensitive, and I seriously appreciate the growth in the MC. He's becoming more assertive, but in a darling way. He walks the line between goofy and big hearted, as well as between horny and respectful, wonderfully. There's humor, a lot of it, and it's great, but what really stands out to me is that the story has heart.
I have nothing whatsoever to complain about with regards to the story. As a writer, it takes a lot for me to feel that way.
Chestnut's art continues to be top notch. I will admit that I sometimes get so wrapped up in the words that I forget to look at the great facial expressions, but then I kick myself for probably missing something. The images of the various women biting their lower lips are so seriously erotic that it doesn't matter that they're (still) wearing clothes.
I'm continually impressed with Pistachio's programming. Yeah, it's Python, one of the easier languages, but he's only been doing this for a little while. His code is clean, well thought through, and basically bug free.
Speaking of languages, for non-native speakers, it's cool how good the English is in this.
My complaints are small and inconsequential.
1) In this episode, there was a lot of, "It's late at night, come back tomorrow at night." Even when there were two things to be doing at the same time, (ie backrub and mud wrestling) they both happened at night. So you spent a number of days waking up and passing the time to the evening to continue. Again, inconsequential, but it felt like some of those nighttime activities could have been done in the afternoon, etc.
2) I would like some sort of tweaks to the mechanism for the Lambert photos. I look in the book, and the picture is very clever at giving me a hint where to look. I'm proud of myself, and I go to what is probably the right place, and I stare and stare at the screen. Then I drag my mouse around it hoping to stumble across it. And I fail. So I go do other things. Then I try again. And I fail to find it again. And, eventually, I give up and look at a spoiler. (Haven't done that yet on this on this one, but I'm close.) I would like a mechanism that isn't "look up the answer" but is closer to in game hints. Maybe you click on the picture in the book and MC says, "What is that?" and there are a few options for the player to choose, "Hair?", "Snakes?", "Corn silk?", "No, I'll find it myself." If you choose the right one, it makes the click target a BIT easier to see if you go to the right location. Say, add an occasional sparkle to it, etc. Something like that. If you don't want the visual aide, choose the 4th option. If you do need help, you still have to reason it correctly. Something like that.
magicnuts, you deserve every ounce of praise people have been giving you. Keep up the great work. But take care of yourselves. 16 hours a day, 7 days a week is unsustainable regardless of how much fun you're having. We'd rather get updates every 4 or even 6 months but keep getting them than have you keep your current schedule and burn out.
Tlaero