Hey
magicnuts,
First things first, you have made an incredible first impression with the beginning of
What a Legend!
The art work is absolutely amazing and this is perhaps the most beautiful game I've played from this site.
In addition, I want to thank you, in advance, for being so involved in the forums as a developer.
It's really great when these forums and threads have active developers who listen and respond to players.
Even so, I think there are a couple things that you could do to really improve your game as a whole.
Now I know that this list is
very long, but I strongly believe every one of these ideas, if implemented well, could seriously improve this incredible game you're working on:
1) I don't know about anyone else, but when I played this game, I experienced a good deal of lag. It would usually take a couple seconds for a new scene to go from being heavily pixelated to being clear and visible. I hope this is an issue that, if a lot of players besides myself are facing, you can deal with soon.
2) Make the Crystal Ball a quest logger in addition to being a hint giver and have it be a perma-icon on the screen.
- Think ahead & Plan ahead!!! If you keep going, in 2-3 years time, this game will be much bigger and have way more characters that are giving many quests to the MC. It would be wise to add a quest logger early on so that players and yourself, as the developer, can easily keep track.
- In addition, having to go all the way to the tent and then into the chest in order to get hints is annoying for players and will be especially annoying when the MC has to cross the entire continent in order to get needed hints. Therefore, it would be much better if the crystal ball was one of the perma-icons constantly on the screen rather than an item in the tent.
- Just have the Princess give the MC a crystal ball amulet that he can pester with mundane/trivial questions! Questions she herself is too busy and too important to be bothered with.
3) Currently, when you click on an npc, you are given a list of topics to discuss with the npc. When you pick one of these topics and the chosen discussion is over, you are taken back to the scenery that contains the npc. This forces you to click on the npc yet again in order to choose a new topic of discussion.
- It would be
much better, if instead, when you choose a topic from the menu and the discussion of that particular topic concludes, you are taken back to the current npc's discussion/topic menu. Thus, the only way to fully end the discussion with the npc would be to hit the "Go Back" button on the menu.
4) During my gameplay, I
accidentally discovered that there is dialogue for sex scenes by mistakenly clicking on the screen when I was trying to click the "Faster" button. Then, later on during my gameplay, I accidentally discovered that different sex speeds have different dialogues.
- I think it would be much better if you automatically showed the dialogue as soon as a sex scene starts so that people who like reading the text (people like myself) don't feel like they're miss out on content.
- In addition, it would be better if once all the dialogue for a particular speed is completed, the dialogue doesn't just restart from the beginning. Having the dialogue just restart causes confusion as to whether or not there is new dialogue to read.
5) Provide Better Functionality and More Options During The Sex Scenes
(a) - Have the sex scenes start at the lowest speed so that players can build up to the fastest. Right now you have the sex scenes start at middle speed, forcing us to go to the first speed, then the second speed
again, and then the third.
(b) - Provide better controls as to when the sex starts. Specifically, have a button in place that allows the player to decide when to start penetration.
(c) - Include more sex positions for each of the girls in the game. Ideally, every girl should have her own make-out, blowjob, cunnilingus, missionary, and anal scene. I recognize this to be completely idealistic, though it'd be awesome to have.
(d) - Give the player the option of whether to creampie a girl or cover her with cum at the end of sex.
(e) - Although definitely not a priority at the moment, include pregnancy content.
PLEASE!!!!
6) Create meaningful choices in the game.
-By this I mean, when you give players two choices to pick from, have these choices actually lead to different results. It's quite annoying, for example, being given the choice as to whether or not the MC will eat strange berries, just to have him eat the berries no matter what you actually choose.
- What's the point of giving the player a choice if the outcome is the same no matter what the player chooses?
- Now, I understand that you're doing this because the game is in very early development and is quite new. But I still believe this is something you should think about early on.
7) Number the days in the game.
- Simply put, I want to know how many days has gone by since the MC first arrived at the Old Capital and began his epic quest. This helps put things in a little perspective.
- Have this day number be displayed right above or right under the currently shown weekday, which is located at the top-left of the screen.
8) Allow The Naming of Game Saves. Now this one has two parts, one of which relies upon number 7:
(a) - Whenever we save our current play, there should be a default save name and it should be a combination of the MC's name, the current day number, and the current weekday.
- Example of a Save Name: "Johnny - Day 23, Tues."
(b) - Allow players the option to change the default save name of a save to whatever name they like. This feature can be used when a player is saving something they deem especially important.
9) Add In Some Puzzles and Mini-Games
- This isn't an immediate concern but I strongly believe that down the line, puzzles and mini-games should be added to
What a Legend! in order to spice up the gameplay as a whole.
- Puzzles and Mini-Games can be used when the MC has to achieve or accomplish something particularly interesting, different, or unique. Examples include: Picking locks to doors, fishing in the river, jousting against an opponent and so on.
- Rather than have the player watch or read the MC accomplish these things, you should aim to engage the player more by having him/her play a mini-game or solve a puzzle in order to get to the new content.
10) Are There Not Multiple Gods in This Setting?
- Something that kinda stood out to me as I played through this game and read the dialogue was how often characters would use the phrases "Oh God" or "Oh my God!"
- It surprised me because this seems like a setting in which there would be multiple gods and deities. Therefore, shouldn't the phrases be more along the lines of "Oh gods" or "Oh my gods?"
- This isn't a major concern but it is quite interesting to me with regards to the lore of this world you're creating.
11) Ideally, Every Girl Should Have Her Own Relationship Status, Route, and Routine
- Essentially, this section can be split into three parts:
(a) - First, every girl should have her own unique daily routine that she performs.
- A good example of this is Myrtle: She's taking a bath in the morning and then is at her home by the afternoon.
- Essentially, unless she's going to a place the MC doesn't yet have access to, every girl should be accounted for during each of the 5 sections of the day. No girl should just completely disappear from the map.
- In addition, it would be pretty interesting if some girls changed their routines based on which weekday it is.
- An example would be Myrtle taking afternoon baths on Sundays instead of morning baths because of some other obligation she has on Sunday mornings.
(b) - Second, every girl should have her own route that the MC must go through in order to obtain regular sex with her.
- I strongly believe that it's much more fun to have the MC work a little in order to gain complete sexual access to a girl.
- Ideally, this means having the MC go through a girl's entire route, doing favors for her, completing quests given by her, and generally just helping her out.
- As he goes down a girl's route, he gets more and more romantic and then sexual favors from her until he complete's her route by having sex with her.
- I think a system like this will make the beautiful sex scenes that much more valuable to your players.
- In addition, these routes can be used or seen as side quests to distract players from the main quest.
(c) - Third, every girl should have a relationship status with respect to the MC.
- The player should have the option of performing actions that will either progress, regress, or even destroy the MC's relationship with any given girl.
- In addition, certain dialogue, romantic actions, and sexual favors with any particular girl will only be made available to the MC once he develops his relationship with the girl to the required level.
- Finally, the MC should be able to use the Crystal Ball as a kind of relationship status tracker. With it, the player can see how far along the MC is with any particular girl.
12) Warn Us about Actions That Will Use Up Time Blocks
- Nothing too fancy - Just put an hourglass indicator next to options or choices that will use up an entire time block.
- Example: When the player goes to the crafting table and has the option to make something like a crown, put an hourglass next to the crown option to indicate that performing this action will take up an entire time block.
13) Have Rare and Random Weather Changes (Not Important, But Fun and VERY Immersive)
- It would be really cool if on certain, random days, the weather would be different
- I'm primarily thinking about three types of alternative weather: Rainy Days, Windy Days, and Heat Wave Days
- You could have the girls reacting to these changes in weather in fun, funny, and/or sexy ways
- This weather feature could also be a potentially great source of pics for the Black Sheep. Now the player has to look around during a rainy day to see if the Black Sheep can be found and if compromising images of any wet girls can be collected.
- Maybe during windy days, the Black Sheep can give the MC great up-skirt shots.
14) Put an NPC Locator in The Game by Having NPC icons on The Map
- I know this one is a long shot but it would be
tremendously useful if the map had icons of all the npcs so that the player could easily know where they all are during any given time of day.
- This locator would obviously exclude characters the MC hasn't formally met yet, areas of the map the MC hasn't visited yet, and the Black Sheep, who is supposed to be a challenge for the player to find.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Now these three, I saved for last because they are, undoubtedly, going to be the most controversial.
But I will try my best to make a solid argument for all of them.
15) Don't Be Afraid To Release New and Improved Versions of The Game That Will Destroy Player Progress From Older Versions
- This one is fairly straightforward. There will be times when you as a developer want to rewrite or change the story to such a degree that older content will have to be redone or remade.
- Naturally, this will lead to unsolvable conflicts between older versions and newer versions of the game. Thus, I urge you that no matter how angry many people will get at having to start all over yet again, please always prioritize objectively improving the game and the story over reserving the old play-throughs from previous iterations of the game.
- There will be anger from the community, but this will only be for the short-term.
- The long-term love and adoration you get for building an incredible game will most definitely outlast and overshadow any short-term rage.
- To temper long-term players who don't want to constantly start from the beginning, you can give players the option of starting a new game as a complete beginner with no advantages or as a returning player with privileges that allow the returning player to avoid replaying old content.
16) Add Some Skilling and Grinding to The Game
- Before I start, let me preface by stating and explaining the three main reasons why players typically hate grinding:
(a) - It's too excessive.
- There are a good number of games on this site that have overly excessive, very repetitive grinding systems that suck the fun out of the play and the soul out of the player. The developers of these games typically forget that they're supposed to provide their players with entertainment, not a job.
(b) - There's too little guidance.
- The player has no real idea and no guidance as to how much he/she is supposed to grind. No information is provided to the player which leaves the player confused.
- This confusion then leads to annoyance. Annoyance leads to frustration. Frustration leads to anger. Anger leads to hatred. And hatred, leads to
The Dark Side of the player leaving that game and that game's developer forever.
(c) - There's too little reward.
- The game makes the player grind a lot and after completing the immense grind, the player is provided with no real reward other than the satisfaction of having completed the grind.
- All this does is make the player feel like he/she has mostly wasted his/her free time working rather than playing.
- Keeping all this in mind, I strongly believe that
What a Legend! would seriously benefit from having a
moderate amount of skilling and grinding as part of it's gameplay. This is because:
(a) - Locking access to certain content and certain girls behind various skill levels that the player must attain, rather than simply giving the player that access because he/she got to a certain point in the story, will only increase the value of both that content and those girls in the eyes of the player. Now that it has to be earned, now that the player isn't simply entitled to it, it has real value.
(b) - Having the player do some work and overcome some challenges will make him/her feel more engaged with your game
(c) - Watching the MC improve and grow due to the work and the grind of the player will make said player more invested in both the MC and the game itself.
(d) - Having skills in your game is a great way to introduce new girls and characters who will teach the MC those skills and instruct the MC on how to improve those skills
- Ideally, you want a system where the player has the MC attempt some action like, say, breaking into a house.
- The MC then fails because his lock-picking skill is too low a level. Maybe the house has a special lock that requires at least level 2 lock-picking.
- The MC then has to go to the woman who teaches him the lock-picking skill, go through her dialogue, complete her assigned task before she is willing to instruct him, and then finally learn the skill by playing a mini-game.
- After completing the skill mini-game, the MC now has level 1 lock-picking and gets a little hint of sexual action from the female instructor for his impressive performance
- Then the MC would have to practice the skill on his own 3 or 4 times before returning to the instructor to learn more.
- Once the MC returns to the instructor, he can improve the skill by playing a slightly tougher version of the skill mini-game.
- When this mini-game is complete, the MC's locking-picking skill is now at level 2 and he gets an even spicier action from the female instructor.
- Now the player can take the MC back to the house and have the MC successfully break in.
-
NOTE: I'm aware it was the dumb, bow-and-arrow hunter dude that was hinted at being the lock-picking instructor. I'm just using lock-picking as an example. Plus, the MC could simply learn that the hunter is too stupid to teach him and then the hunter directs the MC to the woman that trained him in lock-picking.
- Furthermore, you can have the crystal ball (in addition to being a hint-giver, a quest-logger, and a relationship-tracker) be a skill-tracker and/or stats-tracker, keeping the player informed on the MC's current skills and stats levels.
- This is only a rough draft of what is possible but hopefully, you can already see how this type of moderate skilling and grinding will enrich both your game and the player experience.
- You avoid the "too excessive" issue by limiting the number of repetitions to 3 or 4 instances per level for each skill.
- You solve the "too little guidance" problem by providing the player with (a) skill instructors who tell the MC what to do and (b) the crystal ball which keeps track of all of the players skills and stats.
- You fix the "too little reward" nuisance by having the player receive access to both general game content and female instructor content by obtaining certain skill/stat levels.
- Please consider this because it really could improve your game for better if included smartly.
17) Include Possible but
Preventable NTR
- Now I estimate that about 53% of the people who saw the words "Include" and "NTR" in the same sentence screamed with fury and then rage quit this post.
- But I do believe that I'm going somewhere with this, so please (to the remaining 47%) just hear me out.
- First I want to establish that I do not like the idea of other men having sexual access to the MC's women and therefore desire that all NTR be completely preventable and avoidable.
- I just believe that it is a mistake for
magicnuts to completely bar any and all NTR from this game for three main reasons:
(a) -
Realism: Ask yourself, how realistic is it that all these beautiful, single women have only one man (the MC) chasing after and pursuing relationships with them? Isn't it more likely that some of these beautiful girls will have numerous male suitors?
(b) -
Player Investment: Wouldn't a player be way more invested in a girl if, not only did the MC have to go through the individual girl's entire route to obtain her but also had to out-compete other male npcs vying for her love and affection?
(c) -
Player Satisfaction: First, think about how satisfying it is to finally have the MC sleep with a girl after completing all her tasks, finishing all her quests, and solving all of her problems. Now imagine how much more satisfying it'd be if the MC did all of this, in addition to winning the girl's love over another competing suitor or group of suitors. Image how satisfying it would be to win back a girl's love and affection from a suitor who stole her from you.
- Ultimately, I strongly believe the player would value the girls much more if there were other male npc's trying to win the affection of these girls, trying to steal these girls away from the MC.
- I also strongly believe that the player would feel way more invested in any girl if he had to out-compete other male npcs in order to obtain her.
- In conclusion, I would advise in not taking NTR completely off the table. Instead, looking for ways to implement it into the game that allows the player to actively prevent it while also making the player feel more invested into the girls of the game.
- Lastly, I want to clarify that I'm not advocating that this be done for every single girl in the game. But instead, experiment by having one girl have preventable NTR content.
- In summary, you have an incredible piece of work here
magicnuts and I really do hope you and your spouse the best.
- I genuinely believe that if you keep developing and creating, in 2-3 years time you will have an incredibly popular and absolutely amazing work of art here.
- And even though you will succeed with or without listening to any of my points listed here, I hope some of the things on this list can be of use to you.
Thank you for this truly amazing game and I wish you the best.
