What does every game need?

[BangB420]

Big booty bitches

 

[Deleted member 3917737]

Not going to derail this interesting discussion into a discussion about Choices in VNs, but in a nutshell, in your example, the player should have some way of knowing that "Wine = Sexy time, while Chocolate = Love" and not guess blindly.

I do like it when a Dev's game has a built-in walkthrough or an option to see your Li's Lust/Love etc points. It all depends though. Sometimes, I like not knowing outcomes, while other times, I need to know x3

I guess it all depends on the Dev as well. If they want to include it or not. They might also try to hold it and sale it, if they put their game on Steam.

 

[anne O'nymous]

Maybe we are lucky, I very rarely see rants or people just bad mouthing the game. Sure it happens but honestly it is very rare.

It's not a question of luck, it's a QSP game with the "real porn" tag.
It doesn't mean that the game is bad or have no players, just that even HTML real porn games are less niche than this one. The thread would be peaceful even if the game had a loli futa NTRing the female MC by ass fucking all the male she's interested in, while you were purely milking your fan base.

Just because I read every post and respond to most post doesn't mean I give them all equal weight.

That don't change much. What matters is the way they'll read it, not the way you mean it. But well, as I said above, there's no much risk with your game.

Maybe but not in this case. according to Kevin the guy in charge of GL community project, I typically write the most each update and have written more for the game than anyone else for it and I am the most active on the forums.

And after six years, the game is only at it's version 0.8.8.6, while there's a whole team behind...

We don't have a designated PR and I don't do PR. I interact with the fan because I like doing it and think devs should be more involved.

You are keeping alive the relation with the public, but aren't doing Public Relation ? Well, why not...

But the thread asked what we would like to see more and that is what I would like to see more.

And Meaning Less and me explained why it's not a so good idea, at least most of the time.
The fact that it doesn't happen for the game you works on, because it's a game that goes below 99% of the radars, doesn't mean that it will also not happen for games that are more mainstream. After, you believe us or not, I'm sure that Meaning Less will not care more than me about this.

I disagree it takes much time or effort to do it and I feel it makes the player happy that they get engaged with.

The thread have 683 pages after six years of existence. One page every three days, when popular games get two pages every day, when not more ; counting what the moderators will have to nuke, because the dev will perhaps see them if he pass before.
This without counting the Patreon/whatever account, the other forums, social media and, when it apply, the discord and/or personal forum. Places that you don't have to care about since you're part of a team and this team have a community manager.

 

[LewdLewy]

Accessibility options would be huge benefit for everyone. I know devs want their text and buttons to look a certain way, but some of us have shitty eyes. I really wish options like font color, size, outline size were standard in Ren'Py. Would also be great to include some alternate fonts for those who have dyslexia or other issues. Text box size adjustment would be nice for ultrawide monitors and I'd use it on my 16:9 as well.

Oh and devs, please don't make the font super small for whispering. I know some people don't like *Whispering* or appending whispering to the name, but that is far better because I'll actually be able to read what is being said.

Next is, and I can't believe I have to say this, a Quit or Exit button. I have played several games that didn't have one. The only way to close it was to switch to desktop and use other methods to end the program. Some engines by default use the Escape key, but not all. Not having a ingame function to shut the game down isn't quirky or makes the game somehow unique, it's just dumb.

 

[Deleted member 5410619]

Gameplay.
Every game needs gameplay or it isnt a game.
Aka visual novels are not a game and enver will be a game.

 

[Müptezel Emo]

Gameplay.
Every game needs gameplay or it isnt a game.
Aka visual novels are not a game and enver will be a game.

Bruh, VN's are game.

 

[Deleted member 5410619]

Bruh, VN's are game.

 

[Nutluck]

It's not a question of luck, it's a QSP game with the "real porn" tag.
It doesn't mean that the game is bad or have no players, just that even HTML real porn games are less niche than this one. The thread would be peaceful even if the game had a loli futa NTRing the female MC by ass fucking all the male she's interested in, while you were purely milking your fan base.

How exactly are we milking our fans when the game is 100% free and we don't even accept tips?

That don't change much. What matters is the way they'll read it, not the way you mean it. But well, as I said above, there's no much risk with your game.

And after six years, the game is only at it's version 0.8.8.6, while there's a whole team behind...

And your point is?

You are keeping alive the relation with the public, but aren't doing Public Relation ? Well, why not...

Well... why do it? There is no point in trying to do PR to a free game. People that are interested can play for free and those that are not can find a game they do like. If we have 100 players or 10,000 players it is all the same to me.

And Meaning Less and me explained why it's not a so good idea, at least most of the time.
The fact that it doesn't happen for the game you works on, because it's a game that goes below 99% of the radars, doesn't mean that it will also not happen for games that are more mainstream. After, you believe us or not, I'm sure that Meaning Less will not care more than me about this.

What part about the OP asked a question and I answered it is hard to understand? I don't care if you think it is a good idea or not. The OP asked what we anyone that reads the thread would like to see. I answered, it is called a opinion. The OP is free to ignore it or not, as they choose. Why do you care so much what I would like to see?

The thread have 683 pages after six years of existence. One page every three days, when popular games get two pages every day, when not more ; counting what the moderators will have to nuke, because the dev will perhaps see them if he pass before.
This without counting the Patreon/whatever account, the other forums, social media and, when it apply, the discord and/or personal forum. Places that you don't have to care about since you're part of a team and this team have a community manager.

I can only assume you are implying what I said can't be done with a "popular game", like I said before you are free to disagree. I don't care if you agree or not. I answered the OP's question because they asked it. I honestly don't get why you are putting so much effort into trying to basically say

your opinion is wrong and here is why

 

[anne O'nymous]

How exactly are we milking our fans when the game is 100% free and we don't even accept tips?

Where exactly did I said that you are milking them ?

"The thread would be peaceful even if [...], while you were purely milking your fan base."
This said, "would be" would perhaps have been better that "were". But well, my English skills are what they are, and the rest of the sentence was explicit enough regarding the purely hypothetical form.

And your point is?

For the first line, it's explicitly said ; "what matters is the way they'll read it, not the way you mean it". Expecting people to react because of your intent, and not accordingly to the way they understand your action, is, at most, naivety.
Therefore, yes, whatever is the intent a dev stating that he (will) answer everything, it's opening the door to a shit tons of totally irrelevant comments. At most it will make them loose time filtering what worth to be answered, at worse it will be yet another dev who burn out.

As for the second one, it's relatively obvious. There's some kind of irony in saying that doing PR works do not slow down the game progress, while being part of the team working on a game that needed six years to reach the 0.8 version.

Well... why do it? There is no point in trying to do PR to a free game. People that are interested can play for free and those that are not can find a game they do like. If we have 100 players or 10,000 players it is all the same to me.

I repeat: "You are keeping alive the relation with the public, but aren't doing Public Relation".
What you are doing is Public Relation, period.

There's no need for a product to cost something for the relation with the public to suddenly become Public Relation. And anyway, there's no difference here between free and none free games. This is a pirate site, all the games are free, unless you decide otherwise.

Why do you care so much what I would like to see?

Where do you see me care about what you would like to see ? I don't cared a single second about you, and care even less now.

This is a public forum. It's not because someone rebound on what you said, that (s)he's explicitly talking to you. And it happen that I care for the (future) devs who are reading (or will read in the future) this thread.
Before starting to add "Public Relation" to the long list of tasks they have to do, they need to know that it have a cost, and that your particular case is far to reflect the reality of the heavy works they would have to do if they effectively want to do it.
You are part of a team, and you are doing a small part of the public relation job, for a game that is appealing for a really small portion of the public. What you experience have nothing to do with what 80% of the devs, who are alone, and would have more than one place where they need to do public relation works, would have to face. And this have to be said before they starts.
After, what they do is not my concern, but at least they'll do it knowing what effectively await them.

I honestly don't get why you are putting so much effort [...]

Hint: It don't need efforts and you aren't the center of the world.

 

[Müptezel Emo]

And your point is?

I really wonder what are you exactly doing in that project?

 

[Freakbunny]

I'm a rare, but diehard windowed fullscreen enthusiast - I want the game window to be maximized, but not to the point that my taskbar is cut off, making me feel as though I'm locked away from the rest of my PC. SO glad that this is inherently an option in all RenPy games - I'm often weary about other engines for this reason.

 

[Nutluck]

I really wonder what are you exactly doing in that project?

As I stated I write.

 

[Nutluck]

Where exactly did I said that you are milking them ?

"The thread would be peaceful even if [...], while you were purely milking your fan base."
This said, "would be" would perhaps have been better that "were". But well, my English skills are what they are, and the rest of the sentence was explicit enough regarding the purely hypothetical form.

Well you said you, that implied you was speaking to me.

For the first line, it's explicitly said ; "what matters is the way they'll read it, not the way you mean it". Expecting people to react because of your intent, and not accordingly to the way they understand your action, is, at most, naivety.
Therefore, yes, whatever is the intent a dev stating that he (will) answer everything, it's opening the door to a shit tons of totally irrelevant comments. At most it will make them loose time filtering what worth to be answered, at worse it will be yet another dev who burn out.

As for the second one, it's relatively obvious. There's some kind of irony in saying that doing PR works do not slow down the game progress, while being part of the team working on a game that needed six years to reach the 0.8 version.

I never said I will answer everything. I said I read everything and typically answer posts.

You do realize anyone that writes doesn't write non stop. Sometimes you need to take a break and go do other stuff, like reading forum posts. So it doesn't take away from any writing time at all, as I would be doing something different than working on the game regardless.

Like right now I am not in a place where I could work on the game, but I do have a couple of minutes free here and there to come read and respond to forum posts. So I use that time to do just that, since it is not long enough to really do anything else anyways.

I repeat: "You are keeping alive the relation with the public, but aren't doing Public Relation".
What you are doing is Public Relation, period.

There's no need for a product to cost something for the relation with the public to suddenly become Public Relation. And anyway, there's no difference here between free and none free games. This is a pirate site, all the games are free, unless you decide otherwise.

I know this is a pirate site, but GL is and always will be free regardless of where you get it.

As for PR as I already said I personally read posts because it gives me something to do when I have moments here and there and because I enjoy it doing it. i do it for no other reason.

Where do you see me care about what you would like to see ? I don't cared a single second about you, and care even less now.

This is a public forum. It's not because someone rebound on what you said, that (s)he's explicitly talking to you. And it happen that I care for the (future) devs who are reading (or will read in the future) this thread.
Before starting to add "Public Relation" to the long list of tasks they have to do, they need to know that it have a cost, and that your particular case is far to reflect the reality of the heavy works they would have to do if they effectively want to do it.
You are part of a team, and you are doing a small part of the public relation job, for a game that is appealing for a really small portion of the public. What you experience have nothing to do with what 80% of the devs, who are alone, and would have more than one place where they need to do public relation works, would have to face. And this have to be said before they starts.
After, what they do is not my concern, but at least they'll do it knowing what effectively await them.

You made a post why what I suggested was a bad idea, when the thread was about people posting what they want to see. There was no need to knock down others idea's, only post what you would like to see.

Hint: It don't need efforts and you aren't the center of the world.

Never said it did nor did I ever imply it. I answered a question by the OP and then responded to people that was saying why they thought my idea was bad. When you could have just posted what you wanted to see like the OP asked and not try to say why you think others idea's are bad.

 

[Hagatagar]

Well you said you, that implied you was speaking to me.

This may be a "lost in translation" thing. There are several languages where the "you" does not necessarily refer to the conversation partner, but as a general term.

 

[Meaning Less]

You made a post why what I suggested was a bad idea, when the thread was about people posting what they want to see. There was no need to knock down others idea's, only post what you would like to see.

To be fair, I was just explaining why your idea wasnt nearly as easy or feasible as you made it sound in your first post:
"[I'm doing it]...So I know this can be done and something I would like to see a lot more from devs of all games"

PR is not only time consuming but also has several disadvantages that must be put into consideration, having an active dev in the game thread is not always a good idea.

I mean you even stated this yourself:

I will likely die before the game is finished, but that is ok because the game I work on is a community project

It exclusively works in your case because you are talking about a community project, there is a lot less risk for you.

But imagine what would happen to any patreon supported project if a dev publicly stated "I will likely die before the game is finished".

 

[anne O'nymous]

Well you said you, that implied you was speaking to me.

What I wrote is explicitly that it "would be [...] even if [...] and you were [...]".
Even with my broken English, this is clearly not the same than stating that "you are doing it".

I never said I will answer everything. I said I read everything and typically answer posts.

Why the fuck did you believed that I was talking about you ?
"[...] whatever is the intent a dev stating that he (will) answer everything" (since bold is apparently not enough, I ensured that you'll not miss the emphasis this time)

You do realize anyone that writes doesn't write non stop. Sometimes you need to take a break and go do other stuff, like reading forum posts. So it doesn't take away from any writing time at all, as I would be doing something different than working on the game regardless.

I was pointing the irony, not saying that, for you personally, it was taking on your works time.

I know this is a pirate site, but GL is and always will be free regardless of where you get it.

I was, relatively explicitly, talking about the 12,349 games that aren't Girl Life...

As for PR as I already said I personally read posts because it gives me something to do when I have moments here and there and because I enjoy it doing it. i do it for no other reason.

And ? The only thing I said is that taking care of the relation with the public is doing PR, period. At no time did I said, or even implied from far away, that it was something that you are forced to do.

You made a post why what I suggested was a bad idea, when the thread was about people posting what they want to see. There was no need to knock down others idea's, only post what you would like to see.

Already answered that in the post you are quoting.

I answered a question by the OP and then responded to people that was saying why they thought my idea was bad. When you could have just posted what you wanted to see like the OP asked and not try to say why you think others idea's are bad.

It's just a rephrasing of what you said above, what mean that the answer was in the post you are quoting.


plonk

 

[khumak]

Here's my list of what a game needs to have for me to consider it good:

1. Enough context or hints built into the game to get the "good scenes" without requiring a walkthrough or reloads.
2. A working gallery that lets you replay the best scenes without having to replay the entire game to get to them.
3. Some kind of meaningful challenge or adversary to overcome.
4. Automatic note taking for any info your character learns and needs to remember. I do not want to be taking notes to remember people's birthday or work schedule or any other kind of trivia.
5. Some form of navigation system that reduces or eliminates your chance of picking an option where nothing happens. If nothing happens there then it should not be an option to go there.

Optional but nice:

6. Make the "bad" choices worth seeing even if it leads to a game over/bad ending.

 

[Cainhurst]

I do like it when a Dev's game has a built-in walkthrough or an option to see your Li's Lust/Love etc points. It all depends though. Sometimes, I like not knowing outcomes, while other times, I need to know x3

I guess it all depends on the Dev as well. If they want to include it or not. They might also try to hold it and sale it, if they put their game on Steam.

This to me is extremely important if a game is well animated but has a horrible story. Because I usually actually read text for good games and the good games have usually provided hints for the correct choice. A bad story will have me skipping entire sections just to see the scenes so a walkthrough just expedites the process.

Another thing I would like to see but it is almost never there is some actual romance or character depth. We almost always have too much creepiness with male MCs or humiliation/harrasment for female Protags in most games on this site. So to see a story without an arbitrary bad guy or any nonsense but just focus on the relationship of the characters would be cool.

Also an end to empty sandbox games and time/day based interactions.

 

[Winterfire]

unity games do not either

Come on, do not shove all unity games into a single group.
Unity is not a thing you can group, an empty project in Unity is a blank canvas, it literally has nothing. Everything that is added is up to the individual developer.

Unity games can have a rollback feature, mine does for example.
Naninovel package is actually used a lot in the Unity games I have seen recently, so it'd be more unlikely to not see an unity vn lacking that feature.

 

[Donjoe81]

rollback, auto, skip option
exit button
decent character models that you don´t see in every other game
In-Game Walkthrough is pretty neat.