PixelRepublic

Active Member
Donor
Jun 4, 2017
783
2,395
What a great game and a great introduction. This is how first releases should happen. You draw out some content but keep people interested by giving them something right away.

The characters were great, the story was beautifully told and the writing was top notch.

Well done, Braindrop97 . Keep up the good work, and congrats.

Is this heavily frowned upon? If so I have no issues changing my future plans. I just thought sandbox would add a fun layer of depth to the game. I have no issues sticking to it's current format though.
Yes, many games have gone that route and have suffered as a result.

I have personally hated on a whole bunch of games on here for doing just that. Many now abandoned either because they lost favor or the dev underestimated the workload involved, so it resulted in shit content each month.

It is a really contentious topic. However, as macadam said, it can be done right. But it's so often not done right.

Doing free-roam distracts from the story and immersion. If you want to tell a story, tell it, without all the messing about. It adds layers to a story where none were needed. Story arcs can be missed or difficult to find without a walkthrough, and it can so often get grindy, and lose its appeal and charm. It's simply not needed and adds nothing to the experience.

As a web developer, I always have to consider the user experience. So it boggles my mind when some devs do free-roam. It does nothing other than complicate things. Why would you make it more difficult for people to experience aspects of your story? So strange.

One perfect example of a dev making that mistake, but then correcting it because of the outcry was Luke's Way. That first free-roam update had shit content because the dev was too busy working on the free-roam aspect. But now it's removed, and the game is great because he got back to telling the story.

More recently, the game Milfiest was abandoned. A free-roam game true and true. Despite multiple updates, it had fuck all content and was a buggy mess. As I said in a post on that thread, I'm not a bit surprised it got abandoned.

Another game with free-roam (though it's not heavy), that is beautiful, is No More Secrets. While I love the game, you need that fucking walkthrough (at least I do), and I wouldn't play it without it.

Do some free research on this site yourself, you have access to almost all games out there, test those ones with free-roam, and those without. The ones without are always more loved and have richer content, and a lot more of it too.

You've delivered great content with this update, and it's been a hit with everyone. Keep on that path, it's a winner!

Good luck, mate.
 
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JCM

New Member
Feb 24, 2018
8
12
As a basketball player in college, if the MC was me, for sure I'll be putting something in holes.
 
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macinblack

Newbie
Jan 22, 2019
83
236
It may be a bit early as this is only a first release, but I have no problem saying that I'm impressed. Solid writing and renders plus a nice meaty chunk of game play and a nice variety of characters to have lewd times with. This game has a high ceiling and if dev. sticks to the winning formula laid down here, with consistent (time frame allowing of course) updates, I don't see any reason why this couldn't be in the upper echelon of games on the site.

Well done and I'm watching this one with excitement.
 
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woody554

Well-Known Member
Jan 20, 2018
1,264
1,590
Why would you make it more difficult for people to experience aspects of your story?
one main reason is whether you want to make it a GAME or write a STORY. games should have obstacles, you can't win if there's nothing working against you. but for a story VN is the perfect vehicle, and you get just SO much more story done with same hours...

I know you didn't really mean that but instead usability, but I thought the distinction should be brought up.
 

Korentin

Member
Game Developer
May 20, 2019
152
319
Sandbox VN is achievable, and I was one who started linear then went into sandbox mode. I feel as if players can understand why I made the shift and today I have no complaints
Well... I stopped after playing the sandbox part for awhile. I've seen far worse though, and for me its just not fun and takes me out of the narrative and flow of the story.

The freeroam parts of Being a Dik is about the most I can stand, only because the rest more than weighs up for it.

Still, good thing there are different tastes when it comes to these things I guess :)
 

Jash52

Newbie
Jul 28, 2017
62
72
Nothing gets my dick harder than a map screen, inventory and a day/night cycle. Ohhhh yes. Add maybe some stats, money and some secrets you have to scan every screen for to unlock them, and oh baby, I don't even mind that all the pacing is ruined. Just give me some more of that.
 

danteworks

Developer of Depravity
Game Developer
Dec 3, 2018
1,154
3,329
Well... I stopped after playing the sandbox part for awhile. I've seen far worse though, and for me its just not fun and takes me out of the narrative and flow of the story.

The freeroam parts of Being a Dik is about the most I can stand, only because the rest more than weighs up for it.

Still, good thing there are different tastes when it comes to these things I guess :)
The biggest issue for me was filling out the world - but once you do that, it's a lot more enjoyable.
 

Velvetmonkey

Newbie
Jul 26, 2018
64
38
Dude wtf , this is a GREAT release :D imo already better than 85% of the other games. Loved the amount of content , the characters are not crazy unique but still really likeable and the renders were really good too ! I'll tag along on the -no sandbox please-train , personally i think it really destroys the immersion but maybe there is a game out there doing it right and i just don't know about it yet :unsure:
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PixelRepublic

Active Member
Donor
Jun 4, 2017
783
2,395
Sandbox VN is achievable, and I was one who started linear then went into sandbox mode. I feel as if players can understand why I made the shift and today I have no complaints
Depravity is one example of it done well IMO. But you also help the player with hints via the phone. So a lot of the feeling of being lost or not knowing what to do is gone. You also don't seem to hide content within the game by making the player stumble upon them if they're lucky enough, that is. But not all free-roam games do that good a job, or even think of helping the player in any way. But even then, it's not always a winning formula.
 

AL.d

Well-Known Member
Sep 26, 2016
1,537
5,099
Is this heavily frowned upon? If so I have no issues changing my future plans. I just thought sandbox would add a fun layer of depth to the game. I have no issues sticking to it's current format though.
Can't speak for everyone but sandbox does get some hate and often justified. Because it usually ends up with a bunch of repeatable events/scenes that only serve as padding and stall plot progression. No one wants to play through the same damn thing over and over to raise some arbitrary stat. With a simple VN format like the current, everything the player does moves the story forward, which to me is far more enjoyable.
 

phreadom

Active Member
Sep 2, 2017
652
1,276
the reason are the smile morphs in daz which are really bad. it's extremely difficult to get a non-cringy smile. if you want to create anything but mild expressions you run into the limitations of the models. and unless you're great at portrait drawing AND can model, you can't really fix it.

another similar problem you often see is when people apply a head morph on a model that already had one, which gives that disturbing down syndrome face.
I played some of the game and I have to say, it's not just the smile stuff... it's just her character so far. The other girl's face (mouth etc) looks totally fine (and the mom, etc.) But the girlfriend's mouth is totally out of control. :(

This was done very much intentionally by someone, and not just the fault of Daz itself. It's either the original model designer, or the developer. Someone intentionally made that mouth look that ridiculous.
 

Konasuba

New Member
Jun 29, 2019
10
12
This was a really good first episode. It's been way too long since i've played one of these games with good writing, endearing characters, and actual animations. Solid start and i'll for sure be keeping up with it.
Edit: Just finished day 3 and this is honestly becoming one of my favorites. Finally an MC that i can fully get behind with so many amazing girls within the story. 10/10 so far
 
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3.70 star(s) 633 Votes