Hi all. I am putting together a Visual Novel style game that is getting close to the end of it's initial release. It's exciting, because that is the largest hurdle. I do this in my spare time, detached from work and family. I am a lover of NSFW titles, especially those that focus around the Milf scene. This is an incest /ss/ title. I intend on adding many other fetishes based on the requests of the community. Have a look!
You need to tell players what pairings and fetishes are in your game. There simply are too many games out there for players to try yours out without knowing ahead of time if they'll be into what your game has to offer.
You don't need to have a demo to drum up interest (although it obviously helps). That said, pairings and fetishes listed in a clear and concise manner are non-negotiable. How many people will click a link when they don't know exactly what they're going to see on the other end? Not many.
I've tried out version 0.1, my TLDR is "well presented, but didn't make me interested" but here are lots of thoughts on it:
Presentation: Generally high quality and detailed backgrounds, there's the occasional exception where the background is too cluttered (as in the school hallway) or looks too much like a photo with a filter applied (as in the school entrance.) The rooms in the house look far better. The women look great (as in the preview art) but the men have an extra level of cartoon-like quality that jars with the more realisitic backgrounds.
Story: The premise is, sadly, generic and clunky. The protagonist's father is off doing something heroic (written in a weirdly glorifying way) leaving our MC with step-mo... I mean landlady. You have developed a condition that requires you to ejaculate regularly or die. You will doubtlessly persuade every woman (and some of the men? Unclear from the tags) nearby to help you with this. You are in your last year of school and you are failing your grades. Your best friend is a girl you fancy who jokes about sleeping with you. There are very few men around. In version 0.1 your step-landlady helps out by
buying you a porn mag and wanking you off
. I'm not sure if there is more content that I missed, but I feel I exhausted the available options. There's little new here, writing-wise, in comparison to other games of its ilk, but it's clearly a popular conceit. The interesting part will be how this game distinguishes itself from the competition. Also the introduction is just dull.
Mechanics: Few, and those that are here I feel are implemented poorly (it's a 0.1 release, this can all change)
- Time: There are 4 (really 3) parts to the day. Skipping time is done by working. This means that if you are in a location and you realise you are at the wrong time of day there are... 9 clicks to get to the place you work, work a shift, and return. Characters move to different places on a schedule and don't appear in more than one place at a time. Suggestion: Have a "work to pass the time" button on the map screen. That way MC still gets money for passing time, and can pass time quickly.
- Quests: Apparently exist, but... not all things are tracked, the hints are broken, they aren't grouped by giver / content / character. Suggestion: Track quests by the character they affect most (or a "misc" grouping for anything else,) turn the phone screen sideways for more screen space (see GeeSekiVN's phone implementation) and track _everything_ even if you think it's obvious. Players miss things. Or mis-read. Or come back weeks later and have forgotten.
- Opaque events: There are events that only happen when, as far as I can tell, some hidden and obtuse trigger occurs. There are events that appear to only happen after a certain number of days, or once your money has hit a certain threshold. My issue is that the player has no idea what, if anything, they are working towards. Maybe if the hints system were implemented this would be fine, but as-is it feels like the player has no way of knowing how to advance the story. Suggestion: Fix the questing system and make sure the player always knows how to proceed. Incidental events are fun to encounter in an unintended manner, but the path forward should be made clear.
- Conversations: You get to choose topics, and that's great. But the responses are random and the topic choices are lacking. The MC has been diagnosed with a terminal condition and can't talk to their friends about it. Why not? You can sometimes discuss you condition with your landmother, but then that choice goes away again. Why? Suggestion: Have a generic "chat" option with the random responses (I really appreciate the effort that has gone into them) butgive each quest its own option.
Erotica: It takes a lot of work to get to anything that could be described as a sex scene, and the work isn't worth it. This will doubtless change once you streamline the ways quests are presented and conversations flow. I'm not suggesting you turn the game into a quick fap, but currently there is a frustration with the game's interactions that overwhelms any arousal.
Writing: Is mixed quality. I like the character conversations but I think the story is insipid and predictable. Occasional grammatical quibble, but given words like "alot" are now in common usage they probably couldn't be called errors. Far better proof-read than usual 0.1 releases. If the base premise were different I would be more excited about this combination of character writing and art, but I don't feel confident in the teased features or plot.
In summary: Graphically polished, but let down by the setting and mechanics. Will read the occasional release log, but not play another version until the quest/hint system is implemented fully. Did not find arousing.
