It might make more sense to add onto your old thread instead of starting a new one. You can always edit the first post to reflect the progress that you've made and the current status of the project.
I thought about it, but the old one hadn't been touched in a few months and didn't have the actual name of the game in its title.
Thanks for all the feedback, a lot of useful points. The controls can certainly use some work. At some point, I am likely to put in the framework to allow people to set their own keybindings in an options page although getting in more of the actual game pieces is higher on my list of priorities right now. I like the idea of the ctrl-key for running instead of the space key, I'll add that change in for the next build and some of the other control improvements you've mentioned.
The paperdoll inventory system works well, although it might become tricky if items begin to overlap (e.g. removing a choker which is partially covered by a high-collared jacket).
Thanks! I have to admit building the paperdoll inventory was one of the bits I had the most fun with. It can certainly lead to situations though where you have to remove several pieces of clothing to get to one underneath. At some point I will fiddle with it to see if I can let you scroll through clothing layers while hovering over it (maybe with the wheel mouse).
I haven't done any file or memory size optimizations yet, so they will probably be fairly large. Plus you are correct that the sandboxy nature means the saves have to track a lot more information than more linear rpgs.
When the game presents long dialog blocks, it would be nice to have alternate scrolling options (aside from actually moving the mouse pointer to the elevator bar and dragging it around). Frictional scrolling, Up-Down arrow keys, PgUp-PgDn keys, spacebar to page down, etc...
This is actually something I have been working on, but a point that the underlying library has been fighting me with. Not sure why the use of the wheel mouse for scrolling seems to be inconsistent between different dialogs. It is unfortunate, but I guess no game framework is going to be perfect. I tested out about half a dozen before I settled on libGDX, the one I am using for this. Other than a few small issues it has been pretty good. Although one of your other notes touches on one of the other issues I've had with it...
The UI doesn't seem to put much "emphasis" on the text content (it's squeezed down into a small window; there's little variation in text size or formatting to emphasize important details such as quest completion; there are no portraits to indicate the current speaker for a line of dialogue; etc), but I'm guessing that most of the story and erotic material will be delivered via text. You may want to beef up the text-delivery UI. For example, you might include an option to review/repeat recent text via the UI (in case the player accidentally skips something important).
The underlying engine's text handling leaves a fair bit to be desired, or possibly I simply haven't learned all the tricks to working with it yet. It does not handle mixed text styles in a single text block. So no bolding or italicizing a single word in a paragraph. I do plan to improve the text handling in other ways though...certainly speaker portraits for spoken dialog. I like the idea of reviewing or repeating text as well. I hadn't thought of it, but it could be very useful. Not a high priority, but I'll make a note to get back to it at some point.
The UI prevents the user from copy-pasting text. This is a minor negative for me. If I encounter a well-written scene then I'd like to be able to copy it to notepad for subsequent perusal (instead of needing to launch the game, load an appropriate Save file, and play through the whole scene again).
Wow, how could I have missed this. Of course, very important!
If you're aiming for a big open-world experience, then you may need to assist the player via Quest journal, pathfinding hints, fast travel system, advice-spouting fairy companion, etc...
<Writes down more notes>
Thanks for taking the time to go through it and write all this out!
