Wow, has it been a week already? Time flies. I'm glad to see so many positive comments, means I'm on the right track. Then again, the simple fact that y'all are here means you like porn games, so there may be some bias in my favor. hahaha.
Anyway, what I want to focus on today is the criticisms. So far they've all been good stuff that I can work with, keep them coming! Let's start with the easy stuff:
Crawling. I put this in on purpose to both change the pace & the setting a bit. Let's face it, my rooms all look & play about the same, so crawling was added to alter the flavor some. Makes the room 'feel' smaller (imo), and also changes the pace. Unfortunately, slow doesn't necessarily mean fun. I'm getting that message loud & clear. I'll tweak this some. I think there's a compromise here that will still keep the atmosphere I want without making people dread another crawling room. I also think I overdid the crawling on the bunny burrows, so I'll simply yank some of that as well.
Exploring the bunny town becomes boring/frustrating. Okay, this is a gigantic "uh-oh" from me. The game is supposed to be about exploration, fighting, & fucking. It sounds like somehow I went wrong with that formula. What I find interesting is that I noticed the same thing when I was building the game. I ended up turning monsters off after a while. At the time, I just figured it was because I was busy testing shit & just wanted to run around. I think the problem is that the monsters are so prevalent that they're seen as more of a nuisance than something interesting.
I think simply yanking them from the 'travel' zones will help tremendously. Or at the minimum, they shouldn't respawn in the overworld zones. This could potentially cause problems, as you need the gear monsters drop to get past the wards, and you probably don't have enough backpack slots until late into Act 2. I may need to force additional spawn in other areas, but I think that's a smaller problem that can be managed.
The other part of this might be that the dunecrawler requires 3 parts, but there's absolutely no hint to where they are. *Spoiler Warning* The first one always spawns in the elf camp (outside or in tents), the second is always in the Southeast corner of the village (lower left), and the third is always in the Northwest. . If the guy in the dunecrawler gave simple direction to the next piece, would it have helped the 'fun' of the game? Example: he says something like "A bunch of Elves stole the regulator I need, I think they ran down that big road to the East."
That reminds me, the village is set-up so that you're walking North-South, and if you take the road you go East-West. If he's giving directions, would it be easier if I flipped those?
Slime Boss Fight. Okay, this was supposed to be an order of magnitude harder than everything else. To be blunt, I want to give y'all some sex scenes, and an easy way to get there is to force the occasional loss. This is why the game has multiple continues, and I have no qualms designing monsters to take them away. ;P (That's a topic by itself, I'll try adress it more in a later post).
I'm hearing the right number of people saying it's hard, so I think I got 'hard' just fine. Again, the problem is that hard doesn't mean fun. In my opinion, the root of the problem is that the fight can only play out in 2 ways. Either he manages to grab you, in which case you get to watch yourself be locked into a slow grab --> clothestear+poison loop, which ultimately kills you with minimal sex. The other option is this run away & attack dance pattern, which, while amusing enough the first few times, gets old around long before he's dead.
So I have some ideas on how to fix this. I think simply reducing his health some while drastically increasing the damage he does to armor would really help liven up the fight. Now instead of a series of armor saves, you'd get to actually struggle in the grapples a bit. He is a boss, so I'm totally down with him completely dominating the hero if he gets his 'tricks' to work. But it needs to be more involving than it is now.
Okay, that's already a long post, and I have plenty more to discuss. I'll try to put my thoughts together a bit better & touch on some more points next week.
DirtyC101
Hey DirtyC101,
ReplyDeleteIt's nice to hear your thoughts on our feedback.
I commented once on your previous blog post, but I'd like to reiterate, perhaps concisely, what I said then:
1) I think the crawling parts are OK, and help make the game A) Challenging B) immersive and C) interesting. I'm glad to hear you plan to compromise on this issue, but not totally give in. I think, if too many crawl parts are taken out, the game will become simple and boring, and frankly...an H-game, instead of a game with a good amount of H. Crawling parts make us think, and plan out our actions; weigh our choices. Without having to make such decisions, this game will just be a gallery, where you have to walk to each scene. It's like the yin-yang thing: frustrating crawling scenes make the rest of the games more enjoyable and amusing in contrast. =)
2) The act 2 world was not annoyingly big, IMO. The opposite problem would be, if your world was too linear. I'm sure people wouldn't complain as much, but they would become bored, fast. By keeping the world open-ended (useful places and not useful places), you're basically making it an interesting maze; a challenge. Same with containers that have nothing. They add suspense, and make containers that do carry items that much more valuable.
3) I also asked that you do not give 'getting-dominated' scenes to players unless the character is actually getting dominated. I gave my reasoning in my previous comment (on the previous blog post).
In summary, totally challenge us, dude! :) If we're not challenged, it's not a 'good' game anymore...it's just a porn game. Don't make a gallery where you have to walk from one scene to another. Make us earn it!
I think you're doing a great job so far! =P You definitely have the right intuition. Those who have no complaints are just not voicing out, that's all. Two thumbs up!
Hey, sorry about the double-post, but I had a couple more thoughts, and I thought I should share:
ReplyDelete1) Regarding the slime boss: That was the first time I lost. I had to use a continue. But, beating him was satisfying, and I'm not bitter about losing that continue.
If later on, people feel 5 continues is not enough, maybe you can introduce a system where, for each 100 enemies you defeat (sexually or otherwise), you get another continue. Then, people who are struggling with the game can instead practice patience to get ahead. Hey, I'm not that great in action games, either, so knowing a fallback plan exists helps me enjoy the game a lot, without worrying about losing too much.
2) I do have one suggestion, if you have the time to implement it. It doesn't have to be too fancy; Just a page with a few pictures and numbers would probably go a long way. Can you keep a log or tally of, for each enemy, how many you physically defeated, how many you defeated sexually and by what degree (domination, superiority, inferiority, submission, etc...)? I think checking back on these values from time to time will keep the game interesting. =)
Thanks for reading! Much appreciated, and good luck!
I never posted a comment on your blog but I think it's time. :D
ReplyDeleteFirst, a big THANK YOU for allowing us to play female characters. It does you thought your game in that way. So we have lots of men to have fun with, etc. I'm playing to the Fenoxo's game too and the biggest problem I encounter is the "holly shit ! Where are the dicks ?". Quite boring, especially when you are a naughty lady like me.
Anyway, about your game...
As you already noticed with the comments, there is a problem with the items you can carry. Only one accessory and only two items in the backpack (three later). It's not enough, really. I would like to be able to choose between the accessory I have. Especially between the medic and the submissive collar (just samples ;)). But in the first act, you HAVE to get things in the backpack for getting the power in the ship active again. That's a pain when you already found the other items.
Moreover, even if the three characters have different stats, they are too "similar" for being interested. I'm explaining my mind : I dislike the bunny. I don't find her sexy at all, especially with the awful hat. But if I want to be able to choose the different options at the beginning, you are supposed to end the game with one of the other characters. That's maybe a good idea but I'm not sharing that mind. We have preferences and to HAVE to play with other characters is not fun. So maybe you could change that. For example, to have more options after having finished the game with the same character. Would do a kind of "evolution".
Well, the biggest problem I have with your game is that we loose far too much life with the grapple ! When you met the pirates and are not aware, two of them catching you means a defeat, even if you are an awesome typer on the keyboard. Moreover, it's not fun. You have to avoid the grapples if you want to survive and the continues are not fun (you restart with the armor... Hmf ! After all the efforts I had to do for destroying it ! *giggles*). More life is not enough to help, especially because the regeneration is far too slow. More power means less damage BUT you don't have life enough to survive to more than one grapple.
Damn ! And if we want our character to defeat the half of the monsters with her weapon and the other half with her ass ? Hmm ? *big grin* To have an overpowered weapon, big armor, and a slutty smile, covered with so much sperm that we couldn't guess the original color of the armor IS fun ! *sticks her tongue out*
Oh, and... Because of the grapple damages, I NEVER succeed to see the last animations you created. Last animations occurs when you are loosing the grapple and the life is drained so quickly that you can see it ONLY if you are typing madly the wrong keys. Not fun... At all. Especially because the animations when you win the grapple are so... Quiet o_O.
Porn games could be fantastic, if well done. Especially when they are not hypocritical (lots of the games I found were just "erotical" and politically correct). But porn means porn ! Damn ! Not just "oh, hey, you wanted to rape me ? Come here, I'll handjob you !". Bleeeeeeh... My hands are not willing !
Kisses, DirtyC ! And sorry for the many mistakes. I tried my best !
Two things played through the game once, and got stuck in a hut room with wards (with visible stairs in the background) couldn't really find my way out, and since i was fighter with one machine part, and first aid, and necklace, i didn't have any item to get anywhere...
ReplyDeleteTo your point about meeting to many monsters, could simply be added some monsters and innocent NPC's in cages, almost like mini sidequests, where you get to free and fight monsters, and help NPC's to some small rewards like items see down below. This will get you to be more interactive with the environment while running around exploring!
A last thing is, you should consider making an inventory slot for head, arms, torso, legs and finally miscellaneous items (necklaces, extra items like the first aid kit, and maybe even rings later when you/if you - expand the game)
Hope it's usefull
Oh, damn, I forget to explain the "similar character" part !
ReplyDeleteWell... All the character are working the same. Same animations, same answers, same options, etc. The only differences are the introductions (good point !) and the stats which are allowing you / not allowing you to do some things (to open a door, to understand how to create the quest object, etc). To my mind, if the idea of "one brute, one clever" character are nice, my prefered character is annoying. Krystal doesn't have strength enough for many things, and the same for the spirit. So you HAVE to carry some special accessories when you would like to wear some others.
To create more differences between them could be a good idea (for example, one could have really big breasts => new animations, one could be a total slut and receive so few damage with grapples that we would try to defeat the enemies only with that way, or maybe specific items for the characters (like the first armors you wear, which is a really good idea).
Hmm... I stop there but I could give you so much ideas that I would be boring. Have fun, Dirty !
in terms of exploring bunny town, the respawns werent that annoying, it was the fact that theres like 30 empty houses. if you were to put something aside from more trash mobs in most of them it would be better, im leaning towards sex scenes, maybe have a mini boss or something that appears after completing a puzzle that involves the houses
ReplyDeleteJust a few suggestions:
ReplyDeleteThe human female grapple's 3rd and 4th stage seem to be backwards, they'd make more sense swapped. Reason being the 3rd one is a more dominant one and the 4th one seems to be an equal struggle.
Make dark rooms almost pitch black to add suspense and give a reason to light up the room because as is it feels a little pointless.
Great work though.
I agree with Louianders regarding dark rooms. :)
ReplyDeleteYeah thats the point ^^
ReplyDeleteI also fought how could the game a little bit more "less boring".
1st: Slime Boss
Very challenging, but its ok the Special attack gets him, maybe lower the chance or damage from poison.
2nd: Enemies schould respawn, cause if you wander around with no enemies it is even more boring. Maybe impliment save at checkpoints to continiue the game. (cause it will get bigger)
3rd: To make it more interesting add side quests with item/equip rewards
4th: I think a lvl up system would be very interesting, to gain some health or even skills like a passiv counter (10%) if you are grapped and you are in favor. Critical hits and stuff for every class.
Than it would be more like grinding with rewards and may become less boring.
But i dont know if it is hard to programm so it up to you.
Just some ideas from an old RPG fan ^^
I like this game so far, but I wanted to give a couple suggestions I'd like to see, or things I think need to be worked on/tweaked.
ReplyDeleteI'm kind of in agreement louisanders about the human grapple. The losing animation seems more like something to be put in a winning animation, and vice versa, because in the winning animation with the human, it looks more like your character is submitting to her, even though you're on top.
Secondly, one thing I'd really like to see is finishing animations when your character loses the grapple. I'm not talking about with armor saves, I'm talking about when your character either completely loses the grapple, or runs out of health during a grapple. I'd like to be able to see the enemies finish off your character in the grapple before letting you go.
Thirdly, I'd like to hear grunting/moaning from the enemies as well. maybe more relaxed grunts and groans when they're winning, and more desperate sounding ones when they're losing. Other than that, I don't really have any other suggestions or complaints. I'm looking forward to when you implement tag team grapples between two female enemies, but other than that, I'm really liking how this game is coming along :)
Not much to say that hasn't been said, but want to weigh in with a "trust your intuition", you made this amazing game in the first place and I'm inclined to trust your judgement in terms of what needs to happen and how.
ReplyDeleteA few of my own impressions; I don't mind having to spend Continues, especially for hard battles like the Slime Boss, but as the game gets longer I would appreciate some way to replenish Continues.
And I'd personally enjoy some way to repair armor. The starting armors are my favorite so far, especially in their 'partially damaged' states, which is hard to maintain.
The one problem i'm having so far is that, I don't know if it's just me or not, but I have like no clue half the time. Usually I can just wander around and figure out what i'm suppose to be doing later. Like how I had found all the pieces of the tank thing before I even knew what they were for. And for a while, I really thought there would be some kind of significance or reward or something from searching all those houses, but nothing! And another thing too is Krystal is by far my most favorite character. So, you can imagine how severely disappointed I was when I got to the red ward tent in the human camp, and couldn't enter. And I was pissed when not a single item in the game would let me in. I mean, yeah, sure, sometimes hints can ruin the adventure, but when it comes to a point were I have to spend hours of killing and item combos just to try and get into a section I have absolutely no idea of if it's even worth the effort or not, something along the lines of a secret parchment with the correct item scheme or some words the character says for a spell...I wouldn't even care if we had to go solid snake on an NPC human and hold him hostage at knife-point to sneak in. But when you have non-human characters that need to go into a "humans only" clubhouse to continue the plot, and not the damnedest clue what to do, something needs to be done.
ReplyDeleteAnother think I'm not a big fan of is that there's different characters, but they all look the same. same size cups, same height, just different stats. And then there's also the amazing fact that all the available characters are only female. It would make sense if all you were battleing were men, I guess, but now there's women too, and have some guy options would appeal to anyone who isn't simply straight. For instance, I think it would be boss if you just took the same characters, but below their picture in the selection menu there was options to check. kinda like:
[x]female
[ ]male
and then click on the box of what you want. Extra kudos if you throw in the option for a herm, but that's up to you i guess.
I also like where you're going with the items stuff, where certain ones boost your stats. But I think their stat boosts are too miniscule. For instance, with crystal, I had all the body enhancing items I could find, and still couldn't bust down the locked doors in the bunny village. perhaps a strength potion that enhances by five and wears off over time or something? like 1 point for every minute, until the five it gave are gone. and maybe a likewise scenario for the spirit stat.
main point, add some graphical diversity, make it a little easier to attain necessary stats for busting doors and making pipes and stuff(or at least list how many points we need for pete's sake), and do something about that human-only ward. That ward is kind of almost unfair, and a broken requirement if you ask me. would make more sense of one of the armorsm asked you to look human, or maybe a temporary human potion, something! Oh, and don't forget to add some helpful hints. Not a whole bunch, I don't need to be constantly told what to do, but give me something to work with here. Playing this game is like putting a mouse with no nose in a maze and made to find the cheese. It makes no sense, and a whole lot of nothing is going to get done for long periods of time. At least, that's how I felt.