by evilmonkey » Thu Feb 16, 2017 3:38 pm
Hey Vren, here are my thoughts on the game. The good, the less good and some thoughts on how to improve it. This is based on the current public version (3.1), but I've read your posts including Patreon.
The idea is good. The characters design is pretty good. The artwork is good, though some of the faces are a little odd to me (such as Lily).The sex scenes themselves are good. The number of things you can do is nice.
The less good:
First, the randomness is very frustrating. I know you were talking about making events more likely if they don't happen often and I think that's good, but it might also be worth making schedules more rigid. IE, maybe Steph is in the lab early Monday, Wednesday and Friday, but not Tuesday and Thursday. That way, you have to learn the schedule rather than just save-scumming.
Second, I think it would be better of the scenes involving the serum could happen more than once. You've got a lot of content here, but unless you save (or undo) and go back, you're just going to miss most of it.
Third, the way the serum works isn't great. I know you are working on this. The way I would expect it to work would be more along the lines of the girls building up a resistance. Basically, diminishing returns. IE, Once they are at sluttiness > 50, blue serum probably wouldn't up it much, if at all. Maybe something like this for blue: sluttiness += max((40 - slutiness)/2, 2). That way, purple or red would be much more useful to advance past the initial stages, but blue could still be used to start or repeat scenes to see all the content you've already worked up to. More on this below.
Fourth, there's too much time in the game where it feels like you don't have anything to do. Some of this could be taken care of by allowing sex scene repetition, but I think it would be good if more interactions outside of sex (and in minor sex scenes) increased sluttiness by small amounts. This would make the time feel less wasted.
Fifth, I think it would be better if you were meant to focus on a few girls per playthrough and seeing all of their content, rather than seeing some content from all the girls on a given playthrough. More on this below.
Sixth, purple and red serum are too similar as far as getting them. There's no real reason not to just go for red.
So here's an example of how I might structure things. I'll mostly be using Nora for the first example.
First, you meet Nora in the intro lab scene and get, say 1 sluttiness. Each time you see her up to some maximum based on how intimate the encounter is, she gains at least 1 sluttiness.
Once she gets up to 10ish sluttiness, she can catch you making blue serum. In this scene, it shouldn't be possible to go higher than taking off her top. This scene should only happen once, but the other content should probably be recycled into another solo lab scene that comes up later.
Now you can get her phone number and then you can text her for the study date. During the date is your second opportunity to dose her. This date should be repeatable assuming a system to prevent abuse of sluttiness increase (such as the diminishing returns idea) so you can see all the content during this playthrough.
Nora is now willing to help you make red serum. (similar requirements to get Steph to help you make it.)
At this point or after another study date or lab encounter, her other scenes (scientist party, her + Steph and her + Mom open up). These scenes should be repeatable, but the slutiness requirements for the middle actions should be somewhat high, and very high for actual sex.
So given the above, maybe you work on Nora + Steph + Mom on this playthrough and attempt to view all of their scenes. It should be pretty difficult to get much beyond the initial scenes with other girls at the same time imho to give the game a little replayability.
I also think it would be cool to downplay the serum part of the Mom and Lily corruption and replace it with money. Here's an example of what I mean.
Mom movie night is the initial chance to dose her. Blue is enough.
After that and assuming you give her money from your paycheck (a fixed amount rather than a percentage), she's willing to do minor sex acts with you for cash. They each raise her sluttiness by various amounts, with similar diminishing returns to serum, but raising what she's willing to do.
It starts to be revealed slowly that Mom is in some kind of desperate financial situation. She becomes willing to help you seduce Lily in exchange for more cash. Only kissing / petting of course. She sets up movie night where you can dose Lily.
Mom's situation is getting worse. She's willing to go further with you for more money, though you can tell she's concerned what it's doing to you. Your money should be increasing somehow, either via lab work / corruption of lab assistants or via pimping out Alexia or her web site.
Mom's situation is revealed. She's now willing to have sex and to help you go further with Lily. Sh'es kind of cracking up a little.
Now Mom sets up a threesome with Lily.
Ideally, you have some way to resolve Mom's problem which releases her concerns that she's destroying the family since you're so altruistic (you could have lost the opportunity to have sex with her by removing her problem), and she hits max sluttiness, maybe with a little additional scene content where she's more into it or does anal / bondage.
So in that playthrough, you're looking at either a lab rat or Alexa to help you get money (or maybe you can pimp out Mom or Lily to other people with additional content?), and then Mom + Lily.
As far as future content development, multiple playthroughs could give a code or something to unlock a super playthrough where you can potentially get all of the girls and have additional threesomes with different characters and an orgy at the end.
Thanks for making the game and I'm looking forward to seeing how it progresses!