The SimBro Game (Brothel Sim)

[Monkey Boy]

Version 2.5 was released to patrons yesterday.

[Lucky777]

I saw something saying 2.5 UPDATE, but I don't know that the actual version dropped.

I suppose a patron could confirm, and could say whether or not it was a catastrophic buggy mess.

But I can't say how many flawless releases in a row will be required to replace even half of the goodwill that has been rightfully and regrettably lost.

[foible]

Can confirm, there is a new version, 2.5a. Don't know the changelog, though.

[foible]

I take that back, I found the changelog. Interested to see what the new Alice event is. On that topic, here's a fun bug with MC and Alice that hasn't been fixed yet. (haven't tried it with FC yet) When you have a prisoner, put Alice in your party and any other girl. Select "use your party members" > Mixed team > yourself > Alice. Regardless of her dignity, you'll be able to do some fun things with her. Secondary bug: I've noticed that some times when doing this, the slave actually gets replaced with a clone of Alice. Anywho, here's the changelog.

Updated to 2.5a

- fixed Slums, threat will first appear only after 25 REP. (Was turned to 0 before for texting purposes)

Changelog for 2.5:

- New Halloween costumes for event. They will appear in the outfit shop. They are presented at the picture above.

- New event with Hitomi, check her pleasing herself when her other events are completed.

- New morning event for Alice, that appears after 'girlfriend' event.

- Now undress top option for receptionist is permanent and allow her to entertain waiting clients. Just leave the room and enter it again when there is clients that lost some mood waiting.

- Playing as FC you can entertain clients by yourself, using that 'entertain' button instead of 'offer'. A lot of animations involved. We like the idea of having separate undress animations. It would be cool to add them to all undress options in the future.

- We added 'peek' button for reception, so you can cycle through scenes when gloryhole clients arrives. We tried to put all peek scenes to the same format, so buttons will be in the same places for all 'peek' locations.

- We had to start a new project file and started to export all the previous code parts to new one. Which is finished. A lot of struggle was with animations, some nipples got randomly moved away from the original position, so if you see that glitch tell us where did you find it, so we can fix it. That was a hell of job, just to get rid of compile crush bug. Which is done now.

- Fixed a lot of 'stuck' bugs for existing quests and scenes, because we had to export all of them one by one. We can't say, they are all perfectly tested, so if you find the bug - let us know.

Sorry guys for silence and a long waiting. It was a nightmare to refactor that large amount of code not even knowing if it's going to help, or how long does it take. Especially when only one guy was doing it capable to read and understand his own legacy code. There are much more to do, bring B2 travel quest, and all gym and street location events back in this version. But the main crisis is over.

With hope for understanding,

SimBro team

[Screwbucket]

While there's an appearance of progress, I'm still not convinced. One of the things I mentioned of updates seeming scatter shot still applies here. They're apparently not done adding base functionality to the brothel (the bulk of the gameplay) and they're STILL adding things like additions to the Halloween event and adding to the Alice storyline. I liked the Alice storyline, but this scatter shot approach isn't helping things.

Also. Only one programmer who can't even understand what his own code does. That suggests a lack of commenting. I'm somehow not surprised. At least they're working on the back end.

[kingofbrocoli]

Some other bits of the map are still broken.
If you go in the Gym you can't get out again and if you go anywhere the arrow to go back to the main bit tends to gray out so you have to restart…
Also don't go to jail before setting the day off or else you will lose a giant amount of reputation.
No new costumes either. Other than that all I'm seeing that's new is an Alice BJ scene, not sure what the trigger is since I cheated but I assume it's after her buttfucking.
Distinctly feels like the whole update is that one BJ and that they got it working again.
So yea 3 months for a bj.

[fredinator]

While there's an appearance of progress, I'm still not convinced. One of the things I mentioned of updates seeming scatter shot still applies here. They're apparently not done adding base functionality to the brothel (the bulk of the gameplay) and they're STILL adding things like additions to the Halloween event and adding to the Alice storyline. I liked the Alice storyline, but this scatter shot approach isn't helping things.

Also. Only one programmer who can't even understand what his own code does. That suggests a lack of commenting. I'm somehow not surprised. At least they're working on the back end.

They pretty much are admitting that they are incapable to deliver content at a steady pace

[Lucky777]

I don't wanna be a white knight or a black knight or any kind of knight (I'm a wizard) but man at least they got it fucking working again.

Maybe they'll learn.

I HOPE they learn.

People smacked them on the wrist so hard they dropped like fucking 5 or 6 thousand dollars.

That's a pretty hard wrist smack.

[Kattlarv]

Hum, another one of these eh?
This one seems to have been in development for quite a bit. See it still suffers from the "no visible vag" choice of angle as well.

Somethings I noticed off the bat is how quite a few things like, text being too short for the box, or going out of the box happens every now and then.
(Also, what does the "?" do at character creation?)
Noticed you can click "day off" even if it's too late to do anything. There should probably be a "Are you sure?" or simply grey out the button after a certain time.
The "end day" button occasionally breaks as well. (when in the overview)

Well, looking over it to start with. I can say it feels a bit "meh" that you can't seem to do anything as a male player. And, gotta say most the male models look rather derpy xP
I can start with several things that's just... incredibly lackluster. Firstly: The options for lesbian sex scenes are just embarrassing. Not to mention there aren't even any rape scenes. Female enemies just stand there like wet fish... not sure why I used that as a comparison but... xD Not to mention: There aren't even climax scenes. I can get putting a focus on straight stuff. But this is kinda just... tad bit too lazy.

Secondly: Feels like you need a bit of a spreadsheet to get anywhere in this. The starting wealth barely get you anywhere. And you kinda can't get anywhere with it without a lot of luck and extremely specific planning. It is kinda extra stupid how if you succeed to seduce thugs, you can still get a "fail" at sex. Resulting in nothing, and then have them rape you anyhow. Well, if female. Gotta say the gender roles are a tad bit too stale.
Playing a male is pretty restricted, and female is pretty much just playing an NPC. As it's very "Well, you CAN play female, but you're not supposed to..." as, I didn't find a single event while playing as female, whereas as male, I tripped over two when just sitting idle at home. It does feel like the gender choice is a bit more of a token addition, than actually planned.


I will say: It does have potential. But it does feel really split in terms of content. Like you aimed too high in what to make from the start. Along with wasn't sure what to aim for.

[Ungawa]

So... I've been going back and forth on some things to avoid in regards to the issues and problems with this game and debating on how to proceed on them.

I think the best medicine is the direct approach so that other developers and patrons can kinda realize the issues and problems with the games and the lack of communication. This is also a hard pill to swallow. But it's also just one perspective and I doubt many would find things that they can't agree or disagree with. Still, if you have any questions or comments, just ask.

First, the game had great potential to be a really good one. It seemed to be focusing on introducing new content on a regular basis while expanding at a rapid pace. But the new features can only hide the rotten core for so long. What I found questionable was how the game was being based on consumer response but with no actual roadmap of its own.

This lead to everything being half assed. EVERYTHING... The female personalities only half way worked and didn't change and reflect different advantages, you couldn't really work that into the combat system, pregnancy in general, Alice's quest and cockblocking, Hitomi's quests... EVERYTHING!!!

And the biggest problems come from the fact that under the hood needed a severe amount of work. As has been mentioned, this essentially made it so that the game only focused on the new hotness while a more stable game never really materialized.

For developers, take heed. Communicate a LOT with people and they'll work with you on what you need. Go silent, and they fill in the blanks.

For patrons, You really should invest in a roadmap and a clear vision. What can you expect a game to give you that will ultimately make the game better? If a developer isn't answering questions about under the hood at least one or twice a month, it may be time to move on.

Personally, I don't invest in many Patreon games. As I see it, too many seem to be using the games to make money. Instead of making better games. The most tragic part about this is that those that are REALLY good and can do a lot better are the ones that make the most stable and consistent games and don't show new features and shinies until they actually want to and it's stabilized.

If people severely want to make a hotel game, here's a few things that you can take from this one...

First, who are you in debt to and why? How does this debt affect you and how can you get around it? If you can't, why? If it's to the mafia, they should be bringing people by to rough you up, and take your girls.

Speaking of girls, what makes them unique? A tutorial about personality types and their strengths and weaknesses should be put into the game. Make sure it makes sense.

If you have combat, how does it affect the game? What makes it fun or exciting? RNG only makes people look for optimal builds.

By the way, credit sinks and ways to detract money and expand should be in the game.

But that's just a few starter ideas. If anything, I'm really disappointed in the Simbro game staff.

To see this lose so much ground unnecessarily really seems like a fatal mistake that is hard to recover from.

[Screwbucket]

(Also, what does the "?" do at character creation?)

If I remember correctly, that's for the 'special' characters that you can unlock by doing the quests from the robot on the basement floor.

Well, looking over it to start with. I can say it feels a bit "meh" that you can't seem to do anything as a male player. And, gotta say most the male models look rather derpy xP
I can start with several things that's just... incredibly lackluster. Firstly: The options for lesbian sex scenes are just embarrassing. Not to mention there aren't even any rape scenes. Female enemies just stand there like wet fish... not sure why I used that as a comparison but... xD Not to mention: There aren't even climax scenes. I can get putting a focus on straight stuff. But this is kinda just... tad bit too lazy.

There sort of are? If you're a female and lose a fight, you get raped. There's also the conditioning cages where you can break women you capture and either employ them or release them. There isn't really much to the system. And, yeah, there's really not much stock put into homosexual sex scenes beyond a few token examples with dildos and licking (which makes me wonder if they've even bothered looking at any lesbian porn...). I'm pretty sure the devs are pretty much only interested in heterosexual sex and threw in lesbian sex as an afterthought. And...yeah, the male models are very, very derpy. There's only one head in the whole bunch I really like and they've never seemed to make any efforts in making them customization like the females.

Secondly: Feels like you need a bit of a spreadsheet to get anywhere in this. The starting wealth barely get you anywhere. And you kinda can't get anywhere with it without a lot of luck and extremely specific planning. It is kinda extra stupid how if you succeed to seduce thugs, you can still get a "fail" at sex. Resulting in nothing, and then have them rape you anyhow. Well, if female. Gotta say the gender roles are a tad bit too stale.
Playing a male is pretty restricted, and female is pretty much just playing an NPC. As it's very "Well, you CAN play female, but you're not supposed to..." as, I didn't find a single event while playing as female, whereas as male, I tripped over two when just sitting idle at home. It does feel like the gender choice is a bit more of a token addition, than actually planned.

The difference between the gameplay between the genders is actually kind of amusing. The males get a lot more events but it's a huge uphill battle until "end game". Playing as a male really is more of a spread sheet than anything else because you don't really do too much in terms of the brothel. This is especially true once you get that first upgrade and get a secretary. At that point the main source of entertainment comes from the events which dry up very quickly. As a female character, there's a LOT more you can do with the brothel It's also significantly easier because not only can you work as a prostitute yourself (greatly assisting early game) but you can also use seduction to get around half of the obstacles that get in your way. Like you said, however, it comes off as a token addition. This is mainly because they don't release new content for the female player character in tandem with the male player character. The female variant is usually quite a few patches behind. As a result playing a female character usually just comes off as if you're playing a way less up to date version than a male play through.

I will say: It does have potential. But it does feel really split in terms of content. Like you aimed too high in what to make from the start. Along with wasn't sure what to aim for.

I don't think they aimed too high, but they definitely had no idea what they were aiming for. If you pay attention to what's in the updates, it really does come across as if they figure out what's going in at the start of every month and don't plan ahead much.

[Kattlarv]

(Stuff)

Well, 1: there is a "?" in the top right corner area. I can check/uncheck it. And nothing happens. I guess if you need to do a quest first, that might be a thing.


2: There isn't really. And as said: Yes, if you lose a fight and are female, you get raped. By the males. The females just stand there and drool as if having an aneurysm. And reverse wise: You can't do any raping if you win. It's kinda stale and stupid if you ask me.

And as for the cages: That seems to again sorta just point it out further how extremely strict the gender roles are xD
But yeah, it feels very much that they just shoehorned in the lesbian stuff as some sort of "playtested" thing. Like, it's just there because it's "supposed to", just a token thing.
As is kinda evident as there's pretty much 0 poses, no cum option and whatnot. But yeah, the male models are just weird... you'd think they'd make some that aren't as fugly so that you could at least stand to look at them xP
On that note: It is a bit dumb as well that you can't tell a client to leave. You can only wait until they get pissed and give you a 0 star review on yelp xD


3: I did notice that the brothel stuff, and the combat are pretty much utterly incompatible. Like, if you play male, you get a free thug. If you play female, you get a free whore without restrictions.
And I say this from how I felt the game both started, and progressed. Atop the choices it gives you. It quite literally feels railroaded based on what gender you play. It's kinda more like you're picking a class in a MMO. As both genders quite literally locks you out of certain options. When playing male, it felt like I was given the role of an aspiring pimp. When playing female, it was like I was handed the "bottom bitch" role. Or w/e it's called. I wasn't allowed to play as a selfish douche. Or... anything really outside of "cumbucket". I wasn't allowed to do any actions NPC's could do, but they were fully able to do them to me.

Ah well, trailing off here. But yeah... it leaves a lot to be desired. Again: It feels really split. It has all this focus on designing a female PC, but it has close to no content of choices if you do. And it has almost no male designs, but the game is centered around the male.
It has a lot of "Oh, shiny red ball!" problems. But it seems like there's a very solid game idea here. Currently though, it's extremely limited in what you can do and all that. It might have released a bit too early.
Still, it's not as shit as any of those ex: "Crowjob in Space", "No Vacancy" or "Umichan Maiko" ones. (And jebus is the creator behind that last one a dunce xP) Those all have some utterly worthless female PC options. Like claiming that "Sex is just optional" in their game. Despite that being 95 % of the game. And offering a false narrative of "choose how to play the character!" when the only two options are "be a cumdump with no needs or self-regard, obsessed over sucking dick." or "don't play the game." Yeah, some really deep choices to be made there xD

Heck, even a popular game like TiTS failed horribly at that. It launched with 4 male exclusive races. You could play 1 as female. And 100 % of all non-personality starting traits were male exclusive. That was like, 19/22 xD Plus; they STILL haven't fixed that. Nor added a statline for your genitals. And yet their developers brag about "they could do that in 5 minutes". Welp, better cut myself off here before I go on for too long.


4: I have to say: Both. It seems to really make up stuff as it goes, without any real direction. And it included too many ideas from the start, without having room for even half of it.
Still, as said: There is a lot of potential here. They just kinda... gotta figure out where to go with it.

[Dongman]

wait what's TiTS?

[Kattlarv]

wait what's TiTS?

Stands for "Trails in Tainted Space". It's a text based erotic game. It's a follow up to a game called "CoC", they kinda have a thing for abbreviations.
But yeah, in short: It has some really pathetic parts when it comes to the female PC. Like said: Launching with 4 male races, and only 1 female (and still not having fixed 2 of those to be playable for females) And ALL of the starting perks still being male exclusive and whatnot.

It does some cool stuff for female PC's, but it has A LOT of "seriously?". Like things it hasn't fixed in over 1-2 years, that was promised to be there at launch. They only push for "new content" rather than fix the glaring issues with the old, or finishing something that was promised.

Anyhow, that's enough about that. That game is irrelevant to this topic. I just brought it up as an example of another game that kinda manhandled the female PC. (pun intended)

[Ungawa]

CoC was better and the fan mods of it do a lot more for the game.

This game really needs a fan made version that actually shows what could happen if you flesh out the features to make it a better brothel sim in general.

[porne]

Where are the fan mods for CoC?

[Ungawa]

They are in the CoC section of Fenoxo's website. Haven't checked in on it in a bit but it's been pretty steady since the TiTs stuff has been run.

[porne]

Thanks, I'll go check it out.

[Chris_]

Is this game REALLY dead or not? The team can not make a release without delays and tons of bugs. I do not know if I should wait for an recovery or just remove the game from my list of favorites... This guys are money grabbers much larger than Impure, Malleck or Starke and even now they still have many supporters, even with the obvious milking, while there are many good devs with decent games that deserve support... I honestly do not understand this.

[Screwbucket]

If it's not dead, I don't doubt it will be soon. They've seriously overstayed their welcome. There are plenty of other brothel simulators worth supporting and/or following. I'd recommend Strumpets, honestly. Very good quality game with a dependable dev team.