VN Ren'Py Where the Heart Is [Season 1 Beta] [CheekyGimp]

[mario1994]

So I'm a bit confused about this update and its seeming turn away from player choice. My run is just Katie (don't find Monica attractive and the younger sister annoys me), which was playing out as one would expect until this update. 0.05 and earlier you could choose who to go after and the conversations generally made sense depending on your choices which seemed to matter. This update kind of seems to throw that out the window though. What was originally a clear cut interested/not interested path with each of them is now just, "fuck it, you're going after all of them now." I get its tedious doing multiple branches but did the creator just say "fuck it" and made one linear path with arbitrary dialogue options? It makes absolutely zero sense for my dude, who has shown negative interest in Monica to suddenly be in a painfully uncomfortable situation with her at the end of this episode. Its your story so obviously do as you please, but I would've infinitely preferred a "don't check on Monica just go to sleep" option. Or hell, a "no thanks, I'm tired" option in response to her asking your dude to stay.

Player choices in a "family" setting.. yes. You can choose what to do in those situations, reject them or advance or plainly avoid some topics. That way their lust would drop or be cept too low to advance their relationship too far too quickly. There are many decisions like that in this update, but if you want just to hang out with one character you like then how can you build up your relationship with other family members? They need to be in the picture too if you want to have a relationship with one of them. Social creatures look at their closest ones before they make big decisions, so if said family likes you then you have few points to your success. If said family does not like you, then you have it harder to get closer to her.. it should work like that or in similar way. For now I go after all characters to see how much new content is there to see. If in the future a girl or woman will piss me off then I will replay whole game just to reject her earlier.. or something like that. For now it is too early to make big decisions that will affect whole game, but it might help in the future

 

[Le Taz]

A solution would be to implement a third stat like friendship.
Again, more and more work for the dev, but this stat would allow you to keep interacting with a character without going too far if you're not interested

 

[Skylaroo]

Hey - Thanks for the feedback. And I understand your point about plot development missing out in favor of character development. When I was planning out the episodes from Day2 onwards, I knew something would have to give. I had so much content with regards to each NPC character (lots of side plots that I had to drop so far) and the main plot. I really couldn't decide which one to drop, so I put it to a vote on Patreon and the results came in very strongly in favor of individual character progression & romance instead of plot development, so that's what I went with. For most items, I have a clear direction, but when I'm on the fence, I will go with public opinion and majority voting (in this case it was a landslide vote in favor of sacrificing plot development).

Thanks for the answer, I think it's pretty safe to say that people will always heavily favor character development (because it's an adult game after all) instead of the main plot (let's face it, vast majority don't play for the story). Since it's like that, I think you should also consider to simply cut short or even remove the main plot (the game is still early enough to retcon the plot), and focus the game on the characters instead.

 

[Ignatz]

Bleh

 

[Renetta]

I just added an override for the new character-specific text boxes of this game to my patch. As I have said before, I'm not a fan of those boxes. Haven't played through the update yet, since I was just way too annoyed by the damn boxes. :frown: Had to remove them first.

Feel free to grab it from my sig.

And thanks for the update of the game, of course!

This mod is great, makes the text more readable and doesn't block the pictures as the original one. Now i'm kinda wishing that Cheeky would include something like this in his future UI upgrade

 

[xsssssssss]

Very much a fan of Katie. Like her friends too.
I hope there's going to be the freedom to be just friendly with core characters rather than funnelling everyone down the harem route. As much as i think Monica looks much more like a middle aged woman she doesn't interest me sexually either and Jenna's body type is less appealing to me too.

 

[dx_boost]

Had a good laugh at that "catching spiders at 6", good one.
Love the game, keep it up!

 

[Aces_high69]

Thank u 4 the help ,katie is the one i was after most but replayed to get monica scene buttt i change it so i katie wouldn't find out i said it and now i'll try again ,3rd time lucky hahaha

 

[Renetta]

#TeamKatie is growing fast :eazyHype:

 

[n0b0dy]

Overall I like this game but I have 1 gripe with it.

Spoiler: spoiler

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Otherwise good game, I especially liked the dorky insecure Jenna and the spanking scene with Kate.

 

[Pattitto00]

Cheeky great job! " Mom " is awesome... But Jenna ...I'm falling in love!

 

[VOYEUR]

Nope, what surprises me is that you are yourself surprised to not be able to see a sexy scene with a character with which you didn't engage much before.
For me it makes total sense that you can't go to third base before passing one and second.

I never gave any indication that I didn't engage much with Monica before. She's the 2nd hottest character to me, so I complimented her and got physical when the opportunities presented themselves. Because I couldn't see my stats at the time, I was shocked when I failed those checks. When I used unren to unlock those stats, I learned that I was six shy of getting the garment scene. It was a matter of not engaging her enough as opposed to not engaging her much.

 

[Le Taz]

Exactly what I said.
As a scale, if you haven't done the first steps you can't reach the top.
Not engaging enough automatically prevented you to go further. It may have come as a surprise for you but depending of how far you got before

Spoiler

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was somehow too big of a step

 

[Fragmandk]

wow this is a good game can't wait for another update

 

[tuskedkibbles]

The story is really about the relationship with all three and you should definitely have favorites, but this early in the game, it's just not feasible to make it a single character romance. Sorry.

No need to apologize at all, it's your game and your time, I'm just along for the ride. Thanks for taking time to answer, I really like the game so far. You have much better writing and characterization skills than most creators out there. I was just a little confused as to why my dude is suddenly involved with Monica when I picked all the "I don't want to do this" options during the photoshoot and have kept physical contact to a minimum. What you said makes perfect sense however and it isn't a deal breaker for me, just a bit awkard/uncomfortable. If you don't mind me asking though, and feel free to not answer if you aren't sure yet or don't want to spoil, but will sexual relations be "mandatory" for the main 3, or is it just this complex relationship development with the option to take it to the next level later down the line?

 

[Retro]

Just played through this for the first time and I really like it! The character development has a bit more believability to it than most games like this. I still think Zarah is ugly as hell though.

 

[UncleVT]

Just played through this for the first time and I really like it! The character development has a bit more believability to it than most games like this. I still think Zarah is ugly as hell though.

Ugly people deserves some affection too.

 

[Penfold Mole]

I'm sure they do, I'm just trying to let someone else to give it. For me the overly friendly missis potatohead is a bit much.
Would there be a paper bag around to cover her face, I might reconsider. :winkytongue:

 

[CheekyGimp]

No need to apologize at all, it's your game and your time, I'm just along for the ride. Thanks for taking time to answer, I really like the game so far. You have much better writing and characterization skills than most creators out there. I was just a little confused as to why my dude is suddenly involved with Monica when I picked all the "I don't want to do this" options during the photoshoot and have kept physical contact to a minimum. What you said makes perfect sense however and it isn't a deal breaker for me, just a bit awkard/uncomfortable. If you don't mind me asking though, and feel free to not answer if you aren't sure yet or don't want to spoil, but will sexual relations be "mandatory" for the main 3, or is it just this complex relationship development with the option to take it to the next level later down the line?

Spoiler

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[CheekyGimp]

Just played through this for the first time and I really like it! The character development has a bit more believability to it than most games like this. I still think Zarah is ugly as hell though.

Yeah, purposefully made her to not be drop-dead gorgeous. Makes more believable for her to throw herself at you than if she looked like a super model. But I've given the options to not progress with her if you don't want to...