VN Ren'Py Need you opinion about my project

[betterzett]

Greetings, everyone.

A year ago I started developing my game, and after several months abandoned it. But now I have more time, so I think to restart this game development. But I'm not sure if it's still up to date. So I came here to get your opinion whether it is worth spending my time on development.

The initial plot is a little cliche. Young male living with 2 women, one is same age, second is older.(You guessed it). But I don't wanna make basic visual novel, but more like a sandbox, with minigames, quests, big interactivity with the world, secrets, achievements and on and on... Next thing, that I wanna add is VR game, something like SAO(with full immersion), so you will be able to interact with trolls and elves, but that won't destroy basic logic( it's a game inside a game ). I have several ideas about that VR game, but I'm not quite sure yet.

Here is some pictures of the game:



I was thinking about minigames for work and made 2.
P.S.
After some discussion I decided to stick with this idea:
Player will play mini-game once, and then score they earned will be set as default salary. After first try there will be two options with job mini-games:
- Retry mini-game( to try getting higher score, but also it can be lower, depends on player's abilities)
- Get paid (player will recieve default amount, that they scored before

Helping on construction work

Working as waiter


Next thing on roadmap is this VR game. I wanna make hub, player's home location with addable things like crafting stations and trophies. Also was thinking about something lewd, like craftable adult dolls inside this VR game. And other locations with players from real-world, quests, npcs.

If you have any questions or ideas about this project - feel free to ask

P.S. Also, I have other project in mind, about futuristic brothel with robot-dolls, but now I don't have a friend to draw pictures, so I can make it with 3DCG

Spoiler: Other project

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[Adabelitoo]

Renders are good, you're good in that regard. I don't get the VR part. Will the player use Oculus Rift (or however those are called) to play the game? or the MC inside the game will use them and the player will keep playing "normally" watching the pc?

Minigames, I think no one like them to be honest. Minigames are usually the thing that people do to "advance the story", not to "play the game". If they are fun for you or you feel like having them makes sense then go ahead, I hardly believe that anyone will seriously complain about them unless they are extremely annoying.

 

[desmosome]

Construction and waiting tables seems annoying as fuck. Is there literally anyone who likes these mini games designed for grinding? If you make a mini game, it should be genuinely fun to play on it's own, otherwise, it's just a "fuck you" to all players imo.

Card game in FF8. Gold Saucer in FF7. Gwent in Witcher. These are good mini games.

 

[betterzett]

Renders are good, you're good in that regard. I don't get the VR part. Will the player use Oculus Rift (or however those are called) to play the game? or the MC inside the game will use them and the player will keep playing "normally" watching the pc?

Minigames, I think no one likes them to be honest. Minigames are usually the thing that people does to "advance the story", not to "play the game". If they are fun for you or you feel like having them makes sense then go ahead, I hardly believe that anyone will seriously complain about them unless they are extremely annoying.

MC in the game will use VR headset to get into "Game world".

Spoiler: Pictures

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So there will be like two different world, but some NPC will play that VR game too, and there'll be quests, story and maybe even some drama.

About minigames. I want to make earning process requiring some effort from player, not just clicking "get paid", if that makes sense. And some other events with NPCs too. If this way is obsolete, then I'll have to come up with something else.

Thank you for your feedback.

 

[betterzett]

Construction and waiting tables seems annoying as fuck. Is there literally anyone who likes these mini games designed for grinding? If you make a mini game, it should be genuinely fun to play on it's own, otherwise, it's just a "fuck you" to all players imo.

Card game in FF8. Gold Saucer in FF7. Gwent in Witcher. These are good mini games.

Oh, I've seen some adult games using this card game concept from FF8. Didn't know they took this idea from FF.
Yeah, I loved to play those card games. Thanks for the idea!

 

[desmosome]

Oh, I've seen some adult games using this card game concept from FF8. Didn't know they took this idea from FF.
Yeah, I loved to play those card games. Thanks for the idea!

No probs, but my main point was that mini games that are part of the grind (making money or gaining stats) are almost always annoying, especially if they are simplistic (QTE, memory games, sliding puzzle).

Mini games should be tied to the story, not the grind. Why was Gold Saucer so good? Because it was a whole city designed as an arcade which had ties to the plot and a recruitable character, as well as having gameplay benefits.

Obviously amateur devs will have a hard time recreating this magic, but I think the general principle that mini games should be enjoyable on their own should apply. Would you, as a player enjoy doing repeated QTE and point and click games to make money? If the answer is not a resounding yes, tying this mechanic to the mandatory grind where players are required to do this mind numbing task all the tine would be a bad idea.

 

[MoPoRoNo]

But I don't wanna make basic visual novel, but more like a sandbox, with minigames, quests, big interactivity with the world, secrets, achievements and on and on...

Careful with feature/scope creep

A collection of minigames sounds like busy work and rather detached. How would a VR fantasy RPG world be connected to the main story in the modern world? What I am going at is for example, Magical Diary: Wolf Hall, the gameplay sequence is a dungeon crawler and it's connected to the setting: going to mage school and learning spells.

 

[mickydoo]

Greetings, everyone.
but more like a sandbox, with minigames, quests, big interactivity with the world, secrets, achievements and on and on... Next thing, that I wanna add is VR game

You sound a bit like Bender from futurama - "I'm Going To Build My Own Theme Park With Blackjack and Hookers"

 

[betterzett]

No probs, but my main point was that mini games that are part of the grind (making money or gaining stats) are almost always annoying, especially if they are simplistic (QTE, memory games, sliding puzzle).

Yeah, I got your point.

But that still leaves question in my head: "How to make earning process in the game ?". To make player not dying from grind, but also do something to earn some.

 

[betterzett]

How would a VR fantasy RPG world be connected to the main story in the modern world?

I'm going more with SAO vibe. NPCs and player will play VR game for fun.
But actually, you gave me an idea right here. Maybe player will seek something inside the game, like an easter egg, or maybe some items will be tradable on black market, and player could use vr to make money for living.

 

[Deleted member 3917737]

You sound a bit like Bender from futurama - "I'm Going To Build My Own Theme Park With Blackjack and Hookers"

(it's a game inside a game)

So... Game-ception?

 

[betterzett]

You sound a bit like Bender from futurama - "I'm Going To Build My Own Theme Park With Blackjack and Hookers"

You got me.
I agree, it's ambitious project. But I think I can manage that with some help

 

[betterzett]

So... Game-ception?

A game inside a game

 

[MidnightArrow]

But that still leaves question in my head: "How to make earning process in the game ?". To make player not dying from grind, but also do something to earn some.

Look at real games that've stood the test of time and find out how you can put your own spin on their mechanics. Like Whack-a-Mole. Instead of being a waiter how about the MC is a bartender who has to "hit" waves of customers with the right drink orders and if he gets it wrong it's deducted from his salary. He has to pay rent to live with these two women and he has to spend money to please them on dates, so it ties back into the core gameplay loop.

Too many shitty porn games have simple pass/fail minigames especially when it comes to the sex. A good minigame should make the player want to play over again and improve their score. If it's just pass/fail then when you pass there's nothing to encourage playing again.

 

[betterzett]

Look at real games that've stood the test of time and find out how you can put your own spin on their mechanics. Like Whack-a-Mole. Instead of being a waiter how about the MC is a bartender who has to "hit" waves of customers with the right drink orders and if he gets it wrong it's deducted from his salary. He has to pay rent to live with these two women and he has to spend money to please them on dates, so it ties back into the core gameplay loop.

I don't want to make game all about working and paying bills. I just want to add some ways to earn money into the game. And I wanna know the way to do it right.

 

[rayminator]

there one thing wrong with the renders lighting up those characters by using spotlights and that

but you doing great job so far and good luck with your project

 

[MidnightArrow]

I don't want to make game all about working and paying bills. I just want to add some ways to earn money into the game. And I wanna know the way to do it right.

The right way to do it is to make it fun and something the player wants to play repeatedly.

Like, say, using Renpy to recreate Lethal Enforcers, which I will totally do one of these days.

 

[desmosome]

I don't want to make game all about working and paying bills. I just want to add some ways to earn money into the game. And I wanna know the way to do it right.

Well, we are back to my initial point of discussion. Is there anyone who enjoys doing random minigames like sliding puzzles/memory games? Especially when it's tied to some mandatory grind like $$$. At best, they will tolerate it. So do we really need to slow down the progression like this? Just going to work and getting money should be enough.

Ideally, mini games should be something that is fun enough for the players to seek out when they need a little break from the main progression. For example, if you want to add some VR game into the plot, why not make this the mini game? Make it so that you can log into this VR mini game and do some battles, lvl up, etc. The reward could be some benefits when doing story related events in the VR or something. You can even make it super complex with equipment, skills and all that shit. Advancing in the VR could be a reward on it's own if it's fun enough.

 

[Adabelitoo]

Ideally, mini games should be something that is fun enough for the players to seek out when they need a little break from the main progression. For example, if you want to add some VR game into the plot, why not make this the mini game? Make it so that you can log into this VR mini game and do some battles, lvl up, etc. The reward could be some benefits when doing story related events in the VR or something. You can even make it super complex with equipment, skills and all that shit. Advancing in the VR could be a reward on it's own if it's fun enough.

At this point, you're telling him how to do his game, not how to do minigames.

 

[betterzett]

Okay, I see what you guys mean. Minigames should be for fun and not just for filling blank spaces. I'll figure something out.

But, I still don't know how to make earning process fun, or at least decent enough.

And what you think about game idea itself and about my renders?