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#1 2019-01-09 23:05:30

Eric Storm
Pub Owner
From: New Port Richey, FL
Registered: 2006-09-12
Posts: 5742
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This is a non-writing-related rant

I hate it when game devs take an idiot pill.

So, one of the things I do to relax is to play adult "visual novel" games.  For those unfamiliar, these are like a more graphical version of a choose-your-own-adventure book.  You follow the story and make choices to affect the outcome.  Usually you get to name your character, and, of course, the goal in most of them, as they are "adult" games, is to get laid.  The ones I tend to enjoy most involve trying to get laid by your mom.  That's just how I am.

Now, the quality of these games ranges from pretty good to downright awful, with every possible option in between.  Often, like erotic novels on the internet, these games go unfinished... and are generally released in pieces, also like erotica.  I have played so many of these games that I actually have a spreadsheet to keep track of which version of which game I've played, and what I thought of it.  My interest in these games is not merely for relaxation: I'm giving serious thought to creating my own game after both the Woodward series, and the new version of the website, are finished.

In any case, with the explanation finished, on to my rant.  Last night I was playing a specific game, called Snow Daze.  (I mention it by name so that any of you who might play these games can be forewarned).  The game features a teenager, living at home with his single mother and his sisters.  This is an almost de rigueur formula for the family, although this one does feature an extra sister (the standard is two: a younger, doting one, and an older, bitchy one.  This game features a sporty twin! Yay!  *rolls eyes*)  Our main character has been belittled and beleaguered by his family for years, but has finally used his musical talent to create an acoustic mind control device.  (Yes, these often read like the plots for erotic novels, too.  hehehe)

So the game takes place over the course of a five-day snowstorm, during which the entire family is housebound.  Now, days 1-4 go along reasonably.  The plot works... reasonably well, for one of these games.  (You have to accept that reality does not apply to any of these games, because who wants to spend years cultivating a sexual relationship with their sibling - assuming that was even possible - before getting to do anything?)  So, by the end of day 4, our hero is right on the cusp of having sex with all of the women.

And then we hit Day 5, and the dev takes his idiot pills.  I'm thinking he might just have overdosed on them.

So, the twin sister comes into the mc's bedroom, just to hang out with him.  The mc is currently taking a shower.  So, does the twin leave and go do something else?  No, she decides to invade her brother's privacy by trying to look at the porn on his computer.  Now, the mc has a password on his computer.  Does this dissuade this previously not-a-nosy-bitch character from invading his privacy?  No, of course not.  She instead goes looking around the mc's desk.

Now, here's where the true idiocy comes in.  The mc supposedly has his password written down, and on a sticky note right next to his computer.  The mc is apparently some kind of technical genius (he invented a mind control device, remember), but is somehow so utterly moronic that he completely negates the usefulness of a password to protect his system.  He doesn't even try to HIDE the sticky note, but instead leaves it in plain sight!

And if all that wasn't bad enough, the password in question is something like "Iwanttofuckmyfamily6969".  Actually a reasonably secure password, but why the fuck would you need to write this down in the first place???  This is not a password you're going to forget, especially if you are entering it every time you start your computer.

Does the idiocy stop here?  Oh, no.  No, it does not.  The sister, upon entering the computer system, finds the information concerning the brainwashing device the mc has been using... right on his desktop!  It isn't in any way hidden or password-protected.  It isn't even mislabeled.  He actually labeled it "brainwashing device"!!!

So, the suddenly nosy twin sister of course reads the information... and somehow, just knowing about the device and the fact that it has been used on her, completely breaks the brainwashing.  She then goes and tells the other family members, and her telling them breaks THEIR brainwashing.  This sounds more like brain rinsing than brain washing...

Further, the sister destroys the mc's computer (because there's no way he's got a backup of the information somewhere else, right?)  And then she destroys the charger for the brainwashing device.

And here's another place where the idiot pills must have been in full play.  The mc apparently only has ONE battery for his device, despite having spent MONTHS of income building it and creating his plan for family domination.  No, the charge on his device is now low, and with the destruction of the charger, he has no means to power it back up.

And one, final idiocy.  Did our technical genius use a simple wall wart to charge his device, or maybe a USB cable from his computer?  No.  He crafted a custom-built, one-of-a-kind, cannot-be-replaced charger to recharge the battery in his device!!!

Look, I can deal with suspension of disbelief.  I can even handle plot devices.  But this was a fucking plot-rube-goldberg-machine!!!  We are expected to believe that, despite the brilliance the character has shown from the beginning in technical matters, he was a complete, total, blithering idiot leading up to the start of the game.

Now, as I mentioned before, a lot of these games never get finished.  The devs lose interest, or they get stuck on other projects, or real life interferes... or they simply don't get enough Patreon patrons to bother continuing it, whatever.  The OTHER phenomenon that happens is that they start to lose interest in the game, and so they wrap it up very abruptly.  I personally find this more annoying than the unfinished kind, which I could at least use my imagination to make up an ending.  I think that's what happened with this game: the dev got tired of it, and just wanted it done, so concocted a totally crappy final scenario.

Now, mind you, I don't know how the final scenario actually worked out.  I was so utterly annoyed and disappointed by this particular set of stupidity that I stopped playing the game and deleted it from my hard drive.  Maybe the mc ended up with all of his family as his slaves after all.  If so, it only happened through some OTHER plot-rube-goldberg-device that also wouldn't have made any goddamned sense.

Okay, I'm done ranting now.  I just needed to get this off my chest.  Thanks for reading.

Eric Storm


Please Remember:  The right to Freedom of Speech does not carry the proviso, "As long as it doesn't upset anyone."  The US Constitution does not grant you the right to not be offended.  If you don't like what someone's saying... IGNORE THEM.
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#2 2019-01-09 23:45:21

Sniper
Inebriated
Registered: 2016-07-04
Posts: 94

Re: This is a non-writing-related rant

If my wife asks me, why some character in a movie/game does something unbelievably stupid, I normally reply with: "Because it says so in the script". Would you believe that she sometimes actually hits me, right after sharing my insight with her? I don't even know why she keeps asking those questions.

You could also ask, why someone who is smart enough to write a computer game, is not smart enough to write a decent plot. There are different kinds of smart. Maybe your MC simply has a complete lack of common sense? There are people out there, who are scary smart, but too stupid to live.

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#3 2019-01-10 00:22:06

darthel0101
Completely Blotto
Registered: 2013-08-18
Posts: 252

Re: This is a non-writing-related rant

Sorry to hear about your collision with stupidity. I have run into some authors who try to use their Tom Clancy-like knowledge to do something and it is MORE than idiotic. I stopped reading a Clancy spinoff due to this type of idiocy - a non-stop flight from D.C. to Japan gets refueled over Hawaii. The shortest flight path would have taken the plane well NORTH of Anchorage, AK!

Another author has problems with CO2 scrubbers and routing clandestine submarines from the Florida Panhandle to the Shanghai area. No matter which way the sub goes - avoiding Panama - it is moving WAY too fast for any form of reality.

Last edited by darthel0101 (2019-01-10 00:28:05)

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#4 2019-01-10 18:11:44

bleme
Inebriated
Registered: 2007-11-16
Posts: 20

Re: This is a non-writing-related rant

I laugh at the ones that are invading the solar system and hit the bases on all the other planets on their way to Earth, like the planets are always lined up in order and not in their own independent orbits...

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#5 2019-01-10 20:18:51

Eric Storm
Pub Owner
From: New Port Richey, FL
Registered: 2006-09-12
Posts: 5742
Website

Re: This is a non-writing-related rant

Sniper wrote:

Maybe your MC simply has a complete lack of common sense?

Then this would have been made obvious through the rest of the game (and I would have stopped playing a lot sooner).  Up to this particular point in the game, the character behaved "normally", meaning he wasn't a genius about daily-life things, but he wasn't an idiot, either.  He exhibited reasonable common sense up to this point.  It is the sudden break in story line that creates the problem here.  If the mc had been something of a ditz the entire way through, this would have been a head-shaking moment, not a head-scratching moment, but what was exhibited in this scene was completely out of character.

Eric Storm

PS:  No, I don't ask why someone "smart enough" to write a game program wouldn't be "smart enough" to write a decent plot.  They are completely different skills.  It's like asking why a brain surgeon isn't smart enough to fix cars.  It's not about smarts, it's about skill set.


Please Remember:  The right to Freedom of Speech does not carry the proviso, "As long as it doesn't upset anyone."  The US Constitution does not grant you the right to not be offended.  If you don't like what someone's saying... IGNORE THEM.
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#6 2019-01-10 20:55:13

Eric Storm
Pub Owner
From: New Port Richey, FL
Registered: 2006-09-12
Posts: 5742
Website

Re: This is a non-writing-related rant

darthel0101 wrote:

Another author has problems with CO2 scrubbers and routing clandestine submarines from the Florida Panhandle to the Shanghai area. No matter which way the sub goes - avoiding Panama - it is moving WAY too fast for any form of reality.

Their real problem here would be that the Navy would not use subs from Florida to execute a mission in Shanghai.  Shanghai would be handled by the Pacific Fleet, not the Atlantic Fleet.  The trip from Panama City would take a bare minimum of three weeks if you were to avoid the canals (Panama or Suez)... and that wouldn't be overly "clandestine", since your sub would have to be traveling at full speed the entire way...  A more reasonable scenario would take 41 days, via the Cape of Good Hope, at 15 knots, which is a fairly quiet speed for an American sub.

On the other hand, it's only 16 days from San Diego at that speed, or 14 days from Seattle.  This is why the job would be handled by PACFLT.

Eric Storm


Please Remember:  The right to Freedom of Speech does not carry the proviso, "As long as it doesn't upset anyone."  The US Constitution does not grant you the right to not be offended.  If you don't like what someone's saying... IGNORE THEM.
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#7 2019-01-10 20:57:50

Eric Storm
Pub Owner
From: New Port Richey, FL
Registered: 2006-09-12
Posts: 5742
Website

Re: This is a non-writing-related rant

bleme wrote:

I laugh at the ones that are invading the solar system and hit the bases on all the other planets on their way to Earth, like the planets are always lined up in order and not in their own independent orbits...

The real question is, why bother hitting the other planets at all?  They're all supported by Earth, and they can't prevent you from getting to Earth, so just bypass them altogether and go to Earth, conquer that, and wait for the other colonies to capitulate voluntarily (or starve to death...)

Eric Storm


Please Remember:  The right to Freedom of Speech does not carry the proviso, "As long as it doesn't upset anyone."  The US Constitution does not grant you the right to not be offended.  If you don't like what someone's saying... IGNORE THEM.
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#8 2019-01-13 10:49:15

Elessar
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Registered: 2009-10-28
Posts: 396

Re: This is a non-writing-related rant

Can't even begin to think of where you find these kinds of things. Curious though, what kind of game would YOU design? More simply put, would it be just text and pictures? or a decent 2D game.

Edit: I googled simply 'Adult Erotic games' and found a couple websites... not a single game caught my eye. I think i will stick to reading.

Last edited by Elessar (2019-01-13 11:00:50)

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#9 2019-01-13 21:24:06

Eric Storm
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From: New Port Richey, FL
Registered: 2006-09-12
Posts: 5742
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Re: This is a non-writing-related rant

I'm not really sure what you mean by a "decent 2D game" in this sense.  What is it you would expect from a game that is intended to tell a story, rather than blast everything in sight?

Most of the games in the genre I'm talking about use the Ren'py game engine.  It is mostly a point-and-click interface.  Animations are used (usually for sex scenes), but the game engine is not designed for real-time movement.  The point of games using this engine is more about decision-making than killing things.  Your choices have consequences.  As I said, it is the modern equivalent of a choose-your-own-adventure novel.

Should you wish to look at the vast array of this type of game that's available, look on F95Zone.  It's where I go to find new ones to play (and updates to the ones I actually liked).  As with anything done by amateurs, the quality produced varies from awful to excellent.  In no case is it going to live up to any expectation that it will rival a commercial game company.

To produce the kind of game I think you're thinking of would require resorting to 3D (full freedom of movement for both character and NPCs).  This would be both technically very difficult, and cost-prohibitive.  While using the images made from 3d models in a game is free, using the 3d models themselves requires licensing, which tends to run about $50/model on the Daz store.

If you're wondering why I would consider bothering with such a project, it's very simple:  It combines all three of my primary interests: storytelling, 3d artwork, and programming.  Plus it adds in the mental complexity of having to write multiple stories from the same concept.  (The whole point of these games is that the choices you make affect the outcome.  For that to happen, the game dev has to have written different outcomes.)

Will I actually do this?  Right now, I don't know.  But the same impulse that caused me to start writing - That is, the "even I can do better than THIS" reaction - has been infecting me for some time as I play some of these games.  We'll just have to see what transpires.

Eric Storm


Please Remember:  The right to Freedom of Speech does not carry the proviso, "As long as it doesn't upset anyone."  The US Constitution does not grant you the right to not be offended.  If you don't like what someone's saying... IGNORE THEM.
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#10 2019-01-14 06:50:20

Daedalus
Tipsy
Registered: 2018-11-27
Posts: 6

Re: This is a non-writing-related rant

Elessar wrote:

Edit: I googled simply 'Adult Erotic games' and found a couple websites... not a single game caught my eye. I think i will stick to reading.

If by "2D game" you mean a 2D side-scroller try Future Fragments, Crisis Point, or Almastriga(The artwork on this one is phenomenal, miles ahead of any other erotic game, but the development is happening at a snail's pace and they abandoned their last game before completing it)

https://summertimesaga.com is arguably the king of the erotic visual novel / dating sim genre right now.

Regarding Snow Daze, it's meant to be cheesy/comedic, did convincing your little sister act like a dog as the path to sexually conquering her not raise an eyebrow? The "you get one charge more charge" of the brainwashing device creates the branching paths for the game's multiple endings if I remember this right:

***********SPOILERS****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
* 1. You use it on yourself to remove your incestuous desires and return things "back to normal"
* 2. You use it on individual sisters/mother to culminate your relationship with them.
* 3. For the ultimate ending once you've explored all other paths you brainwash yourself to remove your inhibitions, and go on to push them all over the edge without needing the device.
************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

He even decides he can build another charger for future targets, he just couldn't do it without supplies while snowed in.

Maybe it was bad writing but you can't blame it on the dev losing interest, it was always set to take place over five days, and from what I can see there were five more months of additional updates to the game after I played the "completed" version last February.

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#11 2019-01-14 09:54:02

Eric Storm
Pub Owner
From: New Port Richey, FL
Registered: 2006-09-12
Posts: 5742
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Re: This is a non-writing-related rant

Then the dev needs to have someone smack him - very hard - upside the head.

As I said, I can handle suspension of disbelief.  NO, the pet play content didn't really raise an eyebrow, because it's a legitimate, known fetish, and it's perfectly reasonable (within the mind-control-is-possible universe of the story) that using the girl's fetish against her would be the path of least resistance.

But the sequence of utterly stupid acts that the main character had to commit - before the user had any control at all - is simply unforgivable for a non-utterly stupid character.

Truth is that I would have been far more forgiving if I had found out the dev DID create this situation because he lost interest.  That he created this as a planned climax makes it even worse.

And let's consider something:  If learning about the brainwashing, breaks the brainwashing... then how is the device EVER going to work on any of those girls again?  They already know what it does.  It's not logical that knowing about the brainwashing would only nullify PREVIOUS brainwashing sessions.  Therefore, this plot really makes no sense at all.

To achieve the same result, he could have done away with all of the smashing of computers and custom-built rechargers.  He could have simply stuck with the idea that "once the target knows they're being affected by the device, it will no longer work unless they consciously submit to it."

This would have allowed for every single ending you mentioned, without having to resort to things that STILL make me angry when I think about them.

Eric Storm


Please Remember:  The right to Freedom of Speech does not carry the proviso, "As long as it doesn't upset anyone."  The US Constitution does not grant you the right to not be offended.  If you don't like what someone's saying... IGNORE THEM.
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#12 2019-01-17 10:21:15

Elessar
Completely Blotto
Registered: 2009-10-28
Posts: 396

Re: This is a non-writing-related rant

I am to lazy to actually explain by 2d, instead i'll just say, what i pictured was something similar to SIMGIRLS on the newgrounds website, developed by sim-man. Was my first dating sims game and i thought was fairly well designed.

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#13 2019-01-17 23:17:06

Eric Storm
Pub Owner
From: New Port Richey, FL
Registered: 2006-09-12
Posts: 5742
Website

Re: This is a non-writing-related rant

Okay, so I spent about five minutes playing SimGirl (the same amount of time you would have taken to simply describe it to me.)

What I saw looks exactly like a basic (if somewhat annoying) Ren'py game.  Background image, foreground sprites, text box at the bottom, some mechanism for advancing the dialogue (although in Ren'py this is usually just a click anywhere on the screen... or pressing the spacebar or the Return key...)  The map screen is also a typical Ren'py item, as well as the sub-screens for things like inventory, stats, journals, etc.

Differences in what I would design: 

- First and foremost, I would use 3D artwork.  I can't draw worth shit, so I would render out my imagery using CG.
- I would not use the "background with sprites" method.  I would use a more integrated imagery that looks better (in my opinion).
- I would not use icons for things unless I included a tutorial on what every icon means that could be accessed *before* the game.
- Higher resolution (much higher - Ren'py games tend to focus on the graphics, so can stretch into the gigabytes in size, because they contain thousands of images.  720p would be considered low end of acceptable for a Ren'py game's image resolution.  Many are at 1080p.  I was figuring to compromise at 1600x900, because I plan to NOT cover a portion of the image with my icons and text box.
- Various other differences in the mechanics of gameplay.

So, ultimately, to answer your question, if SimGirl was made today, it would probably be produced with Ren'py.  The concept of gameplay is pretty much identical.  Ren'py games, however, are standalone (they don't require a browser to work).  This has drawbacks, of course: if you want a Mac version, you have to compile a Mac version.  If you want an Android version, you have to compile an Android version.  (This seems to be particularly hard with Ren'py for some reason, but that's just my impression from a few comments I've read about people absolutely not producing said versions, or looking for someone else to do it.)

Eric Storm


Please Remember:  The right to Freedom of Speech does not carry the proviso, "As long as it doesn't upset anyone."  The US Constitution does not grant you the right to not be offended.  If you don't like what someone's saying... IGNORE THEM.
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#14 2019-01-19 02:56:58

Jim Divan
Tipsy
Registered: 2007-11-24
Posts: 5

Re: This is a non-writing-related rant

I've found that most of the games from sharks-lagoon.fr are pretty good.  What are some of the good ones you've played?

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#15 2019-01-19 12:29:33

Eric Storm
Pub Owner
From: New Port Richey, FL
Registered: 2006-09-12
Posts: 5742
Website

Re: This is a non-writing-related rant

I list very few of these games as "good".  There are those I'm still continuing to play, but that may not necessarily mean they're good, just that they have somehow caught my interest.

Three that I have marked in green on my spreadsheet are "Deep Impact", "Occultus", and "Where the Heart Is".  Also, if you happen to enjoy BBWs, then the games "Chubby Holidays" and "Plump City" are entertaining (and finished!), but because of the manner in which they both end so abruptly, I don't really consider them good.

I have plenty of ideas for games myself... no idea if any of them would be "good", either.  3dsmile  Writing a game is so much harder than writing a book.  Which is funny, because one of the game ideas I'm bouncing around is a game inspired by Dragonseekers.  It would NOT be a re-telling of that book, but would use similar ideas and characters.

Eric Storm


Please Remember:  The right to Freedom of Speech does not carry the proviso, "As long as it doesn't upset anyone."  The US Constitution does not grant you the right to not be offended.  If you don't like what someone's saying... IGNORE THEM.
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