Thanks for the in-depth feedback, I always appreciate people taking the time relate details like this.
Really glad to hear you enjoyed the music. English sites for this stuff are universally terrible (sorry Kevin MacLeod). They all SOUND like royalty free stock music, painfully so, and they lack so much soul. Luckily I've been able to source a bunch of non-english sites, and the difference is dramatic. It's still not perfect; you are working with stock stuff at the end of the day, and occasionally you just have to settle for something that's good enough. But I've been really happy with most of what I've been able to find.
Similar thoughts on the SFX, though freesound is actually pretty good if you're able to do some basic edits and mixing. The choice to not have any "sex" sounds is mostly a deliberate one. VAs were completely unaffordable and not worth the hassle of course, but it's kind of a "Freeman doesn't talk" thing. I enjoy these kinds of games better without any voiced lines. And the actual sex sounds...experiments were done, but I just wasn't happy with any of it. It ends up taking you out of it more than adding anything. Sometimes imagination is better. I AM very happy with those slaps though.
I had to laugh at the comment on the writing, because to my mind it's about the same, maybe even worse in some areas because there was so MUCH of it to do. But that's just it: there is a lot, and maybe that gives the player a better sense of what I'm going for overall, or gives the writing more of a chance to shine. This isn't grand literature for the ages, but a lot like the sound and music I want something that enhances the experience and doesn't get in the way of it. Also writing is the "cheapest" of all the assets, time and effort-wise for me. Just sit down and type for a while.
"to even the point where I was making sure I'd closed the door to the hideaway behind me so nothing bad happened to Scratch"
Ha! Glad I'm not the only one. I considered tying something to that, but I haven't. YET.
"there's enough depth there to keep me looking for scenes in weird locations or odd predicaments because little things seem to hide around every corner, or at least produce opportunities for them."
So good to hear this. That's exactly what I'm going for. The Japanese games that inspired this always amazed me with all the little bits and side bits and side bits of side bits spiraling out of each other. I love the moments were I'd see a thumbnail for a scene, go "wait, where the hell was that?", check the guide and it would be this fucking arcane series of events that led to it. You'd constantly stumble on to little thing in a corner that you could have easily missed. Never essential, but just neat. And it struck me that a lot of those were fairly "cheap" art-asset-wise but added so much to the fun and life of a game.
That said, there is a limit to just how far out that spiral can go, especially when you're actually drawing scenes. So I have to be very deliberate on where I want to invest that art "budget", not of money, but time and effort. There are many, MANY possibilities, but they get pared down, and down, and down. And I think some of that's healthy anyway; restriction leads to better focus and helps weed out the chaff. BUT as I've said, I do definitely plan on filling out the content a bit as we go forward. Estimates are hard, but I'd say I have somewhere between 75% and 50% of the content I ultimately want to have in the game (just talking GT).
Mmm, no scene with Mahir yet, though there's an obvious slot for one, and it's definitely on the list.