Post by Ellie in Neon Dreams comments

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Oof. Sad you didn't like it. The progression of the game is slow because there's 10 sizes planned for Iris, but only 5 in this release for the Game Jam, so I unfortunately had to make it hard to get her bigger. Additionally, you'll notice you unlock flashing, nudity, then blowjob per size - the final release will also have 3 more sex scenes per size, so you're rewarded more for your grind.

That said I just pushed a patch to decrease the cost to upgrade Iris, make the game a bit easier, and fixed the touchscreen issue for Android users.

Thanks for your feedback, hopefully the patch will make it more enjoyable for others, and I'll work to think of ways to make it less of a grind.

Moustached1 year ago

The thing is: The mini game is slow paced and too tedious. It would be better and more enjoyable to speed it up and overhaul it all together in a DDR style mini game. When you reach chapter 8, you already played it over 70 times and sorting 100 bits in one session feels like a chore.

Decreasing the upgrade prices doesn't help as the debts are still too high. In chapter 7 you have to pay 50K, but only get 7K per day because of the cryptoheist. That means you can only get 56K per week, getting 50cals costs 5K, getting an upgrade 5 to 12K. Chapter 8 has the exact same problem. You should either increase the rewards, decrease the debts or add a new thing to hack.

I see you improve from game to game, but the balancing and made it punishing to pay for anything but the debt. Otherwise it would be an amazing game. I don't care about the story, but even I see that you care about it and write it competently.

(Accidentally clicked delete instead of edit comment, lol)

Ellie1 year ago(+1)

I'm not sure about making it DDR style, can you expand on that? I agree, I need to reduce the number of necessary plays for progression, or add some game variety instead of just increasing difficulty or bits.

I'll make sure I reduce the debt increments or increase payouts for the next iteration!

I can't know what sucks if people don't tell me, so I genuinely appreciate the feedback.

Moustached1 year ago

With DDR I mean: Instead of ordering 0,1, Q in each line, make three parallel lines and let them flow down simultaneously like a three line guitar hero song. You have to press left for 1, down for Q and right for 0 in the correct moment instead of holding left for 1, doing nothing for Q and holding right for 0. This would not only give the opportunity for faster gameplay, but also for more diverse patterns for each session instead of relying on pythons random number generator. For example, in the current mini game, you can get lucky and do nothing for 5 to 10 seconds, because you get 5 or 6 Qs in a row.

Some other minor things you should maybe look at again:

-> during some chapters Iris stripped multiple times and every time I got the notification that I unlocked the stripping.

-> When it's payday, you get the same text messages from Ember, even when you have to bring it to Celeste. I don't know if that's intended, but some variety in the conversation or wording would be great.

-> The ominous phone voice is absolutely pathetic and hilarious. You should pay a male voice actor with a very deep sultry voice instead. (Btw, I love the voice acting, even when it's audible that they are inexperienced. Initially I thought you used AI voices because of that.)

As a developer it sure is important, but most free content creator get a mental breakdown by the slightest criticism like a chronically online twitter user, which is why people usually don't criticize (or they simply don't know how to). Or they saw the mini game and were like "Oh hell no" and moved on forgetting about your game.

While I'm at it: I loved cowgirl casino 2 the most, because the girl got extremely big. So, don't worry about making her unrealistically big. It just adds to motivation to progress the game.

Ellie1 year ago(+1)

Ok, thanks for the clarifications! The DDR idea makes a lot of sense and wouldn't be hard to implement. I can see how that would be good - because the gameplay could involve two bits at once, right? It's a perfect evolution of the basic game already made, and gives a path to improving the game for the later chapters... I could have you start with the game as-is, and around Ch3, add "OMG there are more datapaths!" and suddenly it's a DDR-esque game. Add two bits at once at Ch5 and bam - the game's not boring. That's great feedback.

Other feedback...
-> Iris strips each time you get her up a level fat-wise. Did it happen more often than that, or was there a bug? Originally, there were 10 sizes planned, and each size unlocked nothing(1)-nothing(2)-flashing(3)-blowjob(4)-missionary(5)-doggy(6)-cowgirl(7) to keep the player engaged with the repetitive gameplay! I will probably in future updates make the sex more story tied though, and ramp down the 'fuck I gotta hack again' to make it less of a grind.
-> Same message - good feedback - I'll vary that!
-> Voices - Sorry!! I did all of them myself and I'm just one anonymoose. This was my first time doing acting, so maybe it'll be better sometime? IDK, I'm sure I can find a dude to voice for me or ask my partner, lol.

I'm really not like most free content creators because I REALLY want to get better to make a living off this stuff so all feedback is good, even if I ignore some of it - so thanks for taking the time to write all that up. Feedback like this - even if it starts negatively - helps me learn what's good, what sucked, and what people look for. All that said, you can look forward to the next release having up to 650lbs of Iris. While that's not Fiona huge from CC2, that's still a BIIIIIG girl, so please do stay tuned - the version out is only 0.5b and I have a lot more planned! :D

Moustached1 year ago (1 edit)

Wait, you made all voices yourself? Oh my god, I'm so sorry. I thought you were just some guy that paid some inexperienced ASMR VAs. With that assessment it's actually not that bad, just needs a lot more training and trying to put more emotion into it. For example Iris sounds very flat like an AI voice. You'll got this someday. :) Just a tip: Build yourself a soundproof VA booth, if you're insecure about your voice acting and just scream. Without confidence, you can't voice act. If you're insecure about asking a male VA, try researching how men can talk deeper so the filter is not so prominent.

The notification happened every time. I got the same strip scene multiple times per week. You could debug it by disabling the condition and to see if it actually shows the notification.

I see you have a lot of ideas about the DDR style mini game. I'm eager to see what things you have planned. And it makes me happy to read your passion. Always remember that incredibly fast gameplay that is easy to execute with one hand (because you know why) and requires no thought is the best when it comes to fetish games. This is one reason why Cowtastic Cafe on Itch is so popular. It's fast, easy and instantly rewarding. Weight Gain games is all about progression and testing the limits and getting motivated because you see how big they grow.

And tbh, I'm a sucker for unrealistically big sizes like making her huge and immobile in the vain of Chub Chomp Chill, if you know this game here on Itch. While it's hard to implement it narratively, you did hint the capacity remover at genesis' shop. But I'm not forcing you into anything :)

itch.io

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