Thanks a lot for the words, seriously, and cheers for giving it another chance! The bug-fixing and navigation updates has kind of been a work in progress, but, with this coming release, it should finally be nearing a state I'm happy with!
Thanks a lot for the words! Do you remember when the problem with the invisible wall was? There has been a lot of bugfixing this time around so hopefully it'll run more smoothly now, but you can always drop me a message on Discord if you got a problem and I'll do my best to try and get it fixed
The chapel is one, single room with one, single quest in it. That's it. The choir music is in that one, single room, and during one single other quest with Hermione. Then there is the one, small mention where the bad guys are shown to be Baal / Yahweh worshippers (so pretty sacrilegious for one, and not even entirely Old Testament). Finally there is the conversation between Hermione and Ron, which has nothing at all to do with religion, but which we can pretend for a moment that it does. That is absolutely it. That's the end of any """christian"""-inspired elements then. There is still 99% of the game that has nothing at all to do with religion. If I were proselytising, I should probably burn in hell for being so fucking useless at it.
Anyway, I again seriously encourage you to get help. I cannot be the first one in your life to tell you this, and I didn't appreciate your earlier sentiment that I'm only telling you to neuter you or whatever. However, if you are really not going to, I guess I can also look forward to you exposing me as a pagan proselytiser who's just making this game to shill paganism, when the gamestory soon starts on its Arthurian inspired parts
Hey, the words and the attempt to reason with him are appreciated, thanks man. That said, I think Maxime genuinely is mentally ill and that you probably won't get anywhere with him. It's for shame that he doesn't get the help he needs (and does deserve) but that's how it goes
Alright, fair enough. Just for the records, I again want to stress that I am not a "believer" in any kind of religion, that I do not believe that there is any kind of God, and that your misinterpretations of messages and simple background lore-tidbits do not represent my actual opinions and beliefs. You are of course still welcome to to read it however you want to, but I still suggest that you find professional help with this stuff if you haven't already, because I recognise some of your behaviour in myself. I wish you a good day too!
I have already damaged Hogwarts' lore by including literal porn elements in it. You seem slightly hypocritical in how you pick and choose what needs to be included, but you need to realise that the game simply doesn't revolve around your tastes. It revolves, mostly, around mine. I find Old Testament and generally occult elements (not Christian elements, there is not one excerpt from the Bible lol) interesting, so I include them in the game to an extent, but the idea that I am proselytising when most of the comments and ideas about religion are downright heretical, is actually just silly man. I simply combined a lot of elements that I liked, including among them these occult elements, school environments, magic, etc. The compatibility is so-so, but Christianity in Scotland around the time Hogwarts was built still included a lot of pagan elements, including from viking influences, so I do not think it is that far-fetched that it had a presence there IN THE PAST, which was then entirely excised around the time of the witch trials etc, only to now, finally, in the modern day, make the smallest of returns, with that SINGLE priest character.
I also cannot see how you feel that they are overwhelming. Most of the religion-related stuff, from the church, to the Old Testament scriptures, to the party with the literal evil God worshippers, were all added in a SINGLE release, most of which I wrote while sick with covid and so felt especially appealed by the these slightly feverish elements. The conversation between Ron and Hermione has absolutely nothing to do with religion (or at least it wasn't intended to, but I seriously cannot stop you from interpreting it however you wish to, even if it's really annoying to hear your own message twisted), and also, the "message" during it seems to be the exact OPPOSITE of what I have to hear from most of the retarded Christians when they try to force their faith on others, where the arguments mostly revolve around logic and muh ontological proofs for God.
But if you absolutely do not like religious elements, I strongly advise against playing it, because the next couple of releases are going to feature a lot of Druidic / Celtic religious elements. That said, your game idea does sound pretty interesting and I wish you the best in creating it. I do wish that you would at least try and seek help for some of the things I mentioned because, while I am not a psychologist, I do recognise some of the paranoia and the strange obsession with finding patterns where there aren't any in myself. Good luck
Seriously, and I mean this in the nicest way possible (as in I think you should seek help if you aren't already and I wish you all the best), but I really do think you might have some sort of schizotypal personality disorder. I know because I do as well and sometimes think I see strange patterns where there aren't any.
When I said that I don't believe it has much of a place in the modern world, I meant it in term of a country's official policies, and I hoped this was clear already from the context. People can believe whatever they want really, but I don't think religion should have any kind of influence except on the individual practicing it, if they so choose to.
That doesn't mean it shouldn't feature in games, if it's ONLY used by people to try and create interesting story elements. The reason why it is included so heavily in this game is because I generally find occult themes interesting, and which is also why all these mentions of religion that you bring up are excerpts from the Old Testament that, again, really do focus on some of its most gruesome aspects. I know it is not something that exists in the official Harry Potter universe, but then this also isn't the official Harry Potter universe, it's literally just a porn game with a bit of meandering fastfood philosophy sprinkled in there.
I looked through your comment section to see what's up with you, and found a comment on a game with weird sadism towards woman in it, in which you made quite the correct observation about its weirdo author, that people don't spend months and months creating a game whose elements they aren't personally interested in. I want you to now apply that same logic to me when you ask WHY. I simply enjoy those elements, alright? I don't find religion to be a particularly good idea, but I love everything from the Old Testament for HISTORICAL reasons. It's really as simple as that. Honestly I felt that I was being a little TOO anti-religion and inserted the priest character, the muslim prayer room, etc to create a bit more of a balance.
A little further in the game, you will find that the main bad guys are literally Old Testament Yahweh / Baal worshippers, who, again, energetically discuss certain sacrifices. I think I'll leave that as the closing remark on my "proving" that I am not some religious nut secretly trying to insert some secret, religion-positive message into a porn game of all things. If anything, I leant a little too much in the opposite direction for my own liking.
About the character faces, I don't know man, those are the only 5 examples and they all look like what you could reasonably expect teenagers to sometimes look like. The only really feminine guy is Fabian, and, to a degree, Barry Jenkins (the red haired guy in the pics), but those are entirely intentional.
Mate, I'm an atheist, not a Christian lmao. I don't think religion should have a big place in the modern world, but I don't actively hate it as you seem to, and I find it really interesting from a historical perspective.
The "Christian scriptures" that you point out aren't really that - they are from the Old Testament. I also purposefully picked ones that highlight just how gruesome the OT is. Do you actually think someone tries to spread the good word by selectively showcasing the excerpts with child sacrifice and angels killing armies of tens of thousands? The conversation with Hermione and Ron wasn't supposed to have big religious connotations either, and was rather just fastfood-level philosophising about chaos vs control. Again I think you are actively searching for something to get angry about here. It's true that the game features religion to and extend, but it's rather that I simply personally find it interesting as a concept, and that it creates for interesting characters, both good and bad. Further in the game there are some bad "religious" guys and some probably straight up heretical comments about Abraham, but there is also a good priest character.
About the boys looking like girls, I actually have no idea what you're talking about. If anything, I feel like I made everyone look too old, considering the characters featured are late-stage teenagers, not grown ups. Fabian looks like a girl, but that's for a couple of reasons. The two other roomates do not.
The rest of your points are somewhat valid concerns, but man you're also a bit of a weirdo
I believe I already talked to you about this on Discord, but in case anyone else looks this up, simply press on "continue". You may have to adjust the resolution a bit if it doesn't show on the screen
Yes, unstuck is only really intended as a last resort. What stage were you on? You can always just poke me on discord and I might be able to resolve it
As for map, there is one right now if you open the menu. From there you should be able to find the first floor of the Western Building where it says the cellar is located
Yep, ball game will see a couple of small changes that should make it slightly less frustrating in the new hotfix that's coming soon. Better directions and maps are on the horizon too but won't make it in this next release. Ty for playing! As for the art, it's standard stable diffusion
It's mostly a problem of information (or lack of it). The few stats you lose from it aren't going to make a difference in the grand scheme of things as long as you explore a little, do sidequests, and find things around the castle, but the player is never made aware of this fact. The design philosophy was to have a mini game that's challenging for those that absolutely want to minmax, but I realised that even with this in mind it's still pretty overtuned and frustrating, so I fixed the first one. Left the second one as is as a sort of joke, but now that the game is gaining traction and there are a lot of people telling me it's painfully annoying, I'll get around to fixing it as well, and moving forward, any future ball games of that level will be optional sidequests
And dw, that was one of the nicer posts in terms of pointing out how annoying the ball game is!
There are some fast travels now but they are unlocked at later stages of the game. If anyone is reading this and having trouble with the bridge, it is on the third floor of the Western Building (the one you start in).
Thanks and thanks for the recommendations. Definitely some performance things coming in the next update, but it's unrelated to the models. Since I am definitely not a 3dmodeller, it's always been in the more long-term plans to find someone to fix the models or create entirely new ones. Maybe I will reach out!
Since the next release will be dedicated to small things around the castle, I'll try and find the time to fit in some quality of life features like you suggested. And I think only Fabian's got that problem, but it's somewhat intentional
There's a lot that can be done in terms of improving performance and it's something I might have a look at here after the next major content release. Probably like 50% of it is just down to finding a 3d modeller to replace the current models though. I'm definitely not an 3d artist
A beta build with story progression (and a lake party) coming to the Patreon this week. Full release when everything has been tested through in the week after!
