Game version
This feedback applies to House Chores version 0.18.1.
I'll try to keep this original post up to date and announce changes in subsequent posts.
Disclaimer
I feel like before I get into feedback concerning technical and / or design decision issues I ran into, I first want to make clear that I love the game to bits so far. If I didn't I wouldn't get through the hassle to write this post. I tend to criticise the things I dislike without ever praising the things I actually enjoy. So keep that in mind reading this feedback, knowing I find the game very much enjoyable.
Issues
Continuity
- All 3 female characters had quite unique and memorable "voices" throughout all their scenes so far. However, I noticed a change in newer updates.
- Julie’s v0.12 scenes (date night / car as well as kitchen) has the voice that is usually used for Linda so far.
- Julie’s v0.16 scenes (backyard) have a different voice.
- Emily's voice since v0.14 scenes as well as some old scenes is different to her voice she had so far.
- Linda’s v0.15 and v0.16 scenes have a different voice.
- Julie’s v0.17 scene (PC’s bedroom) has the voice that was usually used for Emily before v0.14.
- Julie & Linda’s v0.17 scene (Linda’s bedroom) has the voices for both Julie and Linda that are usually used for Emily so far.
- Some interactions from older updates feel a bit out of place with character relations in newer updates. For example, the "stare" and "FJ" interactions with Emily in the morning seem to reflect a rather early stage of relationship when she’s still just teasing but also kind of hiding behind the roleplay.
Interaction & Transitions
- Transitions look / feel a bit weird in some places. Sometimes fading in and out of black between different stages within a scene or the unexpected need for user input.
- Linda’s v0.15 scenes (PC’s bedroom (chair and bed))
- Emily’s v0.14 scenes (laundry room & living room / kitchen counter)
- Julie’s v0.16 scene (daytime backyard)
- Julie’s v0.17 scene (PC’s bedroom)
- Linda & Julie’s v0.17 scene (Linda’s bedroom)
- Emily's v0.18 scene (Emily's bedroom at night)
- During daytime, when Julie is in the backyard, you can’t interact with the training kit in Linda’s bedroom.
- In Emily’s v0.14 scene (living room / kitchen counter): I couldn’t figure out yet how to trigger Linda being there or not. It would feel intuitive to me to have her be in the kitchen with her "normal" clothes for that to happen, but apparently not.
Graphics / Display
- When interacting with Julie to arrange a date night, there is no text box around the text.
Text
- At the very start of the game, before Julie and Emily arrive, Emily is repeatedly referred to as the PC’s "sister".
- Instead of trying to explain the occasions, I’ll reference the line and column of the json files as displayed when opening them with Notepad++.
- Map007.json: Ln 10, Col 750
- CommonEvent.json: Ln 17, Col 48,824
- Typos
- Emily dialogue (CommonEvents.json: Ln 19, Col 20,003): "peaks" -> "peeks"
- Julie dialouge (CommonEvents.json: Ln 18, Col 37,015; Ln 21, Col 28,075): "Goddess" -> "Goodness"
- Emily’s v0.13 scene (spring)(Map006.json: Ln 27, Col 10,453; Ln 27, Col 24,094): -> Either add an exclamation mark or "with" / "with your".
- The player can’t give input for the variables n[11] up to n[13]. Since those apparently are nicknames for the women‘s relations to the main character, this feels kind of off on some occasions.
- It appears that in some text lines in the json files, Julie is referred to with n[12] instead of n[6].
- Map006.json: Ln 18, Col 11,334; Ln 18, Col 11,571; Ln 18, Col 24.041; Ln 18, Col 24,278; Ln 18, Col 39,381; Ln 18, Col 39,618; Ln 19, Col 11,047; Ln 19, Col 11.284; Ln 19, Col 23,239; Ln 19, Col 23,476; Ln 28, Col 5,854; Ln 28, Col 9,769; Ln 28, Col 19,241; Ln 28, Col 23,154; Ln 34, Col 2,591; Ln 34, Col 30,936; Ln 34, Col 50,559; Ln 34, Col 78,587; Ln 35, Col 2,347; Ln 35, Col 33,728; Ln 35, Col 53,359; Ln 35, Col 84,423
- Map002.json: Ln 20, Col 2,128; Ln 20, Col 5,047
- Map035.json: Ln 6, Col 3,718
- CommonEvents.json: Ln 18, Col 19,884; Ln 18, Col 34,719; Ln 21, Col 18,610; Ln 32, Col 9,609
- In my last playthrough, n[12] was apparently set to "me". In an earlier playthrough, it was set to "Auntie".
- It appears that in some text lines in the json files, Linda is referred to with n[11] instead of n[5].
- In my last playthrough, n[11] was apparently set to "me".
- Even if this should be the norm now for n[11] to n[13] in order to not having to re-edit all old texts, there still are some where it doesn’t quite work:
- Map002.json: Ln 8, Col 2,285; Ln 8, Col 8,500
- It appears that in some text lines in the json files, Julie is referred to with n[12] instead of n[6].
Minor Issues
- Character info (ESC -> Profiles) seems to be not up to date. Julie’s weight is missing, and at least height seems to be off. In my perception (and judging by the photo on the fridge) Julie is the tallest, Linda being a bit shorter than her, making Emily the shortest of the 3. I still don’t really understand what "Love" is supposed to mean.
- PC’s relation to Julie ("You are Julie’s XYZ") can’t be changed in "Edit Name / Role" menu.
- Getting from PC’s bedroom to the laundry room is pretty tedious. Maybe have some kind of map to quickly navigate rooms? Maybe this helps with spatial awareness as well (I couldn’t figure out yet how exactly the dining room is connected to the living room just from the rooms and Julie’s movie scene).
- Even more minor issue: Where is the husband of this family? Are they divorced, is he dead, on the typical business trip, did he leave for someone else?
Suggestions for future content
- Interactions for all women in PC’s bedroom
- Zoom in option for all „in screen“ scenes
- Either clean up the n[11] up to n[13] references, or let the player type in nicknames for the women.
- Overview / counter for "passion" and different mechanics per woman. Maybe a short indicator or hint for what to do next for any of the women. (Maybe add all this to the character info / profiles?)
- TJ scene with Emily. Maybe a night scene? Either PC sitting on her bed or her gaming chair and her kneeling; or her being kind of tired, lying on the bed just holding her shapes and PC doing the work.
- Something with Emily in the evening. Maybe BJ under the table or HJ or FJ with her sitting next to you. If someone walks in, Emily can stop quickly for the moment (HJ or FJ) or PC explains she’s searching for a dropped miniature and told PC to not move in fear he or his chair could accidentally break it (BJ).
- Since it was kind of suggested by Linda in update 0.14: A picknick in the park with Julie and Emily. I didn’t come up with anything more detailed yet. Let’s just say they have quite a pleasant time.
- To be repeatable, maybe implement it in a similar way to Julie’s date night?
