Post by JayW-NTS in With Consent comments

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Hi, thank you for commenting! Any feedback and suggestions are welcome. And actually, you’re my first commenter, so thank you again.

Texting messages with innuendos may seem cute, but I find it really easy to misinterpert a sentence, especially regarding NTS.

Yes, misinterpretation can happen unfortunately, but I’ll try my best to make it as clear as possible. The good thing is that the phone will be used more as a tool when the FMC isn’t around, and in the future, for some of her adventures, you’ll have the option to not receive them through the phone but in person instead.

will the player get more points in the score when replying with trust, like for instance when she's proposing finding a part-time job... And less/negative points when holding back information from her?

My idea is to have some type of score system, but I’m not sure yet how it’ll play out. It might end up being just a flag system, it’s still under consideration. But I do know that choices will impact the future. So supporting her or saying that you can handle things for now will change dialogues, scenes and future choices options. I have a lot of ideas for what types of jobs she could try, there’ll be more normal ones but also some spicy ones. All of that will depend on choices, and most likely on some kind of score system too.
But I really like the idea of having many options open to the player without a score system, because I don’t like the feeling of "grind". I don’t like when I can’t make a specific choice I like just because I’m missing one point in something.
Anyway, I hope I didn’t ramble too much on this one hahahaha

Btw, just as a point of reference, as I said, I’m new to creating games and stories like this, but I’ve wanted to make something like it for quite some time. I’m not new to the genre of sharing, but creating a story is a different kind of challenge.
Some similar games I played that inspired me are Blurring the Walls, Exciting Games, Netorase Phone, Sharing is Caring, My True Desire and My New GF all of them are available on F95zone. I’d say Exciting Games and Sharing is Caring (considering only the NTS path) are the ones my game will be most similar to in terms of how it works. So if you’ve played either of them, you’ll understand more or less how mine will work too.

And on the matter of bills, have you thought (or has anybody else asked) about sharing the girlfriend with the boss in order to get favourism for a promotion? (personally, just typing this is making me feel sleazy, blargh, but it might be an interesting sub-plot?)

Uhmm, that one’s a tricky one for me. I’ve considered it, but I don’t know. I don’t really like when the sharing gets too close to home, like sharing with friends, the boss, your father… stuff like that, you know?
It might be an option, but it won’t be something that has to happen for the story to move forward

I'm definitely looking forward for your next updates, whenever they may be. Best of luck and have fun!

Thank you! I don’t know when I’ll have another update, maybe next month, because I’ll only release one when Chapter 1 is finished. I shared this small preview because I wanted to show others that I’ve started creating a game about NTS, and if they’re interested, they can follow along.

Tripple Eff214 days ago(+2)(-2)

Thank you for the replies; what follows are simply observations, not meant to criticize or diminish your capabilities, only ideas to hopefully help you out.

Regarding the score system, as this is your first project, may I suggest that you try to keep whatever system you decide on to be manageable? Giving choice to the player seems like the obvious path for success, and the more options the wider demographic interested in trying out your game but, while it may seem small at first, giving more than two or three branching options will increase the potential for bugs a lot. Not to mention the complexity in keeping the dialogues and different scenes all set and in-theme. I'm pretty sure we've all seen new devs building games with plenty of pontential to be a blast, only to get overworked and saturated and burnout, so please take care so the same won't happen to you. 8-)

Also, I understand your reticence in having a score system, but I'll counter-argument (just for, lol) that, without a score for the player to keep track of, how is said player supposed to know whether it's on the "right" track or on the path to "Game Over"? Actually, have you thought about having a "Game Over"? Plenty of AVN don't have one, just different endings, and sometimes a player without knowing keeps playing thinking that it's on the way to the endgame, and it is, just not the type of ending it was wanted.

(as an example, on a game published by Sakura Games that I got on Steam, the only time I took to the end, I managed to get save games in pivotal points that allowed me to go back and work my way to get all the endings... except the "normal" one, lol)

Anyway, my point being that I suggest you plan out very carefully how the game is supposed to be, what kind of paths you want for the player to choose and so on, more to give you a better idea of how long it will probably take to get it done. Just a suggestion. :-)

As a quick-thought, sharing the girlfriend with the boss, it could be a choice of yes or no, no taking the story along to the next point, and yes giving the player the next two choices: 1 - Yeah, no, that might alienate her and the boss from me, better to keep personal and professional fully apart from each other, thus advancing the storyline; 2 - Yes, I'll ask her to eye him and his lips and his crotch, step closer to him, run her hand along his arm, and so on... just to see a "Game Over - thanks to your decision to use your girlfriend to seduce your boss, you made her think that ascending your career is more important than she is!"

(just for clarification, personally I find this type of underhanded thing, using your partners just to advance your own career as abysmal; however, I'll play it in the game just to get the achievement (if any) and the CG's :-p

As for the next update, I support getting it done when it's done. Take your time, work on your project the way you want, some indie devs use their patreon to publish updates regularly. Mostly, try to enjoy and have fun working this project of yours, and I'll be here waiting for it.

P.S.: Yes, nearly all of those titles, I'm familiar with, I think. Thanks for the list, any way.

JayW-NTS214 days ago(+2)(-3)

what follows are simply observations, not meant to criticize or diminish your capabilities, only ideas to hopefully help you out.

No need to worry, my idea in sharing this preview was exactly that, to have others share their ideas. And if someone gives a suggestion that I really like, I might implement it. Sometimes an outside view is just what someone need.

Regarding the score system, as this is your first project, may I suggest that you try to keep whatever system you decide on to be manageable?

Yep, I actually added a note in my dev logs about that. It is about humiliation kink, but it applies to everything in the game too: " If that turns out to be too much to manage, I might just stick with two options, no humiliation and with humiliation."

Basically, the idea for the branching is to keep it light. In short, it's similar to how Exciting Games does it, Chapter X will have some branching on its own (Like brach 1 and 2), and when Chapter Y comes, some choices from Chapter X will change a few dialogues (If Ch.X branch 1 was triggered Chapter Y might have some dialogues changes). Chapter Y will have its own branching too. They’ll interact, but not in a way that changes everything. So your choices in Chapter X won’t completely reshape Chapter Y, but you’ll still notice changes.
And I think, since this is my first project, it’s probably better to work like that. Players will still see their choices having impact, so it won’t be a kinetic novel, but it also won’t be a crazy maze of branches.

how is said player supposed to know whether it's on the "right" track or on the path to "Game Over"? Actually, have you thought about having a "Game Over"?

I actually wasn’t planning on having “Game Over” scenarios, because I see Netorase as a mutual thing, so if one wants something, it can only happen if the other wants it too.
So I’m not sure there’ll be a “Game Over” in this project. Maybe in a future, more ambitious project.

Anyway, my point being that I suggest you plan out very carefully how the game is supposed to be, what kind of paths you want for the player to choose and so on, more to give you a better idea of how long it will probably take to get it done. Just a suggestion. :-)

Thank you for taking the time to share suggestions and ideas. I actually have a document with a lot of the script already written, but it still needs polishing, implementation, and enhancements if something doesn't work the way I envisioned. And of course, new things might be added too xD

As a quick-thought, sharing the girlfriend with the boss, it could be a choice of yes or no, no taking the story along to the next point, and yes giving the player the next two choices: ......

Yeah, that’s one of those situations where a “Game Over” would actually be kind of funny hahaha “Career over GF 🗿”

But if the boss route ends up getting implemented, I don’t think it’ll lead to a game over, for the reason I mentioned earlier. Or I might include the option, but have the FMC just go: “I don’t want to do that,” or something. lol

That’s actually one of the reasons I named the game With Consent both MC and FMC need to want and enjoy things to keep going.

As for the next update, I support getting it done when it's done. Take your time, work on your project the way you want, some indie devs use their patreon to publish updates regularly. Mostly, try to enjoy and have fun working this project of yours, and I'll be here waiting for it.

Thank you! Your input is super valuable if the next update drops next month, it’ll probably be near the end.
I am considering about creating a Patreon to post updates in a more centralized place.
But one thing I’m sure about Chapter 1 will be free from day one, even if I set up a Patreon with subscriptions or whatever.

I’m aiming for Chapter 1 to have around 1 hour of gameplay, and it’ll basically be the "discovery phase" and focus on communication.
I want it to have a bit of a slow-burn vibe, but not feel like it’s dragging.

Sarah approves and says hi :D

itch.io

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