Hey there! Just wanted to make a comment regarding the tagging of this game. Considering the intentions demonstrated, you should clearly use the Lesbian Tag and not just the Threesome Tag. It's quite different and very important for people that need to know the content before getting too involved with the story. Already too late for me, but this might help others.
A lesbian tag implies that there are women in the story that are only interested in other women. This is not the case for any of the love interests in the game. All sexual activity happens within the harem, and only with the MC present at this point. There could be an argument made for a subcategory for harem where the women don't interact with each other. Perhaps it would be called a Selfish Harem, where the women are only allowed to sexually interact with the MC but never with each other? In my stories, it's always going to be an Open Harem, where everyone is invested emotionally and sexually in each other.
I understand where you are coming from, but to be frank I've never seen it interpreted that way. From what I see in 99% of games/stories, the Lesbian tag isn't for exclusively Lesbian relations, but rather to indicate there are F+F sexual encounters or relationships. Selfish Harem has a bit of a mean connotation to it.
You make absolutely amazing games, your renders are great and the concepts seem really cool. It's too bad we can't have it both ways with content filters (I understand its too much work for you, specially if you work alone), but I guess that's just a me problem. I was the one that foolishly got invested in a story that would hurt me. When I played A Petal Among Thorns I did get my spidey-senses warning me Bliss was going to hurt me, playing up to the first real conversation with her in AMoB just confirmed it.
Edit: "with the MC present at this point", this does imply there will be without him, no?
I'll preface this by saying that I realize most people don't care about this, it might just be me because of my personal things, but I have seen other people agree with me in a few threads and other games (not a lot though, I admit).
It's definetely not that bad for most people, it's just that the idea that Bliss is going after the Mom and is romantically interested in other girls kinda puts the MC in a complete sideline, he's just "another piece of meat", specially considering it seems she made a move on the Mom first (which makes it seem she's more interested in girls and more interested in the Mom).
And if Petal or Rose and the MC are so in love with each other, the idea of Bliss coming and seducing Petal or Rose to make her less focused on the MC disturbs me.
Some games do this really well, making the threesomes just a stimulant for the relationship and a nice experiment, but the moment the girls start loving each other it makes me fell like the MC is just an extra. How could Petal say all those things about the MC but then love someone else? Would she say the same things to them? The thought makes me distressed.
I realize this makes me sound COMPLETELY off the rails or something, I'm sorry for trying to have this. It's just that these games are a fantasy and it seems the fantasy of having girls only in love with you is really rare, almost all Harem games tend to be Open Harems (or at least the really good ones, like yours, with good renders and good writing).
Edit: A good thought exercise to have - imagine if Bliss was a guy. Wouldn't everyone in the comments be throwing a tantrum crying "NTR! NTR!"?
You don't have to apologize for your interests. These games are fantasy, specifically designed to accommodate unique interests. However, I didn't write any of the characters as you're describing them. Bliss hasn't expressed that much interest in Rose, or anyone else except for Chester. So much so that she's seducing Nixie into a relationship with Chester because she wants him to have unrelenting pleasure and affection. Petal is the same way. Petal's main motivation is pleasing Chester, because she herself derives a lot of pleasure from making him happy. All of the characters are devoted to the main character, but that doesn't mean there isn't friendship and love between the girls.
I understand what you're saying though. I've heard it a few times now. It doesn't feel like Chester is focused on enough, and a few people have voiced this concern. This story is set for how it's going to be. Everything revolves around Chester, but he's not always involved with everything that's going on. I felt this was one of his strengths. He has the maturity to know when to step away from situations to let them breathe. When Bliss interacts with Nixie in the pool, he's letting them have some time together. He doesn't need to be in the spotlight at all times. And that's a robust and independent attribute.
Again though, a lot of people feel the same way. Chester is growing and becoming a more dominant person. He's starting to take control of his own destiny more and more. Right now, a lot of things are happening to him and not because of him. That will change over the course of the story as he develops more as a character. You gotta give that time though.
Took me a while to realize Chester is the MC xD I name him something that self-inserts me more.
What you're saying does give me a lot of hope, if I'm being honest. Just the fact that you are willing to reply shows a level of interest on the fanbase that I don't remember seeing.
I obviously don't know the story, specially since I even stopped playing the game after the first conversation with Bliss about Uncle Chuck and Rose. I don't know, the way she acted really seemed like she tried something with Rose but was rejected. Doesn't that mean she's romantically interested in her? I might be reading things wrong.
I don't even care about the Nixie scene, I haven't seen it and another one of your fans told me it was mostly just an interaction. The thing I was more concerned about was Bliss being more into girls and more into Rose, since it was implied she made a move on her first.
The thing about the photos Petal has also made me worried. At first I thought they were both conspiring to have the MC, but then with the Rose implication it seemed like they were just trying to bang everyone and the Harem was actually their Harem, and "Chester" was just another one in the harem.
I've never been able to get my head round people wanting to have every girl in a game at his beck and call in games but don't dare let any other character have sex with someone else or dare say that they love someone else. People can love more that one person simultaneously and have a sexual relationship built on love and not just lust with more than one person at a time. It's like the people that want every girl in a game to be a virgin as if women don't like to have sex and should be pure as the driven snow and never touched by anyone even themselves. Just my tuppence worth. Hell I've saw people wanting mother's to be virgins in games and have had a baby through artificial insemination. It's crazy how distressed people get about these things.
I'm pretty sure there's a mother in Radiant that is a virgin. I mean, it's fantasy. Men want to plow land that's never been tainted before. I don't want too much realism in my games. I play them to escape from reality.
Although, I honestly think if it was Petal's harem, that'd be super hot. Unfortunately not many players in this market would agree. To each his own. :-)
I get the fantasy aspect, I really do. I love your games and I like the virgin fantasy thing too, I think most vn players do but was just meaning about some who think a woman should be tossed aside if she isn't one in game or that an MC should be able to have a harem with countless women but the women shouldn't even be allowed to look at anyone else even with the MCs permission and perhaps I'm being about of a hypocrite but I thought Brooke's story was really wholesome and cute in radiant. I was in no way having a go at your game in any way whatsoever, I actually hoped come the end of over the moon there'd be a lot of free love within the whole family dynamic between all family members and even a few side characters to boot along the lines of perhaps a mid-life crisis but this is your story to tell and I'll be happy with whatever happens. I was just trying to give a couple examples that people seem to get really bent out of shape about if a game doesn't go exactly how they want it to especially on some of the more toxic fandoms. It's just when some people have a go at a vn developer because they aren't pleased they put something in their story or didn't specifically warn them about a specific scene or didn't have a tag they believe that should have been there even though it shouldn't be there and they proceed to bring down parts of a game, it just doesn't sit well with me. Sorry if I caused you any trouble.
No trouble at all. I agree with you. I've had the same mindset before. It seemed strange to me how important certain things were to typical players who were enjoying my works. I was just telling someone earlier today that I had very different plans for A Moment of Bliss when I started it. I've gotten so many people that have threatened to stop playing if I continued on certain paths though. I had to walk back a transhumanist introduction on my last release. It's been wild learning what people enjoy, and what they won't tolerate.
As alien as some mindsets are to me, I'm trying to be better about considering the market and the typical player. This really is a hyper-fantasy for most people. They want to step into the shoes of an unrealistically attractive man who has access to a plethora of women. Virgin women, no less.
My main goal when creating these AVNs is to provide the community with the ability to step outside their own lives and enjoy something that's fantastical and incredible. I'm learning to be more and more accepting of the general consensus of what people like and dislike. What I want more than anything is to tell a great story. All the women being virgins is inconsequential to that goal, and makes the sexual fantasy more compelling. If I were to write a novel without adult content, I'd surely design the character much differently. No question.