Well, first of all, thank you! I try my best to make the game stand out and I'm happy to read that I seem to be at least somewhat successful in doing so.
I appreciate the feedback, too. Both the positive and negative.
Only two things I feel like I need to address specifically:
- The hamster feature is just a little bonus, like you basically already said, so I'm fine with how it is. Yes, they can be really dang hard to find but I'm personally not a fan of everything being handed out all the time. And since it's a bonus feature, my take on it is: "If it's too hard for you, don't look for them." They don't bear any significance towards the main story, after all. I hope you don't take this the wrong way. Just my stance on the topic. :)
- Also, the characters: Yes, there are a lot. There will be more in the future, too. Not all of them are actually meant to get developed, though. As a player of AVN, I always found it a bit off-putting that most worlds are basically empty except for the "actual characters". And I really got to dislike those shadow figures you see often used in games. So I chose to give each main character a suite of "support characters" to make their personal story feel more alive. This might not be for everyone, yes, but if you don't expect every character you see to get a fully-fledged story, it's not an issue in my opinion. The in-game phone shows who's actually part of the main cast and only those 13 girls are really relevant. The "side girls" too, to a lesser extent. Everyone else gets less attention and only in relation to the main story or one of the main girls' personal stories. A good example for that are Airi and Sae Anzou; they are support-only for Aki.
You obviously don't have to agree with me on any of this, but I hope it helps you understand why I decided for those things to be what they are. If you want to chat more about this, feel free to join the Discord. I don't mind to explain things some more. :)
I gotta stop here, though, because it's already a huge wall of text. Let me just thank you again for your kind words and wish you a pleasant day! And of course: thanks for playing and enjoying Crimson High. :)