itch.io

Great, that worked, thanks. I got a little confused when I get items without an inventory and quests without a questlog

Overall the gameplay experience is good, it reminds me of Robin morningwood adventure, but with a more diverse cast/story, and a bit of a VN vibe. 

Some other nitpick feedback

The days ticking by makes sense from a story perspective, but as a player it's a little difficult to tell when there's content still available in a day, and what actions will advance time. 

Really nice demo, looking forward to more of this game.

About the seagull at the beach, I got the lunch voucher but can't seem to give it to the seagull? Is that not implemented, or bugged, or is there an inventory I need to open to give it to him?

I don't understand what you wrote, doesn't this mean that you pay less money?

I noticed on Android that the "Aim" game doesn't check where you press, instead it triggers on release. See screenshot below, it counted as a miss because I pressed on the screen too long, when the finger had stopped touching the screen the balls had moved away. 

I don't know if it's similar on the PC version, but I'm guessing mouse clicks are faster so it doesn't make as much difference there. 

Is the ability to pay without a PayPal account region locked? I could pay without a paypal account 

Copy-pasting my reply to similar question earlier in the thread, sorry for the spam but I hope this helps:

"I was able to buy without having a PayPal account using my card, confusingly enough the option only showed up after I pressed the 'pay with PayPal' button and filled in the first form. Maybe it's not available worldwide?"

I'm not the person you replied to, but I found some relevant info.

Apparently I could pay through PayPal without an account. (See image) I don't know if this option is available everywhere of just Europe/Sweden, but it might be worth investigating & including info somewhere to convince people (like me) who thought I couldn't buy the game because I didn't have a PayPal account. (Although this probably doesn't help in countries where PayPal is completely banned)

The PayPal choice screen appeared after this itch page:

Then I had to fill in my email and payment card like normal, and everything went smoothly.

Hope this helps :) Looking forward to playing this tomorrow

I was able to buy without having a PayPal account using my card, confusingly enough the option only showed up after I pressed the 'pay with PayPal' button and filled in the first form. Maybe it's not available worldwide?

Of course, feel free to use the text in whichever way you like :)

ImmortalCord157 has already written a comment with all steps, which is very short & to the point. Great for those who want fast instructions. I made some more in-depth instructions for those who might need more details. :) 

Step 1: Download the the JoiPlay app (.apk file)

Joiplay is not on google play, download the most up to date version (free) from joiplays patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/joiplay

Latest version as of 2024-03-05: JoiPlay 1.20.32, https://mega.nz/file/Hr5XRSgS#IU-1rw7aBsgOqlTmPkdVCmodTqXRN7P9L1Az-YY5sLA

Step 2: Download the RPG plugin (needed to play 'small on top')

On the same joiplay patreon page, download the latest RPG Maker plugin. This allows joiplay to start games created with 'RPG maker'. https://www.patreon.com/joiplay

Latest version as of 2024-03-05: RPG Maker Plugin 1.20.53, https://mega.nz/file/OqgF3AaY#P0t6Rwtu1wobHbqotd7tAWbOXTKE-xMj0I5bbqVVMsw

Step 3: Install the .apk files

You will have two .apk files from the previous steps in your download folder.

Android application .apk files are similar to windows .exe files. Open your downloads folder (using the 'files' app or chrome downloads), and start the file called joiplay[some_version].apk file

If you have not installed an .apk file outside google play before, your device might warn you about opening unknown files. Press 'enable installing from unknown sources'

When JoiPlay is installed, install the RPGMPlugin-[some_version].apk download in step 2 the same way.

Step 4: Download 'Small on top [version].zip' from itch / patreon

Open your downloads folder, select the 'small on top.zip" and select "Extract". (Will load a a couple of seconds)

Step 5: Install 'small on top' in Joiplay (aka press "ok" on a lot of prompts)

Launch the JoiPlay app, and accept the Terms & Conditions & privacy policy

If you have android 13+, JoiPlay asks for permission for notifications. It's not required to accept.

When it asks for storage permissions, press "Allow" on all 4 prompts. (If the first prompt appears again, thats a bug, close the application (recents menu -> swipe away), start joiplay again and press 'ok' again.) A window will appear asking for "All files access". Find "JoiPlay" in the list and turn the toggle on, and then press back.

When the permissions are granted, you see a white screen with a plus in the upper right corner, press that, then "Add Game" -> Choose  -> /Download/ -> Small on Top -> Small on Top (again) -> Small on Top (again again) -> Game.exe . 

Joiplay will ask what you want the game name and version name to show up as inside Joiplay, go with the default "Small on top", and whatever you want to call the version you downloaded

Skip adding an icon for the game, use the default icon & press next.

Step 6: Play the game.

Press the icon "Small on top". The game will now finally start.

Press the small arrow icon at the bottom of the screen to get on-screen buttons you can use in the game to move / press the menu.

Thanks for the new content, having some plot threads come together is nice. 

I noticed the wiki was down, is there any guide/info on main new added content / which routes to take for it? I'd love to explore it all myself but the game is really long by now even with skips & save files.

Also, a very minor issue, I ran into an exception, might be a small bug somewhere in your code:

```
I'm sorry, but an uncaught exception occurred.
 

While running game code:
  File "game/script_hinterlands.rpy", line 22487, in <module>
KeyError: u'anthill'
 

-- Full Traceback ------------------------------------------------------------
 

Full traceback:
  File "script_hinterlands.rpyc", line 22487, in script
  File "renpy/ast.py", line 1892, in execute
  File "renpy/python.py", line 2249, in py_eval
  File "renpy/python.py", line 2242, in py_eval_bytecode
  File "game/script_hinterlands.rpy", line 22487, in <module>
KeyError: u'anthill'
 

```

Looking forward to it :)

Im having difficulties estimating how big this  dlc will be, I can see in the product page that you've listed the amount of new characters & scenes etc, but I don't know how much content a character has & how much gameplay there is for a scene. Do you have an estimate for how much content is added compared to the base game?

Interesting 👀

Interesting, looking forward to it :) this game has been great, and it's been fun to follow the development.

Are you planning on pivoting to developing your next game when you're done with this?

Encountered bugs in android version : https://imgur.com/a/1AgAFhH

- can't progress from bedroom , map doesn't load, leaving results in nothing happening

Looking forward to seeing where this vn goes :)

Just played through the update, the visuals this time were really great :) loved the car-scene graphics, must have taken a ton of effort.

Minor visual bug: Main menu says 'new version available 10.0' even though it's running 10.0.

Looking forward to finishing the routes :)

Go to the bull tribe, up the mountain. (Near where you mine iron) Press the path on the far right, and try to go through the blizzard. After a couple attempts left/right, you'll reach the new area. Although it's pretty empty so far.

Its a shame itch.io doesnt have private messaging as far as I can see, spamming my feedback in the comment sections feels wrong :). But you can't really respond to the google feedback form. I don't know if FA or discord or something is a better forum for discussion-style feedback.

-----

The game certainly has the foundations for developing into an interesting edgemeplease style game. If you want to lean even more in that direction I have some suggestions:

- Make the premise more clear. Describe that the game is a 'follow along' style game in the description. It might also be good to describe / make more clear in-game (Such as having the dom actually explain when the user asks in the beginning). Although this could be improved with UI changes rather than text descriptions.

- Put the activities on timers. I'm guessing you've seen the edgemeplease .com website & its timers. Having the game auto-progress would be good, currently you need to interrupt your activities to progress the textboxes. Id suggest adding game-speed preferences like edgemeplease in your preference menu. 

- tweak the  instructions. You might have already done this in 1.1? I dont know. For example, It's unclear what '12 edges' mean. 'Quick strokes' or similar would be simpler to understand. 

- Tweak the numbers. 100s of ball-slaps is a -lot-.

'Story / interaction' suggestion:

- The ways a dom can interact through a webcam is very limited.  You could add more variety by having the dom have other subs already at his place, and involving them in the instructions. For example, imagine the dom has a pup, and you have to succeed in his challenge for the pup to be unlocked, so you have to cooperate.  Or the pup is doing the same challenge, and you're competing, and only the 'winner' gets rewarded. 

Why limit the story to simulate a webcam-site? Is it so the user can pretend to be part of the story more easily?

Currently it's a bit difficult to understand how the dom can manipulate the gag / how he can use the glove over an online connection.

I feel like keeping to a webcam-experience only will be a very difficult limit for you to work around.  Id suggest you scrap that limitation. If you don't want to scrap the webcam-idea, you could use other workarounds like sci-fi style VR, or magic as an explanation for how things happen I guess.

A randomly generated story is also difficult to work around, if you don't introduce more game mechanics / goals to guide the player.

Nice game, good start, left some feedback in the google form :)

I didn't either, so I went and did some other random things & restarted the game, and then they were there. I don't know what step fixed it for me.

Sounds like a tough decision, I hope it works well for everyone involved. Looking forward to the results :)

Interesting, is the badass mode a possible fix to speed up the 'grinding' encountered in some game bottlenecks? or is it lategame content?

• Whenever there's a scene fadeout, (most often when I progress in the story) the last message in the textbox is lost, due to the scene fading to another scene.
• My card game tutorial bugged out, my cards were invisible. I had no idea how the game worked until I started a new one.
• I also had a one-off bug in the first game after the card tutorial where i couldnt see last card behind daytime clock thing.
• Its weird that running away from battles cause you to "game over", feels like a bug.

Running the latest version as of today - bought and downloaded earlier today. Worth mentioning that my game was running out of a save from the demo, which I played about a month ago.

Hey, I noticed you wrote that you were interested in constructive criticism in the end-notes, so I jotted down some thoughts about the text. (See pastebin link). I scribbled my feedback pretty quickly, so there's some misspellings and such, but I hope you understand the intent behind my feedback.

https://pastebin.com/qk8nQuDJ

Good luck with the continuation of the story. :)

not the guy you replied to, but I didn't press the button when I got over 85%. Mostly because I wasn't looking for anything in the first place - I think it could be made more clear, if your intention is to have buttons that are enabled on certain achievement thresholds.

Your making me wonder whether trying to find all secrets of this game or decompiling it and reading the renpy files takes the most effort. I really don't wanna try decompiling though, sorta ruins my own enjoyment? Same reason I don't wanna read whatever story inspired this one to spoil myself. Guess Ima have to wait for the wiki for some secrets. :)

I get the feeling you really enjoy hinting at stuff & watching people whirr around like blind ants looking for crumbs :P

I don't believe you made a sprite without intending to explore it further >_> Such effort is not allowed.

Thank you for the thought out reply :)

That last bit sounds especially like the Ruthless route character. The point of the hotel isn't perfection. It's about humanity. Humanity is full of imperfection. Allowing people to work fairly easy jobs to help travellers who are themselves lost gives them meaning. Automation would only serve to remove that sense of belonging.

Yes, you make a good argument, and I agree. 'Fixing' the kobolts problem is not reasonable / goes against the narrative of the Saint MC & hotel purpose. But I still think my fundamental argument is still valid, even if my example was bad. Let me try a better example. Why doesn't the main character create artifacts to protect the exploration team? Utility, search-aid, and defense / offense?  Why doesnt the mc create tools to spy on / try to one-up Argos?(before his true nature is revealed.) This type of artifact creation would be reasonable for a kind main character, as it's motivated by wanting to protect them, and doesn't go against the purpose of the 'hotel'.

>why doesnt the mc make artifacts to protect the Asterion / the guests?

Asterion outright says if you try to sign a contract like that, the ink will just spill off of it. You could have the main character test to make sure Asterion isn't lying, but that goes against the major point of this which is to trust Asterion implicitly since no one up to that point has.

Anyone know if there's a way to remove the charm from the restaurant guy in the hinterlands? The guy who fades between human / goat(?).

Also, is there a point to the bus stop?

After playing through the VN I have several opinions/feedback, so I figured Id just vomit them out in one long post. Overall the game is great. Spoiler warning.

Asterion's personality is great and the choices and reaction almost always feel realistic and thought out. Great. Kota and dickbird feel slightly less deep, but it's reasonable since Asterion is the main focus. Maybe you'll be able to tackle this with the character routes you implemented in 0.5?

Generally one of the main features of great storytelling is suspense, creating a problem, and making the reader want to find the solution. The story does this well several times, such as when we wait for the inevitable meeting between Asterion and 'Storm', when bluedragon will meet reddragon, when luke will finally be castrated, when 'argos' comes clean about his real intentions, what's the weird crystal stuff in the basement? Some answers&lore&background is given through exploring the wild. I personally prefer when it's tied into the story instead of having to navigate through menus. I think it works great when finding artifacts triggers ingame-scenes. (throwing away dagger, sunglasses, etc)

I personally thought the 'kiss' scene in the later chapters where you get a closeup image of his kissy-lips was a bit weird visually. Although in general people do tend to look pretty awkward right before kissing I guess.

The image representing the game on Itch - a front-look at Asterion feels a little misrepresentative. It's not clear that he has a pronounced snout. It would be a real shame if people didn't click into this great VN just because the cover image. 'Storm' (oscar?)'s face looks a lot better, the profile view makes his face look less goofy. I'm not much of an artist but I did a mockup to try and show what I mean.

I did a playthrough where I tried to choose everything as if it was the real me who was the main character, and it was a bit difficult. I felt like I was pushed too hard on being either a saint, or a sadist, sometimes lacking the middle ground I felt would represent me best.

I also did some ruthless runs. They were written well, but I hate them. In a sorta good way. "Thanks, I hate it." I agree that the existence of ruthless routes makes the choices of actually being good feel way more meaningful, and Im glad that the ruthless routes exist. I am surprised that the ruthless routes only seem to be directed towards greed/sadist players. I'd expect there to be a horny route, but I also understand and am sort of glad that there's no extreme 'noncon sex' route. (that Ive found?)

The scene where Asterion gets to try the internet bothered me as an irl tech-guy. It feels like I'd really wanna  order a VR headset and take him around the world on google earth. (If his face shape could handle VR glasses.)

It feels like the contracts are very unexplored. If I was given the power to create magical contracts & magic items, I'd try the fuck out of that. Instead, the main character only sometimes gives himself food? There's the 'no go valley or die >:(' band, but other than that, there isnt much artefact creating going on. This is probably the biggest 'choice problem' I have in the story to be honest.  Could I create contracts that can discern truth? (Something like, "this contract will break when an untruth is written on the attached papers).  Are digital contracts valid & indestructible? How does that work? Would it make the physical harddrive indestructible & the file undeletable? Would it remain so if duplicated? If so, could you mass-email spam an undeletable contract file and clog up servers? What are the limits of the rules of the contracts? How big? How generic? How abstract? Can contracts create other contracts? Can you create loops & recursion? Could you make turing compete contracts? Can you make golem servants? Why not make a contract/magic item which automatically delivers the food to the correct table, instead of trying to teach kobolds to use software? It also makes more thematic sense that contract research would result in magical contracts instead of buying and integrating software. If you really wanna help the kobolts learn software, why not create a contract/magic item which helps them do the right thing, instead of having them bother the chef? 

If the main character is concerned about security (which he says he is when he considers getting wolfy), why doesnt he make a contract that prohibits violence? It feels like the answer to that question is "Because the hotel doesnt allow the creation of contracts which stray from the purpose...", but it's only assumed to be so, and there should be plenty of workarounds/loopholes/exploits to reach the approximate desired effect. The main character doesnt actually try. 

The newly introduced characters are a bit too early for me to give opinion on. We've got unlucky boar food guy, elephant money guy, demon lawyer (best smile), and a wolf. Maybe Boar guy and luke are a bit close thematically - both of their main problems seem to center around them being unable to live a fulfilling life with relationships due to charm shenanigans, however that seems to be more or less a reoccurring theme for many mythic beings.

_________

end of spam

Ugh, I played through a couple of ruthless endings (I think Ive got 3 out of 4?). The writing is good, but I felt horrible doing it. :( 

Why doesn't P & storm come to the hotel in the scenario where the main character survives?

You might have already found solutions for this problem now, but I'd like to mention that you can create a copy of the keystone file and keep it in several places. My previous workplace had it checked into git & on two separate USB drives. :)

Sounds like maybe your app is generated with the same package name, but a different signing key? That would cause a conflict which triggers an error when attempting to install. It's a safety feature to prevent malicious apps from 'overwriting' legitimate apps.