Game version
This feedback applies to House Chores version 1.1.0.
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
- Some interactions from older updates feel a bit out of place with character relations in newer updates. For example, the "FJ" interaction 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.
- Characters not responding to the current state of story progression in certain places.
- v0.5: During Linda’s kitchen scene, Linda is worried about being caught, even after events of v0.20 and v1.0.
- v0.6.9: During Linda’s living room scenen on the carpet in the morning, the player and Linda talk about being caught, even after events of v1.0.
- v0.20: While events of v0.20 are still progressing, Emily during nighttime gives her normal pyjama dialogue instead of being worried about having been caught.
- "Voices" for the three women are inconsistent. A voice pack that’s used primarily for a specific character is sometimes used for another character in other scenes.
Interaction & Transitions
- 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 picking up Linda’s clothes in her bedroom at night, Julie’s training set isn’t there.
- When interacting with Julie to arrange a date night, there is no text box around the text.
- When talking to Emily for the first time after being caught by Linda, when the dialogue ends, a dialogue box appears and vanishes for a split-second.
- When talking to Emily for a second time after being caught by Linda, but before meeting Linda in the living room, when the dialogue ends, a dialogue box appears and vanishes for a split-second. Also, the info box on the lefthand side doesn’t disappear. It stays until another info box pops up.
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 1,007
- CommonEvent.json: Ln 17, Col 57,724
- Typos
- Emily dialogue (CommonEvents.json: Ln19, Col 48,493): "I’M" -> "I’m"
- Emily dialogue (CommonEvents.json: Ln 19, Col 44,335): "peaks" -> "peeks"
- Julie dialogue (CommonEvents.json: Ln 18, Col 41,163; Ln 21, Col 31,903): "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 11,336; Ln 18, Col 11,573; Ln 18, Col 24.043; Ln 18, Col 24,280; Ln 18, Col 39,383; Ln 18, Col 39,620; Ln 19, Col 11,049; Ln 19, Col 11.286; Ln 19, Col 23,241; Ln 19, Col 23,478; Ln 28, Col 5,913; Ln 28, Col 10,142; Ln 28, Col 19,614; Ln 28, Col 23,527; Ln 34, Col 2,593; Ln 34, Col 30,938; Ln 34, Col 50,561; Ln 34, Col 78,589; Ln 35, Col 2,349; Ln 35, Col 33,730; Ln 35, Col 53,361; Ln 35, Col 84,425; Ln51, Col 41,011; Ln 41, Col 56,165
- Map002.json: Ln 20, Col 5,103
- Map012.json: Ln 22, Col 48,394; Ln 22, Col 65,068; Ln 22, Col 88,543
- Map037: Ln 10, Col 6,185; Ln 10, Col 11,707; Ln 10, Col 21,967; Ln 10, Col 27,489
- CommonEvents.json: Ln 18, Col 766; Ln 18, Col 23,843; Ln 18, Col 38,869; Ln 21, Col 494; Ln 21, Col 22,440; Ln 32, Col 9,803
- 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 2,287; Ln 8, Col 8,502
- 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 the women ("You are Julie’s XYZ") can’t be changed in "Edit Name / Role" menu if their relation to the PC is a specific word.
- Linda: Unknown so far
- Julie: Aunt
- Emily: Sister
- 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
- Zoom in option for all "in screen" scenes
- Implement a chance or an option for characters to walk in on scenes again after the first time (e. g. Julie during the scene with Linda in the player’s bedroom; Linda after the nighttime scene with Emily in Emily’s bedroom; Emily during the scene with Linda on the cabinet in the living room).
- "Continue" option for Emily’s visit scene in PC’s bedroom (and the same scene in her bedroom at night)
- 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?)
- Solo 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?
