New update for patrons! Version history updated, you know what to do, etc.
TLS 0.37.0
- Stenai update covering the next section of the game.
- Four new scenes.
TLS 0.37.1
- Several changes made to make the switch puzzles easier and clearer.
- All party members' base lines changed after the Stenai events. NPCs around the world have NOT yet changed.
- Some new unique sprites thanks to Bug Reporting.
- Music issues fixed thanks to Lamsey.
- Bugfixing and polishing, as always.
After working on this update for so long, strangely I don't have many comments about it. I got to run more of my test saves through it, so hopefully there aren't too many bugs, but I could always have introduced more while adding more content at the end and fixing other things. I hope everyone enjoys exploring Stenai!
As a general reminder, please consider that time zones may make dates given online differ for you. I'm glad that people are enthusiastic about the game, but on the day of release I am trying to focus and check over the content one more time. Please check the timestamps of past releases before sending me messages.
Are the public release come in the next friday
ReplyDeleteBarring some huge unexpected problem, yes.
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DeleteI caught up with development and decided to drop TLS, but before that wanted to share some general goodbye thoughts that I planned to write about in detail for quite some time, but no longer have incentive to do so.
ReplyDeleteI'm a bit conflicted about TLS, as it's quality porn game and the most interesting project of yours from those I have seen, one developed with undeniable care and effort and yes, talent too; yet it left me disappointed to the point of distaste.
1. First things first - repulsive main hero and narrative that follows. These are the matters of stance/preferences, the ones you are unlikely to care about even though you should. I wrote quite a lot on the topic from morality/compassion perspective before, so just a quick reprising from different angle. There is clear design choice to make Simon the pragmatic type using available means to work toward good ends; the guy who in situation of conflict confines himself to limited argumentation relating to practical consequences and at the same time is confined by his own emotional limitations. There is also clear design advantage of the neutral type responses from him - in theory they make character much less polarizing and thus he should appeal to more people, each reimagining the game narrative to his own liking. Crux of the issue here is that morality/compassion are not neutral and indifference situates one on the wrong side. If my best pal after few drinks comes up with proposition to rob the old lady leaving the bank and I refuse on the ground that people might see us following her to the staircase so risk would not be worth whatever little money she might have, and I stay best friend with him afterwards, it doesn't make me some fence sitting guy with open mind and layers of plans but just another scum fuckhead stopped by circumstances. And this is exactly Simon stance, repeated in countless situations.
As for morality I stated before that whole "sacrifice for greater good" idea isn't thought even halfway through, while some aspects of compassion seem simply foreign to you/lost in medium (vulnerable types generally serve as abuse fetish triggers in TLS). This I came to term with as something I can only ascertain and judge but not blame you for . What really made me marvel at the irony is how you tried to ditch self righteous scum archetype at the start of the game, only to replace the obnoxious version with much worse calculating one. Simon struggles to pass even basic decency test and disparity between his actions and attitude/role in narrative is what makes him such unbearable character. Every second encountered person tells him how he is the nicest guy ever for not raping everyone; sentiment prevailing in some circles but not one I could identify with in any way.
2. At the beginning TLS shows promise of well written story and independent characters with their own agendas. That would be something quite rare for any game and dramatically more so as far as porn is concerned. Sadly that promise turned false. Over the course of 4 chapters harem went from (stated by Yarra) quality over quantity to the exact opposite, with overabundance of shallow characters. The story also didn't deliver with events happening because we need another trophy harem addition, something that sort of started during elven arc featuring Orilise and Lynine. The (only?) 2 characters with developed story and personalities are Robin and Carina and one of those is based on father-daughter incest. In short TLS takes the traditional route of every long going patreon porn project and turns into a fetish feast. In my opinion the cause was lost when you decided to go for 30+ people harem.
Delete3. This point is something that I wanted to share since I first started to play TLS and saw some of your patreon reflections on writing. Your writing (based on TLS and games under Hreinn Games) is adequate, rare quality for porn but grave sin as far as literary things concerned. It's clean, tepid and technically correct, good at giving picture of physical properties of situation and for factual discussion of matters but not so much for anything else. I don't know what is your goal as a writer and wouldn't try to imply you even having one as necessity, but right now there is not nearly enough going on if you would like to create something beyond forgettable. One thing that I would love to see you do is letting go of technical boundaries a bit and indulge in whatever fuels you as a writer. And again it's all based on assumption that TLS is mostly YOUR project not governed by pragmatic issues forcing quantity quotas.
There is striking resemblance between your writing in every game I have seen so far and your style of responding to people commenting on them. You try to be reasonably throughout and moderate and as a result TLS is littered with statements directed at player (2 common ones are about consent and character not being possible harem member). I noted your remarks on the goal of those, but they remain as testimony of your struggle to write in more natural and engaging manner, as that would make in game "statements" obsolete.
Emotional/spiritual aspects are the weakest point of your writing. There is serious struggle to create genuine emotional relations between characters; TLS has like 30 harem members and I can think only about few instances where I felt any actual connection between them. Your style is detached and it shows when you try to write characters who are emotional (like Altina or Varia from another end) or intimate (like Janine/Carina) . It usually leads either to two people exchanging statements awkwardly or plain skip of the whole ordeal.
As of now you impressed me much more as a game designer than as a writer, case in point KoD, overall meh game where you can't use your experience with RPG Maker and talent for practical (non trivia) world building. Something I enjoyed the most in TLS are medium scale details (like people with their own little stories or things to read about in libraries) and character interactions (like the ones during first party split). Perspective not too big for setting absurdity to show and not detailed enough for some writing shortcomings to come into play.
4. In the end I feel like TLS is very conflicted game to the point of mala fide dishonesty. It tries to introduce complex characters but ends as fetish harem collector; tries to tell engaging story but ends up being about guy conquering the world with the power of his dick; pretends to be realistic and somewhat grim setting but isn't anything of the sort (both in storytelling/atmosphere and details, I couldn't help but laugh after seeing Dari cute appearance); finally tries to present ambiguous moral situations in hard circumstances while maintaining theme of struggle toward good and fails miserably at both.*
DeleteI red a lot of old comments and think it's interesting how for some people TLS is the second coming of literature, deep social commentary or road to enlightenment via incest porn. And here I am, just horny and stupid, in a way relating to those asking for another hottie to be dicked in lust king story.
Best of luck everyone who made it to this point (skippers be damned). Sierra please don't be disheartened by my criticism, as unlikely as it is I would hate that to happen. Maybe at some point winds will lead me to this shore again.
*Good reference point is one of the biggest offenders: talk between Simon and Yarra after retrieving and healing previously freed sex slaves kept in the prologue castle. After failing to restore some Simon says how he feels like he should make use of them (clearly in form of sexual labor of unable to consent as that's all they can do) even if it's distasteful (hello fuckhead). It makes absolutely no sense on any level, as he's the major player at that point operating on scale of nations, who really doesn't need to profit from some poor rape victims. In a world filled with accidents like that it's also only logical that there would be institutions responsible for taking care of sexual magic/rape victims (even incurable ones; even assuming that they need constant lust energy we know that it can be transferred by items like potions and in the worst case scenario in form of sexual care with obligations running the opposite way). In short it's false practical dilemma and nonexistent moral one. I could point to one of the most hideous stains on human history: perpetual sexual abuse of institutionalized mentally ill and handicapped (they often don't care so why not use them?), or morality (unwilling used as practical slaves and means), or compassion (they got mindbroken by rape and you want to send them to get raped further for your profit), but honestly I think being a human rather than rabid animal should be enough for case like this. Looking at positives it's fortunate that Simon doesn't have handicapped mother.
Hi again. Thanks for taking the time to write out all your thoughts.
DeleteAs you stated these to be final thoughts before dropping the project, I'm not sure what sort of response you're looking for. Essentially, I do not agree with many of the things you have said, which I suspect will not surprise you. The volume of criticism I receive is fairly high, so don't be concerned about me being disheartened.
I've also deleted several comments responding to Thumos. I respect the sincerity of the people commenting and don't mean this as a condemnation. But given that he's stated these are goodbye thoughts, I think we should allow him to make those without beginning another conversation.
Deleting comments rubs me the wrong way personally, but I've removed several more. I appreciate that you guys are passionate about the game (or have messages for me) but if he wants to comment and go, I think we should let him go. Sorry if anyone is unhappy about their comments being deleted, but I think this is for the best.
Deletesierra... is it possible to talk to you in private? discord or steam?
ReplyDeleteFeel free to send me a message on any of the forums where I have threads!
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Delete1.Was expecting to see a little more from exploring Stenai. For the princesses i did know that one will be nice and the other will be spoiled but did not expect to see a cute one (no FBI for me) and the other to have a BIG heart...
ReplyDelete2. I don't know why people are surprised about Wendis even when that demon to say like that appeared for the first time and said Simon i am like that is the wife nobody knows about his name or Simon even telling somebody.And from the way she died i am like 100%.Like what you did with her nice eyes much better to have teeth there because nothing will go inside them but if there were teeth in other parts that will be scary yeah...
3. I did not like the maze it was hard to do the enemies were hard to beat even one boss who heals for 50k is way too much.I did not even completed everything in the maze those 6 or more obstacles so we can get the item i hope that there will not be mazes in the game or make them this hard and when you put items there please don't put items that will bе important for the story.Some even took them 3 hours to beat it way too much time for me.
4. I did not expect that from you took me by surprise to see the game end and then your comment that you are joking haha that was funny i hope there will be more stuff like that.You interacting with us like that.
5. Ginasta what i think will happened is that she will lose the fight get ra#ed by F lord and get saved by Simon or maybe even beat him with the help of Sabitha or even Sabitha helping her escape and Ginasta learning she is weak alone and goes with Simon.
After this part where are we going next or what do we do in the next part if it is not a spoiler.
I'm glad you liked the twist, but you're spoiling it for people who are waiting for the public version. =(
Delete3) Many people have commented that the maze was too hard, so I will probably ease off on puzzles for the near future. The healing boss is meant to be a puzzle fight - the boss has no resistance to silence, which can shut down the healing entirely.
4) I don't think it's wise to mess with people too much, but I did enjoy this one.
On your last question, I don't want to say too directly. The next update will probably be a smaller one while I get some things in order, then after that there will be an update dealing with something that has been hinted multiple times this chapter, but not directly addressed yet.
I like this Game because its as hard as it is.
DeleteDebuffing is fundamental to Win for me so i silenced that boss inmediately after i Saw te healing
lol 3 hours to beat the boss xD i just using rpg maker editor :D coz i just wanted to enjoy the story hehee
DeleteI forgot silence was a thing so I just outdamaged the healing
DeleteRandom NPC: "You guys are monstrously strong."
ReplyDelete15-20 minutes later, Sierra throws us into the freaking hardest dungeon in the entire game.
I've never liked the RPG trope where everything is always perfectly balanced for the party, so I try to give the world a sense of scale. And I have fun with it. =D
DeleteI noticed that, actually, and I really appreciate it. It gives the sense that the group is actually becoming more powerful as time goes on.
DeleteI just can't help thinking that that dungeon was there to teach us all a lesson in humility. =P
Different kind of question. How come PornPlayBB and Planetsuzy have already version 37.2 out and able to download. I mean they have been there like 3-4 days now and You'r own site still don't have download link for it. Just asking.
ReplyDeleteThose are pirate sites that post my work publicly before I want it to be posted publicly in order to earn ad revenue.
Delete1 For mission Negotiations in Stenai - Gather information about the princesses is white while the others are green is this how it is and we will turn it green in the future or did i miss something and did not finish this?
ReplyDelete2. Is there anything new if i explore different country's or everything is same only for this update?
1) It's a general objective that won't turn green.
Delete2) The question is answered in the changelog.
70+ minute of gameplay, not bad but still not satisfied though.
ReplyDeletei hopr the next big update will be more interesting and a long one :D
if may i ask. what is abyssal gems for? if it posibble make an other research project that require material from tower or whatever, then maybe make transformation for simon or someone else? like simon has a wings xD and also those has impact in battle too.
keep up the good work :)
The conversation at the end of this update answers the question regarding Abyssal Gems, though not explicitly.
Delete@Sebastian and Jude, I'm sure you two mean well but this really isn't the most appropriate place to talk about the update before it comes out publicly. Just use the chat in patreon.
ReplyDelete