Re: (Yet another) Dating type game "Getting to Know Brenda"

[Rikwar]

Great, thanks Cugel been hoping for the continuation of the date with Brenda, dl now

[Marco6661]

Very nice one, graphism and combination, good job!

2 problems:
1°-If you make a bad choice in Brenda's house, you are stuck in the room without any solution! (part 2).
2°-At the end of the day, when you return in Brenda's home, you can listen the engine after leave the motorbike. (part 2) Not really a big problem!

Thanks again and hope to see a sequel in the future...

Marco.

ps: English is not my native language, sorry for this aproximative text.

[ludwig]

a dammed great game, good mix of animation and text! sometimes hard to find the right choice, that's good

THANKS!

[LRM]

@ Cugel;
Thank you. I found it most entertaining, and agree with the improvements you made. It was very well laid out with a good mix of animations and player activity. Good job.
L
May I suggest the owner of the cat is also female and perhaps the 3 of them end up on the patio.

[Rikwar]

Great job Cugel, the animation and storyline where amazing, hope to see more of Brenda or her friends
As mentioned above after the motorcycle ride could still hear the bike once at Brenda's house
Also in the text boxes some answers where reversed between the player and Brenda, not really a problem but thought you might want to know.

Thanks again

[Arnulf]

Cugel, it is so funny to have so much datinggames and yours is indeed a perfect thing! Keep your work ongoing, we like to see much more of that!

[Frenchi]

Cugel
There is one mistake in name position at begining of date 2.
When you knock at the door, she says to come in, but the nick at the left is our (player).

I hope I remember well.
Frenchi

[LRM]

May I suggest the owner of the cat is also female and perhaps the 3 of them end up on the patio.

Brenda and Beau spend the morning and afternoon kayaking (a clear kayak and swim mask might allow some very interesting views), swimming, sunning, a small picnic and enjoying each others company through out the day. Late afternoon they return to Brenda's, and light the barbi expecting to share an intimate meal and some sport in the hot tub. The preparation is interrupted by the cat snacking on a steak. Shortly the cat's owner appears looking for the errant animal. She is visibly excited by the semi nude bodies she sees; (viewed from a hidden corner of her deck: startled she knocks a plant off the rail) is seen and is asked to join the pair. Lack of a swim suit is not a problem!
L

[TriCkDaDDy]

Please continue this game.

[woody]

thnx cugel great fun to play keep up the good work

[Brian100]

Just downloaded #2. Great work again. Thnx for a great game, can't wait for #3

[Son-of-Odin]

Dear Mr. Cugel,
you´ve done here a really great job. I love your game and I hope, there will be more parts. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

[tlaero]

Cugel, this is an excellent game.

First of all, your animations really stand out. You're clearly spending a lot of time working the poses, and it shows. These are probably the best poser animations I've seen in a dating game, including Ari's. I also like that you use them for more than the final sex scene. Sometimes the intermediate scenes are the most erotic.

I also like the semi-animations, where you do 3 or 4 frames on a timer (undressing etc). It's all nicely done.

While the animations stand out, what I REALLY appreciate about the game is the characterization of the man. You said you wanted it to have a moral compass and respect women, and I felt that you pulled it off. The end of his first date when he's got her topless and stops there? Priceless. The cautious way he talks to her when she's stripping after returning to her house? Awesome. The guy's a sweetie, and that's rare in this genre.

I like that there are multiple dates and that player and Brenda are working up to things. As much as I like Ari, VDG, and Phreaky's game, I've always felt that they should span dates and not go all the way on the first one.

I also like the ambient sounds and music. Those are missing in the HTML games. (Phreaky, we should talk. I could change the tool to add them if you'd like.)

Finally, I really appreciate that you have save points (so we don't need to start over from scratch every time we screw up) and hints when we DO screw up.

Now, a bug report. There are a lot of places in the game where you reverse up the "player" and "Brenda" dialog labels. It'll say that Brenda is speaking, but it's the player's dialog, etc.

Also, if you run the HTML file the image is scaled to a size where the fonts are squished and hard to read. Running the swf directly (I just drag it to an IE window) works fine, though.

Also, if you go to the lake before going to the bar, she'll still say, "One drink isn't enough..." even though you haven't had a drink yet.

As for suggestions, I have a few.
First, I think you should make use of on screen hit targets more. Take the couch scene in the first date. It's a small thing, but it'll feel more interactive if you click on her hand to rub it rather than a box that says "rub her hand," etc. The same suggestion I made to Phreaky applies here, I believe. I think the text choices should be for things you SAY and things you DO should be done as places you click in the environment.

You did a nice job of not making the things you had to do too arbitrary. There is a set pattern, but there are enough hints ("I'll bet it's cooler in the evening") to be okay. The exception is whether or not she drinks one drink or two. I won't give the spoiler here, but I don't like that buying the right drink at a different time changes the outcome. Better to always do two with that drink and just have something else fail when you do things out of order.

And, finally, it's very linear right now. I know first hand that adding multiple paths is a lot of work. So I'm not holding the linearity against you. But if you want to make some branches, that would be cool. (-:

Keep up the great work. I'm looking forward to more from you. You should post this in the "All Sexy Games" forum so more people see it.

Tlaero

[Bonhomie]

Cugel - what a great game. Especially as it is experimental.

I quite like the fact that you have to get the visits in the right order, and she is certainly worth the wait.
The combination of stills and movement also works well.

Just remember your friends here as you get better and better.

[Cugel]

tlearo,
First of all - thank you.

Since you wrote an engine for this kind of app you are more than familiar with the development challenges and can understand that in some cses I coded myself into a corner and haven't found a way out yet. Branching may have to wait until my game architecture matures, or changes.

Full motion animations are something I have been experimenting with for quite a while. Doing them in Poser (Pro) is a lot like trying to hold a live fish in one hand, a cup of scalding coffee in the other knowing that you are about to sneeze. Eventually good results can be had, though.

The timed multi-frame animations in Flash are frustrating to me. When done in a video editor, using fade in and out transition effects, they look really good - but all I know how to do in Flash is to fade the alpha channels and it suffers a little.

Anyway...you are the first person to say anything about the characterizations, dialog and story. I thought this was the most risky part of the whole project since it deviates (no pun intended - okay pun is intended) so much from the others in the genre. This makes me want to ramp up again and try to fix and finish...so thanks...I think ;-)
==============================================================

tlaero wrote :

Cugel, this is an excellent game.

First of all, your animations really stand out. You're clearly spending a lot of time working the poses, and it shows. These are probably the best poser animations I've seen in a dating game, including Ari's. I also like that you use them for more than the final sex scene. Sometimes the intermediate scenes are the most erotic.

I also like the semi-animations, where you do 3 or 4 frames on a timer (undressing etc). It's all nicely done.

While the animations stand out, what I REALLY appreciate about the game is the characterization of the man. You said you wanted it to have a moral compass and respect women, and I felt that you pulled it off. The end of his first date when he's got her topless and stops there? Priceless. The cautious way he talks to her when she's stripping after returning to her house? Awesome. The guy's a sweetie, and that's rare in this genre.

I like that there are multiple dates and that player and Brenda are working up to things. As much as I like Ari, VDG, and Phreaky's game, I've always felt that they should span dates and not go all the way on the first one.

I also like the ambient sounds and music. Those are missing in the HTML games. (Phreaky, we should talk. I could change the tool to add them if you'd like.)

Finally, I really appreciate that you have save points (so we don't need to start over from scratch every time we screw up) and hints when we DO screw up.

Now, a bug report. There are a lot of places in the game where you reverse up the "player" and "Brenda" dialog labels. It'll say that Brenda is speaking, but it's the player's dialog, etc.

Also, if you run the HTML file the image is scaled to a size where the fonts are squished and hard to read. Running the swf directly (I just drag it to an IE window) works fine, though.

Also, if you go to the lake before going to the bar, she'll still say, "One drink isn't enough..." even though you haven't had a drink yet.

As for suggestions, I have a few.
First, I think you should make use of on screen hit targets more. Take the couch scene in the first date. It's a small thing, but it'll feel more interactive if you click on her hand to rub it rather than a box that says "rub her hand," etc. The same suggestion I made to Phreaky applies here, I believe. I think the text choices should be for things you SAY and things you DO should be done as places you click in the environment.

You did a nice job of not making the things you had to do too arbitrary. There is a set pattern, but there are enough hints ("I'll bet it's cooler in the evening") to be okay. The exception is whether or not she drinks one drink or two. I won't give the spoiler here, but I don't like that buying the right drink at a different time changes the outcome. Better to always do two with that drink and just have something else fail when you do things out of order.

And, finally, it's very linear right now. I know first hand that adding multiple paths is a lot of work. So I'm not holding the linearity against you. But if you want to make some branches, that would be cool. (-:

Keep up the great work. I'm looking forward to more from you. You should post this in the "All Sexy Games" forum so more people see it.

Tlaero