I'm not sure if anyone's mentioned this yet but the latest episode is now available on Pusooy's Elite site..

Anyone familiar with Pusooy's work won't find anything new here.. He is continuing along the interactive story path, there's no element of game or puzzle about it at all. The graphics remain as good - although I can't help feeling some of the poses in the animated scenes seem a bit "wooden". The girls often look like they'd rather be reading a book, etc... but that's just my opinion.

Apart from that you could read the comments from just about any other Pusooy game, nothing's changed.

Agree. Visual novel with great graphics, no game play.

Considering the amount of time he takes to make these, along with the help he gets, and how he stopped trying to insert actual gameplay sections (like the scooter race from Beach Party), I'm kind of perplexed why it takes him so long to put out these visual novels. Certainly after doing so many of these he must have the sex "game" coding down that he could do it with his eyes closed, so I'm guessing the art is what takes the longest. Still, though, considering how much money he gets I'm a bit confused why it takes some 6 or so months to do a short visual novel like this. Also, I'm not entirely convinced that the nurse isn't actually a man, and that sort of fetish being forced upon the "player" (or "reader", as it may be) irks me. Also, considering the story began with 4 female characters introduced, it's a bit annoying that so many sex scenes involve other characters that were introduced in the last two episodes.

I really loved the first episode of Castle Gravenstein. The introduced characters were all different and the setting offered so many possibilities for all kind of fetishes. I wanted to see some hidden passages where the boys discover a way to spy on the girls bathroom or bedroom. Some fantasy characters like succubi would have been nice too. Instead we get the same story as beach party if we exclude the hypnosis. I love the graphics but the creativity really didnt increase since the first games.

artorawley wrote: . . . I'm a bit confused why it takes some 6 or so months to do a short visual novel like this. . . .

Been there, done that.
I write visual novels with erotic content (mine are free), and finishing one in six months is not an unreasonable amount of time. I can't speak for Pusooy, but for me, writing the story takes almost as much time as doing the art (I don't consider my stories or artwork to be as good as his). Selecting and adding background music and sound effects also takes time. Additionally, once a visual novel is completed, it has to be tested before release. Real life issues always take precedence over making visual novels.
While I work alone (other than getting Beta testers from the lagoon and elsewhere), I follow the efforts of an indie game company (winterwolves). They produce at about the same rate as Pusooy. Winterwolves hires outside writers, character artists, and background artists. While outsourcing lessens the workload on the owner of Winterwolves, it does not necessarily speed up production.

Very respectfully,
fleet

Fleet, thanks for the "inside" perspective. As a fan and non-techie, I appreciate learning more about what goes into these.

I enjoyed this latest episode, but I don't understand where the plot's going yet. It seems likely that there's only 1 or 2 more episodes (has he ever done a game with more than 4 episodes?), so will the next episode wrap up all of the story lines or will this story go on for 8 or 9 episodes?

Hmm, I guess he's got me curious enough to stick around, so that's successful, right?




PS- The art is really beautiful. I am happy with the lack of "skill games" in his stories because his work was sometimes buggy & the controls awkward. If I remember right, there were rarely "save" options in those games, which made it more frustrating when you failed.

I take it 2 and 3 are still in Elite? Not on their page as playable.

Very little seems to escape Puso's Elite section nowadays -- I used to be an avid visitor to his site before he introduced his present payment model and I also used to voluntarily contribute money to support his activities, but I've more or less stopped bothering now that the free incentives are so few and far between.

I'd appreciate it

Surprised at some of the comments here. Puso has stated more than once that his skill, focus and enjoyment lies not in game play but in presently a graphic story. He is both a writer and graphic artist and is very good at both. The games where he included games took longer then the ones he is doing now because of this. I have followed his games and Sharks games because of the quality of both of them. It is a joy to play games that are stories but are different in how they are presented. With or without help they are each the master of their games and have the final say in what is produced. They are both masters of presentation.

Personally, I also appreciate that his games are compatible with macs. I'd love to try some of Fleet's games but they are PC-only.

ut1stgear1 wrote:Surprised at some of the comments here. Puso has stated more than once that his skill, focus and enjoyment lies not in game play but in presently a graphic story. He is both a writer and graphic artist and is very good at both. The games where he included games took longer then the ones he is doing now because of this. I have followed his games and Sharks games because of the quality of both of them. It is a joy to play games that are stories but are different in how they are presented. With or without help they are each the master of their games and have the final say in what is produced. They are both masters of presentation.

All I can say is that much of the same criticism directed towards Pusooy all those years ago continues to apply. It has been raked over too often to repeat here. The basic message of my original post was "You know what to expect".

It is important that people know this because it is unlikely they will ever be able to play this game without paying a subscription. The only reason I got to play was because I had read that it was due soon, I hadn't played the previous one, so timed my subscription in the hope of getting to play 2 "new" games before the subscription ran out (and I was bored).

As good as he is within the genre, if any episode of his games was to be published on a disc for sale in a supermarket it would be totally unreasonable to put a price tag of $10 on it, and you'd get to keep the game forever. The bargain bins are full of much more sophisticated games costing less than a six-month subscription to Pusooy, let's not pretend otherwise.

In the event of Pusooy producing something truly exciting and original I'm sure the lagooners would be beating a path to his door.. but $10 per episode is not good value for money, so they need to know that CG 4 is not that game.

personnally, i stop renew, because hes games is now read, lots of mouse shaking, read, lots of mouse shaking, etc. Since the save feature bring you on the begining of a scene, i finish the game with a hurting wrist. the worst is the game dont said you change scene.

Shark has solve this problem, this is why i keep playing his games. I especially love his new save feature, you dont play for 10 min, save & got to do another 5 min to return where you left it!!

kessie8yl wrote:

ut1stgear1 wrote:Surprised at some of the comments here. Puso has stated more than once that his skill, focus and enjoyment lies not in game play but in presently a graphic story. He is both a writer and graphic artist and is very good at both. The games where he included games took longer then the ones he is doing now because of this. I have followed his games and Sharks games because of the quality of both of them. It is a joy to play games that are stories but are different in how they are presented. With or without help they are each the master of their games and have the final say in what is produced. They are both masters of presentation.

All I can say is that much of the same criticism directed towards Pusooy all those years ago continues to apply. It has been raked over too often to repeat here. The basic message of my original post was "You know what to expect".

It is important that people know this because it is unlikely they will ever be able to play this game without paying a subscription. The only reason I got to play was because I had read that it was due soon, I hadn't played the previous one, so timed my subscription in the hope of getting to play 2 "new" games before the subscription ran out (and I was bored).

As good as he is within the genre, if any episode of his games was to be published on a disc for sale in a supermarket it would be totally unreasonable to put a price tag of $10 on it, and you'd get to keep the game forever. The bargain bins are full of much more sophisticated games costing less than a six-month subscription to Pusooy, let's not pretend otherwise.

In the event of Pusooy producing something truly exciting and original I'm sure the lagooners would be beating a path to his door.. but $10 per episode is not good value for money, so they need to know that CG 4 is not that game.

No argument from me, just wanted to point out that he wants to keep it in the form of telling a story. So his games are very linear. That was really my point although I tend to get wordy. As you said enough said on the subject.

I don't mind the linear stories in Gravenstein, but it seems that each episode is shorter than the last.