I'll admit that before the most recent update, I was just a little skeptical about how it would turn out. But I really like the direction this is going now.
I can't wait to see Rashk gain weight in particular I hope it's a lot of convincing him that he needs fo eat big to "bulk up," and that he's not getting "*that* fat." And *eventually* getting him to like the idea of getting fatter.
I'm not sure what the plans are for blue diamonds going forward, but I do have an idea: What if you could purchase skills with blue diamonds on starting a run? Maybe it could cost like 3 diamonds for the first skill, 5 for the second, and 8 for the third. Or some similar ramping cost. Or you could just go for purchasing starting level ups, I guess.
So I had an idea for another stat: How about "Intuition?" When playing as a character with high Intuition, hints would show up faster and more prominently than a character with low Intuition. If you were to add him (which I really hope you do), I could imagine Oken as a character with high Intuition, where Scott could have fairly low intuition.
Also I feel like this game would lend itself well to modded characters and foods: you could simply have "custom characters" and "custom foods" folders, and make it so the user would have to create a folder with a file for stats, and a folder for weight stages (for characters) and an image for custom foods. The game is simple enough that I feel like it would lwnd itself well to that.
The new updateis pretty great!
A few notes and suggestions:
1. As it is, low-fill food sare just so much better than high-calorie foods in my experience. Might be a good idea to tweak the numbers a bit. Whether that's the actual calorie/fill numbers, or the amount of taps it takes to go back to empty.
2. Almost surely planned, but it'd be neat to have more differences between characters. Like maybe Scott could have a multiplier to calories (to make high-calorie foods better on him) and Pol could maybe go back to empty faster once he reaches capacity.
3. The suddenness of the time up gave me an idea: What if it had something like a "basketball timer," which is to say that as long as food is moving, you can still make combos, but as soon as everything stops, that's when the game ends?
Just some thoughts, is all ~
I'm kinda exploring various routes and runninv into an issue. Does the morning of chapter 16 also take into account your muscle level? Beforethe free time decision in chapter 15, I have relationship levels of 3 with Shaun and 5 with Legan. Plus a weight of 74kg and muscle level of 4. If I go to the Gym (and thus a muscle level of 5), then I get Shaun's house afterwards, even though Legan's relationship is still higher. Whereas if I choose one of the other two, I go to Legan's as I intended.
I guess that I'll accept that it doesn't only take into account your relationships, and also your weight and muscle, though in my opinion it should only be based on relationship. Especially because I was basing my assumption on doing high weight routes.
If it is a bug, I should probably mention that I am admittedly playing on the android version.
So while I do quite enjoy the game, I find myself a bit overwhelmed by the lack of smooth progression. To me, it just seems too "easy" to just kind of do whatever you want to yourself and the residents of the town. I feel like most of the unique interactions -- which is to say, the ones that involve helping out everyone, feeding scenes, competitions, massages, and the like, should be limited to once per day, and even mutually exlusive (within the context of any one character anyway).
Further down the line, it might be neat to see a time of day system too, as another way to force progression.
Of course, it could be that I'm looking for something that you don't intend for the game, and that the sandboxy nature that throws me off is what the game is supposed to be, but this is just so close to something I really want out of a game like this that I can't help but give this bit of input.
So I have another suggestion, but with how much extra artwork it would entail, I would expect it to only be worked on after you've otherwise finished the game and go back to adjust things.
So I've seen the idea of fattening up other characters brought up, and I've realized that there is an interesting opportunity for that. On the morning after Legan's birthday party, if you go to Ziul's, it might be interesting if instead of volunteering for his project yourself, you could tell him that you know someone who would be more interested -- either Ian, Oken, or maybe Zac (all potentially depending on your relationship with them) -- and starting with the day afterward, they could gradually start to visibly gain weight. Maybe it could even have an effect on the "difficulty" of the sumo tournament.
Of course, just an idea to maybe look into later once you have more of the game done, but it might be good to make preparations for it if you go for sething like this.
And, a bit unrelated, was it intentional to drop Ian's weight down to 160 kg in the second sumo tournament, despite him being 180 in the first? It just seemed a bit odd to me.
So it's been a month since the last I posted, and since there was a recent update, I'd just like to make the suggestion again, in case you didn't see it or something: Is it possible to allow players to delete save files from in-game? Might be a workaround in case the player experiences the android save issue. Plus, I can't seem to find where the save files are stored on android. (I've seriously looked everywhere.)
Also, a minor dialogue suggestion: When you first meet Ryan and our protagonist muses that Ryan might be bigger than him, maybe have him think "Or maybe not, heh." or something along those lines if at a certain weight threshold. Say, 180 maybe?
Regarding the Android save issue, would allowing the user to delete save files in-game, even if only from the main menu, be a workaround until a solution is potentially found? Or would the issue somehow persist even after deleting save files? Even disregarding the saving crash issue, that's a feature I'd like to have, if it's possible in the engine you're using. Along with being able to name saves (again, if possible). I'm aware I can find the save files on PC and delete them that way, and have done that a few times, but for the android version, I have looked everywhere in my device's files for those save files and have not been able to find them.
On another note, it's possible to surpass the current summary screen weight "benchmark" during chapter 17. I'm sure the next benchmark will be added in the next version anyway, but I just figured I'd mention it.
So I've been silently following this for a while, and I figured I'd finally get around to writing some thoughts and suggestions. None of the suggestions are demands or anything, but well-intentioned ideas, and I'm sure you've seen some a million times already and are tired of seeing them, but I figured I'd bring them up anyway. Plus, they all involve going back and making changes to some of the previous days, so I totally understand not soing any of the suggestions.
General: I feel like a lot of the Weight Gain/Loss choices are a bit boring. I feel like more (but not all) of them should have other "consequences" to go with them.
I feel like there ought to be one or even two more "levels" between the second and third morning muscle portraits. At one point I got the second one, then got my weight checked that day and it was 167kg, so the "skinny" portrait felt kind of silly.
Related to the previous note, I know this would be a lot more drawing, but I would like to see a kore gradual increase in muscle mass in the morning pictures.
...And, if you don't know how you'd arrange it in the gallery, maybe you could do it as a sort of "chart" where the horizontal would change one variable (muscle or weight) and the vertical would change the other. I know you've previously said that you hoped you wouldn't need to rearrange the gallery again, but I just thiught I'd mention it anyway.
Chapter 3: The breakfast WG feels kind of out of place in the context of all the other WG scenes in the game. It's such a small extra amount of food compared to a lot of the others that it just doesn't "fit in." I don't really have a suggestion regarding this, just an observation.
Chapter 5: It feels a bit odd to me that, during the dinner scene, giving the extra burger to Oken increases his relationship, but the same can't be said for Ian. Unless of course it does and no icon shows up. And if that's the case, then that's a bug.
Chapter 6: I feel like the choice to actually go to swim class should be the first instance of muscle gain. As it stands, it's notably a far more "boring" choice than the other two.
Chapter 8: I feel like the NSFW scene with Ian should be "earned" more. Maybe behind either relationship with him, or being okay with him not wearing shorts in Chapter 4 if you stay with him.
Chapter 10: This one is kind of an odd one, but I think it would be interesting if not bringing Jim along to lunch would have Athian buy a large meal for you, causing a WG ( something like "oh, this place is too expensive for you? Well, you seem nice, so have one of my favorite dishes on me."), or something along those lines. I think that it would be an interesting dynamic where you have to consider raising relationship with Jim if you don't want to gain weight there, plus keep in mind that you have to miss out on either a WG or a relationship+ with Jim if you otherwise want both.
Chapter 12: I think it would be interesting if having enough muscle could prevent the forced weight loss at higher weights.
Chapter 14: See chapter 12 about the forced weight loss moment.
Chapter 15: The choice after getting the perfume is visually bugged: the screen overlay and glow around the third choice persist after making any choice.
