Life With Keeley

[bforce]

I'm going to be absent from the lagoon for a while. I'm pretty frustrated with this thread, so I'm going to step back and cool off.
...
Tlaero

I'm kind of disappointed by this comment. I downloaded the game yesterday and played it for 4 hours straight until 2am because i was so amazed by it. Then today i visit the forum again to finally read the thread and because i'm more than eager to shower you with positive comments, but before i even get the chance to do anything - what happens? I stumble upon this posting of you and am just shocked and disappointed of your reaction. I'm kinda down now. you spoiled my spirit and my will to praise you for your work...

Lots of people now already told you their opinion and i concur with most of them, that's why i wanna keep it short:

- The game's been released only three (!) days ago. Give the people some effin time.
- The critics you received weren't even particularly harsh or negative... jeez...
- People (especially on the interwebz) will ALWAYS focus on improvable details rather than the things that are fine anyway. Even more so if there's really almost nothing to complain about. That's just how it works and you above all know that from previous threads in this forum.
- You made a really awesome game. I even dare to say you took this kind of gaming to a whole new level. You might not believe this, but it's kind of hard to explain in details WHY it's awesome. Do you want us to take all the standard-mistakes other games made and just reverse them? Because that's what i'd have to do.

...Women...



(pleeeeease keep making games?)

[iksanabot]

Hi Tlaero, Hi Phreaky,
Thanks you guys, this game is awesome. I was neck deep in work when I read that you had completed it, and was so excitedt to play it. I got home at 8:00 pm last night and family responsibilities kept me busy until 11:00 pm. But then I finally got to sit down with it, and I loved it. I played late into the night and only ended up with 4 hours sleep, and despite the fact that work is still crazy right now, I don't regret a minute of the time I spent with your game.
I guess you'd like to know specifically what I like, but I don't have time right now to go into detail. I will say that I love how smart your games are, and that you really put a lot of effort into story and character development, and to making the gameplay/challenges make sense. I haven't finished it yet (playing on hard without trying medium first to get my bearings), but so far I love several of the scenes:

The office blowjob is FANTASTIC - i think that is sucha hot concept!
In your research-thread about married-men fantasies you started when you began developing this game, I suggested a blowjob while watching porn, so I really liked that you included the porn-watching scene.
I also thought the cinema scene was really hot.

Thanks so much for another great game - I wish there were more creators like you, but I respect and appreciate you all the more for your exceptionality. You guys rock.

[iksanabot]

I'm going to be absent from the lagoon for a while. I'm pretty frustrated with this thread, so I'm going to step back and cool off.
...
Tlaero

I'm kind of disappointed by this comment. I downloaded the game yesterday and played it for 4 hours straight until 2am because i was so amazed by it. Then today i visit the forum again to finally read the thread and because i'm more than eager to shower you with positive comments, but before i even get the chance to do anything - what happens? I stumble upon this posting of you and am just shocked and disappointed of your reaction. I'm kinda down now. you spoiled my spirit and my will to praise you for your work...

Lots of people now already told you their opinion and i concur with most of them, that's why i wanna keep it short:

- The game's been released only three (!) days ago. Give the people some effin time.
- The critics you received weren't even particularly harsh or negative... jeez...
- People (especially on the interwebz) will ALWAYS focus on improvable details rather than the things that are fine anyway. Even more so if there's really almost nothing to complain about. That's just how it works and you above all know that from previous threads in this forum.
- You made a really awesome game. I even dare to say you took this kind of gaming to a whole new level. You might not believe this, but it's kind of hard to explain in details WHY it's awesome. Do you want us to take all the standard-mistakes other games made and just reverse them? Because that's what i'd have to do.

...Women...



(pleeeeease keep making games?)

Oh yeah, and no offense to you bforce, I can appreicate the tone of your post and understand that you are praising Tlaero and Phreaky which is great. I want to offer some insight into Tlaero's reaction to some of the more negative posts (I'm not criticizing your post): You have to realize how much work went into this, and how much emotion an artist pours into a creative endeavour like this. You make it, you hope everyone likes it, loves it, is blown away by it (which most of us are), and if you then only hear negatives it's incredibly disapointing. Like someone looking at your new baby that you are totally in love with and bursting with pride in and saying, "wow, his ears are uneven." It definitely goes with the territory when you present your creative work for public consumption, but Tlaero's reaction is totally understandable and she has every right to be frustrated with her audience when they are critical, just as the audience has the right to be critical. (Though I do think that criticsim of a game that is essentially a gift to us without also including gratitude and praise is pretty insensitive and suggests these types of critics have an overblown sense of entitlement and a tendency to be confrontational on the net to compensate for cowardice in person). (Was I just controversial on the net, right there?)

[bforce]

I agree completely and i'm well aware of the effort and time the both of them put into this project, except that i DON'T think that Tlaeros reaction was understandable. Because like i stated, for me it was the exact opposite - i was VERY surprised by her negative reaction. A negative reaction targeted at ALL of us but in reality BEFORE 90% of the people even had the chance to react properly.

And i'm sorry if i came off kind of direct and short with Tlaero, but i did that somewhat on purpose to stress the fact that she maybe should just chill out a bit more...

[LRM]

That's not entirely fair. Leonizer's games have improved markedly over the years. The later games have far more believable characterization (within the limitations of the medium) and development (generally in the cause of bonking some attractive virtual girl, but hey!). I'm pretty sure that the addition of a writer to the dev team around the time these changes started occurring is no coincidence.

Also, I'd love to comment, but I'm still lurking about and waiting for a rehost so I can play the bloody game in the first place. I've grown resigned to the fact that I'm going to get to play these games only a few weeks after release.

Would you and others stay with the subject at hand Life With Keeley and post your thoughts about other game developers elsewhere for fuck sake

Take your backseat moderating to another thread, mate.

I tend to agree with Rikwar here;
Much of the thread is plugged with stuff better addressed in a different thread (Problems with Chrome IE).
Lou

[Nosferatu]

How the actual fuck did someone get 31/35 on the second playthru? On my fourth time I managed 22!

Will keep trying - very enjoyable game, thanks guy and girl

[Greebo]

Much of the thread is plugged with stuff better addressed in a different thread (Problems with Chrome IE).
Lou

They are problems relevant to using the game, Lou.

[Big Mike]

Great game. I've played it several times and it's lots of fun. I think I liked the Christine game better, probably because of the male point of view....and maybe I just like Christine better. But having Christine in this game does make up for it...she's hot.

I've managed to get up to 28 points, but that's it. I've played through (on hard, or course), trying to get every extra point I could find (even cheating a little) but I'm missing something obviously. And while it is fun to play the game again...it's getting less fun to play it again, from the beginning...just looking for something that I might have missed.

I've got a specific question...

How to I get to the cinema scene/date?

[IronMark]

Too bad about Tlaero - I've enjoyed this game and she disappeared before I could say so. I only found it after she left. I hope she doesn't stay disappeared, because this forum really needs a woman's touch, you know?

You want to know what I like the best? You can SAVE THE FRIGGIN' GAME!!! Big plus!

Anyway, I played this game to a successful conclusion (the troll scene) and saved there and quit. I can't really restore to that point and so have had to start over again. Is there sex beyond the troll? Or, did I just finish it (along with my anaemic point total of maybe 13) and I just need to start again?

- IM

[bd2021]

I've got a specific question...

How to I get to the cinema scene/date?

you have to:

talk to Thais again after the desk scene. If you make the right decisions in the conversation she will set you up for the cinema scene.

Anyway, I played this game to a successful conclusion (the troll scene) and saved there and quit. I can't really restore to that point and so have had to start over again. Is there sex beyond the troll? Or, did I just finish it (along with my anaemic point total of maybe 13) and I just need to start again?

- IM

From the sounds of it you haven't even finished the game on easy... Sex scenes do not equal a successful conclusion in this game, there are actually scenes that will say you have (or failed to) complete the game on the difficulty level you selected. I think you need at least a score of 30 to conclude the game on hard mode, but I'm not 100% sure on that.

[MysteryMan2333]

Inevitably, the first large percentage of posts are going to be about the mechanics of playing the game, which would include browser issues and bugs (though I think it's well worth emphasizing that the degree to which this game was bug-free is absolutely remarkable and unprecedented in the genre...which is, I'd caution, not exactly the same thing as saying that is was bug-free).

Agreed. To be fair anytime I think I might have inadvertently bugged my game, I always made it a point to Restore a previous save. E.g. as I mentioned I attempted to do desk/mag/cinema at the same time. Well say before I started any of them I went home and slept in the bed. Does that start a fresh day at that point and I need to start over? I wasn't sure so I just restored. It very well may work perfectly fine, I just didn't want to take the risk.

I agree completely and i'm well aware of the effort and time the both of them put into this project, except that i DON'T think that Tlaeros reaction was understandable. Because like i stated, for me it was the exact opposite - i was VERY surprised by her negative reaction. A negative reaction targeted at ALL of us but in reality BEFORE 90% of the people even had the chance to react properly.
And i'm sorry if i came off kind of direct and short with Tlaero, but i did that somewhat on purpose to stress the fact that she maybe should just chill out a bit more...

Right, I think everyone is in agreement with this. I think the time between the game posted, and the time Tlaero posted her frustration was around a day. Considering the game would take at least multiple playthroughs before you can even form a rational conclusion on what you thought about the game, I think it's perfectly reasonable that people wouldn't post constructive thoughts on the game for at least a couple days. And that's assuming they even had the chance to play it the first night it came out. Granted, I did not work on the game for a year, and if I had it in my mind that I was expecting a lot of feedback instantly and didn't get it, I can see myself being disappointed as well.

How the actual fuck did someone get 31/35 on the second playthru? On my fourth time I managed 22!

With a whole lot of mousing back and forth over graphics! I'm not exactly sure I'd recommend it for sanity's sake, haha. Also, I do think certain combination of dialogue sequences give you additional points as well, which I'm pretty certain is where my other missing points are coming from, although that's pure speculation on my part.

[thundergod]

You make it, you hope everyone likes it, loves it, is blown away by it (which most of us are), and if you then only hear negatives

But see, that's the point: this isn't what happened.

The game was posted on 6 December at 15:57 (by my clock). Tlaero posted her message about stepping away on 8 December 00:24. That's only a day and a half.

There was discussion of browser compatibility issues, and suggestions on how to fix and/or avoid them; here people were trying to help other people who wanted to play the game but couldn't.

There were two requests for alternate file hosts from people who couldn't access Rapidshare.

There were two or three bug reports (depending on how you view a grammatical correction), only one of which was accepted as a bug (an indication of how bug-free the game is, BTW).

There was one full response with what I thought was a lot of constructive response based on the reviewer's preferences regarding gameplay. The reviewer was quite clear that s/he liked the game.

There were three responses that I'd characterize as mixed (two from the same poster).

And there were eight posts that offered unmitigated praise.

So that's eight purely positive responses, and three people who had mixed feelings.

Explain how that's "only hear[ing] negatives"? Because I think the responses regarding mechanics and problems downloading/playing the game are about what one would expect at that stage. I suspect almost no one had actually finished the game with full points in the first 33 hours since release, and yet the response was overwhelmingly positive anyway. I certainly understand wanting to hear good things, and I think as people actually finish the game we're seeing what we would have seen along those lines, but I don't understand the insistence that the responses have been negative. They haven't.

[dryheave]

I found another bug, or maybe just an odd occurance based on the engine.

Keely took a bath and then flashed James and then,I noticed about the bed calling. I never left the bedroom and then I selected to sleep on the bed and all of a sudden James was calling Keely and had been away for 3 days? Huh?

[TheBrain]

@tlaero, seeing the other posts made before your reaction, (thundergod summed it up pretty well above...) I have the feeling a large part of the negativity you experienced was from my post. While I personally think there was not much of a negative tone in my post, I'm sorry if you took it that way. Where you read "It's good BUT", I really meant "It's good, so please take the rest of my post with a few grains of salt, since it doesn't mean it's a bad game at all".

I admit not showering you with praise or talking about the things I liked about the game, for which I'm sorry, but this is more a personal defect than anything else. In general I don't give much praise: say, where after a good dinner someone else might say "oh my god, this is the best food I have ever tasted", the best you would get out me would be something like "it was ok/good". So please don't take it the wrong way, you wouldn't be the first one to point out that I don't focus on the positive. If it is any consolation, I can assure you I'm much more critical about my own work.

However, I do respect your work very much, and try to show that through giving meaningful feedback and engaging in discussion. Literally the first moment I had available, I spent several hours playing the game, looking at the code, breaking it down, etc. Then after collecting my thoughts the next day I spent almost an hour writing that post, especially trying to be careful about my words to not sound harsh or unappreciative. I mostly point out things that could be better (or my personal preferences), in the hope that if you do make a next game you would take it into consideration. I would hate to see you repeating mistakes. Again this does NOT mean the game is bad in any way.

On the subject of the game being bug free though, you might wonder how many programmers receive feedback such as "oh, how wonderful it's bug free!", I certainly never have on my projects. I would treat it as an expectation of the player that your game is playable (hell, for me as a programmer I couldn't release anything without properly testing and fixing any known bug...). The fact that Chaotic has been doing this blatantly wrong is a different matter entirely (I initially wanted to point something to this affect, but ironically I thought it was bad style to do this in a comment about another game, so I settled for a subtle comment in my first line).

Now initially I wanted to go into discussion about your first reaction (I probably even would've drawn some diagrams to make my point about non-linear stories), but I feel this is wasted at this point. Again, I feel sorry that you have taken anything I said so negatively.

[Synthus]

@ Synthus How hard have you tried to get around your system problems with RapidShare, because from what I can tell your problems aren't likely to be due to whether you have a dynamic or a static IP. Browsers make a difference, and as I have already said, a good download helper can work wonders.

If you don't bite the bullet and find a sensible way to make RapidShare work for you, you are likely to remain on the sidelines for many downloads since many folk use RapidShare exclusively nowadays. I used to find various previous incarnations of their main page a pain but the present one seems to be excellent.

I've asked a couple of internet friends I know to help upload it on multiupload or something of the sort. Will likely be able to get to it over the weekend.

That's what I've been told by other people using the same ISP. I haven't bothered to check their information, it doesn't seem like it'd do anything to help anyway. I keep getting this 'IP address modified' error regardless of whatever browser I use, and download helpers haven't improved anything in that regard.