by TheBrain » Thu, 12Oct04 00:21
It was a nice little game. But I was a bit disappointed when the non-linearity of the start didn't continue to the end. Like in the start you have some options, spy on her, leave her alone, etc. But after that you just end up in her hotel room and everything is pretty much linear. Sure you have some choices, but they don't really branch into anything. Depending on what you did before the game rather arbitrarily stops at some point, not even really explaining why.
Now I think you missed an opportunity by not adding a little more branching in the second part. I think the game lends itself perfectly for a setup where you can "solve" it by two methods, 1. blackmail, 2. appealing to her slutty side/being "nice". Most of the setup for this already exists in the first part. The second part needs some branching, so how hard you push her to do stuff becomes variable. For example if you find out all blackmail info you can push her harder than when you just have the pics. But in the latter case you might be able to get a blowjob if you play everything right in between, instead of it just ending somewhere in the middle with her saying no.
The slutty/nice path could use most of the same situations but requiring different answers or different actions. You can't push her as hard, and maybe getting her a little drunk is actually beneficial for this path. The paths could each have something unique (e.g., playing with toys for the nice path, anal for the optimal blackmail path), so you entice people to explore.
Right now there's really only one right choice for each situation. So while the player is figuring it out, he's exploring, but when it seems like the only way to get somewhere is blackmail, he'll do that and stop trying anything else. I think that limits the potential of the game. Especially in smaller games it's feasible to do some more branching, which would be much harder in a larger, "multiple days", kind of dating game.