House Party Beta

[bartux]

does this update add something to the story ?
I've read the changelog but I don't see any things about this.

Thanks for your hard work !

do you have some kind of wish to start working on a sex scene ?

[mistacorn]

does this update add something to the story ?
I've read the changelog but I don't see any things about this.

Thanks for your hard work !

do you have some kind of wish to start working on a sex scene ?

I do. I haven't quite figured out how to approach it yet, but I've been taking feedback from all of you. I'm just about at the point where all of the bugs are worked out of the base system, and then I will be spending a lot of time on storyline and content.

[arthurlim]

Really great game! There is no lag when I play, the gameplay is fairly smooth too.
I love this type of game where you could choose the dialogue.

I was wondering when I changed the key for strafing left (from "a" to another key), when I press the other key, it won't strafe left. Could you fix this please?
Other than that, great game!

Got a question about the girls though;

I have made all the girls naked except for ashley and brittney
Can I get a hint on how to :
1. Embarass madison (ashley's mission)
2. Make brittney not be the center of attention
I have tried everything (I think) but I still can't get them naked

[nezumi69]

I have made all the girls naked except for ashley and brittney
Can I get a hint on how to :
1. Embarass madison (ashley's mission)
2. Make brittney not be the center of attention
I have tried everything (I think) but I still can't get them naked

Well, you need to finish one to advance the other.

So you have Madison naked. What can you do to embarrass her, if she intended only you to see her that way?

[xviii]

That reminds me - I know it could create a lot of problems with pathfinding etc, but is it possible to add more doors to rooms and have npc's open/shut them?

It seems trivial, but it seems odd for someone to get upset with someone else seeing them naked when they have a person standing near two different open doors leading to their bedroom. It makes the whole thing seem less realistic and in turn less exciting. Going to someones bedroom with them should feel a bit more exciting, and I really feel like the problem is that it doesn't feel at all private. Now, for other characters (very drunk ones) doing stuff in public makes sense and is a different type of exciting.

I know you've already put the work into designing the house/apartment, but I think it could work better if the layout were changed. Here's my suggestion for what it's worth:
- make the kitchen the only room off the living/lounge room, replace the door to the bedroom with a window to the outside.
- Instead of having one room off the living/lounge room have an open hallway entrance.
- Off the hallway have two bedrooms; The master one with en suite (much smaller than it is now) and the secondary bedroom.
- The master has the door open by default but it can and will be closed when 'in use'.
- The secondary room is like it is now with the door closed, only it's off a hallway so not as obvious from the living/lounge room. I'm not sure if finding a key is the best mechanic for opening this door if someone is inside, maybe knocking and saying the right thing to cheer the person up/make them laugh would make more sense?
- There should also be a separate bathroom/laundry which is what guests use, Ashley should be here instead of in the en suite.
- The hallway could even be made longer and a third room added or a separate laundry if that could play into the story a bit better in some way.

The hallway could have the main bedroom to the left (from the living room/lounge) so that it is behind the kitchen, with the en suite behind that with access only from the bedroom like now. The second bedroom could be on the immediate right (from the living room)while the bathroom/laundry could be to the far right, with the main entrance door at the end of the hallway maybe with a coat and shoe rack and door mat near it to show that it's not some secret room.

I know this seems like a lot of work just to have 'private' rooms, but the way it is right now it seems odd where some of the characters are located, especially when a door isn't there. Having the bedroom off the kitchen is odd, having the only bathroom be the en suite is odd, having the second bedroom directly off the lounge room is odd. When you factor in the people and their motivations it becomes even more strange. Eg1. Not wanting to leave the spare room due to social anxiety even though once you open the door (uninvited, also) everyone in the lounge (main party room) has a very good view inside the room. Eg2. getting naked in her room with the door open to a person in the kitchen she doesn't want to see her naked, and her sister that she's fighting with standing just inside the open door of the en suite. This second one will only get a lot more odd once sex is introduced, right now it is killing the excitement of the event and makes it hard to figure out what to do to embarrass her as she appears to be an exhibitionist. To add to this she is also very easy to impress and win over, I hope this changes as the story progresses.

To make it really complex, you could:

Have it so you have to lead Frank into the en suite before taking Madison into the bedroom. Have the en suite door shut then open it and tell Frank 'never mind' so he goes back to where he was and walks in on Madison. This is an example of making the story harder and more realistic at the same time. If you open the door to her room while she's naked and leave it would seem a bit odd, but going into the en suite wouldn't be strange at all and she wouldn't expect another person to be in there. I guess this introduces problems with Frank guarding the alcohol if you can tell him to stay somewhere, so I don't know if it could work with the games story as it is now, but it's an example of a more realistic scenario that is also harder to figure out.

Just some opinions from me. Hopefully there can be some sort of half way compromise if the remodeling is too much work.

[mistacorn]

That reminds me - I know it could create a lot of problems with pathfinding etc, but is it possible to add more doors to rooms and have npc's open/shut them?

It seems trivial, but it seems odd for someone to get upset with someone else seeing them naked when they have a person standing near two different open doors leading to their bedroom. It makes the whole thing seem less realistic and in turn less exciting. Going to someones bedroom with them should feel a bit more exciting, and I really feel like the problem is that it doesn't feel at all private. Now, for other characters (very drunk ones) doing stuff in public makes sense and is a different type of exciting.

I know you've already put the work into designing the house/apartment, but I think it could work better if the layout were changed. Here's my suggestion for what it's worth:
- make the kitchen the only room off the living/lounge room, replace the door to the bedroom with a window to the outside.
- Instead of having one room off the living/lounge room have an open hallway entrance.
- Off the hallway have two bedrooms; The master one with en suite (much smaller than it is now) and the secondary bedroom.
- The master has the door open by default but it can and will be closed when 'in use'.
- The secondary room is like it is now with the door closed, only it's off a hallway so not as obvious from the living/lounge room. I'm not sure if finding a key is the best mechanic for opening this door if someone is inside, maybe knocking and saying the right thing to cheer the person up/make them laugh would make more sense?
- There should also be a separate bathroom/laundry which is what guests use, Ashley should be here instead of in the en suite.
- The hallway could even be made longer and a third room added or a separate laundry if that could play into the story a bit better in some way.

The hallway could have the main bedroom to the left (from the living room/lounge) so that it is behind the kitchen, with the en suite behind that with access only from the bedroom like now. The second bedroom could be on the immediate right (from the living room)while the bathroom/laundry could be to the far right, with the main entrance door at the end of the hallway maybe with a coat and shoe rack and door mat near it to show that it's not some secret room.

I know this seems like a lot of work just to have 'private' rooms, but the way it is right now it seems odd where some of the characters are located, especially when a door isn't there. Having the bedroom off the kitchen is odd, having the only bathroom be the en suite is odd, having the second bedroom directly off the lounge room is odd. When you factor in the people and their motivations it becomes even more strange. Eg1. Not wanting to leave the spare room due to social anxiety even though once you open the door (uninvited, also) everyone in the lounge (main party room) has a very good view inside the room. Eg2. getting naked in her room with the door open to a person in the kitchen she doesn't want to see her naked, and her sister that she's fighting with standing just inside the open door of the en suite. This second one will only get a lot more odd once sex is introduced, right now it is killing the excitement of the event and makes it hard to figure out what to do to embarrass her as she appears to be an exhibitionist. To add to this she is also very easy to impress and win over, I hope this changes as the story progresses.

To make it really complex, you could:

Have it so you have to lead Frank into the en suite before taking Madison into the bedroom. Have the en suite door shut then open it and tell Frank 'never mind' so he goes back to where he was and walks in on Madison. This is an example of making the story harder and more realistic at the same time. If you open the door to her room while she's naked and leave it would seem a bit odd, but going into the en suite wouldn't be strange at all and she wouldn't expect another person to be in there. I guess this introduces problems with Frank guarding the alcohol if you can tell him to stay somewhere, so I don't know if it could work with the games story as it is now, but it's an example of a more realistic scenario that is also harder to figure out.

Just some opinions from me. Hopefully there can be some sort of half way compromise if the remodeling is too much work.

Thanks for the feedback. Part of the wackiness of the game is by design. Remember, I'm drawing inspiration off of classic games like Leisure Suit Larry where the situations were so absurd, they hardly made any sense at all. Plus I'm confined to a house here. It's a lot harder to be creative and create puzzles in such a small domain. I've already made a mental note that my future games will encompass more of a world. I don't really intend much to go back and rearrange the entire way this game plays because you live and you learn, and going forward I will take what I learn and all of the feedback and pour that into a new creation. And some games I might take a much more serious approach than others, but this one is intended to be silly and quirky. I do also plan on adding a couple of "cutscenes" which will be entirely different scenes probably confined within just a room in the house. The intimacy level of those scenes will be higher and you will feel more secluded with the girls. I just haven't gotten that far in development.

As for the doors, I leave them open because it creates ways to exploit the game when you allow the players to open and close them, so there's that to consider as well.

[mistacorn]

Hey everybody. Exciting news. I’ve decided that there’s enough groundwork done that I’m promoting the game from an Alpha to a Beta. This is great news because it means from here on out I will mostly be working on storyline until House Party is done, and then moving on to another project using the same engine. Don’t worry though, I still plan on working on House Party a bit more before that happens. One thing that’s really cool in this update is that there’s a whole interaction that takes place between two other characters (and you as a bystander). The engine was updated to allow for this type of interaction, which really increases the immersion factor.

Here is the change log:

Refined the radial menu. It should work much better.
Fixed a bug with Stephanie getting bugged for dialogue after wandering into the kitchen.
Moved the Mysterious Key location as a lot of players have complained it was too hard to find.
Added another room onto the house.
Added a new character Rachael.
Implemented some of Rachael’s storyline.
Advanced Brittney’s storyline.
Advanced Ashley’s storyline.
Advanced Frank’s storyline.
Added a mechanic to allow scene-like dialogues to take place.
Updated dialogues so you can simply click on the option to advance.
Updated dialogues so now you use the radial menu to open one rather than walking up to a character.
Updated character behaviors to increase immersion.
Fixed several other bugs.

This is an exciting update because it is adding a lot more story into the mix, and we are starting to see how the party will play out in the end. From here on, I will be working on adding in some alone time with the girls after everybody else has been taken out of the picture.

Here's the link: http://games.eekllc.com

[ltpika]

Nice update, not clear on how to get rid of Frank...

[mistacorn]

Nice update, not clear on how to get rid of Frank...

It's possible now in this build, but you have to get to a certain point in the story for it to happen. Play through to the newly added content and it should eventually become clear what to do.

[nezumi69]

Hmmm, is this the first version also available for 32 bit Windows?

[mistacorn]

Hmmm, is this the first version also available for 32 bit Windows?

Yes, there is a 32 bit build available as well.

[ltpika]

Nice update, not clear on how to get rid of Frank...

It's possible now in this build, but you have to get to a certain point in the story for it to happen. Play through to the newly added content and it should eventually become clear what to do.

I must have fucked up the order, I'm at the end of everybody's content except Ashley and the shy lesbian.

[Reepyr]

Interesting looking game. Downloaded and will give feedback soon!

[ltpika]

Other issues: Britney can block Rachel from exiting the bathroom.

Also would prefer to see completion of existing the storylines before adding more rooms and characters.

[xviii]

I can't figure out how to get the last drink for Ashley either.

I actually still have a drink (rum and coke) that I found under the TV. I never gave it to stephanie and instead gave her the red and white wine.

Was I supposed to not pick up the drink until they asked? If so that seems like a bug.

The other thing I thought might work is trapping frank in a room like the garage as the door is still sparkling like it can be used, but it can't. Same deal with the study.

Other than that the new mechanics and pathfinding (I didn't try the last release) are big improvements, very nice work. It makes a lot of sense what you said about learning from this game rather than re doing everything. I also appreciate the less serious approach you are going for, although I was unsure if this was intentional with the alphas, now it somewhat comes together to work in the beta with everything that can happen. That said I'm glad to hear that you are both looking at an expanded world and some more intimate/private situations for upcoming games.

EDIT:

Ok so I just took the drinks when Frank was out of the room, which still made him try to fight me (as normal) but he was bugged and just ended up facing the wall near the thermostat in a fight stance. This way I could get all the drinks and give ashley the one she wanted. I wondered if that was it, so talked to brittney who asked if I had got ashley the drink yet. Then talking to ashley it was the end of her content. Is all this normal? I'm guessing the frank bug isn't but no idea about the rest or how I'm supposed to get ashley the right drink properly.