discussion Player first, dev second (just released my first Ren'Py game), so here's what I'd tell devs from the player side:

[afterglow]

1. Don't forget Mac players. I play on a Mac and so many games ship Windows only. Ren'Py builds Mac in one click.

2. Keep saves working between updates. Nothing kills my interest faster than "start a new game" after waiting a month.

3. Make choices feel like they matter. Eternum and Agent17 do this well: you can feel the story bending around what you picked. If a choice changes nothing, cut it.

4. Tag honestly, especially NTR. Fans want to find it, people who hate it want to avoid it. Say clearly if there's an avoidable path.

5. Post a changelog with every update. A simple "what's new" list builds more trust than a big promise.

Learning all of this the hard way now on my own project

 

[AdamastorBino]

Good Luck with your project.

 

[FuckShitStudio]

What games don't ship Mac? Never seen one that didn't. Android? Sure, usually because of size limitations, but I always see Mac.

I disagree on the choices. There should be big ones that matter, but there should also surface choices that change dialogue in the moment. Not every choice needs to matter long-term. I'd argue this advice is more of a mistake/detriment to overall production quality than choices not mattering is.

 

[poiu0921]

2. Keep saves working between updates. Nothing kills my interest faster than "start a new game" after waiting a month.

This.
I stoped playing a lot of games because the new update don't work with previous saves and one thing i hate is losing progress.
I love Straitened Times because of this, the devs made so you have a alternative way of saving to transfer your older saves to newer versions.

 

[SilentHunter]

.3. Make choices feel like they matter. Eternum and Agent17 do this well: you can feel the story bending around what you picked. If a choice changes nothing, cut it.

Everything is very reasonable and to the point, except that the quoted paragraph caused confusion.If choices don't matter, then this is not a GAME, but a kinetic novel, this is a category of electronic comics (or picture books), nothing more, due to the lack of gameplay. Everything else does not raise any questions, I completely agree with you.

 

[i_patchy]

Everything is very reasonable and to the point, except that the quoted paragraph caused confusion.If choices don't matter, then this is not a GAME, but a kinetic novel, this is a category of electronic comics (or picture books), nothing more, due to the lack of gameplay. Everything else does not raise any questions, I completely agree with you.

- a lot of games just present themselves as non kinetic but are kinetic in practice. They have choices, but those at best affect next few lines of text or allow to skip a scene. In reality majority of AVN's are kinetic. They have fixed linear stories without any alternative routes.

 

[SilentHunter]

- a lot of games just present themselves as non kinetic but are kinetic in practice. They have choices, but those at best affect next few lines of text or allow to skip a scene. In reality majority of AVN's are kinetic. They have fixed linear stories without any alternative routes.

Alas, I have repeatedly had to deal with this.