Closed Beta Discussion

[Sad Panda Studios]

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!THERE MIGHT BE SPOILERS IN THIS THREAD !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Setting this up for the closed beta (going out to the Kickstarter backers) so there's a place to leave their feedback/comments/bug reports after trying out the demo :)
---------
Notes (10-29-2021)

-Many chapters have 1 static pose for each character, so they’ll look a bit static. This is because Artist Panda is still working on additional outfits and was waiting for final script adjustments before hooking up each piece of art to each line of dialogue. It’s a long process, but it’s getting there.

-There’s no voiced audio YET; we’re still waiting on some actors to finish recording their files, then we’ll need time to edit and master everything so it all sounds pretty and has cohesive volume levels etc.

-Extra content like the Sir Vicks lewd photo quests aren’t implemented yet.

-Placeholder art is everywhere - All the map locations have placeholder art for the icons, some CGs/backgrounds are missing so we’ll just have a WIP image, things like that. It’s still worth letting us know if anything looks wrong (but we might already be aware of it) - there will definitely be some intentional placeholder-y looking things.

-Achievements/Schedule/Gallery/Credits pages aren’t hooked up yet, but soon they will be! We just want to make sure the core game is polished up first.

-Game balance is not really balanced; most of the initial balance was made by first guesses but after we play the game more and have other people trying it out we can refine the numbers to make sure it’s actually beatable, and not too challenging.

-NSFW content and animations aren’t in yet. The CG animations are all done we just haven’t hooked them up yet - and that also includes NSFW character pose art too. Some scenes skip over extra content because it's NSFW. Even if you have the Panda pass it won't load that content yet, because we need to sort out special checks for those scenes.

-Some functionality might not be complete - example like the save/load is halfway done. There might be some wonkiness in some of the other features - let us know if you find any bugs!

[jovenowino]

This was a lot of fun to play through, I went from start to finish about 8 times.

1) The only bug I really noticed was during Iro's jogging date:
when you get to ask her the serious/inappropriate/ridiculous questions, whichever you choose first the music will suddenly stop and won't resume until you choose the next question.
2) One thing that did bother me was when making choices, the negative and neutral choices have the same sound effect while the positive choice has a distinct sound.
3) I'm sure it will get more fleshed out in later builds but it didn't seem to be repercussions for doing the 'purple' choices (violence, manipulation, etc.) and made me wonder why they were there.
4) I'm also curious how the secrets work because I could't get Bon's or Eli's secret to unlock and was confused if that was bad or would screw me over later in the game. OR if i would get a 2nd chance to unlock them.
5) I gotta say, The character design was phenomenal. They pop really well but it definitely seemed some characters got more love than others. Quill and Elle seemed kinda 'flat' while Lotus or Iro really stood out, especially the wide range of facial emotes Lotus has. Also the Nimh and Lotus event was SO FUNNY and really fleshed out characters I didn't know too well. It was a welcoming perception change that instead of romancing Lotus, you instead help her love life; it was so much fun and definitely a highlight of the demo to me. I now ship them~
6) During the beginning beach scene when Iro screams "eek" and the text pops out and shakes, that was such a small feature that really captured my interest but I was really sad when nothing like it happened again throughout the demo. I would love to see more things like that.

I enjoyed the demo a lot and it really made me excited to play more. Keep up the good work~!

[Sad Panda Studios]

We just pushed a new build and typed up a little update to go along with it here: HERE

[ShrimpFry]

How do I join the early access?

[Nyanta]

The update looks good! If I could just throw in a couple of QoL requests- a master volume slider is always welcome, when you like the relative levels but need to turn up or down the whole thing. I'd also love to have an option to change the text scroll speed, and have an option to make it instant. I read a lot faster than it displays right now, so I end up doubling my clicks.

I'd also just like to say, I love how you've interpreted the characters for this more lively world. The new characters (or maybe from Blush Blush?) are really interesting too, especially Eli. The artwork, as always, is on point. The music is good. The writing is solid, and all those ominous hooks you've scattered through the demo definitely have me intrigued. I'm excited to see why everyone keeps saying the town is so unsafe, and who Quill was running away from that was so dangerous that she'd trust a sketchy marshmallow like me over fending for herself.

[mysticluster]

Originally posted by DoThe:

How do I join the early access?

This isn't an early access, this is a Beta for the people who helped Kickstart the game.

[Mikke]

Originally posted by PrincessShethra:

*raises hand* is there a link for the kickstarter page? I will totally give you some money!

There is indeed a kickstarter, however I do not believe it is open anymore. According to Bijuu Mike, there was only a week left of it, and that was 2 years ago. So I don't think so, we'll just have to wait. The sad think is I would've totally pledged on the kickstarter if only I didn't forget this game after I saw it on the announcements when it was first announced.

[Mikke]

Originally posted by mysticluster:

Originally posted by DoThe:

How do I join the early access?

This isn't an early access, this is a Beta for the people who helped Kickstart the game.

Well, Steam begs to differ, but I guess that's just because the devs ticked off the option to indicate it.

[mysticluster]

Originally posted by ミケバク:

Originally posted by mysticluster:

This isn't an early access, this is a Beta for the people who helped Kickstart the game.

Well, Steam begs to differ, but I guess that's just because the devs ticked off the option to indicate it.

Correct, although it is marked as an "early access", that is not what this is.

[moonie442001]

I've had this in my wishlist for so long. I was way too late for the Kickstarter (try 2 years), so is there a way to play the beta even if you didn't back the game? Because I just LOVE both Blush Blush and Crush Crush so much, I REALLY wanna try this one!! I totally would have backed it had I known about it. I don't remember when I started doing the two games on Nutaku but once I heard about Hush Hush or read it on the website I started googling it and thus found out about the missed Kickstarter.

[mysticluster]

Originally posted by moonie442001:

I've had this in my wishlist for so long. I was way too late for the Kickstarter (try 2 years), so is there a way to play the beta even if you didn't back the game? Because I just LOVE both Blush Blush and Crush Crush so much, I REALLY wanna try this one!! I totally would have backed it had I known about it. I don't remember when I started doing the two games on Nutaku but once I heard about Hush Hush or read it on the website I started googling it and thus found out about the missed Kickstarter.

Well, if you are a Patron of Sad Panda Studios on Patreon, you can send them a message there and see if they'll give you access. They're pretty great people, so they might be willing to do that for you if you're giving them money for other stuff already, even if you didn't pay on Kickstarter. I know that after I dropped a bunch of money on Kickstarter for this game, they told me that I didn't have to pay for anything else anymore if I didn't want to (although I still prefer to continue supporting on Patreon and stuff, more money for them is always good.) Fingers crossed, this game has me quite excited so I'm sure you'll enjoy it too if you get to try it out!

[moonie442001]

Originally posted by mysticluster:

Well, if you are a Patron of Sad Panda Studios on Patreon, you can send them a message there and see if they'll give you access. They're pretty great people, so they might be willing to do that for you if you're giving them money for other stuff already, even if you didn't pay on Kickstarter. I know that after I dropped a bunch of money on Kickstarter for this game, they told me that I didn't have to pay for anything else anymore if I didn't want to (although I still prefer to continue supporting on Patreon and stuff, more money for them is always good.) Fingers crossed, this game has me quite excited so I'm sure you'll enjoy it too if you get to try it out!

I wasn't up until a few seconds ago. Sent them a message expressing my interest in trying the game.

[moonie442001]

Absolutely LOVING this game more and more. It's a bummer that you can't really save your progress, though I know once the game is there it will do that. Got to a sexy moment with Mio at the Arcade, of course scene not available until the game release but that wasn't a biggy. Haven't gone for the purple stats, at first went for Buff and another stat to level up.

[jpeterso]

Loving it so far! I was up way too late doing 'just one more day'.
I noticed one save bug: Saving at Dawn at home before the Skills/Jobs choice, when loaded will bring me to the map, with nowhere to go.
I seem to have missed a few messages and a few dates. I'll have to pay more attention and see if the [!] is always showing up when something new happens.

[jpeterso]

In the third week, I asked Iro to reschedule her date because of a conflict, the event never showed up, even when I confirmed it with her.

It took a few tries but I made it to the end. I went full light side, and had enough skills and money to to finish. It's easy to mess up at the start, but once you get ahead of the curve its not hard to stay there.

And the ending. Wow. I was legit tearing up in places. Beautiful work.

Looking forward to the finished game!

[Robbie IronWill (Sharker5000)]

So I've been playing this game non-stop since you all released it and so far I've been loving it, however there have been a few things I wish were improved or made more clear. Also, to be clear: I have only been able to get to day 20ish without restarting and have restarted fully about three times. All of my playthroughs have been with light.

*I know the schedule is already going to be added at a later date, but the game is super hard to manage without it for someone like me. There have been times where I miss out on entire dates because I forget and I can't get their secret.

*The first week's stat requirements are very frustrating, specifically Tech-Savvy, Suave, and Luck. This is mainly to do with the fact that to get all of Mio's options, you'd have to either spend your first two free times training Tech-Savvy (Which means no coffee or no Mystic), or push the date back a day or two which feels unintuitive and could cause you to miss further dates. Suave and Luck on the other hand, don't have enough low requirement events for you to build up those stats without training them a whole bunch. They're fine later on, but during the first week they can be near impossible to get without focusing on them and missing out on the stats to help out the other three girls.

*Getting money for Cassie's date is also really difficult. Getting that amount of money with how quickly the date comes up (I think on day 4) is asking too much from the player to sacrifice as I'm pretty sure that it would mean that you'd miss out on Mio's secret as well. There is the option to postpone the date until at least the 5th so that you can get the 1000$ from helping Ruri, but once again, I have the feeling that making the players postpone dates isn't something to force them to do if they want to ace the dates. Lawyer would require 2 uses plus some extra cash. Having it lowered just a bit would be really nice, or possibly increasing the amount of money earned over all on the light side. I understand that it's probably much easier with dark work, but I think it should still be possible as long as you work towards it.

*Sometimes when I buy coffee, it gives me a stat other then motivation. Is this a bug or a feature? I'm honestly unsure as it made it so I couldn't get keep up with Iron on our run as it gave me Tech-Savvy instead of the motivation I was expecting.

*So this one is a bit of a spoiler, but maybe Mystic should warn the player about events that lead to the death of characters. For an example: Iro will die if you do not have 20 motivation to convince her not to jump the ramp. This is very easy as by this point, most players have 20 motivation, but at the same time, it wasn't really telegraphed before the event and could ruin a player's run.

*Lastly, I think there should be an option to go back to the start of the week. Sometimes I miss an event, or make a bad decision, and all my saves are past that point. This would help make messing something up still have consequences, but not force the player to start from square one, especially if they have a really good run. This could be done by Autosaving on the start of the 1st, 8th, 15th, and so on.

*A minor bug is that when the dialog loads, it will automatically skip to the next set of dialog even if the first set never finished loading in.

*A minor bug is that when you check your contacts at the end of dates (I think I found this one on Mio's third if I recall), returning to the date rewards screen will instead show the last background with no textbox and no way to move forward (Had to reload my save).

Thanks again for working so hard on this game. I'm sure there are people asking for release windows and whatnot, but just know to take your time and have fun! Sorry for the long list of stuff. Have a great day SPS!