KickStarter Memoirs of a Battle Brothel - a NSFW Cyberpunk RPG

[Anonymous Wife Scholar]

Give me cute wifes!

 

[PanDupa]

Is there a way to buy this outside steam? I don't want my friends to see me playing weeb game

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Is there a way to buy this outside steam? I don't want my friends to see me playing weeb game

Itch.io

 

[Tyranicon]

Is there a way to buy this outside steam? I don't want my friends to see me playing weeb game

Itch.io

Thanks, here's a link if anyone wants.

 

[PanDupa]

Is there a way to buy this outside steam? I don't want my friends to see me playing weeb game

Itch.io

Thanks, just bought it, will give it a go at some point

 

[Reinhardt]

Preferably with whole bar watching in disbelief

 

[Anonymous Wife Scholar]

Tyranicon Tyranicon anon! Good strong wifes game developer friend anon! If I do play you game anon can I post you game anon! Can I! Thank you anon! You are a good strong friend anon!

 

[Tyranicon]

If I do play you game anon can I post you game anon!

What!

 

[Anonymous Wife Scholar]

What!

Do not worry anon it is okay anon! It is! Can I post IMPRESSION anon of you game anon! Can I! Thank you anon! You are a good strong friend anon!

 

[Anonymous Wife Scholar]

I will play cute demo anons for cute wifes anons! I will!

 

[Anonymous Wife Scholar]

Tyranicon Tyranicon anon! Good strong wifes game developer friend anon! Diana wife does give me maximum soreness anon! She does! I do suggestion anon you encryption anon you .rpgmvp and .json anon! I do! I do know anon it is nonsense engine anon and you are many cute strong engine adjustment anon but .rpgmvp is simplistic format anon and .json is plain text anon! It is! I will play more cute demo anon for more cute wifes anon and I will tell you anon maximum soreness wifes anon because I am cute heterosexual human male SEA Type 5 wife scholar! I am! You are a good strong friend anon!

 

[Theodora]

Rofl, I was wondering when Dear Scholar would find your work Tyranicon.

This realm of oddly sincere eroge makes for unique and beloved results! (Or at least, sincerely made! I have not seen any brothels quite akin to these! Such a setting would probably be very boring anyway.) While I can never find it in myself to actually play eroge for the eroge haha, I do love what you've hitherto attempted with this, and the art style in particular -- it does not feel cheap! Which is not something you can say for a lot of these sorts of games.

 

[Jonathan "Zee Nekomimi]

Those models would make great hentai content just saying.

 

[Lithium Flower]

Alright Tyranicon, sweet brother, I know it's late but we gotta talk.

Now mind I will hopefully write a full review, many paragraphs long (yes, longer than this,) in my usual slightly psychotic post-modern style. But since I already feel somewhat emotionally involved with you given that I was one of the first people to offer you substantive (and entirely unnecessary) criticism over here - I mean, let's be real, I probably ended up influencing like half of the game - I am compelled to share my preliminary thoughts, as scatterbrained as they may be. You welcome.

I will be focusing on the negatives, not that there isn't plenty of good stuff here. These observations and suggestions will be offered with no regard as to how viable it is to change anything at this point in development. I will try not to be too idealistic, though.

Critique Exoterica (Mechanics, Structure, and so on)

1. Chargen does not provide you enough information nor does it deliver it well. I'm not familiar with the engine enough to know if it is even possible to display descriptions of every option without having to manually select and then back out of everything, but the current system is simply cumbersome and not very respectful of a new player's time. Moreover, it is not stressed that character background has a role to play in dialogues. Neither is a useful impression given of stats like Charisma and Technology, specifically their applications - are they exclusively used in dialogues or are they also used by certain combat builds? Finally, I feel like some of the backgrounds are a little strangely balanced. Corp floater gives +2 to Technology and +1 to Board Rep - must be the politicool class, right? Wrong, motherfucker, because you might as well take Mercenary for +1 to Athletics and +2 to Melee, Ranged, and Stormbreaker reputation - then you get +2 Reputation with another faction by picking an affiliation and now you have 1 more rep in total than the Corp Floater. Perhaps its made up for via class-specific dialogue options.

2. It takes a substantial amount of exposition and dialogue to get to gameplay or meaningful C&C. Simultaneously, foundational elements of the setting are not brought up or explained organically. I feel like you may have achieved the worst of both worlds - a lengthy intro that also doesn't adequately contextualize the events of the game. This exacerbates the above issue because the player will be, well, replaying a lot of shit if they have to reroll their character or simply restart the game. I would perhaps trim the intro down (or simply make more of it optional) and provide a succinct, equally optional summary of recent history and local politics during chargen to alleviate this. I would also have another option to skip the intro that takes the player all the way to the mercantile blockade, if they are feeling impatient.

Critique Esoterica (Truth of Teeth and Thighs)

Listen I really wish you spoke to me earlier about some of this (given that I, the Hero of Hedon, am an authority on these matters) because holy shit you have a lot of good stuff here and then the rest is you shooting yourself in the foot. In fact, going forward, if you could clear all of your decisions with me - that would be great. Because seriously, there is rare potential here, it's just...

Okay, let me preface this by saying that obviously sex and smut are highly subjective. I am not actually claiming to be an authority here. However, I am super curious if you actually polled your playerbase or community about these matters - this is why I was skeptical of your apparent prudishness to begin with, as I felt that perhaps it would not be conducive to you doing serious market analysis up in this business, yo - because I have a feeling that my impressions may reflect a more popular opinion.

Right. So the first thing is that you have at least three fucking art styles, and let's break them down.

1. Pixel art: this in itself could be divided into 3 subtypes: the chibi RPG-maker style character representations that move around the map, the excellent character portraits, and the pixel-animation sex scenes.

2. CG stills: used for full-body character images outside of sex, as well as lewd character shots that are either collectables in the gallery or occasionally punctuate sex scenes.

3. Daz3D renders: used in short loops for the "Free Mode" sex scenes.

Have you ever ran a poll to figure out which of the three the playerbase prefers - both in terms of aesthetic appreciation and sexual titillation? Because I found the pixel art style to be the most compelling aesthetically, and have made for the most enjoyable sex scenes. I don't find the pixel art animations very sexy on their own. However, you have wisely supplemented them with excellent sound/voice work. Moreover, your writing is strong enough to elevate the scenes further (naturally there were certain turns of phrase that did not resonate with me, but as someone who has dabbled in erotica writing, I understand that this is an especially subjective and intimate matter) and provide some very fun characterization, setting apart scenarios that would otherwise be quite similar.

The pixel art seems mostly coherent throughout the game. And yet, the other two styles completely clash with it - and each other. The CGs are great at showcasing the bodies and outfits of the characters, even though there is a disappointing lack of body variety in the game, with 8 of the 9 heroines seemingly having the exact same measurements with flaring hips/thighs and identically sized busts. However, the clean lines and minimalism of the CGs is a very stark contrast to the kind of character and detail the pixel art produces - this is in particular noticeable in the faces. The featureless, child-like CG faces might as well represent completely different characters from the excellent pixel art portraits. The rest of the CGs, frankly, look amateurish. They are simply disappointing knowing that 90% of modern VNs have higher quality art, and personally, still images don't do much for me and many people now that more adult games are putting more emphasis on kinetic, visceral animations which I believe you have already achieved.

And I'm sorry to say but the 3D porn scenes are, perhaps against your expectations, the least tantalizing of the three for me. Not only do the characters look nothing like their CG representations (which already look nothing like their pixel art representations,) you've taken away all the selling points of not only the pixel art scenes but practically your personal brand of pornography, goddamn it, as the 3D sex scenes are deprived of exciting soundwork, interesting writing, and any interaction, being reduced to few second loops. I understand some people may have wanted this - and you should have told them all to fuck off and die. Sorry, I am speaking too rashly. Clearly, you should have conducted a poll to reveal them first, then exiled them like the fucking cancerous scum-of-the-earth tasteless porn-plebeian smegma-on-the-brain phimosis-plagued horde of uninspired shitwits they are.

I believe the unique appeal of an adult RPG like this is getting to know your lovers holistically - as characters, as mechanical party members, and as titillating representations - with each one of the aforementioned aspects being strengthened and contextualized by the rest. Certainly, for me there is a certain visceral appeal in knowing that I am engaging with a mound of pixels in a strictly mechanical context in one moment and then savagely despoiling it the next. However, when the character looks completely different in every scene, both their context and that priceless illusion of continuity is shattered. You know, my prostate is actually a pretty nice guy - he can get used to quite a lot of things. However, he needs time and a consistent pace of stimulation to adjust, and you are toying with him far too quickly and roughly for comfort. Same with my rectum. And my ureth-

Anyway, I have no idea what's possible at this stage, but if I could go back in time just once in my life, instead of killing Hitler, or maybe stopping 9/11, or like shooting my mother in the stomach while she was pregnant with me, I'd talk you out of spreading yourself thin and get you to just focus on the pixel art. For instance, you could add more events, have the animations and sfx actually reflect each interactions, or make the sex scenes more dynamic by introducing a randomized chance of the heroine taking the lead by picking options for you or perhaps even ending the scene by getting you to orgasm early - have it feel less like you are just repeating a single branching sex scene and more like you are participating in a semi-dynamic encounter. Or use the fact that the pixel art animations are pretty basic to your advantage to place them in the game world instead of a black background, opening the door to actual public sex and watching your courtesans servicing their patrons - these scenarios are fantasies typical to the brothel setting and would pull in the more kinky crowds as well, and could be made optional since the game doesn't feature them at present.

Yeah I know the content pipeline for the pixel art scenes is different from that of the rest of the art but ultimately my blackpill take is that I don't think most of the CGs, and the 3d loops in particular, add much to the experience for the money I'm guessing you spent to commission them. The pixel art, where pretty visceral if low-detail animations CUM (haha get it) together with good sounds and your solid writing is clearly where the pornographic content of the game is uniquely competent. This is your shit. This is what I would focus on, expand, and never lose sight of. I want you to love this. I want you to love yourself. I want you to love yourself because I will always love you. If you ever need anything - don't hesitate to ask. You need not go far; I'm always close by. But now I'm going to sleep. And turn the alarm on your phone down please, I usually don't get up until its past noon.

 

[Tyranicon]

Alright Tyranicon, sweet brother, I know it's late but we gotta talk...

Thanks for the writeup, I greatly appreciate it.

Perhaps everything can be explained by some lack of time, lack of money or lack of experience. Ultimately, like all my other games, Memoirs is a learning experience. The mess of systems, broadness of content, and relatively large scope is all due to my desire to experiment.

In the end I have come much to the same conclusions as you, and I'll be carrying over that knowledge to future games.

In particular, I'm not an artist, which made mashing a bunch of unrelated assets together a challenge. But for my next project at least, I'll have a dedicated artist onboard.

I believe the unique appeal of an adult RPG like this is getting to know your lovers holistically - as characters, as mechanical party members, and as titillating representations - with each one of the aforementioned aspects being strengthened and contextualized by the rest.

I agree this is the strongest selling point of the game, and of this "serious porn RPG genre" as a whole.

In case you were curious about how your opinions stacked up with the rest of the player base, from what I've seen:

• Players generally like the CGs more than the pixel art
• You are possibly the only person who actually likes the pixel art portraits.
  
• Don't have enough 3d renders for a real test (and it's a bonus feature anyway) but people like the static 3d renders, but not the animated ones
• People do find the art styles to clash, because they obviously do
  
• People find chargen confusing, and I agree. Maybe it's something I'll fix later on.

We're pretty late in development, but I'll continue to polish existing features as we go. If everything goes well I'll launch the game out of Early Access around June/July.

 

[Greek Anime God]

but as someone who has dabbled in erotica writing

Liiiinks!!!

 

[hello friend]

Careful what you wish for, friend

 

[lukaszek]

lack of experience

you can start by asking some grillz out

 

[just]

>You are possibly the only person who actually likes the pixel art portraits.
theres two of us

i sorta agree, should have stayed with pixel art porn, maybe made it higher res or something
it is what it is now

 

[Anonymous Wife Scholar]

• People find chargen confusing, and I agree. Maybe it's something I'll fix later on.

I am cute heterosexual human male SEA Type 5 wife scholar! I am!

 

[Lithium Flower]

Alright Tyranicon, sweet brother, I know it's late but we gotta talk...

Thanks for the writeup, I greatly appreciate it.

I'm glad that is the case. I want to stress that my write-up ignores the vast majority of the stuff I actually enjoyed / am intrigued by, and is pretty much pure unrestrained pathos. If the consensus of your community or the flow of the money cuts against my raw feels then that is all fair and good. However, I do feel strangely protective of, like, the sanctity of your vision and shit. Perhaps this is in part motivated by the fact that you and the project resonate with me, though with crucial differences, namely that my own attempts to make something grotesque and profound never advanced beyond design documents and onanistic aids.

I suppose a part of me wishes to be a person a decade or two from now who could, perhaps after taking a drag of a cigarette, half-whisper to an old friend with a kind of measured melancholy, "I was inspired by Tyranicon - well, his earlier stuff. You know...before he went mainstream." Except I want to be that person now, which is pure self-indulgence, and I will save the exploration of such psychotic dreams for the full review should it ever materialize.

Liiiinks!!!

I don't mean to upstage the thread so all I will say is this: there is a ton of my satirical erotica peppering the codex, which shouldn't be hard to find if you know what to ask of the search engine. My lips are sealed in regards to anything else.

 

[Humanity has risen!]

I'm waiting for version 1.0 but I'll be sure to play your game the moment that version comes out. Kudos for making such an ambitious and novel game in spite of your limitations as an indie.

 

[Ismaul]

I

You?

In this den of sin? Say it isn't so!

 

[Humanity has risen!]

I

You?

In this den of sin? Say it isn't so!

I want to play it because of its SRPG gameplay and CnC, not because of the anime chicks.

 

[Ismaul]

not because of the anime chicks

We know.