Super Fuzzy Beach Dater - Retro visual novel/adventure game

[TanteiSakana]

For a while now, I've been working on a dating sim, and one of the most exciting features of the latest version is that the engine has been rewritten entirely in LÖVE! To the best of my knowledge, it's one of a small handful of visual novels made with LÖVE, and works in some point-and-click adventure game elements as well.

If you could play it and let me know what you think, that would help out a bunch.

Get the game here:

• https://tanteisakana.itch.io/sfbd-demo
  (Note: While the game doesn't show anything explicit, it often pushes the boundaries of SFW. Also, it has furries. Viewer discretion advised.)

Behind the scenes:

• Weekly devlog
• Me drawing the font
• Early footage of point-and-click code

Screenshots:
(Note: These are taken in the 360p mode, which is currently a bit glitchy in the shipped version. Will update soon.)

[Ratchet]

Nice style and I like games like that. I'll go and check it out

[ivan]

Hey TanteiSakana, I tried your demo and it's OK it works fine.
I like the idea of dealing with serious issues through an absurd/funny premise.
The "furry transgender dater" plot is fine, but where the novel falls flat for me is the dialog.
I think the dialog needs to be more subtle and mature in order to be believable.
Dialog trees would be good too.
20 minutes of Jean reminiscing about his past (way too early on IMO) just isn't a great way to develop that character.
I'm not a writer but you want the novel to move forward in a "show and don't tell" fashion.
It's a decent start (good job on the art), but it just didn't appeal to me as an adult.

[TanteiSakana]

Nice style and I like games like that. I'll go and check it out

Thanks! Please be sure to let me know you think.

Hey TanteiSakana, I tried your demo and it's OK it works fine.
I like the idea of dealing with serious issues through an absurd/funny premise.
The "furry transgender dater" plot is fine, but where the novel falls flat for me is the dialog.
I think the dialog needs to be more subtle and mature in order to be believable.
Dialog trees would be good too.
20 minutes of Jean reminiscing about his past (way too early on IMO) just isn't a great way to develop that character.
I'm not a writer but you want the novel to move forward in a "show and don't tell" fashion.
It's a decent start (good job on the art), but it just didn't appeal to me as an adult.

I'm glad the game works okay. I'm surprised at how few glitches people are finding, to be honest.

I'm continually revising the script and moving scenes around to improve flow and pacing issues, so it's possible some of the issues you had with the writing be fixed in future versions.

You'll have to be more specific about how you felt the dialogue was unnatural for me to be able to say much more than that, though.

[ivan]

You'll have to be more specific about how you felt the dialogue was unnatural for me to be able to say much more than that, though.

Not really an issue, just pointing out that the dialog is too goofy to be targeted toward adults.

"I haven't slept with a mermaid yet. Always wanted to, though. Any around here?"
"T-They come up on shore a fair amount."
"Sweet!"

It's fine if you want to keep it lighthearted, but this is a "dater sim" about relationships, right?
We want to see how the relationship develops between Jean and the protagonist over time and through different situations.
Jean coming out right off the bat and the subsequent conversation didn't work for me at all (too early, long and irrelevant).
I feel that I should have been given the choice to interrupt that conversation and move on.
It's good that there are details like "examine the door plaque" but this needs to be optional.
What I'm saying is that the game needs to be more clear where you have to click in order to advance the story (something obvious like "click on the door knob to open the door").
One thing I found confusing is that the graphics are sometimes in 1st person and sometimes in 3rd person.
This needs to be more clear in the beginning since I wasn't sure which one was the protagonist.
The music needs work too. Something easy-listening would be more appropriate.
Good luck!

[zorg]

You'll have to be more specific about how you felt the dialogue was unnatural for me to be able to say much more than that, though.

Not really an issue, just pointing out that the dialog is too goofy to be targeted toward adults.

"I haven't slept with a mermaid yet. Always wanted to, though. Any around here?"
"T-They come up on shore a fair amount."
"Sweet!"

It's fine if you want to keep it lighthearted, but this is a "dater sim" about relationships, right?

I somewhat want to agree? but only because in my mind, games like the leisure suit larry series (as examples) are both adult-oriented and completely goofy as heck; but with dating sims/vn-s, it's a bit more involved i think? People probably will have bigger expectations on the writing and the scene direction in the latter kind of software than in the former, i'd say.

[ivan]

There are goofy dating sims too like Hatoful Boyfriend (which SFBD possibly draws inspiration from) and Dream Daddy.

[TanteiSakana]

I somewhat want to agree? but only because in my mind, games like the leisure suit larry series (as examples) are both adult-oriented and completely goofy as heck; but with dating sims/vn-s, it's a bit more involved i think? People probably will have bigger expectations on the writing and the scene direction in the latter kind of software than in the former, i'd say.

There are goofy dating sims too like Hatoful Boyfriend (which SFBD possibly draws inspiration from) and Dream Daddy.

In my experience, lighthearted sex comedies are more common in dating sims/VNs than other genres, and even moreso with furry content, so I think the tone of the game is pretty in line with people's expectations.

In fact, from what I've seen, the game may be not goofy or sexy enough, and amping that up a bit more might make it more marketable. At the moment, I'm trying to not unnecessarily alienate people not into this sort of thing, but it's possible that this is just making the game equally unappealing to everyone.

It's fine if you want to keep it lighthearted, but this is a "dater sim" about relationships, right?
We want to see how the relationship develops between Jean and the protagonist over time and through different situations.
Jean coming out right off the bat and the subsequent conversation didn't work for me at all (too early, long and irrelevant).
I feel that I should have been given the choice to interrupt that conversation and move on.
It's good that there are details like "examine the door plaque" but this needs to be optional.
What I'm saying is that the game needs to be more clear where you have to click in order to advance the story (something obvious like "click on the door knob to open the door").
One thing I found confusing is that the graphics are sometimes in 1st person and sometimes in 3rd person.
This needs to be more clear in the beginning since I wasn't sure which one was the protagonist.
The music needs work too. Something easy-listening would be more appropriate.
Good luck!

I'm going to attempt to address usability issues in the next demo. Things like drawing a new door background that includes a clickable doorknob are definitely a possibility. And there could be engine changes to help with this.

With the writing, though, my main priority is going to be writing more of the game. The art style necessitates a lot of planning, and changing major plot elements could set me back for a very long time, so once I make major plot choices, I'm committing to them. Things like Jean opening up to the protagonist early on are not going to change. But changing those parts to flow better is a possibility.

The other points may naturally be addressed by the game continuing. This demo focuses a lot on exposition, after all, and I'm constantly tweaking the graphics and sound as well.