That's an understandable philosophy. And one I can respect and used to ascribe to myself. I also understand the pressure of having to put out content fast, please don't burn yourself out! If you need to take a break your players will understand.
One small thing I could suggest that may help ease confusion is to replace the "Not yet available" messages with "Not yet implemented" as 'available' is quite ambiguous and doesn't tell the player if they are missing something or if it's just not there, where "implemented" is more clear on that end.
For the the trading hall though, that one is harder, right now it is an avoidable example of a "wall" which serves no purpose other than to frustrate players.
What made me turn around and get fix these in my games was watching a video by the youtuber Josh Strife Hayes called "The Quit Moment". While it mostly deals with MMOs, I felt it applies in any game in a broader sense!
Of course, whether you want to go about changing it or not is up to you. An option if you don't want to outright remove it is to just make it feel less overwhelming.
For example by telling the player something like. "This looks like it will be a pain, but you should be able to make a path if you can just convince a few people to move out of the way." when they interact with their first obstacle NPC.
That way the player won't feel like they -have- to satisfy everyone there right away!
Shia Nakada
Recent community posts
Don't worry, I totally understand! As I said you really have something amazing going on! I know the intricacies that come with gamedev, especially such a grand project. I also note that you do try to take some anti-frustration methods (The shortcut teleporters for example, Thank heavens for those!)
The scenes you do have are nice, even if not catered to my sexual preferences they are well written and enjoyable to read just for that sake. For the character interactions and the plot. (Yeah, I'm watching this porn for the plot, who'd guess?)
That being said... After having mentioned how you clearly try your best to care for your players... We have to have a serious talk about the trading-hall-from-hell, the part where you have two rooms with nothing but NPCs wanting you to fetch things from all over the world... W-why?... For what reason? Who is this for?
As a game developer and writer you sometimes have to ask yourself "Does this make the game better? Is this fun? Does it add important lore? Does it further character growth? Does it progress the story?" The answer to all of these seems to not just be 'no' but it seems to actively do the opposite for most of them. It...baffles me... don't get me wrong! Part of me thinks the concept is hilarious! But actually having to play through it... not as much.
I kept finding myself coming back to the game because it intrigued me, that was my stopping point... It just felt so pointlessly tedious for the sake of being pointless and tedious. In the end I looked it up on the wiki and decided that, even with that, it was a chore... After having figured everything else up till then out, it wasn't a long-lasting uncomfortable fetish scene that broke me, it was the "trading hall from hell"
So I end with the question, is there a reason it has to be like that? I felt the love and care you put into every facet of the game, how you hook the player and take them on a wild ride... So... why?
Warning, long "review "ahead, all of this is opinion, and does not detract from the fact that this project is clearly made with a lot of love.
After playing a bit more, I have to say your character writing and world-building are phenomenal, which makes me sad to admit that despite that, the game just isn't for me.
While I can tell you do a lot to cater to everyone's desires, the result is that if you have very specific wants (In my case, a cute futanari/trap who isn't a total doormat) you end up wandering for hours and often left wanting.
The game just isn't great at hinting what to do next, at multiple points I progressed by trial and error, doing things like purchasing a random item that seemed unrelated to anything or running into walls that had nothing to differentiate themselves from other walls.
Even so, you eventually end up at the point where every NPC is just looping their dialogue, quests are stuck at the [not available yet] stage and you can't tell if that is because it's not yet implemented (Because sometimes the game outright tells you that, others it doesn't) or you haven't completed another quest line far enough... Or maybe you missed another easily overlooked item in a store you haven't bought.
Then you end up where I am, reluctantly doing things you know you aren't into and make you uncomfortable because nothing else seems to work. After all, despite disabling it, the the 'main story' made me go through a long dismemberment section which (despite offering to skip it,) it insisted was important. It also made me purposefully get infected by a flesh parasite to progress another quest line (despite having also disabled parasites). This leads to a feeling that doing extreme content that you're not into is not optional.
Then, if you didn't max out all stats in the beginning because you wanted some progression, you end up grinding for hours in case the lock is an arbitrary stat requirement (Which the game informs you of with varying consistency)
In the end, the lack of guidance and feeling you have to do things you don't like in hopes you might find the small pockets of content you do want make for a frustrating experience in an otherwise really solid game.
TL;DR/Conclusion
You crafted something amazing and special. It's a lack of direction and sections that made me feel awkward combined with sparse content that did excite me that made me realize it's just not my cup of tea. 'Trial and error' just isn't as fun when it feels like it forces me to engage with things I dislike.
Still, I will throw a couple of dollars your way to show my appreciation for your hard work, Please keep it up! Maybe one day when it's finished and I'm less of a wuss I will pick it up again!
So the main character 'can' grow a cock... The thing I am asking is, are there other girls that have that power? And is growing it as the player integral to progressing?
I am <technically> a switch but my appetite for games where I am the one doing the dicking-down is very much sated to bursting. Games where you are a girl getting dicked down by other girls are much more rare.
Is there something in here for me?
Really nifty game so far! Just wondering, so far all the futanari content (And the lone femboy) have been super submissive and rather limited. (Also it seems that none of them have the ability to impregnate the player)
It's pretty good but I can't help but think, am missing anything or is that pretty much it? No hope for a more switchy/dominant futa character encounter or a rare futanari (variant) enemy that can pin me down and put their baby inside me? (Or even just to make kitty give me his kittens?)
Regardless, It's really amazing, might not be 'it' for me, but loving the characters and world-building!