VN/TEXT [Marble Syrup] Crusoe Had It Easy

[marblesyrup]

Hi guys, I'm part of Marble Syrup, and we've just released a visual novel called Crusoe Had It Easy, alternatively titled: Help! I Have Through No Fault of My Own Found Myself Inadvertently Stranded on a Desert Island in the Tropics with My Hopelessly Hot Cousin

url: newgrounds.com/portal/view/660850

And that's exactly what the game is about. We've worked really hard on it, and we're quite happy with how it's been received sofar (4.27/5 on NG).

If you're iffy about even light incest, you can type "notsoclose" on the start screen with the open book (there's no specific cheat menu, just type it right in). We have a bunch of other cheats for those supporting us on our Patreon that go the other way, if that's your thing. (brother/sister, dad/daughter).

We released the game on NG about a week ago. We still have a few bugs to iron out but it's all coming together quite nicely now (if I may say so myself)

Feedback much appreciated!

__
Apologies for not including a clickable link - I haven't made 15 posts yet, so the editor won't allow me. I'd feel odd spamming random threads just to hit 15 though, so I figured this might be OK. I will make 15 posts, but in my own time! Also I already waited over a month for this account to be activated :'(

 

[markus0i]

Re: Crusoe Had It Easy

Simple and short for a VN, but well done for what it is. I like the options you mentioned here.

 

[marblesyrup]

Re: Crusoe Had It Easy

Thanks! It is fairly short, yes, but the script is actually still over 100 pages long (though that includes stuff like Commentary Mode and all the separate lines for the different cheats). We want to do longer stuff in the future too but it takes its time.

 

[YummyTiger]

Re: Crusoe Had It Easy

I thoroughly enjoyed that. Definitely one of the better Flash games I've played, and insanely better than the typical "Meet & Fuck" stuff. Major kudos!

When I start actually running pledged updates on my Patreon, I'll definitely throw some support your way. I'd love to play more! Now, I just need to figure out this one, got 3 of the endings so far.

 

[marblesyrup]

Re: Crusoe Had It Easy

Thank you, Yummy! Much appreciated!

 

[thswherizat]

Re: Crusoe Had It Easy

I've only been able to get the two most obvious endings, nothing happens or "you-da-rapist". Are the other 5 only available to Patrons? I've tried most of the combinations, I think.

 

[marblesyrup]

Re: Crusoe Had It Easy

The only things that are exclusive to Patreons is a set of CGs and the cheatcodes. You're not locked out of any of the endings.

There's three variations on the rape ending, three variations on the non-rape ending, and one kind of separate rape ending.

I'll give a hint: the most important variable in the game is how much Sophie likes you.

 

[BoobieMan]

Re: Crusoe Had It Easy

True ending is nice.
Good game.
Thanks for sharing.

 

[alimagno619]

Re: Crusoe Had It Easy

Well, for one.
It would be nice to be able to quick save at the least when making decisions.

*still going through it*

 

[marblesyrup]

Re: Crusoe Had It Easy

Well, for one.
It would be nice to be able to quick save at the least when making decisions.

*still going through it*

you can! but we could have made it clearer. keyboard shortcut "Q". (press "K" in-game to see the full list of keyboard shortcuts)

 

[SoaringSpirit]

Re: Crusoe Had It Easy

I've been spending way too much time on this already. Also, my favourite thing by far is the morning where her top is loose. But I guess that's just me being a voyeuristic perv

 

[Gromelon]

Re: Crusoe Had It Easy

Seven save files in a VN? I don't remember picking out Hard difficulty..

 

[Anon42]

Re: Crusoe Had It Easy

Gotta say, as far as free flash games go, this is a great experience! I played through it all last night, and while it does fall into some of the same traps most VN's do (unclear dialogue choices and repercussions for instance), the short length of the game helps to mitigate its shortcomings. One thing is that for a game so focused on text, there really are quite a lot of typos - might want to make proofreading a priority in the future! However, the dialogue is nicely written despite that, and the story it tells is interesting. I'd agree that you should make it more clear that there are keyboard shortcuts, but keep up this level of work and I'll definitely be keeping an eye on your projects in the future!

I would like to point out one major thing that bugged me though:

Spoiler

It took me a very long time to get the 'good' ending, specifically because I insisted on staying with her after the snakebite. You are unable to get the dialogue choice to give her the leftover roots (they are automatically given to her), which prevents you from gaining those crucial happiness points with her, despite picking the option that seems the most caring. It took me a long time to figure out why I couldn't get her to like me, and it was a bit frustrating to realize that was why.

 

[jadex]

Re: Crusoe Had It Easy

That ending said, "True ending" So even though i've only unlocked 4 I'm going to call it there unless I can find a complete walkthrough.

That being said, I did enjoy this game. I had wished that different decisions would influence what happens later in the game and change events rather than just relationships, but I do understand how much more work that would be....and maybe with all the extra choices and endings I wouldn't actually want that.

Anyways this game was very good. It offered a lot of choices, some of which made you pay attention. It was an interesting setting with good CG and great writing (A lot of us can relate to missing 10GB of porn if we were stuck on an island eh?).

I suppose my questions wouldn't actually be related to this game, but if there's going to be another? I did enjoy this one quite a bit. Also I noticed you have other files hosted on NG, are they anything like this game?

 

[marblesyrup]

Re: Crusoe Had It Easy

Gotta say, as far as free flash games go, this is a great experience! I played through it all last night, and while it does fall into some of the same traps most VN's do (unclear dialogue choices and repercussions for instance), the short length of the game helps to mitigate its shortcomings. One thing is that for a game so focused on text, there really are quite a lot of typos - might want to make proofreading a priority in the future! However, the dialogue is nicely written despite that, and the story it tells is interesting. I'd agree that you should make it more clear that there are keyboard shortcuts, but keep up this level of work and I'll definitely be keeping an eye on your projects in the future!

I would like to point out one major thing that bugged me though:

Spoiler

It took me a very long time to get the 'good' ending, specifically because I insisted on staying with her after the snakebite. You are unable to get the dialogue choice to give her the leftover roots (they are automatically given to her), which prevents you from gaining those crucial happiness points with her, despite picking the option that seems the most caring. It took me a long time to figure out why I couldn't get her to like me, and it was a bit frustrating to realize that was why.

Thanks Anon42! That means a lot coming from you. Regarding typos, where you playing with the "notsoclose" cheat? I realized there's a few in there, the cheat lines were added at a late stage and didn't really get the attention they deserved. Thanks for pointing it out, fixing this for the next upload.

As for the criticism - thank you, we take it to heart! We really just got started and we still have a lot to learn.

The thing about staying with her, is - it's not really, actually the most caring, is it? I mean if you're a softie (no offense) you might think "being there" for her would be the best option, but Sophie is a very rational person and she gets irritated with you if you're not.

You're not the first person having problems reaching that ending though, so we might actually knock the requirement (i.e. the check for how much she likes you) back by 1.

 

[marblesyrup]

Re: Crusoe Had It Easy

I suppose my questions wouldn't actually be related to this game, but if there's going to be another? I did enjoy this one quite a bit. Also I noticed you have other files hosted on NG, are they anything like this game?

There's not going to be another "I'm stuck with my hot cousin on a tropical island" type of game in the foreseeable future but me and Ben (the other writer) are working on a couple of scripts. The one I'm working on that I think is the closest to "Crusoe Had It Easy" is only 15 pages or so at the moment but I think it has very good potential, and it will avoid a lot of the mistakes we made in CHIE (as they were pointed out to us) and it will be much easier to go for a specific route.

That game would take place on your sister-in-law's wedding day and follow the protagonist and his pregnant wife during the day as they prepare, leave and arrive at the wedding, to end with the ceremony. It'd be interspersed with flashbacks of things that happened between you and your sister-in-law (most of the choices and content would appear in the flashbacks, so you'd "direct the past" if you will). Just before the ceremony, you'd be given a bunch of different options what to do depending on your choices in the flashbacks. The idea is to let the player decide whether he's a blackmailing scumbag or if he wants to play it as a very romantic tragedy (obviously, there's just not going to be a perfect ending where everyone ends up happy with this set-up).

Our other game is only an "episode" so it ends really abruptly. It's not as involving, as long or as well-written as Crusoe Had It Easy but we've received OK feedback on it nonetheless.

 

[fantasyzero]

Re: Crusoe Had It Easy

Believe what I said or not, it's up to ya. But I played this game, and unlock "A true gentleman" ending. :3
Oh Man...

 

[HentaiWriter]

Re: Crusoe Had It Easy

Yeah, thought the game was pretty neat, and I played it for an hour or two trying to get all the endings; nice job on it!

The following though is me giving critique, because I mean, visual novels are mostly writing and hey, my name... haha

Spoilers in this, slight hints on how to get given endings, too.

=====================

The first thing I wanted to critique was contradictory teaching methods of how the player is supposed to react to the world around them/Sophie in regards to getting the "best" ending (or any ending, really).

1) When the player is around Sophie and she gets bitten by the snake, and the player offers to suck the poison out, she gives an awkward, almost negative reaction to this, seeing the player as dumb or possibly even creepy.

This would lead the player to believe that he has now fucked up, but in reality, AFAIK, this actually GAINS you points with her (as every video walkthrough I've seen has done this) as opposed to just doing the practical, realistic thing, and bandaging her.

This makes the player think that regardless of her reaction, going over the top for Sophie (even if it would logically be a dumb thing or bad/wrong thing to do) is a good thing to do to win the game (this is also shown later when the player can compliment Sophie and tell her she's beautiful, where she reacts with awkwardness and telling you that you're creepy, yet the "best" sex-based ending can still be achieved despite this, so it must not lower things, again AFAIK.

2) However, the player is taught the opposite in multiple other occasions; for example, going over the top for Sophie and staying with her twice to make sure she's ok results in screwing yourself out of the best ending (AFAIK).

This results in the player feeling that the choices they make should take a logical approach if they want to win, once they realize they're getting penalized for taking the "do everything to make Sophie happy, fuck logic" route.

By having these contradicting "flowcharts" of how the player is being taught how to react to Sophie/the world around them, they get confused on which choice the game expects of them to get what is considered the best ending, etc.

=====================

Another issue comes up with "baited" situations or "falsely interpreted" situations, where the player goes through one series of motions, gets an expected outcome, and thus completely passes by/doesn't expect any other outcome and gives up on that path permanently from that point on, thus missing out on content.

The most striking example in this game is the following;

The flag between whether going to sleep results in the boat finding you or results in sex. This honestly drove me bonkers because after I had gotten the two easiest scenarios (fuck her while asleep and she ties you up and gentleman), I tried experimenting while in the tent itself to try and get different outcomes (stopping at different stages of undressing her, etc.).

As I got no different outcomes, and as well as picking different things on what the player found most attractive about her, I then concluded that whatever was going to get her to have sex with me and get the consensual ending was going to have to happen either A) BEFORE you get in the tent or B) upon entering the tent, she's awake or some other option appears or etc.

Making this even harder was that when you pick to go to sleep, the line is identical, and you literally don't get a different line until that line plays; I can't count the times I reloaded just because I got that line, i.e. there was no change in text, which if there would have been, it would have been an instant, smooth trigger to tell the player "hey, you AREN'T going to sleep normally, you achieved a new ending!"

=====================

Again, I thought the game was very well put together; I'm just listing my two main (and small) frustrations with the game.

For future VNs, if you;

1) Pick whether you want the character to fawn over the main woman (or women) to achieve his ultimate love/sex goal, or whether you want success to only be achievable with treating the game's choices rationally; this will lead to a lot more intuitive choices from players playing the game, and thus overall player satisfcation.

2) Have some sort of instant trigger, it could be anything, a shift in expression, a small alteration of a line of text, background dimming, anything that lets the player know "hey, whatever you did this time around, this scene is going to play out differently now!" would go miles towards also aiding cohesiveness towards the game as a whole, as well as making players feel rewarded too.

Again though, nice job! I also dropped you a PM too

 

[Gromelon]

Re: Crusoe Had It Easy

Is there any "get away with it" endings? I found 2 rape-ish ones, and both have bad to terrible consequences for our protagonist. If there's none and there's an attempt in teaching us pervs a lesson in there, I find it hypocritical. Since "good" endings start with pretty much mirror situation that can be considered reverse rape. If a man gets a move on sleeping girl, it's a terrible crime, but if girl mounts a sleeping man, it's a-ok? Yeah, no.

 

[Scrapman]

Re: Crusoe Had It Easy

Is there any "get away with it" endings? I found 2 rape-ish ones, and both have bad to terrible consequences for our protagonist. If there's none and there's an attempt in teaching us pervs a lesson in there, I find it hypocritical. Since "good" endings start with pretty much mirror situation that can be considered reverse rape. If a man gets a move on sleeping girl, it's a terrible crime, but if girl mounts a sleeping man, it's a-ok? Yeah, no.

What endings are those? the reverse rape?

cuz I only got the gentleman ending, and the regret ending, couldn't get anything else so I...kinda gave up.