A High Stakes Game HDD (8/8 Preview Demo)

[Appo]

The poll shows people actually find it more unfairly difficult later in the game. And if cheat engine was easy to use here I would likely have managed to make it work like I have in other games before, it doesn't work in this game, at least not without a fairly uncommon amount of tech savvy. And honestly, why are people who like hard games so offended by the mere existence of an easy mode? Like the notion of a way to play the game that is low stress is morally unacceptable. If you like a challenge, great! You should get to keep your hard mode! I am all for you keeping what you enjoy about this game! But the majority of the people who play this game and answer the poll don't enjoy this level of difficulty, and isn't enjoyment the whole point of a game like this?

I like this game for the strong story theme and good relationship dynamics, I would love to see more of that, sadly the game has said "Nope, you aren't L33T enough to get past the start of this game, you don't get to appreciate the care an work that went into the story writing or art", and to me, it's a waste of hard work writing and illustrating a compelling character like Eva to have an apparently large (check poll again) amount of players denied much of the game due to difficulty.

The files are not locked. If you want to make an easier version of the game you're free to. I won't make an easier version of the game for you but I will take the feedback of the crowd into account when balancing.

Ok boomer. (you asked for that with the "games these days" comment) But we're not in a game arcade anymore, modern games aren't about high scores and memorizing 2D levels. And as I've said before, most people don't enjoy this level of difficulty (check poll for proof) for the same reason "nintendo-hard" has died out in modern gaming. I still don't see what you find so offensive about including an easy mode, or alternatively "story mode". Why are the people who find it too easy the small minority but the ones who bitch and moan the loudest when the rest of us ask for an easy mode?

There is a difference in a game being legitimately difficult, and the player refusing to spend some trial and error time to understand the basics. Gamers are so entitled these days and the "game over" screen bruises their poor fragile egos.
There are some really hard games here on Eka's: Crazy Difficulty Spikes, Instant Deaths, Overly Difficult Platforms, Backtracking Hell, Huge Progress Loss, Unclear Puzzles, and some times the A.! just blatantly cheats. (Looking at you Blackjack)
This is not one of those games. It is very rewarding to those who take a little time to figure it out, and enjoy a reasonable amount of effort for their reward.
Truth be told. The digestion dialogues on here are some of my favorites on the whole site. I played the original for hours. The only frustration I have with the hd version, is I inadvertently escape too often trying to drag out the games to enjoy more dialogue or easter eggs. I hate to tell you but this IS the easy mode. I almost wish there was a instant death button so I can enjoy the game overs but I should shut up and earn my rewards too.

Thanks for the feedback.

What this game needs is a reanimation feature. Sort of like Ryanshow's game but a bit limited as in not everyone can be reanimated. It would make for very interesting dialogues between characters especially if you have Alex get a high VP.

Great remaster of the game though. Love every moment of it. A question though. Is it possible to make a human outline in the preds belly? it would make it more realistic/hot and to show that there is an actual human inside their stomachs and with every maneuver Alex makes his position gets adjusted. Then we can gradually notice Eva and the others' stomachs resembling your original roundlike belly as their meal is digested when its a game over.

It would be an incredible amount of work to get something that looks pretty crappy within RPG maker. You have to work with what you've got like Sym has with Retale and their more recent release where all the images are already drawn to be compatible with the limited image controls of RPG maker. The limitation to only control the x/y scale and opacity of pictures means that there's not much more you can do to create a complicated animation like you suggest.

The solution to this is to play looping videos like Eskoz did with Diminishment at the initial release. That way they could include fully rendered HD loops within RPG maker. I'd love to have done that instead, and honestly it wouldn't have been much more work to create some simple moving 2d Kisekae models than suffering RPG maker's image control options, but I just didn't think of it going into the project. I'm not going to pull the whole thing apart to do a slight improvement like that though I wish I had done it from the start!

What this game needs is a reanimation feature. Sort of like Ryanshow's game but a bit limited as in not everyone can be reanimated. It would make for very interesting dialogues between characters especially if you have Alex get a high VP.

That would have to massively change a very large portion of the dialog and lore already in the game. Quite a bit of the tension between characters is based on the fact that, if the eating succeeds, the mc will actually die. Also, would have to add new dialog for re-challenging the progress games (or for mc talking to them again if failing them is still a game-over). With all the needed changes that would bring, it would probably be better to just make a new game or spinoff instead. Would probably be way too much work, especially when the current game (both the regular and hd remake) aren't even finished. Not that I'd complain if they did make something good with reanimation, but it's not nearly as simple as a small change.

Edit: Mid-late game spoilers:

Spoiler: show

Maybe if there was something similar to how Gwen revives that person she eats for the compassion game, it could work out as a late-game or even post-game unlock, but having it be common in the world's lore would be too drastic.

Totally agree. You might be interested in the exciting and engaging game here on the portal created by a certain handsome apple called 'A Witch's Game.' viewtopic.php?f=79&t=53850

This really a great game I enjoy this a lot.
Though there still some bugs:
1.When in zoey train it seems icluding Extended Zoey Mod,but after zoey sleep it can't work right.
2.Unbirth scence can't stop restoring hp after sleeping.
3.When second time meet GwAen alone Eva will follow and everytime meeting Gwen Eva's dialoge will apear.
4.I don't kown whether it's a bug,I can't find a way to escape sandy stomach.
5.When low affaction and high vp chating with eva,after gameover can't go back to tittle.It says missing file which I belieave is wrong name
And maybe system design need a lltle change,now escaping likely to be massage a lot of time lower stomach strength and maneuver out at one turn.Use of rest doesn't show.And Arousal rise really slow ,I never see it works.

Loking in to the file,I find there is an soulstone end empathy win end.I'd like to know how to find them.
(sorry for my bad English,I'm not an English speaker )

Thank you for your bug reports and your feedback. I'll look into everything you've brought up.
On point 4...

Spoiler: show

there is no escape from Sandy's stomach. You have to endure it long enough to be let out.

You get the soulstone end by...

Spoiler: show

losing to Gwen by reaching 0 HP without any special event happening. Don't die from arousal or arousal.

I should probably increase the arousal gain for all the girls in the normal games. They have different expressions based on arousal but their arousal never gets high.

[6163]

It has been a hot minute since I last played this game, so I am unsure if my concerns have been addressed. In my experience the most frustrating part of this game's difficulty is the lack of mechanical transparency. You have to intuit what the options are doing and by how much and that limits your ability to form strategy. At some point in the original thread Erecant mentioned how some of the mechanics and dice rolls worked and it made the game a whole lot easier and more satisfying to play. I knew what bonuses I was building and how big they were compared to the dice I was rolling, I was able to weight them against the energy I was spending, and in general I knew when I was suffering due to bad luck or low stats. I breezed to what was then the endgame. However, I waited a year (or two?) to revisit the game and see new content. By then I completely forgot all the mechanics and was stuck in the early game. This is a weakness that most players are going to have but none of the devs, and few of the test players, will have.

So my recommendation is to have some level of mechanical breakdown of what is happening, either as a read-me file that comes with the game, a tutorial section, or even just have the current bonuses shown on screen. Whether this is universal, an unlock, or the result of an in game skill or item. How the game works isn't a secret, like I said Erecant described what went on under the hood in the old thread. But as long as those explanations only exist in forum posts they will be quickly buried and essentially non-existent to the average player.

Again, I'm sorry if this has all been addressed and I'm just woefully out of date. I thought it was worth sharing my experience even if I don't currently have the time to dive in and research all that has been said or do a full play-through of the game right now.

tldr: I feel like a lot of the difficulty is artificial caused by the game not adequately informing you on how to play it. This difficulty doesn't exist for the developers who understand the mechanics. And a lot of the disagreement between the players and developers over difficulty is caused by this perspective difference.

[NovaDragn]

Does anyone have a crashing problem after skipping to much?

[Appo]

It has been a hot minute since I last played this game, so I am unsure if my concerns have been addressed. In my experience the most frustrating part of this game's difficulty is the lack of mechanical transparency. You have to intuit what the options are doing and by how much and that limits your ability to form strategy. At some point in the original thread Erecant mentioned how some of the mechanics and dice rolls worked and it made the game a whole lot easier and more satisfying to play. I knew what bonuses I was building and how big they were compared to the dice I was rolling, I was able to weight them against the energy I was spending, and in general I knew when I was suffering due to bad luck or low stats. I breezed to what was then the endgame. However, I waited a year (or two?) to revisit the game and see new content. By then I completely forgot all the mechanics and was stuck in the early game. This is a weakness that most players are going to have but none of the devs, and few of the test players, will have.

So my recommendation is to have some level of mechanical breakdown of what is happening, either as a read-me file that comes with the game, a tutorial section, or even just have the current bonuses shown on screen. Whether this is universal, an unlock, or the result of an in game skill or item. How the game works isn't a secret, like I said Erecant described what went on under the hood in the old thread. But as long as those explanations only exist in forum posts they will be quickly buried and essentially non-existent to the average player.

Again, I'm sorry if this has all been addressed and I'm just woefully out of date. I thought it was worth sharing my experience even if I don't currently have the time to dive in and research all that has been said or do a full play-through of the game right now.

tldr: I feel like a lot of the difficulty is artificial caused by the game not adequately informing you on how to play it. This difficulty doesn't exist for the developers who understand the mechanics. And a lot of the disagreement between the players and developers over difficulty is caused by this perspective difference.

Hehehe, you haven't downloaded the game, right?
If you'd like a summary of the game mechanics they're in the extras section on the original post. Otherwise all of the bonuses and stats appear on the HUD during games.

In terms of the difficulty of not being aware of the mechanics I consider the learning interaction between the player and the game to be a part of the story itself. Your learning process is the learning process of Alex, the self insert player character. I think the story of HSG from the start of your game to the point you reach is the real story for Alex being the way he is in that play-through, because that's the way you are. Like, the story where Alex is both competent and lucky is the one where he succeeds and becomes close to Eva. Every outcome is the real story it just depends how Alex is, and so how you are.

I suppose that's not a special insight. That's just how open ended stories are, right? I guess it is different in that a lot of stories let you choose your outcome arbitrarily but HSG chooses your story by plugging in your brain to the Alex character's learning experience with Eva's games.

[6163]

Those are good updates to hear. My last attempt at the game was a few months ago, and before that a few years ago. You're right in that I haven't downloaded the version posted here and I knew that might mean my thoughts and experiences with the previous versions of the game were completely outdated. But like I said, I felt they were worth saying. I'd rather look like a fool for a post on the off chance my ideas were useful.

As for learning the interactions between the player and the game, that's interesting but worrisome. What "learning the interactions" boils down to is pattern finding, and finding patterns requires a certain amount consistency. You could have a game about slowly puzzling together what actions lead to what outcomes, or you could have a game where the player knows the mechanical interactions and has to deal with random events. Trying to do both is a precarious balance, as each one limits the player's ability to handle the other.

But there I go talking about the game design for a game I haven't tried playing for about six months, or played seriously for about two years. If I'm talking nonsense about the current iteration of the game feel free to ignore.

[NovaDragn]

The game ends with the mother for now?

[Appo]

The game ends with the mother for now?

Yes.

[bledthorn]

quick question will there be a continuation of the orginal game after the mother scene at some point?

also i am noticing that at times you gain 0 affection which can be annoying since i only have 7 affection atm trying to get to the first proggressive game so want to know if thats intended or not

[2quick4u]

Does this run on android?

[Wanderer]

How/Is it possible to get new outfits for Zoey? I've done her game a bunch but noticed no differences, is it just a repetition thing to build affection do you do something else to get her affection up (I've gotten to but not passed the Sandy progress game)

Also, is it just me or is Empathy training totally busted? I do it, and get 0 Empathy growth but get an absurd amount of VP, like 30-40, enough to make my next game completely unwinnably lethal, like very first command I'm forced to give up

the UI additions certainly help, but the game is still ridiculously RNG heavy, it's not really fun to lose because random numbers hate you instead of just not having enough skill

[NovaDragn]

How/Is it possible to get new outfits for Zoey? I've done her game a bunch but noticed no differences, is it just a repetition thing to build affection do you do something else to get her affection up (I've gotten to but not passed the Sandy progress game)

Also, is it just me or is Empathy training totally busted? I do it, and get 0 Empathy growth but get an absurd amount of VP, like 30-40, enough to make my next game completely unwinnably lethal, like very first command I'm forced to give up

the UI additions certainly help, but the game is still ridiculously RNG heavy, it's not really fun to lose because random numbers hate you instead of just not having enough skill

Just her umm lack of pjs and gym stuff that I know of. Just don't die and stay inside her it will come after a few hours.

[Seifens]

I like the UI improvements. It's nice to see a layout of all the numbers/stats at a glance like that. It's one thing I found frustrating about the original - it was really hard to know if you were doing well, or how close you were getting to a success. Barring a greater amount of environmental detail or variety of dialog to distinguish different states in a more narrative manner, the UI seems like a good way to go.

I would like to mention a bug - it's possible to click through the opening dialog in Eva's house quickly enough that you can start moving around before Eva reaches you to ask you what you want to do today. This lets you wander around her house (which looks nice) while she chases after you, but seems unintentional. I haven't noticed any consequences to doing so - she'll initiate the conversation whenever she does reach you, but is slow enough that you can avoid her indefinitely.

[Appo]

quick question will there be a continuation of the orginal game after the mother scene at some point?

also i am noticing that at times you gain 0 affection which can be annoying since i only have 7 affection atm trying to get to the first proggressive game so want to know if thats intended or not

I'll create a copy of all future HSG content into the HD version.

Sometimes you don't gain affection. It's to create a soft cap for affection so that you can't spam dates until 1,000 affection. The maximum you can reach at the current furthest progress point is 100, but it would take around 10,000 dates or so to reach.

How/Is it possible to get new outfits for Zoey? I've done her game a bunch but noticed no differences, is it just a repetition thing to build affection do you do something else to get her affection up (I've gotten to but not passed the Sandy progress game)

Also, is it just me or is Empathy training totally busted? I do it, and get 0 Empathy growth but get an absurd amount of VP, like 30-40, enough to make my next game completely unwinnably lethal, like very first command I'm forced to give up

the UI additions certainly help, but the game is still ridiculously RNG heavy, it's not really fun to lose because random numbers hate you instead of just not having enough skill

Thanks for the feedback. I'll look into empathy training. You won't always get empathy from empathy practice. The first 1-5 points are fairly easy but again emapthy gain is soft capped to 10 just like it was hard capped to 10 in the original. You also gain a hell of a lot of VP in the original. The numbers might be a bit different but it was always the case that you've got to get rid of a lot of VP in order to do empathy training. It's intended.

Does this run on android?

No idea. I'm not a tech guy. I see that there's an Android / iOS option for exporting the game so I'll upload that to the game folder shortly and for future versions.

Just her umm lack of pjs and gym stuff that I know of. Just don't die and stay inside her it will come after a few hours.

Yep, that's it.

I like the UI improvements. It's nice to see a layout of all the numbers/stats at a glance like that. It's one thing I found frustrating about the original - it was really hard to know if you were doing well, or how close you were getting to a success. Barring a greater amount of environmental detail or variety of dialog to distinguish different states in a more narrative manner, the UI seems like a good way to go.

I would like to mention a bug - it's possible to click through the opening dialog in Eva's house quickly enough that you can start moving around before Eva reaches you to ask you what you want to do today. This lets you wander around her house (which looks nice) while she chases after you, but seems unintentional. I haven't noticed any consequences to doing so - she'll initiate the conversation whenever she does reach you, but is slow enough that you can avoid her indefinitely.

It's a trade off isn't it? There's a certain tension in not knowing, but there's a different tension in knowing as well.

The UI actually represents a mechanism added to the game in the HD version not present in the original. In the original there is no stomach HP. Predator stomachs don't wear down and become easier to escape like they do in the HD version. This single change to the core mechanisms is the source of all the potentially weird changes in balance and it was probably a mistake to add! I kind of just liked having status bars...

It's not a bug that you can avoid talking to Eva. In fact if you simply cancel out of her conversation she will stop following you and merely bump into you. I'd like to have some features added to the house to interact with in a meaningful way. This was actually the original intent behind making the HD mod and I ended up doing exactly none of that! I'll talk about expanding features like that in the future on the portal but before that I'll probably be discussing them on the HSG discord. As always this is a fan creation so I won't just be adding stuff completely on my own initiative.

[Wanderer]

After now ending up in Zoey's belly overnight I noticed there is a bug with the sequence, not everytime, maybe 50% of the times I tried it something weird happened when she went to sleep and I went back to the start of the day where you're at Eva's place, with the overlay of the game still in place, it doesn't officially end. I couldn't interact with the game in progress and starting a new game (with Zoey or Eva) just ends up overwriting the still occurring game. Maybe it was just me skipping through dialogue too fast, which also causes occasional crashes, but it was happening with that sequence specifically. It happened when she went to sleep, and once when she was just waking up.

[Appo]

After now ending up in Zoey's belly overnight I noticed there is a bug with the sequence, not everytime, maybe 50% of the times I tried it something weird happened when she went to sleep and I went back to the start of the day where you're at Eva's place, with the overlay of the game still in place, it doesn't officially end. I couldn't interact with the game in progress and starting a new game (with Zoey or Eva) just ends up overwriting the still occurring game. Maybe it was just me skipping through dialogue too fast, which also causes occasional crashes, but it was happening with that sequence specifically. It happened when she went to sleep, and once when she was just waking up.

Thank you for your bug report. As soon as I read it I knew exactly what the bug was. It will be fixed in 0.2.5.

You can't escape while Zoey is sleeping however I've failed to lock you from escaping during that time. What's happening is you're escaping but there is no escape scene for when Zoey is asleep and so none of the proper flags trigger. You can avoid this by not trying to escape while Zoey is asleep until 0.2.5 comes out.

[Bard302]

The new version of the game is very good, but damn, the drama is great, much better than what I'm used to see on this site. I respect the privacy of the woman who did the voice, but I have to say, she's really good, so I assume it's not her first voice acting work. She sounds natural. It actually sounds like a real person talking, unlike the countless audio dramas where they just try so hard to sound "sexy" or "sensual" that I can't take them seriously. Then again, the script and your editing skills probably helped a lot as well. But still, the voice is really what sold it for me. If someone knows other good audio works like this one, I'd really love if you could share them with me.

[bledthorn]

found a pontential bug i have up to the mini game digestion unlocked and prior to unlocking that i was able to get the unbirth sex scene however ever since i unlocked it even with 46 affection anytime i get sexytime and i try power through with affecting her neithers it never sucks me in anymore and i just go straight to the normal sex scene

[VVV]

I dont know if it is bug or if deep breathing is so low but a always have to use rest 2 time to get any benefit from resting

[Appo]

found a pontential bug i have up to the mini game digestion unlocked and prior to unlocking that i was able to get the unbirth sex scene however ever since i unlocked it even with 46 affection anytime i get sexytime and i try power through with affecting her neithers it never sucks me in anymore and i just go straight to the normal sex scene

Thank you for the bug report. Yes, that's an error. I've forgotten to change the conditions for getting the unbirth game for future events. You should still be able to get to the scene that way again but the conditions are just as stringent. I'll make it have the same requirements as in the original game.

I dont know if it is bug or if deep breathing is so low but a always have to use rest 2 time to get any benefit from resting

If you've already massaged or maneuvered during a round then the rest doesn't restore SP.

[Stega]

How do I get the unbirth scene? I dont even know who does it but ive messed around with Eva, Gwen, and Zoey and havent discovered it. Also is there any other types of vore in the game?