Post by Aether Breeze in Shepherd's Flock jam comments

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First off: I'm deeply honored to get such an in-depth review. Especially from someone who's not into hypnokink. The fact that you pushed through, even when the game started to slip, and still thought to leave this deep of a review means the world to my first-time-game-dev batto self ^w^

Second: I'm so sorry the game brought out bad memories for you. If it's okay to ask -- do you think this should've had more warnings than it did? My usual audience is very focused on hypnokink, and tend to have a much higher tolerance for CNC/bad ends, so I've got a very large blind spot here. I hope it wasn't a bad experience. I'm really grateful that you brought this to my attention.

Third: the audio. I'm so glad you liked it. Particularly the switch in music around Iana. Using words to change the context of the music was a happy accident (first-time dev things), but it's something I'll shoot to replicate in the future.

Fourth: willpower system. You correctly identified that it doesn't really have a point in gameplay, and that's definitely something I'd like to improve on in future projects. Though I'm quite tickled to hear about that little emergent gameplay moment. As a non hypno-kinkster, you might be amused to hear that the primary function of this was kink -- some people specifically get off on stat drain, which might explain (but not excuse!) why the system is so flimsy. Good critique, and one I'll revisit for future games.

Fifth: navigation. This is really useful feedback. The structure of the game is actually a looping hallway with rooms on both sides, but I DID NOT do a good job of communicating this. As such, I'll probably patch in a map sometime (in the surveillance room?) to make everything clearer. Good observation!

Sixth: the safe... yeah, my adventure game-addled brain got the better of me here. The combination can be found by combining the numbers found in the books (hint: "people need to read more" in the notepad). I think only one person has gotten this without a hint. Definitely a point of improvement in the future.

Seventh: good ending. This is something I've heard from a lot of people, enough that it's objectively a failure on my part. Part of me wants to blame time -- the current "escape" ending was finished approximately 18 hours before the submission deadline -- but the other part of me says I should've signaled this more clearly. If I end up doing a big patch, an actual good ending will be the first thing I add. Thanks for the reinforcement; sorry for misleading you!

And last off: hypnosis.

You're entirely correct. "Hypnosis," as portrayed in 95% of hypnokink, is magical mind control with fancy window dressing. As someone who enjoys actual hypnosis, this is always a source of slight friction for me. Actual hypnosis is much more about gently guiding the mind, convincing the active focus to withdraw as the passive focus comes to the forefront. At least to my understanding. Unfortunately, this is impossible to illustrate, so all hypnosis in media is just magic glowy mind control. And since 95% of hypnokink comes from people seeing hypnosis in media...

So yes, this is not actual hypnosis. Far from it. I'm glad that made it feel safer for you, and apologize deeply for any bad memories or feelings this dredged up. Without wishing to pry, if you've any ideas for how I could've labeled this better, please let me know.

In conclusion: thank you so much for your opinion. You've given me a lot of insights I haven't gotten before, and given my game a hell of a lot of time of your own volition. I'm glad you liked the writing; I'm glad you liked the audio; I'm deeply grateful for such deep thoughts on my first game.

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kerfuzzl322 days ago(+1)

to be clear: i truly was not triggered at all by the game. i honestly think this is kind of impressive. as i said, i really found Iana menacing and evil, but in a way that did not manifest actual bad feelings at all. i didn't even know this was possible, and i can't really explain it, but there you have it. it's pretty neat!

if anything, the only thing that might bring up bad memories was my own choice to write about abuse, sometimes that can be a bad idea lol. but that's ok, i wasn't sure if i wanted to say anything, but i figured the perspective was useful. like, it is true that Iana is basically an abuser, and i would say i am motivated to get the hell out of there by that fact. but, idk. i guess that wasn't triggering, it just feels like a really engaging and interesting story. i really have no idea why.

to be fair, i find i have a relatively high tolerance for specifically sexual violence in fiction. i think there were some scenes i read that i could describe as outright rape, and that is likely worth a trigger warning, but it didn't really phase me. idk. unfortunately my perspective is quite limited in that regard.

so as far as trigger warnings and such go: i don't really know lol. i wasn't really negatively affected by anything in the game. i mean, i really did find it a very good experience to play through, maybe even because it's sort of a safe way to experience standing up to an abuser. (although i guess that's less true if there's no good endings lmao).

i definitely appreciate the consideration though!

with respect to the map: i did sort of figure it was topologically a ring, and this definitely was very clear by the end, but during the scenes where you encounter other characters along the ring you seem to only be able to dive into a side room, and then you can only leave the side room into one of the two sides of the hallway, so it gets confusing if you're still moving along the ring in the same direction or not. but, on the other hand, this does mean that the hallway encounters provide a very real blocker to your progress--if you dive to the side and then leave, you won't be able to go back, and that has gameplay consequences. (the encounters are basically a "one way wall" in the ring, which seems perfectly fine).

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Aether Breeze322 days ago(+1)

will definitely be adding a good ending if I ever find the time, aaaaaaaaaaaaa

I'm glad there was some degree of separation. The fantastical nature of the mind control, combined with the very clear step-back and reset buttons, hopefully helped with that. I'll do my best to replicate that in the future.

Thank you, truly, for sharing your experience. Yours is a perspective I've never gotten before, and looking back on it, I definitely should've sought it out sooner. Thank you for your time; thank you for your kind words; for your advice, your assistance, your ability to guide my goals towards the future ^w^

(also jumping in and out of rooms deadass might still be bugged, it's supposed to put you back where you would've been if there was no encounter here, but it's entirely possible that this is broken lmao. will give it a closer look; thanks for the heads-up ^^)

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