VN Ren'Py A Man for All [Ep.15] [Venus Waltz]

[busterhyman]

great game thru EP6. story reminds me of "acting lessons" as it is a very good written story. cannot wait for more

 

[sirswoop]

My game crashes at the Harlow Coffee shop scene and then goes back to the main menu. Is there much left of the chapter after that? I am blue balled so hard for Vanessa XD

 

[Macky009]

Damn you Venus Waltz why the clip hanger why why why. I want to see what will happen next

 

[VenusWaltz]

My game crashes at the Harlow Coffee shop scene and then goes back to the main menu. Is there much left of the chapter after that? I am blue balled so hard for Vanessa XD

There isn't much after that but there should be a scene and after credits. I've tested both paths for Harlow and they should work. Some of the crashes come from rolling back too frequently sometimes. Maybe try a previous save and skipping through it again to see if that works. Not sure what's happening exactly though.

Thanks for the feedback, everybody. I'm always reading everything and I can go more in-depth with details about the story or answer any questions if anybody's interested, when I have the chance.

 

[spsp24]

Just finished Ep6 and some thoughts:

This game is a slow burner and I really love it! The dialogues between the MC and the LI's evolve pretty naturally (None of them jump right at the MC after their first conversation for example)
So, sure, some people will complain about it but i think it the pacing is just right.

As I am a sucker for a good game story (even for the genre of games you find in this forum ) I really appreciate what this game tries to do. No 'We have to save humanity!' or an amalgation of silly pr0n tropes, but a believable and interesting little adventure.

One minor thing I had with the way the story is told: the game title heavily suggests the MC ends up with a harem but the 'wholesome' interactions with most of the LI's let me believe that the game actually would force you to choose your soulmate in the end.
Now this line of thought was more or less derailed by the Halloween party scene in Ep 6 (where most LI's would meet each other and pick up what's going on between all of them and the MC)
So, although there is not really anything wrong with the way the story goes it did throw me off-course up until Ep 6

Now I wonder if the harem has to contain EVERY potential LI or if you can pick just some and not the rest? (I do not have particular interest in Vanessa or Kate, for example, yes I know, this is heresy and all.....)

Talking about the LI's, someone on the forum mentioned that the LI's were looking very similar and up to that point I did not really notice but after this new play-through it is clear that the author really likes high cheeck bones and slender figures on his women .
Once again, nothing wrong perse, but there is a grain of truth in the same-y-ness of the LI's. I do appreciate that they have realistic body proportions though, and not some 13 year old's secret fantasy.

long story short; keep doing what you are doing VenusWaltz!

 

[Spatenklopper]

Now I wonder if the harem has to contain EVERY potential LI or if you can pick just some and not the rest?

The decisions that really matter in the game should actually answer your question.
You've always had the option to turn down a potential LI, romantically speaking.
The fact that you still have to interact with them is due to the story.
You can have them all, but you don't have to.

 

[Spatenklopper]

I take the liberty and publish a post by Venus Waltz on Patreon, which is actually not open to the public, but it actually explainsa lot and saves a lot of questions here.

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Freigeschaltet

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Philosophy | On Dialogue Choices
I know that there are a lot of people who have opinions on the Knight/Joker/Smooth dialogue system. Some people like it. Some people hate it. Some people aren't sure what to think. I wanted to take this time to talk about it and explain why it is the way it is. I'll do that by exploring some of the possible options and how I came to the conclusion I did.
What are the other possibilities? What else could I have done when it comes to dialogue options?

No Choices
Now, I could have eliminated the K/J/S dynamic entirely. Since these choices don't have any major ramifications, that was a possibility. I would have not minded doing it this way because it'd be less work for me with not having to write three separate responses in addition to formatting the coding. But that wouldn't be any fun, would it?
After all, we all want at least some control in what we say to the women in the game. It'd be impossible for me to speak for everybody. Maybe you want to tell nothing but jokes. Maybe you want to constantly flirt with a girl. Maybe you want to do a little bit of both. And the next player could want to do the exact opposite of that. I wanted you to have some control over the dialogue, so having no choices at all was out the window.

Having the girls want a specific trait only
The complete opposite of having no choices would be to have the choices directly affect how the girls view you and any potential romances. I considered this, too.
Let's say you like Harlow. You want to pursue a romantic relationship with her. If that were the case, you would lean toward one specific dialogue option. For example, if she liked to laugh, you would constantly pick the humorous dialogue option. Now imagine if one of the other two options would be something you'd want to say. Well, you wouldn't pick it because you know that's not what Harlow prefers. You would be on auto-pilot. You'd have to constantly be telling jokes, even when you didn't want to.
Now imagine you don't like Harlow at all. It would be the complete opposite, in that you would avoid being a joker to avoid her having any stronger feelings toward you. You'd have to be serious even when you felt like telling a joke.
Although your choices would change how the girl views you, you would still be locked into a certain type because of whether or not you want to pursue a romance with her. In essence, your choices having an impact would be nearly identical to having no choices at all. In this case, the choices would be secondary to what you wanted to say because the priority would be what the girls wanted to hear.

Having the girls lean toward a specific trait
This suffers from the same issue as the previous option. Let's say you like Harlow and she prefers someone who's flirty and that would be the most important stat. What if I left room for you to choose "Knight" and "Joker" options? In this case, you would still be geared toward a specific trait. You'd still have to monitor yourself and make sure you were on the right path, even if you were allowed to veer off of it from time to time. It would be the same as the previous options, just to a lesser degree.
There are times when I've played VNs and I've thought to myself "I wouldn't have said that to her," even though the dialogue was relatively meaningless. It wouldn't affect my enjoyment of the game necessarily. It's just something I'd notice. I know some of you feel the same way because we're all different. If there are no choices for an MC's dialogue, there's going to be at least one person who doesn't agree with what's being said. Even in this game, there are some things being said I know you wish you had control over.
With the dialogue system I'm using, it's the best balancing act I could do. When you're playing this game, I want you to be you. And the girl will like you for being you, whether you're a charmer or a sarcastic smart ass or just a nice guy.
That's not to say that there won't be any differences between the three-dialogue options. You may or may not have noticed that the girls have labeled you in a few scenes depending on your choices. The dialogue has changed. It's nothing dramatically different but it's there. And as we get deeper into the game, I'm hoping more dialogue variation will occur.
I'm speaking specifically about the three-choice dialogue system here. I know some people want more choices outside of those dialogues but I wanted to focus on what's important. When most of us—myself included—play VNs, we just want to find a girl, fall for her, and have her do the same. All of the other choices come (mostly) secondary to the romance itself. So, with my amateur skills as a developer along with the limited time and resources I have, I decided to put all of the weight in the most important choices of them all. Those choices are choosing which girls you want to romance. This is a compromise that had to be made.
If I gave options with other choices, how many people would you pick the other options? If there were a possibility of getting your ass kicked in one of the fights, would you choose to get beat up? If there were a possibility to lose the dance competition because you sucked, would you want to lose? The MC is going to do everything he can to help Billy, even if it means taking a risk. I know there are some who disagree with me on those choices but in my opinion, the most important choices always revolve around the romance, so that's what I chose to put most of the variety in.
But where's the joy in winning if you're going to win no matter what you do? The joy comes from doing it on your own terms. You're going to win your fight. You're going to dance your butt off and embarrass the competition. You're going to make the best coffee the city's ever had. You're going to win her heart. And everything you do, you're going to do your way.
How do you feel about the Knight/Joker/Smooth dialogue options? Do you want the girls to have a preference? Do you like choosing the best option? Or do you choose what you want to choose? Do you even want a choice at all? Feel free to leave a comment and let me know if you have an opinion.

The next episode
I've been really busy this week setting up new hardware, so I haven't gotten as many renders done as I wanted to. It's a real pain in the butt getting a new system set up. Beyond getting everything put together and making sure it all works, I'll probably spend all weekend getting all of my files transferred so that I can start rendering again.
That's the bad news. The good news is that once everything is up, I should be able to render a lot faster than before to make up for the lost time. With a shorter episode, I'm hoping I can get this update out a lot quicker than last time. In addition to that, I'm hoping the quality of the renders themselves will improve, too. There are a couple of big scenes coming up that will be entertaining (in a non-sexual way). The scenes won't be as big as the party in the last episode but they're important in the story.
I've gotten a few short scenes rendered and should be able to start again on a regular schedule sometime next week once I get everything squared. March and April are just going to be me grinding away at renders. If you're new around here, thanks for dropping by. And to all of you, thanks as always and have a great weekend. Talk to you all soon.

 

[spsp24]

The decisions that really matter in the game should actually answer your question.
You've always had the option to turn down a potential LI, romantically speaking.
The fact that you still have to interact with them is due to the story.
You can have them all, but you don't have to.

I was more curious that if you choose not to pursue a girl, it would mean that you are locked out of a harem ending completely or not.

 

[Abhai]

I was more curious that if you choose not to pursue a girl, it would mean that you are locked out of a harem ending completely or not.

well, if you chose to not pursue girls, apart one or two ones, ofc you are locked out of a harem ending.
or that doesnt make a sense to you?

 

[spsp24]

well, if you chose to not pursue girls, apart one or two ones, ofc you are locked out of a harem ending.
or that doesnt make a sense to you?

I was thinking about pursuing all the girls except maybe one or two. It would be nice to still have some naughty harem scenes
But from a developer perspective this would mean a lot of extra work: you would need to render the same scene several times to represent all the possible variations possible (harem scene with all LI's, scene without Kate, scene without Vanessa, scene without Erica AND Vanessa etc. etc.)

Option 1: only offer game endings with one single girl only plus the full harem option.
Option 2: Do offer a partial harem option but do not have scenes with more than 1 LI on the screen

 

[Spatenklopper]

It would be nice to still have some naughty harem scenes

Harem doesn't necessarily mean gang banging.
For example, I find it difficult to imagine a woman like Kate in a threesome/foursome or group fun.

 

[spsp24]

Harem doesn't necessarily mean gang banging.
For example, I find it difficult to imagine a woman like Kate in a threesome/foursome or group fun.

OkOk, you are right (only Erica seems to have no inhibitions regarding that ) it would indeed be quite out-of-character for most LI's. But maybe Vanessa will surprise us with some deeply hidden kinks.....

I was more thinking about the marriage scene from Sisterly Lust (where the MC marries al LI's in one grand ceremony)
You can't have this kind of end scene with a partial harem.

 

[bobbo69]

How much content is there in here?

 

[VenusWaltz]

I don't really like talking about endings and how things will end up because of how far into the future it is. I have plans but things are not set in stone in that regard because I'm more focused on the current situation. I understand it's only fair to let you all know what you're getting into.

You're free to pick and choose who you want. You can only choose one girl. You can choose two. You can choose all of them. You can choose none. There will be no 'consequences' but there will be differences.

There won't be a giant harem with a giant orgy scene for different reasons. The first is that there would be way too many combinations for me to render. The second reason is that, as mentioned earlier, it wouldn't make sense for some characters to engage in that sort of activity. I don't know if I could write a believable leap from Harlow being self-conscious to suddenly going down on other girls. I think I can work a threesome or maybe even a foursome in there with different characters. Beyond that, I'm not so sure.

Right now you have an option of picking just one girl and sticking with her the whole way through. That's one thing I know for sure I'm doing. If you decide to pick more than one girl, you're moving down the harem path, even if it's just two girls. Since the logistics of the choices and rendering is a lot, this means multiple options available with a varied romance different from a solo path. As someone requested earlier, I'm also leaning toward the option of picking one LI as the primary and having several side LIs as one permutation of the harem possibilities since that would help keep things more grounded in terms of content I can produce. Nothing is finalized but the harem and solo paths will be different, at least at the end.

When you're given an opportunity to pursue, some of the scenes and dialogue changes as a result. For example, Erika will stop being flirty with you so much if you decide not to pursue her. This means she won't be a part of the harem. There may be a possibility that another chance with her will open up but I haven't decided on that. There won't be a grand ceremony like in Sisterly Lust because I'm sure different players want to marry different combinations of women, which I just wouldn't be able to do properly.

One of the main things I wanted to do is give players options in terms of romance. You can pick and choose who you want. And another thing I wanted to do was not punish players for picking certain options (at least, not this early in the game). I don't think of pursuing or not pursuing a girl as right or wrong. Just think of it as two different paths: friendship or romance.

 

[VenusWaltz]

How much content is there in here?

Not too much. Maybe come back in a few updates.

 

[bobbo69]

Thanks VW

 

[spsp24]

Thank you VenusWaltz, for the very exhaustive answer! It was absolutely not my intention to extract spoilers from you or anything.
I really appreciate your openness about this.

 

[Mr. Hero]

I hope that guy saul wont do any harm to my girl riley

 

[Sorrow85]

Because it's Friday, I created a drinking game:
Take a shot every time the

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.

I promise you, you will be wasted by the end of EP6

 

[Spatenklopper]

German translation finally up to chapter 6.
You can find the download link in the OP.