Ren'Py Angel's Blood [v0.01] [qdedoidq]

[qdedoidq]

Hey, op here. I'll use this to quickly answer some concerns.

Firstly, thank you for checking out Angel's Blood. I went to sleep as soon as I uploaded this and I was overwhelmed with just how many people commented in the thread, both positive and negative. Thank you.

The first concern is the use of AI. I address how this project uses it in Patreon but it wasn't approved in time so I couldn't link it to here. Still, I should have wrote a note explaining myself.

I should have used the AI tag, you're right, though the game is genuinely hand drawn for the most part. My drawing process uses an AI prompt to make a base so that I can get the anatomy and pose right. Then I draw over it making any corrections. Granted it's not perfect as you can see by the hands but that's also due to me being that bad at drawing hands.

Here's a video providing my layers for my art:

View attachment CLIP STUDIO PAINT 2023-11-02 19-08-37 - Trim.mp4

The CGs use AI much more I will admit. The art however is just meant to be used as a proof of concept until a proper artist can redo the art to look better. I know it's a meme to say that with games like Yandere Simulator never replacing their assets but I really do want to replace all the art in the game with much higher quality work.

Another issue is time sensitive objectives. I didn't handle this well since the main point of it was to avoid players just spamming out raising one stat and instead guide them to focus on other things to do. The game is still in it's early stages so that was pointless to put in at the minute since all there really is to do is grind stats as there's barely any events and scenes. For future releases I'll implement a prompt or some sort of text notifying the player that they're approaching a time sensitive objective. If done correctly I think It'd be good to have so I won't budge on this.

Finally I forgot to replace the name that you get at the name prompt if nothing is typed in. That was a massive oversight, my bad.

Overall the launch of the first version has been a rollercoaster. It is my very first game so there's bound to be many, many mistakes to learn from and hopefully not make again in the future.

Finally, I want to use this part to ask if anybody might be interested in working on this project with me. I really do need all the help I can get but I just don't have any money to offer at the minute. I basically need any role you might think of for a dev team so please dm me if that sounds appealing to you.

 

[Excedrinboy]

Don't understand people shitting all over using AI if it's obvious there was effort involved. Some people just can't draw or can't draw well enough, or prefer writing, and it's a tool to get their story out there and get involved. It's one thing if it's just rushed trash, but getting coherent characters? Decent style? No SUPER obvious deformities? That doesn't just happen.

I can't even imagine if people had the same reactions at seeing the same reused DAZ model or environment in yet another game. What artistic vision is going on there? Posing? Unless you're making your own models and environments in Blender or something, how is it any different? In fact, I'd say, at least right now, it's far harder to get an AI to produce a perfect character in the exact pose and angle you're looking for without some weird biological deformity than it is to simply arrange someone else's 3d models in a scene.

Now, if the rest of the game isn't there yet, that's another thing, but this whole blanket "ai = bad" is just silly. I'm sick of reading about it.

 

[SenhorRoxo]

I looked and

Hey, op here. I'll use this to quickly answer some concerns.

Firstly, thank you for checking out Angel's Blood. I went to sleep as soon as I uploaded this and I was overwhelmed with just how many people commented in the thread, both positive and negative. Thank you.

The first concern is the use of AI. I address how this project uses it in Patreon but it wasn't approved in time so I couldn't link it to here. Still, I should have wrote a note explaining myself.

I should have used the AI tag, you're right, though the game is genuinely hand drawn for the most part. My drawing process uses an AI prompt to make a base so that I can get the anatomy and pose right. Then I draw over it making any corrections. Granted it's not perfect as you can see by the hands but that's also due to me being that bad at drawing hands.

Here's a video providing my layers for my art:

View attachment 3055680

The CGs use AI much more I will admit. The art however is just meant to be used as a proof of concept until a proper artist can redo the art to look better. I know it's a meme to say that with games like Yandere Simulator never replacing their assets but I really do want to replace all the art in the game with much higher quality work.

Another issue is time sensitive objectives. I didn't handle this well since the main point of it was to avoid players just spamming out raising one stat and instead guide them to focus on other things to do. The game is still in it's early stages so that was pointless to put in at the minute since all there really is to do is grind stats as there's barely any events and scenes. For future releases I'll implement a prompt or some sort of text notifying the player that they're approaching a time sensitive objective. If done correctly I think It'd be good to have so I won't budge on this.

Finally I forgot to replace the name that you get at the name prompt if nothing is typed in. That was a massive oversight, my bad.

Overall the launch of the first version has been a rollercoaster. It is my very first game so there's bound to be many, many mistakes to learn from and hopefully not make again in the future.

Finally, I want to use this part to ask if anybody might be interested in working on this project with me. I really do need all the help I can get but I just don't have any money to offer at the minute. I basically need any role you might think of for a dev team so please dm me if that sounds appealing to you.

I took a moment and it's to realize how it looks like AI but I thought that It wasn't suppose to be that good. Good job in the art and keep it up, I mean, the less AI the better I guess. Simple stuff are more than welcome if it makes you lose less time.

 

[EvolutionKills]

The first concern is the use of AI. I address how this project uses it in Patreon but it wasn't approved in time so I couldn't link it to here. Still, I should have wrote a note explaining myself.

I should have used the AI tag, you're right, though the game is genuinely hand drawn for the most part. My drawing process uses an AI prompt to make a base so that I can get the anatomy and pose right. Then I draw over it making any corrections. Granted it's not perfect as you can see by the hands but that's also due to me being that bad at drawing hands.

Seems curious, since anatomy is what AI screws up the most. It's great at making a facsimile that looks good at a distance if you squint your eyes, but falls apart when you notice the details. It's great for doing smooth color gradients (and why so much of it looks airbrushed so often), but it can't nail the details. Look close and you'll see patterns that make no sense, or notice those plants really are just splotches of unconnected color, or how fingers on a hand are just a jumbled mess. So anatomy is one of the last things I'd trust an AI to get right at this point.

The CGs use AI much more I will admit. The art however is just meant to be used as a proof of concept until a proper artist can redo the art to look better. I know it's a meme to say that with games like Yandere Simulator never replacing their assets but I really do want to replace all the art in the game with much higher quality work.

Not sure how reasonable that is. It would be one thing if you had rough sketches they were clearly being used as placeholder assets, and you otherwise had a really solid gameplay loop or narrative to otherwise hook the player. But unfortunately you don't. The 'best' looking part of the game so far is the AI generated stuff, and that puts you in a bad position. You're gonna need money to hire an artist, but you're only going to get that promoting a game already using AI visuals. How many potential patrons are just going to be happy with the AI and not want it changed? If that faction makes up a sizable amount of your future patrons, are you really going to spend money to get new art rather than keep the money for yourself? It'll be so, so easy to just never change it in the future. So it's a nice thought, but one that lacks incentive for you to really go through with it.



Plus, I'm pretty sure you can handle sketching placeholder art. The main menu looks reasonably well made and original, because it looks like an 'Introduction to Perspective' class week 1 homework assignment (draw a skyline with a single vanishing point). Some of it still needs work (why is there only a 2-inch gap between the counter at your job and the shelf on the right hand side, look at the floor), but clearly you have some grasp on what you are doing. If all of the art looked like placeholder assets like the main menu does, I'd 100% believe you about wanting to hire another artist later. If the long-term goal is asset replacement, why are you using AI instead of just sketching everything yourself? It would make the presentation way more honest and upfront.

Also, just an aside, but why are you seemingly targeting a 4:3 screen ratio? I see the flip phone and the old CRT monitors in the game. So are you trying to ape a particular late 90's/early 00's ascetic? Even then, is there a reason why you can't do that without wasting so much screen space with massive black borders?

Another issue is time sensitive objectives. I didn't handle this well since the main point of it was to avoid players just spamming out raising one stat and instead guide them to focus on other things to do. The game is still in it's early stages so that was pointless to put in at the minute since all there really is to do is grind stats as there's barely any events and scenes. For future releases I'll implement a prompt or some sort of text notifying the player that they're approaching a time sensitive objective. If done correctly I think It'd be good to have so I won't budge on this.

Not sure I'd agree. It's a lewd game. People play them for the lewds. So, unless you have a REALLY solid gameplay loop and the lewds are secondary (e.g. you're making a shooter, platformer, rogue-lite, etc.), the ONLY reason anyone is playing this over a non-lewd version is the lewds. Are you really sure that arbitrarily locking folks out of content is a good idea? That it will be appreciated by your potential player base?

It doesn't sound like this is based on player choice (picking A or B), but rather a fail-state (e.g. time limit, game over). The vast, vast, vast majority of these games don't have fail states; even less so among the grindy sandbox ones where it is expected that if you spend enough time you can and will see everything. Not saying you can't do it, just that I can see it being a very unpopular decision. Is that idea really so important to you, the game, or the story that you feel you want to tell, that you're prepared to die on that hill for it?

Finally I forgot to replace the name that you get at the name prompt if nothing is typed in. That was a massive oversight, my bad.

Probably for the best.

Overall the launch of the first version has been a rollercoaster. It is my very first game so there's bound to be many, many mistakes to learn from and hopefully not make again in the future.

I will say this; that is the healthiest response you can have to criticism. Now actually following through on that will be even harder, but it sounds like you at least have your head in the right space. Kudos for that.

Finally, I want to use this part to ask if anybody might be interested in working on this project with me. I really do need all the help I can get but I just don't have any money to offer at the minute. I basically need any role you might think of for a dev team so please dm me if that sounds appealing to you.

I'm not a professional writer or a creative writing instructor, but I'm pretty sure I could help you avoid writing like this. So sure, I'll bite. Send me some preliminary dialogue or script, and I can give it a once over. Again, I not a professional editor, but I can catch you using 'quite' twice in quick succession, forgetting a question mark at the end of a request, or clarifying whatever in the fuck 'bum you lad' is supposed to mean.

 

[PlantAssAppreciator]

I attempted to skip some of the grind by editing the save file. When i load the edited save file it tells me "yada yada has been changed do you trust it" since i did it myself i do, click yes and then nothing happens.
Anyone had similar problems or found a way around it?

 

[qdedoidq]

Seems curious, since anatomy is what AI screws up the most. It's great at making a facsimile that looks good at a distance if you squint your eyes, but falls apart when you notice the details. It's great for doing smooth color gradients (and why so much of it looks airbrushed so often), but it can't nail the details. Look close and you'll see patterns that make no sense, or notice those plants really are just splotches of unconnected color, or how fingers on a hand are just a jumbled mess. So anatomy is one of the last things I'd trust an AI to get right at this point.




Not sure how reasonable that is. It would be one thing if you had rough sketches they were clearly being used as placeholder assets, and you otherwise had a really solid gameplay loop or narrative to otherwise hook the player. But unfortunately you don't. The 'best' looking part of the game so far is the AI generated stuff, and that puts you in a bad position. You're gonna need money to hire an artist, but you're only going to get that promoting a game already using AI visuals. How many potential patrons are just going to be happy with the AI and not want it changed? If that faction makes up a sizable amount of your future patrons, are you really going to spend money to get new art rather than keep the money for yourself? It'll be so, so easy to just never change it in the future. So it's a nice thought, but one that lacks incentive for you to really go through with it.

View attachment 3055931

Plus, I'm pretty sure you can handle sketching placeholder art. The main menu looks reasonably well made and original, because it looks like an 'Introduction to Perspective' class week 1 homework assignment (draw a skyline with a single vanishing point). Some of it still needs work (why is there only a 2-inch gap between the counter at your job and the shelf on the right hand side, look at the floor), but clearly you have some grasp on what you are doing. If all of the art looked like placeholder assets like the main menu does, I'd 100% believe you about wanting to hire another artist later. If the long-term goal is asset replacement, why are you using AI instead of just sketching everything yourself? It would make the presentation way more honest and upfront.

Also, just an aside, but why are you seemingly targeting a 4:3 screen ratio? I see the flip phone and the old CRT monitors in the game. So are you trying to ape a particular late 90's/early 00's ascetic? Even then, is there a reason why you can't do that without wasting so much screen space with massive black borders?




Not sure I'd agree. It's a lewd game. People play them for the lewds. So, unless you have a REALLY solid gameplay loop and the lewds are secondary (e.g. you're making a shooter, platformer, rogue-lite, etc.), the ONLY reason anyone is playing this over a non-lewd version is the lewds. Are you really sure that arbitrarily locking folks out of content is a good idea? That it will be appreciated by your potential player base?

It doesn't sound like this is based on player choice (picking A or B), but rather a fail-state (e.g. time limit, game over). The vast, vast, vast majority of these games don't have fail states; even less so among the grindy sandbox ones where it is expected that if you spend enough time you can and will see everything. Not saying you can't do it, just that I can see it being a very unpopular decision. Is that idea really so important to you, the game, or the story that you feel you want to tell, that you're prepared to die on that hill for it?




Probably for the best.




I will say this; that is the healthiest response you can have to criticism. Now actually following through on that will be even harder, but it sounds like you at least have your head in the right space. Kudos for that.




View attachment 3055932
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View attachment 3055939

I'm not a professional writer or a creative writing instructor, but I'm pretty sure I could help you avoid writing like this. So sure, I'll bite. Send me some preliminary dialogue or script, and I can give it a once over. Again, I not a professional editor, but I can catch you using 'quite' twice in quick succession, forgetting a question mark at the end of a request, or clarifying whatever in the fuck 'bum you lad' is supposed to mean.

Wow, thank you for writing so much and asking this many questions. I'll try and answer everything with as much detail as possible.

Firstly, you're right in that the AI doesn't get the details right and that looking closer there are very obvious mistakes being made during the processing. I try and fix any mistakes that the AI makes but there's still a few things that come through like the weird hands. AI can be surprisingly accurate so when a mistake comes through that's just a sign of me using it too much as a crutch to make up for a lack of confidence in my art. I still drew those hands so that's due to my incompetence, and if I was better at art then I wouldn't use AI at all.

I'll show a couple of wip drafts I had in place during the development since you're right in that I could have used those if I touched them up a little. The biggest reason for using AI was simply because I felt like if I used those sketches then less people would be interested. I'm not confident I can produce art on a level similar to Summertime Saga or Taffy Tales yet so I used AI to supplement that. In the long term I felt like it would have been potentially fine, since the sprites only need touching up to make them look better while I don't mind the CGs being completely redone since I don't like how they look even now anyway. My biggest incentive for doing this is that I really do want to make the best game possible, though I understand how for now those are just empty words since it's not possible to back them up. I am tempted to redo all the art and do it in a simpler art style but I keep telling myself I can do better if I used AI.

​

You mentioned the aspect ratio and the reason for that was that the biggest inspiration for making this game was a flash game from way back called Pico Sim Date 2. I felt like making it 4:3 would make it feel like more nostalgic like you're on newgrounds again. It does also tie in the fact that the game is set in the early 2000s so that's another reason. I get that making it 4:3 wastes a lot of space that could be used for more art but I chose to do it this way simply for a stylistic choice.

The goal for this game is to treat it more like a game than just a lewd slideshow. I get that things like time sensitivity can be annoying but when done correctly I think it will benefit the game. While it sounds like a bad thing and I should have worded myself better, the main reason for these is to unlock more content, not be locked out. For example, if you miss rent you'll unlock an event which will show more scenes to the player. For now though I simply haven't programmed that in yet. The main goal will also be to make it replayable. I get that people want to see everything all in one go, I play RPGs in a way that hopefully lets me see everything but now that I'm looking at it as a developer I want people to play my game multiple times in different ways. This game will have choices for you to make, but it will also have a choice outside of picking A or B, like how staying silent and letting a timer run out in a conversation in a TellTale game still progresses the game. Overall, I should have left that out in the initial release since there's literally no benefit to it at the moment when there are no scenes, events or a good gameplay loop set in place.

I wanted to differentiate this game by setting in England and having all the quirks that comes with that. I live in the UK myself, the north specifically so I wanted to put that culture into this game. I understand that if you're not a native speaker then the dialogue would be very confusing so it's something that I need to manage carefully. I had an entire translation menu coded in so you could refer to what certain slang meant but nobody wants to do that. I'll rework the dialogue to make it more palatable for everyone while hopefully still keeping a level of 'Britishness' that I can be happy with.

Again, thank you for the reply. I'll DM you about the scripting help you offered. Seriously, I really appreciate the help.

 

[qdedoidq]

I attempted to skip some of the grind by editing the save file. When i load the edited save file it tells me "yada yada has been changed do you trust it" since i did it myself i do, click yes and then nothing happens.
Anyone had similar problems or found a way around it?

I encrypted the files so you couldn't see or edit them, though I made a few cheat codes just in case. Use them at the computer at home. I'll post them here:

cap1 - all stats raised to 75
moneymoney - £10000
gimmenoods - unlocks nude versions of the girls in the contacts screen

 

[THE KILLER 13]

Will this have incest for me to try?

 

[qdedoidq]

Will this have incest for me to try?

Potentially. The player can select a race at the start of the game. With that I'm floating around the idea of a potential sibling character appearing who's design is unique depending on the choice you made. There's also potential for a girl to have a sibling show up and I can make a threesome scene for that. Overall I'm not into incest content at all but I'm open to ideas like that.

 

[THE KILLER 13]

Potentially. The player can select a race at the start of the game. With that I'm floating around the idea of a potential sibling character appearing who's design is unique depending on the choice you made. There's also potential for a girl to have a sibling show up and I can make a threesome scene for that. Overall I'm not into incest content at all but I'm open to ideas like that.

I like open-minded people

good luck

 

[Anaktorness]

Potentially. The player can select a race at the start of the game. With that I'm floating around the idea of a potential sibling character appearing who's design is unique depending on the choice you made. There's also potential for a girl to have a sibling show up and I can make a threesome scene for that. Overall I'm not into incest content at all but I'm open to ideas like that.

m/s incest (mother and son) is ruled out?

 

[qdedoidq]

m/s incest (mother and son) is ruled out?

Yeah not happening. Same with NTR, scat, bestiality (Though since this game has monster girls I'm happy with some anthro / furry content) and loli / shouta. I'm open to futa content but I'm not sure how to fit that in yet.

 

[EvolutionKills]

I'll show a couple of wip drafts I had in place during the development since you're right in that I could have used those if I touched them up a little. The biggest reason for using AI was simply because I felt like if I used those sketches then less people would be interested. I'm not confident I can produce art on a level similar to Summertime Saga or Taffy Tales yet so I used AI to supplement that. In the long term I felt like it would have been potentially fine, since the sprites only need touching up to make them look better while I don't mind the CGs being completely redone since I don't like how they look even now anyway. My biggest incentive for doing this is that I really do want to make the best game possible, though I understand how for now those are just empty words since it's not possible to back them up. I am tempted to redo all the art and do it in a simpler art style but I keep telling myself I can do better if I used AI.

View attachment 3056041 View attachment 3056043 View attachment 3056045 View attachment 3056046​

Are you kidding? That's a fantastic start right there!

What you need to do is have a better idea on what the final state of the art is going to be. If it's going to be all you, then maybe AI assistance is the way to go and get you over the finish line. But if you're ultimately going to hire someone else to do the work? Don't even bother.

In either case, I would honestly recommend not using AI for now, and for a variety of reasons.

You're making a sandbox, not a more linear narrative visual novel. That means that your audience is going to be more amenable to the idea of earlier content being changed and reworked, because it is stuff you're going to be seeing over and over again.

If those are your original sketches, then you have more than enough skill to be story-boarding. You should absolutely be story-boarding. You should be keeping your art fast and streamlined, that way you can do more with less time. What that allows you to do is free up more time to iterate and make changes. If you spend 4 hours making up a really nice AI assisted sprite or CG, you're going to be WAY LESS inclined to later scrap that effort, as opposed to if you were looking to replace a sketch you did in 15~30 minutes.

If you can quickly and comfortably work making assets at something between the 2nd and 3rd sketch in terms of detail, you'd have a fantastic base to build upon. Making things that look 'good enough', get the idea across to yourself and the audience, and won't hurt nearly as much when it gets replaced later with a more finalized design. It will allow you to iterate, and add content, without being nearly as constrained by the art pipeline. Try different looks, different poses, different framing, different clothing. It'll all be faster and easier if you're not as concerned with putting out a 'final' looking piece each and every time.

Then from there, you can continue to iterate and practice. Maybe with all that practice, you get yourself to a level where you're happy and comfortable not needing to lean so heavily on the AI (or even use it at all)? Or you have a much stronger foundation to hand off to someone else, making their job easier as well. Either way, win-win.

I'd recommend checking out DarkCookie's work on the earlier versions of Summertime Sage (which is admittedly getting harder to find as the game itself gets updated). It's nowhere near as good as the stuff being released now, and they've been working on that game for years. It's your first project, so it's to be expected that comparison to a widely successful and nearly complete projects (indeed, one of the most successful projects on the entire Patreon platform) is not going to be flattering. If my roommates and I started a podcast next week, I shouldn't expect it to be as funny as 'Well There's Your Problem' or rake in the cash like 'Chapo Trap House'.

You mentioned the aspect ratio and the reason for that was that the biggest inspiration for making this game was a flash game from way back called Pico Sim Date 2. I felt like making it 4:3 would make it feel like more nostalgic like you're on newgrounds again. It does also tie in the fact that the game is set in the early 2000s so that's another reason. I get that making it 4:3 wastes a lot of space that could be used for more art but I chose to do it this way simply for a stylistic choice.

Fair enough. I didn't think it was an accidental choice on your part, and I'm happy to see that assumption was correct.

The goal for this game is to treat it more like a game than just a lewd slideshow. I get that things like time sensitivity can be annoying but when done correctly I think it will benefit the game. While it sounds like a bad thing and I should have worded myself better, the main reason for these is to unlock more content, not be locked out. For example, if you miss rent you'll unlock an event which will show more scenes to the player. For now though I simply haven't programmed that in yet. The main goal will also be to make it replayable. I get that people want to see everything all in one go, I play RPGs in a way that hopefully lets me see everything but now that I'm looking at it as a developer I want people to play my game multiple times in different ways. This game will have choices for you to make, but it will also have a choice outside of picking A or B, like how staying silent and letting a timer run out in a conversation in a TellTale game still progresses the game. Overall, I should have left that out in the initial release since there's literally no benefit to it at the moment when there are no scenes, events or a good gameplay loop set in place.

Iterate. Iterate. Iterate.

If it isn't fun, don't be afraid to make changes.

I wanted to differentiate this game by setting in England and having all the quirks that comes with that. I live in the UK myself, the north specifically so I wanted to put that culture into this game. I understand that if you're not a native speaker then the dialogue would be very confusing so it's something that I need to manage carefully. I had an entire translation menu coded in so you could refer to what certain slang meant but nobody wants to do that. I'll rework the dialogue to make it more palatable for everyone while hopefully still keeping a level of 'Britishness' that I can be happy with.

Again, thank you for the reply. I'll DM you about the scripting help you offered. Seriously, I really appreciate the help.

Please tell me you don't actually call cash 'cheddar'. Especially when there are funnier options, like 'dosh' just sitting there.

 

[qdedoidq]

Are you kidding? That's a fantastic start right there!

What you need to do is have a better idea on what the final state of the art is going to be. If it's going to be all you, then maybe AI assistance is the way to go and get you over the finish line. But if you're ultimately going to hire someone else to do the work? Don't even bother.

In either case, I would honestly recommend not using AI for now, and for a variety of reasons.

You're making a sandbox, not a more linear narrative visual novel. That means that your audience is going to be more amenable to the idea of earlier content being changed and reworked, because it is stuff you're going to be seeing over and over again.

If those are your original sketches, then you have more than enough skill to be story-boarding. You should absolutely be story-boarding. You should be keeping your art fast and streamlined, that way you can do more with less time. What that allows you to do is free up more time to iterate and make changes. If you spend 4 hours making up a really nice AI assisted sprite or CG, you're going to be WAY LESS inclined to later scrap that effort, as opposed to if you were looking to replace a sketch you did in 15~30 minutes.

If you can quickly and comfortably work making assets at something between the 2nd and 3rd sketch in terms of detail, you'd have a fantastic base to build upon. Making things that look 'good enough', get the idea across to yourself and the audience, and won't hurt nearly as much when it gets replaced later with a more finalized design. It will allow you to iterate, and add content, without being nearly as constrained by the art pipeline. Try different looks, different poses, different framing, different clothing. It'll all be faster and easier if you're not as concerned with putting out a 'final' looking piece each and every time.

Then from there, you can continue to iterate and practice. Maybe with all that practice, you get yourself to a level where you're happy and comfortable not needing to lean so heavily on the AI (or even use it at all)? Or you have a much stronger foundation to hand off to someone else, making their job easier as well. Either way, win-win.

I'd recommend checking out DarkCookie's work on the earlier versions of Summertime Sage (which is admittedly getting harder to find as the game itself gets updated). It's nowhere near as good as the stuff being released now, and they've been working on that game for years. It's your first project, so it's to be expected that comparison to a widely successful and nearly complete projects (indeed, one of the most successful projects on the entire Patreon platform) is not going to be flattering. If my roommates and I started a podcast next week, I shouldn't expect it to be as funny as 'Well There's Your Problem' or rake in the cash like 'Chapo Trap House'.





Fair enough. I didn't think it was an accidental choice on your part, and I'm happy to see that assumption was correct.





Iterate. Iterate. Iterate.

If it isn't fun, don't be afraid to make changes.





Please tell me you don't actually call cash 'cheddar'. Especially when there are funnier options, like 'dosh' just sitting there.

I really appreciate the criticism and encouragement, especially the kind words. It helps a lot in going forward from this point.

I'll start replacing the current CGs with quick yet refined sketches. I know there's probably a good chunk of people who played this and didn't mind the use of AI but you're right in that it's talking me forever to produce just one image. They're mainly the reason why there's barely any content and also the reason why I locked away the ability to look through files because in there is a further four girls that are fully programmed in along with a lot more events that just didn't have the CGs to go along with them so I didn't release any of that.

Funny you mention DarkCookie and Summertime Saga. Part of the reason why I used AI is because my actual art style kinda resembles Summertime Saga colouring wise so I wanted to avoid the comparisons by using AI. I've actually been trying to hunt down the early version of that for a while now but the earliest version I've seen is around v0.11 I think. The changelogs have been a lot of help in putting into perspective the amount of work that went into it and seeing just where it was in the early stages. I will admit that I have been comparing myself to DarkCookie a lot and tried to jump the gun by having good art right off the bat but I should have just started small.

Finally, using cheddar to refer to money was a thing like 20ish years ago which is why I used it. I'll be completely honest though, normally I would have thought twice about that and I would have just used something else but I think a lot of the bad dialogue (that one especially) was done after coming back home from a night out drinking and having a jolt of production. I definitely shouldn't be admitting that and I should have looked over what was written properly but yeah the terrible dialogue has a terrible reason behind it. I'll do better in the future.

 

[aiman2]

Nice...

 

[Chris2041]

Hey, op here. I'll use this to quickly answer some concerns.

Firstly, thank you for checking out Angel's Blood. I went to sleep as soon as I uploaded this and I was overwhelmed with just how many people commented in the thread, both positive and negative. Thank you.

The first concern is the use of AI. I address how this project uses it in Patreon but it wasn't approved in time so I couldn't link it to here. Still, I should have wrote a note explaining myself.

I should have used the AI tag, you're right, though the game is genuinely hand drawn for the most part. My drawing process uses an AI prompt to make a base so that I can get the anatomy and pose right. Then I draw over it making any corrections. Granted it's not perfect as you can see by the hands but that's also due to me being that bad at drawing hands.

Here's a video providing my layers for my art:

View attachment 3055680

The CGs use AI much more I will admit. The art however is just meant to be used as a proof of concept until a proper artist can redo the art to look better. I know it's a meme to say that with games like Yandere Simulator never replacing their assets but I really do want to replace all the art in the game with much higher quality work.

Another issue is time sensitive objectives. I didn't handle this well since the main point of it was to avoid players just spamming out raising one stat and instead guide them to focus on other things to do. The game is still in it's early stages so that was pointless to put in at the minute since all there really is to do is grind stats as there's barely any events and scenes. For future releases I'll implement a prompt or some sort of text notifying the player that they're approaching a time sensitive objective. If done correctly I think It'd be good to have so I won't budge on this.

Finally I forgot to replace the name that you get at the name prompt if nothing is typed in. That was a massive oversight, my bad.

Overall the launch of the first version has been a rollercoaster. It is my very first game so there's bound to be many, many mistakes to learn from and hopefully not make again in the future.

Finally, I want to use this part to ask if anybody might be interested in working on this project with me. I really do need all the help I can get but I just don't have any money to offer at the minute. I basically need any role you might think of for a dev team so please dm me if that sounds appealing to you.

I like to play sandbox games taking my time and enjoying everything at my pace but whit that time objectives kill my wants to play the game
Why is that needing now i have to min max and follow a guide to get all scenes
In what mind this was a good idea
I usually really like sandbox games i dont mind the grind if not is excesive but this .....
Sorry no

 

[Oodel]

Im not sure if i fully understand your process

is this image fully AI generated and you just add the clothes and face/hair?

either way it looks very good just some of the cgs look weirs (as you said yourself).
But it looks still very promising especially the WIP animations

i dont understand the AI hate anyway... i much rather play a game with half asses ai art than one with no art at all but thats just me.

 

[qdedoidq]

Im not sure if i fully understand your process
View attachment 3057780
is this image fully AI generated and you just add the clothes and face/hair?

either way it looks very good just some of the cgs look weirs (as you said yourself).
But it looks still very promising especially the WIP animations

i dont understand the AI hate anyway... i much rather play a game with half asses ai art than one with no art at all but thats just me.

Here's how I make the sprites:

1: Create a sketch
2: Put that through AI (This normally takes many steps to try and get the lighting somewhat right, I don't know how I managed to forget to mention this before but the main reason for the use of AI is to get the lighting and colours right first, anatomy second, since I struggle with both of those greatly)
3: Draw proper lineart (Usually this is split up into the body, clothes, hair and face)
4: Either paint the whole thing from scratch or paint over the AI generated image using it as a guide



I try and put as much human involvement into the creation process as I can and only use AI to help speed up the development process since by myself it would take me multiple days to get to this standard while currently I can have a whole character done within a day.

There's a part I wrote about using AI in my Patreon which I would like to reiterate here. I try to use AI in a transformative manner similar to how YouTuber's get around copyright when using other people's content or how sampling works in the music creation process. Now, since there's no proper law put into place for the use of AI generated images yet and AI as a whole is more or less built on the theft of other artists work, who am I to decide whether or not I can morally justify the use of it in my work.

I hope showing off my workflow managed to give a good insight into the level of work I try and put into this game. I'd like to keep using this process for the sprites but the CGs will all be redone and changed. The quality will dip but It'll help get more content out quicker and I'm not happy with how stiff the AI has made the CGs look anyway.

 

[shenfull]

are you gonna explore more fetishes as the game progresses? Personaly futa would be nice with your style

 

[qdedoidq]

are you gonna explore more fetishes as the game progresses? Personaly futa would be nice with your style

I'd like to explore a bunch of fetishes as the game progresses. I'm not sure how to insert futa content into the game yet but I am open to having it.