VN Ren'Py Being a DIK [v0.10.1] [DrPinkCake]

[Kellermann]

i would very easily argue that developing the CURRENT characters will add emotional growth/weight to the story, instead of bringing back an old flame whose literal primary purpose is to ADD MORE DRAMA right after DPC FORCED us to choose a main girl.

if your primary argument is purely based on adding emotional growth/weight to the story, then there are a myriad of other ways to accomplish this that dont walk back what little narrative progress we have actually made. and just as many ways that dont add new drama to an already overly dramatic story BEFORE finishing up the currently running overly dramatic plotlines

thats where the Zoey dislike comes from

All valid points. For me personally, I just find her ugly and annoying. I was initially discouraged by the postponement of ep. 9 so work could take place on Interlude, but I'm more or less over it now. I wipe Interlude from my mind so I can refocus on ep. 9 and the return to B&R. I rationalise it by viewing Interlude as just a necessary evil for DPC to clear his mind with a side project so he can come back to B&R strong.

Ep. 9 is a make it or break it episode for me. My interest in BaDIK plummeted with ep. 7 and got marginally better with ep. 8 only to level off at a meh with Interlude. I'm forcing myself to put on a happy face and give ep. 9 a fair chance. I think early season 3 will reveal to us if DPC is truly able to juggle 100 characters and still deliver the content that each one of us wants with our chosen girl(s). I will strive to look at it with fresh eyes and not let the distaste of season 2 contaminate my judgement. I am still hoping ep. 9 is the best yet...or at least better than the lowpoints of season 2. Fingers crossed.

Spoiler: Me Cautiously Optimistic About Ep. 9?

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[Ilhares]

Like he didn't even show Bella kissing James in that flashback for said reasons, you think he's really going to do this?

That's because James isn't real. That was a Sixth Sense moment, which is why the MC later figures out he should have been calling for help.

I do think she may have married the man, but I don't think he was actually present during that flashback. That was Bella's delusion. She never touches him and people look at her like she's a weirdo. He never speaks to anyone else, nobody addresses him except Bella.

 

[felicemastronzo]

You're making it too easy for yourself.

- Sage said in the credits of EP8 that she has several reasons to help Maya. I'm assuming that those multiple reasons don't just refer to Maya, but also to Maya's friends. Ergo Josy and the MC. There is a possibility that the MC finds out something that affects Maya, Josy or him personally. (Example: tuition or scholarship for the MC).

- What if Sage wanted to surprise the MC with this so her parents would be the Burkes.

- The MC doesn't like Tybalt at all. Maybe Sage doesn't want the MC to know sooner than necessary that Tybalt is her brother.

- Your last point makes no sense because the MC doesn't need to know who Sage's parents are. Sage asks the MC to come along so he can support Sage and Maya emotionally, not so he can argue with her parents.

I really have no idea what you're talking about....

- What if Sage wanted to surprise the MC with this so her parents would be the Burkes.

why on earth would Sage want to surprise MC? what's the point?

- Your last point makes no sense because the MC doesn't need to know who Sage's parents are. Sage asks the MC to come along so he can support Sage and Maya emotionally, not so he can argue with her parents.

Sage has a terrible character, if things didn't go well, and it's possible, surely a confrontation would ensue (which moreover we almost already see in the preview), moral support means that too, supporting and taking sides. how is it indifferent who Sage's parents are?

 

[Lostanddamned]

That's because James isn't real. That was a Sixth Sense moment, which is why the MC later figures out he should have been calling for help.

I do think she may have married the man, but I don't think he was actually present during that flashback. That was Bella's delusion. She never touches him and people look at her like she's a weirdo. He never speaks to anyone else, nobody addresses him except Bella.

Yeah, I posted this theory after I played the update and everyone thought it was ridiculous (except ChipLecsap, who thought it was the most amazing thing ever).

The thing that leads me to believe it's true is - Bella's boss doesn't acknowledge James at all. Sure their conversation was inappropriate, but Bella's boss acts like James isn't even there. Which leads me to believe she caught Bella talking to herself and sent her home so she can relax and get her bearings.

Also, the guy with the glasses watching them outside is odd. He's in sharp focus and like in the middle of the scene and his reactions to Bella (and James) is headscratching. It's like he's also watching Bella talking to herself and thinking "WTF is she doing?"

 

[NebulousShooter]

You're making it too easy for yourself.

- Sage said in the credits of EP8 that she has several reasons to help Maya. I'm assuming that those multiple reasons don't just refer to Maya, but also to Maya's friends. Ergo Josy and the MC. There is a possibility that the MC finds out something that affects Maya, Josy or him personally. (Example: tuition or scholarship for the MC).

- What if Sage wanted to surprise the MC with this so her parents would be the Burkes.

- The MC doesn't like Tybalt at all. Maybe Sage doesn't want the MC to know sooner than necessary that Tybalt is her brother.

- Your last point makes no sense because the MC doesn't need to know who Sage's parents are. Sage asks the MC to come along so he can support Sage and Maya emotionally, not so he can argue with her parents.

I could hit you with a shovel on the back of your head, sure it would come out of nowhere, but 'a surprise' wouldn't be the best way to describe it.

I honestly do not see how you would take that other than Sage ambushing Fuckface by taking him there without mentioning that her dad is the dean, Jade is his teacher, Tybalt...never mind. He is supposed to provide emotional support, how can he do that if he has no clue what he is walking into?

This is DPC. again, harming the character of a LI just to hype up a twist, same way he damaged Jill by making her reject you if you didn't see his picnic/house twist and in my opinion both are completely avoidable problems. All he had to do is chose to deliver a 'weaker', yet better established and more believable plot twist. Sure, more players would have seen it coming, but if the story is going in a interesting direction that is arguable better than cheap 'fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck' moments.

Contrary to popular belief there are better way of presenting drama than 'Dany kinda forgot about the Iron Fleet'.

 

[felicemastronzo]

The point is because the MC doesn't know so Jade Burke is Sage's mother even though he attended her class. Surprise. The joke of the matter for Sage may be so that the MC has had contact with her parents several times, but did not realize that they are her parents.

I wrote so that the MC should come along for emotional support and not moral support. Difference.

But what surprise is it? i.e. Sage at that moment wants to organize a prank on MC?

but you don't believe it yourself writing it, as you almost always do otherwise....

 

[StultusAnglicus]

i would very easily argue that developing the CURRENT characters will add emotional growth/weight to the story, instead of bringing back an old flame whose literal primary purpose is to ADD MORE DRAMA right after DPC FORCED us to choose a main girl.

if your primary argument is purely based on adding emotional growth/weight to the story, then there are a myriad of other ways to accomplish this that dont walk back what little narrative progress we have actually made. and just as many ways that dont add new drama to an already overly dramatic story BEFORE finishing up the currently running overly dramatic plotlines

thats where the Zoey dislike comes from

The only issue there is tying it together for the player. To have emotional weight outside of Zoey turning up to rock the boat you need to have entirely seperate stories for each of the LI, For example Jill has nothing to do with the Sage/Jade/Burkes drama, nor does Bella, In fact out side of Jill Bella has very little to do with any of the rest of the characters (I suppose mentoring Sage? But lets be real thats just to tie her to Bella so your character has to think about not getting 'caught with his dick in the cookie jar' with the two best girls .
To have that level of separate but still meaningful story telling complete with renders/animations etc you are looking at a far longer wait time for an update, much shorter updates for each individual LI or perish the fucking thought, updates on a per LI basis. People already lose their shit over every update becasue its taking too long/Not enough content for their LI/character acts in a way they dont like.

TLDR - Yeah you could get emotinal weight without Zoey, but the cost vs reward is a bit too steep.

I am curious though, how do you feel that the narrative progress has been walked back? (I disagree but that doesn't mean I'm right, I like to know other peoples opinions)

 

[NebulousShooter]

Tommy is the most honest motherfucker around.

 

[AchedCroissant]

I think be a whore means much more than simply not be a virgin

He is one of J.A.L.'s friends. before he was a user with whom you could have a polite conversation but since J.A.L. lol something stopped working

 

[StultusAnglicus]

In all religions around the world "Woman having sex before sex are called whore ".

I dunno if religious morality is the best measuring system here....

 

[lipe2410]

Tommy is the most honest motherfucker around.

Until we discover that he is stealing part of Pink Rose job money to buy his drugs

 

[SomboSteel]

The only issue there is tying it together for the player. To have emotional weight outside of Zoey turning up to rock the boat you need to have entirely seperate stories for each of the LI, For example Jill has nothing to do with the Sage/Jade/Burkes drama, nor does Bella, In fact out side of Jill Bella has very little to do with any of the rest of the characters (I suppose mentoring Sage? But lets be real thats just to tie her to Bella so your character has to think about not getting 'caught with his dick in the cookie jar' with the two best girls .
To have that level of separate but still meaningful story telling complete with renders/animations etc you are looking at a far longer wait time for an update, much shorter updates for each individual LI or perish the fucking thought, updates on a per LI basis. People already lose their shit over every update becasue its taking too long/Not enough content for their LI/character acts in a way they dont like.

TLDR - Yeah you could get emotinal weight without Zoey, but the cost vs reward is a bit too steep.

I am curious though, how do you feel that the narrative progress has been walked back? (I disagree but that doesn't mean I'm right, I like to know other peoples opinions)

alright. so my first response would be that you dont necessarily need "entirely separate stories for each of the LI". because of the branching paths and what limited choice the player does have, you already will miss tons of other content with each LI in any given playthrough because of your affinity or which girl you are most invested in. so on that basis alone, you dont need to have every girl be involved in every plot thread/event. it doesnt matter that Jill and Bella have nothing to do with the finale of the last episode, the whole point of this game is the dangling of multiple drama heavy plot points simultaneously. Jill and Bella have their own shit your MC would have to deal with that doesnt involve Sage or Maya & Josy. not everything has to overlap every time.

secondly, there are certain events that happen no matter what on every playthrough and they dont all involve each individual LI. you ALWAYS have to shack up with Maya and you ALWAYS get tazed and you ALWAYS get the throuple scene in the library even if you dont give 2 fucks about Maya & Josy and are a Jill fanatic. there are already some things that DPC makes ALWAYS overlap whether you want to or not. the overall narrative that is always in the background is unavoidable and because of this there will ALWAYS be certain events that involve the culmination of several different characters ongoing plot threads (but not all the characters each time).

and for what its worth, DPC is selling this as "professional" tier gameplay + storytelling. I am well aware of how much more work would be involved on his end to actually achieve this and its why more than once i have suggested he try expanding his workforce. the fact that he refuses to do so does not exempt him from criticism for taking shortcuts with the writing/storytelling on the excuse that "it would take too long to make otherwise". that is his problem, not ours.

as far as walking back the narrative, thats the primary purpose of Zoey's return. DPC gives us (the players) and MC the option to pick one girl to pursue. Zoey exists to make the MC (not us, the players) question the decision basically immediately after we (the players) make it. DPC can end the last episode with essentially an expectation that the plot is narrowing down as the main vehicle for driving home the rest of the narrative as been presented to us. but in actuality Zoey will nullify that decision and destroy that expectation by stalling out the narrative and forcing the MC to go through the same motions he already went through before and remake the same decision again (only this time the players probably are just annoyed and want to move forward already). deliberately stalling the narrative right after seeming to begin narrowing things down is very much walking back the plot, IMO

 

[Kellermann]

Yeah, I posted this theory after I played the update and everyone thought it was ridiculous (except ChipLecsap, who thought it was the most amazing thing ever).

The thing that leads me to believe it's true is - Bella's boss doesn't acknowledge James at all. Sure their conversation was inappropriate, but Bella's boss acts like James isn't even there. Which leads me to believe she caught Bella talking to herself and sent her home so she can relax and get her bearings.

Also, the guy with the glasses watching them outside is odd. He's in sharp focus and like in the middle of the scene and his reactions to Bella (and James) is headscratching. It's like he's also watching Bella talking to herself and thinking "WTF is she doing?"

I'm with you bro. I posted a few times about that topic after you did and you're right, the vast majority were incensed at even the possibility of the theory.

 

[AchedCroissant]

alright. so my first response would be that you dont necessarily need "entirely separate stories for each of the LI". because of the branching paths and what limited choice the player does have, you already will miss tons of other content with each LI in any given playthrough because of your affinity or which girl you are most invested in. so on that basis alone, you dont need to have every girl be involved in every plot thread/event. it doesnt matter that Jill and Bella have nothing to do with the finale of the last episode, the whole point of this game is the dangling of multiple drama heavy plot points simultaneously. Jill and Bella have their own shit your MC would have to deal with that doesnt involve Sage or Maya & Josy. not everything has to overlap every time.

secondly, there are certain events that happen no matter what on every playthrough and they dont all involve each individual LI. you ALWAYS have to shack up with Maya and you ALWAYS get tazed and you ALWAYS get the throuple scene in the library even if you dont give 2 fucks about Maya & Josy and are a Jill fanatic. there are already some things that DPC makes ALWAYS overlap whether you want to or not. the overall narrative that is always in the background is unavoidable and because of this there will ALWAYS be certain events that involve the culmination of several different characters ongoing plot threads (but not all the characters each time).

and for what its worth, DPC is selling this as "professional" tier gameplay + storytelling. I am well aware of how much more work would be involved on his end to actually achieve this and its why more than once i have suggested he try expanding his workforce. the fact that he refuses to do so does not exempt him from criticism for taking shortcuts with the writing/storytelling on the excuse that "it would take too long to make otherwise". that is his problem, not ours.

as far as walking back the narrative, thats the primary purpose of Zoey's return. DPC gives us (the players) and MC the option to pick one girl to pursue. Zoey exists to make the MC (not us, the players) question the decision basically immediately after we (the players) make it. DPC can end the last episode with essentially an expectation that the plot is narrowing down as the main vehicle for driving home the rest of the narrative as been presented to us. but in actuality Zoey will nullify that decision and destroy that expectation by stalling out the narrative and forcing the MC to go through the same motions he already went through before and remake the same decision again (only this time the players probably are just annoyed and want to move forward already). deliberately stalling the narrative right after seeming to begin narrowing things down is very much walking back the plot, IMO

Too much text just to say you don't like Zoey

 

[Cricco]

I could happily watch a scene of Josy and Maya fucking without the presence of MC in every single episode

 

[AchedCroissant]

View attachment 1863519

Totally me

 

[lipe2410]

View attachment 1863519

See my girlfriend and my other girlfriend making out and still don't have to worry with taxes? This is gold, bro!

 

[ename144]

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This week I worked on static renders, a bit of coding/writing, and environment renders for one of the bigger free roam events of the episode.

Some scenes have been pretty complex to create due to the number of characters and details in them. I've completed a long scene with ~160 renders in it and some shorter scenes.

Somewhere over 1500 renders are fully produced. A rough estimate is that it puts image art at 35-45% completion.

Regarding animations, I've almost finished work on 8 lewd scenes, with more to come. I need to work on another lewd scene soon to build up the animation render queue.

It's hard to estimate how many animations are left to pose, but a gut feeling tells me we're somewhere along 40-60% completion with animations.

All writing/coding/phone content should be somewhere >80% complete.

Music/sound effects are ~20-30% complete.

I wish I could give a better estimate than this, but it's impossible, and guesses only make for disappointment. I don't want to limit my freedom during development by promising things too early. It would cause bad stress for me, and the best episodes are made when I'm enjoying what I do.

All-in-all, steady progress is being made.

This weekend, a new 2D poll will be live, with some side girls candidates for wallpaper and animation. Sign up as a +$10 patron to participate.

Have a nice weekend

Dr PinkCake

Good news: we get a lot of useful numbers! Bad news: we're still missing some important ones, and the uncertainty remains high. But let's not look gift numbers in the mouth!

DPC has created somewhere in excess of 700 static renders in the last 10 weeks, an average of more than 70 statics per week; overall, he's averaged ~109 statics per week since the Interlude launched. No new word on animations, but he had a total of 95 three weeks ago. We also know he completed at least 9 new ones last week, which is on par with our latest estimate of his overall animation render rate (8.6/week).

We now learn that he has completed 35-45% of the total statics and 40-60% of the total animations (these are obviously estimates, of course). For static renders the calculation is relatively simple: if we arbitrarily assume the current count is 1520, that gives us a target static render total between 3378 and 4343 - call it 3860 statics. For animations it's hazier: we could be anywhere between 104-122 animations (possibly even more), which gives us between 173-305 animations as a target. We'll call that 240, but it's a very variable 240. We can also smoosh the animation and static render percentages together to get an approximate completion percentage of ~45% (37-53%); that's an extremely speculative number since it's not clear the two should be given equal weight, but let's just go with it for now.

Throw all those numbers on are charts, scrape off the cobwebs, and what do we get?

Spoiler: Charts Are Back, Baby!

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If we go strictly by the static and animation charts, the game would probably release in early October: technically the statics would take until late January, but there's every reason to think the rate will increase substantially when DPC focuses on them. But that's the average case. If we take the optimistic view (3378 statics, 173 animations), DPC could finish the animations by late July and the statics around mid August; that's probably a late August release in practice (since there'd be less time to pick up the slack in static renders), but still a fairly rosy scenario. If we take the pessimistic view (4343 static, 305 animations), we're now looking at early November to complete the animations (and somewhere between that and February to complete the statics). That probably works out to a late November release.

So overall I'd say these numbers generally confirm what we've already been thinking: the release window is somewhere between mid-August and the start of December. Personally, I feel slightly more optimistic this week since it does sound like DPC is still on course for a smaller animation count than Episode 8. That suggests that he's been at least somewhat successful in preventing Episode 9 from snowballing out of control which is the biggest risk to the timetable (both now and going forward). So I'd say the main takeaway is that we're making good progress and DPC does seem to have a finish line in mind now, but we're still at least a couple months out.

 

[Heycock]

View attachment 1863519

What a surprise:



(What the fuck would be that last shit that got censored?)

 

[fasdfaq123]

What a surprise:

View attachment 1863568

(What the fuck would be that last shit that got censored?)

big ass