VN Ren'Py Between Two Worlds [Ch. 8] [Drooskati]

[Drooskati]

Hey all, I'm looking for some feedback about to potential change to the game. Topic: Potentially adding avatars to the textbox. This is a public poll, and comments are open to all, not just supporters.

Feel free to make your voice heard over on

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. Thanks

 

[GetOutOfMyLab]

Hey all, I'm looking for some feedback about to potential change to the game. Topic: Potentially adding avatars to the textbox. This is a public poll, and comments are open to all, not just supporters.

Feel free to make your voice heard over on

You must be registered to see the links

. Thanks

I chose Other, see comment, but am not able to leave a comment. I don't think it adds all that much. The only reason I see this being helpful is if people are having a difficult time distinguishing who is saying what. I don't think that's a problem with this VN.

With that said, if you add it anyway, it will have no effect on me, so if some people are into it, go for it.

 

[Drooskati]

I chose Other, see comment, but am not able to leave a comment. I don't think it adds all that much. The only reason I see this being helpful is if people are having a difficult time distinguishing who is saying what. I don't think that's a problem with this VN.

With that said, if you add it anyway, it will have no effect on me, so if some people are into it, go for it.

Thanks. Guess comments are only available to supporters? First time doing a public poll. I'm sorry you couldn't comment, but I appreciate the feedback here. I do try to differentiate who is talking based on certain aspects, like Skylar/Tosca is blue, for her hair. Hannah is red, same reason. Kenny is darker, for, well, obvious reasons, etc.

 

[Canto Forte]

Technically speaking, some devs use animated turning heads with blinking eyes and moving mouths
to brag about animations, when in essence those are creepy talking heads distracting us from reading the lines and looking at the scene unfolding on screen, beyond the textbox.

On the looks side, some devs use nudes of the babes when they talk or same clothes/names,
even if that char has not revealed her name yet or is wearing something else in the scene we are seeing.

Should this not be that distracting and is not a way to do animations where it does not count just to
brag about doing animated talking heads, you could realistically consider them.

Adding immersion breaking stunts that hogg your development time is bad still.

 

[GetOutOfMyLab]

Thanks. Guess comments are only available to supporters? First time doing a public poll. I'm sorry you couldn't comment, but I appreciate the feedback here. I do try to differentiate who is talking based on certain aspects, like Skylar/Tosca is blue, for her hair. Hannah is red, same reason. Kenny is darker, for, well, obvious reasons, etc.

No worries and I've never had a difficult time knowing who is talking.

Also, love this story. I'll likely add this to my rotation of support. Keep up the great work!

 

[Drooskati]

Technically speaking, some devs use animated turning heads with blinking eyes and moving mouths
to brag about animations, when in essence those are creepy talking heads distracting us from reading the lines and looking at the scene unfolding on screen, beyond the textbox.

On the looks side, some devs use nudes of the babes when they talk or same clothes/names,
even if that char has not revealed her name yet or is wearing something else in the scene we are seeing.

Should this not be that distracting and is not a way to do animations where it does not count just to
brag about doing animated talking heads, you could realistically consider them.

Adding immersion breaking stunts that hogg your development time is bad still.

Agreed. There would be nothing about it intended to "show off". Simply a profile type image, with the intention of helping people quickly/easily know who is speaking, particularly if the person is not currently in frame (I try to stick to no more than 3 lines of text between renders). I've seen others who try to use the "avatar" type thing to show emotion, which I personally don't like, and wouldn't do. I'd rather show that in the full image!

Edit: I wonder if there is possibly a way to do this, and make it so it's something that can be enabled/disabled via a toggle in the menu...

 

[DA22]

Agreed. There would be nothing about it intended to "show off". Simply a profile type image, with the intention of helping people quickly/easily know who is speaking, particularly if the person is not currently in frame (I try to stick to no more than 3 lines of text between renders). I've seen others who try to use the "avatar" type thing to show emotion, which I personally don't like, and wouldn't do. I'd rather show that in the full image!

Edit: I wonder if there is possibly a way to do this, and make it so it's something that can be enabled/disabled via a toggle in the menu...

For the last thing you could have a quick talk with the dev in my first sig, he had the same question a long time ago.

 

[HogRocket]

Technically speaking, some devs use animated turning heads with blinking eyes and moving mouths
to brag about animations, when in essence those are creepy talking heads distracting us from reading the lines and looking at the scene unfolding on screen, beyond the textbox.

On the looks side, some devs use nudes of the babes when they talk or same clothes/names,
even if that char has not revealed her name yet or is wearing something else in the scene we are seeing.

Should this not be that distracting and is not a way to do animations where it does not count just to
brag about doing animated talking heads, you could realistically consider them.

Adding immersion breaking stunts that hogg your development time is bad still.

What Canto said.

A downside to text box avatars is more blocked screen real estate. The less obtrusive the text box is the better IMHO. I have seen games with static images use the text box avatars to display emotions etc, but you don't need that here - you do great facial expressions. K.I.S.S - Keep It Simple Stupi.......Freind. When planning a project I do a cost/benefit analysis of various aspects of the project. What is the "cost" in time/effort/learning/bugs/whining/debug versus the perceived benefit. Then throw all that crap out the window and do whatever you want, we'll still play the game (as long as there's Hanna)

and on that last note, I'm just going to put this here....

 

[ename144]

Hey all, I'm looking for some feedback about to potential change to the game. Topic: Potentially adding avatars to the textbox. This is a public poll, and comments are open to all, not just supporters.

Feel free to make your voice heard over on

You must be registered to see the links

. Thanks

Personally, I don't think the avatars would add much. You already render the characters in their environment, so we don't need the avatars to serve as sprites. Each character also gets a color-coded name when talking, which is the other main use for avatars. So it seems like avatars would be redundant and might even add work if it turns out you need a lot of them to cover different situations each character might appear in.

That said, I don't have any objection to avatars, either. If they help you streamline rendering or are just very popular with other players, go ahead and add them.

Actually, thinking about it, there is one potential situation where avatars might be useful: distinguishing between "in character" and "out of character" dialog during gaming sessions. Having distinct images of Tosca and Skylar, for example, might make it clearer when the characters are talking among themselves and when the players are commenting in the real world. That would probably require including clothes in the avatars, though, which might present other problems. More importantly, if you intend to blur the lines between the players and their characters, having two sets of avatars could be counterproductive.

So I guess that's a longwinded way of saying I still have no strong opinion.

 

[Drooskati]

So, thanks to another dev, I've got the code needed to implement this as an option. I don't know that it'll be in Chapter 4, as I'm already working on a super tight self imposed timeline, but I think it'll come in Chapter 5. Basically, it'll be added as an option in the Preferences menu. Default will be off. The avatars will be heads only, no clothes, body, etc. Each character will get 4, maybe 5, basic poses. Things like happy, sad, angry, maybe flirtacious?, as well as "neutral".

It'll also only apply to "main characters", or characters that I find important enough to give them the extra attention. I should be able to get it implemented in a single day, including all the renders. Patreon poll does indicate that the idea is a popular one, so no reason not to at least put it in as an option!

I appreciate your feedback everyone As thanks, here's another bonus preview.

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[MrFriendly]

Hey all, I'm looking for some feedback about to potential change to the game. Topic: Potentially adding avatars to the textbox. This is a public poll, and comments are open to all, not just supporters.

Feel free to make your voice heard over on

You must be registered to see the links

. Thanks

Doesn't need it. You do a great job of showing who is talking with the different colors and scene set up. I've never been confused by a conversation in the game.

 

[Drooskati]

Last public preview for a few weeks. New animation Though I might end up redoing the end of it. Not real happy about how her hands end up.

View attachment New Girl.webm

 

[GetOutOfMyLab]

Last public preview for a few weeks. New animation Though I might end up redoing the end of it. Not real happy about how her hands end up.

View attachment 1681968

...she has hands?

 

[HogRocket]

Last public preview for a few weeks. New animation Though I might end up redoing the end of it. Not real happy about how her hands end up.

View attachment 1681968

...she has hands?

Her hands kind of disappear at the 2 second mark, at least I couldn't see them anymore.

 

[halleluja10]

...she has hands?

Yup, and Eyes too!

 

[GetOutOfMyLab]

Yup, and Eyes too!

Well I'll be damned...

 

[BartPS]

I wonder if there is possibly a way to do this, and make it so it's something that can be enabled/disabled via a toggle in the menu...

Good idea - personally I'm a fan of avatars as, without them, I often miss who is speaking. But clearly others don't like them.

Anyway, I just checked the code and it shouldn't be too difficult. There is already a conditional statement not to include the avatar (called SideImage) for small screens so it should be straightforward to make it also conditional on a permanent variable that you set in Preferences.

Incidentally, her hands look PERFECT - ly ready to give a double hand-job.

 

[Krabgee]

Very interested in this, shows a lot of promise and the story is intriguing kudos for the animations as well.

 

[Drooskati]

I'm doing a series of special renders of the girls. Hannah is already done, doing Emily now, then Skylar. Wanted to share some previews 4K versions will be available on Patreon as they are completed!

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[Drooskati]

Special request render for a Patron who was kind enough to let me share with everyone