Ren'Py Black Incense [S01E01] [Himeros Studios]

[Himeros Studios]

First and most important is to address your unnecessary addition of a "U" to words. Bad Brit. You stop that right now.
Humor > humour

Hey, he's not entirely "Brit". I found a typo/bug in the matrix that I decided to keep quiet about and not report .

During Chapter 1, when Molly watches porn and fantasises about something, if you choose to watch lesbian porn, part of the text is written "ass" instead of the London version "arse" , and there's a part where it's even written "asshole".

However, that's how I'm used to seeing it written 99.99% of the time, so I consider it correct .

Gotta put a stop to it before we're hearing about the "colour" of his tea. Himeros probably doesn't know the proper way to prepare tea (the microwave, obviously.)

Guilty as charged! It's funny you mention about the ass/arse thing - I think ass has definitely crept into more common usage in the past decade or two, I guess from American media. It actually feels like the more natural thing to type. That's the one Americanism I'll let slip into the game - however anyone who microwaves their tea (without the proper license) will of course be sent to the tower...

Josh killed Dumbledore
Josh is Keyser Soze
Josh and Tyler Durden are the same person!
Josh is Luke's father.

Thank you for at least not revealing that he returns in Season Two as Josh the White after apparently falling to the Balrog...

The new sprite is great, as is her room (and the others, each captures the flavour of the character).

I'm even prepared to forgive her for being an Arctic Monkeys fan

Thank you! And ha - I'm sure she'd appreciate that, she takes her music taste very seriously!

I just wanted to say that I really like this game.

I was really surprised how different some scenes play out depending on your previous choices: In my first playthrough of chapter 1, I went with “upper class”, and Molly was a guest at a certain party; the second time, with a different background, she was working as a waitress…

I also love the small difference in the masturbation scene depending on Molly having a lesbian fling or if she was “blacked”… I love these kinds of details!

Personally, I’m rooting for a lesbian happy end with Imogen. (And just as an idea – a lesbian wedding in the epilogue… )

Out of curiosity, may I ask why you chose history/biology/psychology as majors for Molly? I’m asking because to me they feel rather similar. Normally I would have expected more fundamentally different branches (for example history/medicine/economy.) Was it because knowledge in these fields will be useful for the plot or because it is easier to get the different personalities Molly may have to work with these subjects…? Or did you have other reasons?

Also, may I ask about the time frame of the story? Chapter 1 plays out in two days, while the prologue covers everything before. Will the next chapters also play out in days, and will there be gaps between the chapters?

By the way, I also miss the “old internet" - it is quite funny to see how, by our modern rules, it is ok for fifteen-year-old Molly to smoke, but God forbid, she had sex (not to mention incest).

Thank you for the really kind message, I'm so glad you like the game, and I'm really pleased you played it through a couple of times to see how differently it can unfold with different choices, it has been a lot of fun mapping it all out.

There will definitely be more wholesome and more depraved paths for all major romance options (including Imogen) - I hadn't actually given any thought to the idea of an epilogue yet, but I do always love games that round out the stories of the characters you've come to know and love, so yeah, happy to confirm that one day, years down the line, when the game is finally finished, you will get your epilogue! And I won't spoil anything (especially as you only gave me the idea a few seconds ago so there isn't much to spoil yet...) but I am sure that at least some of the paths could end up with epilogues involving weddings, depending on the choices made along the way...

I'm happy to go into detail on the university courses and my rationale for them! I did try and make them somewhat different from each other - Biology is a hard STEM subject, History is pretty much the classic humanities subject, Psychology is a science but in some ways a social science, so very different from Biology.

But your instincts are also correct, in that these fields are all useful to tie into the plot I have planned. Each subject will have its own story arc over the game as a whole which will tie into the main story. You will be going to lectures/tutorials/labs in the next release so will find out more in a few weeks when you will get to meet lecturers and fellow students.

In terms of timeframes, it really depends on the episode in question. The prologue was the big exception in that it is effectively a character creation process in narrative form, over 19-20 years of Molly's life. The story itself starts properly in Season One Episode One, which as you noted, takes place over 18ish hours. Going forward, some episodes may take place over hours, or days, or a couple of weeks. There will be small time skips between scenes and episodes when it makes narrative sense for there to be. I've vaguely envisioned Season One (which will be ten episodes long) to take place over the Easter term (so roughly from mid-January to end of March, so about two and a half months). I currently have loosely sketched out plans for seven seasons in total (subject to change).

A lot of my narrative influence for how I want to approach the game and story (and hence why I am calling my releases Season X Episode X) are from prestige TV shows like The Sopranos, The Wire, Breaking Bad, and Mad Men*, and so thinking about how those shows handle the passage of time is as good a model as any for what you can expect from the approach in Black Incense going forward.

Hope that's of interest, always happy to answer further questions!


*the reason these are such a conscious influence on my approach to the game is because the nature of adult game release schedules (roughly an episode a month) fits in far better with how the best TV writers approach story, compared to how the best novelists would approach it. The writers of the shows mentioned did incredible jobs of making each episode its own self-contained story, set within a self-contained season, set within the story as a whole. The crafting of each episode into its own unique thing is something the prestige TV format has really mastered, and I've tried to learn what I can from that to ensure that each new release feels really satisfying for the player to play through and experience as a story within a story.

 

[The Firefox]

Thanks for the quick and detailed answer.

Seven seasons á ten episodes? Wow...
You've got your work cut out for you...

Suddenly, I have to think about the "Winds of Winter".

 

[Buletti]

I currently have loosely sketched out plans for seven seasons in total (subject to change).

You always can stretch runtime by adding more sex scenes, you know...

 

[Himeros Studios]

Thanks for the quick and detailed answer.

Seven seasons á ten episodes? Wow...
You've got your work cut out for you...

Suddenly, I have to think about the "Winds of Winter".

I realise it's an ambitious goal, which is why I always emphasise it is held loosely, but other game devs out there have shown such projects can be done! And honestly it's exciting to me, the chance to plan out and tell a narrative like this, and to already be building the audience and community around it as I go. I've written a fair bit in past dev diaries about ensuring the pace of work and branching of the game is sustainable, as I am only too aware of the amount of abandoned adult games out there from devs that burned out or lost interest, and I'm determined to not be one of them!

And at this rate, I'll still have the entire game completed before we ever get to see Winds of Winter...

You always can stretch runtime by adding more sex scenes, you know...

Oh absolutely - I'll always make allowances to let the story grow in the telling if I think there's a good reason to do so...

 

[TLouis2]

Oh absolutely - I'll always make allowances to let the story grow in the telling if I think there's a good reason to do so...

P.S. Microwave tea is best tea. 2nd only to iced and sweet tea.

 

[Solomon Grundy]

I will never understand people who can find rudeness or hostility where there is none.

And I will never understand people who can go through life with such a blistering lack of self-awareness.

 

[DolorHic]

Hey, he's not entirely "Brit". I found a typo/bug in the matrix that I decided to keep quiet about and not report .

During Chapter 1, when Molly watches porn and fantasises about something, if you choose to watch lesbian porn, part of the text is written "ass" instead of the London version "arse" , and there's a part where it's even written "asshole".

However, that's how I'm used to seeing it written 99.99% of the time, so I consider it correct .

I must agree that Himeros Studios's Brit card is at risk of being rescinded, since this is not a question of mere orthography but etymology. 'Arse' (buttocks) derives from Old English ærs, whilst 'ass' (donkey) derives from Old English assa.

However, one saving grace is that Himeros stands in good company: some obscure writer named William Shakespeare also showed preference to dropping the r on at least one occasion for his wordplay, such as when in A Midsummer Night's Dream, a character named Nick Bottom, after being turned into a donkey, says 'I must to the barber’s, monsieur; for me thinks I am marvellous hairy about the face; and I am such a tender ass, if my hair do but tickle me, I must scratch.'

 

[Himeros Studios]

I must agree that Himeros Studios's Brit card is at risk of being rescinded, since this is not a question of mere orthography but etymology. 'Arse' (buttocks) derives from Old English ærs, whilst 'ass' (donkey) derives from Old English assa.

However, one saving grace is that Himeros stands in good company: some obscure writer named William Shakespeare also showed preference to dropping the r on at least one occasion for his wordplay, such as when in A Midsummer Night's Dream, a character named Nick Bottom, after being turned into a donkey, says 'I must to the barber’s, monsieur; for me thinks I am marvellous hairy about the face; and I am such a tender ass, if my hair do but tickle me, I must scratch.'

View attachment 5612404

This is genuinely fascinating, I do love etymology, and never thought to question if arse and ass are from different roots. Thank you for posting that! The fact that they both have an Old English root might explain why they are both favoured so much over other words - many people (including Churchill and Hemingway) have argued that such words hold a greater resonance and depth with English speakers than words with Norman/French roots. I definitely think the theory holds water. If you break down Churchill's speeches, you'll find he almost always goes for words like this at the critical points in his speeches. For example in:

We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.

Nearly all of the words (31 out of 33) have an Old English root, which is far greater than the average sentence in modern English, and perhaps why it still is one of his most famous lines. Yes, I am also a word nerd!

And I'll definitely take being put in the company of Shakespeare - I thought it might take me at least a couple more releases before people started to do that

 

[ha_pi_pi]

You know, this looks great

but "100,000 words of dialogue", and "30 unlockable scenes" does NOT.
I'm definitely not interested in a shitload of text.
And what I also don't like, it the tiny amount of good stuff game does have, be locked under some "shaping" decision like whether I'll wear blue dress or black dress and then some content is forever locked. It's not animated, is it? So, might be that just browsing through the pictures in the game's gallery is actually best this game has to offer?
Or does this

actually lead to something exciting?
Anyone played this? Any recommendation about which "choices" are imperative to get to the good stuff?

 

[Buletti]

'm definitely not interested in a shitload of text.

Lol! Why are you here then?

 

[ha_pi_pi]

Lol! Why are you here then?

Browsing "female protagonist" tag.

 

[Himeros Studios]

You know, this looks great

but "100,000 words of dialogue", and "30 unlockable scenes" does NOT.
I'm definitely not interested in a shitload of text.
And what I also don't like, it the tiny amount of good stuff game does have, be locked under some "shaping" decision like whether I'll wear blue dress or black dress and then some content is forever locked. It's not animated, is it? So, might be that just browsing through the pictures in the game's gallery is actually best this game has to offer?
Or does this

actually lead to something exciting?
Anyone played this? Any recommendation about which "choices" are imperative to get to the good stuff?

I would say that if you're really into the visual side of visual novels and don't really like engaging with the novel side of them (and that's a completely valid preference to have, we all have different tastes) then this game may not be for you. I'm a writer by background and am very much driven and motivated by the story element as much as anything else when creating the game.

That being said, we're only two releases in, so why not check it out and see for yourself? I won't take any offence if you decide it isn't your thing

On your questions - the total wordcount for the prologue and S1E1 is now up to 175000 words but that is across ALL branches. There are, for example, eighteen different people you can lose your virginity to. Each of those eighteen scenes is roughly 2000 words in length, so that's 34000 words you will never see in one playthrough just from this one choice (and there are other examples of branching like this as well - in S1E1 there are 30 different people you can choose to fantasise about, and four different porn videos you can choose to watch, so you will only go through one of these branches per playthrough).

I say this because I realise 175k words sounds like a big commitment if you aren't much of a reader (and that may be for all sorts of reasons, especially if you're dyslexic, or English is not your first language, etc.) so just to be clear the total words in one playthrough will always be much less than this. In fact I just asked Claude Code to simulate a single playthrough of the current release of the game and do a word count for me and it reckons that playthrough was just shy of 34k words in total.

As a side note, asking Claude Code to play the game and choose whichever option appealed most (with the one limit being it did always have to choose a sex scene option when one occurred, it could not choose to turn down these options entirely as that would skew the word count) was very fascinating. Results of the broad choice it took below for those interested:

Spoiler

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In terms of choices being locked behind earlier choices, my answer is yes and no. Earlier choices in the game do inform what scenes you get offered, but in a way that always makes narrative sense. There's no blue dress/red dress choices impacting scene choices here, I really dislike that style of game design, and very much see my role as a developer to facilitate stories rather than try and trip up the player.

Again, as an example of how I implement this philosophy, to go back to the eighteen different options for losing your virginity, you only ever get offered four in a playthrough - one (Josh) is a constant across all games. The other three depend on what socioeconomic class you came from, what school clique you were a part of, and what hobby you chose to engage in. The sex scenes then directly tie into these, helping reinforce that identity and story you have been building about your character. The full list of options is below if interested in how to get to a specific one:

Spoiler

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There's no animation - yet! I'd love to start putting some in at some point when I get time.

If you do get round to playing it I'd love to hear your thoughts!

 

[Buletti]

I would say that if you're really into the visual side of visual novels and don't really like engaging with the novel side of them (and that's a completely valid preference to have, we all have different tastes) then this game may not be for you. I'm a writer by background and am very much driven and motivated by the story element as much as anything else when creating the game.

That being said, we're only two releases in, so why not check it out and see for yourself? I won't take any offence if you decide it isn't your thing

On your questions - the total wordcount for the prologue and S1E1 is now up to 175000 words but that is across ALL branches. There are, for example, eighteen different people you can lose your virginity to. Each of those eighteen scenes is roughly 2000 words in length, so that's 34000 words you will never see in one playthrough just from this one choice (and there are other examples of branching like this as well - in S1E1 there are 30 different people you can choose to fantasise about, and four different porn videos you can choose to watch, so you will only go through one of these branches per playthrough).

I say this because I realise 175k words sounds like a big commitment if you aren't much of a reader (and that may be for all sorts of reasons, especially if you're dyslexic, or English is not your first language, etc.) so just to be clear the total words in one playthrough will always be much less than this. In fact I just asked Claude Code to simulate a single playthrough of the current release of the game and do a word count for me and it reckons that playthrough was just shy of 34k words in total.

As a side note, asking Claude Code to play the game and choose whichever option appealed most (with the one limit being it did always have to choose a sex scene option when one occurred, it could not choose to turn down these options entirely as that would skew the word count) was very fascinating. Results of the broad choice it took below for those interested:

Spoiler

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

In terms of choices being locked behind earlier choices, my answer is yes and no. Earlier choices in the game do inform what scenes you get offered, but in a way that always makes narrative sense. There's no blue dress/red dress choices impacting scene choices here, I really dislike that style of game design, and very much see my role as a developer to facilitate stories rather than try and trip up the player.

Again, as an example of how I implement this philosophy, to go back to the eighteen different options for losing your virginity, you only ever get offered four in a playthrough - one (Josh) is a constant across all games. The other three depend on what socioeconomic class you came from, what school clique you were a part of, and what hobby you chose to engage in. The sex scenes then directly tie into these, helping reinforce that identity and story you have been building about your character. The full list of options is below if interested in how to get to a specific one:

Spoiler

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

There's no animation - yet! I'd love to start putting some in at some point when I get time.

If you do get round to playing it I'd love to hear your thoughts!

No offence my friend, but throwing the printed Wikipedia at someone who just said he is not much into reading might not be the right pitch

I understand that you cannot do otherwise but just keep that in mind in case you want to bring BI on Steam or gog at some point.

I love you for how you are btw.

#nohomo

 

[Himeros Studios]

No offence my friend, but throwing the printed Wikipedia at someone who just said he is not much into reading might not be the right pitch

I understand that you cannot do otherwise but just keep that in mind in case you want to bring BI on Steam or gog at some point.

I love you for how you are btw.

#nohomo

Haha thank you, I appreciate the love! And yes I did think that as writing it... But I do also try and treat replies like these as a chance to give information to other people on the thread as well who might be curious about some of the questions raised. And I guess (maybe) I was also slightly procrastinating at the same time

And yes, BI on Steam is the plan, I was thinking of a Steam release per season. One of the things on my to do list is to set up the groundwork for that so I can start harassing nicely asking fans of the game to wishlist it to bump it up on the algorithm a bit before release.

 

[Buletti]

Haha thank you, I appreciate the love! And yes I did think that as writing it... But I do also try and treat replies like these as a chance to give information to other people on the thread as well who might be curious about some of the questions raised. And I guess (maybe) I was also slightly procrastinating at the same time

And yes, BI on Steam is the plan, I was thinking of a Steam release per season. One of the things on my to do list is to set up the groundwork for that so I can start harassing nicely asking fans of the game to wishlist it to bump it up on the algorithm a bit before release.

As I wrote maybe consider gog as well if that's not too much work. From what I read it can take ages to get approved but the catalogue there is still smaller so you get more visibility.

Plus you get the German marked. Steam NSFW is completely blocked here in Germany and they also have a very effective VPN filter. Gog is a lot more lenient in that regard.

 

[Himeros Studios]

As I wrote maybe consider gog as well if that's not too much work. From what I read it can take ages to get approved but the catalogue there is still smaller so you get more visibility.

Plus you get the German marked. Steam NSFW is completely blocked here in Germany and they also have a very effective VPN filter. Gog is a lot more lenient in that regard.

Thank you, I'll definitely look into it! I don't know much about gog at all but a wider audience can only ever be a good thing, so I'd be a fool not to. Especially if it takes some time to be approved, I'll try to look into it sooner rather than later. Thanks for the heads up!

 

[TLouis2]

On your questions - the total wordcount for the prologue and S1E1 is now up to 175000 words but that is across ALL branches. There are, for example, only one valid person you can lose your virginity to.

#someday
#manifesting