VN Ren'Py Blood and Dust | B&D [Development Thread]

[MeatMarble]

Hello everyone!
Today I will be showing my progress so far making Blood and Dust.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------​

Technicals:

Spoiler: Planned Genre's

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

Tools used:
Daz3d
Photoshop
Davinci

AI Used: None

I have free posts on Patreon, but l will probably put most of the same information here.

You must be registered to see the links

I'd never suggest supporting me before bare minimum one chapter is released, but if you want to, I highly highly appreciate it! Thanks.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

OUTLINE:
18 years after the infection started, you play as a man in his early 20's, who recently lost the only family he knew. You were travelling to find your uncle with your father, but it ended up being your fathers last wishes and your only option. You manage to make it to the settlement he was last known at, only to find he was gone as well. The town accepts you in, but how will you act now with no family or friends? Will you continue to survive on malice and grit, taking what you want when you want, or will you be loyal and kind, adapting to your new settlement?

Spoiler: World/Infection Lore

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

Since December 31st 2024, I have been dedicating all my free time to creating my passion project: Blood and Dust, or B&D for short.

Development thoughts and showcase:​

I am very much a visual person so most of my time has been spent learning Daz3d, but when I'm waiting for renders or on break from my job, I write ideas and thoughts down. Now over 5 months in I recently finished the script for the first Chapter, the outline for the first season and a lot of endings for the entire game! (Subject to change). So very soon the actual posing, rendering and programming begins.

From the get go I wanted this VN to be expansive and feel like a different game depending on the choices, but it's a hard balance time-wise.
I have settled on a main story plot, with a few story endings + many LI endings, which will mix and match a bit. Of course the main story and characters will overlap, but the amount per character will be depending on your choices.

Choices...

Of course you can choose options based on which characters interests you, for the more... personal interactions , but I want the choices to matter for the story as well, and I want them to matter more than:

Choice 1= Good | Choice 2 = Bad <- pick the obvious good one! +1 points!

Some nuance goes a long way, and maybe there isn't a good or bad option sometimes, just different approaches with lasting effects later down the line, either good or bad.
Also I want to add it's probably more slow-burn compared to a lot of other AVN's, at least for the majority of characters, but there will be plenty of scenes each chapter for sure!

Here is one of the test renders of Evie(In red) and Sophie(In towel), I am aiming for this quality throughout! It's hard to do bigger scenes on my 2060Super as it falls back onto CPU nearly constantly, so at first ability to do so I will be getting a new gpu and power supply. Let me know if you like it!​

To TLDR what I've done so far here:

• General Plot/Endings, outline for Season 1 and Completed Chapter 1's script​
• Spent 5 months learning Daz3d​
• Made a really basic Renp'y game to learn the programming​

This is really the backbone and now I am ready* to start actually making the game

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------​

I think it will be a while before the first chapter is released, as I want a good amount of content in chapter 1 to kick-start any interest! I don't expect any kind of support, especially without any actual content uploaded! Anyway I will be posting here quite a bit, probably weekly with progress.

THANK YOU FOR READING!

 

[MeatMarble]

I have a few test renders I wanted to share!
If you have any feedback, feel like the renders aren't up to par or if you like them, please let me know!

 

[darlic]

Hey, this project looks promising, however I'm not sure I have it clear on how the relationship system will work. Is the player allowed to have multiple LIs, or will there be mutual exclusion?
I'm not asking for harem (not that I'm opposed to the idea), but I wonder if you can indulge with all the LIs if the player wants to, maybe with a final choice to pick a specific ending with a girl.

Best of luck

 

[MeatMarble]

Hey, this project looks promising, however I'm not sure I have it clear on how the relationship system will work. Is the player allowed to have multiple LIs, or will there be mutual exclusion?
I'm not asking for harem (not that I'm opposed to the idea), but I wonder if you can indulge with all the LIs if the player wants to, maybe with a final choice to pick a specific ending with a girl.

Best of luck

Hey Darlic, thank you for taking interest! I don't want to spoil anything and I don't have a plan for a full Harem route, but if you are willing to face the consequences, you will be able to "have been with" every single LI in a single play-through.

I am planning on making a post tomorrow about more details on how the game will play! Thanks!

 

[MeatMarble]

​

World effecting story:
The difference you will find in this VN compared to a lot is that; it's in the apocalypse. You are in a small settlement town with a couple hundred people. You can't go down to a restaurant on a date with some girl, live in a mansion or drive your car around.
Life is full of danger, scarcity and survival, so I want the gameplay and relationships to reflect that, even if you're fairly comfortable in a settlement.

I think a story like this is better than one I could create in a more-so standard setting.
A world based purely in 'Might is right', but the juxtaposition of a settlement trying to live by old Morales, interests me personally a lot more than another College or Rich Family AVN.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Relationships:
The gameplay will be a branching narrative (mostly branching with LI's), and a few major moments for the main story.
At some point you will have to pick your main LI, but that doesn't mean all other LI's are locked off.
Depending on the LI and your choices will decide if you can sleep around still.

I think this will be somewhat complicated to do code and story wise, but I think it will be worth it. It's not a Kinetic novel by any means. This is the main focus of the game, so even if it takes time I just want to make the best AVN I can, and choices having consequences (good or bad) is a large part of what makes a AVN good or not to me.

A lot of the game especially at the beginning will be "settlement life". Your job will change, depending on what's needed by the community and will determine who you interact with in the day. Sometimes you might have the choice on what job you can do, Go on patrol and scavenge with a Girl 1 or you stay inside the walls and work closer to Girl 2.

Don't worry though, you won't have to setup camp, pick corn or build walls for hours on end while monitoring your thirst and hunger meter, lol. Most of these choices will mostly just be who you interact with, maybe a different minigame. <- Skippable
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gameplay:
There will be minigames, combat and free-roams.
I'm planning on making both minigames and combat skippable, but personally I think it would be the best experience doing them, as a break-up from the "click - read, click - read, click - read, scene." It helps games play better, gives breaks from text dumps, and gives more interaction. IMO.

The MC's choices in the game will effect your 'Mental', you will either gain Cynicism and lose Hope or gain Hope and lose Cynicism, high scores in either direction will unlock or lock you out of certain choices.

I do have a game system in mind, that if you search the free roams you will find a "lucky coins" or "golden bullets" at least something along those lines, I haven't decided a name or theme yet.
You will be able to use them to quickly pass Combats, (Imagine Indiana Jones: Sword fight scene) but if you don't use them you will be able to spend them on special renders? maybe?
Tell me what you think, might add more replay-ability if you are going for multiple playthroughs.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Final Notes / Development:
I've found it hard to find good assets and scenes for this type of world, but with some work put in kit-bashing and creating some of my own assets, I think I've made it work (At least so far). Not many modern high rise apartments with zero dust and shiny marble 18 years into the apocalypse I'm afraid.

I've enjoyed the time I've spent learning how I can create this game already! (Daz, Photoshop, Writing theory. ETC.), even if it's early days and I'm glad people seem positive about the game, from what I can tell.

I'm taking it slow and trying not to rush, especially right now as no one has any "skin in the game" except me.

Sidenote: I had some issues with the eyes on some renders, so if they look different now: that is the reason.
The banner has been updated to reflect.


Hope everyone had/has a good weekend. Thanks!

 

[Raksha17]

Gameplay:
There will be minigames, combat and free-roams.
I'm planning on making both minigames and combat skippable, but personally I think it would be the best experience doing them, as a break-up from the "click - read, click - read, click - read, scene." It helps games play better, gives breaks from text dumps, and gives more interaction. IMO.

For me this does the exact opposite. I am immersed in your story (hopefully) and getting ripped out of it by those "gameplay" elements. Along the lines of midroll ads. I'm not relieved to get a "break" from the content I am enjoying.

 

[MeatMarble]

For me this does the exact opposite. I am immersed in your story (hopefully) and getting ripped out of it by those "gameplay" elements. Along the lines of midroll ads. I'm not relieved to get a "break" from the content I am enjoying.

Fair enough I understand it's not to everyone's liking, but to me I feel like it's adds to the overall game when used appropriately. But that is why I will be making them it skippable. I can't make the free roams skippable, but I think they won't be intrusive and a lot of content will be optional.

 

[MeatMarble]

I've mostly been writing/coding this week. Some of the days it feels like I'm moving in circles instead of progressing, but I guess that's just what comes with learning and doing something you're not used to.

I am planning on making the first two scenes and release them as a demo, they are quite large, but I think it would be useful to see if people will like the style of the writing and renders in a actual game.

Anyway I've had Daz running in the background for some basic renders to show off the girls a bit more:

Spoiler: Evie

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

Spoiler: Katrine

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

Spoiler: Sophie

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

Spoiler: Molly

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

Spoiler: Liz

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

Spoiler: Aera

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

​