Ren'Py Completed Callisto [v1.00] [Xavster Gaming]

[Xavster]

Development Update 1/11/19

With the feedback following the release of 0.21, I have created a new fast travel interface as can be seen in the first 2 images. This not only allows rapid travel between different sections of the ship, but also indicates the current location of your crew members. Still to be implemented within this interface is the inclusion of the main story line hint system.

Spoiler: Fast Travel System

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Most of the last week however has been spent on the creation of the salvaging mechanic to the game. Players will given an option of which of a couple of ships offered they wish to salvage and also which portion of the ship they would like to focus on. Currently I have 8 different ship types and each will be presented with differing levels of damage. I still have some coding and roughly 40 stills to complete, however it should only take a couple of days. Also note that the ship holograms spin around within the game.

Spoiler: Salvaging Mechanic

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The main focus for next week will be to do the animations for 0.3. This is primarily to establish a rendering queue, such that my GPU stays nice and busy.

 

[Xavster]

I'd suggest you do not add additional sectors, the three existing ones already offer lots of story hooks and I prefer three fully fleshed out sectors over a dozen half empty ones. Having spend way too much time in Elite the trading minigame wasn't difficult or difficult to understand (I would have liked more complexity but that would have killed the mini part of minigame).

For the foreseeable future I do not plan to add any additional sectors. I will however be adding destinations (space stations / planets) within those sectors, that you will be able to visit. The sectors are actually based upon real regions in our area of the Milky Way. I even used the scientific data to populate the sector information pages.

The game is a harem space opera and space operas have a relaxed relationship with reality. That said, please, pretty please with sugar, avoid techno babble. There were thankfully none in free roam but one or two cases in the prologue. Thing is you and everyone else doesn't know why/how the ship flies because with current physics/technology it's plain impossible. Only current way to create a gravitational force of 1 g (and the ship has obviously artificial gravity of that order of magnitude) is having roughly the same mass as earth. On the contrary polarity in science is a

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but none of these polarities help with the propulsion of a ship. Er, electrical polarity is everywhere you have an electrical current, but why a change of the direction of the current creates an engineering miracle is beyond me. Maybe choose the same same approach as with the floor looking like wood. Wood burns rather easily and fire on a space ship has a tendency to turn the ship in a large coffin. Yet no one of the crew cares about it, so it's either a fireproof look-alike or the ship has other unmentioned features to prevent fires.

I'll take a look at the techo-babble references in the prologue. Still want them to be there, however I will make them more accurate. Note that if they have the technology to connect two different regions of space-time to create a space gate, artificial gravity should be easy.

You can create artificial gravity via the use of centripetal force with a spinning ship, however I didn't want my ship to be a flying ring. Oh and before I'm 'corrected', it's centripetal force from the ship applied to your feet that keeps you moving in a circular path and not centrifugal. Also technically you can generate 1g via gravity with less mass than the Earth, if that mass is more dense.

As far as wood within the ship, it's in the crew quarters and kept away from the engine room. Besides it looks way cooler than a metal / plastic floor. Some technical aspects will be relaxed if there is artistic merit to it.

Also there's a lot of time when no one is on the bridge. Space is a dangerous place and while it isn't actively trying to kill you it won't pass up the opportunity should you give it the chance (not my words, paraphrased from

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). Admittedly it can be handwaved away with a competent ship AI, flying established trade lines and an alert calling personnel to the bridge if need be but maybe consider Tanya/Alice (pilot/sensor specialist) spend more time on the bridge instead of staying alone in their room.

I am still able to adjust the 'calendar' for the VN and may elect to have a crew member on watch duty. Whilst having a crew member alone in their room currently has pretty much no content, this will change with future versions.

One last typo:
Talk with Tiffany after Tiffany-Marvin meeting, Tiffany:
I only implied right, I did state outright, it should be alright?
"I didn't state outright" makes more sense to me.

Thanks, didn't notice the error in my play-through. I have rectified.

 

[professorx10]

Xavister, I just checked out your fast travel jpegs and am impressed! This is a lot better and will help the player navigate the ship. Kudos for locating the girls locations as well. But If I may observe, did you change the layout of the ship? I notice the Captains quarters join two other bedrooms (?) and don't connect to the corridor. I believe you'll have the player click on the room to go there but the layout doesn't seem to make sense (why would you go through two bedrooms to get to the corridor or rest of the ship?
I noticed the ship outline in the upper left corner. The detailed rooms do not seem to fit within the outline, that is, the hold and bridge do but the kitchen/rest area should join to the hold's left but if you do that, where does the Capt. & bedrooms fit. To help us visually confused guys perhaps you could enlarge the ship outline, place the hold, corridor, kitchen and bridge with in it, and put an 'elevator' to another overlay/floor in the corridor so you could put the bedrooms on the '2nd floor'? The 'water world' arrangement works for that game 'cause they're 3D views. This is a great overhead 2D view that is almost like Starlight Drifter's rapid travel layout and should be easy to adopt that overhead view....which would make complete sense and orient the player. IMHO Whatever, this is a great start.
Your salvaging images are fantastic. Your visuals continue to blow me away and I heartily agree with keeping the Space Sectors down and increasing the locations within. Great Idea.
I guess I should also note that you're getting great feedback...maybe bordering on too much. I hope you realize that you will never appease all players on everything. Stick to your main plot/dream for this game and don't mind it too much if we keep disagreeing with your final choices. IE: don't be too 'pliable' for changes as you've got a big project in hand and you'll find you'll get a lot more positive followers if you can stick to regular updates and not get lost in corrections/additions for those who disagree on their favorite 'fap' material. I wish you the best of luck, man. THIS GAME IS GREAT. 30

 

[UnoriginalUserName]

Development Update 1/11/19

With the feedback following the release of 0.21, I have created a new fast travel interface as can be seen in the first 2 images.

Wow, both the new interface and the salvage interface look fantastic in those shots, great job! Can't wait to see them in-game.

I'll take a look at the techo-babble references in the prologue. Still want them to be there, however I will make them more accurate. Note that if they have the technology to connect two different regions of space-time to create a space gate, artificial gravity should be easy.

You can create artificial gravity via the use of centripetal force with a spinning ship, however I didn't want my ship to be a flying ring. Oh and before I'm 'corrected', it's centripetal force from the ship applied to your feet that keeps you moving in a circular path and not centrifugal. Also technically you can generate 1g via gravity with less mass than the Earth, if that mass is more dense.

As far as wood within the ship, it's in the crew quarters and kept away from the engine room. Besides it looks way cooler than a metal / plastic floor. Some technical aspects will be relaxed if there is artistic merit to it.

The gravity can be explained away via something like Gravity Plating from Star Trek (

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) or adding in a quick blurb about some Unobtanium ala Mass Effect and Element Zero.

The Jump Gates that create stable Wormholes aren't actually as far-fetched as a lot of people think (at least the theory behind them) and probably involve some sort of Quantum Particle theory. The "real" issue is power generation, both for the ship and the gates, but again, a quick Unobtanium blurb or something about cold fusion and Antimatter or Dark Energy power generation and you're golden. You've already mentioned H3 fuel for ships on Lia's planet if I'm not mistaken so that's an easy tie-in.

As for the wood "issue", I wouldn't even bother explaining that away. First of all if it was just floor paneling and furniture it wouldn't be a fire concern. I don't know about you, but my house somehow manages to not spontaneously combust on a daily basis. The crew compartment where the wood is located would be insulated and away from the guts where any potential fire-starting stuff would be. Besides, we already have tons of fire retardant chemicals that can be infused into wood building materials, so in the future it's not at all far-fetched to assume wood could be made completely fire proof.

 

[Xavster]

Xavister, I just checked out your fast travel jpegs and am impressed! This is a lot better and will help the player navigate the ship. Kudos for locating the girls locations as well. But If I may observe, did you change the layout of the ship? I notice the Captains quarters join two other bedrooms (?) and don't connect to the corridor. I believe you'll have the player click on the room to go there but the layout doesn't seem to make sense (why would you go through two bedrooms to get to the corridor or rest of the ship?

I missed the ladder from the corridor down to the captains room in the image. With the slight tweak to the game start I will have a view looking back towards this ladder in the captain's room.

There is some poetic license taken with exact ladder positioning and realities of ship geometry, however all of the rooms do fit within the confines of the ship hull. Below is the isometric view of the quarters with the hull removed (from Daz). Captain's room is below engine room / shower / medbay. The shell is an asset, however all of the internal walls / ladders etc are created with Daz primitives.

Wow, both the new interface and the salvage interface look fantastic in those shots, great job! Can't wait to see them in-game.

The gravity can be explained away via something like Gravity Plating from Star Trek (

You must be registered to see the links

) or adding in a quick blurb about some Unobtanium ala Mass Effect and Element Zero.

The Jump Gates that create stable Wormholes aren't actually as far-fetched as a lot of people think (at least the theory behind them) and probably involve some sort of Quantum Particle theory. The "real" issue is power generation, both for the ship and the gates, but again, a quick Unobtanium blurb or something about cold fusion and Antimatter or Dark Energy power generation and you're golden. You've already mentioned H3 fuel for ships on Lia's planet if I'm not mistaken so that's an easy tie-in.

I'll probably leave most of the ship explanation items to the players imagination. Whilst I could probably write a pretty good explanation given my background, it would likely bore most players to tears. The fuel mentioned is helium 3 which is used within a fusion reaction. This technology likely isn't that far away, however He3 is extremely rare. There is a fair amount of it on the moon, as highlighted in the 2009 movie 'Moon'.

As far as Jump Gates physically connecting two places in space, it is conjecture whether it is even possible. Whilst gravity bends space-time, creating enough force to bend it as far as what would be required may never be practical. Also whilst quantum entanglement has been shown on the quantum level, getting transported by destroying the original and recreating with equivalent material at another location seems icky.

 

[mecha_froggy]

Ver 0.2 changes this to a more 'sandbox' type of game that will only expand in functionality with each version.

I've always wished that someone would make a straight-up free roam, sandbox sci-fi game with sex in it. Something like "Star Traders Frontiers" and then throw in random sex scenes with hot alien chicks now and then via free form procedural NPC creation.

Sadly, I don't think anyone will ever actually do that. But this is a start, at least.

 

[Xavster]

I've always wished that someone would make a straight-up free roam, sandbox sci-fi game with sex in it. Something like "Star Traders Frontiers" and then throw in random sex scenes with hot alien chicks now and then via free form procedural NPC creation.

Sadly, I don't think anyone will ever actually do that. But this is a start, at least.

I hadn't actually heard of that title previously so I took a quick look. It appears to be simulation heavy with numerous complex mechanics. Whilst Callisto will have a few game mechanics, the coding system only allows so much complexity. Hence the mechanics within the game will remain relatively simple, reasonably easy and not a main focus of the game. They are predominately there to add some realism, rather than be a focus.

The game with 0.3 will once again become more heavily story line / character driven.

 

[mecha_froggy]

That's fine. Like I said, I wish someone would do it, I didn't say I expected you to do it. You've already got your own project and it's good like it is. I just threw that out there for any other devs who are looking for ideas (or maybe if you want to do something new once you're finished with this project).

And yeah, STF is rather complicated... but only under the hood. Very user friendly on top, though, as all that complex stuff is mostly hidden from view and players can pretty much use intuition and common sense to figure out how their system works.

Another game that gives a good example of what I mean is Porn Empire (right here on F95). It has a system for randomly generating girls non-stop, and if you ignore them they vanish. But if you hire them then they become persistent characters. It's a great balance between random vs fixed: It's random until you see someone you like and decide to bring her into your little world, then she's permanent (at least until she quits or gets fired).

 

[Xavster]

That's fine. Like I said, I wish someone would do it, I didn't say I expected you to do it. You've already got your own project and it's good like it is. I just threw that out there for any other devs who are looking for ideas (or maybe if you want to do something new once you're finished with this project).

And yeah, STF is rather complicated... but only under the hood. Very user friendly on top, though, as all that complex stuff is mostly hidden from view and players can pretty much use intuition and common sense to figure out how their system works.

Another game that gives a good example of what I mean is Porn Empire (right here on F95). It has a system for randomly generating girls non-stop, and if you ignore them they vanish. But if you hire them then they become persistent characters. It's a great balance between random vs fixed: It's random until you see someone you like and decide to bring her into your little world, then she's permanent (at least until she quits or gets fired).

No problem with feedback about the game. I guess the issue I have with procedural characters is that it can only really be done as 2D sprites. I have no problem with being clever with layering of images, however it needs to be seamlessly (Note that salvaging screens I posted were actually 3 layers - animated webp series (ship) / character stills / background image). Additionally, you can't really have an involved story for a procedural character, as it would be a fairly random mish-mash of elements.

My goal with the game was to create an interesting environment with a main driving story line. Within this environment there is a selection of female romance options for the MC to pursue, that is also linked to the main story line. Whilst these characters maintain the same artistic style, they are intended to have quite different personalities. Hence when an individual plays the game they can elect to pursue the relationships and game elements they prefer. At 0.2 options are limited, however this is simply due to the time available to create content. With every revision the choices to the player will expand and allow customisation of the player experience. 0.3 with continue to drive the main story line and open up romantic options with Lia and Kara. For those that aren't on Patreon it is nominally titled 'Liberation of Dione - Part 1'.


PS: STF was written by a group of programmers over a few years to reach an alpha release. I'm from a technical, but non-programmer background that is creating and publishing the game alone, with some minor assistance from others. I can't compete with the game complexity they have achieved, however I can create a story line and visuals that will engage the player. I have a knack for working things out and I think you will be pleasantly surprised at what I am able to achieve.

 

[mecha_froggy]

I guess the issue I have with procedural characters is that it can only really be done as 2D sprites.

I agree with everything you said except for this part. Lots of games do random 3D, LifePlay being a good example and, heck, even The Sims (Maxis/EA) first started doing it back in 2000. 2D is easier, sure, but 3D is certainly possible.

 

[Xavster]

I agree with everything you said except for this part. Lots of games do random 3D, LifePlay being a good example and, heck, even The Sims (Maxis/EA) first started doing it back in 2000. 2D is easier, sure, but 3D is certainly possible.

Using the tools / skills available to me, creating this variation is not possible. Using Ren'Py / Daz to create the game, I render images / animations external to the game and then use this pre-rendered content to create the game. The games you have highlighted undertake the rendering in real time, by using a 3D game engine such as Unreal in the case of LifePlay. Sure it's possible, however I do not have any plans to use a 3D engine for Callisto.

 

[justbringit]

Have great hopes for this one, looks good. Like the pussy variety (Full bush, shaved, trimmed), bring something for everyone

 

[Yamura]

This game really, really has some great potential with fine and distinctive renders, good and engaging story line, and readable dialogue. Compares well with Heavy Five and look forward to any updates.

 

[supermanz95]

Playing the prologue was like listening to someone describe to you what they saw when they watched a shows on previous season segment, this happens then that happens wham bam kapow, this person joins wait what, hold on, we already moved on and are here now with someone else tagging along. Not much had time to simmer or sink in, shit was just moving and happening, it felt like a month worth of events ware sliced and diced into two in game days or how ever many it ware. But it was just introductory prologue, I guess it served its purpose. I thought the MC was going to be a cool cat from his description like Maverick from Top Gun or something but in most cases he is just a fucking dope that sometimes manages to lay down the pipe by laying down and have some girl trip over onto his pipe, he is just there and stuffs just happening while the girls that surround him make everything happen, just feels very bland and uninspired. You get railroaded into relationship with Tanya and its what ever, MC being a cardboard box all he can say is Me not plan y so difikult, but Tanya is open to other people so its also what ever, inconsequential. It's hard to describe other characters while disregarding how they came to be on to the ship from prologue, all of them are likable and have something going for them, them being fleshed out will no doubt be better part of this game, except Kara despite being this warrior princess sometimes speaking like she's 14, the nurse lady who can be best described as a wing man that has two things to say, "you should fuck him" and "you should also fuck him" to other girls and Tanya acting like a nun in some cases despite being a super outgoing ex-stripper.
The ship felt comfy and the scenes ware pretty good, I personally don't really care for animated scenes, mainly because I know how much longer they tend to make but some of the static ones ware moving on their own and sometimes you had to rewind to get a better look at them. The trading mechanic was cool and I don't think I seen one like this on Ren'Py game. That upbeat inspirational music that kept playing during most of the some out of place scenes almost drove me insane. The game is pretty good, looking forward to you developing it and adding more to the story and hopefully more personal choices who to pursue or whatever.
Also bring back Tiffanys short hair back, justice for Tiffany.

 

[Xavster]

Playing the prologue was like listening to someone describe to you what they saw when they watched a shows on previous season segment, this happens then that happens wham bam kapow, this person joins wait what, hold on, we already moved on and are here now with someone else tagging along. Not much had time to simmer or sink in, shit was just moving and happening, it felt like a month worth of events ware sliced and diced into two in game days or how ever many it ware. But it was just introductory prologue, I guess it served its purpose. I thought the MC was going to be a cool cat from his description like Maverick from Top Gun or something but in most cases he is just a fucking dope that sometimes manages to lay down the pipe by laying down and have some girl trip over onto his pipe, he is just there and stuffs just happening while the girls that surround him make everything happen, just feels very bland and uninspired. You get railroaded into relationship with Tanya and its what ever, MC being a cardboard box all he can say is Me not plan y so difikult, but Tanya is open to other people so its also what ever, inconsequential. It's hard to describe other characters while disregarding how they came to be on to the ship from prologue, all of them are likable and have something going for them, them being fleshed out will no doubt be better part of this game, except Kara despite being this warrior princess sometimes speaking like she's 14, the nurse lady who can be best described as a wing man that has two things to say, "you should fuck him" and "you should also fuck him" to other girls and Tanya acting like a nun in some cases despite being a super outgoing ex-stripper.
The ship felt comfy and the scenes ware pretty good, I personally don't really care for animated scenes, mainly because I know how much longer they tend to make but some of the static ones ware moving on their own and sometimes you had to rewind to get a better look at them. The trading mechanic was cool and I don't think I seen one like this on Ren'Py game. That upbeat inspirational music that kept playing during most of the some out of place scenes almost drove me insane. The game is pretty good, looking forward to you developing it and adding more to the story and hopefully more personal choices who to pursue or whatever.
Also bring back Tiffanys short hair back, justice for Tiffany.

Thanks for the feedback.

The prologue was somewhat rushed in terms of the sequence of events in order to establish all of the characters being present on the ship. I will be tweaking the events of 0.2 prior to the release of 0.3, so hopefully this will reduce some of the feel that you are a bystander. The characters all require significant fleshing out, however this will take several additional versions to achieve. Some insight into Kara and Alice will be gained in the next version. Options about which character you wish to romance will also expand with 0.3, however once again you can't do everything in a single release.

As far as Tiffany, I'm afraid she's going to keep the new hair style for the foreseeable future. There is a purpose for it in the main story line and creating the option for alternative hair styles simply adds too many renders for very little return (the 2 hair styles added about 100 renders in 0.2). I'm glad you liked the trading mechanic, which is something I developed from scratch. I have also incorporated a salvaging mechanic into 0.3 that will give another gameplay alternative. Both of these mechanics are largely optional to the player.

In terms of the music, are you referring to the prologue or to the main game itself? The main game has 2 tunes for each sector. If anyone wants to recommend a 'no copyright' track to be incorporated I will certainly consider. Here's the location of the music I have used in the game so far (

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). The specific tunes are listed in the credits on the Captain's PC.

PS: I have posted the weekly update on my Patreon page for subscribers and will post a reduced version of it here in a couple days.

 

[Xavster]

Callisto 0.3 - Week 2 Update
Things have been going very smoothly over the past week. It's been so nice to be able create content that isn't just the ship environment or straight coding. So on to the details of what I have been up to.

Salvaging Mechanic (80%):
Have largely completed this system inclusive of the coding. Remaining to be completed is the triggering of the mechanic within the game (few lines of code) and the group of static renders showing the salvaged materials in the hold (about a dozen scenes from 3 angles).
When testing the system in game I noticed that the method I was using to create the rotating ships was a little computer dependent. I was using a webp images series, which when I was testing (whilst also rending) was taking some time to load (couple seconds). Since that time I have learnt how to create a transparent webm, so I going to convert across to this method. This with result in a smoother animation (60 to 120 frames) with less file storage. These new renders were completed yesterday, so all I need to do in convert to webm and insert into game.

Junkyard (80%):
Have created a salvage junkyard for the game in order to sell your salvaged goods (non commodity). Couple sample images in the spoiler.

Spoiler: Junkyard

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Station Animations (60%):
Completed the posing in Daz and am half way through rendering. These animations will be similar in nature to the gate animations. Single still images from these animations are in the spoiler below.

Spoiler: Station Animations

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Other:
Also been playing around with a modified Kara and her clothing for her backstory. Excited about this as and I think it will be really cool.

Next Week:
- Complete salvage mechanic.
- Finish render station animations and incorporate into game.
- Tweaking 0.2 content.
- Commence main story line and Kara backstory renders.

 

[Xavster]

Callisto 0.3 - Week 3.5 Update

Have been doing regular progress updates on my Patreon page, however forgot to also include the F95 members in on the loop.

Released a beta version of 0.3 to my $10 Patreons on Sunday which includes the new interface (+hint system) / station animations and salvage mechanic. These are the most code heavy items in 0.3, hence I wanted there to be plenty of time to flush out any bugs. Over the past couple of days, I have also completed all of the Kara backstory - part 1 renders. Some images related to these are included in the spoiler below.

Spoiler: 0.3 Beta A / Kara Backstory

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Currently I am doing the main story line renders for 0.3, which I expect I will be on all week. This leaves me about another 4 weeks for other side stories and creation of the material for the expansion of the relationships with Kara and Lia.

 

[somebodynobody]

Xavster

Spoiler: Typos

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[Xavster]

Xavster

Spoiler: Typos

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Thanks for the spell checking. Really surprised that there where that many errors in the Prologue. Tested the shower thing with Alice on Saturday morning and it was indeed a bug (didn't close out a conditional statement series). Corrected for next release.

As far as the abrupt change from VN to sandbox, The VN was more a test to see whether people liked the characters. It was also way lighter in coding that the sandbox style game (only just started learning Ren'Py). With 0.3, it will more effectively blend the two styles, as there will be significantly more story.

The rapid character introduction through the course of the prologue was more of a matter of necessity, than good story development. To establish the ship environment / schedule, I needed all of the characters to be present. The character development will continue in 0.3 with some backstory scenes for Kara and Alice. In addition to this, the main story line will progress.

PS: It's my first game, hence each day of development presents new challenges.

 

[somebodynobody]

Xavster
I am fine with both VN and Sandbox games, it was just jarring to randomly be thrown into the Sandbox after so much VN, so maybe a warning on the Prologue that it will be a VN until a certain point?

The mention on separators for thoughts, is that if what the MC says looks just like what they think, the Player will assume that they said the thought out loud, and that can lead to oddities, an example would be an MC thinking about their plan in front of the villain, but to the player it looks like they just told the villain everything.

The mention on the intestinal tract, is because that is a major organ.

What I meant by the characters are all over the place, was that their character traits seem to go out the window, like assassin lady who now kind of wants the MC, etc.

I like the game, just figured I would mention what I saw as flaws in how the game reads, I also did that write up a couple weeks ago and forgot it in my text pad, so my memory of it is iffy. I look forward to see how everything goes.