4.40 star(s) 38 Votes

Hordragg

Lesser-Known Mesmer
Game Compressor
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Apr 2, 2019
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Maybe a little short, but the game was only ~ 140mb, so I didn't really expect too much content..
This calls for a statistics nerd! Sadly the summons were only obeyed by someone who just counts stuff, which to some may be the very same, though the initiated know better, yet still must do with what they got… but I digress.

The fact that so much fun is delivered in such a small package gets even more shocking when one realizes that nearly half of it goes to Ren'Py's libraries instead of content. The current update delivers 609 images with an average file size of 135 KiB – a 4k beast weighing in at a hefty 903 KiB hidden among them. So either Sakrilas employs heavy compression, carefully chose what to show in the renders (to play to the compression's strengths) or uses shapes (what most people would call sprites, yet isn't exactly the same, …digressing again, stopping now). Well, shapes are at play though not heavily used, seeing as there's only 146 show statements versus the 512 scene statements. I do think Sakrilas ponders on what to show and how to show it, but they're most probably not taking compression algorithms into account. Which leaves us with heavy compression. It actually does. To be fair though, it's only noticeable by pulling up compressed vs uncompressed and scrutinizing hair or other heavily detailed parts on zoom factors upwards of two hundred percent.

So, I guess that answers the questions no one had. :geek:
 

Sakrilas

Just Another Member
Game Developer
Oct 26, 2017
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To be fair though, it's only noticeable by pulling up compressed vs uncompressed and scrutinizing hair or other heavily detailed parts on zoom factors upwards of two hundred percent.

So, I guess that answers the questions no one had. :geek:
Yeap! The biggest reason behind to small game size is that I convert all images to webp and all audio to ogg. Webp is a relatively new image format that has transparency and can be lossless or close to lossless when compared to png, while being much lighter.

Thankfully, Renpy supports webp, so I just use it instead of PNG.


This is a render as PNG (weights 2.82 Mb).
4x52_0.png
This is the same image as webp (weights 175kb). Pretty much 1/10th of the PNG size while still keeping the same quality.


View attachment 4x52_0.webp

(OBS: This forum might not support showing the WEBP directly, but you can open them in different tabs to compare: PNG vs WEBP)

A lot of games that weight a lot just leave their renders as PNG images. I just go the extra step of converting my renders to webp before adding them to the game.

(Same thing about ogg for audio, it's much lighter than wav or mp3.)
 

Guyin Cognito

Gentleman Pervert
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Feb 23, 2018
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Holy--What the--I got a ... good end?!
Just like that, one choice, and the MC lives happily ever after?
I've ... never heard of an AVN doing such a thing...
(Later...)
Wait... "sentence you to indenture for drug-dealing" ? You mean like, indentured servitude? Is that still a thing? What country does this take place in?
 
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Joe Steel

Engaged Member
Jan 10, 2018
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The game takes place in an alternate reality where indentured servitude has replaced prison, and nudity laws are strictly enforced unless one makes the lifetime commitment to nudism, in which case wearing clothes is illegal.

The rules of the world of Casey's Fall strictly serve the story. They aren't intended to make sense in isolation. The answer to "why do they do that?" is always "because story."
 
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XJ347

Member
Sep 19, 2017
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The answer to "why do they do that?" is always "because story."
Sounds like lazy writing to me.

Instead of taking some time to make things make sense, I'm just going to do something stupid to push plot and say alternate reality... It loses any sense of authenticity and feels fake, at least for me.
 

VelcroFist

Member
Game Developer
Apr 6, 2021
138
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Sounds like lazy writing to me.

Instead of taking some time to make things make sense, I'm just going to do something stupid to push plot and say alternate reality... It loses any sense of authenticity and feels fake, at least for me.
Lol, the whole idea of the story was to imagine and explore a world where these things exist, as ridiculous as they might be in this day and age in reality. How the people accept it and deal with it, and how the laws might be used and abused. The world of fiction allows for this and a whole lot more. If I set it in our world, this story wouldn't be possible. Do you read stories or watch movies about superheroes, vampires, aliens etc with the same incredulity, or do you allow your imagination to just accept it and enjoy the experience?
 

smnb

Active Member
Sep 5, 2017
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VelcroFist: It's not that alternative reality is necessarily bad, but this reality is better. With alternative reality, you can't shake off the feeling that it's just a fiction. If you stay within this reality, don't go overboard and keep things believable, the thought that it's something that could actually happen gives it an extra kick. To someone who only played the game and didn't read the story (like myself, I'm avoiding spoilers), it so far looks like it could work even without those features from alternative reality. Obviously, I don't know if it's going to depend on them more later.
 
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Guyin Cognito

Gentleman Pervert
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Feb 23, 2018
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To be fair, the game does explain a little. IT's just the explanation essentially, "at some point, these laws were passed." Now, technically, living in the U.S., we could pass whatever laws we want, as long as we can convince the relevant members of government to go for it. So, let's say lots of nudists demanded rights, and everybody else said, "prove your serious, NEVER wear clothes again!" So, that's how they wrote the law. It's not likely, but it's definitely possible.

WARNING: Guyin derails into a mostly unrelated angry rant at this point
The thing that breaks my suspension of disbelief is having some obviously magical shit happen, and some jackass on the side tryin' to be like, "oh, no, no, that's just REALLY advanced tech, it's not magic though." BULLSHIT, some things are just magic! When dudes be waving around nothing but their empty hands and their sheer will and make an illusion of an entire city, that ain't tech!
 
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VelcroFist

Member
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Apr 6, 2021
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@VelcroFist: It's not that alternative reality is necessarily bad, but this reality is better. With alternative reality, you can't shake off the feeling that it's just a fiction. If you stay within this reality, don't go overboard and keep things believable, the thought that it's something that could actually happen gives it an extra kick. To someone who only played the game and didn't read the story (like myself, I'm avoiding spoilers), it so far looks like it could work even without those features from alternative reality. Obviously, I don't know if it's going to depend on them more later.
Yes, other options I've seen done in similar stories involve fictional countries, or just imagining our world passed such laws. These are essentially still alternate realities anyway though. Originally this story was set in a fictional country, but I was getting a lot of backlash from people saying "that would never happen", "that would be a sex offence" etc. Legal nudity and indentured slavery are pivotal points for the plot so I added the short description at the beginning saying it was a parallel universe. That put the story firmly into the realm of fantasy to stop those comments while still retaining most of the vibe of our world. It also allows me more scope to do more stuff, and I do have more plans for this world and others like it up my sleeve in the future. ;)
 

Sakrilas

Just Another Member
Game Developer
Oct 26, 2017
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I understand this game won't be ideal for everyone.

As it was explained earlier, this game is set in a fictional society that has a law system different than ours. This can be a deal breaker for some people, and I can respect that, after all it is impossible to please everyone.

With that said, for the most part we are keeping the game not too far off a "regular" setting.

But registered nudity and a version of slavery are things that will play a part during the development of the story.
 

XJ347

Member
Sep 19, 2017
405
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If I set it in our world, this story wouldn't be possible. Do you read stories or watch movies about superheroes, vampires, aliens etc with the same incredulity, or do you allow your imagination to just accept it and enjoy the experience?
I will get more specific for you.

You can make alternate universes work well, like with superheros. Saying that there needs to be verisimilitude. Meaning they need depicting realism within the setting. So if you establish rules, like people are magical then it's realistic that people can fly.

What is lazy is not telling people that this is an alternate reality and then having people fly, THEN saying ohhh it's an alternate reality. You see this in the Disney Star Wars films, they break the rules of the universe just for plot devices, and those movies are lazy and HORRIBLE.

This game appears to be the present, and at the start it doesn't adjust our expectations. It just changes the rules of society with no real explanation. People need to know going into role play experience what the world rules are so they can make character decisions be in character. If you know you can be enslaved as punishment, then people would be less likely to take risks.

Also think about the consequences of these rules... It's illegal to be nude, and the punishment is to forever be nude??? The people who make the rules hate nudity, so why would they allow nudity as a punishment? That is pretty hard to explain, and this game doesn't explain shit. It reads as not making sense.

I want this game to be good, I enjoy this genre. I think the renders are good, and I really like the blackmail idea. I understand that this came from a story, but this is a game. People are trying to role play and it's hard to make decisions when you don't understand the world around you, especially if things don't make sense.

EDIT: Note, everyone has a different level of how much is to much before it feels fake. It's cool to disagree with me. We all have different tastes, but I know some people out there are like me, and I am explaining this standpoint.
 
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VelcroFist

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Game Developer
Apr 6, 2021
138
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Will we be able to kill the blackmailer in the future?
Oh man, I would love to do that but it's kind of tricky when it comes to erotica. I often need to get certain characters out of the way so that others can rise, or just for a revenge plot, but murder or just accidental deaths tend to be major boner killers. I'll keep this in mind for one of the possible short endings though. ;)
 
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Sakrilas

Just Another Member
Game Developer
Oct 26, 2017
357
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What is lazy is not telling people that this is an alternate reality and then having people fly, THEN saying ohhh it's an alternate reality. You see this in the Disney Star Wars films, they break the rules of the universe just for plot devices, and those movies are lazy and HORRIBLE.
You're making it sound like the registered nudity and indenture were ret-con'ed into the story, but that's not the case.

Episode/Day 1 explains that indenture is a form of punishment for non-violent crimes.
Episode/Day 2 explains that permanent nudists are a thing and they are very rare. (It is not a punishment for a crime, it's just a life choice.)

We opted to give some more exposition just when the topic was relevant to what was happening to the game at the time instead of proving all the rules in the first few paragraphs of the story, but this is a common thing in writing. The more people read the story, they more they get to learn about the setting.

Also think about the consequences of these rules... It's illegal to be nude, and the punishment is to forever be nude??? The people who make the rules hate nudity, so why would they allow nudity as a punishment? That is pretty hard to explain, and this game doesn't explain shit. It reads as not making sense.
Nudism is not illegal, as long as you are at the proper location (just like in our society) or you're registered.
Registered nudity is not a punishment, it's a life choice... like converting to a religion.
 
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VelcroFist

Member
Game Developer
Apr 6, 2021
138
331
This game appears to be the present, and at the start it doesn't adjust our expectations. It just changes the rules of society with no real explanation. People need to know going into role play experience what the world rules are so they can make character decisions be in character
Oh ok, you could be onto something there. While we explain the lore bit by bit as the game progresses, we don't explain it up front, which is what might be throwing you off. I kind of like readers to figure it out for themselves, but it might be worth adding something into the intro. If you have any ideas how to go about that, please let me know and I'll see what we can do.
One possibility is just a narration something along the lines of:
"Throughout the universe, the multiverse exists. In one of those universes there's a version of our Earth which is the same but with some small differences. On that Earth there's a small city called Port Wiluma."
Then into the existing intro:
"Casey Reine had lived her whole life in Port Wiluma. It wasn't a bad place to live as far as towns go."
etc

It's illegal to be nude, and the punishment is to forever be nude??? The people who make the rules hate nudity, so why would they allow nudity as a punishment? That is pretty hard to explain, and this game doesn't explain shit. It reads as not making sense.
Not exactly. It's just not legal to be nude without registration, and nudity isn't given out as a punishment for anything. Registering as a nudist is always a personal choice, and it means being permanently nude. That permanency is meant to discourage anyone from doing it, whilst giving a pretense of giving people the freedom of choice. Of course, when people do choose it the government has to accept it. That doesn't necessarily mean that everyone in society likes it or accepts it.
 
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XJ347

Member
Sep 19, 2017
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I hope I am not being viewed as offensive.

I just am one dude with one opinion. I might be the only one who feels this way. I hope you do not stress over my comments. I should state, don't let anyone change your artistic vision. Overall I like the concept there are just a few things that raise an eyebrow for me.

Back to the nudist thing... I guess I misinterpreted stuff. Sorry. So it's a religious thing, Note there is a legal argument that you can do this in America actually. Legally speaking nudity in America is acceptable if you are a nudist, even with children since nudity in and of itself isn't sexual. Flashers aren't protected since flashing is assumed to be sexual.

As you said, just because it is legal doesn't mean society will accept it, and the American people generally don't.

Still I'm confused about the nudity thing, I got the idea that it was mandatory if you were registered as a nudist. Obviously the protagonist is going to be forced to be a nudist in the future. If it's mandatory to be nude then it feels like a gimmick for the story because even at a nudist beach, you can still choose to wear clothes. I just do not see a government forcing someone to be nude, when the government doesn't want them nude to begin with.

In the end you have to write the story for you, not us.
 

VelcroFist

Member
Game Developer
Apr 6, 2021
138
331
I hope I am not being viewed as offensive.

I just am one dude with one opinion. I might be the only one who feels this way. I hope you do not stress over my comments. I should state, don't let anyone change your artistic vision. Overall I like the concept there are just a few things that raise an eyebrow for me.
All good. I actually want to thank you for speaking up. It's very helpful to know what might be bothering people. Most people tend to just say "this is stupid" and move on, so you never find out something that might be an easy fix. In this case, the original version of the story was giving some people similar issues. Once I figured out what that was, I was able to add in a short description at the start of each chapter. This game didn't have that so we'll be adding something similar in the next release.
 
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MrWally

Active Member
Jul 14, 2018
506
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Is this story going to be diverted from the literotica story sexwise? I mean, any other things than nudity and masturbation and that stuff?
 
4.40 star(s) 38 Votes