VN Ren'Py Abandoned Chrome Lifelines-Chapter 1 [Ch 1 Part 2] [zTi Creations]

[SpyderArachnid]

I never self-insert, so the way the MC looks has never bothered me in any game. These aren't stories about my life, they are stories about someone else's. Just like when reading a book or watching a movie. I still get immersed in the story, but I don't pretend like it is my life like some people here do. You can perfectly enjoy a story and get immersed in it without having to self-insert yourself into it.

On a side note though, the MC doesn't look black. He just has a dark tan to his skin. Probably mexican blood or just really tanned (maybe from Jersey? lol).

 

[desmosome]

A question regarding the underlying code.

What is the lifepath variable? It seems like you gain this by being agreeable and nice. You lose it by being closed off or something. Is this something of an alignment system, or is this the variable for the corpo vs rebel factions? Maybe it's something else entirely?

 

[desmosome]

Well, I see the script files for chapter1b and 1b. I guess those are the patreon only side stories? Or maybe that is the part 2 of chapter 1. Oh well. I don't mind missing on gallery, music room, or really anything like that, but missing actual story/sex content would be a bummer.

With that out the way, this is god damn amazing. The whole presentation was real smooth and artistic. Visuals are super immersive with a lot of attention to detail. The writing is awesome. Dialogues definitely fit the setting. Great characters that got their own lives. Dante looking badass friend (this guy has the highest default relationship points with the MC at a whopping 100 lol). This is the most interesting start I've seen in a long time.

That said, I agree with a few critiques made earlier by some people. The sex scene needs a lot of work. It's neither porny or raunchy enough to fap, nor is it atmospheric enough to provide artistic value. It just... exists to tell us they had sex. I suggest a bit more sex dialgoues, but if that seems tropey, at least provide some build up and flow to a scene. Like show an animation, make a few lines of dialogue, show some still shots of different angles and changing positions, maybe another animation if you want. Single position animation from various camera angles and zero text is incredibly boring to go through.

Flashbacks were not incredibly hard to follow for me, but I think it would be a better idea to give a timeline. Like a date or xx years ago kinda thing.

Prologue and main game should be merged.

 

[Professor Black]

Man, so Dante from dmc got bored slaying demons and is now slaying pussies huh.
Agreed with everyone else, dunno why there is a separate game for the prologue, It serves nothing but a waste of download. Should'ved combined them in the first place.

 

[zTi]

I had a feeling there was going to be some discussion about the mc skin tone sooner or later. I have looked at other games that have something of a system where the MC is a different ethnicity depending on player choice and they implemented it pretty well. No promises for anything concrete as it would be a pretty lengthy thing to do, but there is a premise to this being a feature.

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Time will tell though, keep the feedback coming. The merged prologue version is pretty much done, just need to do some last minute testing. Thanks everyone!

 

[desmosome]

I had a feeling there was going to be some discussion about the mc skin tone sooner or later. I have looked at other games that have something of a system where the MC is a different ethnicity depending on player choice and they implemented it pretty well. No promises for anything concrete as it would be a pretty lengthy thing to do, but there is a premise to this being a feature.

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Time will tell though, keep the feedback coming. The merged prologue version is pretty much done, just need to do some last minute testing. Thanks everyone!

No... don't double the render count for this.

Keep it as it is or even change it to a white dude if you feel like it, but it really doesn't seem worth to increase render count for such a thing.

 

[Maevos]

Is the prologue merged with chapter 1 yet? The link is missing from the OP. I'm waiting for that before I dive in.

 

[zTi]

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Fixed public version is up on the patreon link posted above.

Edit: This was put together pretty quick, again not the best tester, so let me know if saves aren't working correctly.

 

[jufot]

They are very cute together

 

[ninjasamuri]

Thread owner/thread mod should put up the prologue download link (the same way multi-episode games that don't just update add links for each separate part) since the main game just asks you to play the prologue first anyway

 

[GentlemanCorpse]

Is the prologue merged with chapter 1 yet? The link is missing from the OP. I'm waiting for that before I dive in.

No, but you can download from inside the game, there is a link to the download of the Prologue V2.

 

[neverfadeaway]

Absolutely love the Cyberpunk 2077 reference when naming your character 'V' at the start. I wasn't expecting that at all.

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[everhardninja]

Great start wishing you luck as the story progresses and you earnt yourself a new patron

 

[Deleted member 1571716]

Received an error:

I'm sorry, but an uncaught exception occurred.

While running game code:
  File "game/prologue.rpy", line 669, in script
    $ fading_pause()
  File "game/prologue.rpy", line 669, in <module>
    $ fading_pause()
  File "game/script.rpy", line 58, in fading_pause
    renpy.music.play(fn, channel, fadein = fade)
Exception: Parsing audio spec u'<from None>audio/ambient/bar_interior-2.ogg': expected float, got u'None'..

-- Full Traceback ------------------------------------------------------------

Full traceback:
  File "game/prologue.rpy", line 669, in script
    $ fading_pause()
  File "renpy/ast.py", line 928, in execute
    renpy.python.py_exec_bytecode(self.code.bytecode, self.hide, store=self.store)
  File "renpy/python.py", line 2245, in py_exec_bytecode
    exec(bytecode, globals, locals)
  File "game/prologue.rpy", line 669, in <module>
    $ fading_pause()
  File "game/script.rpy", line 58, in fading_pause
    renpy.music.play(fn, channel, fadein = fade)
  File "renpy/audio/music.py", line 127, in play
    c.enqueue(filenames, loop=loop, synchro_start=synchro_start, fadein=fadein, tight=tight, loop_only=loop_only, relative_volume=relative_volume)
  File "renpy/audio/audio.py", line 655, in enqueue
    filename, _, _ = self.split_filename(filename, False)
  File "renpy/audio/audio.py", line 388, in split_filename
    start = expect_float()
  File "renpy/audio/audio.py", line 354, in expect_float
    raise exception("expected float, got {!r}.".format(v))
Exception: Parsing audio spec u'<from None>audio/ambient/bar_interior-2.ogg': expected float, got u'None'..

Windows-10-10.0.19041
Ren'Py 7.4.11.2266
Chrome Lifelines: Chapter 1 Part 1 0.5
Sun May 22 19:07:55 2022

 

[zTi]

Received an error:

Spoiler

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Can you walk me through this? I'm trying to replicate the error, and I get a different one by trying to break the game by rolling back and skipping through that scene really fast.

 

[Deleted member 1571716]

Can you walk me through this? I'm trying to replicate the error, and I get a different one by trying to break the game by rolling back and skipping through that scene really fast.

It happened right in Doxy's bar, where we are fighting some chick.. No skip, no rollback. Just read and click.

 

[zTi]

It happened right in Doxy's bar, where we are fighting some chick.. No skip, no rollback. Just read and click.

Does it let you continue? Do you get a crash? Playing normally and I can't seem to get this error, it's really weird.

 

[Deleted member 1571716]

Does it let you continue? Do you get a crash? Playing normally and I can't seem to get this error, it's really weird.

I can click ignore and it does continue. I'll delve into the script in the morning and see if I can bypass that fade.

 

[Raksha17]

I think it is valid feedback, I personally find playing as a different race / gender breaks my immersion to the point that I will pass on games because of it. It's a shame because there a lot of what look like really cool games out there with protagonist's that don't fit my mould. Also interesting as I don't have any issue with characters in books or movies etc being a different ethnicity to myself. I'm thinking it is interactive elements make VN's much more immersive, ie. participatory instead of observational. I don't think it's a rascism thing, though possibly it is as I'm sure we all hold some form of unconscious bias. I have spent some time considering the matter of MC race, as I'm working on a VN myself. I have decided to give the player a choice of race, as I don't want to exclude anyone. This does add a little extra work to my project, but I consider it worth the extra time and effort.

This is exactly why that is the case. If you're reading a book or watching a movie you do not make choices for the characters in it. In contrast in VN's that is the main point. "You are a former operative who resides in Retropolis;". The idea is that you as a player immerse yourself in the story, take the role of the MC and make the choices you would make given the situation. That is also a reason why character creation and choosing your own name is a feature in many "normal" storydriven games.
Now given this premise breaking the immersion of the player being a negative is valid feedback in a sense that the dev now knows how that players immersion got broken. That can be a variety of things. (4th wall breaking, the way MC talks / behaves / looks, whatever).
That does not mean it has to change but it something to consider.

 

[DogzBallz]

I had a feeling there was going to be some discussion about the mc skin tone sooner or later. I have looked at other games that have something of a system where the MC is a different ethnicity depending on player choice and they implemented it pretty well. No promises for anything concrete as it would be a pretty lengthy thing to do, but there is a premise to this being a feature.

Spoiler

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Time will tell though, keep the feedback coming. The merged prologue version is pretty much done, just need to do some last minute testing. Thanks everyone!

I'm working on my own VN at the moment and am implementing a system like this. My thinking is partial renders a little code and duplicate the animations. Not too much extra work, maybe a few more people enjoy it.