No worries mate. And maybe there is some hate floating around out there that I haven't seen. But if there is, none of it has appeared in the game thread or on patreon.
I'll shut up now and let the thread get back on topic.
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I'll shut up now and let the thread get back on topic.
I've gone back and read the last few pages to catch up with the discussion. So an another aspiring developer all I can really do is offer my own experience and motivations to the conversation.
For starters, I'm 100% heterosexual. I have no interest in watching guys bang and trans stuff doesn't turn me on. That said, I love watching two women go at it.
When our project first started my job was writing. I love to write and I take the craft of writing very seriously. I'm always looking for things that challenge me as a writer and help me grow.So when it was first suggested we at a Transgender character to the game, I thought about it very seriously from a writer's perspective. Could I make a character that was sympathetic, multi-dimensional, and not just a token chick with a dick fuck toy? It was a gamble, but I thought if I can pull this off I'll really establish some credibility as a writer of erotic fiction. There was a lot of negative feedback at the first mention of this character's inclusion, but by that time I had established a bit of trust with my players (patrons and non-patrons) with the writing already in the game. Many decided to stay on board and just wait and see.
Launch day comes. The way it's set up, you can turn off trans content, the character is in the game, but the story flows a different way around her scenes and there is no sexual opportunities or even nudity presented by her. Completely avoidable. But even with Trans content turned on, players still have the option of interacting with her, helping her in her story arc, but still not have sex or even experience nudity unless they clearly choose to.
Many of my hetero-players (and even at least three of the serious dissenters) sent me messages afterward saying they tried her path out of curiosity because they wanted to see how the story was different, and everyone was very surprised and even satisfied with her character. Several of them chose to continuing playing with trans content turned on just because they preferred helping her character out to the alternative girl.
My take away from the experience was that I don't have to be into a fetish to write it well. But I do have to be motivated by something in order to pull it off. In my case it was the challenge that motivated me. I'm not saying every dev should take that approach. And a dev should only ever write what they are motivated and inspired to write, otherwise the audience can tell that there's no heart in it.
All that said, Tlaero , I love showing support and love to other devs by becoming a patron of a good game. If I can scratch out some time to play in the near future, which one of your games would you suggest I try first?
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Doesn't need to be played in order but all 4 are worth playing.
Although I agree that RFJ is probably the best as a standalone.
All 4 of the Elsaverse stories are great but Finding Miranda and Saving Chloe need the series to be played in order to know what's going on with the overall lot and who certain characters are that pop up.
Although I agree that RFJ is probably the best as a standalone.
All 4 of the Elsaverse stories are great but Finding Miranda and Saving Chloe need the series to be played in order to know what's going on with the overall lot and who certain characters are that pop up.
It's hard for me to compare different universes, but Redemption for Jessika is certainly the best from Elsaverse, although I also liked Saving Chloe.
Of course, Getting to know Christine is an art in itself (I won't even mention Daydreaming with Keeley).
Pandora is also great game. It is a pity that it was not continued.
From Tlaero&Phreaky, Life with Keeley is pretty good. BTW: Do you still have any contact with him, Tlaero?
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I think it would probably be fine to play RfJ alone. Then, if you really like it and want to play the others, go back and play Dreaming with Elsa (the first) and then Finding Miranda and Saving Chloe. I don't think you'd lose too much that way.
Beware that these aren't in Renpy, so the mechanics are probably a bit different than you're used to. Importantly, if the image has a yellow border around it, that means there is at least one hit target on the image. Sometimes the image hit targets are better choices than the dialog choices at the bottom. And, importantly, sometimes there are multiple hit targets on the image. So if you find one and it seems like a bad idea, there's probably a better choice somewhere else on the image.
Tlaero
Beware that these aren't in Renpy, so the mechanics are probably a bit different than you're used to. Importantly, if the image has a yellow border around it, that means there is at least one hit target on the image. Sometimes the image hit targets are better choices than the dialog choices at the bottom. And, importantly, sometimes there are multiple hit targets on the image. So if you find one and it seems like a bad idea, there's probably a better choice somewhere else on the image.
Tlaero
I just wonder one thing: There were RenPy ports for some of your games, right? How was it resolved that you can click something in the background when you already have dialogue options? Is it even possible in RenPy? Without custom text mechanism, of course.
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blackmagic616, I didn't hear from Phreaky for the 5 or so years that passed between end of Coffee for Keisha and the start of Coming to Grips with Christine. He stopped in to say hi at the lagoon and we reminisced a bit, but I haven't heard from him again since.
Tlaero
Tlaero
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Ariane Barnes converted the games to Renpy format, but I never tested them, so I'm not sure that there aren't any bugs. I'm a bit reticent to suggest a new player start with those, because I'd hate for him to get stuck because of a conversion issue.
It IS possible to do image hit targets in Renpy, but the last time I tried (a few years ago), it was a real pain. I suspect it's gotten easier, though, as these things tend to do. Back then, I considered converting my Adventure Creator program to output Renpy format instead of Javascript, but it felt like I was trying to pound a square peg into a round hole. So, moving forward, I decided not to swim upstream and instead use Renpy the way most people do (explicit menu choices without image hit targets).
This space has changed quite a bit over the last decade. When I started, these things were more "game" than "story," so the game mechanics mattered more than they seem to now. That's fine by me, since the story is what I really care about.
Tlaero
It IS possible to do image hit targets in Renpy, but the last time I tried (a few years ago), it was a real pain. I suspect it's gotten easier, though, as these things tend to do. Back then, I considered converting my Adventure Creator program to output Renpy format instead of Javascript, but it felt like I was trying to pound a square peg into a round hole. So, moving forward, I decided not to swim upstream and instead use Renpy the way most people do (explicit menu choices without image hit targets).
This space has changed quite a bit over the last decade. When I started, these things were more "game" than "story," so the game mechanics mattered more than they seem to now. That's fine by me, since the story is what I really care about.
Tlaero
This Ariane B?
Hit boxes are one thing, and hit boxes together with already displayed options is another.
I remember that in your old games (or games from Chaotic - you know, Virtual Date games), clicking a hit box caused adding a 4th dialogue option to the three existing ones.
So, before clicking a hit box:
- Option 1
- Option 2
- Option 3
After clicking a hit box:
- Option 1
- Option 2
- Option 3
- Option 4
Then you can choose an option from 1 to 4.
What's worse. the dialog options in RenPy may block the clickable area.
I really don't know how to do such thing in RenPy, at least without own text mechanism instead of standard menu.
10 years ago, a lot of developers used your engine. Do you know what happened to them? Do you have any contact with them?
BTW: You are currently using IRAY for rendering, right? But what have you used before?
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I gave advice to a lot of aspiring developers to tone down their ambitions for their first game. Better to write a game they can finish, learn from, and go on to write an even better game afterward than to sit down to write a game with 15 romancible characters and spend the next ten years working on it. Even if the dev was perfect on their first try, rendering technologies got better over time, and so did game engines. I doubt anyone is actively using Adventure Creator anymore. To my knowledge, I was the only person that ever even used v2.0 of it (although all of the Elsa-verse games are in AC2). But even I've moved to Renpy now. I find that I was a lot more productive using AC2 than I am with Renpy, but the players are very clear on which engine they prefer.
I don't do any of the images. That's all Mortze. He switched to IRay between Redemption for Jessika and Finding Miranda (so FM is the first of my games in IRay). I'm pretty sure he was using 3DLight before then. For a long while, IRay renders tended to look "grainy" unless you let them render for hours and hours. Since our games tend to have around 1000 images, super long render times like that were untenable. But Mortze told me that Daz has a feature now that lets you clean up the grainyness, and his images in Elsa's Nightmares and his SW game have the quality of IRay while looking sharp.
Tlaero
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This should be the mantra of new game developers, or perhaps Tlaero's First Law of Game Making?
You and Mortze were very reliable in putting out a new Complete game about every six months. These with proper stories with logical progressions and conclusions. The multitude of abandoned games here on F95 is a testament that some lessons are never learned. Even if they are not yet abandoned, many games suffer from content creep as the first time developer keeps adding new characters and situations and have now been around for 2+ years with no sign of the end in sight. The Patreon effect has some of the blame in this, but but not all of it. Some developers seem to start making games with no actual story in mind, they just keep adding new stuff as they think of it.
What about Chaotic? Doesn't he use his own branch of AC in Virtual Data Games?
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Just compare this:
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with this:
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and maybe this:
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For example (Leanna: breaking the facade):
Code:
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Code:
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if (str.indexOf(fullName) == 0)
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Code:
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{
var fullName = name + "=";
var val = 0;
var strings = readStorageString(gVariables).split(':');
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}What were the technical differences between version 1.0 and 2.0, apart from the slightly modified menu and the ability to support many saves and achievements? Any new feature, like more interactive scenes? Or better sound/video support?
Wow, you're back to writing Tlaero? After seeing your comments here I went back to Tora's Patreon page and that indeed seems to be the case. Looking forward to "LCfK" (and hopefully more).
Great news, you've always been the best.
Great news, you've always been the best.
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Thank you for the answer. Too bad I feel like I'm a fan who just discovered a TV series, who loves it and who learns that season 3 is cancelled... Do I have to petition Change.org for a sequel ?
Game SW... Star Wars game ?
There's a game from Tora Productions which is close to Darkness Falls in terms of scenario and which has a French translation ? Thanks in advance!