VN HTML Ren'Py Completed Coming to Grips with Christine [Ep. 1-5] [Tora Productions]

4.20 star(s) 11 Votes

Tlaero

Well-Known Member
Game Developer
Nov 24, 2018
1,061
5,228
Yeah, I originally wrote AC for Chaotic. His first engine worked on some browsers but not others, and I kept needing to fix his code to play it on the browser I used. He used some of that code, including the variable stuff as you see, but I don't think he uses the program itself.

I guess there are two parts to AC. The first is the program where you enter your text and hit targets and the second is the JavaScript the program outputs. Over the years, I continuously changed the JavaScript output as I added functionality. Originally it made individual HTML files, because that was what Chaotic was doing and I wanted to make it easy for him to transition to it. As I got into using the program myself to write my own games, though, I changed things around. I made it so that there was a single HTML file and all of the text was in a single JavaScript file. That allowed me to spell check easily and made it easy to have localizers translate games to other languages. Etc.

I don't precisely remember what the JavaScript differences were between AC1 and AC2, but I completely rewrote the program when I did AC2. AC1 had grown organically over the years, and I had coded myself into a corner a bunch of times. It was fine when I was writing short games, but it bogged down when I started writing longer ones. I remember at one point the Game View window that showed all of the pages took like 15 seconds to come up. That was ridiculous. So I rewrote the program to be clean. Also, while I was at it, I heavily optimized the workflow (the actions you do to create multiple pages) for how I used it, which made me really fast at putting pages together.

Yesterday Mortze sent me the images for one of the Elsa's Nightmares chapters and I put together the Renpy files. Night and day difference between how I used to work (AC2 was much faster).

Of course, I could always write a new tool for myself to make Renpy fast too. We'll see.

Tlaero
 
  • Like
Reactions: blackmagic616

Tlaero

Well-Known Member
Game Developer
Nov 24, 2018
1,061
5,228
Boogie, yeah, that's a lesson I learned the hard way in a previous life where I was a writer. The first thing I wrote was a full novel, and it sucked. But I had sunk the time for a full novel into it, so I spent a lot of fruitless time trying to "fix" it. I learned my lesson, and the next ten things I wrote were short stories. The first one sucked too, but the second one sucked less, and the one after that wasn't terrible... Importantly, it didn't take very long to write the shorts, so I could learn and improve and not worry too much about the poor quality when I later went back and read the early ones. Whether or not they ever got good is a matter of opinion, but the tenth short was objectively better than the first, and my second novel was publishable.

(No, I won't tell you the names of any of the novels. I'm going to go to my grave being the only person who knows who "Tlaero" is.)

The same is true of writing games. "Virtual Date with Keeley" (Now known as "Meeting Keeley") has objectively worse writing, programming, gameplay, and artwork than the games that came after it. But we got better as we created game after game. So, rather than be embarrassed by the early games, I'm proud of the later ones. And I don't have to worry about engine changes or rendering changes or writing skill changes making a single game seem disjoint.

Tlaero
 
  • Like
Reactions: Boogie

Lucifer

Member
Aug 22, 2016
180
191
I've been in the adult games community for a few years, and I still have to figure out how good in coding is Tlaero really.
I'm sure I won't know the answer, but she's a legend to me.
 

Tlaero

Well-Known Member
Game Developer
Nov 24, 2018
1,061
5,228
Nasao, Mortze and I have talked a little bit about Darkness Falls. He's still very interested in the series. Maybe after LCfK we'll find a good way to "Reboot" the game. We'd switch to Renpy, so it's an appropriate time to change things up somewhat. If we didn't try to make the episodes mysteries that you, the player, have agency in "solving" I'd be more inclined to work on them.

Tlaero
 
  • Like
Reactions: Nasao

Tlaero

Well-Known Member
Game Developer
Nov 24, 2018
1,061
5,228
I've been in the adult games community for a few years, and I still have to figure out how good in coding is Tlaero really.
I'm sure I won't know the answer, but she's a legend to me.
Thanks, Lucifer.

IRL, I'm a professional software developer who works on Operating Systems and such. The coding in these games is relatively simple and something that I bang out in a few minutes. The real time and effort is in the writing and artwork. One of my main goals for the first versions of AC was to make the coding simple enough that non-developers could write their own games.

Tlaero
 

blackmagic616

Member
Dec 29, 2019
453
494
The same is true of writing games. "Virtual Date with Keeley" (Now known as "Meeting Keeley") has objectively worse writing, programming, gameplay, and artwork than the games that came after it.
I've noticed one thing. Many times you mention games that you did together with Phreaky: Meeting Keeley, Getting to Know Christine, Life with Keeley, and Coffee for Keisha. However, you usually skip a few titles, like Virtual Date with Amy Redux or Daydreaming with Keeley. Why? You are not proud of these games? You don't want to be associated with them?
 

cobaia2392

Newbie
Sep 10, 2016
36
33
Tlaero is back

One of the best writers ever, good luck with this new project.

You and mortze inspiring me to try writing and now (with a modest equipament) to learn rendering.

Keep doing the amazing work.
 

Tlaero

Well-Known Member
Game Developer
Nov 24, 2018
1,061
5,228
blackmagic616, "Daydreaming with Keeley" is actually part of "Meeting Keeley" now. If you play Meeting Keeley and get to the workout scene, you go into the Daydream scene, and the entire second game is there. It wasn't that I renamed "Virtual Date with Keeley." It's that I joined the first two games together and called the combination "Meeting Keeley."

Frankly, I had forgotten about Amy Redux. I don't really consider that a game I wrote. I just took phreaky's existing game and artwork and restrung it with new words. It was me figuring out how writing these games is done, and it was quite eye opening to see how much work they are.

Tlaero
 
  • Like
Reactions: blackmagic616

Nasao

Member
Sep 30, 2019
194
126
Nasao, Mortze and I have talked a little bit about Darkness Falls. He's still very interested in the series. Maybe after LCfK we'll find a good way to "Reboot" the game. We'd switch to Renpy, so it's an appropriate time to change things up somewhat. If we didn't try to make the episodes mysteries that you, the player, have agency in "solving" I'd be more inclined to work on them.

Tlaero
Thank you for the answer and for giving me hope again :)
 

moszter

Member
Jan 31, 2019
145
182
Coming to Grips with Christine [Ep. 1-5] [Tora Productions]

ANDROID:
 

Tlaero

Well-Known Member
Game Developer
Nov 24, 2018
1,061
5,228
There's not a full scene of two couples having sex together. In the ending montage of one of the paths it's implied that it happens, but there aren't enough pictures that anyone would say, "That was a great swinging scene."

Tlaero
 
  • Haha
Reactions: supermanz95

_Alexandru_

New Member
Mar 16, 2020
14
92
I am not able to get neither the best ending with Laura neither with Cristine. I have tried multiple path but I still do not understand what are the crucial decisions for each path :(
 
4.20 star(s) 11 Votes