VN Ren'Py Abandoned Connected [v0.2.5] [ChainZero]

4.60 star(s) 62 Votes

Englen

Well-Known Member
Mar 17, 2019
1,603
11,487



Revamp
So, let me get straight to the point. I'm coming close to where I want to be. Chapter 1 is entirely reworked with new dialogue, new scenes, all of that. It's very different when compared to the original Ch.1.

The flow of events is similar. If you played Chapter 1 originally, you already know how and where it will end, but it will feel very different nonetheless. The heart and soul is still there, just told differently, and in my opinion, better.

Workflow
Feel free to skip this part if you want. It's mostly venting and self reflecting. So my workflow has been trash the past few months, I'm not afraid to admit it, lol. I can give you guys the full timeline of chaotic events, but that would make this post so much longer than it will be. I went into this revamp without a plan and May through the end of July was basically me running around in circles blindly trying to find something that works. Development started and stopped multiple times. I went back to the drawing board multiple times. I would get 60, damn near 100 renders deep then have to restart either due to bullshit or because I was in my own head about development, which I tend to be about a lot of things in life in general. It was crazy, okay? Lol. But that's over and done with.

If I'm being technical here, true development of the revamp started near the beginning of August. May through July was struggling with preparations. I work fast when there's a game plan. I think that's true for anyone, but working blind kinda fucked me up those past few months, mostly cause I wanted to get it done quickly. And in trying to get it done quickly, I just ended up slowing the pace down completely as the scope of things got larger and larger and my mind kept changing and changing until it was at a point where I couldn't contain it anymore. That's a rookie mistake on my part guys. I'm sorry. But we're close now. Which leads me to....

Release Date
I won't be giving an official release date, but expect it sometime in October, preferably early to mid. I don't expect this to change, but you never know. If I can release it sooner, I will. And for full disclosure, it will only be Chapter 1. I've decided some time ago to work again from the start so I wouldn't have to put this off any longer than it's already been, but the content is totally new. Ayana fans will love it. Y'all know I pride myself in great looking sex scenes, so you won't be disappointed with what's to come. After chapter 1 is released, I'll be excited to go back to how I usually do things.

Finally..

Annual Membership
I've enabled the annual membership feature on Patreon now. It took some time because I was contemplating if it was really a good move for myself, but I've noticed that the longer I take to make a decision the longer I stay in purgatory so to speak, so fuck it.

Now, patrons will be able to pledge a whole year's access upfront and you won't be billed again until the following year. I'd imagine it's more convenient for you guys that way. Patrons who pledge for the full year will have a 10% discount.
For more info, you can read up on it here.
Please do your due diligence before you decide to pledge for the full year.
September Wallpaper Poll will be coming either later today or tomorrow. As always, thank you for your patience, understanding and continued support thus far. The wait isn't much longer now and I'm very excited to finally move past what we know in the story of Connected.

Til next post again!
 

kikomascado

Active Member
May 20, 2017
553
830
Wow, I have been a member of this site for more than 3 years now, and always hear about the same games here, so that's why I was very impressed by your work! There's not much content yet, but it's easy to see you are putting a lot of effort there.
The characters are very likeable, the renders are beautiful, the storytelling is fun and the soundtrack are good (there aren't a lot of games with good BGM and SFX here).
I was very shocked to see a game with such quality to be so unknown, because I enjoyed it very much!

But I admit I'm a little affraid of the revamp, because I've already liked it very much and didn't see the need of a "remake", not to mention I've seen some games who tried to do that and only managed to make it worse somehow. Hahaha
But I believe in you and will be waiting for the next release. Thank you for the game and keep it up with the good work!

And the doggy definetely adds a nice different touch to the game. I've never seen a dog as a recurring character on a Ren'Py game before, let alone one that cute. Lola is a good girl. :giggle:
 
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Vis117

Member
Sep 22, 2019
236
413
Please don't spread falsehoods about my game, especially if you haven't played it.

1. There is no racism in my game. None whatsoever. And even if it were, it wouldn't be the first game to do it.

2. The comment you're replying to is also wrong. No one who says the n word in this game is white. The only one who has said it so far is a girl by the name of Ayana and I've established in this thread multiple times already that she's a girl of color. And it's only been used twice. Trust me, I've felt the urge to drop it damn near every sentence because that's how I talk in real life. But I understand how unattractive it is, so I've kept it VERY tame.

3. I'm a black kid from the hood. A part of myself is in every fiber of this story, and that includes dialogue. I understand there will be people on the outside looking in feeling pretty uncomfortable about the use of such language, but by all means, either skip over it or don't play it at all. Just because I use the word doesn't mean I expect y'all to use it, or even be okay with it. But it's not gonna stop popping up. If that's problematic for you or anyone else, please don't even download it.
Ayana is an interesting character and I love the dynamic between her and the MC. So much so that I'm going to have a hard time hooking up with anyone else. I think the reason the N word catches people so off guard is because Ayana does not look like a woman of color. The MC doesn't really either IMO. They are incredibly light skinned. I would never have thought she was anything else but white if I didn't read your post.

Regardless, I love this game and am looking forward to more! Just thought hearing this perspective might help with the confusion. Thanks for making such a great game!
 

Deleted member 444674

Member
Game Developer
Feb 17, 2018
405
5,497
Ayana is an interesting character and I love the dynamic between her and the MC. So much so that I'm going to have a hard time hooking up with anyone else. I think the reason the N word catches people so off guard is because Ayana does not look like a woman of color. The MC doesn't really either IMO. They are incredibly light skinned. I would never have thought she was anything else but white if I didn't read your post.

Regardless, I love this game and am looking forward to more! Just thought hearing this perspective might help with the confusion. Thanks for making such a great game!
Yeah, I know why people are caught off guard. We've discussed it in detail before in this thread. It's just more of a "me" thing. I'm incredibly light skinned and the people I surround myself with aren't even darker than Ayana. The only person I currently talk to regularly who is darker than Ayana is my mom, and she's the lightest one in her family. When people look at me, especially if I have a fresh hair cut, people will assume I'm Spanish-speaking, when I'm Jamaican/Commonwealth Dominican descent.

In the revamp, I'm making their ethnicity a little more prominent in the narration as well as the dialogue. I sort of did that as a joke at the end of this current version, but I'm making an effort to highlight their culture a bit more in the first chapter, particularly Ayana.
 

MrFriendly

Officially Dead Inside
Donor
Feb 23, 2020
5,875
14,454
Yeah, I know why people are caught off guard. We've discussed it in detail before in this thread. It's just more of a "me" thing. I'm incredibly light skinned and the people I surround myself with aren't even darker than Ayana. The only person I currently talk to regularly who is darker than Ayana is my mom, and she's the lightest one in her family. When people look at me, especially if I have a fresh hair cut, people will assume I'm Spanish-speaking, when I'm Jamaican/Commonwealth Dominican descent.

In the revamp, I'm making their ethnicity a little more prominent in the narration as well as the dialogue. I sort of did that as a joke at the end of this current version, but I'm making an effort to highlight their culture a bit more in the first chapter, particularly Ayana.
It's all good, can't wait for the revamp so I can revisit Ayana and the rest of the game. Seems all the games I actually care about are either on hiatus, retooling, or some shit is happening in the dev's life. Stay safe and healthy CZ
 

Deleted member 444674

Member
Game Developer
Feb 17, 2018
405
5,497
It's all good, can't wait for the revamp so I can revisit Ayana and the rest of the game. Seems all the games I actually care about are either on hiatus, retooling, or some shit is happening in the dev's life. Stay safe and healthy CZ
Haha trust me, I can't wait to move past this either. I don't regret revamping but I do wish I had a better plan in place before hand. Never again though. After I take the time to rework these chapters, I'm never looking back. I already lost so much time wasting away in my own stagnation and self-pity (cause 2020 is ass) but thanks for the encouragement so far.
 

Bluedolph

Newbie
Jan 20, 2020
20
17
Me. I do everything.
Cool. Was gonna talk about the wording and conciseness, but I'm reading through and everyone's pretty much got it covered. As far as the (yea I know only two) <removed> drops tho, it's less about thinking you're racist/ignorant and more about just being taken out of the game like "wait, what? why is this chick saying this lol". I read that you're black and from the hood and this is a part of how you talk and that's why and that's good, but with all due respect as you create the characters, as someone who just met the girl (so if not white she's like at most like middle eastern/eurpoean/caucasian? Like Armenian lol?), you say you're black and from the hood, but these characters you're creating aren't lmao. So if they're actually from some community where everyone regardless of who you are as long as you're "not white" is saying <removed> and it's not an issue whatsoever, or they're in any way different from a random border/punk/rock/rave white girl from cali or florida it's not clear.

Like I said, this has nothing to do with thinking you're racist and more to do with me just playing this and automatically seeing these characters and their vibe as those white kids who use <removed> and unironically say "frontin'", talk about designer clothes watch MTV all the time because they wanna be cool and into "the culture" lol. Wiggas. That's my only thing with it. Like yeah, that's you, but it just looks like she’s trying to “sound black”. Not racist, just kinda cringe. I love the standpoint of "don't like it don't play it" (so honestly I might just do that if it gets to be too "eh" in my opinion). That's been my stance on literally everything on the internet, especially in this day and age where everyone wants to cancel everything. I don't think there's actually any need to change it. I personally just for my enjoyment and cohesion as an individual player need to understand where this character is coming from, because both from an ethnic and style standpoint, it's jarring as hell to read her talking like that lol. At the end of the day this is all down to your prerogative though. If you have a vision for your character and you feel as though adding anything to that in any way would be betraying the experience then ignore this haha. It'd nbd at the end of the day.
 
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Englen

Well-Known Member
Mar 17, 2019
1,603
11,487
Cool. Was gonna talk about the wording and conciseness, but I'm reading through and everyone's pretty much got it covered. As far as the (yea I know only two) <removed> drops tho, it's less about thinking you're racist/ignorant and more about just being taken out of the game like "wait, what? why is this chick saying this lol". I read that you're black and from the hood and this is a part of how you talk and that's why and that's good, but with all due respect as you create the characters, as someone who just met the girl (so if not white she's like at most like middle eastern/eurpoean/caucasian? Like Armenian lol?), you say you're black and from the hood, but these characters you're creating aren't lmao. So if they're actually from some community where everyone regardless of who you are as long as you're "not white" is saying <removed> and it's not an issue whatsoever, or they're in any way different from a random border/punk/rock/rave white girl from cali or florida it's not clear.

Like I said, this has nothing to do with thinking you're racist and more to do with me just playing this and automatically seeing these characters and their vibe as those white kids who use <removed> and unironically say "frontin'", talk about designer clothes watch MTV all the time because they wanna be cool and into "the culture" lol. Wiggas. That's my only thing with it. Like yeah, that's you, but it just looks like she’s trying to “sound black”. Not racist, just kinda cringe. I love the standpoint of "don't like it don't play it" (so honestly I might just do that if it gets to be too "eh" in my opinion). That's been my stance on literally everything on the internet, especially in this day and age where everyone wants to cancel everything. I don't think there's actually any need to change it. I personally just for my enjoyment and cohesion as an individual player need to understand where this character is coming from, because both from an ethnic and style standpoint, it's jarring as hell to read her talking like that lol. At the end of the day this is all down to your prerogative though. If you have a vision for your character and you feel as though adding anything to that in any way would be betraying the experience then forget it lol. Given that this is a game on f95, I'm more talking tastes and opinions than anything of actual social impact lol.
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4.60 star(s) 62 Votes