VN Ren'Py Cosy Cafe [v0.11] [Cosy Creator]

[Lathe29]

As for the specific search feature you are referring to I don't talk on the site enough to even remember that you can do that. I'll write it down to remember if I speak again. As for the gaping mouth thing I 100% agree with you on it, I absolutely hate the way newer VN's have it and a lot of the times it looks bad. The level I'm referring to is in the middle. The two images you showed still feels a little bit stilted to me.
Take these screenshots for an example: View attachment 4514264 View attachment 4514265 View attachment 4514266
First image character smiling not showing a lot of teeth. Second and third images the character on the far left is the one talking. Very subtle mouth opening nowhere near agape and her mood is properly conveyed. I don't see how most characters appearing stone faced conveys coziness in any way. I may be able to provide better examples of what I mean from kther stories using HS2 as the base.

And that game gets one update a year, Cosy Cafe gets significant updates every 2 to 3 months. The style works for it but you can't compare the two. If you don't like it, just move on.

 

[ShinigamiLORD]

And that game gets one update a year, Cosy Cafe gets significant updates every 2 to 3 months. The style works for it but you can't compare the two. If you don't like it, just move on.

Only comparing facial expressions and nothing else. Never said I didn't like it either, the story is good so far. Also it's not surprising that more effort takes more time but like i said, was only referring to the faces.

 

[shitass1001]

I'm sure someone has probably asked within this 228 pages somewhere... I may be only on day 5 but the characters having barely any facial expressions and there lips being closed 100% of the time while talking is very distracting... Does this get better later on?

as far as facial expressions go, the characters do get more expressive down the line, but its extremely subtle. I found the lack of facial expressions a little jarring on my first readthrough, until I got to about day 10-12, now I really like that aspect.
I think Cosy Cafe is a pretty unique looking VN, and the way characters faces are treated is a large part of that. As CyBeRd0g said the focus is much more on the eyes than on the mouths of the characters.
Depending on where you are, you might have already noticed how the girls tend to look down sometimes whenever there is an emotional moment, when usually they look up at the MC.

Spoiler

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This happens fairly often, and I think its used to great effect. Once you shift your focus from the girls mouths to their eyes, you will probably not mind the lack of mouth movement so much.

Another reason I like the subtle facial expressions is that it allows the writing (and by extension my imagination) to do most of the heavy lifting. Its a bit hard to explain, but I like when the narrator adds flavour to the render, allowing my mind to flesh the scene out in my head.

 

[ShinigamiLORD]

as far as facial expressions go, the characters do get more expressive down the line, but its extremely subtle. I found the lack of facial expressions a little jarring on my first readthrough, until I got to about day 10-12, now I really like that aspect.
I think Cosy Cafe is a pretty unique looking VN, and the way characters faces are treated is a large part of that. As CyBeRd0g said the focus is much more on the eyes than on the mouths of the characters.
Depending on where you are, you might have already noticed how the girls tend to look down sometimes whenever there is an emotional moment, when usually they look up at the MC.

This happens fairly often, and I think its used to great effect. Once you shift your focus from the girls mouths to their eyes, you will probably not mind the lack of mouth movement so much.

Another reason I like the subtle facial expressions is that it allows the writing (and by extension my imagination) to do most of the heavy lifting. Its a bit hard to explain, but I like when the narrator adds flavour to the render, allowing my mind to flesh the scene out in my head.

Excellent explanation! I see exactly what you mean. Looking at it from your point of of view gives me an entirely different set of eyes on this VN. I read every single day and the sheer amount of things that I usually expect to see from good stories and renders skew my viewpoint quite a bit. The uniqueness of these particular renders caught me way off guard here. Though I won't say my initial reaction was knee-jerk, I will say my personal mental checklist of good things to look for missed all the nuances you talked about.

It's like the first time I read Light of my Life back when I cared way more about visuals than story. It single-handedly changed the way I view VNs till this day. Story is now way far in the forefront for me over everything else. I will definitely be looking at this project differently as I keep reading it now.

 

[Rizzler97]

I really hope the epilogue is the longest and most in dept chapter ever cause most games just rush their endings and close it too quickly. the first and last chapters are the most important for a VN and most games just leave me feeling saying ''that's it?'' when it ends. I trust Cosy tho so im not worried.

 

[PaxHadrian17]

I really hope the epilogue is the longest and most in dept chapter ever cause most games just rush their endings and close it too quickly. the first and last chapters are the most important for a VN and most games just leave me feeling saying ''that's it?'' when it ends. I trust Cosy tho so im not worried.

I also hope that the epilogue is at least a decade away with dozens and dozens of updates between now and that epilogue.

Cheers!!

 

[Fortune.favors]

I'm on the spectrum with a very flat affect and I personally really liked that the faces are more neutral with relatively subtle reactions and expressions. for whatever that counts for lol.

 

[Tyrannitus]

unrelated note, I'm now convinced that Rachel is the one that won the raffle, so I'm interested to see where that goes.
Anyway, great update!

Man I hope CC just decides to axe Rachel. Not a fun character.

 

[HiHaHo]

Man I hope CC just decides to axe Rachel. Not a fun character.

thats the whole Idea...trust in Cosy to write things properly

 

[someoneyouknow2452]

thats the whole Idea...trust in Cosy to write things properly

Her redemption arc would realistically take weeks considering all the shit she has put the MC and his girls through. If she is also the one who stole the lottery tickets then that would be even worse. Hopefully the reason she wants to speak to the MC is not because she stole it but because she saw who did.

 

[mordred93]

Her redemption arc would realistically take weeks considering all the shit she has put the MC and his girls through. If she is also the one who stole the lottery tickets then that would be even worse. Hopefully the reason she wants to speak to the MC is not because she stole it but because she saw who did.

I know it is going to take months in game. Not from any insider knowledge, just from what the Dev has said. There is about a week left in game before the first time jump. So, about 2 month are going to be gone (from about October 1st till right around Christmas). So, it is doubtful that you can corrupt and redeem Rachel in about 1 weeks time in game.

 

[jI11jaCksjAkk]

Man I hope CC just decides to axe Rachel. Not a fun character.

Not everything in life is fun. She is obviously there for a reason, and I'm pretty sure it's not just for the handful of anti-feminist jokes at her expense so far. People are made what they are by life, mostly how they have been treated by other people along the way. I expect her backstory to be very sad and/or unpleasant to have made her this aggressively overprotective of other girls/women.

Spoiler: speculation

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Every character we have gotten to know turns out to have experienced hardships of some kind in their family life that we can empathize with - not sure why you don't assume that pattern will hold for Rachel as well?

 

[shitass1001]

Not everything in life is fun. She is obviously there for a reason, and I'm pretty sure it's not just for the handful of anti-feminist jokes at her expense so far. People are made what they are by life, mostly how they have been treated by other people along the way. I expect her backstory to be very sad and/or unpleasant to have made her this aggressively overprotective of other girls/women.

Spoiler: speculation

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Every character we have gotten to know turns out to have experienced hardships of some kind in their family life that we can empathize with - not sure why you don't assume that pattern will hold for Rachel as well?

Cosy has said its not because of abuse from her father

 

[wiseold6996]

Not everything in life is fun. She is obviously there for a reason, and I'm pretty sure it's not just for the handful of anti-feminist jokes at her expense so far. People are made what they are by life, mostly how they have been treated by other people along the way. I expect her backstory to be very sad and/or unpleasant to have made her this aggressively overprotective of other girls/women.

Spoiler: speculation

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Every character we have gotten to know turns out to have experienced hardships of some kind in their family life that we can empathize with - not sure why you don't assume that pattern will hold for Rachel as well?

Far more likely for her to be a tumbler resident.

 

[ImperialD]

just how such a beautiful woman can be just a side character .... lets hope the dev will make her more of a lead character
i mean just check out Annabelle

 

[HiHaHo]

lets hope the dev will make her more of a lead character

that was the Idea,due to popular request from fans.

 

[Ultimecea]

just how such a beautiful woman can be just a side character .... lets hope the dev will make her more of a lead character
i mean just check out Annabelle

then we found out she's MC second great grandfather's daughter's niece
come on inseki!

 

[OWSam000]

Far more likely for her to be a tumbler resident.

What does 'tumbler resident' mean?

 

[MalLiz]

What does 'tumbler resident' mean?

...Are you sure you are old enough to be using this site, my man?

But in all seriousness: "Tumblr resident" refers to a specific type of internet shitheads who (pretty obviously) used to frequent Tumblr, back when that crappy site was still "a thing." And of course they would be the kind of lunatics raving non-stop about social issues such as feminism, gay rights, etc., except not in a sensible or progressive manner, instead just calling for the genocide of men to empower women (no, really, many of them actually did that) and other insane stuff along those lines.

So kind of like Rachel there, except somehow way more extreme in most cases. And they all "got away with it" because of Tumblr's complete lack of moderation. Hence the term! Tune in next time for more boring internet history with me!

-Mal

 

[Ultimecea]

...Are you sure you are old enough to be using this site, my man?

But in all seriousness: "Tumblr resident" refers to a specific type of internet shitheads who (pretty obviously) used to frequent Tumblr, back when that crappy site was still "a thing." And of course they would be the kind of lunatics raving non-stop about social issues such as feminism, gay rights, etc., except not in a sensible or progressive manner, instead just calling for the genocide of men to empower women (no, really, many of them actually did that) and other insane stuff along those lines.

So kind of like Rachel there, except somehow way more extreme in most cases. And they all "got away with it" because of Tumblr's complete lack of moderation. Hence the term! Tune in next time for more boring internet history with me!

-Mal

that makes me feel damn old
its been ages since i heard about tumblr