VN Ren'Py Onhold Cyberheart [v0.3.5 (Extra 1)] [DiPeppo]

[DevinHesi]

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Random ahhhh entry I did for April contest. The initial idea was to have a costume that matches the palette of Fallout's costome (blue or some shit). It ended up looking a bit plain so I added some more parts in, two snorts of cocaine in and I realized I had turned the gal into a Cyberpunk typa girl. Said "screw it" and went with the flow.

Shoutout to Fouetty for the map, April and Sleep for the contest organization, Xoa for being sponsor, and also of course, Mei and Reddy for the Nuka Cola mod

Congrats Mei for winning too! All I have left to say is, "DEEZ".

 

[Kas96]

Bruh why this game forum number is so low! One of best honeyselect game with render quality and story wise... Hope to see the game in better stage...

 

[DiPeppo]

Bruh why this game forum number is so low! One of best honeyselect game with render quality and story wise... Hope to see the game in better stage...

Thank you so much! I think it really depends on folks’ tastes, I’m sure as hell proud of my game and grateful as well as happy that you love it. More recognition will come later, hopefully!

 

[Mark17]

Bruh why this game forum number is so low! One of best honeyselect game with render quality and story wise... Hope to see the game in better stage...

Thank you so much! I think it really depends on folks’ tastes, I’m sure as hell proud of my game and grateful as well as happy that you love it. More recognition will come later, hopefully!

I'm gonna be honest on why the game is not more popular.
Is bc there is (at least for now) no sexual content. In the moment who began to show sex. More people is gonna play these game.

 

[DiPeppo]

I'm gonna be honest on why these game is not more popular.
Is bc there is (at least for now) no sexual content. In the moment who began to show sex. More people is gonna play these game.

Harsh reality, innit?

But really, I want to take my time and build up for those contents, and to have a good base with animating scenes first. I'm not sure if I have mentioned this on here but most of the times, I don't prefer the approach of inserting a scene in the first release "just because". I understand it's used to grab attention and to showcase animation and whatnot. But first, most of the times, the developer is not experienced enough to make a good animation in the first release, and it ended up looking wonky.

And second, the scenes usually feel out of the blue - most likely, it has no connection to the main story whatsoever. If we tackle games from that angle of having scenes, I can also ask if someone prefers scenes from earlier of the game or later in the game, many will say the later scenes - where you actually have a connection to the characters and develop some sorts of attachments and feelings for them. I want to go for that - I want to have a game where it rewards players for just being a bit patient.

Even if it means to have fewer support or to have the game not as well-known as I'd like it to be, I understand that and I'm okay with that. I can only appreciate the supports that I've had so far and have right now, and keep working on something that I love and share it with everyone!

 

[Mark17]

I don't prefer the approach of inserting a scene in the first release "just because". I understand it's used to grab attention and to showcase animation and whatnot. But first, most of the times, the developer is not experienced enough to make a good animation in the first release, and it ended up looking wonky.

Always should make a good first impression, you make with me and many more. But you should look at this way, if you put in the 0.1 at least some tease, I don't know, an "Wardrobe malfunction" scene, or "oops wrong bathroom" scene, you game could attract attention. More would be talk about him. These are my two cents about.

 

[DiPeppo]

Always should make a good first impression, you make with me and many more. But you should look at this way, if you put in the 0.1 at least some tease, I don't know, an "Wardrobe malfunction" scene, or "oops wrong bathroom" scene, you game could attract attention. More would be talk about him. These are my two cents about.

Gotcha. I appreciate the thoughts and advice, thanks Mark.

 

[slick97]

I'm gonna be honest on why the game is not more popular.
Is bc there is (at least for now) no sexual content. In the moment who began to show sex. More people is gonna play these game.

Normally I'd agree... if it weren't for Oceanlab.

And second, the scenes usually feel out of the blue - most likely, it has no connection to the main story whatsoever. If we tackle games from that angle of having scenes, I can also ask if someone prefers scenes from earlier of the game or later in the game, many will say the later scenes - where you actually have a connection to the characters and develop some sorts of attachments and feelings for them. I want to go for that - I want to have a game where it rewards players for just being a bit patient.

The first sentence is the case for even some of the top rated AVNs on f95. Some devs are much better at transitioning into sex scenes, but the only type of storytelling where this truly shines are in kinetic novels.

There are a few other issues which affect the quality of sex scenes, but the prominent ones are due to scope creep (e.g. an LI intorduced every chapter), and plot branching. Imagine trying to juggle 10 different characters while also taking into account choices which could results in some of them having sex scenes and avoiding others. The only dev I've seen accomplish this (AlterWorlds) took 2 years just to release the last chapter for 11 different endings, and the overall length of the story spans a very short passage of time.

That previous paragraph kinda went off-topic... but I'm all for your current approach of taking things slow and developing the foundation for sex/lewd scenes rather than arbitrarily throwing them in. It increases the impact on the audience when we finally do get to experience a sex scene with one of the LIs.

 

[DiPeppo]

Normally I'd agree... if it weren't for Oceanlab.


The first sentence is the case for even some of the top rated AVNs on f95. Some devs are much better at transitioning into sex scenes, but the only type of storytelling where this truly shines are in kinetic novels.

There are a few other issues which affect the quality of sex scenes, but the prominent ones are due to scope creep (e.g. an LI intorduced every chapter), and plot branching. Imagine trying to juggle 10 different characters while also taking into account choices which could results in some of them having sex scenes and avoiding others. The only dev I've seen accomplish this (AlterWorlds) took 2 years just to release the last chapter for 11 different endings, and the overall length of the story spans a very short passage of time.

That previous paragraph kinda went off-topic... but I'm all for your current approach of taking things slow and developing the foundation for sex/lewd scenes rather than arbitrarily throwing them in. It increases the impact on the audience when we finally do get to experience a sex scene with one of the LIs.

I gotchu, fam.

 

[AnonW123]

Harsh reality, innit?

But really, I want to take my time and build up for those contents, and to have a good base with animating scenes first. I'm not sure if I have mentioned this on here but most of the times, I don't prefer the approach of inserting a scene in the first release "just because". I understand it's used to grab attention and to showcase animation and whatnot. But first, most of the times, the developer is not experienced enough to make a good animation in the first release, and it ended up looking wonky.

And second, the scenes usually feel out of the blue - most likely, it has no connection to the main story whatsoever. If we tackle games from that angle of having scenes, I can also ask if someone prefers scenes from earlier of the game or later in the game, many will say the later scenes - where you actually have a connection to the characters and develop some sorts of attachments and feelings for them. I want to go for that - I want to have a game where it rewards players for just being a bit patient.

Even if it means to have fewer support or to have the game not as well-known as I'd like it to be, I understand that and I'm okay with that. I can only appreciate the supports that I've had so far and have right now, and keep working on something that I love and share it with everyone!

I wouldn't go so far as to say most devs are bad at animation in the first release. It all depends on the dev. I've seen quite a few that got it right right out the park, others that got better with time. Here's the thing though, waiting a while to put your first animations out there doesn't guarantee you will be better at it. Ultimately, it's your fans who will decide and give you the feedback to improve.

Personally, I wouldn't want to wait 5 or 6 chapters/updates to discover that a dev doesn't know how to do animations or doesn't put care to put much effort into the sex scenes. That's more likely to get me to drop the game as opposed to a rough first start. Others may disagree of course.

I've said it before, I'm really interested in the characters and story so far and I really like the renders and the use of colours (visually this game stands out). I'm constantly checking on this game. I am concerned about when the lewd content will drop and how it good it will be.

Ultimately it's your game, your choice and you obviously have some support. However, yeah, more lewd content will get more fans (it is an avn after all lol).

 

[DiPeppo]

I wouldn't go so far as to say most devs are bad at animation in the first release. It all depends on the dev. I've seen quite a few that got it right right out the park, others that got better with time. Here's the thing though, waiting a while to put your first animations out there doesn't guarantee you will be better at it. Ultimately, it's your fans who will decide and give you the feedback to improve.

Personally, I wouldn't want to wait 5 or 6 chapters/updates to discover that a dev doesn't know how to do animations or doesn't put care to put much effort into the sex scenes. That's more likely to get me to drop the game as opposed to a rough first start. Others may disagree of course.

I've said it before, I'm really interested in the characters and story so far and I really like the renders and the use of colours (visually this game stands out). I'm constantly checking on this game. I am concerned about when the lewd content will drop and how it good it will be.

Ultimately it's your game, your choice and you obviously have some support. However, yeah, more lewd content will get more fans (it is an avn after all lol).

For sure. Just to be sure, I was not tryna trash anyone. What I was tryna to say is that for many developers, their animations later on in their games can be much better than the first release. Bad becomes good, good becomes better, great becomes greater. It's important to note that animation is a whole different game than rendering, because there are just so many moving parts that you have to learn; and it's not something that many people pay attention to when they first get to develop a game. You have writing, you have Ren'py, you have UI, you have rendering, etc. Render alone is already hard - animating something to make it good is a whole different level. That's why I say people can become "lacking" in the animation department, because few people open up Honey Select program or DAZ with the very first intention to animate: they will try to render first. That, of course, is even behind writing, at least for me - but I know there are cases where people headbutt into DAZ/HS2 first before even writing something, and it's not rare. We also have the realm where some developers tend to rework the first few animations as well - I'm aware of that because I virtually did the same but for renders But anyway, yes, I agree that there are some developers that got animations right at the first release - I just did not think that I would be among that very minority of developers, so I chose a safer way to deliver higher quality in the later updates and not the first update.

As for your concern, don't worry. There's a reason why the update is a bit delayed than expected. One third is because I've been busy with my studies, one third is because I've worked on the Blender episode (the extra 1), and then the other third is that, I've been constantly practicing with animations for a few months and then also finding animators as well (found, of course). We will get some more animations in the upcoming chapter (more and better than what we've seen in the most recent chapter that is, lol). Lewd or not, I won't be spoiling it.

Thanks again for your interest, and hopefully you stick around for the future updates!

 

[DevinHesi]

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Been a while since I did any art so I decided to take a break from the main game for a bit and to work on this. Lofi typa shit.

Shoutout to chryzoa for the mod!

 

[slick97]

For sure. Just to be sure, I was not tryna trash anyone. What I was tryna to say is that for many developers, their animations later on in their games can be much better than the first release. Bad becomes good, good becomes better, great becomes greater. It's important to note that animation is a whole different game than rendering, because there are just so many moving parts that you have to learn; and it's not something that many people pay attention to when they first get to develop a game. You have writing, you have Ren'py, you have UI, you have rendering, etc. Render alone is already hard - animating something to make it good is a whole different level. That's why I say people can become "lacking" in the animation department, because few people open up Honey Select program or DAZ with the very first intention to animate: they will try to render first. That, of course, is even behind writing, at least for me - but I know there are cases where people headbutt into DAZ/HS2 first before even writing something, and it's not rare. We also have the realm where some developers tend to rework the first few animations as well - I'm aware of that because I virtually did the same but for renders But anyway, yes, I agree that there are some developers that got animations right at the first release - I just did not think that I would be among that very minority of developers, so I chose a safer way to deliver higher quality in the later updates and not the first update.

As for your concern, don't worry. There's a reason why the update is a bit delayed than expected. One third is because I've been busy with my studies, one third is because I've worked on the Blender episode (the extra 1), and then the other third is that, I've been constantly practicing with animations for a few months and then also finding animators as well (found, of course). We will get some more animations in the upcoming chapter (more and better than what we've seen in the most recent chapter that is, lol). Lewd or not, I won't be spoiling it.

Thanks again for your interest, and hopefully you stick around for the future updates!

I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but you're 1 of 2 devs I've actually went through with supporting on Patreon. Normally I'd make a joke, but in all seriousness I find it difficult to trust a majority of developers in any genre due to how many games are abandoned for any number of reasons (i.e. lack of funding, loss of interest, scamming, etc.). So, what I'm trying to say here is: you've done several things right in gaining enough trust

As for animations... There are learning curves, and then there is the learning cliff that is animating. I've tried my hand at using Blender only to feel like I'm staring at some kind of alien tech. Seriously, even the tutorials make me feel dumb despite having a B.A. in Mechanical Engineering. Any dev who manages to make them look somewhat good are real life magicians in my book.

 

[zeph19]

Bruh why this game forum number is so low! One of best honeyselect game with render quality and story wise... Hope to see the game in better stage...

Late to the party, but I want to weigh in. Haven't read the replies to this yet.

DiPeppo knows I love his game. In my opinion, if he quit his job, put in 2 or 3 more LIs in and started adding sex scenes, he would, with more consistent and faster output, be able to become another Caribdis. I can only say the same thing confidently about 1 or 2 other devs who use HS2, and I'm not just talking about pretty renders, but also writing, understanding how humans work and setting the mood.

The issue isn't just sex scenes, although they're obviously missing here, which won't matter to new players who join the party in 2, 3 or 4 years when he decides to add them. But as someone who has got to know these characters, I'm not sure if waiting creates anticipation and further excitement or.. apathy. It's like Winds of Winter - does anyone still wait for that book or are we over that story?

DiPeppo also openly treats this as more of a hobby. He wants to create cool shit, and goddamn is it cool. I've had the picture of Meredith and Remy sitting in the train, listening to music, as my Laptop's home screen ever since he posted it. Currently though, it feels more like a play- and testing ground of skills than a serious story or game. There's cool wallpapers, gifs of super bouncy, beautiful asses where he shows off his animation skills, but the game and story progress at a glacial speed.

It's like.. I love looking at the game and getting absorbed in it, but I also know that at this current pace, it won't be finished within the next 10 years. And everyone who's been on this site and taken a closer look at this game either knows or can sense that.

I'm not complaining either because it's not justified in this case. It's the kind of game where you stumble upon an update and go "Oh damn, neat.", get yourself a coffee and a snack and enjoy an hour or so of fun and then go about your day, without getting too invested, again.

Just my opinion, of course.

 

[DiPeppo]

Late to the party, but I want to weigh in. Haven't read the replies to this yet.

DiPeppo knows I love his game. In my opinion, if he quit his job, put in 2 or 3 more LIs in and started adding sex scenes, he would, with more consistent and faster output, be able to become another Caribdis. I can only say the same thing confidently about 1 or 2 other devs who use HS2, and I'm not just talking about pretty renders, but also writing, understanding how humans work and setting the mood.

The issue isn't just sex scenes, although they're obviously missing here, which won't matter to new players who join the party in 2, 3 or 4 years when he decides to add them. But as someone who has got to know these characters, I'm not sure if waiting creates anticipation and further excitement or.. apathy. It's like Winds of Winter - does anyone still wait for that book or are we over that story?

DiPeppo also openly treats this as more of a hobby. He wants to create cool shit, and goddamn is it cool. I've had the picture of Meredith and Remy sitting in the train, listening to music, as my Laptop's home screen ever since he posted it. Currently though, it feels more like a play- and testing ground of skills than a serious story or game. There's cool wallpapers, gifs of super bouncy, beautiful asses where he shows off his animation skills, but the game and story progress at a glacial speed.

It's like.. I love looking at the game and getting absorbed in it, but I also know that at this current pace, it won't be finished within the next 10 years. And everyone who's been on this site and taken a closer look at this game either knows or can sense that.

I'm not complaining either because it's not justified in this case. It's the kind of game where you stumble upon an update and go "Oh damn, neat.", get yourself a coffee and a snack and enjoy an hour or so of fun and then go about your day, without getting too invested, again.

Just my opinion, of course.

Thanks for the kind words! And I am pleasantly surprised that someone used any of my renders for wallpaper purpose.

As for the pace of the development, you are right - it’s been slower than expected. The reality is exactly as what you said - I’m considering this to be a hobby project more than a job. Well, I was, because since chapter 2, I have been treating this as a job and honestly, it doesn’t work. I’m sure I’ve told everyone that I’m in a school program now, and I would only get busier for the next few years. That’s why I loved developing so much - it’s a way for me to escape the work and be creative and actually do something that I like. That was how the first two chapters were so much faster - namely chapter 1 originally took 3 months of development.

Since chapter 2, I began to invest more time and thoughts and brain power into this, and sadly I subconsciously began to treat this as work. I began to stress out while working on the game as much as I did in my program. As I said, day time is for my school work, night time is for the development - and that, my friend, should have been when I enjoy my hobby. It was almost like I worked for 19 hours a day and the only time I did not work was for sleeping and taking a bath. Even when I’m taking a dump, I would be talking to an animator or a music producer for the game - and be stressed out about the deadline.

I was shipped to a clinic not too long ago (legit a month ago), because my body couldn’t handle what my mind set my schedule to be. Yet the second thing I did when I got access to my phone, right after checking the school email, was to check to see what questions the modder had to while fixing a clothing set I commissioned him to do. What was pretty much when I realized I went too far - because I didn’t enjoy working on the game as much as before, and I was slower too. That doesn’t make sense, does it? I have always treated this to be a hobby project in the sense that I splashed money around like nothing to get things here and there for the project. 200 bucks for a music track, 200 to fix a clothing set, 200 to get details of a character’s face map, etc. just to name a few. But as I said, that is the beautiful thing: I did not think twice. I did it the same way how I spent money on a pair of basketball shoes or shorts - I didn’t spend money on an investment. I spent money on parts and gears of my hobby that I knew that I would enjoy.

So to address all of this, uh, let’s call yapping, it’s not venting. It’s not a call of financial support or anything. It’s really a heartfelt message to say that I have troubles and I will need to adjust the way I work. It’s also an explanation of why I have been so late. The good news is that, ever since I dialed back, I found that fire to work with way less stress. With that being said, as I mentioned, I am getting busier now so I have been looking for someone to help with setting initial poses and I will be able to save time on that and work on lighting, camera angles, post-processing, etc. among other tasks too. I will have a slight pause in the upcoming weeks, but chapter 4 is close and I must say I’m proud of how it is turning out far. It will see the light of the day soon.

Thanks zeph for stopping by again, and hopefully I will see you again when more contents arrive!

 

[zeph19]

Spoiler

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Hey man, thank you for your reply. I'm glad that what I said doesn't seem to have come across as rude or.. I don't know.

First of all, please take care of your health. I hope you're doing better and that you're on a good path now.
Second, thank you very much for giving some insight on your project. It's incredible to see you being so invested in it. I legit had no idea you could pay modders to fix clothing sets for HS2 characters. I knew about custom locations being built for some games, but face maps and clothing? Color me impressed.

I think it makes sense that the more serious you take your own story, the more difficult it becomes to create it. Your characters and the plot become more complex, and you have to do them justice and take into account so many small variables - things they've said, done, hinted at and felt in the past - you can't forget about any of those things, otherwise their actions might not make sense in the future, for example.

Also, keep in mind that striving for perfection is great, but that perfectionism will likely kill the fun in the long run, as we've seen from other creators and projects already!

Wish you all the best!

 

[DiPeppo]

Hey man, thank you for your reply. I'm glad that what I said doesn't seem to have come across as rude or.. I don't know.

First of all, please take care of your health. I hope you're doing better and that you're on a good path now.
Second, thank you very much for giving some insight on your project. It's incredible to see you being so invested in it. I legit had no idea you could pay modders to fix clothing sets for HS2 characters. I knew about custom locations being built for some games, but face maps and clothing? Color me impressed.

I think it makes sense that the more serious you take your own story, the more difficult it becomes to create it. Your characters and the plot become more complex, and you have to do them justice and take into account so many small variables - things they've said, done, hinted at and felt in the past - you can't forget about any of those things, otherwise their actions might not make sense in the future, for example.

Also, keep in mind that striving for perfection is great, but that perfectionism will likely kill the fun in the long run, as we've seen from other creators and projects already!

Wish you all the best!

Thanks a lot!

Yeah, I did realize that I need to be alive to develop, who would have thought. I broke my own rules that I needed to take breaks when I should have and I didn't, so hopefully I will be able to learn from this now.

And no, really, I didn't know as well - until I really needed to fix it, and it turns out that they can sculp and port it from Blender. Obviously, it's nicer to home-grow something - that I should modify the clothes/hair/map by myself; but I honestly just did not want to add more time to the development, and I did not want to take up the path of DPC in which I would hoard every tasks under the sun for myself. That does not benefit anyone, including the supporters for myself. As for the face maps and whatnot, it's really like... let's just say I want something that doesn't resemble Lara Croft's blocky tits. I know it's hard in HS2 but I still want skins of characters to look a bit more realistic.

Spoiler: Tits and bits.

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Right, about characters, it's true. I want to create folks that are consistent throughout the story, but at the same time, unravel their characteristics. I can't turn black to white, and no one is redeeming anything. It's still the same characters - we are all just finding more about them, just like how you date someone and the more you know about them, either you love them more, or your desire to dump their bodies behind Wendy's got more intense. I understand that people are attracted to different personalities so that's hopefully I can bring to the table - the consistency of how one character acts, for example, just as you said.

And yeah, that's something I learned the hard way. Perfectionism, that is. I felt like it's a full cycle of development - that I have been making all of the mental mistakes I made initially! At least this time, I consciously know it's a mistake, granted a bit too late; but I'd consider it as an improvement.

Cheers!

 

[NyxVortex]

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Hey folks,

I've got a significant update for you all at the end of this dev diary, so I'll keep the log portion brief and open this update to the public. We've completed 42 renders and added 2 new animations, including a key one. Currently, 19 renders are still pending. The update is closer to the end than to the start.

Now for the big news... After much thought, I've decided to take a short break from development. You might have noticed the pause in Patreon billing and wondered, "Is Cyberheart being abandoned?" or "How long will the break be?". Rest assured, Cyberheart is far from abandoned. The break is primarily because I need to focus on an upcoming crucial exam in July that could determine my academic future. I'll need to dedicate more time to studying, which means less time for development.

But there's more to it. I also need this break to recharge. The truth is, the development became more of a job than a hobby, especially during Chapter 3, to the point where I was "working" on the game after a long day at work, while it should have been a time where I enjoy developing the game. This unsustainable pace led to a recent health scare that forced me to step back and reassess my approach to this project.

For now, it’s time to rethink how I handle the workload. I plan to either maintain the quality of renders as in Chapter 3 or enhance them like I am doing it now, though the latter would extend development time. To balance this, I’m considering enlisting more help, starting with a friend of mine, Mei, who might assist with scene setups.

As for when I will enable Patreon billing again, I'd say...around late July or so. That doesn't mean that I will pause on working on Cyberheart itself though, I will still continue pushing and hopefully we get something before August.

TLDR: I need a break for my exam and to prevent burnout. The plan is to streamline the development process with some extra hands. Estimated time of returning is late July, new update is hopefully out by August.

While I won't be able to spend as much time on the development progress, I will update you with development log still just in case I have any new updates on my end. I appreciate your support, and will always do.

Peppy

Ps: To compensate for the extra wait for the chapter, here's another preview.

 

[luckyluca01]

is there going to be sexual content in the next update or at least some romantic developement (kissing or second base) with one of the girls?

 

[DiPeppo]

is there going to be sexual content in the next update or at least some romantic developement (kissing or second base) with one of the girls?

Uh initially, I don't want to post this, because I don't want to spoil for everyone, so if you prefer not to know in advance, do not click:

Spoiler: DON'T CLICK!

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