VN Ren'Py Abandoned Dr. Amana, Sexual Therapist [v2.0.0P] [Ianvs]

[RomanHume]

Way over due for some replies, so here we goes...

You know, I have a suspicion you always had something like in the back of your mind. The game is called Dr. Amana, Sexual Therapist and not Roger's Therapy Adventures.

Jokes aside, I actually think the episodic format (real episodic format that follows a self contained arc) is much more suited to the patreon model than the serialized chunks of updates that is more common. It's just that most devs don't actually study writing or plan much of anything. Of course, there are plenty of devs that create amazing stories in the serialized format, but episodic probably does need a bit more studying to get things right.

The issue I see at this point is if the transition into an episodic format will feel too sudden. Ideally, the shift (if there would be a shift) should have come after 1 introductory chapter for each character. Right now, some chars have more screen time than others. Switching all of a sudden might seem arbitrary.

We should keep in mind the narrative structure is that of a series of therapy sessions. I've never been to therapy, but I would guess that these sessions would indeed work more like an episode. The therapist probably asks you to elaborate on an incident or whatever you are dealing with. So perhaps the story telling so far that focuses on just 1 character per session is more limiting and unrealistic. It's just that a shift in narrative style mid way could come off as too "meta." It would be nice to try to tie it into the narrative somehow. Maybe Amana says something like, "Alright, now that we know a bit about the people close to you, tell me about the _____ incident."

As for the MCs interacting with other MCs, I personally don't understand this "not showing MC's face" fad. Perhaps it's because I don't self insert, but even if I were to do so, I don't see why the MC's face would prevent that. It's not like most people have the same build, same experiences, same personality, or same circumstances as Roger or any MC. If you are able to immerse yourself into this well defined MC, does seeing his face really make a difference?

Lastly, I still feel like it would be advisable to at least finish Roger's story before moving on. Mainly because people are already invested in his storyline. I'm not even considering the crossovers, "NTR" dilemmas, or anything else. The people playing this most likely are interested in Roger's story at this point. After this MC is done, everyone would likely be cool with exploring multiple MCs simultaneously.

There is a real concern of developmental bloat. If the entire completed game as you envision it drops at once, that's absolutely cool. As it stands, this game does have a glacial pace of updates (at least for now) and having multiple MCs might make it a 100 year endeavor.

PS. I want to mention your attempts to keep the MC consistent based on blue/red and past choices. It might seem like a bunch of work for no reason, but it's really appreciated. I mean, a lot of devs make different renders for multiple routes and branches, but they don't even take the time to make sure the dialogues are in sync with the character archetype that the player is pursuing (something that the devs themselves enabled with the moral split in choices). Case in point, the schizophrenic MC in Radiant.

Ultimately I've decided to put the whole multiple MC's possibility on hold. You say the game is moving at a glacial pace, that's definitely part true. The writing is moving at light speed, but the art is moving infuriatingly slow.

But yea, I do try to keep Roger's internal thought process consistent with the two available paths. For me it makes writing his responses easier because in my head there are two Rogers, and knowing which one is currently dominant guides the thought and dialogue.

I love it! This speaks so clearly to some of my own thought processes. Your expressed thoughts have given me more clarity and inspiration. I wish you all the best in this new format.

One thing about a female protagonist--perhaps it is a woman seeing Dr. Amana. Whether she's getting involved men or women would not matter--she's still seeking help.

Happy to help offer up some clarity even if it feels more like stumbling through genius. =D

Do what you think is best, but don't pussyfoot around committing to your ideas.
You're the dev, you have the duty to decide what to do with your game.

Oh there is no fear of that. I like to solict player input for a lot of things. Not because it determines the path, but because sometimes I gain perspective that might help my own thought process evolve. Other times an inspiring idea pops up and reveals a whole new set of possibilities. But in the end, I always make my own choice and hope for the best.

Quite honestly, this sounds fucking brilliant. That's some high-concept masturbation material right there. [Monocle gif].
Sounds like you've got a well-organized plan and a substantial vision on making something very innovative and impressive. There's a reason I follow this one, despite some people's 'bobs n vagine' bitching about lack of content updates. I think you're on to something here, where even the best lewd game creators (which are few and far between as-is, tbh) lack the understanding of what it takes to write a professional-level narrative.

Sounds like you've got the workflow locked-in to get it done too, even if it may take a while with the necessary day-job stealing your time. IMO, trust your instincts rather than listening to us.

And not to be too blunt, but it also opens up the possibility for more cross character sex. When writing individual plot lines it's difficult to build a situation in which certain characters engage in a three way. In the previous format it would require playing scenes in a specific sequence and making certain choices to make the whole thing believable and justifiable. In an episodic format where we have a whole season to build rationale and reason into it, more possibilities emerge.

Great game but a little more care can be given to the characters

I would love to hear more about this!

 

[I'm Not Thea Lundgren!]

I don't feel like you really read it to the end....or even the half way point...

Reading, on the internet? Are you new?

 

[RomanHume]

But let's assume you figure out how to make it work from a story POV. I still think it adds too much complexity. This game, and I don't like saying this, is already approaching the "This is never going to be finished" category. We're close to 1 update per year. As I said in my previous post, you talk about making updates quicker and then decide to make things more complex. Those two things fundamentally don't go together.

And for what it's worth I have set aside the multiple MC idea for many of the reasons expressed here. It was a thought experiment I held out loud to see what others thought and generate a little more perspective from the community.

As for when the game will be finished, I've decided to take a multi generational approach. My great grand children will one day finish what I began here. The fates have spoken........

Damn ! This is was so close of being what I was looking for... A therapist taking advantage of patients

But it looks neat either way, I'll give it a try

EDIT:
Okay, I cleared the content and... This is great !!!
But so short still damn !!

Glad you enjoyed it, sorry it's taking me an eternity to make more.

First off great game, top 5 in my book for story, renders and everything involved. Now to the other side of the story, i did support for about 1 year, only a dollar for obvious reasons to me. The game got 1 update in that year and that was the last chapter and that broke the rest of the game and had to be played separate, a step back in my book.

The game itself has been getting optimized for a couple years now, updates were given on Patreon but with all this optimization there has still been little to no progress. Just saying dont expect much now or in the coming years, the man has a job and family and this game wont go anywhere quick no matter how much optimization is put into it.

And though I can't dispute any of what is said here, it doesn't deter me from trying.

I love these characters too much to just walk away like a sensible person. For now I will continue to chip away and hope that something breaks the damn and the flood gates open. All I can promise is that I'm doing as much as possible

Hi. Did the two week production cycle not work out?

It was looking good, but then I got Covid and was sick for four months in November, then December and holidays hit followed by a new job in January that's been sucking my time. I'm trying mate....believe me I'm trying.

RomanHume Very fun game, lots of choices but easy to manage interface which takes you where you need to be without having to navigate between rooms and locations, which I find frustrating and spoils a game for me. I like the pregnancy option being added; in the introductions there is a great facility to replicate V1, however, in the 1st version Emily was pregnant but the option to add this to the characters in v2 isn't there. Can this be added or is it too late? Either way thanks for a very fun and enjoyable game.

Yeah the pregnancy stuff is going to come back strong and with the new format can be explored sooner rather than later.

Hey guys, just a question, not a criticism...
but is one update a year is what a new player can expect from this game or are there extinuating circumstances behind a delay in releases?

At the moment yea. It's not how I want it, and it's not what I envision. And if I can find an artist to take over the bottleneck I have right now with the imagery, hopefully we'll kick up soon. I have a lot written just no sexy pictures to go with it.

Anyone knows how's the progress coming along of this game at the moment?

I believe someone said 'glacial', but that was them just trying to keep my spirits up. Snails hump faster than I can make the art.

RomanHume You OK man?

It's been almost 2 months since you posted something and that is unusual. Please give us a sign of life.

Buddy


Dude.....

Semi dead from Covid (actually it wasn't bad. It was just like having the flu for three weeks), and then the holidays hit and so on and so forth. If it makes you feel any better, I never forgot about you all!

Is there a gallery mod for this?

Not that I know of. But if you go into the game file and just open the images folder, all the art is unzipped and ready for perusal.

 

[RomanHume]

Reading, on the internet? Are you new?

Did someone say NTR?! Fuck this place!!!!!

 

[I'm Not Thea Lundgren!]

Did someone say NTR?! Fuck this place!!!!!

Oh no! The game is aboned! Confirmed by the dev!

 

[RomanHume]

Oh no! The game is aboned! Confirmed by the dev!

Does that make me the first dev to abone his game because it contained NTR.....that just feels...extra-dimensional.

 

[jaw1986baby]

Does that make me the first dev to abone his game because it contained NTR.....that just feels...extra-dimensional.

Have you posted you are looking for an artist on LGP on Discord? There are a lot of devs and others on that server.


Just a thought

 

[RomanHume]

is this still active? Would love to keep playing but everyone is done

It is, just not as active as I'd like.

Its unusual for the dev to be absent this long - he still alive? Hope he's doing well

Risen once more like the Lazarus of porn.

lol so i've searched for a walkthrough and seen countless posts on people either asking for it, saying there is no need for one just do all red or.. etc anyway is there any walkthrough even partial just want to make sure I know if i missed sex scenes and such cause search here was not much help, as stated previously, even seen posts from 3 years ago saying official one was worked on, and then patreons are getting WT's, is there anything of the sort that I could get here? I am looking at the char guide so i understand what color for what character thats something however id like a WT mainly for scenes.

You won't miss any sex based on the choices you make, unless you specifically choose to not have sex.

Just wait another 10 years and the game might be done, but probably not.

Some families hand down heirlooms and signet rings, I'm going to hand down this game to my progeny and by the time they finish it people won't even be using computers.

He has IRL work issues. He showed up on discord last month telling us that.

View attachment 1590424

Now obviously that didn't go as planned. He hasn't shown up since.

But this goes into what I said last on here. He wants to get updates done quicker, but he keeps wanting to add more complexities into the game. Those two things aren't compatible. Especially when you consider his job demands. And his new systems to speed things up can't account for that either, they either get stalled by IRL work issues or the extra stuff he adds render them obsolete.

Also, whoever " Strail " is on the discord isn't me. Even though they stole my avatar and ironically posted just before I went to go dig up the screenshot I posted.

I'll be the first to admit I probably want to much.

Yes I know. That's why I asked about the ones that do 15. Still I thought we'd be seeing something by now, I used to watch his streams back in the summer but no posts from him since november.

For what it's worth I miss doing those streams.

Looks like this project is abandoned

Yep. Time to look for another barn to milk ourselves in.

This thread uses the term Aboned instead of Abandoned.

If I had a trophy to give, it'd be yours right now.

RomanHume You should interview Alorth 's apprentices they are pretty damn good and since Alorth himself already does like 5 things they are the next best.

But anyhow I am in no rush, I get that real life gets in the way when it is a hobby not a job.


PEACE

Can you shoot me a message or a response explaining what this is exactly? (I'll check the link out in a bit when I finish replying.)

 

[RomanHume]

How is this not abandoned? I havent seen an update for this in ages.

I know right?! Clearly the dev has moved on. Can we get a Mod in here?!

Are there any chances of getting any new content then?

Probably not?

I hope the game will be a single download at some point, because otherwise the choices will not be as important, or at least have the option to import a save at the end of every game "chapter", like many other multi-part Ren'Py games do, that way the experience will continue exactly where we left off, the exact same points, instead of either red or blue.

Convergence is coming though it may look a bit different than expected.

I can remember a post from him over a year ago where he stated something like "with this kind of overhaul, everything will go faster."
Well for different reasons, nothing rly changed. At this point it just feels like the monorail episode of The Simpsons.

while no more expactations at all, i still look every couple of months if there is something new.

I appreciate you still checking back despite my insane lack of visible progress.

is it alive?

Dead as a Bishop's dick.

I also hope we can see Lola again, and maybe have her as a lover too, as they really had good chemistry (on the blue path), I wouldn't mind "broadening my horizon" even more with her.

Lola and Lita have both been upgraded to full lover status.

i like

I thank!

Yeah I remember that too - the justification for the delay at that time was to speed up updates afterwards. It's coming up on a year now since the last one though

Will you just call me a piece of shit already and get it out of your system?

Maybe the next update is just massive.

I would not place a wager on that. Not trying to be mean, just being perfectly honest.

Well, that's not fair. I guess it depends on if I can wrangle help with the art and how fast they are about putting together. There is more than enough story to cover the next several updates. I just don't have images to accompany it.

Take it easy. He's got a wife and a neighbor's daughter to support.

Well, guessing on that part. No idea. But I'm assuming it's a fuck-ton of real-job work. Based on info he's shared in previous posts, it sounds like he's got an IRL job with pressure and major deadlines, so has no time to hit deadlines on this side gig.

Sucks for us that want the content & it's (understandably for those who were paying) not going to help Patreon support, which would ideally be a way out of the IRL gig. But life be like that sometime.

It's hard to make a quality game when you're not making Summertime Saga scratch and need a real job (not that I'm in any way calling STS a quality game). Are there devs with fulltime jobs squeezing out updates in a timely manner? Sure. But way more often than not, they have to flush right afterwards so the update doesn't stink up the bathroom. Quite a bit harder when you have actual standards for your releases but little time to execute them.

Eye yam disappoint. But what are you gonna do? It's his life and I understand how that goes.

I appreciate the understanding. And believe me, I truly am disappointed as well. I wanted to be way ahead of this by now.

almost a year since uptade is it on hold? abandoned?

Straight aboned. Dev took the money and split to Cabo, drown himself in $6 worth of cocaine and $18 worth of pussy and then couldn't afford to fly home because he made less than cashier at Wal-Mart making this game.

Fucking life...am I right?

need to ask about the people stats
im just 15 min in, so im still in nanami's
using her for example
say her "dominate" stat
is that me dominating her
or me dominated BY her ?
how do u read these stats lol

edit: btw theres still some minor bugs that defaulted MC's last name back to "Harrington" even when i already changed it
also, the wife's last name is still Harrington lol

Without going into too much detail, I decoupled the methods for updating the character stats so that it checks if the player made any adjustments before the game updates any names. It'll be in the next release...at some point.

I guess a shorter answer would have been that this is a known bug and I fixed it. It just didn't make it into an update yet.

another one
i sometimes hear static like a "bzzt" in my speakers
especially during some scenes, most of em did not but still
so far i got 2 occurences, the first pool scene after getting drunk, and the first latino maid scene
idk what caused this, its just this game never any other game

the static is following a pattern too, like its following the BGM
certain sound pitch cause this, i think ?

That's because when I first introduced music I didn't know shit about audio volume normalization. So some of the tracks get fucked up when Renpy tries to bump the volume. This also has been fixed but hasn't made it into update yet.

yet another question regarding the versions
i just cleared version 1
ended after the strip club encounter with nanami and lance

so i just go straight download ver 2 ?
is it like "season 2" ?
do i need to move save around or something ?
am i missing anything ?

You just replicate your save and try to mimic the stats as best you can. v2.0 was a test run of a new data structure and gui and so I didn't want to spend too much time with old save integrations.

any news about new release?

Nope.

is the ntr avoidable?

Yep.

Though I would argue that if you're not treating your wife as a love interest, how can it be NTR if she seeks elsewhere?

I opted for the NTRish tag because I didn't want to wade into the cess pool of debate surrounding what is an isn't NTR. So I opted for the most extreme definition and figured we'd land somewhere in between.

Plot NTR ?

Plot NTR....or Conspire NTR? Hrm.....

I mean there is an NTR storyline in it?

NTRish I'd say.

 

[Valex]

Wish you all the best going forward with life, and this unique, yet (IMHO) underappreciated side project of yours.
Cheers!

 

[RomanHume]

I've put a posting up here and a few other places for an Artist. Feel free to share with anyone or any communities you think might have interested and qualified candidates. Cheers.

https://f95zone.to/threads/artists-needed-for-doctor-amana-sexual-therapist.107743/

 

[RomanHume]

Wish you all the best going forward with life, and this unique, yet (IMHO) underappreciated side project of yours.
Cheers!

Thanks mate! I need all the luck I can get.

 

[Nice Guy Eddie]

View attachment 1642198
*Yes the girls are unhappy with me too...

I know it's been awhile so I won't waste your time with a bunch of preamble.

I'll start with the future of the game and then dig into the reasons and rationales.

ARTIST WANTED!

If you or someone you know is a skilled Daz Artist and they want to take over the art for the Doctor Amana game in it's entirety, let me know!

This includes a 50/50 split of all monies earned via Patreon.

I'm even willing to pay out of pocket until the earnings reach an incentivizing amount.



PAY PER RELEASE

I'm going to switch Patreon over to a pay per release model. This means that going forward you'll only be billed on months that an actual release posts.

There will be a single $10 tier that will only bill whenever there is new content available.

And by New Content I mean complete chapters, not playtests.



SUBSCRIBESTAR IS GETTING TURNED OFF

This is a tough one because I know some of you prefer it, but the fact is they don't offer the control that Patreon does.

Subscribestar is monthly billing, period. I can't follow a 'pay per release' model on Subscribestar because they offer no tools to do that.

I can't even find a way to 'pause' a campaign on Subscribestar. It's kind of an all or nothing thing which sucks.

Unless you just want me to leave it on and you can keep paying monthly but personally if I do that you'll be getting the short end of an already tiny stick.



NOW THE EXPLANATION

My love and passion for this project and more specifically its characters has never waned. But change is necessary.

Between spending an entire month fighting off a case of covid and being promoted to Director of Informatics at work, life has been unruly at best. And while getting a bump at work is good,

the pay increase has sealed the deal on me ever being a full time developer. There is just no way that this game is ever going to match my salary dollar for dollar.

But the game was never about the money anyway. It was just a nice dream to think one day I could wake up and all I had to do was make porn for 8 hours every day of the week.

Work on the game has never stopped though. When I'm on the road or working remote, I'm often happily spending my downtime writing episodes and concocting all kinds of plots

for our lovely ladies. I stopped counting how many words are written for this game. And the code is all up to snuff and ready to handle all the previously planned

customizations we've previously discussed. These are all things that I can an do work on frequently on the laptop.

The art however requires a lot more computing power than this thing can handle. And even if I did purchase a laptop that was able to run Daz, I would be hampered by the use

of a single monitor, not to mention the looks, complaints and possible reprimand I would get for working on images of Cassie and Roger fucking while crammed between two

other people on an air plane. (Working on porn in the terminal and lounge are equally frowned upon I presume.)

So doing the writing and the coding poses no challenge. It's the art. I just don't get enough time during the week to sit down a the beast and work in Daz. So I need an artist.

Someone who can take up the slack on that end for an even split of the income. Or baring that, a paycheck coming straight out of my pocket.

Whatever it takes to get it done.

Now, if I can't find someone then I have a back up plan to scale down the art. Reduce the frame by frame dialogue into scene setting and sexy components and minimize the images per scene.

It's really the only other choice I have. You'll still get all of the highly detailed art you've come to expect, there will just be a lot less nuance built into it.

And of course one day I can always go back and update the art, but at least we'll have something to enjoy.

In any case, I'm going to continue work on the story while searching for an artist and developing an alternative artistic compromise.

Job postings will be going up and if you are anyone you know wants a crack at this, please reach out and we'll talk.



Salute and we'll talk soon.



-Roman

Great news overall! Congrats on the job and all the writting and coding done! I am sure you will find a graphic designer eventually!

 

[TheDevian]

Wish I could help, but other than making some assets (especially if you are still using Blender for rendering, procedural textures are better in there than if we bake them), my time/pc power is pretty limited.

Best of luck, and if I can do anything, let me know.

 

[lnppo]

I don't feel like you really read it to the end....or even the half way point...

I read the whole thing, just this project has been treading water for a long time now and this seems as close to a death knell as you'll ever admit.
Not saying that in an antagonistic way, just that the likelihood of being able to hire a reliable and skilled artist is next to null and as you stated you no longer have the free time to dedicate to creating renders. I respect what you've done here and the reality of work/personal life balance and I wish you the best, but honestly I should've unfollowed this thread a looooong time ago.

 

[DarkDaemonX]

Convergence is coming though it may look a bit different than expected.

Different in what sense?

Lola and Lita have both been upgraded to full lover status.

That's the best news I've heard all week.

I would not place a wager on that. Not trying to be mean, just being perfectly honest.

Well, that's not fair. I guess it depends on if I can wrangle help with the art and how fast they are about putting together. There is more than enough story to cover the next several updates. I just don't have images to accompany it.

Yeah, renders and other kinds of art are always the thing that take the longest, but just think about how big the update would be if you find an artist and they make all of the art you need for all the currently written story you still need art for.

It might be a little slower though, with all the back and forth messaging because it doesn't look like what you wanted it to look like, unless you just give them pointers on what it should contain, and be happy with what you get, as long as the quality is high enough for your tastes.

 

[RomanHume]

Different in what sense?

I'm moving the game to an episodic format instead of the ala-carte character system there was before. This is to help mitigate the need for alternate routes and if statements that will crop up because scenes are played 'out of order' and it allows me to build bigger plot lines that can involve multiple lovers in a go.

Yeah, renders and other kinds of art are always the thing that take the longest, but just think about how big the update would be if you find an artist and they make all of the art you need for all the currently written story you still need art for.

It might be a little slower though, with all the back and forth messaging because it doesn't look like what you wanted it to look like, unless you just give them pointers on what it should contain, and be happy with what you get, as long as the quality is high enough for your tastes.

I tried hiring artists before but just wasn't happy with the final results. I'm offering up a 50% stake in the game's income this time in hopes of finding more qualified candidates. To keep the process flowing I'm hoping to team up with someone who has a strong idea of what the game is and who the characters are in the hopes that I can just hand them some finished script, they can do the art, send it back, and I can encode everything without ever having to give it a second look or a glance.

So the plan this time is to take on more of an artist/partner. Someone with a stake in the development who can produce quality art without direction. So there may be some change in the composition, lighting and styling. But the character design will remain the same. It's a compromise I can live with if it means we can move forward with production.

 

[BigDaddyDom]

I've put a posting up here and a few other places for an Artist. Feel free to share with anyone or any communities you think might have interested and qualified candidates. Cheers.

https://f95zone.to/threads/artists-needed-for-doctor-amana-sexual-therapist.107743/

Nice to have you back! Not sure if you've already asked him, but wouldn't Atherin make the most sense? He's active in here and already does a lot of fan art using the characters. This game is too good to disappear, so hoping your plan can work! Must get my Amanda/Cassie fix

 

[DarkDaemonX]

I'm moving the game to an episodic format instead of the ala-carte character system there was before. This is to help mitigate the need for alternate routes and if statements that will crop up because scenes are played 'out of order' and it allows me to build bigger plot lines that can involve multiple lovers in a go.

I think that's a great idea, I never understood why we could choose our own order anyways, it makes the perceived timeline confusing, and as you said, it's more difficult to code to make sure there is continuity, I'm all for this change.

I tried hiring artists before but just wasn't happy with the final results. I'm offering up a 50% stake in the game's income this time in hopes of finding more qualified candidates. To keep the process flowing I'm hoping to team up with someone who has a strong idea of what the game is and who the characters are in the hopes that I can just hand them some finished script, they can do the art, send it back, and I can encode everything without ever having to give it a second look or a glance.

So the plan this time is to take on more of an artist/partner. Someone with a stake in the development who can produce quality art without direction. So there may be some change in the composition, lighting and styling. But the character design will remain the same. It's a compromise I can live with if it means we can move forward with production.

I hope you'll find someone, I'd take the position if I had any skills in that field, but sadly I don't, I've only done some VN sprite editing before, nothing else.

This was the edit


to



It took me over 12 hours

 

[mightybored]

Yay, the game isn't dead! Well, mostly! Also congrats on the promotion.