- Nov 24, 2018
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Yeah. When Mortze approached me and offered to be my new artist, I asked him to send me an example of his work. I was expecting the typical things I often see (stock character with the "Breast size" slider cranked way up). But what he sent was Elsa. I was floored.
Tlaero
Tlaero
- Feb 10, 2021
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Did anyone noticed the Moonspell Poster in the bedroom? So now I have to check out all their games, since i discovered such a good taste in music.
Holy and in the other game is a Luis Royo picture XD My very first artist I really was a fan of.
Holy and in the other game is a Luis Royo picture XD My very first artist I really was a fan of.
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- Nov 24, 2018
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From:
I've started the task of porting all of the Elsaverse to Renpy, and here's the first release.
I probably don't need to tell any of you this, but Dreaming with Elsa was the first game Mortze and I did together. When he approached me and offered to be my new artist, I asked him to send me an image of a clothed woman he felt was pretty. I expected a stock V4 with beachball sized breasts. What I got was Elsa. And the rest is history.
I tested this pretty heavily. I'm pretty sure everything is okay, but if you find any problems, don't hesitate to report them.
With Renpy you get infinite saves, rollback, and skip forward, but you lose some things too. As far as I can tell, there's no way to do mouse animations like we had in Javascript. And, Renpy players don't expect to have hidden spots to click on the picture, so I replaced those with menu selections.
And I couldn't bring myself to ask our localizers to translate all of the Elsaverse again, so this version is English only. But, if you want the original unchanged HTML version with all of those things still there, it's included in this distribution. (Well, mostly unchanged. I reworked the code a bit since the images are in a different directory now.)
It was fun going through DwE again. It's been a long time.
I haven't decided whether to tackle the DwE short stories next, or plow on to Redemption for Jessika and come back to the shorts later. If you have opinions on that, please share them.
Tlaero
PC/Linux version:
Mac version:
Mods, I consider this the official release now. If you'd like to replace the links in the original post with these, could you also add a "Renpy" tag? You can keep the HTML one, since that version is here too. Thanks!
You must be registered to see the links
I've started the task of porting all of the Elsaverse to Renpy, and here's the first release.
I probably don't need to tell any of you this, but Dreaming with Elsa was the first game Mortze and I did together. When he approached me and offered to be my new artist, I asked him to send me an image of a clothed woman he felt was pretty. I expected a stock V4 with beachball sized breasts. What I got was Elsa. And the rest is history.
I tested this pretty heavily. I'm pretty sure everything is okay, but if you find any problems, don't hesitate to report them.
With Renpy you get infinite saves, rollback, and skip forward, but you lose some things too. As far as I can tell, there's no way to do mouse animations like we had in Javascript. And, Renpy players don't expect to have hidden spots to click on the picture, so I replaced those with menu selections.
And I couldn't bring myself to ask our localizers to translate all of the Elsaverse again, so this version is English only. But, if you want the original unchanged HTML version with all of those things still there, it's included in this distribution. (Well, mostly unchanged. I reworked the code a bit since the images are in a different directory now.)
It was fun going through DwE again. It's been a long time.
I haven't decided whether to tackle the DwE short stories next, or plow on to Redemption for Jessika and come back to the shorts later. If you have opinions on that, please share them.
Tlaero
PC/Linux version:
You must be registered to see the links
Mac version:
You must be registered to see the links
Mods, I consider this the official release now. If you'd like to replace the links in the original post with these, could you also add a "Renpy" tag? You can keep the HTML one, since that version is here too. Thanks!
- Aug 22, 2018
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If I remember rightly, you have more stuff for the Elsaverse planned?
Pretty sure I remember reading that and hopefully i'm not going senile.
If that's the case, maybe porting the older stuff may help people new to the series. I know there are some people that don't touch other engines or people new to the genre in general and haven't heard of them.
I think that maybe having the original series on an engine people like to use will be beneficial in the long run.
Those new to Elsa and team may be a bit lost in what's going on with the shorts and want to go through the original works, having them ported officially to Ren'py may help them.
- Nov 24, 2018
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Ugg. One of the last changes I made had a bug that hits if you open achievements when you don't have them all. Of course, I had already tested everything at that point and had them all... I just uploaded a fixed version in the same location. If you downloaded this last night, please re-download it. Sorry for the mess. )-:
(Avaron, thanks! I'll reply to you later. I'm supposedly at work now.)
Tlaero
(Avaron, thanks! I'll reply to you later. I'm supposedly at work now.)
Tlaero
- Dec 13, 2018
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Since this is only a small game file of just over 100MB, do you think it might be possible to put these Elsaverse games into one game file? At least this game plus Redemption for Jessika, Finding Miranda, and Saving Chloe?
- Jun 17, 2019
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As I'm off work now, I guess I can say that would be the idea, yeah (I'm not spoiling anything, boss, am I?
). With all the short stories and text-based adventures that had been released throughout all these years
- Nov 24, 2018
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Avaron1974 yes you are remembering correctly. Elsaverse: Transitions is setting up the next two games in the Elsaverse. The first will be called "Chasing Beth." I haven't revealed the name of the second yet. Part of the reason I'm doing these ports to Renpy now, though, is that I can't really start Chasing Beth until Mortze finishes the sequel to his SW game. So this is how I'm staying productive.
Holy Bacchus yes, it's my intent to put all of the Elsaverse games and stories that were originally HTML into one large Omnibus. Working title, "The Elsaverse Omnibus, Volume 1, the HTML years." I'll almost definitely change the title.
In fact, it was making a change for that eventual future that caused the bug I fixed this morning.
I'll release each game separately and then join them all together.
One thing I haven't thought through yet, though, is the best way to show a lot of text in Renpy. The main games are Visual Novels and translate to Renpy pretty well. But some of the stories are more text than picture, and one of them is a text-only novella. I haven't yet experimented with how reading large amounts of text in Renpy will go.
Tlaero
Holy Bacchus yes, it's my intent to put all of the Elsaverse games and stories that were originally HTML into one large Omnibus. Working title, "The Elsaverse Omnibus, Volume 1, the HTML years." I'll almost definitely change the title.
In fact, it was making a change for that eventual future that caused the bug I fixed this morning.
I'll release each game separately and then join them all together.
One thing I haven't thought through yet, though, is the best way to show a lot of text in Renpy. The main games are Visual Novels and translate to Renpy pretty well. But some of the stories are more text than picture, and one of them is a text-only novella. I haven't yet experimented with how reading large amounts of text in Renpy will go.
Tlaero
- Nov 24, 2018
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No, you're good, Moskys. I've stated that publicly somewhere (might have been discord but not here, don't remember). One small clarification is that I won't be able to the entire Elsaverse in one game, because Renpy doesn't really handle changing image aspect ratios. So I'll do all of the original HTML ones in one volume and everything from Elsa's Nightmares on in another.As I'm off work now, I guess I can say that would be the idea, yeah (I'm not spoiling anything, boss, am I?
Tlaero
- May 3, 2017
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Have you ever thought of porting them to Android or would it be a hassle to convert them? Renpy would make it easier but I could see there being problems.
- Nov 24, 2018
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I haven't gotten around to figuring out Android yet. I should probably do that at some point, though.
Tlaero
Tlaero
Can you tell me the chronological order of the games in Elsaverse? (which to play first and so on)
- Nov 24, 2018
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Sure! There are 5 games and a ton of short stories. The correct order to play the games in is:
Dreaming with Elsa
Redemption for Jessika
Finding Miranda
Saving Chloe
Darkness Falls
If you play the games and want to go deeper, most of the short stories are in this distribution:
and it includes a word doc that shows where each short story fits in.
Finally the two most recent short stories are:
Elsa's Nightmares
Elsaverse: Transitions
Those were mostly patron perks, but they're available. I've releases the final part of Transitions to patrons and it will be public tomorrow.
Transitions sets up the next two games I'm going to do in the Elsaverse, but we haven't actually started on them yet. We'll work on them after Mortze finishes his Star Wars game.
Tlaero
Dreaming with Elsa
Redemption for Jessika
Finding Miranda
Saving Chloe
Darkness Falls
If you play the games and want to go deeper, most of the short stories are in this distribution:
You must be registered to see the links
and it includes a word doc that shows where each short story fits in.
Finally the two most recent short stories are:
Elsa's Nightmares
Elsaverse: Transitions
Those were mostly patron perks, but they're available. I've releases the final part of Transitions to patrons and it will be public tomorrow.
Transitions sets up the next two games I'm going to do in the Elsaverse, but we haven't actually started on them yet. We'll work on them after Mortze finishes his Star Wars game.
Tlaero
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Thank you.
I see that the last game (Darkness Falls) is on hold. Is this the last part of the Elsaverse main story? And any idea when you plan to complete the remaining 5 episodes of season 2?
- Nov 24, 2018
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Darkness Falls won't be continued in that format. I finished up the biggest loose end, character wise, in the short story, "Won: Darkness Within" and we see the characters in both AAA and Transitions. So I'm continuing the story of those characters. But I don't currently have plans to go back to trying to do frequent mysteries that the user felt like they had some agency over while keeping them from diverging from the cannon story. That effort took a lot out of me.
Tlaero
Tlaero
- Sep 4, 2020
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that walkthrough doesnt exist anymore. Link is dead, even comments on reddit about it.
Personally i prefer the story with pictures versus trying to guess what the author thinks the MC should do. At least in renpy i can save and retry until the frustration has me deleting the game. Games like this need to have the option of an in game walkthrough, so players like me can enjoy it.
You seem to have a ton of fans, so I wont leave a review, and I will just move on. Thanks for sharing your hard work.
- Nov 24, 2018
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Thank you for trying it jrwizzard . I'm curious where you got stuck. I'm also interested in knowing if you played on Easy first or went straight to Hard.
Back in those days, we used to do the difficulty settings to make people not need walkthroughs. I stopped doing them because people still did walkthroughs anyway, but I always tried to write games that were self-consistent enough that you didn't need one. I'm definitely interested in hearing your thoughts on walkthroughs, etc. I'm working out how I'm going to do the gameplay on my next game now, so it's a good time to hear that feedback.
Tlaero
Back in those days, we used to do the difficulty settings to make people not need walkthroughs. I stopped doing them because people still did walkthroughs anyway, but I always tried to write games that were self-consistent enough that you didn't need one. I'm definitely interested in hearing your thoughts on walkthroughs, etc. I'm working out how I'm going to do the gameplay on my next game now, so it's a good time to hear that feedback.
Tlaero
- Sep 4, 2020
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I tried medium first, but then I figured if I am going to put this much time into a story, I want to see all of it, so restarted on hard. I am a story person, so when I play a VN, even an erotic one, I want as much story as possible. The walkthroughs are for me, my type a player, we dont care about the puzzle, choices, etc, we just want the story. I get cheats too for ones that have a grind. I love kinetic VNs, but there is very few of them. I also read alot, so dont think I am trying to achieve something with the wrong tool.
I have seen "easy" modes in other games, where it doesnt matter what option you pick, the story continues as if you selected the correct one. Some times they are done great and you cant tell your choices dont matter, and the plot moves forward. Other times the dialogue doesnt make sense, or you get frustrated the choices dont make sense. If you do an easy mode, just make it kinetic. When you provide choices for what an mc says, you are handing over control of the scene to the player. You either need to trick the player into thinking their choices matter, or split the story plot to appease the many different directions people might want to go, even the bad ones. The bad way is to try and force a decision down a particular path, you give control with the choice, then punish for not choosing a path.
Ultimately, you need to create what you enjoy making, that makes you happy. No matter what you do, you will have fans and haters. So focus on what you enjoy, what scratches your creative bug, and dont try and appease too many people. If you do try and make what people want, you will have a hot mess, that you really didnt like making. Thanks for sharing your work, even if i didnt like the puzzle, I still appreciate your hard work.
- Nov 24, 2018
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Thank you for taking the time to give me so much feedback! I really appreciate it. I'm a story person too, and it's a constant struggle to find the right balance between "story" and "user choice" since those two things are inherently in conflict.
The original HTML versions of these games could be pretty brutal, especially since there were times where the best choice was clicking on a part of the picture even though there were text choices at the bottom. Renpy makes it easier by showing all choices in text and by letting you always back up a step when your choice doesn't increase the score. But I totally get that time spent doing that isn't time spent enjoying the story.
As well as these "Could use a walkthrough" games, I've also done a number of short stories that don't have any real choices and are focused on the story itself. You may enjoy them, or you may not since they refer to events in the games. Here's the link if you're interested.
You must be registered to see the links
Something I'm leaning toward in my next game is a mechanism where "failure" is per scene, and, if you fail, you'll get some story-based content that gives some hints at how you failed, then automatically takes you back to the start of the scene. That way, if you do it "wrong" you don't have to go back very far, and you get some content as well. (I'll have a gallery of that content for people who don't get it wrong.) I'm hoping that threads the needle between story and game a little better.
Thanks again, jrwizzard!
Tlaero