VN Ren'Py Erisa's Summer [v0.6.4] [IM6]

[IM6]

Just my thoughts - I agree it's a lesbian game but adding a dick or two (avoidable) may be interesting too

Don't want to discourage feedback and ideas (I do welcome them), but this is unlikely, mostly aligning with what Avaron's already pointed out. The main focus here is going to be girl-girl and any hetero content Erisa would stumble upon wouldn't really elicit an excited reaction from her, so I'm not making that any sort of priority at this time. If I were to add that, it would probably be similar to Day 1's discovery of Chrissy's photos, both in terms of scenario and Erisa's reaction ("Oh, look, a penis. Next.")

Exceptions I've considered (fleetingly) are an FFM scene I designed around Chrissy a while ago while the game was in stasis and at least one scene of one planned ending. Both are very far out of focus for me because they're either too far in the future (ending) or, in the case of Chrissy's FFM scene, it's not actually a part of what's happening in the game, so it's purely bonus content. Sorry! But I do have a clear content focus here, and I'm sticking to it

I have been working on the next set of renders, though, and am pleased to say I'm already through Erisa's change of casual attire (the shirt she's in right now has really jaggy edges that cause lots of problems...) and the first 12 pool scenes. There are probably a few more pool scenes, then I'll work on the other options after the end of the demo (bar, casino, rooms), then move to dinner. This is easily the most productive I've been with this game and things are really coming out well. I don't foresee myself losing steam anytime soon, so we'll see how close I get to being a regular dev with monthly updates!

 

[vimmers]

1 thing i don't understand here
in download folder are a folder called notes
reading that it sounds like you can freeroom the game
aka play roulette and get a drink from bartender

 

[IM6]

1 thing i don't understand here
in download folder are a folder called notes
reading that it sounds like you can freeroom the game
aka play roulette and get a drink from bartender

That's a file that wasn't meant to be published - notes to myself over time. Guess I should move that...

Good thing it's out of date and I moved to using a draw.io system

 

[vimmers]

ok
so no freeroom yet

 

[IM6]

ok
so no freeroom yet

Correct. Still weighing options and implementation strategies, but I think the broader idea of "free roam" is where things will land (albeit with a tightened roaming mechanism to ensure you're not just running into empty halls all day).

EDIT: Given the notes thing, I went ahead and published the Amanda bugfix which should also take my notes out. If you have them from the original release, enjoy my limited and spotty future thinking (I guess?)

 

[IM6]

Having a really good time with these next renders! The pool scene (above) is all set and I'm really happy with the way they look. The room sneaking scenes are all ready to render. There are a few animations there which are prepped, but will take a little longer to render since animations are just more time consuming. I've started on the bar path and am 8 scenes into that one, so things have been busy!

Once the bar is done, I'm planning two other routes (casino and gym), then on to dates, then the group activity for the evening. It's been roughly a week (I think?) since the last release, so I'm feeling really good about the way rendering (aka the development bottleneck) is proceeding.

Hope you're all enjoying so far! Will try to share some news at least once a week... hopefully without spoiling too much of what's actually coming!

 

[IM6]

I'm calling the bar scenes done - come have a drink with Olive and Merri!

This set of renders took an incredible amount of time... mostly because I kept posing and reposing and reposing again in a lot of shots. Also, some crazy dev had the idea to introduce a choice at the end of this event that made it take one of THREE paths, which - you guessed it - means three times the work after that choice. How silly!

I'm looking at doing the Gym set next. I know relatively well what I'm aiming to accomplish there, so I'm hoping that doesn't take anywhere as long as the bar. But as usual, we'll see!

I'm also mulling over whether or not to move forward with a casino scene for this set of branches. I'm not too sure what to do with it (I have some ideas, but none I'm in love with yet) and I already have 4 paths before they re-converge and get to the first night of dates. All this branching is quickly becoming lots of work! I do think it'll be nice once you get to play it, but I may look at pruning things a little so that I can keep a decent pace while still providing solid content.

 

[IM6]

Gym scenes done!

I'm working at a little more slow and steady pace due to busier "standard" work and getting a little sick a while ago (nothing serious, don't worry). Mostly, I'm just trying to take things a little slower to decrease my own personal stress.

I have an idea for the casino that I think I'm going to roll with, so that'll be my next step. Then, these five parallel scenes will finally be over!

I've also decided that we'll definitely do free-roam once I get to D3. This means that once I finish D2, I will be working on more repeatable scenes with special events to occur throughout based on relationships, stats, etc. I think this is ultimately the most sustainable option for this game (and the one I personally enjoy the most in games I play). To avoid grind, I'm going to keep day count relatively low as well, and just work on introducing lots of fun scenes and endings once the base game is established.

In part of narrowing D2 (and recognizing D3+ will be more open), I'm going to just incorporate one date for D2 with some legitimate circumstance behind it (already in mind). Since this is something that will happen every night on the cruise, you'll get plenty of time to pick your girl of choice as the game goes on, so don't worry! The last bits of D2 will then be a social event, and maybe also some spicy content to close the day off... Though I'm trying my best not to make that a branching path as well!

 

[Sorrow85]

Keep up the good work

 

[IM6]

Thanks for your patience, everyone! Casino scenes are all built out and I've only got 2 yet to render.
Hopefully you'll enjoy a few games with Amanda, Rey, and a new member of the crew!

This concludes the branch work, which is a bit of a relief. I feel like I can make real progress toward concluding the day now.
Dinner scenes will be next and, ideally, a little less complex.

For those interested, there are about 100 renders completed since the last update, not including four animations and some work upscaling existing animations. My current plan is to finish the D2 evening social event (after dinner) before publishing a new version, so it'll be a bit yet.

Apologies for going what I feel is really slow right now, but my available time to work on the game has only gotten smaller since last update. But I'm doing my best to make the most of it! It also won't be permanent... my regular work runs in cycles and we're just in the peak work part of our current cycle.

 

[NanasBananas]

Well, if Amanda is there I'll play any game she want me to play!

*Ahem*, I mean, I'll play any game I want to play. Because obviously I'm strong and independent and she doesn't rule me at all.

Nope, ehe, not at all...

 

[Deleted member 1044747]

I haven't tried Erisa's Summer yet, but I'm definitely interested.

Are there any chances for a future release with all content combined into one (Ren'Py) version?

 

[IM6]

I haven't tried Erisa's Summer yet, but I'm definitely interested.

Are there any chances for a future release with all content combined into one (Ren'Py) version?

Thanks for your interest! I hope you give it a try!

I've definitely thought about moving all content into Ren'Py, but I've held off due to the effort I'd have to put into it - retyping all texts, recreating all the variables to work with those in Ren'Py, adjusting the way a lot of things work mechanically (i.e. re-contextualizing all actions based on exploration), and remastering all the images...

I gave a lot of thought to this when I first started working in Ren'Py and ultimately settled on building a recap into the start of the Ren'Py client because I want to dedicate as much effort as possible into advancing the story. I still feel there's a lot of good content in RPGM Day 1, but it's really more of a prologue at this point, so I'm comfortable leaving it in its current format for now.

I may have another look at it once I've gotten a good ways along with the current story in Ren'Py... but I wouldn't expect that anytime soon.

 

[IM6]

Dinner scenes are all done, barring any touch-ups.

Next up is the day 2 evening event. I expect this to be a little bit challenging because every character is in the scene, but I'll probably try to deal with it the same way I did in the group intros.

Still mulling options after that point to close out the day, but once that's all finished and I've had time to code everything in, I'll release an update. We're still pretty early into the game, but hopefully be a tidy and compelling opener at that point. I'd expect we're still at least a few weeks out, of course, but we're getting there!

 

[IM6]

Sorry it's been forever since an update - as mentioned before, competing priorities have been winning, but I found some time this weekend and got a good amount done.

The group event is finished with setup and rendering should be done tonight. I came up with a total of three paths after this event - the first of which I'm already working on and several scenes deep into staging. These paths are it for day 2, to be followed only by an obligatory "Erisa goes to bed" scene. The fun of coding and putting it all together will come after that, at which point I'll make a release.

A big thanks to everyone who's still interested in the project - we'll be at our next milestone soon!

 

[F1forhalp]

waifu said check it out, so ofc i'll check it out; downloading right now.
renders do look decent, and me i'm happy to not see large numbers of super-oversized boobs.
do you plan to someday port Day1 to Ren'Py? if so, there's a really nice tool on this site, rpgm2renpy maybe that helps.

 

[IM6]

waifu said check it out, so ofc i'll check it out; downloading right now.
renders do look decent, and me i'm happy to not see large numbers of super-oversized boobs.
do you plan to someday port Day1 to Ren'Py? if so, there's a really nice tool on this site, rpgm2renpy maybe that helps.

Thanks! I hope you like it! I have definitely tried to have *ahem* breast diversity in the game.

I guess I'll take the hint and work on integrating D1 content into Ren'Py at some point! I will definitely look into this tool at some point after finishing Day 2 - anything that can capture even just the scripts so I don't have to rewrite everything would be super helpful. With that issue possibly taken care of, my biggest wrestling match with "Ren'Py-ing" Day 1 is how to work in the optional content. I'd also love to remaster some of my earlier images, but that could take a backseat.

I'll have a brainstorm about all this once I get a new release out - it may provide a nice little bridge/break for me once this update is done.

 

[F1forhalp]

huhuhu i don't want to push you to anything it's just what i'm used to; connect the dots. did that for a living once.
i think -if- you find it useful -some day- it could hopefully save you the restart from scratch. mostly it sort of runs the RPGM inside a Ren'Py .. wrapper? of sorts. quote off the github readme:

rpgm2renpy parses and (mostly) understands the .json data files that an RPGMaker MV game is composed of, and tries to (somewhat) faithfully reproduce the RPGMaker gameplay, but less annoying.

don't sweat it.

 

[IM6]

huhuhu i don't want to push you to anything it's just what i'm used to; connect the dots. did that for a living once.
i think -if- you find it useful -some day- it could hopefully save you the restart from scratch. mostly it sort of runs the RPGM inside a Ren'Py .. wrapper? of sorts. quote off the github readme:

don't sweat it.

No worries! It's not just you - others have mentioned it in earlier posts, so I think it's just a desired feature! I get it too - RPGM is a less than desirable engine (by the time I finished Day 1, I certainly had enough of even programming in it) and people will appreciate having the whole experience in one client. I went back through my older renders and most are "good enough" that I can probably get something done without freaking out over quality. I also totally love the suggestion of the tool (which I didn't know existed before!) and am excited to give it a whirl

Just wanted to let everyone know that the first path of day 2 ending scenes has renders all set. There are 2 standard animations and one lengthy animation (from a frames standpoint, it's about 2.5x the size of my normal loops) on top of 29 still renders for this path, so rendering them out will take some time. Not sharing any previews because I want this route to be a bit of a surprise

This was the longest of the three paths at the end of the day that I had planned, so the rest shouldn't take quiiiiite so long, but they'll all have animation and will take some time to render out. I've already started on path 2 and am a handful of scenes in. I'm hoping to finish staging renders and begin working on text/coding this weekend while I work on getting backlog and animations rendered.

 

[IM6]

Spamming my own thread once again to let you all know I staged the final renders for day 2 today. My system is working hard on processing the remaining backlog images and I've started writing/coding the update.

I anticipate another week or two, but the next release will finally be here at that point!