VN Ren'Py Friends in Need [Ch.10 v0.71] [NeonGhosts]

[Jace_Herondale]

Just finished all 3 paths of the game and all I can say is holy shit Nicky is one evil fucking bitch for stringing the MC along with that and fucking with his emotions just using him to feel safe damn.....She's a well written realistic character that's for sure though still though damn I physically got mad at pixels in a video game at her on behalf of another set of pixels haha. Well written neonghosts also may Nicky burn in hell lol

What are you talking about? Nicki is great. She made mistakes in her life. That's all. You should burn in hell for even saying this.

 

[Zerorox]

What are you talking about? Nicki is great. She made mistakes in her life. That's all. You should burn in hell for even saying this.

Don't be so overprotective, we're what we're mostly cause of mistakes in our life
"Burn in hell cause You want my fav pixels burn in hell" oh, c'mon...

 

[Zerorox]

Sounds like Viola has a bit of a crush on Gabby. Pretty much described her to a tee in her little fantasy. Could lead to a nice little threesome in the future.

No no no!! Not that bi-curious shit again...
Don't make Me rollback and rape her and forget on my playthrough...

 

[Zoomaa]

What are you talking about? Nicki is great. She made mistakes in her life. That's all. You should burn in hell for even saying this.

I love Nicki but dude...

 

[Jace_Herondale]

Don't be so overprotective, we're what we're mostly cause of mistakes in our life
"Burn in hell cause You want my fav pixels burn in hell" oh, c'mon...

Jesus. You can't even make a joke around here. I just respond to his comment. No, I don't want him to literally burn in hell for that.

 

[Zerorox]

Jesus. You can't even make a joke around here. I just respond to his comment. No, I don't want him to literally burn in hell for that.

Dude, You forgot a smile to sound it like a joke

 

[Lord_Momentum]

So i just played this game and think it is fantastic. There ist just one concern: Too many characters. I like most of them and think they fit the story very well but it gets exponentially harder to write a believable narative, if you also consider the relationships the characters have between one another.

Also the time between updates of a specific character might get too much. If you have nine characters (like in the header of your patreon) and every update will feature one scene of a character, then updates between characters will take literal years.

To this I see the preview pictures full of new characters, that leave me in doubt.

I'm not saying this to discourage you, but I just have this fear that the story will get too convoluted and complicated to handle. (Sort of like "Our Red String") Keep up the good work, NeonGhosts, but dont bite off what you cant chew.

 

[rudy007]

So i just played this game and think it is fantastic. There ist just one concern: Too many characters. I like most of them and think they fit the story very well but it gets exponentially harder to write a believable narative, if you also consider the relationships the characters have between one another.

Also the time between updates of a specific character might get too much. If you have nine characters (like in the header of your patreon) and every update will feature one scene of a character, then updates between characters will take literal years.

To this I see the preview pictures full of new characters, that leave me in doubt.

I'm not saying this to discourage you, but I just have this fear that the story will get too convoluted and complicated to handle. (Sort of like "Our Red String") Keep up the good work, NeonGhosts, but dont bite off what you cant chew.

Agree on that. Too many characters usually totally kill development time. After 2-3 updates and knowing all the main characters, dev finds a few more and development time goes from acceptable 2-3 months to totally unacceptable 6 or more months. Unintentionally many devs make the same thing; overestimate their ability or the ability of their computers, yes, some of them even think they could do it with a laptop. Even if laptop has the "pro" in his description. In the meantime their laptop slowly melt to death.

 

[NeonGhosts]

You must be registered to see the links

tldr; Current preview build of the game has 950 renders, with another 20-30 images that need to be inserted into the script. So, it's slightly larger than the last update already, with a few scenes left to go. The big hurdle remains Ashe's date, but it's moving along.



I also

You must be registered to see the links

for some of the next update's saucy content with Ashe, available to $2+ patrons.

words!

The Nicki happy points thing is actually just due to my lackluster early coding, and not indicative of any deeper story meaning. (This is why you can't rely on UnRen, Phil! ) When I redo Chapter One, I'm redoing all the variables to make my life easier. A process which is already underway.. >_>

So i just played this game and think it is fantastic. There ist just one concern: Too many characters. I like most of them and think they fit the story very well but it gets exponentially harder to write a believable narative, if you also consider the relationships the characters have between one another.

Also the time between updates of a specific character might get too much. If you have nine characters (like in the header of your patreon) and every update will feature one scene of a character, then updates between characters will take literal years.

To this I see the preview pictures full of new characters, that leave me in doubt.

I'm not saying this to discourage you, but I just have this fear that the story will get too convoluted and complicated to handle. (Sort of like "Our Red String") Keep up the good work, NeonGhosts, but dont bite off what you cant chew.

I get this a lot, and I totally understand the fear. I've watched beloved games get mired down in way too many romantic interests and subplots.

The main characters in FiN are still unchanged, and characters like Risa, Tessa, and Wren aren't intended as full romantic leads. They're supporting characters that are necessary for the story, but don't necessarily need to be romantically pursued. But, some characters could end up demoted to secondary cast if I find there's not as much meat on their story bone as I expected, and some characters could get promoted to main cast if they catch my interest.

The thing is, once a girl's set up and introduced, it becomes way easier to bring them back. Once they're actively sleeping with the MC, it's even easier. Nicki's a great example. Now that her various relationships with MC are more fully cemented, she's a breeze to write. It's getting there that can be a little troublesome.

Plus, some girls will have a much shorter or longer trajectory towards romance, domination, or corruption. It's kind of easy to see how a corrupted Viola might end up in a sugarbaby/slave relationship with MC. I could get there pretty quickly, and after that her scenes would be easy to set up. Now, love path Viola? Way trickier!

Honestly, my biggest obstacle right now isn't juggling the girls, it's fighting my own poor early coding/writing decisions, and routinely expanding updates past their planned scope. This next update was only meant to be Ashe's content, and then some story stuff around it. I'm 950 renders in, and just now getting to Ashe, after giving Mason and Pepper full ero scenes with 150+ renders in each.

 

[Zerorox]

God grant Me some Willpower! I like to make different playthroughs but... how can you expect me to friendzone this creature... and I'm even not into blondes

 

[Lord_Momentum]

I get this a lot, and I totally understand the fear. I've watched beloved games get mired down in way too many romantic interests and subplots.

The main characters in FiN are still unchanged, and characters like Risa, Tessa, and Wren aren't intended as full romantic leads. They're supporting characters that are necessary for the story, but don't necessarily need to be romantically pursued. But, some characters could end up demoted to secondary cast if I find there's not as much meat on their story bone as I expected, and some characters could get promoted to main cast if they catch my interest.

Honestly, my biggest obstacle right now isn't juggling the girls, it's fighting my own poor early coding/writing decisions, and routinely expanding updates past their planned scope. This next update was only meant to be Ashe's content, and then some story stuff around it. I'm 950 renders in, and just now getting to Ashe, after giving Mason and Pepper full ero scenes with 150+ renders in each.

Thats reassuring to hear. Have you considered just releasing the events leading up to Ashes date? I mean if its bigger than the last update already, why wait?

 

[RC-1138 Boss]

You must be registered to see the links

tldr; Current preview build of the game has 950 renders, with another 20-30 images that need to be inserted into the script. So, it's slightly larger than the last update already, with a few scenes left to go. The big hurdle remains Ashe's date, but it's moving along.

View attachment 2482297

I also

You must be registered to see the links

for some of the next update's saucy content with Ashe, available to $2+ patrons.

View attachment 2480855



The Nicki happy points thing is actually just due to my lackluster early coding, and not indicative of any deeper story meaning. (This is why you can't rely on UnRen, Phil! ) When I redo Chapter One, I'm redoing all the variables to make my life easier. A process which is already underway.. >_>



I get this a lot, and I totally understand the fear. I've watched beloved games get mired down in way too many romantic interests and subplots.

The main characters in FiN are still unchanged, and characters like Risa, Tessa, and Wren aren't intended as full romantic leads. They're supporting characters that are necessary for the story, but don't necessarily need to be romantically pursued. But, some characters could end up demoted to secondary cast if I find there's not as much meat on their story bone as I expected, and some characters could get promoted to main cast if they catch my interest.

The thing is, once a girl's set up and introduced, it becomes way easier to bring them back. Once they're actively sleeping with the MC, it's even easier. Nicki's a great example. Now that her various relationships with MC are more fully cemented, she's a breeze to write. It's getting there that can be a little troublesome.

Plus, some girls will have a much shorter or longer trajectory towards romance, domination, or corruption. It's kind of easy to see how a corrupted Viola might end up in a sugarbaby/slave relationship with MC. I could get there pretty quickly, and after that her scenes would be easy to set up. Now, love path Viola? Way trickier!

Honestly, my biggest obstacle right now isn't juggling the girls, it's fighting my own poor early coding/writing decisions, and routinely expanding updates past their planned scope. This next update was only meant to be Ashe's content, and then some story stuff around it. I'm 950 renders in, and just now getting to Ashe, after giving Mason and Pepper full ero scenes with 150+ renders in each.

So this is going to be quite a big update content wise. Nice.

 

[boobsrcool]

Does this update viola?

 

[PHIL101-YYouPPHard]

The Nicki happy points thing is actually just due to my lackluster early coding, and not indicative of any deeper story meaning. (This is why you can't rely on UnRen, Phil! ) When I redo Chapter One, I'm redoing all the variables to make my life easier. A process which is already underway.. >_>

Ahhh, I see, doh. As the days go by, that wall of text I typed seems less and less insightful So, those scene changes in the humiliation happy route and the writing that makes it seem like she's more into you are supposed to occur on the nice route, too? Because in my current playthrough, my MC has like 3-5 hpoints for Nikki, whereas on the purely nice route, I had 0. Do future scenes with Nikki account for that? I haven't gotten that far yet in my new playthrough now that I'm actually paying attention and not just abusing everything that moves Well, if that's the case, no big deal. As soon as you update chp 1 I'll literally just start again, no skin off my teeth Will be interesting to see what you change and what you don't imo.

Plus, some girls will have a much shorter or longer trajectory towards romance, domination, or corruption. It's kind of easy to see how a corrupted Viola might end up in a sugarbaby/slave relationship with MC. I could get there pretty quickly, and after that her scenes would be easy to set up. Now, love path Viola? Way trickier!

I know this has been said a bajillion times, but I really am glad that you kind of let the characters routes write themselves and don't stray too far into silliness or unbelievability. There's way too many VN games out there that do and it really does take you out of it. Is Viola a lesbian or is she bi? Or is it a secret yet to be revealed? Well, if she's a lesbian, I could see it in another game with weaker writing, the character would instantly fuck the MC because he's just too much of an alpha, and now she sees the draw of hetero! With yours, I think it will be much more gratifying and grounded. There are, after all, identified lesbians out there who, on occasion, sleep with men or form a romantic relationship with them. Some people might think they're just confused and are closeted bisexuals, but it's possible it's more complicated than that. Now, for those rl trysts, I wonder what that relationship looked like and why a lesbian decided to participate in hetero intimacy? What about the guy drew her? Did she confuse closeness and friendship with something more romantic? If she really is a closeted bisexual, why did she avoid men for so long? Interesting to think about.

 

[NeonGhosts]

Thats reassuring to hear. Have you considered just releasing the events leading up to Ashes date? I mean if its bigger than the last update already, why wait?

Two reasons: The first is that I try to balance my updates and provide a little something for everyone. Right now there's an opening that's mainly centered around Jamie's photo collection. People who are super opposed to seeing the girls with other guys, or in a situation where they're nude for other guys, will likely skip it. Then there's a big scene with Pepper, but it's mainly corruption/darkness content. So if you're on a light/good guy run, there's not much for you there. Then there's a pretty big Mason scene, but that might not be to everyone's taste just because of the type of character Mason is. The Ashe scene has a little of everything for the game's main demographic though, and it's a big enough scene to be kind of a centerpiece for the chapter.

The second is that I try to construct the chapters so that they pay off in a satisfying way, and end on a fun cliffhanger. If I published it now, it'd be a non-ending. Don't get me wrong, I could conjure one up, but this Chapter has already been split into two -- which is why the Britt stuff was in Part One, and this upcoming release is Part Two. So, rather than do that I'm just going to put in some long days for a few weeks, and put out something that'll hopefully blow people's hair back.

So this is going to be quite a big update content wise. Nice.

I suspect it'll be the biggest yet, but it may still come in under Chapter 3.

• Chapter One: 299
• Chapter Two: 1037
• Chapter Three: 1367
• Chapter Four: 891
• Halloween Special: 69 (nice)

Looking at those numbers, it's actually kind of reassuring. Nice to remember I put out four full updates (and a special and The Student Loan) last year, despite not getting my rendering PC until May. That said, once this next update is out, I'm focusing on 500-render updates, published bimonthly.

Does this update viola?

Viola has a minor part in the upcoming update. A little light perv action for two of her paths, but it's mostly setting up her future stories. Planning for her to have a more pronounced presence in Chapter 5, though.

Ahhh, I see, doh. As the days go by, that wall of text I typed seems less and less insightful So, those scene changes in the humiliation happy route and the writing that makes it seem like she's more into you are supposed to occur on the nice route, too? Because in my current playthrough, my MC has like 3-5 hpoints for Nikki, whereas on the purely nice route, I had 0. Do future scenes with Nikki account for that? I haven't gotten that far yet in my new playthrough now that I'm actually paying attention and not just abusing everything that moves Well, if that's the case, no big deal. As soon as you update chp 1 I'll literally just start again, no skin off my teeth Will be interesting to see what you change and what you don't imo.

I know this has been said a bajillion times, but I really am glad that you kind of let the characters routes write themselves and don't stray too far into silliness or unbelievability. There's way too many VN games out there that do and it really does take you out of it. Is Viola a lesbian or is she bi? Or is it a secret yet to be revealed? Well, if she's a lesbian, I could see it in another game with weaker writing, the character would instantly fuck the MC because he's just too much of an alpha, and now she sees the draw of hetero! With yours, I think it will be much more gratifying and grounded. There are, after all, identified lesbians out there who, on occasion, sleep with men or form a romantic relationship with them. Some people might think they're just confused and are closeted bisexuals, but it's possible it's more complicated than that. Now, for those rl trysts, I wonder what that relationship looked like and why a lesbian decided to participate in hetero intimacy? What about the guy drew her? Did she confuse closeness and friendship with something more romantic? If she really is a closeted bisexual, why did she avoid men for so long? Interesting to think about.

Oh no, I mean, the happy humiliation route is still supposed to be a little different, and show a different side of Nicki. She's kind of using the fantasy of having MC dangle money over her, to give into what she wants. But ultimately it's not supposed to be radically different from the love route. I honestly haven't played that stuff in a while though, so I'm not sure how different it is.

The hpts/dkpts were honestly kind of an inelegant, imperfect system from the beginning. As part of my coding overhaul, I'll be relying a lot more on if statements in the script, as they allow me to be more precise. The h/dk pts will primarily be used to track stuff like whether Ashe comes during sex, whether Gabby's happy to get a facial, whether a girl's into you on first meeting, etc.

And thanks, man! I think it's kind of impossible to really care about these characters, and this story, if it's not kind of grounded. Obviously there's always a little porn logic at play, but I do my best to stay true to the spirit of the characters.

 

[bluz1109]

3/4ths done, so release date is tomorrow right?

 

[tuskedkibbles]

That said, once this next update is out, I'm focusing on 500-render updates, published bimonthly.

Bimonthly: done, produced, or occurring twice a month or every two months.

I see you're giving yourself some wiggle room there Neon.

 

[RC-1138 Boss]

Pretty sure he means once every two months.

 

[humanjelloman]

Thanks for the progress update Looking forward to it!

 

[NeonGhosts]

3/4ths done, so release date is tomorrow right?

As soon as I figure out how to pose and render 400 images in a day!

Bimonthly: done, produced, or occurring twice a month or every two months.

I see you're giving yourself some wiggle room there Neon.

Hah! No wiggling here. It'd be every two months. Twice a month would um, kill me.