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

[NeonGhosts]

Took today to add a little more content to the Halloween Special - it'll now react to player decisions more intelligently, with MC/Guy commenting on the girls in a way reflective of his relationship with them. Also added some renders for Carolina, Madison, and Viola, and expanded the ending to feature more of a proper mini-chapter ending. I'm going to give it (with some more Chapter 4 content) to $15+ patrons tomorrow, and then re-release the Halloween teaser on Saturday to the public.

In Chapter 4 news, I'm making good progress on Pepper's scene, adding 25 images in the last few hours. Moving right along!

Doing that Halloween short taught me a lot about optimizing and streamlining my workflow, and it's making my current scenes kind of a breeze. Also - I tried something with the Halloween special where I dialed back my narration a bit, and I think it works better.. Less filler dialogue, and more letting the art and dialogue speak for itself. That doesn't mean no narration, just being a little more choosy about where I put it.

Anyhoodles, here's a little art I did today. I'm well on pace for a November release, but it remains to be seen what that release will look like. At present, I can confidently say it'll at least have Pepper's appearance, Brittani's photoshoot, and Ashe's re-introduction, along with a few other, smaller scenes. If I can get my full plans for the chapter done? Awesome! If not, it'll probably be a smaller (800ish renders) chapter.

 

[Hongfire Survivor]

You would consign your 72 virgins to patiently stew there in boredom waiting for you and deny them their fun cave spelunking and harmonica playing activities? For shame, brother, for shame

I never liked how the other women go into purgatory when the MC is not around, so no other dicks or clits could touch them

 

[PHIL101-YYouPPHard]

Also - I tried something with the Halloween special where I dialed back my narration a bit, and I think it works better.. Less filler dialogue, and more letting the art and dialogue speak for itself. That doesn't mean no narration, just being a little more choosy about where I put it.

That's smart I think That reminds me of a recent VN I tried where the author was literally describing and narrating what he was already showing with the renders... lol... obviously, not comparing that to yours, yours is really well-written and efficient as-is! But god damn, some of these authors, while I have to respect the work they put in, I just don't understand the thinking behind decisions like that. Yours never felt like filler to me personally, but maybe I'll notice a difference in your next update?

Anyways, nice update news!

 

[NeonGhosts]

That's smart I think That reminds me of a recent VN I tried where the author was literally describing and narrating what he was already showing with the renders... lol... obviously, not comparing that to yours, yours is really well-written and efficient as-is! But god damn, some of these authors, while I have to respect the work they put in, I just don't understand the thinking behind decisions like that. Yours never felt like filler to me personally, but maybe I'll notice a difference in your next update?

Anyways, nice update news!

Hah! I definitely felt myself falling into that trap. In chapters two and three, I was kind of using narration as a reminder for what the renders should look like. As a result, I was basically adding descriptive text constantly. Now I stopped being a dummy, and I do it like this:

Spoiler

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Bonus: It helps me eliminate unnecessary renders, condensing and consolidating lots of stuff.

FYI: I finished Pepper's scene today and published an update demo to the $15+ tier. I currently have a checklist of stuff to get done for next week, including adding a little more to Brittani's photoshoot event, and finishing Ashe's first (non-sex) scene. That'll just leave me with Brittani's photoshoot to render, and I'll have enough to put together a solid enough update, albeit not what I had planned.

I'm gonna keep grinding away and see how much I can get done, though. Who knows! Maybe I'll surprise myself!

 

[LWtbo]

Hah! I definitely felt myself falling into that trap. In chapters two and three, I was kind of using narration as a reminder for what the renders should look like. As a result, I was basically adding descriptive text constantly. Now I stopped being a dummy, and I do it like this:

Descriptive narration is excelent in none illustrated books and games and for the blind infact its essencial to them.
However a well illustrated VN or game can be fe-kin annoyimg done wrong and a lot of Dev's especially new Dev's do it.
But unfortunatly not all of them learn from the mistake and some don't even get it right when being over descriptive.
An example of this is a game I wont name where the Dev writes some thing like
" The MC lays back in his bath and thinks of the day ahead"
While the Render they use has the MC taking a Shower? explain that one to me.

Another example of too much narration.
The first render shows MC walking out the house saying "I'm off to Aunties house now Mom see you later" thats fne makes sense.
Now the bad part we then get a animated render of the MC in a car with the background moveing past and the narration says.
"The MC jumps in his car and drives to his Aunties"
Why tell us what we already know he said he was gonna drive to his aunties in the render before.
And now he's sat behind the wheel in a moveing car.
What else could he be doing and where else is he likely to going for fe-ks sake.

A better example might be same animated render of the MC in the car with the background moveing past but the narration.
"I wonder if I should of phoned Auntie to let her know i'm comeing over".
At least thats something interesting and makes more sense than just describing what we can already see.

So anyway thats my two unsolicited Penneth's worth on Narration
So If I had any advice to any dev's or anyone else wanting to narrate anything thats not for the blind.
It would be "Stop describing the fe-kin obvious".

 

[PHIL101-YYouPPHard]

Hah! I definitely felt myself falling into that trap. In chapters two and three, I was kind of using narration as a reminder for what the renders should look like. As a result, I was basically adding descriptive text constantly. Now I stopped being a dummy, and I do it like this:

Spoiler

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Bonus: It helps me eliminate unnecessary renders, condensing and consolidating lots of stuff.

FYI: I finished Pepper's scene today and published an update demo to the $15+ tier. I currently have a checklist of stuff to get done for next week, including adding a little more to Brittani's photoshoot event, and finishing Ashe's first (non-sex) scene. That'll just leave me with Brittani's photoshoot to render, and I'll have enough to put together a solid enough update, albeit not what I had planned.

I'm gonna keep grinding away and see how much I can get done, though. Who knows! Maybe I'll surprise myself!

Yeah, that definitely makes sense. Like everyone else here I'm sure, I've thought about giving a go at my own VN and that exact workflow was in my head, leaving #notes to describe the scene.

Just to reiterate in case it wasn't clear, I really honestly never found any flaws in your narration when I played through that I could recall... maybe if I really tried I could pick at something, I dunno. I personally thought it was already efficient, so that's why I genuinely am curious how it'll flow after your changes I guess the only thing you might have to worry about is putting more render count pressure on yourself if the content feels too short? Or just more dialogue I guess. But, not sure how much your text count has changed, so maybe it won't make that big of a difference.

I think my own philosophy on narration is that it makes sense as long as it's concise and adds something to what the renders and dialogue are already communicating, even if it's just atmosphere or some really sexy wording that helps with arousal or something. I guess that's really, really obvious now that I've put that thought into text, but heh... some authors don't put that into practice unfortunately, and I say that with the best intentions

 

[tuskedkibbles]

NeonGhosts I just tried out the Halloween mini episode and I noticed the big difference for Ashe. I went back a few pages here and didn't see anything, is a redesign in the works for her? The model looked really good in her Halloween picture thing.

 

[NeonGhosts]

Hey, hey! I updated the

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with new art, new dialogue, a new ending, and a new mini-event where you can peep on Madison in Chapter Two -- assuming you stay until she comes home.

NeonGhosts I just tried out the Halloween mini episode and I noticed the big difference for Ashe. I went back a few pages here and didn't see anything, is a redesign in the works for her? The model looked really good in her Halloween picture thing.

Hey! Thanks for playing! Since that took place on a previous Halloween, it's safe to say it won't be a permanent look for Ashe. But, I was actually playing with the idea of having Ashe adopt the new hair for her Chapter Four date with Guy. The idea was that she'd have her old hairstyle if she was neutral or hostile towards Guy, and have the new style of she liked him -- since she wants to show off a little.



But, it'd make rendering an already involved scene kind of a pain in the ass.. So, I may just put it to a Patreon vote, to see if she gets new hair.

 

[Raoddik]

But, I was actually playing with the idea of having Ashe adopt the new hair

I must say that I really like her hair on the right picture but... what the hell they are eating and why MC have his elbow in his plate?

 

[NeonGhosts]

I must say that I really like her hair on the right picture but... what the hell they are eating and why MC have his elbow in his plate?

Bahahahaah! They’re having a big plate of, “Neon rushed these renders because they’re not meant to be in the final game.”

 

[TomUK]

What taboo subjects does the taboo patch add to the game?

 

[Canto Forte]

Dark and twisty early holloween take advantage of your friend in need hottie like you should.

 

[Enola Gay]

Polish president played this game obviously.

 

[botc76]

I admit, I was hoping for a bit more of a chunkier update. Something to really sink my teeth into.
I might just skip the Halloween special and wait for the full update if it is really coming in November.
Very much looking forward to it, you are making great strides so far. Really aiming for those 5 stars, aren't you?

I actually replayed the game each time a new chapter hit, not because I had to, when I had to, but also just because I wanted to check it again.

 

[GG Jack]

Go File's download said images.rpa is corrupted and wouldn't decompress that file
new content from the go file's download has no images

 

[Phegor]

>the game you like just got an update!
>it's Halloween / Christmas / New Years mini-update that's completely unrelated to main plot

 

["CJ"]

Friends in Need [v0.34] [NeonGhosts] crunched

Original / Compressed Size PC*: 1,11 GB / 374 MB - FriendsinNeed-0.34-pc-crunched.zip
Original / Compressed Size Mac: 1,07 GB / 339 MB - FriendsinNeed-0.34-mac-crunched.zip
= ~33,7% of the original size, image quality 80% (png 90%)

Download (PC*/Mac):

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My compressious likeses! Give them to us you filthy little pervertses!

This compression is unofficial and untested, use it at your own risk.
The compressing process reduces the quality and can break the game.

*PC = Win+Linux

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[Content_Consumer]

Oooh an update ...

oh, its just a [insert random holiday] special ...

 

[Vertius]

I'm almost scared to ask, lol, but what does the taboo content patch add?

 

[SonsOfLiberty]

I'm almost scared to ask, lol, but what does the taboo content patch add?

https://f95zone.to/threads/friends-in-need-v0-34-neonghosts.112500/post-9024884

Basically, the harder side of content and the ilk

Here is the dev's post on the patch, 3rd comment here: https://f95zone.to/threads/friends-in-need-v0-34-neonghosts.112500/post-8058253