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

[Machete]

In the most recent update, Mason makes up a big part of it. Buuut, some people don't like Mason, and didn't want to engage with his story. So, I'd originally written it so that MC just sort of.. Went home and watched TV. But, that felt like a cop-out, so I created an alternate path that basically sees MC kicking around town and visiting different people. I had to rewrite and re-work some stuff, add a bunch of renders, blah blah blah.. The fact is, it probably would've been smarter to just make that whole shopping event a between-chapters mini-sode, and focused on some of the core plot developments, like everything going on with Nicki, Brent, and Gabby's family.

That's actually what i was pointing at, months ago, when i said i though this game had too many characters...
It's easy for one to write himself in such a situation where it's hard to have space for everyone and more space for one character, even for just one episode, can be perceived as less space for the others.

 

[Dessolos]

How can people not like Mason? he's so hot and nice.

I don't dislike Mason but Mason isn't a potential LI for me. There is 3 main reasons for this. However I do think Mason has the potential to be a amazing character story wise.

1. I don't feel ive gotten to know Mason enough as a character to want to peruse anything.
2. Currently how the route plays I would feel like a pos taking advantage of him.
3. I do admit the trans thing would make me a tad uncomfortable not because I have anything against that ( tho it isn't my cup of tea). If this was a real relationship and not a video game I would fear I would say something wrong or offensive without meaning to. I already second guess my self alot with small things that don't matter. I think I would be doing that alot more as it would be in the back of my mind until I get used to it or comfortable.

 

[Elduriel]

I don't dislike Mason but Mason isn't a potential LI for me. There is 3 main reasons for this. However I do think Mason has the potential to be a amazing character story wise.

1. I don't feel ive gotten to know Mason enough as a character to want to peruse anything.
2. Currently how the route plays I would feel like a pos taking advantage of him.
3. I do admit the trans thing would make me a tad uncomfortable not because I have anything against that ( tho it isn't my cup of tea). If this was a real relationship and not a video game I would fear I would say something wrong or offensive without meaning to. I already second guess my self alot with small things that don't matter. I think I would be doing that alot more as it would be in the back of my mind until I get used to it or comfortable.

he's not on my main saves either as an LI, just as a friend. But I admit if you're not an asshole, and nice to him, that BJ scene is far from the worst in the game.

 

[Dessolos]

he's not on my main saves either as an LI, just as a friend. But I admit if you're not an asshole, and nice to him, that BJ scene is far from the worst in the game.

I actually never seen that scene I always turned it down just cause I didn't want to feel like I was taking advantage of him.

 

[Elduriel]

I actually never seen that scene I always turned it down just cause I didn't want to feel like I was taking advantage of him.

I think it's worth checking out, you can cuddle etc. afterwards, Mason seemed to be quite into it.

 

[gregonzole]

Just for a quick state-of-things update: I passed 1500 renders for FiN today, making it the biggest chapter by a rather Large Marge-in. I've rendered the ending scenes (save for one small path) and now I need to circle back do a little stuff here and there. I've moved my target for the $15 release to next week. Gonna try to make Wednesday, but may push it to Friday the 15th.

I appreciate that people aren't happy with how long it's taken. Neither am I! This one's been a killer, and I really boned myself by deviating from my planned content outline, because I didn't think the update would feel big enough, with what I had. Well, I solved that problem and created a new one.

In the future I'm going to try focusing on smaller, tighter updates with an A-plot and a B-plot, without so many little side-quests pinging around the background. And of course, the mini-sode content. Speaking of which, I'll be unlocking the Halloween mini-sode for everyone, next week.



My plan is to shunt some mini-sodes into a main menu, while some will just be between chapters. The ones like Slave to Desire, which takes place in the past, can be put in a menu without much problem. But, the trouble comes when I want to reference things from the main game, in the mini-sode. Like, in Brent's, he referenced the MC/Guy by name. It gets tricky to do that, if it's not pulling data from an existing save file. Or I can just break immersion and say, "Hey, type your name again.." which I don't like.

So, for stuff like that, they sort of have to remain within the main game. But, I may put a "generic" version of the same content into a mini-sode menu, just for the sake of having them all in the same spot.



I definitely plan on getting it out before that, buuuuut the best laid plans, and so on and so forth. The plan with the Carolina date, as it stands now, is to make it a mini-sode. I think that'll work a little better, and give me the space to really focus in entirely on the date, and the babysitter arrangements. The basic timeline I have drawn right now is Chapter 1 remake, Chapter 11 (mostly Gabby and Viola content), Brittani's Audition mini-sode (with guest-star Ashe), Carolina's date mini-sode, Chapter 12.

Speaking of mini-sodes: The idea I recently floated to my subscribers, which they seemed to like, was that I'd basically make certain story-central mini-sodes available in two formats.

• If you're on Carolina's love/friendship path and asked her out on a date, it would basically just be a mini-chapter between chapters. I'd set it up at the end of one, and then it'd be available in the next.
• If you're not then I'd release it as a stand-alone where the player might need to enter a few variables like their name, general disposition towards Carolina, past actions towards her, etc.

This way, I don't spend a month working on a mini-sode, and then only a certain percentage of the players have access to it. Nor do I need to conjure an entire separate branch for an event that will be optional. That's one area where I keep fucking myself.

In the most recent update, Mason makes up a big part of it. Buuut, some people don't like Mason, and didn't want to engage with his story. So, I'd originally written it so that MC just sort of.. Went home and watched TV. But, that felt like a cop-out, so I created an alternate path that basically sees MC kicking around town and visiting different people. I had to rewrite and re-work some stuff, add a bunch of renders, blah blah blah.. The fact is, it probably would've been smarter to just make that whole shopping event a between-chapters mini-sode, and focused on some of the core plot developments, like everything going on with Nicki, Brent, and Gabby's family.

Why are you making branches of the story into optional minisodes instead of part of the main game? I don't get it.

 

[Skep-tiker]

I don't dislike Mason but Mason isn't a potential LI for me. There is 3 main reasons for this. However I do think Mason has the potential to be a amazing character story wise.

1. I don't feel ive gotten to know Mason enough as a character to want to peruse anything.
2. Currently how the route plays I would feel like a pos taking advantage of him.
3. I do admit the trans thing would make me a tad uncomfortable not because I have anything against that ( tho it isn't my cup of tea). If this was a real relationship and not a video game I would fear I would say something wrong or offensive without meaning to. I already second guess my self alot with small things that don't matter. I think I would be doing that alot more as it would be in the back of my mind until I get used to it or comfortable.

Quite the same. I’m a firm believer of ‚you do yours‘, so Masons Pronoun is not my thing to begin with. It only becomes an issue as soon as it interferes within my own boundaries. So as calling him ‚he‘ during sexual activities is a legit issue, as it kills my mood instantly. So it would either turn him down or be an ass to her….

 

[Lord_Momentum]

So as calling him ‚he‘ during sexual activities is a legit issue, as it kills my mood instantly.

Does having sex with Mason make you gay?

 

[Skep-tiker]

Does having sex with Mason make you gay?

No and truthfully it isn’t your business at all, but you just proved that you are not capable of accepting any other opinion other then your own and of not acting like a total AH

 

[banqwert]

Mods deleted my message for simply describing some players' mentality and preferences as "kink shaming". Newsflash - it is not shaming unless the Mods themselves consider the aforementioned preference as "shameful". Talk about being insecure. Geeez

 

[Adhdclassic]

I don't dislike Mason but Mason isn't a potential LI for me. There is 3 main reasons for this. However I do think Mason has the potential to be a amazing character story wise.

1. I don't feel ive gotten to know Mason enough as a character to want to peruse anything.
2. Currently how the route plays I would feel like a pos taking advantage of him.
3. I do admit the trans thing would make me a tad uncomfortable not because I have anything against that ( tho it isn't my cup of tea). If this was a real relationship and not a video game I would fear I would say something wrong or offensive without meaning to. I already second guess my self alot with small things that don't matter. I think I would be doing that alot more as it would be in the back of my mind until I get used to it or comfortable.

Mason falls in the Vanya category you just want to protect them.

 

[NeonGhosts]

Quite the same. I’m a firm believer of ‚you do yours‘, so Masons Pronoun is not my thing to begin with. It only becomes an issue as soon as it interferes within my own boundaries. So as calling him ‚he‘ during sexual activities is a legit issue, as it kills my mood instantly. So it would either turn him down or be an ass to her….

There's a whole branch where you can just refer to Mason as a girl during sex, and otherwise not.

Why are you making branches of the story into optional minisodes instead of part of the main game? I don't get it.

I must have explained this poorly: Some of these would only be optional, because they don't apply to your path. Or because it doesn't necessarily need to be wedged into a normal, full-sized update. My normal updates have kind of a now-normal format of watching MC/Guy proceed through his day, handling different challenges. The mini-sodes would focus more on small, specific moments.

I already gave the example of Carolina's date being walled-off if you've made certain choices. If I put it into a normal update, here's what would happen: it'd be a big chunk of the update (300-400 renders worth of scenes, most likely) for everyone who wanted to play that route. But then, if they're not on that route, what do I do? Add a scene where the player goes to a titty bar, just so things feel balanced? Then, I have to also find a way for the titty bar route to link into all the other routes.

Or, I can just say: Fuck it, Carolina's date is its own update, it'll be in your main game if you chose to take her on a date, otherwise here's a mini-game: My Date with a Stoic MILF.

Conversely, Brittani's audition scene is currently applicable to all routes. But, putting that into its own, smaller update would allow me to really focus on just that, as opposed to all the things around it.

Like, that's the part of writing and organizing this thing that can make it a struggle. Because we tend to follow MC/Guy all day, it means I need to link up multiple choices to correctly go to a scene. In Chapter 10, Guy has the choice of visiting three different places, before returning to either meet Mason at the optometrist, go to another fun location, or go home to his studio. So, that means I need to write dialogue for those three locations of him leaving to point A/B/C, renders for him doing benign stuff like thinking/leaving, renders/dialogue for him arriving to point A/B/C and so on.

It's way easier for me to just open in a location, and say, "Alright, we already established that this audition was happening last chapter, here it is."

There's a reason why I can turn around these mini-sodes in a couple days, even though they have 100+ renders. It's just much, much easier to write and render an event in isolation. Especially when it just comes to my morale/mental endurance. If I know, "Alright, all I've gotta do is write this one series of linked scenes, and stay within this set of characters," it's way easier for me to sit down and power through it. And I only have to worry about using one set/environment, instead of building a new one for each scene change, which can take a good amount of time all on its own.

 

[Skep-tiker]

There's a whole branch where you can just refer to Mason as a girl during sex, and otherwise not.

I know, but I always interpreted this as the asshole path. So that’s why I say it’s either reject Mason or be an asshole for me.

 

[With The]

nice new scene with mason

 

[rafa30]

NeonGhosts

More Brittani please

 

[braiden]

gabbi and mason are my favs, love seeing them get screen time.

 

[Liftoff7073]

Speaking of mini-sodes

are they planned to be mostly linear? or can we expect to have dark and light path in them just like in the main game?

 

[soldano]

That's actually what i was pointing at, months ago, when i said i though this game had too many characters...
It's easy for one to write himself in such a situation where it's hard to have space for everyone and more space for one character, even for just one episode, can be perceived as less space for the others.

Yes, I said it once and rats came out from all sides to bite my ankles.
But anyway, I pretty much agree with your opinion. If this game was being developed by a team, there wouldn't be a problem. But it's only one person doing it, and it doesn't even seem to be his main job. So obviously the updates are spaced out over time (although I have to say less than you'd expect, honestly). And if a character you like doesn't come out in an update, you can easily spend half a year without content you like for the game. Or even if it does come out, maybe you expected more content for that character, and the update disappoints you.
Not to mention that the more characters you have to manage, the more complex the story becomes, and the harder it is to keep it coherent. And that also burns out the developer, especially if it's just one person.
Obviously the developer has the last word. It's his creation after all. But honestly, I'm increasingly clear that too many characters are detrimental to the type of development these games require. In my opinion, it's better to focus on a few main characters, and on shorter, more organized stories. It's less work, and it doesn't hurt the quality of the work. You can always do spin-offs later with other characters. Or side stories, or whatever. Sometimes it's better to save a good idea for later, than to get bogged down in it.

 

[Eezergoode]

Anything I'm involved in, I try to keep the "main" LIs to no more than 5, unless I'm part of a team with multiple writers.... I do usually have a few "sides" as well, who aren't critical to the story, and usually bring them in near the start so that the player has some... outlet.. other than the main LIs so that the story doesn't progress too fast. In my experience, any more than five, at least in a story with choices, and especially one with actual branches, and you are entering nightmare territory. Kudos to Neon for being able to keep track of it all and keep things flowing pretty smoothly so far. Although I am starting to feel some of the girls are being somewhat neglected, it's still one of my favorite ongoing games and I will keep coming back for more until it is finished, or Neon screws the pooch by biting off too much Very much hope it is the former.

 

[NeonGhosts]

are they planned to be mostly linear? or can we expect to have dark and light path in them just like in the main game?

The latter. The stuff that takes place in the present, with MC, will be just like the main chapters. Just smaller!