VN Ren'Py Friends in Need [Ch. 9 v0.60c] [NeonGhosts]

[Ariostebaldo]

Hey,

The game is great, my favorite aspect is how the MC is physically dominant in sex.
No bounding, no tying and not restraining movement... Not using tools or devices...
He just bend them and have his way with them as he wants.

Unfortunately there's a lot of dark themed games that just stop after a few releases or simply change to a lighter theme after a while.
I like a lot of romance VNs too, but if I may say anything is: your game is great man, please keep doing what you're doing and please continue to let us be the bad guy.

We see the evil win quite a lot in fiction, it's ironic how the evil can never prevail if the main character is the bad guy.

ps.: I never write reviews, but I'll copy and paste this comment as a review.

 

[Doctor Shark]

I decided to finally come post how I've been feeling about Chapter 3 only to see ename144 beat me to it. I was playing the nice guy path and got to the scene where you're in the car with Gabby telling her to make sure to keep the relationship a secret and it just didn't make any sense to me. If you're on the path where you're giving people money and sometimes they're grateful enough to have sex with you, then wtf are you doing entering into a secret sugardaddy relationship with a highschooler? On future nice plays I'll probably just skip the Gabby relationship entirely but since that's most of Chapter 3's content I'm just waiting on Chapter 4 at this point.

Don't get me wrong, the renders are great and the sex scenes are super hot. The whole relationship just felt out of place is all.

 

[gregers]

Nicki is definitely going to be the MC's conscience, I think. Or try to be. You see a little of this in Chapter Three, when MC decides to look at Cassie's photos, and Nicki calls him out on it. If he said Gabby's name during the same scene, we can expect her to have something to say once she meets Ms. Barron.

I can definitely oblige on the butt-stuff. What I'll likely do with the sex menus is what I've done since then, and make it kind of a broader menu of options, all of which route to come options. The early sex paths suffered from my inability to write decent code.

With their relationship as initially written, I wanted that work-wife, work-husband dynamic. But, I feel like it drove home this idea that they weren't exactly friends, but more like acquaintances that might flirt every now and then. Which makes it easier to embrace the idea that she's just there to get some money out of MC. I think that making them better friends beforehand accomplishes a couple things:

• It gives a little more context/impact to his reaction to her showing up in a dress, which he's never seen before.
• It explains why she stayed with Brent, because the guy she was hanging out with all the time never even made a move on her.
• It increases the sense of betrayal on the dark paths.
• It explains why she might come back, even if he was cruel to her. One moment of anger in an otherwise lengthy friendship might be understandable, and overlooked in dire enough circumstances. Not so much with a casual friend.

Still, I'll consider all my options. I don't want to totally rewrite things, but I feel like I didn't get certain things across the way I'd have liked to. If I'm going to redo the art in the first chapter, I might as well smooth out some story wrinkles that have been bothering me.

Interesting ideas, but if you hope to make Nicki more appealing through them, I think there's a risk of achieving the opposite. If they were such good friends, why didn't she come to him as a friend? It risks making her come off as even more manipulative.

If they're just colleagues with a bit of chemistry and the MC has projected this friendship onto her, her behaviour on the night makes more sense; dressing up and flirting a bit to flatter him, hesitating to tell him why she's actually there, etc.

If they're friends, she should be able to approach him honestly and say "hey, I'm in trouble, can you help?" Instead she chooses to do it differently, which doesn't really reflect well on her or how she considers the MC.

 

[Kalsan]

Me when someone says my 1366 image update was too short: (Joking - I feel the same way when I play the new releases of my faves..)

I'm glad so many people have been able to sympathize with Nicki, while still being a bit wary of her. I think it's fair to want her to prove herself to you, before you can really trust her again. As for her attitude towards you, I have this view of Nicki that she's been in a series of abusive relationships (as victims of abuse commonly are), and she's accustomed to normalizing them. Take the bit where she makes you a sandwich. If she likes you, she's just being nice. If she fears you, she's doing something abuse victims commonly do, and trying to put you in a good mood so you're not terrible to her. As for considering you a friend, that's really just kind of her neutral path for now. As long as you don't call her into your bedroom, she's still hoping she can salvage a friendship of some kind with you.

I think with Gabby, it's less that the MC isn't into her, and more that she's REALLY into him. She's young, full of hormones, and everything in her life seems incredibly romantic and dramatic. MC has a bit more of a reserved outlook. He likes her, but it's only been two days, and the situation is kind of a minefield.

If this game is going to have one perfect precious cinnamon roll character, it'll probably be Viola.

I should really look at the tags again. It's missing a few things now. Rest assured, this is going to be a harem for a little while. I don't know if you'll be able to end with a harem, but I'm not going to constrain anyone from pursuing multiple girls.



Hey, sorry, not trying to be rude - the double negative is making this sentence really hard for me to parse. Are you talking about your saves being broken, or just the way the multiple choices work, possibly cutting you of from content, or the fact that I just released an extra "3.2" version, orrrr..?

If it's the saves issue, I'm working on it. I understand it's frustrating, but I'd ask you to bear with me a bit. I'm one guy who'd never coded or used DAZ prior to a few months ago, and I'm learning bothh on the job. This is my third release, and I'm still finding my feet on the tech side. A bit like learning how to build a bike while I'm already on it and rolling down a hill.. In an ideal world I'd have someone who could code this thing while I did the writing and art. But then I'd be reliant on someone else to conform to my at-times demanding schedule, and I'm not going to do that.

I had my patrons Beta testing the near-finished version for a couple weeks before it came out, and only one person mentioned they had issues with their saves, despite plenty of other bug reports being turned in. That said, I'm honestly wondering if using one version of Ren'py to compile Chapter Two, and using a different version to compile Chapter Three, is what caused the issue with save files. I've created a bunch of save files throughout the game to try with the next version, and I'll be more diligent about checking them to make sure nothing breaks. I didn't have this issue going from Chapter One to Chapter Two, both of which were compiled with my old laptop/prior version of Ren'py, so I have to imagine that's what's caused these issues.



Thanks so much! I've certainly been trying to do more with camera angles, soft focus, etc.

As for Gabby, the straight blonde is actually her old look.. A certain ex-boyfriend wanted her with straight blonde hair.. I do love that hair on her, though. I'm planning to put up a poll tomorrow on my Patreon to choose a new style for her, for a future chapter. Here's some early contenders.

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So you are planning on doing the worst thing ever? I mean creating a harem situation but don't giving it harem resolution? Come on that's worst than a kick in the nuts. At the beginning you reward your players for fallowing multiple girls but then at the end you punish them.

 

[Doctor Shark]

NeonGhosts Not sure if this is a known bug (or even a bug at all) but, in Chapter 3, if you're on a route where you get the option to summon Nicki or not and you decline, the next social media photo only flashes on the screen for half a second, except for the one of Cassie with Peyton. So that's Brittani's ahegao face and Gabby lying on her back (Carolina and Ashe have the same issue but Carolina's third photo is the same as the second and Ashe just has one photo three times so there's an eventual point where you can view them as long as you want). Didn't have skip on, maybe because there's no text associated with those frames?

 

[mcnero]

Updated android port to 3.1, working on 3.2 soon.

Thanks a lot great job

 

[NeonGhosts]

I decided to finally come post how I've been feeling about Chapter 3 only to see ename144 beat me to it. I was playing the nice guy path and got to the scene where you're in the car with Gabby telling her to make sure to keep the relationship a secret and it just didn't make any sense to me. If you're on the path where you're giving people money and sometimes they're grateful enough to have sex with you, then wtf are you doing entering into a secret sugardaddy relationship with a highschooler? On future nice plays I'll probably just skip the Gabby relationship entirely but since that's most of Chapter 3's content I'm just waiting on Chapter 4 at this point.

Don't get me wrong, the renders are great and the sex scenes are super hot. The whole relationship just felt out of place is all.

Well, one thing I wanted to focus on in this story was grey areas of morality and consent. Like, the MC putting his thumb in Nicki's butt over her protests in Chapter One. MC slapping or choking Ashe more/longer than she wanted it. MC coming on Gabby's face after she said not to. Ultimately no real harm is done in these scenarios, but does that make it okay? Likewise, dating Gabby is technically legal, but does that make it right? Now, that said, maybe it turns into something real sooner than later. I wouldn't pass up the sweet, sweet drama of Madison and Ryan learning their daughter is dating an older guy.

But, this is literally day two of them knowing each other, while MC is beginning a business arrangement with Madison. I don't think a little caution is unwarranted.

Interesting ideas, but if you hope to make Nicki more appealing through them, I think there's a risk of achieving the opposite. If they were such good friends, why didn't she come to him as a friend? It risks making her come off as even more manipulative.

If they're just colleagues with a bit of chemistry and the MC has projected this friendship onto her, her behaviour on the night makes more sense; dressing up and flirting a bit to flatter him, hesitating to tell him why she's actually there, etc.

If they're friends, she should be able to approach him honestly and say "hey, I'm in trouble, can you help?" Instead she chooses to do it differently, which doesn't really reflect well on her or how she considers the MC.

Personally, I think it makes sense why she approached him as she did. Like, she didn't come to him unnecessarily flattering him or making goo-goo eyes. She watched cartoons with him until he told her he needed to go to bed, at which point she got to the uncomfortable task of asking for help. I don't think anyone likes asking their friends for money. Especially not an obscene amount of money.

But, I like that it can be read multiple ways. Was she beating around the bush because she was buttering him up, or because she was afraid to broach the subject? Did she dress up to entice him, or was it because he'd begun getting his life together (exercising, moving into a new place) and she didn't want to show up looking like a sack of potatoes? Did she not tell him she knew about his windfall because she was giving him the chance to tell her himself, or was it for some more nefarious reason?

It's kind of the crux of why that initial moral decision matters, I guess. Are you someone who'd give a friend the benefit of the doubt when presented with her story, or immediately jump to the worst conclusion?

NeonGhosts Not sure if this is a known bug (or even a bug at all) but, in Chapter 3, if you're on a route where you get the option to summon Nicki or not and you decline, the next social media photo only flashes on the screen for half a second, except for the one of Cassie with Peyton. So that's Brittani's ahegao face and Gabby lying on her back (Carolina and Ashe have the same issue but Carolina's third photo is the same as the second and Ashe just has one photo three times so there's an eventual point where you can view them as long as you want). Didn't have skip on, maybe because there's no text associated with those frames?

Ack, you're right - I'll fix that for the next release, so it doesn't advance automatically. Thanks for the heads up!

So you are planning on doing the worst thing ever? I mean creating a harem situation but don't giving it harem resolution? Come on that's worst than a kick in the nuts. At the beginning you reward your players for fallowing multiple girls but then at the end you punish them.

Maybe I have kind of an outdated view of what a proper "harem" ending is. As an anime dork from way back, most of the harem anime/manga I consumed ended with the protagonist having narrowed his options down to one or two girls, and either marrying one, or ending things in a love triangle. Also, please note I said I don't know if you'll be able to end with a harem - I didn't say yes or no. I'm not being coy - I know how some girls' stories end, and others I need to explore a bit, before I decide on their endings.

But, I don't see a reality where you can end the game with Madison and Gabby both happily fucking you, alongside a half-dozen other girls. Nor do I see a love-path Gabby being okay with you sleeping with other girls. But, if you have her on the corruption path? Maybe!

And I think "worst thing ever" is putting it a bit harshly. This would be the worst thing ever.

 

[Hongfire Survivor]

But, I don't see a reality where you can end the game with Madison and Gabby both happily fucking you, alongside a half-dozen other girls. Nor do I see a love-path Gabby being okay with you sleeping with other girls. But, if you have her on the corruption path? Maybe!

I know it's popular to do, but I've yet to see a modern harem game stick the landing of 10+ women sharing one dude

3-4 is stretch but solid writing and character development could do it. But that would be more of a poly relationship me thinks (all four dating each other).

 

[NewTricks]

Well, one thing I wanted to focus on in this story was grey areas of morality and consent. Like, the MC putting his thumb in Nicki's butt over her protests in Chapter One. MC slapping or choking Ashe more/longer than she wanted it. MC coming on Gabby's face after she said not to. Ultimately no real harm is done in these scenarios, but does that make it okay? Likewise, dating Gabby is technically legal, but does that make it right? Now, that said, maybe it turns into something real sooner than later. I wouldn't pass up the sweet, sweet drama of Madison and Ryan learning their daughter is dating an older guy.

But, this is literally day two of them knowing each other, while MC is beginning a business arrangement with Madison. I don't think a little caution is unwarranted.



Personally, I think it makes sense why she approached him as she did. Like, she didn't come to him unnecessarily flattering him or making goo-goo eyes. She watched cartoons with him until he told her he needed to go to bed, at which point she got to the uncomfortable task of asking for help. I don't think anyone likes asking their friends for money. Especially not an obscene amount of money.

But, I like that it can be read multiple ways. Was she beating around the bush because she was buttering him up, or because she was afraid to broach the subject? Did she dress up to entice him, or was it because he'd begun getting his life together (exercising, moving into a new place) and she didn't want to show up looking like a sack of potatoes? Did she not tell him she knew about his windfall because she was giving him the chance to tell her himself, or was it for some more nefarious reason?

It's kind of the crux of why that initial moral decision matters, I guess. Are you someone who'd give a friend the benefit of the doubt when presented with her story, or immediately jump to the worst conclusion?



Ack, you're right - I'll fix that for the next release, so it doesn't advance automatically. Thanks for the heads up!



Maybe I have kind of an outdated view of what a proper "harem" ending is. As an anime dork from way back, most of the harem anime/manga I consumed ended with the protagonist having narrowed his options down to one or two girls, and either marrying one, or ending things in a love triangle. Also, please note I said I don't know if you'll be able to end with a harem - I didn't say yes or no. I'm not being coy - I know how some girls' stories end, and others I need to explore a bit, before I decide on their endings.

But, I don't see a reality where you can end the game with Madison and Gabby both happily fucking you, alongside a half-dozen other girls. Nor do I see a love-path Gabby being okay with you sleeping with other girls. But, if you have her on the corruption path? Maybe!

And I think "worst thing ever" is putting it a bit harshly. This would be the worst thing ever.

View attachment 2063003

Now that pic SHOULD be the bad ending. Talk about the worst of all possible worlds. Harem king Brent living his best life in your apartment.

 

[Kalsan]

Well, one thing I wanted to focus on in this story was grey areas of morality and consent. Like, the MC putting his thumb in Nicki's butt over her protests in Chapter One. MC slapping or choking Ashe more/longer than she wanted it. MC coming on Gabby's face after she said not to. Ultimately no real harm is done in these scenarios, but does that make it okay? Likewise, dating Gabby is technically legal, but does that make it right? Now, that said, maybe it turns into something real sooner than later. I wouldn't pass up the sweet, sweet drama of Madison and Ryan learning their daughter is dating an older guy.

But, this is literally day two of them knowing each other, while MC is beginning a business arrangement with Madison. I don't think a little caution is unwarranted.



Personally, I think it makes sense why she approached him as she did. Like, she didn't come to him unnecessarily flattering him or making goo-goo eyes. She watched cartoons with him until he told her he needed to go to bed, at which point she got to the uncomfortable task of asking for help. I don't think anyone likes asking their friends for money. Especially not an obscene amount of money.

But, I like that it can be read multiple ways. Was she beating around the bush because she was buttering him up, or because she was afraid to broach the subject? Did she dress up to entice him, or was it because he'd begun getting his life together (exercising, moving into a new place) and she didn't want to show up looking like a sack of potatoes? Did she not tell him she knew about his windfall because she was giving him the chance to tell her himself, or was it for some more nefarious reason?

It's kind of the crux of why that initial moral decision matters, I guess. Are you someone who'd give a friend the benefit of the doubt when presented with her story, or immediately jump to the worst conclusion?



Ack, you're right - I'll fix that for the next release, so it doesn't advance automatically. Thanks for the heads up!



Maybe I have kind of an outdated view of what a proper "harem" ending is. As an anime dork from way back, most of the harem anime/manga I consumed ended with the protagonist having narrowed his options down to one or two girls, and either marrying one, or ending things in a love triangle. Also, please note I said I don't know if you'll be able to end with a harem - I didn't say yes or no. I'm not being coy - I know how some girls' stories end, and others I need to explore a bit, before I decide on their endings.

But, I don't see a reality where you can end the game with Madison and Gabby both happily fucking you, alongside a half-dozen other girls. Nor do I see a love-path Gabby being okay with you sleeping with other girls. But, if you have her on the corruption path? Maybe!

And I think "worst thing ever" is putting it a bit harshly. This would be the worst thing ever.

View attachment 2063003

Yeah I grew up with old "harem" animes too and let me tell you they where the worst! Why not make the protagonist choose them all? 99% it could have been done with enough imagination. Meh but I see you are one of those guys that act like the story "write by itself", if Gabby isn't okey with sharing the protagonist just make her being ok with it, is not like she had mind of her own right? Seriously if you don't want to make it a harem is okey but don't come with this repetitive excuses and justifications.

 

[atrebor68]

Now I have a "love route" with Nicki. Nicki changed a lot her mind, after almost becoming a porn actress, she is much freemindes. Now she has no problem undressing, she likes sex just for it. I'm afraid the love route with Nicki could lead to the NTR route ...

 

[Ragnar]

Am I the only one who worries that at this rate our hero will end up on the street next to beggar Mason boy?
I think it's clear from my nickname that I wasn't born into a rich family, so when you get really lucky and start making good money or winning something you want to keep at least some of it. I hope we'll have an opportunity in the game to invest in something. Because I'm getting some kind of feeling from Brewster's Millions could you slow down a bit

That's an interesting point I too though about it during the game. Indeed many new riches lost the money because they spent it in shit like luxury cars and so on. But the MC seems to be a stoic type of person, I suppose years working at Apu's can annihilate your soul
Anyway, we don't know how much money he won but it's implied that he's set for life. Beside that he isn't wasting money in vices, luxury cars or big real estate, he's living in an apartment in the city and like to spend his time watching cartoons.
His FIN charity is the main money drain but so far he seems to be making small donations here and there. If you're Elon Musk rich that won't bankrupt you.

 

[Raoddik]

As an anime dork from way back, most of the harem anime/manga I consumed ended with the protagonist having narrowed his options down to one (...) girl.

I always hated this harem animes that ended like that, I mean... it's realistic but at the same time so annoying (especially when in theory it could work for all of them from story/character point of view), also MC (almost) always pick up wrong girl > >. Thankfully there were few (mostly mangas) that ended up as harem and at the same time made some sense (sometimes not that much).

On the other hand, I don't like that trend in harem games where MC have few girls (that are usually fine with it) and at some point he is getting more and more side girls instead progressing his relationship with main girls (there are at least 3 games that I really like but they are going more and more in that way). I get why devs do that but I still don't like it.

Now harem end in FiN... hmm, I agree it's hard to imagine how it could work and at the same time feel believable, at least in love route, Nicki seems like a girl who could accept another girl I guess, at least with how she is now... I can actually see Gabby doing it too, but it would be more like competition with other girl for being MC main girl than harem. At the same time if someone asked me if I would like love route full harem end I would have to say "YES!" , don't know how it could work but I would love to see reasonable solution to this (as I hate cheating ).
Other routes I don't see why it couldn't work, but at this point I think it would feel more like slave harem than anything else.

 

[Onovich]

I love this game. Truly excellent work, can't wait to see more!

 

[NewTricks]

i don't get something .... why the incest patch ...... no one is related so far , to the MC to fuck

One of the LIs is his sister, but things haven't gotten hot and heavy yet.

 

[PHIL101-YYouPPHard]

Yeah I grew up with old "harem" animes too and let me tell you they where the worst! Why not make the protagonist choose them all? 99% it could have been done with enough imagination. Meh but I see you are one of those guys that act like the story "write by itself", if Gabby isn't okey with sharing the protagonist just make her being ok with it, is not like she had mind of her own right? Seriously if you don't want to make it a harem is okey but don't come with this repetitive excuses and justifications.

I'm gonna be honest dude, your tone is pretty obnoxious and doesn't welcome a desire to listen to what you have to say. I'm not in fight-picking mode or anything, just try imagine working really hard on renders and writing and all the rules and expectations that come with it, with no guarantee of compensation btw, only to be told in an entitled attitude "you're doing it wrong, you should do it my way, and you're full of shit because you can just make the character my way, it's easy".

The issue is that depending on what you're going for in a game, a lot of the story and characters kind of do write themselves... they have constraints and limitations, etc. If you set up a character ruled by a strong sense of morality, it's not going to make sense to write them as a serial rapist sidekick just because some commenter really wants it to happen and insists 'just write the character that way'. If your setting is supposed to be more compelling by resembling reality to as great an extent as possible without ruining the porn game aspect to (hopefully) give a stronger orgasm in the end, writing ALL of the women you come across to be magically ok with sharing, especially if they have a history of being cheated on, just really takes a lot of people out of the story and removes its appeal.

Anyways, I'll just mirror what you say: it's ok that you don't like certain writing choices, but your way is not the 'correct' way and you shouldn't act entitled to it towards someone who's doing the work while you can consume it for free. That's not a very fair or effective way to go about it.

 

[Ragnar]

Now harem end in FiN... hmm, I agree it's hard to imagine how it could work and at the same time feel believable, at least in love route, Nicki seems like a girl who could accept another girl I guess, at least with how she is now... I can actually see Gabby doing it too, but it would be more like competition with other girl for being MC main girl than harem. At the same time if someone asked me if I would like love route full harem end I would have to say "YES!" , don't know how it could work but I would love to see reasonable solution to this (as I hate cheating ).

I find Harem games a bit boring most of the time. Specially the ones with some shota twink hero saving the world yada yada. But here I think it can work, there are plenty of saudi oil princes with harems irl. Our MC is as rich as any oil baron, nothing would stop him from reunite his own Harem IF that's what he wants.
All that said I'm fine marrying Ashe

 

[Ulrich von Liechtenstein]

Our MC is as rich as any oil baron, nothing would stop him from reunite his own Harem IF that's what he wants.

I also think harem games look ridiculous most of the time but this particular game makes this scenario look natural. Why? Because our guy is really rich! It would probably be cooler if the boy had his own money


As for the combination of harem couples, if we stay just friends with Nikki I think a mother-daughter harem with Madison and Gabby would look most organic.

 

[v1900]

I find Harem games a bit boring most of the time. Specially the ones with some shota twink hero saving the world yada yada. But here I think it can work, there are plenty of saudi oil princes with harems irl. Our MC is as rich as any oil baron, nothing would stop him from reunite his own Harem IF that's what he wants.
All that said I'm fine marrying Ashe

I think that the corruption path lends itself for a harem ending. Ignoring the royal harems of today, there are harems of average Joes around the world. These harems come about because a wide gap in the power distribution between men and women in certain societies. The power disparity can be economic, political, religious, etc.

What the MC has been doing is, surrounding himself with desperate women (with very little power), he just needs to corrupt them enough for them to accept his harem.

On the love path I can't see that happening. The love path ends marrying Ashe.

 

[ImperialD]

One of the LIs is his sister, but things haven't gotten hot and heavy yet.

the MC ... ahh thats a no ..... he has no sister in this game