VN Ren'Py Friends in Need [S1 v0.85c] [NeonGhosts]

[DiTo]

Dev Update! 10/7/2025



Hey, folks! Hope your week's off to a good start. Sorry to get this up a day late, but the day job kicked my butt yesterday, and I didn't have the energy to write this up.

In recent days I put out a new Season 1 build for all supporter tiers, which integrated another three chapters into the newest version. Two more to go, and that'll be it for Season 1. In terms of content, this one is/was pretty modest. It adds a very small branch for Ashe from her ero scene, which added a negligible number of renders. The main purpose of the build was to update variables and continuity/logic, tweaking some of Ashe's dialogue to reflect changes new possibilities that were added with the previous Season 1 build.

It also added extras like A Slave to Desire and Blue Valentine to the base game, allowing you to access them from the main menu. In the next build, I'll have some more goodies in there, like the original version of Chapter 1, and the super-short 'anti-Nicki' joke patch. And this is all a precursor to eventually having a working gallery system built into the game. I'm also working on getting the prose short stories from the blog added in, along with character profiles, etc. Right now you can expect the implementation of these additions to be a little ugly, but I intend to pretty them up a bit over time.

I'll be unlocking the current build of Season 1 tomorrow, and updating the blog's pinned post to remove some links that are no longer necessary.

Now, as for the debut chapter for Season 2, I'm still working on that. I'm about halfway through Alex's scene, which means I need to finish that, a small scene with Cassie, and then the content with Gabby which ends the chapter. After that, I'll be done. There's still some work ahead, but the end creeps ever closer into sight.

This whole dual channel development thing, working on new material while fixing up old material, put a real damper on some of my plans for the year. I have timelapse videos for scene creations that I've been meaning to record voice-overs for, I've got a spicy fantasy novel that I want to release in serialized format that needs some edits, I've got mini-game scripts similar to Blue Valentine sitting around waiting to be rendered, and on and on. But, this whole year has been spent keeping a bunch of plates in the air, leaving me without the time and energy to focus on other, fun stuff. That'll all be coming to an end soon, and I'm looking forward to having some free time available again.

Until then, thanks for bearing with me during this chaotic time. As always, take care of yourselves -- and thank you for your support!

 

[Lightaces]

the question is: why remove chapter 10 in the first place?
I mean... its content thats already there, could you explain that to me,
NeonGhosts?

The old chapter one looked like shit compared to the rest of the game, and the characterizations made no sense. So it got rewritten. Additionally, Neon was very new to coding a game when he started this game, so the whole game was chaotic as fuck. Plus, some scenes got cut short because of release time crunches. With the new chapter 1, the start of chapter 2 felt very....sudden.

So, Neon has been going through the game to this point, rewriting chapter one, adding a major new section to chapter two, and going through and finishing scenes and cleaning up code. This takes time. It's not quite done yet, but it is close. Unless Neon actually decides to rewrite Gabby's early scenes. Which, honestly, I'd be OK with - they could be a lot....sexier.

What he has NOT done is stopped development on new material. It has slowed it down a bit, but there has been a new playable preview of the new chapter almost every month this year. It's not done yet, but it's getting close. Once the season 1 redo is finished, the new chapter will come out quite quickly. It's been kinda story heavy, but very entertaining, and there is some super sexy stuff in it. And we haven't even gotten to the REALLY good part yet! Gabby is cumming! Well, she will be!

Can someone who played answer - v0.85c is true *end* of season 1 or somethink else?

Not quite yet. Just a bit left to go.

So no discord link, or properly updated changelog? Really trying to bring in more fans I see...

It hasn't been released to the public yet.

Doing a remaster before the game is over is the equivalent of someone stopping right before the punchline to a joke to re-tell you the set up with more detail. On average, this is where I tend to stop following games, and I NEVER financially support devs I have known to do this.

Season one is finished. It was supposed to be getting cleaned up prior to a Steam release, before the political climate got very hostile for AVN's of any kind, particularly those containing rougher material.

 

[Lightaces]

so is the rework less dark and more vanilla than the original?

No, it really isn't.

so alley and webcam scenes for ashe are still there and unchanged?

Yes.

 

[Nasagi]

definitely wanna play this, or at least give it a try. Which one should I download, the subscribestar or the patreon one? The "about the vanilla version" didn't entirely make sense to me, I read it as the one listed under the patreon links is missing stuff?

 

[Lightaces]

I like her, she seems very ready to sell out her daughter's body for fame. That's a good mother right here!

Not fame, money. Any fame is just a route to get there.

 

[lleage]

i just downloaded the new update but none of my saves from the previous version show up. sorry if its a dumb question, anyone have a fix for this?

 

[Sherengroth]

To my knowledge the patreon version is toned down to fit with their rules. So tamer.

k so subscibe is the director's cut. ty

 

[PHIL101-YYouPPHard]

the reason why I'm parking this for a year at least, fed up with the reworks and shit. It barely ever works out, but the devs just keep doing it, maybe I'm the helicopter but I'm not seeing the benefits. Rework that shit when you are done with story if you want. I even get the motivation for the ch1 rework to get Nicki some more background, but it wasn't needed. Sure it's nice and all, but could have been left after the story was done. But I'm talking to a wall anyway probably, they never listen.

I'm pretty sure as soon as the next S2 chapter releases, you'll be here

After playing through rework's dark path, not gonna lie I feel disappointed. Slight rewriting and change of story direction is subjective so if dev feels like it would make the whole thing more streamlined and coherent then why not I guess, but a couple of scenes that got changed/added have lost quality or were subpar, imo.

Nikki's first dark scene had much less tension, the original one felt like she was there to seduce you but not really, like she had very mixed feelings herself and you could go in three very different directions which felt great. The new one toned down the rudeness you could've had, even on the darkest path Guy is still almost romantically kissing her and it would be fine as an option, but it's all you have here. Scene itself is also significantly smaller, only one position, very few angles (and the one we have is weak one, wow we can see her back so hot), no additional interactions like slapping, it's overall a massive downgrade over what we had pre-rework.

I was super hyped about Ashe's date dark path without sleeping pills, previously Guy said something like "our encounter in the alley would feel like easy mode compared to this" and it went to black screen... And now instead of the black screen we have like 2 renders, sex in one position (doggy), bad angles where we almost can't see the good stuff like whole body with face and such and it's very quickly over. Bottle could be fun, but it's also disappointing tbh b/c no additional interactions, different poses or stuff like that. It's funny that giving her sleeping pills gives a better scene with much more variety and options, I think it even has more Ashe's reactions than having her awake lmao.

The new scenes left a mixed feeling too, the spanish speaking girl on the yacht was fine but so unnecessary (like Dash in pre rework version) because she's just a random character we have no connection to (while the game has PLENTY of characters/scenes which could've usen that dev/rendering time instead), Jun's stuff is very hot in theory but for the most part they are just 1 picture flashback, which also makes it feel half baked. I'd rather have one full scene of their first sex for example where Guy would be convincing her to have sex to save her business, with different degrees of cruelty and some interactivity ofc instead of the yacht scene. Or a better and more varied Ash date night, or a new dark path Viola scene, or a full dark path scene with any of the girls who still don't have one...

The downgrade in quality regarding interactivity, positions and camera angles in h-scenes feels very jarring because this is the game that exceled in this areas from the very beginning, back when there was only the first Nikki scene. Many other games give you like one stupid angle of pussy closeup and another where you only see girl's back and call it a day, and here we had so much variety and actually good h-scenes for the most part. Makes me worry for the future updates tbh

Hmm, I thought the angles were fine. I think the explanation for the toned down scenes is so that Nicki's return wasn't too jarring. I haven't gotten to that point yet, so I'll see how I feel I guess.

All the extra minor characters are fun side h scenes and make the world feel a lot bigger without too much extra work. That's really valuable in a VN, especially if you plan on expanding into Steam market. It's a good investment for future players who are going to pay. Money. If only gooner cum were a currency.

Not really a good enough explanation for me imo. Overall while porn is a main focus it's not just a porn game and unless Dark Guy is just the dumbest person on planet earth he has to know raping literally every woman on sight is not sustainable. Even Lucien isn't that dumb. Story wise Dark Guy just feels worse than Light or Grey Guy. (Though Grey Guy is pretty obviously just a smarter Dark Guy if you really think about it his actions are not Grey at all they're pretty Dark)

It's the perfect explanation. It's a porn game. They all do that. Also the fact the character's a fuckin' psychopath. You're overthinking it. Psycho rapists do not reason to themselves like that "dude, why rape her man? she'll fuck you anyways if you just talk to her nicely!" The player isn't reasoning it like that, either. Dark path Guy is either incapable of empathizing and relating to someone to carry on a normal relationship, or he just doesn't care to, and gets a sick pleasure from sadistic control. Plus, obviously, from the character's perspective.. they aren't aware of the other routes. From dark Guy's pov, this is his only option in the moment. Same with romance Guy. And the player? They're obviously picking what they want to.

 

[Lightaces]

definitely wanna play this, or at least give it a try. Which one should I download, the subscribestar or the patreon one? The "about the vanilla version" didn't entirely make sense to me, I read it as the one listed under the patreon links is missing stuff?

If you have no interest in corruption or dark routes of play, and just want happy lovey interactions with lovely ladies, get the Patreon version. If you want darker routes, get the Subscribestar version. If you want DARK dark, install the patch on the Subscribestar version.

 

[Lightaces]

Psycho rapists do not reason to themselves like that "dude, why rape her man? she'll fuck you anyways if you just talk to her nicely!"

Dark Guy even says as much to Beatrice on the boat.

 

[Lightaces]

i just downloaded the new update but none of my saves from the previous version show up. sorry if its a dumb question, anyone have a fix for this?

Your old saves won't work - pretty much all of the variables have been changed. You need to start from the begining, but the new chapter 1 & early chapter 2 are well worth it.

 

[PHIL101-YYouPPHard]

Dark Guy even says as much to Beatrice on the boat. View attachment 5322191 View attachment 5322192 View attachment 5322193 View attachment 5322194 View attachment 5322195 View attachment 5322196

You're ignoring the driving point of my reply, though. He can obviously conceptualize not raping her.. but he isn't going to seriously consider it. Because he's a sadistic psycho, which is what I said, and what the dialogue confirms. A normal healthy person can conceptualize harming someone else for no reason... but they can't seriously consider it, because they have normal, empathetic minds.

 

[Lightaces]

You're ignoring the driving point of my reply, though. He can obviously conceptualize not raping her.. but he isn't going to seriously consider it. Because he's a sadistic psycho, which is what I said, and what the dialogue confirms. A normal healthy person can conceptualize harming someone else for no reason... but they can't seriously consider it, because they have normal, empathetic minds.

No no, I was agreeing with you, not arguing with you. I understand that's unusual in this forum, but none the less.

 

[moriose]

does the taboo patch still work? I feel like it doesn't, or maybe they removed a lot of scenes / branches

 

[Lightaces]

does the taboo patch still work? I feel like it doesn't, or maybe they removed a lot of scenes / branches

If you have the Subscribestar version of the game, and put the patch file in the correct location, it works just fine. You might want to read the last couple pages of the thread to see what's going on. If you open the game and the heart in the upper left is grey, your all good to go.

 

[lleage]

Your old saves won't work - pretty much all of the variables have been changed. You need to start from the begining, but the new chapter 1 & early chapter 2 are well worth it.

thanks for the reply guess ill wait for the walkthrough mod to get updated before i start playing again

 

[Joshy92]

That Brazilian chick got on a boat with Guy. She mustn't have heard of the implications

 

[Nasagi]

If you have no interest in corruption or dark routes of play, and just want happy lovey interactions with lovely ladies, get the Patreon version. If you want darker routes, get the Subscribestar version. If you want DARK dark, install the patch on the Subscribestar version.

Perfect Ty! and I love corruption/dark routes. So def know which one I'm hitting up. Thank you so much!!

 

[Lightaces]

Perfect Ty! and I love corruption/dark routes. So def know which one I'm hitting up. Thank you so much!!

Just, bare in mind, this game is well written, and so even if it might seem like there are no consequences, that's not gonna last.

 

[Hotsauce87]

Will there be an update for android?