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

[donSilver]

doesn't mean

While others might have, I didn't ever say that the dev needs to change anything. My first words were that the game is well done, and the story is technically well written and way above like 90% of others because of the good writing. I was also very clear from the beginning that it's all just my personal opinion on the matter. I also don't think the dev should change because a vocal minority as it always.

My whole deal was to give the reasons why I felt put off by the storyline of one character, because sometimes devs or authors can be blind to what the players see or feel. And what you said about the future payoff, sure, I agree, but certain topics and themes just don't fit a porn game because they poison "the horny", in my opinion. That's at least what happened to me.

 

[Machete]

While others might have, I didn't ever say that the dev needs to change anything. My first words were that the game is well done, and the story is technically well written and way above like 90% of others because of the good writing. I was also very clear from the beginning that it's all just my personal opinion on the matter. I also don't think the dev should change because a vocal minority as it always.

My whole deal was to give the reasons why I felt put off by the storyline of one character, because sometimes devs or authors can be blind to what the players see or feel. And what you said about the future payoff, sure, I agree, but certain topics and themes just don't fit a porn game because they poison "the horny", in my opinion. That's at least what happened to me.

As usual, i was speaking in general. I never meant to attack you or question your take on the game, which i respect. I just wanted to say my two cents about respecting a creative work for how it was meant to be by the author (which, of course, people is free not to like). It's a very disturbing trend of recent years the idea of 'correct' creative works for 'modern sesitivities' either remaking or altering the original work. That's what despotisms and bigotisms do.

 

[donSilver]

As usual, i was speaking in general. I never meant to attack you or question your take on the game, which i respect. I just wanted to say my two cents about respecting a creative work for how it was meant to be by the author (which, of course, people is free not to like). It's a very disturbing trend of recent years the idea of 'correct' creative works for 'modern sesitivities' either remaking or altering the original work. That's what despotisms and bigotisms do.

No harm done, I said it just in case someone got mad. And while I don't develop my game anymore because I caught the writing bug, I can definitely relate to the hostile forces that are out there against current creative work. My own theory is that its a lot more sinister, the reason of it, but who knows.

 

[NeonGhosts]

So is this all for the next update or the "road ahead" plans for those four possible love interests?

Next update will show some path divergence for Viola, and possibly Nicki if you make certain choices. But, at this point the player's already made the choices that will cause those divergences. The Brittani and Gabby stuff will come later.

Wow, Gabby actually looking good with this hairstyle
Will she actually have that look going forward ?

It's always been my plan to have Gabby change her hair up a lot as the game progresses. It's just kinda hard when the game takes place largely in one-day increments. But, I'm planning to have a brief time-jump soon, at which point I might give her some new hair. I don't know if I'll go with that one exactly, because I see Gabby's decision to embrace her natural/curly hair as a direct response to her break-up with Jamie. I'll likely put it to a poll on Patreon/SubStar.

Did you imply that Nicki would still ghost MC in the reboot, regardless to how he treat her?

Some element of that kind of has to stay in there - mainly that she disappears for a while with Vaughn/Florida Man. Because doing an untattooed Nicki for every image she appears in would be.. Tough.

What I might change is the option to give Nicki money, and how that affects her life over that three-month gap. It'll likely be something like: MC gives Nicki the money, and she still winds up in a financial hole due to Brent, but she never gets involved with the local photographer, never ends up at the surprise porn shoot, and never arrives at MC's place tear-streaked and wearing a schoolgirl costume. Instead she just shows up having completed her 'work' in Florida, wanting to reconnect with MC and repay him the money he loaned her. I think it'd give some extra weight to the first big choice of the game, and it wouldn't require a ton of writing around it.

 

[Ottoeight]

What I might change is the option to give Nicki money, and how that affects her life over that three-month gap. It'll likely be something like: MC gives Nicki the money, and she still winds up in a financial hole due to Brent, but she never gets involved with the local photographer, never ends up at the surprise porn shoot, and never arrives at MC's place tear-streaked and wearing a schoolgirl costume. Instead she just shows up having completed her 'work' in Florida, wanting to reconnect with MC and repay him the money he loaned her. I think it'd give some extra weight to the first big choice of the game, and it wouldn't require a ton of writing around it.

Well, her arriving "at MC's place tear-streaked and wearing a schoolgirl costume" is what makes her comeback so good and impactful storywise.

Very sad to hear you won't remove the tattoos.

 

[TigerWolfe]

Well, her arriving "at MC's place tear-streaked and wearing a schoolgirl costume" is what makes her comeback so good and impactful storywise.

Very sad to hear you won't remove the tattoos.

Personally tattoos are sweet as hell. Nikki not liking hers makes sense, given the story, but I'll never understand the anti tattoo rhetoric. Self expression is cool. Also just aesthetically speaking they're nice to look at imo.

 

[Uriel ☁]

Very sad to hear you won't remove the tattoos.

Nicki's tattoos are part of her story. They represent her past mistakes and how she struggles to face their consequences. Those mistakes left signs on her, just like those tattoos that she got because of them. She never wanted them but she's stuck with them, and they are a constant reminder of her mistakes every time she see herself in the mirror.

I like the parallelisms and the symbolism.

 

[armond]

So far as I can tell the anti tattoo thing is cultural, like in japan only delinquents have tattoos is a cultural axiom.

 

[fleetp]

Kudos to NeonGhosts for the way you have portrayed Nicki. It is clearly evident to me as so many of the folks here have expressed comments (pro and con) about Nicki.

 

[armond]

Is it the bracelet?

 

[1KinkyKaiser]

Kudos to NeonGhosts for the way you have portrayed Nicki. It is clearly evident to me as so many of the folks here have expressed comments (pro and con) about Nicki.

Yeah...One thing noone can fight is she is a well written character... people either love her or hate her by the "choices" she made... He made a character that everyone that plays has an opinion, good or bad, but either way it stirs up feelings one way or another... I personally think Nicki was broken with the first episode and it caused the downward spiral that you can either send her further down, or decide to help her and show her that she should have picked you from the jump.

 

[Machete]

What I might change is the option to give Nicki money, and how that affects her life over that three-month gap. It'll likely be something like: MC gives Nicki the money, and she still winds up in a financial hole due to Brent, but she never gets involved with the local photographer, never ends up at the surprise porn shoot, and never arrives at MC's place tear-streaked and wearing a schoolgirl costume. Instead she just shows up having completed her 'work' in Florida, wanting to reconnect with MC and repay him the money he loaned her. I think it'd give some extra weight to the first big choice of the game, and it wouldn't require a ton of writing around it.

This way the character of Nicki gets a huge dumb down. Her story is very interesting the way it is and it perfectly work with the theme of the game. Is it about your previous announcement to have to purge the game from the most controversial elements? (fucking, bigot 2020's, they killed storytelling). Otherwise would you consider to obtain that path by an optional content filter at the beginning of the game?

 

[Unimatrix001]

I haven't enjoyed VNs in a long time really tbh BUT I like this one. Finally you have CHOICES from being nice all the way to being dark. Last time I enjoyed that was with 'Goons raid her'. And all the different paths one has are fun to explore and I don't even mind it doesn't have animated scenes. Usually I only go for fully animated stuff as well but here I don't even mind that!

Keep up the great artistic work and can't wait for Season 4 conclusion and Season 5!!

 

[NeonGhosts]

This way the character of Nicki gets a huge dumb down. Her story is very interesting the way it is and it perfectly work with the theme of the game. Is it about your previous announcement to have to purge the game from the most controversial elements? (fucking, bigot 2020's, they killed storytelling). Otherwise would you consider to obtain that path by an optional content filter at the beginning of the game?

Nah, this would be unrelated to the decision to split the game into SubStar/Patreon versions.

I'm not 100% sold on the idea of doing it, but I think it'd be useful from a storytelling perspective. Right now, Nicki winds up in deep trouble no matter what you do. I think that giving the player the option to make a tangible difference would illustrate the moral decisions = consequences nature of the story.

I haven't enjoyed VNs in a long time really tbh BUT I like this one. Finally you have CHOICES from being nice all the way to being dark. Last time I enjoyed that was with 'Goons raid her'. And all the different paths one has are fun to explore and I don't even mind it doesn't have animated scenes. Usually I only go for fully animated stuff as well but here I don't even mind that!

Keep up the great artistic work and can't wait for Season 4 conclusion and Season 5!!

Thanks so much!

 

[boobsrcool]

Next update will show Viola

 

[Tuatha Dé]

when the version came out I had this error, I let it go because I hope it will be fixed in the next version but I would like to know if someone corrected it.
This happens when you have to choose who can do the babysitting.

I'm sorry, but an uncaught exception occurred.

While running game code:
  File "game/script.rpy", line 34083, in script
    menu:
  File "game/script.rpy", line 34103, in <module>
    "Suggest Brittani." if brirel == 0 or brirel == 1 and bri_fear == False :
NameError: name 'bri_fear' is not defined

-- Full Traceback ------------------------------------------------------------

Full traceback:
  File "game/script.rpy", line 34083, in script
    menu:
  File "D:\Games\FriendsinNeed-pc\renpy\ast.py", line 1903, in execute
    choice = renpy.exports.menu(choices, self.set, args, kwargs, item_arguments)
  File "D:\Games\FriendsinNeed-pc\renpy\exports.py", line 976, in menu
    condition = renpy.python.py_eval(condition)
  File "D:\Games\FriendsinNeed-pc\renpy\python.py", line 1092, in py_eval
    return py_eval_bytecode(code, globals, locals)
  File "D:\Games\FriendsinNeed-pc\renpy\python.py", line 1085, in py_eval_bytecode
    return eval(bytecode, globals, locals)
  File "game/script.rpy", line 34103, in <module>
    "Suggest Brittani." if brirel == 0 or brirel == 1 and bri_fear == False :
NameError: name 'bri_fear' is not defined

Windows-10-10.0.22621 AMD64
Ren'Py 8.0.3.22090809
Friends in Need
Sun May 28 20:01:24 2023

 

[PHIL101-YYouPPHard]

Next update will show some path divergence for Viola, and possibly Nicki if you make certain choices. But, at this point the player's already made the choices that will cause those divergences. The Brittani and Gabby stuff will come later.



It's always been my plan to have Gabby change her hair up a lot as the game progresses. It's just kinda hard when the game takes place largely in one-day increments. But, I'm planning to have a brief time-jump soon, at which point I might give her some new hair. I don't know if I'll go with that one exactly, because I see Gabby's decision to embrace her natural/curly hair as a direct response to her break-up with Jamie. I'll likely put it to a poll on Patreon/SubStar.



Some element of that kind of has to stay in there - mainly that she disappears for a while with Vaughn/Florida Man. Because doing an untattooed Nicki for every image she appears in would be.. Tough.

What I might change is the option to give Nicki money, and how that affects her life over that three-month gap. It'll likely be something like: MC gives Nicki the money, and she still winds up in a financial hole due to Brent, but she never gets involved with the local photographer, never ends up at the surprise porn shoot, and never arrives at MC's place tear-streaked and wearing a schoolgirl costume. Instead she just shows up having completed her 'work' in Florida, wanting to reconnect with MC and repay him the money he loaned her. I think it'd give some extra weight to the first big choice of the game, and it wouldn't require a ton of writing around it.

That sounds cool to me and it makes sense; don't know why others don't like it. I also agree that it's nice to have big decisions like that make a tangible difference.

Also, personal opinion that no one asked for, I love Gabbi with natural hair I'm not trying to sound offensive, but I've always thought black girls with (fake) white girl hair look kinda odd, especially blonde.

 

[TigerWolfe]

when the version came out I had this error, I let it go because I hope it will be fixed in the next version but I would like to know if someone corrected it.
This happens when you have to choose who can do the babysitting.

I'm sorry, but an uncaught exception occurred.

While running game code:
  File "game/script.rpy", line 34083, in script
    menu:
  File "game/script.rpy", line 34103, in <module>
    "Suggest Brittani." if brirel == 0 or brirel == 1 and bri_fear == False :
NameError: name 'bri_fear' is not defined

-- Full Traceback ------------------------------------------------------------

Full traceback:
  File "game/script.rpy", line 34083, in script
    menu:
  File "D:\Games\FriendsinNeed-pc\renpy\ast.py", line 1903, in execute
    choice = renpy.exports.menu(choices, self.set, args, kwargs, item_arguments)
  File "D:\Games\FriendsinNeed-pc\renpy\exports.py", line 976, in menu
    condition = renpy.python.py_eval(condition)
  File "D:\Games\FriendsinNeed-pc\renpy\python.py", line 1092, in py_eval
    return py_eval_bytecode(code, globals, locals)
  File "D:\Games\FriendsinNeed-pc\renpy\python.py", line 1085, in py_eval_bytecode
    return eval(bytecode, globals, locals)
  File "game/script.rpy", line 34103, in <module>
    "Suggest Brittani." if brirel == 0 or brirel == 1 and bri_fear == False :
NameError: name 'bri_fear' is not defined

Windows-10-10.0.22621 AMD64
Ren'Py 8.0.3.22090809
Friends in Need
Sun May 28 20:01:24 2023

Try using search for that variable in question... It's been discussed ad nauseum here.

 

[Master of Puppets]

I'm not 100% sold on the idea of doing it, but I think it'd be useful from a storytelling perspective. Right now, Nicki winds up in deep trouble no matter what you do. I think that giving the player the option to make a tangible difference would illustrate the moral decisions = consequences nature of the story.

I think that her ending up in trouble no matter what you do should really underline for him that you don't solve problems just by throwing a pile of cash at them, and that he has to be smarter than that, like he was saying later on how he has to be careful what he puts his money into.

 

[NebulousShooter]

Well, i want finally meet Cassie, more time for Carolina and Viola.
Beside them, Brittani and Ashe all the way.

How did you manage to hack my brain?