VN Ren'Py Game Dev Journal: Inner Demons (Ch 4 progress)

[GrayTShirt]

My name is GrayTShirt and I'm starting a new game. It's my first one and everything is brand new to me. While updating this thread I'll be sharing my thoughts, progress, areas needing improvement, and overall feeling of designing something from scratch. This includes learning new things in Daz3D, whatever game engine I finally decide to use, and possibly Blender for animation or improved visuals.

This is all highly ambitious for me as I haven't done anything of this scale for a while. My hope is that by keeping a visual journal I can keep to a pattern of updates that will inspire me to continue. I'll be sharing script outlines, screenshots of work, new ideas, and things I need to learn.

Also, I won't be setting up any Patreon or SubStar accounts. My full time job keeps me pretty busy and drained. I don't want to feel burned out too quickly by starting something there is a good possibility I can't finish. This project is something that is way out-of-the-ordinary for me and an idea I had kicking around for a while.

So now, I bring you:
Journal of a New Game Developer.

Next Update: Story outline, first couple of summaries, and thoughts.

 

[GrayTShirt]

The story takes place in a fantasy setting. Castles, villages, smokey battlefields, dungeons, demon camps. Story involves a lot of fighting, struggle, and perseverance. Story is focused on a man fighting for his village and making sure everyone around him is taken care of.

Prologue:
Backstory (warring factions, demons)
Castle/Grand Royals introduction
Village introduction
Main Character (MC) introduction
MC family business introduction

Ch 1:
MC 2 days prior to conscription
MC departure for training

Ch 2:
MC training
MC return home before deployment
MC visit with family/friends
Cut scene- Bloodied face of MC

Ch 3:
MC fighting demon army
MC capture
MC/prisoners travel to enemy camp

Ch 4:
MC imprisonment
NPC introduction
Enemy, spirit guide
Special power introduction/recruitment explanation
Demon camp introduction
Quest introduction
Captives introduction

Ch 5:
Daytime cycle begins
MC Demon Camp Quest begins
Visits/interrogation of MC begins
MC/NPC relationships begin

Ch 6:
MC village side story begins
News and current events cryer begins
Family/friends reactions

Ch 7:
MC Demon Camp Quest ends
MC/NPC relationships end
MC/prisoners revenge begins
MC/prisoners revenge ends
MC/prisoners leave camp
MC returns home

Ch 8:
MC recovery in home begins
MC relationships begin
NPC introductions
MC family business quest begins
MC recovery ends
MC misc quests begin
Visits from friends/prisoners begin

Ch 9:
Castle storyline begins
Royals, Clergy introduction
MC audience with Royals, Clergy
MC castle quests begin
MC family business quest continues
MC relationships continue

Ch 10:
Castle quests end
MC family business quest ends
MC misc quests end
Culmination of quests and relationships calculated
Conclusion of story

This was the basic outline I came up with for the game. It is still untitled though. I wanted to get major plot points figured out before working on summaries. I have ideas on what scenes look like and feelings I want to convey with each chapter. It's a pretty ambitious project so far, probably more than a beginner should be focusing on. Go big or go home I guess.

 

[GrayTShirt]

Prologue summary:
Castle nation at war with enemy, then 10 years later a hellgate opens. Demons/monsters spill out and start to destroy everything. Nations unite to fight demon army. Villagers are conscripted into service. By grand royal decree, quotas of slain demons/monsters are required for promotions or retirement, but length of service is typically 4 years. Some villagers believe conspiracy that the grand royal family and high clergy are demons since they never fight or refuse to mount large attacks on demon camps.

The MC's village is under the protection of a castle that has united with the grand royals main nation. Medium sized, content and satisfied population with no grievance against the castle royals. Conscripts are usually sent to border posts to guard their lands.
MC is a man who is 2 days away from leaving for training. His family runs several businesses: a tavern, bathhouse, farm, and secret safehouse for nation spies. MC is a bouncer in the tavern. He trains to fight and keep order to better prepare him for conscripted service.

MC family includes mother (M,runs tavern, dancer), sister (S, bartender), brother (B, in army), father (F, in army with brother), grandmother (GM, runs bathhouse, helps bartend), aunt (A, spy network) and cousin (C, spy network, uncle died in demon attack). MC friends include girlfriend (GF, maid), tavern coworkers, farm workers.

Ch 1 summary:
Sounds of grunts before seeing MC doing squats with a log on his shoulders. He is working out in a barn, various logs and rocks used for training. Farm workers are corralling sheep and horses, hay bales being tossed. Female farmhand walks into barn, compliments MC. MC finishes workout, heads to bathhouse. Meets GF at entrance. Both greet MC GM at front counter. Handed towels and walk to large bath. GM cleared out bath so MC and GF can be alone. GM spies on them. MC and GF finish and leave. GM watches them leave. MC and GF go to tavern. S bartending. MC and GF go to bar. S tells them M is about to get on stage to dance. M dance. GF drinks, MC works. MC keeps people from getting on stage. M finishes and thanks MC with a kiss on the head before leaving. Crowd cheers M. M changes and goes behind bar to talk and serve drinks. MC walks around tavern until close. MC helps clean before closing up with M and S. GF goes home. MC, M, and S go home.

Next day. MC wakes up, goes to common room. Sees M awake, greets MC. M tells MC to rest today since he leaves for training tomorrow. Asks MC to sit and talk, discuss B and F in army. GM knocks on door, enters. MC leaves for a moment. GM talks with M about business. MC returns. GM leaves. Soldier knocks on door, asks MC to go to chapel for pre-training blessing. MC leaves, M sits thinking about what GM said. MC arrives at chapel with a dozen other people. Priest and nun give blessing. MC leaves, goes to tavern to open. S arrives to help. MC and S talk about training and service. S will miss working with MC. Tavern opens, MC walks around. M begins dancing, MC pulls people off stage. M stares at MC, falls off stage. MC catches her then helps her to the back. M leaves, M changes. GF arrives at bar. GM arrives at bar. M arrives and goes behind bar. GM gets on stage and toasts MC and others for leaving in the morning for training. Everyone cheers. Everyone leaves. MC, S, GF clean bar. GM leaves with M. MC, GF and S close bar and leave. GF goes home. GM talks with M on the walk home. MC greets GM and M on arrival. MC kisses M and GM good night and goes to sleep. GM hugs M, leaves. M lays in bed, unable to sleep wondering if MC will be okay.

Next day. M wakes MC up, brings food on tray. M reminds MC he leaves for training today. MC says it is only a couple months then he will be back to visit before going to his post. M says she will still miss him, kisses M on forehead. M stands and leaves room. MC finishes breakfast, gets dressed, leaves room. M grabs his bag in the common room. S is waiting for him. S hugs MC tightly, says she will miss him too. M tells MC to be careful. MC leaves home for training.

Thoughts:
I'm torn between completing the remaining summaries before working on the visual designs. I have basic Daz models made of some of the cast, but the environments and props are the big time-spender right now. Atmospherics play a big part in how I envision this story unfolding.

GrayTShirt

Next update: Basic character models.

 

[GrayTShirt]

Very basic test shots of MC, M, GM, GF. I was just working on some basic models before doing some serious fine-tuning. I was able to edit some of the clothing, but there's more to do. Once I get all that taken care of, I'll start working on the nudes, and then some poses.
GrayTshirt

 

[hiya02]

Sounds very ambitious if it's your first game. I wish you luck with your game!

 

[GrayTShirt]

Some test poses. I'm working on details like finger placement and learning about collisions.

 

[GrayTShirt]

Working on environments and part of the open world map. Learning about lighting, camera angles, building a background. I included some screenshots to kind of show what my screen looks like while working. I was trying to think about what I wanted an open world map to look like, and came up with just making one with some modular medieval buildings, castle walls, highlands terrain. Still not happy with the lighting though.
Need to work on a cathedral, castle, town square (You can kind of see where I started with the open world map and the big white tree). Then start working on the details of the buildings like adding some blacksmithing elements to the kiln, some fenced in areas and more accessories for the stable. Probably should work on some farmland also.
And even after all of that, start to work on interiors. Bedrooms, bathhouse, tavern, cathedral, castle, who knows.
Till next time,
GrayTShirt

 

[GrayTShirt]

Did some lewds as a break. If you want some idea of how it can sometimes look goofy pre-render, then check out one of the files below.

 

[GrayTShirt]

Didn't like how the town map was shaping up, thought I needed to redo it. Wanted to do some opening prologue battlefield stuff also. Probably needs a few more soldiers though. Tried out the noise reducer in the render menu, made the town look like a toy town. Need to learn about render settings.
GrayTShirt

 

[GrayTShirt]

I'm still not happy how the town map is coming along. It still looks cartoony, and I can't blame the rendering.
I came across this post:

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(Link is to page 7, but the entire post is educational).
This post is all about creating new cities from the dirt to the sky. It's geared towards the more contemporary, but if you scroll down about half way it starts discussing medieval towns. It even talks about adding weather effects which I didn't even think about. Certainly adds a new element to my story.
So I'm starting to look into these assets. If anything, it'll help inspire me to come up with my own layout.

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The bedroom image is already good. That asset comes with so many presets like lighting, render settings, cameras, even a day or night option.

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And it's on sale right now.

 

[GrayTShirt]

A few tips.
1. I'm still trying to figure out if I want to make a story with porn elements, or a porn with story elements. This will affect how much I put into some of these "in between moneyshots" story boards.

2. Break up the monotony of all of the in between stuff with the occasional lewd stuff. Even if this becomes a porn with story elements, I still need to work on the story stuff. The lewds I did earlier didn't take much time at all.

3. Figure out how you want your characters to actually look, especially if you're stuck on what the dude's dick needs to look like. I'm not gay, but I've stared at the MC's cock for so long it's becoming insane. I'm still try to decide between dicktator or XY male genitals. The test shots are dicktator, but only because there's a ton of pre-set poses available for it. Not happy with the shell props for dicktator though, one small mistake and your asset vanishes or just gives you a gray shell that you have to redo.

4. Probably the big one: purchase or pirate.

Spoiler: My thoughts.

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5. Know how you want to the story to go and how it will look in your head. I posted an outline earlier, with a summary of the first 2 parts. Whether I'll ever be good enough to do it is another matter. Even the prologue has a massive battle explained, about nations fighting nations and then a shit ton of demons. All I've learned to do is put 12 gen8males in 2 different suits of armor with some preset poses into the highlands environment with preset lighting and HDRI ground mist. It's not what's in my head, but it's a good start I think.

6. This will take a long time if you're truly passionate about it. Like the genital comment, I still don't know what to do. I spent literally 10 hours starting at his balls trying to decide if they should be asymmetrical, low-hanging fruit, hung like a horse or just average (not going to happen...), hairy or not. The females were easy. I just used breastacular and golden palace and I was good. But there's something about a nice looking dick to really tie the lewdness together. If I'm spending that much time something like that, then imagine how much time I'm going to spend on the story itself, much less the quality of it.

7. Learn as you go. If there's something you want to do, look into it.

8. Know how your story will end. I've got a bunch of niches planned for my game, but I'm not sure how to write them without having a goal for each one.

That's all I got. I hope for the couple people who read this might learn something from my thoughts.
Till then,
GrayTShirt

 

[Lussuria]

Been an enjoyable thread, keep up the hard work.

 

[GrayTShirt]

Decided to have a lewd day. Tried out a few things. Dicktator doesn't like close-ups too much, especially in HD; need to look into that. The poses are presets from a couple different sets, but they need to be fine tuned to look right. Stuck with the medieval bedroom since it had the best lighting and overall atmosphere. I had Golden Palace and Breastacular on the female, but for some reason whenever I tried to move her, the breasts would stay still and "stretch/tear" across the screen. And I had collisions on for golden palace, and it did the same thing. A couple things to look into. So I just removed them and used the regular breast morphs and Victoria 8 New Gens. Plus, I really need to work this guy's balls.
As far as the rendering itself, I want to learn more about denoising (sp?) images and better portraiture.
Till then,
GrayTshirt

 

[GrayTShirt]

So, this was what I meant by the "stretch/tear" of the gens. Pretty sure it has something to do with a test belly dance animation I wanted to try. My key frames went insane. Trying out the NG8V asset now. Also looking into the dForce breast add-on to see if I can get some naturally-laying breasts when the G8Fs are in different positions. (No progress pictures yet on that.)

 

[GrayTShirt]

I'm trying to work on a new map, but it's starting to frustrate me. I have a vivid idea on how it should look, just having problems interpreting it into Daz. So, I decided to just do another lewd. Learned a couple things about joint bending and some smoothing that needs to happen. I didn't notice it until I start moving the camera around for some more angles. You can see the difference between "Screwy-joints" and "coupletest010". Still need to watch for clipping and collisions.
These aren't full renders either. I interrupted them to quickly get them out.
Tomorrow though... environments and maps!

 

[GrayTShirt]

Finally!!!!!!
I have a town map layout I like! It's bare bones right now. Still needs some props, trees, now-crowd billboards, a couple more specialized buildings, and some kind of way of making the town itself blend in more with the background.

 

[osanaiko]

I'm definitely enjoying reading about your journey.

I've previously spent some time trying to make town/street scene with a dirt road and found that one thing that helped was to add some structure to the roads so they are not just flat planes. Nothing created "naturally" in a medieval village will be perfectly straight or aligned to a grid.

This process involved:

1. exporting the layout of the buildings in the relevant areas (if you find the import etc is too slow, in Daz it's possible to replace the complex buildings with primitive cubes of the correct size and position)
2. import to blender
3. making a series of large flat grid meshes in blender, then editing the geometry to add ruts, drain ditches and potholes. (positioning the joins between the ground objects, or hiding them behind other props is important to get right as they are often very obvious)
4. finding and adding large scale texture maps of dusty surfaces and adding to the render in blender
5. painting extract details (staining etc in the puddles, ruts) onto the texturemaps
6. then reimporting back to daz and using the hand painted texture in an iray material

Another big help is to scatter lots of props around, especially at places where otherwise there is a sharp edge border between objects, as it hides the joins.

Here is the result:

 

[GrayTShirt]

I'm definitely enjoying reading about your journey.

I've previously spent some time trying to make town/street scene with a dirt road and found that one thing that helped was to add some structure to the roads so they are not just flat planes. Nothing created "naturally" in a medieval village will be perfectly straight or aligned to a grid.

This process involved:

1. exporting the layout of the buildings in the relevant areas (if you find the import etc is too slow, in Daz it's possible to replace the complex buildings with primitive cubes of the correct size and position)
2. import to blender
3. making a series of large flat grid meshes in blender, then editing the geometry to add ruts, drain ditches and potholes. (positioning the joins between the ground objects, or hiding them behind other props is important to get right as they are often very obvious)
4. finding and adding large scale texture maps of dusty surfaces and adding to the render in blender
5. painting extract details (staining etc in the puddles, ruts) onto the texturemaps
6. then reimporting back to daz and using the hand painted texture in an iray material

Another big help is to scatter lots of props around, especially at places where otherwise there is a sharp edge border between objects, as it hides the joins.

Here is the result:

View attachment 802609

That is amazing! I'm definitely going to be doing that then. I was wondering what I could do to make it more "characterful". Putting in some jutted streets from wagon/cart use, maybe some potholes or cracked and uneven surfaces would be the answer. Thank you so much for this. I was originally going to learn Blender for some animation stuff, but if I can use it to also improve my non-animated environments then that's even better.
Thank you again! Your scene looks awesome!

 

[GrayTShirt]

So now I'm stuck on another idea. Widescreen 16:9 v. Anamorphic 2.35:1. Do I go for the more used aspect ration, or do I go for something more cinematic. The images included are rendered in the final quality. I've been toying with the anamorphic since any subtitles can be done below the image.
GrayTShirt

 

[hiya02]

Go for the more popular widescreen. If any subtitles are needed, they can always be shown over the image anyway.... And you should allow the player to toggle the titles on/off as they wish