VN Ren'Py It's Just a Game [v0.3.2] [DigiDec]

[Only1P]

Also I wanna add, that if in fact that bold expression of a character that basically boils to down to be summed up by one adjective is because Qai/Izzi is computing their thought to be as binary as possible, (We already got a glimpse of that at the end of act 1) than youre a fucking genius, and I'll feel the need to bow in my room in front of my screen and pray that nobody catches me in the act.
But we cant know until further down the line, and honestly I prefer not knowing because I LOOOOVE PONDERING.
But if it is in fact the plan, I just hope that as the MC we'll have the opportunity to oppose that.
Im not projecting, No way..

 

[gregers]

I get what you're saying, and have a hopeful hypothesis for how your misgivings might be remedied in the future.
Now that the MC's memory has been unlocked, I'm hoping that he can work with Qai to prevent Izzi from messing with his head again. I don't think Qai will give up that privilege quite so easily for herself any time soon, but she is designed and programmed to aid or help the MC, even if that is left up to her interpretation a bit more than the MC would like.

We'll just have to wait and see, after all it's still early, and I won't take it too seriously. I mean, it's just a game.

As long as Qai is running, the MC's reality exists at its whim. The only way the MC regains any real control of his life is if Qai is shut down; I think the end of the last episode proved that conclusively. And I doubt the dev (not reading their mind) has much interest in that happening, as that would presumably also shut down the impetus driving the corruption etc.

 

[MadfireMonkey]

Two things -

Sara's new hair has been picked and to the surprise of almost nobody, she's keeping the buns. The actual final version might end up being a different color, possibly straight black, maybe a brighter purple, or maybe some other random color I pick out of a hat. For now, here's the winning style and some "hair down" variants I'll be using.

Spoiler

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Other thing. This is really more directed to my paid supporters but after some of the reactions I've seen to a recent release of a different game, I'm sharing this with everyone. Since this upcoming portion of the game is structured a little differently I had this brilliant idea that I would try breaking it into chunks for beta testing before wrapping up the whole thing. That was dumb idea. It was just super inefficient and broke my typical work flow too much. So, I'm shelving that plan and I'm buckling down to finish this update my normal way, and hopefully make up for any lost time. As an apology, I did some bonus-y/slightly spoiler-y renders of Sara with her new hair.

Spoiler

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That's all, but if anyone's got questions I'm happy to answer them.

Her new hair looks really nice

 

[RandomGuy99]

Many players are not happy with MC because they are projecting themselves as MC. Players are somewhat omniscient so when we see MC not doing anything/passive/making stupid decision; we come to conclusion he is dumb/coward/<insert your interpretation.

But i will say that is the most realistic aspect of this game, do you know the number of humans actually goes on with life on autopilot/braindead/lack awareness/avoiding reality ? I would a say a high percentage.

Heard the term: Common Sense is not common ? Hindsight is 20/20
But also yes, i agree the MC is lackadaisical in finding whats happening. Him being somewhat of a tech specialist should have high intelligence and not be running on autopilot mode. But it's still the prologue so i'll cut the dev some slack. Also some some MC in stories does not have "plot armor" or "protagonist aura". If anyone have read the classic Greek mythologies stories, some MC are dumb and do stupid stuff as a cautionary tale. So maybe this MC goes under that category? Who knows ?

DigiDec - Does any path that the MC goes full retard or goes on wearing a hero cape? It will be good if there are some bad endings before the final chapters if players make dumb decisions.

 

[DigiDec]

Many players are not happy with MC because they are projecting themselves as MC. Players are somewhat omniscient so when we see MC not doing anything/passive/making stupid decision; we come to conclusion he is dumb/coward/<insert your interpretation.

But i will say that is the most realistic aspect of this game, do you know the number of humans actually goes on with life on autopilot/braindead/lack awareness/avoiding reality ? I would a say a high percentage.

Heard the term: Common Sense is not common ? Hindsight is 20/20
But also yes, i agree the MC is lackadaisical in finding whats happening. Him being somewhat of a tech specialist should have high intelligence and not be running on autopilot mode. But it's still the prologue so i'll cut the dev some slack. Also some some MC in stories does not have "plot armor" or "protagonist aura". If anyone have read the classic Greek mythologies stories, some MC are dumb and do stupid stuff as a cautionary tale. So maybe this MC goes under that category? Who knows ?

DigiDec - Does any path that the MC goes full retard or goes on wearing a hero cape? It will be good if there are some bad endings before the final chapters if players make dumb decisions.

I struggled a lot with how much stuff I wanted to show that was outside the MC's perspective. The more of it I show the more it influences the player's idea of how the MC should react or what they would do.

The MC is/was some combination of oblivious/unconcerned/accepting of the red flags around him. He's been playing the part of The Fool.

Spoiler

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I believe that he is not behaving especially stupid and/or passive but rather being stupid and/or passive in the banal ways that all of us are stupid and/or passive.

Maybe I just have a lower opinion of people than most players.

But if your story is going to deal with the unseen dangers/unintended consequences of technology you generally have to choose between presenting the protagonist (initially) as equally unaware as everyone else or having them be a bit of the Cassandra archetype where they are cursed to know the truth but never be believed. Obviously, you can land somewhere in the middle of fully blind and fully prescient, or have them shift from one to the other, but those are sort of the two broad paths to take.

I almost included some dead-end bad-end choices in the initial release. I had thought about doing something like that during the first conversation with Ness but I think stuff like that generally works better in games that are either more focused on some type of gameplay mechanic or just sillier in nature. While I don't think there will be a Simple Jack ending, and I don't have a firm idea of how many endings there will be, some of the endings I have planned could be interpreted as "good" or "bad" depending on your perspective. For the more wholesome players, there will be some paths that aren't about him reveling in depravity and for my degenerate players there will be some paths that are all about reveling in depravity.

 

[Dr. Mick]

I struggled a lot with how much stuff I wanted to show that was outside the MC's perspective. The more of it I show the more it influences the player's idea of how the MC should react or what they would do.

The MC is/was some combination of oblivious/unconcerned/accepting of the red flags around him. He's been playing the part of The Fool.

Spoiler

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I believe that he is not behaving especially stupid and/or passive but rather being stupid and/or passive in the banal ways that all of us are stupid and/or passive.

Maybe I just have a lower opinion of people than most players.

But if your story is going to deal with the unseen dangers/unintended consequences of technology you generally have to choose between presenting the protagonist (initially) as equally unaware as everyone else or having them be a bit of the Cassandra archetype where they are cursed to know the truth but never be believed. Obviously, you can land somewhere in the middle of fully blind and fully prescient, or have them shift from one to the other, but those are sort of the two broad paths to take.

I almost included some dead-end bad-end choices in the initial release. I had thought about doing something like that during the first conversation with Ness but I think stuff like that generally works better in games that are either more focused on some type of gameplay mechanic or just sillier in nature. While I don't think there will be a Simple Jack ending, and I don't have a firm idea of how many endings there will be, some of the endings I have planned could be interpreted as "good" or "bad" depending on your perspective. For the more wholesome players, there will be some paths that aren't about him reveling in depravity and for my degenerate players there will be some paths that are all about reveling in depravity.

I think part of the dichotomy that people are struggling with is perception.
In other words, people are trying to figure out who the narrator is that's actually telling the story.

Most of the story seems to be from the MC's point of view. However there are some third-person scenes littered throughout.
With perspectives such as first person or second person you are privy to everything that the MC knows, sees, and does directly from their PoV. In third-person omniscient the narrator knows everything that goes on, regardless of whether the MC does or not.

With this story, you see things both from the MC's PoV and from outside of them as well. Because while we do see most of the narrative from the MC's perspective, we also have a third-party look at the MC, and there are moments where we see scenes the MC isn't a part of or doesn't observe.
So, considering what we've seen so far, we're left with either mixed narration, which is a combination of the other narrative styles, or unreliable narration, where crucial parts of the story are purposely withheld in order to deliberately confuse the audience.
We've seen a combination of different narrative styles, both second person and third person, yet much of what is going on behind the scenes is still unknown to us. Leading me to believe that we may be at the mercy of an unreliable narrator, who is purposely keeping us in the dark about some of what's going on, so it will be more impactful when revealed later.

Since I like the way it colors the story's perspective, I've been looking at it as though we are watching our own version of a sim. We see things based mostly around the MC, with glimpses that give us other details. I believe what we see is Qai presenting what happened, telling us the story to bring us to the conclusion we are working toward, almost as though it's an origin story or a history.
I could be way off, it's just the feeling I get, and unless something happens to refute this it's how I'm choosing to reconcile what I see.

 

[Buletti]

I struggled a lot with how much stuff I wanted to show that was outside the MC's perspective. The more of it I show the more it influences the player's idea of how the MC should react or what they would do.

The MC is/was some combination of oblivious/unconcerned/accepting of the red flags around him. He's been playing the part of The Fool.

Spoiler

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I believe that he is not behaving especially stupid and/or passive but rather being stupid and/or passive in the banal ways that all of us are stupid and/or passive.

Maybe I just have a lower opinion of people than most players.

But if your story is going to deal with the unseen dangers/unintended consequences of technology you generally have to choose between presenting the protagonist (initially) as equally unaware as everyone else or having them be a bit of the Cassandra archetype where they are cursed to know the truth but never be believed. Obviously, you can land somewhere in the middle of fully blind and fully prescient, or have them shift from one to the other, but those are sort of the two broad paths to take.

I almost included some dead-end bad-end choices in the initial release. I had thought about doing something like that during the first conversation with Ness but I think stuff like that generally works better in games that are either more focused on some type of gameplay mechanic or just sillier in nature. While I don't think there will be a Simple Jack ending, and I don't have a firm idea of how many endings there will be, some of the endings I have planned could be interpreted as "good" or "bad" depending on your perspective. For the more wholesome players, there will be some paths that aren't about him reveling in depravity and for my degenerate players there will be some paths that are all about reveling in depravity.

Imho everything is perfectly fine storywise. What I have seen so far is good as a narration and certainly very good for a porn game.

Maybe I am just too simple minded but I definately don't want to have some overcomplex Mambo Jambo that distracts or takes attention away from the porn. I think here we have a good compromise of compelling story and porn.

(Except for the first scene with Izzy, Zoe and pony that ended before it startet )

And my guess would be that a lot of people would not see changes in their environment if they are Not specifically looking for it. A good story is always a condensed form of reality shaped by the narrator.

If it tries to Copy too much reality it gets tedious or boring.

 

[TigerWolfe]

Maybe I just have a lower opinion of people than most players.

Most players self insert and have a much higher opinion of themselves than reality.

 

[jI11jaCksjAkk]

There seems to be a somewhat widely shared attitude that not immediately and directly confronting something is a sign of weakness or submission.

Not that widely - just LOUDLY. The people that have that opinion are usually in the overlapping part of the Venn-Diagram with the circle that represents 'Low IQ people.' Only the kind of people that are fully entertained by flashing lights and loud noises never assess a situation to determine (a) which course of action is best now and (b) which might have the worst consequences later on and then try and figure out the best balance of (a) and (b).

All that is to say: don't waste time listening to the kind of posters who loudly belittle any thoughtful reaction with perjorative terms (i.e., not just stating their opinion but actively and pre-emptively insulting differing opinions. Because they are too simple to use their brains they feel threatened by those who do and feel a compusion to belittle those smarter people as a defense mechanism. God Forbid we should ever think before we act, right?

 

[DigiDec]

Not that widely - just LOUDLY. The people that have that opinion are usually in the overlapping part of the Venn-Diagram with the circle that represents 'Low IQ people.' Only the kind of people that are fully entertained by flashing lights and loud noises never assess a situation to determine (a) which course of action is best now and (b) which might have the worst consequences later on and then try and figure out the best balance of (a) and (b).

All that is to say: don't waste time listening to the kind of posters who loudly belittle any thoughtful reaction with perjorative terms (i.e., not just stating their opinion but actively and pre-emptively insulting differing opinions. Because they are too simple to use their brains they feel threatened by those who do and feel a compusion to belittle those smarter people as a defense mechanism. God Forbid we should ever think before we act, right?

Maybe a little more inflammatory than I would've put it but I think we are of similar minds.

I also don't think the players who expect the MC to be quicker to confront people/things actually behave that way in real life. If the "realistic" or "expected" response was to default toward challenging everyone who does something questionable or directly and openly addressing all of our concerns I'm pretty sure the world would look a lot different than it does.

Some of you mentioned the "self-insert" aspect and I agree that contributes to how some players want/expect the MC to behave. I also think it's a product of the medium. If we averaged together the MC from all the AVNs on this site, even if we exclude the ones with magic or superpowers, we'd probably end up with someone very smart, hyper-athletic, incredibly attractive, and reasonably charismatic. With a 10-inch cock. Even in some of the more "grounded" and "serious" AVNs the MC is often a very idealized version of a man.

More specifically about this game and this MC, I'm not in any rush to change things. If it is a persistent complaint that continues to pop up even as we get further into the story, I'll reconsider.

 

[gregers]

If we averaged together the MC from all the AVNs on this site, even if we exclude the ones with magic or superpowers, we'd probably end up with someone very smart, hyper-athletic, incredibly attractive, and reasonably charismatic. With a 10-inch cock.

... and he'd look like a twelve-year-old with a mum who looks in her mid-twenties.

If it is a persistent complaint that continues to pop up even as we get further into the story, I'll reconsider.

So I just need to badger the dev more. Gotcha, I'll make a note of it.

 

[RandomGuy99]

Maybe a little more inflammatory than I would've put it but I think we are of similar minds.

I also don't think the players who expect the MC to be quicker to confront people/things actually behave that way in real life. If the "realistic" or "expected" response was to default toward challenging everyone who does something questionable or directly and openly addressing all of our concerns I'm pretty sure the world would look a lot different than it does.

Some of you mentioned the "self-insert" aspect and I agree that contributes to how some players want/expect the MC to behave. I also think it's a product of the medium. If we averaged together the MC from all the AVNs on this site, even if we exclude the ones with magic or superpowers, we'd probably end up with someone very smart, hyper-athletic, incredibly attractive, and reasonably charismatic. With a 10-inch cock. Even in some of the more "grounded" and "serious" AVNs the MC is often a very idealized version of a man.

More specifically about this game and this MC, I'm not in any rush to change things. If it is a persistent complaint that continues to pop up even as we get further into the story, I'll reconsider.

i think first you need establish that MC is an unreliable narrator so that whatever MC see in his POV may not be real. This gives you wiggle room in the story and manage the perception of the players. Second, in terms of confronting people & things. In real life, it depends on context and situation. In this scenario, they are MC's family and GF respectively. So i am in the camp that, normal human would be more likely to confront them then say some colleagues, friends or acquaintances. It's human nature to care about people close to them. Anyway, hope to see 0.4 soon. It seems the chapter is more fun since it's mixture of sim and reality

 

[PickerLewd]

I don't really understand the story at the moment .

Ness doesn't seem to be the main villain as it seemed at the beginning, maybe her mother or the enemy Chinese family is more dangerous.

But the serious thing is the damage the AI (Qai or something like that) is doing to the family, the mother starts a slow but steady path to Bimboland, the sister masturbates all the time when she was a normal girl at the beginning and the girlfriend is becomes a cuckqueen bit by bit .

Spoiler: Last scene I played

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Maybe it's the AI that the company uses and not Qai, I don't know, but it manipulates the behaviour and perception of the whole MC's family.

I'll see how this continues tomorrow, but it's the first adult game I've played where the danger seems to be an artificial entity .

 

[DigiDec]

I don't really understand the story at the moment .

Ness doesn't seem to be the main villain as it seemed at the beginning, maybe her mother or the enemy Chinese family is more dangerous.

But the serious thing is the damage the AI (Qai or something like that) is doing to the family, the mother starts a slow but steady path to Bimboland, the sister masturbates all the time when she was a normal girl at the beginning and the girlfriend is becomes a cuckqueen bit by bit .

Spoiler: Last scene I played

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Maybe it's the AI that the company uses and not Qai, I don't know, but it manipulates the behaviour and perception of the whole MC's family.

I'll see how this continues tomorrow, but it's the first adult game I've played where the danger seems to be an artificial entity .

I hope you are at least enjoying it so far, and I'm excited to hear what you think once you finish up the current content. It ends on an incredibly straightforward note that definitely does not raise any additional questions...

 

[PickerLewd]

I hope you are at least enjoying it so far, and I'm excited to hear what you think once you finish up the current content. It ends on an incredibly straightforward note that definitely does not raise any additional questions...

I already have a lot of questions, so please no more .

As for whether I'm enjoying it, mmm, I think I am, It's as if I'm reading a book, even though I made the difficult decision at the beginning to follow a path of fidelity with the girlfriend (that's why I'm surprised by her change), but it's very hard to resist some choices, like Stella .

 

[Dr. Mick]

I don't really understand the story at the moment .
Ness doesn't seem to be the main villain as it seemed at the beginning, maybe her mother or the enemy Chinese family is more dangerous.
But the serious thing is the damage the AI (Qai or something like that) is doing to the family, the mother starts a slow but steady path to Bimboland, the sister masturbates all the time when she was a normal girl at the beginning and the girlfriend is becomes a cuckqueen bit by bit .

Spoiler: Last scene I played

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Maybe it's the AI that the company uses and not Qai, I don't know, but it manipulates the behaviour and perception of the whole MC's family.
I'll see how this continues tomorrow, but it's the first adult game I've played where the danger seems to be an artificial entity .

Not to add to your confusion, but from where you indicated you've ended you just met the villain.
She showed up in your sim sandbox, on a throne, and blocked the memory of meeting her right after inserting the idea about the new implant.

As for whether I'm enjoying it, mmm, I think I am, It's as if I'm reading a book, even though I made the difficult decision at the beginning to follow a path of fidelity with the girlfriend (that's why I'm surprised by her change), but it's very hard to resist some choices, like Stella .

You'll see the benefit of being faithful to Nat quite soon That is assuming you are okay with her being a cuckquean.
Though I can understand the struggle, I found it worth it (mostly ) especially for the exclusive scene you earn.
After this conversation with Nat, there's upcoming encounters, one with Stella, that let you indulge, and you can do so guilt-free since Nat shows she's onboard with you having fun with other girls. Again, as long as you're okay with Nat being a cuckquean; it certainly opens up a bevy of possibilities in the future.

 

[jI11jaCksjAkk]

Maybe a little more inflammatory than I would've put it

EDIT:
Also, does anyone have any info on if the OP-linked mod will ever be updated? Modder has not been on F95 in over 3 weeks, but maybe someone knows them or sees them posting in another place??

 

[LowLevelLesser]

Ah yes, not playing along with a Izzi's bullshit is somehow "gross" and "boring" to her. Imagine if someone broke into your house and had a weapon sitting in their lap and then tried to have any sort of discourse with you; you'd just be like "WHO ARE YOU AND WHY ARE YOU IN MY HOUSE?!" Doesn't sound so "gross" and "boring" now does it?

Izzi's social logic is as busted as she is twisted.

 

[DigiDec]

Ah yes, not playing along with a Izzi's bullshit is somehow "gross" and "boring" to her. Imagine if someone broke into your house and had a weapon sitting in their lap and then tried to have any sort of discourse with you; you'd just be like "WHO ARE YOU AND WHY ARE YOU IN MY HOUSE?!" Doesn't sound so "gross" and "boring" now does it?

Izzi's social logic is as busted as she is twisted.

You can fix her...

maybe.

 

[Dr. Mick]

You can fix her...

maybe.

But do you actually want to...

or would you rather teach her a lesson?