VN Ren'Py It's Just a Game [v0.4.1] [DigiDec]

[DigiDec]

Some more orc Ness work-in-progress stuff for you tusk-loving degenerates!

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Let me know which you think works best, or which parts work/don't.

 

[Hungover00]

Some more orc Ness work-in-progress stuff for you tusk-loving degenerates!

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Let me know which you think works best, or which parts work/don't.

2, 3, 4, 1.

 

[Buletti]

If there have to be monsters and orcs, at least give them huge tits! Unhuman proportions are the only advantage to them over real humans imho.

Thanks for sharing so much of your thoughts and progress mate!

 

[Euron13]

Some more orc Ness work-in-progress stuff for you tusk-loving degenerates!

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Let me know which you think works best, or which parts work/don't.

3's definitely the best imo

 

[Dr. Mick]

Some more orc Ness work-in-progress stuff for you tusk-loving degenerates!

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Let me know which you think works best, or which parts work/don't.

Hmm... I'd say 3, 2, 1, 4 and the right-hand side for the bottom options

 

[gregers]

The first one is too smooth-skinned and human, just looks like she's been painted green and had some false teeth put in. Could be an extra from the old Hulk tv show. The later ones where you actually work on her facial structure, wrinkle up her forehad a bit etc. still read as her, but are more convincingly 'orc-ish'.

I'd go for option 4 with the broader body on the right.

 

[DigiDec]

The first one is too smooth-skinned and human, just looks like she's been painted green and had some false teeth put in. Could be an extra from the old Hulk tv show. The later ones where you actually work on her facial structure, wrinkle up her forehad a bit etc. still read as her, but are more convincingly 'orc-ish'.

I'd go for option 4 with the broader body on the right.

Yeah, the first one is basically just a reskin with the tusks/ears added. I'm glad nobody really seems to be going for it because it's boring compared to the others.

Got something else for you guys and in this instance I could use all of these, some of them, or even just one of them.

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[gregers]

Yeah, the first one is basically just a reskin with the tusks/ears added. I'm glad nobody really seems to be going for it because it's boring compared to the others.

Got something else for you guys and in this instance I could use all of these, some of them, or even just one of them.

Spoiler

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The neon aesthetic is part of the game, I think, so worth leaning into. As a static image I'd probably go for 2, or (depending on context/use) an animation with the dark first option as base and the neon lights of 2/4 flickering on.

 

[DigiDec]

The neon aesthetic is part of the game, I think, so worth leaning into. As a static image I'd probably go for 2, or (depending on context/use) an animation with the dark first option as base and the neon lights of 2/4 flickering on.

Mildly related, and this is going to be a little more of a question for my supporters, how much do you all want to see animations?

I've talked a little bit about it before, I think, how the biggest hurdle was video files fucking up the color but there are workarounds. Obviously, it will slow down new content a little since it will add to the total render count for any sex scene but whenever I check the reviews here* a very common gripe is the lack of animations. I've been rushing to get to this specific plot point and while I don't plan on slowing down my work I feel a little more comfortable taking a little extra time now that we've gotten to where we need to be.

*Thank you for all of these btw, it is incredibly motivating to see everything people have said about the game so far

 

[Hungover00]

Mildly related, and this is going to be a little more of a question for my supporters, how much do you all want to see animations?

I've talked a little bit about it before, I think, how the biggest hurdle was video files fucking up the color but there are workarounds. Obviously, it will slow down new content a little since it will add to the total render count for any sex scene but whenever I check the reviews here* a very common gripe is the lack of animations. I've been rushing to get to this specific plot point and while I don't plan on slowing down my work I feel a little more comfortable taking a little extra time now that we've gotten to where we need to be.

*Thank you for all of these btw, it is incredibly motivating to see everything people have said about the game so far

Personally, I'm ambivalent toward animations. It depends heavily on the dev being good at animations, and it seems a rare skill for the amount of time it takes. Even when they are good, I don't think they add as much as good posing and erotic writing. But I know there are a lot of other thoughts about it.

 

[DigiDec]

Personally, I'm ambivalent toward animations. It depends heavily on the dev being good at animations, and it seems a rare skill for the amount of time it takes. Even when they are good, I don't think they add as much as good posing and erotic writing. But I know there are a lot of other thoughts about it.

They'd definitely be on the smaller/shorter side of things because I 100% agree that poorly done animations can end up ruining perfectly good porn scenes.

I think what I'll do is go back into 0.3 and try to add a couple of animations to some of the scenes in there. There's one scene in particular that I think could use a few more renders anyway (MOOO!), and it will give everyone something to see before forming their opinion.

 

[crotch69]

Mildly related, and this is going to be a little more of a question for my supporters, how much do you all want to see animations?

I've talked a little bit about it before, I think, how the biggest hurdle was video files fucking up the color but there are workarounds. Obviously, it will slow down new content a little since it will add to the total render count for any sex scene but whenever I check the reviews here* a very common gripe is the lack of animations. I've been rushing to get to this specific plot point and while I don't plan on slowing down my work I feel a little more comfortable taking a little extra time now that we've gotten to where we need to be.

*Thank you for all of these btw, it is incredibly motivating to see everything people have said about the game so far

I hope that I won't get nuked for this advice, but the best animations I've seen in a porn game here (suprisingly) was in
Sparkling Duplicity. You may want to take a look at it and its a pretty short VN as of now.

In general, I'm more against animations as they significantly increase the dev cycle (and I'm relatively young, so I don't want to wait for my 50s for the game to be finished) and I just don't see a huge intrinsic value in animations unless they are done perfectly. Hell, let's take Ocean for example - he spent half a year doing them and they are (IMO) still cheeks. So its a no from me.

Cheers.

 

[Buletti]

I like animations because they free up your hands for a bit.

As said before they should not look weird though. But some short parts in sex scenes add a lot of nice variety and imho also increase the prduction value significantly.

Imho A house in the Rift handles this very good.

 

[TigerWolfe]

Animation is not needed imo some of the best VNs here only use stills. They add significantly to dev time, and as a person that hates having the pacing of my reading taken away if I have to watch the whole thing I get annoyed, and if I can, I often click through it to keep reading, so there wasn't much point.

 

[Saphfire]

Well, that´s your personal opinion. I prefer games with animation.

 

[DigiDec]

I hope that I won't get nuked for this advice, but the best animations I've seen in a porn game here (suprisingly) was in
Sparkling Duplicity. You may want to take a look at it and its a pretty short VN as of now.

In general, I'm more against animations as they significantly increase the dev cycle (and I'm relatively young, so I don't want to wait for my 50s for the game to be finished) and I just don't see a huge intrinsic value in animations unless they are done perfectly. Hell, let's take Ocean for example - he spent half a year doing them and they are (IMO) still cheeks. So its a no from me.

Cheers.

I haven't tried Sparkling Duplicity but at first glance it looks like it's made in Blender which is really what you need to be working in if you want to do a lot of animation.

I like animations because they free up your hands for a bit.

As said before they should not look weird though. But some short parts in sex scenes add a lot of nice variety and imho also increase the prduction value significantly.

Imho A house in the Rift handles this very good.

Short stuff is kind of what I'm looking at/thinking about. Like, instead of just showing a couple of stills of a girl riding the MC I'd have a short loop.

Animation is not needed imo some of the best VNs here only use stills. They add significantly to dev time, and as a person that hates having the pacing of my reading taken away if I have to watch the whole thing I get annoyed, and if I can, I often click through it to keep reading, so there wasn't much point.

There is a way, and I think I understand how it is done, for there to be an animation playing while still letting the player click through dialogue like normal. So instead of just a still image there'd be this short loop playing for maybe two or three clicks worth of dialogue/narration.

Well, that´s your personal opinion. I prefer games with animation.

I think everyone, or most of us, can agree that if done well, and not in a way that pulls the user out of the rhythm of the game, animations are a nice thing to have.

But if I'm not happy with how they look, or if they take too much time, or if they disrupt the flow of the game, I'm not going to use them.

And it's still too early to start advertising a completion date but I really don't intend for this game to be in development for years. I kind of see this game as my art school, proof of concept, freshman outing. I want to make it right, give the story as much room as it needs, but I also want to complete it in a timely fashion. My more natural instinct is to do a more slow burn style but I think the audience/my supporters would be a lot more receptive to that if they could trust that I was going to deliver.

 

[TigerWolfe]

Well, that´s your personal opinion. I prefer games with animation.

I mean I did literally say that in my post...

There is a way, and I think I understand how it is done, for there to be an animation playing while still letting the player click through dialogue like normal. So instead of just a still image there'd be this short loop playing for maybe two or three clicks worth of dialogue/narration.

That's what I'd personally prefer if you do add them. I'm not opposed to them, and on really good ones I do stop and look for a bit (just not the usual fare), it's not like I'm gonna take away the none dollars I'm currently paying if they show up. I've just noticed animation takes time and the ingrates here are impatient as hell, so the longer updates are even on amazing games the more "When update", "Dev's a milker" etc shit starts to crop up. Which isn't good for dev morale. Animation for me is like the 80/20 thing it can push a good game that last percentage or so towards great, but it takes up sooooooooooo much of the dev time.

 

[DigiDec]

I mean I did literally say that in my post...


That's what I'd personally prefer if you do add them. I'm not opposed to them, and on really good ones I do stop and look for a bit (just not the usual fare), it's not like I'm gonna take away the none dollars I'm currently paying if they show up. I've just noticed animation takes time and the ingrates here are impatient as hell, so the longer updates are even on amazing games the more "When update", "Dev's a milker" etc shit starts to crop up. Which isn't good for dev morale. Animation for me is like the 80/20 thing it can push a good game that last percentage or so towards great, but it takes up sooooooooooo much of the dev time.

I've mentioned this before, but way back 1,000 years ago (March of this year) when I was putting together the initial release I had rendered a real short animation for the scene with Zoe when you first meet her. This was when I learned about the issue involving color spaces with renpy, so I never included it. Since I use a render queue and let that shit cook overnight, keeping the power company in business and stress testing my AC, as long as I keep the animations modest we're really only talking about maybe an extra few days for each update. But that's why I said earlier that this will be more of a question for the supporters who are graciously spending more than none dollars on my game.

Update frequency is also something I'm going to be evaluating moving forward. These past few releases sort of got dictated by specific plot points and for reasons that may or may not become clear to you all after you play 0.3, I'm going to have a little more freedom moving forward with where I wrap up each release. I might do something like release scenes as they're finished to some of my supporters, kind of work the beta testing in as we go, and I might shoot for smaller but more frequent updates. I don't want people to start skipping every other release because they're so small that they're not worth the download but I think a consistent release schedule is part of the whole "me building up trust" thing. Also, knock on wood so I don't jinx myself, if something does come up that delays an update, I don't want everyone rolling their eyes and saying "Here we go again".

I'm actually somewhat steadily growing supporters now, but it's still kind of a small club. Their opinions are going to carry a little more weight but I need some outside perspective for some stuff, especially if it ends up being about the thing that has someone on the fence. I have no integrity, I'll do whatever it takes to start making those fat AVN $$$$s.

 

[Dr. Mick]

Yeah, the first one is basically just a reskin with the tusks/ears added. I'm glad nobody really seems to be going for it because it's boring compared to the others.

Got something else for you guys and in this instance I could use all of these, some of them, or even just one of them.

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Could be fun to see all four of those in a progressive title screen.
Starting off with the first one, then the second with the neon title blinking on, the VN secondary title fading in, then everything else but the title fading out to the final frame - which could blink out as a transition to step into the next scene.

Just a suggestion on how I saw it playing out in my head.

 

[DigiDec]

The neon aesthetic is part of the game, I think, so worth leaning into. As a static image I'd probably go for 2, or (depending on context/use) an animation with the dark first option as base and the neon lights of 2/4 flickering on.

Could be fun to see all four of those in a progressive title screen.
Starting off with the first one, then the second with the neon title blinking on, the VN secondary title fading in, then everything else but the title fading out to the final frame - which could blink out as a transition to step into the next scene.

Just a suggestion on how I saw it playing out in my head.

I'm playing with this idea right now, it is surprisingly difficult to find a reference video of a neon light flickering on.

It's turned into one of those things, like posing a character's arms when they're standing still, where I suddenly forget how something looks in real life.