Unreal Engine Kalyskah [v0.25.9] [Nobre Lobo]

[Kalyskah]

so is this the area with bdsm dungeon? also are there more quests implemented?
i tried the new version and after going out of the dungeon and meeting james i couldnt get into the city the guard wouldbt let me amd kalyskah would walk way. In the old version i remember first killing a couple bandits and saving an old man near a inn/tavern but i couldnt get this event in this version has it been removed or did i encounter a bug?

The BDSM dungeon will actually be in Milhaven.

If the guards are not letting you into the town it is probably because you havrn't finished the "Safe haven" questline. After you leave the dungeon you need to find james down the hill, kill the bandits and follow the path to that big manor and you'll see three bandits trying to attack some villagers. Help the villagers and follow the questline and you'll then be able to enter the town.
=)

 

[ravynne]

My question is: per your roadmap, the puppeteers quest line was next on your to do list. Why are other quests being developed and released plus other areas before this questline? I understand delays happen and workflow on various parts is asynchronous, but it's just very frustrating to be promised a particular road map and then seeing/getting something completely different.

To me, it's like ordering a steak, waiting an hour for my order, only to get chicken instead. The chicken might be good, it may have taken a lot of work, and there may have been a great reason for why I got it instead of the steak I ordered. But it wasn't what I was promised.

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This is your poll to your patrons.

I subscribed because of this poll. But here we are nearly a year later with backend stuff (which I can excuse as you communicated the needs for them and why redoing millhaven was necessary at that point in your dev cycle), and side quests like heirloom lost or alchemist being released instead of what I subscribed for.
Chicken looks great. Can I please have my steak though?

 

[weed_princess]

This is one of the best H-games I've played. Very cool and quite fun with a good story. Could you put a toggle in the options menu to avoid interracial scenes?

 

[Kalyskah]

My question is: per your roadmap, the puppeteers quest line was next on your to do list. Why are other quests being developed and released plus other areas before this questline? I understand delays happen and workflow on various parts is asynchronous, but it's just very frustrating to be promised a particular road map and then seeing/getting something completely different.

To me, it's like ordering a steak, waiting an hour for my order, only to get chicken instead. The chicken might be good, it may have taken a lot of work, and there may have been a great reason for why I got it instead of the steak I ordered. But it wasn't what I was promised.

You must be registered to see the links

This is your poll to your patrons.

I subscribed because of this poll. But here we are nearly a year later with backend stuff (which I can excuse as you communicated the needs for them and why redoing millhaven was necessary at that point in your dev cycle), and side quests like heirloom lost or alchemist being released instead of what I subscribed for.
Chicken looks great. Can I please have my steak though?

What happened is that we realised that before the release of the puppeteers questline, we had to do some things not just on the writing, but also on the level design and prepare the programming to have not just the BDSM devices working well in a way that characters could be attached to it. But also we had to come up with ways to add ambient dialogues to the world and cutscenes that would be triggered depending on certain conditions even when the player did not have a certain quest to tell the game that this should or should not happen. We also had to redesign the puppeteers quest in a way that it would feel more entwined to the world than the original plan.

So we never really spent a month without working on it, we were just not able to show much because most of what we were doing was backend stuff. And this backend stuff would allow us to add more quests or content before the puppeteers' place because that links all the mechanics.
One example is that the puppeteers building is an interior. Before we did the Alchemist Antics questline, we didn't have a way for the player to enter a streamed level and turn off the skylight. This means that the player would enter the BDSM dungeon and depend on the time of day, the place would look massively different.

We are very close to starting releasing the puppeteers content, and something important to understand is that it will not just be a questline, but will be the type of thing that once you are in, will change the way you play the game.

This is one of the best H-games I've played. Very cool and quite fun with a good story. Could you put a toggle in the options menu to avoid interracial scenes?

On the gameplay tab, you can choose to humanise enemies so the undead will turn into humans when the sex scene starts. Other than that, all the sex scenes in the game are up to the player and they can choose which ones they can avoid.

 

[ravynne]

What happened is that we realised that before the release of the puppeteers questline, we had to do some things not just on the writing, but also on the level design and prepare the programming to have not just the BDSM devices working well in a way that characters could be attached to it. But also we had to come up with ways to add ambient dialogues to the world and cutscenes that would be triggered depending on certain conditions even when the player did not have a certain quest to tell the game that this should or should not happen. We also had to redesign the puppeteers quest in a way that it would feel more entwined to the world than the original plan.

So we never really spent a month without working on it, we were just not able to show much because most of what we were doing was backend stuff. And this backend stuff would allow us to add more quests or content before the puppeteers' place because that links all the mechanics.
One example is that the puppeteers building is an interior. Before we did the Alchemist Antics questline, we didn't have a way for the player to enter a streamed level and turn off the skylight. This means that the player would enter the BDSM dungeon and depend on the time of day, the place would look massively different.

We are very close to starting releasing the puppeteers content, and something important to understand is that it will not just be a questline, but will be the type of thing that once you are in, will change the way you play the game.

I think that's a good answer and a good reason. So my recommendation then is for you to work on communication with your patrons especially in regards to expectations.

I can tell from reading your posts that you generally try to avoid making detailed roadmap promises-- something which I think is smart. And certainly as patrons of a pre-alpha game, there also needs to be some understanding from us that unforseen issues do arise that can derail even the best intentions.

That being said, if you ever find you've made a direct promise to your patrons about a specific thing (ie: puppeteers content 1st semester of 2021) I would suggest that ANY post or update done before that promise is met needs to include SOMETHING about how you haven't forgotten about that promise and how what you're working on is related to that. It doesn't need to be the whole post. Just a small sentence is at the end in parentheses would have been fine.

It's all about the expectations game and cultivating trust with your patrons. Its a difficult road to balance because on one hand you want to be as honest and transparent with your patrons as possible, and broadcasting plans can help bring in more patrons which can make these plans come through quicker but on the other hand, to keep the patrons you have, you want to underpromise and over deliver.

 

[weed_princess]

On the gameplay tab, you can choose to humanise enemies so the undead will turn into humans when the sex scene starts. Other than that, all the sex scenes in the game are up to the player and they can choose which ones they can avoid.

Thank you for the reply. Monsters are great, no worries there. I guess I just can't look forward to all future content. It's hard to suspend disbelief about a noble vampire lady with Boris, honestly, and it really hurts the immersion.

Other than that, great game. Keep up the good work.

 

[Kalyskah]

Thank you for the reply. Monsters are great, no worries there. I guess I just can't look forward to all future content. It's hard to suspend disbelief about a noble vampire lady with Boris, honestly, and it really hurts the immersion.

Other than that, great game. Keep up the good work.

Oh yeah, that's why we made that scene optional.... and even when the scene plays, there's an option to just murder him at the end. We are adding the branch where she dominates him as well.
haha

 

[Kalyskah]

I think that's a good answer and a good reason. So my recommendation then is for you to work on communication with your patrons especially in regards to expectations.

I can tell from reading your posts that you generally try to avoid making detailed roadmap promises-- something which I think is smart. And certainly as patrons of a pre-alpha game, there also needs to be some understanding from us that unforseen issues do arise that can derail even the best intentions.

That being said, if you ever find you've made a direct promise to your patrons about a specific thing (ie: puppeteers content 1st semester of 2021) I would suggest that ANY post or update done before that promise is met needs to include SOMETHING about how you haven't forgotten about that promise and how what you're working on is related to that. It doesn't need to be the whole post. Just a small sentence is at the end in parentheses would have been fine.

It's all about the expectations game and cultivating trust with your patrons. Its a difficult road to balance because on one hand you want to be as honest and transparent with your patrons as possible, and broadcasting plans can help bring in more patrons which can make these plans come through quicker but on the other hand, to keep the patrons you have, you want to underpromise and over deliver.

This is a really good point. And yeah, I try to avoid direct promises exactly because I hate when things happen along the way and we fail to meet the deadline. The pressure of monthly releases on patreon is quite hard and we can get very stressed at the end of the month. I've made a new post here explaining a bit about the reasoning behind the implementation of the newest quest and how it helps us to be closer to the puppeteers questline, I hope my English didn't fail here haha =D

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[ravynne]

This is a really good point. And yeah, I try to avoid direct promises exactly because I hate when things happen along the way and we fail to meet the deadline. The pressure of monthly releases on patreon is quite hard and we can get very stressed at the end of the month. I've made a new post here explaining a bit about the reasoning behind the implementation of the newest quest and how it helps us to be closer to the puppeteers questline, I hope my English didn't fail here haha =D

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I saw that: way to speak with your actions! Your English is fine my friend.

I really wish you luck on continuing to cultivate this relationship with us and you can count on my continued support.

Can't wait to see more of kaly!

 

[Kalyskah]

I saw that: way to speak with your actions! Your English is fine my friend.

I really wish you luck on continuing to cultivate this relationship with us and you can count on my continued support.

Can't wait to see more of kaly!

Thank you very much for the kind words and the review =D
We'll do our best to live up to your expectations!

 

[Centrophy]

"So the way we are doing this is that Kalyskah will increase\decrease her compassion and her dominant personality during the game. That's because she is a vampire, and her choices spin more around whether she should treat humans as cattle or as friends. And her choice to have sex or to seduce won't be blocked by this mechanic. We consider that since the player is the one in control over Kalyskah, we don't want to make them feel like they have options blocked because they "didn't grinded slutness enough with random events"."
I don't know how I feel about this. You have this "sex slave" thing in the UI of the current free build that's been there forever. You've had the collar that signifies her as a sex slave, complete with dialogue options that increase her submissiveness and you don't want to go that route? To top it off there's a quest about sex slavery that isn't in the game yet but the framework for it is there in the first town. I'm getting mixed signals. I would have loved to see her go too far down the submissive dialogue options and find that she just can't say no anymore but now it seems that she can always say no. How... bland.

 

[Kalyskah]

"So the way we are doing this is that Kalyskah will increase\decrease her compassion and her dominant personality during the game. That's because she is a vampire, and her choices spin more around whether she should treat humans as cattle or as friends. And her choice to have sex or to seduce won't be blocked by this mechanic. We consider that since the player is the one in control over Kalyskah, we don't want to make them feel like they have options blocked because they "didn't grinded slutness enough with random events"."
I don't know how I feel about this. You have this "sex slave" thing in the UI of the current free build that's been there forever. You've had the collar that signifies her as a sex slave, complete with dialogue options that increase her submissiveness and you don't want to go that route? To top it off there's a quest about sex slavery that isn't in the game yet but the framework for it is there in the first town. I'm getting mixed signals. I would have loved to see her go too far down the submissive dialogue options and find that she just can't say no anymore but now it seems that she can always say no. How... bland.

The difference is in how she will say no. But also, we will never have non-consensual content in our game.

 

[Centrophy]

The difference is in how she will say no. But also, we will never have non-consensual content in our game.

Yeah okay. Still weird how the submissive options are there then coupled with her weird head shaking when you do choose to whore out. It's like she's shaking her head at the player for choosing those options. It's just tonally inconsistent. I'm reminded of that animation gallery cum game "Wild Life" where they have stockades and even human slaves in the village but will never use them for the same reason - no non-con.

You can have a bad ass vampire chick that knows what she wants or you can have a submissive girl that loves to be held down and spit on. You can't have both. Seems like us non-con fans will need to stick to Skyrim quest mods if we want that kind of content in 3d.

 

[ravynne]

You can have a bad ass vampire chick that knows what she wants or you can have a submissive girl that loves to be held down and spit on. You can't have both. Seems like us non-con fans will need to stick to Skyrim quest mods if we want that kind of content in 3d.

I disagree completely. In fact, part of what makes kalyshkah so compelling for me is the fact that she CAN be both. Too often in these female MC games you have to pick and "corruption" just means losing intelligence and becoming a mindless bimbo.
Personally I love the notion of a MC who is sexually submissive but also a badass. Her journey for me would involve her going from maybe being ashamed of her feelings to eventually understanding and accepting her sexuality without sacrificing her independence or feeling any shame about it.

 

[Deleted member 2910840]

You can have a bad ass vampire chick that knows what she wants or you can have a submissive girl that loves to be held down and spit on. You can't have both.

Yes because a woman can't be both depending on her mood or circumstances, right?
wrong.

I always find it amusing when guys seem to think they know what makes a woman tick

 

[Centrophy]

Yes because a woman can't be both depending on her mood or circumstances, right?
wrong.

I always find it amusing when guys seem to think they know what makes a woman tick

I always find it amusing when pornhounds think they know what makes a woman tick as well but that's neither here nor there. As for characters going mindless as they fall, yes it's a problem usually in the Japanese rpgm games but this whole changing how she responds to situations differently is inconsistent characterization. I know I'm in the minority here. Lobo will make the game they want to make warts and all and I'm fine with it.

 

[Deleted member 2910840]

Too many of the female Protag games on here are just "Let's have her become a quivering, submissive slut who lost her mind" type.
Great for the fantasies of the predominantly male crowd that come here, but really silly in terms of how complex a woman can be.

 

[Deleted member 3225192]

The game needs more xxx content

 

[IG88a]

Too many of the female Protag games on here are just "Let's have her become a quivering, submissive slut who lost her mind" type.
Great for the fantasies of the predominantly male crowd that come here, but really silly in terms of how complex a woman can be.

We're all saying the same thing from different directions then, because that is definitely the main problem here with game construction. Kalyska becomes temporarily chaotic stupid to get all current/future porn content. It is poorly integrated. It is tonally inconsistent. It is out of character. To fix it requires more backtracking on the devs part, which means more time with no forward progression of narrative as they suss out how to actually integrate conventional gameplay with a pornplot. The tonal shift of "cut down all before you" to "yes guard I'll suck your cock instead of give you this arbitrary amount of gold uwu" kills game feel and reduces what was promising to just another "and then she was a slut now" game.

The opening presents a grounded worldspace. The starter town devolves into porngamism. They need to choose one, fix the other, take the lesson forward into the rest of the game design.
My vote is grounded: scrap the town sidequest atonality, make James the designated penis for the current rigs, and focus on forward porn progression through that first meaningful NPC relationship alongside combat based progression of the plot.

I don't know how I feel about this. You have this "sex slave" thing in the UI of the current free build that's been there forever. You've had the collar that signifies her as a sex slave, complete with dialogue options that increase her submissiveness and you don't want to go that route? To top it off there's a quest about sex slavery that isn't in the game yet but the framework for it is there in the first town. I'm getting mixed signals.

The answer there seems to be tendency points, but in practice...
...it's going to fall apart at scale.

The problem with centering content around "female_MC X Rando" with their outfit and tendency system is incipient bloat. Each tendency for 0 to max is going to need dialogue for every NPC.
Not a problem in the 10 minutes of gameplay just yet, when there isn't more game and current interactions are one time use, but in a proper sandbox design every NPC interaction in game is going to need dialogue and quest responses for every stat state and that will be literally hundreds of lines they'll need to voice act.

This goes in two directions.
1. Game is unfinishable, development slows to a crawl as every addition requires massive background dialogue/VA work.

The alchemist quest has alt lines for outfit variables, so this is what they intend in scale. The tendency system when it plays into dialogue as kalyska starts hitting benchmarks is going to killshot the game. Even if it's only 0-25-50-75-100 across the ~6 variables that means every NPC exchange is going to need ~30 recorded alt lines every time it comes up to effect dialogue and gameplay. if it's every 10? 70. And that isn't even accounting for negative variables (double it) or variables effecting each other to accommodate for example "-20 compassion, +50 submission." 9^6 is... 21^6 is...​

For every NPC, everywhere, in every location she can visit. It's going to become rapidly untenable as the plot and choices forward the game.​

2. It's rendered meaningless because it isn't used.

And content is accessible for every stat alignment and can be backed out of as fear of patreons view of "nonconsentual" sanitizes the game.​

And NPCs don't act or react to her action based characterization because if they could, see above.​

And when it does trigger, it becomes an annoyance because it is so infrequent and can't be planned around. Lowering overall game feel and polish.​

This is why I haven't changed my review or opinion yet. (Maybe in 3-4 months with the stated forward development actually happening, or ideally a change in direction.)
Dev says we're fully aware of the size of the game design they're pitching.
...Ok?
That doesn't change how impossible it is to execute.
Writing is on the wall here. Unless there is a change to game scope via reframing these systems or a scaling back of the world, they're going to run head first into the game simply being unfinishable or sadly unachieved.

 

[wario7403]

i'm stuck with silas quest, i do sex with him on the night but quest dont be valid, and it's hard to find quest and continue adventure, that's normal ?