VN Ren'Py Karlsson's Gambit [v0.8.1 Part I] [Grym Gudinna Games]

[LAKueiJin]

Ok, awesome update and all, but I just have to make this unrelated history joke:



Berlin conference, ca 1885 AD, colorized, now with less culturally-insensible colonialism! (no seriously, what the European colonial powers did to Africa irl may be worse, as at least the Karlssons and DeKocks built a couple of rich cities locally...)

Also, is slim Madagascar also supposed to be a wasteland, or is it secretely the last vestige of (non-corporate and slave-owning) human civilization like in Plague inc?

 

[Parakattu]

Friendliest 3 star review ever lol, I think this shows something in itself. But it's ok, I stopped caring about reviews long ago.

Ah, I was still getting used to this site in my phone and my internet was not working properly so I sort of missed the star rating. I think the 3 star were probably the default setting. My bad

 

[FDMuser]

Ok, awesome update and all, but I just have to make this unrelated history joke:

View attachment 1952179

Berlin conference, ca 1885 AD, colorized, now with less culturally-insensible colonialism! (no seriously, what the European colonial powers did to Africa irl may be worse, as at least the Karlssons and DeKocks built a couple of rich cities locally...)

Also, is slim Madagascar also supposed to be a wasteland, or is it secretely the last vestige of (non-corporate and slave-owning) human civilization like in Plague inc?

No, on the game map, the borders between countries are drawn like a ruler. And in real Africa, the colonists took into account the interests of different peoples in different settlements and strizshgigtsp ..... ahem. ahem. What am I talking about, and yes, super update ! I agree! Respect to the developer! eight-)

 

[Kxca]

Also, is slim Madagascar also supposed to be a wasteland, or is it secretely the last vestige of (non-corporate and slave-owning) human civilization like in Plague inc?

Given that they have their hands on the very remote islands of St Helena and Tristan de Cunha, Madagascar doesn't seem isolated enough to be free from corporate clutches.

 

[dervalle007]

Wasn't Saint Helena the island where Napoleon spent his last years?

 

[Me666]

Wasn't Saint Helena the island where Napoleon spent his last years?

Apparently so!

 

[FDMuser]

Wasn't Saint Helena the island where Napoleon spent his last years?

I wonder if Saint Helena will remain Saint Helena? Or in the world of "KG" this island will be called - the island of St. Helena Caspari?

 

[FDMuser]

View attachment 1954894
Apparently so!

....Saint Helena, a small island....

 

[Deleted member 5129488]

Not finished it yet, but already can declare that it's an incredible game, gonna be an example of the almost perfect one

 

[TessSadist]

I appreciate that too and, moreover, have written about it before, addressing the developer.

Everyone has their own tastes and their own kinks. However, I don't see anything wrong with just adding a few dom screenshots to the game description without touching the rest of the pictures. After all, new patrons of the game don't come from "thin air" and could potentially be maledom orientated players. TessSadist in 2020 wrote the following in this thread (I quote)


I don't know if anything has changed since then and whether she still thinks so or not, but the fact remains. In a femdom oriented game (KG) it is possible to play with dom route, the game has pretty good financial figures unlike those games which only have femdom and no maledom. I don't know the exact number of maledom patrons of KG, but I can assume that the promised vote for new bonus renders etc for maledom oriented players that Tess is launching from next month will let her know the % of such patrons. Personally, this tells me that Tess cares about the opinions of her subscribers/patrons, even if that maledom group of patrons turns out to be smaller than the group of femdom-oriented players.

I get that KG is still Tess's favourite hobby where she can explore her talents as a writer, artist and creator, but you have to admit it would be nice if this game could generate a decent side income for its creator. And that's already happening, Tess' brainchild has already achieved a lot for the "unpopular femdom" genre.

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And attracting additional patrons requires advertising, among other things. And adding a few screenshots from dom route is the easiest thing you can do to popularize the game. KG with its fetishes (even if it was a pure maledom game) would hardly bring a comparable income to some conventionally vanilla Adult VN AAA game, but that is the price to pay for special and unpopular with the masses preferences and BDSM kinks.

We all know it - and when we watch unpopular with the masses movies and when we watch BDSM porn, which has many times fewer downloads than vanilla porn. Yes, it's a given, there will always be more vanilla fans than fans of conventionally extreme kinks and fetishes like BDSM (femdom/maledom/lezdom/slave/humiliation/domination/petplay/e.t.c)

I read through a bunch of reviews and comments before I venture out to play this game, and another person (notional maledom patron) will just look at the current screenshots and pass it by. So why not make the game even more popular (without sacrificing major kinks and fetishes)? What harm would a few extra dom screenshots do? Think about it.

I liked a few of those pictures and did add them to the preview page. Always open to suggestions! Regarding the male dom path, I have been very cautious about aggressively marketing it that way through 0.6. I think through 0.6, the "maledom" path has been more about survival and adapting to set oneself up for power later. If you think of Kane on a power curve versus Olivia, he has so far not really been able to assert himself the same way as her. This is finally starting to change in 0.7, and I feel the "maledom" tag is finally more applicable with future updates. (meaning that he can now actually dominate in a more classical way for the tag I guess?) Now, I'm unlikely to put him in a full leather suit as his normal outfit or anything, but he hasn't yet had real power over other people. That is going to change in degree depending where he is in the game, etc.

The game is very niche, and have always accepted that would limit it's financial potential. I do feel like I could write a harem/quasi-loli/incest/college/"landlady" game that would do better financially. But the current income I am very ok with, as it's not my primary source of income. And I'm definitely not complaining as the combination of Patreon, Itch, and "slave payments" outside Patreon all adds up. But on a per hour basis, it's much worse than my design work so it's the enjoyment of doing it that drives me. The other game I considered was much more massive (my main helper calls KG "Acting Lessons" and this idea more "Being a DIK" sized) but I knew I did not have the experience to even attempt it. I had written lore for months on it, and hope someday to still make it. Learning with KG long-term helps with that too since I came in with no coding experience, etc.

For KG, I enjoy writing both paths, and that is frankly the reason I do it to be honest. Financial metrics are not too important in my overall consideration. I like stories where you can have different outcomes based on choices. I also wanted Kane to have a chance for multiple paths in the narrative, ranging from outright death on one end to much "nicer" endings depending on your perspective/desires.

And KG has really helped me enjoy life in other ways. I got contacted by a very well known game studio by a higher up there who loved the game, and am now helping them write some fun things as an independent contractor. A few Patrons I've become close to are now really good friends, and I've even invested with one of them in some things that are going very well. I firmly believe some of my top tier Patrons are very successful and intelligent in ways I am not sure is so common with adult games. But I don't really know for sure as this is my only experience.

I understand the game is very dark in some paths, but that is more interesting to me than everything being too vanilla. I like seeing characters being capable of great bravery/heroism but also the reverse on a dark path.

I even get that some people might get triggered by such content, but for me, it's incredibly easy to separate reality/fantasy so I don't think it's possible for me to ever get up in arms too much about any adult game.

Games are entertainment and on rare occasions something more - good or bad but not something worth being so serious about - to me. And I have tried to implement paths that allow both beautiful and darker endings long-term. My favorite scene from 0.6 might actually be a fairly "boring/simple" one - just Kane floating around with Veronica!

Anyway, was just checking in after the long trip. Just getting virus tests (usually have to do one for each country you enter within 1-2 days, etc.) alone was a lot of hassle, but so worth it.

 

[TessSadist]

View attachment 1954894
Apparently so!

And Jonathan the tortoise is probably still alive there in KG's story! (have taken a pic with him!)

 

[Stan5851]

I liked a few of those pictures and did add them to the preview page. Always open to suggestions! Regarding the male dom path, I have been very cautious about aggressively marketing it that way through 0.6. I think through 0.6, the "maledom" path has been more about survival and adapting to set oneself up for power later. If you think of Kane on a power curve versus Olivia, he has so far not really been able to assert himself the same way as her. This is finally starting to change in 0.7, and I feel the "maledom" tag is finally more applicable with future updates. (meaning that he can now actually dominate in a more classical way for the tag I guess?) Now, I'm unlikely to put him in a full leather suit as his normal outfit or anything, but he hasn't yet had real power over other people. That is going to change in degree depending where he is in the game, etc.

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[RoxTheVile]

As an absolute sub, can I be a complete bottom in the game?.

 

[Innocience]

As an absolute sub, can I be a complete bottom in the game?.

Very much so. You can even get the "so sub it's deadly" route eventually.

 

[Vyxzuw]

As an absolute sub, can I be a complete bottom in the game?.

You can go sub and do well. Alex is a good person to pursue for that. She expects her man to be assertive and powerful in life, but submissive to her in the bedroom.

Otherwise going sub doesn't end well at lower K ratings. (Dom might be a good person to pursue for sub also.)

 

[TessSadist]

As another small thanks back from my trip, I am posting a few free images from a monthly set for Patrons. Doing three sets, but these are from the first one, a sub marriage. I'll be back more on the game and not as active here for times, so just throwing something nice out here

I am still a bit exhausted from three weeks of constant virus testing (usually need to do this for each country in general) and travel, but it was so worth it. I checked off a few bucket list items, and also visited a few locations from KG so there are some clever tax write offs for that part of the trip too. The places I visited KG related were Namibia and South Africa (Skull Coast is one of the most isolated places I have ever seen in my life) and also went to Egypt, Dubai, Singapore, Malaysia, and South Korea. Zzzzzzzzzzzzz

The sub path is now deep with a more higher ranked sub (more likely to be gentle) versus harsher at very low ranks, so I hope people can enjoy different styles. I won't give the whole set, but just some, haha, enjoy and have a great weekend soon!

 

[Glooskabe]

As another small thanks back from my trip, I am posting a few free images from a monthly set for Patrons. Doing three sets, but these are from the first one, a sub marriage. I'll be back more on the game and not as active here for times, so just throwing something nice out here

I am still a bit exhausted from three weeks of constant virus testing (usually need to do this for each country in general) and travel, but it was so worth it. I checked off a few bucket list items, and also visited a few locations from KG so there are some clever tax write offs for that part of the trip too. The places I visited KG related were Namibia and South Africa (Skull Coast is one of the most isolated places I have ever seen in my life) and also went to Egypt, Dubai, Singapore, Malaysia, and South Korea. Zzzzzzzzzzzzz

The sub path is now deep with a more higher ranked sub (more likely to be gentle) versus harsher at very low ranks, so I hope people can enjoy different styles. I won't give the whole set, but just some, haha, enjoy and have a great weekend soon!

Welcome back, Tess! Not my cup of tea, but looks like a fun time for the subby-boys.

 

[desperatecub02]

As another small thanks back from my trip, I am posting a few free images from a monthly set for Patrons. Doing three sets, but these are from the first one, a sub marriage. I'll be back more on the game and not as active here for times, so just throwing something nice out here

I am still a bit exhausted from three weeks of constant virus testing (usually need to do this for each country in general) and travel, but it was so worth it. I checked off a few bucket list items, and also visited a few locations from KG so there are some clever tax write offs for that part of the trip too. The places I visited KG related were Namibia and South Africa (Skull Coast is one of the most isolated places I have ever seen in my life) and also went to Egypt, Dubai, Singapore, Malaysia, and South Korea. Zzzzzzzzzzzzz

The sub path is now deep with a more higher ranked sub (more likely to be gentle) versus harsher at very low ranks, so I hope people can enjoy different styles. I won't give the whole set, but just some, haha, enjoy and have a great weekend soon!

hi tess jw is this game very good when it comes with femdom/bb/cbt and can you recommend me another game as well or are you working on a different game

 

[desperatecub02]

This game has an amazing amount of content with a huge variety of locations and events and an interesting backstory/mystery to follow. The models are stunning with a great variety of amazing outfits and decoration details/jewelry.

However I see some options for improvement :
- animations : the animations I've seen so far in the game are mostly average. Since the quality of other aspects of the game is higher, the animations lower the overall impression of the game a bit. Doing good animations is hard work and requires a lot of skill and experience. Most devs try for years and still fail to achieve high quality animations, so there is no reason to feel bad if animations do not excell. For me good games without animations are fine. If you want to include animations, try to improve the quality and omit those animations which do not work out as planned. (As reference : A game with (mostly) fine to amazing animations for me is BeingADik.)
- vulva/vagina 3d model : The vulva/vagina area of the female models looks too simplistic and unrealistic compared to other aspects of the models. This seems to be a standard 3d model since I remember this type of vagina from older games. Vagina and anus in the game are unusually red compared to the other skin color, vagina seems always open, labia are hard to see. There are games which use a more realistic 3d model for vagina/vulva, e.g. "University of Problems".
- mc's dick : Maybe it is caused by Veronica's experiments, but the mc's dick when erect seems unnaturally huge. I guess it is more than twice as long as the average erect penis. In real life this would probably cause severe problems during intercourse since it also would be more than twice as long as the average vagina.

Femdom :
I think I've seen most of the events, either ingame or by browsing the image folder.
Some sex and BDSM features like spanking, bondage (e.g. leash and collar), sex toys (e.g. butt plug, strap on), anal sex, etc seem to be less used compared to others like female masturbation, oral service, vaginal sex.
Having mc wear a buttplug during day might be difficult since it could affect more than one event and if events are shared with different paths, this could cause inconsistencies. However female characters could use buttplugs in single events as well.
There are a few rough encounters with spanking/paddling/slapping and pegging for mc, but there could be also some rough submission events for Olivia (sub) when she submits as slave to one of the Karlsson Sisters or when she uses one of her own male/female slaves.

we need more bb by patricia maybe some voiced characters its too bad you cant have a relationship or marry pat she is seriously my fav character

 

[John Bon Clay]

Tess, no buts or such just all good and thank you here!
I love the work you're doing, this is one of the best femdom games ever! Thank you!
You are active and cool, thank you!
You seem engaged, if not sometimes too engaged which can be good and bad, but you know? thank you
Tess at times you can't please everyone, yet you do please everyone, even if some whine, again.. thank you!
Don't even know why i started writing this, as I'm drunk as fuck at the moment.
I just wanted to say thank you I guess.