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

[NanasBananas]

Really great update! The story is moving along, things are falling into place, and our choices are showing real consequences. But first I just wanna mention the sexy content, because I think this update was my favorite in terms of that so far.

I believe I already gave Kitty, or Mistress Katsumi, a shout-out at the end of the last update, but this update actually made me even more excited about her because it reaffirmed everything I love about her. I've had the thought years ago that the combination of cute and evil will probably be my downfall one day... Having a character who's so excited about having human toys to play with is just about irresistible to me. It endears the character to me, and awakens the side of me that doesn't want to trample on their excitement, even if it means getting trampled myself instead. It's a way that I find very quick and effective, at least in my case, of getting me to be on her side even more than I am on my own side, which you could argue is kind of the definition of submitting to someone. Seeing the joy it gives her when I obey and place myself under her just made submitting so effortless and natural to me, I just found myself wanting to make her happy and willing to endure almost any degradation she wishes to inflict upon me for that to happen.

And then, there's also her relationship with our brother. I've definitely mentioned before how much I love when a sadistic character seduces and manipulates an innocent character to fall into her charms, so that whole dynamic is something I just love. Seeing him as another toy while she actively plans to make him fall in love with her just to play with him and break him, and torturing us with the knowledge that she's doing that to our poor brother is just wonderful. As of right now, I'm pretty sure she's my favorite mistress in the game. We'll see if anyone else can top her...

The choice of whether or not to sell myself to a specific mistress and to whom was very hard to make, both in term of just plain content and story consequences. For the story, I actually still haven't made up my mind. I'm afraid of both accepting and rejecting each of the options, I just don't know yet which one would be the most helpful but I believe that all of them could be. As for content, hard to say too. I find the elegant and lethal Kiyomi very attractive, but her deal seemed like the least personal and potentially the most morally compromising as it would be harder for me to snitch on my friends than to just put myself in harm and humiliation's way. Junko, is pretty awesome. I feel like if I just end up as her pet for life it would be a very happy life for me. But Scarlett's pegging scene was great too, I like that aggressive dominance that just puts me in my place and lets her forcefully take what she wants from me and have her way with me. But should I try to please both of them? I'm not sure if it would be wise or not...

Very much looking forward to the next update and seeing how our choices carry the story through the next stretches. I'm especially interested in seeing the continuation of where we left off, how both Kane and Olivia will respond to seeing each other again in such vastly different positions. I should try to do another playthrough or two and see what K5 and maybe even K6 look like, and explore some of the other possibilities. For now I mostly stuck to choices I'm pretty happy with that I can consider a main playthrough, only making a few saves for the different Junko / Scarlett / Kiyomi alliance options, but I'm definitely intrigued to see what else I missed, because I know I haven't seen everything I could be interested in seeing yet...

Lastly, I'll just say on the topic of the dom path since it was brought up, even though I personally have almost no interest in playing someone dominant, and probably even less so someone evil, I actually appreciate that the options are there, because it makes my good/submissive path feel like something I chose rather than something the game forced me into. Choices are actually something I struggle with a lot as someone who's slowly trying to push themselves into becoming a femdom game developer, because I absolutely believe that choice-based femdom is more fun and compelling than railroaded femdom, but it's not always easy for me to think of choices where I actually have an interest in writing both outcomes. I think this game is a good example of choices done right, and besides the wonderful mistresses we're getting to know and the abundance of femdom and the intriguing story, the choices we get to make and their consequences are definitely one of the major reasons I'm enjoying this game.

Heh, I actually thought I was going to write a shorter comment for this update... Guess I should add a TL;DR version:
In short, great game, love Mistress Katsumi, love the choices we get to make, love where things are going, very excited to see more! Cheers!

 

[J1215]

What is SisGambitQueen? What will a high SisGambitQueen lead to? Is it better for Olivia that SisGambitQueen be bigger or smaller ?. (I want everything to be fine with Olivia .- For me, she is the central character of the game!)

 

[TessSadist]

Trying to respond to multiple posts, so bear with me.

As for branching paths, I have thought a LOT about the problem of too much of a good thing, so the best I can say without spoilers is that there will always be a main tree trunk (the main plot) that is primarily split into higher and lower ranked employees in the system (some may see this as sub/dom too but that's not entirely right later on). So with 0.3, K5 and K6 both experienced the same main tree trunk story (plane/clinic/etc) but it split later with a deviation to their specific rank. K4s saw the same basic story but split for specific kink scenes based on choices. It is impossible to create a hugely deep choice path for each and every choice without taking forever for one update so you have to fit those branches as side paths within the context of the main tree trunk. So choices that branch off eventually come back to the main plot. (all K4s have the same basic beginning and end regardless of choices) So for example let's say in 0.4 there is a universal scene for all K4s. It will likely always start the same, but it might down the road split a bit into specific things happening based on prior choices. At 0.8 (at least the way I have it in my head), major choices will be made that mostly simplify a lot of prior choices into more set tracks for Act 3. A lot of choices impact scenes/kinks but much less actually impact the true endings, which is a way to try and keep it manageable. I have 15 endings written out, but in a way, it's more like 7-8, as some tweak depending on specific characters, but the basic tone/impact are similar for a few of them. (easiest example is one ending might be you walk away from the company free and with Girl A in a certain way, or walk away in a similar but different way with Girl B, but you can't do this with Girl C or D given their arcs - meaning those two might never be willing to go this route) I can't make all possible endings for all girls, but rather specific possibilities based on their own agenda/personality and how the MC makes choices/influences them, etc.

With say sponsorship, this at first is simply side scenes and possible little benefits for the main scenes where one might perform better or not, etc. But the most impact is on the main tree trunk, with some side scenes as well. It is a reality that at some point, some side characters will have to be dropped somewhat (unless paired with a sister, etc) for kink scenes as the focus starts to narrow on the highest girls the later the game goes.

And not to really spoil, but later, the MC will really have to choose between three very distinct "teams" so to speak. This will be more apparent later. One immediate clue of initial tendency is who liked which outfit Olivia wore. Normally, you might imagine for example Juliette might like the red outfit choice, but she didn't in the code and that's for a specific reason.

 

[TessSadist]

TessSadist i take the sub path with the male protagonist, and the dominant path with the sister, and how last chapter ended i want to know if the incest scens could be skiped or i must play theme to continue the story in the upcoming chapter.

I don't want to spoil anything, but I wouldn't worry about incest in the way you are thinking.

 

[TessSadist]

What is SisGambitQueen? What will a high SisGambitQueen lead to? Is it better for Olivia that SisGambitQueen be bigger or smaller ?. (I want everything to be fine with Olivia .- For me, she is the central character of the game!)

No spoilers, but her approval or not is mostly dependent on Olivia's morality. I think what is better or not for that specific variable depends on how you want to play Olivia. I think both are fine but one way is clearly more "good" and the other not so much. (I did try and put a warning in intro that the evil route can down the road be very evil, so please avoid it if not your thing!)

 

[Skylaroo]

As for branching paths

Thank you for the response. I think that's a really great way of dealing with the paths in the game. I'm really glad that you seem to know what you want and also able to balance it out with what's reasonable to develop in the game. I'm definitely more at ease with this now. Thanks again.

 

[J1215]

No spoilers, but her approval or not is mostly dependent on Olivia's morality. I think what is better or not for that specific variable depends on how you want to play Olivia. I think both are fine but one way is clearly more "good" and the other not so much. (I did try and put a warning in intro that the evil route can down the road be very evil, so please avoid it if not your thing!)

I play as Olivia. My Olivia = dominant + good!

 

[Spfjolietjake]

Another question would be..why do people keep constantly commenting on game threads telling the dev to do something different?

I blame burger King who started the whole "have it your way" mentality. It's rude, irrating and kind of disrespectful from posters getting this quality story for free, which alot of us are. My 2 cents

Regarding the dom path, I really wanted to do one because I just like the idea of the story allowing that possibility. I guess I wasn't interested in having a pure railroaded sub MC only, but someone who had the chance to overcome obstacles and conflict in a specific narrative. I don't think the dom path helps me commercially for this specific game as I'm pretty confident 70-80% of my Patrons are sub males and 20% are dom females, but I could be wrong. I never figured this specific story idea (I had 4 I really liked, and I ranked this third at best, maybe fourth out of four for commercial viability) was very commercial given the smaller target audience. But I think it does prepare me well for future stuff, as the main reason I didn't do the story I initially targeted was no clue how to do animations. (I think you need them more for certain types of games)

Also keep in mind (not sure about other femdom writers) that I am dominant, so I do enjoy writing some scenes from the perspective of a dominant character. (even a male one, it's just fun to think and write about, because one iteration of Kane will end up as my fantasy strong male personality hee hee)

If I find a serious and good artist to lighten my load, I will probably try and write another idea as well during this game. My art is painfully slow, but I write very quickly. I don't doubt the talent of someone who did some of my 0.3, but she's also 22 years old and I'm not sure I can count on her completely yet. (I'm not much older than her, but very different maturity level) I'm not looking to become a full-time game dev because I actually do enjoy my work and it's really good income, especially given the current climate so I know I'm very very lucky. But for the game, working on solutions...if I was lucky enough to find a good artist/animator - maybe I can learn animation the right way too - who knows...

And quickly, Alessandra is at first focused on making sure Olivia is ready to go (her assignment), but we'll see how she progresses.

I wouldn't quit if you stopped the dom route but I gotta tell you, it's so fucking hot and I love it. Truly a fan of it. Sorry it ain't making you the money but I hope you do keep it cause I truly enjoy it. Thank you

 

[SubFork]

TessSadist is there anyway to support your game with mining? ( specifically Ethereum ). you just need create a wallet!

 

[TessSadist]

TessSadist is there anyway to support your game with mining? ( specifically Ethereum ). you just need create a wallet!

I'm not familiar with this at all, so I'd have to look into this before getting back to you

 

[JunaidAS]

And about choosing, Solo/Team/Gambit. Which one is better if I want Olivia and Veronica in the end lol

 

[submissiveguy4131]

I just want to say Tess....... I love your content! At least there's one game developer that doesn't let me down. *cough cough, Bethesda. Seriously, as a lifestyle sub, I enjoy the experience that you put me through in this game. I get very nervous and anxious every time I select an answer. Im unsure of what the particular character truly wants. You have me constantly questioning if my answer pleases the Domme or not.

 

[Leo Humilis]

TessSadist Amazing update! This game gets better and better! I hope I shall be able to resume supporting my favorite creators in Patreon again as of next month (with you and Darktoz are certainly being on the top of my list).

 

[Mormont]

After this update, I'd be worried about that bruising taking a shot to the dick as the MC did is tear-inducing no idea how he could keep standing up from that it certainly takes the wind out of you. And Olivia really is something else I hope we get more content with her next time.

 

[Frosty2000]

After this update, I'd be worried about that bruising taking a shot to the dick as the MC did is tear-inducing no idea how he could keep standing up from that it certainly takes the wind out of you. And Olivia really is something else I hope we get more content with her next time.

I play Olivia as dominant as possible and the MC as submissive as possible. My guess is that this will lead to the male MC being very limited in choices at one point. Like only being able to choose between if we prefer shoe or foot worship, being peed or just spit on, etc.. ;P Meaning just being a plaything for the women in direct interactions and a pawn in the bigger play going on.
So "best" scenario from my point of view for very submissive male MC will be being a very visible, but rightless slave with very limited choices. Dominant Olivia in contrast can be probably seen as the main character in that path, who can influence the main narrative of the game and will take center stage overall.

No idea how submissive Olivia plays, but I doubt her role would become bigger for being submissive...

 

[Spfjolietjake]

I play Olivia as dominant as possible and the MC as submissive as possible. My guess is that this will lead to the male MC being very limited in choices at one point. Like only being able to choose between if we prefer shoe or foot worship, being peed or just spit on, etc.. ;P Meaning just being a plaything for the women in direct interactions and a pawn in the bigger play going on.
So "best" scenario from my point of view for very submissive male MC will be being a very visible, but rightless slave with very limited choices. Dominant Olivia in contrast can be probably seen as the main character in that path, who can influence the main narrative of the game and will take center stage overall.

No idea how submissive Olivia plays, but I doubt her role would become bigger for being submissive...

I play both doms. It's my thing. I love the freedom to choose and might playthrough varying them after it ends, just to see everything. It feels very well crafted, and not a first vn.

 

[victkh]

I play Olivia as dominant as possible and the MC as submissive as possible.

I play exactly the opposite And my Olivia is lawful good

 

[Leo Humilis]

I play exactly the opposite And my Olivia is lawful good

Heh, my Olivia is an evil domme from Hell and my Kane is a total sub, who is neither evil nor good essentially... but he simply doesn't give a fuck about anything except pleasing the dominant ladies around him

 

[Kaliba]

I really like the game so far, since i like dominant woman. To conquer them (their love and/or respect) is much more entertaining. By that i dont mean that the mc turns a dom female into a sub, but rather acting together on the same wavelength.

Im personally not really into femdom when its done to me, at least the harsher kind. But seeing the other guys/the competition (if you can call them that lol) getting destroyed is really arousing (in a fucked up way).

 

[Spfjolietjake]

.. But seeing the other guys/the competition (if you can call them that lol) getting destroyed is really arousing (in a fucked up way lol).

That's exactly the way i feel playing the mc as dom and watching the others get dommed is a nice feeling