VN Ren'Py Karlsson's Gambit [v0.8.2 Test] [Grym Gudinna Games]

[TessSadist]

I like how you're developing the dom rout so far Tess. I have to ask, but is T6 the highest you can score from the test?

K6 is the top rank you can get to start Version 0.3, a dom player would really be aiming to get higher and higher ranked over time. A sub a little more extreme would want to be lower and lower, and a softer sub would probably want to try and stay a little near the middle and steer towards specific characters as well.

Oh, I would add for subs that focusing more on relationships with specific women matter more than pure sub points sometimes. For example, Dominique will probably never be an extreme dominant physically in terms of like pain related domination no matter what you do, but if you don't please her, you might miss her content, that kind of thing. Juliette would never be a soft dom at the other end, but some other characters in between are more pliable and might have variation on this depending on main character's choices. The same is true for doms in a different way -- some characters can't get as submissive and/or good/evil as others as they are more "set in their ways" but others are able to be influenced and changed from their first inclinations.

 

[TessSadist]

there is a subscore you can see? or is it just how you feel it is based on how they treat you?
I dont have dev insight but she has stated the game is more focused on femdom. And usually answers can be given in a "dominant/neutral or submissive" way. So my bet would be if you just stick to the neutral "stay silent" answers, you will end up with soft femdom.

This is kind of correct later, although there are two things I will try and do to allow some more player agency. 1) characters trying to steer towards certain dominants who will treat people differently and/or 2) dom does different actions based on player status, etc.

 

[TessSadist]

how is this fem protag then?

There is a second protagonist which you play as well. She has her own agency/control that impact greatly the narrative, etc.

 

[Z - Reborn]

That was a good update, easily better written than the first one. I do expecially like playing as the sister, some of her evil options are hilarious.

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[Chrisdarock19]

Please could someone upload the Windows 1.2GB file to Nopy. Pretty please and thank you

 

[Medak]

Great game, full of potential, keep up the good work
Don't know why, maybe because of the environment or the characters I really want the mc (sister too) to be a dominant and capable person that will rise on top, in this dog eat dog world, and become the next Alexander. From what I hear he had pretty big balls if he managed to keep his daughters under control. Which is funny because I'm usually a big fan of femdom and the only reason I checked this game out was because of the "female domination" tag. Played both paths, so we will see how does the story branch in the future, but for now, I have to say I like the dom path more in contrast to my personal preference and fetish.

Two small suggestion if I might say, maybe add a small stats screen in the corner or some tracker that we can see while playing that tracks our sub,dom and relationships points with different characters in the game. Think this will be a big help, especially the different relationships in the future when the story becomes complicated.

And the second thing which a lot of other games of this type have is the possibility to see the effect of the decision.
For example, beneath every choice option you have a small text in commas like [slave +1] or [sam -1].
It could even just be a mode that user can install if they want to see the stats and if don't, they just play the game.

Like all the games with at least two completely different paths, the development is harder, double the renders, pictures, texts, everything is twice the work for the same amount of content. Most people will play either the dom or the sub path in correspondence with their liking.
There are a lot of examples of great games that started strong, but in the end they were either abandoned or the updates were too short (in one direction) and far apart.
So once again great game and I hope you won't burn out too easily

 

[Ayhsel]

Well this game has become one of the best quite fast. TessSadist fantastic job! The story is really interesting, the characters are great and I just love it when I really have to think about my options, and you are accomplishing that perfectly.

Keep up the amazing work!

Also as far as what the late Mr. Karlsson was missing in his life goes, my money's on a son.

The reason why I doubt that is the case is because is already too heavily hinted. First, Elena saying Mr. Karlsson would do anything for Calista. Later knowing her last name is the same as MC's. This is only chapter 2. Too early to confirm the most likely candidate.

Two small suggestion if I might say, maybe add a small stats screen in the corner or some tracker that we can see while playing that tracks our sub,dom and relationships points with different characters in the game. Think this will be a big help, especially the different relationships in the future when the story becomes complicated.

And the second thing which a lot of other games of this type have is the possibility to see the effect of the decision.
For example, beneath every choice option you have a small text in commas like [slave +1] or [sam -1].
It could even just be a mode that user can install if they want to see the stats and if don't, they just play the game.

I am against this idea. This would just lead to people grinding the choices for a specific result instead of actually playing like a character. And that is at the core of this novel. But I guess making optional is fine? I have not doubt there will be a walkthrough mod for this game, though.
But that is my opinion.

 

[Medak]

Well this game has become one of the best quite fast. TessSadist fantastic job! The story is really interesting, the characters are great and I just love it when I really have to think about my options, and you are accomplishing that perfectly.

Keep up the amazing work!


The reason why I doubt that is the case is because is already too heavily hinted. First, Elena saying Mr. Karlsson would do anything for Calista. Later knowing her last name is the same as MC's. This is only chapter 2. Too early to confirm the most likely candidate.


I am against this idea. This would just lead to people grinding the choices for a specific result instead of actually playing like a character. And that is at the core of this novel. But I guess making optional is fine? I have not doubt there will be a walkthrough mod for this game, though.
But that is my opinion.

Yea exactly like I said, It doesn't and it shouldn't have to be mandatory, but it would be nice to have those options available for people that do want them.

 

[Ninjaman2]

Fantastic second update. Really enjoying how it seems a lot of forethought went into how to structure choices. This is definitely a gave with incredible potential.

 

[Gigalomaniac]

TessSadist awesome update
I like that your workflow is consistent and you lack that pretentious bullshit (like Estate: Dominate dev for example), having at the same time multiple branches and interesting narrative. You're doing a great job ^^

 

[tamzarian]

Pipo12334 I use firefox or opera when there's a mega link of 1gb or larger. Something about the size of it and being encrypted or sth makes chrome shut down without warning once it gets to 1gb and guess what? It STILL counts against your regional quota limit. So use an alternate browser for that and be aware that 1gb you probably already downloaded still counts against the quota.

vivaldi is very good with mega link. i use it only for that.

 

[Paapi]

Is it best to use dom+good route ?? I don't like dark & disturbing story.

 

[Glooskabe]

Is it best to use dom+good route ?? I don't like dark & disturbing story.

Have a feeling it's gonna be dark and disturbing regardless.

As for me, I'm playing MC as a basically good aligned Dom who is willing to do the hard (evil) thing if the situation calls for it. The sister in my playthrough is so far a good aligned switch. Not sure how that approach will play out so we'll see!

 

[Paapi]

This story will create mental problems in my head.!! Just give me a hint about what the hell karlsson group want from mc. My mc like to go opposite to that.

 

[ratbag]

Fantastic update. I love where the story is going and think the visuals are absolutely stunning.

I cant decide on my favorite character, as it seems to be whichever beautifully sadistic woman is on screen at that moment... so perhaps Tess herself?

If this program existed in real life, i would gladly join the queue of people volunteering for 'rehabilitation'

Please please please keep up the good work and thank you for this gem

 

[TessSadist]

Great game, full of potential, keep up the good work
Don't know why, maybe because of the environment or the characters I really want the mc (sister too) to be a dominant and capable person that will rise on top, in this dog eat dog world, and become the next Alexander. From what I hear he had pretty big balls if he managed to keep his daughters under control. Which is funny because I'm usually a big fan of femdom and the only reason I checked this game out was because of the "female domination" tag. Played both paths, so we will see how does the story branch in the future, but for now, I have to say I like the dom path more in contrast to my personal preference and fetish.

Two small suggestion if I might say, maybe add a small stats screen in the corner or some tracker that we can see while playing that tracks our sub,dom and relationships points with different characters in the game. Think this will be a big help, especially the different relationships in the future when the story becomes complicated.

And the second thing which a lot of other games of this type have is the possibility to see the effect of the decision.
For example, beneath every choice option you have a small text in commas like [slave +1] or [sam -1].
It could even just be a mode that user can install if they want to see the stats and if don't, they just play the game.

Like all the games with at least two completely different paths, the development is harder, double the renders, pictures, texts, everything is twice the work for the same amount of content. Most people will play either the dom or the sub path in correspondence with their liking.
There are a lot of examples of great games that started strong, but in the end they were either abandoned or the updates were too short (in one direction) and far apart.
So once again great game and I hope you won't burn out too easily

I am talking with someone about maybe having a basic "phone" UI (one crappy phone for MC, a nicer elegant one for female protagonist) that would have some basic info like short bios, current status, self-character stats (coming later), etc. in an optional menu for a future update. Not sure about points though. (Red String is an example of that) Not sure for 0.3, but maybe 0.4. I'm not a fan of just putting the option during the actual choice for three main reasons. 1) I like the idea of people just playing without grinding on purpose, you can always go back and do that afterwards but one "pure" playthrough I think is kind of cool personally 2) don't get caught up on points too much, the points matter for individual scenes and conversations you may see during specific episodes, but the very critical choices/endings later will often be based more on specific choices you make that will be choice flags, not points. (although some key choices it will help to have points to get that choice but it will not be a pure min/max style thing, if you generally played good/evil/dom/sub it will likely be fine) and 3) you can use say Zoey's WT to really get a lot of this anyway. I guess I am saying I prefer the default to be a blind choice, but certainly open to optional stuff too.

 

[Paapi]

Fantastic update. I love where the story is going and think the visuals are absolutely stunning.

I cant decide on my favorite character, as it seems to be whichever beautifully sadistic woman is on screen at that moment... so perhaps Tess herself?

If this program existed in real life, i would gladly join the queue of people volunteering for 'rehabilitation'

Please please please keep up the good work and thank you for this gem

U sadistic _ _ _ _

 

[TessSadist]

Is it best to use dom+good route ?? I don't like dark & disturbing story.

If you want to avoid more dark and disturbing content, try and play MC as a good player and steer him towards the right woman, believe or not, it's possible later to kind of have a normal romance path with a few people although of course it's a path that misses content. Same with female protagonist. (however, some characters you can never romance that way though because they want different things, like desire power too much, etc.) How I did the female characters is I kind of have them in default alignments and also what they like in a male MC, and some characters can't change and will only lock to specific paths, while others are more pliable and can be convinced to change their initial alignment so to speak. (Juliette for example is clearly an evil character that actually wants a specific type of MC (there are mild clues on this in 0.2), but can she change from that given her backstory/personality versus someone else, etc.)

 

[TessSadist]

Fantastic update. I love where the story is going and think the visuals are absolutely stunning.

I cant decide on my favorite character, as it seems to be whichever beautifully sadistic woman is on screen at that moment... so perhaps Tess herself?

If this program existed in real life, i would gladly join the queue of people volunteering for 'rehabilitation'

Please please please keep up the good work and thank you for this gem

Thank you, I've often said that I am (from Being a DIK, the game where I BY FAR learned how to code as I had never even read code before starting...) personally Jill on the outside and Quinn on the inside. Maybe a more sadistic Quinn without the drugs and other side stuff that aren't smart...but glad you enjoyed it!

 

[Medak]

I am talking with someone about maybe having a basic "phone" UI (one crappy phone for MC, a nicer elegant one for female protagonist) that would have some basic info like short bios, current status, self-character stats (coming later), etc. in an optional menu for a future update. Not sure about points though. (Red String is an example of that) Not sure for 0.3, but maybe 0.4. I'm not a fan of just putting the option during the actual choice for three main reasons. 1) I like the idea of people just playing without grinding on purpose, you can always go back and do that afterwards but one "pure" playthrough I think is kind of cool personally 2) don't get caught up on points too much, the points matter for individual scenes and conversations you may see during specific episodes, but the very critical choices/endings later will often be based more on specific choices you make that will be choice flags, not points. (although some key choices it will help to have points to get that choice but it will not be a pure min/max style thing, if you generally played good/evil/dom/sub it will likely be fine) and 3) you can use say Zoey's WT to really get a lot of this anyway. I guess I saying I prefer the default to be a blind choice, but certainly open to optional stuff too.

Yea, you're right.
Guess the exact number of points is irrelevant, maybe do it like in the DIK game, where each character has a upgradable bio that adds info based on your choices with that character over time or something like that. Think the mobile idea is the most feasible.
Agree about that first "pure" playthrough, it really is better to play your heart and choose the option you want without thinking about stats so that you can immerse yourself in the story.
When I mentioned the option, I meant more about that third or fourth run when you go on a scavenger hunt for the scenes and dialogues you missed, then it would be helpful to have something like that.
Played it yesterday with the walkthrough, but my phone and the other laptop were unavailable, so I had to alt tab every so often to see the stat changes for each choice and it really broke my immersion, so I guess I'm still a little bit salty about that

These are all minor things, so you could say I am nitpicking a little here. The game is currently in the beginnings so it isn't hard to play it a hundred times and try all the combination. Just think it is better to solve these kind of questions or at least think about them now when it's simple rather than after the 20th or 50th update when you have over a dozen hours of content to go through.

Of course this is all my personal opinion and preference and while I don't think we will have a problem here, I really don't like to influence devs on the bigger things in their games or to see devs trying to please the audience and loosing the vision of the game they had in their mind when starting the project.

In the end I can just make a mod for myself to add those little stuff, God knows it wouldn't be my first time