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

[Hazardgaming]

I approve of viewing Olivia as Kane’s sister. But only for the purpose of fucking over Callista’s bridge plan. #BurnTheBridge

 

[Stan5851]

I approve of viewing Olivia as Kane’s sister. But only for the purpose of fucking over Callista’s bridge plan. #BurnTheBridge

Hm...what's wrong with Callista's plan, the main part of which is a simple mother's wish is for her children to succeed, win the Gambit and run the company?

 

[Hazardgaming]

Hm...what's wrong with Callista's plan, the main part of which is a simple mother's wish is for her children to succeed, win the Gambit and run the company?

It’s just her entire gambler’s mentality. She raised them to believe that they were siblings and then just hoped that some minor revelation later on would reverse how they view one another.

 

[The_Man_With_No_Name]

It’s just her entire gambler’s mentality. She raised them to believe that they were siblings and then just hoped that some minor revelation later on would reverse how they view one another.

Yes. Absolutely. Just as The program for succession is called "Karlsson's Gambit" , Callista's Grand Plan should be called "Callista's Gamble"

"I'm going to raise them as siblings so that they will grow a closer bond of trust. Once they hear otherwise they will pair up as man and woman."(though Olivia is more aware of things than Kane)

"Once Olivia gets picked up, she will be taken to the top and have to make hard choices and needs to be ready so her sisters don't rip her apart. So I will dedicate her life to training, and even train her in the mountains with monks like she's Batman.(seriously, this sounds like a hero's backstory. Why isn't she the MC?)"

"When Kane gets picked up he will have to fight tooth and nail from the bottom of that cruel ruthless corporation to the top. A normal loving upbringing should be enough. He'll be fine."

...what?

It'll be fine though. Callista is a genius after all.(has the writer's favor)
Seriously, all these points rely on Olivia, unless if Kane against all odds gets his Bugatti and does really well in the Gambit. Unless Kane gets K1. She can't help Kane being that stupid.

 

[kinkyshin]

Hm...what's wrong with Callista's plan, the main part of which is a simple mother's wish is for her children to succeed, win the Gambit and run the company?

True, but uh... if you take a look around the company you may notice that almost no men have actually done well in the program lol.

I think I see his point. I would like a route where you can ally with the DeKocks and burn the bridges too. I agree with Nadia... kill all the Karlssons! Their father stabbed Kane's father in the back and his daughters have all benefitted immensely from his treachery meanwhile Kane's family has suffered endlessly for it. Kind of hard to forgive, especially when his daughters (besides Astrid, Veronica, and maybe Olivia) are completely rotten.

It’s just her entire gambler’s mentality. She raised them to believe that they were siblings and then just hoped that some minor revelation later on would reverse how they view one another.

Actually she's supposed to be the exact opposite of a gambler (hates taking any sort of risk) according to some people like Elena.

In Callista's defense:
1) She seems to have plans to help Kane even if he fails in the program.
2) I think it's pretty heavily implied that she didn't want Kane to participate in the program at all, but his life depends on it.
3) As for not revealing information to him, it's implied that the information has to be revealed to him at a certain point to 'maximize impact' I think it was said... whatever that means.... maybe he needs to be pushed to the point of absolute despair for... plot reasons? Guess we'll find out.

Yes. Absolutely. Just as The program for succession is called "Karlsson's Gambit" , Callista's Grand Plan should be called "Callista's Gamble"

"I'm going to raise them as siblings so that they will grow a closer bond of trust. Once they hear otherwise they will pair up as man and woman."(though Olivia is more aware of things than Kane)

"Once Olivia gets picked up, she will be taken to the top and have to make hard choices and needs to be ready so her sisters don't rip her apart. So I will dedicate her life to training, and even train her in the mountains with monks like she's Batman.(seriously, this sounds like a hero's backstory. Why isn't she the MC?)"

"When Kane gets picked up he will have to fight tooth and nail from the bottom of that cruel ruthless corporation to the top. A normal loving upbringing should be enough. He'll be fine."

...what?

For real. The more I play this game the more I get immersed into it and the more I hate them all. Man, you know when Elena tells Kane to see the human furniture as "literal building material for a new shiny road"? Sometimes I feel like that's all Kane is lol - building material for Olivia to step on during her ascent to rule the company.

-> Callista tells Kane that he needs to support Olivia because she's going to be so strong in the future. Makes sure Olivia gets special training, including secret training from Ying Yue.

-> Kane gets framed for a crime he doesn't commit, has to spend months in prison thinking his parents are dead and his brother is about to die. Has to eat sludge from a bowl for months since that's what they serve. He then starts at k4~k6 while Olivia starts at... z3.

-> Olivia knows about seemingly everything including Callista faking her death, while Kane is in the dark. (Also, she is super happy at the start of the game while Seth is on the verge of death... because she knows the Karlssons are coming for her and Seth isn't in actual danger.)

Also I'm still trying to figure out why the Karlsson girls were so pissed in this scene:

Spoiler

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1. Seems basically every daughter he had made it to the board.
2. There are almost no men in the company, and then we can see that the female pods and male pods are treated completely differently.
3. Olivia starts z3 and Kane starts k4~k6.
Pretty strong evidence that their success was in fact pre-ordained lol. Seems Alexander deemed them all unworthy, yet they're still all board members.

 

[Stan5851]

"When Kane gets picked up he will have to fight tooth and nail from the bottom of that cruel ruthless corporation to the top. A normal loving upbringing should be enough. He'll be fine."

Well, unless the player starts intentionally remaking Kane into a slave, then yes, Callista would be right, and loving upbringing would indeed be enough for Kane to be able to quickly settle into his new environment and make great strides.

 

[MilesEdgeworth]

Yea, I get why she kept the gambit from Kane, but I'm not sure why she couldn't tell him a sanitized version of who his father is and introduce him to that side of his family. If I were a Dekock, I would've cursed Callista's ass out for denying me access to Cole's son.

Also I'm still trying to figure out why the Karlsson girls were so pissed in this scene:

Spoiler

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Because those three hated their upbringing and it pisses them off that people assume they had it easy when they didn't.
Hopefully tess incorporates more Alexander stuff in future installments.

Interestingly, Alessandra didn't mind her upbringing yet the only sister Alexander relied on to back him up was Juliette.

 

[The_Man_With_No_Name]

Well, unless the player starts intentionally remaking Kane into a slave, then yes, Callista would be right, and loving upbringing would indeed be enough for Kane to be able to quickly settle into his new environment and make great strides.

Sure. That's the player experience and just called game difficulty though. It works out that way because the plot and game needs it that way. It still doesn't make sense unless if Callista has meta knowledge and knows that Kane will be the MC and get player control.

Also I'm still trying to figure out why the Karlsson girls were so pissed in this scene:

Spoiler

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1. Seems basically every daughter he had made it to the board.
2. There are almost no men in the company, and then we can see that the female pods and male pods are treated completely differently.
3. Olivia starts z3 and Kane starts k4~k6.
Pretty strong evidence that their success was in fact pre-ordained lol. Seems Alexander deemed them all unworthy, yet they're still all board members.

Alexander was a bastard who I'm sure sent them through the wringer before giving them their positions. If I remember right it was mentioned that the only way Juliette got favor from her father was being cruel so she grew a taste for it.

 

[MilesEdgeworth]

If Alexander was still alive.

Alexander: A kid with Callista and Cole's DNA is perfect for my daughters
Ten minutes after meeting Kane.
Alexander: Never mind, that was my bad. Veronica, go ahead and create the perfect human.

 

[drdiver3]

I have a theory for why she could've purged the Dom routes beside it being too much work for something that she doesn't want to create anyway in the premise of this particular game but before that I have to be sure about something...

So Just a thought but someone has any proof that Mistress Anais is another real person and isn't actually Tess herself. I couldn't find her presence anywhere except the few messages that she dropped on Tess's server. I mean who actually goes so far as to making a porn game without actually playing some and without being a user on F95 or other Adult games related forums? Am i reading into it too much or giving it too little attention to know that's not the case?

Or maybe you think the same then I would like to know why you think so besides the odd things that I have already mentioned.

My suspicion is that this theory isn't true, because Anais is completely useless and incapable of doing anything (the latest example being her literal recycling of KG characters. Is she incapable of making her own given the roughly 1 year she has been working on this already?), whereas Tess constantly talks her up. I don't think Tess has it in her to create an incompetent alter ego, and then trust it to do tasks it constantly doesn't deliver on.

Tess is competent enough as a Dev, ignoring her flaws, that she would be capable of actually producing work product to Anais' name if Anais was actually her.

 

[drdiver3]

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The problem is that Tess as a female writer with dominant tendencies is writing Kane as what she perceives an ideal man to be; someone who possesses power and some degree of competence, and is prepared to work with powerful women as (at best) equals. He is a willing participant in the fantasies of powerful women, but doesn't have much in the way of desires or initiative of his own. He is clever enough to survive, but not clever enough to leverage his advantages to true power.

The way he was written at first made sense based on his position, but his lack of initiative, intelligence, or even any sense of asserting his advantages to get what he wants, sexually and otherwise, is now emerging as an obvious weakness in her writing. I think this is why he's largely in vanilla sex scenes, and even when he's doing evil stuff, he's there doing it along with Juliette at her behest. At best they share in a scenario concocted by Juliette together. I get the impression that this is what Tess perceives to be an ideal male partner, and what she's writing, but she can't conceive of a man who is able to assert his will altogether over powerful women rather than simply desiring to cooperate with them in taking advantage of the weak. She may include paths that allow Kane to rise to the top, but it isn't going to feel organic if she continues to write him as without any degree of cunning or lust for power.

Conversely, this is pretty strong evidence against the speculation that Tess is a dude, or some team of dudes. Not only do I have my doubts they would be able to write multidimensional and strong female characters as consistently as Tess achieves, but I also think what Kane should be doing in his situation if he is dominant would come a lot more naturally to a talented male writer.

 

[kinkyshin]

Conversely, this is pretty strong evidence against the speculation that Tess is a dude, or some team of dudes. Not only do I have my doubts they would be able to write multidimensional and strong female characters as consistently as Tess achieves, but I also think what Kane should be doing in his situation if he is dominant would come a lot more naturally to a talented male writer.

Yea, I don't know if I would consider that strong evidence lol, and I love the idea of grymgudinnagames being just a bunch of neckbeards with severe gambling addictions.

but at the same time, I gotta say ...

Spoiler: would a group of dudes really cut Angelica content?

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[The_Man_With_No_Name]

My suspicion is that this theory isn't true, because Anais is completely useless and incapable of doing anything (the latest example being her literal recycling of KG characters. Is she incapable of making her own given the roughly 1 year she has been working on this already?), whereas Tess constantly talks her up. I don't think Tess has it in her to create an incompetent alter ego, and then trust it to do tasks it constantly doesn't deliver on.

Tess is competent enough as a Dev, ignoring her flaws, that she would be capable of actually producing work product to Anais' name if Anais was actually her.

Hmm I'll disagree pretty hard on this one. From what I've seen from the design notes it looks pretty good. The only reused characters I saw Anais use were of course Astrid as we knew and a character named Olivia who has similar traits. Though since this is the future she was most likely named after Olivia with high expectations placed on her to be like her.
Anais may have pitched the idea a year ago, but I doubt it's had hardcore nonstop development. Especially since Anais has been helping Tess out with KG and learning how to even make a VN since she has no experience doing so.

I don't like how Tess behaves with people who have the gall to disagree with her and Anais might not be a saint either, though I've seen too few postings or actions to be a hard judge. But I have nothing terribly bad to say about the overall quality of Tess's work. Just some writing things that are very silly as I've mentioned and as you have bellow this quoted post. As for Anais we've seen just a few screens and the design notes and I saw nothing that gripped me as bad.

And yes they are different people.

 

[Stan5851]

And yes they are different people.

Then all that's left to decide is which of the two of them is this guy.

I still think that my crack theory that she's actually a fat 35 year old neckbeard from Nebraska is correct.

 

[MilesEdgeworth]

Yeah, I doubt that Anais is Tess's alter-ego. If Tess wanted to release a Mass Effect-type game, she'd do it. Now, if the games were released in the reverse order, I can see one deploying secret alter egos, since you're going from Mass Effect to a BDSM game.

 

[Silver_Crow117]

There two different people and their not dudes…

 

[drdiver3]

Hmm I'll disagree pretty hard on this one. From what I've seen from the design notes it looks pretty good. The only reused characters I saw Anais use were of course Astrid as we knew and a character named Olivia who has similar traits. Though since this is the future she was most likely named after Olivia with high expectations placed on her to be like her.
Anais may have pitched the idea a year ago, but I doubt it's had hardcore nonstop development. Especially since Anais has been helping Tess out with KG and learning how to even make a VN since she has no experience doing so.

I don't like how Tess behaves with people who have the gall to disagree with her and Anais might not be a saint either, though I've seen too few postings or actions to be a hard judge. But I have nothing terribly bad to say about the overall quality of Tess's work. Just some writing things that are very silly as I've mentioned and as you have bellow this quoted post. As for Anais we've seen just a few screens and the design notes and I saw nothing that gripped me as bad.

And yes they are different people.

Can you name a task involving rendering that she has clearly been assigned and in fact completed? Several years ago she was placed in charge of one of the dom render sets and simply never delivered it for a year. And that was something like a 30 render set.

As far as the design notes, how easy is it to disentangle Tess' contributions, who we agree is competent, from Anais'?