VN Ren'Py Kingdom of Deception [v0.14.2.2] [Hreinn Games]

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It can't be that hard. I've been doing it for four years running two erotic roleplaying campaigns through Roll20 and Discord.

You sound like a super fun person. Just wanted to say that. Have an awesome day, Enigmanic! Cheers!

 

[Enigmanic]

You sound like a super fun person. Just wanted to say that. Have an awesome day, Enigmanic! Cheers!

Thanks. I'm always looking for an opportunity to get involved with an adult game project as a writer since I literally have years of story and lore content written for my campaigns.

 

[HellomynameisCAT]

Well, I personally disagree with the writing being better, but that's my opinion there.

I also thought the writing was a little weak a the beginning too, but once you get into it there are some really good character moments and world that draw you in the more you read about it.

Spoiler:

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It is possible I have not been playing very many strong story-based games, so when I get a small amount of interesting writing I latch on to it and put it on a pedestal.

 

[Lolicon Kami]

Is the latest upload worth downloading?

 

[Karkhel]

So it took them 4.5 years to reach 0.12 and almost a year from 0.11 to 0.12. Guess that implies there's still 33 to 99 more years to go. Can't wait to play the completed version! (literally)

I'd like to assume you are just making a joke but I've been on the internet long enough so just in case: you do know that's not how those numbered versions work in most porn games right? Usually a game jumps a number whenever substantial enough content/systems has been added but it's NOT an indication of how much total work has been done up until now.
Version 0.12 is not 12% of the final product, games might go from 0.55 to 0.56 and then to 1.0 very next patch because that was all that needed to be done for the final game, it's pretty much never a percentage of work needed for the final version (whether the dev calculated that or not).

That being said sometimes making porn games is more lucrative than finishing them, so who knows maybe you are right on the money with the time table. Even if the devs aren't greedy you grow attached to projects you work on and just don't want them to end. Good news is this particular dev at least fully released a porn game before so I'd say there are better chances for this project.

 

[Enigmanic]

...Usually a game jumps a number whenever substantial enough content/systems has been added but it's NOT an indication of how much total work has been done up until now.
Version 0.12 is not 12% of the final product, games might go from 0.55 to 0.56 and then to 1.0 very next patch because that was all that needed to be done for the final game, it's pretty much never a percentage of work needed for the final version (whether the dev calculated that or not).

That being said sometimes making porn games is more lucrative than finishing them, so who knows maybe you are right on the money with the time table. Even if the devs aren't greedy you grow attached to projects you work on and just don't want them to end. Good news is this particular dev at least fully released a porn game before so I'd say there are better chances for this project.

You make a valid point about the version numbering. As for the rest, that may be a little naive or optimistic.
Noxian Nights was made using RPGMaker relying heavily on stock assets using parody versions of existing characters from League of Legends. It didn't take a lot of ingenuity or creativity. Kingdom of Deception is a different beast.
It has original art for the characters and the scenes but some of the characters, including the protag, are still parodies of girls from LoL. The main story isn't even halfway through after at least four years. At this point the game is a joke. There is a big difference between "not wanting it to end' and actually finishing the story in the first place.

As someone who supported KoD for 4 years I can tell you they are milking this project for the money. It has become obvious that they don't have a cohesive plan for completing the story. They are keeping some of their supporters occupied with lewd content while making stuff up as they go along. A responsible project manager and game designer would have at least an outline of the entire story arc mapped out before diving into actual development. A responsible project manager would not allow his programmer to slack off for several months before actually doing any work resulting in an update being delayed three times. If Nomo, NDS and Monsinne were doing their jobs right and actually cared about finishing the game they would have done things differently. They would have earned more trust and faith from their supporters which would have lured in more supporters to help expedite development.

Nomo is a great artist but unfortunately his art is the only thing keeping KoD alive. This game project is a dumpster fire that emits attractive smoke.

 

[Snowmanly]

Y'all yelling "KOD has gone down the drain" but they literally doubled the scenes in the game with the last patch. Like, if you truly think the game is over and done for - leave the game, forget about it. There was obviously work put into the last update.

I don't get why people still keep on bashing the devs when shit is getting done - by their own pace.

 

[Enigmanic]

..I don't get why people still keep on bashing the devs when shit is getting done - by their own pace.

The amount of content in the game shoudn't have taken four years especially when so many sex scenes are just recycled assets. So many of the sex scenes are pretty much the same stuff over and over. Furthermore, most of KoD's supporters originally started following the game for the story.

 

[Umbra.Nox]

Y'all yelling "KOD has gone down the drain" but they literally doubled the scenes in the game with the last patch. Like, if you truly think the game is over and done for - leave the game, forget about it. Stop whining endlessly on the game, when there was obviously work put into the last update. The way I see it there are 2 options:

1 - shut up, enjoy the game, talk about it, share it with somebody else that might enjoy it.

2 - leave the game and forget about it. You don't like how it's being developed? How the team's not communicating? Vote with your wallet and don't pay for it. Simple economics.

I don't get why people still keep on bashing the devs when shit is getting done - by their own pace.

Well that's not unheard of, people tend to LOVE negativity. In this situation it's kinda justified, but also kinda not, because they were crying nonstop for 8 months or so even before the update, playing oracles and accusing devs for nothing. Like the empty accusations of milking people's wallets and being a scam project.

In the end devs indeed slacked off, except for Nomo and his good artwork(which was criticized constantly too btw, with extreme prejudice). The amount of work looks like coder/s worked exclusively around the deadlines they missed, and it's nowhere near 3/4 of the year worth of work. There's nothing special to do in code, all they have to do is write text and insert new images in code, at worst. It's ctrl+c ctrl+v kind of work, everything they need is already there in their own past work, not something incredibly hard, yet they didn't do it in time. It's most likely a student syndrome, as i wrote somewhere in the past - devs probably just delayed their work without any good reason nor malicious intent, just because they didn't feel like working too fast and thought it'll be easy-peasy to do even close to the update release date. Of course, when the time has come to work they were unable to do it fast enough, having a lazy personality, as i assume.

It's hard to really say people to shut up with negativity, because they have some right to bash the devs for lazy coding, but it's also hard to support all the crying, as they often tend to go way off the rails. Like saying that Nomo's art is bad, or that without Sierra the game is unreadable and disgusting, or that devs are evil scammers. Or i remember that one time when some guy said this kind of delay should be illegal.

 

[Enigmanic]

...It's hard to really say people to shut up with negativity, because they have some right to bash the devs for lazy coding, but it's also hard to support all the crying, as they often tend to go way off the rails. Like saying that Nomo's art is bad, or that without Sierra the game is unreadable and disgusting, or that devs are evil scammers. Or i remember that one time when some guy said this kind of delay should be illegal.

You make excellent points but I don't think most of the 'crying' is unjustified.
- Nomo's art is generally great but for the previous update he made a bunch of art assets of lesser quality hoping he would be able to make some repeatable h-scenes faster but those new art assets looked pretty bad.
- Regarding Sierra Lee.. While she was involved, the game had decent sex content and an interesting story unfolding. Without her, there's been plenty of sex scenes without enough diversity or originality and the story/side story arcs have taken a distant backseat.

This game is very different from when development started, when people initially became interested in the game. The devs also have a habit of ignoring the concerns of supporters who care about the overall quality of the game while catering to those supporters who only care about the sex content.

 

[Shakira]

It has become obvious that they don't have a cohesive plan for completing the story.

I wouldn't even mind that if they at least gave us timely updates with good h scenes. Getting an update once every 6-12 months makes it difficult to stay interested in this game. Hopefully they'll put out updates faster now

 

[Jinsoyun]

Continuing my habit of sitting in the middle of an argument.

I've never been a fan of the "doomsday" posts where people declare that it's all over, so everyone else should stop enjoying it. Even if these posts were writen to vent legit frustration, in the end they serve no other purpose than to harm the players and not even the devs since the last time any of them were confirmed to read this thread has been years ago if i remember correctly.

That being said the devs did give quite many reasons for legitimate criticism.

About a month ago ronadan wrote a reply to one of my posts and he brought up some points, final one among them was about the lack of planning creating a lot of different expectations, and i've came back to thinking about this from time to time since then.
In general i think it's a smart idea to set up story points or teasing scenes which can be continued later on, but by now Hreinn has set up so many different things that the players can't even guess what will be in the next update or how many patches do they need to wait for the content they want. This is of course made worse by the slow patch cycle.

So in no particular order here is a list of the things i can remember off the top of my hat that have been either set up or teased so far without being resolved.

The warchief's fate.
The warchief's successor.
The Shaman's plans.
The politics and influence of the tribe of orc shamans.
The plans of Sabia's family and potential internal divides.
Neve's backstory.
Kira's plans.
Vehlis' plans.
The plans of the 3 captains.
Dajrab completely. Backstory, skills, powers, scenes, anything.
Jadk.
Ylva's mission or role.
Kia's future and background.
Bris and the catgirls and what does Maply think of it?
Jasmine.
Amelia + the brothel.
Lutvrog.
Kuglan.
Sabia's raiding party.

Scenes are expected to involve the following characters:
Neve, Ylva, Lutvrog, the shaman and his guys, Rokgrid, Tekrok and his team, Dajrab, Jeran, tent guards, Bris, Maply, Vehlis, Kira, Kia, Avion, Amelia, Jasmine, tentacle monster, Flufftooth, Sabia's raiding party, Not-Katarina at the stables (+Neve's interest in it). Add to this random ors, humans, maybe catgirls and whoever is your own favorite that i missed.

I'm intentionally not going into any obscure ideas or specific details here, i'll leave that for another post, and i'm also not saying that we should know everything in the future of this game broken down to details, but for example this year knowing that Sabia will revisit the tents was a gret indicator of the type of content we can expect.

 

[Bawunga]

It''s already been said but the moment the warchief gets captured and that depressing music starts playing all the time is where this game fell apart and never recovered from. Big sad.

 

[Karl Speidel]

The game declined since Sierra left that a fact but it didnt have to rot like it did by now,what we are looking at is a dying game that is keep going by people who invested too much and dont want to admit that they wasted money so they keep investing and hentai addicts who are content with "doubling" "scenes" once every 6 months or so instead of going to pornhub or a scene focused game.This game's biggest asset was its story,unique characters,dialogue and lore which is now not gonna be expanded very much if at all.

So its stupid to throw away all of that and focus on scenes,they added alot of recycled art while those who aren't are sub-standard quality,this shockingly came at the cost of dialogue and story which are now secondary to the lazy devs.
At this point it will take a miracle to get KoD out of life support.

 

[Evergrey]

The game declined since Sierra left that a fact but it didnt have to rot like it did by now,what we are looking at is a dying game that is keep going by people who invested too much and dont want to admit that they wasted money so they keep investing and hentai addicts who are content with "doubling" "scenes" once every 6 months or so instead of going to pornhub or a scene focused game.This game's biggest asset was its story,unique characters,dialogue and lore which is now not gonna be expanded very much if at all.

So its stupid to throw away all of that and focus on scenes,they added alot of recycled art while those who aren't are sub-standard quality,this shockingly came at the cost of dialogue and story which are now secondary to the lazy devs.
At this point it will take a miracle to get KoD out of life support.

i personally think the game started to decline before sierra left, i personally blame patreon as i noticed the game became alot tamer when patreon started being draconian on their rules around porn games

 

[Karl Speidel]

i personally think the game started to decline before sierra left, i personally blame patreon as i noticed the game became alot tamer when patreon started being draconian on their rules around porn games

I didnt pay much attention to Patreon and i didnt see any major changes,the minotaur scenes with Sabia plus the bandit leader (forgott her name) are pretty brutal not to mention sadistic and involve bestiality.
Please do elaborate on how the game became more tame since patreon.

 

[Enigmanic]

I didnt pay much attention to Patreon and i didnt see any major changes,the minotaur scenes with Sabia plus the bandit leader (forgott her name) are pretty brutal not to mention sadistic and involve bestiality.
Please do elaborate on how the game became more tame since patreon.

First - minotaurs are intelligent humanoids so it doesn't count as bestiality. The game does feature sex with the hellhounds but those scenes had to be snuck in much later since Patreon forbids bestiality.

Second and more troubling - Patreon forbids non-con. That's a big problem for many fantasy games and KoD is no exception.
The orcs follow a culture of conquering lands, slaughtering men and raping enslaved women. That's problematic due to Patreon's prohibition of noncon so everytime Sabia gets raped, she acts like she's mildly annoyed instead of actually being distraught about being raped or gangbanged.

Yes, the game became much tamer and it's made even worse due to poor writing.

 

[Karl Speidel]

First - minotaurs are intelligent humanoids so it doesn't count as bestiality. The game does feature sex with the hellhounds but those scenes had to be snuck in much later since Patreon forbids bestiality.

Second and more troubling - Patreon forbids non-con. That's a big problem for many fantasy games and KoD is no exception.
The orcs follow a culture of conquering lands, slaughtering men and raping enslaved women. That's problematic due to Patreon's prohibition of noncon so everytime Sabia gets raped, she acts like she's mildly annoyed instead of actually being distraught about being raped or gangbanged.

Yes, the game became much tamer and it's made even worse due to poor writing.

Is that why Sabia acts like that? I though it was intentional to make it comic or that its the dev's style.The scenes with the minotaur are anything but consensual.

Anyhow the devs are responsible for all of this mess,they chose to join patreon and supposetly abide by their rules which are arbitrarly instead of doing things the way they wanted,joining patreon AFTER they finished KoD would have been smarter since they would have gotten atleast some donations before (and if) they decided to shut them down.

 

[Enigmanic]

Is that why Sabia acts like that? I though it was intentional to make it comic or that its the dev's style.The scenes with the minotaur are anything but consensual.

Anyhow the devs are responsible for all of this mess,they chose to join patreon and supposetly abide by their rules which are arbitrarly instead of doing things the way they wanted,joining patreon AFTER they finished KoD would have been smarter since they would have gotten atleast some donations before (and if) they decided to shut them down.

Regarding the noncon, there are scenes that involve other characters being raped and the women in those scenes act a little more realistic. But most sex scenes in the game involve the protag so the noncon scenes with Sabia are much tamer.

And I partially agree about Patreon. At the time it may have been necessary for financing the game but there are certainly better alternatives. In fact, I and other supporters have in the past suggested that Nomo move the game to SubscribeStar since that crowdfunding platform doesn't restrict noncon. Frankly, I wish more adult game makers would go to SubscribeStar.

 

[Karl Speidel]

Regarding the noncon, there are scenes that involve other characters being raped and the women in those scenes act a little more realistic. But most sex scenes in the game involve the protag so the noncon scenes with Sabia are much tamer.

And I partially agree about Patreon. At the time it may have been necessary for financing the game but there are certainly better alternatives. In fact, I and other supporters have in the past suggested that Nomo move the game to SubscribeStar since that crowdfunding platform doesn't restrict noncon. Frankly, I wish more adult game makers would go to SubscribeStar.

This reminds me of ZXC (or what his name is) that made Latex Dungeon,he was on patreon for quite some time (over a year) and practically didnt abide by their rules yet he got quite a bit of a following and donations,he moved to SubscribeStar after his patreon was shut down.
Point is that he didnt allow patreon to dictate his passion/work and smartly used it as long as he could then moved.

Now that i think about it non con scenes would be a little hard to pull off,im not a fan of brutal scenes but more scenes like the orc raping the elf or like the minotaur with sabia would have been welcomed for their originality and for not really crossing the line.