Ren'Py Abandoned Lab Rats 2 [v0.51.1] [Vren]

[Evil13]

wait lab rats 2 abandon....WTF!! vren just decided to quit making it, ouch well modded version is better anyway so fuck it.

We don't know if Vren did abandon the game or not. He hasn't posted since October, in fact, there's been no communication from him since October. And from what I understand, he possibly lives in Ukraine. We don't know if he's alive or not.

 

[dalzomo]

We don't know if Vren did abandon the game or not. He hasn't posted since October, in fact, there's been no communication from him since October. And from what I understand, he possibly lives in Ukraine. We don't know if he's alive or not.

I expressed concern that he was safe from the conflict in Ukraine in March last year and he said, "I'm safely in another part of the world, but I'll admit paying attention to events has eaten up a non-zero amount of dev time!"

 

[ffive]

You do not have to redo everything to improve it, and creating a new GFX system isn't the same as just adding more content at all. The latter has literally been done before, it is slow (posing) but straightforward. Replacing images with new ones is labour intensive, but that only would change by totally overhauling the system which as we've seen is complicated and even slower.

If the models are redone then old content isn't going to fit, not to mention partial rework would end up in mismatched appearance. Adding more content has indeed been done before (and it's pretty normal) but what you're asking for wasn't just adding more content. You were explicitly talking about redoing existing art assets.

 

[MaxTheDark]

I think given the situation it might be wise to add after 'overview' a section explaining that the game has not been officially abandoned but he contact with developer has been lost. And I think in developing the mods we can prepare the game to be taken further should Vren return.

Aaaand someone skilled enough should work on Lab Rats 3D in Unity or some devil... Just my idea is all...

 

[swagfiend]

If the models are redone then old content isn't going to fit, not to mention partial rework would end up in mismatched appearance. Adding more content has indeed been done before (and it's pretty normal) but what you're asking for wasn't just adding more content. You were explicitly talking about redoing existing art assets.

Well if we're going to argue in the realms of "technically" then that that is an "if" as it would depend on what is done. And yes, redoing images can classify as adding content if you do in fact add content.

We're talking about a series of zip files of images here, not recoding the entire way images are displayed, it's time consuming but entirely doable. Not rocket science, not something new and complicated, just tedious.

 

[TeamHentaiX]

I think given the situation it might be wise to add after 'overview' a section explaining that the game has not been officially abandoned but he contact with developer has been lost. And I think in developing the mods we can prepare the game to be taken further should Vren return.

Aaaand someone skilled enough should work on Lab Rats 3D in Unity or some devil... Just my idea is all...

i would love to make lab rats 2 for unreal engine, cause unity too hard for me lol

 

[MaxTheDark]

i would love to make lab rats 2 for unreal engine, cause unity too hard for me lol

I've actually just played a game, Last Hope, which is in UE and I thought to myself 'well this is exactly the type of gameplay I would expect!'. The subject and theme is completely different, but due to the game taking place in an enclosed location, the travel system from Lab Rats 2 could be easily utilized. I assumed Unity would be the easiest. Also, pretty sure it would be 3 not 2 at that point

 

[TeamHentaiX]

I've actually just played a game, Last Hope, which is in UE and I thought to myself 'well this is exactly the type of gameplay I would expect!'. The subject and theme is completely different, but due to the game taking place in an enclosed location, the travel system from Lab Rats 2 could be easily utilized. I assumed Unity would be the easiest. Also, pretty sure it would be 3 not 2 at that point

lol yeah Lab Rats 3 on Unity or Unreal engine is fine with me hehe

 

[ecksdude]

Congrats to Vren, I think this is actually the best game on the site.

The dream (fantasy) is that this game is remade with better graphics, etc. But reality is that engineering the clothing and body change system to be dynamic in a better environment is a colossal undertaking, you'd basically need a team of people and a server farm to generate all the images in a reasonable timeframe, or a team of people to develop it into a truly dynamic 3D game mapping clothing and bodies on the fly.

Those who like mods, it's actually pretty easy to mod this game once you figure out the basic mechanics of the code. I've done some personal mods here and there (no, I won't be releasing them, not worth it), but just to say if you've got some rudimentary programming skill, you can probably mod the game yourself.

 

[kidoman]

We don't know if Vren did abandon the game or not. He hasn't posted since October, in fact, there's been no communication from him since October. And from what I understand, he possibly lives in Ukraine. We don't know if he's alive or not.

I really hope the poor guy's alive and well :-/ dropping off the face of the planet isn't uncommon for indie adult devs, but very out of character for Vren. Something bad must have went down to have him completely disappear like this.

The first lab rats was my first 'real' adult game (played a lot of adult flash games on Newgrounds back in the glory days, lol) and awakened me to both my incest and my pregnancy fetishes. Then when I looked at the game code to see if I could adjust some things I discovered he'd left notes specifically for people checking the code out to help them understand what everything did. If it wasn't for those notes, I probably never would have gotten interested in programming/Ren'py and gotten as far as I have today. As odd as it may seem, the guy's kind of a hero to me. He paved the way for me to discover a hobby I love (plus the fetishes were a nice bonus, lol).

On the off-chance he's lurking and reading this: Vren, you're the guy. Thanks for the help, the inspiration, and the god-tier faps.

 

[giantboss]

Last year i finally tried this game after enjoying the first one years ago ( i tried to play this game in various occasions but given up because the serum system/research was hard for me to understand) and it's one of the best games on this site the amount of content this game offers it's amazing and the mod is great too,
it's a shame that Vren is not updating it anymore but if it's your first time playing it you will be pleased

 

[Shenanigans25]

I really hope the poor guy's alive and well :-/ dropping off the face of the planet isn't uncommon for indie adult devs, but very out of character for Vren. Something bad must have went down to have him completely disappear like this.

Looks like VrenGames on GitLab (the account/platform Vren is hosting the open source repo for Lab Rats 2) just had activity a few days ago when it joined the community edition project.

 

[renpy_guy]

Sorry, that was me. I added VrenGames to the community edition project in case they come back and want to take over (or shut it down). As of right now it's mostly spelling fixes and some features backported from the Live2D version.

 

[Sorath]

We don't know if Vren did abandon the game or not. He hasn't posted since October, in fact, there's been no communication from him since October. And from what I understand, he possibly lives in Ukraine. We don't know if he's alive or not.

holy shit

 

[ddtmm]

oh damn

 

[zenupstart]

Sorry, that was me. I added VrenGames to the community edition project in case they come back and want to take over (or shut it down). As of right now it's mostly spelling fixes and some features backported from the Live2D version.

Huh, have you considered joining the Mod discord to work with the existing LR2 community?

We were wondering what you were up to. I myself was added without any contact to this new repository of yours.

Do think v0.51.1 is probably the best place to move forward from.

LR2MOD maintains an unofficial bugfix of the Vanilla project as well the mod. Some discussion on the Discord on how to proceed now that the game has been declared abandoned but not eager to jump the gun in case Vren pops back up.

Next release of the Mod is well underway with considerable new content.

 

[dalzomo]

On the other hand, there are still players who play the vanilla version with only necessary fixes and personal edits instead of all the cruft in the unofficial "bugfix" solely meant for the The Mod's benefit. And since this is the vanilla thread, that's all I'll say about that

renpy_guy feel free to do what you want with what Vren has made available on your own if you wish to. Don't feel pressured into joining anything unless that's your jam. You might want to look into not adding people w/o contacting them though. I too had a 'bwuh' moment there lol

I have been considering posting a compilation of minimal fixes in a fanpatch of sorts here, for those who still play the vanilla game or newly discover it. If I get really ambitious, I might even do more than that but let's not get ahead of myself. I am still slowly slogging through the events guide I promised a week or so back. Work has been hell lately >_<

 

[zenupstart]

On the other hand, there are still players who play the vanilla version with only necessary fixes and personal edits instead of all the cruft in the unofficial "bugfix" solely meant for the The Mod's benefit. And since this is the vanilla thread, that's all I'll say about that

renpy_guy feel free to do what you want with what Vren has made available on your own if you wish to. Don't feel pressured into joining anything unless that's your jam. You might want to look into not adding people w/o contacting them though. I too had a 'bwuh' moment there lol

I have been considering posting a compilation of minimal fixes in a fanpatch of sorts here, for those who still play the vanilla game or newly discover it. If I get really ambitious, I might even do more than that but let's not get ahead of myself. I am still slowly slogging through the events guide I promised a week or so back. Work has been hell lately >_<

Huh, I was taking the fact that he named it Community Edition as a hint that he wanted to work with a community. His invites also seemed to imply that.

I was trying to be helpful by connecting with the community that's grown up around LR2, that Vren himself actually joined (before ghosting after his discouraging Live2D attempt).

But by all means, not trying to pressure anyone. I would think a CE would want to carry the project forward rather than minimal fixes, but whatever people want to do is fine by me.

 

[dalzomo]

Yeah, that's cool man. It's just that every time anyone talks about anything modding-adjacent one of you is in here all, "have you heard about our Lord and Savior?!" and some of them seem to think nobody in their right mind plays vanilla. I just feel like there needs to be a voice for the vanilla players by choice, and someone to say everyone can contribute in their own way independently if they want to. If he wants to join The Mod, that's great. More power to him and you

Like I've said before, I owe my start in modding to The Mod so it's not like I hate it or think it's objectively bad. I've just moved on because my tastes are different from the writing in it and I like to play a stable game

 

[CuriousWonder]

Yeah, that's cool man. It's just that every time anyone talks about anything modding-adjacent one of you is in here all, "have you heard about our Lord and Savior?!" and some of them seem to think nobody in their right mind plays vanilla. I just feel like there needs to be a voice for the vanilla players by choice, and someone to say everyone can contribute in their own way independently if they want to. If he wants to join The Mod, that's great. More power to him and you

Like I've said before, I owe my start in modding to The Mod so it's not like I hate it or think it's objectively bad. I've just moved on because my tastes are different from the writing in it and I like to play a stable game

Yeah. Like honestly, I only checked the mod out because I noticed the content was thinning out in the vanilla version so I checked out what the mid was like but had their been an update I would go back to vanilla