Ren'Py Lessons in Love [v0.44.0] [Selebus]

[Bingoogus]

tbh I wonder what his total income is when you factor in the annual pass stuff and merch

i guess it always feels weird to see ppl asking for money but the dev is in a sort of position where unless he does exactly that, he'll just end up slowly losing money (if not due to subscriber loss, then due to inflation - this dude does not get any annual raises or refreshers)

also wonder how many subscribers he could have obtained if he:
1) didn't piss off f95
2) didn't rework the intro sequence to be so damn off-putting: the Ami scene is just way too in-your-face imo. from what I remember of playing the original, it was a mystery that slowly builds up to that
3) listened to community feedback about ppl disliking the gameplay and puzzles: i think he views them as essential for immersion or something? either way, it seems like there's a near-unanimous consensus on them being shit
4) increased the quality of sexual content instead of dropping animations - for instance, he could integrate animations in the game itself instead of only having them in the repeatable events. i think the majority of ppl that find this game organically are looking for porn so it makes sense to cater to that
5) capped the word count to like 30-40k per update (~1.5-2 hours of content) and focused on making it tighter/more focused

2 through 5 will never happen, dude enjoys sucking his own dick too much. As for 1, he had nearly constant positive growth before he fucked with F95, sometimes slower than others but whatever he lost he soon made up for, after he went scorched earth he has struggled just to tread water, since the bonus animations became a thing he is barely growing at all, but there is some growth. It won't last though, i fully expect what growth he has seen has been from those who were already subscribed, ain't no one new who's subbing just to unlock the bonus animations so it's pretty obvious he's just squeezing a little more out of what he already has, there's still no real growth in sub count and it's all his own fault. Dude was too egotistical to realize what he 'lost' through piracy he more than made up for through advertisement and access to new potential subscribers.

 

[DeSkel15]

Some stuff on Sensei's name as of late:

Spoiler

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[Moonflare]

I'm leaning this way too, that they just naturally found out through talking with the rest of their group. That being said, people learning his real name has always been a bit of an important moment in their interactions with him, so this feels a bit cheap..

It's a shame he's no longer here nor on good terms with any of the community because it would be nice to know if it was a minor mistake or intended. That being said, it would require Sel to acknowledge the fact he can make mistakes and I feel like his head has gotten a bit too big for that with his discord of sycophants. Shame.

"I once said I made a mistake, but I was mistaken when I said that." -- Selebus, probably.

 

[Dc345]

Some stuff on Sensei's name as of late:

Spoiler

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In typical Selebus fashion he forgot to put in the event when Rika finds out Sensei's name.

 

[OIUEFIU]

For all you peeps that have seen the care packages,are they worth it? Cause ive been thinking of checking them out but going through the hoops of disabling DRM sounds like a pain

Pretty sure all you need to do is replace one file and that should do it. It worked for me, but I run the game under linux, so that might be what saved me. If you diff the file with the one youll be replacing it with, youll se that it just removes this:

Spoiler: code

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Which loads game/images/BGS/summerdorm2monsecond.png image, extracts some hidden code that I wont bother exploring and executes it.

 

[Moonflare]

I agree. I don't mind this particular development that much but this surely is diluting the initial impact we had when the name was first revealed, but I guess that impact slowly died down anyway when he started dishing his name out.

And it feels even more sloppy when that Rika event starts with:
View attachment 3982921
meanwhile some chaotic hot MILF also knows your name unannounced, just btw.


I bet Wakana always knows but I can't say for certain. But no matter when she knew, Wakana sticks to Arakawa possibly because of 1) work ethics, 2) no real reason to be on the first-name basis with him, and 3) the continuation of his initial "bad joke" of asking her to also call him Sensei back in Ch2. Besides, I think Wakana still referring to him as just Arakawa is...kinda cute in her own way.

I'm on the camp that finds it cute Wakana calls him Arakawa. I see it as her holding him to a higher standard. "You're not some dude, you're a teacher, Arakawa Sensei". It falls into her constant berating him for not doing his job correctly.

Obviously it's more of a habit at this point than an actual effort to change him. It could also be a mix of a surname serving as a nickname sort of. There are many cases of that in real life, where even if you're close friends with someone, you'll call them by their last name. Lastly and ironically, I think Wakana is the only one that calls him Arakawa - which makes it, again ironically, a sort of exclusive pet name between them.

 

[Comiies]

L

Some stuff on Sensei's name as of late:

Spoiler

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The more i think about Naos words the more it starts making some sense.

My thought process goes as follows.If in fact Sensei is not the protagonist of this story and is just a stepping stone for the girls that means that each girl NEEDS to have some sort of connection with whatever the fuck is going on in Kumon-mi(Supernatural wise i mean).

And since we are only in the beginning of the game(funny i know) i believe that if this is true each girl will start being inolved in a different way.Let us take a look at what we already have though.

1)Makoto is a part of the RAS group
2)Ayane is part of the RAS group AND is himawaris mother(Theory thats wildly accepted as truth)
3)Yumi for some reason is very important(Heavy implications but we do not know the hows and they whys yet)
4)Ami is intimately connected with Sekai
5)Sana is pareidolias new proxy
6)Yasu is hopes acolyte(Or is priestess more apt?)
7)Nodoka is coonected with NiB and is actively trying to find out the truth(Or is it more accurate to say shiori is?)
8)Futaba is now part of the symposium
9)Maya(Dont think i need to explain this one)
10)Tsuneyo(Not only is she able to recall faintly memories from past cycles but her father is intimately connected with wires
11)Kaori(Dont think i need to explain this)
12)Nao-chan(same as 11)
13)Sara seems to have experience with our blackouts.Im not sure if this is a nod that something supernatural also happened to her or its just a ptsd thing(I wont talk about the nozumo theories because i think they are too stech-y for my taste)

So these are the girls that we are sure that they are involved in supernatural fuckery.Now if what Nao said is true and my theory holds water then as we march foward each girl will,in one way or another connect with the supernatural and have an active role in all of this.

Anyways excited for the next update.

 

[aramaug]

Guys, we're almost at the next update. Time for predictions/hopes, what are you most looking for/dreading in update 0.43?

Sana's event should be interesting since we're probably going to see her directly interact with Pareidolia for the first time. Is he going to talk to her as himself? As "her brother" (we might even get a model for him if he appears to her like Sekai does for Akira)? Or does the event's subtitle ("Two-Headed Horse") refer to the Emissary of Pegasus and he's going to pretend to be HOPE like he did for Yasu?

Spoiler

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Based on her previews, she might not end up in the school for her TSS, but it will be interesting if she does. Noriko and Futaba were there as unwelcome guests, but Sana would probably be invited by Pareidolia. Will he let her find out about Maya Prime?

I'm also looking forward to Tsubasa's events because I have no idea what to expect from them. Unless there are previews I missed, we only got one image for the two of her events and it showed essentially nothing. I hope that means something consequential is going to happen that Sel didn't want to reveal beforehand.

I'm hoping we get some reactions from other characters about Niki moving in (especially poor Sara), but given the way Sel handles new subplots I'm worried nobody will find out until sometime after the reset.

 

[hcguy]

Of all the scenes I would like to have seen, Rika finding out that his name is Akira would be pretty much at the bottom of the list. I think we can safely assume that one of the other members of their group referred to him as Akira at some point offscreen.

 

[Moonflare]

Someone raised the point of Sekai's surname a while back, and what if it's Shiawase?

Spoiler: Wake me up when it's over

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I mean, there is the old theory about white rabbits being associated with Sekai. Or rather, Sekai Shiawase. If that was the case, it would make Sekai a part of the simulation characters (characters with alliterative names).

aramaug pointed out that the Shiawase group was also a part of the Pareidolia Mall sequence, but that is the event I hate the most in this game, so I'm not going back just for that.

Edit: Shiawase can literally mean happiness, and given that Sekai experienced trauma in her home enough to despise her surname, it would make sense that her surname meant happiness. She dropped it and chose instead the title "the girl who cannot breathe" in opposition to the forced veneer of happiness thrust upon her (that made her unable to breathe).

It would also fit with her pursuit of trying everything to be happy and never achieving it before Akira, it would literally be in her name.

At the very least the Shiawase group seems to be in charge of the simulation, after all, it fits that the "Happiness group" would have the slogan "remember to smile".

 

[Comiies]

Someone raised the point of Sekai's surname a while back, and what if it's Shiawase?

Spoiler: Wake me up when it's over

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I mean, there is the old theory about white rabbits being associated with Sekai. Or rather, Sekai Shiawase. If that was the case, it would make Sekai a part of the simulation characters (characters with alliterative names).

aramaug pointed out that the Shiawase group was also a part of the Pareidolia Mall sequence, but that is the event I hate the most in this game, so I'm not going back just for that.

Edit: Shiawase can literally mean happiness, and given that Sekai experienced trauma in her home enough to despise her surname, it would make sense that her surname meant happiness. She dropped it and chose instead the title "the girl who cannot breathe" in opposition to the forced veneer of happiness thrust upon her (that made her unable to breathe).

It would also fit with her pursuit of trying everything to be happy and never achieving it before Akira, it would literally be in her name.

At the very least the Shiawase group seems to be in charge of the simulation, after all, it fits that the "Happiness group" would have the slogan "remember to smile".

On the topic of Sekais surname being Shiawase.We know that her relationship with her parents was so bad that not only did she completely cut them off but she abandoned her original surname and took on the Arakawa surname.In trying to support Moonflares theory i ask myself one simple question.We know that toukas family are the most powerful in Kumon-mi and that Ayames is a close second but have we ever seen even a mention of a third family? I mean the Tsumiokas(Was that their name?) and Ayanes family are a force to be reckoned with and weve seen mentions of their prestige multiple times but,to my knowledge there has been NO mention of a "Shiawase" group.

Now this can mean a couple of things.

1)Im retarded and ive missed mentions of such group
2)Moonflares theory is false
3)(The actual fun option)Sekai was the heir to the Shiawase group.Due to trauma and an overbearing enviroment(We can draw pararells with Toukas family and how she is treated as the heir,especially since she is a woman) Sekai decided to completely cut them off.The family,now without a heir collapsed and the other 2 families consumed the remains.

 

[Moonflare]

On the topic of Sekais surname being Shiawase.We know that her relationship with her parents was so bad that not only did she completely cut them off but she abandoned her original surname and took on the Arakawa surname.In trying to support Moonflares theory i ask myself one simple question.We know that toukas family are the most powerful in Kumon-mi and that Ayames is a close second but have we ever seen even a mention of a third family? I mean the Tsumiokas(Was that their name?) and Ayanes family are a force to be reckoned with and weve seen mentions of their prestige multiple times but,to my knowledge there has been NO mention of a "Shiawase" group.

Now this can mean a couple of things.

1)Im retarded and ive missed mentions of such group
2)Moonflares theory is false
3)(The actual fun option)Sekai was the heir to the Shiawase group.Due to trauma and an overbearing enviroment(We can draw pararells with Toukas family and how she is treated as the heir,especially since she is a woman) Sekai decided to completely cut them off.The family,now without a heir collapsed and the other 2 families consumed the remains.

In Japan there's only one surname so she'd have abandoned her original surname regardless. The thing about her surname comes from Karin's father saying that she refused to be called by her surname during her highschool days.

The Amamiya and Tsukioka families are emergent families, getting most of their money from the bubblewrap business (which is recent). The Amamiya family stagnated, while the Tsukioka family spread out to other enterprises. Bubblewrap by itself seems more like a joke than anything else, and might very well be a bogus event that only exists inside the simulation, same as the space war.

Following that logic, the Shiawase group might be a powerful family that is real (opposed to the Amamiya and Tsukioka's fake existence), and it exists outside the simulation (not being mentioned inside the simulation, since it's outside of it), and yet blending in their fingerprints (their banners are everywhere with remember to smile, and entities also use their slogans - also not discounting that there is a workplace, employees and, well, all these people have to be working for some group).

 

[Antosha]

Someone raised the point of Sekai's surname a while back, and what if it's Shiawase?

Spoiler: Wake me up when it's over

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I mean, there is the old theory about white rabbits being associated with Sekai. Or rather, Sekai Shiawase. If that was the case, it would make Sekai a part of the simulation characters (characters with alliterative names).

aramaug pointed out that the Shiawase group was also a part of the Pareidolia Mall sequence, but that is the event I hate the most in this game, so I'm not going back just for that.

Edit: Shiawase can literally mean happiness, and given that Sekai experienced trauma in her home enough to despise her surname, it would make sense that her surname meant happiness. She dropped it and chose instead the title "the girl who cannot breathe" in opposition to the forced veneer of happiness thrust upon her (that made her unable to breathe).

It would also fit with her pursuit of trying everything to be happy and never achieving it before Akira, it would literally be in her name.

At the very least the Shiawase group seems to be in charge of the simulation, after all, it fits that the "Happiness group" would have the slogan "remember to smile".

Not to get pedantic or anything (because I never do that) but S and Sh aren't exactly alliterative, nor are Se and Shi represented by the same hiragana. Just saying.

 

[Moonflare]

Not to get pedantic or anything (because I never do that) but S and Sh aren't exactly alliterative, nor are Se and Shi represented by the same hiragana. Just saying.

Neither are To and Tsu from Tojo Tsuneyo. So it all still fits, either by a flexible interpretation of alliterative Japanese or that the rule itself as it's applied in LiL is already broken.

Edit: guys, we made it to 43k comments just before 0.43 \o/

 

[shmurfer]

I had nothing against him doing the care packages, that said, DRM aside.
It was an ok decision to honor his patrons in a business way of thinking.

But him crawling on his knees and begging for moony, for the bonus anims, which are kinda bland, if not stock, feels like he tanked at the stock market or something worse and needs the money.

Don't forget part of adding the care packages was so he could claim the game has CP by f95 standards and tried yelling it out loud so the mods had to remove the game from the site. It wasn't purely business benevolent. And of course when it didn't work he started getting bored of them, swapping to a system that only provides the reward if enough people pay for it (bonus animations per pledge stretch goal)

For all you peeps that have seen the care packages,are they worth it? Cause ive been thinking of checking them out but going through the hoops of disabling DRM sounds like a pain

I mean im not but if the process of removing DRM is easy then why not?

You can get most of what you're after just opening the base files and then looking at the scripts for the dialogue. Most of it is phone pic tier conversation. I tried asking if anyone knows how the DRM works, as in does it mark your saves but no one could answer. In theory you could create a second instance of the game, put the patched DRM into that install, and view the packages, then go back to the base install to play the game.

Big problem with how easy the DRM is to remove is it re-enables itself every update (I'm assuming this based on how many people who aren't randoms getting bit by the DRM after every new update). There's also the idea that he could add a new DRM check every update. It's really not worth the risk imo. If you're gonna pull the trigger back up all your saves before you do it.

 

[Fire Lord Zuko]

the Pareidolia Mall sequence, but that is the event I hate the most in this game, so I'm not going back just for that.

You hate “Amy” the worst in the whole game?? Out of all the events? I… would not have expected that. Kinda shocks me, since “Amy” is by far my favorite Happy Event in the entire game, and actually is up there with one of my favorite events for how unique it is.

Maybe I’m just a sucker for liminal spaces and pondering what must have happened to Amy and her timeline.

And that music tho!

“A happy face makes a happy place. Please remember to smile.”

 

[Moonflare]

You hate “Amy” the worst in the whole game?? Out of all the events? I… would not have expected that. Kinda shocks me, since “Amy” is by far my favorite Happy Event in the entire game, and actually is up there with one of my favorite events for how unique it is.

Maybe I’m just a sucker for liminal spaces and pondering what must have happened to Amy and her timeline.

And that music tho!

“A happy face makes a happy place. Please remember to smile.”

I hate it because I always get lost in the damn thing, you can't even follow a simple spreadsheet like the reset events (and it's not included in it) - the event itself is good but I hate the mechanic so much it taints it for me.

 

[Antosha]

Neither are To and Tsu from Tojo Tsuneyo. So it all still fits, either by a flexible interpretation of alliterative Japanese or that the rule itself as it's applied in LiL is already broken.

Edit: guys, we made it to 43k comments just before 0.43 \o/

Fair point.

So... yet another nail in the Sel-is-fallible coffin?

I hate it because I always get lost in the damn thing, you can't even follow a simple spreadsheet like the reset events - the event itself is good but I hate the mechanic so much it taints it for me.

Case in point.

I hated playing that one with a burning passion. Even playing it with the code open was a headache. Wasn't this supposed to be, I don't know, fun? Or at least engaging?

 

[Moonflare]

Fair point.

So... yet another nail in the Sel-is-fallible coffin?



Case in point.

I hated playing that one with a burning passion. Even playing it with the code open was a headache. Wasn't this supposed to be, I don't know, fun? Or at least engaging?

No, it's supposed to be immersive but only following Selebus skewed philosophy of frustrating immersion that adds almost nothing worthwhile and detracts from the writing vs rely on his writing with convenient gameplay like any sane game designer, instead of overall disliked gimmicks.

 

[Antosha]

You hate “Amy” the worst in the whole game?? Out of all the events? I… would not have expected that. Kinda shocks me, since “Amy” is by far my favorite Happy Event in the entire game, and actually is up there with one of my favorite events for how unique it is.

Maybe I’m just a sucker for liminal spaces and pondering what must have happened to Amy and her timeline.

And that music tho!

“A happy face makes a happy place. Please remember to smile.”

I usually love liminal spaces — and this game is full of many spectacular examples. But playing your way through that one made me almost break my CTL key. And that's with the code open.