VN Ren'Py Light of My Life [Ch. 8 v0.8.1] [Naughty Road]

[yoyomistro]

Both Miðgarðsormr and Dragon59 raise valid points in their analyses, Mid with the usual screenwriting approach and Dragon with the literary/rhetorical approach (which I'm obviously partial to if you follow this thread lol). Neither of which were apparent to the person who prompted this discussion. It's unfortunate that enough devs cater to these loudmouth types that most western indie porn games in the last 3 years have devolved to "magic dick dude seduces every attractive female within a 3 mile radius to only want their dick, forgoing all sexual agency and personal autonomy for life in the harem".

Even people who wrote stories/developed games that were interesting before have succumbed to these types and stopped doing anything with a shred of interesting character or story dynamics in favor of assuaging these types through digital compensation, which is what I have a problem with. Nothing wrong with those games and if you want to write those stories, fine. But if you cater to these loudmouths who screech "cuck" and "snowflake" and brigade to seem like they are more in number than they really are, when you want to tell more interesting stories, you're not gonna get my money, and I am not gonna say a damn thing while moving on from your work, and there are plenty of us reasonable people who'll just move on with our lives instead of insisting every piece of erotic fiction bend to our will.

Just tell the stories you want to tell, and the support will show up. Not everybody wants to self-insert into some Marty Stu with a Magic Stick character. You might as well just watch gonzo porn if that's all you want (I watch plenty of gonzo). I'm sure most of us are grateful for a bit of variety in our storytelling.

EDIT: Also I'm an unapologetic degenerate and enjoy sleep sex a ton, so I personally loved that scene from a purely fetishistic standpoint, lol. But I was expecting it at some point on the basis of the obvious foreshadowing, and it's great that it fit thematically as well.

 

[satan1972]

how much longer until the update?

Looking at current progress I'd say August.

 

[Fazed]

naughtyroad
I typically stay away from games with this kink. Usually not my cup of tea. But I decided to try it anyway because uh..I like "chunky chicas"? I'm talking about the ice cream of course - and now I guess I'm hooked.... The interactions/dialog didnt come off as overly creepy in the slightest which left me genuinely surprised and is probably why I ended up enjoying it. So great game.
I have a request though. It's awesome that you have provided a scene gallery but is it possible to have the option of enabling the dialog with it as well?
In any case, I enjoyed the writing and character development. Good Luck.

 

[Miðgarðsormr]

I missed a couple of opportunities to see Nina Hartley at a local event, but I've only met two pornstars over the years.
One was Mike Horner who spoke with the local group about his life in porn. He later spent some time relaxing in the hosts' hot tub. The other I met briefly was Annie Sprinkle. I was a cashier at the time and she came through my line. We chatted for a few moments while I did my job.

If you had met Nina Hartley i would envy you till the end of time.....
Annie Sprinkle you say........and you chatted with her you say......... i'm fine.... i can handle that.......*Insert angry middle aged man yelling at his screen here* Congratulations on that one sir.....

Now I'm thinking of Seven Samurai, The Magnificent Seven, Battle Beyond the Stars, A Bug's Life, and Mandalorian Chapter 4: Sanctuary, etc.

Well thats Hollywood for ya. One writer has an amazing script and they copy it till the end of time. Which is kinda funny and sad at the same time.

There is currently a contingent of male viewers (I don't remember this being a thing in the early days) who only watch lesbian/girl-on-girl videos because they "don't want to see another dude's dick." Often, they'll add a "I'm not gay," to punctuate their point.

That makes alot of sense. Especially the i'm not gay part while literally watching some homosexual action......I can only speak for myself but i don't mind lesbian stuff. I don't enjoy it but if i would see two blokes go at each other i probably would mind... alot xD

 

[naughtyroad]

naughtyroad
(...)
I have a request though. It's awesome that you have provided a scene gallery but is it possible to have the option of enabling the dialog with it as well?
(...)

Thanks for the kind words.

That's question's come up before, but there's technical problems with that, because the gallery lives outside of your current game session, and game dialog at any time is driven by lots of variables that stem from lots of earlier choices, from simple ones to profound ones. Those aren't available outside of the game session.

I'd need to somehow persist those variables outside of a game session, and duplicate scripts to use those persisted versions in the galleries, and keep both versions of the scenes in sync when there's changes or fixes, and while all of that is doable, it's a ton of work. Meanwhile, there's a perfectly good save system already inside ren'py, and I desperately need that time elsewhere, so keeping a save will have to do for the purpose of replaying a moment with dialog.

 

[FormerlyknownasOlheden]

1. The MC was not only on the trip because he has a license but because he is the caretaker or father depending on your preference and all three share the same issue. Grief over the loss of a loved family member. All three take this trip to finally accept the loss and move on with their life. The entire Trip is for this exact purpose. It may have started for a different reason but as the story moves forward this is the goal all three try to achieve as the story unfolds.
There are only 2 ways a family will react to the loss of a family member in their time of grief.
Option A: They become more close because shared pain is less pain. The love and caring towards each other becomes more frequent and each member of the family starts with emotional support for one another.
Option B: They do the exact opposite. Get emotional distance and the tension is always high. A small issue can set of an emotional nuke inside someone which mostly ends up in figths and arguing. Alot of arguing.

The story starts at Option B. Everyone is distant in his own regard and handles the grief on their own. As the story moves on all three start to approach Option A. The entire journey of this game till chapter 5 is a family handling grief and how it influences each individualy and how they try to handle it on their own till they realize they can rely on each other for emotional support and share the grief to bond stronger and move forward. Together and stronger as ever.

Once this is achieved and everyone is open for that approach it is Denise that starts influencing both the MC and Macy to the idea of a more romantic and lust driven relationship between the three of them. This is the current point we are at.

2. The Lesbian scenes are maybe not to your taste but serve the purpose of Denise overcoming her shyness and having a better relationship with her always grumpy and many times aggressive sister. Macy on the other hand learns to be vulnerable and letting someone close, being intimate and share feelings once again. Under all that hate is a very fragile and hurt little girl that yells for help.
The lesbian scenes are not there for shits and giggles but actually serve a emotional bonding process when you get intimate with someone. It is no coincidence that both Denise and Macy once their share certain moments together become more and more open with stuff they want, stuff they talk about between each other and feelings they realize.
This also is a key element for Denise to push Macy towards a relationship that involves the MC while also destroying the emotional wall Macy has build in order for her to handle her grief.

3. Disabling it would mean you miss out of vital story informations like their relationship growing, Denise overcoming her shyness and Macy opening up and feeling vulnerable in the process letting someone this close. Which is also visualized in the scene where Denise unshackles the Beast Macy who thinks she doesn't deserve freedom or happiness despite in secret crying for help for the monster she has become when telling her mother "i hate you" the day she died. In her mind she deserves nothing good in her life.
Both Denise and Macy grow and bond in those Scenes because they share their feelings, thoughts and insecurities. This also again serves the purpose to move the story foward for a romantic relationship between the three.

4. If you had paid attention to the story you would know why this can not and will not be disabled. As i explained in Point 2 and 3 this serves as story element and character growth. The scenes may not be to your personal preference but the dialouge and writing in those scenes serve a purpose. To disable them would mean that the audience or players would miss very important information and fail to realize why certain actions move forward after it.

To explain this better lets compare it to something you probably know.

Assume this is the movie trilogy matrix. But since we do not like certain sex/romantic/intimate scenes we cut out the entire trinity arc in it. The character still exists but we simply cut out every bonding, romantic or sexual moment from all three movies. We would end up with the entire story making no sense any more because key elements would be missing. Since you are surely familiar with said movie i leave it to your imagination what happens to the movie, the story and the entire plot if you take those scenes and the dialouges in it out.

The trilogy would literally make no sense anymore. Normaly i would agree that some romantic/sex scenes in most movies or stories serve no purpose or sometimes leave a bad taste in the mouth of the audience who do not like such stuff.
But in this game or the matrix trilogy they are actually a plot element that holds the story together. If you take anything from that out the story doesn't work anymore and the entire plot falls apart.

And while you might not realize this it is actually pretty fucking hard to achieve such a plot element that becomes vital in the first place. Cause for something to become a vital plot element you need to be able to branch the entire story in a way that without it nothing works anymore.
Matrix is a prime example for this one as the love story appears to be a side story but is actually the driving force behind almost everything. Go rewatch the trilogy and you realize what i mean.

I think the original poster was kicked out of here and the post was taken down (or maybe he did it himself?), which in a way is a shame because it robs your well considered and beautifully structured reply of its context. On the other hand it saves time, one less troll to block. Anyway, I remember reading his original post and being amazed how quickly, from one paragraph to another, the poster seesawed from saying positive things to spewing some truly awful shit - from 0 to 100 in literally the space of a sentence. Almost worthy of keeping it around just for the novelty of that.

 

[Fazed]

Thanks for the kind words.

That's question's come up before, but there's technical problems with that, because the gallery lives outside of your current game session, and game dialog at any time is driven by lots of variables that stem from lots of earlier choices, from simple ones to profound ones. Those aren't available outside of the game session.

I'd need to somehow persist those variables outside of a game session, and duplicate scripts to use those persisted versions in the galleries, and keep both versions of the scenes in sync when there's changes or fixes, and while all of that is doable, it's a ton of work. Meanwhile, there's a perfectly good save system already inside ren'py, and I desperately need that time elsewhere, so keeping a save will have to do for the purpose of replaying a moment with dialog.

Ah I see that is quite understandable. Thank you for replying.

 

[LarryK]

Thanks for the kind words.

That's question's come up before, but there's technical problems with that, because the gallery lives outside of your current game session, and game dialog at any time is driven by lots of variables that stem from lots of earlier choices, from simple ones to profound ones. Those aren't available outside of the game session.

I'd need to somehow persist those variables outside of a game session, and duplicate scripts to use those persisted versions in the galleries, and keep both versions of the scenes in sync when there's changes or fixes, and while all of that is doable, it's a ton of work. Meanwhile, there's a perfectly good save system already inside ren'py, and I desperately need that time elsewhere, so keeping a save will have to do for the purpose of replaying a moment with dialog.

Without knowing a lot more about RenPy, I am unsure whether an idea I have is possible. Just spitballing here.... I've seen mods that add more save slots, so I'll hypothesize adding new ones, say numbers 50 thru 100. would it then be possible to hijack and invoke the autosave function at the point where a gallery entry unlocks, forcing a save in one of the slots we added?

Not suggesting NR take that on, just considerring whether it could be done that way.

 

[Miðgarðsormr]

I think the original poster was kicked out of here and the post was taken down (or maybe he did it himself?), which in a way is a shame because it robs your well considered and beautifully structured reply of its context. On the other hand it saves time, one less troll to block. Anyway, I remember reading his original post and being amazed how quickly, from one paragraph to another, the poster seesawed from saying positive things to spewing some truly awful shit - from 0 to 100 in literally the space of a sentence. Almost worthy of keeping it around just for the novelty of that.

Well if you are around the world for some time you will encounter such people in your daily life as well. The raise of them is in my personal experience every 10 years or so in which another bunch of really dumb folks hit adulthood and you get to experience them first hand.
The problem with the internet is that nowadays with smartphones etc. the trolls/idiots and other intelligence resistant people spreading their ideas happens alot faster.
In the past year or so (Covid time) we saw a significant raise in those kind of people who demand stuff while doing absolutely nothing for it in every major game thread. Even in small games with a few patreons in which the dev himself asks questions or making polls for potential new customers those ppl show up and demand ridiculous stuff or call the devs all kind of names, insults or flat out milking their customers when they literally make a few bucks in a year.

I guess Covid brings out the worst in some people.

The gallery lives outside of your current game session, and game dialog at any time is driven by lots of variables that stem from lots of earlier choices, from simple ones to profound ones. Those aren't available outside of the game session.

I'd need to somehow persist those variables outside of a game session, and duplicate scripts to use those persisted versions in the galleries, and keep both versions of the scenes in sync when there's changes or fixes.

I totally understood all of that about the variables and code and sync and all the other technical stuff.

 

[naughtyroad]

(...) Not suggesting NR take that on, just considerring whether it could be done that way.

Well, I did think a little about it, and what I guess the most interesting way to go about it would be to persist the entire variable store (which is an object in ren'py, or rather, in the python engine it uses), perhaps filtered for system stuff and other irrelevant objects, and store that with the flag that unlocks the gallery entry.
Then we somehow unpack that when you select the entry in the gallery, and if you'd really wanna get crafty, refactor the scene in question so it can be called from both the story session and the gallery, and you don't need to maintain multiple copies.
Oh, and we'd need a way to reset the variables after watching the gallery scene or we might get funky stuff happening with the other gallery entries.

But to be honest, I have no idea if that's technically possible or evn practical without blowing the persistent save file up to monstrous sizes.

 

[chronoscythe]

Thanks for the game, its been such a pleasant journey so far

 

[Miðgarðsormr]

Well, I did think a little about it, and what I guess the most interesting way to go about it would be to persist the entire variable store (which is an object in ren'py, or rather, in the python engine it uses), perhaps filtered for system stuff and other irrelevant objects, and store that with the flag that unlocks the gallery entry.
Then we somehow unpack that when you select the entry in the gallery, and if you'd really wanna get crafty, refactor the scene in question so it can be called from both the story session and the gallery, and you don't need to maintain multiple copies.
Oh, and we'd need a way to reset the variables after watching the gallery scene or we might get funky stuff happening with the other gallery entries.

But to be honest, I have no idea if that's technically possible or evn practical without blowing the persistent save file up to monstrous sizes.

This sounds like a job for a modder which i am not even pretending to know anything about. But could modders do stuff like that without breaking the game in the process?

 

[bamachine]

I missed a couple of opportunities to see Nina Hartley at a local event, but I've only met two pornstars over the years.
One was Mike Horner who spoke with the local group about his life in porn. He later spent some time relaxing in the hosts' hot tub. The other I met briefly was Annie Sprinkle. I was a cashier at the time and she came through my line. We chatted for a few moments while I did my job.

There is currently a contingent of male viewers (I don't remember this being a thing in the early days) who only watch lesbian/girl-on-girl videos because they "don't want to see another dude's dick." Often, they'll add a "I'm not gay," to punctuate their point.

I met one porn star, in my 50 years on this planet. Ron Jeremy, in a Cuban restaurant in Tampa, FL, back in the mid 90's. Sadly before the days of selfies or I would have asked him for one, for a lark. Nice enough guy and he got that belly honestly, he had a rather large plate of food(this place was an order in line and they make your plate from a staffed buffet).

As for the lesbian content, I am more for it not because I think seeing a dick would make me gay or that it is gay to look at them. I just think they are disgusting, including the one hanging between my own legs and vaginas are glorious. I think of myself as a lesbian trapped in a man's body. Still, if the story is great, like the one this thread is all about, I can overlook the meat whistle and just enjoy the story. If a game offers me a lesbian only path, I usually take it, maybe if there is a worthy enough male character, I will throw him a bone...let him throw a bone.

 

[Penfold Mole]

Without knowing a lot more about RenPy, I am unsure whether an idea I have is possible. Just spitballing here.... I've seen mods that add more save slots, so I'll hypothesize adding new ones, say numbers 50 thru 100. would it then be possible to hijack and invoke the autosave function at the point where a gallery entry unlocks, forcing a save in one of the slots we added?

Not suggesting NR take that on, just considerring whether it could be done that way.

What do you mean by "increasing the number of save slots"? Ren'Py in its default configuration already has way-way more than 100 slots. The maximum isn't infinite, but I've had way more than 100 pages of save slots, 6, 12 or more saves per page, depending on game configuration (196 pages in one of the games right now, 6 saves per page)
The arrow right of the 9th page isn't there for decoration .
You can also click on the page number and add text to it to rename different paths, for example. Deleting of the number itself may create a confusion later on, when you are beyond page 9 and have no number at the top of the page any more, so it's probably a good idea to keep at least the number.

As for the step-by-step unlocking of the gallery images, there are persistent variables for that. No need to invent a bicycle. All you need is one variable or one element in a dictionary per image. Persistent file won't grow that much by adding some new variables there.

 

[naughtyroad]

This sounds like a job for a modder which i am not even pretending to know anything about. But could modders do stuff like that without breaking the game in the process?

Not a modder per se, just a developer. Provided there's no technical snag, I could probably get the proof of concept up in a day if I take a little time to brush up on my python, maybe spend a couple more to polish it up and get it production ready, and it'd be all in the engine (e.g. no need to fiddle with the ren'py source code or anything). But I really want to spend that time on creating content for the game, as I'm always desperately short on that.

(...) As for the step-by-step unlocking of the gallery images, there are persistent variables for that. No need to invent a bicycle.

That bit was more spit-balling about making the crazy amount of variables I'm using to steer my dialogues available outside of the game session (e.g. through persistent system), for the express purpose of reproducing the dialog in the gallery. Right now, the gallery is mute as I don't see a practical means of having it in there using what's available out-of-the-box.

 

[Penfold Mole]

That bit was more spit-balling about making the crazy amount of variables I'm using to steer my dialogues available outside of the game session (e.g. through persistent system), for the express purpose of reproducing the dialog in the gallery. Right now, the gallery is mute as I don't see a practical means of having it in there using what's available out-of-the-box.

Ren'Py also has a

You must be registered to see the links

that you may find useful for scene replay gallery. I understand that replay uses its own temporary cache of variables that will be cleared when replay mode ends, so they won't have any influence to the actual variables in the game, but you have to give values to the ones you need while replaying the scene after you enter replay mode. So in case you have lots of them, you really do have a problem to figure out.

IMHO, you shouldn't waste time on it.
Anyone who wants to replay some scenes later on should just make lots and lots of saves.

Anyway, my previous answer was addressed more for LarryK than you. You clearly know some of the aspects of Ren'Py much better than I do.

 

[Dragon59]

If you had met Nina Hartley i would envy you till the end of time.....
Annie Sprinkle you say........and you chatted with her you say......... i'm fine.... i can handle that.......*Insert angry middle aged man yelling at his screen here* Congratulations on that one sir.....

I met one porn star, in my 50 years on this planet. Ron Jeremy, in a Cuban restaurant in Tampa, FL, back in the mid 90's. Sadly before the days of selfies or I would have asked him for one, for a lark. Nice enough guy and he got that belly honestly, he had a rather large plate of food(this place was an order in line and they make your plate from a staffed buffet).

This was part of a Mensa group I was part of (SexYG, a sexuality interest group). One member (friend of a friend, but I didn't really like him much) had contacts. I remember he had a photo (facial, I mean face shot) of Nina in his office cubicle. I didn't actually meet Nina, but I did meet the other woman in her poly triad at the time.

Regarding Annie, she was there because her partner was teaching at the local University (guest lecturer). Annie had said that I'd likely see her again, but didn't see her. I did thank her for the meeting on her FB page and got a nice response.

Well thats Hollywood for ya. One writer has an amazing script and they copy it till the end of time. Which is kinda funny and sad at the same time.

Very true. After our conversation about story in cinematic porn, I was reminded of Opening of Misty Beethoven, an homage to My Fair Lady and Pygmalion.

That makes alot of sense. Especially the i'm not gay part while literally watching some homosexual action......I can only speak for myself but i don't mind lesbian stuff. I don't enjoy it but if i would see two blokes go at each other i probably would mind... alot xD

As for the lesbian content, I am more for it not because I think seeing a dick would make me gay or that it is gay to look at them. I just think they are disgusting, including the one hanging between my own legs and vaginas are glorious. I think of myself as a lesbian trapped in a man's body. Still, if the story is great, like the one this thread is all about, I can overlook the meat whistle and just enjoy the story. If a game offers me a lesbian only path, I usually take it, maybe if there is a worthy enough male character, I will throw him a bone...let him throw a bone.

"Well, shi-iit! I must be a lesbian too!"
For me, I usually put myself in the male's place imagining if that were me doing that.
I definitely agree that LoML's story is great!

vaginas are glorious

Hear! Hear!
A quote so good, it bears more in-depth exploration.

My father once told me "once I finish, I think pussies look ugly." In this case, the apple definitely fell far from the tree.
Years ago, the author Robert A. Heinlein provided one of his characters with the quote:
"Have you ever noticed how much they look like orchids? lovely!"
Someone later offered another viewpoint:
"Have you ever noticed how much they look like mutant toadstools? Disgusting!"

I think the original poster was kicked out of here and the post was taken down (or maybe he did it himself?), which in a way is a shame because it robs your well considered and beautifully structured reply of its context. On the other hand it saves time, one less troll to block. Anyway, I remember reading his original post and being amazed how quickly, from one paragraph to another, the poster seesawed from saying positive things to spewing some truly awful shit - from 0 to 100 in literally the space of a sentence. Almost worthy of keeping it around just for the novelty of that.

I am fairly certain it was taken down. That explains the message I got that a moderator had edited my quotes. Still, the post is great even without the trigger for it.

 

[Foradult]

can we get compressed android version?

 

[bamachine]

"Well, shi-iit! I must be a lesbian too!"
For me, I usually put myself in the male's place imagining if that were me doing that.
I definitely agree that LoML's story is great!

Hear! Hear!
A quote so good, it bears more in-depth exploration.

My father once told me "once I finish, I think pussies look ugly." In this case, the apple definitely fell far from the tree.
Years ago, the author Robert A. Heinlein provided one of his characters with the quote:
"Have you ever noticed how much they look like orchids? lovely!"

You jest but I really wish I was born with a vagina, not sure I would ever leave my house, would be playing with it constantly. Never really considered gender reassignment surgery, as medical science doesn't really come close to making a fake one feel like a real one, I would imagine. So I am stuck playing with my ugly meatsicle while imagining I have a lovely flower. Poor substitute but I make do with what my parents genetics gave me. So I look for as many female protagonist as possible, imagine myself as them and try to lick every pussy I can find. If I am stuck with a male protagonist, I just hope he is a giving lover for his conquests, giving his tongue more than his pecker.

In my real life, I have always tried to give the lady in my bed an orgasm or two orally before I even think of my own. I guess that makes me a little selfish, as I get more pleasure from tasting than from actual penetration(I imagine sometimes they might prefer it the other way) and I always try for that first. The actual male orgasm is just a brief spike of pleasure but the mental part of sex has always appealed far more to me than the climax.

 

[Miðgarðsormr]

You jest but I really wish I was born with a vagina, not sure I would ever leave my house, would be playing with it constantly. Never really considered gender reassignment surgery, as medical science doesn't really come close to making a fake one feel like a real one, I would imagine. So I am stuck playing with my ugly meatsicle while imagining I have a lovely flower. Poor substitute but I make do with what my parents genetics gave me. So I look for as many female protagonist as possible, imagine myself as them and try to lick every pussy I can find. If I am stuck with a male protagonist, I just hope he is a giving lover for his conquests, giving his tongue more than his pecker.

In my real life, I have always tried to give the lady in my bed an orgasm or two orally before I even think of my own. I guess that makes me a little selfish, as I get more pleasure from tasting than from actual penetration(I imagine sometimes they might prefer it the other way) and I always try for that first. The actual male orgasm is just a brief spike of pleasure but the mental part of sex has always appealed far more to me than the climax.

You sir are not a lesbian trapped in a man's body. You Sir are a connaisseur of pussy. With an established taste for the finer things in life.
Like fine wine needs an experienced tounge to be appreciated you have the fine tounge for a womens body. If you would be a lesbian (some friends of mine are) you would also like breasts would dress a certain way and most importantly would hit on every female you lay sight on that looks halfway decent.
However i can give you the advice of getting a lesbian wingman..women whatever you call the female version of that. Not only do they provide a marvelous insight to the female mind. They have hook up lines you wouldn't dare say to a women of interest.

Also i don't know a single man who thinks his dick isn't disgusting. If we would fancy dicks we would be gay. Not that theres an issue with that. But men in general don't really like their dick.

I mean think of the fella for a moment.
He constantly is a dick to others.
His family is nuts.
His neighbour is an asshole.
His best friend is a pussy
His owner constantly beats him.
His tears are slimy and sticky.
And sometimes he lands in the shit......

Sad little fella.

Not a modder per se, just a developer. Provided there's no technical snag, I could probably get the proof of concept up in a day if I take a little time to brush up on my python, maybe spend a couple more to polish it up and get it production ready, and it'd be all in the engine (e.g. no need to fiddle with the ren'py source code or anything). But I really want to spend that time on creating content for the game, as I'm always desperately short on that.

I also really want you to spend that time on creating content for the game. But since i have no clue about any of that and lost you at python i assume i should stop asking stuff you try to explain to me cause for a second i literally thought a snake is involved in your development process.

Literally had to google that this is a programming language.......