Ren'Py Completed Long Live the Princess [v1.0.1] [Belle]

[Belle]

What would help a lot for me, personally, would be if you could move some of those great lumps of exposition off into dialogue options and let me find them out for myself. If you do it that way, then I feel I have a bit more control over the game. It turns the game from a chore (you have to read all this) to a puzzle for me to solve (let's see what I can find out). And it also means that I can go back and read bits again if I skimmed over some something important the first time.

¨

This is kind of what I'm already doing. The best comparison (and one of my primary inspirations) is the Persona series. Those games always start with several hours of linear tutorials before they open up. What I'm doing is a toned down version of that. I tried to limit the exposition to the bare minimum (though at times I can't help myself) for this part, and the rest of the game will indeed be the way you seem to wish for. Once you're done with the linear tutorial, things are going to happen at your own pace, for the most part.

is the time limit going to be a problem in the long run ? as if a certain event only available in certain days and certain time. because by the looks of the game so far it have so many possibilities and not enough time.

My ambition is not to have the time limit be a problem, but for it to make for interesting decisions. I tend to follow Sid Meier's (of Civilization fame) design philosophies in this regard. A decision in a game isn't worth making unless the consequences of your choice are interesting either way you go. What this means is that you won't feel like you have enough time to do everything you want to do in one playthrough, but neither does the game expect you to be able to do so. Seeing everything the game has to offer isn't supposed to be possible on your first playthrough. The plan is for you to keep your stats after you restart the game, giving you much more time to spend on other things the second time around.

 

[Belle]

@Belle are you planning to add like an
ui to show us our courage, charisma etc. points for the future?

Yes, but not until the aspects of the game that require these systems are fully implemented. You will be able to see your stats at any time, as well as your inventory and your money. The clue system is a fair representation of where I see this going.

 

[apocalipze]

@Belle thank you for the reply.

as my take of the game, it have pretty interesting story so far, i like the character design (especially the girl in the library, she's cute). looking forward for the courage etc UI implemented. my "Dickon" needs to be a dick from time to time lol.

 

[martin Nielsen]

Hello, everyone! I'm the creator of this game and will be happy to answer any questions you might have about it. I apologize for the buggy first release that some of you encountered above. The crash was quickly identified and fixed with version 0.101.

loxlox, you should probably return in a few versions. I'm going to move slowly with the sexual content (though not anywhere near as slow as games like Dating my Daughter), so your reaction is kind of expected and not at all wrong. As a creator, it's hard to know exactly when the right time to start releasing something like this is. To some it will be too early, to others it will be just right. I fully expect the first camp to massively outweigh the second in this instance, but that's okay. I'm in for the long haul.

Personally i like the sexual tension and a somewhat slow build up, i mean if its all wham bam fuck you mam/sister/hot friend it like game won, soo i don't mind

 

[Onysko]

Oh Belle, outstanding writing! I really enjoyed reading through the game.
The game mechanics you came up with are unique and involving, the character models are gorgeous and the renders are good as well.

I am impressed! Once the development kicks into regular updates I will probably support you. :eazyHype:

 

[martin Nielsen]

Oh Belle, outstanding writing! I really enjoyed reading through the game.
The game mechanics you came up with are unique and involving, the character models are gorgeous and the renders are good as well.

I am impressed! Once the development kicks into regular updates I will probably support you. :eazyHype:

It is definitely different than other games, a lot of them are just clones and makes you feel like you have played them before.

 

[Belle]

Yeah, I wanted Long Live the Princess to be different from the heap of Patreon cash-grabs out there. I want it to be compelling even without the porn, and then the sex just becomes the cherry on top. I've been writing the design document for a long while (the first part of this game's design was written down about 2 years ago, I'd say), so it's satisfying to finally turn it into something "physical".

I've come to realize, since yesterday's release, that the 0.1 version number is kind of scaring people away, and I can certainly understand why. I'm trying to think of how I should approach this problem to quickly build faith in my ability to deliver. My original plan was to create a somewhat substantial release every month, but right now I'm thinking that I can definitely deliver something more often, say every two weeks until the game becomes more established. At that point, I can slow down again.

What do you think? Should I try to pump out small but quick updates the first few months, or should I take my time? Keep in mind that I've been spending relatively substantial sums of money on this project so far, so the quicker Patreon can at least soften the economic blow, the better. Money isn't my goal here, but that doesn't make it unimportant. I don't expect to break even for a long time, if ever.

To get an idea of my development speed, I first started learning Ren'py and Daz 1 1/2 months ago. That doesn't mean I can keep that kind of tempo going indefinitely, but still.

 

[Patan]

@Belle quick updates can be good, Faerin does a good job with that, he does some bug fixes and adds some new content, if you can manage that aswell would be nice. but if you just rush it because you don't wanna miss the release date, the game quality will definetly drop. so it's kinda depends on you. if you think you can pull of quick updates i would say go for it.

 

[Belle]

Oh I know I can do it, except I won't focus on specific dates. I'll give a rough estimate and give myself specific goals I wish to achieve within then. For example, my plans for the next release included creating the initial scenes for both Primrose and Callie, but now I think that I should just focus on one of them and get an update out quicker, then save the other one for another update quickly after that.

I am a professional software developer in my day job, so I'm quite used to this kind of thing.

 

[Loony]

I liked it! Dialog was great, premise is good.. can't wait to see more!

 

[apocalipze]

Oh I know I can do it, except I won't focus on specific dates. I'll give a rough estimate and give myself specific goals I wish to achieve within then. For example, my plans for the next release included creating the initial scenes for both Primrose and Callie, but now I think that I should just focus on one of them and get an update out quicker, then save the other one for another update quickly after that.

I am a professional software developer in my day job, so I'm quite used to this kind of thing.

would love see quicker update of the game, but take your time if you need too, because game that's rushed is never good. i can be patient to see more quality update and more Primrose. with that said, i hope you get enough support in the future to keep the game development running smoothly.

 

[docclox]

Personally i like the sexual tension and a somewhat slow build up, i mean if its all wham bam fuck you mam/sister/hot friend it like game won, soo i don't mind

It's not about the getting to the sex quickly for me. I like to have to work for my pervy gratification; if it's all handed to me on a plate there's no satisfaction in getting there. What I do like though is to feel in control.

I like games to be interactive. I like things to happen in response to my choices. If the most interaction I get in the first 30 minutes is clicking the mouse to get more text then it doesn't really matter if there's tons of sex or none at all ... I get bored waiting for it to be my turn to play (so to speak), and I zone out and eventually give up.

Now none of this intended as a criticism of Belle's game design. Belle is going to make the game as she thinks it should be made, and I wouldn't have it any other way. I just wanted to make the point that there are other options besides Porn From Click One and having to read a dissertation before you get any sort of control over events.

 

[Belle]

I like games to be interactive. I like things to happen in response to my choices. If the most interaction I get in the first 30 minutes is clicking the mouse to get more text then it doesn't really matter if there's tons of sex or none at all ... I get bored waiting for it to be my turn to play (so to speak), and I zone out and eventually give up.

That's the only time this is going to happen in the game though. The rest of it will be quite lengthy (imagine roughly 30 days with 3 events per day) and increasingly interactive. I also have a plan for how to deal with the intro/tutorial on the second playthrough, and it has to do with Belle and her seeming ability to break the 4th wall.

 

[martin Nielsen]

Yeah, I wanted Long Live the Princess to be different from the heap of Patreon cash-grabs out there. I want it to be compelling even without the porn, and then the sex just becomes the cherry on top. I've been writing the design document for a long while (the first part of this game's design was written down about 2 years ago, I'd say), so it's satisfying to finally turn it into something "physical".

I've come to realize, since yesterday's release, that the 0.1 version number is kind of scaring people away, and I can certainly understand why. I'm trying to think of how I should approach this problem to quickly build faith in my ability to deliver. My original plan was to create a somewhat substantial release every month, but right now I'm thinking that I can definitely deliver something more often, say every two weeks until the game becomes more established. At that point, I can slow down again.

What do you think? Should I try to pump out small but quick updates the first few months, or should I take my time? Keep in mind that I've been spending relatively substantial sums of money on this project so far, so the quicker Patreon can at least soften the economic blow, the better. Money isn't my goal here, but that doesn't make it unimportant. I don't expect to break even for a long time, if ever.

To get an idea of my development speed, I first started learning Ren'py and Daz 1 1/2 months ago. That doesn't mean I can keep that kind of tempo going indefinitely, but still.

sounds great, but remember that smaller more frequent updates can be bad, the reason for that is that people feel like nothing happens going from one update to another, so the most important thing is to keep what you promise.
My opinion is that small updates frequently are great for bug fixes, but give yourself time enough for the bigger updates.

 

[Belle]

sounds great, but remember that smaller more frequent updates can be bad, the reason for that is that people feel like nothing happens going from one update to another, so the most important thing is to keep what you promise.
My opinion is that small updates frequently are great for bug fixes, but give yourself time enough for the bigger updates.

I would normally agree completely, except that in this case, the problem is that there's too little content available already. The faster I can lift the baseline to something that people will find more satisfying (which I think will happen when you can freely visit all the places you saw in the tutorial), the better.

 

[martin Nielsen]

I would normally agree completely, except that in this case, the problem is that there's too little content available already. The faster I can lift the baseline to something that people will find more satisfying (which I think will happen when you can freely visit all the places you saw in the tutorial), the better.

I totally agree with you on what you said in both posts^^

 

[Ronin]

It reminded me of some Dragon Throne of Natali. As a follower of these games I would have liked to see a mother of MC. The uncle is married, has daughters ?.
But the game is not going to focus on that right?

 

[Belle]

It reminded me of some Dragon Throne of Natali. As a follower of these games I would have liked to see a mother of MC. The uncle is married, has daughters ?.
But the game is not going to focus on that right?

I considered it but eventually decided not to do that. As of right now, the main character's parents are dead. My plans for uncle Aldred and his immediate family may interest you once (if, see below) we get to them, let me just say that.

There are many details about the final selection of girls that will be influenced by what my patrons want to see. This could be one of them.

I'm not familiar with the Dragon Throne of Natali, sadly. There are many quality porn games out there I've missed, but I'm always on the lookout for new ones.

 

[Balub]

I think an update every month is more than sufficient: Do more and people will get confused when asking questions because nobody will play every version. People will whine about the lack of new content which is barely worth loading up the game.

About the clicking through:
I agree with the people complaining too much dialogue they have to click through. I haven't played Persona myself, but have had people complain about the first few hours until you get to the "real game".

Here's a possible solution (just downloading, so I haven't played the game itself):
How about you give the player an option of what he's interested in the most? The player gets to choose whether he wants to hear someone's backstory, when to attend certain small events etc. Maybe there are small hidden events where you can choose to either go home/to sleep or stay awake and look around a bit. Ideally both those scenarios have small scenes. Nothing big, just something that makes the player go "hey, I'm interacting with the story, not just reading it".

Detailed feedback when I finish playing, just my 2 cts for now...

 

[sithlordo66]

I love this concept. Finding clues. Dialogue and choices being reacted to like a normal human being instead of "tee hee you're touching my pussy you naughty boy." I really hope the potential is not squandered or abandoned. I'll be watching this closely.