VN Ren'Py Completed Melody [v1.00 Extras] [MrDots Games]

[Aprilia1k]

Infinite save slots, rollback, skip, hide interface, screenshot, variable text speed (I always prefer instant text because it's better to read, which also makes auto advance redundant), dev console, variable viewer etc etc
It's pretty much what a standard Ren'Py game has, no special features at all :winkytongue:

Thanks. Yeah - I guess prior to just recently, most of my experience on them is much older games TL'd from Japanese, and then the slew of mainstream (18+ but not necessarily _hentai_) titles that use other VN engines -- and have been pretty disappointed by such limitations as fixed-# saves, etc.. Of course such TL'd titles take a few years so most all of them are a gen. or two behind. RenPy is certainly interesting... What do you mean about auto-advance being redundant? Does instant somehow enable an auto-forward mode or ...?

On another note, I've found that my chosen screen-recording software totally breaks RenPy games (but does work with aforementioned "mainstream"/consumer titles...) - but I've not tried to even look at a stacktrace at this point, just turn off the screen-recorder (which is a pretty cool piece of s/w, though has had it's growing pains as well in past). I'm sure there's some elevated/protected resource contention or something, but not sure yet.... Are there many RenPy games nowadays that have voice, by chance? I see that the API seems to have some support for it, and music, etc.. but it's true that indie creators don't generally have resources for VA talent, sound design etc.. It does seem pretty full-featured - I appreciate the reminder. I guess Auto-Advance is one feature I like, but in truth it is completely content-dependent. SOL, moe, story-based stuff that are occasional guilty-pleasures come to mind.. Admittedly, though I hack-enabled auto-fwd here (no hotkey/toggle found), I am usually tapping it off now, so I can admire the artwork.. I mean the charming European backgrounds of course ;-) Cheers!

 

[Lotex]

Spoiler

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Love her :heartcoveredeyes::heartcoveredeyes:

 

[mvl]

Love this game, especially its story, animation, and the girls (definitely Becca) ofcourse. I can't wait for the next release which is on July 28. Hope that the next release would be as good as the old ones.

 

[IAmTerror]

I know I'm ridiculously late to this party but I laughed my ass off at the DMD angry nudist beach bitch cameo. +1 for lols

 

[ltpika]

I know I'm ridiculously late to this party but I laughed my ass off at the DMD angry nudist beach bitch cameo. +1 for lols

She reminds me of this lady.

 

[DarkEnigma]

I don't know if anybody knew about this...

I knew about her from when she was really really young and i just forgot about her until just now that i saw her on TV and thought about the game too.

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Pretty funny coincidence?

 

[ranma100]

I don't know if anybody knew about this...

I knew about her from when she was really really young and i just forgot about her until just now that i saw her on TV and thought about the game too.

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Pretty funny coincidence?

That's a good resembling, she also remind me of Emma Watson. :OhMyGoodness:

 

[filochard]

Love her :heartcoveredeyes::heartcoveredeyes:

Perhaps you don't know it, but ....

Anyway, I agree with you, it's a nice one, like all the others in this really good game.

 

[ilovenudemods]

Been awhile since I've visited Melody. Only to 0.0.3 though, huh? Have they been bigger updates or are things slowing down on this one?

 

[filochard]

@ilovenudemods Update are good for my taste. It's still slow with Melody but (iirc) things are getting more than hot with MC's neighbour if you have taken that path. And there's also an openning path with Melody's aunt.
The next update is expected soon (end of july or beginning of august).

 

[Lotex]

Perhaps you don't know it, but ....

Spoiler

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Anyway, I agree with you, it's a nice one, like all the others in this really good game.

Did you just assume my knowledge?!

 

[Penfold Mole]

What do you mean about auto-advance being redundant? Does instant somehow enable an auto-forward mode or ...?

No, what I mean is that it's redundant to me, personally.
To me an auto advance system, even when every portion of text is displayed instantly, is always either too slow or too fast, depending on the amount of text on the screen and how interesting is the picture. So to me it is redundant. I prefer to click the mouse button, hit space or Enter.
I guess you can have a different opinion about it.

But Renpy by default has a built-in auto advance system.
You can activate it from the on-screen menu (so-called "quick menu") by clicking "Auto". The speed can be set on the Preferences page by moving the Auto-Forward Time slider.
There is no default key assigned to the Auto button, though. It is possible to map it to a key, but most devs haven't done it, so you'd have to write a patch for the game to add it yourself:

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In case the quick menu is hidden by the developer as it is in this game, you can enable it via dev console (Shift+o) by setting
$ quick_menu = True
$ suppress_overlay = False

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On another note, I've found that my chosen screen-recording software totally breaks RenPy games (but does work with aforementioned "mainstream"/consumer titles...) - but I've not tried to even look at a stacktrace at this point, just turn off the screen-recorder (which is a pretty cool piece of s/w, though has had it's growing pains as well in past). I'm sure there's some elevated/protected resource contention or something, but not sure yet....

I don't know about that, haven't tried to record any of them.

Are there many RenPy games nowadays that have voice, by chance? I see that the API seems to have some support for it, and music, etc.. but it's true that indie creators don't generally have resources for VA talent, sound design etc.. It does seem pretty full-featured - I appreciate the reminder.

No, a few have voice acting (nothing good, better to disable it), some have a soundtrack some have sound effects. Most of them have none of it.

Cheers!

 

[Centurion]

This game really gives me bad memories from my own music classes when i went to a music school, hated my teachers and here you play a music teacher so its a bit of a nightmare.

But i think its a very good game anyway, amazing renders as always from Mrdots, just wish so much it did not have to be made at the same time as DMD, maybe if/when they get enough money they can have 2 teams for the games(led by Mrdots) or more people to make both at the same time? Probably not, but one can dream.

Have you tried looking at things differently? - Melody had the same type of experience as you did but grew to like her lessons because the MC isn't a jackass. You probably noticed that in the story. Just wondering if it might help to change your perspective.

 

[Centurion]

I understand what you mean, to me its more, I grew to dislike music "teachers" in general 0r the profession, so to play one feels a bit bad for me.

But of course its good the MC is not mean or a bad guy otherwise i would not have been able to play the game at all now i can enjoy it still, but i understand what you mean. :angel:

That's sad that they did that. I play guitar and used to play a couple of other instruments and found it really satisfying - relaxing and enjoyable. It's really sad when teachers ruin the experience or the learning.

 

[ltpika]

It's a great game, only a few things drag it down:

The quizes. It's not fun to save scum or have to look stuff up. Breaks immersion.

Looks too similar to DMD. It already did the "wearing plain clothes the dressing sluttier" thing. It'd be more fun if Melody dressed in the style of different musical genres. Daisy Dukes for a country music senario, a punk rock look, j-pop outfits, etc. That'd give it a little bit more of its own identity.

 

[Centurion]

Oh no no, I already knew several instruments before going to that school hehe, I play the piano and guitar myself. I wen there for a year then quit because of the awful teachers, but my music was not affected

Oh. Well that's great that you get to enjoy the experience despite that school.

 

[Aprilia1k]

No, what I mean is that it's redundant to me, personally.
To me an auto advance system, even when every portion of text is displayed instantly, is always either too slow or too fast, depending on the amount of text on the screen and how interesting is the picture. So to me it is redundant. I prefer to click the mouse button, hit space or Enter.
I guess you can have a different opinion about it.

I appreciate that! heh... I don't think of it as a matter of opinion really - just a matter of taste; of preference - like screen colors, or flavors of ice cream
Also - I think I was using a different definition for "redundant", and was taking it literally. I'm thinking it is superfluous to your needs, rather than redundant - but I could be high, lol. I consider you friendly, and my reply is spirited friendly for sure. My tastes are like yours much of the time - preferring to click through dialogues. Still, I appreciate using AF during longer, verbose dialogs - where the images don't change much, and where I can find a decent "Delay" value ("Time" in this game's preferences). Just a little variety, I guess.

But Renpy by default has a built-in auto advance system.

Got it.

In case the quick menu is hidden by the developer as it is in this game, you can enable it via dev console (Shift+o) by setting
$ quick_menu = True
$ suppress_overlay = False

Thanks, yeah - that was the first thing I tried. Initially, unsuccessfully, as I missed the overlay property. Since I am used to a simple toggle (from reading older, and mainstream VNs/games I suppose) I decided I might as well personalize things a bit, since I've now grok'd the RenPy documentation.

The whole reason I was interested to begin with is - since the quickmenu is disabled, and no hotkey defined for Auto-Forward in this game, having "Auto-Forward Time" slider is just confusing - as it implies that AF is already accessible (without need for console or hacking). Without the ability to turn Auto-Forward ON, "Auto-Forward Time" is meaningless. So, that's what prompted me to even dig in to this. It's good to learn new things anyway, eh?

I added a toggle for Auto-Forward right on the main screen so I can easily switch it depending on the content, and added a hotkey while I was at it. For fun, and because I like a more transparent text-window much of the time, I added a variable transparency for it, and a color-chooser for the message text - mostly to alter the luminescence to suit the background in a scene. I'm new to messing with games, but have been a s/w dev by profession for a.. quite some time. The RenPy syntax and API are quite straightforward, and docs are very thorough, which helps a lot with "quick study", ;-)

Thanks Penfold, and cheers again.

 

[Penfold Mole]

I figured that the best background for the text window is an invisible one. A black outline and a little shadow added to white text will make it readable on any kind of background scene without the need of a half-transparent window covering up to a quarter of the scene in some games.

BTW, Sorry for my English being sluggish at times, I guess I used the word "redundant" in an awkward context or something. :winkytongue:

 

[techgroof]

love the game

 

[partial89]

I WANT TO PLAY THE NEXT VERSION