VN Ren'Py Mission Metamorphosis Development Thread

[IamUnderman]

Also to clarify the possible timelines one more time:

The demo would aim to release in the first half of November (with wiggle room either side) and the final release would be sometime in the first half of 2026. I don't want to get too carried away with crazy predictions but it could be out as early as April! (I dare not predict earlier than that no matter what the numbers say. My current speed would make March or even late Feb possible but I just think that is fanciful).

 

[IamUnderman]

Looks like no demo is winning convincingly, although the sample size is small. I will let the poll run its course but I will move forward with the mind that a demo will most likely not be required.

Also some good news. Had another record breaking day yesterday. 17 static images made in one day! Cannot wait to share some of these with you all on the 30th.

 

[IamUnderman]

Ok well looks like the pro demo side got a bit of momentum towards the end. The overall preference seems to be for no demo still, but not conclusively. I will let you know how my tests go over the next couple of weeks in the dev blog on the 30th and we will see.

Thank you for your participation either way.

 

[IamUnderman]

Mission Metamorphosis Development Update #3 (30/10/2025)

Chapter 1 Progress:

• Planning 70%
• Rendering 50% (626 renders total)
• Programming 15%
• Writing 15%
• Polish 5%

Overall Estimated Progress: 31% of Chapter complete

Updated Roadmap

• November 27th: Development Update #4
• December 18th: Dev Update #5
• January 29th: Dev Update #6

Thoughts

Decently long gap since the last update and progress has been good. Nearly 200 renders made since the last official update and I have begun exploring the technical and coding sides of the project. I am starting small currently by just stitching together some of the more visually complete simple scenes with their dialogue and transitions. Nothing crazy but it is a start.

On the rendering side of things, the month started very well indeed. My pace was incredible and I was producing more renders than I have at any other point in the project. The middle of the month saw a workload spike in my job and that slowed things a lot. But despite how stressy things got I still managed to maintain an average of over 2 renders a day, which I think is very solid. The past week and a half has seen my pace increasing again to a very solid speed and I am confident I can maintain this into November.

I wanted to talk a tiny bit about the plot and 'shape' of this update. As the first update in the seven part story it is going to be quite fast paced and active as our two main characters are thrust into this incredible situation. I originally envisioned that the secondary characters of each update would be very self-contained to that chapter, and for some that will be true. However I have now woven a more cohesive and continuous narrative to connect the chapters and that includes a handful of recurring faces. In terms of LI's Emily is distinctly the only 'primary' in the game. But now the chance to see certain side characters across multiple chapters and for 'routes' themed around these side characters is more realistic with the project.

I have also decided that I will not be doing the demo for the game. The first release will be a fully polished release of Chapter 1 in its completed form. My main motive for this, other than the poll, is the importance I place on first impressions. If I click on a game that has promising tags and find it to be underwhelming and short it will take a lot to get me to come back and try it again. Therefore I feel that any 'hype' or 'ancipation' I earn with a demo is undermined by the potential fans I will turn away with a shoddy or rough early version. Plus, at around 1200 renders long, chapter 1 won't be THAT long. I hope it will offer players a couple hours of enjoyment and have some replay value, but it is not substantial enough to be chopped up like that. Either the demo is so short as to be a pisstake, or it is longer and the actual main release gets undermined and feels like a mini update. I hope you understand my reasoning and that this is for the longterm health of the project. To make up for any disappointment I promise to be quite generous with the next couple of render showcases...

Render Showcase

Since the demo is now not going to happen I have opted to showcase renders here from deeper into the game. Every single render here is from after the 30% mark that the demo was going to cover. They show some new makeup looks for Emily and a bit more of the action and suspense you would expect from a spy themed game. Six renders this time as an apology for the death of the demo.

 

[IamUnderman]

... OK go on. Because I am a nice guy here is one extra render. A dirty one.

Ciao!

 

[HeelsMaiden]

It's just not a spy fiction to me unless there's a sexy female agent strutting around in a skintight catsuit and high-heeled boots. I don't need "realism" in my spy fiction.

 

[Buletti]

... OK go on. Because I am a nice guy here is one extra render. A dirty one.

Ciao!

View attachment 5390647

Thanks for the update my friend! I am still not 100% sold on the MC tbh, but in the end the girls are 100% more important And they look really good so far.

So congrats and hats off for the hard work you put into this!

Cheerio!

 

[MagicMan753]

Thanks for the update my friend! I am still not 100% sold on the MC tbh, but in the end the girls are 100% more important And they look really good so far.

So congrats and hats off for the hard work you put into this!

Cheerio!

I agree, not biggest fan of Mc, not a deal breaker, like some other games, but is a bit of a let down, just wished he looked different, maybe better. But also agree the girls are top tier, especially, our main heroine, Emily.

Excited for first part dev, nice job and good work.

 

[Alias#2]

It is still early in this game. I know of at least two games where the MC started out looking like kind of a looser and over time became one bad ass MoFo.
This can actually fit into the story as well.
There are not many games I can think of where the MC is that great, now that I think about it.
But it does help somewhat for them to look decent. Naturally if the girls look good enough, who will notice anyway?
Of course, if I look in the mirror, they will all look good .

 

[araneansis]

The MC is not amazing, but I would prefer a F/F coupling alone, so I cannot judge too much.

The roadmap says that there will be a developer update in ~8 days, but does that mean that there will just be an update post, or will a demo be attached to it? Because if we are talking simple dev updates until February, it will be quite a long time to wait until the game

 

[IamUnderman]

The MC is not amazing, but I would prefer a F/F coupling alone, so I cannot judge too much.

The roadmap says that there will be a developer update in ~8 days, but does that mean that there will just be an update post, or will a demo be attached to it? Because if we are talking simple dev updates until February, it will be quite a long time to wait until the game

Just a dev update I am afraid. With how fast things are progressing a demo release just does not really make sense. It wouldn't really build hype in this case and would rather just be a stumble out the gate for the game. The thing to remember is that when the game gets its own official page and download links it will get FAR more attention than this thread ever will, so that is the chance for this project to make a strong impression. I really don't want a janky incomplete update to be how people experience the game for the first time. Most people following this thread seemed to agree since that decision won the poll.

I personally am still confident the MC will grow on people. He stands out compared to most male MCs out there and I think he has a bit more personality than most of the generic Gen 3/8 Micheal models people use. Taste is subjective but I think going for something a bit more unique will pay off long term.

 

[IamUnderman]

Mission Metamorphosis Development Update #4 (27/11/2025)

Chapter 1 Progress:

• Planning 75%
• Rendering 60.5%
• Programming 15%
• Writing 20%
• Polish 7.5%

verall Estimated Progress: 35.6% of Chapter complete.

Updated Roadmap

• December 18th: Dev Update #5/Special Christmas Renders
• January 29th: Dev Update #6
• February 26th: Dev Update #7/Start of Potential Release Window
• March 26th: Dev Update #8
• April 30th: Dev Update #9
• May 28th: Dev Update #10/Latest release date within current predictions.

Thoughts

This month felt like the end of a significant stage of development. At this point every planned scene and sequence in the game has something occupying it. A lot remains unfinished of course, but I am now past the 'mystery' stage. I know what each scene will look like, what will lead into what, and where I need to pay the most attention moving forward. As I am now over 60% of the way done with rendering I expect that my productivity in that area will slow as I am not working with a blank canvas often anymore. I am now adding renders to already existing renders and connecting the dots.

What this means though is that I can now truly get to work on the structure, writing, and layout of the game. Its like making a film, I have most of my principle photography so now I can get to editing while second unit and reshoots happen.

I am also very confident that the game will release in the 'Spring' of 2026 instead of the Summer as originally predicted. If everything goes perfectly from this point on I could see the game ready for release in February, but that is optimistic. March and April are far more likely. Don't worry though as any 'slowness' with this first update will not longterm slow the project down that much. If I end up banging my head against a wall for months figuring out the scripting, UI and writing I will be able to get started on the rendering for the next chapter early. So if the update comes out in May, you could find that chapter 2 starts its first dev update already part done.

Next month's update will be early as the last Thursday of the month is Christmas... Not posting then. So we will do the 18th as I have been outlining from the start. Since the gap is so small I would not expect enormous progress, but I will tempt you in with some special festive renders! (Don't worry, they will make it into the game as unlockables so no wasted work... Speaking of renders!)

Render Showcase

The theme of this month's showcase are the secondary girls who will feature in the update. One image for each. Let me know who you are most excited to see in action.

 

[Buletti]

I prefer long hair, but would still go with the asian chick.

Sounds really good my friend!

Wish you all the best and that you hopefully have fun keeping the train rolling.

Cheers!

 

[labbu]

dev can u post main charcter fully nude image here

 

[IamUnderman]

dev can u post main charcter fully nude image here

I'd rather wait for the actual game to do that. Seems a bit wasteful to do it here.

 

[IamUnderman]

Mission Metamorphosis Development Update #5 (18/12/2025)

Thoughts - Progress

Hey guys. This update is going to be slightly different from the previous ones I have done as I am going to focusing more on the 'big picture' of the game. But first some words about the progress made in the past three weeks:

The first chapter currently stands at 795 completed renders out of a predicted final total of around 1,215. This means that the game is at around 65.5% visual completion. This does not include UI elements such as icons and menus, all of which intend to custom create for the game. Overall december turned out to be a much more productive month than I had anticipated and it feels like the game is really coming in for a landing in terms of its visual components. I also had several breakthroughs regarding the structure, pacing and gameplay of the project on the whole. So all in all this was a very positive three weeks of work since our last update.

Thoughts - Big Picture

So I have made the decision to alter the game's original scope from 6 main chapters with an epilogue to 4 main chapters with an epilogue. This decision I feel is going to be a supremely positive one for the project and will result in a much tighter story more capable of achieving its ultimate completion. There are three specific reasons I made this choice:

1.The originally planned chapters 3 and 5 did not contribute majorly to the overall story structure of the game, other than just existing. It would be very easy for them to either feel like timewasting filler, or to become overbloated in my attempt to give them more meaning. Either way they would slow the game down and take more than they would add. The elements from these chapters that I do like will be incorporated into the remaining chapters or save for future projects...

2. I have a lot of ideas for other games and don't want to be bogged down in one project for the next 5+ years. I want to be known as a game developer, not the developer of a game. There are tons of excellent games on this very site that have simple gone on too long. I am sure you can all think of one. Ultimatly I have far more respect for the devs that keep it fresh and keep trying new things. I also feel this will help to avoid future burnout or perfectionism. A great example of a dev who I respect but that Ihas acted as a cautionary tale for me is Cheekygimp the developer of Where the Heart is. The game has just finished its main development cycle, but it has taken 8 years to do so. During that time they have reworked content as they have gone along, leading to a multiple year gap between chapters 24-25 as they work on bringing the work they did in 2017/2018 up to standard. I don't want that for Mission Metamorphosis. I don't want to still be building on the foundations I am laying now in 2030 and beyond. So I feel the restructuring of the game to a more manageable scope will help me to move on when the time is right. I expect to be finished with this project no later than early 2029. Enough time to make something special, but not to devote my life to a sisyphean task.

3. I want the choices in this game to matter and to have punch. But keeping things both open and meaningful across 7 parts is very challenging. With this change I can more realistically plan out people's choices and create bespoke and complex outcomes for decisions. I am adopting a philosphy of 'Low numbers, high impact' for my choices. Focusing more on quantity than quality. A player may only recieve 5-6 choices in a chapter, but they should all feel important and stitch together to create complex outcomes.

Overall I feel like this refocusing of the game in four main parts will be a very good thing for its longterm health. The epilogue chapter I keep referencing will be devoted to the game's endings, allowing each ending the time it need to breathe and feel special.

Christmas Render Showcase

As a present from me to you on this holiday season, please enjoy these festive renders. These will be included as unlockables in the game so they did not eat into development time. In fact there is one more Christmas render I made that I have not included here... It was too hot to show in just a simple blogpost and it contains a minor plot spoiler... So you can consider that an extra present hidden under the tree for you to open when the update finally releases!

See you in the New Year! I think that by then the chapter will be entering its final stages.