Others No Trace Of Luck [Development Thread] [Godot]

[NoTraceOfLuck]

Next release. There's a decent amount of content here when combined with the previous release. At this point, I'd say this is a sufficient amount of content that I can release it as-is on F95 and Itch next week on Feb 4.

However, I still have a few days, so I'm going to keep grinding away. I have the next 2 scene concepts prepared. One of them is very ambitious, probably the most complex sequence of events I will do so far in the game. So it may or may not be done in time for Feb 4.

For anyone choose to download this I have two questions:

• How is the game performance? Is it laggy? One reason I picked Godot is because I HATE how laggy Ren'Py is. It seems like every game on here that uses Ren'Py is insanely slow. In my testing, I am able to run this game without any lag on my laptop, which is a 5 year old CPU and no GPU. But I am wondering if it performs the same for others.

• How is the load time? Currently I try to do ALL the loading when you launch the game, so that there is minimal loading when you're playing the actual game. But I have a fast SSD in this laptop, so I'm wondering what the load times are like for other people. When launching the game initially, and when progressing between scenes.

Here's the download, you can get it here first before the F95 release next week:

You must be registered to see the links

Some screenies:

 

[lagaard]

I haven't noticed any bad load times myself, and I think I have the game being run on my external HDD which... I don't think was an external SDD, so...

 

[NoTraceOfLuck]

I haven't noticed any bad load times myself, and I think I have the game being run on my external HDD which... I don't think was an external SDD, so...

Thanks that's good to know! Eventually I will probably need to make an Act 2 cut off where I load the 2nd half of the game to avoid the game initial start up from getting too slow

 

[NoTraceOfLuck]

Working on the next scene, sneak peak it features Lisa. This is the complex scene I was mentioning. It will feature 1 date sequence and 3 back-to-back poker sequences as Lisa comes to terms with the fact that she's not going to get any better at poker unless she takes up the offer of strip-poker focused training. You will need to consistently beat her, on repeat, for an entire day, to finally make her realize that the strip poker is inevitable.

This art style is different from what I had in the original Lisa scene. That art was done very early when I was still learning and it was very labor intensive to get it to look good. If you look closely, you'll notice the face changes significantly throughout the scene, and there is very little consistency in Lisa's hair.


I am switching to this new method, which produces artwork that looks different from before, but it's much easier for me to produce in large quantities. And still looks pretty good in my opinion. I may replace the original art with new art for consistency. I'm still not 100% sure how to handle Ashely yet because she doesn't look at good with this new method.

I will post 3 images below.

• Image 1 is how the art looks TODAY in the first scenes with Lisa
• Image 2 is how the art looks with my new method but ZERO adjustments. This is what the AI generates directly.
• Image 3 is how the art will look using the new method + facial adjustments

Image 1 (Old Method) -------------------Image 2 (New Method - NO adjustments------------Image 3 (face replacement)



I do the facial replacement because I don't like the super low-detail anime style face that the AI produces by default.


Anyway, with that aside, here's a sneak preview at the new lisa art in her new scene

 

[lagaard]

I am highly looking forward to how the Lisa strip poker will go, and I can see I'll have to work for it. Which is fine, it probably makes sense when she actually Googles what that means, she won't just be all happy to accept it...

I forgot to mention it with my earlier post, as I just went to bed right after, but one problem with GODOT compared to Ren'py, is when it comes to replaying content. In Ren'py, you can just hold down CTRL and it'll hyper speed through text. You can't do that in GODOT, which can make replaying content pretty slow. The phone when you have to see text messages also seems really, really slow which doesn't aid in replaying.

 

[NoTraceOfLuck]

I am highly looking forward to how the Lisa strip poker will go, and I can see I'll have to work for it. Which is fine, it probably makes sense when she actually Googles what that means, she won't just be all happy to accept it...

I forgot to mention it with my earlier post, as I just went to bed right after, but one problem with GODOT compared to Ren'py, is when it comes to replaying content. In Ren'py, you can just hold down CTRL and it'll hyper speed through text. You can't do that in GODOT, which can make replaying content pretty slow. The phone when you have to see text messages also seems really, really slow which doesn't aid in replaying.

Thanks for the feedback, I noticed this too, especially because I have replayed some scenes 100+ times at this point. I am working on some changes for this.

5 Changes I am planning, I will probably include all of these except the last one in the next Lisa update (the last one is harder because I need to make a UI for it):

• I don't think it will be possible to add the CTRL hyper speed skip, but I have found a way to make spacebar 2x faster than what is currently possible. I just need to have it as an option in the settings, or bind it to a different button, because it makes it too easy to accidentally skip text even if you don't want to skip it.

• For text message sequences, once you have completed it one time, I will add a button to speed up the typing animation by a large amount on any replays (it will apply across saves, so any time you start a new save, you will immediately get this option). This might break some things, I'm not sure, there's a lot of stuff hooked into the phone timing.

• Once you successfully complete a poker sequence, any time you replay it, I will give the option to automatically win or lose a hand by just clicking a button. This will also apply across saves.

• In poker, I am going to add an unlucky system, where if you constantly lose many times, you will gain access to an option to automatically win one or two hands next time you try.
  • In the latest update, I also made the Texas Hold Em style poker easier by giving the AI a 50% chance to not to fold their hand when they're in a bad position. (This doesn't apply to the Five Card Draw version because you can't even fold in that version)

• I am going to add a scene select app in the phone, where you can instantly skip to any scene in the game that you've already beaten.
  • Scenes in this game are 3 things: "VN Scenes" which are just the normal text/talking sequences, "Date" scenes which are the date minigame, and "Poker" scenes which are poker. You'll be able to skip to any of these after you've beaten them.

 

[lagaard]

Gotta support stuff with strip poker as best I can!
I don't see any problems with those ideas, though don't try to put too much on your plate at once.
The fact the game doesn't keep the saves in the folder the game is in it handy sometimes. Though now my saves are all in a random mess, and I think I have 3 at Boa's Strip Poker for some reason...