VN Ren'Py Not Going Back [Ch.3.1] [Cicada]

[Skylaroo]

It feels as if it doesn't work out or isn't received well, its like you are just giving up on her, from this type of statement, is how it feels.

You're confusing two very different things IMO. Giving up would be abandoning Ava if she's not well-received or if dev felt their writing is sub-par. In reality, what happened is simply the dev giving their best in writing Ava's story and is fully aware that players might have mixed reaction toward the character. Dev continues to write Ava as per their vision of what her character is. There is no "giving up" from the dev's side at all.

I'm actually pretty nervous about it, truth be told.

I believe in your writing skills. You've done well with what you've done so far. How much a character is liked/disliked is purely based on personal preference anyway. As long as the player isn't one of those people with the "main character syndrome" IRL thinking that everything revolves around them, they should be fully aware that it's fine to not love every single character. All the best.

 

[m0us3r]

The writing is very good so far.

I admit I haven't explored all the branches, but everything I had was pretty much perfect.

My favorite is Imogen. She's very sexy and cute. Her story is deep and interesting (and still with some room to explore). She's an attractive personality. She needs love and care. All that ticks all those boxes to love that character.

My second favorite is Ava. Honestly, firstly because of her looks. She is the prettiest one. It feels natural that she is nice but keeps a bit distanced from people, because otherwise all those boys trying to hit on her would make her life annoying. (Or that's what I think of her, more or less).

Regarding Mia, who seems to be "offered" first as LI, she is cute but not as much as the former two, if you ask me. And she seemed a bit less intriguing to me. Just a college girl (though not without interesting dialogs etc.)

I would be interested in other girls too, like Melody, Rosie, Rainn (though I'm afraid those three are not LIs)...

Anyway, cicadaNGB, I think writing about Ava you might want to step back a little and try to take a detached, larger view at the situation and let it simmer in your head for a day or two, until you get some "A-ha" feeling and understanding how you can make it undoubtedly genuine.

(PS: That's how I usually solve problems when I get stuck. Without worries and attempts, you just let it go, and then you watch and wait, confident and patient, and the solution eventually comes up.)

 

[cicadaNGB]

The writing is very good so far.

I admit I haven't explored all the branches, but everything I had was pretty much perfect.

My favorite is Imogen. She's very sexy and cute. Her story is deep and interesting (and still with some room to explore). She's an attractive personality. She needs love and care. All that ticks all those boxes to love that character.

My second favorite is Ava. Honestly, firstly because of her looks. She is the prettiest one. It feels natural that she is nice but keeps a bit distanced from people, because otherwise all those boys trying to hit on her would make her life annoying. (Or that's what I think of her, more or less).

Regarding Mia, who seems to be "offered" first as LI, she is cute but not as much as the former two, if you ask me. And she seemed a bit less intriguing to me. Just a college girl (though not without interesting dialogs etc.)

I would be interested in other girls too, like Melody, Rosie, Rainn (though I'm afraid those three are not LIs)...

Anyway, cicadaNGB, I think writing about Ava you might want to step back a little and try to take a detached, larger view at the situation and let it simmer in your head for a day or two, until you get some "A-ha" feeling and understanding how you can make it undoubtedly genuine.

(PS: That's how I usually solve problems when I get stuck. Without worries and attempts, you just let it go, and then you watch and wait, confident and patient, and the solution eventually comes up.)

Thank you for your kind words, I'm very glad you've enjoyed the game!

Your assessment of Imogen's character is very interesting to me. I feel like you've picked up on some of the more subtle character beats to her story already, which is nice to see.

And similarly with Ava, you've kind of nailed her personality too. This makes me feel more confident with the next update, actually, because one of my concerns is that it would feel too out of left field the direction her character takes (that I hadn't worked enough on detailing her character so far) but seeing your comment on her makes me more confident my foreshadowing and expression of her personality has come across correctly!

Mia is the first character I made for the game way back in late 2021 and (i don't know if i should say this but) she'll always be my favorite, I think. But that's partly because I know what's coming, I guess, that's makes her more interesting, as you're right in that for now her character is presented as being fairly straightfoward, for lack of a better term. And her presentation as the first LI is intrinsically tied to the story; she's the only LI you're kinda forced into at least being friends with, the rest you can more or less turn down the opportunities to spend more time with them - I am railroading you into at least being friends with Mia, for story-related reasons. But you'll see more on that in the not-too-distant future.

I've referenced before a vague idea of tiers of side girls, that some are a little more prominent than others, and that I don't have a necessarily traditional view on the separation of main and side LIs. What I can say for Melody, Rosie and Rainn in particular at least is that they each will feature a fair amount, depending on what paths you may go down in some instances.

And then yeah as mentioned above your assessment of Ava's character so far actually has made me more confident on my writing so far for her development in the next update. I haven't yet go to rendering/doing the visuals for the particular scene in question yet, but it's a couple down my list so it's coming up fairly soon in my schedule. I haven't read it back in maybe a week but I will before I start working on the scene, as well as of course while making the visuals, which is when I pretty much finalize all the dialogue (save for spelling/grammar mistakes i still somehow miss despite reading the whole game 10+ times).

You kinda nailed my feeling on it, too - I remember being okay with what I'd written for it, but I never had that 'a-ha' moment quite - it felt a little off. (i feel like this is becoming my catchphrase but) I've mentioned before that I've got some conversations for future chapters fully written already, a lot of the really big moments, and they've had that 'a-ha' feeling as I wrote them where I knew I nailed it, so I know for sure what the feeling feels like. For me a lot of the time it comes along with being able to clearly visualize exactly the framing and general composition of the scene as I write, it all coalesces into a clear idea. And yeah, I'm not quite there with the Ava scene in this update. Intriguingly enough, I am fully there with an Ava scene in the update after this one - I had that crystal clear vision moment. It's just bridging the gap at the moment between what I've presented so far, and the moment I'm building to, and making sure it's earned.

Anyway, long reply, hope you're cool with that, you just gave me a lot to think about, which I massively appreciate. My favorite thing from developing this project is seeing what people think, and getting the chance to talk about it too. Thank you!

 

[m0us3r]

Mia is the first character I made for the game way back in late 2021 and (i don't know if i should say this but) she'll always be my favorite, I think. But that's partly because I know what's coming, I guess, that's makes her more interesting, as you're right in that for now her character is presented as being fairly straightfoward, for lack of a better term.

...What I can say for Melody, Rosie and Rainn in particular at least is that they each will feature a fair amount, depending on what paths you may go down in some instances.

...My favorite thing from developing this project is seeing what people think, and getting the chance to talk about it too. Thank you!

Wow, I'm so glad that we "resonate", and you make much sense out of the feedback you get.

Yes, Mia is pretty wonderful too. (I was just trying to explain why she was more like only third choice for me... still a lovely character...)

I might like also to add yet a bit about Rosie (and you might find that useful somehow, who knows):

...OK, again, I like her mostly for the looks... (that "fashion model" type of body that I love, rather than exaggerated boobs & asses so overflowing other AVNs, and that Natalie Portman/Keira Knightley face), but IMO the feeling of beauty of a person also involves their "air" or "vibe", i.e. a person with an ugly soul wouldn't seem so beautiful to me, regardless of their shapes... I mean, I'm trying to say that there's nothing wrong (or not that much wrong) in liking someone for their looks...

OK, so... I chose her over Tegan, to pair with in the class (which apparently cut off a large branch of the game and didn't really give score points with Rosie... *semi-humorous sigh* But OK, nothing wrong with developing that relationship later)...

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

And when Ava asked for the advice about the future VP, that was a tough choice, but eventually I chose Rosie. Not sure it was the best choice, but I imagined that (during all those two years that they still have together) Ava could influence Rosie, perhaps even to re-adjust her goals. Ava could start with conversations like telling Rosie that Ava trusts her and gives her what Rosie needed... But requires from Rosie to always equally trust other sisters and give them what they would need. Such conversations might be repeated and happen in the presence of other girls, so that they all would be kinda trained collectively to live as the sorority properly, moving in the right direction (as their common doing, not just the president's business).

Among other things, Rosie would have a year of tight co-habitation as VP, while Ava could request Rosie's opinions and solutions on all matters, effectively teaching her proper values etc. And then, during only 1 year of the actual presidency, Rosie would unlikely mess up too much important things, especially with all the other girls around (who might nudge her in the right direction if she would go astray). So with the right training I think rather than Rosie shifting the system, it's the system that might shift Rosie, to caring about sisters - and perhaps that even might become her primary goal - rather than trying to impress her big sister (/compete /follow in the footsteps /whatnot)...

I hope you get what I mean... And I imagine all the ideas above
(1) might enrich that choice option, beyond just "OK, I might try to ignore my feelings about her",
and (2) might enrich actual future scenes with Ava & Rosie etc.
Of course, if that fits your vision.

Best wishes and thank you very much.
(Yes, I enjoyed the game thoroughly... )

PS: Eventually I liked that choice/approach because: it would create the less conflict (Rosie would get her desire satisfied, unless she fucks up somehow - but then she would have to blame only herself), and it might be very beneficial for her personal development (maturing experience...).

...Even though there's no guarantee that in the end all these suggested efforts would actually work... PPS: ...Which might create another bit of an interesting collision for the story: how well Ava's efforts would work... (And, related: how MC could help Rosie progress from being a bitch...)

...But I understand that you might not want to expand that branch too much, having already a large and well branched story.

 

[HeyZen_]

Are there any virgin girls in the game? lol

 

[m0us3r]

Are there any virgin girls in the game? lol

Alice, probably.

Ellie? Not known yet.

 

[Percival90]

Hey has anyone got a save with the gallery unlocked?

 

[MiltonPowers]

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Hello!

It's time for another all members dev log! And you get a couple of previews this time too! How fun!

First things first, the numbers. We're currently at 767 renders for the update, with 9/17 scenes completed (nearly 10! just not quite finished with one). The scene I'm about to move on to is another that requires a lot more posing image to image, so it'll be a little slower to work through, although the actual render times themselves should be fairly okay. We'll see how quickly I'm able to get it set up.

I've done a little more writing/planning for the full ch4, too. While I'm working through the rendering of the prelude I'd ideally like to get decently ahead of myself for ch4, so I can get straight on working on that as soon as the renders for the prelude are finished. Ch4 is a little hard to plan out right now, as the sequencing is less obvious. Some of it I may not even properly sequence until it comes to actually rendering, because it's essentially one big, very malleable scene (as you may be able to tell from it's title, "The Party"). The point was I've done a little more work on that update, trying to form a baseline structure and get some more ideas I've had for conversations down and planned.

I try not to get too far ahead of myself when working, because I don't want to lose focus on the current update I'm working on and get carried away with things in the future, but occasionally I do work on stuff way off in the future, even just to review and consolidate it all to make sure I'm still driving in the right direction. (i felt like i'd said this someone recently, but i can't find it, so apologies if that last bit was repeating myself). I have mentioned many a time now that the major parts of the story have been planned, and some cases fully written, for a long time now, so those bits are always in my mind while writing etc. But I like to check in on the smaller beats too as a refresher so I also don't miss anything of less magnitude that I might have written down as an idea but would still require a little early foreshadowing/setup.

Finally, the big news(?) of this dev log! I'm finally launching a discord server for Not Going Back! This has been something somewhat frequently asked about dating all the way back to the first release, really. And I've finally taken the time to look into things, and feel fairly comfortable getting it started.

If you're a paid member, with Patreon linked to your discord, you'll get added automatically when I link roles in discord to tiers here, some time shortly after this post going live. For everyone else, here's the invite link:

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It's very basic right now, but there's a feature request channel where you can put any ideas you might have for what to add. I've never really used discord before, and certainly never in control of my own server, so it's all new to me. So it might be a slow start, but if you want to join a community of people who like Not Going Back, as well as have a more direct way of chatting to me, too, it might be a bit of fun!

Thanks!

 

[MagicMan753]

Best girl sighting in dev log. Mia is my goat, I hope to get some kisses and most importantly cuddles very, very soon, I NEED to hold her in our arms all night.

And based on dev log, and how many scenes already finished. I may never get through current update. I was set for full replay of this game months ago, still just sitting on laptop, ready to play.

It's a race, me against when next update drops and I feel like I will lose with my slow ass.

That being said, something that came to my mind when I saw Mia. I pictured a white dress. Dev, please I need a wedding at the end of this, maybe even showing our family too with our house, children, and pets.

 

[cicadaNGB]

Best girl sighting in dev log. Mia is my goat, I hope to get some kisses and most importantly cuddles very, very soon, I NEED to hold her in our arms all night.

And based on dev log, and how many scenes already finished. I may never get through current update. I was set for full replay of this game months ago, still just sitting on laptop, ready to play.

It's a race, me against when next update drops and I feel like I will lose with my slow ass.

That being said, something that came to my mind when I saw Mia. I pictured a white dress. Dev, please I need a wedding at the end of this, maybe even showing our family too with our house, children, and pets.

For what it's worth, I'm currently projecting the next update to be out ~March next year, based on how much I've done so far vs what I think I've got left. So we're still a fair few months away from the next update, you've got plenty of time!

On the ending bit, I originally planned for an epilogue that would've been stuff like that, a look into the future. But as time went on I felt like it would undercut the actual ending of the game, diminish it's impact per se. I might change my mind again and make an epilogue anyway as an extra, but right now I'd be lying if I said it was planned. The ending's pretty set in stone at this point.

 

[cicadaNGB]

cross posting the public dev log from itch for the month!

Hello!

Attached below are some previews from the last month.

Brief update on things from me. Feel free to join the

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for a more extensive, weekly breakdown of the development process, amongst other things.

The current render count is 889, with 10/17 scenes complete. In my most recent dev log over on Patreon I mapped out roughly how long I think each remaining scene might take, and came to the estimate of a February 2026 release date. Don't take this as gospel, things may change, but that's my best guess.

The total renders will probably end up around the 1500 mark, so an update closer in size to ch1 than ch2 or ch3. Given that the next update functions as a prelude to the full ch4, this was expected; combined, this prelude as well as ch4 full will end up over 3000 renders, so I'm glad to have split them, especially also taking into account the narrative and structural reasons the split makes sense.

Related to the above, I'm actually going to copy a paragraph from my most recent patreon dev log here, as I'm curious as to the wider thoughts of the community on it, too:

"Also, and this is just a personal point, really, I feel the need some devs have to constantly try and make every update bigger kind of arbitrary. I feel like if you've got a good, well-planned story, the numbers don't actually matter. See Not Going Back, Chapter [redacted]: [redacted]. Granted, games with heavy branching will naturally have bigger updates the longer you go, because there's more permutations to consider, but I think that varying the length of chapters can actually be a positive, as it can play with the tempo of the story, and therefore affect the impact it has on the reader. Salient point, I'd like to see a few more devs actively play with the structures of visual novels, rather than make every single update the biggest one yet. Perhaps that's just me, though."

Thoughts? Do you generally want every update to be bigger than the one before? Do you not care as long as the content within feels substantial? I'm quite curious.

Thanks!

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[Dessolos]

Mia's ass look great in those pants....

About size of updates. Honestly for me the size of an update doesn't matter to much as long as you feel it ends in a place that makes sense to call it an update. The only time I might be disappointed when it comes to update size is if an update takes a year and it's only like 300 - 500 renders especially on a game that doesn't have much branching or choices but that is not something id worry about here. Of course if the dev puts the game on pause / hold then I can't be mad if an update is small.

 

[cicadaNGB]

Mia's ass look great in those pants....

About size of updates. Honestly for me the size of an update doesn't matter to much as long as you feel it ends in a place that makes sense to call it an update. The only time I might be disappointed when it comes to update size is if an update takes a year and it's only like 300 - 500 renders especially on a game that doesn't have much branching or choices but that is not something id worry about here. Of course if the dev puts the game on pause / hold then I can't be mad if an update is small.

This is pretty much my thinking, too, generally. I've mentioned a few times that I know exactly how every update ends all the way to the end of the game, and so I knew going into it there'd be fluctuating update lengths. Personally, I'd never be bothered by shorter updates, but I was somewhat aware that a lot of people prefer longer updates (even if it means waiting longer between them, to a point, at least).

Again, from my perspective, I considered keeping the prelude and ch4 full as one 'Chapter 4' update, but once I was getting to the end of making ch3 I realized it would be better splitting them and allowing for a little time to digest what happens in the prelude, so that what goes on to happen in ch4 has more impact (hopefully!)

But yeah, I was curious to gauge others' opinions on that, as I didn't know if I was in the minority there.

Oh, also, yes, I really like that outfit on Mia, too. Possibly one of my favorite of the more casual outfits for any of the girls.

 

[Michkooo]

I see Mia I'm happy

 

[PaulGaul]

Thoughts? Do you generally want every update to be bigger than the one before? Do you not care as long as the content within feels substantial? I'm quite curious.

Exactly as you said, as long as content feels substantial and complete from author's narrative viewpoint, it is good.
Personally I hearthfully dislike small, often updates. I'd rather do it once per some longer period.
As long as developer doesn't turn into icstor or something.

 

[Skylaroo]

Thoughts? Do you generally want every update to be bigger than the one before? Do you not care as long as the content within feels substantial? I'm quite curious.

Update size compared to previous update size is irrelevant to me. It definitely doesn't need to be bigger than the one before. What matters more for me is quality rather than quantity, so my expectation is that each update has meaningful plot progression along with meaningful and preferably also balanced character development where girls aren't left out of too many updates.

I don't really pay attention to number of renders and word count either because what matters is how the dev used them rather than the actual number. An update with 2000 renders could still be disappointing if it's just full of bloat that resulted in minuscule plot progression because 1 scene is littered with excessive number of renders with barely noticeable pose changes. Similarly with word count where more doesn't always mean better because writing efficiently is hard.

 

[Joshy92]

I really need to get back into this game. I have literally forgotten most of it, but I know I liked it when I played.

 

[Acsuka]

I want this girl...Now...

 

[cicadaNGB]

I want this girl...Now...

View attachment 5487839

You may enjoy the next couple of updates, then ...

 

[cicadaNGB]

Update size compared to previous update size is irrelevant to me. It definitely doesn't need to be bigger than the one before. What matters more for me is quality rather than quantity, so my expectation is that each update has meaningful plot progression along with meaningful and preferably also balanced character development where girls aren't left out of too many updates.

I don't really pay attention to number of renders and word count either because what matters is how the dev used them rather than the actual number. An update with 2000 renders could still be disappointing if it's just full of bloat that resulted in minuscule plot progression because 1 scene is littered with excessive number of renders with barely noticeable pose changes. Similarly with word count where more doesn't always mean better because writing efficiently is hard.

That last point is the big one for me, generally, with what I'm trying to do. The idea of efficient writing, no wasted dialogue. My goal is that, by the end of the game, I'll be able to go back through every conversation in every chapter and pretty much line-by-line break down exactly what was being hinted at/foreshadowed for the future of the story. I want there to be as little wasted dialogue as possible, beyond of course the mandatory basic stuff like introductions/greetings/transitional bits that you need to have.

So far I think I'm doing a pretty decent job, I can say for almost certain that every major conversation in the game so far at least hints at something pertinent to either the character in question or the MC.

Also, I generally agree in the preference for balanced character development update-to-update, to a point, which is when it feels like the dev has added unnecessary/unplanned scenes in just to fit a specific girl into an update. Sometimes things like that can feel forced and disrupt the flow, and for me sometimes I'd rather go an extra update with content from a specific girl than force it in. Though I'm aware that people who really like that girl would perhaps be disappointed by that, and prefer any content with them than none at all.

Thanks for your thoughts, I think you've come pretty close to what I think, and it does seem like a lot of people think similarly as well, which is good to know from my perspective