Ren'Py Operation: Establish Dominance [v0.1.1] [Artisnal Depravity]

[artisnal.depravity]

 

[artisnal.depravity]

 

[artisnal.depravity]

Dope. I think that's in a ready-enough state.. Now alls I gotta do is mark it up with the tile editor and then rip out and replace the maze system...

 

[artisnal.depravity]

Must... Stop... Fucking... with... it...

 

[artisnal.depravity]

This is the tilemap editor I hacked up in renpy to operate on the base graphic i've been working on in the screenshots above



It can load a background image, arbitrarily size the grid, and then "paint" 5 different types of tiles on the map. It uses the same custom-defined-displayable I wrote FOR OED to handle the "top down tactical map"

first I "paint in" the walls... areas where the player and mobs are not allowed to walk.



Then I change the brush to "exits" and paint in areas that end the fight if the POV steps on them. I can also paint MOB spawn points, and "triggers" for ad-hoc events.

 

[Leona3500]

always nice to meet a person of taste, thank you for the glowing review.



I do hate to disappoint, but there are going to be some "on the rails" capture scenes, especially in the beginning of the project, in order to introduce certain characters and create some context between them and AJ/Brinn. Steve is a perfect example, what you're seeing is the beginning of a romance arc between Steve and Officer Felicia Burke, one of AJ's fellow officers. Steve will become a proper combat mob in future updates, so when you encounter him in the wild, AJ will be able to come out on top via combat, but he is also a main character in the story, and I need her to lose to him in the first encounter to properly set the stage for that story to evolve properly. For example, when you next see him in the dex and veronica scene, there just wouldn't be any meaningful tension between aj and steve if she'd kicked his ass. Well, I suppose there would be, but this, to me is a jucier flavor of tension between them.

You can look at it this way if it helps: This is like zelda link to the past, there's a light side and a dark side, and in order to progress the story, AJ needs to move back and forth between the light and dark. So getting defeated and captured is a meaningful and necessary part of the game, it's not intended to be negative reinforcement or punishment, it's meant to be a continuation of gameplay with an altered perspective, and I should put some thinking into how to make that obvious to the player. One thing I think will help is givnig AJ "sex stats" and finishing out the prostitution minigame mechanics, so she can level up her skills and make the darker side of the progression more of a "first class citizen" when it comes to game-play.

But alas at the moment I'm too busy making maps in inkarnate to prove to myself I'm a "real" game developer.

That's fair enough. I'm used to capture and their proceeding minigames being a punishment that has no impact on progression (unless the game has an overall corruption stat that's constantly going up) and it did feel that way in this build. However it sounds like you're going to turn these moments into opportunities for the character to gain experience and develop skills we could use once we escape. That would make this feel less like a detour and more like an opportunity to progress in it's own right.

As for how to make this more obvious to players, I think you should add some mandatory or optional dialogue to either the first scene with Agent Love or the following scene with Love and Octavia about defeat not being such a bad thing.
I think just one line from one of them stating that there's no rush to activate the first node (so we know delays aren't an issue), another line stating it may take some time to rescue us if we are caught because it will take some time for the gang to lower their guard once they capture or buy A.J and then a final line about how brute force will only get us so far and that we should consider using our "assets" from time to time instead (maybe have A.J respond with reluctance on this occasion, since this is early in her development). Maybe also add some dialogue for after the first time Agent Love has to rescue A.J from prostitution, something about how we should consider using our new found experience to our advantage (to reinforce the idea of developing those skills being a good thing).

This truly is an amazing game, the writing and gameplay is far better quality than the average games on this site. If you don't consider yourself a "real game developer" yet, then I think you're being too hard on yourself.

 

[Dinglederper]

Also updated the game description but it bears re-iterating here..


You should play this game if:
You appreciate solid storytelling.
You can invest yourself in a character.
You enjoy encountering experimental game mechanics UI and art, and things that haven't been tried before.
You can appreciate an artist who is taking a do more with less approach.
The tags and screenshots look enticing.
You don't mind non-con, losing fights, and driving a submissive POV

If I were some rich prick's spoiled child I'd be out here paying you to work on this and Reyka full time; despite you dunking on "h-game experts", as someone who has played more than I probably should, your games really stand out. There are very few other people who put genuine effort into scenario-writing (Lumari is the best comparison that comes to mind, someone who also has a very good sense of how character-writing and sub-dom dynamic can elevate a scene massively), and pretty much the only "criticism" I could even give for you is that I wish there were more of what you put out.

I hope that you can find a way to implement some of the ideas you had mentioned a long while ago with Reyka (e.g. being enslaved to be someone's literal combat dog); enslavement/capture is a rare thing in h-games and even more rarely is it done well, and yet you seem to have a very good grasp on how to make humiliation into a spice that amplifies the experience tenfold. Every time you put something out I'm left thinking the "artisnal" in your name is completely justified.

 

[artisnal.depravity]

If I were some rich prick's spoiled child I'd be out here paying you to work on this and Reyka full time; despite you dunking on "h-game experts", as someone who has played more than I probably should, your games really stand out. There are very few other people who put genuine effort into scenario-writing (Lumari is the best comparison that comes to mind, someone who also has a very good sense of how character-writing and sub-dom dynamic can elevate a scene massively), and pretty much the only "criticism" I could even give for you is that I wish there were more of what you put out.

I hope that you can find a way to implement some of the ideas you had mentioned a long while ago with Reyka (e.g. being enslaved to be someone's literal combat dog); enslavement/capture is a rare thing in h-games and even more rarely is it done well, and yet you seem to have a very good grasp on how to make humiliation into a spice that amplifies the experience tenfold. Every time you put something out I'm left thinking the "artisnal" in your name is completely justified.

I am super curious to know how you, as someone who has played through them both, feel about me re-using octave and harry from the BAR universe in OED?

 

[yiks507]

Well. I personally like the top-down maps so much, now I'm considering ripping out my maze code and replacing it with this top-down system... So hypothetically, instead of a randomly generated maze, the player would just be thrown into a static city-map, and the map would be big enough to make exploring it interesting...

I would have to extend the map markup tool I created to support things like dynamic enemy spawn areas, and hypothetically make buildings explorable which implies roofs that disappear when you enter them, and an inventory system.. and things worth having inventory for... hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

maybe I should wait for someone to actually play the stupid top-down system and give some feedback on it.. but I think it's obviously better.. and the feedback I have so far on the maze is nothing but hate... which honestly is a little disappointing. If you consider the options other devs have come up with out there for "navigation" in Renpy, you aren't going to find anything that has a locally-implemented Prims's algorithm generating mazes for you, but I get it. It feels.. well like a fuckin maze.

the top down system is great, but it needs more polish and perhaps a slight reduction in enemy numbers
I think your new idea of just replacing the maze map all together would actually fix the problems of it. as currently it just takes too long and it is so easy to be defeated aswell
I like the top down idea, but. every problem i have with it i think it might get fixed if you commit to the idea of making every chapter a giant top down map that you have to slowly traverse through. cause then losing wouldnt feel as bad and the fights themselves wouldnt feel like they take a long time which is the singular advantage of the older battle system
with that out of the way. how are you doing all of this??i feel like this would be way easier with something like rpgmaker, but. you're defying most odds by choosing renpy instead

adding on: Personally i want to see the captured system change a bit. While getting collared and being forced to do sex fits i personally think that the enemy you get defeated by collaring you to keep you for themselves is a much better idea. you get captured by the thug and he just fucks you everyday and abuses you until the one chance to escape arrives despite being collared, or the chaingirl keeping you for herself and forced to do her orders while you're collared and humiliating you in the process of trying to escape. and after you escape with a collar you have to go to octa or love to get the collar off. this is mega extra work for you, but. an idea i hope you consider

 

[artisnal.depravity]

I think your new idea of just replacing the maze map all together would actually fix the problems of it. as currently it just takes too long and it is so easy to be defeated aswell

well buckle up, we are replacing the maze map haha.

I like the top down idea, but. every problem i have with it i think it might get fixed if you commit to the idea of making every chapter a giant top down map that you have to slowly traverse through. cause then losing wouldn't feel as bad and the fights themselves wouldn't feel like they take a long time which is the singular advantage of the older battle system

fwiw, renpy's "skip" mode, accessed via the `tab` key still works in my top-down mode. When it's active, all the enemy units appear to move at once, and the cut-scenes fly by so fast you can barely see them, so you only get interrupted to move, or deal with a grapple. This system is still slower though.

with that out of the way. how are you doing all of this??i feel like this would be way easier with something like rpgmaker, but. you're defying most odds by choosing renpy instead

Heh well I didn't set out to make a top-down turn-based-strategy rpg in Renpy is, I guess the problem. I like renpy because its story-telling focused, and based in python, which I'm very comfortable with. I didn't want things to be about the game engine, I wanted them to be about the narrative, but then I just couldn't resist adding some cool mechanics, and now here we are.

Before the top-down thing happened, I was pretty much within the realm of what I'd consider Renpy's intended framework features. Even with my snowflake homebrew fight systems. The framework is very flexible, you just need to be able to imagine something different. This new top-down system however has required me to do something in renpy called a

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wherein you subclass renpy's built-in displayable and implement your own Render() method, so yeah, we aren't in kansas anymore and someone could DEF make the point I should just be moving "up" to rpgm or unity. I think i'd be a mistake to scrap what we have so far and go all brb rewriting in unity though. It just wouldn't be any fun. Not for me, not for you.

I do think my next project will be in a "real" game engine though. But most likely Godot, since I can't stand java, and java-derived languages like c# and I think it'd be silly to go RPGM, because, I mean let's face it, I will immediatly outgrow it, and be back in the forums explaining why my mechanics are unpolished because I've reinvented unity inside rpgm.

[/QUOTE]
adding on: Personally i want to see the captured system change a bit. While getting collared and being forced to do sex fits i personally think that the enemy you get defeated by collaring you to keep you for themselves is a much better idea. you get captured by the thug and he just fucks you everyday and abuses you until the one chance to escape arrives despite being collared, or the chaingirl keeping you for herself and forced to do her orders while you're collared and humiliating you in the process of trying to escape. and after you escape with a collar you have to go to octa or love to get the collar off. this is mega extra work for you, but. an idea i hope you consider
[/QUOTE]

Yeah, you're pretty much reading my mind there. The prostitution mini-game is the first proof-of-concept of at least 4 other "dark-side" minigame loops kicking around in the back of my mind. These include:

* a gang-hideout, where you work as a "house servant" (including scenes like the one you describe, as well as a chaingirl doggie-walk, which I'm AMAZED no one has brought up yet)
* a nightclub with a waitressing minigame and demanding customer scenes (owned by zeek)
* Uncle, who will show up to 'rescue' aj when she's been left restrained and take her home, (classic rope-bondage scenarios)
* a character I've yet to introduce who specializes in traps and is something of an "artist".

The prostitution minigame will also serve as a vehicle for scenes with other story-arc characters, who rent her out for the day for this or that, in the same way she was rented out in the meet_zeek scene. So every time you see the "days in captivity" cutscene message, there will eventually be a queue of events that can hijack her for the day and then return her to her cell. I also have a few ideas for humiliating interactions while she's on the street, mind-wiped at the light-pole. In the same way the walk-up John interacts with her now I would like there to be scenes where:

* the gang members who beat her down in the first place run a train on her
* some dudebro's walk up with an app on their phone, which is tracking their progress in a scavanger-hunt-like augmented reality game where the object is to locate and fuck every citycide officer who is still alive and in captivity.
* Visits from the clown-biddy hoes
* etc...