VN Ren'Py Our Life: Now & Forever [v1.4.4 Beta] [GBPatch]

[Xerneas]

Darren - known as Renee in the future - is a transwoman

I kinda wish they'd use whatever pronouns appropriate for the step they're talking about. This'd be a cool thing to find out in the later steps naturally, especially given how much Darren hates girls at the start. Is that just me? Is that offensive?

 

[ggezwux]

I kinda wish they'd use whatever pronouns appropriate for the step they're talking about. This'd be a cool thing to find out in the later steps naturally, especially given how much Darren hates girls at the start. Is that just me? Is that offensive?

Well Kab was doing that originally but someone on Tumblr - who is trans - asked her if she could use she/her when talking about Renee since she is a transwoman and you know, uses she/her. I get what you're saying, I liked Kab's original method too but I also get what the anon is saying - minus it being "misgendering". Plus if you keep up with their socials and read Darren's introduction post, Kab does say "AMAB but comes out as a woman later in the game", along with Step 2 and 3's introduction posts... majority of the fandom knows. You're good though, it ain't offensive (imo, being genderfluid, which can tie under both nb and trans...) either way I'll be sobbing on the floor when her Step 3 self shows in-game :')

Here are the posts if ya wanna see;

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and

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.

 

[Ramen-]

Our Life 2: Opal Halloween (Step 1)

Your mom isn't gonna be missing out on the Halloween fun either. She looks so great as a detective

 

[Savaralyn]

Our Life 2: Opal Halloween (Step 1)

Your mom isn't gonna be missing out on the Halloween fun either. She looks so great as a detective

All these halloween costumes are so cute. I have to wonder if the MC will get a set costume as well or if we can pick from a list or something? I know we wouldn't actually be able to see it either way, but it'd be cute to see different reactions based on what costume you picked.

 

[igg]

She? I thought Darren was a boy.

Darren/Renee is a transwoman. In step 1 to 2 she still goes by he and Darren. By step 3 she transitioned and changer her name to Renee.

 

[Ramen-]

All these halloween costumes are so cute. I have to wonder if the MC will get a set costume as well or if we can pick from a list or something? I know we wouldn't actually be able to see it either way, but it'd be cute to see different reactions based on what costume you picked.

In theory, they could use the new feature for everyone to insert their own costume. However, this would probably limit the ability of other characters to react to your costume outside of the same basic phrases like "oh so cute" or something.

 

[Xerneas]

Well Kab was doing that originally but someone on Tumblr - who is trans - asked her if she could use she/her when talking about Renee since she is a transwoman and you know, uses she/her. I get what you're saying, I liked Kab's original method too but I also get what the anon is saying - minus it being "misgendering". Plus if you keep up with their socials and read Darren's introduction post, Kab does say "AMAB but comes out as a woman later in the game", along with Step 2 and 3's introduction posts... majority of the fandom knows. You're good though, it ain't offensive (imo, being genderfluid, which can tie under both nb and trans...) either way I'll be sobbing on the floor when her Step 3 self shows in-game :')

Here are the posts if ya wanna see;

You must be registered to see the links

and

You must be registered to see the links

.

That's fair then. I'm not much in the spoiler spaces, except here, so I had no idea until it was mentioned in one of the posts. And if a trans person requested to stick to she/her in all steps I get changing it. Better to keep people comfortable, especially when that's the crux of your game, than to avoid spoiling others. Still super excited to see how much she'll change from step to step

 

[Xerneas]

In theory, they could use the new feature for everyone to insert their own costume. However, this would probably limit the ability of other characters to react to your costume outside of the same basic phrases like "oh so cute" or something.

My hope is that in both cases there will either be a list of preset options + an input field, or some sort of keyword recognition. If it's just an input field with nothing else, it'd feel a little hollow in my opinion

 

[gamwezs]

My hope is that in both cases there will either be a list of preset options + an input field, or some sort of keyword recognition. If it's just an input field with nothing else, it'd feel a little hollow in my opinion

That's the main thing I'm worried about with the new feature, if they use it too often than character reactions will seem empty because no matter what you put down the reaction will be the same.

 

[Ramen-]

Our Life 2: Qiu Step 2 Side Sprite Remake

This is the finished version! Qiu's side sprite now has the proper pose to fit the rest of the game, and it turned out wonderfully ️

 

[Ren123432fd]

New beta!!!

 

[Miukinnie02]

BETABETABETABETABETA NEED IT NOW GIMME GIMME

 

[Fizel]

Our Life: Now & Forever Beta Build 1.3.4


Content
Okay, so I said betas weren't gonna be 20k+ anymore but that'll be for the future, haha. This is a very special expansion that had to be finished this month. The preview of the Step 2 prologue is here ️! And it's around 24,000 words in length. We can finally share a bit of what Qiu and Tamarack will be like as fourteen-year-olds.
Now, this was done so that the growing up aspect of the story can be featured to players early on. I'm already back to writing for Step 1 and will continue to make scenes for that time period until it's entirely finished. We won't be seeing these versions of the characters in a beta again for quite a while. It'll be fun while it lasts!

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Download Links:

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And since we've had some problems in the past with so many people downloading beta builds that they get locked out by Google Drive, I've uploaded mirror builds! If the first ones listed don't work, you can try these.

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Or you can bypass the quota by logging in to a Google Drive account, then on the file's download page, click "Add shortcut to Drive" in the upper right corner. Save it to your Drive, then create a new folder, put it inside, and download the folder!
Save files from the prior beta should work in this beta!
New Content:

• 24,000 words of new scenes; a preview of the Step 2 prologue
• Added in suggestions from Tier 5 Backers throughout older scenes
• Implemented the Type-In-Your-Own-Answer feature for where the MC came from and your ethnicity
• New MC Doll options were added
• New music tracks were added
• Small fixes to typos/errors from the prior build

This was quite an intensive update. There was a lot that went into making everything for Step 2 work programming-wise. We'd love to hear your feedback on how it's coming together and will appreciate reports of any bugs you might run into. And thank you to everyone who gives the beta a try

 

[Xerneas]

God they made so many good decisions for step 2 compared to OL1.
I love that you can go down from crush back to friends, I love the jealousy options, but I especially love that you can choose what kind of personality you grew up to be. No more "You followed the rules as a child, you will follow them by default as a teen." You can change as much as Qiu and Tamarack do in those 4 years of timeskip. I cannot wait until the full game.

I did notice I couldn't change either Tamarack or Qiu's appearance though. I hope they didn't scrap that entirely, I liked having some control over what Cove looked like.

 

[Fizel]

God they made so many good decisions for step 2 compared to OL1.
I love that you can go down from crush back to friends, I love the jealousy options, but I especially love that you can choose what kind of personality you grew up to be. No more "You followed the rules as a child, you will follow them by default as a teen." You can change as much as Qiu and Tamarack do in those 4 years of timeskip. I cannot wait until the full game.

I did notice I couldn't change either Tamarack or Qiu's appearance though. I hope they didn't scrap that entirely, I liked having some control over what Cove looked like.

It's confirmed we have some control. They wouldn't go back on such a big thing. Though of course it's only hair and accessories as we already knew.
It's likely just not in yet as this is just a preview. I got a few looks while reading through some different options (though, I never got Qiu's short hair despite like 5 starts).

 

[gamwezs]

I'm not gonna go into detail but when I was 10 I moved far away from my home, which is coincidentally the same age the player is when they move to Golden Grove, now I thought that was neat and would make this game more relatable than OL 1 was for me, but I was not prepared for just how relatable this game would be, at the start of step 2 there are options that exactly describe my emotional state as a teenager, I mean the exact same emotions right down to why I felt the way I did, if choices impact the game as much as they did in OL 1, not only will this be the most relatable game I've ever played, but I will be in tears by the end of step 2. This game is amazing and I can't wait for it to be finished.

 

[Savaralyn]

The step 2 preview is so good, I love the sort of quiet melancholy that's present there, it fits the autumn vibe super well, hopefully we've got some good healing on the way too!

Also the few lines about the changes in the cul de sac have made me VERY curious as to what 'the incident' was that made it so you needed a new mailbox, lol.

 

[Ivirana0]

I don't know how I'm going to survive without Tee and Autumn TT_TT

I freaking need the full game!

 

[Fizel]

The step 2 preview is so good, I love the sort of quiet melancholy that's present there, it fits the autumn vibe super well, hopefully we've got some good healing on the way too!

Also the few lines about the changes in the cul de sac have made me VERY curious as to what 'the incident' was that made it so you needed a new mailbox, lol.

Also I love seeing the coding work at play here already. I got into OL1 after the step 1-3 dlcs were out, but before the wedding and derek/baxter dlcs. But seeing it from the start makes such a huge difference.

I did the step 2 preview many times to check options and see various looks, and then went 'oh hey what if i do 'Walks' as well?' and there was already a line from the fact that MC and Tamarack smacked heads in my playthrough.
It was like seeing that when they made the OL1 Wedding dlc, they had already coded in lines about Baxter being your ex even though his DLC was still far off at that point.

And OMG yes. I have a feeling 'the incident' is worded that way to make it clear MC and/or the other kids may have had a hand in it.

 

[Ramen-]

Our Life Now & Forever: Polyamorous Relationship Feature Announcement!

So, I’ve changed my own mind! You will be able to end up in a relationship with both Qiu and Tamarack if you want to when Our Life: Now & Forever is fully released. I originally didn't guarantee a polyamorous relationship option because I didn’t know for sure if it'd be possible to add it without pushing the game back, however this story would simply feel incomplete without that. It was very obvious when writing the Step 2 preview for the soon-to-release demo update. Qiu, Tamarack, and the MC are as important as a group as they are in individual pairings. It has to be done. Besides, tons of choice and having relationships be whatever makes you most comfortable is why people wait years for GB Patch to finish these games in the first place, haha.

Now, the way the optional poly relationship will work is that Qiu and Tamarack would be in a committed platonic relationship with each other and can be in a committed platonic or romantic relationship with the MC. Qiu and Tamarack won’t be romantically involved with each other regardless of the choices the MC makes.

This relationship dynamic will only be available in Step 4: Adulthood. It won’t be something you can get together during the bulk of the story because Qiu and Tamarack do need time to sort things with each other over the years before taking that kind of step.

Nothing is going to change with our plans so far. Our Life: Now & Forever will have a Kickstarter that's launching less than two weeks. If everything goes well, the goal will be to release the first three Steps and most of the DLCs in late 2025. The Step 4 Epilogue with the poly relationship option and any bonus DLCs that get funded by the Kickstarter would come out later on.

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I’ll be updating the game’s information to reflect this new element as a basic part of the project ✨.

Thank you to everyone who’s loved both Tamarack and Qiu already! I hope this will make the story that much happier to experience.