VN Ren'Py Our Red String [Ch. 12 Full] [Eva Kiss]

[RC-1138 Boss]

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Chapter 9 weekly status report (6)
Hi everybody,
I'm coming back from the underground to briefly update you about the progress on Chapter 9.
Today I finished play-testing a big block I have been working on, and I'm sending it to my testers to make sure it's polished while I work on the final, remaining block of this update. Sorry for the lack of updates, but for some reason I wanted to have this done before posting anything.
The writing is being harder than I anticipated and I'm kind of frustrated about taking so long, but I don't want to half-ass it. I haven't shown anything to anybody yet, so hopefully my testers will be able to tell me if I've been doing a good job with this chapter. I've been trying to write deep and interactive conversations and sex scenes that offer more than a simple yes/no, right/wrong choice, and maybe I'm making things more complicated than they should (what a surprise), especially in how the events are timed and linked together depending on your choices.
Anyway, I'd say writing is about 75% done, maybe (hopefully) even a bit more, and artwork is 90% complete. I will keep hammering at it and hopefully be able to release the Alpha real soon.
Meanwhile, here are two new scenarios you'll be visiting this update. They were leaked a long time ago, but probably many of you hadn't seen then. Can you guess which places are they?

Now maybe the annoying armchair devs will shut their holes for a bit.

This seems to be Seymour's office and Axel's house. I would be surprised if they are anything else.

 

[John Doe Jr.]

I prefer Eva getting it done right than getting it done early, so I'm glad the update will be late rather than here now and shoddy. But I'll say it again: She needs another tracer/line-worker. And she needs them by Chapter 10 or 11. Her code helper should be taking on 100% of that work too, if they haven't already. I don't think Eva wants to be working on this game until 2025 either, so getting some able people to take on that load so she can focus on story is key. She can still have full control of the art direction by selecting the photos and describing the scenario/mood. But it's soon going to have to be delegation time and releasing control of the minute details (tough for a creator) so she doesn't burn herself out with the workload.

Offer profit-sharing: Get the talented, fresh work-for-cheaps.

There might be a budget concern but I do agree it's getting to the point where Eva will need more people to do various other tasks.

 

[meatloaf1123]

with less than 2.5k patreons it would be quite hard for her to hire others besides her current team of artists, and testers, granted I don't know how much her patreon income is, what's the rate for the people she hired, and obviously she would still need the money for her own expanses (assuming this is currently her full time job)

but otherwise agreed, this game is at that point where its nigh impossible for 1 person to be responsible for the whole writing process, the branches are just simply too much to keep track, and be accounted for

 

[RenGames69]

This was never even confirmed. It can very well be just a cliffhanger for the sake of hyping us up for ch 9.

Eva is no stranger to this. Remember the end of ch 7? Ian fks Cindy and gets caught, jump to ch 8 and we dont see the immediate aftermath of them getting caught. Sure you could say it's a different scenario, but we only have Eva's past scenes to go by.

And of course there's the leaked room that she posted a long time ago which could be Lena's childhood room...or it could be someone else's.

I hope it's not gonna happend because when she go to her parents, it actually means no Lena scenes in this update.

 

[DDDIsReal]

I hope it's not gonna happend because when she go to her parents, it actually means no Lena scenes in this update.

Obviously she come back and have some scenes in this update. It’s impossibile that after 4 months she haven’t a single scene

 

[BlandChili]

Obviously she come back and have some scenes in this update. It’s impossibile that after 4 months she haven’t a single scene

Lol, if there were to be an update that had no Lena scenes I'd cancel my patreon pledge. I don't pay to only play "the Ian game"

 

[Skylark21]

Dont fret - if Lena does go home it'll be only for fraction of the update just like Ian's trip with Holly.

 

[leg28]

No way a year. GGGB is a shorter and less complex game and it took much longer than that. With how long ORS is shaping up to be and the complexity of it I'm assuming 3-4 years

i don't know is it because of very complex game or other reasons you were mentioning here but eva's updates are coming with more and more time distance between. now this one is coming close to 4 months between. and if continued that way it could be 3-4 years until end as you said.
now is it too much for one game to stretch in such long period? have update 3-4 times in year? i believe it is. with any other dev than eva i would say milking business, but here i believe she extended story too much so that enormous complexity and many paths and subpaths are going to create her even more problems in future. especially she is not type of author that will open one path and then just forget about it.
in my opinion this game should be divided in 2 separate games where you from the beginning decide are you going to play lena or ian. would be easier both to eva and us.

 

[Rickster82]

The betting shops are running hot !!! October or November? Please place your bet!

Joking aside...

Don't forget, the more advanced the game and the updates, the more complex and time-consuming the updates will be. After all, we want to continue to have the same good quality as before.

 

[B0SS_LADY]

unlike Eva I have a full-time job and the guide(s) to take care of.

Dude, you should quit that daytime job and start devoting your whole life to making guides for porn games

 

[Deleted member 3064965]

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Chapter 9 weekly status report (6)

[…]
I've been trying to write deep and interactive conversations and sex scenes that offer more than a simple yes/no, right/wrong choice, and maybe I'm making things more complicated than they should (what a surprise), especially in how the events are timed and linked together depending on your choices.

These focus points are obviously similar to every other chapter, but I'm looking forward to see if the structure of the events is even more complex in this chapter. Characters like Axel, Holly, Jeremy and Seymour are about to or have just recently become sexual options for the protagonists, and they're different to i.e. Mike and Alison in the sense that they're involved in both Lena's and Ian's side of the story to a much bigger extent. That definitely makes things more complex and the stories even more intertwined.

Taking Axel as an example, and assuming both Lena and Ian could meet him in this chapter (and that Lena and Ian are involved with each other), I'd be curious to see which scene she puts first and how she ties them together. If Axel meets Ian before Lena, he could tell Ian that he's photographing her soon, which he can use to get an upper hand in their "rivalry" over Lena. It will also in turn be coloured by whether Lena has told Ian about it herself. Or, if the scene between Axel and Ian leads to them becoming closer friends, it will obviously affect the implications if the later photoshoot leads to a sex scene between Axel and Lena.

If Lena and Axel's photoshoot happens before Ian and Axel meets, Axel could either have recently been turned down by Lena or have slept with her before the two guys meet. In the first scenario he could reluctantly accept defeat in his attempts to get Lena back (if he respects Ian enough), or he could be even more frustrated and angry at Ian's involvement with her. In the second scenario he could either keep quiet about it or be a smug asshole. Either way: Which scene Eva puts first in the story, will hugely affect how they'll play out.

Maybe Ian and Axel won't even meet in this chapter, and nothing close to this scenario will play out. But I suspect there'll generally be more of this kind of scenes, where the structure is vital to how they impact the overall story. Eva's been doing choices like this in the other chapters as well, it's just difficult to notice when the story flows so smoothly. But in this and the later episodes they'll probably be even more important, so I think it's more than OK that she's taking some extra time making sure everything's structured and tied together in the best possible way.

 

[DDDIsReal]

Now that she updated the status, I bet the some of you will still complain ‘BuT iT’s aLmOst OcToBeR!?’

Looking forward to see how complicated she make the routes and consequences collide.

As for the location, I bet Lena falls prey to Axel at his apartment and Seymour at his work this chapter.

The problem isn't that it's almost october, 1 or 2 week more isn't a drama. The problem is that she said '' I would kick myself in the teeth so hard if I can't get this chapter out before the end of September'' why you have to do this sort of promises? This very common and childish for the creators. Nobody ask you a deadline but if you say that, you have to do that.

 

[dontcarewhateverno]

There might be a budget concern but I do agree it's getting to the point where Eva will need more people to do various other tasks.

I'm sure there is a budget concern, which is why I'm suggesting profit sharing there. Fresh talent will often work for peanuts on their own in their spare time when getting into an exciting industry new to them, like games. But that's exploitative and promotes burn-out when it's someone else's project. When profit-sharing is offered on top of minimal pay, it's a personal investment above "work for experience" and contributors feel more like a real part of the project, with a solid financial payoff if the project is successful (great motivation to do it well). Biggest hurdle, of course, is finding the right people. But that's always a hurdle. I think Eva's got enough hype and solid past work to attract the right people to her project though.

 

[Rickster82]

The problem isn't that it's almost october, 1 or 2 week more isn't a drama. The problem is that she said '' I would kick myself in the teeth so hard if I can't get this chapter out before the end of September'' why you have to do this sort of promises? This very common and childish for the creators. Nobody ask you a deadline but if you say that, you have to do that.

Maybe he / she no longer has teeth, which is why this statement was easy.
What I would wish from developers (in general) is that they are simply honest and say they are privately and professionally busy and have no time to develop the game. I would understand that because ultimately developing these "games" is just a hobby.
But it will probably never happen because they know that the number of paying Patreons will drop rapidly.
Ultimately, we have to take it as it comes. Everything is a can, not a must!

 

[dontcarewhateverno]

The problem isn't that it's almost october, 1 or 2 week more isn't a drama. The problem is that she said '' I would kick myself in the teeth so hard if I can't get this chapter out before the end of September'' why you have to do this sort of promises? This very common and childish for the creators. Nobody ask you a deadline but if you say that, you have to do that.

Yeah. Why you say this Evakiss when now is 9 months from my blonde queen to be fucked harder now alreadys? Very imature of you Evakiss to keeping me from my girlfriend this long. We do not care for qualitys when you promises and now my dating life is suck until you releases. Whereis my Cindys!?!

 

[DDDIsReal]

Yeah. Why you say this Evakiss when now is 9 months from my blonde queen to be fucked harder now alredys? Very imature of you Evakiss to keeping me from my girlfriend this long. We do not care for qualitys when you promises and now my dating life is suck until you releases. Whereis my Cindys!?!

 

[dontcarewhateverno]

View attachment 1425983

I'm just empathizing. (Don't take it too personally. I'm really just kidding around).

 

[Ragnar]

The problem isn't that it's almost october, 1 or 2 week more isn't a drama. The problem is that she said '' I would kick myself in the teeth so hard if I can't get this chapter out before the end of September'' why you have to do this sort of promises? This very common and childish for the creators. Nobody ask you a deadline but if you say that, you have to do that.

That's not a problem here because so far she hasn't been the usual milker moving deadlines every month.
She was trying to deliver the update in September because she knows she's late with this update.
Nothing wrong with that as long as it doesn't become a habit.

 

[aqq88]

It doesn't matter it we have to wait a week or two since 4 months passed im sure it will be worth it

 

[DDDIsReal]

That's not a problem here because so far she hasn't been the usual milker moving deadlines every month.
She was trying to deliver the update in September because she knows she's late with this update.
Nothing wrong with that as long as it doesn't become a habit.

I never said she's a milker, she's a great creator just i don't understand why u have to say things like this and put yourself on pressure. Nobody ask her to deliver before september end, if you want to deliver it but you aren't sure, then try without saying a word. I'ts just unnecessary.