VN Ren'Py Our Red String [Ch.13.3.4] [Eva Kiss]

[dontcarewhateverno]

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Hello everybody,
I'm currently play-testing and reviewing chapters 8 and 9, the last bit left before tackling the final technical reworks and implementations. My goal is to be done with everything major at the end of the week, and release the Alpha as soon as we've made sure everything works as intended.
The current 9 chapters amount to 658k words written (to put into perspective, "A Storm of Swords", the longest book in G.R.R Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire", is estimated to be between 404k and 424k words long), so going over everything would take a crazy amount of time... That's why I didn't. I had in mind what scenes or threads needed to be reworked, and I'm also finding many things that could've been done better as I playtest the chapters. As I said, due to the developing cycle almost everything I put out is a first draft, and I find a lot of clumsy dialog or poorly implemented ideas or mechanics. But this revision has taken way too long and it's time to call it done.
Right now I'm overhauling the stat system: before, every 3 XP you'd earn a new level, now the progressions scales the higher your skill level is, so you'll be needing more XP to gain a new one. I'm also redefining how some menus are presented, to make the choice mechanics feel more integrated, and how many XP are awarded, and when.
I've also added a few new tracks to the game's soundtrack. Some of them have been composed especially for the game, while I licensed others that I've been finding and really enjoying. There are quite a few tracks that I wasn't able to get (some labels asked for up to $10.000 for just one track, others outright refused to license them). Negotiating these kind of things suck, but I believe a good soundtrack really adds to the experience. It's one of those things that was very crude and limited in GGGB, but now I'm happy to invest money so you will want to play the game without wanting to mute it. However, I haven't reached the point where I can spend $500 on a single track (much less $10.000)
Anyway, I'll keep working to finish all the remaining tasks and give you the new, polished version of ORS early this April. Hopefully I can do it with the invaluable help of Lara, BloodyMares and TheDarkFable, the team who's been helping me keeping ORS from falling apart.
The finish line is in sight! Talk to you soon!

I've got a funny feeling here that Stan 2.0 is gonna be fat Ian/Dave with less of a head-start in the date-able department. Likely with some extra (non-creepy) awkward thrown in. Good news on the new music, though. I had it up to here with the "Kickin it at Ian's Place" watered-down funk track & the elevator music "rock" track since just about the first time hearing them. But it's hard to find cheap/free license-free music that's any good.

First draft alpha of the revamp will likely be a stats clusterfuck, but looking forward to playing it. That'll probably be the focus that needs the most playthroughs & fixes (plus the hardest bugs to catch) to get to final 0.9 revamp release. Though I'm sure some of the retconned Stan content will throw up a lot of non-hallucinogen-induced Ren'py errors too.

Thanks for posting!

 

[Mark17]

I've also added a few new tracks to the game's soundtrack. Some of them have been composed especially for the game, while I licensed others that I've been finding and really enjoying. There are quite a few tracks that I wasn't able to get (some labels asked for up to $10.000 for just one track, others outright refused to license them). Negotiating these kind of things suck, but I believe a good soundtrack really adds to the experience. It's one of those things that was very crude and limited in GGGB, but now I'm happy to invest money so you will want to play the game without wanting to mute it. However, I haven't reached the point where I can spend $500 on a single track (much less $10.000)

Why bother himself with overpriced OST? I mean just download Kevin Macleod for free-songs.

 

[WatsonJohn]

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...I've also added a few new tracks to the game's soundtrack...
The finish line is in sight! Talk to you soon!

Are you saying we will hear more music other than the "Shaat up and sit down"?

 

[Trainer7]

Does this stat overhaul mean our saves will be broken?

 

[dontcarewhateverno]

Does this stat overhaul mean our saves will be broken?

Complete Stan retcon & likely other path changes mean our saves will be broken regardless. But yeah, stat override would likely do the same, even if nothing else changed. You may be able to load a save or two. But I wouldn't trust wasting your time with them, since old saves are sure to cause errors down the line, even if not obvious on first load.

 

[B1gCh33sy]

Stan will keep his otaku room?

If Eva Kiss takes away his Asuka poster I will riot.

 

[cheesetriangles]

If Eva Kiss takes away his Asuka poster I will riot.

Sorry it's a Rei poster now.

 

[mrlucymaru2112]

are there any cuckold scenes in this?

 

[Ashley young]

Do people really care that much about sounds / music in an h-game? It is usually some ambient tone, which does not match with the story at all I almost never play any game with sound (except for LiL, because it is more or less impossible to beat the game without audio). Spending 500 - 1k on tracks seems counterproductive tbh, especially when there are millions oftracks online requiring no copyrights.

 

[Ragnar]

The right music can be a plus in some games. Also throwing a few dollars to the creators seems fair to me if you are a pro yourself. Now 10k for one track? What the hell are you smoking?
Sex sounds on the other hand tend to be atrociuos in games.

 

[dundun]

I don't know if i like this change. Seems like will make more difficult and take more time to level up with the progression of the story. I hope at least will get more stats points available to compensate it.

We are at most halfway through the story and you can already max out some stats. So it makes sense to make progression slower. She will of course have to lower requirements too so they stay reachable. That is where the actual work is, lowering stats gain is done in 5 minutes.

 

[SerHawkes]

Meanwhile best girl Ivy gets neglected over a Otaku-Wannabe... -smh-

 

[CoalPhelps]

Do people really care that much about sounds / music in an h-game? It is usually some ambient tone, which does not match with the story at all I almost never play any game with sound (except for LiL, because it is more or less impossible to beat the game without audio). Spending 500 - 1k on tracks seems counterproductive tbh, especially when there are millions oftracks online requiring no copyrights.

Half of everything in Being a DIK is done by the music, especially related to the players' LI.

 

[SteveyP]

Half of everything in Being a DIK is done by the music, especially related to the players' LI.

Exactly, other examples of this are "Leap of Faith" by Drifty and "No More Money" by RedCandy

 

[demptd]

just play Abba when Lena fuck everything moves around ..we always watch porn for background music

 

[CoalPhelps]

Exactly, other examples of this are "Leap of Faith" by Drifty and "No More Money" by RedCandy

Oh, yeah. The Cece scene in Episode 7 always gives me at least a lump in my throat, and the greatest credit for that goes to the music.

 

[Deleted member 3064965]

Do people really care that much about sounds / music in an h-game? It is usually some ambient tone, which does not match with the story at all I almost never play any game with sound (except for LiL, because it is more or less impossible to beat the game without audio). Spending 500 - 1k on tracks seems counterproductive tbh, especially when there are millions oftracks online requiring no copyrights.

I almost always mute it when I play. It's not that the sound design is done poorly, it's just that it would take an insane level of job to customize it for the game instead of throwing in some cheap or free tracks and a small list of various background sounds. I tried playing with sound on in chapter 9 for the first time in a long time, but when I hear the sound of the ice in Seymour's whiskey, I just hear "ice_in_glass_1.wav"; or when Lena's moaning I just hear "woman_softly_moaning_3.wav".

For it to really reach a level where it adds something to the game, Eva would have to make an absolute fortune. Ideally she could hire someone for the general sound design in addition to different voice actors to make the sex sounds for each character, but that's obviously completely unrealistic.

 

[Tallyhoe]

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so going over everything would take a crazy amount of time... That's why I didn't.

I find a lot of clumsy dialog or poorly implemented ideas or mechanics. But this revision has taken way too long and it's time to call it done.

I don’t know how I feel about this. Given how long she’s been revamping stuffs, might as well go for it in one go and be done with it so she can move forward without looking back. It has taken this long anyway, doing it half measured might come back and bite her later.

With this approach, she‘s inevitably cornering herself into another corner. I suspect she’ll find the unresolved idea frustrating and then they will block her again. And yeah, another revamp.

but I understand why she’s pushing for release asap from financial and pressure point of view.

 

[RichietheReapa]

Do people really care that much about sounds / music in an h-game? It is usually some ambient tone, which does not match with the story at all I almost never play any game with sound (except for LiL, because it is more or less impossible to beat the game without audio). Spending 500 - 1k on tracks seems counterproductive tbh, especially when there are millions oftracks online requiring no copyrights.

It can be a + for me, but it has to be done right, IE; tastefully. I end up cutting it off for most games, usually game's with an exploration aspect, because it can get repetitive as all hell. No one wants to hear royalty free music blasted on a loop. I'm okay with some ambient sounds(EG; If youre driving hearing the car or traffic, hearing the birds chirp if you're outside, some splash sounds if you're in a pool, etc, etc...) and some moans can be welcomed as long as it's not overdone.

 

[Deleted member 3064965]

I don’t know how I feel about this. Given how long she’s been revamping stuffs, might as well go for it in one go and be done with it so she can move forward without looking back. It has taken this long anyway, doing it half measured might come back and bite her later.

With this approach, she‘s inevitably cornering herself into another corner. I suspect she’ll find the unresolved idea frustrating and then they will block her again. And yeah, another revamp.

but I understand why she’s pushing for release asap from financial and pressure point of view.

I see that more as a healthy pragmatic stance on how much perfection she should reach for. It sounds like she had a pretty clear idea at the beginning about which parts really needed to be rewritten, and also managed to identify a lot of additional stuff as she's gone through the story. I obviously don't know if she's gone through 5 percent of the script or 80, but I don't think it would be worth it for anyone if she took several more months to meticulously go through everything, just to implement the smaller and not as important changes.

I would've been more worried about the another revamp scenario if Eva enjoyed going back to redo things… but she's made it clear in almost every development update that she really, really dislikes it.