VN Ren'Py Past Tense [Ch.2] [Howie]

[LuciusJac]

I like the story so far, but I don't like how he sold the house to his sister.

 

[MiltonPowers]

You must be registered to see the links

The state of chapter two, IT'S FINALLY DONEEEEEE! \(>,<)/



Never in my entire life that I have a back pain, but surely this journey of developing chapter two has finally given me a taste of back pain and neck stiffness.

Okay, so for the numbers... I'm actually surprised that I can brake my own record. We got 800+ renders... Waaayy more than our first release (yay!), 5000+ words, 4 choices, and 15+ of new music/sounds.

The files has been sent to the beta testers and proof readers now. So expect a release in 25 December or even before Christmas!

Shit, I'm bad at devlog, lol. Anyway, I'm so excited for the chapter two. I hope it's all to your liking <3

Thank you so much for all the support and thank you for trusting me in this long journey, I love you all <3 <3 <3

Here's a surprise Agnes!



Much love <3

-Howie.

 

[bolezc6]

Gotta replay it to refresh my memory what was it all about but I do remember that this game was starting good.

 

[MiltonPowers]

You must be registered to see the links

Hey guys! Merry Christmas to you all!

Here's some Agnes Christmas specials for you guys, hope you like it! )))

Much love <3

-Howie

 

[TonyMurray]

You must be registered to see the links

Hey guys!

Here's the schedule for our episode two! Today it's going to be released for highest tiers (Horny Homie and up).

I'm very excited for this update, I hope you guys feel the same! Much love y'all! <3

-Howie

 

[Quetzzz]

The game and its story seem well-crafted, but its narrative style isn't my preference. I don't like being thrown in the deep end and having to figure everything out through context or hints, at least where the MC is concerned. At the start of the game, the MC knows everything about his own situation, but players are constantly lagging in knowledge.
I'm not saying we need paragraphs of introduction at the start of the game, but I wouldn't mind a bit more exposition that lets us get to know the MC and his situation. My reasoning is simple: How can I empathize or sympathize with the MC if I don't know anything about his trauma or what he's giving up and for whom? These fake mysteries that are designed to make us curious and hook us undermine the characterization that the MC can be given.

An example of a potential easy win is when the MC mentions paperwork at the very start of the game.
When it is mentioned, we have no clue what it is about and don't have any certainty about the MC's current situation. We can later deduce or assume that the paperwork is for getting a leave of absence from the college/university.
Expanding this dialogue with just a few lines could tell us what year he's in or even how old he is. It would convey actual information instead of being a throwaway line.

These throwaway lines happen often. There is a constant barrage of hints about the MC's past or current events, but none carry enough context.

• "Hell, you know what?{w} I should've gone home like a week ago, when she called me."
  Who is "she"? Why not say "sister" or "aunt" or any actual name or title?
• "It's just- I feel really bad after yesterday-"
  A clear hint about a conflict between the MC and Agnes, but we don't even know who Agnes is to him. At this point we don't even know where the MC is. We learn that Robert and Agnes are students, but we can't know for certain that the MC is. It's not far-fetched to think the MC escaped his bad home situation and started working.
• "my dad", "her dad", "your mother"... Is the MC even related to Rosie, and if not, why is he going "home"?
  Either the narrative is setting up some weird reveal, or it's just inconsistent about family relations. And, if the MC isn't Rosie's (half-)brother, where did he find the gall to sell Rosie's home? It feels as if Rosie was supposed to be the MC's sister, but censorship changed those plans. The MC feels too familiar with Rosie and her family to be just a friend. He even calls it "a family matter" when speaking to Yola. But if he's family, why is he allergic to saying "our dad"?
• If you're bold toward Yola, you won't learn that the MC is a student.
• The events surrounding Amanda is the kind of mystery I do like. This is an actual hook that hints at the wider story or interpersonal conflict. It's not about the MC keeping secrets from the player.
• Why did Ela show up? The MC tells Rosie later that he got in around midnight. What triggered Ela's late visit?
• Being pessimistic toward Ela is more honest, I think, seeing the MC's general state of mind and frustrations... But it has negative points associated with it.
• "Check her out" vs. "Tell her". Another context issue, because "tell her" could be the MC replying to Rosie's barrage of questions. There's no sign that Rosie is shy or considers herself underdressed.
• I don't understand the MC's motivations. He wants to sell the house so Rosie can afford an education and dorm room, and he plans to get an apartment. But if the MC is a student as well, I have to assume he has the funds to at least continue his own education... If Rosie is away and living in a dorm, why wouldn't he continue his own education simultaneously?
• The MC mentions that a student loan wouldn't be worth it... Then how did he pay for his own education? It would've been worthwhile to mention if he had a job to support himself.
• "Yeah, sometimes. She visits me here quite a lot too."
  Very much up to interpretation, but to me this sounds like Rosie lost her parents a while ago already and only reached out to the MC a week ago.
• "And you should stop acting like a dumbass. {w}You know what happened between me and him..."
  No, we don't know. How can we relate to Agnes here? We can assume that she and the MC had an intimate moment, but we could be way off.
  Because I have no idea why she is acting this way, she's coming across as petty and unstable.
• "...Fuck. I knew it! This is not gonna be good..."
  And fade to black.
  This isn't a bad setup, but there are limited ways of how this can play out. It would make little sense for Agnes to stay away if she has a role to play in the story. I wouldn't be surprised if she and Robert enroll in the same college Rosie will be at, and maybe the MC as well. Though, with no clue of the MC's age besides knowing he's been gone for five years, I have no idea if this makes sense.

And, a nitpick:

"Even if you got a good job after you graduate, the interest is just gonna be piled up, and we might never pay it off."​

This is factually false. If Rosie gets a useful education and a good job, she'd be able to pay off the loan in 10 years. The MC might want to influence her into doing what he wants, but I'd rather see him convince her with logic. For instance, "You'd be dealing with debt for the coming 10-20 years when you could get a head start right now."


I hope chapter 2 will be providing some answers. I'm relatively patient with chapter 1 because it needs to set things up. But, for me, keeping things vague deliberately isn't piquing my interest. I fail to care for anyone in this story so far because I don't have the sense that I know anything about them or what drives them.

 

[MiltonPowers]

You must be registered to see the links

Agnes has been receiving some love lately, especially during the chapter two release. So here is some Agnes custom render!

Courtesy of Charles, and with the permission from Npx (Artist of Summer Heat)

Hope you guys like it!

Much love

-Hoewie

 

[Ploopy345]

looks super interesting. Will keep my eye on this. How often are the updates, is it yearly?

 

[HowieGames]

looks super interesting. Will keep my eye on this. How often are the updates, is it yearly?

This one takes a year to update due to my lacks of proper PC (No GPU). But hopefully with more supports coming, I can upgrade my pc and have a faster update.

 

[TonyMurray]

You must be registered to see the links

Hey... It's me again!

Our chapter two is FINALLY DONEEEEEE!! \(>,<)/

I know, I know... I was aiming for September release at first, then we got November, and now... Literally almost the end of the year I'm over estimating my potato-ass PC. He's done a great job rendering whole year without a GPU, so I'll gonna reward him with some deep hardware cleaning, LOL!

Alright, the numbers are pretty much the same with my latest announcement, We got :

800+ Renders

5000+ Words

50 + Tracks & SFX

0 Animation

I can't believe I did this for almost a year already... I want to give my deepest, biggest thanks for all of you who supported me, and put your trust in me throughout this long and hard (pause) journey.

Also I want to give a shoutout to Kentyrr, Mister Maya, TakoYuh, Batman_sid, Pink Spectre, Barrabass and a lot of Devs and Artist of Ass-Men Discord server that I cannot mention one by one... I bother them too much with all my questions and they are really generous to answer and teach me a lot of stuffs. (Stop glazing, Howie!)

Special shoutout to Vet and Taja who tested and proof read this 2nd chapter, and enduring my dogwater-ass english writing. The chapter two grammar are now acceptable because of these two guys.

Anyway, enough with the chit chat... here's the link! I hope you all enjoy it! <3 <3

Much love <3

-Howie

Currently we have PC, Android, and MAC versions.

You must be registered to see the links

You must be registered to see the links

 

[AzraelAnpv]

Look like potential

 

[PtsZts]

No #harem in future tags.

 

[UnoriginalUserName]

Oh shit, an update!
How long has it been?

 

[Filipis]

This one takes a year to update due to my lacks of proper PC (No GPU). But hopefully with more supports coming, I can upgrade my pc and have a faster update.

I'm sorry... what??

Why even bother without a GPU???

because a whole year for 800 renders is criminal, I'm sorry.

I understand money might be tight, but Christ, an RTX3050 can probably be found at around 200€ which would SIGNIFICANTLY increase your render speed.

 

[wuboyang]

Or use a cloud service like iRender or Boost for Daz

 

[Kybro]

non harem is inconvenient af if you want to see all routes start the game over sucks
-_-
the art looks good tho

 

[CamaroFan432]

I'm sorry... what??

Why even bother without a GPU???

because a whole year for 800 renders is criminal, I'm sorry.

I understand money might be tight, but Christ, an RTX3050 can probably be found at around 200€ which would SIGNIFICANTLY increase your render speed.

Better even, you can get a RX7600 (newer generation than the RTX 3050) or Arc B570 for 230€. The B570 has even 10GB instead of 8GB VRAM.

 

[Trojaner]

Better even, you can get a RX7600 (newer generation than the RTX 3050) or Arc B570 for 230€. The B570 has even 10GB instead of 8GB VRAM.

If the Dev is working with DAZ forget the crap cards you say ... Just because Daz = Nvidia Card or CPU only.

 

[CamaroFan432]

If the Dev is working with DAZ forget the crap cards you say ... Just because Daz = Nvidia Card or CPU only.

If you're willing to tinker, then they work, too. And they're definitely not crap cards. But if you insist so much Nvidia, then you can also go with an RTX 5050 for 240€. But I don't know why anyone should stick to these morons of Nvidia. They're screwing the customers already for years and especially now with all their AI marketing BS, just to abandon the consumer market and raise their prizes once again without any valid reason.

 

[Dessolos]

non harem is inconvenient af if you want to see all routes start the game over sucks
-_-
the art looks good tho

then look for a harem game? I like games that don't have a harem option as I prefer to have multiple saves for other routes instead of 1. As romance never works for me with the whole harem thing and the only reason I may ever play a harem is because I like the LI or Story but it does cheapen the act of any real romance with the LI for me. Besides ctrl skip makes it so doesn't take long to do other paths. Now if that wasn't a feature yeah id only stick to harems cause would take to long