ProjectV [Smix8] Development Thread

[smix8]

Overview​

The game takes place in a fictional city with a modern time, down to earth setting, following a male protagonist along his journey. The main consolidated tasks from a player’s perspective inside the game are:

• Bring back together your shattered relatives and friends.
• Help your (entire?) group by solving their various problems in one way or another.
• Rise from the bottom, start broke and find your place in the city against various odds.
• Through choices and efforts create and choose a happy ending, whatever that might be.

The focus is on an interlocking story arc with the characters and their personal stories and progression. Apart from some sad or even dramatic story moments the game backs away from dark and is generally meant to be upbeat and uplifting.


Release Date: ---
Developer: Smix8
Version: 0.1.1 alpha
OS: Windows 64x ( later Linux)
Language: English
Genre:

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Download

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The game is currently transferred to a 3d game engine.
No newer, playable version available yet, still working on it!
Always looking for new bug hunters that want to seriously playtest and bugreport, just leave a message




legacy Ren'py version - playtester alpha 0.1

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Features


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a semi-realistic setting with believable characters and actions Male or Female protagonist perspective with a very predominant female sidekick 3rdPerson and True-1rstPerson gameplay perspective as well as classic adventure fixed camera rpg-like skill development and a perk tree to control personal preferences day and night cycle with free-roaming exploration in the city calendar and events fueled by decisions and progression point & click on major scenery and map hubs dating sim features with relationships between npc characters spirited npcs with a time schedule and a little life of their own variety of jobs to earn money and activities to spend it on choice shaped story line with detailed npc reactions naughty stuff with romance, pleasure and debauchery in the long run

real 3D environments for gameplay complemented by 3DCG images



3D character editor with morphs and wardrobes


left to right are Grace, Kristina and Dina fascinated by some balls


Development


Thanks to all the feedback from various channels some major and minor improvements were made.

The game is currently transfered from Ren'Py to a 3d game engine.




Early development showcase



Legacy Changelog

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[Deleted member 1268799]

I think this answers the age-old question WWJD...

Anyhow, nice to see a game featuring something other than the clean cut preppy next door

Shit, gotta get a haircut... Did my 1970's dad make this game?

 

[Alexis_1]

In our digital age, when a new game appears almost every day and I want to play all of them, I don’t think that a sandbox is a good option. It takes a lot of time. It is much easier to enjoy the visual novel, plunging into the story of the author.
Nevertheless, I think the game will find its grateful fans

 

[smix8]

That's true, sandbox is a timeconsuming format for both players and dev. I tried to fit the storyline into a pure visual novel format at first but didn't like the "feel" of it. Maybe it's just my personal joy with exploring and rewarding small character interactions along the way in games that drives me back to this format.

 

[e-disfunction]

Greeting Smix8.

I'm testing your game/VN and there is one bug before beginning—Bitdefender (and likely a few other anti-virus programs) detect your .exe as a false positive. I can't explain it well but this is likely because of Ren'py can't confirm to the a-v that your "program is who it says it is" (this happens a lot & it is no big deal usually).

There are much better explanations (and easy fixes I believe) from some of the folks here at F95zone.

Take care,
e-d

 

[smix8]

Hey

I am not aware how to influence this as I checked the files again and run my own av but ... nothing.

I noticed that some av-programs go mayhem on Ren'Py games especially when made with very recent versions of Ren'Py. I guess this is just the way their sample system and algorithm works behind the scene.

 

[e-disfunction]

City of Velvet - proto v0,1

This is what I found before running out of patience with crashes I can't re-create. I hope it helps.

Options page:
Problems
* "Dialogue Animation Speed" resets to default every game boot.
* [Customize\]"Cheat" resets to default (turns off) every game boot.
* Question: Is the "Double-click Threshold" choice necessary?
* Advice: if "Transitions" are *not* necessary for game-play, then clearly state this so players with slow computers can turn them off.

New Game page: (<--title should be corrected from "New game")
* Advice: Put *all* changeable text *and* clickable buttons/text in a colour(s) DIFFERENT from the colours used in the UI so players *easily* identify what they can choose.
Examples: "Edward, Ed, & Foster" are now the same colour as (1) the UI's unclickable "New game, Protagonist, Game Options, & Customize" or (2) the same colour as the UI's unclickable "Firstname, Nickname, & Surname;
: "Choice Hotkeys" is now a clickable colour but is not clickable;
: "Click or press Enter to confirm" is the same colour as the UI's unclickable "Firstname, Nickname, & Surname" and the information notes under other choices!
* Problem: Change "Firstname" to either "First Name" or "Given Name".

Welcome the the City of Velvet page:
*** NOTE: You will anger (outrage!) *many* players if you force Ren'py (1) to play slower than they want; (2) to play slower than they wish to read; or (3) unable to easily skip transitions/animations/useless information to get to the next scene or piece of "real story". (Also, forcing them to play through the game once before they can "Skip" anything will probably get you lynched—metaphorically, but possibly literallly, too.)
* "timespacing" needs to be changed. "time-spacing", "story pacing", or "scene spacing" are some ideas to consider.

First scene:
* Advice: Don't introduce the "Codex" until players can actually look at it. Until then it is a needless distraction.
Problem:
* "stranger" ... really??? He has been holding her torso on the motorcycle for two days and she still refers to him with air-quotes? OR we, at least, need an explanation why she deliberately refuses to use the name he told her to use.
* "Still a long way to go" needs punctuation (a period, an ellipsis, comma, whatever). Actually, almost *every* page needs punctuation of some kind .
* "Assistant Hi ... anything I can do for you sir?": the ellipsis is incorrect and needs to be a comma or period. You also need a comma after "you".
* Also, you will lose many players because of all the *needless* clicking in the game—like putting "You look a little lost" (again without punctuation) on the next page after "anything I can do for you, sir?" . (You might be trying to "pace" the story as if it was a film but it is NOT a film. Your audience inherently knows this but YOU need to learn this! "The medium is the message." — Marshall McLuhan)
* The doctor's correct name and title is "Doctor Martinez" and she would *never* introduce herself in any other way unless she wanted to be addressed as such. "Bond. James Bond." is to be addressed as "Bond"; Dr. Martinez is NOT "Martinez".
* The MC can't be a "ward" (in the present tense) if he is an adult and legally competant! And, if he wasn't either of those, he wouldn't be allowed to stay alone with the patient while she's asleep (unless the hospital *wants* to be sued for criminal negligence & etc. ...).

Than vs. Then lesson:
"than" is a comparison. "then" is chronological order or is an intention (i.e.: "... then I will go now.").
Example:
"1 < 5 > 4". When written becomes,
"One is less than five and five is greater than four." When described becomes,
'Write "1" then a less-than sign, then a five, then a greater-than sign, and then, finally, 4.'

Take care of yourselves until next time.

 

[smix8]

I am scratching my head rightnow over some of the more obvious errors and problems you mentioned. I guess I grew completly blind to those things seeing the same scenes over and over again for many weeks and messing around coding features while forgetting the very basics.

Thank you so much, really appreciated.

 

[smix8]

Thanks to all the feedback from various channels some major and minor improvements were made. Here is a progress summery what is currently worked on or is already implemented for the next update.


Upcoming Changes and Content 0.1.0 -> 0.1.1:

The next update will include two milestones in the story:

• getting the (desperately ) needed haircut for "Mr. Jesus" with all the unforeseen consequences.
• getting a new job for the player as a plumber part-timer to earn money and start some interesting home visits.

Changelog:

• Added a" Skip Prolog" option for returning players to start right at the end of the first day.
• Enabled Fast Skipping for dialogue and scenes by default (still toggle-able in the options like before).
• Fast Skipping now works throughout the entire game without any forced pauses or other hiccups.
• Changed the default size of various interface elements to help with readability or make them less intrusive.
• Added options to separately disable / control animation speed for dialogue, interface and notifications.
• Made all missing game options persistent throughout restarts except for those that only matter at a new game.
• Restored the Ren'Py default rollback system by popular demand but the default controls don't work nice with the mouse-scrolling viewports in menu screens. There are plans to add a different kind of "history screen" for missed dialogue/scenes at a later point that provides similar functionality.
• Added a new system to generate a slightly randomized pool of jobs and rewards dependent on current player progression.
• Reduced the amount of necessary dialogue interactions when the same character is talking for multiple interactions.
• Fixed an uncountable amount of typos, dialogue and translation errors but this will remain an ongoin effort.
• Fixed the "period" button on the keyboard and made use of it at the end of most sentences.

The current introduction isn't working well. There will be a stack of new renders and a major rework of the games introduction part to clarify the characters origins or state of mind at the game start. This will not happen in the next but a later update as there are some additional changes that might go along.


New Locations / Characters:

Hair / Beauty Salon

• First visit to the salon to get a haircut to fulfill one quest requirement for the plumber job.
• The location functions as a shop for (temporary) stat improvements, training and methods of "stress-relieve".
• Optional hookup and little side quest with one of the new characters will be available from the start.
• New major characters are Beth and Fay - the manager of the beauty / hair salon and her favorite employee.

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Plumber Shop

• First visit to get the job so the player can choose to spend time to earn money, items and experience in return.
• The location functions as story hub and a mission broker, think hub for daily quests in other games.
• The company develops with the players success in customer service (guess we all know where this will lead eventually).
• New major characters are Luigi and Fiona - the somehow irritating plumber shop owner and his crafty daughter among some minor characters of coworkers and a pool of constantly complaining customers.

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The lazy days will be over soon and it's time to get "dirty" so naughty things might finally happen with this next update.

 

[BeastMaster59]

Howdy,
Just played the Game and must say I like it,will there be more releases on the Game?.
Just asking,because didn't have any problems with the last release.

 

[Ragnar]

Where are the dl links?

 

[smix8]

... will there be more releases on the Game?

Happy that you enjoyed it, thank you for the nice review.

Yes, the game and I are still alive and kicking ... it's just that I am very, very busy at the moment until ... I guess the end of the next month/November.

Where are the dl links?

Sorry, I am the culprit and did indeed remove the link to the "buggy" first version when I reworked the main page for the next update. You can find the old version still on my

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if you are curious how it turned out. I had plans to release an updated version shortly with the main annoyances removed and bugs fixed but couldn't find the time to finish it before life decided I am in need of a busy schedule.

 

[Meh 1000]

Now this is a good find... is there a way that anyone here can support you?

 

[smix8]

Now this is a good find... is there a way that anyone here can support you?

Glad to read that you perceive it as "a good find"

I am curious what sparked your interest for the game but I don't know what kind of "support" you had in mind to answer your question.

When I see that people like the game or are interested in the development, that is always very motivating.
Help by fixing dialogue or improving the sceneflow is appreciated as my english is a weakpoint.
Same with pointing out bugs and errors, or providing a hint/idea how to fix them.
I don't need or even want any kind of financial support.

 

[Meh 1000]

Glad to read that you perceive it as "a good find"

I am curious what sparked your interest for the game but I don't know what kind of "support" you had in mind to answer your question.

When I see that people like the game or are interested in the development, that is always very motivating.
Help by fixing dialogue or improving the sceneflow is appreciated as my english is a weakpoint.
Same with pointing out bugs and errors, or providing a hint/idea how to fix them.
I don't need or even want any kind of financial support.

Thanks for the reply my type of support was financially. But i respect your choice, as long as you get enough motivation, you have me to the end. Well, my interest was born by your scope and future content. In all honesty, if you manage to make this how you imagine it to be... it'll be legendary.

 

[smix8]

Thanks, that's nice.

I'm usually bursting with self-motivation when I actually find the spare time to work on the game and things will change for the better soon. There is sometimes a big disconnect between how I imagine things and how the tools like DAZ actually allow me to create a presentable image with my current knowledge. I feel my current workflow with the 3DCG renders isn't very efficient for small iterations (I need a lot of them!) and the kind of game I want to create in the long run. I am currently evaluating different solutions to speed things up.

 

[smix8]

Hello

Someone asked me today if I am back working on the game. Yes! I am back and working hard on the game since the start of the month. I realized I am pretty bad at sharing my progress publicly but that is just because I am so focused getting things done. Progress has been great, mainly from a programming perspective that is oftene hard to share without being boring for a majority of people.

First things first, while the scripts for version 0.1.2 are finished the renders are not ... primarily because DAZ is giving me nightmares. That said, this is only one of many reasons why I prepared a transition with the game for the following version. Over the last months, in order to solve many of the problems that I currently have with Ren'Py and DAZ, I learned, tested and prepared new things that would allow me to be way more productive without sacrificing scope or quality for the game.


I have one small example for now and will talk about all the changes more when I have visuals ready to show them in a proper light.

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For those that played the current version ... character interaction is very important to me and you may remember the static dialog images, e.g. when you talk to Grace and click through dialog options in the menus while she stares at you with a smile. While this 3DCG render images "can" be great looking, they are static and work best for brilliant screenshots and imagecutscenes. They suck for gameplay or later changes and animations are a nightmare to produce (and you better never change them!) or otherwise look bad and clunky.

So starting with, what will be version 0.1.3, the game will have added real-time 3d for gameplay in addition to the 3DCG renders so both can be used to their full potential. This means all the locations will gradually change from 2d point & click images to real 3d while 3DCG renders stay for character art like portraits and special cutscenes. This way I can limit the use of DAZ Studio to what the program is actually good for, creating glamorous still images for special occasions. They serve the purpose of shaping the player imagination on characters when their actuall moving 3d real-time models are less detailed for performance reasons. This also seems like more work at first but in fact isn't for me. Rebuilding all the old and new locations for the 3d game engine was way faster than creating a single (new) location in DAZ because it is such a clumsy programm for this task.

Changing the game engine required a nearly complete rebuild of all the basic systems in on way or another which is largely finished. I reimplemented Ren'Py more or less from scratch over the last months. At first just as a programming learning experience while I was traveling without my render desktop but it soon became more. Ren'Py solves so many basic things for developers, you learn to appreciate them all even more when you have to code them by yourself. Ren'Py players should feel right at home after the transition as I tried to mimic all the features, control schemes and stuff even down to easy savegame edits and mod support or other often stated reasons why people love Ren'Py (me included).



One change in both visual and gameplay is that characters in close-up dialog are now fully animated and have appropriate (bodypart-) interactions for the current scene. Don't mind the visuals as there are no proper lightning or shaders in this small demo. I try to be faithful to the 3DCG characters when creating the less detailed real-time models for performance reasons. Since I am controlling nearly all the character animations from code now instead of keyframing and rendering them I can add plenty. I can also reuse and adapt them anytime without losing any noteworthy progress. Something that was just not possible before with Ren'Py and DAZ.

This also means Grace and the other characters will learn many new tricks to motivate you (or kick your sorry ass) as they are way more lively than before. There are many other new or improved things and also all-time player favorites returning to the game that I had to scrap because they were an impossible workload with 2d images but are really easy with 3d and no longer timeconsuming ... like character customization and clothing since the assets are already there and early tests worked out surprisingly well.


TL;DR:

• DAZ3D is a sluggish mess but still good enough for something
• Ren'Py is a cool engine but does no longer work well for this game
• version 0.1.3 will add real-time 3d to the game
• many fluffy new animations, gameplay and features, more details soon
• a little more wait, sorry!

Well, I am back to my crafting table but I will add more infos and visuals of the upcoming changes soon.

 

[SpikeZg]

this game looks beautiful , cool story for now, animations are planed in the future?

 

[smix8]

this game looks beautiful , cool story for now, animations are planed in the future?

Yes, I crafted a physical skeleton as a base for all 3d characters ... so plenty of animations in the end as well as "physics" ... because jiggling bodyparts are fun ... I guess

 

[smix8]

Example for the new layered clothes and ingame 3d models, this time with Andrea, Grace and Fiona.

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I am happy how they survived the messy transfer as I had so many holes to stitch in blender and there is still a lot to tweak.

the old/new bathroom, screenshot from the engine editor


some mischief might happen in the near future ...


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