How should the Promises S1 Backstory prologue and intro scenes be continued?

  • Temp Hold on Backstory

  • Separate the Backstory

  • Leave it Alone


Results are only viewable after voting.

Crosaith.

Active Member
Nov 18, 2017
889
2,060
Yeah... probably sounds like a broken record by now, but I agree with the others. MCs face ain't it. Was lowkey tempted to turn off the game when I saw it. Not a fan of dream/flashback stuff either. Got spammed with that kinda shit in Naruto fillers when I was a kid. Got no patience for it anymore lol.

Aside than the above; the game's great. Meaningful choices, interesting story and attractive women = awesome af.
 

Multi27

Member
Jan 16, 2022
172
328
just so i get this correctly, MC is a career criminal but working on getting out of that life?
 

Crowangel

Well-Known Member
Dec 12, 2021
1,099
1,659
I think im in the same boat as a lot of the followers here.. the MC absolutly is horrible in design.. the face and the hair just look so awful.. BUT the characters are good, story seems legit enjoyable but again like most here i was and still am tempted to not continue as cant stand the mc design.. its a crappy reason not to continue but like video games you tend to play a game longer and be more absorbed by the story when at least there is a mc/character you play as that is likeable.. sadly in this case he (looks wise) is not and thats a big staying power factor in AVNs..
 

Shiftlock

Member
Aug 21, 2019
144
122
Replay gallery for 0.21e, to use unpack into the game folder. The button to open it is at the top of the menu.
this mod dosent work i am the only one?
I'm sorry, but an uncaught exception occurred.

While running game code:
File "game/gallery/config_.rpy", line 40, in <module>
ImportError: No module named gallery

-- Full Traceback ------------------------------------------------------------

Full traceback:
File "renpy/bootstrap.py", line 331, in bootstrap
renpy.main.main()
File "renpy/main.py", line 560, in main
renpy.game.context().run(node)
File "game/config_.rpyc", line 37, in script
XT *g рr Gf ? [ %AJ b佝" 8
File "game/config_.rpyc", line 37, in script
XT *g рr Gf ? [ %AJ b佝" 8
File "renpy/ast.py", line 928, in execute
renpy.python.py_exec_bytecode(self.code.bytecode, self.hide, store=self.store)
File "renpy/python.py", line 2245, in py_exec_bytecode
exec(bytecode, globals, locals)
File "game/gallery/config_.rpy", line 40, in <module>
ImportError: No module named gallery

Windows-10-10.0.22000
Ren'Py 7.4.11.2266
Promises 0.21e
Sun Jun 26 18:59:13 2022
 

Plaguerave

Member
Sep 15, 2020
315
394
I just got done with my play through and I enjoyed this.

There's a slight mystery with mc father and other character but over all I enjoyed this and the models are pretty nice and the music wasn't too bad.

Looking forward to more.

Edit: I should have said with the mystery that it intrigued me more to the story and its a entertaining part because it leaves you wanting to know more and put the pieces of the puzzle together!

Edit the edit: I forgot to add when do we get more of Trinity? lol a cute girl like that that can eat a whole ass ham still look cute as hell needs some love!!!
 
Last edited:
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Plaguerave

Member
Sep 15, 2020
315
394
I think im in the same boat as a lot of the followers here.. the MC absolutly is horrible in design.. the face and the hair just look so awful.. BUT the characters are good, story seems legit enjoyable but again like most here i was and still am tempted to not continue as cant stand the mc design.. its a crappy reason not to continue but like video games you tend to play a game longer and be more absorbed by the story when at least there is a mc/character you play as that is likeable.. sadly in this case he (looks wise) is not and thats a big staying power factor in AVNs..
I personally don't find the MC a bad design its different unlike some other vns that have the same generic mc over and over and don't do anything to really make the mc unique like what I see here.
 
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Reactions: crossbuns

MetalChicken

Newbie
May 23, 2020
98
2,065
this mod dosent work i am the only one?
I'm sorry, but an uncaught exception occurred.

While running game code:
File "game/gallery/config_.rpy", line 40, in <module>
ImportError: No module named gallery

-- Full Traceback ------------------------------------------------------------

Full traceback:
File "renpy/bootstrap.py", line 331, in bootstrap
renpy.main.main()
File "renpy/main.py", line 560, in main
renpy.game.context().run(node)
File "game/config_.rpyc", line 37, in script
XT *g рr Gf ? [ %AJ b佝" 8
File "game/config_.rpyc", line 37, in script
XT *g рr Gf ? [ %AJ b佝" 8
File "renpy/ast.py", line 928, in execute
renpy.python.py_exec_bytecode(self.code.bytecode, self.hide, store=self.store)
File "renpy/python.py", line 2245, in py_exec_bytecode
exec(bytecode, globals, locals)
File "game/gallery/config_.rpy", line 40, in <module>
ImportError: No module named gallery

Windows-10-10.0.22000
Ren'Py 7.4.11.2266
Promises 0.21e
Sun Jun 26 18:59:13 2022
Not really sure how the error you've sent could occur, and using the mod works fine for me, are all the files from the zip in the folder?
 

zerdeca

Member
Jun 15, 2017
312
631
The way the MC looks really takes me out of the game. Does he eventually get a new hairstyle and shave or is it like this for the entire game?
 
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Reactions: Multi27

Lord Soth

Well-Known Member
Mar 8, 2020
1,252
3,288
Took a little look at this and was pleasantly surprised at the story/characters and how I got sucked in to it. Renders have a charm about them too.
Look forward to more of this.
 
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Reactions: Tiimx

Tiimx

Newbie
Game Developer
Sep 28, 2020
38
251
Hello everyone! Just a heads up for players using the new in-game harem walkthrough mod, the mod files completely overwrite the original game scripts so original saves will not work with the modded script files. The walkthrough can be toggled via the settings menu and will be updated in parallel with new episode updates along with the pdf version. On a side note, Episode 6 is still in full production, and we continue to thank everyone for their feedback and support!
 

V4mpire

Member
Game Developer
Dec 20, 2020
143
268
Geralt_R, very detailed feedback, I actually had spoke to Tiimx about the flashbacks and the MC very early on, but it's his creation, his vision, I only help at the end making sure there are no script/code errors, after his first release was crazy broken, after which I joined the team while working on my own projects.

The flashbacks wrack my brain, and on a personal note, I've yet to play through all of the current content, I have actually only got through I think 2 chapters, since after the time going through the code, I usually end up reading the dialogue aswell, so don't always feel up to actually playing it aswell.

The part of saying girls are too easy, there has been varying feedback, some were saying it was slow burn which some liked, some didn't, then tried some quicker sex stuff, and again mixed feedback, unsure how the next release will go if there is a change in pace again.

I do like how you didn't straight out say it's horrible because of things you didn't like and gave your opinion on it, kinks with Molly isn't your thing and you stated that, some would just overall rate in a way saying it's entirely bad for this, but you just detailed your reasons as an opinion etc, and even said at the end for people to try and decide for themselves.

My personal projects are taking a change, the main one is in the works to make a switch from being HS based, so again it's going to be one where there's the loss of fans of HS based games, for DAZ based fans etc. I do still have a HS based game but it's HS2 based and it's a continuation of another development, which is the animated sig I used.
 

Geralt_R

Member
Jun 4, 2022
284
2,098
I always aim to be fair and my personal tastes are just that, personal tastes. I mostly like wholesome vanilla content, many others don't however and find that utterly boring.

If I wrote the story I would change a few things... I would not begin with a flashback, this can be a bit confusing especially since it's a pretty long sequence. First few scenes should be with the MC. Then cut to a flashback if necessary. But maybe make it more obvious what it's about. I have no idea really what it's all about in the flashbacks. In many other games that use this mechanic the MC usually reads a journal or so, or someone tells him a story. So that you have some context at least. Or the character in the flashback also appears in the present timeline or you know at least what their relation to the MC is.

Love interests should provide a good mix of faster and slower characters in a harem game. But - again, my opinion only - love interests that immediately throw themselves at the MC feel somewhat cheap, even fast characters should have at least some progression. And providing supernatural cheat sheets (while optional) ruin any progression, since these things are usually found out through interactions with the love interest. Removing this element makes the love interests boring.
I recently played another HS game, Murmur, where the MC also needs to find out several things about the potential harem members, including their kinks, but here you learn all that stuff through interactions with them and dialogues or maybe intimate scenes, which I feel is the better way to approach this. Knowing everything about someone right out of the gate somewhat ruins the fun of getting to know a love interest. I would remove Frank/Fred entirely and get rid of that element altogether, all the things he says should be revealed by interacting with the characters instead. The MC could find pills in the teacher's bathroom for example... and he investigates what those pills are... The MC could realize that Molly enjoys pain by accidentally hurting her and seeing how it arouses her... things like that. And then give the player a choice to either cut ties immediately, give in to your own sadist tendencies (no normal person would hurt someone even if they want it, do people really want a sadist as an MC?) or give players a way to heal Molly from her mental issues. But of course that makes the story longer. And paths require even more coding.

And the other twin immediately joining her sister felt very weird. I would have made Cindy (the agent) more of a slow burn, since Mindy is already super fast. There is no need I think to have them both be very easy characters. It would add some nice tension maybe.

But as you say, this game is the vision of the creator, he needs to do what he feels is right. He needs to be happy with the project.

I wish you all the luck with the game! There's certainly potential here. And the redhead agent is one of the best looking HS females I have seen in HS games. The animated ep 5 renders are also really fantastic, that's top level. But for the love of everything... please redesign the MC ;) Have him undergo plastic surgery for some super secret super spy mission or so :D So there's no need to remaster previous content.
 
  • Red Heart
Reactions: Tiimx

Tiimx

Newbie
Game Developer
Sep 28, 2020
38
251
I always aim to be fair and my personal tastes are just that, personal tastes. I mostly like wholesome vanilla content, many others don't however and find that utterly boring.

If I wrote the story I would change a few things... I would not begin with a flashback, this can be a bit confusing especially since it's a pretty long sequence. First few scenes should be with the MC. Then cut to a flashback if necessary. But maybe make it more obvious what it's about. I have no idea really what it's all about in the flashbacks. In many other games that use this mechanic the MC usually reads a journal or so, or someone tells him a story. So that you have some context at least. Or the character in the flashback also appears in the present timeline or you know at least what their relation to the MC is.

Love interests should provide a good mix of faster and slower characters in a harem game. But - again, my opinion only - love interests that immediately throw themselves at the MC feel somewhat cheap, even fast characters should have at least some progression. And providing supernatural cheat sheets (while optional) ruin any progression, since these things are usually found out through interactions with the love interest. Removing this element makes the love interests boring.
I recently played another HS game, Murmur, where the MC also needs to find out several things about the potential harem members, including their kinks, but here you learn all that stuff through interactions with them and dialogues or maybe intimate scenes, which I feel is the better way to approach this. Knowing everything about someone right out of the gate somewhat ruins the fun of getting to know a love interest. I would remove Frank/Fred entirely and get rid of that element altogether, all the things he says should be revealed by interacting with the characters instead. The MC could find pills in the teacher's bathroom for example... and he investigates what those pills are... The MC could realize that Molly enjoys pain by accidentally hurting her and seeing how it arouses her... things like that. And then give the player a choice to either cut ties immediately, give in to your own sadist tendencies (no normal person would hurt someone even if they want it, do people really want a sadist as an MC?) or give players a way to heal Molly from her mental issues. But of course that makes the story longer. And paths require even more coding.

And the other twin immediately joining her sister felt very weird. I would have made Cindy (the agent) more of a slow burn, since Mindy is already super fast. There is no need I think to have them both be very easy characters. It would add some nice tension maybe.

But as you say, this game is the vision of the creator, he needs to do what he feels is right. He needs to be happy with the project.

I wish you all the luck with the game! There's certainly potential here. And the redhead agent is one of the best-looking HS females I have seen in HS games. The animated ep 5 renders are also really fantastic, that's top level. But for the love of everything... please redesign the MC ;) Have him undergo plastic surgery for some super-secret super spy mission or so :D So there's no need to remaster previous content.
Hello and thanks for the feedback! I greatly appreciate your input and the thorough review on our game. While a lot of aspects of the game are just purely based on original taste and learning the program (this being the studio's first AVN using this software) it's always nice to hear feedback from people who actually take the time to play the game. And while EVERYTHING can't be changed to fit the liking of everyone, I aim to have the studio focused on player feedback to improve reader experience.

As for the MC... :D I have no excuse. I feel it's a little late in the season for any major remodeling, his resemblance in looks to Jack (dad) are intentional for reasons relating to the story later down the line... so no plastic surgery :D

Flashbacks: A lot of work has gone into the storyline for the game (which originally wasn't aimed at being an AVN btw) but my biggest slip up I believe was trying to shove a long storyline which spanned through multiple character generations into one game or "season". And while late in the season I had a thought of that while having the flashback scenes is useful in terms of getting both the backstory and main story out for the MC's family it'd be somewhat easier and less confusing to have the flashbacks aka the original backstory for the overall story of Promises as a separate game or an additional season (debating over to have it as season 2 or 3). But this is only a thought or an idea. As there are a lot of pros and consequences to balance with this idea, I've decided to get player input on what to do with the flashbacks starting with episode 7. What is voted upon isn't guaranteed to happen but will more or less give me a broader idea of what people want.

As this can't be done with everything covered in your review, I believe it's a start. Ther flashbacks themselves being moved around doesn't hurt the actual story but in my opinion would stall the connection players eventually get to see as both timelines begin to link through various events. I've started a public poll on our Patreon page and the studio's discord on how the flashbacks should be handled in the future. And will start one up on this site shortly.

Character development and interactions: So a couple of things. As V4mpire mentioned, many readers complained that development was either too slow or too fast. And as a lot of characters in the Season 1 main storyline were not originally designed for adult content in the original story, it has admittedly become hard for me to find a good settling point of a good pacing to the MC. I look to tidy things up in that department as the season continues via available choices and events, but I feel a lot of the current "speed" of the woman are more or less where they are going to stay for now in past episodes.

As for Frank/Fred... he may be the subject of the next poll :D His character probably won't disappear as he does have some storyline importance later in the season and is one of the keys needed for the potential harem. However, said Frank Choices might be a little more less direct with girl info and instead give hints. This is of course just a thought that has crossed my mind a few times and may or may not be up to the polls to figure out.

Once again, I greatly appreciate your feedback and really hope you end up sticking with the story! :)
 

AmethystCrow

New Member
Aug 24, 2020
14
3
Those mod files usually go into the "game" subfolder. If the mod archive already has a "game" folder just merge it with the "game" folder of the actual game.
put in game folder starter the game just as it was going on to the main menu this poped up

```
I'm sorry, but an uncaught exception occurred.

While loading <'Image' u'/images/v021_title.png'>:
File "renpy/common/00start.rpy", line 273, in script
python:
File "renpy/common/00start.rpy", line 277, in <module>
renpy.call_in_new_context("_main_menu")
IOError: Couldn't find file 'images/v021_title.png'.

-- Full Traceback ------------------------------------------------------------

Full traceback:
File "renpy/common/00start.rpy", line 273, in script
python:
File "renpy/ast.py", line 928, in execute
renpy.python.py_exec_bytecode(self.code.bytecode, self.hide, store=self.store)
File "renpy/python.py", line 2245, in py_exec_bytecode
exec(bytecode, globals, locals)
File "renpy/common/00start.rpy", line 277, in <module>
renpy.call_in_new_context("_main_menu")
File "renpy/game.py", line 344, in call_in_new_context
return renpy.execution.run_context(False)
File "renpy/execution.py", line 922, in run_context
context.run()
File "renpy/common/_layout/screen_main_menu.rpym", line 28, in script
python hide:
File "renpy/common/_layout/screen_main_menu.rpym", line 28, in script
python hide:
File "renpy/ast.py", line 928, in execute
renpy.python.py_exec_bytecode(self.code.bytecode, self.hide, store=self.store)
File "renpy/python.py", line 2245, in py_exec_bytecode
exec(bytecode, globals, locals)
File "renpy/common/_layout/screen_main_menu.rpym", line 28, in <module>
python hide:
File "renpy/common/_layout/screen_main_menu.rpym", line 35, in _execute_python_hide
ui.interact()
File "renpy/ui.py", line 298, in interact
rv = renpy.game.interface.interact(roll_forward=roll_forward, **kwargs)
File "renpy/display/core.py", line 3325, in interact
repeat, rv = self.interact_core(preloads=preloads, trans_pause=trans_pause, pause=pause, pause_start=pause_start, **kwargs)
File "renpy/display/core.py", line 3839, in interact_core
self.draw_screen(root_widget, fullscreen_video, (not fullscreen_video) or video_frame_drawn)
File "renpy/display/core.py", line 2565, in draw_screen
renpy.config.screen_height,
File "render.pyx", line 492, in renpy.display.render.render_screen
File "render.pyx", line 263, in renpy.display.render.render
File "renpy/display/layout.py", line 826, in render
surf = render(child, width, height, cst, cat)
File "render.pyx", line 170, in renpy.display.render.render
File "render.pyx", line 263, in renpy.display.render.render
File "renpy/display/layout.py", line 826, in render
surf = render(child, width, height, cst, cat)
File "render.pyx", line 170, in renpy.display.render.render
File "render.pyx", line 263, in renpy.display.render.render
File "renpy/display/layout.py", line 826, in render
surf = render(child, width, height, cst, cat)
File "render.pyx", line 170, in renpy.display.render.render
File "render.pyx", line 263, in renpy.display.render.render
File "renpy/display/screen.py", line 688, in render
child = renpy.display.render.render(self.child, w, h, st, at)
File "render.pyx", line 170, in renpy.display.render.render
File "render.pyx", line 263, in renpy.display.render.render
File "renpy/display/layout.py", line 826, in render
surf = render(child, width, height, cst, cat)
File "render.pyx", line 170, in renpy.display.render.render
File "render.pyx", line 263, in renpy.display.render.render
File "renpy/display/transform.py", line 733, in render
return transform_render(self, width, height, st, at)
File "accelerator.pyx", line 187, in renpy.display.accelerator.transform_render
File "render.pyx", line 263, in renpy.display.render.render
File "renpy/display/im.py", line 625, in render
return cache.get(self, render=True)
File "renpy/display/im.py", line 287, in get
surf = image.load()
File "renpy/display/im.py", line 706, in load
raise e
IOError: Couldn't find file 'images/v021_title.png'.

Windows-10-10.0.22000
Ren'Py 7.4.11.2266
Promises 0.17c
Thu Aug 11 17:05:24 2022
```
 
Last edited:
4.50 star(s) 14 Votes