Renfield [Renfield Studios / Granfalloon Games] development thread

[KleptoLizard]

The core animation scene gets ever closer to completion.
Meanwhile I'm fleshing out various modes of play.
Specifically focusing on non-combat roleplaying.
Certain rpgs make it possible to progress just through smooth talk and cunning.

While strictly speaking non-violent adventure games aren't that few in number,
it's only in a few instances like Age of Decadence where the violent and non-violent
approaches run parallel to one another with both paths being fully fleshed out.
Imagine if Myst or Riven or any old Sierra click-em-up* were actually combat-heavy games
but by employing stealth, persuasion and manipulation of puzzle/trap elements
you beat them much in the same manner as normal.
Conversely, imagine if you could talk your way through every Max Payne game,
hoodwinking all the mobsters and not blowing your cover even to the very end.

Another specter that has always hung over me when considering game design is the civil war diplomacy scene in Skyrim.
Imagine if the war proceeded dynamically even if you weren't present and you affected the outcome via espionage and verbal ploys.
Such a thing is already possible in Romance of the Three Kingdoms games where you can make a far greater difference
to the war's outcome on the debate stage, and hiring the most talented people, compared to the battlefield.

There's absolutely no obligation to go dungeon crawling if you don't feel like it.
There are over 100 professions from peddler to farmer, from beggar to prostitute.
RF will also feature a complex haggling system that still allows batch buying and selling.
Now you can reenact the "ten-shekels-you-must-be-mad" scene to your heart's content.

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Also, I had someone contact me with some specific technical questions about the game.
I'm grateful for the engagement but please ask publicly so everyone can see the answers.
One of their key concerns was possible performance issues due to the high number of blendshapes per model.
We actually tested a wargame prototype in Unity using the exact models used in RF
and were able to have dozens of them on screen simultaneously with no issue.

With 50% LOD models and lower res textures we were able to push that into 100s.
Now of course with all the other objects being rendered in an exploration-focused game,
along with overhead from animations, these numbers are certain to come down at runtime.
But in game development as in life there are no solutions, only trade-offs.
Users can configure the fidelity of the models, LOD distances and total on-screen population per their systems.

By all means let me know if there are other issues, design or practical, players have concerns about.

*I invented the term "click-em-up" to describe the genre formerly known as "point-and-click" and you have to pay me every time you use it.
This includes if you read the post aloud.

3/22 - Working on German localization
3/24 - Working on vehicles and large mountable creatures
3/26 - Sorting the new Sonniss files for 2024
3/28 - Our coder has gotten really sick and so I'm taking over for him until he recovers
3/30 - Running time-lapsed simulations of the dynamic economy code

 

[KleptoLizard]

Posting this on the 2nd of April so nobody suspects April Fool's shenanigans.
Yet another irritating delay has come up.
The coder I brought on has gotten really sick so I'll have to take over development again.
It's not all bad news since he's made the UI and asset streaming far more user-friendly and performant than I could have.
I'll finish according to the convention he set and we'll FINALLY have that demo that has seemed only two weeks away for years.


4/4 - My neighbor's house caught fire and I quickly ran out to help extinguish it with an ordinary garden hose.
I held it off for several minutes and wetted the ground and the eaves of my own house.
When the first responders arrived with their proper equipment they told me to leave because I might breathe in dangerous fumes.
Now I know how the Astra Militarum feels when the Astartes roll up.

Anyway my house is untouched along with all the equipment and data.
Gambino sent me all the necessary files and I got a ton of data entry done today.

4/6 - Converting old random result tables into the new format
4/8 - Gambino has largely recovered. Turns out it was Dengue fever.

 

[KleptoLizard]

Gambino has recovered from his illness but is still swamped by a backlog from his day job.
So he's supplied me with a list of tasks related to the demo client that won't get in the way of his rebuilding of the animation rig system.
Anyone who's worked on a coding team knows how easy it is to have too many cooks in the kitchen stepping on each other's toes.
But now our responsibilities have been delineated clearly enough for a merger of our two branches in about a week.

For years now this project has consisted of me working on content creation, then bouncing off some fiddly technical issue,
then more content creation, then another technical snag, then an endless torrent of unforeseen delays and budget problems.
But we're not giving up no matter what. And once this core system is functional the massive backlog of content can flow in.
The H-systems and assets had to be built largely by ourselves however the actual Adventure/RPG systems are based on a collection of plugins dedicated to each aspect of such games.
Therefore the development of the actual GAME-game won't take nearly as long to achieve functionality.

4/12 - Adding skin assets to serialization system
4/14 - Creating new character class to encompass the wearables / serialization data along with the RPG elements
4/16 - Creating magic item loot tables. Refactoring AI combat targeting system. C# practice with predicates.
4/18 - Studying bot creation for Twitch & Discord, app integration with Google Sheets

 

[KleptoLizard]

Gambino says he'll be ready to fully rejoin the project by tomorrow.He has a new improved rig system for the H-scene playback.
I'm kicking myself for not being more productive on the character creator client but when there's
so much to do on a project this size, everything feels like a distraction from everything else.

Pictured is some experiments I've been running with terrain generation and various preset systems.
This one used a grayscale map of Iliac Bay and some levels from DOOM 1 & 2.
Using our quick-gen system you can crank out a customized fantasy world in the time it takes to generate a map for Civilization.
And indeed many of the options are similar: Pick a landmass, pick the cultures, pick various game world conditions, etc.

I'll be transferring my files back to Gambino so he can merge the branches.
We're closer than ever.

- EDIT: I've heard growing rumors about adult project pages being taken down on Patreon.
Rest assured that I backup the donor pledges every month so there is never a danger of losing backer rewards, no matter what happens to the actual page.

4/22 - Coding tests and stat checks for various RPG situations
4/24 - Refining card system and debugging targeting AI.
4/26 - Updating ranged attack physics and logic
4/28 - Examining Gambino's custom A.I. state machine structure

 

[KleptoLizard]

Update from Gambino:
"Damn, it's May already. Development of the new rig is not done yet but it's going well, the core animation driver is up and running, and I'm starting to work on the full animation playback system, this includes the parts of the animations that connect with player interaction, sound and other effects. Hoping to show it off soon!"

5/4 - Generating data for all 20 different major factions and organizing new assets
5/6 - Assigning equipment to NPCs and retinues to VIPs
5/8 - Weapon sound effects, alternate weapon firing modes, alternate ammunition types, status-inflicting special weaponry and spells

 

[KleptoLizard]

Closing in on a presentable playback system.
Trying to make it as robust as possible.
When finished it shouldn't break pelvic alignment no matter how different the body sizes or how much the motion changes even mid-animation loop.

5/12 - Magic logic and spell functionality
5/14 - Tweaking character model assets, more work on magic system
5/16 - Working on quick-generating building and walls
5/18 - Working on vehicles/machines/structures and how they take damage
5/24 - Spell and missile projectile graphics. Fixing melee AI bugs.
5/26 - Pathing and buildings
5/28 - Pathing and line of sight tests
5/30 - Extending the faction force trees

 

[KleptoLizard]

As prices keep going up development keeps slowing.
Gambino and I have both been forced to put in extra hours
and take more clients just to keep our heads above water.

This week I'm going to merge all open branches of the Renfield project.
Then we'll begin the actual release schedule.
We'll start with a simple character creator and animation playback scene.
After that will come some simple combat and adventure mode debug rooms.

If anyone has been watching the Twitch streams/VODs lately you'll have
an idea what I have in mind for the first RF multiplayer implementation.
In the strategy game we've been playing each chatter can make a squad.
The squads can be directed manually via simple commands but also have fallback AI behavior.

They also persist even when the player isn't in attendance, essentially
reverting to NPCs until the player returns and reassumes control.
So when you fire up the Old Inn scene in Renfield you'll be by yourself with the character you made.
Then you can populate it with NPCs from your roster of characters.

As players visit your peer-to-peer network they'll spawn in the inn and save themselves to a guest folder.
You can interact with them in real time but those characters will persist until you boot them.
Characters will also track all sorts of data for cumulative "training" over time.
Dynamic pregnancy will also be fast-tracked.

The screenshot is from a game called Samurai Vandalism showing all the factors I plan for the game to monitor.
People familiar will that genre of RPGMaker game have a good idea of all the info tracked even without a translation.

6/12 - Got all the project files back from Gambino. Just need to fix a few glaring issues and then I'll release the pre-Alpha test client.
6/14 - Having me finish code written by Gambino is like having an Ork repair technology made by Eldar. Nevertheless I've managed to complete the wearable-conforming code.
6/16 - Looking over G's animation studio rig system. Repositioning the anchors.
6/18 - Placed all the partner IK anchors. These control how the participants latch onto each other.
6/20 - Reinstalling / reworking genital occlusion shader. Tweaking render pipeline settings to eliminate color banding.
6/22 - Studying shader coding. Need to do something very specific and it's obligated me to learn URP shader transparency more thoroughly.
6/24 - Finally fixed the fluid simulation. It now blends correctly and it, along with the cloth/rope/softbody suites, are all moved off the main thread.
6/26 - Working on facial expressions and the code to govern them, blend and shift between them.
6/28 - Exporting voice files.
6/30 - Going to start uploading test clients starting tomorrow, starting with the Patreon page itself and later on the forums. Warning: it's in a fairly broken state due to a source control mishap.

 

[KleptoLizard]

I'll put the test client up here after I've finished placing the hands correctly.
For some reason my previous positional updates didn't save.
Also had to fix a bug or two.
Let me know what you want to see fixed/improved/added.




EDIT - Here it is

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and yikes, I ran out of time after getting sidetracked with a refactor of the supplemental animation data structs.
As a result there are still some severe IK alignment issues. Don't worry; they'll get fixed in a day or so.

7/4 - Fixed the last of the hand position issues. Still other positioning issues persist. Fixed issue with some shoes and gloves not attaching properly.

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7/6 - Making a quick debug map to run around in. It'll be nonsensical in layout but give us a chance to test exploration and combat systems.
7/8 - Got the character controller installed in the exploration mode. Now putting in warps and scene transitions.
7/10 - Implementing quest database and testing bridges between the various plugins.

 

[KleptoLizard]

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Here's a slightly updated client with a walkable debug map.
You can take stock of some of the basic building and nature assets.
The field is the size of one cell, of which the base game will have 256.
Since this is a disposable test map anyone can suggest changes to it.

7/12 - Adding stats and skills to the player and testing procedural quest generation.
7/14 - Dumping the remaining unused character assets into the addressable asset system.
7/16 - Extending code to include new assets in the serialization and UI.
7/18 - Finishing up adding skin and eye textures, checking out custom debugging tools

 

[KleptoLizard]

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Added gems to the overworld to collect.
Added a randomize button to the character creator.
There's a known glitch that freezes up some UI elements after you change eye color.

I'm adding NPC spawn points as we speak.
The very first iteration of an actual playable mode will consist of the player gathering gems and turning them into NPCs for H-scenes.
After that we'll start adding proper questing and combat.

 

[CboyC95]

Will character customization be diverse? Like being able to make a femboy character and dress in feminine clothes?

 

[KleptoLizard]

Will character customization be diverse? Like being able to make a femboy character and dress in feminine clothes?

Yes.
All clothes are transferable with the exception of a few high-heeled boots that glitch on the male base model.
As the selection of clothing grows users will be able to configure subvariants of each piece.

So for example in Oblivion there might be a one piece outfit for civilians that is a shirt and trousers for men, but a dress when worn by women.
In RF you can set something like that up, but could also override an individual character's dress preference.
So imagine the same scenario but the female head of the Fighter's Guild wears the masculine version of those clothes when out of her armor.
But even this can be overridden further so that she dressed in the masculine version of most clothing but an expensive gown worn for a party remains in the feminine form.

At the moment the selection of clothes is not very large and very eclectic.
I want to see how players dress their characters with the starter batch of items so I can make strategic choices in the next things I add.
Patreon backers can request whatever clothing they want.

Thanks for your question.

7/22 - Working on reducing jitter and framerate stutter on the overworld



Image note: Characters from the Taimanin franchise with androgynous and/or crossdressing traits.

At present there's already an Androgynous body type in the character creator.
Getting an androgynous face will be easy after the character sliders have been configured for negative values.
Since the presets for the male models tend towards square-jawed action hero stereotypes,
with a modest negative value it softens their features and rounds out harsher facial lines.
There are about 500 blendshapes in the models so people with an eye for this sort of thing will be able to make quite a variety.

7/24 - Adding patrolling enemies to the surface
7/26 - Adding shops to the settlements and dungeons
7/28 - Tweaking combat AI and animations
7/30 - Updating control scheme

 

[KleptoLizard]

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The shops I mentioned in the previous post will be activated after I've updated the item databases.
Don't be shy: let me know if you have any questions.

 

[Orlox]

For some reason, I get stuck on the title screen when I open the game (Test Client 0.35):



Clicking on any of the options does nothing, am I missing something?

 

[KleptoLizard]

For some reason, I get stuck on the title screen when I open the game (Test Client 0.35):
Clicking on any of the options does nothing, am I missing something?

I forgot to switch out the input handling object for the title screen when I updated the input system.
Should be working now.

Btw Orlox if you want to choose a spot on the test map to customize let me know.
Think of it as a Minecraft server where you get to select a plot and build there, even if it means altering the landscape.

8/4 - Adding equipment to database
8/6 - Adding data to serialization, implementing full save/load functionality
8/8 - Ran into some issues with the adventure mode save system.
The simulation manager is fighting with the save plugin for reasons that aren't clear.
Until I can get G to look into it I'll be focusing on filling in the inventory database.
8/10 - Adding unique artifacts

 

[KleptoLizard]

I took down the Patreon and got a 2nd job to fund development.
If anyone wants to help out you can treat the Itchio page as a tip jar.

My desktop is still at the repair place. Hopefully it'll be back in a week or so.

Gambino has been overhauling the H-animation system to make it much cleaner.
The current system uses a ghost armature for the IK systems to align them with a traditional hip-to-thigh humanoid hierarchy.
This was used to circumvent the intermediate pelvic bone that Genesis 2 models have.
But the new system will employ splines as motion guides without the need for the redundant armature.

Once I get my tower back I'm going to release a client with a compass and coordinate display.
Users can then start selecting areas for themselves on a first come, first serve basis.
You just say "I want coordinate XYZ" and from that point on you choose what to build there.
Example: "I want a town like the one at [coords] with a dungeon underneath it like at [coords]"
"I want a plain/forest/lake/mountain/swamp here" "I want this place to remain wilderness" etc.
This is a test map for debugging purposes so we can just play around with it.

8/22 -

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8/24 - Texturing clothing and fixing clipping
8/26 - Looking for advertising partners
8/28 - Adding quit to main menu feature. Fixing bugs in save/load system.
8/30 - Tower's busted again.

 

[KleptoLizard]

The desktop I just had repaired bricked again so there will be another brief hiatus on demo clients.
Once I get it back the first priority will be to adjust the overworld map.
Among the complaints/concerns I received the map being too large and empty was the most common.
So I'm going to flatten the terrain by half and bring all the hidden underground structures to the surface.

9/4 - Managed to fix computer myself. Resuming work.
9/10 - Saving and loading in the field fixed. Finishing up overworld layout tweaks.

 

[KleptoLizard]

Overworld is now easier to navigate.
Gambino says he'll be done with the animation overhaul soon.

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9/14 - Fixed bug causing soft lock with quest menus
9/16 - Working on Visual Novel Mode
9/18 - Continuing work on VN Mode, studying intermediate-to-advanced C# patterns

 

[KleptoLizard]

The architecture from Age of Empires 2 is going to form the basis for the default RF buildings.
I'd previously made a massive list of cultures I wanted to represent but I'll be mapping them all to 11 parent groups.
Many of these buildings can already be made with the assets already on display in the debug map.
Simply retexturing or sometimes merely recoloring various materials will suffice in many cases.

The Visual Novel Maker is coming along really well.
It uses the exact syntax from Ren'Py scripts.
Users will be able to quickly convert any existing Ren'Py script into a Renfield scenario.
Of course you can now use 3D models for your characters and use expression/pose presets instead of alternate sprites.

Still haven't heard from Gambino about the animation system overhaul.
A lot of work is dependent on him finishing.
Not sure when that will be.
All I can do is focus on other features in the meantime.

Remember that you can stake out a claim on the debug map as your personal area.
Just send me the coordinates and it's your land to do (almost) whatever you want with.

9/22 - Fixing issues with wigs and teleporters
9/24 - Testing light baking solutions for performance
9/26 - Opened up a SubscribeStar page. All backer rewards from the original Patreon will be honored.
9/28 - Drafting design document for the new hires
9/30 - Switched in appropriate model for First Person arms

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[KleptoLizard]

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This minor update fixes a few serious issues.
You shouldn't get softlocked in quest windows anymore.
Also many shadows have been baked so let me know if performance is better.
It can vary from system to system.

I'm currently merging Gambino's tweaks to the animation studio scene.
Also hiring someone new this month.
The next main feature implementation will be the Visual Novel Mode.
It should bring us closer to something that feels more playable/complete.

VN Mode parses a script based closely on that used in Ren'Py.
I'll add it as soon as we can duplicate all the functionality
contained in the sample Ren'Py project "The Question".
With this you'll be ready to remake anything made with Ren'Py itself
but with the added ability to use 3D models, poses, and blendshapes.

For example you normally declare a character like so:

define p = Character(_("Prince"), color="FFFFFF")

and load a sprite of them onto the scene with

show prince normal

where you have a PNG file titled "prince_normal.png" in the appropriate folder.
Then you load different expressions by changing the sprite:

show prince determined

With Renfield's system we can use a PNG file with character data loaded into it.
The program checks the PNG to see if it has such data and loads the character.
If not, it loads the sprite normally.
When we use an expression RF responds by loading in another card with just the
facial expression blendshapes applied. Same with poses and other things.

These features will be supplemented with additional commands specific to RF
such as loading up a combat/exploration scene or initiating an H-scene.

10/4 - Merging 2 branches of the studio scene code
10/6 - Formatting sample VN story with first volunteer guest writer. Thanks to Innocent World for participating.
10/8 - Converting the Python code to format readable by the Dialogue System plugin.
10/10 - Finishing VN mode parser