Ren'Py Serenia [v1.0d] [OffWhite Studios]

[Ka1tzer]

Thanks a lot for the comment — I appreciate you taking the time to read through the thread.


You’re not wrong in your read of the game. The overall tone is very much dark fantasy with dark humor and non-con elements, and I’d say roughly 70–75% of the content touches those themes in some way. The MC himself is intentionally written as a good guy at the start, and his scenes are mostly romantic and focused on his relationship with his girlfriend. That said, the world around him is intentionally pretty messed up, and a lot of what happens is meant to contrast with his initial morality and set up a longer corruption arc over multiple chapters.

Chapter 2 will definitely have more MC-focused content, more direct involvement, and more agency. The upcoming v1.1 update will also introduce additional skip and “intervene/save” options in several scenes that players have criticized, which should make the experience less frustrating if the lack of agency is your main concern. If that’s the biggest issue for you, I’d probably recommend waiting for v1.1 or Chapter 2 to get a better first impression.

However, if your primary concern is non-con content in general, then I want to be very honest: this probably isn’t the right game for you. Even with improvements to pacing and player choice, those themes are baked into the setting and won’t disappear, and I’d rather set expectations clearly than disappoint you later.

Either way, I really appreciate the feedback. If you do decide to try it now or later, I hope the experience lines up better with what you’re looking for — and if not, no hard feelings at all.

Thank you very much for the reply. I think I might try the game out in 1.1.

I'm not the biggest fan of non-con but I don't mind it in the context that it is seemingly being presented (I mean, I have "Divinity" as one of my featured games in my sigs ffs, heh). Furthermore, none of the characters featured in this kind of content are (or will be) LIs, right? Unless it is specifically something done with/to the MC, as I understand it?

I would wish that when "exposition" scenes happen (likely to lay some worldbuilding and narrative context, such as why a "good-natured MC became progressively more callous/ruthless"), they be kept short and to-the-point.

So long as the girls we actually care about (or should, in some level, care about) don't get the short end of the non-con stuff with other people, then I don't mind it. If it's the MC doing the non-con with them, then context would matter a fair bit for me (the "best" case for that would be as some sort of "punishment/payback", something to justify an arbitrary "she deserves it" thing, narratively).

Honestly though, from impressions alone I can tell you've put a lot of time and work into this. I'm looking forward to the 1.1 drop, and can see I'll play it with the positive bias of "I want to like this". I hope it'll stick.

 

[OffWhite Studios]

Thank you very much for the reply. I think I might try the game out in 1.1.

I'm not the biggest fan of non-con but I don't mind it in the context that it is seemingly being presented (I mean, I have "Divinity" as one of my featured games in my sigs ffs, heh). Furthermore, none of the characters featured in this kind of content are (or will be) LIs, right? Unless it is specifically something done with/to the MC, as I understand it?

I would wish that when "exposition" scenes happen (likely to lay some worldbuilding and narrative context, such as why a "good-natured MC became progressively more callous/ruthless"), they be kept short and to-the-point.

So long as the girls we actually care about (or should, in some level, care about) don't get the short end of the non-con stuff with other people, then I don't mind it. If it's the MC doing the non-con with them, then context would matter a fair bit for me (the "best" case for that would be as some sort of "punishment/payback", something to justify an arbitrary "she deserves it" thing, narratively).

Honestly though, from impressions alone I can tell you've put a lot of time and work into this. I'm looking forward to the 1.1 drop, and can see I'll play it with the positive bias of "I want to like this". I hope it'll stick.

Thank you very much, yeah — I’d honestly recommend waiting for v1.1.


When I originally made the game, I didn’t plan for many of these girls to be long-term love interests. After seeing player reception, though, it became very clear that people want the option to save these characters, and I think that’s a good direction. So I’m rewriting things so players can still see the non-save scenes if they want, but on an actual playthrough you’ll have the option to save most of the girls.

There are a few characters the MC isn’t interested in romantically, but still wants to save. Some of those scenes are long, but I’ll be making them skippable.

My promise to players going forward is this: once the MC shows romantic interest in a girl, nothing bad will happen to her outside of player control. That said, there is one character the MC can’t save (before he knows her), who can later be LI. Her character is supposed to be a bit tragic though. (She feels unworthy of a happy ending, and player can decide if she gets one or not)


I think this is the line I walked a bit too closely in Chapter 1. I focused to much on the story and maybe forgot it’s a game… and it’s why I’m going back and making edits. To return player agency.

As for the MC’s corruption arc..

Spoiler

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Thanks again for the comment and checking out the game!

 

[Hefiron]

This is an entertaining game and gets a lot of divided opinions on certain topics. The dev is very active here and open to feedback, so I want to share my thoughts.

Spoiler: Story

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Spoiler: Gameplay

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I also understand the dev has planned changes and a lot of them address valid points.

Finally It's important to maintain the dev vision, changes and improvement can be made but maintaining a clear direction.

After all trying to please everyone is impossible.

 

[Bowlcutcultmember]

I know the dev said he still plans some random non-con scenes with orcs and the like in Chapter 2. Obviously a totally player-agency first option would be total control on whether you allow these scenes to happen or not, Or a skip option where the event plays out but you don't see it. Perhaps another option could be setting these scenes up so Anno has the option to focus on a conversation with a character instead of the situation playing out. So it feels less voyeuristic if the player chooses. I think stuff like that even fits the black humor already present.

 

[OffWhite Studios]

This is an entertaining game and gets a lot of divided opinions on certain topics. The dev is very active here and open to feedback, so I want to share my thoughts.

Spoiler: Story

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

Spoiler: Gameplay

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

I also understand the dev has planned changes and a lot of them address valid points.

Finally It's important to maintain the dev vision, changes and improvement can be made but maintaining a clear direction.

After all trying to please everyone is impossible.

Thanks for your comment, I agree with pretty much everything you pointed out.

I’ve thought a lot about ways to make the opening less jarring, but it really does kick off the plot, and I don’t want to remove animations I’ve already finished, especially since many players do enjoy them. That said, I fully recognize that the progression has very little build-up. You don’t get much time to know the characters, and that’s a criticism I give myself as well — especially for the bunny scene, the orb scene, and a lot of scenes in general.

That was largely a byproduct of my inexperience. I started making scenes before I had the full story locked in, working on everything at once instead of building a strong narrative first and then designing the game around it. Chapter 1 is as much an experiment for me as it is a game. For Chapter 2, I finally have the luxury of knowing the story I want to tell from the start, so I’m genuinely curious to hear whether it feels like a much better experience.

Regarding the non-con themes: they will still exist, but they’ll likely be reduced quite a bit in Chapter 2. Anno will be present in more scenes, and those will be far less aggressive, focusing more on developing relationships with characters he already knows. I’ll also keep going back and tinkering with Chapter 1 scenes where I can as there’s definitely a lot I would do differently in hindsight.

On the gameplay side, I agree as well. I’ll take a look at increasing damage for spells. As for the mana economy, my original intent was to give players a reason to rest, return to town, buy potions, and so on — but if that loop isn’t feeling fun, especially for full casters, I’m very open to reworking it. I agree that it currently feels underwhelming.

For quest triggers, I haven’t had any bug reports in the past couple of days, but if you notice anything off, please let me know. Some quests intentionally tell you to come back later, and I know that can be annoying. The game has a lot of branching paths and triggers, and at this point it’s extremely complex — much of the code was written over a year ago. Right now my main focus is catching bugs or cases where characters reference events that haven’t happened yet. I’ve fixed several already, and if you spot any others, please escalate them, I really want to squash all of those.

Lastly, I genuinely appreciate everyone who’s taken the time to leave feedback. I don’t plan on changing my core vision, but the comments have helped me see the potential of what this game could become. I’m very open to more critique, and I’ve found it incredibly helpful overall.

 

[Hefiron]

Thanks for your comment, I agree with pretty much everything you pointed out.

I’ve thought a lot about ways to make the opening less jarring, but it really does kick off the plot, and I don’t want to remove animations I’ve already finished, especially since many players do enjoy them. That said, I fully recognize that the progression has very little build-up. You don’t get much time to know the characters, and that’s a criticism I give myself as well — especially for the bunny scene, the orb scene, and a lot of scenes in general.

That was largely a byproduct of my inexperience. I started making scenes before I had the full story locked in, working on everything at once instead of building a strong narrative first and then designing the game around it. Chapter 1 is as much an experiment for me as it is a game. For Chapter 2, I finally have the luxury of knowing the story I want to tell from the start, so I’m genuinely curious to hear whether it feels like a much better experience.

Regarding the non-con themes: they will still exist, but they’ll likely be reduced quite a bit in Chapter 2. Anno will be present in more scenes, and those will be far less aggressive, focusing more on developing relationships with characters he already knows. I’ll also keep going back and tinkering with Chapter 1 scenes where I can as there’s definitely a lot I would do differently in hindsight.

On the gameplay side, I agree as well. I’ll take a look at increasing damage for spells. As for the mana economy, my original intent was to give players a reason to rest, return to town, buy potions, and so on — but if that loop isn’t feeling fun, especially for full casters, I’m very open to reworking it. I agree that it currently feels underwhelming.

For quest triggers, I haven’t had any bug reports in the past couple of days, but if you notice anything off, please let me know. Some quests intentionally tell you to come back later, and I know that can be annoying. The game has a lot of branching paths and triggers, and at this point it’s extremely complex — much of the code was written over a year ago. Right now my main focus is catching bugs or cases where characters reference events that haven’t happened yet. I’ve fixed several already, and if you spot any others, please escalate them, I really want to squash all of those.

Lastly, I genuinely appreciate everyone who’s taken the time to leave feedback. I don’t plan on changing my core vision, but the comments have helped me see the potential of what this game could become. I’m very open to more critique, and I’ve found it incredibly helpful overall.

Thanks for your response, is great to see a developer so open to improvement and that engages with the community.

I fully understand some of the decisions you made and how you wanna improve them, after all we are creatures of continuous learning.

To know that you're passionate about your project and based on what you have done so far, I'm really looking forward to the future releases.

 

[Bowlcutcultmember]

On the gameplay side, I agree as well. I’ll take a look at increasing damage for spells. As for the mana economy, my original intent was to give players a reason to rest, return to town, buy potions, and so on — but if that loop isn’t feeling fun, especially for full casters, I’m very open to reworking it. I agree that it currently feels underwhelming.

I felt the same way picking INT, though I did it with the precaution that a lot of RPGs do the same and keep INT useless until mid-late game. It's funny because Anno actually gives very good reasons why a Mage SHOULDN'T just be INT/spell-focused in his lesson to his students. I actually thought having little quotes from Anno pop up for each of the stats taken from that would be a nice flavour detail, or maybe original quotes. What really surprised me was Anno having literally zero starting spells, when he said before that the court mage had access to stuff like light spells and shields.

 

[JJ993]

Thanks for your comment, I agree with pretty much everything you pointed out.

I’ve thought a lot about ways to make the opening less jarring, but it really does kick off the plot, and I don’t want to remove animations I’ve already finished, especially since many players do enjoy them. That said, I fully recognize that the progression has very little build-up. You don’t get much time to know the characters, and that’s a criticism I give myself as well — especially for the bunny scene, the orb scene, and a lot of scenes in general.

That was largely a byproduct of my inexperience. I started making scenes before I had the full story locked in, working on everything at once instead of building a strong narrative first and then designing the game around it. Chapter 1 is as much an experiment for me as it is a game. For Chapter 2, I finally have the luxury of knowing the story I want to tell from the start, so I’m genuinely curious to hear whether it feels like a much better experience.

Regarding the non-con themes: they will still exist, but they’ll likely be reduced quite a bit in Chapter 2. Anno will be present in more scenes, and those will be far less aggressive, focusing more on developing relationships with characters he already knows. I’ll also keep going back and tinkering with Chapter 1 scenes where I can as there’s definitely a lot I would do differently in hindsight.

On the gameplay side, I agree as well. I’ll take a look at increasing damage for spells. As for the mana economy, my original intent was to give players a reason to rest, return to town, buy potions, and so on — but if that loop isn’t feeling fun, especially for full casters, I’m very open to reworking it. I agree that it currently feels underwhelming.

For quest triggers, I haven’t had any bug reports in the past couple of days, but if you notice anything off, please let me know. Some quests intentionally tell you to come back later, and I know that can be annoying. The game has a lot of branching paths and triggers, and at this point it’s extremely complex — much of the code was written over a year ago. Right now my main focus is catching bugs or cases where characters reference events that haven’t happened yet. I’ve fixed several already, and if you spot any others, please escalate them, I really want to squash all of those.

Lastly, I genuinely appreciate everyone who’s taken the time to leave feedback. I don’t plan on changing my core vision, but the comments have helped me see the potential of what this game could become. I’m very open to more critique, and I’ve found it incredibly helpful overall.

I can only speak personally but I definitely appreciate the dark theme and non-con scenes, there are plenty of vanilla harem games out there already! I'm all for giving some more choice in scenes or making them skip-able but I don't think you need to drastically re-direct or cut out planned scenes/please don't!

 

[OffWhite Studios]

I can only speak personally but I definitely appreciate the dark theme and non-con scenes, there are plenty of vanilla harem games out there already! I'm all for giving some more choice in scenes or making them skip-able but I don't think you need to drastically re-direct or cut out planned scenes/please don't!

I don’t plan to change the core themes or remove the darker content. If you liked what was in Chapter 1, there should be plenty more to like in Chapter 2 as well.

That said, I am much more aware now of the need to offer alternative paths for players who want them. In some cases there may be more “good path” options where Anno intervenes or holds back, but that will probably result in fewer scenes overall — by design — since it represents restraint. My hope is players who want to skip those scenes, won’t miss them anyway.

I don’t plan to create two completely separate versions of most scenes but I’m hoping that giving players the option to save a girl — and then view the darker versions later in the gallery if they want — will make scenes like Jester or Gup land better for more people.

 

[randomguy]

Excellent first release, I'd say some quality of changes, maybe a better guidebook for the quests and an improved travel system would be nice but overall very good, wether or not this game is a 10/10 for me relies on how frequently and how much content it gets updated with.


What I'd suggest in particualr is, especially in story-mode, let me travel to whatever room in the dungeon I'm in that I've already explored, like the caves don't make me have to try to remember each time where everything is, same for the home base, I think a sidebar button of each accessible room would be nice so I dont gotta use the arrows every time.

Also, allow for an option to highlight everything that's interactable, potentially make it a hotkey for those who don't want it on all the time but after some time they'd like to know if they're missing something, for example the books in the Archmage library or the stone in the room.

I woulda never found the stone had I not read something on the forum and the trouble of having to hover over every book in that office was tiring.

Otherwise great, next update can't come soon enough.

 

[OffWhite Studios]

Excellent first release, I'd say some quality of changes, maybe a better guidebook for the quests and an improved travel system would be nice but overall very good, wether or not this game is a 10/10 for me relies on how frequently and how much content it gets updated with.


What I'd suggest in particualr is, especially in story-mode, let me travel to whatever room in the dungeon I'm in that I've already explored, like the caves don't make me have to try to remember each time where everything is, same for the home base, I think a sidebar button of each accessible room would be nice so I dont gotta use the arrows every time.

Also, allow for an option to highlight everything that's interactable, potentially make it a hotkey for those who don't want it on all the time but after some time they'd like to know if they're missing something, for example the books in the Archmage library or the stone in the room.

I woulda never found the stone had I not read something on the forum and the trouble of having to hover over every book in that office was tiring.

Otherwise great, next update can't come soon enough.

Thanks for the suggestions!

I think for v1.1 I’ll add better quest descriptions and on quests that can block you from progressing and tell you (“come back later after doing more quests”), I’ll tell the player what quests those are they need to do.

Teleporting is not a bad idea but I didn’t include it because of (1) quest triggers based on where you move and (2) respawning monsters that help players get XP and level up for deeper rooms and (3) I thought it might help people find different paths if they go in from the front.

I think highlighting hidden objects is a good idea because a few people have messaged me about being stuck, and it’s always because they missed the small stone switch. For the library and the empty room with hidden switch, I’ll probably add a “hint” toggle in the cheats menu that can show the hidden objects.

Thanks again!

 

[randomguy]

Teleporting is not a bad idea but I didn’t include it because of (1) quest triggers based on where you move and (2) respawning monsters that help players get XP and level up for deeper rooms and (3) I thought it might help people find different paths if they go in from the front.

I think highlighting hidden objects is a good idea because a few people have messaged me about being stuck, and it’s always because they missed the small stone switch. For the library and the empty room with hidden switch, I’ll probably add a “hint” toggle in the cheats menu that can show the hidden objects.

Thanks again!

Absolutely, all valid! That's why in my suggestion I mention these would be ideal for "story mode" players, those wanna explore solo style will have the option to, on another note, in 99% of these games I don't care about epxloring at all, but in this one it didn't feel too bad.

Teleporting would be limited to rooms we've already explored and I'm not a programmer so I'm not really sure how feesible it is to add checks if we teleport past a room that has a new objective in it, but I'm sure you get me.

A glossary would be nice too, something about each character with a short bio, when I come back for Chapter 2 I'm surely not going to remember who all of these people are.

It's important for me to note that these are just minor QOL things and that so far I've loved the game solid 10 on almost all fronts, the story's good characters are solid, gameplay experience is good,if I knew how to review I'd leave one lol.

 

[OffWhite Studios]

Absolutely, all valid! That's why in my suggestion I mention these would be ideal for "story mode" players, those wanna explore solo style will have the option to, on another note, in 99% of these games I don't care about epxloring at all, but in this one it didn't feel too bad.

Teleporting would be limited to rooms we've already explored and I'm not a programmer so I'm not really sure how feesible it is to add checks if we teleport past a room that has a new objective in it, but I'm sure you get me.

A glossary would be nice too, something about each character with a short bio, when I come back for Chapter 2 I'm surely not going to remember who all of these people are.

It's important for me to note that these are just minor QOL things and that so far I've loved the game solid 10 on almost all fronts, the story's good characters are solid, gameplay experience is good,if I knew how to review I'd leave one lol.

Thank you!

A Glossary is something I am thinking for Chapter 2 when keeping track of Anno’s relationships will be more important. I’ll have a new screen for the new powers he gets at the end of Chapter 1, so might include it there.

As for how to review, it’s the little stars at the top of the page

 

[JJ993]

Thanks for the suggestions!

I think for v1.1 I’ll add better quest descriptions and on quests that can block you from progressing and tell you (“come back later after doing more quests”), I’ll tell the player what quests those are they need to do.

Teleporting is not a bad idea but I didn’t include it because of (1) quest triggers based on where you move and (2) respawning monsters that help players get XP and level up for deeper rooms and (3) I thought it might help people find different paths if they go in from the front.

I think highlighting hidden objects is a good idea because a few people have messaged me about being stuck, and it’s always because they missed the small stone switch. For the library and the empty room with hidden switch, I’ll probably add a “hint” toggle in the cheats menu that can show the hidden objects.

Thanks again!

In terms of highlighting hidden objects, what about a sort of clairvoyance or 'sense object' spell which could be used to search a suspect room and maybe cause the object in question to flash/change colour? That way the mechanism feels relevant to the character?

 

[OffWhite Studios]

In terms of highlighting hidden objects, what about a sort of clairvoyance or 'sense object' spell which could be used to search a suspect room and maybe cause the object in question to flash/change colour? That way the mechanism feels relevant to the character?

This is a better idea than mine, love it. Will include!

 

[Weetbicks]

great story man, kinda felt ripped off that the mind control part was at the very end. oh well, guess I have to wait for the next chapter for the actual mind control. hopefully the path will be split, one of corruption and the other is "pure".

 

[Zaky0909]

great story man, kinda felt ripped off that the mind control part was at the very end. oh well, guess I have to wait for the next chapter for the actual mind control. hopefully the path will be split, one of corruption and the other is "pure".

Hello what version of Ren'Py do I need to download for the game to work on joiplay mobile

 

[OffWhite Studios]

Hello what version of Ren'Py do I need to download for the game to work on joiplay mobile

Not familiar with JoiPlay so I looked into it and from what I understand JoiPlay doesn’t use a specific Ren’Py version, so there’s nothing you need to download separately. ( I use the most recent version of Renpy though)

To try running the game on mobile, you need:

• JoiPlay
• The Ren’Py Plugin for JoiPlay

That said, the game is officially supported only on PC and Mac. Mobile support via JoiPlay isn’t guaranteed, and some features may not work or may crash.

I will try and add an Android version in a few weeks, but it’s not built into Renpy, so not 100% sure how well it will work.

 

[OffWhite Studios]

great story man, kinda felt ripped off that the mind control part was at the very end. oh well, guess I have to wait for the next chapter for the actual mind control. hopefully the path will be split, one of corruption and the other is "pure".

Thanks! Glad you liked the game. There is at least one more proper Mind Control scene in Chapter 2. Chapter 2 will also have the good/evil paths!

 

[jobreu]

I dont know whats happening, i already reached the Vault and already gave the pearls to Gup