VN Ren'Py Abandoned Stormside [v0.23.1.4] [Atemsiel]

[cubba]

One of the things that makes this game take so much longer than a lot of others has nothing to do with paths, and everything to do with Atem hating static faces. He makes almost every line have a different render, so that the people who are talking appear to be talking, and have appropriate expressions based on the conversation (and the conversation that has led up to that point). That's why it's more complex than most. Like, I love Cosy Cafe, but none of Cosy's characters ever open their mouths at all, and a lot of conversations have relatively static expressions throughout. There are a lot of other games, including some I like, where most conversations just alternate a render of each speaker with their mouth open when they talk, but only use those same two renders for the whole conversation. Neither of these are things Atem will ever do.

Boy, is that true. I remember playing some other game (something with Horizon I think, not sure) after my last Stormside play-through and there was nothing of that AT ALL, it was super awkward and I was even confused who the hell was speaking at that point. Just default face, no emotions, etc. Very weird that. Can't remember if that changed later though.
So, yeah, good job on that Atem

 

[katabasi]

update this year?

 

[Vibesy]

update this year?

Let's hope so, because there was barely any update last year.

 

[marcodelamoret]

It's a lot of work to make a game like this...
And the reward is not necessarily there.
You have to put yourself in the shoes of the devs please.

Anyway, sequel or not, this game is excellent!
Thanks for that.
The dev can be proud of this

 

[tmu500]

It's a lot of work to make a game like this...
And the reward is not necessarily there.
You have to put yourself in the shoes of the devs please.

Anyway, sequel or not, this game is excellent!
Thanks for that.
The dev can be proud of this

Very enjoyable game.

 

[Bob89rt]

They all started making spin offs. A New Teacher. Academy Live! Not all is what it seems. This is taking forever for an update

 

[phinny1]

Still possible for me to be proven wrong but I said back in Sept 23 that this way too ambitious of a project for a first time dev. Hope he can find a way to scale things back to something simpler to develop rather than simply abandoning it. Or continuing forward at such a glacial pace that the game will be on track for completion in 2130.

 

[Tumai]

Yeah, love this game but it's way too complex for its own good. E.g. There are more than half a dozen possible combinations in how MC executes the rescue of a girl from a house party/what to say on the way back/where to spend the night etc. All with flow through consequences to the following days.

This continued exponential expansion in variables/branches has/will make coding a bitch with each subsequent update.

 

[xCrowned]

This continued exponential expansion in variables/branches has/will make coding a bitch with each subsequent update.

Yeah, I think that's why it's been over a year since the last update. I hope he starts to tone it down with needless choices. I get having the love/sub/slave paths, that's awesome, but that's already a lot of branches to take care of without adding more.

 

[wonky1977]

Yeah, I think that's why it's been over a year since the last update. I hope he starts to tone it down with needless choices. I get having the love/sub/slave paths, that's awesome, but that's already a lot of branches to take care of without adding more.

Based on comments the dev's made on his discord server, once a choice has been made, then you can't change it later. The next update will decide the paths for Hikari and Akemi. Sasha and Riley paths I believe have already been decided as of the last update. So once a route is settled for a character, the complexity then is their interactions with others. After all 7 routes have been set, there should be no increase in complexity. I don't recall conversations about how those routes will impact interactions with secondary characters, if at all...

And based on other comments he's made, the mapping out of the branches and interactions has been done to the end of the story as it is currently planned. The difficulty currently seems to be the large # of renders / animations that need to get done and a significant lack of time to work on those assets.

 

[xCrowned]

The difficulty currently seems to be the large # of renders / animations that need to get done and a significant lack of time to work on those assets.

True, and my point wasn't as much that the writing of the paths takes time, but that the variations add more renders(probably not that many extra animations), and the renders take ages. I don't always mind having more paths, as long as they don't subtract too much from the rest of the game, I'm mostly worried about burnout and losing support from slower releases. I support the dev on Patreon and I've seen multiple people bail on him. As long as he's got it under control and the game doesn't end up abandoned, I'm fine.

 

[Vibesy]

Based on comments the dev's made on his discord server, once a choice has been made, then you can't change it later. The next update will decide the paths for Hikari and Akemi. Sasha and Riley paths I believe have already been decided as of the last update. So once a route is settled for a character, the complexity then is their interactions with others. After all 7 routes have been set, there should be no increase in complexity. I don't recall conversations about how those routes will impact interactions with secondary characters, if at all...

And based on other comments he's made, the mapping out of the branches and interactions has been done to the end of the story as it is currently planned. The difficulty currently seems to be the large # of renders / animations that need to get done and a significant lack of time to work on those assets.

Seems like a logical fallacy to me. You may have picked a route for one of the characters, but all 3 routes for each character would still have to be developed going forward and reflected in the script. You just won't see the content. For example, some of the main LIs such as Olivia have no content so far. That means far less to worry about if they happen to be in a scene. Once paths get added for them things will get far more complex.

Of course, this only holds true if Atemsiel intends to add a lot of sexual content for each LI. If the game is just about picking a path for each girl followed by the resolution of the underlying plot and then game over, you would be right.

 

[wonky1977]

Seems like a logical fallacy to me. You may have picked a route for one of the characters, but all 3 routes for each character would still have to be developed going forward and reflected in the script. You just won't see the content. For example, some of the main LIs such as Olivia have no content so far. That means far less to worry about if they happen to be in a scene. Once paths get added for them things will get far more complex.

Of course, this only holds true if Atemsiel intends to add a lot of sexual content for each LI. If the game is just about picking a path for each girl followed by the resolution of the underlying plot and then game over, you would be right.

I had to spend a bit of time thinking about how what I wrote could be a logical fallacy. And I think I can see what you mean.

Regardless of the amount of sexual content or not, interactions between the MC and the LIs would still need to take into account the various pathing choices. And while there would be a theoretical max of 343 possible variations for any given scene, realistically it mostly depend on the given number of LIs (visible / present or not) in a scene. And in many cases variables such as collar / no collar would be 2 choices even though it is 3 paths. So the potential for a great deal of complexity is there.

I think the manner in which the story flows could be used to reduce or simplify that complexity on a scene by scene basis.

Looking forward to the next release to see how that goes.

 

[Mograx]

I would rather see this game become a full-blown Kinetic Novel than watch it wither away into the void as a result of an over complicated mesh of code and choices a new and budding developer struggles to grapple with.

 

[Juerhullycin]

I would rather see this game become a full-blown Kinetic Novel than watch it wither away into the void as a result of an over complicated mesh of code and choices a new and budding developer struggles to grapple with.

while i get the sentiment, converting a heavily choice based VN into a Kinetic novel would likely piss off the majority of the fans because you would need to cut the content they are here for.

 

[Tiur]

while i get the sentiment, converting a heavily choice based VN into a Kinetic novel would likely piss off the majority of the fans because you would need to cut the content they are here for.

More importantly, the dev has outright stated that he is making the game the way he wants to play it, with events and dialogue respecting the player's choices. If it were a kinetic novel, he would not bother developing it.

 

[we51nat0r]

but better to convert to kinetic than to just get overwhelmed and abandon.....I really like the characters and the setting but it feels like 3 dif avn shuffled together...just imho

 

[Sasugachan]

Something > nothing at all
crazy take I know

 

[Tiur]

I will say this as an absolute:

This game's delay has nothing to do with the way the choices and path are written and coded. There's no "getting overwhelmed" going on. The delay is purely due to Atem having less time to work on it. Motivation is not his problem. If he followed any of the solutions people have provided so far to change the game for their own preference and convenience, his motivation to make the game would vanish.

So, as the poster right above me said:

Something > nothing at all

The choice is not:
- Stormside As Atem Wants It But Slower - vs - Stormside As Other People Want It But Faster -
The choice is between:
- Stormside As Atem Wants It But Slower - vs - No Stormside

And that's what the choice has always been.

Please stop trying to armchair-dev Atem. Until he got ultra-busy, he's always been very communicative and helpful, both to his own game's community and to the dev community in general. If you personally don't want to keep supporting him this long between updates, that's fine. You don't owe him your support.

But he's said what he's said about the update pacing, and he's said what he's said about the girls' paths and the game respecting the player's choices. Given the game's quality so far, I'd say he's earned the respect of taking him at his word.

 

[Bob89rt]

A game is referred to being dead this long between updates. It's been like a year now? One year to release an update? When did the last update come out 4th Feb?

Hahahaha, believe in bullshit. Why anybody would sub is beyond comprehension. A year between updates. No excuse