VN Ren'Py Straight!? [Revamp v0.14.0] [Aaryn]

[CheetoInChief]

It's weird having to wait for a game, that I already know the full story to lol. However, with that being said, the way you changed things up between the original release and the re-release is very welcomed. Everything looks a lot better, and the added sounds breathes life into the story for those who already know it. Also the change to the shower wall scene was goofy, but I loved it anyways. It definitely feels better than the original writing, where Zack was just being creepy lol.

 

[Aaryn]

It's weird having to wait for a game, that I already know the full story to lol. However, with that being said, the way you changed things up between the original release and the re-release is very welcomed. Everything looks a lot better, and the added sounds breathes life into the story for those who already know it. Also the change to the shower wall scene was goofy, but I loved it anyways. It definitely feels better than the original writing, where Zack was just being creepy lol.

i appreciate you saying this. when i started this project i wasn't aware that i could write anything other than college psych papers in APA format so I'll admit that the early parts of the game sorta fell into the cliched molds back in 2017 where games were grindy and most MCs were either dicks or perverts. I started the writing that way a bit but I found myself actually liking my character and felt he had way more to offer. There's no depth to bratty characters. perhaps it's unfair but i'll also admit that I began unsure if people were actually open to an adult game that had a story. so i just started writing the damn thing and slowly convinced myself that fuck it, i'm gonna move away from doing the cookie cutter adult game approach and do something unique that i'd want to play. since then, i've built a community of supporters that like story over sex stuff and when you care about the people, the sex stuff is so much better. So i wanted to make that more consistent. i dont really have to defend it anymore-- hell, surprisingly, i've only had to defend it maybe 5 or 6 times ever (and not surprisingly it was over here, lol). you gotta enjoy your own story and the world you create because this shit is a ton of work. the revamp is much more in-line with the vision in my head and i'm happy to have people onboard with the approach. it does feel way more alive. glad you liked the shower wall change, too. i struggled with that one. i was trying to not make it as creepy as the original felt but also still have the essence of what originally happened there to preserve that for the old school fans. that change was my compromise. hope it worked. i'm getting ready to drop the next part on patreon in like a day or two so stay tuned (that wasn't a hint to sub, just giving you the timeline, i'll still post it over here in 3 weeks). thanks for reading

 

[CheetoInChief]

..

You definitely found your way in the world of writing, that's for sure. I can definitely tell a difference between even the beginning of Straight!? the original version and the middle/end of it. Then you add in the re-vamp and it's pretty much a night and day difference. The revamp due to the life you added in through the clear renders, to the sounds, and slight touches to the original script is just *chef kiss*. You are right though, if you tell a story, people are going to care about it more. When you tell a truly moving story like you have, everything else becomes secondary. All my favorite VNs are the ones that have put the story first, because that's what a novel is supposed to do. Straight!? is still at the top of my list for favorite VNs, with the revamp solidifying its place there. I actually follow your work on a few different sites that you are active on, including Patreon, so I'm looking forward to it.

 

[Aaryn]

You definitely found your way in the world of writing, that's for sure. I can definitely tell a difference between even the beginning of Straight!? the original version and the middle/end of it. Then you add in the re-vamp and it's pretty much a night and day difference. The revamp due to the life you added in through the clear renders, to the sounds, and slight touches to the original script is just *chef kiss*. You are right though, if you tell a story, people are going to care about it more. When you tell a truly moving story like you have, everything else becomes secondary. All my favorite VNs are the ones that have put the story first, because that's what a novel is supposed to do. Straight!? is still at the top of my list for favorite VNs, with the revamp solidifying its place there. I actually follow your work on a few different sites that you are active on, including Patreon, so I'm looking forward to it.

Well, thank you very much. It's been a journey and i think i've slowly gotten more honest about the writing and that was the key to it-- at least for me. I'm happier with what i'm making now (although when you first start out, I feel like everyone is happy if they can make anything at all then you slowly start to tune your eye more to improve things). I think i'll always like games that put story first. Especially adult games. Otherwise, you get the same exact recycled models. Hell, around here everyone is going to gyms or their mom is doing yoga or dad's dead. it's the same recycled concepts over and over and that just doesn't give me any energy or excitement. I like rooting for characters or really despising a villain. that's fun to me. but thank you again for the kind words and for the support and following me all over the damn place while i wander and type

 

[Aaryn]

On a side note, if you're not following me on Twitter, I'm doing a FREE giveaway for a 1 month pass of Discord Nitro if you follow and retweet this post

You must be registered to see the links

. Announcing the winner on April 26 publicly on twitter. Promise it's not one of those scams like most people do where they say retweet and I'll DM you something good. I'm doing it public. It's my way to still spread the word about the project while giving something back to the followers rather than elon's stupid blue checkmark

 

[CheetoInChief]

Well, thank you very much. It's been a journey and i think i've slowly gotten more honest about the writing and that was the key to it-- at least for me. I'm happier with what i'm making now (although when you first start out, I feel like everyone is happy if they can make anything at all then you slowly start to tune your eye more to improve things). I think i'll always like games that put story first. Especially adult games. Otherwise, you get the same exact recycled models. Hell, around here everyone is going to gyms or their mom is doing yoga or dad's dead. it's the same recycled concepts over and over and that just doesn't give me any energy or excitement. I like rooting for characters or really despising a villain. that's fun to me. but thank you again for the kind words and for the support and following me all over the damn place while i wander and type

Writing as I found out, is a never ending process. You will continually learn, grow, and even scrutinize your own work. However all the madness of writing, rewriting, rewriting the rewrite all leads to a better story overall. Yeah, I hear you on that. If I ever decided to take the plunge and start writing my own VN, like I am wanting, I would be happy just to get my first project out there as well. I'm a century away from even attempting something like that as I don't even know the first thing about writing script, let alone rendering lol. The only part I feel confident about is the story, which I guess is half the battle lol. You're not wrong on that though, there are a lot of the same types of stories around. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, if you can still tell a story well. I agree though, a good story should make you want to root for the hero. A good villain should make you despise them, but also feel for them. After all, we are all the heroes of our own stories. No problem, it's always good to talk with you. Which is how I began following your stuff everywhere lol. When I first started getting into VNs Straight!? was one of the first ones I got into over on Itch. Then I found this site, and I usually follow people whose work I really enjoy over on Patreon to give back.

 

[Aaryn]

Writing as I found out, is a never ending process. You will continually learn, grow, and even scrutinize your own work. However all the madness of writing, rewriting, rewriting the rewrite all leads to a better story overall. Yeah, I hear you on that. If I ever decided to take the plunge and start writing my own VN, like I am wanting, I would be happy just to get my first project out there as well. I'm a century away from even attempting something like that as I don't even know the first thing about writing script, let alone rendering lol. The only part I feel confident about is the story, which I guess is half the battle lol. You're not wrong on that though, there are a lot of the same types of stories around. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, if you can still tell a story well. I agree though, a good story should make you want to root for the hero. A good villain should make you despise them, but also feel for them. After all, we are all the heroes of our own stories. No problem, it's always good to talk with you. Which is how I began following your stuff everywhere lol. When I first started getting into VNs Straight!? was one of the first ones I got into over on Itch. Then I found this site, and I usually follow people whose work I really enjoy over on Patreon to give back.

yeah, that's one of the things that's held me back from lightning fast updates. back when i started, i pumped out updates monthly but they were super short and had like 30 pictures and they were flat. I found that things went a lot better when i actually paid attention to what i was doing versus just pushing something out because there was a deadline. the majority of my supporters were usually willing to wait on something that's more quality but others just have an expectations that you can pump things out constantly. maybe some people can. i can't and that's even with working a minimum of 6 days a week and usually 12 hour days at the very least. but that wears on ya and that affects the quality of the work-- at least it did with me. I see a ton of people burn out doing this and i can see why. you gotta pace yourself. my followers have always been supportive, though-- since the beginning. you see a ton of toxic communities surrounding some of these games and i'm glad that never reached me. i think i managed to write a story that made toxic people even more unhappy so they just stayed away, lol. i hope you get a chance to write your own, though. i've tried to consistently encourage people to do that if it's something you wanna do. i'm definitely not professional and i still have no idea what i'm doing (at least i dont feel like i do). even after 6 years it feels like i'm stumbling around because i'm constantly trying something new. I actually started here on this forum and did a post asking if people were interested in my story and a few people chimed in so i shared it. i was writing this story regardless but it was always something personal that i wanted to do . i didn't care if i ever shared it and i sure as hell never expected people to want to pay for it. i didn't need to share it but a few people wanted to read it so i shared it. i got some decent but critical feedback so i did some revisions and the rest has just been rinse and repeat. I do think running on donations is the way to start tho. it's hard to, in good conscience, setup a subscription to something when you're new at it. i felt guilty "charging" people but i found that if they wanted to toss money at it, i felt less guilty if i put that right back into the project. the fact that people were donating kinda motivated me to try harder.

 

[Nikk14]

Is there an opportunity to have sex with Mikhail?

 

[CheetoInChief]

Is there an opportunity to have sex with Mikhail?

No.

 

[Aaryn]

Is there an opportunity to have sex with Mikhail?

in contrast to the typical "dating sim" game having like 5 characters to choose from, all with shorter stories; i elected to only go with one route to tell one specifically detailed story. I'm also absolute shit with concentration so juggling multiple storylines and trying to code that all in for my first project was going to be a bitch. rather than bork that, i just went with a solo route and figured i'd do that route right. the coding part is not a strength of mine at all

 

[toshiaki1]

To add to the review and avoid the spoiler.

One other positive was avoiding standard corruption tropes. Corruption is in the Genre description. The VN plays with the concept and tropes, eventually turning them on their head. Good stuff.

 

[3vasectomies]

i want to try the game, can anyone tell me whats the difference with the older version?

 

[CheetoInChief]

i want to try the game, can anyone tell me whats the difference with the older version?

The new version has sounds and music added to it, has much better renders, and is re-written to make a more cohesive introduction to the story. The rewrite/revamp only has the prologue and chapter one at the moment (unless you are subscribed on Patreon then you have chapter two as well). If you want to experience the story now, I would either recommend you play the original as is, then check out the rewrite/revamp. Or just play the epilogue and chapter one of the rewrite/revamp and continue on to the rest of the game with the original. Eventually Aaryn will rewrite/revamp everything, but he's taking his time to get it right.

The original is definitely still one of the best VNs out there for story, so you can't go wrong either way.

 

[Aaryn]

To add to the review and avoid the spoiler.

One other positive was avoiding standard corruption tropes. Corruption is in the Genre description. The VN plays with the concept and tropes, eventually turning them on their head. Good stuff.

appreciated the long and thoughtful review you left. thanks a lot

 

[iogaming419]

 

[Aaryn]

Updated OP with links for v0.05.1 a day early. I'll be out of town and didn't want it to be late over here. Enjoy

 

[Moosica]

Thank you for this new update of the new version!

 

[draxxys]

still remains one of my favorite gay games on this site, thank you for still updating it <3

 

[_Fabi_]

thx

 

[Phant0miD]

Updated OP with links for v0.05.1 a day early. I'll be out of town and didn't want it to be late over here. Enjoy

Wasn't expecting update sooner than 25th. Thanks for early sharing, will enjoy for sure