VN Ren'Py Strangers on Paper [Ch.2 v0.2.2] [Gloomy Ghost Studio]

[Jarulf]

I just know if I play it now, I won't enjoy it as much when I play it on steam. The first time playing new content in a VN is the best and I only get that feeling once.

I can only agree with you there, the first time should always be special. Not rushed or forced in anyway and only when you feel ready. Joking aside, I do respect that.

 

[CH4SE]

Definitely better than episode 1 overall. Mc was so dumb that halfway through first episode I wanted to stop playing but in second episode he became bearable. I don't like too much inner monologues so that could be the reason. The models reminds me of University of Problems for some reason, maybe because they are really pale. If future updates doesn't take such long time, I would love to finish story they are trying to tell. If I'm correct this VN only has 2 LI right? Maybe Eris could pop up as one night?

 

[link18]

If I'm correct this VN only has 2 LI right? Maybe Eris could pop up as one night?

Don't think so not enough time for the relationship to develop

read this https://f95zone.to/threads/strangers-on-paper-ch-2-v0-2-2-gloomy-ghost-studio.160994/post-14325025

 

[MightyMack]

First time playing this. The characters seem so real in a way. Yeah MC puts a lot of thoughts in his head but it seems ..real especially the treehouse section. this VN is not bang her, her & also those 34 before leaving. Not sure the dev's updates they give before supporting them. But so far this story feels absolutely fresh

 

[saksomanyak]

Hello there.. I am not an active user on this site as commenter but I want to say sth about this game.

It is a story driven, slow paced VN. For me it is more than OK, I am here mostly for story not bang.

In Chapter 1 we have two routes, either this or that. But at the start of Chapter 2 we have an option to choose for LIs. Let's say, I went with Becca in chapter 1 and kept the interractions minimum with amy. If I choose Amy on start of chapter 2, MC acts and talks like he did everything with Amy in chapter 1. How he knows Amy was in Bible Class, how he knows George and Martha, Comic-con story, Ewok thing, etc.

Game either should lock paths and conversations for our choices or should remember what we did and what we know. For now it looks like choices are not important and story wise it is confusing.

 

[Maviarab]

Hello there.. I am not an active user on this site as commenter but I want to say sth about this game.

It is a story driven, slow paced VN. For me it is more than OK, I am here mostly for story not bang.

In Chapter 1 we have two routes, either this or that. But at the start of Chapter 2 we have an option to choose for LIs. Let's say, I went with Becca in chapter 1 and kept the interractions minimum with amy. If I choose Amy on start of chapter 2, MC acts and talks like he did everything with Amy in chapter 1. How he knows Amy was in Bible Class, how he knows George and Martha, Comic-con story, Ewok thing, etc.

Game either should lock paths and conversations for our choices or should remember what we did and what we know. For now it looks like choices are not important and story wise it is confusing.

Completely agree. Either a flag is glaringly missing or this is a serious oversight and letdown.

 

[SirAuron20]

Lately it has been so boring trying the new games. 90% of the time just wank games no depth of characters no story...
I was really surprised with this game really rarely a game here makes me mad that i can't play more. Really loving the characters and story, i wish you success with the game so we can see a lot more of it.

 

[Itsuki_desu]

Does the new chapter have any lewd content with Becca, or is it only Amy?

 

[Nikephorus]

Does the new chapter have any lewd content with Becca, or is it only Amy?

There is a lewd scene with Becca.

 

[Wildehilde]

Does the new chapter have any lewd content with Becca, or is it only Amy?

You get to F Becca.

 

[flaviopaganini]

I just know if I play it now, I won't enjoy it as much when I play it on steam. The first time playing new content in a VN is the best and I only get that feeling once.

ou are absolutely right, and another thing, I realized that the experience of waiting months to play a chapter of a VN that often lasts only 30 minutes also really spoils the complete experience. It's better to wait for a few episodes to accumulate. For this one, I'll do like Joshy. I'll wait for the Steam release. But I'll follow the thread here just to stay informed.

 

[Fapparition]

I'm so tempted to play this but I would rather wait for the steam release.

Meanwhile

 

[Ancient Devil]

Wtf! I just started the vn and it feels like it's pulling me in, the moment Amy said 'Thank you, Stranger'.

 

[DevinHesi]

You must be registered to see the links

With a new release, it’s time for a new interview! If you’re new here, let me clarify our roles: Grogu is the artist and coder behind SoP, Gizmo is the writer of the story and script.

Also, if you're not into super long and corny posts, we have highlited two parts below that we would you to take with you.



Grogu: Alright, first question, how do you feel after releasing chapter 2?

Gizmo: Oh, we're diving there already. Okay, actually, at this exact time (one day before the public release) I feel at peace. We've talked about how this is about closing a whole “chapter of our lives” apart from the chapter itself, and well, in my life, it was quite a shitty chapter, but I’m very happy about how SoP turned out. Obviously, reading the first few reviews helps too, seeing that some people’s expectations were already met, especially because those early releases were for people who have invested economically in us and, with that, there’s always the extra pressure of making that be worth it for them too.

Grogu: Yeah, I would add that I was extra anxious when Chapter 1 came out, whereas with this one it was more like, yeah, just get released already. Not only because all of the time that went by, but also because, and I think I speak for both of us here, we were now more chill about it going well, despite some mistakes. We were happy with what we had and the pace we had once things started falling back into place.

Gizmo: I do recall we were SLEEP DEPRIVED back when we released Chapter 1, and, this time, we were both more confident in being like “hey, we met our own expectations here, and right now, that’s enough”. I’ll move on to my next question then, which brings us back to Chapter 1, what things surprised you about the reception to it?

Grogu: You just reminded me of Tony throwing his hands in the air in his own dramatic fashion by going “SLEEP DEPRIVED” but… yeah, absolutely.



I think I realized certain things regarding Chapter 1 a long time after we released it. My therapist made me realize it, lol. She said I never make the time to really value my accomplishments because I see them as something normal, everyday stuff. And that was when I went, “wow, look at all these people supporting us on Patreon, those sending us their verbal support, those always adding us in their ‘top 5’, ‘top 10’, those wishlisting us on steam” (

You must be registered to see the links

, wink, wink), and I was just so surprised that something that was born from a freaking tweet looking for a writer for a little game with pictures got to become all that.

Gizmo: Same here. I think when we first started I used to joke around a lot saying, “yeah, I’m just working on my little porn game” and then once I looked at the first finished chapter I started valuing for what it really was, which is, as someone said very accurately in the zone, “OUR BABY” lol I like your therapist. Your turn.

Grogu: Hold on, I’m trying to find the questions I had… in the meantime, how can you tell whether a woman you’re with has come?

Gizmo: You can answer that in game.

Grogu: Which part was the hardest for you to write and why? I feel like I asked you that with Chapter 1 and I liked it ‘cause your answer really stuck with me.

Gizmo: (Long pause) I had to think that one through lol. I think the scene I kept going back the most, over and over again, was the one of Amy with the flowers. Something that I once heard that I try to implement is that you don’t want your characters to sound like a therapist. If they already know exactly what their problem is and they detail it to you, the growth they can achieve is not gonna be as clear or as interesting. People are like ogres, or onions. I’ve no idea how many damn times I revised and edited that scene (and the whole chapter in both paths), but it was always about trying to go to an outer layer of the things they were saying, so they wouldn’t sound as self-aware with some things - but they did on others wherever it felt right.

Grogu: I’m taking notes here so I can teach chatgpt for when you eventually leave us.


Gizmo: “Us”, as in you and “our baby” lol.

Grogu: I knew some day I found find some use for this:



Gizmo: So precious. Okay, hold on, I don’t have the questions here either. Oh, was there any time in which you just wanted to give up and abandon everything?

Grogu: It’s not a definite “yes”, but when my video card died, my whole world came down. I used to use it for my full time job as well, and suddenly I couldn’t do either. I went from having a good card (3060) to a 1060, and others I would sometimes borrow, and for work that’s very limiting. For those who know, 6gb in DAZ for a game is possible but it’s torture once you introduce more than two characters, environments, not to mention cats or dogs… with time I learned a lot of resource optimization skills and we were able to get by, but it all worked out in the way it had to and I trusted that (very shitty) process.

Gizmo: This whole time was about “trusting the (very shitty) process”.

Grogu: I’d like to ask you the same question back.

Gizmo: You know what? Not at all. In my case, being able to write something I can consider “good enough” is tied closely to my emotions and mood and, even when it was impossible to do so, I never even thought of dropping it, because I knew I would come back to it. SoP became kind of my lifeline, my alfajor after school, that thing that made me feel like it was worth doing it, no matter how long it took.


Did that count as a question or did you have another one?

Grogu: I do have one more, maybe my last one. Any message you would send to people who are just starting out with SoP and who have played other AVNs on what they might find here that could be “different”?

Gizmo: I just doubt those people would bother reading all this lol (honestly, I never know who actually reads this, but I love doing it anyway). I never liked comparing much (although it’s inevitable) but, in very general terms, I would say SoP has a lot of emphasis on the story and your journey with it and the characters. That some choices in it really matter, and some others are a “bacon omelet or belgian waffle” sort of thing (Life is Strange reference), and it’s intentional because, well, that’s life itself. That it has adult content, but that’s not the focus of the story, neither something I would personally categorize as “porn”. That we don’t think of the story in terms of “tags”. Things that people may be used to in AVNs such as “lesbian”, “harem”, in my mind they sound more like “queer”, “polyamorous relationships”. I will say that, as many other devs, we put a lot, so much love and hard work into it and we truly hope it shows.

Grogu: I love that. I would add, sorry about the bugs, I’m not a real coder and, please, don’t go into the code, it’s a mess. Gracias.



Gizmo: Lol. Alright, my last one then. Since the title of this chapter is “Lessons”, which one would you say was the most important lesson you learned through this chapter?

Grogu: (Long pause) Fuck, I just typed a longass answer and then my battery died.

Gizmo: NooOooOoooo! Insert 'dramatic Tony' image here.


Grogu: In general, SoP is an experiment that, despite all the shit it has gone through in its development, I am very happy with, and despite how complex making a VN is for many reasons, that rewarding feeling you get from others enjoying it is such a good one. From the chapter itself, after playing it about 7000 times, I’m always gonna remark that, something I love about SoP is that each person who plays it can interpret it in a completely different way to mine, which I think is great, and that’s 100% your accomplishment, so kudos to you. I love what a strong personality Amy and Becca can have, just as much as their moments of vulnerability.

I want your answer too, and then I have some final words (it sounds like I’m dying).

Gizmo: Don’t die yet, there’s still two more chapters to go!

Can I just say I agree and that’s it? Except for the part in which you gave me 100% of the credit. The visual part plays a huge role and I feel like you’re constantly elevating the script to something so much more beautiful/amazing/sexier/emotional than I could have imagined, and it never ceases to surprise me, even though I trust you blindly. I really wanna hear those final words now.

Grogu: For my final words I want to thank all the patrons who have stuck with us throughout all these uncertain times when Chapter 2 wasn’t coming. I’ve read people say the game was abandoned, that we were MIA, that we promised something that would never see the light of day, and I understand that’s something that happens sometimes in this industry, but you guys were always there for us, and you were the engine that kept us going. I will always appreciate and remember that. Gracias.

Gizmo: What he said. And I'll add, literally each cent you have supported us with counts. I truly hope one day we get to be able to devote all the time we'd truly wish we could devote to this, because I literally have a folder with those five other projects we keep talking about and I'd love to see at least one of them shine lol.



Narrator voice: Last March, Grogu and Gizmo finally met in person. They shared a few shots that were nowhere as good as Tony's or Daniel's. Grogu called Gizmo an alcoholic, Gizmo called Grogu a pussy. They became more than strangers, more than business partners. They became friends.
*cue corny music*

 

[Yuri L]

One thing I appreciated on the Amy route was that Daniel/MC isn't a pushover. He called out Amy on her BS regarding her friends and yet was very respectful about the way he did so without crossing a line which Amy did. Even the chance to apologise is a choice rather than forced dialogue so you can choose whether Amy deserved one or not. Refreshing change from so many MC's I see who just bend over backwards for the girl.

 

[Nufl088]

Is the dev argentinian/uruguayan or something? The dulce de leche thing and the comments from certain players they shared had slang words from those parts. Anyway, just an observation.

 

[gloomyghost]

Is the dev argentinian/uruguayan or something? The dulce de leche thing and the comments from certain players they shared had slang words from those parts. Anyway, just an observation.

Both of us are from Argentina indeed! There's one or two references to that in Chapter 1, and then for Chapter 2 we may have gone a little wild and threw a bunch of them (some very in-the-nose, some just as easter eggs lol)

 

[Geralt From Rivia]

Got acquainted with this great game today, all impressions that I will describe below are based on Becca's run.
There are not many great games on the AVNs market, there are about 15 of them. The rest is a gray mass of mediocre products in which you just need to fuck all the girls and the writing there is just a cover for this, that is, it doesn't exist. Such games are forgotten or abandoned due to their boredom. So, Strangers on Papers goes into the category of these 15 kings for me.
gloomyghost created living characters and you believe in their existence, amazing dialogues and connections on sensual level beetween them. A guy who loses confidence in himself talking to the crush of his teen ages, stutters, and says stupid things - it's very realistic, probably almost everyone has been in such a situation. A feeling of constant tension when you see how these two talk and they have a lot of unsaid. Their looks at each other, incredible detail in facial expressions and emotions, feeling of sexual tension that is transmitted through the screen. And this is accompanied by ideal camera angles, something similar I saw in Summer Heat.
This game has a unique cinematic style and here immediately a small minus - 21:9 aspect ratio like in a movie theater, inconvenient for a screen with a standard 16:9. Black frames haunt all the time.
Probably it is worth saying that this is not a porn game for jerking off and the sex scenes here are more artistic-erotic than pornographic, and it would be worth adding this to the disclaimer. This game is art, not just porn. Because many who came just to jerk off will be disappointed and aggressively write reviews with one star. But the game has a fair 5/5. Great work.

Aaaand a blue-haired girl with a guy in a tree house...That reminds me of something

 

[donbas]

人間失格 - Disqualified from being a human or Failure as a human being.

 

[CrazyRabbit]

View attachment 3945442
人間失格 - Disqualified from being a human or Failure as a human being.

Now I understand why those were also on my birth certificate