VN Ren'Py Stray Incubus [S2 Ch.2a] [Flynn974]

[JohnF95zone]

Spoiler

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Spoiler: Istella

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[RodrigoOSan]

Spoiler: Istella

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The Greek gods are mostly arrogant and assholes.

Athena could have just killed everyone in that village as a form of revenge, but she preferred a curse that attacked both residents and visitors. She wasn't expecting an attitude change, she just wanted to have some fun. Not to mention that she literally turned the victim into a monster and put her to kill people who tried to break the curse for eternity.

 

[mrttao]

Spoiler: Istella

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Remember that Istella is not a resident.

She is a passing visitor. the locals mislead her about the nature of the curse to hide from her the fact she will be ensnared and considered cursed herself if she spends more than 7 days in the village.

Thus a random innocent woman was cursed as well for... being tricked by a cursed wicked person
And this is not an oopsie in implementation. As athena is active there, and shows her ability to make exceptions in sparing your elf if you leave.

Also the curse is not "I will kill the wicked villagers if they expose their face". it is "I will kill innocent passer byes if the wicked villagers sees their face twice".... well, that and kill any wicked villager who tries to escape

The "curse" is not even really on the village. She cursed the victim into becoming a monster (fury), and then ordered the monster to kill people based on a set of rules. And when a powerful enough opponent comes to slay the monster, she sends an avatar of herself to protect the monster / negotiate exemptions.

10/10 perfect representation of greek gods.

 

[JohnF95zone]

Remember that Istella is not a resident.

She is a passing visitor. the locals mislead her about the nature of the curse to hide from her the fact she will be ensnared and considered cursed herself if she spends more than 7 days in the village.

Thus a random innocent woman was cursed as well for... being tricked by a cursed wicked person
And this is not an oopsie in implementation. As athena is active there, and shows her ability to make exceptions in sparing your elf if you leave.

Also the curse is not "I will kill the wicked villagers if they expose their face". it is "I will kill innocent passer byes if the wicked villagers sees their face twice".... well, that and kill any wicked villager who tries to escape

The "curse" is not even really on the village. She cursed the victim into becoming a monster (fury), and then ordered the monster to kill people based on a set of rules. And when a powerful enough opponent comes to slay the monster, she sends an avatar of herself to protect the monster / negotiate exemptions.

10/10 perfect representation of greek gods.

True that and perfect detailed explanations. I totally agree and get it that Istella is also an innocent victim turned into forced permanent residence, I just didn't make it clear, and summarized a lot in my speculations. Cheers.

 

[FingersForHands]

Loved the game and I've devised the perfect drinking game to accompany it: take a drink every time a render is a dutch angle. But seriously, the VN's pretty solid post chapter 1 once it starts to find a more stable identity. It's a bit dicey to start with due to all the disparate elements thrown in together and the meta-baggage that goes along with that (IE, MC's an incubus/ninja/Greek/demon-prince/demi-god), but once things get going it really coalesces into an interesting world that I'm looking forward to reading more about. Keep up the good work dev.

 

[Flynn974]

Actually now that it's pointed out, question: is the dutch angle (how renders are mostly a bit inclined) bothering?
I wanted to ask about that but kinda forgot. I found it nice. What do you guys think?

 

[JohnF95zone]

Actually now that it's pointed out, question: is the dutch angle (how renders are mostly a bit inclined) bothering?
I wanted to ask about that but kinda forgot. I found it nice. What do you guys think?

You can strike off my opinion because I don't even know what a dutch angle is . So, nothing bothers me at all. Heck I (sometimes) play games and watch movies while lying on my side on bed, on the couch so I practically used to see things at weird angles. Cheers.

 

[RodrigoOSan]

Actually now that it's pointed out, question: is the dutch angle (how renders are mostly a bit inclined) bothering?
I wanted to ask about that but kinda forgot. I found it nice. What do you guys think?

I have nothing against what you said, but some ambient music would be great for VN as a whole

 

[Flynn974]

I have nothing against what you said, but some ambient music would be great for VN as a whole

Yep. Music might be nice. I thought about putting in ambient music in general and since the game has a horror element, some creepy music and jump scare sound effects would come in nicely in those situations. It's just too much work, but I think I might do it at one point.

 

[JohnF95zone]

Yep. Music might be nice. I thought about putting in ambient music in general and since the game has a horror element, some creepy music and jump scare sound effects would come in nicely in those situations. It's just too much work, but I think I might do it at one point.

True, musics, soundtracks and sound effects in generals are great additions to the game which improve the overall experience (and immersion to a certain degree). Chapter 4 especially will be great with those creepy music and jump scare sound effect . Honestly, you could have hold Chapter 4 and released it today for Halloween, which is perfect IMHO (it gives you some time to fix/add some stuffs, dialogues, intermission-images etc.).

Although very nice, musics and sounds also add more work and size to the game. Depending on your plans and schedules, most likely add this one to the backlog for now. Honest disclaimer, just like the dutch angle, I am no audiophile so you can strike off my opinion on musical scores for Stray Incubus.

Also worth mentioning, that many dev that incorporate musics into their VN games had to actually hire a musician/artist to compose original music because of the music industry (recent changes) generally blacklisting adult games, something like that. Of course, there are a lot of free stock musics you can use but they have been used in like over 1000 games. Cheers.

 

[FingersForHands]

Actually now that it's pointed out, question: is the dutch angle (how renders are mostly a bit inclined) bothering?
I wanted to ask about that but kinda forgot. I found it nice. What do you guys think?

If you like them keep using them. I notice when filmmakers use dutch angles as well, but if I tried to tell Hitchcock how to set up a shot the crew would laugh me out of the room and the film would be better for it.

 

[mrttao]

Actually now that it's pointed out, question: is the dutch angle (how renders are mostly a bit inclined) bothering?
I wanted to ask about that but kinda forgot. I found it nice. What do you guys think?

Rather than the angle, I am bothered a little by the fact I am constantly interrupted with a page showing a picture of a girl with the name of the game.
It honestly looks like a loading screen. and happens far too often. It kinda breaks the flow and reminds me that I am playing a game, thus hurting immersion.

 

[JohnF95zone]

Rather than the angle, I am bothered a little by the fact I am constantly interrupted with a page showing a picture of a girl with the name of the game.
It honestly looks like a loading screen. and happens far too often. It kinda breaks the flow and reminds me that I am playing a game, thus hurting immersion.

Sir, I have 2 not so good news to you and some perhaps good news.

1. This is unfortunately (and technically) a game.
2. Player Immersion is usually not the highest priority that first time game developer focus on.

Having said that, Flynn974 listens to the feedbacks of players so we are most likely than not be seeing changes in future releases (not too drastic I hope). Just like the dutch angle, the 'intermission' images are also very subjectives, some like it while others hate it, but what importance is to find just the right balance or employing different techniques altogether.

I believe that Flynn will take into considerations many things when developing scenes in future but I hope whatever changes to the storytelling mechanics will NOT be done drastically, rather gradually. What I mean by that, is that I am hoping that for Chapter 5 onwards, there will be new storytelling mechanic introduced to replace the 'intermission' images while keeping the 'intermission' images minimum (and completely removed later perhaps in Chapter 7 if the new mechanic is well received and favored by all for example). Removing it completely for Chapter 5 is very drastic IMO. I also happens to like it a lot but I respect and support whichever decisions that Flynn makes. Cheers.

 

[mrttao]

This is unfortunately (and technically) a game.

True

but when I play a game I want to do this thing called immersion where I suppress my awareness of it being a game/fictional and I connect to the world and response as if I am experiencing real events and interacting with real people.

This magical mental technique, called immersion, vastly improves my enjoyment of fictional works. Apparently it is a pretty common thing that many humans experience.

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I believe that Flynn will take into considerations many things when developing scenes in future but I hope whatever changes to the storytelling mechanics will NOT be done drastically, rather gradually

There is no real mechanics here nor a need for a rewrite.
Just remove the loading screens that pop up every minute in the game. You can leave the rest the same.

 

[Flynn974]

True

but when I play a game I want to do this thing called immersion where I suppress my awareness of it being a game/fictional and I connect to the world and response as if I am experiencing real events and interacting with real people.

This magical mental technique, called immersion, vastly improves my enjoyment of fictional works. Apparently it is a pretty common thing that many humans experience.

You must be registered to see the links

There is no real mechanics here nor a need for a rewrite.
Just remove the loading screens that pop up every minute in the game. You can leave the rest the same.

Interesting article. I could use some of the tips there, so thanks!
I'll use these screens only as transition from one scene to another. They'll basically be something instead of a text on a black saying "Later...". Jumping from one scene to the next isn't gonna make sense otherwise. Another choice would be to not skip anything (including the characters just walking around from class to the training ground then to the cafeteria then to bed, etc...), which will not be good, trust me. Like the lord of the ring book where you'd find three pages saying how the characters were simply walking. The story's great, but I struggled to read it because these bits were way too boring. Nothing happens. They're just walking and looking at trees or sth.

 

[mrttao]

Interesting article. I could use some of the tips there, so thanks!
I'll use these screens only as transition from one scene to another. They'll basically be something instead of a text on a black saying "Later...". Jumping from one scene to the next isn't gonna make sense otherwise. Another choice would be to not skip anything (including the characters just walking around from class to the training ground then to the cafeteria then to bed, etc...), which will not be good, trust me. Like the lord of the ring book where you'd find three pages saying how the characters were simply walking. The story's great, but I struggled to read it because these bits were way too boring. Nothing happens. They're just walking and looking at trees or sth.

I personally would have preferred a "later"
Also, sometimes a scene transition doesn't really need anything.

Scene 1: you leave town
Scene 2: you reach the destination

you don't need a loading screen, or a black screen, or a later.
we realize that time has passed and they finished walking from point A to point B.

I would say part of the issue is the quantity and frequency of those loading screen scene transitions.
I am probably just against them because I saw too many of them. So rather than removing all of them it would probably be best to just scale back a bit with how frequently they are used

 

[JohnF95zone]

True

but when I play a game I want to do this thing called immersion where I suppress my awareness of it being a game/fictional and I connect to the world and response as if I am experiencing real events and interacting with real people.

This magical mental technique, called immersion, vastly improves my enjoyment of fictional works. Apparently it is a pretty common thing that many humans experience.

You must be registered to see the links

There is no real mechanics here nor a need for a rewrite.
Just remove the loading screens that pop up every minute in the game. You can leave the rest the same.

I can't get immerse in any game at all mainly because I know for a fact that they are just games, that is basically what prevents me. Looking at the renders already break immersion, especially Honey Select renders. The most promising gaming technology for immersion to me (according to my bias) is Unreal Engine 5, but then it is still very early in its inception. Even when mature, I think I need pretty solid hardware with that.

But yeah, I think first time game developer like Flynn974 did not prioritized or focused on player immersion for Stray Incubus. With this in mind, he/she will take into considerations for future releases so that most players will be more immersed into the game. Any techniques and theories will surely help making the game better.

Interesting article. I could use some of the tips there, so thanks!
I'll use these screens only as transition from one scene to another. They'll basically be something instead of a text on a black saying "Later...". Jumping from one scene to the next isn't gonna make sense otherwise. Another choice would be to not skip anything (including the characters just walking around from class to the training ground then to the cafeteria then to bed, etc...), which will not be good, trust me. Like the lord of the ring book where you'd find three pages saying how the characters were simply walking. The story's great, but I struggled to read it because these bits were way too boring. Nothing happens. They're just walking and looking at trees or sth.

I personally would have preferred a "later"
Also, sometimes a scene transition doesn't really need anything.

Scene 1: you leave town
Scene 2: you reach the destination

you don't need a loading screen, or a black screen, or a later.
we realize that time has passed and they finished walking from point A to point B.

I would say part of the issue is the quantity and frequency of those loading screen scene transitions.
I am probably just against them because I saw too many of them. So rather than removing all of them it would probably be best to just scale back a bit with how frequently they are used

With regards to mechanics, I was referring to storytelling, it was not the best terms but that is the term I used for it. Sorry for the confusion. Flynn974 explains what those 'intermission' images (or loading screens as you call it) actually are, transition scene. Most likely than not, these transition scenes will be toned down a bit and (I hope) in some cases replaced with another like just a simple text or maybe something else (surprise).


I would pobably give suggestions on some elements of the game too if I am a writer, game developer, or artist/designer, but I am none of those . I just enjoy the ride and looking forward to what Flynn974 is making and has to offer. As a casual simpleton player, the game is looking up. Cheers.

 

[Flynn974]

Hi! I hope you guys are doing well. Here's the weekly update. I've been very preoccupied with my thesis and my job. So, it looks like this chapter is gonna take longer than chapter 4. But I think it's gonna be larger as well. Have a great day!

A few peeks:

Spoiler

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[JohnF95zone]

Hi! I hope you guys are doing well. Here's the weekly update. I've been very preoccupied with my thesis and my job. So, it looks like this chapter is gonna take longer than chapter 4. But I think it's gonna be larger as well. Have a great day! View attachment 2141493

A few peeks:

Spoiler

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The butcher of Esyl? Murder mystery? Horror thriller? Interesting.

Are we getting cameo by Lady Gaga performing A Star Is Born? Or Lexi from Leap of Faith career peak performance?

We even have Ranni (Lunar Empress Renata) from Elden Ring.

Further development with Candy?

Looks big, a lot of contents so take your time, as much as required. Cheers.

 

[Mayonesa]

Spoiler: MC's Blood

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Other than that it is a great game Flynn974 I'm really enjoying it.