VN Ren'Py Summer's Gone [S1 Steam + DLC] [Oceanlab]

[Fortuna ღ]

This story caught me by surprise, it turned out quite differently than I expected.

I find it refreshing, that the story is focused on one girl for a change and there are not 200 choices who to be in relationship with and who to betray with whom.
Sure, the MC can be flirty or a loner, but it doesn't affect the main story too much. Of course some interaction between main girl and side characters will be necessary at some point if the guy keeps flirting with everyone.

It's not focused on one girl. Your experience will be determined according to who you've favored based on your choices, and the girl who that experience will be tailored around is not predetermined. There are 8 guaranteed main love interests(means they have endings), 4 additional main love interests(means that their statuses are subject to change), and 20+ lewdable characters in total. Honestly, the reason there hasn't been any real relationship drama is that we're still super early in the story. Bella's route is currently the most developed, and they haven't officially gotten together yet. I'd revisit this comment after a few updates lol.

 

[Cabin Fever]

This story caught me by surprise, it turned out quite differently than I expected.

I find it refreshing, that the story is focused on one girl for a change and there are not 200 choices who to be in relationship with and who to betray with whom.
Sure, the MC can be flirty or a loner, but it doesn't affect the main story too much. Of course some interaction between main girl and side characters will be necessary at some point if the guy keeps flirting with everyone.

Are you talking about the same game in which nearly half of the girls with more than a minor speaking role are confirmed LI's by the dev, and a significant portion of the rest are identified as possible LI's by the dev?

 

[Lorenz1]

Are you talking about the same game in which nearly half of the girls with more than a minor speaking role are confirmed LI's by the dev, and a significant portion of the rest are identified as possible LI's by the dev?

It is so far into the future for now that I doubt my children will get to play in romance with most of the characters.

 

[Nemo56]

Are you talking about the same game in which nearly half of the girls with more than a minor speaking role are confirmed LI's by the dev, and a significant portion of the rest are identified as possible LI's by the dev?

I didn't read any announcements, just played the story so far which was very focused except for the last chapter.

Oh well, so at some point it will be a jack of all trades again without any real focus . Shame. But it's good so far, so I dare to hope.

 

[Fortuna ღ]

I didn't read any announcements, just played the story so far which was very focused except for the last chapter.

Oh well, so at some point it will be a jack of all trades again without any real focus . Shame. But it's good so far, so I dare to hope.

What do you mean "without any real focus"? The focus is on Summer's disappearance and MC's desire to overcome his issues in order to become a better person. I don't think you'll find any top AVN that focuses exclusively on one LI. Not sure where you were going with that. You can focus exclusively on one LI with your choices, but other LIs exist. They're characters in what we call a story. They're not going to suddenly disappear when you pursue someone. Do other women suddenly disappear from your life when you pursue someone?

Edit: The story so far focuses heavily on Bella because she is the MC's project partner(amongst many other things). In the coming chapters, other female characters will become the focus. It's all tied to the main plot of the story. If you're pursuing Bella, then you'll see more of her regardless of the chapter's focus. This is the case for every main love interest that you pursue. Seeing as there are no harems in this game, you're going to have to focus on someone(or no one).

 

[Nemo56]

What do you mean "without any real focus"? The focus is on Summer's disappearance and MC's desire to overcome his issues in order to become a better person. I don't think you'll find any top AVN that focuses exclusively on one LI. Not sure where you were going with that. You can focus exclusively on one LI with your choices, but other LIs exist. They're characters in what we call a story. They're not going to suddenly disappear when you pursue someone. Do other women suddenly disappear from your life when you pursue someone?

Edit: The story so far focuses heavily on Bella because she is the MC's project partner(amongst many other things). In the coming chapters, other female characters will become the focus. It's all tied to the main plot of the story. If you're pursuing Bella, then you'll see more of her regardless of the chapter's focus. This is the case for every main love interest that you pursue. Seeing as there are no harems in this game, you're going to have to focus on someone(or no one).

Actually I found 2 Well 1.5, since one features on 2 ladies.

Problem with too many girls is, that it's impossible to get constant story supply for all of them, so most of the time it leaves people disappointed because their favorite girl doesn't get significant attention for months, because the developers are busy with the others. Then there's polls on who to focus next leaving the losers disappointed. Less girls means more story content for each of them. The main reason why I first thought this was focused on one was, because all the others kept appearing once in a while without anything to say really. And once the focus shifts to one of the others, the same might happen to those who the focus is currently on.
The emotional journey of the MC is the thing that keeps the story going, but not why people come and stay.

As I said, I dare to hope this works out.

 

[Fun Shaundi]

The elder Holgerson is trying to date her, doesn't mean she is trying to date him in return.
He is trying to date Amber, Amber is considering his action and his invitation as being neighborly.

Man, this is completely true, but am I the only one who isn't underestimating Amber in this sense?
Due to her profession, I doubt she doesn't know what Holgerson's real intention is.
I feel like Amber is way more clever, but as a good therapist able to read people, she just chooses to blatantly ignore his intentions and insist in just having neighborly interactions with him.
At the same time, this teaches Bella that she can't go out in life trying to fuck people up just because she dislikes them or want to date her mom: She has to learn to deal with it like 'normal' functional person.

 

[Fortuna ღ]

Actually I found 2 Well 1.5, since one features on 2 ladies.

Problem with too many girls is, that it's impossible to get constant story supply for all of them, so most of the time it leaves people disappointed because their favorite girl doesn't get significant attention for months, because the developers are busy with the others. Then there's polls on who to focus next leaving the losers disappointed. Less girls means more story content for each of them. The main reason why I first thought this was focused on one was, because all the others kept appearing once in a while without anything to say really. And once the focus shifts to one of the others, the same might happen to those who the focus is currently on.
The emotional journey of the MC is the thing that keeps the whole thing going, but not why people come and stay.

As I said, I dare to hope this works out.

Oceanlabs doesn't have that problem. He's a developer that puts story above everything, so I doubt it will ever get to that. When the focus is shifted, as seen with Bella in this very update, the LI you're pursuing will still function and be active in the background. They don't suddenly cease all function when they're not the main focus of a chapter. They continue on progressing their own subplots and having actual lives outside of the MC. They all have lives and don't exist solely for the player/MC to pursue.

Oceans has already formed the story in such a way that there'll always be content for the girls(which is to say, he kept some elements realistic). This isn't your standard AVN where patrons will vote for a specific scene or a specific character to receive the spotlight. Oceanlabs does not work like that. I'm not sure what you're accustomed to when playing other games, but things are a bit different here.

I'm also not sure what you were on about near the end of your post, but the story is the main reason 90% of players are still here. MC's internal plot and the external plot involving Summer's disappearance(the intrigue surrounding them) are what hooked a lot of players. Everything else followed naturally.

Edit: I'm speaking from my perspective as a writer. If SG were formed more like your standard AVN, your points would hold weight. The only problem is... it's not.

 

[Nemo56]

Oceanlabs doesn't have that problem, and probably won't ever have that problem. He's a developer that puts story above everything, so I doubt it will ever get to that. When the focus is shifted, as seen with Bella in this very update, the LI you're pursuing will still function and be active in the background. They don't suddenly cease all function when they're not the main focus of a chapter. They continue on progressing their own subplots and having actual lives outside of the MC. They all have lives and don't exist solely for the player/MC to pursue.

Oceans has already formed the story in such a way that there'll always be content for the girls(which is to say, he kept some elements realistic). This isn't your standard AVN where patrons will vote for a specific scene or a specific character to receive the spotlight. Oceanlabs does not work like that. I'm not sure what you're accustomed to when playing other games, but things are a bit different here.

I'm also not sure what you were on about near the end of your post, but the story is the main reason 90% of players are still here. MC's internal plot and the external plot involving Summer's disappearance(the intrigue surrounding them) are what hooked a lot of players. Everything else followed naturally.

Edit: I'm speaking from my perspective as a writer. If SG were formed more like your standard AVN, your points would hold weight. The only problem is... it's not.

We'll see. I would be very happy to be wrong. I just didn't find a VN yet that works as you describe - at least not a live one. The completed ones where you don't have to wait for a while between updates can work quite well this way, but not the ongoing stuff.

I also didn't say, that people don't come for the story. I only talked about his emotional journey, not all aspects of the story.
VNs I play/read for the story, but it makes not much difference if the MC has become a better man because he doesn't get into fights anymore or not. The interactions with the others are what makes it interesting.
We were told a few times that MC had no social life before, there was a warning not to overdo it. Without these conversations where either he or Name tell this to the reader one would never guess. He certainly doesn't act like it. When choosing the "best bestie to everybody" option, he never struggles, he never fails (at least so far). Don't get me wrong, these are nice details, they add some flavor, but they are definitly not the most interesting part of the story arcs.

Well, I hope for the best, it's still a long way to go.

 

[LostGhost]

Holgerson is married and still with his wife he only wants to bed with Amber

 

[Tairnel]

Why does daz give he so many problems? is it the program itself or the lack of memory on the 3090? other devs like Pink cake also use daz? is it maybe the fact of demanding such detailed scenes that puts the equipment in a tight spot? lack of a processor that runs the directories faster?

I have looked at him patreon out of curiosity and it says that with 2500 patrons he would acquire a render station, what exactly does that consist of and how would it improve the workflow?

Consists of 2 A6000 workstations with massive amount of cores and vram... the 3090s are meant for gaming so are not able to render as efficiently when compared to some workstation class gpus of the same gen.

 

[Tairnel]

you know like in real life? Unless I'm living under a rock and most guys bang their moms IRL.

I'm not saying it's better to make the mom an LI, but you're complaining about realism in an adult game which is very nearly a dating sim?

 

[Kirenenko]

 

[SmiLego]

I'm not saying it's better to make the mom an LI, but you're complaining about realism in an adult game which is very nearly a dating sim?

Calling Summer's Gone a "very nearly dating sim" is kind of mean to OceanLab.
And speaking of realism, a MC falling in love with his legal guardian seems more plausible than a 2 year old orphan, living with a landlady that isn't his legal guardian but is treating him just like one... I hope this whole thing get a bit smoother with the chapter 1 rework to prevent the steam people thinking "oh it's one of this game that's badly hiding the incest under landlady/roomate, refund please!"

View attachment 1900177

She went to buy some milk at the grocery store down the street, she should be back any minute now...
*looks at the clock*
Any minute...
*looks at the clock again*
I hope the milk hasn't gone sore after all this years of waiting... I bet she went back to get it change, yeah that's why it's taking so long!

 

[BeenThroughHell]

I really... really HAVE to download and play the GAME. lets do this ha ha

 

[murphy88]

Consists of 2 A6000 workstations with massive amount of cores and vram... the 3090s are meant for gaming so are not able to render as efficiently when compared to some workstation class gpus of the same gen.

Not exactly, 2 A6000 is what he is asking for with 1250 patrons, 2500 patrons is a rendering station and he has explained that it is a separate server that can host up to 10 GPUs.

 

[Quarron]

Not exactly, 2 A6000 is what he is asking for with 1250 patrons, 2500 patrons is a rendering station and he has explained that it is a separate server that can host up to 10 GPUs.

10 GPU huh? ZAMN!

 

[murphy88]

10 GPU huh? ZAMN!

Well, that's what you can fit in one of those racks, it doesn't mean that when he reaches those patrons he's going to have 10 A6000.

But I guess I would start with 4, with that you can advance faster and with less limitations than now.

 

[GeladoFeitan]

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i started to think about that too after that scene when the MC remembers summer and elsa, when elsa says what her mom thinks about summer she makes a very sad face, idk i think its possible but its a long shot, but it did comes to my mind when i saw this scene

 

[BorrXL]

///Hello,

It wasn't planned to do a second Bibi Log to tell people what's up with the final... But I underestimated Daz's scene opening times.

So, I'm currently 390/600 rendered images into the Final.
As you can clearly see, shit slowed down.

Many that have been following me for quite some time, might know that Daz has some atrocious loading times. (It loads all the morphs up for every character.)

On top of that... I had some problems building the outside of the college. There weren't any suitable assets and I had to improvise. That took a while.

But to give something back, I have some new comparisons and one simple Chapter 4 preview. (High Res for download at the bottom.)
Now I customized quite a lot and I have a clear vision of what I want to go for. s, a very big environment.

We start with the evening scenes after visiting Victoria.///

What is this? Is the author going to redraw the floor of the game?

---And does anyone have a new WALKTHROUGH of Chapter 4?