Ren'Py Abandoned The DeLuca Family [Season 1] [HopesGaming]

[matschbirne]

found it in another game thread... *thx Lykanz

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[Paco Loco]

Why isn't this game marked as abandoned?
Last update was more than a year ago

TWO reasons:

First:

The game won't be abandoned. With true Christian games only the pope can decleare them as abandoned.

Second:

Lastly, the real reason for the prolonged update time is that I add one minute to the release date every time someone asks about the release date.

 

[Cartageno]

Because F95 has its rules regarding when a game will get that tag and this VN hasn't gotten to that point. Maybe read up on the rules first?

Apparently there also is an unwritten rule, which came up in and down on another thread, which is 18 months without an update regardless of dev communication. Which would be in 5 months time.

 

[Cartageno]

Sorry but I've played the game multiple times and the mc makes it clear in that opening scene that he's that he's just out of high school. That he hasn't had a chance to go to university and start a life. He's pretty clearly 18.

However, we're talking the Italian school system here, which has the equivalent of high school (the term as such doesn't exist) end at 19. And "not having had a chance to go to university" does not necessarily equal "fresh out of high school" if you don't take "no chance" as literally zero percent possibility but as "stuff happened and so it got pushed back".

 

[HopesGaming]

Hey Hopes, again, had some questions, and thought perhaps you could answer them:

1) Will Luna & Amata be sharing screentime in the near future? With them both being Cynthia's students, I'm curious as to how their banter would go and what their relationship with each other is like.

A: Yes they will. They have a close relationship due to both being Cynthia's students.

2) Which Family's sigil/symbol is your personal favorite, and consider it the coolest looking? Can be any Family (well, sans DeLucas I guess, let's make it fair lol) whether it's one of the past or current Big Fives or smaller Families.

A: Haven't made enough logos to really have a personal. Ask me again in a few updates heh

3) "The Mark" that Jalen mentions in his event that shows one is a "part of the core Kaskar Family."
How does it apply to the women who marry into the Family (e.g. Aunt Layla being Pops' wife), or daughters who may not be interested in Family business (Charvi, who by Jalen's words seems to imply just loves partying and isn't really concerned with her Family's business)?
I'm guessing such Family members are just excluded from the Mark, i.e. core Family and the Family's business matters (like Kay Adams situation in the Corleone Family)?

A: Only the ones who are deep into the core 'business' part of the Family gets the mark. If Jalen stayed out of the business, like he was meant to, he would still be part of the family but just not with the mark.

4) This is a suggestion for addition on Lore section.
Could we get a chronological timeline of all the events that happened?

For instance, if I wanted to know how long it has been since "The Big War" (that changed the Big 5 dynamic) till "The Devil's Shadow" (Carnefice Family's extinction by Ombras) I might find out by looking up at the timeline.


An example of timeline I thought of is this (of how it may look like):

Year -29: Cordia DeLuca is born.

Year -10: Antonio DeLuca is born
Year -9: Isabel DeLuca (maiden surname nee "X") is born.

Year -5: Events of The Big War that changes the Big 5 Dynamic.

Year 0: MC (Hope or whatever name player chooses) is born. Jalen Kaskar is born.
Year 1: Luna DeLuca is born.
Year 2: Gracie DeLuca is born.

Year 6: Events of "Portend" flashback takes place.
Year 7: Events of "My name is Luna" flashback takes place.

Year 16: Isabel suffers a miscarriage of her and Antonio's child.

Year 19: Carnefice Family is driven to its end by Ombra Family's attack ("The Devil's Shadow")

Year 20: MC (Hope or player name) is brought to the DeLuca Family and he is forced upon a Contract.


As you can see, the timeline is based on MC's age (just assumed he was 20 at current time don't know whether that's accurate); I set his birth year as year zero and worked around everyone else's age and events around that (of course, years for some of the events like the Big War or Devil's Shadow I just guessed them).

Something like above I think would be pretty cool (though I have to say Rovenant's timeline looks superior in terms of visuals haha), at first the timeline just has the essentials (characters' birth year etc) and all the events that were shown or told (for e.g. "My name is Luna" "The Devil's Shadow" etc), but with more events shown (with more updates), more and more of the timeline's chronology gets filled up.


A: No plans for that. I like the more loosely based style of writing the lore. When I read lore and history, the fun part of it is to try and 'glue' it all together based on the information the worlds provide.

5) Speaking of timeline, with Season 1 soon coming to an end, how much time did it take from start of the game (when MC is brought into the Family), till the Season finale? Couple of months? A year?

In addition to that, will we see characters aged up a little bit in season 2 and/or season 3 (particularly MC, Luna, Gracie, and others of same/similar age like Jalen, Dominico, Siobhan, Eiza etc, so that the characters have matured a bit in terms of their looks?

A: No real date set of how long. But around a year wouldn't be too wrong. He is starting to be more relaxed in the Family.
I don't think the time difference is enough to make any skin changes. Mostly style changes, if any.

6) One more for the lore; any chance you'd be interested in a territory map for the DeLuca world in terms of visuals? This is an Italian mafia map with territories for different Families etc.

Given there are several Families existing in DeLuca world, I'd be quite interested in seeing the territory areas of each Family, showing the whole balance of power (given it's all fictional map doesn't need to be based on actual land like Italy, just showing how big each Family's piece of pie is in terms of territories?)

A: We need to get far deeper into the story and lore before anything like a map can be drawn. And even then, I'm not sure of it yet. The DeLuca Verse is heavily inspired by Italy, but it is in its own universe. Having a map shaped like Italy may take the 'deluca verse' out of it and make it 'real'.

After replaying again this amazing VN, I wanted to ask you a question. Are we going too far with our theories and searching for every tiny detail? Because sometimes when you really like a game you start to see in a level of details that can surpass the expectation of the devs. Im not asking if we are correct, because we will know in the future updates, but are we overanalyzing the dialogs, or are we in the "range of expectation" of the details you created?

In any case, I really appreciate you always coming here to answer or questions and giving us info about the content.

A: No, I enjoy people writing theories and talking about the lore. Some of the theories are close, others are far. But that is to be expected. The forum format just make it a bit hard to have these theories as they will soon get buried in other comments. Many golden theories have been forgotten it seems due to that.

Hi, any chance we can get a progress update on the code?

Last I remember, you posted on discord saying you were just testing the final part.

Sincere apologies for being the annoying "Are we there yet?" guy, but I'm really excited to play the next update, can't help myself.

Yes, he gave me a message last night that he was very close to finish what he needs.

 

[Rovenant]

I just took a look through the entire Introduction event (through replay gallery, Story 0) and nowhere in it did MC say he's just out of high school.

And I've played the game multiple times as well, and yet don't remember it actually specifying MC's age.

My guess is either he and Jalen are either same age as Luna (19) or slightly older (perhaps by 1~3 years), but the game doesn't really give any evidence of specific age for the MC.

We know that he and Jalen are same age (or almost). And Jalen was going to law school, then abandoned to help Pops, and it looks like he was some time in the family from what he said. Thats why I think 25 is a good number.

If MC has the same age as Luna, then its strange that they were scouting him at the same time period that Luna was being held by M6, or little after that (looks like wasting resoruces).

Then again he was 16 when going to live alone, but at that time he was protected by Pops (probably) the one that pulled string to allow him to live alone being under 18.
And he thought Isabel wasnt much older than him. If we think about all that Ill say 23~25 makes sense.

 

[Paco Loco]

And he thought Isabel wasnt much older than him. If we think about all that Ill say 23~25 makes sense.

I'll go a little bit far and say 21~25, just because 'Isabel wasn't much older' is pretty vague.

I think the way the MC made that comment is more about 'less than 10 years older' or something close to this.

 

[Rovenant]

I'll go a little bit far and say 21~25, just because 'Isabel wasn't much older' is pretty vague.

I think the way the MC made that comment is more about 'less than 10 years older' or something close to this.

Ok, here we have the Timeline with MC at 21 years old in the present. If we follow this theory then almost a year after Luna was released by M6, MC father left him. Then, if we think MC was scouted by Wilfred (and others) around his 8~10 years old, then it was almost at the same time Luna was abducted by M6, so this makes hard to accept this unless they were scouting him until Luna event started, and that was Guildart memories.

 

[Paco Loco]

Ok, here we have the Timeline with MC at 21 years old in the present. If we follow this theory then almost a year after Luna was released by M6, MC father left him. Then, if we think MC was scouted by Wilfred (and others) around his 8~10 years old, then it was almost at the same time Luna was abducted by M6, so this makes hard to accept this unless they were scouting him until Luna event started, and that was Guildart memories.

View attachment 1828196

Oh crap.

This timeline chart is almost like a bullying! How can I present my stupid theories against this?

See? JJJ84 ? This is all your fault!

 

[Rovenant]

Oh crap.

This timeline chart is almost like a bullying! How can I present my stupid theories against this?

See? JJJ84 ? This is all your fault!

All my theories were inspired by yours, Ill always remember how you lured me into the false flag operation theory and I wasnt able to leave that place.

But, your theory still is possible. And makes sense in some points. We just are assuming a lot of numbers. But I love your theories hahaha

So, I know what will happen in the next update:

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[Paco Loco]

All my theories were inspired by yours, Ill always remember how you lured me into the false flag operation theory and I wasnt able to leave that place.

But, your theory still is possible. And makes sense in some points. We just are assuming a lot of numbers. But I love your theories hahaha

So, I know what will happen in the next update:

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In my defense, I could say the 'false flag' theory is pure bullshit makes sense if you have some LSD when you perceive there is Floaty 'someone' pulling the strings all over the place just to make the MC a complete paranoid and lead him to some planned objectives!

 

[nitkonikic]

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Currently, there is 0 differences in main story no matter what you choose or select.
Hell, I've done playthrough with 0 girl interactions and all negative selections (mod used), only done mandatory Luna side quest (no quests done for other 2 girls) and main story plays out beat for beat same as if MC chased all of them (including dialogues).

There's really no reason to play multiple paths for now.

 

[Cartageno]

Currently, there is 0 differences in main story no matter what you choose or select.
Hell, I've done playthrough with 0 girl interactions and all negative selections (mod used), only done mandatory Luna side quest (no quests done for other 2 girls) and main story plays out beat for beat same as if MC chased all of them (including dialogues).

There's really no reason to play multiple paths for now.

Since it has been said that there will be different paths depending on which girl you like to get in the long run, this will probably change however. Already now we can choose to follow Isabel more closely or leave her be, which indeed does not have any other consequence than the obvious one as of now. I, too, doubt however that the main course of action, like what happens with other families, will majorly change depending on this. First it would need an in-story reason to do so, then it would be a work nightmare.

 

[nitkonikic]

Since it has been said that there will be different paths depending on which girl you like to get in the long run, this will probably change however. Already now we can choose to follow Isabel more closely or leave her be, which indeed does not have any other consequence than the obvious one as of now. I, too, doubt however that the main course of action, like what happens with other families, will majorly change depending on this. First it would need an in-story reason to do so, then it would be a work nightmare.

Oh, I didn't write that as criticism of a game.
I run multiple paths on almost all VNs I play, it's just one of those and noticed there are no differences to going for everything route (so to speak).

I'll judge the game later on how big it's on consequences delivery.
Just saying that as of current update there is no reason to play multiple paths, won't see any different scenes, different dialogues or anything such.

 

[Cartageno]

Oh, I didn't write that as criticism of a game.
I run multiple paths on almost all VNs I play, it's just one of those and noticed there are no differences to going for everything route (so to speak).

I'll judge the game later on how big it's on consequences delivery.
Just saying that as of current update there is no reason to play multiple paths, won't see any different scenes, different dialogues or anything such.

Sorry if I came over badly, I didn't take your comment as a criticism (as in "negative comment" as opposed to the other meaning of "evaluation of quality") at all. And for now you are correct since there are no consequences. However, if you do not want to restart you probably already want two saves since there was a potentially major decision even if consequences are not known yet.

 

[Rovenant]

Currently, there is 0 differences in main story no matter what you choose or select.
Hell, I've done playthrough with 0 girl interactions and all negative selections (mod used), only done mandatory Luna side quest (no quests done for other 2 girls) and main story plays out beat for beat same as if MC chased all of them (including dialogues).

There's really no reason to play multiple paths for now.

Programing a lot of paths is a really hard work, so usually you have mid and end game differences. But if you read the "?" icon in the game, you can read what kind of situations you will see different reactions from MC (depending on the personality trait you build). And probably there will be a scene locked if you dont have the requeriments, and that means you cant have all the girls in the same playthrough.

Its really rare that a VN has more than different dialogs, because usually the story never changes. Its a hell to program that (I did it in the past for bookgames) and just for every different outcome you need to have multiple variables going, and its really time consuming to do.
So I dont think we are expecting some big difference in the plot itself, but in the path and reactions we play, maybe.

But at least this game is replayable for the girls, so Ill have 4 for every one of them.

What I want to do is prepare all the paths with time (at least one for every girl) and if the story or some outcomes change Ill have some more. And maybe there are some secrets if you play some combination, so any dialog changing it will be important (you can see we are going crazy with the theories, so every detail counts haha)

 

[JJJ84]

We know that he and Jalen are same age (or almost). And Jalen was going to law school, then abandoned to help Pops, and it looks like he was some time in the family from what he said. Thats why I think 25 is a good number.

If MC has the same age as Luna, then its strange that they were scouting him at the same time period that Luna was being held by M6, or little after that (looks like wasting resoruces).

Then again he was 16 when going to live alone, but at that time he was protected by Pops (probably) the one that pulled string to allow him to live alone being under 18.
And he thought Isabel wasnt much older than him. If we think about all that Ill say 23~25 makes sense.

Ok, here we have the Timeline with MC at 21 years old in the present. If we follow this theory then almost a year after Luna was released by M6, MC father left him. Then, if we think MC was scouted by Wilfred (and others) around his 8~10 years old, then it was almost at the same time Luna was abducted by M6, so this makes hard to accept this unless they were scouting him until Luna event started, and that was Guildart memories.

View attachment 1828196

Regarding Jalen, well I always thought Jalen is same age as MC or just an year older.
In early game, Jalen sends an email to MC saying the "You're probably gonna think I'm stupid, but I left my lawyer job. Pops needs me"
For all we know, Jalen could have been just a year in at being a legal intern or having just finished his legal internship. Putting Jalen in this position gives some flexibility to what his age might be.

As for MC, well, it's been referenced/alluded by many in the Family (such as "Serpent", Gildart etc) that the DeLucas have made a significant investment in the MC throughout his life until he was brought to their mansion with the contract; not just the early scouting, but continuous surveillance to gauge his skills and abilities.
DeLucas were simply making a long term ongoing investment, which they'd not see the fruits of it until they brought MC in.

And in your timeline, yes, they could very well have been scouting the MC before My name is Luna flashback event, but even if it coincides with My name is Luna flashback, would it be such an issue?

In my eyes, not really. Yes, the way Wilfred described Cordia's state during that period was that she was on a warpath to find Luna (willing to go to war against everyone), but even if Cordia's order as a Donna was "all hands on deck" to find Luna, Wilfred being Wilfred, I can definitely see him putting some budget aside "off the books" behind Cordia's back and didn't consider it a waste (considering how valuable MC considered to the Family now. And despite Cordia being the Donna, I'd assume there's several things Wilfred does behind her back. Some she is aware and willingly turns a blind eye to, other, I think she's probably unaware).
And given his role as Consigliere, I'd assume Wilfred is used to multitasking even under intense pressure.

Now, I'm not saying it necessarily happened this way, but even so I'm leaving the door open in terms of MC age, to be set younger (between 19~21).
There just isn't enough evidence or specifics said/shown within the game itself, so in my view it gives flexibility as to how old MC may actually be.

 

[Rovenant]

Regarding Jalen, well I always thought Jalen is same age as MC or just an year older.
In early game, Jalen sends an email to MC saying the "You're probably gonna think I'm stupid, but I left my lawyer job. Pops needs me"
For all we know, Jalen could have been just a year in at being a legal intern or having just finished his legal internship. Putting Jalen in this position gives some flexibility to what his age might be.

As for MC, well, it's been referenced/alluded by many in the Family (such as "Serpent", Gildart etc) that the DeLucas have made a significant investment in the MC throughout his life until he was brought to their mansion with the contract; not just the early scouting, but continuous surveillance to gauge his skills and abilities.
DeLucas were simply making a long term ongoing investment, which they'd not see the fruits of it until they brought MC in.

And in your timeline, yes, they could very well have been scouting the MC before My name is Luna flashback event, but even if it coincides with My name is Luna flashback, would it be such an issue?

In my eyes, not really. Yes, the way Wilfred described Cordia's state during that period was that she was on a warpath to find Luna (willing to go to war against everyone), but even if Cordia's order as a Donna was "all hands on deck" to find Luna, Wilfred being Wilfred, I can definitely see him putting some budget aside "off the books" behind Cordia's back and didn't consider it a waste (considering how valuable MC considered to the Family now. And despite Cordia being the Donna, I'd assume there's several things Wilfred does behind her back. Some she is aware and willingly turns a blind eye to, other, I think she's probably unaware).
And given his role as Consigliere, I'd assume Wilfred is used to multitasking even under intense pressure.

Now, I'm not saying it necessarily happened this way, but even so I'm leaving the door open in terms of MC age, to be set younger (between 19~21).
There just isn't enough evidence or specifics said/shown within the game itself, so in my view it gives flexibility as to how old MC may actually be.

I thought Jalen said he left law school, not law job. But I went to the game again after your message and you are right. But that makes it look older, not younger. At least 22+ years (and the way he said Pops didnt like he left that job, and after all he fought to stay away from that world I think years passed and he probably is closer to 25 than 21 (this is my guess hahaha, but as you said, no real evidecen yet).

About MC being scouted, I didnt say they leave him after the Luna event, just that makes sense taking a pause at that point, and when MC father left and Rina started acting less motherly. Remember Guildart asking if he needed to intervine or not to Wilfred just because some kids were beaten MC, that can be expected, so if Rina is harming MC its hard to believe they will not care enough to intervine (it can be a risk and they can lose him).
And Cordia wasnt the only one acting to find Luna, remember that even Wildred feels attached to the girls, so even if he can, its hard to believe he will not using all of the resources to find her.
What Im trying to say is that in some numbers the events colide more than in others. It isnt impossible, just harder to explain.

But I made the timeline so if we find more info supporting that theory we already made one.

 

[JJJ84]

This is gonna be a long-ass post, so I'll split it up, heh.

I thought Jalen said he left law school, not law job. But I went to the game again after your message and you are right. But that makes it look older, not younger. At least 22+ years (and the way he said Pops didnt like he left that job, and after all he fought to stay away from that world I think years passed and he probably is closer to 25 than 21 (this is my guess hahaha, but as you said, no real evidecen yet).

The "lawyer job" can be very much subject to interpretation.
On one hand, it could mean Jalen was a full-fledged lawyer by the time he gave it up as you said (placing him much older in terms of age), but on the other hand, as I've stated before, Jalen could have just been a legal intern (and yes, internship can be considered a form of employment, depending on the work that is being done.

Also, minimum age for internship varies depending on the country. While common minimum age of internship for a law office seem to be 18 or 19, I've even seen online some claim they hired high school students who were 16 or 17 years old.

Here is the possible scenario by me:

After graduating high school, Pops pulled a lot of strings (through bribes, threats etc) to get Jalen an internship with a prestigious Law firm (which requirements to get in are very high), to get his son away from the Family business.

Jalen spends around a year or so learning and working for the firm for the internship period, but he hears of a mole in the Family so decides to come back getting the title "The Returned Prince."

So it can work even with Jalen at a younger age.

About MC being scouted, I didnt say they leave him after the Luna event, just that makes sense taking a pause at that point, and when MC father left and Rina started acting less motherly. Remember Guildart asking if he needed to intervine or not to Wilfred just because some kids were beaten MC, that can be expected, so if Rina is harming MC its hard to believe they will not care enough to intervine (it can be a risk and they can lose him).

With MC, I find it harder to believe the Family (especially Wilfred and his intelligence network, which I'd say is not eclipsed by most Families) would put a pause on it at My name is Luna flashback point though.
If they started having surveillance and intelligence gathering on MC from before Luna was taken, then I find it it makes more sense for Wilfred's intelligence team to continue working on that to some extent even during the time of Luna's abduction.

Cordia may say "all hands on deck", but I can see Wilfred leaving bare essential personnel & resources to keep track of MC (more resources allocated to finding Luna, but still continuing to keep tabs on MC).

This for me, feels like more likely actions Wilfred would take, instead of putting pause on surveillance/intelligence on MC for 7 months (period which Luna was taken), and come back after that period to find out his information on MC is outdated (as considering he's known to be pretty darn thorough in pretty much......everything, stopping or pausing on surveillance/intelligence on MC just seems out of character given what we've seen of Wilfred in the game).

And Cordia wasnt the only one acting to find Luna, remember that even Wildred feels attached to the girls, so even if he can, its hard to believe he will not using all of the resources to find her.
What Im trying to say is that in some numbers the events colide more than in others. It isnt impossible, just harder to explain.

But I made the timeline so if we find more info supporting that theory we already made one.

With Wilfred, yes he has attachment to the girls. But you've also got to remember that Cordia wasn't acting rationally during that time (which is understandable given Luna was taken away. She was 100% emotional, and threw away her rational side she displays most of the time).
She was basically willing to burn all bridges (Wilfred's own words in My name is Luna event) to the point of being reckless.

So I can see Wilfred being a Jiminy Cricket to Cordia during this period, and even hold back some funds and resources for other endeavors should he believe resources being committed to them are justified.
And given Wilfred puts the Family (not just the core Family members but the organization as a whole) above all else, I really don't think it would be out of character for a side "off the books" project.


Just because Finding Luna is the primary focus of the Family during that period, it doesn't necessarily mean that would be the only thing on Wilfred's mind (or only thing that he would be doing). He just wears far too many hats and bears too many responsibilities to be focused only on that one issue (Luna being taken by M6) despite caring deeply for Luna and Gracie like his own Family.

That's how I see Wilfred during that time. Being attached to Luna and Gracie doesn't necessarily pull him away from his other responsibilities even when she was taken.
In fact, him still getting involved in other matters (to lesser extent than before, due to the circumstances, but still undertaking them) compared to Cordia who would be thinking about Luna and nothing else I think does bring a good balance of how DeLucas would have handled ALL matters during this Luna abduction time (I mean, given Cordia's state during that time someone else in the Family's top brass would have needed to stay rational).

That doesn't mean Wilfred cares any less for Luna just cause not 100% of resources were used.
It's just how Wilfred (I feel) is as a character. He just has too many obligations and responsibilities for the Family as a whole and is less inclined to act emotionally than rationally.

But all in all, nothing is yet set in stone, so we'll see how it all goes, heh.

 

[Cartageno]

This is gonna be a long-ass post, so I'll split it up, heh.

You know, if this is a statement by JJJ, you're in for a treat. Better stock up on food and drink before reading