Ren'Py The Eternal Malevolence [v0.2] [.StaringAtTheSky]

[ryan1982]

the story, kinks and renders all seem great, but I really hate sandbox. I'll at least give it a try

 

[.StaringAtTheSky]

A very wholesome start; I enjoy power fantasy a lot, and the MC has got it nailed, plus, the story is good in that sense. In one way, MC is completely on top of others because of his mind remembering everything, and his powers, on the other, he still got to train, and to watch his back because of the threat of Wardens (=aka "The Unknown" at this point).

Also, decent writing, a reborn fantasy/medieval MC lord is not going to be squeamish about violence, blood and death. Thumbs up.

Thank you for your kind words, I was hoping to achive that level of "awareness" from MC about the opportunities he has and that ruthlessness he possesses, some times in similar games MCs are clueless and inexperienced in that regard and I, as a player, was hoping for something different so I decided to implement it in my own game, expecting people with similar views appreciate it, glad it worked.

- Is there going to be any mind control over unwilling subjects? Unwilling in the sense they realize they are under mind control, and dislike it, but can't do anything about it, versus what we saw about those girls being controlled so that they are unwitting and willing subjects. Like the MC could have (potentially) controlled the robber he killed, and had his revenge by controlling him, while the robber keeps his wits and realizes he is controlled, but unable to resist?

- Any torture planned for one's enemies?

Yes to both of those definitely, (here is a bit of spoiler) Wardens have a higher resitance to mind control so Im planning to play with that a little to achive said "unwilling mind control". As to torture, I'm not sure that is going to be full on bloody and cruel scene,though it's still a possibility, but something sexual in nature in similar regard will definitely happen.

- Any gay content considered maybe?

- The prologue didn't really have any choices to make. Is this going to be more like a kinetic novel, or should we expect some choices/paths later on?

Remarks.

I *really* liked this intro, so the remarks are not judgement, but just for your consideration.

- I would advise you to really consider reducing the number of clicks one has to do without "reward". By that, I mean the locations in the house. Sure, it feels satisfying from dev perspective to create "immersion" by having a "real" house where you have to actually go from place to place. But in reality when people will be playing for longer, they may become quite annoyed by the fact that you need 4 clicks just to go from kitchen to bathroom. There is nothing wrong with keeping the existing footpaths, if there is a shortcut bar added. It feels different when you play, compared to when you create it.

A gay content, for better or for worse, will not be a part of game. It doesn't resonate with me so I wouldn't even know how to write it and also I feel like this type of content should either be a major part of the game so that people who love it enjoy it properly, or shouldn't even be there because I feel like its just there for the sake of being there. That's how a think at least.

About choices, Some characters (Not sure that all of them) will have a few branches regarding your approach to them (Treat them good or bad, manipulate them or be honest, that type of stuff) and I will add a couple of choices here and there for flavor that don't really affect anything but make you feel like you playing a malleable character that you control rather than a fully established protagonist, BUT I have to be very careful with a bunch of choices and story branches since it takes a lot of time and I don't want there to be some paths that are on hold for forever.

About map movement, you're not the first to point that out so perhaps it would be for the best to add some other ways to navigate the game.

Thanks again for your feedback!

 

[Screening]

Thank you for your kind words, I was hoping to achive that level of "awareness" from MC about the opportunities he has and that ruthlessness he possesses, some times in similar games MCs are clueless and inexperienced in that regard and I, as a player, was hoping for something different so I decided to implement it in my own game, expecting people with similar views appreciate it, glad it worked.


Yes to both of those definitely, (here is a bit of spoiler) Wardens have a higher resitance to mind control so Im planning to play with that a little to achive said "unwilling mind control". As to torture, I'm not sure that is going to be full on bloody and cruel scene,though it's still a possibility, but something sexual in nature in similar regard will definitely happen.


Thanks again for your feedback!

I play a lot of mind control / maledom type games. And I want to re-enforce what santiago is saying. There are very few mind control games that provide for this & if you could achieve it that would work amazingly well. I feel that the story trope / hole that most mind control games fall into is the manipulate slowly and get the subject to love & willingly submit to the dom. I am sure there are people who enjoy that but for me that just feels very similar to a 'romance'/'lust' type game scenario.

Dude you have mind control power, you're evil and are out for revenge. Take whoever gets in your way, make them your playthings and make them regret their every day for ever standing up to you. Me, i'd love to play a game like that rather than one that makes excuses around how that awesome power works.

Anyway my two cents for whatever they're worth (about two cents i would imagine)

 

[harem.king]

There will be No NTR. I have nothing against it, but this is not that type of game. Regarding the story, I plan to make a couple of different story lines, which may or may not be connected with each other. Each one of these story lines will have one or a few characters that are connected to them. Some story lines will be optional, some will be necessary for the progression of the main one. Don't worry, to keep track, I will add the journal to track it all down in the future. I have a lot of different ideas and takes for these storylines.

In terms of "sharing" content, it is more of a corruption stage, what I mean by that is that if the player, and obviously, MC doesn't mind that other men want to take their turn with a certain character, MC will arrange that for various reason, for example it can be as simple as making money(You are in total control, but you whore some character out to make a quick buck) or it can be done for puprose of humiliating and degrading someone(Like in a revenge story-line), or if the character is not "yours" yet, the player(and MC) simply doesn't care that someone does something to them(But it can be stopped if you decide so). The point of sharing is not out out of necessity but to give the player some more kinky content if they into it. I know how people here are about these tags and fetishes so I'm going to do my best to make the story flow in a way that will never force the player to do these things and see them if he doesn't want to.
About your second question, every potential situation in the game that might lead to someone else other than MC doing something with other character will always have a choice to intervene in some way or stop it, you do not simply choose "not to see it" but in the background something is still happening. That won't be the case in my game. But with that being said, most of the kinks I put in tags(ones that are not so controversial) won't be avoidable simply because some of them(example: humiliation, male domination, slave etc.) serve the story line and going out of my way to somehow avoid it is just a lot of work that will result in a lot less content created.
Hope that I answered all your questions, thanks for taking an interest in my game.

You are contradicting yourself here.
First you say there is gonna be no NTR at all
Then you explicitly say there will be optional NeToRase (sharing)

So which is it?
And if it is the latter you should edit the first post to say "optional netorase" instead of "no NTR"

 

[OhGodNotAgain]

You are contradicting yourself here.
First you say there is gonna be no NTR at all
Then you explicitly say there will be optional NeToRase (sharing)

So which is it?
And if it is the latter you should edit the first post to say "optional netorase" instead of "no NTR"

Another dev trying to have their cake and eat it too.

 

[.StaringAtTheSky]

You are contradicting yourself here.
First you say there is gonna be no NTR at all
Then you explicitly say there will be optional NeToRase (sharing)

So which is it?
And if it is the latter you should edit the first post to say "optional netorase" instead of "no NTR"

I would actually argue with you on that subject. Firstly, on F95 everybody uses NTR as a short for Netorare, not netorase, that is proven by tons of games with that tag and their content, hell, its written in the tag rules itself, and when I say NO NTR i mean that there will be no netorare, nobody ever ever will even try and attempt to steal a girl that the MC is already involved in, there will be no jealousy involved regarding the MC, no humiliation in that regard, no helplesness, there will be nothing of that sort. What you are trying to do, is to use abbreviation that is commonly used for one specific thing and turn in into a collective term of every single interaction dynamic between MC, his girls, and other men. Should every single game where MC eventually steals a girl from another dude have an NTR tag because it stands for Netori? No, it doesn't happen.
Instead of constantly arguing that and thinking "Oh, what does this tag mean?How can it be interpreted?" I simply follow the rules of this forum, and if you open the tag page where every tag is listed with description what they mean, you will find what the forum decided NTR stands for, now I have a strict definition and I use it accordingly. And also, due to the nature of MC in my game and what he can do, the power dynamic between him and other girls can not be interpreted in a way, that would suit "netorase" term accordingly.

When F95 implements their new tag system they working on, I will be more than happy to make my game's tags as specific as possible. Until then, instead of constant arguing and infinite discussions that were done thousands of times under almost every single game on this forum, how about we just enjoy the games we like and skip those games which kinks we do share interest in.

With that being said, the fact that you stated this means that there will be some people with similar point of view to yours, so I guess in that regard I should explain myself more thoroughly in the "developer notes" section. For that I thank you

 

[Look-see]

Your feedback is very much appreciated, thanks.
I want to break down a couple of things and also throw a question in a discussion
Firstly, regarding the sandbox movement, I already implemented a convenient map for the school for the next update just the way you described it, but I'm not sure that the house map really needs. Maybe I'll change it, maybe not, still need to think about it.
Secondly, revenge path is definitely something that will happen, It will be a major story line so be patient.
I didn't want to add a sex scene with Astrid because I felt it was too much already happening in that portion of intro, but I don't know, maybe I was wrong
Render and models quality is something that is a work in progress, I'm still learning, so it will imrpove in the future
Regarding choices, in the main portion of the game I will add choices that add a flavor to the story, but I'm realistic about my abilities and too many branches would be just redundant since I cant work on all of them.
Thanks again for your feedback. Hope you stick around

i'll stick around for sure. nothing really in the game at the moment to make me leave.

as for Astrid sex scene i would say yes just so it really helps drive home some of what she had to deal with....also cause sex scene

 

[santiago_campanella]

Yes to both of those definitely, (here is a bit of spoiler)

More joy. Will be waiting for it. If it helps, I can join your Patreon... hmm, I wonder which one of my existing supported projects should I drop though... :-/

A gay content, for better or for worse, will not be a part of game. It doesn't resonate with me so I wouldn't even know how to write it and also I feel like this type of content should either be a major part of the game so that people who love it enjoy it properly, or shouldn't even be there because I feel like its just there for the sake of being there.

I appreciate the info. Not to try to influence you, but just relating to what you said -- I've never considered myself inclined this way either, until I saw some good m/m domination scenes (as part of generally m/f content), and realized that within that context it is hot to me. So, if you get mind control over male as well as female, why not experience some service from that side as well occasionally. But ofc you do you, I wouldn't presume. The beginning is very promising as it is.

About map movement, you're not the first to point that out so perhaps it would be for the best to add some other ways to navigate the game.

It is more of a pain if it is a true sandbox. If you go by story-driven VN, it may not be that relevant. There are a couple of sandbox games that do lots of locations well (for example, The Regional Manager (I'd recommend it heartily for anyone in maledom games for the content, but the navigation itself is also very simple and effective)).

I guess it is some psychological thing that, if you have one click to go across town, it feels a chore to do 3 clicks just to go from one place of the house to the other. But possibly it changes, depending if you have anything to do in the locations. If the whole house is full of your slaves monitoring each room and ready to be at your service, it will be completely different than if you just have to page to/from room that has nothing clickable and changeable.

BUT I have to be very careful with a bunch of choices and story branches since it takes a lot of time and I don't want there to be some paths that are on hold for forever.

Quite understood and very glad to see the reasoning. I am contemplating trying to make a historical maledom game in Colonial times, and I am currently also very unsure about how to do it so it doesn't feel kinetic, but I am not bogged down in multiple paths.

Good luck!

 

[harem.king]

I would actually argue with you on that subject. Firstly, on F95 everybody uses NTR as a short for Netorare, not netorase

F95 explicitly renamed the [NTR] tag to [Netorare] tag because everybody does NOT use NTR to exclusively mean Netorare only.
people kept on arguing about this nonstop.
According to the discussion thread for new tags, they are going to introduce [Netorase] and [Netori] tags soon.
So if your concern is to use the site's own vernacular then please write out "will never have [Netorare]" tag fully to be clear that you mean that only [Netorare] will not be in the game, as well as "will have optional [Netorase]" to indicate we will have that

What you are trying to do, is to use abbreviation that is commonly used for one specific thing and turn in into a collective term of every single interaction dynamic between MC, his girls, and other men.

I am not "trying" to do anything and don't appreciate the personal attack angle.
And many many many people do in fact take NTR to mean "either netorare, netori, or netorase" aka "any single interaction dynamic between MC, his girls, and other men"
Which makes your statements unclear and misleading.

Actually, why are you so defensive and insistent though that "nobody" would ever misunderstand the official description where you chop off those few letters to turn [Netorare] into [NTR] and that everyone who tells you that this will be misleading because there is Netorase is "trying" something?

 

[.StaringAtTheSky]

I am not "trying" to do anything and don't appreciate the personal attack angle.
And many many many people do in fact take NTR to mean "either netorare, netori, or netorase" aka "any single interaction dynamic between MC, his girls, and other men"
Which makes your statements unclear and misleading.

I realize after rereading that part of my message that it came off aggressive, it was not my intention, not at the moment of writing it nor now, for that it would be fair to apologize. However, what I tried to say, is that the majority of people assume that ntr means netorare, but some also include netorase and netori. And as I said in the last portion of my message, You are not wrong, some people, like you, will find it confusing, which is totally fair, so in that regard you are right and I will explain myself more thoroughly in the future, just like I said in my last message. What I took out of your statement was that every single person who ever visits this game's page will be totally confused and lost by the fact that it says no ntr, but sharing is optional. Which is not the case, that is why I disagreed with your post

 

[Vodanhfx]

Can you do android port?

 

[xDestiny]

.StaringAtTheSky my friend...we are witnessing the birth of a GREAT game!
Just don't fail with revenge against Astrid, it has to happen!kk

 

[.StaringAtTheSky]

Can you do android port?

That is something that I definitely want to do, but first I need to see and check if everything will work properly on android and test it, I need to see if all images and buttons will be displayed accordingly and if so, then great, but if it needs to be adjusted, then it is going to take a little time, probably one or two updates, after the basic stories and game mechanics are established so that I would adjust everything in one go

 

[.StaringAtTheSky]

.StaringAtTheSky my friend...we are witnessing the birth of a GREAT game!
Just don't fail with revenge against Astrid, it has to happen!kk
View attachment 2960096

Thank you for such a high praise. Revenge plot is definitely one of the main story lines and will have a huge impact on the story flow in general, but to be totally honest, the plans I have for that path so the story would make sense require a bit of time game-wise so that MC first has to go through different unrelated stories before revenge path is even introduced, it will deffinetly happen and I already have a plan when and where in development, but not in the next update and probably not in the second one, but after that the revenge story will deffinetly be a priority.

 

[.StaringAtTheSky]

I thought that for people who are interested in my game and curious where I am at for now and what to expect in a future update, but still not sure if they want to follow me on other platforms and only watch this thread, I wanted to share a progress report to keep you all in the loop:


So, quite a lot happened since the first release.

Spoiler: The gist of it

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Spoiler: Detailed Progress List

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Spoiler: Plans for 0.2

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Spoiler: Peek behing the curtain

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[Darkmetal]

Nice first release. Enjoyed it.

I'm already working on the next update, but I'd like to see the suggestions and comments before I go way to far into the develoment

On corruption:
I was actually a bit surprised at the speed of Gwen's corruption. I'm fine with it, but just want to note that the act of corrupting and seeing them change as a result of MC's action is in itself is a 'thrill' distinct from getting "the final product" for use (i.e. the journey as well as the destination). There is also a content choice here i.e. Instantly controlling someone like that Warden means you will eventually have to throw more and more girls into the mix rather spending more dev time evolving a core group of "corrupted."

On Hard-core stuff:
You will get pushback on stuff like pimping (already have in fact) or not having a choice to spare the guy crushed with the dumpster etc. Provide alternatives (or not) as you see fit, but please do NOT water down the path for those wanting to go full on Malevolent lord.

On sandbox:
Like many, I generally don't like them. More often than not they are just extra "load screens" interrupting the story flow. However, if you are committed to it, make it as efficient as possible please. A good example, IMO, is PhotoHunt:

Spoiler: Screenshot

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All-in-all really enjoyed the game and looking forward to the next update. GL

 

[.StaringAtTheSky]

Nice first release. Enjoyed it.



On corruption:
I was actually a bit surprised at the speed of Gwen's corruption. I'm fine with it, but just want to note that the act of corrupting and seeing them change as a result of MC's action is in itself is a 'thrill' distinct from getting "the final product" for use (i.e. the journey as well as the destination). There is also a content choice here i.e. Instantly controlling someone like that Warden means you will eventually have to throw more and more girls into the mix rather spending more dev time evolving a core group of "corrupted."

On Hard-core stuff:
You will get pushback on stuff like pimping (already have in fact) or not having a choice to spare the guy crushed with the dumpster etc. Provide alternatives (or not) as you see fit, but please do NOT water down the path for those wanting to go full on Malevolent lord.

On sandbox:
Like many, I generally don't like them. More often than not they are just extra "load screens" interrupting the story flow. However, if you are committed to it, make it as efficient as possible please. A good example, IMO, is PhotoHunt:

Spoiler: Screenshot

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

All-in-all really enjoyed the game and looking forward to the next update. GL

Thanks for your feedback, appreciate it.
About the corruption speed and flow, different girls with different stories will have different speed of corruption, since some minds are easier to break
Hard core stuff: I actually plan to prioritize more 'evil' paths first if there is a choice and those paths will generally have more content, so you shouldn't worry about that.
Sandbox stuff I already considered every comment and will change a bit movement part as I mentioned in the post above
Thanks again, hope you stick around!

 

[Graff koo]

Thanks for your feedback, appreciate it.
About the corruption speed and flow, different girls with different stories will have different speed of corruption, since some minds are easier to break
Hard core stuff: I actually plan to prioritize more 'evil' paths first if there is a choice and those paths will generally have more content, so you shouldn't worry about that.
Sandbox stuff I already considered every comment and will change a bit movement part as I mentioned in the post above
Thanks again, hope you stick around!

Can you please create a discord server? so we can interact with you and a discord server definitely help you grow . Also what about Android?? Can we Play it through joiplay ??

 

[fuzzyskywalker]

Since this is Ren'py, any change of a MacOS version?

 

[.StaringAtTheSky]

Can you please create a discord server? so we can interact with you and a discord server definitely help you grow . Also what about Android?? Can we Play it through joiplay ??

I thought that creating discord server is something you do if or when the community gets big enough, but I didn't honestly expect people being so enthusiastic about the game so maybe it is indeed something I should do. Regarding android port it will be a couple of updates later once I establish all game mechanics. Thanks!