- Mar 7, 2019
- 1,534
- 1,298
Well..I'm sure I'm going to soil myself when I get a look at this thing....
Dev Diary #6
Hey folks. We are back with yet another update. Now, we are extremely sorry that the development process is taking forever but we assure you, we are working non-stop on the game. As much as our IRL works lets us anyway. Gotta pay the bills somehow so we kinda have to take freelance works here and there but we are sacrificing our sleep hours and free days to keep up with the project. However this is not the only reason for the delays we had. We have also decided to change things up a little bit.
For example, the upcoming release won't be the demo anymore. Mainly because we are not entirely sure if its appropriate to call a game with over 600 renders just for the events. If you count the open world aspects with other bits and pieces, the number easily goes over 1000 images total. Also, the dialogue lines are pushing the 2000 barrier. So we've decided to call this release ''the Family Business: Parallel Universe'' in which you will start the story similar to the base game but immediately after the introduction, you will travel to the future around a year or so in the story. We will give the control to you after that time jump where you will play the game in a parallel universe where Alex(MC) experienced the past year and made choices on how to approach people, solve problems etc. By doing this, we are ensuring that the actual Chapter I release won't be having any content you have seen before. Also we are tailoring the ''Parallel Universe'' experience in a way to explain the game world, characters and story without actually giving any spoilers. Lets just say the upcoming release definitely won't feel like a demo.
Lets head on to the diary part. I will try to explain different aspects of the development by creating drop down menus via spoiler buttons. You can simply open up the one that does interest you and read about it down below.
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Now for the closing arguments. I think I did a decent job at explaining what we've been up to lately. Thanks to the pandemic, we are struggling with our real life situations since we can't find freelance stuff as lucrative as we did before. Since everyone is at home, most of the folks gone freelance as well meaning the prices of the stuff we are doing went down incredibly. Ultimately this is forcing us to sacrifice work hours either on the development or the IRL jobs. Where I am trying to go with this is, I kindly ask you to consider the time and effort we are pouring onto the development of this project and think about supporting us. We are not a bunch of hobbyists trying to kill time by doing a side project, we are entering the sector as two game developers and I assure you, you won't be disappointed <3
As always, thank you guys so much for your support. Feel free to follow up with anything you wanna say or ask. Stay tuned o/
Hey folks. We are back with yet another update. Now, we are extremely sorry that the development process is taking forever but we assure you, we are working non-stop on the game. As much as our IRL works lets us anyway. Gotta pay the bills somehow so we kinda have to take freelance works here and there but we are sacrificing our sleep hours and free days to keep up with the project. However this is not the only reason for the delays we had. We have also decided to change things up a little bit.For example, the upcoming release won't be the demo anymore. Mainly because we are not entirely sure if its appropriate to call a game with over 600 renders just for the events. If you count the open world aspects with other bits and pieces, the number easily goes over 1000 images total. Also, the dialogue lines are pushing the 2000 barrier. So we've decided to call this release ''the Family Business: Parallel Universe'' in which you will start the story similar to the base game but immediately after the introduction, you will travel to the future around a year or so in the story. We will give the control to you after that time jump where you will play the game in a parallel universe where Alex(MC) experienced the past year and made choices on how to approach people, solve problems etc. By doing this, we are ensuring that the actual Chapter I release won't be having any content you have seen before. Also we are tailoring the ''Parallel Universe'' experience in a way to explain the game world, characters and story without actually giving any spoilers. Lets just say the upcoming release definitely won't feel like a demo.
Lets head on to the diary part. I will try to explain different aspects of the development by creating drop down menus via spoiler buttons. You can simply open up the one that does interest you and read about it down below.
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Now for the closing arguments. I think I did a decent job at explaining what we've been up to lately. Thanks to the pandemic, we are struggling with our real life situations since we can't find freelance stuff as lucrative as we did before. Since everyone is at home, most of the folks gone freelance as well meaning the prices of the stuff we are doing went down incredibly. Ultimately this is forcing us to sacrifice work hours either on the development or the IRL jobs. Where I am trying to go with this is, I kindly ask you to consider the time and effort we are pouring onto the development of this project and think about supporting us. We are not a bunch of hobbyists trying to kill time by doing a side project, we are entering the sector as two game developers and I assure you, you won't be disappointed <3
As always, thank you guys so much for your support. Feel free to follow up with anything you wanna say or ask. Stay tuned o/
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''Hi guys. I did a promotional photo shoot for the Red Lotus Fitness Center in collaboration with the Vignette magazine. The magazine crew were even kind enough to let me write the article for the promo. They have also decided to include some of my best shots as posters. You can read all about it and also get an amazing poster pack of 16 pieces including the ones you see around me with the latest issue of Vignette. Hope you like it.'' - Nikki
You can find the print quality pdf of the magazine and a pack of 16 4K, print ready wallpapers at our
You must be registered to see the links
. For a limited time you can get these goods even with the lowest tier of subscription.You guys look to have a fantastic plan and idea of where you want to go, all of the visuals look great, and I like how you've explained the game play. Good luck and good fortune, and I can't wait to see the game in action.
To be honest, I kinda feel a bit more comfortable with the daz studio. Also, converting textures to maya is a tedious process. In the end, there will be tons of characters coming and going like main characters, side characters that will last a couple of chapters or seasons, supportive cast who will drop by every once in a while and one shot characters, but the house will be implemented only once. Meaning I'd have to do the transition once and never go back to maya afterwards. Surely I am designing some assets here and there every once in a while but when you think about it, using daz as the main hub for everything actually makes sense. At least it makes sense to me
Also, thank you so much for your kind words.
Thank you mate. We know its an ambitious project but we really want to push the boundaries here. We really hope to deliver an experience you will appreciate in the end. There are some great games out there but also there are billions of clones too. We think that some of the developers out there assuming that they can come up with a couple of renders, steal the story of another successful game and with almost zero effort, release a game to grab money and leave. By the looks of it, the genre is currently struggling with these kind of developers popping up everywhere and we really think that this community deserves better. Deserves to be treated as an audience instead of cash cows. That is the main reason we are trying our best here everyday.
Dev Diary #7
Hey guys! I just wanted to inform you that we are officially done with the demo build. At this point we are tidying up the code, polishing the dialogues and general scene flow. I will not name any dates since last time we did it, we kinda flew over the deadline by a lot. While this routine stuff keeps getting resolved I'll try to create a couple of short scenes just to populate the gaps between events in the demo. Not to worry, we won't hold the release just because of those extra scenes. Game will release regardless. I'll just try my best to squeeze a couple of extra in before the release. See you when the demo hits. Also be sure to check our patreon since the first issue of the in-game magazine ''Vignette'' with 17 really cool 4K wallpapers is out and can be accessed by every patron regardless of the tier for a limited time. Everything in the pack is print ready if thats your thing. Go wild <3 As always, thank you so much for your support. o/
Hey guys! I just wanted to inform you that we are officially done with the demo build. At this point we are tidying up the code, polishing the dialogues and general scene flow. I will not name any dates since last time we did it, we kinda flew over the deadline by a lot. While this routine stuff keeps getting resolved I'll try to create a couple of short scenes just to populate the gaps between events in the demo. Not to worry, we won't hold the release just because of those extra scenes. Game will release regardless. I'll just try my best to squeeze a couple of extra in before the release. See you when the demo hits. Also be sure to check our patreon since the first issue of the in-game magazine ''Vignette'' with 17 really cool 4K wallpapers is out and can be accessed by every patron regardless of the tier for a limited time. Everything in the pack is print ready if thats your thing. Go wild <3 As always, thank you so much for your support. o/This looks like quite an ambitious project! Good luck devs, and thanks for providing so much insight into your design process.
It sounds like you are approaching this with a much more professional game development mindset than most new developers, and that is to be applauded. However, there are a few statements in your dev diaries that could be warning signs and I would be interested to hear your comments on them.
The most important thing when building any product is remembering who the client is and what they want. If you are building an adult game, it has to be fun for the player. Every single design decision you make needs to be in line with that philosophy.
Grinding is not fun. Repeating the same action or event to raise an arbitrary number is not enjoyable, not engaging, and does not further player immersion. I consider leveling to be different from grinding when there is player input involved to affect the outcome (grinding in MMO's is still the player engaging in combat) and a sense of progression is a part of the process (you get loot from mobs, XP, story from quests). It sounds like you are aware of this difference, and hopefully you can make it work in a visual novel format.
Randomness is almost never fun. It removes player agency by placing the outcome out of the players control. This is especially true in a visual novel when you are trying to feel like choices matter, and can compound frustrations from a stats system. What if you need to pass this dialogue to raise a stat point to trigger an event next time cycle? You crit fail, miss an important trigger, and can't progress a route you wanted to. That only leads to frustration, and probably a rollback or reload.
Complicated systems of RNG and stats focus attention on the mechanics of the game and not the story. You have to ask yourself WHY you are including these systems in the game, and how they are making it more fun for the player.
"Realism" is often not the goal, "Immersion" is. Adult games are a work of fantasy, and a good fantasy is one the player can immerse themselves in. Having realistic dialogue and characters helps build that immersion, but trying to make things too realistic shatters the illusion and hinders the story.
I'm still looking forward to your bigger-than-demo, and wish you great success!
It sounds like you are approaching this with a much more professional game development mindset than most new developers, and that is to be applauded. However, there are a few statements in your dev diaries that could be warning signs and I would be interested to hear your comments on them.
The most important thing when building any product is remembering who the client is and what they want. If you are building an adult game, it has to be fun for the player. Every single design decision you make needs to be in line with that philosophy.
Grinding is not fun. Repeating the same action or event to raise an arbitrary number is not enjoyable, not engaging, and does not further player immersion. I consider leveling to be different from grinding when there is player input involved to affect the outcome (grinding in MMO's is still the player engaging in combat) and a sense of progression is a part of the process (you get loot from mobs, XP, story from quests). It sounds like you are aware of this difference, and hopefully you can make it work in a visual novel format.
Randomness is almost never fun. It removes player agency by placing the outcome out of the players control. This is especially true in a visual novel when you are trying to feel like choices matter, and can compound frustrations from a stats system. What if you need to pass this dialogue to raise a stat point to trigger an event next time cycle? You crit fail, miss an important trigger, and can't progress a route you wanted to. That only leads to frustration, and probably a rollback or reload.
Complicated systems of RNG and stats focus attention on the mechanics of the game and not the story. You have to ask yourself WHY you are including these systems in the game, and how they are making it more fun for the player.
"Realism" is often not the goal, "Immersion" is. Adult games are a work of fantasy, and a good fantasy is one the player can immerse themselves in. Having realistic dialogue and characters helps build that immersion, but trying to make things too realistic shatters the illusion and hinders the story.
I'm still looking forward to your bigger-than-demo, and wish you great success!
Thank you so much for taking your time writing this very well thought message. We are especially glad to see that people are paying attention to what we are trying to do different as you've stated in the beginning of your post.
First of all, we are completely aware that this is going to be an adult themed game. But making this ''a game'' is also our top priority. We simply don't want to publish a series of images with subtitles. We are trying to develop a game for all intents and purposes. Of course there will be some silly porn references here and there like a character being stuck somewhere etc. I'll come back to the realism aspect further down below but first I'd like to talk about the RNG system.
Like you said, we are aware of the intricate balance between grinding and progression. That actually explains why we have decided to add some randomness with the dice system. The RNG will be there to add some flavor to the repetitive actions but it will most definitely not hinder progress.
I believe explaining the system with a basic example would be the best. Imagine a character watching tv in the living room. Lets say you've decided to join her for that event. At a certain point you'd face a decision about looking at her cleavage or acting like a gentlemen by not looking. If you choose to look, you'd get your eye candy and event ends with whatever is planned. In our game, according to the dice you can successfully look at the cleavage and she wouldn't notice. She can notice and show a bit more flesh. You can get caught at the last minute and try to lie your way out of the situation or she catches you, asks you a question about the tv show to test you and get mad at you when you didn't answer correctly.
That event has no ties to the main story or any particular route of the girl. But doing that event or any event with her is required to increase her relationship stat in order to progress further because lets face it, its a bit unrealistic to bang everyone without getting to know them, spending time with them and get them like you. We will not make the required stat thing a grind fest but at least a couple of ''hangout'' events would be required. We are implementing RNG so that you guys can see different things even if you decide to do a single event over and over again just to grind that stat. Also, failing to stealthily checking her out over and over again might lead to a secret event too. She could confront you about your desires against her and that could lead to a whole different branch with its own rewards.
Now, about the realism. We want our characters to act as normal as possible. We are strongly against ''he is a man, he shall fuck me as soon as possible'' ideology. Of course there will be some characters madly in love with the MC regardless of his actions but others will not be that open to the idea of having sex with him. It is especially going to be like that with most of the family members. A mother or a sister with a stable relationship is not simple gonna have sex with you just because you helped her one time or you are cute. Patience and determination will be the key for those.
We are also trying to come up with a way to disable the roll-back system because we really want players to experience the story with the decisions they have made. Its not only that but people often roll back after a decision which seems like a bad one to choose the one with the immediate reward. In our game, things that seem negative at first would prove extremely beneficial in the long run and vise versa.
I hope these answers are satisfactory. I am having a hard time explaining stuff without spoiling the demo/main game. Please, feel free to ask more if you desire. I'll try my best to answers anything you throw our way and thank you so much again for your interest in our product. <3
Thanks for the great reply.
Keeping RNG from impacting the main story or major decisions is a good idea. It can be a useful tool to add some variation to repeated encounters. I'm interested to see what you come up with.
Be careful about the scope of those branching paths though, combinatorial growth of choices very very quickly outpaces the linear number of man-hours two devs can put into the game
Hoping we'll see the demo soon!
Keeping RNG from impacting the main story or major decisions is a good idea. It can be a useful tool to add some variation to repeated encounters. I'm interested to see what you come up with.
Be careful about the scope of those branching paths though, combinatorial growth of choices very very quickly outpaces the linear number of man-hours two devs can put into the game
I would very strongly suggest you do not do this. It has only ever been a point of frustration in any game that has tried it. Focus on making an engaging story that players want to stay immersed in and explore the consequence of their choice. Ultimately it is up to the player to decide how they want to play your game.
Hoping we'll see the demo soon!
- Oct 19, 2020
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Very interesting to read about the various tensions behind the design decisions, whether it's related to the technical workflow or the gameplay
Attention to detail is a philosophy that resonates with me ; it's what separates the great from the good.
So as you hinted above, it's better not to commit to fixed deadlines and instead make sure that everything aspect of the what you're working on is satisfying and fits together.
I'll echo what Aderpofni said above, though : let the players be free to go backwards and correct their behaviour, if so they wish.
This might not follow your vision of how the game should be played (nor mine, for that matter), but I guess most players are accustomed to this possibility, so if you don't implement it this absence could generate a persistent backlash.
I don't know if this is possible - but perhaps you could offer this "no roll-back" feature as part of optional "handicap modes" ; which the players could select should they want a harsher/more realistic gameplay.
Attention to detail is a philosophy that resonates with me ; it's what separates the great from the good.
So as you hinted above, it's better not to commit to fixed deadlines and instead make sure that everything aspect of the what you're working on is satisfying and fits together.
I'll echo what Aderpofni said above, though : let the players be free to go backwards and correct their behaviour, if so they wish.
This might not follow your vision of how the game should be played (nor mine, for that matter), but I guess most players are accustomed to this possibility, so if you don't implement it this absence could generate a persistent backlash.
I don't know if this is possible - but perhaps you could offer this "no roll-back" feature as part of optional "handicap modes" ; which the players could select should they want a harsher/more realistic gameplay.
Thank you so much for your valuable input. This is the second comment about the ''no roll-back'' feature thus I feel the need to write down some behind the scenes information about the decision.Very interesting to read about the various tensions behind the design decisions, whether it's related to the technical workflow or the gameplay
Attention to detail is a philosophy that resonates with me ; it's what separates the great from the good.
So as you hinted above, it's better not to commit to fixed deadlines and instead make sure that everything aspect of the what you're working on is satisfying and fits together.
I'll echo what Aderpofni said above, though : let the players be free to go backwards and correct their behaviour, if so they wish.
This might not follow your vision of how the game should be played (nor mine, for that matter), but I guess most players are accustomed to this possibility, so if you don't implement it this absence could generate a persistent backlash.
I don't know if this is possible - but perhaps you could offer this "no roll-back" feature as part of optional "handicap modes" ; which the players could select should they want a harsher/more realistic gameplay.
We are currently trying to implement a fully working time system into the renpy engine. Meaning there will be a non-stop watch that always keeps flowing second by second. If we can pull this off, having the mouse wheel roll-back is going to result in a game breaking bug-spree since most of the event triggers will be tied to the time system. This feature won't be in the demo version since it was one of the main reasons we've had to postpone our release along with the fully functional in-game phone with apps, messaging system etc.
After the demo we will go into a state of revising everything according to our player bases feedbacks. During that time we will re-write the story, redesign the characters and solidify the mechanical aspects related to the heavy engine modifications we are trying to implement to the renpy base.
Rest assured, if we can find a way to make it work harmoniously, we will try to keep the mouse wheel roll-back in the game. If not, we will either find a way to alter the time system or let it go completely if the roll-back feature is a must for everyone. There will be a poll for it in the future when this topic transforms into a released game thread. If the time system stays and roll-back gets removed, you can always make a save before important decisions and return to them for alternative narrative options.
- Mar 7, 2019
- 1,534
- 1,298
I agree with this 100% Once and a while we lazy people are not paying close enough attention and see things at the last second as the click happens. That pisses me of so much LOLVery interesting to read about the various tensions behind the design decisions, whether it's related to the technical workflow or the gameplay
Attention to detail is a philosophy that resonates with me ; it's what separates the great from the good.
So as you hinted above, it's better not to commit to fixed deadlines and instead make sure that everything aspect of the what you're working on is satisfying and fits together.
I'll echo what Aderpofni said above, though : let the players be free to go backwards and correct their behaviour, if so they wish.
This might not follow your vision of how the game should be played (nor mine, for that matter), but I guess most players are accustomed to this possibility, so if you don't implement it this absence could generate a persistent backlash.
I don't know if this is possible - but perhaps you could offer this "no roll-back" feature as part of optional "handicap modes" ; which the players could select should they want a harsher/more realistic gameplay.
We honestly were not expecting anyone to care about the roll-back feature that much. Thank you guys so much for your input on the subject. We are discussing this with my partner and we are determined to find a solution to please everyone.
Dev Diary #Final
Hi folks. Like we've promised, the website integration is working and site is currently done. Also, our game will finally release in a couple of hours. To celebrate these great developments, we've came up with a very, very special gallery for Raven.
You can visit
Our Patrons can visit
Enjoy everyone and as always, thank you for your support <3
Hi folks. Like we've promised, the website integration is working and site is currently done. Also, our game will finally release in a couple of hours. To celebrate these great developments, we've came up with a very, very special gallery for Raven.
You can visit
You must be registered to see the links
address for the free preview version which is available for everyone.Our Patrons can visit
You must be registered to see the links
address for the Patreon Special Edition.Enjoy everyone and as always, thank you for your support <3