VN Ren'Py The Gangster [rawmagic] [Development Thread]

[Raw Magic]

Hey guys, everything ok ? i am fine, thanks.
Ever since I was little I have enjoyed writing stories but I have never found the right way to tell them. Books are too mainstream for me and lack visual power. Comics fit perfectly but I would have to practice a lot of drawing to bring a good result. With these problems, I never took my stories very far until, during the pandemic, I discovered the wonderful world of visual novels and I got hooked. After playing LOTS of visual novels I finally got the courage to run for it and make one myself. So, my debut story will be The Gangster.

In this game, you take on the skin of a former military man who leave the army, attends an MBA and goes to work in a large security company, life couldn't be better! However, when your foster brother is murdered by the hands of Juárez, the biggest gangster in town, you are forced to return to your hometown to take revenge, infiltrating his gang while managing your own gang through the shadows. Will you be able to take Juarez's head or will you be captured before?

The Gangster is a game where you must manage your own gang using the information you get as an infiltrator to take territory and money while taking everything from Juárez. In addition, you will be exposed to moral decisions, while delving deeper into the lives of the characters you live with, you will have to choose between what is best for you and your revenge and what is best for the people around you.

The game will come in 2 flavors, visual novel mode and gangster mode. Visual novel is the mode for people that only want to read a good history and to fap, nice and easy. I will make everything possible to make this mode not lose any important content, but something or another can lose a bit of context and maybe( i don't know yet) i will put some extra renders and rewards for those who get a good score on minigames but nothing really big like a full lewd animation. The second mode is the gangster mode, this is the mode that the game is meant to be played. In this mode you have to manage your gang to gain 3 things, money, power and territory and the end will vary depending on your score in these 3 items. This mode will have some minigames too and, as i said above, depending on the score in these minigames, extra scenes will be unlocked.

I want this game to make the community as close as possible in the development and that is the reason that makes me make this thread. I will post here some things that i am working at the moment to show you how the project is going and to get your feedback, after all, this project is made for you!

there are some other things that will be important in the game as well, like the corruption system (not feminine, but from the MC itself to see if the power will make you bad or not) but I haven't completely defined how it will be yet. As soon as I have it defined I will bring the new mechanics here (and maybe even bring my ideas earlier to ask your opinion)

 

[Innocent Chloe]

Sounds interesting, is this your first game? What are you going to make the scenes (daz/blender/etc?) in and what engine are you going to use for the game (renpy/unreal/unity/etc)?

One early tip I'd give is the two modes is going to add a lot of extra development effort, on the outset that idea sounds simple enough but sometimes the most simple elements of a game can turn out to be the most complicated.

Just as example, in Battle Royale games like PUBG/Apex/etc... what do you think is the most complex line of code in the game? Most people will think of graphics, UI, challenges, weapons, abilities, hitboxes among other elements of the game. But no actually its the zone. On the outset you'd think a zone of death is a simple thing, rounds count down and the zone shrinks. Simple right? But there is a lot of complex rulesets that have to be accounted for and mathematical issues at play.

So my first tip to you as both a gamer and a novice developer myself is to focus on just one game mode and scrap the two game modes entirely. Besides gamers who like VN's want a proper full fledged VN while gamers who like management games want a proper management game.

By going both it means you have to split your efforts and time in both and it will ruin the game for both groups of fanbases.

It sounds like you really want to a gangster management game with elements of story and VN in it. So just go full on management and focus on what your ideal vision is of the game.

 

[Raw Magic]

Hey! Thank you for the tips! I didn't expect a reply so soon kkkk. first things first. The game will be made using renpy and daz, the vanilla pipeline(I will post some screenshots later today ) and this is sort of my first game. I am a programmer and I have worked with some games in the past but this is my first VN and the first game i started solo, making the graphics and everything. The others i just worked with the code.

About the game modes, yes it is really something i want to do. i have 3 reasons for that.

The first is that I would like as many people as possible to be able to play the game and contribute to it. By making these 2 game modes I would be able to appeal to a larger amount of people. Based on my experience playing the game, there are games that I loved the story and the grind that was in the game made me not even get close to the end. Others that the story was not great but it was an interesting experience as a game, even if it was not an erotic game. So I would like to bring these 2 elements together and let the player decide which is more appealing to them.

The second is that the game will have several endings. Nothing like 15 endings but I have in mind something like 4 or 5 (maybe more or maybe less, depending on how the game unfolds) but I didn't want the player to have to go through a whole repetitive experience to reach all of them because, as much as some endings will bring a totally different game experience, others end up being some details that change or just which girl you choose to stay at the end. With the VN game mode, you can get to those endings faster. This is not the final solution to the problem, to be honest. I'm still seeing how I will attack this, maybe I will make a new + mode that helps you advance faster or maybe I will make a special "endgame gallery" that will be unlocked after you finish the game once but this is something I want to discuss with the community later in the creation process. For now the VN mode helps as a temporary solution.

The third point is that one of the major goals of The Gangster is to be a testing environment. So there are a lot of things that I want to implement and see how the public reacts to them so that future games can be better. With the game mode, my goal is to test if developing this makes sense or not, you know? to see if it makes more sense for me to go with just a VN in a future game or if going with a more playable game might be a better option. Or even if it makes sense to keep these 2 game modes in the future. My intention is to get as much information as possible from this first game (while bringing good experience as well) to make even better games in the future.

and yes, it will add some development time but nothing too much, i guess. I did some tests before to see how it would work and it didn't add much to the development time. Maybe in the future, as things get more complex, it will get harder and I'll regret the decision kkk but for now it looks like I'll be able to go on with both. My biggest fear to be honest is to bring a similar game experience in both modes.

 

[Raw Magic]

Taking advantage of the topic to talk a little about the mechanics of controlling your gang. During the main story there will be some pauses between the story blocks. These pauses have 3 parts.

The first part is to show you your status. You will be able to see your current status and what has changed during the previous story block ( points of relationship with the characters, points of corruption of the main character, these things).

The second function will be to command the gang itself. Here you will allocate your resources (for example, where your group will attack, where it will defend, lost during the story block...). Pay attention to the dialogues in the previous story block, some tips will be given on which areas will be vulnerable or where the enemy gang will attack next. Using these tips can be important for you to score more during the round.

After relocating your gang, the third part will be to decide what to do next. You can either continue with the main story or move on to a secondary story. The purpose of the secondary stories will be for you to go deeper into the stories of the characters. Some of them will have exclusive lewd scenes and at the end of each story you will receive a reward. This reward can vary a lot, from an elite gang member who will give you an advantage until opening an alternate ending for you to follow at the end of the game.

 

[Raw Magic]

Hey guys, how are you? Today I will start revealing some of the main girls of The Gangster. There will be more girls in the game but the ones here are the main ones that will show in the first part. This is not intended to be a complete synopsis of each one because I would like everyone to really get to know them in-game. The idea is just to give a little introduction to them and to show some of the graphics of the game.
The first one is Amy.
Amy is the only child of a wealthy family who is very spoiled and loved by her father. Very charismatic and cheerful, she is the kind of girl who seems naive at first but is very smart inside.

 

[KlodowWW]

Hey, good luck with you game ! For the render itself be careful with post. The wall are weird, I think it's too much saturation or vibrance. The incrustation of the girl is a bit rough too.

By curiosity, with what game engine are you creating your game ?

 

[BadMustard]

Hey guys, how are you? Today I will start revealing some of the main girls of The Gangster. There will be more girls in the game but the ones here are the main ones that will show in the first part. This is not intended to be a complete synopsis of each one because I would like everyone to really get to know them in-game. The idea is just to give a little introduction to them and to show some of the graphics of the game.
The first one is Amy.
Amy is the only child of a wealthy family who is very spoiled and loved by her father. Very charismatic and cheerful, she is the kind of girl who seems naive at first but is very smart inside.

View attachment 1157937

Her eyes and those thik thighs

 

[Raw Magic]

Hey, good luck with you game ! For the render itself be careful with post. The wall are weird, I think it's too much saturation or vibrance. The incrustation of the girl is a bit rough too.

By curiosity, with what game engine are you creating your game ?

Hey man thank you. yes, I tend to exaggerate in saturation sometimes, thank you for let me know. i am making a bunch of these renders to train my eyes for those things.
About the engine, i am using Ren'py for now.

 

[Odin73]

Hey guys, how are you? Today I will start revealing some of the main girls of The Gangster. There will be more girls in the game but the ones here are the main ones that will show in the first part. This is not intended to be a complete synopsis of each one because I would like everyone to really get to know them in-game. The idea is just to give a little introduction to them and to show some of the graphics of the game.
The first one is Amy.
Amy is the only child of a wealthy family who is very spoiled and loved by her father. Very charismatic and cheerful, she is the kind of girl who seems naive at first but is very smart inside.

View attachment 1157937

WOW Great render... I cant wait for the game to be develop.

 

[MovieMike]

I really like her look. I'm personally into the fit, muscular, athletic type so she checks off everything on my list. The main thing I'm noticing is in her top, that middle line. It's following the morph below, which is unfortunately a really difficult thing within DAZ. Look at fit control to help with that. Or turn on smoothing for the shirt and give it a few cranks to see if it smooths things out a bit. You could also try dForce or to get the shirt into Marvelous Designer and use it's cloth sim. All of this adds time. It's probably my biggest issue myself, because I get so bogged down with little details and making things perfect that there's no way I can make a comic/game. So find a result you're happy with and can do fairly quick as a game requires a ton of renders.

As for the contrast, you might tone it down a bit. I personally like it, but others may not. Though for all that kind of stuff I'd do it in post, will save you tons of time and you can just apply the effect to all your images.

Good work!

 

[Raw Magic]

I really like her look. I'm personally into the fit, muscular, athletic type so she checks off everything on my list. The main thing I'm noticing is in her top, that middle line. It's following the morph below, which is unfortunately a really difficult thing within DAZ. Look at fit control to help with that. Or turn on smoothing for the shirt and give it a few cranks to see if it smooths things out a bit. You could also try dForce or to get the shirt into Marvelous Designer and use it's cloth sim. All of this adds time. It's probably my biggest issue myself, because I get so bogged down with little details and making things perfect that there's no way I can make a comic/game. So find a result you're happy with and can do fairly quick as a game requires a ton of renders.

As for the contrast, you might tone it down a bit. I personally like it, but others may not. Though for all that kind of stuff I'd do it in post, will save you tons of time and you can just apply the effect to all your images.

Good work!

thx for the tips ! Yes, the shirt is a big problem in daz. I always try to tweak a little bit so it doesn't look so weird but to get a more polish result it will sum a lot in the development time. I am experimenting add marvelous designer in the development pipeline but i think i will start to real use it later.

 

[Raw Magic]

Today i would like to revel other girl, Sophie.
Unlike Amy, Sophie is a much more closed girl, even difficult to live with sometimes. Very homebody, she loves a good wine and can even be friendly after a few glasses.

This smiling picture completely spoils my description of her but that's okay, for a presentation it’s worth.

 

[Raw Magic]

This is Scarlet. Very friendly and shy, Scarlet was raised with the protagonist. In time they grew apart, and now, with the death of her brother, the MC is once again getting closer to Scarlet.

 

[MovieMike]

Cute. You may want to think about changing some of the body types around. It adds variety but also it makes things stick out. Like for example, in a game where everyone has big breasts it becomes common place and not a big deal. But if in a game there's say 2-3 small/normal sized girls and they're in a scene with someone who's very busty it makes the bigger sized girl stick out even more giving things a bit of contrast which is always nice.

Same thing for sexual preferences and scenes. If every character in a story does anal or something no problem, then it loses it's impact factor. Whereas if it's a big deal for most and only some can handle it, it makes it stand out. So far the 3 characters seem to be a bit curvy, thigh thighs, slightly bigger waist, medium to large breasts, etc. I'm sure there's more, but you'd be appealing to a broad audience if you included say a skinny girl, a short one, a really curvy one, a fit one, etc etc.

Nice lighting and posing in that last image too btw.

 

[Raw Magic]

Cute. You may want to think about changing some of the body types around. It adds variety but also it makes things stick out. Like for example, in a game where everyone has big breasts it becomes common place and not a big deal. But if in a game there's say 2-3 small/normal sized girls and they're in a scene with someone who's very busty it makes the bigger sized girl stick out even more giving things a bit of contrast which is always nice.

Same thing for sexual preferences and scenes. If every character in a story does anal or something no problem, then it loses it's impact factor. Whereas if it's a big deal for most and only some can handle it, it makes it stand out. So far the 3 characters seem to be a bit curvy, thigh thighs, slightly bigger waist, medium to large breasts, etc. I'm sure there's more, but you'd be appealing to a broad audience if you included say a skinny girl, a short one, a really curvy one, a fit one, etc etc.

Nice lighting and posing in that last image too btw.

Hey man thx for the reply. Yes, I am trying to vary the body types as much as possible. Amy is more fit and is way shorter than the other girls, with small breasts and a really big ass. Scarlet is taller, with medium boobs and medium butt. Sophie's height is between Scarlet and Amy, with huge tits and small ass. there are one girl that is more curvy and milf, one that is more skinny and one with really big boobs and ass, thin waist and all. There will be more, these ones are the ones that i already worked on(but they are not all finished yet). And yes, you are right, i could have chosen better the order

About the sexual scenes, it's a good idea. I am trying to vary the positions to show the best of each girl and not to get too repetitive. Also, I am trying to show a little bit of each girl's personality through the scenes as well. Scarlet is more quiet and shy, so her scenes are slower, more romantic. Amy is a naughty girl, so her scenes are faster, more daring.

 

[Raw Magic]

Hey Guys, what's up ? Today I reached the halfway point of the game's demo and launched the patreon page so that as soon as the game is ready, you can download it there. If anyone can give me a hand, go there and see what you think of the page, if the content is clear and well written. I speak English but it is not my native language so some things are still a little hard for me. Thx Guys !

You must be registered to see the links

 

[Raw Magic]

Today I am working on the animations for the demo project and man, animating is hard. Animating normally is not an easy task but in DAZ it is much much harder. I'm doing all the animations with at least one complete movement per loop ( i.e., I render from the beginning to the end of the movement, no rendering the first part of the BJ and then just reverse to do the turn here ) but I'm trying to do most of them with 2 or 3 movements per loop. It adds a little more time to the development but it also adds quality and I'm going all in for quality.
Below I put the first animation for you to take a look. It's still a bit mechanical I guess but I'm trying different techniques to try to improve it in the future.

It is an animation that will appear in the game, it's not a big spoiler because it will appear right in the demo, but some people don't like spoilers at all, so I kept it locked. I tried to add a loop, but it didn't work. If anyone knows somewhere that I can upload to make the loop active, that would be nice. That's it folks !

Spoiler: Animation Spoiler

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[MovieMike]

Today I am working on the animations for the demo project and man, animating is hard. Animating normally is not an easy task but in DAZ it is much much harder. I'm doing all the animations with at least one complete movement per loop ( i.e., I render from the beginning to the end of the movement, no rendering the first part of the BJ and then just reverse to do the turn here ) but I'm trying to do most of them with 2 or 3 movements per loop. It adds a little more time to the development but it also adds quality and I'm going all in for quality.
Below I put the first animation for you to take a look. It's still a bit mechanical I guess but I'm trying different techniques to try to improve it in the future.

It is an animation that will appear in the game, it's not a big spoiler because it will appear right in the demo, but some people don't like spoilers at all, so I kept it locked. I tried to add a loop, but it didn't work. If anyone knows somewhere that I can upload to make the loop active, that would be nice. That's it folks !

Spoiler: Animation Spoiler

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

Whoa, that actually looks really good. Better than most. It's not just a forward and back motion, but there's head movement, hand movement, etc. Really nice.

And yeah, animation is a pain because it's so many frames you have to create. I'd probably find shortcuts like if they're in the same space and the camera isn't moving, just render the background once and the rest just render the people without the background. You can render as an image series so you'll get a ton of images and then just combine them in Premiere or any other video editor. Most people prefer this because if DAZ crashes you don't lose all that work. You can just pick up where you left off in the sequence.

I know I'm in the minority, but I don't mind less animation if there's more high quality images. But this looks great. In the end, the most important thing is story and how you react to the characters.

 

[Raw Magic]

Whoa, that actually looks really good. Better than most. It's not just a forward and back motion, but there's head movement, hand movement, etc. Really nice.

And yeah, animation is a pain because it's so many frames you have to create. I'd probably find shortcuts like if they're in the same space and the camera isn't moving, just render the background once and the rest just render the people without the background. You can render as an image series so you'll get a ton of images and then just combine them in Premiere or any other video editor. Most people prefer this because if DAZ crashes you don't lose all that work. You can just pick up where you left off in the sequence.

I know I'm in the minority, but I don't mind less animation if there's more high quality images. But this looks great. In the end, the most important thing is story and how you react to the characters.

Thank you, man! I put a lot of effort into that animation, I'm glad you liked it. I use some tricks like render the background and the characters separately and I render like images too but the problem with DAZ is that the animation system lacks a lot of features like graphs or decent ways to pin a body part. There are some workarounds but in some situations, nothing works. It's really a pain in the ass.

About the animation, yes I don't think that is the most important, a good story with good renders is way better than only good animation. But I think that good animation is what differs a 9 game from a 10 game you know?

 

[Raw Magic]

Hey Guys, how are you today? it's been a while since the last time I post here, sorry. This week was crazy in the office so I couldn't produce much but today I am here with one more character. Her name is Jean! It's funny because she one of the first characters that I created the backstory and the role but one of the last that I design, physically speaking. I am not 100% sure about her yet, maybe something will change before she appears in the game. I will make a pool for the patrons to decide her final look but for now, I am happy with this one.