Ren'Py The Headmaster [v0.15.3.1 Public] [Altos and Herdone]

[Gegecucu]

Wait, wait, do you play porno games for something else than fapping? How does that make sense?

NonRomanticSandboxFan
I think everyone got your point. You don't want to read too much in a porn game and this game needs much reading.
So it is not your kind of game and it is totally ok. Fortunately for you, there are hundreds of other games on f95 that you may enjoy.

It has been 2 pages of debate. You won't change your mind and the people liking the game won't as well.

So can we move on now, please?

 

[Derbyshir3]

Wait, wait, do you play porno games for something else than fapping? How does that make sense?

Personally, I play to fap, but also to experience the story that they wish to tell. Sometimes I read other stories, or play other games, and sometimes I want to keep the fap going for a while without a barrage of sex and nudity ALL the time. I like the experience of the gameplay intermixed with the story and the porn. It adds a third aspect to the game, and improves the experience for me. If I just want a quick fap, I go to porn. If just want a fun experience, I read a book or play a non-porn game. If I want to mix those two experiences, I like games that give me a good amount of story and fappable material. The shower peeping scene is an interesting choice. I mostly skim over that text, as the core of the scene is the visual, watching the girls shower for a bit, until the scene loops, or I finish fapping. Meanwhile, I really liked the text as we were training miss Potts, and I liked both while visiting Trixie in the evenings for some release. Different parts of the game balance the two aspects, story and porn, in different levels. I like having that variety, and I have a hard time playing a game for very long if every moment and every bit of text is trying to get me horny. But that is just how I feel about it.
Not every aspect of this game has been perfect in my opinion, but on average I find it really well done, and I can skim over the parts that I am less interested or engaged in.

 

[Derbyshir3]

NonRomanticSandboxFan
It has been 2 pages of debate. You won't change your mind and the people liking the game won't as well.

So can we move on now, please?

My apologies for adding to that argument.

 

[Cartageno]

Do the player need to keep it in mind to do the right decision at some point or is it just an irrelevant detail to mention?
(...)
I have already a quest log that let me know it. A very cheap way to encrease your word count.
(...)
I played your game without reading it and now that I read it, I don't miss having done it earlier.

Wait, wait, do you play porno games for something else than fapping? How does that make sense?

Picking up a couple of random sentences: you seem to have a very utilitarian approach to this - every information must have a direct use for continuing the game and getting to the next good scene. Others like me like to have more background, so to speak. Just different meanings.

As for your last question: sometimes I store the scene in the spank bank in my head for later use. But yes, I can enjoy pornography without always having to fap to it, just as its own genre of story or similar, just like other forms of entertainment.

 

[Cartageno]

NonRomanticSandboxFan
I think everyone got your point. You don't want to read too much in a porn game and this game needs much reading.
So it is not your kind of game and it is totally ok. Fortunately for you, there are hundreds of other games on f95 that you may enjoy.

It has been 2 pages of debate. You won't change your mind and the people liking the game won't as well.

So can we move on now, please?

My apologies for adding to that argument.

I second Derbyshir3.

 

[dukstern]

This version of the game doesn't start with joiplay, anybody else as this problem?

 

[Living In A Lewd World]

This version of the game doesn't start with joiplay, anybody else as this problem?

You might have to update your joiplay version, as this version uses a newer renpy version.

 

[Deaviannard]

Aside from the scam aspect most adult games go for (doing the bare minimum of updates, mixed in with thin excuses to stretch out the time between them) while milking donations off Patreons, most "creators" are just programmers who dabble in graphics. Some are artists who dabble in programming.

In both cases, they think visuals are all that matter.

If I want smutty pictures, there's a ton of adult artists who are usually way less scammy than most adult game "creators" who have material available online. Why would I need a stupid game format to space out how quickly I can look through the pictures? I don't. I'll just find pictures, download them, and flip through them at my pace rather than through a slower game interface.

Most of the "creators" treat the writing like an afterthought. Like it doesn't matter. They'll take six months to render a handful of scenes, and maybe an afternoon to add some captions beneath them, and call that a game. Present that like a story. Like it's content.

So many games people recommend are just pictures with the lamest, stupidest attempts at "story" shoehorned in. Stuff like "you just came back from college, your mom/neighbor/coworker is hot, they see you and immediately strip off and say what a big dick you have, ooh la la." That's literally the level of "writing" most of these "creators" are offering. There's never any story, any narrative, no nothing.

Headmaster has an actual real story. Sure it's a porn logic story, but that's what I fucking want. I enjoy a story sometimes that's not all modern and civilized where people are afraid to broach sexual topics, and certainly never depict them for fear of offending or whatever. Sometimes I want a story where people get naked and naked things happen.

Is it silly that the school is stripping girls down and paddling them? Maybe. But in porn logic, it works. Further, the writing supports it. Frames it narratively in ways that make sense and track believably. Most "games" like this would present the Headmaster as this giggling bro-Chad who every woman in sight instantly throws herself at.

Here, he's got a mission and task; improve the girls. They've all got various flaws and character defects, and rather than just abusing those simply to blackmail the girls into having sex with him, Headmaster is using the narrative to actually improve and help the girls.

Debbie is an uncooperative rebel and closet lesbian, and Headmaster is helping her find purpose while embracing her true self. Cassandra is a stuck up bitch who has absolutely no connection with reality, and Headmaster is actually helping her learn femme fatale skills she wants so when she grows up she can truly be the manipulative "wraps men around her finger" person she wants to be. Rachael is shy as shit and has major, crippling body image issues, and Headmaster has (through liberal application of porn logic) pulled her out of her shell so she's more confident and less jealous or afraid of other girls.

If I want porn, I have a whole internet full of porn. I have terabytes of it on my hard drives. Video, pictures, even stories. They get used for the things you use porn for. I follow Headmaster because it's the one game that's got an actual fucking story, a real story, one with real narrative and real characters that really grow and live on the page.

So yes, I'm following the game for the story. The only porn game I've found on this site that has an actual story I like. Good Girl Gone Bad is almost good, but sillier in places, has no fetish content, and has a way worse problem with dragging updates out.

Because most of the games don't offer any story. Just "huh, huh, boobs" and "oh wow Main Character, I'm going to immediately strip off every piece of clothing and suck your dick right here and now, mmm, mmmm, such good dick now jam it in me, yeah, like that."

Fuck that. Not at all interesting. I don't care how good the render was. Story is what makes pictures matter, because characters are who is interesting. As far as I know basically all the models in Headmaster are the default models that come with the engine. I don't care that they might show up in several dozen other games. What I care about is Priti was super repressed, but now she's been drawn out of her shell and is body positive and willing to express herself sexually with pride because of the story that brought her and me through the transition. I want to see the story continue, see where the girls go next, what happens next.

So if all you care about is pictures, then go enjoy one of the many, many, many other games that have absolutely zero story. Or you could just subscribe to an artist or two and take raw pictures without the useless framework of a "game" they don't intend on delivering on anyway.

Should it take six to eight months to come up with what takes an hour or less to read? No, it shouldn't. I write, I published stuff people have bought, so I'll say it shouldn't. Even adding renders to it, still takes too long. Every single creator seems to start popping off excuses once they get some people subscribed, and what was a few months becomes two updates every fifteen to eighteen months.

I still enjoy Headmaster's story. Hopefully it's finished one day. Hopefully before 2030. It'd be nice, and there's no reason any of the likely places the story of Headmaster and this school of wayward girls are going should take seven more years to finish. I subscribed for it once, but I'm not staying subscribed without content rolling out. That's my choice. If content showed up more often, I'd be willing to subscribe again. But if I have to just check a couple of times a year to find out of the story has actually advanced, well, it is what it is. Obviously lots of adult creators milk stuff.

Most of them have nothing to milk with though. At least Headmaster does have milk you can occasionally squeeze out and enjoy.

 

[Hermenegild]

If you're hunted by the "Sayer b'sc' is not a function or string." bug, open the console (Shift-O) and enter:

sc = Character('Miss Chang', color=("#98FB98"))

This way you'll restore the variable to its intended value, fixing the save.

 

[AltosandHerdone]

Aside from the scam aspect most adult games go for (doing the bare minimum of updates, mixed in with thin excuses to stretch out the time between them) while milking donations off Patreons, most "creators" are just programmers who dabble in graphics. Some are artists who dabble in programming.

In both cases, they think visuals are all that matter.

If I want smutty pictures, there's a ton of adult artists who are usually way less scammy than most adult game "creators" who have material available online. Why would I need a stupid game format to space out how quickly I can look through the pictures? I don't. I'll just find pictures, download them, and flip through them at my pace rather than through a slower game interface.

Most of the "creators" treat the writing like an afterthought. Like it doesn't matter. They'll take six months to render a handful of scenes, and maybe an afternoon to add some captions beneath them, and call that a game. Present that like a story. Like it's content.

So many games people recommend are just pictures with the lamest, stupidest attempts at "story" shoehorned in. Stuff like "you just came back from college, your mom/neighbor/coworker is hot, they see you and immediately strip off and say what a big dick you have, ooh la la." That's literally the level of "writing" most of these "creators" are offering. There's never any story, any narrative, no nothing.

Headmaster has an actual real story. Sure it's a porn logic story, but that's what I fucking want. I enjoy a story sometimes that's not all modern and civilized where people are afraid to broach sexual topics, and certainly never depict them for fear of offending or whatever. Sometimes I want a story where people get naked and naked things happen.

Is it silly that the school is stripping girls down and paddling them? Maybe. But in porn logic, it works. Further, the writing supports it. Frames it narratively in ways that make sense and track believably. Most "games" like this would present the Headmaster as this giggling bro-Chad who every woman in sight instantly throws herself at.

Here, he's got a mission and task; improve the girls. They've all got various flaws and character defects, and rather than just abusing those simply to blackmail the girls into having sex with him, Headmaster is using the narrative to actually improve and help the girls.

Debbie is an uncooperative rebel and closet lesbian, and Headmaster is helping her find purpose while embracing her true self. Cassandra is a stuck up bitch who has absolutely no connection with reality, and Headmaster is actually helping her learn femme fatale skills she wants so when she grows up she can truly be the manipulative "wraps men around her finger" person she wants to be. Rachael is shy as shit and has major, crippling body image issues, and Headmaster has (through liberal application of porn logic) pulled her out of her shell so she's more confident and less jealous or afraid of other girls.

If I want porn, I have a whole internet full of porn. I have terabytes of it on my hard drives. Video, pictures, even stories. They get used for the things you use porn for. I follow Headmaster because it's the one game that's got an actual fucking story, a real story, one with real narrative and real characters that really grow and live on the page.

So yes, I'm following the game for the story. The only porn game I've found on this site that has an actual story I like. Good Girl Gone Bad is almost good, but sillier in places, has no fetish content, and has a way worse problem with dragging updates out.

Because most of the games don't offer any story. Just "huh, huh, boobs" and "oh wow Main Character, I'm going to immediately strip off every piece of clothing and suck your dick right here and now, mmm, mmmm, such good dick now jam it in me, yeah, like that."

Fuck that. Not at all interesting. I don't care how good the render was. Story is what makes pictures matter, because characters are who is interesting. As far as I know basically all the models in Headmaster are the default models that come with the engine. I don't care that they might show up in several dozen other games. What I care about is Priti was super repressed, but now she's been drawn out of her shell and is body positive and willing to express herself sexually with pride because of the story that brought her and me through the transition. I want to see the story continue, see where the girls go next, what happens next.

So if all you care about is pictures, then go enjoy one of the many, many, many other games that have absolutely zero story. Or you could just subscribe to an artist or two and take raw pictures without the useless framework of a "game" they don't intend on delivering on anyway.

Should it take six to eight months to come up with what takes an hour or less to read? No, it shouldn't. I write, I published stuff people have bought, so I'll say it shouldn't. Even adding renders to it, still takes too long. Every single creator seems to start popping off excuses once they get some people subscribed, and what was a few months becomes two updates every fifteen to eighteen months.

I still enjoy Headmaster's story. Hopefully it's finished one day. Hopefully before 2030. It'd be nice, and there's no reason any of the likely places the story of Headmaster and this school of wayward girls are going should take seven more years to finish. I subscribed for it once, but I'm not staying subscribed without content rolling out. That's my choice. If content showed up more often, I'd be willing to subscribe again. But if I have to just check a couple of times a year to find out of the story has actually advanced, well, it is what it is. Obviously lots of adult creators milk stuff.

Most of them have nothing to milk with though. At least Headmaster does have milk you can occasionally squeeze out and enjoy.

Some very kind words about my game, thank you. Thank you for being a past patron as well, I do appreciate it. I realise a lot of people don't believe me about this, but I really do work hard on this game. It takes up almost all of my time and all of my headspace. You can't make something like this without being completely obsessed with it. I want to keep making games as my career, and I need to finish this one in order to prove myself as a reliable developer. So, it saddens me to hear that even those who appreciate the thought and effort I put into the writing, still believe I should be working harder. I won't try to change anyone's mind though, I've learned that people will believe what they will. All I can do is keep working as hard as I can and putting out the best quality content that I can.

 

[madchef]

Some very kind words about my game, thank you. Thank you for being a past patron as well, I do appreciate it. I realise a lot of people don't believe me about this, but I really do work hard on this game. It takes up almost all of my time and all of my headspace. You can't make something like this without being completely obsessed with it. I want to keep making games as my career, and I need to finish this one in order to prove myself as a reliable developer. So, it saddens me to hear that even those who appreciate the thought and effort I put into the writing, still believe I should be working harder. I won't try to change anyone's mind though, I've learned that people will believe what they will. All I can do is keep working as hard as I can and putting out the best quality content that I can.

Restraint and discipline is what what you need in order to prove yourself as a reliable developer, especially when it comes to porn / erotica.

Let's be honest here, the best part of the game and its content has already been done a few updates ago and I don't think the latest updates added anything of substance to the game, mind less moved a notch or two in neither the gaming department, or storyline or sexual content. A lot of game developers here start with an initial idea but most of them do not have any ending in mind. It's perpetual 'once upon a time...' without 'and they lived happily ever after'. And neither time nor tide waits for no man. An average person has around a decade of creative peak at their disposal. Use it while it lasts.

 

[c3p0]

I think most of us can't imagine what making a game all entail. Also a lot possibly think, if a dev a had made bi-weekly updates at the beginning (were writting and renders may be not on the same level as now) and later only one update per three months, that the develpment has slowed down. What we not know, how much of work the dev have done ahead and after x updates he has catch up to his preliminary work. Another point would be work schedule. It wouldn't suprise me, if many devs have 40 hours of work per week (full or if partime, together with the main job). I wouldn't try to do much more than 40 hours per week over a long time.

Often a game gets more complicated with time and this affects allmost all part of game development (planing, coding, writting, QC, often Renders too).

Also I don't believe, that most devs only about their "profit" from patreon (or subsscribestar or ...) and try to earn as much as they can with as little work as possible. Most devs earn less than 100$ per month(1), thus if they whish to life from only making the game, the need to increase the number and it isn't enough if the number remain constant.

If AltosandHerdone was one, the few development reports I've read, would have been more about "This is nearly done, but my GPU is dead since Monday, my helper has been scamming me and all the scene we had think we have are nowhere, ...". So from the look of it, I very doubt that he is not working.

 

[oceanbobo4]

Let's be honest here, the best part of the game and its content has already been done a few updates ago and I don't think the latest updates added anything of substance to the game, mind less moved a notch or two in neither the gaming department, or storyline or sexual content. A lot of game developers here start with an initial idea but most of them do not have any ending in mind. It's perpetual 'once upon a time...' without 'and they lived happily ever after'. And neither time nor tide waits for no man. An average person has around a decade of creative peak at their disposal. Use it while it lasts.

You write that "the best part of the game . . . has already been done," but you haven't seen the future updates.

No matter what the developer does in the future, it can't be better than what has already been done?

It's a perplexing assertion!

The story arcs in this game are of long reach. There are multiple, interesting creative opportunities remaining. This is shown by the fact that many commentators on this site speculate vigorously about what is yet to happen along multiple paths. That wouldn't be possible if what you say is correct.

To me, the story feels as if we're still at the beginning, with many, many -- yes, years -- of content still to be enjoyed.

Then you assert that the latest updates haven't added anything of substance to the story or to the sex.

How to make sense of your assertion?

The latest updates advanced Rachel, Priti, Cassandra, and Maxine. All of these characters now have developed personalities, and have advanced in their sexual experiences, doing things we've never seen them do.

For example, Maxine, whom I somewhat disliked before this update, has now become one of my favorite characters. We have insight into her now, that we lacked before. She is a self sacrificing person, with a strong moral character -- and the comedy element is that her moral purposes aren't always on the best basis, nor even always really moral, or not certainly so. To show this, near the beginning of this update, the Headmaster is reading an article -- "Pandamenace" or something like that -- questioning whether it was a good idea to save the Pandas, shown with bared fangs in a picture with the article. That's comedy. It's subtle and great.


Then you say that an "average person has ten years of creative peak."


I would say that the average person has no creativity at all, let alone ten years of it.


What is the basis for this "ten years" claim?

If you look at the history of art, you will see that most of the great artists, and even the tertiary ones, were creative all of their lives, consistently. Even performing artists don't only have ten years, but are lifelong creative individuals. I can think of not a single example of an artist who suddenly one day, at the end of his ten year grant, suddenly becomes uncreative. If this ten year rule were true, I would be able to think of many examples.

There are three categories of advice:

1. constructive and correct
2. constructive and incorrect
3. not constructive complaints that are best ignored

#1 is rarely found. And #3 is everywhere.

All my best to you, and to this marvelous game.

 

[krwiopalczasty]

Aside from the scam aspect most adult games go for (doing the bare minimum of updates, mixed in with thin excuses to stretch out the time between them) while milking donations off Patreons, most "creators" are just programmers who dabble in graphics. Some are artists who dabble in programming.

In both cases, they think visuals are all that matter.

If I want smutty pictures, there's a ton of adult artists who are usually way less scammy than most adult game "creators" who have material available online. Why would I need a stupid game format to space out how quickly I can look through the pictures? I don't. I'll just find pictures, download them, and flip through them at my pace rather than through a slower game interface.

Most of the "creators" treat the writing like an afterthought. Like it doesn't matter. They'll take six months to render a handful of scenes, and maybe an afternoon to add some captions beneath them, and call that a game. Present that like a story. Like it's content.

So many games people recommend are just pictures with the lamest, stupidest attempts at "story" shoehorned in. Stuff like "you just came back from college, your mom/neighbor/coworker is hot, they see you and immediately strip off and say what a big dick you have, ooh la la." That's literally the level of "writing" most of these "creators" are offering. There's never any story, any narrative, no nothing.

I will only refer to the part that I will call in short "story is more important than visuals" because I can't agree with you because the visual side will always be more important than the story because people are visual by nature and these are erotic games that work on the lowest instincts, which is sex. That's why a game with godtier visuals will always be better than a game with a great story but crappy visuals, even if the first one has a stupid story. Of course, if the game has both of these parts, it's awesome, but from the development side, there will be more "benefits" from a visually awesome game than a brilliantly written one besides, it's not as bad as you say, even based on this site there are a lot of shitty games, but most of the popular ones are visually good games with a not-so-worst "scenario" and a few gems that stand out both visually and story like Pale Carnations or Eternum

 

[ccxvidonaferens]

I will only refer to the part that I will call in short "story is more important than visuals" because I can't agree with you because the visual side will always be more important than the story because people are visual by nature and these are erotic games that work on the lowest instincts, which is sex. That's why a game with godtier visuals will always be better than a game with a great story but crappy visuals, even if the first one has a stupid story. Of course, if the game has both of these parts, it's awesome, but from the development side, there will be more "benefits" from a visually awesome game than a brilliantly written one besides, it's not as bad as you say, even based on this site there are a lot of shitty games, but most of the popular ones are visually good games with a not-so-worst "scenario" and a few gems that stand out both visually and story like Pale Carnations or Eternum

And yet radio and novels can be more visual than tv or movies as your mind can create images that are more spectacular or gritty or humorous than a screen can because camera tricks often have to be used to obscure reveals too early. As an example I would recommend John Finnemore's Radio Sitcom Cabin Pressure. Particularly the episodes titled Douz, Johannesburg and St Petersburg.

 

[krwiopalczasty]

And yet radio and novels can be more visual than tv or movies as your mind can create images that are more spectacular or gritty or humorous than a screen can because camera tricks often have to be used to obscure reveals too early. As an example I would recommend John Finnemore's Radio Sitcom Cabin Pressure. Particularly the episodes titled Douz, Johannesburg and St Petersburg.

that's why movies make billions of dollars compared to books, i'm not saying hurr durr just pictures fuck text but facts are facts image will always be the best way to sell a product because it works best on people.

 

[ccxvidonaferens]

that's why movies make billions of dollars compared to books i'm not saying hurr durr just pictures fuck text but facts are facts picture will always be the most important sales quantifier for most people

They also take billions of dollars to make. Also with the way the movie industry is currently structured there is very little risk taking focusing on sequels and reboots/remakes rather than original ideas not to mention the way certain movie studios dictate to cinemas the amount of screens their film must be screened in and the percentage of the ticket price goes to them as opposed to the cinema which is a big reason why food and drink at cinemas is as pricey as it can be. Also I'd be intrigued to see figures showing the profit value as a percentage of outlay for say the latest blockbuster film versus say the latest book release from the A Song of Ice and Fire series. Ie it took say 20 million dollars to make, took 40 million so it made twice it's cost (numbers for example only and not factual).

Also there is a world of difference between a pulp blockbuster and a piece of cinema art. Same with other creative media.

 

[TheDevian]

that's why movies make billions of dollars compared to books, i'm not saying hurr durr just pictures fuck text but facts are facts image will always be the best way to sell a product because it works best on people.

While a picture is worth a thousand words, there are books that make millions, and movies that don't, and some of those cost millions to make, where the book does not.

As for these games, it is the text that gives context to the images, they are of more or less equal import. There was one game around here, great art, but they tried to replace the text with emoji, and it was impossible for many people to play, no matter how nice the art was, and there are other text only games, and while many people enjoy them, they do not usually do well either.

 

[krwiopalczasty]

They also take billions of dollars to make. Also with the way the movie industry is currently structured there is very little risk taking focusing on sequels and reboots/remakes rather than original ideas not to mention the way certain movie studios dictate to cinemas the amount of screens their film must be screened in and the percentage of the ticket price goes to them as opposed to the cinema which is a big reason why food and drink at cinemas is as pricey as it can be. Also I'd be intrigued to see figures showing the profit value as a percentage of outlay for say the latest blockbuster film versus say the latest book release from the A Song of Ice and Fire series. Ie it took say 20 million dollars to make, took 40 million so it made twice it's cost (numbers for example only and not factual).

Also there is a world of difference between a pulp blockbuster and a piece of cinema art. Same with other creative media.

But we're talking about porn so not "masterpieces" but a medium that's supposed to appeal to as many people as possible because basically it's made for money just like blockbuster movies so I don't understand what else to argue about seriously you think a porn game with a great story but crappy graphics will sell better than the reverse? because that's what this discussion is about...

 

[Dragon59]

But we're talking about porn so not "masterpieces" but a medium that's supposed to appeal to as many people as possible because basically it's made for money just like blockbuster movies so I don't understand what else to argue about seriously you think a porn game with a great story but crappy graphics will sell better than the reverse? because that's what this discussion is about...

Are we talking about porn? I get the impression that most of us were talking about games that exist on the story-based side of the AVN spectrum. They may not be considered masterpieces outside of this genre, but I would venture to say that the ones with a strong, engaging story will be remembered much longer.