Ren'Py The Headmaster [v0.16.3] [Altos and Herdone]

[♂Brout&Minou♀]

AltosandHerdone Phil5k
Next feedback
Still small bugs, errors, or oversight...
I've only noticed this with Rachel, quite often when she's punishing in the office, when the HM takes the photos, Sally writes the reason for the punishment on the board behind her, and it appears out of order, e.g. "falls asleep in class, even if she is punished for another reason

Here (see the images below for example) the game indicates on the screen the update of a quest, but clicking on it brings up the log of another quest



♂

 

[ccxvidonaferens]

Next feedback
Still small bugs, errors, or oversight...
I've only noticed this with Rachel, quite often when she's punishing in the office, when the HM takes the photos, Sally writes the reason for the punishment on the board behind her, and it appears out of order, e.g. "falls asleep in class, even if she is punished for another reason

Here (see the images below for example) the game indicates on the screen the update of a quest, but clicking on it brings up the log of another quest

View attachment 3419947 View attachment 3419948

That one is quite a common issue across all the girls who currently have a punishment storyline. My theory is that changes to them will get coded in as part of an overall polish run once all the storylines are about finished, as if they are added too soon it may be something to remember to alter if they decide to or need to re-jig a storylines events a little to smooth out any inadvertant plotholes/inconsistences thst may crop up during development as more storylines are added/expanded. Itmay be better to do a single pass on those nearer the end. But then again what do I know.

 

[♂Brout&Minou♀]

That one is quite a common issue across all the girls who currently have a punishment storyline. My theory is that changes to them will get coded in as part of an overall polish run once all the storylines are about finished, as if they are added too soon it may be something to remember to alter if they decide to or need to re-jig a storylines events a little to smooth out any inadvertant plotholes/inconsistences thst may crop up during development as more storylines are added/expanded. Itmay be better to do a single pass on those nearer the end. But then again what do I know.

Well, grouping the feedback under one post seems like a good idea to me. For my part, I am at the end of this release. I'm just trying to fill in the few missing pieces

♂

 

[raven54]

I've only noticed this with Rachel, quite often when she's punishing in the office, when the HM takes the photos, Sally writes the reason for the punishment on the board behind her, and it appears out of order, e.g. "falls asleep in class, even if she is punished for another reason

That's the standard for all girls. I think the issue is that the text is part of the image and as such a new image is needed for each reason. Combine this with various clothing options and it's suddenly a lot of images. This will not only make selecting the right one more complex, it will also add to the download size.

I suppose it's possible to have one image and then use the character and text as two sprites. This will greatly cut down on the download size (greatly relative to this scene, not so much total), but it still sounds like a pain to make, both to do it and time required to do it. I would prefer it to stay the way it is and let the time be spend elsewhere. That is unless this specific task can be outsourced to somebody, who wouldn't have done anything else anyway.

It should be mentioned that the added complexity will also increase the risk of bugs.

Some visual novels will have details like this working, but they are usually based on drawn sprite based graphics makes having multiple versions of one sprite trivial. HM is based on screenshots and it requires a new screenshot to replace one single detail. For this reason those two approaches can't really be compared.

 

[♂Brout&Minou♀]

That's the standard for all girls. I think the issue is that the text is part of the image and as such a new image is needed for each reason. Combine this with various clothing options and it's suddenly a lot of images. This will not only make selecting the right one more complex, it will also add to the download size.

I suppose it's possible to have one image and then use the character and text as two sprites. This will greatly cut down on the download size (greatly relative to this scene, not so much total), but it still sounds like a pain to make, both to do it and time required to do it. I would prefer it to stay the way it is and let the time be spend elsewhere. That is unless this specific task can be outsourced to somebody, who wouldn't have done anything else anyway.

It should be mentioned that the added complexity will also increase the risk of bugs.

Some visual novels will have details like this working, but they are usually based on drawn sprite based graphics makes having multiple versions of one sprite trivial. HM is based on screenshots and it requires a new screenshot to replace one single detail. For this reason those two approaches can't really be compared.

I agree with you regarding the different techniques that can be used.
However, not only does this lead to inconsistencies, but it also highlights that the technique of successive screenshots is obsolete.

Modern techniques for creating and modifying images not only allow faster work, therefore saving time, but also great working flexibility. Cinema and photography use green backgrounds. Video game creators use similar techniques such as sprites that are superimposed on each other.

As for the coding, it is no more complex than superimposing the dialogues on the images. Assuming that this increases the risk of bugs, each line of code represents the same potential risk.

Just out of curiosity, where would you prefer Devs to spend time?
I know it may seem like an insignificant detail, but it's the details that make things perfect, if perfection exists.

So the mistake (imo) was made from the start. The technique used makes corrections of this kind difficult. As with Phoshop or Gimp, and so on creations, in their original format, it is easy to modify or change a layer, but if you convert it to JPG or PNG, everything has to be redone.

♂

 

[Cartageno]

I agree with you regarding the different techniques that can be used.
However, not only does this lead to inconsistencies, but it also highlights that the technique of successive screenshots is obsolete.

That it may be - but it is the one RenPy is built for. It can handle sprites and so forth, as many games show, but it is meant to be an easy access for "inexperienced devs" to do just what they want. And it has the nice bonus of being able to avoid clipping errors or similar in advance, since you do not have to check all possible combinations but only what will be seen on screen.

I absolutely get when your inner Monk is unhappy about these texts, mine is too, but also creating a script that angle wise and paint wise looks correct ain't that easy a feat, and "unnatural" text where everybody sees that it doesn't belong on the board but it just superimposed would be even worse to me. So in the end, with this engine and (no offense meant) a dev like Altos who is not a seasoned programmer, it is the easiest to use, and

Just out of curiosity, where would you prefer Devs to spend time?

is only a useful question if said dev can do different approaches at the same level of quality.

 

[c3p0]

To add to this topic. Sure, Ren'Py can use layers, but using layer is also difficulty. Scene that have a different illumination (eg. beach scene at the golden hour or blue hour or during rest of the day) affect not only the scene itself, but the character (sprite) too. Someone standing before another char casting a shadow at the one behind, ...
Sprites are limited and works best with either pixelart or hand-drawn or 2D.

 

[Living In A Lewd World]

I agree totally with the post before, sprites are an interesting technique, but they only work for rather "simple" images. The closer you want to come to reality, the less this technique will work, as it neglects any lighting in an image, what can heavily influence the atmosphere. It works also primarily, when you take images only from certain perspectives, as you would need an extra set of sprites for any possible perspective, you want to use. And using different perspectives is also something, that deters heavily the athmosphere, as you can make images look totally different e.g. when you take a low-angle-shot and an high-angle-shot.

Btw, the headmaster already uses Sprites for parts of the punishment scenes (when the culprits stand directly in front of the headmaster). Also most of the writings like what is written on the blackboards were once part of the images, but were in one of the recent updates changed to being real letters, so that translation gets easier done.

 

[Cartageno]

I agree totally with the post before, sprites are an interesting technique, but they only work for rather "simple" images. The closer you want to come to reality, the less this technique will work

Which is why most games using sprites (in RenPy) don't even try to sell it as real, people are just lined up to show that they are there and may change expressions or similar, but never pretend to do something in the area - except being there.

 

[TheDevian]

Which is why most games using sprites (in RenPy) don't even try to sell it as real, people are just lined up to show that they are there and may change expressions or similar, but never pretend to do something in the area - except being there.

The only game I saw use 3D art with a layered sprite based setup like that, was Love of Magic, most tend to look bad.
That said, if you want to bet technical, even a full screen render is considered a "sprite" to Unity and other engines.

There are advantages and disadvantages to both options, though generally the full renders to look better for non-2D art styles like this.

 

[Cartageno]

The only game I saw use 3D art with a layered sprite based setup like that, was Love of Magic, most tend to look bad.
That said, if you want to bet technical, even a full screen render is considered a "sprite" to Unity and other engines.

There are advantages and disadvantages to both options, though generally the full renders to look better for non-2D art styles like this.

Um, unless we are talking different things, I could give you quite a few examples of the "somebody is here" sprite just as in Love of Magic. But I think we are digressing and the misbehaving girls stay unpunished while we are doing so, and the benefactors won't be happy ...

 

[TheDevian]

Um, unless we are talking different things, I could give you quite a few examples of the "somebody is here" sprite just as in Love of Magic. But I think we are digressing and the misbehaving girls stay unpunished while we are doing so, and the benefactors won't be happy ...

I meant to say "did it well", but you are right, time to get back to paddling. XD

 

[raven54]

Btw, the headmaster already uses Sprites for parts of the punishment scenes (when the culprits stand directly in front of the headmaster). Also most of the writings like what is written on the blackboards were once part of the images, but were in one of the recent updates changed to being real letters, so that translation gets easier done.

Interesting. That would make it easier to support multiple reasons. It still needs proper programming to work properly, so it still isn't "free" just because it doesn't need a graphical update. It will void the argument about size increase as a pure text upgrade will not really count in size.

So in the end, with this engine and (no offense meant) a dev like Altos who is not a seasoned programmer,

Clearly Altos is "good enough" considering that the game is actually working. A major part of programming is to make it easy to do and picking the right engine/language is part of it. Often the goal is to make a solution, which is "good enough" rather than spending ages on perfecting every single detail.

The punishment text doesn't need to be advanced programming. This can be done with if flag is X, then show this, else if, then etc. The problem isn't printing, but rather setting the flag to show the reason. That will have to be done in each location where the girl gets the punishment flag set, which will make her show up. Each time the flag isn't set in such a location, the reason will be incorrect, which is what I referred to by saying it will increase complexity and hence risk of bugs. Sure there are programming tricks, such as making a function to set everything in one call, hence making it impossible to forget setting one of the variables, but it would still need updating in every single existing location in the code where a girl is set to go to the office for punishment.

Doing something with programming isn't hard, particularly not entry level in Ren'Py. However figuring out code designs, which makes it hard to add bugs in the future is much harder. It generally takes years of experience with programming and learning from mistakes. Somebody who only does programming as opposed to the jack of all trades, which is needed to make a game.

Just out of curiosity, where would you prefer Devs to spend time?

To be honest, when I wrote about dev time, I was thinking of text update vs progressing the storyline without being anymore specific than that. Asking me where to progress the story isn't that interesting because we can ask 20 forum users and get 20 different answers. Why should my answer carry more value than the answers from so many other people?

But if you really want my answer, I would say progression of Emily and the beach storyline.

 

[Babakool]

Hello
For those who are interested, here is a guide translated into French in Pdf format

You must be registered to see the links

 

[Gegecucu]

Hello
For those who are interested, here is a guide translated into French in Pdf format
Workupload

Any kind moderator to add this to the OP?

 

[Phil5k]

* * * The Game Guide and Walkthrough have been updated. * * *
* * * Please see this post for the latest version. * * * ​

Updated Game Guide and Walkthrough
Version 0.15.3.1 public

Updated Game Guide

The Game Guide has now been updated for version 0.15.3.1 public.

The walkthrough section has undergone a large review to make sure it is up-to-date. The guide reflects the new questlog actions in Sally's staff quest, Rachel's second student quest, Harriet's student quest, and several other small changes. It includes other small changes to gameplay (e.g. different discipline requirements for passing the body search rule, the requirements to unlock some scenes in the replay menu) and additional information about some of the events.

It also includes all the new 0.15 beta and patreon changes, including the after-school training scenes, which involves a new main quest, a new staff quest for Miss Potts, and a new student quest for Debbie. This includes sex scenes with Amy and Miss Potts, and the eagerly anticipated scene where the twins get to punish Miss Potts.

Link Included in the Actual Game

As most of you will know, the cheat menu in the game has a option "get the detailed walkthrough" which will take you to a Mega folder that includes a copy of this walkthrough. This picture shows where the link is in the game:

​

Available as a Single Document or in 3 Parts

The game guide is available as a single document. However, it is also available in 3 parts. Part 1 of the guide covers Chapter 1 of the game, and Part 2 covers Chapter 2. Part 3 includes additional information, including a detailed punishment guide for all the girls, information about the cheat menu and holiday specials, and reference information about increasing grades and discipline, passing school rules, earning money and more.

Separating the guide into 3 parts is designed to make it more accessible, particularly to newer players, and it also means it is easier to use automatic translation tools to read the guide.


Sample pages from the guide:

​

You can download the guide(s) below, or for more details see my main post here. As always, comments and suggestions are welcome. Hope you find it useful!

French Translation

I couldn't quite believe it, but Babakool managed to post a French translation of Part 1 of this updated guide before I even managed to post the original here! The translation is available here for anyone who wants it.

Complete Game Guide​

or:​

Game Guide Part 1​

​

Game Guide Part 2​

​

Game Guide Part 3​

Edited 2024-09-08: link to new version

 

[fulcrum]

trixie star is an undercover agent, shes way too forthcoming and listens too much.

AltosandHerdone
i probably keep repeating myself, but re-applying sunscreen (weekend patrol) is useless, the skin is saturated and burns even if you put a whole bottle on it.

 

[ccxvidonaferens]

i probably keep repeating myself, but re-applying sunscreen (weekend patrol) is useless, the skin is saturated and burns even if you put a whole bottle on it.

I disagree. It's extremely useful. It gives you an excuse to get your hands on the girls. I can imagine some further developments on this scene being added in to take effect as either school horniness or MC's popularity increases or maybe even tied in to the progression of Faye's and Liz's storylines. Or maybe even turning into a sports therapy massage session the Headmaster runs after class. See plenty of uses.

 

[Cartageno]

I disagree. It's extremely useful. It gives you an excuse to get your hands on the girls. I can imagine some further developments on this scene being added in to take effect as either school horniness or MC's popularity increases or maybe even tied in to the progression of Faye's and Liz's storylines. Or maybe even turning into a sports therapy massage session the Headmaster runs after class. See plenty of uses.

You make it sound like we're only interested in touching the girls in more or less appropriate places and not really caring about their educational wellbeing ...

 

[ccxvidonaferens]

You make it sound like we're only interested in touching the girls in more or less appropriate places and not really caring about their educational wellbeing ...

Heyyy. Not at all. Just following the adage, A healthy body. A healthy mind... Being the Headmaster of that educational establishment is a tough job but I am willing to make tha sacrifice.