VN Ren'Py The Moorcock Incident [Dev Thread] - Big Titty Snobbish Girl Slow Corruption

[osanaiko]

At last I have some time off from $DAYJOB, and I must say that I have been using it wisely! (if working on an adult indie game is wise?)

Over the last couple of days I've finished 11 new (or variation) sprite images, and FINALLY put them together along with previously created images so that the first dialogue scene has more than just static images.
It's both fun and rewarding to be able to see how "it's all coming together".

I showed the intro sequence and first couple of scenes to a trusted comrade and the reaction was gratifying... "Wow dude, I didn't think you were really serious about this thing, but that looks fucking awesome! Now I'm pumped to see more!" (slight paraphrase).

Now having said all that, I must emphasize that this is the start of the actual production phase, and there's a lot more content to put together to have a working game chapter for an initial launch.

As a celebration I decided to revisit the old Lumalabs ai-video generator to see what has changed. The tool is a bit better than before but unfortunately still cannot stick to a specific visual style. However, if you wanted to see just how little Juliette might look like if she grew a foot taller, lost the baby fat, and the cameraman couldn't keep her in frame properly, then here is your chance:
View attachment Juliette the dice was loaded from the start 2.mp4

 

[Heavenly6]

Now having said all that, I must emphasize that this is the start of the actual production phase, and there's a lot more content to put together to have a working game chapter for an initial launch.

So what you're saying is you're 75% of the way done? At least when i did development the actual production was the final 25% . Also am i the only one that feels like that clip is turning our helpless heroine into a JoJo character? xD.

 

[Heavenly6]

Man this project hasn't had any updates all year! I want my money back!

 

[DicksInSpace]

At last I have some time off from $DAYJOB, and I must say that I have been using it wisely! (if working on an adult indie game is wise?)

Over the last couple of days I've finished 11 new (or variation) sprite images, and FINALLY put them together along with previously created images so that the first dialogue scene has more than just static images.
It's both fun and rewarding to be able to see how "it's all coming together". View attachment 4366503

I showed the intro sequence and first couple of scenes to a trusted comrade and the reaction was gratifying... "Wow dude, I didn't think you were really serious about this thing, but that looks fucking awesome! Now I'm pumped to see more!" (slight paraphrase).

Now having said all that, I must emphasize that this is the start of the actual production phase, and there's a lot more content to put together to have a working game chapter for an initial launch.

As a celebration I decided to revisit the old Lumalabs ai-video generator to see what has changed. The tool is a bit better than before but unfortunately still cannot stick to a specific visual style. However, if you wanted to see just how little Juliette might look like if she grew a foot taller, lost the baby fat, and the cameraman couldn't keep her in frame properly, then here is your chance:
View attachment 4366533

BALENCIAGA

 

[osanaiko]

Happy new year to anyone who happens to wander into this thread...

Over the past couple of weeks I've been busy doing this and that on TMI, in between cramming copious amounts of calorie dense food and inebriating liquids down my throat while carousing with people I like (and some of whom about which I am more ambivalent). All the while, my employer continues to send me money while I am NOT working on commercially valuable outputs. Truly we live in a gilded age.

Meanwhile, on the resolutely studious Research Vessel Moorcook...

Young Juliette has also been busy, knuckling down on a personal project aimed at further increasing the already robust glory of the noble and self sacrificing United Earth Forces, ever watchful bearers of the flickering flame of human civilization.


(You may see something you like in this picture.)

Indeed, she is engrossed in her task, caught up in the joy of research, until something strange catches her eye...


(note: this is a work in progress image... I'm not happy with all aspects just yet, and the UI/background are placeholders for now)

What could it be?!?

 

[dstaley198125]

Happy new year to anyone who happens to wander into this thread...

Over the past couple of weeks I've been busy doing this and that on TMI, in between cramming copious amounts of calorie dense food and inebriating liquids down my throat while carousing with people I like (and some of whom about which I am more ambivalent). All the while, my employer continues to send me money while I am NOT working on commercially valuable outputs. Truly we live in a gilded age.

Meanwhile, on the resolutely studious Research Vessel Moorcook...

Young Juliette has also been busy, knuckling down on a personal project aimed at further increasing the already robust glory of the noble and self sacrificing United Earth Forces, ever watchful bearers of the flickering flame of human civilization.

View attachment 4403234
(You may see something you like in this picture.)

Indeed, she is engrossed in her task, caught up in the joy of research, until something strange catches her eye...

View attachment 4403229
(note: this is a work in progress image... I'm not happy with all aspects just yet, and the UI/background are placeholders for now)

What could it be?!?

Really enjoying these updates and teasers. Any chance you'll create a Discord channel soon for this project?

 

[osanaiko]

Really enjoying these updates and teasers. Any chance you'll create a Discord channel soon for this project?

Thanks dude , I'm enjoying making the posts. Basically it's shitposting and showing off, with an audience. If this is 1% of what it feels like as an "internet celeb", I kind of understand why so many of them start getting high on their own supply.

Discord is problematic for me - I *do* have an account for gaming-with-the-boys, but I prefer to keep my "porn game dev identity" completely separate from the rest of my life. And I certainly do not trust a free service to hold my privacy in high regard.

Maybe one day I'll setup a second device on my BattleStation(tm) desk just for F95etc discord use. But not today.


Here's a random image in return for saying nice things to me. If only I could find a AI tool to auto-add jigglybones effects my life would be complete:

 

[Del.Mar]

Is there demo version?

 

[osanaiko]

Is there demo version?

Not yet... I'm still working on it in small bites.

I'm coming up to the first anniversary of the project, given that the oldest commit in my GIT repo was in Feb 2024.

Progress is not exactly speedy, but I'm not giving up!

 

[TheExordick]

Progress is not exactly speedy

Quality takes time, keep up the good work!

Also it's the first time that i see the documented process of creating a game using AI, and i have to say i'm both fascinated and a bit unimpressed by this tool.
It can create beautiful images with well defined lighting and mood but then struggles to maintain consistent appearance, so you need to iterate a lot on details to keep consistency (if i understand it right).

Personally i think it would frustrate me to the point i would use the AI sketch to trace on my final image by hand, even though i can't draw for the love of me.

 

[osanaiko]

Quality takes time, keep up the good work!

Also it's the first time that i see the documented process of creating a game using AI, and i have to say i'm both fascinated and a bit unimpressed by this tool.
It can create beautiful images with well defined lighting and mood but then struggles to maintain consistent appearance, so you need to iterate a lot on details to keep consistency (if i understand it right).

Personally i think it would frustrate me to the point i would use the AI sketch to trace on my final image by hand, even though i can't draw for the love of me.

Thanks for the kind words.

You are correct about the AI tools - sometimes the output can be amazingly good, almost more so than some actual artist. It's like a kind of hyper reality.

But the downsides are exactly as you describe - the amount of rework and more rework needed to get a scene and/or character looking close to what I want in my head is enough to drive me mad sometimes. Certainly energy sapping. I do envy the people with an artistic bent.

There's nothing for it but to grind - at some level in a similar amount of time as game creators using Daz 3d rendering or hand drawn art. I guess that's the same no matter what the medium used, except perhaps game-engine tools like Koikatsu which have so much stuff prebuilt regards clothing, poses, scenes etc. and no long rendertime delays or near-unusably poor UI like DAZ.

Here's the output folders of the Stable Diffusion app - you can see how many days i've been working on generating art. 3300 files in there currently, although I do a lot of cleanup to remove bad outputs or stuff i haven't used.

 

[KingsRaiden]

But the downsides are exactly as you describe - the amount of rework and more rework needed to get a scene and/or character looking close to what I want in my head is enough to drive me mad sometimes. Certainly energy sapping. I do envy the people with an artistic bent.

I support another Dev who uses AI photos and the process is exactly that, he gets a sort of image that fits what is wanted, then its rework and touch up to get it "just right". It's a good tool for those who can code, but are not artists, and want to make a game.

 

[Sepheyer]

Happy new year to anyone who happens to wander into this thread...

Over the past couple of weeks I've been busy doing this and that on TMI, in between cramming copious amounts of calorie dense food and inebriating liquids down my throat while carousing with people I like (and some of whom about which I am more ambivalent). All the while, my employer continues to send me money while I am NOT working on commercially valuable outputs. Truly we live in a gilded age.

Meanwhile, on the resolutely studious Research Vessel Moorcook...

Young Juliette has also been busy, knuckling down on a personal project aimed at further increasing the already robust glory of the noble and self sacrificing United Earth Forces, ever watchful bearers of the flickering flame of human civilization.

View attachment 4403234
(You may see something you like in this picture.)

Indeed, she is engrossed in her task, caught up in the joy of research, until something strange catches her eye...

View attachment 4403229
(note: this is a work in progress image... I'm not happy with all aspects just yet, and the UI/background are placeholders for now)

What could it be?!?

Hey, why not go for plan B, do renders in Koikatsu/Honey Select2 so you can finally focus on the actual game? The AI is not yet ready to assist one in game development, rather it is a tease and a distraction as the things stand in January of 2025.

This way you can finally think about shipping v0.0.1 or somesuch with Kk/HS2 renders. You can ship *something* in 30 days and pat yourself on the back. Yet if you are still waiting for the SD to come through, oh boi, that timeline is indefinite. You are going to lose the entire impulse that made you want to make the game way before your first v0.0.1 using SD gets shipped.

 

[osanaiko]

Hey, why not go for plan B, do renders in Koikatsu/Honey Select2 so you can finally focus on the actual game? The AI is not yet ready to assist one in game development, rather it is a tease and a distraction as the things stand in January of 2025.

This way you can finally think about shipping v0.0.1 or somesuch with Kk/HS2 renders. You can ship *something* in 30 days and pat yourself on the back. Yet if you are still waiting for the SD to come through, oh boi, that timeline is indefinite. You are going to lose the entire impulse that made you want to make the game way before your first v0.0.1 using SD gets shipped.

Hi Sepheyer!

Seeing your work and the many others who posted in the "stable diff sharing" dev tools thread is one of the reasons I got into using SD, so I'm glad you dropped in to my devthread . mad respect for the OG etc etc.

I have considered using Daz, and to a lesser extent HS2/KK, for making the art for the game. The thing is however, I just don't really like KK art style - there are *so many* games that use it and they (nearly) all look identical. And Daz is cool but I've spent enough time with it to know that is it also nearly as time consuming as my current process - and the output is "realistic human" 3d style rather than the cartoon style that I personally prefer.

I'm not actually *waiting* for any new SD tools to arrive (although I strongly wish there were more effective ControlNet plugins that work with SDXL) - I have everything I need at the moment. It's just a matter of the time it takes to tweak and tweak SD prompts, manually edit and edit and edit images to combine them or move things or fix things, and then SD again at the end to return them to the correct look-and-style. All the while trying to maintain a very consistent character face / clothing look. I could probably go twice as fast if I didn't take as much care...

I am totally honest about this being slow, and I am happy to say that I don't work on the art at "maximum intensity" - there are many days that go by where I don't actually make any progress at all. And others where I am writing dialogue rather than art.

I'll get there eventually!

 

[Sepheyer]

Hi Sepheyer!

Seeing your work and the many others who posted in the "stable diff sharing" dev tools thread is one of the reasons I got into using SD, so I'm glad you dropped in to my devthread . mad respect for the OG etc etc.

I have considered using Daz, and to a lesser extent HS2/KK, for making the art for the game. The thing is however, I just don't really like KK art style - there are *so many* games that use it and they (nearly) all look identical. And Daz is cool but I've spent enough time with it to know that is it also nearly as time consuming as my current process - and the output is "realistic human" 3d style rather than the cartoon style that I personally prefer.

I'm not actually *waiting* for any new SD tools to arrive (although I strongly wish there were more effective ControlNet plugins that work with SDXL) - I have everything I need at the moment. It's just a matter of the time it takes to tweak and tweak SD prompts, manually edit and edit and edit images to combine them or move things or fix things, and then SD again at the end to return them to the correct look-and-style. All the while trying to maintain a very consistent character face / clothing look. I could probably go twice as fast if I didn't take as much care...

I am totally honest about this being slow, and I am happy to say that I don't work on the art at "maximum intensity" - there are many days that go by where I don't actually make any progress at all. And others where I am writing dialogue rather than art.

I'll get there eventually!

Osanaiko, what if you think of Kk/HS2 as prototyping , will it let you disassociate from the actual renders? This way you would know which images you need to eventually do say v0.0.1. That's what my post rather was about - go ape shit on the "game development" while cutting corners on art for the goal is the art in form of the game and not art as art Currently it seems to me there is a focus of 90% on the art, which in itself is rather 20% of the game

 

[Quintillian]

my head is enough to drive me mad sometimes. Certainly energy sapping. I do envy the people with an artistic bent.

I think the tech is amazing for what it is. For one off images is all fun, like cool party tricks, but when I realized the sheer amount of work required to make a whole game it honestly broke my brain . We are talking sigma PoE grindset, and I just couldn't. Ironically enough, learning to draw has been a grindfest too, but at least I can say that was me. If I suck, it's because I suck. Not because I didn't pray to the machine-spirits in the right way.

 

[Saint Blackmoor]

I just found this thread. I like what I'm seeing, it looks like a kool project. I have huge respect for the people who put in the kind of work it takes to create AVNs.

 

[Houlerner]

Definitely keeping an eye on this one. On Edge was a very promising game and this seems to be even more so!

 

[osanaiko]

So a couple of weeks have flown past. Sadly I have had to return back to the cursed distraction of real-world-working...

In the free time that I do get, I've been continuing to work through the build out of the dialogue and script, and making images, for the "research" scene from Ch1 that I teased a few messages above.

Speaking of cursed, here's an image that unintentionally came out of the lightning-generator... facial features aren't quite right, but if I squint I can see an alternate timeline dark future for Juliette...



Leaving that non-canon image aside, I'll talk about what's been happening recently. I now feel like I've got a grip on the image creation workflow and feel confident in making stuff. Although I must admit there is a lot of messing around sometimes to get to the right standard of output, and as always, the roundabout of prompting/kitbashing source images to feed through the IMG2IMG. For example, just look at all these "work in progress" files in one subfolder for one scene in chapter 1. These digital representations are the raw materials and the razor sharp swarf that has been thrown off from the virtual lathe, all in aid of five new images for the scene.



I am still learning as I go - gradually getting used to both the available tools and the new techniques that work in Photoshop, and also finding ways to improve the process* itself, such as using lots of layers to allow assembling different "versions" of a similar scene with changes in character pose or background screen images. (*new to me, obviously plenty of prior-art around)
Not everything has gone smoothly either: One "failure" has been doing premature upscaling to FullHD size to early, often done in my eagerness to drop another image into the game engine and test how it looks/feels... and then realizing there are still issues. This is a problem because I can't then (easily) use those larger images in the StabDiffusion tooling because they exceed the total pixel limit of SDXL, forcing it fall back to mosaic processing which is far far far slower and can have obvious seams.
Another inefficiency has been failing to have a good naming scheme for all the files and layers created along the way, so sometimes it takes a while to dig out a specific image source I know I made previously.

Anyway, I'd say it has been three steps forward-one back, and I'm still happy with how things are going - as long as there is some progress every week, then I know that I'm keeping the boat moving.

 

[VGOAT]

Im going to be your first comment of February and I gotta say I'm extremely happy I stumbled onto your post. I almost never read all the comments but I did and truly enjoy all the updates and progress reports you've been making over the post year. I can't wait for the demo/beta to be released, when you feel it's ready. This will definitely be (IMO) better then OE. Ofc since the dev "is still working on it" from what I can see in the discord on and off. Making post and taking people's money (not mine, i dropped the sub) I have high hopes for this game and for your success.

Thank you!

P.S please take your time and enjoy the process. Just a reminder. You got this.