Ren'Py The Null Hypothesis [v0.8a] [Ron Chon]

[Ballistic 9029]

Yeah I make jokes about "Null's poor phone" but if you have 15 gfs you will be spending your entire time responding to texts so you don't lose love points. Also at that point from a writing perspective it's hard to argue it's polyamory and not just a harem with concubines. Could be wrong but I'm not sure that's the direction the game is intending.

Honestly, sure it'd be work, but it'd be fun to see Null just out here being a socialite, at least if you wanna go that route-

Although, who knows? Maybe one of his future powers will be cloning so he can keep up with being in so many different relationships, I wouldn't be surprised if that's where we went, especially with potential future games deviating away from X-Men characters at some point.

"I got at least one girl in every town, and every one of them has at least one piece of me."

Plus, it'd be funny to do spin offs where it's just like-

Null('s clone) BUT HE'S AN AVENGER NOW-

Then if one of the clones ends up dying it's a hive mind so it's just like they get a text-

"Sorry babe, Kurt's on holiday, and everyone is either booked or busy, it'll be a week until the new me can fly over."

It could be difficult to justify everyone being okay with that level of hyper-polyamory, but it's just like-

When your boyfriend is probably gonna end up with enough powers to be a demi-god among demi-gods, he can probably deal with the time management somehow-

 

[Ballistic 9029]

There's very few things I'd consider myself to be an expert in, but this is one of them. When I say we've considered what kind of ramifications even slight changes to the timeline would have, I'm not joking. Hell, my 'audition' for joining the team was to rewrite a key event from the comics with Laura as part of the team, but without having her replace someone else wholesale, so we've definitely got one eye on imagining what having characters like her on the team will change. And there's some stuff coming up in later years that I promise no one will see coming, one event in particular that I genuinely wish I could spoil in advance that I'm really proud of. But between the pair of us, Shiny and myself have gone to scary levels of depth in working out how and where things will go.

Honestly, what you're describing is the kind of stuff I hope to be able to do one day-

Even if not exactly for X-Men, I've always loved doing rewrites and stuff in my head, world building, etc.

 

[Buttholder]

You guys know your stuff on the worldbuilding side, so I have no doubt you'll do great going forward with it. This is the only major question for the future that I see that pokes at me when I play. But I'll see what you guys come up with.

Personally, I've never been big into the 'harem' concept, it always rubbed me the wrong way. I remember one of the big conversations we had right before release was 'are we going to go the harem route and make things easy on ourselves or go with poly and make things extra difficult for ourselves'. And, of course, we decided to go the difficult route, because why take the easy way out? That said, while some characters will be more prominent based on the storyline we're covering, in terms of the slice-of-life stuff, clothing, outfits and so on, the plan is for everyone to get equal content. Is that going to mean tons of extra writing work for us? Oh god, yes. But it's our goal to make sure every character gets the same amount of love. I've said before, but it always sucks to see a game add new characters and forget about the old ones, then watch the cycle repeat as those characters get ignored in favour of the new hotness and so on. That's one of my major goals once we get deeper into the story.

 

[The_Man_With_No_Name]

Personally, I've never been big into the 'harem' concept, it always rubbed me the wrong way. I remember one of the big conversations we had right before release was 'are we going to go the harem route and make things easy on ourselves or go with poly and make things extra difficult for ourselves'. And, of course, we decided to go the difficult route, because why take the easy way out? That said, while some characters will be more prominent based on the storyline we're covering, in terms of the slice-of-life stuff, clothing, outfits and so on, the plan is for everyone to get equal content. Is that going to mean tons of extra writing work for us? Oh god, yes. But it's our goal to make sure every character gets the same amount of love. I've said before, but it always sucks to see a game add new characters and forget about the old ones, then watch the cycle repeat as those characters get ignored in favour of the new hotness and so on. That's one of my major goals once we get deeper into the story.

Unless if there is a limit less then the max people possible, it's hard for me to see how it won't turn into a harem functionally where you "catch them all", but we'll have to see.

And yeah I totally agree, "sitcom" style writing where you just add more and ditch the old always sucks when applied to relationship plots.

 

[salscou]

Unless if there is a limit it's hard for me to see how it won't turn into a harem functionally, but we'll have to see.

And yeah I totally agree, "sitcom" style writing where you just add more and ditch the old always sucks when applied to relationship plots.

I mean, it doesnt HAVE to, just because you can doesnt mean you must.
I just have a different save for each girl and one where Null is a wizard for future girls.

 

[The_Man_With_No_Name]

I mean, it doesnt HAVE to, just because you can doesnt mean you must.
I just have a different save for each girl and one where Null is a wizard for future girls.

Oh I know. That's probably the #1 issue I see in the game is that it feels a lot better to just do solo routes. Going "poly" just feels like it will turn into a harem which feels off for this game.

 

[salscou]

Oh I know. That's probably the #1 issue I see in the game is that it feels a lot better to just do solo routes. Going "poly" just feels like it will turn into a harem which feels off for this game.

I know, in RLE i have no problem being the school champ Zero and just creaming any skirt that comes around, but in TNH it just doesnt feel like something Null would do.

 

[JustCallMeSteve]

I know, in RLE i have no problem being the school champ Zero and just creaming any skirt that comes around, but in TNH it just doesnt feel like something Null would do.

I generally agree, comparatively, but not everyone's Null is the same.

Oh I know. That's probably the #1 issue I see in the game is that it feels a lot better to just do solo routes. Going "poly" just feels like it will turn into a harem which feels off for this game.

That really depends on your definitions of poly and harem.

 

[Ballistic 9029]

I know, in RLE i have no problem being the school champ Zero and just creaming any skirt that comes around, but in TNH it just doesnt feel like something Null would do.

Personally, I've never been big into the 'harem' concept, it always rubbed me the wrong way. I remember one of the big conversations we had right before release was 'are we going to go the harem route and make things easy on ourselves or go with poly and make things extra difficult for ourselves'. And, of course, we decided to go the difficult route, because why take the easy way out? That said, while some characters will be more prominent based on the storyline we're covering, in terms of the slice-of-life stuff, clothing, outfits and so on, the plan is for everyone to get equal content. Is that going to mean tons of extra writing work for us? Oh god, yes. But it's our goal to make sure every character gets the same amount of love. I've said before, but it always sucks to see a game add new characters and forget about the old ones, then watch the cycle repeat as those characters get ignored in favour of the new hotness and so on. That's one of my major goals once we get deeper into the story.

The thing is, I appreciate how Null actually seems to be a more "realistic" protagonist in the romance/slice of life sense-

Admittedly I could see it getting out of hand in some ways, but that could also be part of the story-

It's just like...Null, for as fucked up as his circumstances start out, ends up being a paragon character in his own right because-

If you play him as being the "best" version of himself, he's basically out here genuinely giving 110% to everyone he meets, romantic or otherwise-

Even if you play him as the most traditional "paragon" version of himself, poly included, because of the nature of his story at this point and because of his role in it, he never really feels like a "perfect" character.

Like yeah, he's got multiple superpowers, which even at this stage, would make him nearly unkillable in most situations, but to him, while there is the idea of improving himself for his own sake-

He, especially this early on, feels like no matter how strong he gets or how "good" he is, it's just never enough, because there's always a bigger fish, and there will never be a day where he can "fix" everything for all the people that he cares about, and honestly-

I could see that being a core part of his character going forward.

Because yes, he's been through the physical and mental trauma already-

What would hurt him much more though, is if anyone other than him were the one to bear it I think.

At least that's what I got from my Null.

 

[Ballistic 9029]

The thing is, I appreciate how Null actually seems to be a more "realistic" protagonist in the romance/slice of life sense-

Admittedly I could see it getting out of hand in some ways, but that could also be part of the story-

It's just like...Null, for as fucked up as his circumstances start out, ends up being a paragon character in his own right because-

If you play him as being the "best" version of himself, he's basically out here genuinely giving 110% to everyone he meets, romantic or otherwise-

Even if you play him as the most traditional "paragon" version of himself, poly included, because of the nature of his story at this point and because of his role in it, he never really feels like a "perfect" character.

Like yeah, he's got multiple superpowers, which even at this stage, would make him nearly unkillable in most situations, but to him, while there is the idea of improving himself for his own sake-

He, especially this early on, feels like no matter how strong he gets or how "good" he is, it's just never enough, because there's always a bigger fish, and there will never be a day where he can "fix" everything for all the people that he cares about, and honestly-

I could see that being a core part of his character going forward.

Because yes, he's been through the physical and mental trauma already-

What would hurt him much more though, is if anyone other than him were the one to bear it I think.

At least that's what I got from my Null.

Even the "renegade" version of Null, with a generally more abrasive personality, still gravitates towards doing the most good he can, for the most people he can-

That just happens to translate to the poly aspect of his character as well.

I think it is 100% believable why this guy would end up with all the girls-

EDIT: I mean...yeah, he really is kind of crazy in hindsight, considering

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Because he is absolutely insane in regards to the lengths he'll go to and that he's capable of for people around him, especially "his girls".

 

[FP00]

There's very few things I'd consider myself to be an expert in, but this is one of them. When I say we've considered what kind of ramifications even slight changes to the timeline would have, I'm not joking. Hell, my 'audition' for joining the team was to rewrite a key event from the comics with Laura as part of the team, but without having her replace someone else wholesale, so we've definitely got one eye on imagining what having characters like her on the team will change. And there's some stuff coming up in later years that I promise no one will see coming, one event in particular that I genuinely wish I could spoil in advance that I'm really proud of. But between the pair of us, Shiny and myself have gone to scary levels of depth in working out how and where things will go.

I've been reading up on Uncanny X-men (not the spinoffs and big event comics) and I'm up to issue 200, and I can already see how things could massively change with certain characters being part of the X-Men this early or just having Null around. Hearing about the amount of work you put in to figure out how things could change makes me very excited to see what you have planned. Also slightly terrified about the amount of hours it took to figure out each potential change.