VN Ren'Py The Survival of Sarah Rose [v0.4.9.9] [HappyDaedalus]

[Gunizz]

HappyDaedalus I suggest to change the main header image to something more inviting and catching that shows the characters, because the current one does not invite to click, it's somehow flat and anonymous. The art and the game look very interesting indeed.

 

[HappyDaedalus]

Anyone getting an error at the bridge for the Rahayal route? Tried loading at different points and will get different "<Smth> is not defined" error. I think theres a scene if you

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So, not to get too technical here, but this is a problem caused by how I initially approached coding the game. Most flags in the game are set to false when the game starts. This is an easy way to make sure that when running the game, you never get into an issue where the game tries to check an undefined flag.

However, this also means that if you're further ahead and start a new version, it's possible that the flag in question wasn't present when you first played/started the game.
So when you then continue along, the game will try to check a flag status that wasn't in the game in an older version, and because it can't find anything, it will trigger an error because of an undefined flag.

The solution (sadly) is to restart the game from the start, back to that point. This should fix any issue.

Now, the real solution is that I actually learn how to code half-decently, but unfortunately I'm mostly focusing on progressing the game, which means I don't always have as much time to go back and re-do certain code.

Same question
Also, from which path where are the 3 last pics from the first post? (BJ1 Sarah.png, Sarah cowgirl 2.png and
Sarah Tent blurred c.png). I don't remember having seen them on my last playthrough.

Those are all part of the new content in this update, so you'd be right that you haven't seen them before.

Is there any plans for a route where Sarah gets turned into something not quite human?

I kinda want to see her turned into a succubus, or maybe she gets driven to a far eastern nation and turned into a kitsune.

Liking the look of the art and will give this a go anyways.

Actually that is currently planned content! Having said that, it's a bit off in the future so I can't promise it would show up very soon. But yes, there are routes I'm planning where Sarah becomes something other than human.

HappyDaedalus I suggest to change the main header image to something more inviting and catching that shows the characters, because the current one does not invite to click, it's somehow flat and anonymous. The art and the game look very interesting indeed.

You know, I actually agree and have felt the same way for a while. Unfortunately I've struggled to find a good artist that can do the kind of big-splashy-poster idea that I have in my head. But I definitely agree that the current head image is rather flat and should be improved upon sometime.

 

[ghost24]

So, not to get too technical here, but this is a problem caused by how I initially approached coding the game. Most flags in the game are set to false when the game starts. This is an easy way to make sure that when running the game, you never get into an issue where the game tries to check an undefined flag.

Thanks! I'll start from the top then

 

[Usokitsuki]

 

[portiamento]

Hi just wanna ask do we find a great male character and protector to be a love interest?

 

[HappyDaedalus]

Hi just wanna ask do we find a great male character and protector to be a love interest?

Depending on the route, yeah there are definitely potential love interests in that category, and nearly every major route will eventually feature an optional character like that.

 

[Axismundi]

TLDR: The time skips break our connection with Sarah without adding anything to justify them.


I love the game, but damn, the time skips feel awkward. I understand that crazy things don't happen all the time in real life, but in a story, it throws the pacing off and breaks the connection you have with the character. Like at the end of the civil war, it just jumps five years and skips over Sarah's coronation and the mourning of her brother (if you go that route), and just kind of dumps information on you. Or in the mage route, it jumps two years for what feels like no reason. The worst of it is that all the characters are nearly identical after the skip, rendering them completely pointless. It feels like you are trying to avoid the trope of the MC just magically getting good at whatever she puts her mind to, but the time skips you use feel forced and do a lot more damage to the story structure than any overused trope would.

 

[Deleted member 319490]

Amazing game and the paths give the feeling that choices really make a difference!
btw
Royal family and not incest?
How will they keep the bloodline strong?

 

[taler]

Can somebody explain what type of content is in this game and what the different routes entail? The desc is way too vague and I can't figure out if the game is targeted at my demo.

 

[Kumori-chan]

Love the art! Game is really great so far, the choices matter and there are a lot of interesting characters. Will be watching this closely. You have something great on your hands devs keep doing what you're doing.

 

[Peppa01]

The game is super cool, the plot is exciting and very well-written, it can easily become one of the best novels here.
Although I see a few issues here and there. You aren't obliged to pay attention, but i'd like to share my viewpoints.

The king's assasination is described very shortly, even somehow casually, like if he just died of old age. That should cause HUGE commotion around the castle, even the whole capital: guards everywhere, interrogations, lots of people arrested, etc. The heirs most likely would be locked up in their rooms with a ton of soliders guarding them, just in case. But nothing like that actually happens, Sarah is freely walking alone, her girlfriend easily sneaking around the castle, and nobody really minds if that assasin would kill a few other royal family members.

There are already about 8 different plotlines that may further branch depending on your decisions. They are all very promising, so it hurts to say, but is it really possible to make them equally interesting and eventful? My first playthrough ended in like 15 minutes and I thought that the game is some sort of 0.00001 pre-alpha and merely deleted it after that. I understood my misjudgement after trying to play other routes, but still... I see that the mage route is the most developed, and still it branches at the end and lefts lots of story untold for futher updates. Warrior plotline is somehow parallel to mage's with the same twist, but also there are completely different plotlines like marriage or concubine or civil war and it seems merely impossible to develop them equally. I'm afraid that you'll be stuck with many subplots that will drive attention from current major plotlines. It can easily turn to development hell.

The h-content suffers from being dispersed between so many characters and plotlines, there is no empathize on Sarah's sexual development or corruption in most of branches, romances happen very quickly and some scenes feel out of place. The game is fine even without sexual content but it won't get popular lacking that part.

That aside, the game is great, good luck to the dev, gonna subscribe to your Patreon.

 

[Peppa01]

Also I couldn't quite understand Kate's motivation. If she is just addicted and was desperate for money, she could steal from the castle and flee alone or simply ask Sarah for help, I guess Sarah wouldn't object lending Kate some jewelry. And if she loved Sarah she could stay beside her in Rosanna as personal assistant or bodyguard. I don't see much sense in decievivng Sarah to flee from the country with her.

 

[Kalenz123]

This game is getting pretty good.

 

[Yuugen]

are corruption, rape and enslavement avoidable?

 

[HappyDaedalus]

Feedback

I'm glad you kept at it to see all the possible content!

You're right that development hell could be a possible danger, but it's actually one that I am very conscious of. There are also a few ways that I can manage to side-step it.

1) I'm a very productive writer. I write a lot and I write pretty fast. This allows me to really maintain solid progress.
2) I have intentionally parked side-branches for later, deciding to instead only focus on what I consider the core-stories.
3) I have a plotted out main-story that I don't deviate from too much, so I already have a clear idea of where I am and where I need to go.

By doing this, I feel comfortable that I can manage to produce the core of the game in what I consider an acceptable time-line. Then, when I complete all the core-stories, I'll loop back around and fill in all the blanks and side-branches. The end result is likely going to be a pretty massive game, but I feel comfortable that I have a strong and clear vision for how to get there, as well as just being productive enough to manage.

When I got into this, I very clearly had a mindset of epic fantasy, so I always knew that the project would be big.
So I agree with you, the risk of development hell is a real one, but it's one that I'm actively keeping an eye on and I'm making conscious decisions to side-step the risk.

are corruption, rape and enslavement avoidable?

Yes, essentially every scene is avoidable if you don't want to see it. It's even possible to play through the game having no sexual encounters at all.
Each of the major routes allows for a diversity of options.

Some particular story-branches might not allow it in the future, but those are smaller more self-contained stories. The big ones will all feature consensual/positive relationships, of both genders.

 

[Kalrotix]

So I finished the princess, warrior and slave part. I must saybthat I find the game really interesting and the art really good.

I must say that I'm really interested by the slave route, I find very intriguing that apparently the khan have other plans for Sarah than trophy or plaything. He seems to have a personal interest in her that is beyond her beauty and that intrigue me. Also he seems to be more than just a conqueror with ambitions to enslave other culture and to have some vision for the future of his people and his people. I'm very curious of what kind of man he is but I hope that he is a kind of magnificient bastard.

I suppose that there will be a period of corruption and taming for Sarah to train her as a concubine. But I think that Sarah could become the equivalent of the Roxana of this empire, a slave that become almost like the wife of the khan and gain an big political power.

Also this society where the slaves can gain great power and respect make me think of the Ottoman and mameluk empire, si I'm really curious to learn more about their society.

 

[Settum]

Yes, essentially every scene is avoidable if you don't want to see it. It's even possible to play through the game having no sexual encounters at all.
Each of the major routes allows for a diversity of options.
Some particular story-branches might not allow it in the future, but those are smaller more self-contained stories. The big ones will all feature consensual/positive relationships, of both genders.

Great to know that, I was wondering if I should wait longer and see the comments or play this game right now. I love corruption games where you still have the choice to pursue a more platonic or gradual route. Exactly one thing I liked from EvaKiss's Good Girl Gone Bad, where despite everyone saying there's difficult no win choices, I still managed to somehow get a good ending.

 

[MisterNephilim]

TLDR: The time skips break our connection with Sarah without adding anything to justify them.


I love the game, but damn, the time skips feel awkward. I understand that crazy things don't happen all the time in real life, but in a story, it throws the pacing off and breaks the connection you have with the character. Like at the end of the civil war, it just jumps five years and skips over Sarah's coronation and the mourning of her brother (if you go that route), and just kind of dumps information on you. Or in the mage route, it jumps two years for what feels like no reason. The worst of it is that all the characters are nearly identical after the skip, rendering them completely pointless. It feels like you are trying to avoid the trope of the MC just magically getting good at whatever she puts her mind to, but the time skips you use feel forced and do a lot more damage to the story structure than any overused trope would.

Well, arguably the Mage time skip makes sense since Sarah is in a weird pocket dimension learning all this magic stuff so maybe time flows differently there.

Also, a question to the dev, if you can spare a little crumb of spoiler to what the Rahayal plotline will entail ? Since we only get the voice and the dark fountain stuff. Is it another type of mage route ? maybe more mystical ?

 

[HappyDaedalus]

I suppose that there will be a period of corruption and taming for Sarah to train her as a concubine. But I think that Sarah could become the equivalent of the Roxana of this empire, a slave that become almost like the wife of the khan and gain an big political power.

Also this society where the slaves can gain great power and respect make me think of the Ottoman and mameluk empire, si I'm really curious to learn more about their society.

There is definitely more planned for to that character than simply a conqueror.
And you're right that part of the inspiration for their culture was a mix of Mongol/Ottoman.

The idea kind of came when I was initially conceptualizing them way back when I started. At first, they were far more straight-forward 'evil', slavery, etc. Then I ran into the challenge that I kind of wanted to add a bit of nuance to their story.

So I ended up contrasting their idea of slavery, which is a little bit meritocratic, versus the very rigid feudal societies of Rosanna. I won't say that makes them entirely good, or even close to it, but I think it offers a nice contrast between the cultures and gives Sarah some things to think about.

Well, arguably the Mage time skip makes sense since Sarah is in a weird pocket dimension learning all this magic stuff so maybe time flows differently there.

Also, a question to the dev, if you can spare a little crumb of spoiler to what the Rahayal plotline will entail ? Since we only get the voice and the dark fountain stuff. Is it another type of mage route ? maybe more mystical ?

I'll do my best to spoil as much as I'm able, though the actual dark fountain stuff is still too early to get into:

One of the main stories for that route will revolve around Sarah working/living in the estate of someone called Gilead, a high-up character in the empire. The empire itself is large and powerful, but it's being pulled in many different directions by factions within. Sarah will have to navigate that political game as a small fish in a big pond.

 

[Kalrotix]

There is definitely more planned for to that character than simply a conqueror.
And you're right that part of the inspiration for their culture was a mix of Mongol/Ottoman.

The idea kind of came when I was initially conceptualizing them way back when I started. At first, they were far more straight-forward 'evil', slavery, etc. Then I ran into the challenge that I kind of wanted to add a bit of nuance to their story.

So I ended up contrasting their idea of slavery, which is a little bit meritocratic, versus the very rigid feudal societies of Rosanna. I won't say that makes them entirely good, or even close to it, but I think it offers a nice contrast between the cultures and gives Sarah some things to think about.

And I can only encourage this decision, it's way better like this rather than making them the evil faction. After all, no medieval society could really be considered "good", all had slaves, serfdom, and peasants subjected to the will of their lords. So yes, I like the fact they ironically have a system that is rather meritocratic. After all, ultimately the slaves ended up being the ones who made the sultans in the ottoman and mameluk empires, so I think that even if she is in for a hard time, the situation of Sarah may not be totally desperate.

I can't wait to discover more of this culture and their Khan.