VN Ren'Py Twisted Memories [v0.9b] [BaiBai]

[colobancuz]

I think that after all the advice given here, we can say: "BaiBai has left the building".

 

[Versace217]

BaiBai_ Like others, I also advise you not to make a hasty decision. I know this a tough time for R18 devs but you have to be a bit patient. I've been following the issue on reddit daily and there is already movement ongoing at change.org (

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).

This is a volatile time right now but VISA and Mastercard have stepped on a landmine by having itch ban "ALL" R18 content. The real issue is the removal of titles from the accounts of users on itch and if they do not return them to the accounts they will have to refund the users or face legal issues. VISA/Mastercard are not going to be making any more similar manoeuvres atm because of the huge backlash. The way people are protesting right now is by calling (not emailing) VISA/MSCD and letting them know that they are not happy that the company is blackmailing and controlling other companies and not allowing payments to companies they feel are not aligning to their values.

Tl;dr Continue with the release while watching the situation. After that, take a break, look at your options and then decide.

 

[Absurdity]

Honestly, I wonder what actual solutions are being offered by those criticizing the developer’s proposal. It’s easy to complain, but most people don’t offer any viable alternatives—just unrealistic demands. Personally, I really don’t like the direction this is going. Looking at their SubscribeStar account, there doesn’t seem to be much support there, which makes me think that a good portion of their income probably comes from itch.io. In that context, I understand why they might consider releasing a censored version, even if I strongly dislike the idea. I really hope better and more realistic alternatives come up.

The thing is, we don't know if a solution will even be necessary yet. Like the user above mentioned things could change. Going for a hasty "solution" might be just shooting yourself in the foot. For now I would say that even doing nothing and observing the situation for a bit is a better idea than fully committing to a reset.

 

[Darkman200]

The thing is, we don't know if a solution will even be necessary yet. Like the user above mentioned things could change. Going for a hasty "solution" might be just shooting yourself in the foot. For now I would say that even doing nothing and observing the situation for a bit is a better idea than fully committing to a reset.

For now, it seems like the best decision. The developer can't panic like that, and I hope he listens. I've checked his profile on itch.io, and he hasn't disappeared yet.

 

[Dogorti]

It's normal for the developer to panic. No one's attacking him either. We're just saying that there's no point in turning this into a generic harem novel. I think many of us would understand if he decided to pause the novel in this context. No one would want to play a GTA game where you're an office worker, just as no one would want to play this game if it turned out to be just a harem like any other.

 

[Darkman200]

It's normal for the developer to panic. No one's attacking him either. We're just saying that there's no point in turning this into a generic harem novel. I think many of us would understand if he decided to pause the novel in this context. No one would want to play a GTA game where you're an office worker, just as no one would want to play this game if it turned out to be just a harem like any other.

Without intending to discredit some harem games that are well made, the truth is that what truly makes Twisted Memories special is its taboo element. Many of us are not here just for the story, but because of how that element integrates into and gives emotional and narrative weight to everything that happens. Removing it isn't just changing a detail — it's dismantling the essence of the game.
If the taboo content were removed, what would remain is just another generic harem game, lacking the tension and conflict that sets it apart from so many others in the genre. It would lose its identity. And honestly, while we understand the external pressures, we believe there are other ways to protect the project without destroying what makes it unique.

 

[Alandir]

I suspect everyone's just being hyperbolic for the sake of argument.
It's fine if you like it and that's why you want things to stay the way they are, but the "taboo" elements are absolutely not what distinguishes TM from other Harem games.
Incest and l*li are a dime-a-dozen in the adult gaming spaces, be so fr.
The second may not be as prevalent in the west, but as soon as you look to japan you can barely find games without them.
What seperates TM from it's contempories is it's storytelling, character work and relationships dynamics.
The fact that despite 12 LIs every character has a distinct and clearly apparent personality that gets explored deeply and with enough time to do it justice. The fact that the harem building is actually a challenge that takes time and effort and persistence from the mc in order to become reality, instead of just materializing into existence out of nothing.
The fact that the characters storylines aren't seperated into, seemingly, their own dimensions and never interact with any other character outside of it. Instead the storylines interweave and the different characters from relationships and opinions of each other and not just with the mc.
I get it. Everyone is upset right now and for good reason. You don't want the thing you love to change and that is understandable.
But in my opinion, you're doing this game a real disservice if you pretend like all it got going for it are a few taboos and nothing else. That just isn't true in the slightest.

 

[Dogorti]

I suspect everyone's just being hyperbolic for the sake of argument.
It's fine if you like it and that's why you want things to stay the way they are, but the "taboo" elements are absolutely not what distinguishes TM from other Harem games.
Incest and l*li are a dime-a-dozen in the adult gaming spaces, be so fr.
The second may not be as prevalent in the west, but as soon as you look to japan you can barely find games without them.
What seperates TM from it's contempories is it's storytelling, character work and relationships dynamics.
The fact that despite 12 LIs every character has a distinct and clearly apparent personality that gets explored deeply and with enough time to do it justice. The fact that the harem building is actually a challenge that takes time and effort and persistence from the mc in order to become reality, instead of just materializing into existence out of nothing.
The fact that the characters storylines aren't seperated into, seemingly, their own dimensions and never interact with any other character outside of it. Instead the storylines interweave and the different characters from relationships and opinions of each other and not just with the mc.
I get it. Everyone is upset right now and for good reason. You don't want the thing you love to change and that is understandable.
But in my opinion, you're doing this game a real disservice if you pretend like all it got going for it are a few taboos and nothing else. That just isn't true in the slightest.

I appreciate all that and such, but I enjoy this game for being incest and for being one of the few well-crafted Taboo incest harems (if not the only one) without the taboo of course it loses almost all of its sauce.

I mean: I appreciate all those positive aspects thanks to the incest, it's really well done and the taboo aspects. Like seducing your teacher, do you think a remake would be just as hot? Fuck, if the dev wants to make a truly family-friendly remake and without the game running the risk of being banned right now, he'd have to remove the entire school setting and make it in a college or something = shit. We're all fans of the game and we want the best ending, but if the best ending for the dev is to remove aspects of the game that made it unique, then we don't want that.

 

[colobancuz]

I appreciate all that and such, but I enjoy this game for being incest and for being one of the few well-crafted Taboo incest harems (if not the only one) without the taboo of course it loses almost all of its sauce.

I mean: I appreciate all those positive aspects thanks to the incest, it's really well done and the taboo aspects. Like seducing your teacher, do you think a remake would be just as hot? Fuck, if the dev wants to make a truly family-friendly remake and without the game running the risk of being banned right now, he'd have to remove the entire school setting and make it in a college or something = shit. We're all fans of the game and we want the best ending, but if the best ending for the dev is to remove aspects of the game that made it unique, then we don't want that.

What makes you think there won't be incest? Did you even read BaiBai's second post? Apparently not, and it says there will be a patch to restore incest. Also about the aging of the characters - it's already done, he just wanted to redo the first parts after the end of the game and now he decided to do it earlier for insurance. And making a patch that restores old images is easy, even without BaiBai's involvement at all.
Hell, and they're saying it was BaiBai who caused the panic...

 

[Dogorti]

What makes you think there won't be incest? Did you even read BaiBai's second post? Apparently not, and it says there will be a patch to restore incest. Also about the aging of the characters - it's already done, he just wanted to redo the first parts after the end of the game and now he decided to do it earlier for insurance. And making a patch that restores old images is easy, even without BaiBai's involvement at all.
Hell, and they're saying it was BaiBai who caused the panic...

I read it. It sounds horrible. Emily the same size as Alyvia, MC bigger than Jacky. If you love that great. I don't know why some of you are so eager to play something when it won't resemble the original product. Btw, they can still ban you even if the patch is "unofficial". There way to escape that but like i say the context this days is hard.

 

[shitass1001]

just as no one would want to play this game if it turned out to be just a harem like any other.

No need to speak for everyone. As long as Baibai continues to write in his expressive wordy way there will always be fans, even if there is a rework or dumbing down of the taboo elements. I like the tension that the story provides too, but my favourite part of this game has always been the writing and the unique looking style (not the small characters but how the renders look).

Lots of people are panicking in this thread and that makes sense, but lets not lose ourselves before seeing what Baibai chooses to do, or before seeing how the situation unfolds with Itch.
Extreme statements like "no one will play if its just a harem game" is just a blatant insult (I am sure you dont mean it in that way, but the point stands) and totally antithetical to the truth which is that the only reason Twisted Memories is so well loved is because of Baibais skill as a dev. Another less talented dev could take the story that Twisted Memories has and completely scuff it, even though all the building blocks are there with the same characters and the same hook.

 

[Dogorti]

No need to speak for everyone. As long as Baibai continues to write in his expressive wordy way there will always be fans, even if there is a rework or dumbing down of the taboo elements. I like the tension that the story provides too, but my favourite part of this game has always been the writing and the unique looking style (not the small characters but how the renders look).

Lots of people are panicking in this thread and that makes sense, but lets not lose ourselves before seeing what Baibai chooses to do, or before seeing how the situation unfolds with Itch.
Extreme statements like "no one will play if its just a harem game" is just a blatant insult (I am sure you dont mean it in that way, but the point stands) and totally antithetical to the truth which is that the only reason Twisted Memories is so well loved is because of Baibais skill as a dev. Another less talented dev could take the story that Twisted Memories has and completely scuff it, even though all the building blocks are there with the same characters and the same hook.

I really don't see how extreme my statement is? Is it more extreme than saying you're going to change the game's content just out of fear of getting banned? I consider that a betrayal of the fans and it doesn't make you more or less of a fan of the game to say so, it's just a fact. If it's going to change so much to this point, it's better to make another game with a different name and I'm sure people like you will enjoy it, some of us would prefer not to play it. It's not good to be complacent with censorship guys, though I know it's not baibai's fault.

 

[Dogorti]

It's really incredible, a dev has to change his vision of how the game was in the beginning and there are people who tell you that it's not a big deal because the writing is great.... of course the game is well written, but why didn't baibai make the game from the beginning with the same themes but instead of the school setting made it in a college? because that's not what he fucking wanted lol. of course censoring those aspects makes the game lose value, I don't think it's crazy to say it. How many games like this are there on this site?

 

[colobancuz]

Well, the shit's coming down the pipes... Now it might start to get personal.
Perhaps should leave this thread for a while until things settle down, nothing of value will be said here anyway...

 

[WolftheAlpha]

I think the biggest concerns are the game being watered down so to speak and the remake taking a lot of time and it's not what anyone actually wants even if some are willing to accept it or not. Could go into a lot more depth but everyone and baibai should just wait and see worrying for potentially nothing is pointless and stressful as far as I am aware people are already fighting back against the censorship so we should be okay and if not then remaking the game might not even work as they will almost certainly just tighten and increase the censorship to make even a watered down version not allowed but that's worst case and as I said worrying for potentially nothing is pointless. Sorry for the speech but hopefully that helps some if not well I tried. If you see this baibai don't give up/worry to much best finish the next version and maybe take a break for a bit should have a better idea what is going on by then. Feels like 2020 again with the shit going on

 

[Mark17]

A whole bunch of rambling
Alright, this was kind of a weird week. It didn't start of the best with the development once again reaching its most un-fun part even though I really tried this time to change my communication in terms of expectations but I guess its just kind of inevitable for things to turn out like this with the time between releases being as they are. It isn't that tragic though, after all its not like we haven't been through this plenty of times by now. Much worse however was the whole Itch.io thing which together with the Steam purge happening right before it really scared the shit out of me.

For those of your who don't know, Itch.io deindexed all adult games due to outside pressures while they're working their way though them, banning everything that doesn't adhere to a certain set of rules.

Because of that I very seriously considered just dropping everything else to start working on a heavily censored remake of the game as soon as possible to be on the safe side of things and I even already started digging through v0.1 to figure out how I'd best go about doing so, but I calmed down a bit by now. To be honest though, I still think doing it this way would be the most rational course of action and I'm probably kind of stupid not to do so immediately. At the same time however I don't think I can do it. V0.10 isn't in a state where I'd be willing to say fuck it and just release it. The way things are right now I'd rather cancel it completely and try to work myself back to the current state of things as fast as possible but I really don't think I can do that to you guys and I also think that it would be nice to have at least episode 1 out in the way it was meant to be (I also don't even want to imagine the shit show that would break loose if I did, but that's secondary). Accordingly I decided to just stick with it for now and gamble on the game being safe for a while longer. After v0.10 however, the way I'm currently thinking is that I won't start work on v0.11 and instead start over with a remake of v0.1 which will most likely end up quite a bit different from how things are right now. But we'll see about that once I get there, especially since I currently have two different ways in mind how I could go about doing this from which I'd still have to decide on one.

All of this sucks to an unbelievable degree but sadly there is no way of knowing whether I'm overreacting or not, though I kind of doubt that I am. Either way, for the last few days I've been kind of flip flopping between trying to continue the work on v0.10 and starting over with the v0.1 remake without getting much done of either and while doing so I realized too late that I still had to do some bonus renders for today. I'll catch up with posting those next week instead and try to get my head back straight in regards to wrapping up v0.10

A little edit to the original post:

I think there might be a need to clarify how such a remake would exactly look since I feel like you guys are imagining it worse than I intend to do it:

The biggest change and the only reason why I can't just do a rewriting of the script files to get rid of all the taboo dialog/narration for it to be patched into its original version later are the models and its probably the thing that would hurt most. They have to be changed to look like actual adults: MC bigger than Jacky. Stephanie, Viktoria, Cathrine, Emily, Lola on par with Alyvia and Mya.

Apart from that I wouldn't re-imagine the game, I wouldn't change the story in any massive ways. In fact, for the most part it would be exactly the same, day by day, scene by scene, even render by render with the vast majority of dialog and narration being one-to-one as it is right now. I'd need to put all the school girls at the end of Z-School, so I'd need to adjust some dialog here and there for it to make sense, but that would be pretty minor. I would also need to change the Cathrine corruption route for it so be consensual but I think to already know a way to do that by only changing a few paragraphs of dialog too.

The second big thing is obviously the whole incest thing and the more I think about it I don't think that I would want to go the landlady/roommate route for it. Instead my current idea is to do it in a way that all family characters are non-romancable in the official, non patched version. Meaning I'd develop a third route for Jacky, Alyvia and Emily where the MC has a platonic relationship with them and make these routes the only ones that is available in the official release. The other routes would stay the same as they are right now but would need to be patched in though an “unofficial fan patch”.

Now, of course this would take time and it would hurt a lot. Believe me, I don't want to do it either and still I think that it would be the best way to give this game at least a chance to ever see a satiating ending without having to fear being banned from one day to the next. In regard how much time this would take I wouldn't be able to tell. But if I can leave most stuff as it is right now and only have to redo it render by render it really shouldn't take an unreasonable time, especially considering how long even an regular update takes me nowadays.



If I could have I would have bet money on you showing up after this one.

This whole shit fucked up the industry beyond the oblivion!

 

[stevejerks]

Post I made in the discord


After reading up on everything surrounding this censorship/remake fiasco, I feel uneasy, as I'm sure many do as well. Thinking of a timeline where this incredible game goes the route of censorship or changing key elements would be gutting. I truly believe if this path is taken, more than half of everyone who supports it would leave. Its a hard pill to swallow, but that's the sentiment I've seen across multiple social platforms.

I have played numerous games that have content and tags similar to TW, and have seen how they have differing methods to releasing and distributing their content in a way that safely navigates platform restrictions. In my personal opinion, I believe the dev should finish what he currently is working on, and then take some time to research all the possible directions he can take that wouldn't require any drastic changes. I refuse to believe there isn't a solution that would keep the game development moving forward as usual without and diversions. I think this games story, characters and renders and top notch. Aging the younger characters up would be unthinkable during this branch of the "current" story. I could maybe see a future where a timeskip happens, but that would need to be set up in a way that makes sense and feels warranted. Same goes for a remake. Asking your supporters to wait even longer for watered down content that they didn't want in the first place is a impossible ask. In the end, i would hate to see drastic changes made that would take away from what makes this game great.

I don't have any real power to make the decisions that will be made, but i hope a solution is found that would let everyone who's a fan or supporter of this game continue to experience the original envisioned story and content that has been brought to us so far. BaiBai, you are a very talented developer and storyteller, and I only can hope you can continue to share your talents with us for the foreseeable future. Keep calm, clear your mind, and work towards a solution that makes not only you happy, but also appeases your fanbase. Huge fan

 

[relic767]

Extremely sad if the game has to be wathered down before we get Cathrine development, not gonna lie. I think if a remake becomes inevitable then I think it's best if there is no remake, rather just release 0.10 and start working on 0.11 as a separate game with a workflow opimized for a censorship compliant version to be released on Itch/SS/Patreon and the original distributed elsewhere to subs.
If I'm not mistaken Honey Select allows for hot-swapping models in scenes so while it would be double the amount of renders it's not quite double the amount of work as they don't need to be completely re-posed?
I'm aware there would be extra work but I think this is far less risky than a complete remake of TM that will most definitely poison the essence of the game. Personally, I'd hate to see everyone aged up (mainly that I really don't like the proportions used for Jacky and Mya).

 

[nalgonas4ever]

Now I want to say something nice about the game and the way Baibai does his work; I am among many of us who enjoys the taboo parts of this but it's not what keeps me interested in this project and in the future I hope to be able to support him monetarily, it's the way he writes the inner monologues of the characters, the build up and sexual tension, the characterization of the MC and the LI, hell even when he uses a program to make the renders that a lot of devs use TM manages to look like it's own thing. With all of this I want to say that he has the potential to make great stores regardless of it having taboo elements or not, as long as he wants to keep going he'll always have a public.

 

[Userd114]

This whole shit fucked up the industry beyond the oblivion! View attachment 5086868

Like what? Crypto? Wise?