Ren'Py Under Your Spell [v0.2.0p] [Shady Characters]

[MarshmallowCasserole]

About to please ask for player updates, as everyone seemed of the opinion it would be good if gameplay is optimized. I guess this answers that, unless others have something diff. to share?

Are you the second dev? Hmmm, are you really going to re-write the main screen's UI after over 6 months of development?

But you know what, let's give it a try, why not. Let's start with save files.

Actually no, let's start with name selection. Why don't you have a default choice, especially when you're expecting not just a name, but a family name as well? At least you check if I enter two empty strings, that's good. Anyway, ' of the noble house ' never fails to fit in any setting. Stay classy, dear '

Now, saves. RenPy allows you to write and read a custom JSON in your saves. Use it for most relevant stats of the player (skills, money, ingame time, maybe some route locks)

You must be registered to see the links

I think i even have a working code snippet somewhere, but it's really small, and shouldn't be hard for you to write on your own

All right, the main screen. So right now, you need 10 clicks to get through a single day's schedule. That's unacceptable.

Spoiler: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

There's also no reason to gray out a class already taken. What if I want to move Conjuration to 2nd slot? And if your game does not actually differentiate between slot 1 and 2, then this part can be simplified to a double selection checkbox.

So, what can be done to make it bearable?

• You should make the activities selection panel always visible
• Activities selection panel should have a static screen position, and not act like a submenu of currently selected slot
• Fill the empty slots automatically, top to bottom
  • highlight what slot is currently being populated
  • enable/disable activities by availability depending on the current slot, don't do several lists
  • once a slot is populated, add a quick clear button (X)
• Players should be able to plan for entire day in the morning
  • Afternoon should be filled with slacking by default. You should be able to plan the whole day by quickly selecting just 2 classes
  • You can make a break in the midday and return to this screen to give an opportunity to revise choices for the second half, that's fine, that's just one confirmation if the plan is sound
• Add at least two quick plan templates: yesterday and day before yesterday
  • Preferrably this should work separately for weekends and regular days. So on Tuesday you want to repeat Monday and Friday; on Saturday you want to repeat previous Sunday and previous Saturday
  • A quick summary of stat changes that happened last time these schedules were executed would be very helpful

Spoiler: 1-2-3-4-5 or 1-2

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

Now, narratively.

I understand Eric is your exposition machine, but try to make him more consistent. One day he's suggesting you court high achievers of your house because if you're chosing a waifu for life-u you aim for the best, and then in his next scene he's suggesting you should give bear girls a chance "YoU cAnT bE PiCkY!" STFU Eric, it's all your fault.

Also, the initial timeskip makes no sense, why do you start the game on 16th? Just move your ritual to 13th, it's already a Friday. Come on. ALSO the spooky poem setting the deadline to 1st of May instead of Ides of May is just lame, but that's just my opinion.

Also, there's absolutely fuck to do before you get selected by the goblet of fire Cup of C'thun mcguffin, seriously, these two weeks should have a shit ton of introductory events. It just makes no sense to have 2 weeks of grind and not showcase at least 75% of your waifu roster. They share classes, eat in the mess hall, right? Introduce your cast! I've got one (1) event with an actual girl in the first two weeks, and I've tried all the activities at least once, which is probably an absolute waste of time in terms of actual stat management. You should just grind magic and knowledge non-stop, right?

That's all I have having played 2 in-game weeks before getting tired of clicking, but that should be some food for thought at least.

 

[swiver]

Are you the second dev? Hmmm, are you really going to re-write the main screen's UI after over 6 months of development?

But you know what, let's give it a try, why not. Let's start with save files.

Actually no, let's start with name selection. Why don't you have a default choice, especially when you're expecting not just a name, but a family name as well? At least you check if I enter two empty strings, that's good. Anyway, ' of the noble house ' never fails to fit in any setting. Stay classy, dear '

Now, saves. RenPy allows you to write and read a custom JSON in your saves. Use it for most relevant stats of the player (skills, money, ingame time, maybe some route locks)

You must be registered to see the links

I think i even have a working code snippet somewhere, but it's really small, and shouldn't be hard for you to write on your own

All right, the main screen. So right now, you need 10 clicks to get through a single day's schedule. That's unacceptable.

Spoiler: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

There's also no reason to gray out a class already taken. What if I want to move Conjuration to 2nd slot? And if your game does not actually differentiate between slot 1 and 2, then this part can be simplified to a double selection checkbox.

So, what can be done to make it bearable?

• You should make the activities selection panel always visible
• Activities selection panel should have a static screen position, and not act like a submenu of currently selected slot
• Fill the empty slots automatically, top to bottom
  • highlight what slot is currently being populated
  • enable/disable activities by availability depending on the current slot, don't do several lists
  • once a slot is populated, add a quick clear button (X)
• Players should be able to plan for entire day in the morning
  • Afternoon should be filled with slacking by default. You should be able to plan the whole day by quickly selecting just 2 classes
  • You can make a break in the midday and return to this screen to give an opportunity to revise choices for the second half, that's fine, that's just one confirmation if the plan is sound
• Add at least two quick plan templates: yesterday and day before yesterday
  • Preferrably this should work separately for weekends and regular days. So on Tuesday you want to repeat Monday and Friday; on Saturday you want to repeat previous Sunday and previous Saturday
  • A quick summary of stat changes that happened last time these schedules were executed would be very helpful

Spoiler: 1-2-3-4-5 or 1-2

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

Now, narratively.

I understand Eric is your exposition machine, but try to make him more consistent. One day he's suggesting you court high achievers of your house because if you're chosing a waifu for life-u you aim for the best, and then in his next scene he's suggesting you should give bear girls a chance "YoU cAnT bE PiCkY!" STFU Eric, it's all your fault.

Also, the initial timeskip makes no sense, why do you start the game on 16th? Just move your ritual to 13th, it's already a Friday. Come on. ALSO the spooky poem setting the deadline to 1st of May instead of Ides of May is just lame, but that's just my opinion.

Also, there's absolutely fuck to do before you get selected by the goblet of fire Cup of C'thun mcguffin, seriously, these two weeks should have a shit ton of introductory events. It just makes no sense to have 2 weeks of grind and not showcase at least 75% of your waifu roster. They share classes, eat in the mess hall, right? Introduce your cast! I've got one (1) event with an actual girl in the first two weeks, and I've tried all the activities at least once, which is probably an absolute waste of time in terms of actual stat management. You should just grind magic and knowledge non-stop, right?

That's all I have having played 2 in-game weeks before getting tired of clicking, but that should be some food for thought at least.

WOW! like a blowdryer exploded in my face ,lol, so that's what being a dev feels like?!

No mate, was wondering was others though as I been waiting to try it until it's further developed... Thanks though, it does answer me

 

[angevarg674]

Also, there's absolutely fuck to do before you get selected by the goblet of fire Cup of C'thun mcguffin, seriously, these two weeks should have a shit ton of introductory events. It just makes no sense to have 2 weeks of grind and not showcase at least 75% of your waifu roster. They share classes, eat in the mess hall, right? Introduce your cast! I've got one (1) event with an actual girl in the first two weeks, and I've tried all the activities at least once, which is probably an absolute waste of time in terms of actual stat management. You should just grind magic and knowledge non-stop, right?

I seccond the FUCK out of this. There is NOTHING to do. It's just endless grind without a direction. At least sprinkle in a couple of normal events with the girl I'm supposed to care about. I played about 2 weeks of this and manged to meet 1 girl (glasses). It was the best girl and I'm happy for it, but still. At least give us a "on X day on Y class there's Z girl" hint or something

 

[Bran99]

Enjoyed it. Felt like the Trial of the Mind was made easier stats wise. Wonder if there will be any plans on a Bassant route. Would be interesting as you compete against each other. Also would not mind seeing Eric and Thorgny interact

 

[BadmanBaxter]

I keep losing trial of mind how do I do well?

 

[Klab040855]

I keep losing trial of mind how do I do well?

I recommend focusing on knowledge stat, most of the trial you can pass by using the knowledge stat

 

[BadmanBaxter]

I recommend focusing on knowledge stat, most of the trial you can pass by using the knowledge stat

Yeh I kinda played 4 different characters that would all focus a stat. I was hoping there would be ways to beat it no matter what as there hasnt really been guidance and it is random if stats increase or not. Even a guide on how to beat each door would wor but there isn't 1. The game doesnt have a list of girls so you can work out how to romance them and it seems the only classes worth doing is dueling practise and brewing as they can at least increase 2 stats. Was hoping for better guidance but hopefully the dev sorts that out when its alpha because I am surprised I got to this point tbh.

 

[Klab040855]

Yeh I kinda played 4 different characters that would all focus a stat. I was hoping there would be ways to beat it no matter what as there hasnt really been guidance and it is random if stats increase or not. Even a guide on how to beat each door would wor but there isn't 1. The game doesnt have a list of girls so you can work out how to romance them and it seems the only classes worth doing is dueling practise and brewing as they can at least increase 2 stats. Was hoping for better guidance but hopefully the dev sorts that out when its alpha because I am surprised I got to this point tbh.

You can get hints of how to trigger the girls events on divination class and i recommend using the URM to cheat, i used it to loop every doing all classes and activities every day, when i got to the trial most of my stats are at 70 at least

 

[BadmanBaxter]

You can get hints of how to trigger the girls events on divination class and i recommend using the URM to cheat, i used it to loop every doing all classes and activities every day, when i got to the trial most of my stats are at 70 at least

How would I cheat? Would genuinely love to do that tbh

 

[Klab040855]

How would I cheat? Would genuinely love to do that tbh

Use URM, and search for the variable weekday, day and storeday, freeze all of them and then you can just loop the days.

 

[hoshimota]

How much raunchy shit can you currently do with the LIs?

I will grind, but I better be grinding for some pussy

 

[Karnewarrior]

Are you the second dev? Hmmm, are you really going to re-write the main screen's UI after over 6 months of development?

But you know what, let's give it a try, why not. Let's start with save files.

Actually no, let's start with name selection. Why don't you have a default choice, especially when you're expecting not just a name, but a family name as well? At least you check if I enter two empty strings, that's good. Anyway, ' of the noble house ' never fails to fit in any setting. Stay classy, dear '

Now, saves. RenPy allows you to write and read a custom JSON in your saves. Use it for most relevant stats of the player (skills, money, ingame time, maybe some route locks)

You must be registered to see the links

I think i even have a working code snippet somewhere, but it's really small, and shouldn't be hard for you to write on your own

All right, the main screen. So right now, you need 10 clicks to get through a single day's schedule. That's unacceptable.

Spoiler: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

There's also no reason to gray out a class already taken. What if I want to move Conjuration to 2nd slot? And if your game does not actually differentiate between slot 1 and 2, then this part can be simplified to a double selection checkbox.

So, what can be done to make it bearable?

• You should make the activities selection panel always visible
• Activities selection panel should have a static screen position, and not act like a submenu of currently selected slot
• Fill the empty slots automatically, top to bottom
  • highlight what slot is currently being populated
  • enable/disable activities by availability depending on the current slot, don't do several lists
  • once a slot is populated, add a quick clear button (X)
• Players should be able to plan for entire day in the morning
  • Afternoon should be filled with slacking by default. You should be able to plan the whole day by quickly selecting just 2 classes
  • You can make a break in the midday and return to this screen to give an opportunity to revise choices for the second half, that's fine, that's just one confirmation if the plan is sound
• Add at least two quick plan templates: yesterday and day before yesterday
  • Preferrably this should work separately for weekends and regular days. So on Tuesday you want to repeat Monday and Friday; on Saturday you want to repeat previous Sunday and previous Saturday
  • A quick summary of stat changes that happened last time these schedules were executed would be very helpful

Spoiler: 1-2-3-4-5 or 1-2

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

Now, narratively.

I understand Eric is your exposition machine, but try to make him more consistent. One day he's suggesting you court high achievers of your house because if you're chosing a waifu for life-u you aim for the best, and then in his next scene he's suggesting you should give bear girls a chance "YoU cAnT bE PiCkY!" STFU Eric, it's all your fault.

Also, the initial timeskip makes no sense, why do you start the game on 16th? Just move your ritual to 13th, it's already a Friday. Come on. ALSO the spooky poem setting the deadline to 1st of May instead of Ides of May is just lame, but that's just my opinion.

Also, there's absolutely fuck to do before you get selected by the goblet of fire Cup of C'thun mcguffin, seriously, these two weeks should have a shit ton of introductory events. It just makes no sense to have 2 weeks of grind and not showcase at least 75% of your waifu roster. They share classes, eat in the mess hall, right? Introduce your cast! I've got one (1) event with an actual girl in the first two weeks, and I've tried all the activities at least once, which is probably an absolute waste of time in terms of actual stat management. You should just grind magic and knowledge non-stop, right?

That's all I have having played 2 in-game weeks before getting tired of clicking, but that should be some food for thought at least.

Now this is a fuckin' review

I'd tell the dev to take notes, but Marshmallow did it for him

Absolute Hermione-tier post

 

[somebody95147]

I hope the first sex scene(s) this game gets is ntr.

Like, the MC spends all his time studying and ignoring any potential love interests, they go off and find other men/women, then MC is all "oh no!, I've only been studying for months, how could this happen!!", while he goes around the school voyeur viewing all the girls getting it on with others.
or
The "ancient spell" is a scam, and all along the MC was gathering power for some otherworldly magic being (or Eric, the childhood friend betrayal) to swoop in and ntr the hell out of him.

 

[BadmanBaxter]

Any way to use like a console command to change attribute variables?

 

[Klab040855]

Any way to use like a console command to change attribute variables?

Use URM

 

[BadmanBaxter]

Use URM

Not sure what URM is and I kinda have already got to the trial so would that be too late to change stats at that point? Was looking to just hit shift and O and hope for the best

 

[Klab040855]

Not sure what URM is and I kinda have already got to the trial so would that be too late to change stats at that point? Was looking to just hit shift and O and hope for the best

Search on google URM renpy

You must be registered to see the links

 

[BadmanBaxter]

Search on google URM renpy

You must be registered to see the links

thank you my god this has helped a bit. Still don't quite get how encounters work but that may change in future considering players probably wanna choose who they associate with then have it just done for them all random like.

 

[malaac2025]

5 minutes playing and it was game over for me. This is one of the laziest style Dating Sim Games ever.

1. Too lazy to make goals so you feel like your progressing
2. No tracker or mission goals

Dating Sim with no goals is just awful and feels like developer does not have any love for his project. Games require goals to make you feel like your progressing but this has none. It's aimless attend class with no reason why with a abstract of get a girlfriend. A game that can make you feel aimless and pointless in 5 minutes is quite a damn accomplishment as this one accomplishes just that.

 

[WastedEfforts]

Any particular reason Gwen has a manface? I thought (and still do) that she was a dude.
I like art style and looking forward to more content, but there's nothing to do at the moment, other than grind stats for no reason. 4 house names are weird as well.