Ren'Py Under Your Spell [v0.3.5p] [Shady Characters]
- Thread starter Shady Character 1
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DartBatiatus
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Hey Wizards!
Shady Character One here!
Another week has passed. This one flew by like it was no one's business. We managed to do a lot. If only every week were so productive. I did manage to write the intro to the Second Trial, it actually went way smoother this time around. Though I am not 100% happy with the result, it at least gives me the justification to move forward and maybe return later to tweak the event a bit.
I also managed to write another random event for the Sports class. It's funny how sometimes you have a couple of ideas that you cannot quite realize, and no matter how much you try to plan them out - they always end in a dead end. That's until you combine them! And as if by magic, the event finally works. This is how it was with this one. So now we finally have the event with our fourth and final resident ghost - Brickface Billy. As well as another event with Aisling's guest appearance. For now, I want to have each girl have at least one appearance not dependent on their storyline. With this one added, we now are only missing Gwen. But I have an idea for hers already. An idea that, no matter how much I plan it, ends in a dead end. I guess we'll have to wait and see how I work this one out.
But writing new events was not the only thing that I did this week. Shady Two was mad productive with updating the sprites and adding nightgowns for girls, so I had to add all of those not only into the Halloween event, but also into the dressing room. On top of that, Shady Two also made some artworks for the Houses' interiors, so you will not be stuck in your room background for most of the common room or corridor events.
Adding these final things to the Halloween event also made me suddenly remember that I completely forgot to add any music to it. To be honest, I stepped back from the sound design part for a bit and could not get back into it. Thankfully the last few events that I added into the game worked fine with the default tracks that you hear throughout the game, but not this one. But while adding the music to the scenes, I also noticed that the game severely lacks in the sounds department both ambient and sounds that accompany some actions. It is not like I didn't know this was an issue, it is just that I kind of pushed it into the back of my mind after a while, and forgotten how dire the situation is.
None of my previous attempts at identifying good spots for sounds and finding good ones in the free libraries on the internet bring much success in the past, but that's something I will have to find in me to tackle again. And the sooner, the better.
Maybe even next week. Maybe.
Shady Character One, out!
- Jul 26, 2023
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Hey Wizards!
Shady Character One here!
In my previous week's devblog I was pretty proud of myself. Wrote the intro to the second Trial and all. Not a big piece of narrative, but an important one, that allowed me to move to the meatier part of the Trial. But that was before I remembered that I actually wanted to add the girls coming to give you a little pep talk before the Trial. And that threw a wrench in the works. Of course, I could just wave these things off and omit these visits, but I really felt that by this point the player should have at least one or two girls close enough, so that they would expect one of them to want to visit the MC before the big event. So, I decided that I would return to the Trial's intro and add in the girls' visits.
This opened a whole other can of worms though - deciding on which of the girls will have to visit the player. Of course, the idea of all eligible girls coming to wish the player good luck was out of the question. Firstly, because it would look really strange, funny, but strange, if a line of girls were to just form and the player would have to listen to each one of them in turn. Secondly, because it would just inflate the intro way too much. Even if each event was short by itself. So now I had to decide on how to choose the girl to visit. The most straightforward solution would be to just pick a random girl from the pool of girls whose storylines have passed a certain threshold. That would not be ideal though, since the player might have progressed one of the girls' stories more, and would understandably expect to see that girl.
The next obvious solution would be to just have the girl with the highest storyline progress come to say hi. That idea had a pitfall of its own. Even though the girls all have the same number of events, not all of the relationships progress at the same pace, and even if they do, not all of the girls would be likely to show their affection (not talking about anyone in particular. cough Aisling). And some relationships are not progressing linearly, for example, Gwen is mad at you after her fifth event.
So after some consideration, and weighing a couple of other options I ended up adding another value in the game that would reflect a girl's willingness to visit you before the Trial and choose the visitor based on that.
After that I still needed to both edit the intro to the Trial that I have already written to fit in the visits and write the visits themselves (which I did a couple). I will finish the rest of the visit and move to the Trial proper then. I also hope to start writing Violet's sixth story even this week, since she was chosen by our supporters as our focus. I will also dedicate some time to our runner-ups - Elizabeth and Lily, but I am not sure if they will get their sixth even in the next update or not.
Also last week Shady Two, getting a bit of rest from drawing girls' underwear for the last update, finally finished the sprite for Ryan O'Neil, so I added that into the game two, and you will be able to finally put a face to the guy. And also, Gwen would someone to actually talk to in her fourth event.
Well, I guess that's it for now. Hopefully, this week will bring a few more good tidings.
Shady Character One, out!
Karnewarrior
Engaged Member
- Oct 28, 2017
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hey i want to ask about elizabeth date,
they still haven't add it right..?,
and there is text saying if i countinue the game without go with planned date, elizabeth storyline will failed/ gone?
so it's like if i didn't go date with her, wich hasn't added yet... she will not showed again?
edit: ahh ic so this is what they called demo
they still haven't add it right..?,
and there is text saying if i countinue the game without go with planned date, elizabeth storyline will failed/ gone?
so it's like if i didn't go date with her, wich hasn't added yet... she will not showed again?
edit: ahh ic so this is what they called demo
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- Jul 26, 2023
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Hey Wizards!
Shady Character One here!
What are your opinions on notes? I personally don't like taking notes. I always believed that if you have a good idea, you will either remember it, or it will come to you again. I do take them sometimes though, usually just some one-two word reminders that would help me start the thought process and steer it in the right direction. But hot damn, did I mess up my notes for the second Trial. It took me the whole evening to figure out the cipher that I conjured onto the page. What were those numbers? They didn't really match with anything that I had in the game. There were numbers on the sides. There were numbers in columns with a bigger number at the top. Some of the smaller numbers added up to the one at the top, some didn't. I have no idea if I figured out all of that stuff right or if I came up with something completely new during that frustrating evening, but I did come up with something. So I actually started coding the actual Trial and thus - the ground was laid.
Is there a moral to this story? Should I have taken better, more detailed notes of my ideas? Should I not have taken any notes at all? I have no idea, but the thing I had - was definitely more hindrance than help. So either make notes or do not, just don't leave rows of random-ish numbers on the pages and hope that you will be able to sort them out later willy-nilly.
Sorting out cryptic numbers was not the only thing I did for the game last week, though. I did finish writing six out of eight of girl visits before the Trial. At first, I was planning on doing them nearly copy-paste style, with just the phrases of the girls differing, but ended up adding a bit more flavor and variety to the encounters.
But most importantly, I did finish writing Violet's sixth event. Just like most events I have written recently, this one didn't really want to be written at first. But after a couple hours of struggling I came up with something I am pretty happy about. And wow, do we get our first actually romantic scene? Yes, yes we do. It only took us a bit over a year to get to this point.
Shady Two has been doing her part too. Someday we will be done with the intro sequence of the game, but we are not there yet. We are getting closer, though, with both Gwen's and
Mitsuki's intro artworks are almost completed. So you will soon have more of our two most athletic girls in Tír na nÓg.
Well, this is all I have for you today I believe. I'll see you all next week.
Shady Character One, out!
Solidkvothe
Newbie
- Apr 28, 2022
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I love the adult content, but it would be even better if there were more non-romantic plot choices to explore.
Karnewarrior
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Solidkvothe
Newbie
- Apr 28, 2022
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I don't really understand how you get to interact with the girls. Is it by the status I choose to raise?
Azaliander
New Member
- Jul 22, 2017
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You raise the stats that a girl prefers and do activities that you can meet them at. For example Violet is usually studying and Aislin is exploring. There are exceptions though and most girls have a secondary stat that you will need to level too
Solidkvothe
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Hey Wizards!
Shady Character One here!
Well, this one will be a short one, but I guess it’s okay to have a short one every once in a while. Honestly, there are weeks when you feel like you did a lot, and there are weeks when you feel like you barely did anything, and this week is the latter.
I did start working on the Second Trial in earnest last week. Following the cryptic notes that my past self left for me, I managed to come up with what I believe was my initial intent. This Trial will be different from the first one both in theme and in execution. I actually plan to have all the Trials, of which there will be four, deviate from each other and be slightly different experiences. This meant, of course, that I couldn’t use the code templates from the first one and had to write new code for this one. It took me much less time than it did with the first Trial. Either this time the code is simpler, or I got a tiny bit better. Hopefully, it will translate to a nice player experience.
Coding is not the only thing that needs to be done for the event to attain its final form. There’s a lot of planning and writing that needs to be done. I initially hoped to release the Trial with the next update, but there is no way I am going to finish it all in the upcoming two weeks. Shady One from the past didn’t bother himself with leaving me much, mostly just the bare bones of the Trial, so I now have to fill it with meat and actually do the writing.
I could do the same thing I did with the Trial of Mind and release parts of the Trial as they are done, but that might not be the best idea, considering how many players actually thought that abrupt endings during the First Trial were bugs. So I guess the Second Trial’s release will have to wait, and Mitsuki’s addition to the roster will have to be the star of the next release after all.
Shady Two was sick most of last week, so things didn’t progress much on her end, though I do believe that she will be able to surprise you all with some gorgeous art in the next update.
So, yeah, I guess that's it for this week's blog entry. I'll see you all in the next one.
Shady Character One, out!
Solidkvothe
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- Apr 28, 2022
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Fist0fKhonshu
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- Apr 8, 2025
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IIRC Gwen's storyline requires prowess & spellpower, and it is progressed through the train & practice spells time slots,
Solidkvothe
Newbie
- Apr 28, 2022
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Do you know Elizabeth status? I think intelligence is one but don't know the other.