Ren'Py Abandoned What a Legend! [v0.6.04] [MagicNuts]

[Devronman]

That is his character and we love him for it goddammit. It reminds me of the old Leisure Suit Larry games, part of the fun is helping some total loser get laid.

Just be thankful he's not a loser with a hideous bowl 'do, like in Summertime Saga

Yeah, the old Sierra games protagonists is what he reminds me of, specifically Larry Laffer. In comparison though our character steps up to the call and does manage to figure out clever if unconventional solutions to problems for more or less altruistic reasons. Even if he is also a horndog who wants a harem for whatever reason.

 

[DemiMaximoff]

I mean everything that makes a porn VN game something more than just a flood of text between lewd scenes. By 'mechanics' I mean exactly this. A fishing mini-game, a doll-dressing mini-game, an exploration or a fighting mode, multiple plot lines - these are mechanics. You playing a game by using mechanics, otherwise it's just a VN. So iirc WaL is a straight-forward VN with no gameplay. It would be nice to have something to do in a game but it takes an actual game design.

That would be a bit of underselling the game. There's some point-and-click aspect, acquiring items, navigating the map, figuring out which NPC to approach to make the plot progress, checking on them at various times of the day, finding that sheep for the picture book.
I am seeing more and more people like me who remember the feeling of playing the game, but starting to forget the game itself.

 

[Rexizor]

Yeah, the old Sierra games protagonists is what he reminds me of, specifically Larry Laffer. In comparison though our character steps up to the call and does manage to figure out clever if unconventional solutions to problems for more or less altruistic reasons. Even if he is also a horndog who wants a harem for whatever reason.

You can't blame the guy, he was raised in a brothel! And lets be fair, who wouldn't want a harem?

 

[Rexizor]

Okay, so, let me get this straight. In the last two updates (granted they were only a second degree update, not like a 0.7 or anything), the only things that have changed were... making a couple scenes less nonconsensual? Feels like the devs could've just kept those in the WIP version and rolled those changes out in the next major update.

 

[Kirel]

Okay, so, let me get this straight. In the last two updates (granted they were only a second degree update, not like a 0.7 or anything), the only things that have changed were... making a couple scenes less nonconsensual? Feels like the devs could've just kept those in the WIP version and rolled those changes out in the next major update.

They did it just to get them out to avoid any potential Patreon issues.

 

[gnub33]

You can't blame the guy, he was raised in a brothel! And lets be fair, who wouldn't want a harem?

One partner is hard enough....

 

[Devronman]

One partner is hard enough....

Yeah, honestly, poly relationships are HARD. Even in a completely made up fantasy realm it is really hard to deal with all the interpersonal issues that arise from those kinds of liasons. Our main character seems to genuinely care about the feelings of his partners and it just sounds like a disaster waiting to happen since they aren't THAT smart.

 

[shazba jnr]

This update better contain a week worth of playtime in content.

iirc the game offers no mechanics. it's fancier than the common VNs but still no gameplay

Mechanics? I think you mean pointless grinding to pad out gameplay. No thanks! I'll take pure content instead. This is one area of design philosophy the Nuts got *exactly* right.

That would be a bit of underselling the game. There's some point-and-click aspect, acquiring items, navigating the map, figuring out which NPC to approach to make the plot progress, checking on them at various times of the day, finding that sheep for the picture book.
I am seeing more and more people like me who remember the feeling of playing the game, but starting to forget the game itself.

When starting from scratch, the game feels like it's going to be a sandbox, roam-around-the-map-looking-for-the-next-minor-event style game, however it does feel like it's become more compartmentalised, particularly with how the latest updates are rolled out: Click on that section of the map, talk to that characters, and then an entire episode will roll out before you.

So in that sense, the original mechanics have been dumbed down, resulting in a mostly VN interface, with a fuck load of (well conceived) reading.

My expectation is that Episode 7 will follow that new approach: A new section on the map will be open, we'll click on it, and be whisked away into the realm of some lustful orc.

It'll probably run for about 4 or so hours of reading time, and then it will all be over, and the patrons will run screaming continue to pay out for the next few hours of reading, and people here will bemoan the money they never spent, and the time they shouldn't have wasted; they will decry the poor value, and will stick around complaining until the next episode comes out.

 

[moskyx]

When starting from scratch, the game feels like it's going to be a sandbox, roam-around-the-map-looking-for-the-next-minor-event style game, however it does feel like it's become more compartmentalised, particularly with how the latest updates are rolled out: Click on that section of the map, talk to that characters, and then an entire episode will roll out before you.

So in that sense, the original mechanics have been dumbed down, resulting in a mostly VN interface, with a fuck load of (well conceived) reading.

My expectation is that Episode 7 will follow that new approach: A new section on the map will be open, we'll click on it, and be whisked away into the realm of some lustful orc.

It'll probably run for about 4 or so hours of reading time, and then it will all be over, and the patrons will run screaming continue to pay out for the next few hours of reading, and people here will bemoan the money they never spent, and the time they shouldn't have wasted; they will decry the poor value, and will stick around complaining until the next episode comes out.

Spoiler tags for that last paragraph, please

The more compartmentalised approach has been discussed by devs during this development cycle, as Gomira's story will be pretty much railroaded as you right guessed. Apparently, there's an 'urge feeling' in her quests that would be ruined if the MC could take long and somewhat frequent breaks to explore other stories once he has committed to help her. However, I recall they mentioned at least a point where Gomira will be waiting for the MC to fetch something for her, and players will be able to jump to other on-going quests they may have started (all while Gomira gets increasingly mad at the MC as he keeps postponing their meeting to the next day, this 'angry orc' scene being one of the new ones created during this polishing phase). But yeah, the whole thing will probably feel very similar to Rose's last quest in Cin Town.

Now, while I get there could be a perfectly valid narrative reason behind this, it doesn't escape me that this approach also minimizes the risks of messing up with colliding stories at different points of progression, making coding tasks a lot easier -and also saving them from writing a whole bunch of little convo snippets with other characters to reflect all of those potential situations the MC may be facing throughout a quest. I do hope this won't become a new standard though, because even if laborious, this world complexity was one of the game's strong points in the first updates. I guess it will depend on how they'll plan their upcoming stories, but that's definitely one of the points I'll be raising in my feedback report if I feel this update becomes too much of a kinetic chore.

 

[shazba jnr]

...Gomira will be waiting for the MC to fetch something for her, and players will be able to jump to other on-going quests...

Hands up anyone who has any ongoing quests outstanding at this point.

 

[DemiMaximoff]

When starting from scratch, the game feels like it's going to be a sandbox, roam-around-the-map-looking-for-the-next-minor-event style game, however it does feel like it's become more compartmentalised, particularly with how the latest updates are rolled out: Click on that section of the map, talk to that characters, and then an entire episode will roll out before you.

So in that sense, the original mechanics have been dumbed down, resulting in a mostly VN interface, with a fuck load of (well conceived) reading.

My expectation is that Episode 7 will follow that new approach: A new section on the map will be open, we'll click on it, and be whisked away into the realm of some lustful orc.

It'll probably run for about 4 or so hours of reading time, and then it will all be over, and the patrons will run screaming continue to pay out for the next few hours of reading, and people here will bemoan the money they never spent, and the time they shouldn't have wasted; they will decry the poor value, and will stick around complaining until the next episode comes out.

Spoiler tags for that last paragraph, please

The more compartmentalised approach has been discussed by devs during this development cycle, as Gomira's story will be pretty much railroaded as you right guessed. Apparently, there's an 'urge feeling' in her quests that would be ruined if the MC could take long and somewhat frequent breaks to explore other stories once he has committed to help her. However, I recall they mentioned at least a point where Gomira will be waiting for the MC to fetch something for her, and players will be able to jump to other on-going quests they may have started (all while Gomira gets increasingly mad at the MC as he keeps postponing their meeting to the next day, this 'angry orc' scene being one of the new ones created during this polishing phase). But yeah, the whole thing will probably feel very similar to Rose's last quest in Cin Town.

Now, while I get there could be a perfectly valid narrative reason behind this, it doesn't escape me that this approach also minimizes the risks of messing up with colliding stories at different points of progression, making coding tasks a lot easier -and also saving them from writing a whole bunch of little convo snippets with other characters to reflect all of those potential situations the MC may be facing throughout a quest. I do hope this won't become a new standard though, because even if laborious, this world complexity was one of the game's strong points in the first updates. I guess it will depend on how they'll plan their upcoming stories, but that's definitely one of the points I'll be raising in my feedback report if I feel this update becomes too much of a kinetic chore.

Now it makes sense why the game feels less and less fun as it goes on when you guys point that out. The early game was structured in a way that you couldn't possibly do a "Gomira and nobody else" update. The game's still good for its wholesome fun story and art (although the anatomy in the sex scenes feels a bit off when viewed after all this time without a boner). But the gameplay was that secret sauce that made it fun to play.

There's no good solution though. You either progress everyone's story by a small amount each update, which feels more cohesive as a whole, or you compartmentalize and give a lot of story to one character. Either way, it either becomes "not enough progression for two years" or " two years for one fucking orc" and people are unhappy