What's Easier: Making A Patch Or Fill In The Relationship?

[Nothing Clever]

Sorry if the title of this thread's a little clunky, I didn't really know how to word it. It's also super late for me, and in fact, I was about to tuck in for the night when I saw a gigantic wolf spider on my bed.

That's why I'm here, atm.

Anyways, the title of this thread should explain it all, but yeah, I finally have a good idea for a game that will feature wincest. But that leads to the question; is it easier to make a patch that changes the dialogue, or is it easier to just make it a feature to change the relationships at the start of the game. Maybe it's not a huge issue, but I should probably ask before I begin properly developing the game.

TTFN, I hope all is well for all of you out there.

 

[anne O'nymous]

[...] is it easier to make a patch that changes the dialogue, or is it easier to just make it a feature to change the relationships at the start of the game.

Neither one is easier than the other if you want the story to be consistent both when it's an incest story and when it's a non-incest one.

Contrarily to what (too many) authors think, changing a story from "non-incest" to "incest" isn't just a matter of calling a girls "roommate" or "sister". Among other differences, the two main ones are that a roommate have no reason to be offended when you try to flirt with her, and she don't have the same reason to refuse than a sister. And the same apply for the landlady, who absolutely don't talk to you in the same way than a mother, and don't have the same motive for you to get a life. By example, a mother will ask your help for the chores, while a landlady will ask for a little more money she have to do them for you.
It's not just the lewd scene that have to change. Since the relationship between the protagonists change, the whole dynamic between them have to be different, in order to reflect this relationship.

There's a tons of threads regarding both the differences between incest and non-incest stories, you should take a look at them. There's also threads regarding how to patch a game, but there it will depend of the engine you use.

 

[GNVE]

Contrarily to what (too many) authors think, changing a story from "non-incest" to "incest" isn't just a matter of calling a girls "roommate" or "sister".

Tbh I think most authors don't care and just want to placate the Payment processors of their or their platforms choice and just do the minimal effort required.

 

[anne O'nymous]

Tbh I think most authors don't care and just want to placate the Payment processors of their or their platforms choice and just do the minimal effort required.

And as reward they get the minimal effort from their pledgers.

Be noted that I don't say that as a criticism, if they are good with this, who am I to complain ? But seen the number of those games that end being abandoned, they probably expected more efforts from their pledgers.

 

[GNVE]

And as reward they get the minimal effort from their pledgers.

Be noted that I don't say that as a criticism, if they are good with this, who am I to complain ? But seen the number of those games that end being abandoned, they probably expected more efforts from their pledgers.

You have a point though I think a lot of new devs think that after they put out their work the money will just start rolling in. Maybe blinded by those few that are making money hand over fist.

 

[Nothing Clever]

So, both of you are giving off great points of information. And the information about making sure the story is consistent is an extremely important thing to be aware about, so thank you tons. Still though, this was primarily a technical information. This game will be developed using ren'py, and I am aware of the process of programming in a player name, but is it better, nay, safer to just put out a patch? Also, I'm a noob, so how do you even go about getting the patch out?

PS For what it's worth, I like to think I take a balanced stance. I do genuinely enjoy game developing, but it would be nice to get a bit of cash coming in in some form.

 

[79flavors]

From what I've remembered from when this has been raised in the past, a lot of the answers are "it depends".

Edit: (because I hit [POST REPLY] on accident too quickly).

A lot of it is whether you intend to finance things through Patreon or SubscribeStar.
SubscribeStar don't really take issue with taboo adult content.
Patreon will jump on you if something their creditcard processing companies might object to (for example, your wincest content).

If you go SubscribeStar only, you don't need to patch or compromise. But let's assume Patreon.

Firstly. If you publish a patch yourself ANYWHERE and Patreon link it back to you... they will pull your game page.

My preferred technical solution is a single patch file, with overrides.

# script.rpy .... i.e. Main game...

define patched = False
define mom_name = "Janet"

default mc_name = "Unnamed"

define mc = Character("[mc_name]", what_prefix='"', what_suffix='"')
define mc_t = Character("[mc_name]", what_prefix='{i}(', what_suffix='){/i}')

define mom = Character("[mom_name]", color="#A52A2A", what_prefix='"', what_suffix='"')

label start:

    scene black with fade

    $ mc_name = renpy.input("What is your name? {i}(Press ENTER for 'Peter'){/i}")
    $ mc_name = mc_name.strip() or "Peter"

# ... later ...

    if patched:
        mc "No, don't worry about it. That's my sister."
    else:
        mc "No, don't worry about it. We only share a flat."

    mc "Oh. Hey, [mom]."

# ... etc ....

# patch.rpy ... i.e. the patch file...

init 1:
    define patched = True
    define mom_name = "Mom"

It's not ideal, since both options are coded into the original game... and anyone with a bit of technical knowledge could look at the source code and realize that you intended the game to be both "Landlady" and "Mom" versions.

But it's by far the simplest solution for someone just starting out.

This example would need tweaking if you decided you wanted the player to be able to name the Mom for the ladylady version. But most games would only allow the player character to be renamed, so it's okay to use define for the mom's name.

If you allow the player to "pick" a relationship.... and that relationship includes "sister, mom, etc"... then you're going to upset Patreon again.
If you let the player type in their own relationship - it is MUCH, MUCH harder to write dialogue in a way that is flexible enough to cover both. Most devs just end up writing the taboo dialogue and accepting it reads like crap when playing the "Patreon friendly" version of the game.


Edit2: Anne's broken link is...

 

[anne O'nymous]

Also, I'm a noob, so how do you even go about getting the patch out?

One of the most complete thread here on the subject is probably this one.
But as usual when the answer if gave in the heat of the moment, there's probably few things missing, that you can get but taking a look at the other threads regarding Ren'py patching.


Edit: Oops, fixed the link. Thanks 79flavors

 

[Nothing Clever]

79flavors Awesome, that is much more the answer I was kind of looking for. But I wanted to follow-up on something, because I am pretty much going to focus solely on putting the game up on SubscribeStar. So... Really? I could just put up the wincest version as originally intended and I probably wouldn't be bothered?