Ren'Py World's Crossing Academy [v1.3.5.1] [TeamEmberWings]

[Bob Jared]

He isn't in a relationship with her anywhere except in her mind, so he doesn't need permission from her.

I think the is supposed to signify that sentence is a joke.

 

[Cernunnos.]

Well, gotta restart the game to avoid River...really hate it when games pull this shit.

Guess that's out because even ignoring the texts it still leads to the same scene in the most recent update. Neither option allowing me to completely ignore the character.

 

[annoo]

It doesn't need to be mentioned in the description. The game is tagged harem, natural assumption without it being explicitly explained is that it's gonna be a harem game.
Even if there were solo romance routes you'd only end up getting like, a couple scenes every few updates with your girl. The assumption with harem development is that most players are gonna go for most girls, if you tunnel vision onto a single one then you're gonna miss out on a lot of content.

True, very true.
But, it's also tagged with "romance", and from reading the description:

Each of these characters will have a deep, lovingly crafted story of their own. We're hoping that each route you choose will have hours worth of content you'll be thinking about even when you're not playing the game.

I guess it's kind of somehow fair to get confused about what to expect. Right?

Also, please note, that for example these games are also tagged with "harem", but the player will not "miss out on a lot of content" if he chooses to "tunnel vision onto a single" heroine:

Spoiler

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[annoo]

Well, gotta restart the game to avoid River...really hate it when games pull this shit.

Ha-ha-ha!
So, after all, it's good to have a choice about who we want to be in a relationship, even in a "harem game".

 

[Tiur]

Also, please note, that for example these games are also tagged with "harem", but the player will not "miss out on a lot of content" if he chooses to "tunnel vision onto a single" heroine:

Spoiler

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I haven't played the rest, but with these three, you absolutely will miss out on a lot of content if you tunnel vision on one LI and decline/refuse all others. All three of these are written with the 'all-girls harem' as the intended end goal, and the story reflects that.

 

[annoo]

I haven't played the rest, but with these three, you absolutely will miss out on a lot of content if you tunnel vision on one LI and decline/refuse all others. All three of these are written with the 'all-girls harem' as the intended end goal, and the story reflects that.

Maybe I actually really missed out on a lot of content, but it didn't feel like that. I mean these successfully can give you the feeling of a coherent, complete, emotionally touching, interesting, enjoyable game even without the harem.

 

[Mommysbuttslut]

True, very true.
But, it's also tagged with "romance", and from reading the description:

I guess it's kind of somehow fair to get confused about what to expect. Right?

Also, please note, that for example these games are also tagged with "harem", but the player will not "miss out on a lot of content" if he chooses to "tunnel vision onto a single" heroine:

Spoiler

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Yes, each of these characters will have a deep loving relationship with the MC, but there's absolutely nothing about that statement that implies monogamy. You can have a deep and loving relationship with each of those girls.
Each of these girls can have their own lovingly crafted story, but given the amount of them I don't think you can reasonably expect to get content with your one girl every update.
Can't speak for the commercial games but I'd definitely say you're missing out on a lot of content tunnel visioning on any of those. You don't miss out on anything by going for every scene, very mild exception for To be a King, but you do miss out on significant amounts of content when you avoid characters in those games.

 

[Tiur]

Maybe I actually really missed out on a lot of content, but it didn't feel like that.

Yes, you did, so it's kinda silly to have made a broad, sweeping statement without having all the information, isn't it?

I mean these successfully can give you the feeling of a coherent, complete, emotionally touching, interesting, enjoyable game even without the harem.

And yes, a well-written romance harem game does exactly that. Which WCA also is. Do you have any proof that WCA wouldn't be enjoyable that way?

I mean, if I am interested in multiple girls in a game, but the game forces me to choose just one love interest, I stop playing the game no matter how good they are otherwise. Fates Collide is a good example of that, because it forces LI choices very early on without having even met all the possible LIs yet.

Another good example of this done wrong is Callisto, which lets you build meaningful romantic connections with most of your crew (and locks out some content if you're not on a given girl's path), and then for the ending, forces you to choose just one of four of the LIs (which isn't even all the LIs you've formed a romantic connection with), abandoning all the others without any closure for them.

 

[annoo]

And yes, a well-written romance harem game does exactly that. Which WCA also is. Do you have any proof that WCA wouldn't be enjoyable that way?

I never said WCA should be a monogamous game without a harem route.
I'm just attempting to emphasize the importance of user choices.
Harem route could be just an other option amongst the many other heroines routes, and I believe that the developer got my idea right:

As for it being so linear and light on choices, that's because this is the first game I've ever made, and I'm an author, not a coder lol. It's a very valid gripe and it's completely due to my inexperience with coding.

This Season 1 was meant to be a pretty linear prologue, a set-up to the next seasons, which will actually offer you far more choices on who you romance and who you don't now that I KIND OF know what I'm doing. If you want to choose one girl, you'll be able to, because now I know how to do that code-wise. You'll still have to make friends to advance certain quests, including the main story, but you won't be forced to kiss or be intimate with anyone if you don't want to.

And what matters the most for everyone is that the game is enjoyable, and can provide you that feeling what I can't quite describe with words. Some kind of deep emotional attachment to your favorite character(s) and the constant interest in the story about "what will happen next".

It just happened that my favorite character in WCA is the yandere, so I just had to drop this game, because I could not tolerate her messed up relationship with the protagonist.

And anyway... my chosen one could have been the goblin princess, but I felt like that she didn't got enough story content, that could keep me interested in playing WCA seriously, despite of what's going on with the yandere heroine.

Also, please read this:

Each of these girls can have their own lovingly crafted story, but given the amount of them I don't think you can reasonably expect to get content with your one girl every update.

Maybe there are just too many heroines here...

And...

if I am interested in multiple girls in a game, but the game forces me to choose just one love interest, I stop playing the game no matter how good they are otherwise

That's a turnoff for you, the polygamous.
Think about the reverse, a turnoff for me, the monogamous is that if I'm forced into a relationship with every girl.
Choices, options, user freedom is never a bad thing.


Finally... (lol I promise this is my last edit)

it's kinda silly to have made a broad, sweeping statement without having all the information, isn't it?

It doesn't matter. I'm speaking about a feeling, not about facts or reasons.
Playing those games felt like good and fulfilling experience even without the harem.
Here I don't get that feeling.

(Promise broken )
I must summon here this phrase from the WCA description post again:

Each of these characters will have a deep, lovingly crafted story of their own. We're hoping that each route you choose will have hours worth of content you'll be thinking about even when you're not playing the game.

 

[VictorSeven]

Everybody has their own tastes, and I know I can't please everyone lol. Also, WCA is still a relatively "young" game from both a dev and update standpoint. It's been out a year and a half, sure, but I've done nearly everything on my own, learning as I went, so the game has had... what, 4 updates? 5? The only reason I'm ending Season 1 here is because of Android apk size limits lol.

Someone who is learning to do my style of posing seems to have found a png to webp converter that makes the end results about half the size of what my current webps come out, and they don't seem to have lost any quality. We might swap to that converter so we can fit more scenes in each Season.

The description of the game was written back when I thought this was all gonna fit in one game. I didn't know there was a size limitation; I thought we could go on forever. The PLAN was to give you a rather railroaded intro/pilot episode for the first story arc, and then open it up and have personal questlines (routes) for each game. The intention is for each girl to have hours worth of content in her storyline so you can immerse yourself in the ones you're interested in chasing. And that's still the plan. Just haven't gotten there yet. The game is, and will continue to be, in development.

 

[Trynn]

Not to necro a point made a week ago, but the issue with Nook's disappearance has been bothering me quite a bit too. I just haven't had any ideas on how to improve it so I haven't had much to say. So, reading the following:

If i could suggest anything it would be to have aurum witness at least the appearance or possibly the closing of the portal before losing consciousness. Then its just a matter of an edit or 2 to his musings about her abscence, believing she has gone through the portal and wondering why she has not returned. Then half cat guy can mention the massive mana drain of emergency portals to give him reassurance.

I have to say this is a really good way of fixing the issues with the subsequent tone of the game with minimal (I assume) alterations. It's very good script-doctoring.

I'd also like to say that I really appreciate devs who engage with their audiences, it makes giving feedback and opinions worth it even if they don't get accepted. There are a small number of devs here who I have come to like due to this, but I have really come to respect Victor for the lengths he goes to to keep his audience informed and concerned without ever becoming ill-tempered or callous. I really like this game and its subject matter, but the attitude of Victor makes me pleased to engage with it. Thank you very much for your efforts.

Unrelated to the above asskissing, (seriously, that's that and this is just an honest pitch)I didn't get the impression you currently are from what you said about expanding your team, but should you be open to submissions in the future I'd be more than happy to submit something for a writing concern. Albeit, I generally write military scifi... I do love worldbuilding and script-doctoring in general though.

Maybe I'll have to push through my inconvenient social anxiety and join the discord for this.

Stay chill all.

 

[VictorSeven]

Not to necro a point made a week ago, but the issue with Nook's disappearance has been bothering me quite a bit too. I just haven't had any ideas on how to improve it so I haven't had much to say. So, reading the following:



I have to say this is a really good way of fixing the issues with the subsequent tone of the game with minimal (I assume) alterations. It's very good script-doctoring.

I'd also like to say that I really appreciate devs who engage with their audiences, it makes giving feedback and opinions worth it even if they don't get accepted. There are a small number of devs here who I have come to like due to this, but I have really come to respect Victor for the lengths he goes to to keep his audience informed and concerned without ever becoming ill-tempered or callous. I really like this game and its subject matter, but the attitude of Victor makes me pleased to engage with it. Thank you very much for your efforts.

Unrelated to the above asskissing, (seriously, that's that and this is just an honest pitch)I didn't get the impression you currently are from what you said about expanding your team, but should you be open to submissions in the future I'd be more than happy to submit something for a writing concern. Albeit, I generally write military scifi... I do love worldbuilding and script-doctoring in general though.

Maybe I'll have to push through my inconvenient social anxiety and join the discord for this.

Stay chill all.

Hey, thank you for your kind words. The thing with Aurum's not showing sufficient visible concern over Nook and Tilai is a huge plot hole, and I plan on going back and fixing that on a polishing run. Also on the docket is replacing Aoibheann's dialogue with dialogue that's been approved by a native Irishman and shoring up several other things along the way (such as inserting more choices around things like whether or not you kiss Tilai) The attention of the community has been instrumental in making this game and story the best they can be.

As far as not being ill-tempered... I've slipped a couple of times due to some blatant trashing and attacks on my work, I'll be the first to admit. I'm not a meek person, and when people swing, I tend to swing back. Pride is a poisonous thing sometimes, and I'm working on not getting baited by keyboard warriors who hide behind Anonymous handles lol. I, like my game, am a work in progress.

Regarding writing talent, I would welcome the chance to chat with you in detail and see what kind of scenes you're capable of writing. All scenes pass through me for editing and polishing to make sure they really retain that WCA flavor, and I've yet to meet someone who can really emulate that flavor well. But the material I'm given to polish up already helps a ton as far as getting content out to you all quicker, and I'm definitely still looking for additional talent.

And joining the Discord doesn't mean you're obligated to interact. Just means you'll be able to keep tabs on everything that's going on, and can pipe up if you feel the urge to. It's turned into a pretty positive and supportive place, as we don't allow shaming or toxicity of any kind. If you end up joining, hit me with a DM and we'll go from there.

Thank you again.

 

[Shagrynn]

Not to necro a point made a week ago, but the issue with Nook's disappearance has been bothering me quite a bit too. I just haven't had any ideas on how to improve it so I haven't had much to say. So, reading the following:



I have to say this is a really good way of fixing the issues with the subsequent tone of the game with minimal (I assume) alterations. It's very good script-doctoring.

I'd also like to say that I really appreciate devs who engage with their audiences, it makes giving feedback and opinions worth it even if they don't get accepted. There are a small number of devs here who I have come to like due to this, but I have really come to respect Victor for the lengths he goes to to keep his audience informed and concerned without ever becoming ill-tempered or callous. I really like this game and its subject matter, but the attitude of Victor makes me pleased to engage with it. Thank you very much for your efforts.

Unrelated to the above asskissing, (seriously, that's that and this is just an honest pitch)I didn't get the impression you currently are from what you said about expanding your team, but should you be open to submissions in the future I'd be more than happy to submit something for a writing concern. Albeit, I generally write military scifi... I do love worldbuilding and script-doctoring in general though.

Maybe I'll have to push through my inconvenient social anxiety and join the discord for this.

Stay chill all.

I like military scifi, have you published anything?

 

[Harkonnan]

I was thinking of all those possible future girls on the vote page and I saw a lot of goblins. I'm not gonna lie if we end up with a harem of just cute goblin girls I wont complain.

 

[S1nsational]

I was thinking of all those possible future girls on the vote page and I saw a lot of goblins. I'm not gonna lie if we end up with a harem of just cute goblin girls I wont complain.

Vic7 won't even give us back Nook!!! We deserve all the cute goblin girls to make up for this emotional abuse

 

[JJDrakken]

Vic7 won't even give us back Nook!!! We deserve all the cute goblin girls to make up for this emotional abuse

And Dryads and the Fae girls and the Ghost Girl!

 

[RafaelGP]

Anyone have a full gallery save?

 

[VictorSeven]

Anyone have a full gallery save?

Hey there, most of the gallery "Locked" images are just placeholders. This has caused a lot of confusion, so I'm working on removing those. By the end of this current build, you should have:

Spoiler: H-Scene List

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It's a little light on the H-content right now because the story is still kind of in the "windup" phase where you're getting to know everyone. This'll change in Season 2.

 

[Trynn]

Hey, thank you for your kind words. The thing with Aurum's not showing sufficient visible concern over Nook and Tilai is a huge plot hole, and I plan on going back and fixing that on a polishing run. Also on the docket is replacing Aoibheann's dialogue with dialogue that's been approved by a native Irishman and shoring up several other things along the way (such as inserting more choices around things like whether or not you kiss Tilai) The attention of the community has been instrumental in making this game and story the best they can be.

As far as not being ill-tempered... I've slipped a couple of times due to some blatant trashing and attacks on my work, I'll be the first to admit. I'm not a meek person, and when people swing, I tend to swing back. Pride is a poisonous thing sometimes, and I'm working on not getting baited by keyboard warriors who hide behind Anonymous handles lol. I, like my game, am a work in progress.

Regarding writing talent, I would welcome the chance to chat with you in detail and see what kind of scenes you're capable of writing. All scenes pass through me for editing and polishing to make sure they really retain that WCA flavor, and I've yet to meet someone who can really emulate that flavor well. But the material I'm given to polish up already helps a ton as far as getting content out to you all quicker, and I'm definitely still looking for additional talent.

And joining the Discord doesn't mean you're obligated to interact. Just means you'll be able to keep tabs on everything that's going on, and can pipe up if you feel the urge to. It's turned into a pretty positive and supportive place, as we don't allow shaming or toxicity of any kind. If you end up joining, hit me with a DM and we'll go from there.

Thank you again.

When I reassure myself that encountering a new group of new people won't lead to my immediate combustion, I'll DM you on Discord in relation to your offer. In the meantime, I've been meaning to pick up your Riftkey books for a while, reading through those would be a good way to become even more familiar with your style of writing.

I like military scifi, have you published anything?

Sadly no, or at least not yet. With the distinction between writers and authors (which I entirely agree with) I am still very much a writer. Circumstances have led to me stalling for a bit on my own stuff, I should throw myself back at it.

 

[VictorSeven]

Data Doesn't Lie: WCA Season 2 Decisions

Hello, all!

It's been a while since the last update, and I've had a lot on my plate. 2 book formatting and cover design jobs, internet and power outages due to winter storms, and even a Twitch sponsorship. It was the ideal time to let the survey I posted simmer and gather results. And after 120 submissions, I felt I had a pretty good sample size to determine how the community at large would like the next WCA season to go. Allow me to share some of that data with you.

Design Decision 1: Light Sandbox "Free Time" sections



Decision: YES

Analysis: Nearly 90% of respondents think this type of mechanic would work well in WCA, and the #1 thing people have been asking for is More Game in the game. Yes, even more than "MOAR SEGS!" Players want choices and to be able to customize their playthrough. In this case, I am adamantly avoiding all the things people hate about traditional sandboxes. There will be NO GRIND. NO REPETITIVE CYCLES. NO STATS. All it will be is a glorified menu that allows you to choose to visit one of the love interests or continue the main storyline. The ONLY thing I will be doing is requiring you to be at certain affection levels with specific girls in order to access other girls' or some main story content, and I don't plan on doing that often for characters that don't have a ton of established synergy.

Here's an example of how the Free Time screen will look:



That's it. Two buttons. Maybe a third button to access the Options menu. Press the right button, and you continue the main story. Press the left, and you'll end up on this screen:



You choose the character you wanna hang out with, and at the end it returns to the Free Time screen. Simple. Elegant. And won't ruin the game for most of you.

Question 2: RPG Mechanics



Decision: NO

Analysis: According to this data, trying to add this to the game would completely ruin it for approximately 15% of you, and could potentially ruin it for another nearly 28%. Less than 60% of respondents considered this a good idea, and I'm not a fan of alienating nearly half of my community. RPG mechanics will not be featured in WCA.

That being said, I do have some other ideas on how to inject a little bit of action into WCA. I'm currently looking into MMD for the ability to record fight scenes as video rather than stills, and I'm considering Dragon's Lair style QTE sections in some of the stories (you'll be able to auto-succeed these sections via a setting in the Options menu for a Story Only experience).

Question 3: Who should be the face of WCA Season 2?



Decision: Pending

Analysis: The numbers are pretty clear here. A lot of people liked the Wither and Saffryn mockup I did. But the interesting thing here is that Wither by herself got INSANELY high numbers, while Saffryn by herself did not. But you know who did get high numbers by herself, nearly doubling the next most popular character? Nook. So I may end up swapping Saffryn out for Nook and have the new icon feature Nook and Wither. Undecided as of yet.

Question 4: What other mechanics should I be considering?

Decision: None yet

Analysis: By far the most suggested thing has been a visible affection system; players want to see how they're progressing with a girl, and that's fair. I'll be discussing with Rimulex on how best to implement this, and will definitely be taking suggestions.

Question 5: WCA Merch?



Decision: NO

Analysis: Well, this one surprised me. A lot of you thought that others would buy it, but wouldn't do so yourselves. Less than 20% of you would actually purchase something with your favorite character on it.

Also, one intrepid supporter had this to say regarding the legality:



This is honestly a great point and I hadn't considered it. I know I can't sell WCA on Steam because under Steam's guidelines, my game can't be made with assets belonging to other games. Which is also fair.

All of this data has been pretty eye-opening, and will give me and Rimulex a good idea of where to start designing Season 2. This will likely be a bit of a pause between content delivery, as we'll be putting out a whole new project due to size limitations. I will, however, include a Season 1 package for PC and Mac users so that you can replay all of Season 1 inside the Season 2 program at your leisure. Past that, we're looking at another image converter that seems to convert the images to about half the size of our normal converter, and I'm having a hard time seeing any reduction in quality.

Regarding the last Season 1 update, we are removing all of the H-scene "locked" slots that don't pertain to actual H-scenes. This has caused a ton of confusion, with most players thinking there were a bunch of lewd scenes they missed. I will be retconning and rewriting one thing, as I decided moving a particular event forward a bit would be a perfect capstone to the end of Season 1. There will be exactly 1 more lewd scene as well, though I might have to do some reconverting of a batch of the images to get everything to fit in a <2gb package.



Anyways, thank you for taking the time to read this lengthy post. Once these two Book Cover/Formatting commissions are finished, I'll be able to get back to work on WCA, polish up Season 1's content, and deliver a final content update as we prepare for the launch of Season 2. In the meantime, this project could REALLY use your support, as meeting my goal in SubscribeStar or Patreon will mean I am able to cut myself down from four days a week at my security job to three. Heck, I'm typing this from one of my work sites as we speak. Being able to work less and still pay rent would be huge, not only for me, but for the development speed of WCA. So if you have some disposable income that you'd like to go to a good cause, I'd love if you could head to:

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Your support means the world to me, and puts me one step closer to my goal of decreasing the time between content drops for this game. Thank you all so much, and I hope you're looking forward to what I have in store for you in Season 2!

-Vic