Ren'Py Worlds Crossing Academy [v1.4.8.2] [TeamEmberWings]

[Dark Prince 19]

Replaying the game on loop and it definitely feels like the battle MC will do for Eshtel is gonna be a huge one....wonder if Phoebe can help him out; as well she hasn't made an entry as of now and expect her to bounce here very soon. Also maybe a slight question to Devs; are we planning to get a good weapon as MC...... a legendary sword might be good lol. It's gonna be an interesting one to playthrough and considering what the Team has produced am sure it'll give some good moments!

Thanks for reading Dev, best wishes for ahead

 

[VictorSeven]

Replaying the game on loop and it definitely feels like the battle MC will do for Eshtel is gonna be a huge one....wonder if Phoebe can help him out; as well she hasn't made an entry as of now and expect her to bounce here very soon. Also maybe a slight question to Devs; are we planning to get a good weapon as MC...... a legendary sword might be good lol. It's gonna be an interesting one to playthrough and considering what the Team has produced am sure it'll give some good moments!

Thanks for reading Dev, best wishes for ahead

I think you'll enjoy how we're handling that situation. I have a very special thing I wanna try to do for that fight, but I need some help to do it, and I'm having a hard time finding it. Still looking, though.

 

[Dark Prince 19]

I think you'll enjoy how we're handling that situation. I have a very special thing I wanna try to do for that fight, but I need some help to do it, and I'm having a hard time finding it. Still looking, though.

That is super interesting, have a couple of theories made up on what might happen so as a fan and supporter am sure will love what you'll make!

Thanks for replying back Dev, best wishes for ahead

 

[VictorSeven]

That being said, if anyone knows anything about extracting animations from Dead or Alive or Tekken to Blender, and then making a zipmod for HS2/Ai Shoujo, exporting character models from HS2/Ai Shoujo to mod into a game like Dead or Alive 5 or 6, or even just cleaning up shaders into a single texture, please let me know. I've exhausted all my resources trying to do this damn scene and I don't wanna just shoot stills for this fight again.

 

[Dark Prince 19]

That being said, if anyone knows anything about extracting animations from Dead or Alive or Tekken to Blender, and then making a zipmod for HS2/Ai Shoujo, exporting character models from HS2/Ai Shoujo to mod into a game like Dead or Alive 5 or 6, or even just cleaning up shaders into a single texture, please let me know. I've exhausted all my resources trying to do this damn scene and I don't wanna just shoot stills for this fight again.

Wow from Tekken too..... Now this fight is gonna be spicy. Fitting for Esthel as the winner takes her hand in marriage, it sounds wholesome lol

 

[VictorSeven]

Wow from Tekken too..... Now this fight is gonna be spicy. Fitting for Esthel as the winner takes her hand in marriage, it sounds wholesome lol

I'd vastly prefer DOA over Tekken, simply due to the sheer amount of counter animations the game has, and how smooth it is, versus how jerky Tekken gameplay is. Tekken 8 definitely looks better, but Tekken for the most part has been pretty disappointing from a "watch the fight" perspective, with the ridiculous hit sparks and sound effects they've been using since Tekken 3, and maybe even earlier. Sadly, DOA uses a proprietary engine, where Tekken uses Unreal, so Tekken is far more accessible to modders.

 

[Fucker289]

Love IT

 

[Leviashen]

Booo, boo to free roam/time sections in VN games. Boooo.

The rest of the game has been a joy to play though.

 

[DemgelPhoenix]

Free roam is the optional romance, so you are always free to skip it if you just want the main story. It allows people to only romance the characters they want, without being forced onto others.

 

[timmydogg]

I'm probably just being completely blind/dumb, but how does one access the gallery?

EDIT: I think i just realized its part of the DLC, totally fair

 

[VictorSeven]

Booo, boo to free roam/time sections in VN games. Boooo.

The rest of the game has been a joy to play though.

Well, it's a good thing I added a Continue button so you can get right back to the main story and opt out of Free Time then, isn't it?

Glad you're enjoying the story. We're working hard on the next main story patch!

 

[Leviashen]

Well, it's a good thing I added a Continue button so you can get right back to the main story and opt out of Free Time then, isn't it?

Glad you're enjoying the story. We're working hard on the next main story patch!

Yeah but then I miss out on content. Which I like. I just don't enjoy the delivery system, but the content is good and kind of essential. At east in terms of relationship and character development so missing out on that might make the rest of the game feel a little hollow.

This is of course by no means a request to get you to change the game at all. You've created a system that I can tolerate and will play through despite being very anti sandbox and/or sandbox elements in VN games. I will say you may have made a design fumble by using a map as an image for the freetime sections. If anyone else is like me then bringing up an interactive map is the fastest way to make quit and delete a game.

 

[VictorSeven]

Yeah but then I miss out on content. Which I like. I just don't enjoy the delivery system, but the content is good and kind of essential. At east in terms of relationship and character development so missing out on that might make the rest of the game feel a little hollow.

This is of course by no means a request to get you to change the game at all. You've created a system that I can tolerate and will play through despite being very anti sandbox and/or sandbox elements in VN games. I will say you may have made a design fumble by using a map as an image for the freetime sections. If anyone else is like me then bringing up an interactive map is the fastest way to make quit and delete a game.

That makes sense. I was honestly trying to find a way to let players opt into the girls they wanted to spend time with, without forcing them to hang out with girls they weren't interested in, all while avoiding the typical Sandbox slog. I didn't want stats, didn't want grind, didn't even want an inventory system. I know a lot of people hate sandbox, and this game is very not-sandbox, despite the inclusion of this Free Time system.

Very fair point about the map, though. I might consider changing that, because as you say, that might give the wrong impression. I just included it because I thought it made the screen prettier, and gave people a sense of where stuff was on the island.

 

[Leviashen]

That makes sense. I was honestly trying to find a way to let players opt into the girls they wanted to spend time with, without forcing them to hang out with girls they weren't interested in, all while avoiding the typical Sandbox slog. I didn't want stats, didn't want grind, didn't even want an inventory system. I know a lot of people hate sandbox, and this game is very not-sandbox, despite the inclusion of this Free Time system.

Very fair point about the map, though. I might consider changing that, because as you say, that might give the wrong impression. I just included it because I thought it made the screen prettier, and gave people a sense of where stuff was on the island.

That's understandable, I can see the dilemma. You're game kind of needs a lot of those characters though. Take Galka for example, if the player avoids her because they don't enjoy the sex scenes or romance with that character then they miss out on his very much needed therapy sessions with her. Which I'm assuming will end up being an integral part of his character development. It might be easier to just give players the ability to exclude girls from the harem while still including their other scenes.

As for the free time section it might be better to skip the map menu and just drop the player straight into the book menu (where you select the girls) and just add a continue button in there. It'd help reduce some of the sandboxy appearance and if you were wanting to reduce the sandboxy feel of those sections it might help if the events themselves weren't broken up into small bite size pieces. I can only speak personally but I never enjoy being kicked out of a scene and taken back to a menu where I need to click a button to continue the scene. I'm not really sure if that's possible though since it looks like you're making them a little bit at a time.

I do see the challenge though Sandbox and VN games are very polarizing. People generally like one and hate the other and I think that's why dev's see a lot of push back when introducing sandbox elements into what was an otherwise purely VN game, it's a great way to alienate an established VN audience but it's probably not enough to draw in the Sandbox crowd in exchange so it's kind of a lose/lose. To try an incorporate both is a very fine line and I'm not sure it's worth it in the long run. That being said, Dev's should definitely make the games they want to make regardless of general consensus or crowd wishes, otherwise you risk washing the originality and evolution out of the genre.

 

[Dark Prince 19]

I'd vastly prefer DOA over Tekken, simply due to the sheer amount of counter animations the game has, and how smooth it is, versus how jerky Tekken gameplay is. Tekken 8 definitely looks better, but Tekken for the most part has been pretty disappointing from a "watch the fight" perspective, with the ridiculous hit sparks and sound effects they've been using since Tekken 3, and maybe even earlier. Sadly, DOA uses a proprietary engine, where Tekken uses Unreal, so Tekken is far more accessible to modders.

Ah didn't know that technicality...... but definitely makes the prospect of the fight more interesting; sweet!

Thanks for replying back Dev, best wishes for ahead

 

[VictorSeven]

That's understandable, I can see the dilemma. You're game kind of needs a lot of those characters though. Take Galka for example, if the player avoids her because they don't enjoy the sex scenes or romance with that character then they miss out on his very much needed therapy sessions with her. Which I'm assuming will end up being an integral part of his character development. It might be easier to just give players the ability to exclude girls from the harem while still including their other scenes.

As for the free time section it might be better to skip the map menu and just drop the player straight into the book menu (where you select the girls) and just add a continue button in there. It'd help reduce some of the sandboxy appearance and if you were wanting to reduce the sandboxy feel of those sections it might help if the events themselves weren't broken up into small bite size pieces. I can only speak personally but I never enjoy being kicked out of a scene and taken back to a menu where I need to click a button to continue the scene. I'm not really sure if that's possible though since it looks like you're making them a little bit at a time.

I do see the challenge though Sandbox and VN games are very polarizing. People generally like one and hate the other and I think that's why dev's see a lot of push back when introducing sandbox elements into what was an otherwise purely VN game, it's a great way to alienate an established VN audience but it's probably not enough to draw in the Sandbox crowd in exchange so it's kind of a lose/lose. To try an incorporate both is a very fine line and I'm not sure it's worth it in the long run. That being said, Dev's should definitely make the games they want to make regardless of general consensus or crowd wishes, otherwise you risk washing the originality and evolution out of the genre.

Well, there's a reason we call these Side Stories. They're not integral to the main plot, and character development in an intimate sense isn't forced upon the player. There ARE some scenes with, say, Galka as your example, in the main story. But if you decide you enjoy that little preview of what Galka's side story means, you can engage further, and your development coincides with hers in that respect.

As for the skipping the menu thing, I can't do that now because I am a writer first and a coder... like, sixth. I am not known for my coding skill. And if I change the backend again, it'll force everyone to restart because call and return functions have changed their targets, which screws up the whole call stack and everyone will error out. It would take a FAR more skilled coder than I to pull that off.

However, I'm keeping all of this in mind for our next project. I made a lot of design mistakes with this, my first game, and as with everything I try for the first time, it's a massive learning experience. WCA is, by and large, a crowd-influenced game, and we actually had to fight to get the Sandbox tag taken off because people kept rage reporting it without ever understanding the Free Time system. Sandbox lovers came here disappointed, and people who hate Sandbox avoided us before even trying it because they saw the word. Don't think I'll be making that mistake again. Our next game will have a FAR smaller roster, a more cohesive story, a shooting style that makes composing the scenes much faster and easier, and far less immersion-breaking interruption. We want bigger updates, faster updates, and overall just a better experience. I think WCA is good, but I don't think it's great, and I hope the next project takes advantage of all the knowledge gained from the mistakes in WCA.

Thank you for your input!

 

[Leviashen]

Well, there's a reason we call these Side Stories. They're not integral to the main plot, and character development in an intimate sense isn't forced upon the player. There ARE some scenes with, say, Galka as your example, in the main story. But if you decide you enjoy that little preview of what Galka's side story means, you can engage further, and your development coincides with hers in that respect.

As for the skipping the menu thing, I can't do that now because I am a writer first and a coder... like, sixth. I am not known for my coding skill. And if I change the backend again, it'll force everyone to restart because call and return functions have changed their targets, which screws up the whole call stack and everyone will error out. It would take a FAR more skilled coder than I to pull that off.

However, I'm keeping all of this in mind for our next project. I made a lot of design mistakes with this, my first game, and as with everything I try for the first time, it's a massive learning experience. WCA is, by and large, a crowd-influenced game, and we actually had to fight to get the Sandbox tag taken off because people kept rage reporting it without ever understanding the Free Time system. Sandbox lovers came here disappointed, and people who hate Sandbox avoided us before even trying it because they saw the word. Don't think I'll be making that mistake again. Our next game will have a FAR smaller roster, a more cohesive story, a shooting style that makes composing the scenes much faster and easier, and far less immersion-breaking interruption. We want bigger updates, faster updates, and overall just a better experience. I think WCA is good, but I don't think it's great, and I hope the next project takes advantage of all the knowledge gained from the mistakes in WCA.

Thank you for your input!

No worries, I enjoyed the conversation. Cheers for being cool about it too. I don't like just shitting on peoples work so I like to try and provide solutions to problems that I perceive and some people can get very offended by that.

I will say that in terms of story, characters and development you've got one of the better games I've come across.

 

[Dark Prince 19]

Well, there's a reason we call these Side Stories. They're not integral to the main plot, and character development in an intimate sense isn't forced upon the player. There ARE some scenes with, say, Galka as your example, in the main story. But if you decide you enjoy that little preview of what Galka's side story means, you can engage further, and your development coincides with hers in that respect.

As for the skipping the menu thing, I can't do that now because I am a writer first and a coder... like, sixth. I am not known for my coding skill. And if I change the backend again, it'll force everyone to restart because call and return functions have changed their targets, which screws up the whole call stack and everyone will error out. It would take a FAR more skilled coder than I to pull that off.

However, I'm keeping all of this in mind for our next project. I made a lot of design mistakes with this, my first game, and as with everything I try for the first time, it's a massive learning experience. WCA is, by and large, a crowd-influenced game, and we actually had to fight to get the Sandbox tag taken off because people kept rage reporting it without ever understanding the Free Time system. Sandbox lovers came here disappointed, and people who hate Sandbox avoided us before even trying it because they saw the word. Don't think I'll be making that mistake again. Our next game will have a FAR smaller roster, a more cohesive story, a shooting style that makes composing the scenes much faster and easier, and far less immersion-breaking interruption. We want bigger updates, faster updates, and overall just a better experience. I think WCA is good, but I don't think it's great, and I hope the next project takes advantage of all the knowledge gained from the mistakes in WCA.

Thank you for your input!

Curious actually about one thing........ in WCA there seems so much lore as of now; so your 2nd game will that be linked to WCA somehow? Or are we close to wrapping up all quests in the world of WCA? But yea have to say and maybe it varies people to people, have always loved the way WCA has been written..... for a first game think it is a tremendous attempt and fortunately Sandbox has never been a thing that is a critical factor that see before trying a game, so yes have been almost always satisfied with the way this cast, plot has gone on.

 

[DukeCR]

Great update, dev!
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[VictorSeven]

No worries, I enjoyed the conversation. Cheers for being cool about it too. I don't like just shitting on peoples work so I like to try and provide solutions to problems that I perceive and some people can get very offended by that.

I will say that in terms of story, characters and development you've got one of the better games I've come across.

I appreciate the kind words, and I'm very glad you've enjoyed what we've made.

I feel like feedback is important. On one hand, I'm no stranger to firing back when someone is just needlessly shitting on things in a caustic manner because they find it fun. But real discussion, constructive criticism, and discourse regarding the user experience is not only valuable data, I feel it's integral to the life cycle of a game like WCA. The community makes the game. Without the community, this'd just be some forgotten piece of software languishing on a hard drive somewhere. Input from the other side of the proverbial counter helps improve the game experience for everyone.

Curious actually about one thing........ in WCA there seems so much lore as of now; so your 2nd game will that be linked to WCA somehow? Or are we close to wrapping up all quests in the world of WCA? But yea have to say and maybe it varies people to people, have always loved the way WCA has been written..... for a first game think it is a tremendous attempt and fortunately Sandbox has never been a thing that is a critical factor that see before trying a game, so yes have been almost always satisfied with the way this cast, plot has gone on.

I'm honestly surprised at how many people are in love with this simple little world. This is honestly a very shallow world comparted to what I created in The Riftkey Chronicles and in any of the tabletop worlds I create for my players. Our plan is to finish out the main story, then fill out all of the Side Stories and DLC romance routes. We're only gonna start on the next project once we've finished WCA's main story and have made some headway on WCA's Side Stories. After Season 2 Episode 5, we have 3 more main story episodes. I'll repost the roadmap:

​

We're sort of halfway between 1.4.5.0 and 1.5.0.0. The main story blocks are the ones with the numbers on top, and they show the main antagonist we're focused on. The Side Story updates are the ones with the numbers below, and they show which 4 girls are getting their scene count increased. I've kept the antagonist for the final episode a mystery on purpose. After that, we'll just keep filling out the Side Stories, as I said.

As for our next project, no, it'll have nothing to do with this world. I have so many stories and worlds I wanna work on, and I'm honestly very eager to put WCA to bed. It's been available to the public for 4 and a half years, and I wanna work on something else lol. I want to take everything I've learned from WCA and put that towards our next game.

I do have more writing, if writing is what you're after. I've tossed around the idea of making a VN out of my book series, The Riftkey Chronicles, but I would need a LOT of custom mods done, especially environments and monsters. Not a lot of people know this, but there are three Riftkey characters in WCA. Wither, Saarya, and Maika are all from my book series, and I was very surprised that Wither is far and away the favorite. The series is where the Dryad language comes from, as well as the concept of Arutheni and a lot of the things surrounding the design of Dryads.

Anyways, if any one is curious, they're free on Amazon if you have Kindle Unlimited.

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First one is free to read on Wattpad as well if you don't do the Amazon thing.

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I'm working on audiobooks right now because I know flat prose is the hardest medium to digest these days. I WANT a cartoon/anime style show, but that's a long ways away.

Great update, dev!
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I honestly wish our updates were faster so we could have solved that for her sooner. I, too, am quite relieved. She's such a fun character to write.