VN Behind The Curtain [Rauko] (Development Thread)

ashitanojoe

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Oct 20, 2019
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Trailer


Edit: March 16 - 2024

I just found that this guy is creating a visual novel. Rauko is known for making DAZ tutorials in and creating renders of impressive quality, such:

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You can explore his gallery here

That's why I wanted to create a thread where more people can follow the development of his project and support him in his


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Behind The Curtain is an 18+ graphically hardcore Visual Novel that tells the story of 2 married couples and how their lives take a dangerous turn when a new client arrives with a lot of money to invest at the financial company where the two husbands work.

Jack Bradley is struggling with the demands at work and marriage problems brought about by his roving eye while trying to keep his current girlfriend from destroying everything.

Bex Bradley is about to embark upon a journey of sexual discovery while trying to make up for lost time after growing up within a restrictive religious environment. A playful chat with her husband sparks a flame and awakens desires she never knew existed within her.

Ralph Moore gets dragged into a dark underworld of the Mob after a new mysterious client comes into his business while he's trying to keep up with the insatiable demands of his wife.

Mags Moore is a high risk taking thrill seeker who is looking to fill the void left inside her from an abusive childhood. But with the events about to transpire – are the risks she faces even too much for her?

Although in it's raw form Behind the Curtain is a graphic hardcore adult visual novel there are options to play a censored version or a softcore version if that hard bit isn't your cup of tea and just enjoy the story and the characters.

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As a follow on to my previous post - we're at the stage of crossing the t's and dotting the i's. In final cleanup where I'm going through tidying things up that need tidying or adding extra bits in that need adding.

Upon release of of Behind the Curtain we'll have both Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 ready to go. Chapter 1 will be free for everybody and will serve as an introduction to the characters and the story. Chapter 2 will expand upon the events in Chapter 1 and will be available to Tier 1 patrons from day 1 - so play through Chapter 1 and then download and go straight onto Chapter 2.

To mark the countdown to release - I'll be posting character introductions every so often that will be available to all so for now give them a look and we'll see you on release ..

Bex 01.jpg

Bex, 24 years old, is your typical girl next door type who grew up the eldest of three daughters to religious parents. She wanted all the things a lot of little girls want: a nice husband, a couple of kids, settle down and live a happy ever after. Other than the kids she's got the rest of that now.
Bex begins our story as a little innocent & naive; not really aware of the things that go on behind closed curtains and certainly not to the extent of which it happens.

But then one night, what she thought was a fun and playful chat with her husband Jack has her hearing something from him that shocks her to the core but which ignites a flame of desire within that she never knew needed lighting.

She flings open the curtains and embarks on a journey of sexual exploration which frees her from the shackles of that religious upbringing but which could also end with everything she has crumbling to dust.

Jack.jpg

Jack Bradley, 28 years old, works in a high pressure financial investment environment full of sharks and fish. Jack's a shark. He's handsome, ambitious, confident, comfortable with people and charming. He doesn't do average. He doesn't accept second best. He has a gorgeous wife who he loves like crazy - but ... she just doesn't excite him in the way that he needs. He has a weakness for pretty girls which leads him to stray as he seeks the excitement he craves in other women .. one nighters or longer term .. but he hates himself for doing it.

But then Bex, his wife, gives him an experience he never thought she was capable of and he suddenly sees everything that he has ever wanted almost within his grasp. But is it a case of be careful of what you wished for Jack? Is Jacks desire for always wanting more going to have him end in a place where what comes to pass is just too much even for him?

Mags 02 Name.jpg

Mags Moore is sassy, brash and as bold as brass. She's brutally honest; fires from the hip; a part-time alcoholic; recreational drug taker; spendaholic; a thrill seeker and risk taker. Other than that she's almost normal. She married Ralph Moore because " .. he smelt of money the first time I met him" .. and see's a man who she loves in her own way but who she knows will give her everything she wants. She's a tornado to his slight breeze.

The one thing she does want, more than anything, is to feel alive. An abused childhood has left her full of pain but equally dull inside. She only feels alive the closer she gets to ruin and so she's pushing boundaries all the time.

How close can she tread that line where one wrong step and everything fucks up. Like walking on the edge of a cliff while swigging on a bottle wine. That's when she feels truly alive. With her husband courting a potentially dangerous new client at work and her best friend, Bex Bradley, unfurling her wings on a journey of sexual discovery .. Mags is in her element.

But what if this time she ends up finally taking that one step too far?

Ralph.jpg

Ralph Moore is a people pleaser. He's always looking to put others first and ensuring that they are well before considering himself. His young wife, Mags, has an insatiable appetite for all that is good and he spends most of his free time giving her everything that she wants. And she wants a lot. She's tireless and demanding in the bedroom. A whirlwind social butterfly. And she never stops spending the money he earns. But he loves her more than anything and so he'll do anything for her - even when it goes against the things he believes in and he has to bring .. 'outside help' .. into the relationship to feed her desires.

Fortunately for Ralph, he's a partner in an Investment Company and so historically has had the means to somewhat satisfy her material wants. But all that might be about to end. The company is in financial trouble. His reckless business partner has scared off some big clients. But that same partner has a solution - a new investor with rumors linking him to organized crime. And Ralph is the guy who deals with clients. Could this client, the one that could save the company lead Ralph, his wife and his friends down a dangerous and deadly path?

Sophie 01.jpg

Sophie Taylor is Jack Bradleys Personal Assistant and the woman he's having an affair with.

But falling for the wrong type of guy isn't anything new for Sophie. They've either slapped her around. Wanted her just as a pretty accessory to show off to friends or clients. Ended up in jail. Or a childhood bestie who grew up to be gay.

She ALWAYS falls for the wrong guy. But she's never fallen as deep as she has for Jack Bradley. He's everything she ever wanted in a guy. Other than him being married to somebody else, that is.

But this time it's different. This time it's going to work out exactly as she wants it to. If only she can pull the right threads at the right time then Jack and Bex will be done and her a Jack can be together forever. Properly. Like a real couple.

But until that time comes - she has to play the 'other woman' which frustrates the hell out of her and she constantly lashes out at him and drives him away. But he always comes back. But it will all be worth it in the end.

She just has to be patient. Her time will come. And one way or another. Bex. Will. Be. Gone.


Frank.jpg

Frank Esposito is 48 years old and is Ralph Moore's partner in an Investment Company. Originating from New York, Frank made big money by making high risk trades on Wall Street. They were the type of trades that would either make him and his clients rich or would see him thrown in jail. Fortunately for Frank it was the former.

Frank doesn't like rules. Rules are for schmucks and if he can cut corners, he'll cut them. Why spend a hour doing a job when you can do it in 10 minutes and then spend the time saved snorting cocaine off strippers tits while throwing a 100 at another to blow you off. But Frank makes the company's clients skittish. His fast and easy ways doesn't always win him friends. As such - they're taking their money elsewhere and the company is facing financial ruin. It doesn't help that Frank is also skimming cream from the top too.

But a chance meeting with an old friend from New York presents Frank with an opportunity to put everything right. The only problems are that the money might be dirty .. the friend could be a made guy .. and he has to convince his partner that everything will work out just fine. What could go wrong?

Denise Name.jpg

Denise Esposito is the wife of Frank Esposito. She was born just on the outskirts of New York to first generation Italian immigrants. At university she studied economics and business studies and when she left she started her own financial consultancy firm at the age of 25. She was a millionaire in her own right by the time she hit 30.

It was about this time she met her future husband Frank after the firm he worked for took on her services as an independent consultant to investigate irregular trades that they believed had been made. It didn't take her long to realize that Frank had been up to no good but, instead of reporting what she had uncovered, found that she'd fallen for Frank, been seduced by him and then colluded with him in carrying out other "irregular" dealings he was involved in and helped him cover his tracks. They married two years later and have a son and daughter together.
 
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ashitanojoe

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Welcome to my first Dev Log for Behind the Curtain! Woot!

And in the first Dev Log I'm happy to report that both Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 of the VN are now complete. Largely. Almost. More or less.

It's true that all the planned scenes for both chapters are now rendered and all animations are complete. The story part that links them all together is done, gameplay elements and coding is all finished and we could happily play through those first 2 chapters right now.

But ..

There's still tidy-ups to do - that's both with the renders themselves and the script.

So I'll be playing through over and over and asking myself - do we need another image there? Can I tighten the script here? Do we need an extra animation in this bit? I've already done that for Chapter 1 - so it's just Chapter 2 that needs it doing.

In addition to that - I need to do one final thing and that's building the achievement / trophy system. I'll expand upon that in another post but for simplicities sake we're talking a series of unique images of our characters than can be unlocked in game by performing certain actions.

And once both those last few things are done .. we launch!

On day 1 of release - both Chapters of Behind the Curtain will be available to play. Chapter 1 will be available to all while Chapter 2 will be for Tier 1 ("Soldier") members and above.

So the end of the extremely long tunnel can now be seen.
 

ashitanojoe

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Just because Behind The Curtain is an adult game with some naughty pictures and videos - doesn't mean you'll have to be left out if you're not into that sort of smut.

On game start the player gets to choose an option on how they want to play the game when it comes to such things : Censored, Softcore or Hardcore.

And if you find as you go on that you want a little more or less than what you've selected at the start of the game - then you'll be able to change things in the options at any part during your play-through.

Censored

If you're just a young kid then you shouldn't be playing Behind The Curtain anyways as there's lots of naughty words .. but, given you would play GTA 5 despite only being 11 - you might somehow get your hands on a Behind The Curtain and want to play for the story alone.

As such, you can choose the Censored option at the beginning of the game and all that smut will get cut out. Any nudity that would be in game would be blurred and there'd be nothing for you to get embarrassed about at all if your mom or pop walked in. Well. Not much.

Softcore

If you're a little less sensitive to such things but want nothing hardcore - you can choose the Softcore version of Behind The Curtain which will play out pretty much the same as the censored version above but the blurred bits will be removed.
There still won't be anything hardcore so you can have a pleasurable stroll through the game with nothing more on screen that what you'd see in a grown ups TV show or movie.
So - tits and ass - but nothing more.

Hardcore

If you don't want any of that censored nonsense - the you can choose the Hardcore option and get all the bells and whistles that Behind The Curtains has to offer.

So that will be everything in Softcore with a lot of full on hardcore in both static imagery and video. Think of your porn site of choice ..
 

ashitanojoe

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Oct 20, 2019
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Behind The Curtain is a story of choices and the inevitable consequences of those choices – both good and bad. These choices can affect relationships within the story and also shape the way the narrative unfolds as you play through.

As such it’s important when faced with a choice that is has meaning. That we need to stop and think about which path we should take.

That’s where Ironman mode comes in.

Behind The Curtain is best played when we make our choices and then live or die by what happens next. If we are to make a choice and aren’t too happy with the result of that choice and are able to rollback and make another choice – then Behind The Curtain loses one of the pillars it’s built upon.
As such it’s advised to play Behind The Curtain in Ironman mode so that the choices and decisions you make on behalf of the characters actually mean something.

When starting a new play through you have a choice similar to the one you made when you decided to play a version of your game .. You choose to play in Ironman mode or not. However, unlike when you choose your level of Porn, you won’t be able to switch to or from Ironman once your play through has started.

So what does playing Ironman mode entail?

No Rollbacks

Anybody familiar with a Visual Novel built in something like Ren’py will know that one of the features that exists is the ability to rollback dialogue and choices so you can follow a more desirable path if you didn’t like the outcome of the original choice you took.

In Behind The Curtain Ironman – no such option exists. Ok .. you CAN still roll back through dialogue to double check what’s been said – but only back to when a choice had last been made. You won’t be able to go back to the choice itself or any dialogue before that.

No Manual Saves

With each new dialogue Behind The Curtain auto-saves your current progress and no other type of saving is allowed whether that’s a manual save through the menus or via Quick Save. Again, this is to ensure the Ironman environment and prevents players saving when faced with a choice that needs to be made and allowing them to roll back to before the choice.

Achievements Unlocked

Achievements, Trophies or Gallery entries – call them what you will – but there are goodies to unlock while on a play through of Behind The Curtain. The goodies can ONLY be unlocked while playing Ironman. If you decide to play a Non-Ironman game then you won’t be unlocking any of the achievements or trophies.

Can We Play Non-Ironmam?

You can certainly play a Non-Ironman play through of Behind The Curtain if you so wish but I would recommend that for a second play through and have your Ironman save as what you use in future chapters.
In Non-Ironman – you’ll be able to rollback and save like any other Visual Novel you’ve played .. you just won’t be able to unlock any achievements!
But just remember – when you start a new play through whether you choose Ironman or Non-Ironman – you won’t be able to change it once you start.
 

ashitanojoe

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Dev Log : Relationships


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Relationships are an important part of life and therefore it stands to reason that relationships are important in Behind The Curtain.

As the game progresses and you’re faced with choices and decisions that will shape and mould the story – those choices and decisions will also shape the relationships of the characters in the game.

This is important for a number of factors – whether it’s which characters will become friends and enemies, who will help you out, who will act against you out and who will .. or won’t .. fuck you.

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At key moments throughout Behind The Curtain – relationship checks are made to determine what path characters in game can take. If the check is failed then that particular character might act against you, go against your wishes or turn down your advances. On the other hand – if the check succeeds, you might just make a ally or find it’s time to wear your best underpants.

So it’s not just the choices you make while playing through Behind The Curtains that mould the story but it’s also the relationships you foster with other characters within the Visual Novel.

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Naturally, you’re not going to please everybody all of the time. You’re going to turn some people against you and so you’ll have to pick and choose who you’ll want onside as the story progresses and then work on building a relationship with them.
 
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ashitanojoe

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Behind The Curtain | Visual Novel Game Trailer



THE FREE CHAPTER 1 COMING SOON!
 
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MissFortune

I Was Once, Possibly, Maybe, Perhaps… A Harem King
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Just saw the trailer the other day, really happy to see him finally make a VN.
I do fear that it'll turn into another Yuno Gasai situation and end up abandoned, though. I've seen too many of these Daz creators who do commissions see AVNs as an easy moneycow before proceeding to give up right away to have any real confidence this see's anything more than an initial release.
 
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ashitanojoe

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I'm back in the final clean up stages on Chapter 2 of Behind The Curtain. When this is finished then both Chapter 1 and 2 will be available on day 1 of release. So .. we're getting closer.

One issue I've had this week is one of the characters has hair problems. Specifically - her hair caused everything to blow up.

Some hair assets aren't compatible with the new version of Daz and so when trying to clean up a few scenes this one character was making everything crash and burn. As I also needed to add the odd extra image of her to pad out the scenes she was in - this was going to be a problem.

I'd thought previously about how I'd handle a change to a character if something like this were to crop up. Whether that be changing hair or completely recasting a character for "reasons". I figured that normally I'd be making changes between chapters with a little announcement beforehand that Bob had gone for plastic surgery and we should all get used to it.

But because she was needed in a few extra images I had in mind - it would be a little hard to explain how she'd been to the hairdressers between one image and the next and just expecting the viewer to deal with it and to drop that "WTF?!?!" expression.

So I've had to "reshoot" all of her scenes with a working hairstyle which has been a right pain in the backside. Not least because a lot of them are big scenes with a lot of background characters and so having to reload each scene before changing her hair takes .. like .. forever!

And once she's had a makeover .. I can get back to adding the images I'd planned to add earlier this week! So one step forward .. 2 back. Yay!
 
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ashitanojoe

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20 hours ago

I’ve had a bit of development dilemma over the last few weeks (an argument could be made that it’s been over the last couple of months!!)

As you know – my plan all along had been to release the free Chapter 1 and then have Chapter 2 ready to go for those who wanted more and who wanted to support the future development of Behind The Curtain on day 1.

A couple of months ago I looked at what was still needed for inclusion in Chapter 2 and thought it was still a million miles away. So I made a strategic decision to split a few scenes off Chapter 2 and move them to Chapter 3 instead. It makes sense. Chapter 2 now finishes at a more natural place and it means I can get Chapter 2 wrapped sooner.

But after doing this – there were a still a couple of scenes I’d pushed to Chapter 3 that ideally could find a home in Chapter 2. Keeping up?

So I’ve now strategically moved those scenes back into Chapter 2 and started beavering away on them. Don’t worry – I should still get them completed in time for the In-My-Own-Head deadline for getting things done and getting BtC released. They’ll just be a little more meat on the bones in Chapter 2 now.

One of those scenes is a flashback about how two of the games main characters met. You can see an image from the flashback at the top of this post.

The funny thing about this scene is that not everybody might get it.

There’s an early scene in Chapter 2 that involves a little free roam about a characters house and the flashback occurs when a certain action is triggered. This is a spoiler free-zone .. so don’t ask!

It’s basically a character and world building scene. Not massively important to the overall plot – but will help in fleshing out a couple of the character oh, and maybe grants an achievement or two.

So completionists? I hear you!

Just to finish off the final returning-home scene done now .....
 

Lukevip

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I think it is important to write the story before and when it is finished, with the ending written, to start taking into account that it is a process that can take years to finish. And if he does it for money, they will surely abandon this because there are many novels and not so many supportive people.
 

ashitanojoe

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Oct 20, 2019
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Bex, 24 years old, is your typical girl next door type who grew up the eldest of three daughters to religious parents. She wanted all the things a lot of little girls want: a nice husband, a couple of kids, settle down and live a happy ever after. Other than the kids she's got the rest of that now.
Bex begins our story as a little innocent & naive; not really aware of the things that go on behind closed curtains and certainly not to the extent of which it happens.

But then one night, what she thought was a fun and playful chat with her husband Jack has her hearing something from him that shocks her to the core but which ignites a flame of desire within that she never knew needed lighting.

She flings open the curtains and embarks on a journey of sexual exploration which frees her from the shackles of that religious upbringing but which could also end with everything she has crumbling to dust.

1714358159937.png




Mags Moore is sassy, brash and as bold as brass. She's brutally honest; fires from the hip; a part-time alcoholic; recreational drug taker; spendaholic; a thrill seeker and risk taker. Other than that she's almost normal. She married Ralph Moore because " .. he smelt of money the first time I met him" .. and see's a man who she loves in her own way but who she knows will give her everything she wants. She's a tornado to his slight breeze.

The one thing she does want, more than anything, is to feel alive. An abused childhood has left her full of pain but equally dull inside. She only feels alive the closer she gets to ruin and so she's pushing boundaries all the time.

How close can she tread that line where one wrong step and everything fucks up. Like walking on the edge of a cliff while swigging on a bottle wine. That's when she feels truly alive. With her husband courting a potentially dangerous new client at work and her best friend, Bex Bradley, unfurling her wings on a journey of sexual discovery .. Mags is in her element.

But what if this time she ends up finally taking that one step too far?

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Sophie Taylor is Jack Bradleys Personal Assistant and the woman he's having an affair with.

But falling for the wrong type of guy isn't anything new for Sophie. They've either slapped her around. Wanted her just as a pretty accessory to show off to friends or clients. Ended up in jail. Or a childhood bestie who grew up to be gay.

She ALWAYS falls for the wrong guy. But she's never fallen as deep as she has for Jack Bradley. He's everything she ever wanted in a guy. Other than him being married to somebody else, that is.

But this time it's different. This time it's going to work out exactly as she wants it to. If only she can pull the right threads at the right time then Jack and Bex will be done and her a Jack can be together forever. Properly. Like a real couple.

But until that time comes - she has to play the 'other woman' which frustrates the hell out of her and she constantly lashes out at him and drives him away. But he always comes back. But it will all be worth it in the end.

She just has to be patient. Her time will come. And one way or another. Bex. Will. Be. Gone.
 
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