VN Ren'Py Abandoned Due Process [v0.3.6.0] [kivik]

[RndmGuy404]

This game being on hold is due process.

That's sad and also true...

 

[Virulenz]

Well, on hold means 3.8 will be far away...but 3.7 is ready, the only missing thing is the link here ^^

 

[Retro]

@kivik any news?

 

[Retro]

Well I PMed him a week ago, he has yet to read it but he posted an update to patreon behind a paywall so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[c3p0]

Well I PMed him a week ago, he has yet to read it but he posted an update to patreon behind a paywall so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Will be posted after I access to more than a mobil.

 

[c3p0]

Feb 22 at 2:50pm

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Hey guys,
I'm going to keep the opening short. Obviously I've been shit at the whole communicating thing. and it's still on me. Whilst I don't feel comfortable with going into details, I feel I do have to explain a little of what happened, and what's going on.
I guess the only way to put it is, I had a bit of a meltdown or breakdown or whatever you want to call it. I was getting some help with my mental health, but I kind of cut that off completely as well. I carried on spiraling, and much as my other half has been supportive, she had her own stuff to deal with as it was.
I've been trying to come back and I've just not been able to bring myself to it. Again, it's on me, it's my failing. I've avoided my emails as well, I just panic everytime a got a notification for a new comment. The only thing I've been doing is logging in to make sure that I don't charge anyone the monthly patronage before the end of each month (as I cannot pause my patreon page).
I wouldn't say I've pulled myself out of whatever hole I'm in yet, but while I was "off" the project, I've not stopped thinking about it.
The silver lining is that during this time, I've made some re-evaluations, and I've had some moments of realisation. The game's game loop doesn't work.
After two months (or has it been longer?), I finally managed to write the first bit of notes. I've been putting down ideas and then rewriting them.
I've finally found a narrative that fits the namesake of Due Process better, and I found mechanics and game loops that for now, feels more compelling and still stays true to what I started out wanting to make.
I know this may annoy or upset some of you, but I think it's the only way I see the game "working" going forward.

Story:
You're no longer just someone who's helping Karen out with the subjects. I knew I need Karen as a sort of tutorial and gatekeeper to gameplay mechanics, but I think making the player the housekeeper of the facility showed the fundamental lack of gameplay.
You're now a professional thief who just arrived in a new city where you've been told there are plenty of opportunities for you. Karen has hired you to steal some valuables for her from another high tech facility, but you end up getting caught.
Karen bails you out because she wants to know what you found, and you're now in an uneasy alliance to retrieve the stolen goods for Karen, while she helps you with getting out of a guilty verdict you're facing.
Karen is still exploring mind control technology, and your job was supposed to help her finish it. She still has to answer to her board, she's still the same character who's doing everything for her own gains. The only difference is her relationship with you.
Catherine is still in the game, and she'll still be the subject of Karen's experiments, except it's no longer an isolation based process to turn her into a slave.

Gameplay:
The mind control technology is still ultimately the end game, but it'll be delayed further down towards end game content. There are missing components to Karen's technology, and you need to obtain them for her to finish the research, and openly mind control people.
With mind control pushed to the end game, new mechanics will be in place for the mature content. The technology is broken down into 4 components: memory, awakeness, will and arousal. With all four elements available, you can obtain mind control powers - but you'll be getting part of these elements from the beginning, starting with awakeness (or sleep).
As you advanced through the game, you can gain more elements of these powers, and you can use them to effectively gain different content with your subjects.
The gameloop will be broken into multiple aspects:
Heists - as a thief, you go and steal more stuff to gain necessary items for your end goal.
Combat - if caught, you'll have fight your way out! But as a thief, don't expect to fight your way out like a barbarian. As you gain the different elements of powers, you'll use them to get your way out of trouble.
Investigating - you're due for a trial, to manipulate the results, you'll need to identify and locate key people in the trial and manipulate them. With the help of PIs and some detective mechanics, you'll locate these people and do what needs to be done to them.
Manipulating people - this is where the sexy content are, your reward depends on what elements of power you've got and how many people you can locate.
Mind control - completing Karen's technology opens up a new opportunites and sexy content.

When I first started development, I started with experimenting with a very basic idea and tried (but failed) to expand on it and create gameplay and depth. I'm currently trying to go the other way, but understanding the entire gameplay and then build towards it.
Each gameplay component mentioned above, I intended to simplify to start with and build on top. This way I can minimise the time needed to get to the point where there's functionally a game. The difference is I already know there are actually different mechanics working together to create varied gameplay going forward.
As the development continues I can start adding the depth I have currently planned for the different areas, so combat may start out as very basic turn based 1 on 1 - it'll be changed overtime to become more interesting.

One of the sticking point for me previously was how to have a proper difficulty curve if you could already successfully mind control three people within the first few missions? I believe these new components to the gameplay will finally create it:
You now need to identify and location your subject (investigation phase), subdue them (combat), contain them (the room which they'll try and break out of) and apply the mind control technology. This is the easiest way I can see an increase in difficulty as you progress in the game.
The difficulty of location the judge in charge of your trial may be easy, but nothing short of end game mind control would sway the results. It'll be high risk high reward content. Meanwhile identifying and locating the witnesses are harder, but you'd only need to temper with their memory to lead to different outcome.
Also, there will be superheroes in the game. It may be a bit out of the blue, but I feel it compliments the mechanics well. Every element of the game can be applied to superheroes with spike in difficulties: you need to figure out their secret identity from very little clues; subduing them will be challenging; they could potentially break out of holding cells; before finally being able to mind control them.
That said, they're not gated as end game content, as different levels of superheroes will appear as you go on your heists, and mind control isn't the only way to influence your interactions with them in the long run.


So I've got a game that I feel I have a much better grasp of in terms of ideas. I can see the type of gameplay it'll have from start to finish. The hurdle now is my ability to sit down and develop it.
The honest truth is, I don't know what I'll be like going forward. The only thing I know is that I feel more inspired and motivated by having these ideas out of my system. It's down to me to take the next steps.
I've rewritten this post twice already since the start of the new year, and with luck I'll actually post it. I don't know how to end this post, so I'm just going to end it here.
kivik
Hey guys,
I'm going to keep the opening short. Obviously I've been shit at the whole communicating thing. and it's still on me. Whilst I don't feel comfortable with going into details, I feel I do have to explain a little of what happened, and what's going on.
I guess the only way to put it is, I had a bit of a meltdown or breakdown or whatever you want to call it. I was getting some help with my mental health, but I kind of cut that off completely as well. I carried on spiraling, and much as my other half has been supportive, she had her own stuff to deal with as it was.
I've been trying to come back and I've just not been able to bring myself to it. Again, it's on me, it's my failing. I've avoided my emails as well, I just panic everytime a got a notification for a new comment. The only thing I've been doing is logging in to make sure that I don't charge anyone the monthly patronage before the end of each month (as I cannot pause my patreon page).
I wouldn't say I've pulled myself out of whatever hole I'm in yet, but while I was "off" the project, I've not stopped thinking about it.
The silver lining is that during this time, I've made some re-evaluations, and I've had some moments of realisation. The game's game loop doesn't work.
After two months (or has it been longer?), I finally managed to write the first bit of notes. I've been putting down ideas and then rewriting them.
I've finally found a narrative that fits the namesake of Due Process better, and I found mechanics and game loops that for now, feels more compelling and still stays true to what I started out wanting to make.
I know this may annoy or upset some of you, but I think it's the only way I see the game "working" going forward.

Story:
You're no longer just someone who's helping Karen out with the subjects. I knew I need Karen as a sort of tutorial and gatekeeper to gameplay mechanics, but I think making the player the housekeeper of the facility showed the fundamental lack of gameplay.
You're now a professional thief who just arrived in a new city where you've been told there are plenty of opportunities for you. Karen has hired you to steal some valuables for her from another high tech facility, but you end up getting caught.
Karen bails you out because she wants to know what you found, and you're now in an uneasy alliance to retrieve the stolen goods for Karen, while she helps you with getting out of a guilty verdict you're facing.
Karen is still exploring mind control technology, and your job was supposed to help her finish it. She still has to answer to her board, she's still the same character who's doing everything for her own gains. The only difference is her relationship with you.
Catherine is still in the game, and she'll still be the subject of Karen's experiments, except it's no longer an isolation based process to turn her into a slave.

Gameplay:
The mind control technology is still ultimately the end game, but it'll be delayed further down towards end game content. There are missing components to Karen's technology, and you need to obtain them for her to finish the research, and openly mind control people.
With mind control pushed to the end game, new mechanics will be in place for the mature content. The technology is broken down into 4 components: memory, awakeness, will and arousal. With all four elements available, you can obtain mind control powers - but you'll be getting part of these elements from the beginning, starting with awakeness (or sleep).
As you advanced through the game, you can gain more elements of these powers, and you can use them to effectively gain different content with your subjects.
The gameloop will be broken into multiple aspects:
Heists - as a thief, you go and steal more stuff to gain necessary items for your end goal.
Combat - if caught, you'll have fight your way out! But as a thief, don't expect to fight your way out like a barbarian. As you gain the different elements of powers, you'll use them to get your way out of trouble.
Investigating - you're due for a trial, to manipulate the results, you'll need to identify and locate key people in the trial and manipulate them. With the help of PIs and some detective mechanics, you'll locate these people and do what needs to be done to them.
Manipulating people - this is where the sexy content are, your reward depends on what elements of power you've got and how many people you can locate.
Mind control - completing Karen's technology opens up a new opportunites and sexy content.

When I first started development, I started with experimenting with a very basic idea and tried (but failed) to expand on it and create gameplay and depth. I'm currently trying to go the other way, but understanding the entire gameplay and then build towards it.
Each gameplay component mentioned above, I intended to simplify to start with and build on top. This way I can minimise the time needed to get to the point where there's functionally a game. The difference is I already know there are actually different mechanics working together to create varied gameplay going forward.
As the development continues I can start adding the depth I have currently planned for the different areas, so combat may start out as very basic turn based 1 on 1 - it'll be changed overtime to become more interesting.

One of the sticking point for me previously was how to have a proper difficulty curve if you could already successfully mind control three people within the first few missions? I believe these new components to the gameplay will finally create it:
You now need to identify and location your subject (investigation phase), subdue them (combat), contain them (the room which they'll try and break out of) and apply the mind control technology. This is the easiest way I can see an increase in difficulty as you progress in the game.
The difficulty of location the judge in charge of your trial may be easy, but nothing short of end game mind control would sway the results. It'll be high risk high reward content. Meanwhile identifying and locating the witnesses are harder, but you'd only need to temper with their memory to lead to different outcome.
Also, there will be superheroes in the game. It may be a bit out of the blue, but I feel it compliments the mechanics well. Every element of the game can be applied to superheroes with spike in difficulties: you need to figure out their secret identity from very little clues; subduing them will be challenging; they could potentially break out of holding cells; before finally being able to mind control them.
That said, they're not gated as end game content, as different levels of superheroes will appear as you go on your heists, and mind control isn't the only way to influence your interactions with them in the long run.


So I've got a game that I feel I have a much better grasp of in terms of ideas. I can see the type of gameplay it'll have from start to finish. The hurdle now is my ability to sit down and develop it.
The honest truth is, I don't know what I'll be like going forward. The only thing I know is that I feel more inspired and motivated by having these ideas out of my system. It's down to me to take the next steps.
I've rewritten this post twice already since the start of the new year, and with luck I'll actually post it. I don't know how to end this post, so I'm just going to end it here.
kivik

 

[Rbiba]

So basically they restart development entirely. Nice.

 

[exter]

I just played the new Version of 'Lust Hero' and this update sounds like its quite similar. The only difference i see is, that in this you are a thief that relies on a scientist for the mind control.

But then again, this might be the case for a lot of games

 

[AlisaB]

After reading this latest announcement im a bit worried, this sounds fairly complicated for a porn game. Also pushing mind control to the end game... dont like that idea.

 

[BobCarter]

I just played the new Version of 'Lust Hero' and this update sounds like its quite similar. The only difference i see is, that in this you are a thief that relies on a scientist for the mind control.

But then again, this might be the case for a lot of games

Actually it's more common for you to be the scientist, the take over, the company, Game of Life, and Something Unlimited. [Less so on that last one]
Thou you are right, a lot of games use this concept.

 

[AuroraVT]

Sounds like an assassinations creed game

 

[mariaeliza]

I'm lost.... will this game be abandon and remake or new comming up?

 

[c3p0]

New post on Patreon:

Mar 2 at 6:02pm,

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Not 100% underway yet with development. I've been working on a world map and some renders. Here's a new NPC you'll be dealing with. I'm going to work on a few more NPC characters this week. Think merchant characters, ones you can interact with but won't necessarily have sexy content with (yet). My hope is that ultimately any character in the game will be open to mind controlling, but I will be staying focus on some principle characters first.
I've started breaking down some key elements of the mechanics into data structures for coding. I think one major advantage going forward is that since I know at a larger scale what the end goal is - I probably won't be changing the core code too often and breaking older saves.
I'm trying to push myself to some routines to help drive me towards development again. I'm sorry about the slow pace.
Not 100% underway yet with development. I've been working on a world map and some renders. Here's a new NPC you'll be dealing with. I'm going to work on a few more NPC characters this week. Think merchant characters, ones you can interact with but won't necessarily have sexy content with (yet). My hope is that ultimately any character in the game will be open to mind controlling, but I will be staying focus on some principle characters first.
I've started breaking down some key elements of the mechanics into data structures for coding. I think one major advantage going forward is that since I know at a larger scale what the end goal is - I probably won't be changing the core code too often and breaking older saves.
I'm trying to push myself to some routines to help drive me towards development again. I'm sorry about the slow pace.

Not 100% underway yet with development. I've been working on a world map and some renders. Here's a new NPC you'll be dealing with. I'm going to work on a few more NPC characters this week. Think merchant characters, ones you can interact with but won't necessarily have sexy content with (yet). My hope is that ultimately any character in the game will be open to mind controlling, but I will be staying focus on some principle characters first.
I've started breaking down some key elements of the mechanics into data structures for coding. I think one major advantage going forward is that since I know at a larger scale what the end goal is - I probably won't be changing the core code too often and breaking older saves.
I'm trying to push myself to some routines to help drive me towards development again. I'm sorry about the slow pace.
Not 100% underway yet with development. I've been working on a world map and some renders. Here's a new NPC you'll be dealing with. I'm going to work on a few more NPC characters this week. Think merchant characters, ones you can interact with but won't necessarily have sexy content with (yet). My hope is that ultimately any character in the game will be open to mind controlling, but I will be staying focus on some principle characters first.
I've started breaking down some key elements of the mechanics into data structures for coding. I think one major advantage going forward is that since I know at a larger scale what the end goal is - I probably won't be changing the core code too often and breaking older saves.
I'm trying to push myself to some routines to help drive me towards development again. I'm sorry about the slow pace.

 

[c3p0]

And next; like to see this dev a lot more active than before

Mar 4 at 9:14pm,

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I've been working on a city map on and off since Christmas, this is what I'm currently settling on. I generated it using

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, with my own zoning edit.
Violet City is a densely populated city that houses many high tech research and industries. The city wall limits access in and out of the inner city through its four gates. Port access is also heavily monitored, making it a safe haven for business with valuable assets and trade secrets.
With excess wealth came increased crime. Despite the tightly controlled borders, many opportunists took up more nefarious careers profiting off the elites. Thankfully, the first wave of superheroes started emerging in recent months, taking the safety of their city in their own hands.
You arrive in the city for a paid gig, not long after the rise of these supers who complicated your job. You will not leave the inner city without some help from the inside.

The plan is that each coloured zone will have a list of "discovered locations" that you can access. This makes it much easier for me to add new locations without having to incorporate it directly into the map. It's a lot more scalable without too much work.
Here is an earlier map I was working on before over multiple nights, but I was unhappy with the layout the more I looked at it before stumbling upon the map generator I ended up using.

Certainly came a long way from this simple map I created last year where each building was isolated on its own:

 

[c3p0]

Mar 10 at 8:42pm,

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Heroine Character
So I've designed and rendered the first heroine character, including various actions in battle: normal, attack, block, hit, evade and defeated.
I've not come up with a name for her yet so I'd welcome suggestions.
I'm going to work on a generic security guard next.

 

[c3p0]

You're humble message relay droid is here again

Mar 14 at 5:06pm,

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Some mechanics ideas (some spoiler)

So I had today off work, and I finally managed to drag myself out of the house and went to the library to work on the game whilst my computer does more rendering at home.

I'm still at the planning stage, coding wise I've only written a few barebone pythons classes that will be the foundation of the game mechanics' data structure.

I want to share the current combat ideas with you guys, perhaps get some feedback from you guys.

First of all, I was mostly influenced by a video by Extra Credits about the Leviathan Axe in God of War. They talked about how the game introduced depth by using a single weapon, used in a variety of ways, to basically give player choices - if they're advanced enough to take advantage of it. This video probably inspired me to boil down my combat game mechanics to the simplest elements - but introduce variety to make more complex gameplay.

So the entire game revolves around these gemstones that has been appearing in Violet City. When a certain energy is channeled through these gemstones, special powers come out the other end - the four discovered gemstones causes heat (fire), cold (frost), wind and gravity / earth (still subjected to change and open to ideas!). The technology around this gave birth to the superheroes in this city. These are your magical powers in the game.

A second layer to the gemstone is that they can tap into a person's life force, and affect their abilities - giving them extra strength, dexterity, stamina etc. These are basically character attributes.

There are 4 types of gemstones (for each elemental type), and they come in various sizes (progression), which have to be cut and fit into specially made slots in your equipment to allow the channeling of the energy or influence your stats.

Of course ultimately I'm making a mind control game, and Karen's research is basically the effect of the gemstones when she channels a different form of energy - which has the power to influence lust, memory, will and consciouness.

I'm still not 100% set on what the nature of this energy is, but I'm currently calling it aura, or maybe I'll stick to life force - which you drain from people through sexual encounters.

So this not only leads to ultimately sexy slaves using the gemstone's powers, but requires you to engage in sexual encounter to get there. I don't know if this feels arbitrary, but the reason behind it was that it's meant to take some time both narratively and progression wise before you get the sex slave content - and ultimately I'm making a h-game and I can't deprive you guys of that content till late - end game!

I'm currently playing around with the structure of the combat mechanics specifically, what stats are needed, and what effects different abilities will have.

Like most RPGs, there will base stats that helps calculate the effects of actions, and bar stats like HP and MP (energy). However, unlike typical RPGs, you can choose to tackle the HPs, or other bar stats such as consciousness, will and lust to end battles.

In the long run, this core mechanics can grow in variety / complexity simply by introducing a new gemstone type or a new energy source. There will also already be other things in place such as equipment modifiers, maybe slot & gemstone compatibility modifiers etc.

I'm not building everything all at once however, as I want to build a core framework for the entire game first, like the broad strokes when you start a painting, and expand on the details as time goes on.

This means combat itself may start out automated until it gets more advanced and control each individual action, in fact they may be invisible to start with as part of the heist game loop where you just see the outcome.

That said, I still want to make sure I'm not coding myself into a corner by laying the right foundations for everything. For example, what if I introduce a mechanic where a particular gemstone is disabled in certain areas? I'm adding a function check to my code now, so that whilst it'll always return TRUE right now, it can become dynamically changed in the future!

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this, I really feel like I'm onto something fun here!

kivik

 

[kzk0987]

The game was going so well, it was one of the best hypnosis themed ones in this site... Why did you decide to change it to this extent?
Honestly nothing that you said about it excites me very much, and I think that holds true for a lot of people who were enjoying it before.

EDIT - Reading the latest post more carrefully (I admit I read the previous ones intently and just glanced the last one), it does seem you still intend it to be hypnosis focused. Though honestly it still sounds more like you are pulling away from the whole premise of conditioning based brainwashing, which is a shame in my opinion.

 

[Virulenz]

How about to finish this first and make due process 2 with the new plans?
I love this game as it is and dont want it to change into an other game with the same name.

 

[SnuggleNFap]

Any new updates?

 

[MauritkCL]

How about to finish this first and make due process 2 with the new plans?
I love this game as it is and dont want it to change into an other game with the same name.

I wholeheartedly agree. I really like(d) the game as it is/was. I am in no way opposed to, as you suggested, a Due Process #2. But I would really love to see this game finished without (too many) changes.

Nevertheless it is up to the developer, and we should first wait and see what he comes up with, before we judge it.