Ren'Py Ellen Vague [Development Thread]

[LongJohnnyWalker]

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Hi guys,

I started working on a game in RenPy with the plan to document the whole process of how I set up and develop the game, set up the structure and make renders in DAZ. I think it's an interesting project and journey, and I need a new passion project to pour my time and effort into

So far, I have set up the project, automated deployments to itch.io, as well as the structure for the main gameplay loop (basically two menus for day and night activities that unlock new options depending on player choices). The reason I came up with this structure is so that I can work on individual scenes without them impacting the other already existing ones (apart from some backreferences and unlocking new options), as well as making sure I can always make quick bugfixes and deployments in case anyone reports any bugs.

So far, the story I came up with is that the MC is an author of erotic novels who has hit a bit of a writer's block, and decided to visit the quiet town of Bryatt Fowls to...find inspiration, so to speak. I think it'll be fun and gives me a lot of room to play with the concept and ideas, as well as dipping a little into the humor and parody side with references and whatever else comes to my mind.

I feel like this is a good option to make sure I can publish semi-frequent updates, keep the overall game interesting and dynamic to play, and player choices actually matter with this structure.

I can't post links yet, but I have the very first demo build ready (but it's literally just hundred lines of dialog right now, I spent most of the time working on the structure and initial setup). I used itch so that I can auto-deploy patches instead of having to manually upload new versions, and that is coupled with Patreon so that anyone who subscribes to the Patreon page immediately gains access to the game. I think that's a pretty cool setup that I haven't really seen utilized elsewhere, and I really like how that reduces the overhead around uploading and downloading the game for everyone involved.

I hope y'all enjoy this, I plan to give it at least a year with updates whenever I have time, and like I said I really enjoy this project and overall idea, so there's that

 

[LongJohnnyWalker]

So, here is the current character design of Ellen Vague, I aimed a little for my own version of the protagonist of AW2 with that comfy looking sweater, and the coat for outdoors wardrobe. I feel that fits my overall idea quite well that is taking a bit of both protagonists with the writer aspect from Part 1 and the female mc from Part 2.

 

[LongJohnnyWalker]

I'm getting closer and closer to a first playable build, currently waiting for almost 60 renders to finish up.
In the meantime, I have written almost 8k words now, and several of the large scenes are finished as well. Here are some renders from today, with a bunch more coming up that I'm quite excited to see how they turned out View attachment 3.webp View attachment 5.webp View attachment 18.webp View attachment 27.webp

 

[LongJohnnyWalker]

Now, I am weirdly proud of how this render turned out

 

[LongJohnnyWalker]

 

[osanaiko]

forgive my ignorance, but you've used the acronym "AW2" without defining it?

also good looking start, will keep an eye on this one for beta testing!

Only thing i'd suggest is taking a look at the Daz camera depth of field controls - everything is very sharp in your renders but if you want a more natural look its better to have only part of the image in focus. You can take it to extreme for the "film like" experience.

 

[LongJohnnyWalker]

forgive my ignorance, but you've used the acronym "AW2" without defining it?

also good looking start, will keep an eye on this one for beta testing!

Only thing i'd suggest is taking a look at the Daz camera depth of field controls - everything is very sharp in your renders but if you want a more natural look its better to have only part of the image in focus. You can take it to extreme for the "film like" experience.

Thank you for taking a look, I hope to have the first playable version uploaded either today or tomorrow (still waiting for a bunch of renders to finish).

For the depth of field, I know about it, but I am honestly not a fan. It adds a ton of extra setup time, requires multiple extra steps and each time you correct a pose etc., you also have to go in and change the depth of field again.

1. Pose the camera frame
2. go out of camera mode and into perspective
3. change DoF planes in settings
4. go back into camera mode
5. test render
6. fix issues (like second character being out of focus in a wide shot
7. Go back into textured mode
8. save scene
9. realize I want a different pose
10. do it all over again

Since that it easy to forget, it will automatically lead to setting up a dozen renders, putting them into the render queue, then realizing after everything is done that the DOF plane was incorrect, and now I have to redo every single render of that series.

I agree that sometimes, it looks nice, but since it can throw such a big brick into an efficient workflow, I decided against it for this project. I literally set up 200 renders for this game before I even publish the first version, and not dealing with DOF was a big part of allowing me to work fast and not having to test every render so much.

I might go in and redo some of the close-up renders to add DoF later on, but for the first release and the majority of the renders, I do not want to deal with that. This adds easily five minutes overall to every single render, which would be 1,000 minutes or 16 hours on the ones I already have.

Sorry for the long answer, just wanted to explain how I landed at this point Again, thanks for taking an interest, I hope to make the game thread today or tomorrow. Oh, and "AW2" was supposed to be Alan Wake 2, which my game takes a lot of inspiration from.

 

[osanaiko]

Thanks for the response.

You've clearly thought about it and made a creative decision so I'm not going to try to change your mind.

There are a couple of minor points I'd like to throw out there in case you are not aware (or anyone else reading this thread):

1. The focus plane controls are also available on the camera representation object in the 3d view, which can make it slightly easier to include in a workflow

2. Because the cameras in daz are virtual you can have f-stop or environmental lighting settings that would be batshit impossible in real world. You can also disappear walls and ceilings, or use the section plane + camera rig to get various effects that are physically impossible. So this means you can potentially come up with some creative and interesting camera setups, i.e. with a distant placement + wide view + large focused area, and still have distant objects nicely out of focus.

Good luck, and please keep us updated as you progress.

 

[LongJohnnyWalker]

Thanks for the response.

You've clearly thought about it and made a creative decision so I'm not going to try to change your mind.

There are a couple of minor points I'd like to throw out there in case you are not aware (or anyone else reading this thread):

1. The focus plane controls are also available on the camera representation object in the 3d view, which can make it slightly easier to include in a workflow

2. Because the cameras in daz are virtual you can have f-stop or environmental lighting settings that would be batshit impossible in real world. You can also disappear walls and ceilings, or use the section plane + camera rig to get various effects that are physically impossible. So this means you can potentially come up with some creative and interesting camera setups, i.e. with a distant placement + wide view + large focused area, and still have distant objects nicely out of focus.

Good luck, and please keep us updated as you progress.

What is this, a constructive discussion on the internet
I will take a look once the game releases and go through the renders to see if I can make some of the close-up shots with DoF at least

I just committed the last 30 renders to my queue, assuming they get done today I'll upload the version sometime tonight. 200 renders, 15k words of dialog, and the voice files make it sound really nice in my opinion

Here's to a hopefully cozy first release