Ren'Py Completed Rising Bliss [v1.0.2] [Studio Mystic]

[chipsiup]

I feel like the biggest thing holding you back isn't Honey Select or having the NTR tag, but the fact that you made a kinetic novel.

There's devs out there who succeed using HS for the art. Pale Carnations has both NTR and uses HS graphics and they have close to a thousand patrons. Eternum has HS graphics (no NTR) and is at over 5k patrons.

Kinetic novels though are basically just stories with some pictures, the lack of meaningful choices means it's not really a "game". There isn't any game play to engage the players, there's no feeling that your choices have impact on the story or characters.

 

[Tyrranus]

I feel the same, but honey select is really holding me back. I need to move onto Daz so I can become a proper game developer. I believe I can offer superior experiences with this software and will be able to sell my game once I finish production. Proper financial support is going to be a priority going forward. I've spent hundreds, if not thousands of hours on RB already and obviously want to be compensated fairly for my talent, of course.

I gotta say I think chipsiup nailed it

 

[Studio Mystic]

The problem with sandbox is just how difficult it is to implement certain features. It's time consuming and isn't something a solo dev with limited coding experience can realistically take on. I'm much better at creative writing and character design, so I should probably play to my strengths for the time being.

 

[barglenarglezous]

Kinetic novels though are basically just stories with some pictures, the lack of meaningful choices means it's not really a "game". There isn't any game play to engage the players, there's no feeling that your choices have impact on the story or characters.

Kinetic Novels can be profitable, but they have to lean hard into their niche kink. White Russian has no meaningful choices yet, but is making a tidy amount -- it just leans hard into Breast/Ass Expansion and never really tries to be anything but that.

This game has shifted plans so many times that it discourages buying in. I'd be all for supporting the original pitch for this game, but by the time my cash flow allowed for it, that plan was abandoned.

 

[Tyrranus]

The problem with sandbox is just how difficult it is to implement certain features. It's time consuming and isn't something a solo dev with limited coding experience can realistically take on. I'm much better at creative writing and character design, so I should probably play to my strengths for the time being.

there is a middle ground between kinetic and full sandbox ya know you dont have to jump into the extreme end just provide some choices and go with that.

 

[Studio Mystic]

there is a middle ground between kinetic and full sandbox ya know

Right, lol. This is probably the best route. I don't have a ton of experience with this system though. What sort of choices are players looking for? I have branches that allow you to choose which woman you want to sleep with in RB, but I assume you mean something more complex?

 

[Knight2416]

The problem with sandbox is just how difficult it is to implement certain features. It's time consuming and isn't something a solo dev with limited coding experience can realistically take on. I'm much better at creative writing and character design, so I should probably play to my strengths for the time being.

Right, lol. This is probably the best route. I don't have a ton of experience with this system though. What sort of choices are players looking for? I have branches that allow you to choose which woman you want to sleep with in RB, but I assume you mean something more complex?

I think you should go with branches that either lead you to different women or maybe different roles, Slut, Slave, Girlfriend etc.
I still believe that was what killed The Tyrant. When SAZ modded it the OG code had to much repeated code and made it error easily.
I think you could do that sort of game with you skill level, you already have a path when you select between Escort parent and Sex Ed teacher.

 

[misfolk]

I feel like the biggest thing holding you back isn't Honey Select or having the NTR tag, but the fact that you made a kinetic novel.

There's devs out there who succeed using HS for the art. Pale Carnations has both NTR and uses HS graphics and they have close to a thousand patrons. Eternum has HS graphics (no NTR) and is at over 5k patrons.

Kinetic novels though are basically just stories with some pictures, the lack of meaningful choices means it's not really a "game". There isn't any game play to engage the players, there's no feeling that your choices have impact on the story or characters.

Eternum is a de-facto kinetic story as well, the only choices are "score a point to get closer to girl A or get nothing", with maybe a few choices that determine whether you stay on the golden harem path or not. A real choice is the one where you lose something either way.

That's why I am fine with RB's level of interactivity, even though I wouldn't mind saying no to one of the girls.

 

[Tyrranus]

Right, lol. This is probably the best route. I don't have a ton of experience with this system though. What sort of choices are players looking for? I have branches that allow you to choose which woman you want to sleep with in RB, but I assume you mean something more complex?

more of those would be good, also letting us decide things like weather we want to tell yumi to fuck herself with a cactus or work with her. Like I was kinda bummed Emma was a throw away character and then later we end up screwing the idol, Id have personally ignored her as her personality and body style are turnoffs and I probably would have approached emma before she became a toilet.
You can even work around choices that *seem* to go in opposite directions like working with yumi or not by getting creative with your narrative to end up in basically the same spot. For example again with yumi instead of working with her and ending up in narrative place X, you could instead have the protag do something else which ends him up in roughly the same place.

Just moderate the amount of 'big' choices since each one of those will add exponentially to the work youll havce to do. For something like rising bliss Id say pick like 3 "main" love interests for the protag to chase(even if its a harem game). You can include a bunch more minor choices that have minimal effect on the overall plot like 'do I fuck miki or ema in the toilet' and just have the game remember that choice if it needs to be referenced later since it would have almost no impact on the plot other than maybe 2 lines of text.

This will allow you to branch out a bit and get used to multiple paths and tracking variables w/o burying you in it all.

 

[Tyrranus]

oh and theres also 'Illusion of Choice' which, if used very sparingly, can be helpful to make players feel like they have agency. Used to much and its annoying as fuck.

Ex
there are 3 events that will happen no matter what but it doesnt matter which order they happen in so you allow the player to choose the order.

This is, imo, also best obfuscated by placing other narrative events between the illusionary choices... like say choose an option on day 1....then the rest of the day progresses, choose another option on the second day and that day progresses.

 

[Antoon]

Tbh, there's very light amounts of NTR in the game so far. The final update is where all the swinging will take place when the students completely lose control of their libido.


Nice, that's what i'm expecting. So good job establishing that kind of atmosphere so far, i guess. And thanks for the reply.

 

[chipsiup]

Right, lol. This is probably the best route. I don't have a ton of experience with this system though. What sort of choices are players looking for? I have branches that allow you to choose which woman you want to sleep with in RB, but I assume you mean something more complex?

Choices that help the player get attached to the character, and choices that feel meaningful. You don't need them to actually be leading into complex branches, they can just give the illusion of it as long as it's done right.

The easiest ones are small dialogue choices, every once in a while let the players pick what the MC says, and have the other characters react accordingly. This doesn't change anything with the story at all outside of that immediate reaction but giving player agency is a GOOD thing.

Then you can have choices that lead to different scenes. Again, these don't have to impact the overall story to make it too complex, but you just want the players to feel like their choices actually matter. One way of doing it would be to delay the impact of the choice till later. Ie. You're at a sex shop, you get to pick whether to buy a butt plug or handcuffs. This leads to a different kinky scene two days later with a girl. When that scene happens later the player is thinking "oh I wonder if this would be different if I didn't buy this toy earlier in the game, I wonder how else my decisions impact what happens."

The hardest ones are choices that lead to big dramatic differences, and you generally don't want too many of those since they will make your game too complex. Having just one would mean you have two different routes to write, having two means you're dealing with four, etc. They're also easier to add in towards the end of the game.

One type of big choices that's not too hard to add would be to allow players to just REJECT characters forever. Girl A confesses to the MC, the player has the option to date her or turn her down. If the player turns her down, then just don't put anything else. The game continues, but in this save file the MC doesn't interact with this character anymore, and during the updates where you're adding more scenes to the game for Girl A, the players who made that choice just don't have new content. Don't be afraid to let players opt out of things they're not interested in.

 

[Penitensary]

Agreed. It doesn't need to be branch upon branch upon branch and now you're approached by this girl in Chapter 4 because in Chapter 1 you decided to tie your left shoelace first. They can be small things too, like having the option to vote on Rin and Yumi's contest. You can vote on Rin or Yumi to let them win, or you can not vote and their competition ends in a draw as normal. Either way, the player feels like their choice from a day ago mattered. And that gets them wondering what other choices they made are having an effect on a following day.

Likewise, i picked Stella in Chapter 4, mostly to see if it would have consequences later on with Katsuo -- trying to make him lose his cool enough to get kicked out of the Committee or something since he's already on a warning from Yuki.

Also, there's already a bunch of choices in the game, in the form of the current Bad Ends. Right now it's just a small scene and a Game Over, but a number of them could just as easily rejoin the main storyline and you'd still have made a choice.

 

[Tyrranus]

The easiest ones are small dialogue choices, every once in a while let the players pick what the MC says, and have the other characters react accordingly. This doesn't change anything with the story at all outside of that immediate reaction but giving player agency is a GOOD thing.

Then you can have choices that lead to different scenes. Again, these don't have to impact the overall story to make it too complex, but you just want the players to feel like their choices actually matter. One way of doing it would be to delay the impact of the choice till later. Ie. You're at a sex shop, you get to pick whether to buy a butt plug or handcuffs. This leads to a different kinky scene two days later with a girl. When that scene happens later the player is thinking "oh I wonder if this would be different if I didn't buy this toy earlier in the game, I wonder how else my decisions impact what happens."

excellent points

edit:
ok this inverse color thing for april fools needs to die

 

[estrada777]

Updated Android port. Nothing too fancy but let me know if you have any issues.

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I updated my android port!

 

[arkhamtheknight]

The Yuuna scenes aren't showing when she's talking. It just shows a black screen.

 

[Tyrranus]

The Yuuna scenes aren't showing when she's talking. It just shows a black screen.

seems you might have a corrupted d/l I see those scenes

 

[BillyPlums]

OK, I just found this yesterday. I gotta say that I was a bit leary about playing it, as I am not a big fan of a lot of the dreaded 3 letter tag, but I read all the comments (yes, ALL the comments) and decided to give it a go. Since I knew who the safe ladies were, I wasn't too upset when others were carried off

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and was happy to find that there wasn't any of the three letter tag that I don't like.
To the dev: Awesome story so far. I'm not the most critical player, and my suspension of disbelief is real high, but I really liked the plot. I don't need perfect rendering, but I liked them too.
Since I did read all the comments, I need to shout out praise for qazad for finding a solution for the screen cut in half problem. After downloading, and starting the game, I had the problem, followed his instructions and everything went smoothly after that.
I don't usually make suggestions for the dev because I'm not that creative, but it seems to me that the spread of the infection might go better if the president gives the go-ahead to deploy the (colourless) additive, and waits a couple of days before making the announcement. then, when making the announcement, he can have a benign pink additive placed in the reservoirs. That gives a coouple of days lead-inwhere everyone drinks the tainted water unknowingly. Just a thought though.
On another topic completely, can anyone tell me how to blur the text, rather than using the spoiler tag?

 

[Studio Mystic]

I don't usually make suggestions for the dev because I'm not that creative, but it seems to me that the spread of the infection might go better if the president gives the go-ahead to deploy the (colourless) additive, and waits a couple of days before making the announcement. then, when making the announcement, he can have a benign pink additive placed in the reservoirs. That gives a coouple of days lead-inwhere everyone drinks the tainted water unknowingly. Just a thought though.
On another topic completely, can anyone tell me how to blur the text, rather than using the spoiler tag?

The additive was actually put in the water after the prime minister gave the order. It's already affecting the population, it's just not that strong since it's diluted. It takes a few days for everyone to get horny. Hopefully my writing has conveyed this properly. There's this slow relaxation of morals. The girls in the toilet, however, are hit with a direct shot of aphrodisiac. Which is why they immediately begin acting out.

 

[Tyrranus]

whats up with the discord being nuked?