Ren'Py Completed Sanguine Rose [v4.1] [DuskyHallows]

[zazzaro]

So I've finally played 2.0.0 and I've got to say, the new art seems off compared to the old one. Like it seems less defined, and kind of weird. I really enjoyed the writing though.

 

[zazzaro]

Ao I've played every route and I've got to say: Carmen is either the most convincing of allies or the craziest of psychos. Love her.

 

[zhagzhuga]

I didn't think much of this when I saw the newgrounds release of chapter/day 1 or the tavern scene with crow, but the complete CYOA package is incredible. These are choices that actually feel meaningful and change the personalities/actions of the other characters.

 

[Dusky Hallows]

So I've finally played 2.0.0 and I've got to say, the new art seems off compared to the old one. Like it seems less defined, and kind of weird. I really enjoyed the writing though.

Duski has been slightly tweaking her process for some of the day 2 scenes so that she can work faster. We're always going for high quality, but we're prioritising how much rendering goes into each artwork so that we can keep a better schedule. Which artwork stood out the most?

Ao I've played every route and I've got to say: Carmen is either the most convincing of allies or the craziest of psychos. Love her.

I didn't think much of this when I saw the newgrounds release of chapter/day 1 or the tavern scene with crow, but the complete CYOA package is incredible. These are choices that actually feel meaningful and change the personalities/actions of the other characters.

Thanks for giving us a second try! Any particular routes you enjoyed most, or things you'd like to see going forwards?

 

[zazzaro]

Duski has been slightly tweaking her process for some of the day 2 scenes so that she can work faster. We're always going for high quality, but we're prioritising how much rendering goes into each artwork so that we can keep a better schedule. Which artwork stood out the most?

Geisha's hot tub scene and, from 1.0, Carmen's night scene are not well defined. Another couple of things I noticed is that Crow gets greener during her queening scene and generally day 2 artwork seems to have heavier lines.

 

[zhagzhuga]

Thanks for giving us a second try! Any particular routes you enjoyed most, or things you'd like to see going forwards?

It wasn't one route in particular as much as all of them existing at once. I'd love to see some distinct (not Mass Effect 3 like) endings. At the end of Day 2, I felt like I had played through scenarios where Roman had broken through Carmen's grasp, where Roman was wary but not in control, where Carmen had Crow wrapped around her finger against Roman, where Carmen basically has Roman under her sway, etc. It also felt like depending on the choices, Carmen's actual grasp of the situation changed. There was one scenario where she seemed to read Roman, his team, and his employer like a book but others where Roman managed to be closed off enough to hide his motivations.

It would be cool (if you have time) to see a lot of routes reflecting the complexity of Day 2, like different "Carmen turns the team" routes depending on how far she got to Crow, Roman, and even Markus. For example, if Carmen's army catpures them and Crow is gone but Roman keeps the rest of the team together, then Carmen and Crow could have a happy ending together with the Queen (is she still in?) while the rest of them basically die, become slaves, etc. Or if Carmen has Roman wrapped around her finger, the whole team voluntarily joins the Sanguine Rose. Another variation could be one where Roman keeps Crow's head straight (at the cabin) and then the team lives as slaves rather than equals.

 

[Dusky Hallows]

Before I get into replying, I just want to say that we've released a public version of 1.3.0 on Android:

You must be registered to see the links

Geisha's hot tub scene and, from 1.0, Carmen's night scene are not well defined. Another couple of things I noticed is that Crow gets greener during her queening scene and generally day 2 artwork seems to have heavier lines.

I'll forward these to Duski. I think you're right about Crow getting greener, that shouldn't be a difficult fix, the rest is up to whether Duski has time between finishing the scenes we're currently working on and starting on the endings.

It wasn't one route in particular as much as all of them existing at once. I'd love to see some distinct (not Mass Effect 3 like) endings. At the end of Day 2, I felt like I had played through scenarios where Roman had broken through Carmen's grasp, where Roman was wary but not in control, where Carmen had Crow wrapped around her finger against Roman, where Carmen basically has Roman under her sway, etc. It also felt like depending on the choices, Carmen's actual grasp of the situation changed. There was one scenario where she seemed to read Roman, his team, and his employer like a book but others where Roman managed to be closed off enough to hide his motivations.

It would be cool (if you have time) to see a lot of routes reflecting the complexity of Day 2, like different "Carmen turns the team" routes depending on how far she got to Crow, Roman, and even Markus. For example, if Carmen's army catpures them and Crow is gone but Roman keeps the rest of the team together, then Carmen and Crow could have a happy ending together with the Queen (is she still in?) while the rest of them basically die, become slaves, etc. Or if Carmen has Roman wrapped around her finger, the whole team voluntarily joins the Sanguine Rose. Another variation could be one where Roman keeps Crow's head straight (at the cabin) and then the team lives as slaves rather than equals.

You're pretty close to the mark on some of our planned endings (I won't say exactly which because spoilers). There is going to be some overlap in endings, where two different routes ultimately end up the same or very similar, but most of our planned endings are very distinct from each other and won't really involve any decision making on the part of the player. At the end of Day 2, most of the routes are more or less done, and all that's left is to see where they each lead (with a few exceptions). I think a few of our planned choices will be a little controversial, but we're definitely not going to pull a Mass Effect 3 haha, and I feel like if you've enjoyed everything so far, then you should enjoy what we have planned for the finale.

 

[zazzaro]

@Dusky Hallows I've just checked the screenshots in the OP and art for Carmen's night scene is well defined there, so maybe there is an issue with my build?

 

[Dusky Hallows]

@Dusky Hallows I've just checked the screenshots in the OP and art for Carmen's night scene is well defined there, so maybe there is an issue with my build?

Are you sure? I don't think the OP has any artwork from the night scene. There's some art of Carmen sat on Roman but that's from when Carmen is telling Roman stories, not the night scene.

 

[zazzaro]

Are you sure? I don't think the OP has any artwork from the night scene. There's some art of Carmen sat on Roman but that's from when Carmen is telling Roman stories, not the night scene.

You are right, bad memory.

 

[FroKe88]

Some preview-pictures:

 

[T51bwinterized]

It's a common misconception :coldsweat: From what we've seen and heard of Carmen, she's definitely a skilled fighter, but in a fair fight I'd wager Markus, Roman, or Glasha could take her. The problem is that Carmen will never fight fair. She catches people when their guard is lowered, uses their own strength against them, and generally keeps her opponents reacting. This works well for her because the mercenaries are under orders not to harm Carmen.

As for the hypnosis, she's just very persuasive. She's good at reading people and working out what they actually want, and then finding a way to give them a taste of that. We see this in Crow's Shift when Crow initially despises Carmen, but a few hours later is corrupted.



Ouch haha. That's a fair criticism. I think any work of fiction has characters which are as strong as they need to be, whether that's physical strength or any other kind of strength. Establishing a plausible reason for that strength is secondary. In Carmen's case, it's because she's spent the majority of her life training amongst soldiers, learning from seasoned warriors, and studying the battles of past generals. Even before she joined the Sanguine Rose militia, she was a deceptive child. I think if we had more time and resources, I'd want to show more of Carmen's early life, so that her skills are better established. But in a porn game, making more porn scenes is usually what the people want.

Or you can include some actual hypnosis. Just saying~

P.S. Sup Bruh

 

[Dusky Hallows]

Or you can include some actual hypnosis. Just saying~

P.S. Sup Bruh

Just for you T51, I'm gonna make sure our next project has some hypnosis (or RP hypnosis) in it x'D

 

[T51bwinterized]

:evilsmile:

 

[keklel1]

I sure hope there is a branch in the sub plot where you get to be Carmens plaything and not Crows, i have to say i like her more^^ awesome game anyway Dusky, really nice art style and meaningful decisions!

 

[Dusky Hallows]

I sure hope there is a branch in the sub plot where you get to be Carmens plaything and not Crows, i have to say i like her more^^ awesome game anyway Dusky, really nice art style and meaningful decisions!

No scenes currently planned, but we're going to include something along these lines for one of the epilogues :evilsmile: We figure if Carmen is going to fully dominate Roman, it should be somewhere where she has more toys.

Speaking of toys, Duski sketched a picture of Roman wearing a collar for our Discord recently... That might be foreshadowing for one of the ends.

 

[Gomly1980]

Now i'm torn.

I wanted the happily ever after with Roman and Crow but those 3 together are great.

 

[Dusky Hallows]

Solution is simple. Crow and Roman get a happily ever after with Carmen as their occasional Dom.

 

[zazzaro]

No scenes currently planned, but we're going to include something along these lines for one of the epilogues :evilsmile: We figure if Carmen is going to fully dominate Roman, it should be somewhere where she has more toys.

Speaking of toys, Duski sketched a picture of Roman wearing a collar for our Discord recently... That might be foreshadowing for one of the ends.

And that could have used a spoiler tag.

 

[Gomly1980]

Solution is simple. Crow and Roman get a happily ever after with Carmen as their occasional Dom.

This is why you're the boss.

That would work.