Ren'Py The Journey - Developers blog

Nottravis

Sci-fi Smutress
Donor
Game Developer
Jun 3, 2017
5,132
27,261
Well that's maybe too grand a title for this really, but in my spare time I've been messing around putting together a game. It's not ready for release yet but to spark some interest and, if I'm honest to keep me motivated, I thought I'd set out the concept here and post little updates on work in progress as I go along to see if people were interested.

So what is it about?


Good question! It's a sci-fi based game for a start. The MC plays as an engineer posted to a deep space colony supply vessel, the Illustrious. Mankind has gone off and started his process of colonisation and, given how far everything is away from Earth, the Illustrious does a constant run between the colonies and science outposts ensuring all is well, topping up supplies, providing medical and scientific help and rotating staff.

The MC starts the game having been assigned to go help out a science outpost on the planet Sigma Five. The outpost has been reporting a variety of electrical failures of late which are seemingly beyond the capabilities of the ground staff to deal with. As Sigma Five is due a supply run anyway, you've been sent along to assess the situation and, if possible, carry out any necessary repairs.

Your journey..(aha! See what I did there!) ..to the planet is aboard one of Illustrious's transport shuttles crewed by three crew members. Flight Lieutenant Christine (Chris) Jackson; Flying Officer Sarah Halliday and Engineer Martina (Nina) Vasquez.

The game is a semi-open world Renpy based game in which you choose and influence what happens on the journey itself and, more importantly, what happens when you land.....

Content?

Romance! Adventure! Spanners! Danger!

The MC will have the option to try and follow romantic paths with those he meets (sorry it's male MC only. I tried gender options at first but it was a nightmare! Perhaps an option for later). However, some of them have their own romantic agenda's and entanglements already and I'm trying to build the game in such a way so that, whilst some of the characters you meet will be easy to conquer, others will be less so and may even interfere in your plans.

"Wait...like an Eric?!" Hell no. Not -like- an Eric. But if someone has caught someone else's eye don't expect to find things easy is all I'm saying. That's assuming you can keep them alive and safe in the first place. Assuming you even get to Sigma Five in one piece!

There is an element of peril in this game too. Both the MC and certain of the NPC's could well end up dead, or at least no longer available for you, depending upon what you as the player do. What will come first? The mission or a chance to fuck the character that has taken your fancy? And if the latter, I do hope you've ensured everything is safe and well first....

Tell me about the tags dammit rather than waffling on!

Oh right. Tags would be..um...

Sci-fi (naturally); 3dcg; big tits; cheating; creampie; exhibitionism; group sex; handjob humor; male protagonist; masturbation; multiple endings; oral sex; romance; teasing; vaginal sex; anal sex; bdsm; blackmail; corruption; domination (both ways if you're not careful!); milf; spanking; voyeurism; games; monsters...spanners?

Wait there's no incest!

*looks shifty* Um...there -might- be later but I haven't decided on that yet.

There's no NTR! *insert cheers or boos as you see fit*

Well no. But there might be competition for whoever your after. If that's NTR then it exists. If that isn't then it doesn't. Oh...well excluding bad consequences of your game play. Not my fault if the character you're in love with gets abducted by....Anyway! That's saying too much. I want to keep the game play as fresh as I can as it has a lot of plot twists etc built into it. People you meet may not be as the seem! And some of them certainly have their own agenda's.

Wait! There's no harem tag there either! What gives?

Well you could end up having sex with more than one girl. But the only real way that would happen would be if you chose the bad route as an MC. You see you can either play this game as the all round good hero who will, no doubt, sweep up the woman of his choice off her feet; save the outpost and return a decorated hero or you could play like a total bastard and shag them all. I mean the choice is there but....who would play like that?;)

I see Games in the tags. Do you mean mini-games?

Only optional ones as a rule. No mini-game will ever be required to be passed to progress. By games I mean things like strip poker etc.

What's the grind mechanics like?

There isn't any. You start with the stats you start with. Everything else is up to you.

So when is version 0.1 with five minutes gameplay?

There isn't one. And won't be either. The game will be released in complete chapters so you won't ever hit any loose dead ends. The plan is that each chapter would play like an episode of television which would then carry on into the next release. So expect a good couple of hours play each time (especially if you revisit choices etc)

As to the first part with luck and some leave from work, it should be out by the end of August.

Will there be a walk through?

Never. Nope. No. Non. At least not from me. It's a game and, let's be honest, it's only a glorified VN. Given there are no "be at location x with a cheese under your arm at 9am" to progress type situations, then there is simply no need for one. Just play the game and hopefully have fun.

Patreon?

Newp. Certainly not for part one at any rate. This is a hobby of mine and I'm doing this for fun. If there is demand then I might set up a tip jar purely to buy a better video card to speed up renders. The programming and writing I'm fine with (unless I try anything to complicated then I hit a roadblock for a bit until it's thrashed out) but the renders I'm restricted by what an nvidia 2gb can kick out. Given each chapter will take a lot of renders it will be that, more than anything, that would slow the release of further chapters. Remember I'm not releasing it as V.0.2.1a etc. Every release has to be complete else I don't let it out in the wild. Not that there's anything wrong with part releases. It's just not the way I want to do things.

Anyway, that's the summary. I'll keep you posted as progress is made. Do feel free to ask questions if you wish..or ignore this completely! :)

Oh! the crew of the transport shuttle. From left to right: Sarah, Chris and Nina.
 

Nottravis

Sci-fi Smutress
Donor
Game Developer
Jun 3, 2017
5,132
27,261
There are quite a few alien races planned that our characters don't have a clue about at the start. Both male and female (for plot reasons!).

But since you're probably more interested in the latter than the former :p... here's a sneak peak at -one- of them. Now whether you'll get to do the jiggy with her will depend on your choices of course....:) (snatch render for her as I didn't want to keep you waiting so bear with the lack of quality on this one!)


You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.
 

Catwashere

Futa lover!
Donor
Jan 28, 2018
2,207
2,384
There are quite a few alien races planned that our characters don't have a clue about at the start. Both male and female (for plot reasons!).

But since you're probably more interested in the latter than the former :p... here's a sneak peak at -one- of them. Now whether you'll get to do the jiggy with her will depend on your choices of course....:) (snatch render for her as I didn't want to keep you waiting so bear with the lack of quality on this one!)


You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.
I also like her, so far the game sounds like it should be fun.
It has one of my favorite fetishes Aliens my other favorites are futa, harem and anal.
I'm now interest more in the game seeing some aliens are gonna be in it.
Good luck with the game!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Nottravis

Gomly1980

Forum Fanatic
Jul 4, 2017
4,479
7,056
Not my fault if the character you're in love with gets abducted
Yes, yes it is ... it's entirely your fault, you put it in there.

You just don't want us to be happy, do you?

ADMIT IT.....
 
  • Like
Reactions: Nottravis

Nottravis

Sci-fi Smutress
Donor
Game Developer
Jun 3, 2017
5,132
27,261
Yes, yes it is ... it's entirely your fault, you put it in there.

You just don't want us to be happy, do you?

ADMIT IT.....
*laughs* I might be a tad of a sadist, true! But seriously? It should be reasonably well flagged so if one (or more..) of the seven girls who has caught your eye leaves the game then it will be down to the player. At least that's the hope! Let's put aside the fact that at least one of the NPC's actually wants the girls to....vanish.

I also like her, so far the game sounds like it should be fun.
It has one of my favorite fetishes Aliens my other favorites are futa, harem and anal.
I'm now interest more in the game seeing some aliens are gonna be in it.
Good luck with the game!
Thank you *curtsies*. I've no plans for futa (at least not for now, mainly as I can't jam it into -this- story) but the rest seem to be covered.:) Hope you find the time to give it a go when it comes out and that you enjoy your time in my little world if you do.
 

Nottravis

Sci-fi Smutress
Donor
Game Developer
Jun 3, 2017
5,132
27,261
One half of the station crew. Finally settled on a uniform when they're not in casual clothes. Again a rather snap render than in game quality which is more like in the spoiler tag.
You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

I was just excited to finally get the outfit sorted!:)



(from left to right: Mei, Saffy and Trisha)
 

Nottravis

Sci-fi Smutress
Donor
Game Developer
Jun 3, 2017
5,132
27,261
Eee, thou's not from Yorkshire is tha' Gomly? ;)

And who? Chris? Nice taste although one of the harder girls to get.....Mainly as she already has her eye on Sarah *wiggles eyebrows*

Edit: Ah..not Yorkshire! I'd best make up for that faux-pas then!
You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Catwashere

Gomly1980

Forum Fanatic
Jul 4, 2017
4,479
7,056
Close, Lancashire. Born in Liverpool lived in Burnley.

Be typical i'd set my sights in the one chasing another woman.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Nottravis

Nottravis

Sci-fi Smutress
Donor
Game Developer
Jun 3, 2017
5,132
27,261
Gotcha. Ex-Hull lass here.

*laughs* Aye, sounds like my luck! But Chris is attainable - and by three different routes too.

One is a one-off, through an event if the player handles it right which is a very "no harm no foul, let's never speak of this again" sort of thing. Another is a potential multiple event if the player goes down the "Bastard" route and the final one, although -very- hard to get, is the actual romance route. But she is, I'm afraid, the hardest one to bag out of the seven. But I have every faith in you! :)
 

Nottravis

Sci-fi Smutress
Donor
Game Developer
Jun 3, 2017
5,132
27,261
Drat...you found the way! (is now very tempted to put that in as an Easter Egg!)
 

Nottravis

Sci-fi Smutress
Donor
Game Developer
Jun 3, 2017
5,132
27,261
Opening screen with the ever delightful Sarah (once past the tutorial)



I want to keep the screen fairly uncluttered but would welcome any thoughts of course.
 

Catwashere

Futa lover!
Donor
Jan 28, 2018
2,207
2,384
I'll say this if you use the girls you are showing then you are awesome!
The only other thing is a good story!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Nottravis

Nottravis

Sci-fi Smutress
Donor
Game Developer
Jun 3, 2017
5,132
27,261
Thank you!

And yes, these are the girls I'm using. There are a few other minor characters plus a couple of majors that I haven't shown yet but the ones I've shown are the main ones the MC will spend their time with - if they choose to of course. I still need to do various minor tweaks (getting the engineers clothes to hang more naturally for a start) but it's all starting to come together nicely.

Storywise, I've got the main story written out; broken it down into the eight episode arcs, and have started to write minor side events to the first ones to give the MC some optional things they can do that, although they don't impact on the main storyline, just add a few bonus elements and variety.

I've also decided to take the tutorial element completely out of the main game and have as a standalone piece. That way it doesn't clutter the immersion and can be skipped more easily. At the same time I'm having fun making the tutorial itself quite fun for those that decide to play it (and I recommend players do - although can understand if people don't).

Finally, I've started experimenting with some small animations too. Not too sure about this element though if I'm honest. I might put them to one side and add back in later as a bonus type thing later once my skills are better.

Also...Space Vampires!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Catwashere