Our Red String Remastered (Alpha)
Added 2022-04-08 18:38:13 +0000 UTCEDIT: I crudely patched the Will problem. It's not stable but it should award you Will points, opening up branches that were not accessible due to the bug. I will have the programmer look at it for the Beta so everything works as intended!
It's been such a long wait, but the Remastered edition of the first 9 chapters of ORS is finally here.
I will keep this post short, since I've already been keeping you updated with what's been going on, the burnout, the redesigns, and all that jazz. I'll write a bit more about my feelings about this overhaul of the game when the Beta releases, but for now I just want you to experience it. After working so intensively and for such a long time, it's hard for me to get perspective on the finished product. I still feel so many things could've been improved, and I would've liked to be much more thorough, but I feel like the overall presentation and structure of the game has been improved in the right ways.
Some aspects are still a bit rough around the edges, like the Agenda, and I have in mind a few things I still want to add or improve, but first I want to hear about your feelings and opinions about this new release. I hope the long wait was worth it, even though I know this is not as exciting as a new chapter, but hopefully we'll get to that soon.
Also I want to thank Lara, BloodyMares and TheDarkFable for their help and support with the technical issues, revisions, and improvements to my workflow. The project has gotten so big it would be impossible for me to do it on my own!
I'm spent, but thankfully the game is in your hands now. Please be sure to speak your mind down in the comments and in our Discord server, and notify any bugs you might come across! I hope they're not too many!
Enjoy!
Comments
Just played a little more and I really love it. Just some more highlights (SPOILERS AHEAD): - The way we can now decide between Holly and Allison in the beginning feels more fair. A horny guy easier breaks his word and goes with Allison. A nice, lovable guy keeps his word and goes with Holly. - Love the twist that Ian knows Lena but she does not recognize him. Had the same: A girl that's smile ment the daily sunshine to me did not remember us seeing a year ago. I could even remember her hairstyle then. - The Allison-song with Jeremy: I like that you added a small nerdy background to her. Fits her and makes her even more adorable and her longing and enjoying of being wanted more realistic. - Perry and Emma banging at the bar - always liked that song, too :D . - I was not sure if those blurry backgrounds would look nice or just "unsharp". But seeing them in action, with the transition making it feel like Ian really focusing on Lena, it is really a great effect! - As with the blurry backgrounds, I really begin liking the new Stan. I don't feel like you took important parts of him, but you really enhanced him well beyond I could have imagined. Loved the seducing foto-shoot :) . I still don't like the wig - the old Stan's hair looked more perfect for me, but, instead of someone else, I can life with the fact that you don't do *everything* to my personal, exact liking in the game ;) . I just realize how long it has been since I really took the time and read all the not path-depending lines of text. The enhancement is a good occasion to play the game as if it was new :) . I even thought, you had changed some more parts, but they were already there in the old version, shame on me *g*. Oh, and two small bugs: - Lena Day 1, morning with Stan - Computer worker: Lena "Or I could even use a laptop..." Stan: "Yeam, um, IT DOES..." Better: "[...]I could..." - Ch3: Gym with Wen: At the end of the demo-fight, Ian falls, a sound of an archievement plays (power?) But there is no sign for it shown. Text afterwards: "Wen helped me up". It works fine when Ian finally tries it on Wen, so maybe, the sound is an error on the first pass.
Dennis
2022-04-11 22:03:00 +0000 UTCThe music improvement is just fantastic. Huge fan
N9
2022-04-10 04:55:01 +0000 UTCDelete everything from the game's appdata folder. This is the file path: C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\RenPy\RedString
Tarmogo
2022-04-09 21:38:16 +0000 UTCDoes anybody know which file to delete in order to erase the gallery? It never presented all of my already visited scenes from the beginning and I want to start completely new with this remaster now (no old saves, no gallery, ...).
Dennis
2022-04-09 12:23:34 +0000 UTCJust some small bugs from the intro-part: - In the newly painted Lena-scene, she wears a black choker - the standing-up sprite of her does not. - The explaining text (tutorial) about the attributes money and will is unclear. In one sentence, you use "attributes" and in the following "skill points": - “[…]attributes […] These can’t be levelled up and skill points are instead used to …” I know that this is the same, but not everybody would get it. Maybe, just add "These SKILLPOINTS can't be ..." or maybe even only use "attributes" OR "skill points" in these two sentences. About the menu - no real bugs, but some suggestions: - There is no way to differentiate between the versions once started. Maybe you want to add a chapter-mark in the title-screen or the prefs-menu. - The main-gallery is not deleted - maybe you could add an option for this. Many of us might to restart the game completely due to the changes. It would be nice to also reset the gallery for this. - In the prefs, the selected options are grayed out and the unselected are in bright white. This is contra-intuitive - maybe you could exchange the two appearances. Is it the work of a former chance in the save-screen, or are the existing saves (again) randomly rearranged over the save-pages? I now have gaps in between them and some former saves are on higher pages now than the later saves. I had this from the moment you readjusted the saves-per-side-count, but now it feels as if it got even worse. But maybe it just seems so. Will delete them all anyways.
Dennis
2022-04-09 12:19:42 +0000 UTCIt's a remaster version not a remake.
Ynz
2022-04-09 01:37:31 +0000 UTCI cheated 10 will points at the beginning using console commands and still the scene of Ian meetimg seymor at work did not trigger, nor minerva scenes.
BumbleHumble
2022-04-08 22:45:52 +0000 UTCHaven't played most of the game so far, so no comment yet on most of the changes. I jumped ahead (using an old save and looking at the game files) to see if there would be any difference in one event and i'm a bit bummed out to see that there hasn't been. Though it's a crucial story moment, so maybe it was never up for debate. Anyway, it's the moment Lena and Ian have 'the talk'. I find the conditions to get them 'properly' together too restrictive. I wish there would be an option, somehow, for Lena to not air all her dirty laundry and try to be with Ian if she likes him regardless of previous choices with other characters. This seems like an especially believable course in view of the fact that even if you do get them together in a non-open relationship, the player can breezily have Lena breach those boundaries pretty much immediately with Axel and Seymour. And will presumably continue be able to do so even more in the future (hopefully!). It is imo inconsistent that the player can choose those options, yet not have any direct choice at all when it comes to getting them together. It feels like control is being taken out of the player's hands, and it's not even thematically or logically consistent in the fashion that it does this. It's a real shame, because it rules out a game path that would feel very natural to the 'bad girl' Lena arc (and more specifically to my interests a good girl with naughty secrets arc).
B
2022-04-08 22:03:01 +0000 UTCI don't know if its bug or intentional, but I did not get chance to hand seymor Ians work. Also missed Minerva despite doing exact same choices as my playthrough before the rework.
BumbleHumble
2022-04-08 20:56:52 +0000 UTCOh my, you poor boy :) ! You will never have had the feeling of a bus going that much too slow and stopping at too many stops :D .
Dennis
2022-04-08 20:47:21 +0000 UTCI Did not get far into the game, but I already love it! Just some quick thoughts about what I liked (SPOILERS ahead!) . A bug-report will come separately. I liked the old intro and will be missing it. It was quite good and even more so: different from the other games out there. It was all about the mind, thoughts, charm, no jumpstart with sex or something stupid. But after seeing the new intro, I get what you might wanted to make different. It really was to me like the coffee-house-scene felt for Ian: It was slowly building up and did not look as something big at first. You would see Lena, but only gradually realise the beauty (body, mind and character) she is. It was starting from a crappy book to a promising but tame talk. And it would not transport the unlucky love-background of Ian and Lena. You would only discover that further up in the game. Seeing the new intro, you made a big leap forward. I could instantly sympathize with Ian in the first 5 lines of his and then, bam, Lena get’s right in your face. She is beautiful, she is all there with her inner thoughts, her vulnerability, her beauty - but she still is no vamp, she is not offering herself to Ian. You really caught this aura of allowed indiscretion between total strangers so good. And then she vanishes and you kind of hate her friend even more than before – even without seeing him. I kinda disapproved of him before for getting her into a state of disappointment, but a guy that sees his girlfriend cry and does not even get out of his car but whips her with his horn, not even once, but twice, can’t be a good guy at all. Ok, maybe she did something cruel to him before, but that is not in the scene, not up to discussion right now. You put so much emotion in this scene and still managed to leave it sexually quite tame, not offering too much “cheap flesh” by resisting the marketing-approach of capturing the audience with an early sex scene (at least in the path I played). *I could not think of a better opening scene, but you surely created it!* That’s what’s most important to me – the story. But visually, you also did great! I really love to see Lena and Ian sitting on the floor instead of only having standing sprites. It adds so much to the atmosphere. And the new backgrounds are really beautiful – the Blazers is vibrant, the backstreet is quite cool but still a little intimate and nicely lit. Last, but not least, I really appreciate the other small things that you did: A loading bar for the boot-up-screen, the quick stats, the possibility for cheat mode or the easy-mode with a stats-boost are the technical aspects that add to this. I have to play the rest, too, but even this intro caught my heart. You really did very well and how did the XCOM-guy say: “Commander, you really exceeded our expectations!” I knew we would get some better looking art, but the twist you used for the intro really knocked me of my feet!
Dennis
2022-04-08 20:44:09 +0000 UTCNow only one hour bus ride home and I'll be playin' 😁
Brother Bethor
2022-04-08 20:34:06 +0000 UTCThanks for not spoiling :) . And still making me excited :D . Can't wait.
Dennis
2022-04-08 19:39:36 +0000 UTCWow... what an upgrade. I'm not going to spoil anything here, but it's like the first time all over again.
Dseaver
2022-04-08 19:03:21 +0000 UTCWoo and hoo!
Savamutt
2022-04-08 18:40:45 +0000 UTC
