Our Red String: Chapter 2 (Alpha)
Added 2020-04-27 19:57:21 +0000 UTCIMPORTANT: As I explained in another post, the game has been reworked from the ground up, so you will need to start a new game. If you use save files from chapter 1 you will experience game-breaking bugs.
So here it is, finally...! This month's work has been incredibly intense and I've poured my soul into this! With the ongoing quarantine all I did was sit in front of the computer and work, no weekends or any of that nonsense! I feel spent right now, but I'm very proud with Chapter 2, and excited to begin working on Chapter 3 already...
With Breadloaf's help I finished reworking the sprite system, added a functioning gallery for the selfies the player will be sending and receiving through the game and added a more comprehensive calendar. I also added that budget menu to track the character's economy, it's not very useful so far but it will come in handy down the line. I also tweaked a couple things about the plot (you'll see some extra time had passed for the Van Dykes!).
We also have our first original soundtrack pieces! I've hired someone to compose music exclusive for ORS, something I'm super excited about. Good music can add a lot to the experience and bring the characters and themes to life. So far there's only 3 songs, one being the Main Theme for Our Red String (I can't believe it, my game has an official main theme) and the soundtrack will be a mix of stock music and OST tracks. I'd love to be able to commission a full OST for the game, but that's pretty expensive... If the game does well and with your help I'll invest more money into this.
For now, the money you're entrusting me with goes to commissioning new backgrounds (we have 16 plus variations already, and 4 more are being made for next month) and to colouring the drawings. I'm honestly so happy with how the game looks and feels...
About the writing, as I said, this Chapter 2 has as much content as GGGB v0.5 had in terms of writing. With around 17.500 lines of code only for the script and more than 80.000 words, it seems I've written in two months a story longer than the first Harry Potter book, and it's only Chapter 2...
As I said, this chapter is loaded with story, but you can also find the first 3 sex scenes. Pieces are still falling into place, things are being set up for the story to unwind... I have so many ideas I would want you guys to play right now, but it takes time to create them. I have to be patient with myself and I hope you can be too, but most importantly enjoy the game and the story!
As always, write down in the comments any bugs you might come across and let me know your thoughts and opinions, I really really value and enjoy reading them!
Comments
Yeah, I might have been a litte too harsh. But after talking to him about Axel in Chapter one it felt like the ideology is already partly in place. But there's still hope for Stan.
Dscheel
2020-04-30 09:00:24 +0000 UTCAnd two thoughts about the story. I liked that the characters couldn't really perform too well in the sex scenes. It's rare to see that in adult media but it made sense and was relateable. The guys in Lena's life definitely need to get their shit together. Stan is an incel, Axel is a cheating asshole, Robert is an abusive cunt and Ed doesn't know boundaries. I'm really sorry for Lena. At least she has some great female friends.
Dscheel
2020-04-29 08:58:16 +0000 UTCI don't know if it's a bug, but I found something odd. There is a choice to either go home and play the new guitar or to train pole dancing. I chose for Lena to pole dance. But the next morning the dialog with Stan was about him listening to Lena play guitar. Either I missed something or that was for the other route?
Dscheel
2020-04-29 08:54:53 +0000 UTCI'll be a possible Captain Obvious and say that I think that the characters interests are reflected by the author in this case. Unless there's a big coincidence that martial arts/MMA has a sizeable part of both ORS and GGGB. But I agree - it would be more realistic if their hobbies differed a bit more.
Breadloaf
2020-04-28 14:04:48 +0000 UTCLet me start a short review of the chapter being obnoxious about the League for the Return of the Bush thing: I wasn’t kidding. Until now Lena, Ivy, Alison and Cherry are all clean shaved, please let us have some girl that is not… In fact letting the player chose how Lena shaves would be, imho, a nice touch further down the line. Beyond that inexcusable sin I found the chapter really well rounded and enjoyable. The amount of content was incredible, the build-up and the context given to the characters I think really will pay off (maybe some instances were a bit verbose for my tastes, but that can be me) later on, the seeds planted with things like Lena’s brother or Louise’s boyfriend are promising, the appearance of Seymour was intriguing, and all in all the switch between the two MCs I think had a much better flow than in chapter one, which is fundamentally important. If anything my main complain could be that it appears is beginning to be a little overcrowding of “artsy” characters in the cast. Even Cherry ended up being a secret wannabe painter for Pete’s sake… you’ve got to admit that my idea of she being a cat burglar was much better, lol. In all seriousness tough, while is usual that people with the same interests group together I don’t think is strictly necessary that all the characters (well, not all, of course) write, sing, dance, paint or photograph in their spare time or as main occupation: there are many more jobs and hobbies in the world. Small nuisance in any case.
Cabot
2020-04-28 12:01:50 +0000 UTCYep, there’s (at least) another problem with the logic: Line 2253 of “chapter_2B” sets “v2_alison_home” to true if it wasn’t before, so the “if” in line 2284 is always true and everything between lines 2301 and 2378 is never played no matter what. So I think line 2253 should be deleted and “v2_alison_home” set to true after 2301.
Cabot
2020-04-28 11:07:56 +0000 UTCSorry for the long as comment, I really need to learn how to make them shorter :/
Koskesh
2020-04-28 09:28:18 +0000 UTCOverall, I enjoyed this update! It was nice to see the first few sex scenes, and how the characters and story are progressing further and further. As I wrote after v0.1, I love the setup for Lena. After this update, I love it even more. It’s so refreshing to see a female MC that doesn’t start out as a prude, that is confident in their own skin and not afraid to show or act on it. It opens up a lot of opportunities, especially in them becoming sluttier and more sexual, which is what I personally am looking forward to the most. I think Stalkfap is a brilliant idea, and it is something that I have thought about myself; that it would be very exciting to see premium content sites incorporated into adult games, where the character can upload all kinds of naughtiness. Naturally, this makes me even more eager to continue playing as Lena and discovering all the fun and naughty stuff she can get up to and show to the world. Ian’s was more fun to play in this update as well, when he could find himself in more intriguing situations with other characters. I still prefer to play Lena’s parts, but that might just be some sort of confirmation bias. Although, one thing that I would find interesting to explore for Ian (and I might be in the minority) is some “hotwifing” scenarios. I got the impression that Alison wasn’t too interested in a relationship, but maybe she would be if she could also have some fun elsewhere. Or maybe, if a sluttier Lena and Ian get together, it could be something to explore there as well. Personally, I have grown to enjoy that more and more, so it would be cool to see. Speaking of Lena and Ian, I do hope that we will get to define the terms of their relationship. I still feel a like they’re pushed together romantically, which is sometimes in conflict with what I want to do with each of them, and sometimes in contrast to choices I made. Maybe the idea is for them to spend time together and then decide where that leads, but I would be disappointed if they are forced into something romantic. But anyways, great job with the update! As I have said, I am a little worried about what the implications of two MC’s are for character development/possibilities, but I think my worries have been offset a little by where each character starts out. For example, that Lena doesn’t start as innocent as Ashley. And if you can find some interesting and varied opportunities for Ian (I obviously want to poke my own idea again here, but I might be alone in wanting to see that), then I am sure this will be one hell of a masterpiece. Either way, I am already excited for the next release :) On another note though, how do you extract the script? When I use UnRen I only get a bunch of random symbols, which did not happen for GGGB. Is there any other method that you can use to check the conditions to get certain scenes?
Koskesh
2020-04-28 09:27:45 +0000 UTCBug report: - In line 2684 of chapter_ 2 “$ v2_lena_stan_model_shirt == True” should be ““$ v2_lena_stan_model_shirt = True” (only one “=”) or the variable won’t be set to true. - In line 5166 “lena_wits” is checked two times. The second one should be her charisma. - In line 6255 and beyond Stan talks about Lena playing the guitar which, at that point, she wouldn’t have done if she went to gym the night before. - After line 1054 in chapter_2b “v2_alison1b” should be hidden or the sprites will be shown on top of it. - After line 1409 both Ian and Cherry are shown at “truecenter”. - Also there is problem with “ian_cherry_sex” that is causing an exception when using Cherry’s agenda but it’s bigger than that. The variable is defined and set to false in line 21 of chapter_2b as “v2_ian_cherry_sex”, but then set to true in line 2083 as “ian_cherry_sex” (which is also how is called in “agenda_bios”. You have to change it somewhere. I still have some runs to do, so I’ll post more if I find them :)
Cabot
2020-04-28 08:45:18 +0000 UTCcan't open Cherry's profile in agenda, is this a bug?
ccav0001
2020-04-28 06:58:31 +0000 UTCSo this was very enjoyable. There were a couple of grammatical errors, and the agenda for Cherry causes a rollback error, but otherwise a great entry. Loving where the story is going so far. It has so much potential to branch out into multiple paths. Eagerly anticipating the next entry.
John Mathis
2020-04-28 05:59:42 +0000 UTCJust a tip for those who want to remove all saves and start fresh: Click on the Windows Explorer Address Bar and type "%HOMEPATH%/AppData/Roaming/RenPy" without the quotation marks and delete the RedString folder there.
Breadloaf
2020-04-27 21:08:13 +0000 UTCGreat timing - posted just 3 minutes before Nook's Cranny closes for the day! A non-critical bug: the sub-menu for Gillian in the gallery doesn't seem to deactivate correctly when you back out from there. I managed to get to the budget screen from there somehow.
Breadloaf
2020-04-27 20:28:55 +0000 UTCYay, it's here. Can't wait for the download to finish.
Dscheel
2020-04-27 20:27:37 +0000 UTC
