You must be 18+ to visit this website
The content on this website is AGE RESTRICTED
Please confirm you are at least 18 years old of age. Otherwise leave the website.
NaughtyRoad profile
NaughtyRoad
18+
NaughtyRoad
Hi, this is Naughty Road and I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing. With that out of the way, what I'd love to be doing is creating good adult entertainment, currently I'm working on Light of my Life, a visual novel about loss and love.
Subscribe
Message

Subscription Tiers

$1
USD monthly
Buddy

Thanks. Your contribution goes to help make the current project a reality. You'll also get access to progress updates. You'll be able to access the latest version of the game with the rest of the world when it's released for free to the public.

184 subscribers Buddy (subscribestar)
Unlock
$5
USD monthly
(Girl)friend

Really? You're the best! You'll get access to polls and sneak peeks, and the occasional fun bonus render.

75 subscribers (Girl)friend (subscribestar)
Unlock
$10
USD monthly
Cat lover

Why not a cat lover tier? We already have a kitty pics channel at discord. What do you get? Exactly the same as the (girl) friend tier, but you pay extra. :)

By special request, this is to fill the gap between the $5 and $20 tiers.

18 subscribers Cat lover (subscribestar)
Unlock
$20
USD monthly
Ma'am/Sir

My deepest gratitude for your exceptional generosity, the opportunity to participate in the beta if you so desire (and are an existing supporter at any tier when the beta starts), and the occasional naughty bonus render on the side. 

25 subscribers Sir/Ma'am (subscribestar)
Unlock

Welcome

  • Nearly five years ago, the death of your wife left you in charge of your two young wards. You tried to be the best caregiver you could, but all three of you were scarred and hurt by the sudden loss of the light in your lives. Now your wards have become grown-up adults, and the grief you share has pushed you apart. Will you be able to overcome the barriers of your own making and help your wards rekindle the light in their hearts?
  • Light of my Life is a visual novel, with emphasis on story and character development, supported by visuals created with care and attention, using unique character models and customized locations.
  • Interact with your wards Macy and Denise (names and modes of address can be changed in game) and many other characters as you try to get your life in order and make a better future for yourself and your loved ones.

Displaying posts with tag WallOfText.Reset Filter
NaughtyRoad
Public post

Chapter 9 out, what's next?


With the release of chapter 9 now squared away, it's time to quickly glance back, and then look forward. 

Looking back.
Overall people seem quite happy with this shorter format and tighter focus, and that's good, because I'm quite happy with it too. It is a lot less hassle to create, because there fewer moving parts involved, both story wise and coding. The release itself went surprisingly smooth too, so much so that it left me with time to spare to do a wallpaper, which would be unheard of during one of the big chapter releases or yore. So overall, a good experience, although I think there's a few quibbles that could be raised. Let's do an informal post mortem real quick, without over-analyzing too much, before moving on.
  • A short chapter is very hit or miss. A big release has a bit of everything for everyone, but with a small release, if you don't like the one dish on the menu today (either because of the person or the activity involved) you're shucks out of luck, and I've had a few people tell me so. On the other hand, tomorrow comes by quick with short releases, so that's also quickly forgotten. I think this balances out in the end.

  • It was very light on actual story development, which I guess made it feel even shorter than the effort put in warrants. That is not to say padding it for the sake of padding is a good thing. In this particular case it made sense to stop there and not add a bit of unrelated storyline that would have it end on a strange note. Since that part will obviously be picked up in the next chapter, it should balance out too.

  • More of a general observation than something particular to chapter 9, but there is less room for subtle story development within a single chapter in this format. But while that could have been a valid argument earlier on in the development of Light of my Life, it's not at this stage of the story, which is mainly about eating the cake we're already having.

If you have other quibbles, I'd love to hear them in the comments, but for now, let's turn around and...

Look ahead.
I've been spending a bit of time the last couple of weeks to read through all the little story notes and random fragments of dialog and ideas I've jotted down over the years, putting together an outline for the events I still want to cover in Light of my Life, and figuring out what works, and what doesn't make the cut. 
What it comes down to, is two more chapters and an epilogue. Each of those two chapters will be roughly comparable in effort to create to chapter 9, although featuring a little bit more story development. I'm not gonna spoil exactly what will be tackled in those last two chapters but I guess most of you will be able to take a stab. 
Apart from the regular lewd scenes to come in those last two chapters (with build-up, foreplay, pay-off, and pillow talk), there will also be a epilogue that adds a few lewd moments (which are much shorter than a full lewd scene) for some of the things that didn't quite make the cut for a full scene treatment. 

Okay. So chapter 10 when?
Not so fast. Before I start working on chapter 10, I first want to put together a little demo for The Next Thing (which is NOT what it will be named), thatis planned to be half of the first chapter of it (although I have yet to decide if it'll be the first, last, or middle half of it). 
I'll do some development blog posts about that as I'm working on it, outlining my plans and sharing art and previews. 
When I'm done with that, my plan is to come back to Light of my life to complete chapter 10, then continue with The Next thing, completing chapter 1 and put that out there for all. After that I'll come back again to Light of my Life for chapter 11 and the epilogue and wrap that up properly, before continuing on to The Next Thing. Or the Backup Thing if everyone including me hates The Next Thing. 
Dovetailing the production for the ending of Light of my Life and the beginning of The Next Thing makes for slightly longer timelines in releasing either, but it lets me keep the rhythm of production up throughout without falling into a black hole when Light of my Life is completed.

Coming up next.
So what can you expect next from me next? Well, for one, a new infographic with the planned production in the coming period, and some blog posts where I share some more information and concepts with all of you. 
Comments  loading...
Like(11)
Dislike(0)
Sign Up or Log In to comment on this post
NaughtyRoad

About The Next Thing. This is a blog post about The Next Thing. The thing that comes after Light ...

+ 1 attachment
Comments
Like(5)
Dislike(0)
Posted for $10, $20 tiers
Unlock Tier
NaughtyRoad

Chapter 8 - development status update

Comments (2)
Like(16)
Dislike(0)
Posted for $1, $5, $10, $20 tiers
Unlock Tier
NaughtyRoad

Chapter 8 and after, what's the plan here?

Comments (7)
Like(14)
Dislike(0)
Posted for $1, $5, $10, $20 tiers
Unlock Tier
NaughtyRoad
Public post

Ren'Py: The little engine that could


It's been a while (as usual) since I posted something, so today I figured I'd talk a bit about a little program that makes the majority of the indie VNs like Light of my Life possible. I'm talking about the engine, of course, which in this case is called Ren'Py.

It apparently takes it name from the Japanese ren'ai (恋愛), which, if the wiki page is to be believed, stands for romantic love. Changing 'ai' to 'py' is a reference to the programming language Python, which it is based on, and in some ways, is an extension of.

It was first released by Tom "PyTom" Rothamel over 19(!) years ago, and if ever there was a creator that deserved a bit of love, it is Tom, for making all those fantastic VNs we play possible completely free of charge. But I digress.

Coming back to ren'ai, romantic love is a common theme in Visual Novels, and indeed, Visual Novels is what Ren'Py excels at. It is, in fact, such a great tool for creating Visual Novels that I shudder to think about having to create one in a more generic programming language or engine.

So, why is that exactly? In this post, I'd like to shed bit of light on why Ren'Py is such an overwhelmingly popular choice for making Visual Novels.

I mean, even Denise boots it up when she sets out to make a game of her own.
And then Bunny says...
For me, what makes Ren'Py great at what it does begins with the novel part of Visual Novels. With this engine, writing a story is the heart of the workflow. You just boot it up, open a file, and after some minimal housekeeping to define some characters having a dialog, you start writing that dialog. In fact, something like this is perfectly valid Ren'Py code:

denise "Hey, Macy. What are you doing?"
macy "Trying to hack the MC's phone. He changed his code."
denise "Well, if he did that, it's because he values his privacy..."
denise "...and you should respect that."
macy "Pssh, yeah, as if."
denise "Macy! Stop it!"
mc "What's all this?"

I mean, it doesn't get more natural than that, right? It feels like writing a dialog for any kind of written story. And in this form, you can already execute it, and see how the words flow.

Of course, it's a Visual Novel, not a Kinetic Novel, so we want some choice.

denise "Hey, Macy. What are you doing?"
macy "Trying to hack the MC's phone. He changed his code."

menu:
      "Denise says: 'Respect his privacy.'":
            denise "Well, if he did that, it's because he values his privacy..."
            denise "...and you should respect that."
            macy "Pssh, yeah, as if."
            denise "Macy! Stop it!"

      "Denise says: 'Let me have a go.'":
            denise "Oh, right. Well, let me have a go."
            macy "Sure. Knock yourself out."
            denise "Heehee."
            macy "I've been at it for hours. I doubt you'll have any more luck."
            denise "Beep-beep-bob. And we're in."
            macy "Sonofa-"

mc "What's all this?"

All of that is still very readable as a coherent dialog.
Let's put one more flourish in and let the dialog respond to a previous choice:

denise "Hey, Macy. What are you doing?"

if mc_changed_his_code_before:
      macy "Trying to hack the MC's phone. He changed his code. AGAIN."
else:
      macy "Trying to hack the MC's phone. He changed his code."

menu:
      "Denise says: 'Respect his privacy.'":
            denise "Well, if he did that, it's because he values his privacy..."
            denise "...and you should respect that."
            macy "Pssh, yeah, as if."
            denise "Macy! Stop it!"

      "Denise says: 'Let me have a go.'":
            denise "Oh, right. Well, let me have a go."
            macy "Sure. Knock yourself out."
            denise "Heehee."
            macy "I've been at it for hours. I doubt you'll have any more luck."
            denise "Beep-beep-bob. And we're in."
            macy "Sonofa-"

mc "What's all this?"

So as you can see, all of this is first and foremost about writing up a dialog, and even when you start adding in branches and responsiveness to choice, it's still easy to read from top to bottom.

This also makes it extremely easy to review and edit the dialogs you've written. And you can test drive those dialogs right away. Even if there's no images displayed yet, the dialog part works, and you can try it out for pacing, test the branching and the logic, etc. I imagine you could even send it out to your editor for review in this form.

So it's story first, then come images. It is a Visual Novel after all. And as you'd expect, you simply put those into the dialog, keeping the existing structure intact and whole, and still easy to follow. For instance:

scene kitchen_background
show denise happy
show macy playing_with_phone concentrating
denise "Hey, Macy. What are you doing?"

show macy holding_phone eyeroll
if mc_changed_his_code_before:
      macy "Trying to hack the MC's phone. He changed his code. AGAIN."
else:
      macy "Trying to hack the MC's phone. He changed his code."

menu:
      "Denise says: 'Respect his privacy.'":
            show denise smug
            denise "Well, if he did that, it's because he values his privacy..."
            denise "...and you should respect that."

            show macy holding_phone sneer
            macy "Pssh, yeah, as if."

            show denise angry
            denise "Macy! Stop it!"

      "Denise says: 'Let me have a go.'":
            show denise hold_out_hand
            denise "Oh, right. Well, let me have a go."

            show macy handover_phone neutral
            macy "Sure. Knock yourself out."

            show denise take_phone impish_smile
            show macy neutral
            denise "Heehee."

            show macy condescending
            macy "I've been at it for hours. I doubt you'll have any more luck."

            show denise hold_phone happy
            denise "Beep-beep-bob. And we're in."

            show macy annoyed
            macy "Sonofa-"

show mc entering_kitchen
mc "What's all this?"

Of course, those "show" statements each reference an image you first have to create and put in. Creating the vast amount of images you may need to bring your vision to life is a ton of work for sure. But after you have those images, the process of putting them into the dialog is really straightforward, and it doesn't lose the focus on creating dialog first.

So, why isn't every indie lewd game made in Ren'Py then?

Well, Ren'Py does Visual and Kinetic Novels real well, but it's not geared towards some other types of gameplay. Which is not to say it can't implement it. If you pop the hood and aren't afraid to get your hands dirty with some Python, there's not a lot you can't do with patience and dash of skill.

There's other engines that are easier to use if you want to make a different type of game. Say, a platformer, or a dungeon crawler. Or if you have an issue with its open-source nature and the fact that anyone can snoop around in it, and its eagerness to accept external modifications. And in some cases, developers just have existing experience with other engines they want to leverage of course.

But it excels at those Visual and Kinetic Novels, and, with some frameworks (or custom code) in place and a touch of programming skill, it does a pretty decent job at sandboxes too.

Alright, that's is it for my ode to Ren'Py. I hope this helped shed a light as to why it's so ubiquitous. I glossed over a ton of details to be sure, but I really intended to show what makes Ren'Py the principal choice for so many VNs, not do a tutorial, as there's plenty of those out there.

If you've been thinking about making your own Visual Novel, know that this engine will help make some parts of it pretty straightforward and easy.
Comments (4) loading...
Like(19)
Dislike(0)
Sign Up or Log In to comment on this post
NaughtyRoad

The weirdest flex, or in bits or not in bits. The other day, I ventured out into the wilds beyond...

+ 1 attachment
+ GIFs attached
Comments (4)
Like(17)
Dislike(0)
Posted for $1, $5, $10, $20 tiers
Unlock Tier
View next posts (6 / 15)

The subscription gives you:
  • Access to Creator's profile content.
  • Ability to support your Creator by pledging – one-time or recurring.
  • Means to reaching out to the Creator directly via Instant Messenger.
WE USE COOKIES

SubscribeStar and its trusted third parties collect browsing information as specified in the Privacy Policy and use cookies or similar technologies for analysis and technical purposes and, with your consent, for functionality, experience, and measurement as specified in the Cookies Policy.

Your Privacy Choices

We understand and respect your privacy concerns. However, some cookies are strictly necessary for proper website's functionality and cannon be denied.

Optional cookies are configurable. Disabling some of those may make related features unavailable.

We do NOT sell any information obtained through cookies to third-party marketing services.