As a huge philosophy enthusiast I'm REALLY glad that someone tries to inject that type of things into games! Anyway, I Love all characters especially Charles and that big Badger (i'm sorry i'm bad at remembering names xD) gonna wait for the next updates, wish you all best :D
I finally decided to play this VN and damn, I'm really glad I did. The overall story and its background so far is interesting, the character design with the usage of multiple artists is great and I just all in all enjoy the flow of this VN.
Looking forward to the following updates. Thanks for this game, GruntSteel!
Hello!, i have the same problem as Marco294959, My screen is black at launch,My phone is Oppo a11s ༎ຶ‿༎ຶ (Pls fix this i rlly want to play your game •́ ‿ ,•̀ )
Honestly loving it so far, I just have a couple of grammatical gripes. I also really want more of Max he's a blast, but I love the individuality of the whole cast thus far. If my constructive criticism isn't too harsh, I can provide a few more examples for you, there aren't too many glaring mistakes, but I saw a few in my first go around.
In the example below the dialog goes "Usually, If I were to example get a new colleague or if we'd start a new big project at work we'd do something like a kick off."
However, I believe you meant for it to be:
"Usually, If I were to *for example get a new colleague or if we'd start a ** big project at work we'd do something *** like that to kick it off"
*" to example" doesn't make any sense grammatically, but if we follow the 'to' with a 'for' that will be fixed. I think you meant to do this. .You could also remove 'to' entirely and put in 'for' in its place, but for what I think you were going for, it is unnecessary.
** Kind of just a personal gripe, nothing technically wrong here. Nevertheless, since we have the word 'start' proceeding the adjective/noun phrase 'new big project' , we can see that 'new' is redundant as start comes right before and therefore can be removed.
*** Since we're talking about a social event(s), it makes sense to address 'it' as such, In the case you meant 'kick off' as in the sports term that is being applied, uhh, my bad.
Thanks for all the kind words! I'll take a look through this properly before launching the update. I'm always happy to receive feedback on my grammar and whatnot.
As of now I'd say I'm halfway there, I want to say first week of August. Buuuut, I have a history of pushing it when proofreading and rewriting entire scenes so take it with a grain of salt and expect it in the middle of August.
As for catching up on 0.5, if you're going Mike's route I'd say go for it. There are some small changesto Mike's route in 0.6 but nothing story changing, just adding more detail.
Good afternoon! Can I ask you something? Perhaps I misunderstood the last words before the end of the game. There will be more chapters dedicated to Charles and John. Will there be the same scenes as in the chapter with Mike? Because I chose Mike. And if I'm going to kiss John somewhere, then it's already cheating on Mike.
I also want to thank the author of this novel from the bottom of my heart. I really liked it. I like the theme of space. And I like to study the influence of science on a person, on feelings and emotions, on the work of the brain and on memory(although my profession is a firefighter). The theory of how quantum entanglement affects the senses is very interesting. This interested me, so I will study this issue in the near future.
Works like this novel give me the motivation to finally learn how to draw and create something like this. And I will do it! I will create something that is not worse than many short stories. Thank you again and good luck in the development of this project!
Every chapter has an overlaying story, however depending on the route you pick you interact with different characters in different ways. That will lead to different things happening, so while a chapter may be focused around John, if you are on Mike's route it will play out differently and you will still only be pursuing Mike, and vice-versa.
To clarify, if you are on Mike's route, the only character the main character will pursue romantically is Mike.
As for the rest, thank you for your kind words and I wish you the best of luck in your creative efforts. If you plan on using ren'py, don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions and I'll do my best to respond.
The Limits VN easter egg caught me by suprise. To hear the VN's main theme again is pure joy. But then there's Norman. What does this mean? Limits and Distant Travels share the same universe? Then how come Limits VN also exists as a game?
Hey there! It seems that I'm having trouble with getting the game running. Every time I attempt to open the game it crashes, "Windows is attempting to find a solution to the problem" and all that. I've not played this game yet, so it could be that something about the game itself is incompatible for my PC, or just this build specifically. Any info would be wonderful, but have a great day regardless, can't wait to play this thing!
What version of Windows are you running? If you press the windows key (windows log on your keyboard) and Pause/Break at the same time, you should get a pop-up that tells you what version it is. Looking for System type and Windows Edition.
Got a few things pooping up, just gonna drop what I think is relevant. My system type is a x64-based PC, my version is 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1 Build 7601, and I'm just running it on a shitty old Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium OS, I'd not be surprised if it was a system issue, I couldn't even run Psychic Connections past the 0.4 build, so Itch hasn't always been reliable on this thing.
Edit- Oh, and thanks for the quick response and helping me out!
Thank you! I have been on a break from working on the game due to health concerns, but I am now back to it. Hopefully it'll be out before the end of the month.
If you dream of someone, does that mean they also dream of you, or do you dream of them because you're influenced by them? Then what if you dream of someone you've never met?
Jokes and thoughts aside, let me know what you think about it if you build up a theory!
i love this novel it is really beautiful and i have been wondering this is intertwined with limits and the character rex reminds me of phileo from a place to call home ?
its got references from limits like the polar bear cop, but i dont think its intertwined because in the world of limits the beastmen dont hide themselves and are pretty common while in this they use cloaking devices and humans are supposed to be the only ones here/
It was just an update to the description of the itch page, sorry. The next update is probably sometime at the end of this month (July). I'm dealing with some health issues so I'm taking a break to recover properly.
So did the actual 5.1 update come out yet? I know you said that it be made clear when it's gonna be released, but uhm.....it's been a while. I don't mean to sound demanding, but I just wanted to check up on things :(
I'll copy paste this from the discord server as an update; Essentially I'm having some health issues and taking a break to properly recover.
Hi, I figure it's time to give you guys an update as John's update isn't out yet. I wanted to put John's update out this week, but I've run into some health issues which have really brought me to weird places mentally as well as physically. I'm recovering and I'll be fine in a while, but writing ends up becoming very difficult when it comes to sticking to something I put a lot of values in.
So, to preserve myself and relieve a lot of the pressure I won't be writing anything on DT for a little while. I'll still be working on other improvements on the VN (such as implementing Wattsons blinking fix fully) and I'm hoping to be back with an update by the end of July at latest, but it's not something I can promise at this point.
As a side note, I still want to write so I'll most likely be doing a side story or something similar to Steadfast while clearing my head out. All the best.
It kind of is. I forget the original reference and quote, but the idea is that whoever is saying it is thinking of their significant other, or soul mate. As for how that's intertwined with the handsome stranger in the MC's dreams...
Haha, personally I think it adds a lot of personality for each of them.
For future projects I'll probably try and stay with one artist but DT is where home is, and it's keeping the personality. Imperfections is what makes things unique, if you ask me.
I'll release John as soon as it's ready, and then another small update with Charles a little bit later. No use in holding back content when it's ready.
I can't fix it for the current version as I've added too much in my dev version to revert it easily, but for the next update I'll upload a lightweight android version for older phones.
Absolutely I love the story, the plot, the mystery, I wish there was a route for Rex with the idea of getting to know him more and somehow calm the internal pain he has.
I liked the update, just as I like the whole plot and cast so far. I do want to ask about what you said some time ago, though. You said you wanted to slow down the romance by a lot, and playing the update made me think that the romance got even more rushed somehow. From cuddling with alien badgers in a separate room to zero-gravity making out with kissing and hard-ons, kinda makes me feel like a galactic hooker rather than network engineer.
Also, at least for me, there were some visual glitches in the last update, where the sprite in the bottom left wasn't synced with the sprite in the center, with Rex's sprite popping in in-between the dialogue lines. And some grammar mistakes here and there ("nagivation" from the top of my head), but nothing serious.
Thanks for the update, keep it up. I really dig the visual effects and backgrounds btw.
The romance scenes for chapter 2 have been slowed down and essentially moved some of the more intense parts forward. It was too much all at once, and far too forward for that point of the story.
As for chapter 3, it's where it breaks and essentially moves to that point for Mike's route. He's a very PDA person. However, I am debating changing it and giving the player an option to pursue the romance as quickly, or have it be a much smaller thing. If so, it'll be something I add at the same time I launch Charles' & John's routes for Ch. 3. This, and the underlaying "affection point" system will be more present going forward, as the romance really starts flowing.
As for the pacing, I don't intend Distant Travels to be a story that drags on forever in search for patreon money or similar, there's a set timeframe to the story, and while there are ups and downs in terms of action, I don't intend to have the story slow down once it's picked up properly to extend it.
Thanks for the feedback, and I'll try and keep it in mind going forward to reach a better balance.
/Grunt
P.S: The error with Rex's side image should hopefully be fixed in the next update, I believe I've found what causes it but it requires a lot of code rehaul to manage.
I see, that's insightful. The idea of giving the player options in regards to romance is a nice one, though I don't know whether it's worth your while, given how you planned the timeframes for the project. Either way, I'm now looking forward to John's and Charles' routes to see what kind of development they will receive compared to Mike.
On a side note, would you mind sharing what tools you use for coding with ren'py? Asking simply out of curiocity.
I'm fairly inefficient since I used to just do my LUA stuff in notepad++ before I started ren'py & python.
Right now I use Atom Text Editor with a few plugins:
- language-renpy
- custom-folds
- renpy-dialogue-plus
And the whopping 81 base packages Ren'py adds on if you let it. The reason I prefer atom is simply the layout (Multiple panes is a godsent when editing script), since indentation matters in python and ren'py, and the ability to tree any type of file etc, which makes it very organized.
Realistically, Visual Code Studio is what most people use, afaik and it's probably superior, but I'm used to Atom by now.
Other than that, ren'py itself is fairly powerful in the developer mode, since you can type script or code directly into the console and run it live, as well as giving you pretty accurate debug errors in real time, with most issues. It has LINT integration, TODO integration and a ton of useful tools to be found, even if the documentation on them is generally lackluster.
For art edits I use Clip Studio Paint, which I believe most of the team also uses (There's that one guy who uses Photoshop...)
If you're interested in VN Development there's a discord server with a lot of resources set up for it that I'd be happy to link you to, and I'd be happy to give you any input or help on discord.
Thanks for sharing, I like reading devlogs and technical details. The reason I was interested is because I saw the ren'py extension for VS Code the other day (I've been using VS Code for all my programming for about a year now), and immediately thought that it would be interesting to know what the workflow with ren'py looks like. With grammar checker and great python support (snippets, debugger, etc.) it feels like a potentially nice tool to compliment whatever ren'py development suite offers. I guess Atom is similar in that regard, I remember it having tons of extensions too, though I'm never touching that piece of software again in the near future, not after having to manually clean appdata folders and even registry for it to completely uninstall ))
I've heard about the discord server, but I'm not looking into actual development right now (it's an interesting idea, but the lack of time and writing/drawing skills make me lose interest), I just wanted to hear your take, since I think you implemented some cool visuals compared to some more barebones VNs out there. Either way, thanks for taking your time to satisfy my curiosity )
Idk about coding, but after you return from broadmore to your previous office and home Nick somehow appears and talks about visiting the interview with you and talking to Julia even if you don't encourage him to apply and go alone. There might be a few logic jumbles and word typos id be willing to notify you about if i ever come across and I have high hopes for this VN's future. Try not to over work yourselves because it sounds like a lot of work is ahead if your team and you are trying to complete 3 routes by the end of the year. If I were you I'd dedicate at least 5 months to the writing of storylines and dialogue as well as gathering and obtaining CGs and sprites lmfaoo.
Also my suggestion is if you want to add in more routes with the crew of the ship have them branch off of the sudden three main choice on who to spend the evening with. Like you choose John to open up an opportunity for Max's route or spend time with Mike to open up Rex's route, since these characters seem to influence each other a good deal early on.
I'll keep your advise in mind, regarding further routes. It'll be interesting to see how to add them in once all is said and done, and I do have a few ideas I'm not quite ready to share about how to go about it.
As for Nick that's an error on my part and will be fixed in the next update. It won't influence anything for you further on if you keep playing the same save, Nick will still not be present in future scenes. Thanks for letting me know!
As for the team, writing and most of the coding is me, with the rest of the team being focused on art. I think we're fairly balanced to keep it up, but I'm not going to hard enforce an end-of-the-year deadline, instead it's more of a wish and a goal.
Thanks for all the feedback, and I hope to be able to keep the story and characters interesting.
Drakes and I are good friends, so I asked him if he wanted to do a cross-over at some point and he agreed. There will be more references, but more than that I can't say.
aw :( i fell in love with Rex the moment i saw him and that's sad. i find him more handsome and he attracted me more than all other characters. is there really no way you could make his route too even it's the smallest? :(
omg. so i can remain hopeful. i know that VN and i love it. Rex gave me vibes as soon as i saw him. and he's so handsome. i love handsome wolf and dog furries but sadly they are not easy to find. i really like your story so far so i wish you luck. but for now i'm not sure whom to choose among the 3 main ones. Rex already got my heart. i will eagerly wait for any news about him but ofc i know that the story takes a lot of time and i see that some things are not decided yet. but oh well. cheers and thanks for answering
He's quite a story driving character, so there'll be more mentions of him, however as for now he's not really a main character. Who knows what the future holds though? The story always ends up taking a twist other than what I thought originally.
I would like to know if there are any NSFW scenes with these characters as of now (Mike, Charles and John) ? I would love to be be very immersed with them ; )
Oh, and is any of their routes close to completion ? I just started your game and i'm already blown away by the story and art. You've truly done a fantastic job here ^-^
The 3 above are the ones that are guaranteed to be completed, but I'd like to revisit it further along and see who I can work in. Nick, Max and Rex are the ones I'm considering adding as of now.
In my playthough, I did not encourage Nick to apply to mystery job and here he is with me despite that selection as if he was with me the entire time. A broken event flag that has made the scene afterwards with Nick make no sense at all.
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As a huge philosophy enthusiast I'm REALLY glad that someone tries to inject that type of things into games! Anyway, I Love all characters especially Charles and that big Badger (i'm sorry i'm bad at remembering names xD) gonna wait for the next updates, wish you all best :D
Thanks for the feedback! Next update is mostly John (the badger) and Charles, so hopefully it'll be interesting for you.
I know for sure I'm interested in John's route so I'll keep my eyes peeled for the next update. We appreciate the hard work so keep it up and hf! 😄
I finally decided to play this VN and damn, I'm really glad I did. The overall story and its background so far is interesting, the character design with the usage of multiple artists is great and I just all in all enjoy the flow of this VN.
Looking forward to the following updates. Thanks for this game, GruntSteel!
Thank you for the kind words! I'm working hard on getting the next update out for you, and I hope to keep it interesting.
/G
I really enjoy the game so far, the story seems interesting, the characters are pretty well written and I'm excited so see more.
Also some of the characters designs tho, damn
Thank you for the kind words! Really! It keeps motivation up while working.
iufshg;fs god i relate to this image too much
Hello!, i have the same problem as Marco294959, My screen is black at launch,My phone is Oppo a11s ༎ຶ‿༎ຶ (Pls fix this i rlly want to play your game •́ ‿ ,•̀ )
Hi! I'll look into this, so it'll be fixed for next update.
Bruce have drakes's artstyle... interesting.
Grrrrr you are teasing everyone.....
oh hell yeah, i wanna date him
Hi,
I'll look into this.
Does this happen during some specific scene or directly on launch?
What device are you on (What phone/Tablet)?
And if possible, can you reinstall the app and see if the problem persists?
/GruntSteel
It happened when I launched it my phone is kinda embarrassing it's oppo a5s
Alright! I'll make sure to release a version for lower end phones on the next update, it was already on my list of things to do so it'll be fast.
That should work better on your phone.
/Grunt
grrrrt
€`;..;´3
Any news?
Hi! Looking at a mid August release. I'm sorry for the slow updates, been dealing with some health issues that hopefully are all in the past now.
Your health comes first and foremost, still it's good to know that an update is on the horizon. Can't wait! :)
well im looking foward to hopefully date one day Bruce, that big oldragon, please make a route for him ...😤
Honestly loving it so far, I just have a couple of grammatical gripes. I also really want more of Max he's a blast, but I love the individuality of the whole cast thus far. If my constructive criticism isn't too harsh, I can provide a few more examples for you, there aren't too many glaring mistakes, but I saw a few in my first go around.
In the example below the dialog goes "Usually, If I were to example get a new colleague or if we'd start a new big project at work we'd do something like a kick off."
However, I believe you meant for it to be:
"Usually, If I were to *for example get a new colleague or if we'd start a ** big project at work we'd do something *** like that to kick it off"
*" to example" doesn't make any sense grammatically, but if we follow the 'to' with a 'for' that will be fixed. I think you meant to do this. .You could also remove 'to' entirely and put in 'for' in its place, but for what I think you were going for, it is unnecessary.
** Kind of just a personal gripe, nothing technically wrong here. Nevertheless, since we have the word 'start' proceeding the adjective/noun phrase 'new big project' , we can see that 'new' is redundant as start comes right before and therefore can be removed.
*** Since we're talking about a social event(s), it makes sense to address 'it' as such, In the case you meant 'kick off' as in the sports term that is being applied, uhh, my bad.
Thanks for all the kind words! I'll take a look through this properly before launching the update. I'm always happy to receive feedback on my grammar and whatnot.
How soon is the update?
Wondering if I should catch up on 0.5 now, or play 0.6 when it's out.
Assuming you actually have a say in how productive you can be, unlike me who just has to see when the time comes.
Hi,
As of now I'd say I'm halfway there, I want to say first week of August. Buuuut, I have a history of pushing it when proofreading and rewriting entire scenes so take it with a grain of salt and expect it in the middle of August.
As for catching up on 0.5, if you're going Mike's route I'd say go for it. There are some small changesto Mike's route in 0.6 but nothing story changing, just adding more detail.
I'm really enjoying all the reflection and philosophical moments as well. Keep up the good work!
Good afternoon! Can I ask you something? Perhaps I misunderstood the last words before the end of the game. There will be more chapters dedicated to Charles and John. Will there be the same scenes as in the chapter with Mike? Because I chose Mike. And if I'm going to kiss John somewhere, then it's already cheating on Mike.
I also want to thank the author of this novel from the bottom of my heart. I really liked it. I like the theme of space. And I like to study the influence of science on a person, on feelings and emotions, on the work of the brain and on memory(although my profession is a firefighter). The theory of how quantum entanglement affects the senses is very interesting. This interested me, so I will study this issue in the near future.
Works like this novel give me the motivation to finally learn how to draw and create something like this. And I will do it! I will create something that is not worse than many short stories. Thank you again and good luck in the development of this project!
By the way, Mike is a charming cutie<3
Uhh i think there are three route... So it's in a different story line
Hi,
Every chapter has an overlaying story, however depending on the route you pick you interact with different characters in different ways. That will lead to different things happening, so while a chapter may be focused around John, if you are on Mike's route it will play out differently and you will still only be pursuing Mike, and vice-versa.
To clarify, if you are on Mike's route, the only character the main character will pursue romantically is Mike.
As for the rest, thank you for your kind words and I wish you the best of luck in your creative efforts. If you plan on using ren'py, don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions and I'll do my best to respond.
/Grunt
The Limits VN easter egg caught me by suprise. To hear the VN's main theme again is pure joy. But then there's Norman. What does this mean? Limits and Distant Travels share the same universe? Then how come Limits VN also exists as a game?
Hi, it's a cross-over as to pay homage to the game, there's no canonical overlap as of now. Sorry!
Oh. It's a pleasant suprise. Awesome
Hey there! It seems that I'm having trouble with getting the game running. Every time I attempt to open the game it crashes, "Windows is attempting to find a solution to the problem" and all that. I've not played this game yet, so it could be that something about the game itself is incompatible for my PC, or just this build specifically. Any info would be wonderful, but have a great day regardless, can't wait to play this thing!
Hi,
What version of Windows are you running? If you press the windows key (windows log on your keyboard) and Pause/Break at the same time, you should get a pop-up that tells you what version it is. Looking for System type and Windows Edition.
Got a few things pooping up, just gonna drop what I think is relevant. My system type is a x64-based PC, my version is 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1 Build 7601, and I'm just running it on a shitty old Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium OS, I'd not be surprised if it was a system issue, I couldn't even run Psychic Connections past the 0.4 build, so Itch hasn't always been reliable on this thing.
Edit- Oh, and thanks for the quick response and helping me out!
Looks like it probably is a OS problem with newer ren'py versions then. I can compile a 32 bit version in the next update for you, that should fix it.
That's incredibly accommodating, thank you so much!
i know sometimes is annoying but, when are you planning to release the next update, really enjoying this VN, keep the hard work and the best of lucks!
Thank you! I have been on a break from working on the game due to health concerns, but I am now back to it. Hopefully it'll be out before the end of the month.
About to read it and GOD I hope the “quantum entanglement” thing is handled well, the “can feelings be entangled?” makes me worry a fair bit
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
If you dream of someone, does that mean they also dream of you, or do you dream of them because you're influenced by them? Then what if you dream of someone you've never met?
Jokes and thoughts aside, let me know what you think about it if you build up a theory!
i love this novel it is really beautiful and i have been wondering this is intertwined with limits and the character rex reminds me of phileo from a place to call home ?
its got references from limits like the polar bear cop, but i dont think its intertwined because in the world of limits the beastmen dont hide themselves and are pretty common while in this they use cloaking devices and humans are supposed to be the only ones here/
Hi! The artist for Rex is indeed HugeCookie. About a crossover with APTCH? I wonder... Could be interesting.
As for Limits, there's no story overlap, but a character cross-over as sort of an homage to Drakes's story.
The music in this game is beautiful!
Is there anyway I can download it? My favourite song is Distant Travels by (camazule)
<3
I've poked Camazule about sorting his SoundCloud again. He's on it!
Ty! :))))
I loved the last update with Mike Steel! It was awesome (best first date ever!). I look forward to more updates and hope you feel better soon.
Thank you! I'll be doing my best to keep the content interesting.
It saysy it was updated 5 days ago but why isnt the new version available? Or is it just some bug?
Hi,
It was just an update to the description of the itch page, sorry. The next update is probably sometime at the end of this month (July). I'm dealing with some health issues so I'm taking a break to recover properly.
/Grunt
So did the actual 5.1 update come out yet? I know you said that it be made clear when it's gonna be released, but uhm.....it's been a while. I don't mean to sound demanding, but I just wanted to check up on things :(
Hi,
I'll copy paste this from the discord server as an update; Essentially I'm having some health issues and taking a break to properly recover.
Oh no….I’m sorry to hear that…hopefully you’ll have a nice recovery!🐊
God, why do you gotta make this researcher Rex so hot asff, I wish he can be dateable.
somewhere, in a dream, perhaps...
I'm liking the idea of adding in more routes or happenings once the base game is finished. An expansion if you will.
Remains to be seen how it all feels once it's said and done, however.
Best Regards
Yeah, Rex and the gardener (cant think of the name) would both be great additions if it gets that far.
...in a dream? is this a hint towards who dream boy is? or just a reference to something i really wish i understood.
It kind of is. I forget the original reference and quote, but the idea is that whoever is saying it is thinking of their significant other, or soul mate. As for how that's intertwined with the handsome stranger in the MC's dreams...
It's a little jarring to suddenly see characters in so many different art styles all at once.
Haha, personally I think it adds a lot of personality for each of them.
For future projects I'll probably try and stay with one artist but DT is where home is, and it's keeping the personality. Imperfections is what makes things unique, if you ask me.
Thanks for checking out the game!
Drools in Charles*
Love your story so far! Keep up the great work!
Thank you! I'll do my best
Love the update can't wait for the next one see you in 3 months
JOHN MY GUY! YES!
wait quick question, when johns rework and chapter are done are you gonna release his chapter or wait until Charles is also done?
Hi,
I'll release John as soon as it's ready, and then another small update with Charles a little bit later. No use in holding back content when it's ready.
ah ok, take your time tho no need to rush. plus thanks for responding!
VIOLATED STOP IT😂😂
Umm i have a little problem tho i can't get into the game does anyone now what the problem is?
Can you elaborate, if the issue is not already sorted? Run/ launch the file/ executable suitable for your system.
Hi, is it launching at all, or are you getting any type of error message?
What system are you running (PC? MAC? Android? Linux?
Android, actually idk if actually a bug or something i think it just that my phone just slow and sorry tho
I can't fix it for the current version as I've added too much in my dev version to revert it easily, but for the next update I'll upload a lightweight android version for older phones.
Thank you so much im sorry i don't want to rush you guys or something and i hope i can get to play the game normally i hope you have great time
NSFW?
Hi, there's some nudity at the moment but not much more than that as of yet.
With visible genitalia or...?
Because... I kinda like this kind of stuff ;)
There is visible genitalia indeed! As for the upcoming update, there's a bit of that as well.
/Grunt
Absolutely I love the story, the plot, the mystery, I wish there was a route for Rex with the idea of getting to know him more and somehow calm the internal pain he has.
Thank you! I'll keep your feedback in mind for the future.
Yeah. I was like: "Oh look at this good boy! I want to get to know more abo-... never mind".
The poor boy is suffering a lot, he needs all the affection and "love" possible hehe
What species is the main character? Is he one of the characters from the images?
MC is vanilla human.
Hi,
The main character is human, and has no sprite. It's bit of a self-insert, although the character has a fairly set personality.
I liked the update, just as I like the whole plot and cast so far. I do want to ask about what you said some time ago, though. You said you wanted to slow down the romance by a lot, and playing the update made me think that the romance got even more rushed somehow. From cuddling with alien badgers in a separate room to zero-gravity making out with kissing and hard-ons, kinda makes me feel like a galactic hooker rather than network engineer.
Also, at least for me, there were some visual glitches in the last update, where the sprite in the bottom left wasn't synced with the sprite in the center, with Rex's sprite popping in in-between the dialogue lines. And some grammar mistakes here and there ("nagivation" from the top of my head), but nothing serious.
Thanks for the update, keep it up. I really dig the visual effects and backgrounds btw.
Hi,
The romance scenes for chapter 2 have been slowed down and essentially moved some of the more intense parts forward. It was too much all at once, and far too forward for that point of the story.
As for chapter 3, it's where it breaks and essentially moves to that point for Mike's route. He's a very PDA person.
However, I am debating changing it and giving the player an option to pursue the romance as quickly, or have it be a much smaller thing. If so, it'll be something I add at the same time I launch Charles' & John's routes for Ch. 3. This, and the underlaying "affection point" system will be more present going forward, as the romance really starts flowing.
As for the pacing, I don't intend Distant Travels to be a story that drags on forever in search for patreon money or similar, there's a set timeframe to the story, and while there are ups and downs in terms of action, I don't intend to have the story slow down once it's picked up properly to extend it.
Thanks for the feedback, and I'll try and keep it in mind going forward to reach a better balance.
/Grunt
P.S: The error with Rex's side image should hopefully be fixed in the next update, I believe I've found what causes it but it requires a lot of code rehaul to manage.
P.P.S: Obligatory pregnancy by kissing joke.
I see, that's insightful. The idea of giving the player options in regards to romance is a nice one, though I don't know whether it's worth your while, given how you planned the timeframes for the project. Either way, I'm now looking forward to John's and Charles' routes to see what kind of development they will receive compared to Mike.
On a side note, would you mind sharing what tools you use for coding with ren'py? Asking simply out of curiocity.
I'm fairly inefficient since I used to just do my LUA stuff in notepad++ before I started ren'py & python.
Right now I use Atom Text Editor with a few plugins:
- language-renpy
- custom-folds
- renpy-dialogue-plus
And the whopping 81 base packages Ren'py adds on if you let it. The reason I prefer atom is simply the layout (Multiple panes is a godsent when editing script), since indentation matters in python and ren'py, and the ability to tree any type of file etc, which makes it very organized.
Realistically, Visual Code Studio is what most people use, afaik and it's probably superior, but I'm used to Atom by now.
Other than that, ren'py itself is fairly powerful in the developer mode, since you can type script or code directly into the console and run it live, as well as giving you pretty accurate debug errors in real time, with most issues. It has LINT integration, TODO integration and a ton of useful tools to be found, even if the documentation on them is generally lackluster.
For art edits I use Clip Studio Paint, which I believe most of the team also uses (There's that one guy who uses Photoshop...)
If you're interested in VN Development there's a discord server with a lot of resources set up for it that I'd be happy to link you to, and I'd be happy to give you any input or help on discord.
Thanks for sharing, I like reading devlogs and technical details. The reason I was interested is because I saw the ren'py extension for VS Code the other day (I've been using VS Code for all my programming for about a year now), and immediately thought that it would be interesting to know what the workflow with ren'py looks like. With grammar checker and great python support (snippets, debugger, etc.) it feels like a potentially nice tool to compliment whatever ren'py development suite offers. I guess Atom is similar in that regard, I remember it having tons of extensions too, though I'm never touching that piece of software again in the near future, not after having to manually clean appdata folders and even registry for it to completely uninstall ))
I've heard about the discord server, but I'm not looking into actual development right now (it's an interesting idea, but the lack of time and writing/drawing skills make me lose interest), I just wanted to hear your take, since I think you implemented some cool visuals compared to some more barebones VNs out there. Either way, thanks for taking your time to satisfy my curiosity )
Idk about coding, but after you return from broadmore to your previous office and home Nick somehow appears and talks about visiting the interview with you and talking to Julia even if you don't encourage him to apply and go alone. There might be a few logic jumbles and word typos id be willing to notify you about if i ever come across and I have high hopes for this VN's future. Try not to over work yourselves because it sounds like a lot of work is ahead if your team and you are trying to complete 3 routes by the end of the year. If I were you I'd dedicate at least 5 months to the writing of storylines and dialogue as well as gathering and obtaining CGs and sprites lmfaoo.
Also my suggestion is if you want to add in more routes with the crew of the ship have them branch off of the sudden three main choice on who to spend the evening with. Like you choose John to open up an opportunity for Max's route or spend time with Mike to open up Rex's route, since these characters seem to influence each other a good deal early on.
I'll keep your advise in mind, regarding further routes. It'll be interesting to see how to add them in once all is said and done, and I do have a few ideas I'm not quite ready to share about how to go about it.
As for Nick that's an error on my part and will be fixed in the next update. It won't influence anything for you further on if you keep playing the same save, Nick will still not be present in future scenes. Thanks for letting me know!
As for the team, writing and most of the coding is me, with the rest of the team being focused on art. I think we're fairly balanced to keep it up, but I'm not going to hard enforce an end-of-the-year deadline, instead it's more of a wish and a goal.
Thanks for all the feedback, and I hope to be able to keep the story and characters interesting.
/Grunt
Just curious , I saw Norman from Mike's memory so this game collab with Limit right? If true I'm so excited <3
Hi,
Drakes and I are good friends, so I asked him if he wanted to do a cross-over at some point and he agreed. There will be more references, but more than that I can't say.
Thanks for playing :3
aw :( i fell in love with Rex the moment i saw him and that's sad. i find him more handsome and he attracted me more than all other characters. is there really no way you could make his route too even it's the smallest? :(
Perhaps in the future, it's on my mind to add more routes and possiblities once the main story is done.
Sadly, that's a long way to go still.
If you think he's handsome I hightly recommend checking out A Place to Call Home a VN made by the artist behind Rex.
omg. so i can remain hopeful. i know that VN and i love it. Rex gave me vibes as soon as i saw him. and he's so handsome. i love handsome wolf and dog furries but sadly they are not easy to find. i really like your story so far so i wish you luck. but for now i'm not sure whom to choose among the 3 main ones. Rex already got my heart. i will eagerly wait for any news about him but ofc i know that the story takes a lot of time and i see that some things are not decided yet. but oh well. cheers and thanks for answering
So about this rex dog guy will he be a stable charecter?
Hi,
He's quite a story driving character, so there'll be more mentions of him, however as for now he's not really a main character. Who knows what the future holds though? The story always ends up taking a twist other than what I thought originally.
Just curious. Which characters are datable?
Hi,
At the moment it's Mike (the bear), John (the large badger) and Charles (the Tiger).
Hey GS, hope you are doing well and great.
I would like to know if there are any NSFW scenes with these characters as of now (Mike, Charles and John) ? I would love to be be very immersed with them ; )
Oh, and is any of their routes close to completion ? I just started your game and i'm already blown away by the story and art. You've truly done a fantastic job here ^-^
Hi,
There's some nudity with Mike as for now, but the real NSFW scenes are yet to come. Looking to get further and further into it as the story continues.
As for the story and routes; I'd like to have those 3 done by the end of the year if possible.
Thanks for the kind words, as well :)
Thanks. Although, "at the moment"? How many in total are you planning?
The 3 above are the ones that are guaranteed to be completed, but I'd like to revisit it further along and see who I can work in. Nick, Max and Rex are the ones I'm considering adding as of now.
I think it would be really good if we had a route with max he seems awesome and cute
Pd: i love the art style :3
Hi!
It's on the table for once the game is further along, but he won't be included in the main development as a route for now.
Ok ok thats good
In my playthough, I did not encourage Nick to apply to mystery job and here he is with me despite that selection as if he was with me the entire time. A broken event flag that has made the scene afterwards with Nick make no sense at all.
I found what's causing this and I've fixed it for the next update.
Thanks a lot for all the help!
This update was soooo good! I have to ask tho, any hints on getting the 3rd cg in the gallery? It's the only one I'm missing :x
Hi! Sorry, my mistake on keeping it in for now. It's a John CG and unlockable at the start of his route in chapter 3. (It'll be available soon*)
Oh I see, that makes sense. I'll be waiting for it then!
Don't you dare break my wings!!!
*cracks knuckles*