VN Ren'Py Battlemage From Obscurity [Development Thread]

[LutholianDev]

Battle Mage From Obscurity (Dev Thread)
By LutholianDev
​

Hi. Working on a new game.

The game's current working title is Battlemage from Obscurity. It is a fantasy visual novel about a wizard's apprentice, his journey to "greatness", and the people he meets(and sleeps with). Battlemage from Obscurity will be made in Ren'Py, with character portraits and most areas having unique backgrounds. At this time, and most likely still by the release of the first public version, the game's art is ai generated. I would love to have an actual artist work on it, but that is simply not economically viable to pursue at this juncture. The game's soundtrack is assembled from royalty free music.

To the right, one can see our current cast of characters, minus a few for varying reasons such as spoilers I don't quite want to tip my hand for just yet.

Plot Premise​

Our story begins with our protagonist being sent to the border regions of the kingdom(tentatively the Kingdom of Tulor during its heyday, for the something like three fans of my prior game to whom that might mean anything), where a group of undead has been reported. A border garrison has been dispatched to deal with the problem, and a the presence of a wizard requested just in case. Our hero's master, not wanting to make such a journey to provide unneeded help in dealing with the petty leftovers from the last War, sends him out to fulfill this task in his place. Shockingly enough for such a plot, the situation is more dire than assumed. Now our hero must do what he can to save the village, and in the process kick-start his rise from an obscure wizard apprentice to a famed battlemage.

What we've got so far
(accurate as of March 14th)​

• A good chunk of the intro to the game. The main plot introduction is completed, what remains to be done is a sort pseudo-tutorial that has the player encounter the mechanics of the "real" game in isolation first without being thrust into the full thing right away.
• The core village location of the first act, in full baseline functionality. The player can navigate from location to location, every location has a background, and so on.
• Working day of the week and time of day system. Areas can have different options depending on time of day, a current in-game example being a character who is working on his farm during some parts of the day and drinking in the tavern in the evening. Same for day of the week, a current in-game example being that Sunday is church and market day and new options being added based on those days. Location backgrounds have day and night versions.
• Several characters in-game have conversations available, as well as a bit of degree of limited interaction.
• The (unseen)player character has a bit of a wardrobe system implemented. Some characters will react to the player wearing a different outfit. The player is able to buy an outfit from the village's tailor shop.
• The player can choose to have the "femboy" trait during the intro/character creation. This unlocks different dialogue options and such and can interact alongside other systems.
• Soundtrack. Changes based on current context, for instance the market during market day has its own background music from the usual generic one.
• On the art front, every currently implemented character has artwork. Every location has a background and every location that can be visited during both day and night has a night version as well. A handful of adult scenes have been generated, but not yet implemented.
• The story outline for the first act is nominally complete, with enough space for a bit of flexibility if changes or rewrites need to occur as implementation forces it to confront reality. The basic concept of the second act is defined, and will become more concrete as Act 1 develops.

Think that's everything I wanted to say. Questions are very welcome. I'll be using this development thread to dump "art", talk about development, and hopefully get some feedback on my ideas and the direction of the game. With my prior game, F95 was the only place that gave actionable feedback and honest critique, and I hope you folk will continue to do so.

 

[LutholianDev]

Just claiming the first post in case main post ever gets long enough that I need to use it, if that's alright.

 

[damnedfrog]

Interesting.

But for what I see, unlike A World Adrift, there won't be an option to play a female MC?

And about the femboy trait, is it just that the MC will have some feminine traits (like the face, a smaller stature..)?
Or will he have a more feminine body (b cup or more boobs, larger hip...)?
In short, will he be more a trap or a dickgirl?

 

[Oliz82]

Hello.

From that description, this game seems more generic, not like it's a bad thing but what was really interesting in A World Adrift was it's originality.

Being an apprentice let's enough place for the player to grow the protagonist as he wants. It's a good thing for replayability too.

An introduction is always better to explain a game's mechanics (even if it's not complicated as in your other game, it's still necessary) and universe.
Nice to have people react to our outfits because it's usually only cosmetic (I woud love to see one day a game in which NPCs react to not only the type of clothes but also it's color or signs on it).
So the "femboy" trait is the only way to have a possible bi/gay playthrough?

If you're able to include as much kinks as what was planned in A World Adrift, you'll create a wonderful game. I'm also curious how the 2 games are related.

Good continuation.

 

[LutholianDev]

Interesting.

But for what I see, unlike A World Adrift, there won't be an option to play a female MC?

And about the femboy trait, is it just that the MC will have some feminine traits (like the face, a smaller stature..)?
Or will he have a more feminine body (b cup or more boobs, larger hip...)?
In short, will he be more a trap or a dickgirl?

Right now I'm not planning on female mc. It'd be doable, I guess but it's kind of out of the scope I was envisioning.

As for the femboy trait, I am imagining the first option for it, but I don't think any game text specifically says that at the moment. This kinda inspired me a little though. Maybe there could be a "femboy+" trait that operates more like a dickgirl?

 

[LutholianDev]

Hello.

From that description, this game seems more generic, not like it's a bad thing but what was really interesting in A World Adrift was it's originality.

Being an apprentice let's enough place for the player to grow the protagonist as he wants. It's a good thing for replayability too.

An introduction is always better to explain a game's mechanics (even if it's not complicated as in your other game, it's still necessary) and universe.
Nice to have people react to our outfits because it's usually only cosmetic (I woud love to see one day a game in which NPCs react to not only the type of clothes but also it's color or signs on it).
So the "femboy" trait is the only way to have a possible bi/gay playthrough?

If you're able to include as much kinks as what was planned in A World Adrift, you'll create a wonderful game. I'm also curious how the 2 games are related.

Good continuation.

Yeah, its going to be a somewhat more generic premise, but hopefully some of the world building can be interesting as well.

That's the idea. Give the protagonist an arc.

Intro wouldn't be a tutorial in the sense of "click here for x", but rather more just introducing various concepts and how the game is one by one.

I don't particularly plan on there being a set appearance for the protagonist, the lewd scenes I've generated are from a pov perspective. Makes it easier for the player to self insert. So in that sense, it's impossible for player outfits to be purely cosmetic.

No, you can have gay/bi scenes outside of femboy. Most of the content is probably going to skew towards straight since most of the audience is likely to as well, but there will be some.

I don't want to promise anything in regards to trying to cover everything A World Adrift did. Battlemage from Obscurity is supposed to be of a more limited(and thus manageable) scope, and while that's primarily mechanically odds are content will also be a somewhat narrower as well. I'll do my best to meet a wide range, however.

 

[damnedfrog]

Right now I'm not planning on female mc. It'd be doable, I guess but it's kind of out of the scope I was envisioning.

Well, even if prefer female MC, it's probably best if you restrain the scope on what you are envisioning.
After all, you drop A World Adrift because it was too big.
Don't make the same mistake twice

As for the femboy trait, I am imagining the first option for it, but I don't think any game text specifically says that at the moment. This kinda inspired me a little though. Maybe there could be a "femboy+" trait that operates more like a dickgirl?

I would certainly enjoy a femboy+ trait more.
But again, don't go too big.

 

[Oliz82]

Hello.

Thanks for the explainations.

No, you can have gay/bi scenes outside of femboy. Most of the content is probably going to skew towards straight since most of the audience is likely to as well, but there will be some.

As long as there's enough content, I don't mind the quantity. As a bi man, what annoys me the most are adding one male LI, generally with a feminine build, in harem games (meaning, if you don't like the character, there's no bi/gay content anymore), or just stumbling upon 2 men having sex as a female protagonist. I can understand sissification games, though it's not my taste. I won't ask for bi scenes, I know it's difficult, though there's a lack of them in porn games.

Good continuation.

 

[Satori6]

Since you'll be using the character sprites on different backgrounds, add an "empty blank background" or similar prompt to your generations. That will make it much easier to crop the images without it being noticeable.

Helmet girl is looking fine. All of the characters do, but particularly her.

 

[LutholianDev]

Since you'll be using the character sprites on different backgrounds, add an "empty blank background" or similar prompt to your generations. That will make it much easier to crop the images without it being noticeable.

Helmet girl is looking fine. All of the characters do, but particularly her.

I actually already do! Something in either the model or the prompt decides that backgrounds should come back anyways a lot of the time. I looked at the tips page in your signature, I'll be visiting it again next time I need to generate sprites. I think it could greatly improve my current workflow.

Helmet girl is technically supposed to just represent a generic female soldier. I'm thinking of making the soldiers more static characters though. Some fears about scope creep around that, but I think I can keep them as at least somewhat minor characters. We'll see how feedback goes once it releases, if its a common request I can't see why not.