Renfield [Under Development] [Patreon] [Unity3D]]

[KleptoLizard]

A few years back I began development on this game.
It was based on an idea you often see banded about forums like this one.
"Why doesn't someone make an indie, homebrew answer to Bethesda-style RPGs for the benefit of the community?"

Well after teaching myself to code, to animate, to model, all about lighting and photography, countless other things.... I arrived at an answer.
The reason why someone hasn't done it yet, is that it is hard.
It's a ton of work with a nearly endless procession of stressful, thorny technical issues that are (at least at first) far beyond the ken of the self-taught amateur.

But after many restarts, rebuilds and refactors, I'm approaching a fully playable 3D first person open world RPG framework.
My goal is to give to the modding community a fresh canvas to create new content upon.
Please ask any questions you might have. 

Even a simple question, comment or word of encouragement can really boost flagging morale after the long, lonely grind.

 

 

https://www.patreon.com/Renfield

Primordial Map Test Client --> https://tinyurl.com/2pym95tc (basically a blank biome-canvas you can explore to see if the game runs on your system without issue)

The custom saving and modding system --> Card Builder (based on the card system employed by IllusionSoft games)

Edited January 16, 2023 by KleptoLizard
added link

[timazeezee]

Wow that's an impressive amount of work. Good on you for sticking it through to this point!

[KleptoLizard]

On 1/16/2023 at 11:25 AM, timazeezee said:

Wow that's an impressive amount of work. Good on you for sticking it through to this point!

Thank you.
Let me know if you've got any questions.

 

 

Daily Updates:

1/16 & 17 - Working on creatures

1/18 - Back to work on the overworld map

Edited January 18, 2023 by KleptoLizard

[LSP啊我是]

So.....is this going to be a mod friendly RPG?
Also, from what I've been following your patreon page, it looks like you're trying to make Renfield a multiplayer game?
Honestly, it's a pretty gutsy endeavor, especially considering you're an amateur indie.
In any case, I am willing to become your member and keep a long-term concern.

[KleptoLizard]

19 hours ago, LSP啊我是 said:

So.....is this going to be a mod friendly RPG?

 

Yes!
Check this out: Card Building Mod System Preview

Using these cards you can make single-file mods for a variety of uses.

So let me pick a Skyrim mod completely at random: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/25956/?tab=description

If you click on Show File Contents, you can see the file structure.

This isn't a huge amount of data.  The esp file itself is just 24.7 kb.

 

If you used only in-game models and textures, that's about all it would have to be.

But it seems this user found it expedient to export many of the game meshes and textures, rework them in a modeling program, and reinsert them.
I can understand why he did this, but if the same mod could use only reference data for the transforms and parenting, the entire mod could just be 24.7 kb.

 

The biggest Achilles' Heel of Bethesda modding is that if you enter an instanced area and it's supposed to load one of these jars, but the .nif doesn't load correctly, it crashes to desktop.
Renfield will add all these things asynchronously while using null-checking for each new asset.
This means that the worst case scenario is that the jar is missing, rather than crashing the game from a shelf down the hall and around the corner.
 

Quote

it looks like you're trying to make Renfield a multiplayer game?

Yes.  I want coop for the campaign with the option to switch off adult features.
There will also be some fun multiplayer lobby games with peer-to-peer connections with matchmaker server support.
These can be configured by the person starting the room and could be anything from repelling waves of enemies as a team to an outright orgy.
I've done some multiplayer coding before, including making a "chat plays" game using Twitch's IRC, and it's honestly not rocket science.

I appreciate your support.

 

1/19 - Hopefully finishing up the new overworld today.

Edited January 19, 2023 by KleptoLizard

[KleptoLizard]

On 1/18/2023 at 5:14 PM, LSP啊我是 said:

In any case, I am willing to become your member and keep a long-term concern.

 

Make sure you contact me here or on Patreon to select your plot of land.
Every backer gets their own zone and can act like a local deity, invisibly affecting things.

 

 

1/20 - Previous map solution is unworkable. Teleportation / fast travel is working. Spending the day refactoring.

1/21 - Editing audio files. Setting up a custom audio solution for the H-scenes. Finishing first pass of new map solution.

1/22 - Finished labeling the overworld location beacons.  
Finished basic timing system for H-audio.
Worked on dynamic H-text generation.
More work on processing audio files.

Edited January 22, 2023 by KleptoLizard

[KleptoLizard]

1/23 - Editing audio files. This might take a while since I have hours of moaning to process into clips.

1/24 - More audio editing.

1/25 - Exporting audio for the H-sequencer demo. 

1/26 - More audio exporting. Localizing text for H-sequencer into other languages.

1/27 - Post-export audio editing and volume balancing. Gathering and sorting visual and audio effects for magic spells.

 

Edited January 27, 2023 by KleptoLizard

[KleptoLizard]

New Overworld Test Client
Fixed various issues, a great deal of refactoring.
Now has fast travel.
 

Overworld Test Map 0.02

 

1/28 - Fixing various issues with the map. Expanding functionality of card saving system.

1/29 - Tweaking animations for the H-demo. More terrain bug fixing. Practicing Cangjie keyboard input for quicker Chinese localization.

1/30 - More overworld work. Fixing procedural animation issues.

1/31 - Sorting and editing sound files for H-demo.

Tomorrow on the 1st we'll be streaming on Twitch

2/2 - Still editing the sound files. 144 left.

 

Edited February 2, 2023 by KleptoLizard

[KleptoLizard]

Today I rendered a warrior who is unsteady in heels and a ballroom gown.
Clothes like shirts and pants are easy to get working.
The dress needs to rescale at runtime to avoid clipping.

 

2/3 - Finishing the sound file editing.  Slight refactoring of audio sequencer code.

2/4 - Sound editing taking longer than projected.

2/5 - Finally wrapped up sound files. Audio editing is one of the worst asset management-related tasks. It requires your ears for the quality and content, requires your eyes to study the peaks. No listening to an audiobook in the background to ease the boredom.

2/6 - Tweaking IK targets for H-animations.

2/7 - Finishing animation tweaking. Practicing 2D art techniques including gif creation.

 

 

Edited February 7, 2023 by KleptoLizard

[KleptoLizard]

This game will come with its own original setting and story.

But underneath that, it is intended to be akin to a universal RPG system.

Think of how many paper-and-pencil RPGs run on D20/GURPS/Palladium/Year Zero etc.

Not to mention the flexibility of AD&D itself. (the recent dark clouds gathering over the OGL notwithstanding)

 

A great opportunity awaits would-be writers who've wanted to create their own setting,

but lacked programming ability to make their own interactive experience, lacked the time to write out a full novel, 

or lacked the artistic hand to make sourcebooks which showed the realms they could see in their mind's eye.

I'll be actively working with modders to meet them halfway with tools that make overhauls and original setting mods much more achievable.

 

Any blend of fantasy and science-fiction is possible.

Any category of "-punk".

Westerns.

Make a Brütal Legend-style surrealist world around a genre of music.

Formulate parody crossover realms between your favorite IPs.

Call of Cthulhu-style investigation adventures involving sanity mechanics.

 

Renfield's beginnings will be humble, but I envision it being an outlet for anyone who went on a forum saying:

"You know what game they should really make?" "Wouldn't it be great if you had X, Y & Z all in the same game?"

Obviously making these expansive visions will be a lot of work no matter how you approach it.

But even after you filter out people who are purely daydreaming, the lack of a solid framework is the key obstacle.

Barring that, virtually any game you'll ever mod has at least some things that are hard-coded and difficult to work around.

 

However we're building this game from scratch.

We can allow flexibility in terms of stats, skills, degree of randomness vs determinative mechanics, all combat and other formulae...

Let's divorce ourselves from the limitations that have been placed on us by the industry.

 

 

 

P.S. The hair on this fairy looks terrible.  I don't think I'll ever use this particular wig again.

 

2/8 - Calibrating jiggle physics.

2/9 - Merging subsystems for the H-demo into a single project. Hoping to have the demo ready in the next few days.

2/10 - Last minute tweaking of the H-demo. Going to release it tomorrow whatever state it's in.

2/12 - Adding facial expressions. Fixing long list of issues with sample client.

Edited February 12, 2023 by KleptoLizard

[KleptoLizard]

Dresses like these can have full or partial cloth physics simulations.

However for this render I just introduced a bit of noise to simulate movement.

 

Speaking of physics simulations...
Someone on Twitch asked me about tentacles.
These are actually really easy.  Much easier conventional sex positions.
This is because you are just using a rope physics simulation with IK/FK.
If you want a monster to have sex but its physiology would require new animations, you could just opt to have it use a tentacle.
Essentially what they did in Urotsukidoji.

Cats, dogs, horses, dragons and a few other creatures will be based off highly morphable base models.
All sorts of different breeds of each are possible.

 

 

 

2/13 - Finishing facial expression system. Fixing bug with jiggle physics. Studying Python language.

2/14 - Finishing Python study.  We'll be using Ren'Py as a 3rd party program to make quest mods.  More fixes for the H-demo.

2/15 - More Python study.

2/16 - More Python study. Rendering.

Edited February 16, 2023 by KleptoLizard

[KleptoLizard]

Some of you might be wondering why I'm studying Python in the middle of everything else.
Let me explain briefly.
Once the H-scene client is cleaned up a bit more users will be able to do animation playback with a few options.
But of course the entire goal of the project is to wrap an adult scene playback core with actual gameplay.

The quickest way to open up possibilities with Renfield's interactivity is to fast track user-created content.

Since Ren'Py seems hands-down the most popular engine for making small scale H-games in visual novel form, it makes sense to either:

 

1) Use it as a 3rd party tool to make scenarios.
2) Use it as a template for a custom mod editor we make ourselves.
3) Some mix of 1 & 2.

 

Therefore I'm going to be spending a while learning the ins and outs of Renpy to understand how
to get experienced visual novel writers to feel at home with RF's modding framework.
The first step will be to link the script exporting feature Renpy has with RF's dialogue system.
You'll be able to give the various needed commands by designating a character that executes them.

 

This Technical Narrator will be a character that allows you to fit commands into the script itself.
The exported script would look something like this:

 

Gloucester "Drive, thoughts, down to my soul: here Clarence comes."
TechNarrator "Enter CLARENCE, Enter BRAKENBURY"
Gloucester "Brother, good day; what means this armed guard that waits upon your grace?"
Clarence "His majesty tendering my person's safety, hath appointed..."

 

You can call the Technical Narrator whatever you want.
Its quotes won't appear as dialogue, so it's different from Ren'Py's normal disembodied narration.
Instead it acts like an escape character in a String literal.
The quote will be parsed and treated like a command.

 

Syntax for the commands will be based closely on simple Ren'Py functions.
However some of the defines such as characters and custom UI elements might be better handled
with Renfield's character creator and other tools we make ourselves.

 

 

 

 

2/25 - Modeling software tutorials

2/28 - Sorry for the updates coming less frequently.
I've been slammed by a lot more work lately.
The project is in a good position at this point but it's been a struggle to find time for it.
As always, let me know if anyone wants more info about the game or about their chosen territory.

Edited February 28, 2023 by KleptoLizard

[faggotshit]

HAHAHAHAHA am here now FEAR ME!! ?

 

bruh can you 360 no scope with crossbows? 

[KleptoLizard]

On 3/3/2023 at 11:47 PM, faggotshit said:

HAHAHAHAHA am here now FEAR ME!! ?

 

bruh can you 360 no scope with crossbows? 

Of course.

 

3/21 - Alright.  The initial glut of additional work has eased a bit.  Getting back to daily updates.

3/22 - Tweaking hair models and race presets.

3/23 - Working on spells and spell effects.

3/24 - Patching some data structs, working on some IOStream-based scripts for loading information from all these txt files I've accumulated and parsing it all into something usable.

3/25 - Finishing up the combat formulas

3/26 - Environmental assets.  Modular village buildings.

3/27 - Fixing some issues with broken dependencies from yesterday.  More environmental work.

3/28 - Refactoring and cleanup

3/29 - Processing spell and activated ability data.  432 individual entries so this'll take a minute.

4/3 - Working on unique NPC data

4/4 - Working on shops and economy

4/5 - Working on armor and clothing

4/10 - Clothing, skin, bodies, hair

4/11 Clothing, jewelry, items.  Data entry.

Edited April 11, 2023 by KleptoLizard

[KleptoLizard]

Well the H-client's core functionality is all working. ...and I'm entirely unhappy with it.

The different subsystems have very poor synergy and rhythm with each other.

It reminds me of those MUGEN mods with how jarring the sound and animation can be.

Yet with time and fine tuning it will get much better.

 

More importantly, I'm nearing the mid-point of a day-job contract which upon

its conclusion should give me the resources I need to start hiring help.

Having more people on the Renfield project will result in a drastic change of progress rate.

I appreciate everyone's patience; we're nearing a point where we'll have something playable both in terms of H-playback and as a proper game.

 

For a long time it was like playing Starcraft with only one SCV.

If all goes well I'll be able to recruit some talented people I've met over the years doing freelance work in the indie scene.

The project will move faster and I'll feel a lot less burned out.

 

4/12 & 4/13 - Collecting, sorting and modding Mixamo animations.  Practicing animation blending/weighting/masking/layering techniques.

4/14 - Expanding monster race presets and morph targets.

4/17 - Locations, especially ruins

4/18 - Save system & modding framework

4/19 - Weapon models

4/20 - Reconfiguring metadata for asset library

4/21 - Rendering some banner and UI art

4/22 - Graphic design practice and tutorials

4/24 - Coding the Ren'Py file parser

4/25 - Studying C# memory API

4/27 - Installing female beast race morphs.  They'd previously been corrupted but have now been repaired.

4/29 - Working on world items, minor terrain features.

5/6 - Over the last week I've fixed various issues with the sound system and voice files, made tweaks to scenes, various other fixes and improvements.
I've also been examining the Mount & Blade: Warband modding system.
The modules are very convenient when installing other people's mods, but actually making mods can be quite convoluted.

5/8 - Typing out a unified namespace for all the various needed data classes, listing all the needed properties.

5/11 - Coding the Renpy parser is going well.

 

Edited May 11, 2023 by KleptoLizard

[KleptoLizard]

 

As part of the process of developing a modding kit for Renfield I wanted to take
a fresh look at some of the more successful tools and systems in the industry.
The two main contenders were the Creation Kit used for Skyrim / Fallout 4
and the module system used in Mount & Blade titles, specifically Warband.

 

What I found played out like a debate between two compsci professors on the
strengths and weaknesses of the coding patterns Composition & Inheritance.

The Creation Kit and the Plugins (ESPs) are a case study in puritanical Inheritance.

A typical bandit encountered in the world is often the result of 10 steps of filtered
"Swiss cheese" selective overwriting and at least one leveled list.
Then the plugins go in sequence overwriting each other allowing for a wide variety
of mods to be blended together but with massive, looming stability / incompatibility implications.

 

M&B's modules are highly convenient for installing overhauls and switching between them.
Just like an actual mod manager, however the ease of combining smaller mods is lost.  
Should you tweak the compiled txt files (which everyone does) you'll run into complications
if another change requires you to recompile the Python scripts.
Furthermore so many values in M&B's scripts are indexes to arrays formed by the txt files.
This is tantamount to a hard-coded spaghetti throwback to the bad old days of BASIC.

 

Clearly a system can be envisioned that combines the strengths of both these extremes.
However the main weakness that both modding systems have is their lack of null-checking.
Each system could avoid the vast majority of CTDs if the code looked before it leapt.
It's the difference between a mesh not loading but substituting a question mark
as opposed to simply crashing without warning or explanation.

 

This is especially evident in Skyrim where you could be walking through an area and
some content will attempt to load in a place where the player cannot even see.
Every get() that is replaced with a tryget() in the code will boost the overall stability
tremendously and speed up any debugging processes, making modding much less painful.

 

5/15 - Progress with the behavior tree system

5/16 - More work on modding tools.
Unlike many in-house mod kits available in recent years which have pop-up/pop-out windows, RF's kit will feature a layout with multiple docked windows which talk to each other.
Now it'll be much simpler and more ergonomic to configure new actors, equipment, factions etc and weave together their relationships via drag-and-drop.

5/20 - Experimenting with OpenBRF & NifSkope

5/21 - Refactoring plugins to avoid needless dependency chains

5/22 - Modeling, texturing, rigging

5/24 - Fixed a really persistent graphical glitch.  More refactoring.

Edited June 8, 2023 by KleptoLizard

[KleptoLizard]

On occasion I'll get feedback asking "Can you make the girls look like this?"
The answer to all of these inquiries/requests simultaneously is yes.
Whatever faces/bodies/styles you want, we can find a way to accommodate.

 

I've been looking carefully and modding systems for IllusionSoft, Bethesda and Taleworlds titles.
Illusion has in-game character creation and "studio" clients to pose in.
But any extension of these systems involves outright hacking the game.
Illusion is often the butt of jokes vis-a-vis how they could create the ultimate
H-game but never will because it would put them out of business.
[Google "The Illusion Grief Cycle"]
Their message to the players/users is "relax guys; the game will have all the customization you could ever want."
The users then proceed to retroengineer nearly every aspect of software.

 

Bethesda goes for an almost entirely inheritance-dependent paradigm.
A bandit in Skyrim that you encounter in-game is about 10 levels of inheritance down from a base abstract bandit.
[Bandit Base] becomes [Bandit Subcategory] becomes [Bandit Caster Base] becomes [Bandit Caster Subtype]...
And this system can be convenient for making changes to an entire family of units with a few changes.
But the drawbacks become readily evident when trying to pluck something from one of these trees.
The interface of the Creation Kit showers you with popup menus and lacks many
features for seamless side-by-side or bird's eye viewing of related content.
Meanwhile the strengths and weaknesses of ESM/ESP files could be a book all on their own.

 

Mount & Blade by Taleworlds has a really clever, highly flexible... and incredibly obtuse modding system.
They seemed to want the best possible experience for "modders" (i.e. people who install and play mods)
while also holding an undying hatred for the other type of "modders" (i.e. people who make mods).
Theirs is a wholly composition-based paradigm that compiles content via a Python process into a series of txt files with arrays.
It also includes modules in separate folders which provides natively the function of many mod organizers.
Many talented people have created amazing, in-depth overhauls of the various Mount & Blade titles.
(Keep in mind that this is all based on Classic, Warband, Fire & Sword etc., not Bannerlord which has its own kit with which I'm not yet familiar)
Yet splicing content from one module to another can be a very delicate operation.

 

After examining these different systems I've come up with some modding tools for RF that will take into account all these lessons.
Among these tools will be a node-tree system for getting your characters to look the way you want.
Whenever I would make new characters or download character cards for an Illusion game,
I'd make the same handful of tweaks to give them more of an hourglass figure.
But with this node-based system I could take a character card and drop it into the folder which populates the game world
and the game will automatically make those adjustments to every female character.
Textures, materials and shaders will all be accessible.
Body types can go through Add/Subtract/Average/Lerp/Floor/Ceiling/Clamp/Multiply/Divide
operations so the distinct variations will be present but they'll all be "drawn in your style" so to speak.

 

 

6/11 - Reorganizing data fields, deepcopying data in various places, eliminating redundancies.

6/15 - Reassigning clothing surfaces.  Often a clothing item has parts that should really have a separate shader.  Like metal or gems on a mostly cloth item.

6/16 - Worked on user-accessible decal system.  Useful for tattoos, tabards, flags and scars.

6/22 - Converting outfits with a focus on shoes/boots.

Edited June 25, 2023 by KleptoLizard

[KleptoLizard]

One of the key tools I'm working on is an in-game image editor. You'll be able to mod textures/materials without any 3rd party programmed preview it in real time. Looking at this above example, you'll see the hair has these tails that I wanted to turn off. On a typical wig these would be a submesh that you could just switch off with one click.

But for some clothing and hair there are situations where you'll want to trim it in a specific way. By trial and error it the areas on the opacity texture can be verified and those tails made invisible. The new coder (who will join at the end of July in a long-awaited and very welcome addition) will be able to make a convenient system of clicking on the mesh and getting the UV coordinate.

Also, users can now click on the face/body itself to call up blendshape handles in a manner familiar to players of Fallout 4 or Black Desert. This is a great improvement over the character creator I'd previously released that just had lists of morphs across several menus.

Remember; don't be shy about asking questions.

 

 

6/28 - Finishing sets of basic animations for the adventure mode.  (Running/Attacking/Dying/Idles etc)

7/4 - Focusing on animations and armor sets.

7/7 - Experimenting with shader and post-proc combinations.  Saving presets.

Edited July 7, 2023 by KleptoLizard

[Fnray]

Love what your trying to do, and i'll be checking up on this from time to time.

That Said, I have a Bachelors in Software engineering and from what i've already learned about multiplayer games your going to run into many difficult issues. In companies that make such games, they have people whose only job is devoted to making that work.
to give you an idea:
the biggest challenge is going to be the Amount of Data that can be quickly transmitted between 2 pc's over the connection.
Because the fastest way and only way to keep a 3d game in sync between them is to transmit entire "objects" all at once.
The problem of course is that "objects" can get quite large depending upon the amount of things that need to be transmitted at any point in time.
When it becomes large enough that the one pc has moved forward with the simulation, while the other is still downloading, then you have De-sync.

Ideally You could make a "network" object that contained all of the needed objects packaged in such a way as to minimize the overhead costs and keep it to as little data transfered as possible.

BUT before you go and do all of that.. and this is big here, If you want the game to be highly moddable. Multiplayer / co-op is going to add many additional layers of difficulty for both yourself and the modders.  If you try to make the game able to handle mods with the co-op then the overhead of the "network" object is going to grow immensely. on top of which the modders may now need to access the network objects API and pass it additional objects.  The potential here for de-sync and lag is catastrophic. 

Can it be done... sure
should it be done.. Man that would be awesome.
But should you try to do it all alone, most certainly not.

Wish i could help but my experience is very limited and I haven't done any games to speak of... ah wait a hangman game once as a school project... it sucked but i did pass obviously.

Edited July 9, 2023 by raz334

[KleptoLizard]

On 7/8/2023 at 8:12 PM, raz334 said:

Love what your trying to do, and i'll be checking up on this from time to time.

 

I appreciate it. 

There's no need to worry about the multiplayer features.
I'm using a 3rd party piece of software that makes everything fairly turn-key.
For multiplayer H-scenes very little data goes over the network.

Now if you were doing coop and entered a city teeming with NPCs it could cause issues.
But even an instanced dungeon area shouldn't have too many things requiring network updates.

Right now the main concern is finishing up a non-H indie game that should be completed by fall of this year.
If it makes decent money I can then focus on Renfield full time and hire people to speed things up even more.

 

7/10 - Working on buildings.

7/12 - Working on character presets.
Project backers, even former backers, are invited to make requests for custom NPCs in their assigned domain.

7/13 - Outfit coordination and implementing backer feedback.

Edited July 14, 2023 by KleptoLizard

[KleptoLizard]

 

A few things about game development are so cumbersome in terms of
time investment that to implement it all on one's own is not a great idea.
Environmental creation is just one example.

 

I've spent years making overworld maps/cities/interiors/dungeons
for the singleplayer mode of RF with many reboots and restarts
and while I learned a great deal, I wouldn't wish this on anyone.

 

So for the modding tools I'm trying to make things as user-friendly as possible.
The assets I'm using exhibit a huge range of possibilities with thousands of individual meshes.
By default these are textured with a very generic medieval theme but they're easily changed.
There's really no limit to what you can make.

 

Beyond that I'm developing various quick generation tools.
Rather than place each wall and floor you can use brushes to make a structure in seconds.
The system will pick out and place the appropriate meshes and place everything dynamically.
Users familiar with 2D sprite-based terrain drawing will understand what I mean.
Just as many sprite terrain tile sets identify and reconfigure center, edge and corner pieces
the toolset will make generation of structures and rooms relatively painless.

 

Another method I'm experimenting with is a SimCity style "zoning" system.
By laying out the roads and zones how you like, you can then just watch the buildings sprout up,
trimming and tweaking them between generation steps.

 

7/19 - Drawing up presentation materials for the new team members

7/21 - Drafting siege engines and mechanics

7/22 - Working on dungeons and the encounter/treasure tables for them

7/25 - Working on a more stylistic overworld map image

Edited July 25, 2023 by KleptoLizard

[Fnray]

Man, Have you posted this anywhere else? You only have so little in patreon help but im certain you could attract much more if you posted to other related places that get more views.. like F95, if your not familiar with that place already... *facepalm*  https://f95zone.to/
F95 is like the public place for H-Gamers, while loverslab is like the blackweb of the gamers place...  I don't see any reason why this game would need to stay only here, but do read the rules of F95 before you go making your advert post, they are diligent about enforcing their rules, they have to be.

[KleptoLizard]

On 8/21/2023 at 3:05 AM, raz334 said:

Man, Have you posted this anywhere else? You only have so little in patreon help but im certain you could attract much more if you posted to other related places that get more views.. like F95, if your not familiar with that place already... *facepalm*  https://f95zone.to/
F95 is like the public place for H-Gamers, while loverslab is like the blackweb of the gamers place...  I don't see any reason why this game would need to stay only here, but do read the rules of F95 before you go making your advert post, they are diligent about enforcing their rules, they have to be.

Yes I post on ULMF and F95Zone.
I've been lagging behind in posting updates since I'm really busy with freelancing work to further fund the Renfield project.
But in the meantime I'm open to answer any questions you might have.

[KleptoLizard]

I shudder to think about the time and money wasted on the previous audio solution.
But now AI is a thing and the last key technical obstacle to RF's development has fallen.
There's a lot of opposition to AI from people who worry about its impact on talent.
However no matter how many times I tried it simply proved impossible to find
    affordable paid volunteers who would turn in consistent quality audio files.
 

Once the new files come in we just need to clean up the UI and tidy the code.
The procedural animations are functional but very wonky and awkward.
Fixing them will be a matter of tightening / loosening the various competing IK target weights.
Nevertheless we'll have a working demo at long last.

 

9/16 - Well the initial pass was horrible.  Sounds like she's singing in some creole of Cherokee and Tibetan.  Will keep fiddling with the settings.

9/17 - Alright after exploring various AI options and getting estimates from voice actor hiring sites I've decided I just can't afford a new voice solution at this time.
We're just going to move forward with the other stuff.

9/18 - Filling in data sheets

9/24 - Finished filling in character, npc and enemy data.  Now filling in spell data.

9/28 - Writing some IOStream code to automate file sorting and renaming

10/6 - Finished exporting temporary voice files. More spreadsheet data entry.

Edited October 6, 2023 by KleptoLizard

[Fnray]

just do what you can, and maybe someone who can fill in the blanks will come along. that tends to be the way of these things.

Even skyrim with all its financial backing and many many people working on it's development, still wouldn't be all it is without a large modd-ing community working to each individually add their own to it.

Edited October 7, 2023 by raz334