VN Ren'Py Summer's Gone [S1 Steam + DLC] [Oceanlab]

[seniorboop]

Well, it seems this VN is simply not for you. That is fine, but I doubt it will get better for you.
Especially when everything everyone likes about it, is something you don't like - at least that is how I read your post. Like, to go for the most obvious, most of us like how alive and real the characters feel and you write "So far, there hasn't been a single line that felt like it came from an actual human being.".
I am a bit sad for you honestly, like when I play one of my favorite songs to someone and he is like "meh, it is ok I guess - BARELY.".

But then there are many VNs with 5 star ratings here that just don't click with me. Good thing we all like different stuff, else the world would be pretty bland.

Typical F95...

Dude posts his initial impressions of the introductory chapter giving both praise and criticism in a respectful manner and clearly stating his intention to keep going, yet a toxic thinly veiled attack is what he receives in response for offering anything less than unanimous praise.

"... this VN is simply not for you," "... I doubt it will get better for you," because hes not head over heels about a chapter even the developer saw the need to completely retrofit.

The rampant yes man behavior endemic in F95 communities is like a disease, I swear. Idk why I replied to this knowing it'll only provoke additional t-cells.

 

[minoruzz]

just wanna say thanks for a good game

 

[Prone to the Sea]

I started playing Chapter 1, and I'll just leave some of my initial thoughts here:

I'm impressed by the renders and some of the camerawork during the introduction, I've never really seen such a dynamic approach to these kind of games. The UI could do with some polish, the classic RenPy format looks a bit dodgy, but it isn't that big of a deal in all honesty.

The music during the intro sequence was passable, but it didn't really leave an impression. I hope that in later chapters music becomes more consistent and generally just kept in the background as the story progresses. Having dead silence while reading the campy dialogue is depressing.

The dialogue is pretty camp. So far, there hasn't been a single line that felt like it came from an actual human being. But I'm hopeful that's only temporary.

I don't mind the classic incel protagonist trope all that much, I can only acknowledge the Sasuke hair and the vague, typecast statements about society, and hope that it grows on me somehow. Man, the characters they've introduced so far are so comically trope-y. I don't like a single one, I've read reviews and it seems like that should change with time.

The creator is a one piece fan though, I don't know why Nami is the abomination she is right now currently but again, I hope for quite the turnaround. Hopefully the writing isn't of the same quality of the recent one piece arc, I actually want to have a good time.

First ever post on f95, I'm usually just lurking and reading. First impressions are important, but they are usually irrelevant once you get hooked. Unpolished UI, missing images, glitches are all things you can forgive when you're just interested in continuing the story.

I always find it super difficult to get started, even new books where the author has the possibility to shuffle or completely rewrite the opening before the book is even released. The author is usually experimenting with styles, and haven't found a proper workflow yet. Try to get through the first chapter, things really kick off later on.

That being said, as others have mentioned Ocean is going back and reworking Chapter 1, see #8431919, which I imagine is probably just as difficult as starting a new chapter, involving new scenes, better models, rewritten script. I think the new renders look absolutely stunning and on-par with the quality in later chapters. Considering that there isn't really any new content (story) being added, but touching up the overall quality of the whole game, very brave, it speaks to their interest in quality over quantity. Practice makes perfect, Ocean's other story that's being developed in parallel, Where It All Began, had a much more better start.

For the dialogue, I've read plenty of novels where it feels very plastic. At least for the first chapter, I get it, when you're just starting out working on a story, you're trying to figure out the environment, game mechanics, etc. The Darkness mechanic seems to have been completely scrapped after Chapter 1, for example. But as I said before, after having completed the game several times, even decompiling the script files to make sure I haven't missed any sequences, it becomes irrelevant. And when there are holes, you fill them with your imagination.

Quick note on the music, it's really hard to get licensed music for this type of game, there's been a lot of discussion about it on this forum. From my understanding, Ocean just got some sweet deals, expect great things, I think it's already much improved in the last chapters. I've found that a chill ambient mix on YouTube complements game silence quite nicely.

If you don't enjoy it, that's fine, you'll likely encounter a few people that will try to strongly defend it here, like with anything really. I was really on the fence at first, with the scene quality and a story and set-up that I found ridiculous. I'm not a hardcore anime fan, when I saw that mop of hair and the mood, I was really put off. I was trying to find something to live up to Being A DIK (Derek!) and was really put off by the first chapter, now I think it's one of the best novels I've ever encountered, given that I found it on F95 (and not a national literature competition). Unfortunately, the only way you'll know whether you enjoy it is to keep going.

Do I wish for a iron-tight script, flawless renders and frequent releases? Of course, but this is already super impressive given that it's a one-man show. I was completely taken back by the image quality in the last chapter, you could easily mistake it for a small budget film or a triple-A game cinematic. I did find it to be a waste of precious update, considering its length and independence from the main story, but given the amount of planned content in the future, it will be an interesting "intermission". Huge thanks to Ocean for making this, it motivated me and pushed me through my final Bachelor exams, despite the "post-book blues" that I got. I came for the porn, stayed for the story.

 

[yossa999]

Does someone know, if the event with Vic & Mila at Vic's house will be included in the final 4 episode?

 

[FunChaser]

Does someone know, if the event with Vic & Mila at Vic's house will be included in the final 4 episode?

No, it's from part 4.5

 

[karlsberg]

Dude posts his initial impressions of the introductory chapter giving both praise and criticism in a respectful manner and clearly stating his intention to keep going, yet a toxic thinly veiled attack is what he receives in response for offering anything less than unanimous praise.

When someone dishes out hyperboles like "So far, there hasn't been a single line that felt like it came from an actual human being", it's not exactly respectful, regardless whether they meant it like that or not.
Ocean's dialogue definitely needs improvement even now, but I've seen much worse on this site.

 

[jaw1986baby]

When someone dishes out hyperboles like "So far, there hasn't been a single line that felt like it came from an actual human being", it's not exactly respectful, regardless whether they meant it like that or not.
Ocean's dialogue definitely needs improvement even now, but I've seen much worse on this site.

Particularly if they are judging a translation

If you are fluent in Ocean's native tongue and read his native tongue dialogue and feel like that is accurate then it might be valid. But translations are only as good as the translator so dialogue critique is useless and pointless.





PEACE

 

[Deleted member 1037606]

Just finished Chapter 3.

I initially didn't really know how to gauge the quality of story. It seems to receive high praise in this thread and it specifically hones in on the fact that story takes precedence over sexual content. But after adjusting my expectations, I did manage to get through two chapters without any serious misgivings. That being said, most of what I criticised from the first chapter still remains. I appreciate things a lot more now though, some things can be so bad that they become good. I've actually collected a few lines that were particularly shit.

Spoiler: Poetry

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The MC is still insufferable, but in an entertaining way at least. In a lot of ways, this game feels like an incel's wet dream, but you could extend this to literally any anime, h-game or pornhwa, it just struck me a lot while I was playing. Some of his edgelord outbursts are great though. Bro literally said Bella's car looked like it had cancer and extended that to Bella by calling her a tumor (he wasn't wrong either, that wrap was ugly). Despite the cancer car, the animation sequence with it and Bella was good, I always look forward to them while playing. Except the one fight scene, that was just hilarious.

In terms of the characters, I can at least fire off a few that I like now. Jeffrey is a real one, I liked the Ronnie Coleman bit when the MC went to the gym with him. Victoria still has that thousand yard stare that I can't get over. Maja and the Scarface girl are hot. Sonya is cute. Nami is still an autist. Ayua is a based Judo-enjoyer (and hot). Bella seems to be where I'm heading love-interest wise though, not because of a particular preference but it just ended up that way.

I still don't see what the hype was about with the story and the characters; Bella's backstory in particular and other character's heart-to-heart's with the MC seem way too on the nose and sudden to me. At this point, I'm three chapters in so I'll just be riding the rest of it out.

Spoiler: This feels like a meme. The MC is the human equivalent of Shadow The Hedgehog

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[Fortuna ღ]

Typical F95...

Dude posts his initial impressions of the introductory chapter giving both praise and criticism in a respectful manner and clearly stating his intention to keep going, yet a toxic thinly veiled attack is what he receives in response for offering anything less than unanimous praise.

"... this VN is simply not for you," "... I doubt it will get better for you," because hes not head over heels about a chapter even the developer saw the need to completely retrofit.

The rampant yes man behavior endemic in F95 communities is like a disease, I swear. Idk why I replied to this knowing it'll only provoke additional t-cells.

Toxic and thinly veiled attack? My dear, there was nothing toxic about Old Man Al's comment. It was a comment made due to an observation of the tone of NTRFruitSnack's comment(which was negative, to begin with). People criticize SG all the time here... in fact, I tend to critique it a lot myself. No one's attacking him for not being "head over heels" for the first chapter, after all, it's his initial thoughts. In fact, I'll take a look at that right now.

I'm impressed by the renders and some of the camerawork during the introduction, I've never really seen such a dynamic approach to these kind of games. The UI could do with some polish, the classic RenPy format looks a bit dodgy, but it isn't that big of a deal in all honesty.

It does improve in later chapters. Unfortunately, you came before the final version has been released. In the upcoming update, chapter 1 will receive many changes, a lot of which address your points as they're also areas that the developer(Oceanlabs) wasn't very pleased with.

The music during the intro sequence was passable, but it didn't really leave an impression. I hope that in later chapters music becomes more consistent and generally just kept in the background as the story progresses. Having dead silence while reading the campy dialogue is depressing.

The problem in regards to music is not one that has an easy solution. However, I am happy to say that it becomes better in later chapters. I understand where you're coming from in regards to background music because it assists with immersing you into the world of SG. It helps enthral you in each scene. Having no music lowers the quality of the experience, so in that regard, I get it.

The dialogue is pretty camp. So far, there hasn't been a single line that felt like it came from an actual human being. But I'm hopeful that's only temporary.

How long have you been on this website? There are not that many visual novels here with realistic dialogue. Oceanlabs is not a native English speaker, so the problem lies in the translation. It's not exactly easy to acquire someone that can flawlessly translate German to English(in a way that fits with the tone of the scene/story/characters). Not saying that the dialogue isn't an issue, but giving an explanation as to why it's in this state. Though it does moderately improve with each chapter. And believe it or not, there are many real, living people just like the characters in Summer's Gone. But you are only on chapter 1, so I won't be hard on you there.

I don't mind the classic incel protagonist trope all that much, I can only acknowledge the Sasuke hair and the vague, typecast statements about society, and hope that it grows on me somehow. Man, the characters they've introduced so far are so comically trope-y. I don't like a single one, I've read reviews and it seems like that should change with time.

There are tropes in every single story. There is not a single story without one, so I do not understand the negative tone of this paragraph. He fulfills the trope of a dark/cynical protagonist on a road to redemption. This story is about his journey to become a better person(and overcome the issues that make him a dark person). I'm just going to give you a heads-up and let you know that this isn't changing anytime soon. You can make choices that guide him toward being less of a dark person, but he's not going to change fundamentally. He's not going to ever be a bro or a stud. What separates him from 90% of the protagonists on this website is that he has demons that he has to overcome by the end of this story. That internal plot is one of the driving forces behind Summer's Gone. But this is your opinion, so take my comment with a grain of salt.

The creator is a one piece fan though, I don't know why Nami is the abomination she is right now currently but again, I hope for quite the turnaround. Hopefully the writing isn't of the same quality of the recent one piece arc, I actually want to have a good time.

You're actually the first person I've come across on this thread with that view of Nami. The writing of her character can indeed use some work, but I wouldn't call her an "abomination". Then again, this is your opinion, so I can't really argue that. Judging by your comment, as Old Man Al said, many of the things people love about this game, you seem to dislike, so I can't really say that your experience will get any better. seniorboop that's the whole reason Old Man Al said that this did not seem like the VN for him. That comment was nothing compared to the actual toxicity seen in some of the larger threads on this site. For a time, the BaD thread was known for its lawlessness as it got out of control countless times(it's not like that at the moment), this is to say that there are much worse threads here with actual toxicity. Old Man Al was simply calling a spade a spade. If you truly believed that his comment was toxic, then perhaps you haven't been on this site long enough.

Edit: After reading his latest comment, I have to agree with Old Man Al. This visual novel definitely does not seem the type of story for one such as NTRFruitSnackღ

 

[Deleted member 1037606]

There are tropes in every single story. There is not a single story without one, so I do not understand the negative tone of this paragraph. He fulfills the trope of a dark/cynical protagonist on a road to redemption. This story is about his journey to become a better person(and overcome the issues that make him a dark person). I'm just going to give you a heads-up and let you know that this isn't changing anytime soon. You can make choices that guide him toward being less of a dark person, but he's not going to change fundamentally. He's not going to ever be a bro or a stud. What separates him from 90% of the protagonists on this website is that he has demons that he has to overcome by the end of this story. That internal plot is one of the driving forces behind Summer's Gone. But this is your opinion, so take this comment with a grain of salt.

The trope isn't bad (I actually like brooding protagonists when they're written well), but I think it's badly executed here. It's not a problem anymore, since the bad execution is entertaining in its own right. Sorry if I didn't make that clear in my post.

You're actually the first person I've come across on this thread with that view of Nami. The writing of her character can indeed use some improvements, but I wouldn't call her character an "abomination". Then again, this is your opinion, so I can't really argue that. Judging by your comment, as @Old Man Al said, many of the things people love about this game, you seem to dislike, so I can't really say that your experience will get any better. @seniorboop that's the whole reason @Old Man Al said that this did not seem like the VN for him. That comment was nothing compared to the actual toxicity seen in some of the larger threads on this tie. For a time, BaD was even known for its lawlessness as it got out of control countless times(it's not like that at the moment). @Old Man Al was simply calling a spade a spade. If you thought that was toxic, you haven't been on this site long enough.

I said this in my most recent post, but I had high expectations for this game going in. So the hyperbolic nature of me calling Nami an "abomination" was the result of me expecting too much and then being met with a character who I felt was overly quirky to the point it felt forced (she isn't that bad though).

 

[jaw1986baby]

I am patient and I can wait but


I am curious


Do we have an ETA for the full Ch 4?







PEACE

 

[arkopand]

The "word" of the script sounds cringey quite often, but as a used-to-be violent teenager, the spirit of MC's reactions and feelings is 100% on point. Same regarding how his relationships develop, people like these totally fall for fellow Bellas while rejecting obvious choices of Vics and Namis. Idk if Ocean went through something similar or it's an accident, but being a "lost soul" is conveyed exactly right.

 

[RogueEagle]

Can Vic and Mila be romanced at the same time or on interferes with the other no matter what like on the date thing?

 

[Ronaldoahmad]

Please tell me that chapter 5 will not take as long to be released as chapter 4, the wait for chapter 4 was way too long

 

[BeingADikDik]

Can Vic and Mila be romanced at the same time or on interferes with the other no matter what like on the date thing?

We don't know. Vic is supposedly compatible with all LI, but for now there is obviously some conflict of those paths.

I'm holding out hope for a Vic + Maja + Mila path. Yum.

 

[Sh0gvn]

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Hello,

So... This is the first official Chapter 4.5 Dev log and the last Log about Chapter 4.

We'll start with some news regarding the Chapter 4 Final version.

1. Chapter 4 Final and hardware limitations.
1.1 New hardware and energy prices.
2. Chapter 1.
3. Chapter 4.5

1. Chapter 4 Final and hardware limitations.

Around five days ago, I finished creating all the renders for the final. ~580 renders for Chapter 1.

The new Chapter 1 is a little longer than the old one and features a few new events and insights. (One little Summer flashback, a hint of what happened to MC, etc.)

So... You say the final is done. Where is the update?

For the first time in a very long time, I'm outperforming my hardware again.

The last time this happened was in 2019.

SG's render queue has 320 images in it.

WiAB's has 140.

We have reached a point of hardware limitations. There's nothing I can do but wait and let it render 24/7.

This has never happened before. And certainly not to such an extent.

And it's all thanks to the little improvements I made. In early 2021, I started to work on myself. My mindset, my personal health, etc.

Little adjustments accumulated over time.

And now I created a 1500 lines (580 renders) long update in around a month. And some of those renders were extremely frustrating/challenging. (The big with tons of people.)

I will make a separate post someday about my personal improvements, etc. Normally, I'd say this is too personal. But as a solo dev, your personal state is as important as the actual creative process.

And I'd like to share some insights. I have an urge to talk about it.

1.1 New hardware and energy prices.

Oh and uh... I thought about getting some new hardware but... Germany's energy prices are the highest in the world, and now I have heard from various sources that due to the current crisis, etc.

We're looking at price increases of 75% to 300% for electricity.

The average person will then pay like 130€ instead of their usual 40-50€.

But I am already paying 300+€ a month. If the worst case happens and it actually increases by 300%, I am looking at monthly energy costs of almost 1000€.
This is devastating. And due to my current living situation, I can't declare it as a business expense.

I have to take precautions, which will result in less music and other costly assets for the next update or two.

And costly hardware is out of the question for now. I simply can't afford it under the current circumstances.

But better times will come again. (And if not, I'll create them myself by leaving the country.)

2. Chapter 1.

I will show a few more thingies from Chapter 1, as I do expect, that not everyone is going to play it.

A few renders I'd like to showcase aren't rendered yet. So this will have to do.

Old Mila's introduction


The auditorium scene still exists, but plays out differently.

New Mila Introduction (I actually dig her old hair now.)


Mila's talk with the MC

Old


Mila's smoking has been removed. Mila's personal character arc has been developed in a completely different direction. Smoking is pretty much the dumbest thing a poor person could do.

New


Maja meets the MC in front of the college.

Old


The new version has a much more natural flow. Also, two weeks have passed since the incident with Victoria.


This scene here has been completely removed and a new small series of events is there.

Old


New


Many new details have been added to the overall college life. The immersion should be on a completely different level now.

That's pretty much it with Chapter 4's Final. I will release it as soon as all renders are through the queue.

Meanwhile, work on Chapter 4.5 has started

WiAB Chapter 2 is also closing in fast on a release. It's just that WiAB's PC has not even half the power of the SG PC.

It naturally takes a little longer to render the scenes out.

3. Chapter 4.5

I'm sure you won't be surprised by the fact that Chapter 4.5 has a very high Vic & Mila focus.

I won't say too much about the update but... it will be a blessing to set up. (The DND session in Ch4 tainted me.... but also made me stronger.)

All images shown in this Log are attached in High Res.


"Some words of truth."


I have been looking forward to an actual Vic/Mila focused Chapter.

My two coder bois and I are also working on the phone and a few basic apps.

It's planned to release the phone with this Chapter.

One bad thing though. I did scrap the two planned cinematics for this Chapter... As I would need to delete them with the Chapter 5 steam release.
But new cinematics are already forming in my head.

Anyways, this is it for today's log.

WiAB will get a new Log soon, too. We are now back to the Bi-Weekly Log schedule.

Considering it all, I am very optimistic about the future.


- Ocean

 

[lonelyk]

One bad thing though. I did scrap the two planned cinematics for this Chapter... As I would need to delete them with the Chapter 5 steam release.
But new cinematics are already forming in my head.

If the half chapter has no cinematic it'll be out pretty fast compared to usual. I'd see that as a win, but it sounds like there will be cinematics anyway.

View attachment 1926227

Why the hell are some women flashing their boobs behind the MC? It does not look like any character we know though.

 

[Nekiorem]

Why the hell are some women flashing their boobs behind the MC? It does not look like any character we know though.

looks like some protest thing

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updated preview folder- last log had only 1 Mila preview this log 2 previews of both Mila and Vic

 

[John Ness]

Ocean definitely needs to move, maybe to Spain... The cost of living is lower, especially in the off-season. If the job is not tied to a place, there is one less obstacle to moving.

 

[NeroZee]

Mila looks smoking hot, glad you removed smoking cause i personally hate it, however a missed opportunity to change her cigar to a lollipop...