VN Ren'Py ToxiCity [v0.04] [ILSProductions]

[PaxHadrian17]

Dev Log February 27, 2025

TOXICity 0.04.0 update #1
New

And we're back into development for TOXICity 0.04.0. Between working to get the new game up and rolling and the time invested in TID 0.99.0, there's not a lot of downtime right now. Not that I'm complaining as the process of creation and sharing our stories is great all on it's own, but I'm reminded that juggling two games at the same time is a bit much.
As we get deeper into TOXICity, it's funny to think about how we used to be able to pull a scene file together in the original rendering software in the span of an hour or less (often versioning already existing moments and changing the lighting or cast) and now we have to figure out what mods/items are available to do the same thing with the new engine. It really gives us the feel of an indie producer/director having to make do with what we can to deliver the story we have.
On a more personal level: all those times I wrote about limited access to water and showers... well, I now have better context and appreciation. My water heater blew the other day and I'm out almost $3k to get it replaced. In the meantime, I had to make some hard decisions about cold showers and whether or not I could make do with a whore's bath. The answer is a resounding NO. By the end of day two, I was feeling vile. Never have I appreciated hot water in all my life.
Thanks for your interest and patronage,
-Kinderfeld

Spoiler: Dev Log Feb 27 2025

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The third image looks especially promising as it appears that they can see past some/much of the fog once they open one of the top floor offices and look, I believe, East.


Cheers!!

 

[mordred93]

I'm doing the same, like the shower scene where the MC can shower in private or just let them know that he is taking a shower.

Kallie gets increased anxiety when the MC does not wait to shower but also gets increased desire - which I believe is worth it.

Now for more of this great story to see how these choices play out!

Cheers!!

Wrote this in a PM with someone about this game, felt it applied. "Personally I would do Desire, Love, Trust, Friendship, Anxiety in that order ATM. It is an AVN, thus the whole point is to get into bed with them. If a choice has multiple options, pick the one with the most points further up the scale (to the left). Desire is how sexually frustrated/attracted they are to you vs love which has the amount of romantic feelings. If you are looking to have sex, desire is what you want, vs love. You would rather them trust you over being your friend. And Anxiety, well, so far it is a little stat. We shall see if/when it is used more. Make it go down if you can, but not at the expense of other choices.

 

[jadepaladin]

Wrote this in a PM with someone about this game, felt it applied. "Personally I would do Desire, Love, Trust, Friendship, Anxiety in that order ATM. It is an AVN, thus the whole point is to get into bed with them. If a choice has multiple options, pick the one with the most points further up the scale (to the left). Desire is how sexually frustrated/attracted they are to you vs love which has the amount of romantic feelings. If you are looking to have sex, desire is what you want, vs love. You would rather them trust you over being your friend. And Anxiety, well, so far it is a little stat. We shall see if/when it is used more. Make it go down if you can, but not at the expense of other choices.

I found it neat that giving into Laura's kiss led to decreased desire in exchange for more love. She's scratching an itch, which takes care of temporary feelings (desire) but in exchange you're getting something long term (love).

 

[mordred93]

I found it neat that giving into Laura's kiss led to decreased desire in exchange for more love. She's scratching an itch, which takes care of temporary feelings (desire) but in exchange you're getting something long term (love).

Yes .. it can be argued that the love/desire can switch, but then again, depends on what you are looking for. You trade a scene for more love. Yes the desire goes down, but you can work that back up in the future (I assume).

 

[LokkenJP]

Just got this interesting answer from the developer himself in his discord channel.

Might be an interesting read for anyone worried about the relationship issues that have been mentioned since 0.03:

I'm going to take the time to put out a universal comment on the relationships in TOXICity, so people can refer to this as sort of the official stance. Please don't take this as a personal attack or rebuttal. It's not meant that way.

While I appreciate that some folks are nervous, please understand that's the intent. As someone who's had some FUCKED UP relationships in my own life (and known people who have), I'm pouring those experiences into this story. Yeah, potentially there's sex to be had, but there's also the long-term fallout of being involved in a broken relationship. Or being stranded and alone in one that's going nowhere and draining you of your years.

Relationships being complicated and a mess is the main point. We've had two games where the MC was awash in women who were into him. TID was filled with women who were available and ready to go. The player had to do so very little to get laid in that game and when they did, they didn't have to worry about maintaining the relationship. Just dealing with that girl's life drama which was unrelated to dating him.

So, Kallie and Laura having outside lives to consider is part of the intent. It's supposed to leave you feeling a little uncomfortable and anxious about what will happen when its all over. You can enjoy the moment but wonder what will happen after it's all over. The journey to that point is what matters. But for those who are a "hard no" about getting into it with involved people, Girls #3 and 4 won't have outstanding relationships but they will have other issues to navigate.

For Laura, yeah she's just looking for someone she trusts to be there for her and the longer you play the more you'll understand how unhappy she is. Her story allows for the kind of "spiraling" a person who's been cheated on. They start thinking back on every moment in their past to try and find moments where their significant other was unfaithful.

And Kallie... SPOILERS from Chapter 04 on:
You'll find out her relationship isn't so hot either. In fact, it may actually be worse. She talks with Laura and you get a clear idea she's being groomed by Andrew and if you're close enough with her, she'll mention about having doubts about not feeling emotional attachments the longer she's away from him. There are (and will be) multiple spots where you can mention Andrew which will either raise her Anxiety or lower her Friend scores, meaning that you can stall her being interested beyond needing the MC as a close friend.

If this isn't for you, I understand and hopefully you'll be back in a few years for game #4. But, since I lost a third of my patronage for daring to not make Now & Then forever, I'm not going to be hurt if you don't want to play TOXICity. I'll get that it's your personal choice and keep moving on.

 

[Raziel_8]

Just got this interesting answer from the developer himself in his discord channel.

Might be an interesting read for anyone worried about the relationship issues that has been mentioned since 0.03:

Well, i wasn't worried, still nice to know the devs stand, althought it's pretty much as expected.
Kallie's problem was allready hinted at very early on, Laura let's see how it goes (most difficult if you want a relationship i guess) and curious about the 2 new girls.

 

[jadepaladin]

Well, i wasn't worried, still nice to know the devs stand, althought it's pretty much as expected.
Kallie's problem was allready hinted at very early on, Laura let's see how it goes (most difficult if you want a relationship i guess) and curious about the 2 new girls.

If one can't read between the lines when it comes to the relationships, there's a choice in chapter 3 where you can bring up Andrew and it does exactly the dev said in regards to Kallie. That's basically slapping you in the face with it at that point.

 

[romo-ice]

Just got this interesting answer from the developer himself in his discord channel.

Might be an interesting read for anyone worried about the relationship issues that have been mentioned since 0.03:

Disappointing, to say the least. I was hoping Kallie and Andrew also didn't fall into the horrible partner trope.

 

[The Senior Perv]

If this isn't for you, I understand and hopefully you'll be back in a few years for game #4. But, since I lost a third of my patronage for daring to not make Now & Then forever, I'm not going to be hurt if you don't want to play TOXICity. I'll get that it's your personal choice and keep moving on.

Damn... Now & Then is among my favorites and while I would have loved to see more of the story after the epilogue, I understand that Kinderfeld just wanted to move on to make other projects instead of working on something that neither needed a sequel, or that he simply wasn't interested to work with. And losing a third of his patronage over that. It must suck.

 

[Raziel_8]

If one can't read between the lines when it comes to the relationships, there's a choice in chapter 3 where you can bring up Andrew and it does exactly the dev said in regards to Kallie. That's basically slapping you in the face with it at that point.

Yeah, pretty obvious to not bring him up at that point.

Damn... Now & Then is among my favorites and while I would have loved to see more of the story after the epilogue, I understand that Kinderfeld just wanted to move on to make other projects instead of working on something that neither needed a sequel, or that he simply wasn't interested to work with. And losing a third of his patronage over that. It must suck.

I really like Now & Then, but it was finished, the story feels completed, no loose ends (from what i remember) and has nice endings.
I don't think it would have been a good idea to continue with it just for the sake of it. Not for the quality of the game, nor for the dev if he told the story he wanted.

I can't say that i found The Interim Domain nearly as good, especially the start was rough imo.
Also just too many girls, not much of a interconnected story or interactions etc.
I really like this game so far, back to a relative small cast, much more like Now & Then from the feeling.
I hope he will get supporters back.

 

[Draver1]

Yeah, pretty obvious to not bring him up at that point.

I really like Now & Then, but it was finished, the story feels completed, no loose ends (from what i remember) and has nice endings.
I don't think it would have been a good idea to continue with it just for the sake of it. Not for the quality of the game, nor for the dev if he told the story he wanted.

I can't say that i found The Interim Domain nearly as good, especially the start was rough imo.
Also just too many girls, not much of a interconnected story or interactions etc.
I really like this game so far, back to a relative small cast, much more like Now & Then from the feeling.
I hope he will get supporters back.

Well, if this game keeps it up, he'll get my support back. I didn't leave because he didn't make N&T2, I left because TID just didn't interest me. I tried for several updates, but it just never grabbed me. I even tried again about halfway through development, but still couldn't get into it.

 

[romo-ice]

Yeah, pretty obvious to not bring him up at that point.

I really like Now & Then, but it was finished, the story feels completed, no loose ends (from what i remember) and has nice endings.
I don't think it would have been a good idea to continue with it just for the sake of it. Not for the quality of the game, nor for the dev if he told the story he wanted.

I can't say that i found The Interim Domain nearly as good, especially the start was rough imo.
Also just too many girls, not much of a interconnected story or interactions etc.
I really like this game so far, back to a relative small cast, much more like Now & Then from the feeling.
I hope he will get supporters back.

Now & Then was a success for many reasons, including:

1. Incest, Purity and Age play kinks (Virgin daughter figure and older man who had known each other for a while)
2. Focused on a small set of LIs (meaning more time to build up the relationships and story)
3. MC relationships with characters was relatively isolated and had minimal drama(i.e., no boyfriends/partners to contend with, any drama was about the LI's relationship with the MC, other characters, or just narrative focused -- general apocalypse survival)
4. Straightforward narrative (Had choices but was mostly linear, i.e., not a choose your own adventure or sandbox, probably related to 2)

Good writing pulled all of that together to make a good story. Although The Interim Domain had good writing, it basically did away with all of those (yes, Kaitlin could be considered to fall into the Age play and Purity kinks, but I think the main pull of N&T was the relationship of Carol having been the adopted daughter and Naomi the friend of said daughter for many years and it evolving/changing). So far, TOXICity seems to be checking off 2 and 4. Number 3 seems to be at risk and if there's going to be as much drama as any of the LI's from TID ... well, it's still too early to tell on this one. But it's already looking a fair bit better than TID. Number 1 is not needed for a top tier story, but it probably brought in a sizable fan base.

 

[Ottoeight]

Disappointing, to say the least. I was hoping Kallie and Andrew also didn't fall into the horrible partner trope.

Why is it? are you Andrew?

Dude, did you know that you are supposed to be MC, and MC is supposed to get laid and have a relationship with the game's love interests?

I bet 100 bucks that we will never meet this Andrew dude and Laura's hubby in the whole game.

 

[mordred93]

Disappointing, to say the least. I was hoping Kallie and Andrew also didn't fall into the horrible partner trope.

I read somewhere, that the average person has 5 committed relationships in their lifetime, before they marry the first time. If you date someone, there are 3 outcomes. You continue dating (and someday marry, if that is your goal), you break up, or someone dies. Really those are your choices in any relationship. I don't see it honestly as a trope, as technically, it means they are incompatible, so they are just working through the law of averages at that point. And hey, more sex for me in an AVN.

 

[LokkenJP]

Why is it? are you Andrew?

Dude, did you know that you are supposed to be MC, and MC is supposed to get laid and have a relationship with the game's love interests?

I bet 100 bucks that we will never meet this Andrew dude and Laura's hubby in the whole game.

The problem I'm seeing here is that some people (myself included) do not care only about "getting laid" as the MC in a Visual Novel, but also about "how do we get laid". It's not fucking at any cost. We already have a crapload of porn games that are just fuckfests to scratch that itch. And it's perfectly Ok.

But if we're playing a story heavy game with deep character development, like ILS games, it's because we're interested in something more than just sticking it inside the love interests.

And even if we never end up meeting that Andrew guy, some people might feel bad by having to do things in a certain way. In particular, getting intimate with a woman who is engaged (even if you never end up meeting the guy), could feel immoral.

Now, we still don't know the whole context in TOXICity yet, so I will refrain from commenting anything else about this issue for now. I'm feeling a bit uneasy after playing the previous episode, and the developer clearly stated that this is "by design". And it seems this is going to be a trend going forward. How he handles that in the future might be the difference between a hit or a miss...

 

[LokkenJP]

I read somewhere, that the average person has 5 committed relationships in their lifetime, before they marry the first time. If you date someone, there are 3 outcomes. You continue dating (and someday marry, if that is your goal), you break up, or someone dies. Really those are your choices in any relationship. I don't see it honestly as a trope, as technically, it means they are incompatible, so they are just working through the law of averages at that point. And hey, more sex for me in an AVN.

Again, the devil is in the details. Not every couple that breaks up do that because one of the partners are "horrible" or "manipulative" or whatever, which is what user romo-ice was trying to say above I believe. In fact, I'd bet that's a minority.

 

[rudy007]

Again, the devil is in the details. Not every couple that breaks up do that because one of the partners are "horrible" or "manipulative" or whatever, which is what user romo-ice was trying to say above I believe. In fact, I'd bet that's a minority.

All of ILSProductions games are about how ordinary people react in unusually (fantastic) situations + little porn logic. Not going wide with characters, anxious places and atmosphere. Too many characters and many places kill development time. And ILSProductions knows that. And because of that we have monthly releases.

 

[mordred93]

Again, the devil is in the details. Not every couple that breaks up do that because one of the partners are "horrible" or "manipulative" or whatever, which is what user romo-ice was trying to say above I believe. In fact, I'd bet that's a minority.

15-20% according to relationship researchers. Technically a minority as you said. The word trope to me is what caught my attention. A trope to me is something that is done in writing over and over again as fantasitical, and completely unrealistic in real life. AVN tropes in my mind are things like getting caught in the washing machine, little sister peeking at naked brother sleeping w/ a boner, MC father dies, or MC being sent away to boarding school for years. Since we haven't seen how this relationship is described and progressed (in terms of the released content), we cannot say if it is a trope or not. That was what I was commenting on. Many relationships (15-20%) have an abusive or manipulative partner in them of the Billions of relationships on this planet. While a minority, it certainly is not uncommon. We shall see how ILS writes it, but from past experience, it will be different, and well written.

 

[Elduriel]

15-20% according to relationship researchers. Technically a minority as you said. The word trope to me is what caught my attention. A trope to me is something that is done in writing over and over again as fantasitical, and completely unrealistic in real life. AVN tropes in my mind are things like getting caught in the washing machine, little sister peeking at naked brother sleeping w/ a boner, MC father dies, or MC being sent away to boarding school for years. Since we haven't seen how this relationship is described and progressed (in terms of the released content), we cannot say if it is a trope or not. That was what I was commenting on. Many relationships (15-20%) have an abusive or manipulative partner in them of the Billions of relationships on this planet. While a minority, it certainly is not uncommon. We shall see how ILS writes it, but from past experience, it will be different, and well written.

from all the reasons that a relationship can end if manipulative/abusive partner is 15-20% that is not a minority

 

[LokkenJP]

All of ILSProductions games are about how ordinary people react in unusually (fantastic) situations + little porn logic. Not going wide with characters, anxious places and atmosphere. Too many characters and many places kill development time. And ILSProductions knows that. And because of that we have monthly releases.

Completely agree... except on one thing. The Interim Domain, the previous ILS game, was in my opinion the perfect counterexample to what you've just said. A bit too many characters and places at the same time, which might explain a bit its lack of focus and why it was widely considered inferior to N&T (even if to me it was extremely enjoyable for many other reasons). Hopefully TOXICity learned from that lesson...

15-20% according to relationship researchers. Technically a minority as you said. The word trope to me is what caught my attention. A trope to me is something that is done in writing over and over again as fantasitical, and completely unrealistic in real life. AVN tropes in my mind are things like getting caught in the washing machine, little sister peeking at naked brother sleeping w/ a boner, MC father dies, or MC being sent away to boarding school for years. Since we haven't seen how this relationship is described and progressed (in terms of the released content), we cannot say if it is a trope or not. That was what I was commenting on. Many relationships (15-20%) have an abusive or manipulative partner in them of the Billions of relationships on this planet. While a minority, it certainly is not uncommon. We shall see how ILS writes it, but from past experience, it will be different, and well written.

I believe, and again I'm now trying to step onto the shoes of the guy who originally quoted that, (so sorry if I'm misinterpreting things), is that the "abusive couple" thing that might be used for Kallie's relation in future chapters according to the dev comment is also exactly the justification we had in chapter 3 for Laura scene, (and that's ignoring many other NTR scenes on countless AVNs). Hence the "this has already been done" meaning and the choice of the word "trope".

from all the reasons that a relationship can end if manipulative/abusive partner is 15-20% that is not a minority

I always believed that the word "minority" literally meant "less than a half" (hence, anything <50%), and in this case, even figuratively, as it's way way less than that, but that could be just my mathematical background speaking.