itch.io

Oh my! Nice!

Oh my, has been 9 days, I'm sorry not active on Itch. Hopefully you've managed to install it already, if not I did actually record something:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VQrYuAv1tkKCqCtQMFYZi18rSWiJPwuN/view?usp=drive...

I click on the folders on the start just to show what's inside them, they're unzipped already but you should know how to unzip yours. If not send another message/reply!

You need to have lost at least once for Mezz to agree to enter the Host Club - maybe that's what you're missing? Take a look at what Mezz says when you try to enter Host Club.

That "side alley" message is in the new version as well - It probably refers to the fact that the two available paths right now are in "side alleys" - since there will be another expansion adding a center path later on.

Yes, not patched for 0.6 yet- it will be done! Probably after It's release on Itch.io because it might spoil and confuse users that still have the old version.

On the devlog there's enough information for you to try and figure out if you've got everything. It lists the ammount of unique CG's and added content - It just doesn't guide you. Hopefully this helps you! Here it is:

https://bitshiftgames.itch.io/cruel-serenade-guttertrash/devlog/627940/first-con...

Finger's crossed for a Mahir CG

Good job chief! Is it really true It'll be a meaty update? Perhaps in more ways than one? Hehe

Good to see the game being well taken care of! Is it too early to ask how many chapters you got planned out?

I made many different versions of the translation - I forgot to edit this comment(done now) - there's more updated versions of the translation higher up on the comment section.

Here's the link if that's all you needed: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1B5HZVLH-Wq575ST8f3UyyfmR78ergjfd/view (The updated version)

Written guide is here.

Entertainment District III is the last district before the boss fight.

If you can't find this guard on the green bar - It's because you already dealt with him. If not it means you have not progressed up to this point - if so just keep playing the game and you'll inevitably find this room. If you want more specific advice I'll reply later with screenshots(not computer ATM)

I'm very sleepy right now, so I'm going to rest, before I go, I managed to make the written guide, I made it verbose, may have been a bad call - but It's the way I think it helps the most - besides if I can get the flowchart looking good, It'll be easier for folks.

This is the very early on draft, so my main ideas here are: Gooey arrows and borders that drip, and special symbols indicating what each scene is.

Because It is gooey I want to hand-draw it, and maybe even shade the goop, the example bellow I did carelessly with my mouse, but I can whip a Wacom I got here and do it better.

The flowchart is unfinished ATM as you can see. I'll shift and space things around once I place everything on it, the right and bottom might increase or decrease as I find good resolutions to post it at on Itch.io, so far going for 2:1 (1600x800)

I may also iconize things differently.

Just tell me if you like the idea, I'll fix the color pallete I know it isn't the right green, for the background I wanted them to be sprites of the areas the "nodes" in them tend to be/are in, I may put some gradient/vignette/extra textures to spice it up.

I think you seem to have an idea of something, by suggesting "bitcrushing it", so if you have a particular direction in mind - stylistic - feel free to describe it to me!

But to make what you currently expressed so far a reality with what I came up with, I'll try the following: After having all the borders, arrows, and goop drawn I'll try to pixelize it. I'll also see what more I can do for a pixel aesthetics - the background's a  good place to look at.

Expect, some borders, a title on top, a legend for the special symbols on the bottom... 

Oh and maybe you'd like to suggest a font? The one bellow is called "Itim", I like it so far. Might increase font size.

This is a scene guide for Cruel Serenade: GutterTrash in (roughly) chronological order. Spoilers below this point, obviously.

Having been reviewed and edited, this is now an official guide, with Bitshift's blessing. This guide is intentionally restricted to scenes with art, or that may have art in the future. Various smaller nooks and crannies will be left to exploration.

Haven Back Alley Encounter:

After entering Haven for the second time (after your mission to the boar island), head down the road to the hotel. If you've used a DataCrystal.js file to transfer certain stats from the first game, you may encounter a scene here, depending on what those stats are:

• Two losses to the boars in the previous game will trigger the scene, but allow you to fight your way out.
• Three or more losses will trigger the scene and bypass the fight

The CG is the same for both versions.

The other stats aren't used, YET. You can view some of them in the new entry on the Status menu if you like however, and doing so is a good way to verify your DataCrystal file is working, as they'll change from zeros once you enter Haven the second time.

Afterwards, a stairway at the back of the alley will be unlocked. There are no further scenes here though...for now.

Meeting Mahir (First Time):

After meeting Mahir, you can either fight him or follow his orders to perform some "work" before you're released from the plaza.

• Losing the fight results in a game over, but without a full scene or art for now. Planned in future update.
• Winning the fight rewards you with the "Good Luck Charm", a toggle that lets you turn hypno off in fights entirely when equipped for convenience-sake or if you prefer to avoid that gameplay. Note that leaving it on will make fighting overly easy. Has an effect if equipped at least once before fighting Khazeem in the slut mode route.
• Winning the fight also allows you to avoid doing Mahir's "job", as promised, and grants you the ability to leave the plaza.
• If you leave without fighting, you'll be given one more chance to change your mind before you actually go to the "job."

Losing, and Mahir's "Jobs":

Every full defeat to a group of hyenas in Entertainment District I will bring you back to the plaza, and a scene in front of the strip club. Afterwards, you'll chat with Mahir and be sent to work before you're allowed to leave the plaza again. Only the porn shop is currently available, though more are planned. There are three defeat scenes, and three work scenes at the shop. The timing of the first work scene may vary depending on whether you fight Mahir on first meeting him, but dialog will indicate this and steer you in the right direction.

The Center Path:

After losing to the hyenas once in Entertainment District I, Mezz will be willing to put on the Street Clothes, allowing entrance to the center path. At the top of the center path there will be an NPC called Riviera, who will allow you passage for 1000 credits; talking with him starts the main mechanic/minigame of the area: earn credits by interacting with the “clients” (doberman) while avoiding the thugs.

While in the minigame, the hyenas(thugs) can grab you if you walk too close to them, which leads to a small mini-scene.

Being grabbed four times leads to another unique CG, and a “loss”, losing this way four times will grant you some alternative mini-scenes each time (including with the clients), and by the fourth loss you’ll get a unique game over.

Underground Passage Capture (No full unique CG, but smaller unique ones, and a number of scenes):

Inspecting the pipes in the underground passage leads a series of events with the hyenas, and eventually a game over.

Not available if in Slut Mode.

Host Club:

In order to go through the host club, you must reach it with either one or two defeats. Less than one, and Mezz will refuse. More than two, and you'll be carried directly to Khazeem's pad and bypass it. To progress through the host club, you'll have to complete a mini-game - you can lose this mini-game up to 3 times - with CG's for each loss and the third loss leading to a game-over.

Slut Mode:

Losing four fights to the mobs will put Mezz in "Slut mode." Among other things, this will change the gameplay of Entertainment District I to stealth. If caught three times, there will be a small, non-full-cg scene. If THIS happens four times, there will be a final small, non-full-cg scene and a game over.

Fighting Khazeem:

You may arrive at Khazeem's pad three ways: 1.By the front, 2. Through the host club or 3. by being dropped off there if in Slut Mode. The possible endings to the fight are as follows:

On Normal Route:

• Win: Good End, epilogue.
• Lose: Bad End, with Khazeem.

On Slut Mode Route (either path):

• Win: Same as Normal Route
• Win (after equipping the Good Luck Charm at any point): Trained End,  with different epilogue and a scene with Mahir.
• Lose: Second Bad End with Khazeem.

Battle sex only occurs after arrival in the Gutter; Fights are "ordinary" in the Barrens and losing just leads to a game over. 

It's unlikely you will somehow miss or avoid battle sex and the in-fight hypno mechanics, but if you aren't seeing them and want to, be sure you don't have the "Good Luck Charm" equipped.

Extra Considerations:

There are also a variety of hidden things scattered throughout the game: handy unique items, little text-only scenes, and hints at all kinds of things. But those will be left up to the player to discover. The purpose of this guide is to ensure those who've bought the game can get to all the "meat" of it, in the absence of a gallery.

There's a flowchart companion to this guide here.

Definitions:

CG: Explicit illustration overlaid on the screen. "Full" CG is a full-screen, more detailed illustration. In contrast to limited CG or sprite CG, which is a smaller illustration.

Oh It's latin, of course! Hm...

I'm playing right now to make sure I got everything, stuck on a Graffiti that says "Aut Furit...", mind giving me a hint?

And I'm writing a simple text guide today. So I can get something out ASAP for folks, and then I'll start making the flowchart,hopefully tomorrow.

I can definitely do something artistic like that, and I'm going for a purple colorscheme for CS1, and a green one for CS2. If you'd like it, and you'd want it to the point of poking me for work, that's no problem, I'll even provide the .PSD publicly, or directly to you. 

If anyone else reading this has the same desire to write up a guide, just reply to this! We can work together!

Since there are no "Collaborations" thread, and I don't want to open one just to make a question.

I'd like to ask what's your opinion, on "iconizing" the CG in the game to make a guide?

I want to make a flowchart but I need to crop the CG in the game to make icons, since It's your intellectual property, how's that fare?

If it is ok, does It interest you to have a flowchart of scenes? Because for CS:2 I can make it, post it as a thread, and that's fine. You wouldn't even have to make a Sticky thread.

But if I make a CS:2 I'd want to make a CS:1 too, and there's no nice way of posting that, since CS:1 has no threads and only comments(the post would just start going away as the comments pile up)

Glad your spirit's high!

We all can't wait for more coming from you!

I imagine, with me desiring to play the game the way I want, I have to git gud

Thanks for being so mindful and writing replies! I'll be sure to comment if I get anything objective and constructive to add on it, I'm not playing Gutter Trash only once!

And to also clarify, the "itemless" comment was a challenge I did in CS:1, so not anything I'm arguing about, but yes, the game was not at all balanced around it - It was fun thought.

Reading on some people's posts, I see there's a good notion of difficulty in the game currently. I like how the game's been delightfully challenging to me, I like the fact that whislt It is RNG based, you have a lot of chance of min-maxing your odds(besides losing in a porn game is a good thing lol, so the fact it sometimes happens is good)

I'm just uncomfortable having to save scum, and even cheat in items to do the Hyena fight at the desert, and now contemplating doing so for the final encounters with the many hyenas before the boss-fight.

Now I'm kind of stuck between writing a review on it, or just repeating "Skill Issue" to myself everytime I wimp about it.

I actually tried a item-less fight everyone run on CS:1, and it went well up to clearing the bar fight and fighting the red boars. The game had basic rules, but you could min max a lot(having one enemy alive allows you to spam Focus, a double hit by twirling oak should be followed by an attack to guarantee defeating the enemy, etc...) and those where hella fun.

Now with stamina regen after fight, it feels less exploitable but also like a timed battle, since Lust works differently now(cool concept btw!)

So this isn't any particular suggestion, just me saying I'm having a skill issue, and that if anyone else is having an item drought, maybe you could consider adding chests before hard encounters. I play the game fighting ALL enemies, so take that into consideration(Probably not what you're balancing around)

I just like the combat an unhealthy lot lol

I can already predict this is going to be like Grove, in the sense that the artist is going to slowly get better and better and CH 1-2 is gonna start to have an outdated look compared to new chapters.

I feel a bit of improved artistry on the new illustrations.

I hope game dev is not soul crushing to you Bitshift, you're really good at it and I'm glad you're going for the long haul, planning 5 chapters.

The content right now was worth the price, so I'm really glad to know there's going to be updates to it, because It just feels like a deal that keeps on getting better.

Let's gooo!

Hop on!

'Cuz Mezz bnuuy get it?!

(The image is by Cassthesquid)

I had to whip something stupid together to commemorate the fact It's coming on the 16th! I thought I was gonna wait until the 30th!

Goddam, let's hop on it boyssss!

I don’t think so, but you can roll back saves and get the fights that way, by going into saves before you cleared everything, that is if you have it saved.

Otherwise I think the only option you have is a restart.

Scroll up the page, right above the comment section you should see “Development Log”, one of the logs is called “Scene Guide”, it should tell you every CG and ending!

So glad to have downloaded it since 0.1 only to see it grow up to what it is becoming now! Very fun! Wish you the best bitshift!

Golly! Thanks for the update ^^

Please don't run it - I forgot some people don't have AdBlocker and it  seems the website I hosted the alternative download on sometimes does some popups that leads users to weird downloads.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1B5HZVLH-Wq575ST8f3UyyfmR78ergjfd/view?pli=1

The link above should work  - I'll be working to remedy this right now.

EDIT: Remedied, I did the alt link as a Google Drive file, that should be safer for all.

I made a post above yours about it!

Thanks for the kind folks on the Grove server for motivating me to polish this translation even more! If anyone wants assistance you might join them there, or reply to me here!

Here's an example of what you should see when installing.

Hello! For those looking for an English translation here's my unofficial one:

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/998216227585531905/1090459970224525483/www.zip

If you've installed previous versions of the translation - or if this is your first time installing it - listen up! The install has slightly changed.

Alt Download: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1B5HZVLH-Wq575ST8f3UyyfmR78ergjfd/view

Move the contents of the "www.zip" into the www folder inside the game, e.g "恶堕之旅-2.0.8-windows\www", It should prompt you to "replace files", choose to replace them all, and that's all!

UPDATE: Seems like the website I hosted my first Alternative Download lead users without adblocker to some shady downloads, I'm so sorry for that from my knowledge that website was not always like that. I moved it into a google drive and that should be safer for ya'll.

If you have downloaded something weird that ends in .apk .exe etc... Please delete it from your computer.

"NEXT VER ETA: SAUSAGE"

Can't believe I just got sausage'd, well who I am to deny such culinary pleasures.

Well I do follow,

Regal hasn't put this ETA on twitter, so it says "NEXT VER ETA: NO ETA",  hence why I commented with a thanks, it was news to me.

As for my remark, it was just a joke, I want the next Grove release as my Christmas present just as much as that guy wants it as his Birthday's ^^

Haha poor devs, people are holding you guys emotionally hostage now for an update,

Well it does show how much people are looking for to it! Great to hear an estimate date, and grateful for having you guys working on it, thank you guys for your work!

Example of what you should see when installing.

(THIS COMMENT HAS BEEN EDITED TO INCLUDE A NEW VERSION OF THE TRANSLATION)

Hello! For those looking for an English translation here's my unofficial one:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1B5HZVLH-Wq575ST8f3UyyfmR78ergjfd/view

If you've installed previous versions of the translation - or if this is your first time installing it - listen up! The install has slightly changed.

Move the contents of the "www.zip" into the www folder inside the game, e.g "恶堕之旅-2.0.8-windows\www", It should prompt you to "replace files", choose to replace them all, and that's all!

Example image.

(THIS COMMENT HAS BEEN EDITED TO INCLUDE A NEW VERSION OF THE TRANSLATION)

Hello! For those looking for an English translation here's my unofficial one:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1B5HZVLH-Wq575ST8f3UyyfmR78ergjfd/view

If you've installed previous versions of the translation - or if this is your first time installing it - listen up! The install has slightly changed.

Move the contents of the "www.zip" into the www folder inside the game, e.g "恶堕之旅-2.0.8-windows\www", It should prompt you to "replace files", choose to replace them all, and that's all!

Do not be disappointed in your timing, as I see you're handling all development and art. Everyone liked your game and everyone liked your art. Very proud to have been the first to comment on this game's page, you're delivering a lot!

If you are having second doubts about  your timing always remember you are both studying a game engine, drawing art, writting story and phew everyone trips when they have to multitask that much! So all the kudos to you! I also think you are a begginer dev right? So yeah must be tad harder. Never stop speaking your mind, your transparency about development is very well received.

Neat update, and you did it in a two-month span, well done!

Overall I played through it without any troubles, I think there was a bug but it didn't bother me so I forgot what It was now, that's how insignificant it was.

I might replay once more, for the dialogue, since there is a guide now, I might have missed certain interactions, always good to be completionist with h-games, I know I got all scenes because I looked at the game assets, lol(you sure have a lot of art assets you are not using eh?)

Very neat overall! I still haven't beaten the hardest enemy on this game tho, the water shaders, need a 3090 for those. Ditching the satire, I love your storywritting and the game's spicy, this was a nice patch, fight sprites were the highlights of it, I also like how you cleverly implemented a requested game-feature by making it a challenge for normal players to not "drink it by accident", very smart. This is my review for 0.3, clearly not influenced favoribly by any ear acessories.

I was going to write an in-depth comment on this until I went on FA and realized you are very smart.

You understand  your game is very small, with proof-of-concept level of content, and that it needs, and will need a lot of work. I agree with everything you said there and I'm surprised with how aware of things you are.

From your wording on FA you seem to know this already, but I'll develop on it anyways:

With the way most porn games go out nowadays, they are either subsidized by donations whilst in-development, or go out for free and the artists plug their stuff and ask for donations in the end. Unless your game is really shiny or has a lot of content already I doubt it'll work with a price tag. And I don't think this is what you want to do, seems to me you want to add an optional price tag, which I agree on as being the best solution. I just want to say this that if you do a normal price tag. 7-8 months from now the game's activity might get so cold that you won't get enough traffic of people that'd be willing to pay for it and that you'd be better with donations.

You can see this as the crazy ramblings of a person who does not want to pay for porn. Or a guy that saw the amount porn game devs get paid on patreon before they started hiding it.

Your game is 3 days old and has 5 stars and many reviews, I really don't want people months from now to  go and say "I'm not paying $5 for a RPG maker game", when they you'd gladly donate because they enjoyed the hypno stuff.  Besides it's not like F95 wouldn't just leak the game.

You can do optional prices, as it seems you will do, or even open a patreon now if you wanna take it a bit more serious and get donations mid-development. (If you already have a patreon link it on the main page!)

You seem to like writting, so I hoped you enjoyed reading  my wall of text lol

Also, whatever choice you make, good luck with the game and remember to have fun with it! You make dialogue not boring, and god is it horrible to read dialogue in porn games,  so thank you for that. I even will replay the game next week, to kill everyone and get every line of dialogue, there's also a sprite in the IMG folder I haven't gotten so I'll search for that.

This is probably a dependency issue or a GPU driver issue. I'm running on a iGPU and the game's running well.

You should try GTK Bottles, nice interface to toy around with Wine and building custom profiles, fixed a lot of previously unexecutable .exe's for me.

Or you can go here and try downloading these Wine dependencies: https://github.com/lutris/docs/blob/master/WineDependencies.md