We Were Just Kids [v0.3b] By MissFortune

MissFortune Games released a new game called We Were Just Kids and the version is 0.3b. The game’s story is about Our Protagonist (Rainn Nichols) who has just moved to New York with her mother after her father vanished into thin air. Left with little more than a paycheck to live on and a broken-down truck to move them around, our protagonist is uprooted from her home and now ex-boyfriend, forced to live in a motel on the wrong side of the Big Apple. This is where she meets our other protagonist (Logan Knox), the red-haired guitarist and founding member of the virtually unknown instrumental metalcore band, We Were Just Kids. Made up of himself, bassist Jason Butler, and drummer Reagan Lee. What begins as our protagonist joining the band on the fly for a school talent show swiftly evolves into the quartet being thrust into a spotlight of sex, drugs, music, fame, love, and perhaps death.

Not everything is as it seems on the surface. The corruption of music, the lack of balance in the industry’s power dynamic, and the temptations of stardom all test the unity of the band as past relationships come back to haunt our protagonists. Can they handle the heat of the spotlight or the pressure of sudden fame? Can our protagonists operate through the weeds? Or will they crumble like the many before them?

Developer:	MissFortune
File Size:	1.81 GB
Version:	0.3b
OS:	Windows, Mac, Android
Languages:	English

game details

Game Version Changelog:

v0.3b:

– There are 205 or so updated/upgraded renders here. Including new animations for all of the sex scenes. Further on the note of animations, some may be a bit wonky, as I’ve been experimenting with keyframes and speeds between them in regard to sex. You’ll probably notice a bit of it in the Lukas/Veronica bathroom blowjob bathroom scene and/or the facial portion of it. All that said, I feel like I’ve got a stronger hold on animations because of it. I don’t expect those kinds of issues to show up in any other release. Funny enough, this segues perfectly into the next point quite well:

– I’ve come across a way to turn Camera Raw/XMP files into LUTs for Premiere. This will result in less of a noticeable color shift between animations and still renders pre and post-animation. There’s still going to be a bit of it due to color space differences (I believe, could’ve easily changed in newer version of Ren’py.), but it should be far less noticeable in the early scenes.

– Code is now to my liking. This should be the final forced restart going forward, short of the unlikely event that something essential needs to be changed.

– The Sports bar scene with Lukas/Veronica is now entirely skippable with all but two questions needing to be answered. I’ve gone over it before, but it was a bad writing choice that’s too late to fix at this point. So, breaking the fourth wall or not, at least you have the option to never see it again. The option to skip oral sex (unless you pull out) can be avoided, as well.

– The Logan Intro scene early on has been updated with a couple of extra renders, and sprinkle of foreshadowing.

– Park scene with Rainn/FMC and Reagan has been somewhat rewritten and shortened. Plays on the same sub/dom tendencies as the original, but is largely more of a small infodump for Reagan. I am aware of the render dimension issue at the end of the scene, will be fixed in the next update.

– As said at the end of the update, I’ll be taking a short break to finish up Move The Chains and get it out, then I’ll decide on a schedule between both VNs. I’ll, of course, update Patreon before and after I make said decision. That said, there may be another update coming soon with smaller, non-immediate adjustments like the normalization of the audio and the credits page.

Developer Notes:

This is probably going to pretty long, but I’ll try to keep it all concise as possible.
– Playtests done on: a Windows desktop with a 10700/3080, ~~a Windows laptop with a i7-10750H/1650ti~~, and a Samsung Note 10+. Mac is completely untested and can’t confirm if working at all, same for any variation of Linux.

– For any future modder, compressor, etc: The layout of the script/code/text is a bit of a mess. It’s all on one page currently, will probably change that eventually. Just sort of a warning, I suppose.

– I’m aware that some of the skins are pretty rough when zoomed in, especially in the bathroom scene. I’m working on getting that figured out, or trying to at least. Not sure what’s causing it.

– I know the lighting isn’t perfect, far from it, actually. A lot of the early renders is lighting included with environments or my makeshift attempts at lighting. Some are good, some are better than others, and some just aren’t good. That being said, I’ve been looking working at learning lighting (via YouTube and Dreamlight), and hopefully it’ll start coming easier in the next few releases. Especially the motel room the protagonist is staying in, need to see if I can do something about that.Being actively worked on as of 0.3

– I know I’m gonna catch some flak for this, but there’s no plans for animations yet. Animations just seem unrealistic for the time being, and putting out bad animations for the sake of animations just doesn’t appeal to me.Animations have been in the VN for a while now.

– Minimal choices in this release. This was more of an introductory release to introduce the characters and storylines, along with laying the tracks to expand on them.

– Third person: The story will mainly focus on the two protagonists (not including Lukas.), at least for a little while, despite what this release may have implied. That being said, there’s important details that couldn’t be shown through a certain character’s eyes, so I figure a silent third-person omniscient view was the best approach to encompass the scope of what’s going on. Head hopping will be left at minimum, though.

– Keep in mind, the storyline vaguely starts in mid-2011. There’s was a ton of homophobia around this time (at least in NY.), throwing that in with that “sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll” (technically scene kid/core music) lifestyle, there’s naturally going to be some things that people won’t like/will get offended by. I won’t be getting political or anything like that (2020 gave me enough of that), but I won’t skirt around people’s feelings, either.

– Drug Abuse; implied physical, emotional, and sexual child abuse, along with various mental health issues. They’re topics that’ll be touched on at one point or another in varying degrees. Depression, attempted suicide, escapism via drugs, ~~postpartum psychosis~~, etc.. If any of that bugs you, or ‘triggers’ you, this is that trigger warning.

– Overall, this might seem a bit dark/depressing for a adult VN, but there is a fair bit of crude humor if you’re into that. It’ll hit at points sure, but it’s not all a pool of edgdepression.

– Lastly, We Were Just Kids features sound/music throughout. Mostly ambient sound or instrumentals sans two scenes. None were overly loud with either speakers about half on my laptop and PC speakers, and heaphones (though a bit bass-heavy at points, for those with subs). No sex sounds or anything NFSW, though. That doesn’t mean play this at work.