Plans for the Sound Update (Patreon)

Alright, so let's talk about the sound update! Love, Lust, and Rock 'n Roll revolves around music as a core part of its plot and has a goddamn genre of music in its title, yet the game is silent as the grave.

I've prioritized other things, but the time has finally come.

Music

Music is a huge deal to me. I played a ton of guitar in high school, and spent my first two years of college studying music composition (probably a mistake, as I ended up going for computer science, but whatever). I was in a couple (brief) rock bands.

I made this game all about a rock band because I fucking love rock music, and always loved the aesthetic of being in a rock band. I still think it's a tragedy that the games "Rock Band" and "Guitar Hero" were just passing fads, cause they were cool as shit when they were popular. You could almost think of LLRR as a tribute to Rock Band, since it's essentially the same core plot 😂

Anyway, I love considering how games can incorporate music in fun and creative ways. I think most games don't leverage this enough, and I think this is doubly true for visual novels. Many VN's tack on music as an afterthought, and I find it such a shame.

And in the context of erotica...dudes, the right badass music tracks can make erotica so awesome.
Though let's be clear on something: I really hate traditional porn music, hahaha. Weird funk with some saxophone? I've never understood how that's sexy, or why that's so widespread. Not to shit on the saxophone or anything, because there are some sweet and totally sexy saxophone solos out there.

But for me, what's really sexy is a badass distorted guitar with some deep bass and drum kicks. Or romantic, gentle piano. I'm working on both, and here's hoping you like it.

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All that aside, I'm also going a layer deeper than most games/VN's do. The plan (and something I've already tested and know how to do) is to split most songs up into individual instrument tracks, to layer in as you click through the text. I'll try to make a demo video or something once I have more to show, but this essentially allows me to tie the dynamics of the background music to the mood of the scene without changing the song. The primary way this'll be cool, in my opinion, is in ramping up the intensity during sex scenes as they develop.

Other Sounds

I'm also planning on including simple moans and kissing sounds, both male and female. I'll allow you to adjust the volume on each, so you can mute the male (or both) if you like.
I may also go a step further and incorporate sound effects, but these are just going to be simple things such as a squeaking mattress or "blanket friction."
I'm not going to be including "squelching" or skin-smacking or anything like that, sorry lol.
With female voice, male voice, and music, that's 3 separate volume controls, so hopefully I don't run out of space attempting to add a 4th volume control for general sound effects too. I hate fucking with Ren'Py's UI, but I'll do what I have to.

With the moans, I'm likely to include multiple layers to the female (and possibly the male) moans, as this is how it's done in AAA Japanese VN's and it works well. I'm going to try having a subtle backing track of general moans and other sound effects, and layered on top of that will be louder, looping segments. Animations can play sounds as part of their loop, so I can have a few sounds that increase in speed when animations do, though I'm hoping I can randomize various moan sounds that play so it's not just the same moan over and over.

I'll explain this more and go into more behind-the-scenes stuff as I implement these things.

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For the time being, my first task is to compose more music. And yes, I'm going to be composing all the music.

Everything's about to change, guys. I've been looking forward to this update for over a year now. Too long has this VN stayed silent!

This'll be fun ~🎶