Monday, July 4, 2016

Patreon milestone! Also: Next on the list.

So, firstly, we've achieved first goal with 25 patrons which is amazing given it's been only about a month and I'm grateful to everyone involved. I'll run there first poll regarding future development, which I was planning for quite a while, but I'll talk about it bit later.



Now, I'm not entirely sure how save/load  option will work in the long run, but for now it makes things pretty solid. PC modifications didn't make it into this version (sorry), so those will probably be next on the lists. Other than that main focus will be on adding more content (as in quests), so that will likely take some planning and cooperation with helpers.

Speaking of content, my main idea is to give something really broad, up to infinitely big. I really like gameplay, which is not focusing on only one thing like shooters or platformers. Those kind of games can be pretty good and work with well-written, tight story, but when it comes to gameplay I just enjoy when there's tons of different intertwined things. Like modded minecraft probably took most of my time for last few years from all games. Just because there's always something new to learn, something new to try and it mostly feels organic and connected with everything else in the game.

Similarly, elona+ was taking my attention for quite some time, and despite it being roguelike, it just had tons of various other things to do - buy homes, get pets, gene engineer them, steal shit from people, make farms, do quests... It's also just amazingly satisfying when every little different thing you do is accumulated on your character and will reflect on your time spent in game. It's pretty sad that session/matchmaking games are so much more popular now, but I guess not everyone likes slow progress and have enough time.

The problem is, the more complex game is, the steeper learning curve. Now, this can be avoided, but its a bit hard to do. Basically you want player to unlock things at slow pace followed with tutorials. When player gets the interface, you introduce combat, when they become familiar with combat, you introduce crafting etc. It's not hard to do in general with medium-sized projects, but it's pretty hard to me in current form, although I still try not to overwhelm players with new features (laboratory/alchemy/farm locks etc).

Now, speaking of which, game has two counterparts right now - management (sorting, assigning and planning what to do with your slaves) and RPG (combat, learning spells, exploration and events). They are pretty distinct and both require lots of polishing. Either way I want to focus on one of these depending what audience would want to see next more. So yeah, this will be the poll's topic. Now, if it will be RPG, I'll likely redo some stuff including combat to make it more complex, as we already have exp system. In case of management, I'll focus on making whole mansion system more polished and complex, introducing different traits, assignments and perhaps interactions.

13 comments:

  1. Now that girls are gaining XP from activities for levelling up, what if they also gain XP to increase their stats? For example, studying in the library adds XP for increasing Wits, while sexual activities (prostitution or anything that gives you mana) give XP to Charm. Then that attribute increases after 500 or 1000 XP.

    Facial attractiveness can't really advance like that realistically, so maybe it could be a really costly Laboratory procedure to improve it a step?

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    1. That might be an option, but, again I don't want give easy ways to max out willpower stats, as it will lead to bunch of absolutely perfect clones after certain point with no sense of individuality.

      Facial attractiveness upgrades will find its way in the game at some point.

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    2. I see it now... hunt down that Giant Spider in the Marsh, bam! You receive 1 Botox. LOL

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    3. You could cap the attribute increases to no more than 2 in each. Then only the girls with really good starting stats could achieve 'perfection'.

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    4. '2 in each' would be insane, '2 in all' though may be reasonable. Yeah, perfection is boring.

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    5. I think 1 in all would be reasonable.

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  2. The Farm;

    Are the three positions exclusive? It seems I can assign a Manager, OR a Milker, OR a Ovipositor BUT not more than 1 of the above?

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    1. In current version farm assignment is slightly bugged. It assigns a slave which is set as companion instead of the one you select.

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  3. Ah! That would explain the odd behavior. Thanks

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  4. is it intended that a prisoner is also counted as a servant and gets to eat 2 times? or 1 time if set to not get food in the prison screen

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  5. Just wondering but are you planning to expand the number of races for the girls, such as driders and lamia?

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    1. I do, but non-humanoid races will have to go to the some sort of 'zoo' with different kind of interactions, which will take some more time to plan and develop.

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