Trying something new: beat sheets
The last episode was really fucking late! 🙁 I hated pushing the release date back so many times.
Most people know that “writing” is really two separate tasks – drafting and editing. Drafting is when you get the basic ideas and structure down on a page (or, in our case, on working in-game screens). Editing is when you work through the draft, rewriting it until it’s good.
"Writing is rewriting." –RICHARD NORTH PATTERSON
I spent forever editing the last episode. Some of the most challenging parts were:
Making the bargirls likeable (the whole episode fell flat without this)
Keeping the scenes moving (this was a big problem until I tried time stamps)
Making the scenes interesting without using sex or violence (e.g. the Kolya flirtation went through many bland iterations before I was able to achieve some actual chemistry)
I’ve been trying to think of a way to cut down the amount of editing I have to do, and I think an answer might be more detailed scene planning. Storyboards are great for getting the structure right, but the details are sometimes vague and it’s these parts that take the most editing.
Beat sheets
To screenwriters, “beats” are the moments that move a story forward. R2D2 escapes the moisture farm; John McClane takes off his shoes; Mr Blonde pours gasoline on the cop.
A beat sheet is a list of a scene (or a whole story’s) beats. I’ve never used them before, but for the next episode, I’m going to introduce an extra planning step, and start with a beat sheet. I’m hoping that more detailed planning will cut down on time spent editing.
Beat sheet experiment
As an experiment, today I wrote a rough beat sheet for a planned future side quest.
The concept for the quest is “bargirl heroine entertains a stag party in a cheap hostel”. From this basic idea, I produced a three-page beat sheet that's attached.
It isn’t perfect (and I’m sure that pushing it out to contributors & community members for review would make it better), but I think it's a pretty good framework for a side quest, and I think storyboarding and writing this would be pretty straightforward.
Writing out a beat sheet takes extra time (because it’s an extra planning step), but I’m hoping it will save time overall by cutting down on rewriting time, which was the big problem with the last episode.
I’ll give it a try, and let you guys know if it speeds me up any.
Comments (15)
I might be in the minority here, but I see my version of Kate as someone who manages to stay in control of things to a degree where a gangbang with a group of stags would be successfully rejected at this point. That made me think about the slightly anticlimactic bar ending in that scenario. I think it would be cool if we had an alternative sex scene for that: Either just someone random she meets at the bar, and she feels like doing it at least partially to regain the feeling of being in control after the experience with the stags. Or it could involve one of the stags, for that matter: Kate later sees them passing by the club, one of them sees her through the window and sneaks away from the others and enters the club, Kate expects more sleaziness from him, but it turns out he just wants to apologise if they took it too far earlier. In that scenario she could’ve taken him to the bathrooms right then and there, both to regain control in the same way as in the previous example, and as a “you wanted to fuck me? Well, maybe you could’ve if you hadn’t acted like assholes” fuck you to the rest of the guys (no matter if they ever find out about it or not). I think that – or some completely different sex scene playing out after Kate arrives at the bar – could’ve done a lot to help everyone feel like we’re really having a say in how our Kates develops.
I feel I speak for a lot of us when I say, We want more sex for the MC female agent. Please don't waste time adding 'ways' to AVOID sex for her. If you wanted to rework or spend time working on an already released part, please use it by adding MORE ways for her to be sexually used, and abused. This game isn't about a female agent avoiding sexual exploitation. Don't miss the mark, this game is about a sophisticated intelligence agent with an exhibitionist, or submissive or masochistic tendency who goes undercover in a brothel and ending up being thoroughly used and abused sexually, most of it on her own volition. Please don't make it about her avoiding all this.
I was thinking maybe after the blowbang/gangbang when she goes for a drink, maybe she finds a guy at the bar to have a quickie with as a way for her to “gain back control” after having lost it at the stag party. Just a quick almost angry fuck as a way for her to reassert her dominance of the mission. Weather it helps or not is 50/50.
I also like the idea assuming this happens a little bit later in the story, when she is more "corrupt". I would maybe add some drags to the story? It would make it more "in character" that our agent lost control over the situation and things went so far as "blowbang"?
These are thought provoking ideas, thanks guys! Some of these suggestions are great and this illustrates the benefit of getting these beat sheets out to the community early, to get feedback in time to affect the writing. 👌🏻
I like the idea (assuming this is actually taking place later in the story, after Kate has agreed to be a bar girl). An interesting alternative ending might be to have the guys think it funny to toss her out without letting her clean up. Lots of opportunity for interior dialogue after that, and maybe for some interaction with hotel staff before she can find a bathroom and clean herself up. The only chances I see her having of "overpowering" an assailant like this would be a shot to the 'nads or maybe revealing some hand-to-hand training she got while prepping to become an agent. She might want to avoid the latter as it might give away too much given her cover story.
This is a great idea. One suggestion about the stag party idea would be to do introduce a little risk in Kate's decision-making about resisting the men after blowing/fucking the groom. For example, you could have her options be (A) resist and try to escape, (B) demand more money for "just blowjobs," or (C) just go along with it. This way, there's a bit more differentiation in the choices: Option (A) gives her a chance to escape without any further sex if she wins the diceroll against the manhandling stag, but risks turning into Option (C) if she fails; (B) allows her to compromise with blowjobs, "taking control" by demanding more money, leading to the blowbang minigame (but again, risking Option (C) if she fails to satisfy everybody with her hands and mouth); and (C) just leads straight to an all-out, out-of-control gangbang. Personally, I think it's more realistic (and hotter) if Kate knows she's outnumbered, and her only shot at avoiding a rough, nasty gangbang is by besting a single male physically, or by taking the initiative with blowjobs all around. If she lets them do whatever they want or gets overwhelmed trying to resist, I don't think a bunch of drunk, horny dudes are letting her walk out without getting fucked.
Since my patronage will expire at the end of the day, I won't be able to answer any replies so I'll just dump some of my ideas here and now. First, the beat sheet looks very good and I hope the story will reach that point sooner than later (I don't see it happening in the nect few versions). Second, I think Crush is too influenced by the traditional business model of writing/publishing, whereas our role as patrons here is less conventional. Afaik, publishers may pay writers an advance to sustain the development and then royalties. The end consumer gets the final, polished, curated version. We don't quite get that (there are placeholders, bug fixes and enhancements even after long delays) and if editing/rewriting is the main issue I'd say try to release a (few) draft(s) early and gather feedback/inspiration from patrons. I was very disappointed by the (lack of) erotic content in 1.17. If I would have gotten a draft I would have suggested something like: accessories (earrings, chocker) for the dressup, shots drunk/coke lines from between the girls' breasts, coke lines from their abs if they have sixpack, neighbours calling the cops on the afterparty and the girls having to pay in some way - generally more erotic content at the parties (I've never tried cocaine but that would have been the worst investment of my life if that's what a cocaine-fuelled party looks like)
Another thing to add to the sheet is probably Ms. Lu getting in touch about her performance after the stag party.
The beat sheet is very good as it is. Just get it done and released ASAP. What you put out in it is really hot and would be great to play it.
I guess this one problem with putting more of the process out there. Crush can get more suggestions and end up with more work.
I think this is worth trying! It is fairly detailed although I wonder what impact the arousal mechanics factor into the options - do stats impact options? If Kate wasn't too aroused and handled the situation right, could she get away with saying blowjobs aren't really sex so it's not cheating? Making it progress no further than a BJ by guilt-tripping the groom?
If masochist is selected, you might jump to straight to blowbang. If exhibitionist is selected, Kate could put on a show in the lobby to get in the mood. If the receptionist is male and bored, he might want a quick blowjob to let you pass since this hostel is on the level - up to a point, of course. Submissives don't have an option. If the receptionist is female, then she's jealous of such a pretty young foreigner entering such a fine, upstanding establishment. Go down on her or kiss her feet or be spanked. On exit the fine upstanding receptionist wants 10% tax or police will be called or security will be on (or in) her tail.
I'm gonna do a real hot take: I think that you should bite the bullet and release what you've done sooner, instead of making major edits. Some edits should obviously be made after discussing with friends, contributors, and so on, but not a complete rewrite. I see this as a WIP anyway, so further edits would probably be something that should and could be done when it's playable from start to finish, because that's when obvious, glaring holes becomes evident. And that this is more of a first draft, yet a quite polished one.
Just wanted to let you know that I really enjoyed the latest update and the beat sheet you just shared was hot as fuck, even as basic as it is. I know everyone is their own worst critic but your game is something really special and I think you should be more kind to yourself. Keep up the good work.
