Weekly Report Number 93.
Hello everyone.
Another fully public report, because the time has come to talk a bit more in depth about the first competition coming in version 0.6.
But first, the numbers... This report was posted early. I usually do them on Thursdays, so there is one less day of renders. This week I created and rendered 62 regular images plus 51 tied to a new animation, the third one. So for now, version 0.6 has 350 normal images and 2 and a half animations.
About that animation and the situation behind it. It was not planned, it came straight out of my ass while I was making some earlier images. So at that point you will get the first conditional decision. That means you have to make a choice, but not everyone will, because it depends on whether your MC meets certain conditions based on previous decisions. For several months now there has been a variable in the game keeping track of your choices, good and bad, and the time has come for that to finally have some consequences.
This time this is tied to the more "dark" side, so if you have been good boys all the time you will not see the scene (which is quite long). Anyway, when version 0.6 is finished and published, I need to do several things before continuing with the next version, and among them it is planned to implement a guide of all the decisions taken and their consequences, so it will be easier for you not to miss anything if you are the type who likes to experience everything.
Ok, the image. What the hell is that huge mess?
Well, that, dear people, is nothing more and nothing less than the stupid ideas that have been in my head for months, turned into a diagram to organize them and not screw it up... The first competition.
Maybe the final result will change when the moment comes and I see that there is something I did not like or maybe I want to add something extra. But that is the foundation.
Despite all the care I had while doing this, I later noticed something was missing... I forgot to add the second conditional decision. So obviously it has to be added, buuut, hahaha, you will not know until you play, and since it is conditional, you might not even realize it while playing... yeah, I'm a bastard xD
At the same time I forgot to put the green color on some normal decision boxes... and believe me, I spent hours creating and checking this.
Maybe many of you don't know what the Normal or Safe thing is about.
It's because not everyone has the same tastes. By the nature of the competition, one of the girls on MC's team might end up involved in "indecorous acts"... and there is always someone who might label that as NTR, and that word is like chili up the ass for many people in certain circles, I'm not kidding xD
So there’s a "Safe" option, where nothing bad will ever happen, unless it’s essential to the story, but you’ll lose gameplay since I can’t make two complete competitions every time. Truth is, I should just send the Safe option to hell for my mental health... ok, I can’t, I said ages ago I’d do it 😭
But even though the Safe option on paper might look a bit short, it isn't... you'll see when it's ready.
And on the other side we have the "Normal" option, where almost anything can happen... almost, I stress that because I can't let randomness handle this one hundred percent. What you have is controlled randomness.
For this competition in particular, it makes the most sense to leave MC's stats aside. Maybe they will be used in some future competition, but in this one they do not work, because it would be way too much randomness.
The girls are the protagonists here and their stats are what matter... to a degree. It is controlled chaos... I only care about the front runners and the ones at the back for major events, so with pencil and paper I already did the calculations months ago to define the rear group and the front group, and the renders are built from that. Leaving everything entirely to chance is just not possible, I guess you understand.
If you look closely at the diagram, you can probably notice that on the Normal side, taking the decision to Run fast from the start seems like the healthiest option... And yeah, that’s how it is... I’m basically showing you how to get a good result. And it’s only for this one time. You’ll never see one of these diagrams again, for any competition, ever.
If you look at that "Running fast" part, keep going down and you will reach a couple of Random Events side by side, and right below them the numbers 15/70/15. Those numbers are the probabilities of occurrence. 15% Scene 1, 70% nothing bad happens, and 15% Scene 2.
Every random event has those numbers nearby.
I know that understanding some things in the diagram without prior information is hard to get. Like the stuff about stats, or what the first competition is about... Sadly, that is old information, it is somewhere in some dark corner of this Patreon, and I simply can't go hunt down the post and add links to it every time I talk about things like that. On top of that, there are things that only Patrons know... But anyway, what I can do is try to answer questions. If you have any doubts, ask and I'll reply as soon as I can.
Take care, and see you anytime.
💖💖💖
Comments (6)
What if you let us continue playing with one of the girls in the team in case our main character dies? 🤡🎈🤣.
Haha, like always I forgot to mention something... It’s kind of unintuitive, as usual. If you look closely, you might even think it was some kind of mistake. I’m making MC have some physical issues on the route where you decide to jog fast. Why didn’t I do it on the route where MC is actually running? If you choose to run, it means MC trusts his physical abilities, he knows he can do it... If, on the other hand, you choose not to push himself too hard, it means MC has doubts, maybe he isn’t really prepared for something like this, and that ends up being true. Something similar was already done before. If during the ruins scene you volunteer without caring about anything, later on MC can die because that decision turns him into someone who lets himself be carried away, someone who doesn’t fully think before acting.
WOW, this is a fantastic plan of action! I really love where this is going! Also good to know that earlier decisions are taken into account. As I know you, you will not implement a warning on this, I assume? Like a text warning: "Earlier decisions influence your path here." I also really like that you offer the safe option. Especially if it's not so short that its players feel cheated. People have different tastes, absolutely. And if you take the decision to cater to most of them... it's only bad for the development duration. But great for everything else, in my opinion. Also glad that you don't do full randomness! Man, I would love to live to see the end of this fantastic story! Really, Only for this one time... OK, if it's like you want do it. From my point of view, I would love to see such a path for the different competitions. By the way, with your complex story, do you plan a walkthrough sometime in the future? 15/70/15 are really slim chances... Would it be an idea to include some Choice in the MCs head/thoughts earlier, where the player can decide something like: A) I hope nothing bad happens - keep the chance at 15/70/15 B) I see it coming, this might end really bad - move the chance to 50/50 Something simliar might aply to most these random choices. It's just my 50 cent, but randomness means you invest DAYS to create a varian I ight neve have any chance to play! Especially as I will never know it's there! And again, such a choice might also cater to different tastes of gamers. I hope you don't plan to program the whole competition in single update! How have you planned to split it? To keep raising tension, I would love to see: 1) the safe route 2) Running fast 3) Jogging fast + Just keep running 4) Jogging fast + Confront him It' just my oppinion, but this list dials up the suspense by one every time. Happy to read your thoughts.
1.- No, no warnings. Actually, the warning about the choice that can lead to MC dying during the meeting in the ruins will be removed starting in 0.6. That said, the text explaining why MC died that time will stay there forever, as a kind of lesson afterward. 2.- The Safe route, looking at it in the diagram, might seem short, but let’s break it down. The first box says Rearguard scenes, two variants. That means I need to show several images of the girls at the back, in action. Some will play fair, maybe others won’t, which is why there are two variants. For it to really feel action packed, I should make at least 30 images in the variant where nothing big happens, and about 40 in the less clean one. Then there’s some stuff from the people in the front, another 30 to 40 images. After that we jump to the main group in the middle, again with two variants. It’s the biggest group and will be around 80 to 100 images total. Then we need to show what’s going on with the men at the same time, also two variants so it doesn’t feel repetitive. At least another 80 images... After that, the men start catching up to the girls in the back... more and more images in two variants... maybe another 80. And finally, the front group reaching the finish line, with two variants... about 60 images. I mean, we’re talking about something that’s easily more than 400 images, plus some text obviously... and even that might fall short. You already know how it usually goes, I say something will be around 20 images and I end up doing more than double. On top of that, I’m kinda missing having to make at least one choice in the Safe route anyway... it all depends on the time factor. 3.- I’d like to see the end of this too xD 4.- Diagrams are a double edged sword because they clearly tell you what to do (if you study them), and they also spoil things a bit... And like I said, after finishing 0.6 I still have to do, among other things, a guide with all the choices and their consequences. 5.- That’s life. In any AVN with choices, there are people who will never see everything. You can spend months creating a specific route just for only some people to ever see it. And that’s part of the job. The same applies to scenes that depend a bit on randomness. Not everyone will see them, and I’m not gonna try to interfere just to make those scenes easier to see. In the case you mention, it’s not a big deal. In one of those possible scenes, MC ends up throwing up from overexertion. Maybe 10 images... I already have several things that people may or may not see. Pressuring Megan when MC and her are in the tree, the difference in scenes there is way bigger than 10 images. The very first choice in the game makes some people miss half the content if they do not replay... MC’s death is something not everyone will see, even if they try to trigger it on purpose. During a scene with Asami there’s a small change triggered by randomness and they might never even notice it... I’ve done this before. 6.- Right now I have no idea. Maybe it’s a good idea to release the Safe version first and then see what happens with the rest. It all depends on whether I feel like I’m taking too long, because I always have that pressure. I can’t let too much time pass between updates because people get impatient, and only the big ones can afford to update once a year without losing pretty much anything xD Somehow, I have to always try to stick to my initial plan of a maximum of three months between updates.
More than a classic race, is this the Maze Competition? Like the third task in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire? 🤣. Clearly, you had to decide which girls would go at the front and which at the back, since leaving this entirely up to the player would create an overwhelming number of programming possibilities. The competition appears to resemble Big Brother, in that a certain number of contestants will be eliminated at the end, or, in this case, killed 🩻💀. I hate so much randomness, but you can't really create a complex minigame in Ren'Py that requires player skills such as reflexes or memory. Ultimately, as long as my main character survives, I don't care if I come in last. My goal is to reach the end and destroy at least two of those ugly robots 💪😎👍.
"Run, I'll catch you (individual)" https://www.patreon.com/posts/111287764 Being a member, you can check the link with no problem. It’s a "special" race. As for MC surviving to fulfill your dreams, only time will tell xD In RenPy you can make pretty decent minigames, but as a player I hate them, so I’m never gonna create minigames. Maybe at some point something like having to make a quick decision against the clock, but nothing more than that, no actual minigames. I prefer doing everything based on decisions and a bit of randomness. EDIT: Oh, I just got something. You seem to think the choice to run fast or jog applies to the girls? Nope, it’s about MC, just so you know. The girls go in position depending on their stats.