The Future.
The initial release of my game has already passed, and some of you who have been following its development are gathered here today. With this in mind, I would like to take the opportunity to discuss the future of this game.
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State of the developement:|||||||||||
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The current Prologue (v.0.39) consists of approximately 20 events, each lasting from 1 minute to several minutes. In this game, an event refers to a self-contained scene that unfolds during gameplay. The planned final version will include around 80 such events, resulting in a game length of roughly 6-8 hours. The duration and complexity of the ending will vary based on player choices and different pathways through the story, with some endings being significantly longer than others.
Story structure is more or less:
01 to 20 - prologue (RELEASED)
21 to 60 - main game (CURRENT WORK)
61 to 80 - endings (FUTURE)
In terms of work needed to finish the game prologue, it was the easiest part to do as the branching of the story is not yet in full swing. The main game is structured in a semi-branchial fashion, where it can split into different branches but also come back or intersect with other branches. Definitely, the hardest part will be the endings. Unlike most games where endings are short, I plan for my endings to be pretty long and leave the game fairly open-ended for possible additions down the line. I believe that in order for my game to shine and for you to be interested, it is necessary to do them in this way.
The prologue is relatively straightforward as it sets up the story so that players can familiarize themselves with the characters' personalities and their dynamics, learn a bit of lore, and get to know the setup. It does have choices, but most of those choices are fairly simple. Though without spoiling too much, there are two important choices hidden within the prologue that will have resolutions later on in the story.
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Now let's move to what is going to happen in the future.||||||||||||
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The next update is scheduled for release early March, but it might be delayed depending on how work progresses. The upcoming events will be larger than those in the prologue and will have consequences based on the player's previous actions. Additionally, there will be choices made by the player that will help define the type of game they want to play.
This is the point where the game will undergo a significant transformation, and the pace will accelerate. From this moment on, choices and consequences (C&C) will become increasingly important as I plan for the game to have at least several different endings. This change will also coincide with an update to the prologue to complete it in a way that is similar but "different." This approach leaves room for various character relationships to develop further in the latter part of the game. The current ending of the prologue has been designed this way because I wanted to give players a sense of what the overall game experience will entail.
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Technical stuff that is planned for game : |||||||||||||
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- Music and Sound.
I definitely plan to implement these elements. In fact, I have already begun the process of implementation; however, I have decided to delay releasing this feature until the game has more content to offer.
- Voices.
My other hobby for the past five years is AI research, and with recent advancements in AI, I think it's possible to give characters voices that would sound convincing. Naturally, I would love to have character voices performed by real people, but this is strictly connected with my supporter base. With enough support, I would be able to commission voice acting work. Until then, I am forced to look into other avenues like AI. Now, this feature requires a lot more research and development than music and sound, meaning if it ever gets implemented in the game, it will likely come after the implementation of music and sound. It could be done in two ways: full voice acting or partial voice acting, where characters would speak only major lines while leaving others unvoiced. The reason why I am not doing it now is that at the moment, the quality of AI voices is pretty good, but it requires a lot of work to get those voices right. I predict that in less than 12 months, there will be new AI models that will be able to simply take RenPy Script and voice it correctly with emotion, requiring far less work and time.
- Animations.
As you saw in the introduction, thanks to VAM as my primary rendering method, I intend to create high-quality erotic scenes as animated sequences. Thanks to VAM's physics engine and the game being native VR with the capability to manipulate keyframes/people through hand gestures, creating animations becomes more cost-effective in terms of time, allowing for faster iteration while generating top-notch animations.
- VR scenes.
Another benefit of VAM is that it allows for gamers to experience scenes from the game in the VR world. While I don't plan to release a separate version of my game as a native VAM VN game, I do plan to release some scenes. The amount of them will mostly depend on factors such as the pace of development, technical issues like performance for common users, or limitations of the VAM engine as a VN base. I think I don't need to explain to you that this could be a fun alternative to see some events in the game. Especially if you could be your favorite character in the game.
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Thank you for taking the time to read this message, and I hope that it has sparked your interest in my games. If you have any feedback or questions, please feel free to ask, as I will be actively posting updates here. Additionally, your support is greatly appreciated if you enjoy what I make.