v.0.32 Progress report (I)
Did you think you'd be spared from the progress report just because it's only been a week since the update was released? Or because it's summer?
Wrong! I don’t like going to the beach, so sorry but not sorry.
It’s been a “fun” week as far as development goes. The first thing was to figure out which scenes will be included in the next update. You know how I work: There were several key scenes that were definitely going to happen, but I had to tie them together somehow, and sometimes defining those scenes can be tricky (and it’s never set in stone). I’ve mapped out the skeleton of 20 scenes. I really need to stop being so ambitious.
Next, I found a bug that only happens when players are playing a specific version of the game and a particular girl is pregnant. Fix it, compile, upload the new files… You know the drill.
After that, I went into a creative trance. I wrote three scenes one after another in a couple of days. They were the kind of scenes that were going to happen no matter what. I knew one of them was going to be medium to long. I was right (2,317 words). The other two were supposed to be short. This time, I was the one who got it wrong, and they turned out to be medium-length scenes (1,948 and 1,059 words).
The 1,948-word one was going to have a mini-game involving choices and economics. Something like, “With the resources you have, you must choose which of your promises you will fulfill.” I think it’s one of the stupidest ideas I’ve had in over four years of development. It was incredibly boring and made no sense from a gameplay or story perspective!! So, I’ve changed the approach (which is why the scene has gotten longer). Now you’ll still have to make a decision, but it’s much more logical.
Oh, and I rendered the 2,317-word scene and the 1,059-word scene (106 and 83 renders, respectively).
Is that all? Nope! Based on the feedback about text that could be improved (thanks to everyone for that), I’ve changed some of those texts and done the translations into French, German, and Portuguese (Brazilian). Time to compile, upload, and publish again. I hope to have it ready by tomorrow.
Now, that really is all.
TL;DR: v.0.32 has 5,323 words across three scenes and 189 renders (two scenes rendered). The French, German, and Brazilian Portuguese translations for v.0.31 are ready, and I’ll try to update the files tomorrow.
Comments (5)
👍🫡💯 - good guy !
I enjoy mini games in general, and like the break to focus on something new, also extends replay game time. but if doesn't work that unfortunate. one of the best ones I've seen is the shooting range game I've seen in a few avns and was hoping that was going to appear in this one. but I tend to agree about the non choices. about the only way I've seen it done well as you had to make the right choices enough to do what is important. with a throw away choice that at best give you a hidden scene if you make the bad choice
I was tempted to add a shooting minigame (because it fits the story of a scene in v.0.32). I even got the code done with a modder's help (it's easier than I thought). But I decided against it because I found a way to convery the message for that scene better than that (you will recognize the candidate scene in v.0.32 when you play it), and can evolve one of the new characters better with a fixed result.
"I think it’s one of the stupidest ideas I’ve had in over four years of development. It was incredibly boring and made no sense from a gameplay or story perspective!!" That's my view of minigames generally. 😁
Don't think about it like the usual AVN minigame, but a choice based one, like "You have 20 resources and 6 choices that would eat 26 resources. You should discard one expensive choice or two cheap ones. Oh, and if you don't discard one of them, a new one will appear." Story-wise it made sense to choose, but quantifying the choices didn't. And the MC would never discard some of the choices.