HTML Female Agent [v1.20.1p] [Crushstation]

[Crushstation]

To be fair, asdfasdf12341234ACSACA, this is a sensible idea (although it's not one that hadn't occurred to me), but are you really suggesting that this should be my next priority? I should delay Bangkok to reorganise the source code into separate text files?

 

[asdfasdf12341234ACSACA]

To be fair, asdfasdf12341234ACSACA, this is a sensible idea (although it's not one that hadn't occurred to me), but are you really suggesting that this should be my next priority? I should delay Bangkok to reorganise the source code into separate text files?

Doing this shouldn't take more than a day at most (and that's overly generous). And that's assuming you're writing an automated tool to merge everything. No, I'm not being overly optimistic, splitting the file into multiple files doesn't take that long.

 

[Crushstation]

Doing this shouldn't take more than a day at most (and that's overly generous). And that's assuming you're writing an automated tool to merge everything. No, I'm not being overly optimistic, splitting the file into multiple files doesn't take that long.

Great, I'm interested, DM me with your day rate.

 

[Master of Puppets]

and apparently in python there is something called refactoring.. where code is restructured to be more efficient and easy to edit later on etc.

Refactoring isn't a python thing, it's a generic programming thing you do in any language when poor design is getting in the way of development.

 

[ScarletCrow]

I've played around with tweego before. You can try this git project to help setting up the project structure.

You must be registered to see the links

This is also a good start to start familiarising yourself with NPM and Gulp, if you haven't already. Those are two very useful tool for web development. And Twine is based on web technology.

As for how and when you should integrate this into your workflow. I can't really say. You have to decide. But what I know for sure is, with all the codebase in one file, there will be so many merge conflicts when your team members start working independently. And your team members have to be able to work independently to speed up the development. I think that's also what you're also trying to achieve, right?

 

[nottuide]

Ahhhh, I see what you're saying. That might be a risk if the story had a fixed length (e.g. if it were structured like an episode of 24, where once the episode clock reaches 23:46:00 the writer has to finish the story in the next 14 minutes).

In that case, yeah, the writer might not want to get to the end. (Although I still think this is an unlikely theory, really. Imagine writing something that actually attracted an audience willing to pay for it – and then deciding that the sensible thing to do is fuck with those people for moar money. I don't see it.)

Anyway, that's not the case for Female Agent. The main quest is specifically written without a deadline – the heroine's job is to survive undercover in Bangkok. Once Bangkok is set up, we can create new story content for as long as the community is willing to support it!

So yeah, I do want the project to continue earning money (for as long as we're still adding meaningful content, that is – I'm sure nobody will be playing this in 2030), but my evil plan for that is to produce more content, it's exactly the opposite of what you suspect.

Crush, please don't misunderstand me, I truly LOVE your game and I RESPECT a lot your work, sincerely.
I have already said what I think about the issue, and going further would be like making sterile controversy.
You seem like a good person and a great communicator, but taking so much money for so long without producing a tangible result is embarrassing, whatever it is the cause or reason. We need to fix this asap.
I hope you can understand me. Take care, I'm looking foward to you.

 

[Riven]

To be fair, asdfasdf12341234ACSACA, this is a sensible idea (although it's not one that hadn't occurred to me), but are you really suggesting that this should be my next priority? I should delay Bangkok to reorganise the source code into separate text files?

Doing this shouldn't take more than a day at most (and that's overly generous). And that's assuming you're writing an automated tool to merge everything. No, I'm not being overly optimistic, splitting the file into multiple files doesn't take that long.

You can also use obscure technology like google and find solution in

You must be registered to see the links

or am I missing something here?

 

[PinkBishop]

I feel that many of you tend to forget that there is a world in difference from developing "spreadsheets" and websites to developing games that consists of interactive stories - as a writer myself who recently got attached to a game company as a freelance junior writer (yay!), then I realized that coding a text based game are much more complicated compared to coding a graphical game that have very little to no narrative text and no story branches that you need to take into consideration.

Yes Minecraft are so much easier to make than your random adult game that have a narrative story in it.

Making a narrative game isn't just a linear process. It's get the idea. Break it up into stages. Write the stages. Try them out. Realize that that stage does not work so think up on how to redo it. Then try it out again and implement it. Finally realize that what you just did broke something else in the narrative story and you need to redo another part to make that part fit in.

The coder will then fight you and reply to you that whatever you came up with will require a new set of functions and by the way because of newly introduced player choices it will cost the team a few weeks, that turns into months, extra for it to work with the current back-end.

With I guess 97% of the adult games it very well seems to me that the authors come up, if you are that lucky, with a framework of a story and then over time develop a narrative that fit into that story that they came up with. They didn't think up all the story branches and choices. They didn't think up what path of the story that they months down will be frustrated about and finally realize that for the next path to work they will need to go back and revisit old paths before they can move forward - and at the same time they have also matured from where they started, so when they are looking back they have also seen that they also need to do a rewrite of what they already have done - for at least their own integrity and sanity - or they wouldn't be able to sleep at night.

Down the line an author might also realize that before the next step can be made, everything that they already have done are so complicated that they need to simplify it, or the next larger parts will essentially kill their creative process so they have to go back and rewrite some back-end that players wont ever see or notice. But because everything have become complicated then there are just no way around it. So back to redo everything that they made before they can move forward with the story that they intended to tell. Other authors simply will end up saying "To hell with it. I will suffer through my own poor choices" while they regret that over and over again.

Another group of authors will simply give up on that project and start new projects because their own writing and code became too complicated for them to manage.

So who will you as a player prefer? The ones who learn from their mistakes and try to redo them in an attempt to make their creations better? The ones who don't care and try to move forward? Those who drop the games half way in only to start on something else? Or those that just ends up leaving their creations because they feel it is so much easier to go back and do "spreadsheet" coding where they wont get criticized by backseat developers?

I am honestly impressed that so many stories here are able to keep consistent when you follow them through the years and see how they as writers and developers mature, so honestly I feel you should all give the adult game writers some slack. Sure some. SOME do try to milk the game - welcome to life - but the majority here are just trying to get the train all the way around the track while they are building the train and laying a track without a blueprint, - often also while they are learning how to become a train conductor.

 

[ScarletCrow]

PinkBishop Cmon, man. Ever heard of SAP? They develop the most glorified spreadsheet ever. And do you honestly think that a text based game is much more complicated to create than a multi billion dollar "spreadsheet"? Or do you think it's more complicated to create than Amazon marketplace website? And it's not like they are creating some masterpiece literature here. I mean, it could possibly be a masterpiece, but as how it is currently, the story is not even nearly as complicated as some teenage novel. I know that writing is not an easy task, but your argument here is not very convincing.

I actually find it hard to believe that this game is harder to create than Minecraft. I mean, I don't play Minecraft, but I know that Minecraft engine is built from scratch, has to be optimized for different platforms, that alone already gives much headache, compared to a Sugarcube or RenPy game. Which all those kind of work are handled by the engine.

Don't forget that a coder is technically also a writer, we do have to "break problem into pieces" and try to write a "coherent" solution which runs well and easy to maintain. We're also familiar with the urge to keep redoing our code, adding more fancy features just because it feels "awesome". But if we do it all the time, then no project will ever get completed. Got to balance it against the resource and time, man.

Like for example, I understand the need to develop the "Sex Engine" or whatever, before Bangkok. But I don't see the urgency to redo the stories in the introduction part. Just leave it as it is, they can always come back later to refine the stories after the game has more "meat". They haven't reached Bangkok yet, meaning they still don't actually know what challenges are there in the main part of the game. There's still a chance that the engine needs more rework after getting to Bangkok. Then why waste time redoing the intro stories NOW?

Please don't take what I'm saying as a suggestion for Crush to drop whatever they're doing. I'm just sharing my experience and opinion as a fan. I enjoy the fact that this game is trying to create something different and I really want it to succeed, but yeah, from my point of view, the way the project is progressing is worrying. But the plan for 1.7 sounds great actually, it actually gives me some optimism back.

 

[PinkBishop]

PinkBishop Cmon, man. Ever heard of SAP? They develop the most glorified spreadsheet ever. And do you honestly think that a text based game is much more complicated to create than a multi billion dollar "spreadsheet"? Or do you think it's more complicated to create than Amazon marketplace website? I know that writing is not an easy task, but saying it like it's the most complicated task is not very convincing.

I actually find it hard to believe that this game is harder to create than Minecraft. I mean, I don't play Minecraft, but I know that Minecraft engine is built from scratch, has to be optimized for different platforms, that alone already gives much headache, compared to a Sugarcube or RenPy game. Which all those kind of work are handled by the engine.

Don't forget that a coder is technically also a writer, we do have to "break problem into pieces" and try to write a "coherent" solution which runs well and easy to maintain. We're also familiar with the urge to keep redoing our code, adding more fancy features just because it feels "awesome". But if we do it all the time, then no project will ever get completed. Got to balance it against the resource and time, man.

Please don't take what I'm saying as a suggestion for Crush to drop whatever they're doing. I'm just sharing my experience and opinion as a fan. I enjoy the fact that this game is trying to create something different and I really want it to succeed, but yeah, from my point of view, the way the project is progressing is worrying. But the plan for 1.7 sounds great actually, it actually gives me some optimism back.

SAP were from the start developed by a team of 5 people who all had a history and experience in developing systems like that, so already there they had a major advantage over the typical adult game developer. And no the first versions of SAP were not fun at all to work with at all. Besides you can't compare the 5 team SAP version with today's monolith SAP.

Minecraft is essentially colliders and tiggers in a 3D environment built in LWJGL, so its not created completely from scratch and the team used a number of existing java libraries to cut corners. I think Minecraft are amazing, but its not a complicated product (Take a look at Minecraft Classic). Anyway what i intended to say were that narrative content in a game makes it much more complex than sandbox games or games that don't have any narrative dialogue in them - personally made a platform game in a few months and still struggling with my own narrative adult project.... Also the reason to why I mentioned Minecraft is that someone in an earlier post began to compare the lines of code in Female Agent to the number of lines of code in Minecraft, something that is a ridiculous comparison.

My meaning were that building a game are a much more complex thing to do than pick your enterprise or consumer software that are on the same level as the game you want to compare it with.

Anyway... I don't really see that the FA project is in trouble. They have some ideas that they are trying out and a lot of it can't be seen by the random adult gamer but from the feedback and status I see on the Patreon page then it makes a lot of sense to me and I understand (partially) what the FA team are doing - or at least trying to accomplish and that it takes a longer time that they intended to. But thats just part of making a game.

 

[ScarletCrow]

Right, yeah I don't know much about Minecraft. I don't even know how complex the gameplay is, because I never played it. But ok, what you said does make sense.

 

[Terablock]

Right, yeah I don't know much about Minecraft. I don't even know how complex the gameplay is, because I never played it. But ok, what you said does make sense.

SAP were from the start developed by a team of 5 people who all had a history and experience in developing systems like that, so already there they had a major advantage over the typical adult game developer. And no the first versions of SAP were not fun at all to work with at all. Besides you can't compare the 5 team SAP version with today's monolith SAP.

Minecraft is essentially colliders and tiggers in a 3D environment built in LWJGL, so its not created completely from scratch and the team used a number of existing java libraries to cut corners. I think Minecraft are amazing, but its not a complicated product (Take a look at Minecraft Classic). Anyway what i intended to say were that narrative content in a game makes it much more complex than sandbox games or games that don't have any narrative dialogue in them - personally made a platform game in a few months and still struggling with my own narrative adult project.... Also the reason to why I mentioned Minecraft is that someone in an earlier post began to compare the lines of code in Female Agent to the number of lines of code in Minecraft, something that is a ridiculous comparison.

My meaning were that building a game are a much more complex thing to do than pick your enterprise or consumer software that are on the same level as the game you want to compare it with.

Anyway... I don't really see that the FA project is in trouble. They have some ideas that they are trying out and a lot of it can't be seen by the random adult gamer but from the feedback and status I see on the Patreon page then it makes a lot of sense to me and I understand (partially) what the FA team are doing - or at least trying to accomplish and that it takes a longer time that they intended to. But thats just part of making a game.

You cannot compare masterworks like Minecraft to this game... Mainly for one reason: in game like "Female Agent" you are moving on rails, it's a little bit more than kinetic novel. There is no real freedom, you have only a limited set of options. Nothing you can do in game will really change the story: the best you can do is alter your stats according to you choice or achieve a game over. In Minecraft you have limitless possibilities so there are limitless possibilities for the engine to fail. For this reason the engine must be solid. The development workflow must be solid as well and coherent, this means a lot of hard work and testing. Female Agent is a good game (still in a very early stage, this is only the prologue) but it cannot be compared (never ever) with games like Minecraft.

 

[PinkBishop]

You cannot compare masterworks like Minecraft to this game... Mainly for one reason: in game like "Female Agent" you are moving on rails, it's a little bit more than kinetic novel. There is no real freedom, you have only a limited set of options. Nothing you can do in game will really change the story: the best you can do is alter your stats according to you choice or achieve a game over. In Minecraft you have limitless possibilities so there are limitless possibilities for the engine to fail. For this reason the engine must be solid. The development workflow must be solid as well and coherent, this means a lot of hard work and testing. Female Agent is a good game (still in a very early stage, this is only the prologue) but it cannot be compared (never ever) with games like Minecraft.

I only brought up Minecraft because someone else did it in an earlier post, but I agree with you that it is pointless to compare the two games on one to one. But anything else I don't agree with you on. Minecraft is when you look at it grid based and it is very easy to create a stable build around the core with a locked down set of parameters - look at the very early versions. Alternately Minecraft classic can teach you a lot about how it were created and how they moved on from there through the years after they had stabilized the core java engine.

 

[YinBlack]

Hi, I have a doubt. In October of last year I played this game and I loved it e.e.
Since then I am waiting for a launch. I thought the project was abandoned but I see that far from that the patreon is very active. Which leads to my doubt. there are no more public releases?

pd: Great game

 

[Mercedes]

Since October there has been neither a free version nor a version for patrons.
However, version 1.6 is planned for patrons in the next few days and 14 days later there will also be V1.6 for the free version.

From its Patreon side

Mar 28 at 6:30pm
Sprint 009 update

Progress
We've now reached the last major chunk of work, which is tweaking the bed sex scene. Once that's done I need a small amount of time for essential testing and editing - and then we can release 1.6, at last!

It's days, not weeks away - I'll do my best and keep you posted.

 

[ZebCaff]

Hi, I have a doubt. In October of last year I played this game and I loved it e.e.
Since then I am waiting for a launch. I thought the project was abandoned but I see that far from that the patreon is very active. Which leads to my doubt. there are no more public releases?

pd: Great game

Since the last release Crush and team have been working on a major back-end overhaul (needed for Bangkok), so while they have been working hard on the project (and giving regular (usually daily) updates on progress to patrons) there has been no new content to release. This process is nearly over, and new content should start appearing very soon.

 

[YinBlack]

Since the last release Crush and team have been working on a major back-end overhaul (needed for Bangkok), so while they have been working hard on the project (and giving regular (usually daily) updates on progress to patrons) there has been no new content to release. This process is nearly over, and new content should start appearing very soon.

thanks for your answer. ;D

Yes, I have seen that patreon give an update every day, from here came my doubt. let's hope they launch soon, it's a fantastic game. e.e

Cheers.

 

[Barbiecued]

Crushstation - man, your game is one of a kind. Completely in-house built engine and a pretty large scope (for a "porn-game"). People are really spoiled these days. I think it's because of all these "exclusive beta access" thingies and "open beta" periods that AAA game producers introduces a couple of years back.

People think that what they were seeing there was the game in an actual beta state and that since the release date was usually a month or two later, it doesn't take too long to flip from beta to RTM and then go live. They're not used to the fact that development - especially of something completely new - takes a lot of time and effort.

That being said - I absolutely cannot wait for an update.

Yeah. I don't doubt there's a lot of work but there's quite a large gap between AAA games and a text-based game. Hello Games were/are an Indie Games company. They for example had 6 people working on No Man's Sky for 2 or close to 3 years, and at the end of the year of the release upped it to a team of 9(?). Sure, there's probably a towering difference in experience between the two teams, but still, 2 years of development for a text-based character creation demo is a little lackluster, no matter how much I enjoy the polish and wish for the game's success.

If you're a writer, your first rule is to reread everything you write, because it gives you a clearer view of the work and allow you to see mistakes and polish what's already working. I can see that the developer might be doing that - to a fault. I don't think they are conning anyone. There's hundreds of games on this site, if not thousands, that are doing just that and abandoning projects left and right. I see the polish and know there's passion behind the work, but maybe that passion needs to be directed somewhere else in the project, that's all I'm saying.

 

[yaryaryar]

Any news?

 

[Kristof29]

Any news?

I expect the dev to soon make a post on his patreon citing a lot of reasons why the game will be delayed in spite of working hard (no pun intended).