Hello Patrons,
Now that the update has been released to everyone, I'd like to take the opportunity to give some thoughts on it before I go full gear into the next update.
**Thank you for some insights and feed back to the community
As I've said before, this update felt like a necessary bridge to set up the rest of Part 3. Part 2 ended with the "blowup"... the story needed to decompress before having Anna and David come to grips with the situation.
The update ends with David moving back home. There was a chance Anna and David would live separately, but I feel like it's more interesting to see the dynamic between husband and wife as this story unfolds living under the same roof. A side benefit is - I won't have to spend more time using two separate residences. It's also practical that unhappy spouses choose to remain living at the same house, which isn't uncommon for financial reasons and child custody reasons.
Plausible-- I would also help if we understood what Anna's and David's income are. Now a grand breakdown of their finances isn't needed, but financial pressure is often a stress on a marriage; resentment often accompanies a relationship if one partner is contributing more than the other. In your game it could be a devise used to further the conflict within the marriage or a tool to help save the marriage. An example would be if David seriously steps up and puts his money where his heart is.
Monday, Anna and David will go back to work under their new reality. Both still aren't exactly sure what's going on, but based on the choices you made in Parts 1 and 2, Anna is more or less skeptical, and we could see this come into play down the road as to how convinced Anna is that David cheated on her.
An interesting thing to note is how lacking in communication the two of them are when it comes to Anna's mom and David's father. They hope this all disappears before having to break the news. It could be costly that they haven't involved the parents, being that both of them need allies right now. Instead, they have people putting poison into their ears (not literally). True, grand parents often do pick sides and yet others try to help their children for the sake of the grandkids.
As for the influx of character involvement (Marcel, Leonard, Robinson, and Stenstromber)... Some feel it's getting crowded. There's several reasons for including these characters, but one thing I'll say is that some of these characters have a purpose beyond being another cock wanting to get inside Anna. For example, Marcel is a tool to link the gym to David and Anna, being that the gym is the only known place that Alexia frequented. And we know that Kendra and Alexia has corrupted him, so his interactions with Anna could make a difference in the story. These other characters also help give the player viewpoints and perspectives. Any new characters can give us new information and don't have to be part of the story
Another example, Leonard. He's not a feature character, but he witnessed Kendra's setup being executed. That's an important piece of information. The problem is that Leonard is a complicated individual. He's been through a lot in life and is jaded by his failure to be successful. He doesn't care much for David, and he lusts after Anna. Can we expect that he'll be responsible with this information? Probably not. Actually, he is your "out." In the end if the player is going for save the marriage, what Leonard does or doesn't do affects that outcome. Something as simple as letting out enough information for Anna to discover the truth. If you are going to have a "save the marriage route," you may want to include other clues that lead down that path--perhaps a hidden clue that a player can accidently overlook or how a player chooses to respond to it.
I'll just say that some characters are featured more than others, but I want each of them to have a purpose in the story... not just some extra dude cluttering the picture. I don't have plans to add more that would make any significant impact. You may see a new character here and there (i.e. the gym receptionist), but I don't have plans to add anything significant since I'm wanting to focus on concluding, not expanding. Expanding verse expanding are two different things. Adding more love interests is expanding in the wrong direction. Expanding new characters to give the main characters allies and enemies who have minimal direct on the story maybe a useful plot device. They are useful for flashback scenes, say Anna's old high school boyfriend writes her an email and they agree to meetup for lunch-- Anna and old boyfriend talk of old times, and we are given a flashback to some event years ago that causes Anna to decide something, remember something that will influence her in the future, or open new possibilities. Also, such a meeting might trigger Anna with perhaps regrets, disappointments, hope, inspiration etc...
As for the paths... Nothing's really changed here. You probably notice that the story seems linear. Part of that is because in order to push the story along, you can't have branches that extend far out and expect to do things timely. For example, the pool scene was a very large scene. Some people would say "I rejected Marvin; Anna would never go to a pool with him or be caught alone in locker room with him!" I think the real fix here is a logistical solution. Say you reject Marvin, simply loop pass any more Marvin content with a few bridge scenes to make up for the missed content. It would save all the render time that you would spend making alternative route. Since the Jake route is so predictable, I end it and none the sorrier that I missed anymore content.
Okay, I understand that, but either a) the update would be short for the Marvin rejecter, or b) production would be delayed a week or two for us to craft another large scene with Anna going shopping or somewhere else instead of the pool scene with Marvin. Again, your time is valuable. Instead of the pool scene the alternative scene could be Anna back at home breast pumping (if you are looking to throw the player a bone) or use the time of Anna reading an erotic romance book that gives her ideas about the other characters. Few(er) renders but time spent developing other routes.
Generally speaking, I'm trying to craft a story with multiple variations largely using the same renders. If you've influenced Anna to have a hidden pleasure teasing Marvin, she'll let him grope her. If you've influenced Anna to not like Marvin, she'll stop him quickly. Here you have the toughest sell on Anna's motivations for allowing Marvin to grope her. How to be plausible to further the Marvin/Anna route is the most difficult. However, surprise and shock reactions to be paralleled with physical sensations with curiosity and taboo arousal works as motivations. Anna based so far at what we have seen of her past makes her a little naive and Marvin being so brazen works as well.
You'll notice the dialogue is different throughout the scene depending on that too. But in the end, I'm using the same setting of Anna and Marvin at the pool because I want to push the story forward and not have the branches go crazy. Sure, there may be instances in the future where two separate settings are needed for paths, but I'm trying to minimize that.
And I've mentioned this many times about the paths, but I'll remind you, I want people - if they so desire - to play a path where Anna is reluctant but still might cave in eventually to a pursuer or decide to give in for some other reason. This is perhaps your best plot point yet. It's how such events happen and in what context. So, what you are needing are conditions to be met before Anna gives in. Hank is pretty easy once Hank has put Anna in a submissive position, so the condition is to make Anna submissive (though it would take several updates to establish that route) --but once achieved, the first encounter is Anna not wanting it but still reacting to it, and as events of Hank and Anna occur, Anna more and more reacts positively. Chris is an easier route. Simply the condition is Anna has to be put into an emotionally vulnerable state after some traumatic events in her marriage and out of a need to be desired or loved she gives in-- regret should follow but memories of it could be the fuel source for Anna to have a FWBs with Chris.
This is why Marvin and Chris are still around perving on Anna even though you may have advised her to reject them at all times.... because, at some point, she could give in to their advances reluctantly, which can be hot in its own way. I'll certainly give you an obvious choice when that time comes. A good point is that just because Anna rejected them before doesn't mean she will always reject them as you have stated. So, a player can keep on rejecting them or not, but it means Chris or Marvin or whoever are not going to stop making passes at Anna. A lot of men will keep trying even after a rejection so that falls within the realm of plausible.
If you never want her to give into a character, fine, I won't force that, just make the right decisions when the time comes. In fact, if you do reject someone until the end, that may end up resulting in an ending for that character that satisfies you. I'm not promising it, but I HOPE to make you happy if you hate a particular character(s).
As for sex/nudity -
I'll explain this again because this is a common complaint. Obviously, we are moving closer to that point in time. I've said before that this isn't your standard corruption story where you need a lot of time to corrupt a woman realistically. This is a story about a woman who has urges and emotional conflicts beneath the surface, and she hides them behind a thick wall of a faithful marriage. It takes a confluence of events to tear the wall down quickly. Phycology and plausibility are your allies here. Reasons are often corrupted by excuses for our actions. Again, back to conditions and Anna's personal state of mind helps. It's an excellent point that you made Anna's reason for being reluctant because she is married, and it is expected that married couples don't cheat. Painting Anna's urges and emotions as being counter to her reasons is an excellent tool for furthering that path. Throwing some gas on the fire could be as simple as the books and movies she watches or reads-- throwing in that Anna likes porn and that would be a corrupting influence would be rather weak. But if Anna identifies with a movie or book character(s).
There will still be a progression with the levels of lewdness, but this isn't something where it will take a week for her to touch a penis with a gloved hand, and another week before she takes the glove off when she touches said penis.
I won't lay out a timeline for everything, but I hope it's obvious that I fully intend to make progress with Anna's seductions over the course of the coming week... all while she'll be living in the same house as David. (Yikes!) You mentioned Dr. Faustus and the angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other. Perfect plots and subplots that would give your game more depth. Having David staying at home babysitting while Anna is out doing whatever--excellent! But a little Anna insight of her thinking goes a long way. Let's say Anna gets asked out by Marvin for beers, or Hank asks her to work late, or Chris asks to meet to discuss Anna's problems...etc... Anna could recognize the peril she is in when making her choice to stay home or go out {add to the point that perhaps earlier David made her mad that going out to spite him could be a useful excuse}, but if Anna suspected Hank would make an advance on her or Marvin does (or whomever) Anna could visit her own desires, needs and urges as corrupting her.
Expectations on timing of next update - I'm not going to give a timeline as usual. In looking at the outline I've built and have been tinkering with, Monday will be packed with content, and I will likely feature some of Tuesday as well. It's going to take time, I can guarantee it. I'm going to try to limit things that have buildup as much as my brain allows for. I will do my best in the amount of free time I have. I'm not exaggerating to say that it always takes more time than I anticipate, and I'm sure other developers can attest to that. I'll just keep chugging along and do the best I can while not sacrificing quality!
One thing I want to add is a character bio feature, but we'll see. The top priority with my time on this is always to progress the story. Character bios are nice, but everyone would rather see the next update.
Thanks everyone for your support. I'm humbled by it, and whether you enjoy the story or not, I wish you the best. More to come soon.
Efficiency of time is always the problem and making a masterpiece. The only thing that helps in story building are the small details that you intend to expand upon later rather than having to flesh them out in detail later. An important phone call that will the source of consequences later, a damning letter discovered that is the source of a future conflict, a lie told but not immediately caught but later shines on a clue. It is foundation material you lightly introduce now that saves you time later |
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