HTML Blue Swallow [v0.6.4] [Blue Swallow]

[Elerneron]

Impressive start. Not really for me, though. If I want to stumble around in the dark, I’ll turn off the lights. Good luck with the game, though.

 

[bfc233]

CassieBare being remarkably transparent about the development process is part of why this game shapes up to be great tbh

I will say this: from following the development of many games with this kind of philosophy over the years, the problem is that this basically guarantees a strong start and good reputation because it makes the product fit its audience. That generally leads to a quick bloat in the number of people interacting with the process and a decrease in specificity that comes with a dilution of the initial vision.
There are teams that wisely employ a vetting process for this reason. In small communities like this, you generally don't need it, but you have to keep the vision for the minimum viable product stable and at the center.

I trust Cassi and Co to deliver a good product.
I don't trust the internet not to devolve into a squabbling toxic mess where every camp pushes their own vision.

Transparency and moderation (both kinds) are key, even if that means small setbacks in appeasement.
And as of right now things are looking good. Keeping that balance is a different matter entirely though.

 

[Iogics]

Not sure if it's been brought up yet. But the lifeguard section is in need of A LOT of proof reading. The level of writing in that compared to every single other path was just not even remotely close.

There's also more continuity errors than you can throw a stick at already, which is a bit alarming as it feels like we're still in the "character creation" portion of the story.

 

[CassieBare]

Not sure if it's been brought up yet. But the lifeguard section is in need of A LOT of proof reading. The level of writing in that compared to every single other path was just not even remotely close.

There's also more continuity errors than you can throw a stick at already, which is a bit alarming as it feels like we're still in the "character creation" portion of the story.

Would love specifics, throw them into our big fixes channel on the discord, otherwise likely won't get fixed with 300 current passages

 

[Samuel Hidayat]

Would love specifics, throw them into our big fixes channel on the discord, otherwise likely won't get fixed with 300 current passages

Gotta say, I like it better when we were able to 'reload' (pressing back) during the body count event until we get the details we want. Now, we always go to the first selection everytime we reload instead of the previous one. For example:
1. X takes off the condom at last moment
2. Y comes inside without my permission
3. Z has a tiny dick
4. [empty]
Before, you can reload from the 4th until you get what you want for the 3rd. Now, you always go back to 1st.

Any chance you'll bring this unintended feature back?

 

[Fictionary]

~snip~
Any chance you'll bring this unintended feature back?

Gut instinct is no.
That unintended feature was intentionally removed as that used a lot of memory / save state and will eventually lead to game slowdown if left as is.
PLUS that would be mean full page flashing again which we received a lot more complaints about versus your need of going back 1 selection.

 

[Gibberish666]

The raises a question, are all the kinks on Claire’s list going to be explored in some way? There was breeding, but also rape play, cum, masochism, bondage, cheating, old men, and more. Exhibitionism and nympho already seemed to be explored a bit.

I've gotten a lot of these kinks without running into any content that implies those kinks are being explored. Are some simply always available by default?
I also haven't been able to get others, like breeding. And I haven't figured out if you can cheat on the tests via favors with the teacher. Or are not all of these in the game yet?

IMO, I think it would help if there were notifications informing the player how their stats and available content would be affected. Obviously it would be something you should be able to toggle on/off.

 

[CassieBare]

I've gotten a lot of these kinks without running into any content that implies those kinks are being explored. Are some simply always available by default?
I also haven't been able to get others, like breeding. And I haven't figured out if you can cheat on the tests via favors with the teacher. Or are not all of these in the game yet?

IMO, I think it would help if there were notifications informing the player how their stats and available content would be affected. Obviously it would be something you should be able to toggle on/off.

Some have conditional requirements. Breeding, for example, requires both Risky and Excitable Traits to have a value greater than 1

There is an option to cheat on final tests in high school that has been added to the code, but I can't remember if it dropped in this Public release or hasn't yet made it into the ether.

The debate on if/how to tell the player about stats is still up in the air and generally distasteful to me. Eventually there likely will be a marking for 'this is the stat you're about to use' or greyed out 'your X stat isn't high/low enough' for options that you don't have.

The eventual Dossier will have REDACTED areas that can be revealed by player efforts that may clue them into what stats are without ever getting an exact number.

Past that, I doubt we'll do anything more prescriptive with stats and relaying the information to players. It's too gamey for me.

 

[Sammie]

Nympho seems to have a conditional requirement too. Does it have a game play effect yet?

i still can’t figure out how to be a college cheerleader. If I take all the athletic choices I don’t end up getting into college.

 

[Sammie]

It would be nice if there were some more condition checks in the vignettes. Like if Claire is more impressionable then getting sexed in by the gang turns into sex. But if she’s more confident or something the passage stays the same with her only giving blow jobs.

the other one that jumped out was when she hides in bed with the dad at the party. Especially if she takes the drugs and strips naked. High, horny, naked girl jumping into bed with dirty old man seems like an opportunity for something to happen.

 

[CassieBare]

It would be nice if there were some more condition checks in the vignettes. Like if Claire is more impressionable then getting sexed in by the gang turns into sex. But if she’s more confident or something the passage stays the same with her only giving blow jobs.

the other one that jumped out was when she hides in bed with the dad at the party. Especially if she takes the drugs and strips naked. High, horny, naked girl jumping into bed with dirty old man seems like an opportunity for something to happen.

These seem like what's intended for the main game -- more conditionals and checks. As it stands, adding these in to the character creation portion would add a lot of work, as they'd need to be added to dozens upon dozens of vignettes.

The way it's currently intended is to give color and background without being an overly intricate choice matrix.

 

[Sammie]

That makes sense

 

[Thegoofyproofyreader]

You must be registered to see the links

Have no Fear…We are still here!! Minor .4 sneak peek

Ki, ki, ki…ma, ma, ma!!!

Dev Highlights - We all magically got caught up in the first week of October.
Fictionary - Mucho Congratos on the new job.
CassieBare - New job also started in the last month. Congratulations
LewdPirate - New job in the last month. You got your damn Congratulations already.
MiraSomething - New dog is eating up their home and time. Get a dog sitter we have UI to fix.
thegoofyproofyreader - Took vacay to de-electronize. You don’t do shit anyways.
Noice1Bruh - Been kickin ass converting pixels to shapely bodies. Art takes time you heathens!

Author’s Corner - I've been working on the Backpacker Gap Year arc and about halfway through. There's three sex scenes, so it might be the sexiest gap year option, if that's your thing

Status: Well Damn…October 1st blew by, read above on the why. Sorry ALL. Bare with us.

• Bug fixes implemented
• Fuck Flavors added
• High School Options can now occur on Spring Break/Summers during College
• Barrier to college entry lowered
• Lowered $learning requirements for grades in High School
• Fixed the 'spoiled' trigger to be more conditional and how it triggered during Prom (yay!)
• Clarified text during the Clique portion -- hopefully it makes more sense now
• Added a Prom Dress and button framework so you can see what the choices are before choosing! (will be using this in other areas as well, like TwitchCon)

Upcoming:

UI/UX improvements to improve flow for Act 1 - We all like good flow!
Updated the Doll system to enable the use of the doll as part of the story content, tips or story crossroads
First 3D fuck animation is close to cumpletion. Lewd and Noice make more fuck animations…go go go!!!

 

[Sammie]

What does High School options can now occur during spring break and summers mean?

 

[PeanutGallery]

The debate on if/how to tell the player about stats is still up in the air and generally distasteful to me.

I personally think a diagetic approach would be best. If the players have access to a personnel dossier, they can be given an in-universe vague but generally indicative summary of their PC. This could include things like:

• Physical description (age, hair color, skin color, approximate weight and height)
• A brief summary of childhood (parents, location of birth and early home situation)
• Academic performance (grades, degrees, extracurricular activities, colleges)
• Broad strokes personality (outgoing, reserved, adventurous, cautious, focused, etc.) without attaching numbers
• Hobbies and quirks (plays instruments, knows four languages, allergic to peanuts)

This has the added benefit of reminding those of us who tend to be more forgetful what we were playing in a particular save, since some of us keep far more different characters than is reasonable in order to explore multiple branches and it can be easy to forget which one we're currently on.

 

[CassieBare]

What does High School options can now occur during spring break and summers mean?

High School hookups that were unlocked but not taken advantage of are now options during College as 'summer' or 'spring break' flings.

 

[CassieBare]

I personally think a diagetic approach would be best. If the players have access to a personnel dossier, they can be given an in-universe vague but generally indicative summary of their PC. This could include things like:

• Physical description (age, hair color, skin color, approximate weight and height)
• A brief summary of childhood (parents, location of birth and early home situation)
• Academic performance (grades, degrees, extracurricular activities, colleges)
• Broad strokes personality (outgoing, reserved, adventurous, cautious, focused, etc.) without attaching numbers
• Hobbies and quirks (plays instruments, knows four languages, allergic to peanuts)

This has the added benefit of reminding those of us who tend to be more forgetful what we were playing in a particular save, since some of us keep far more different characters than is reasonable in order to explore multiple branches and it can be easy to forget which one we're currently on.

Exactly my plan.

 

[RexUniverse]

The Twine editor. It's not an obfuscated platform by default (just packaged) so while it's kind of an organizational nightmare due to how the art assets are kept in it, it's pretty straightforward to dig up where flags are used.


Oof, I'm feeling very called out here...



Not wholly wrong, though.


No, pregnancy is quite limited at the moment. The total amount of content in the game dedicated to it is maybe half a page of text at this point, and the bulk of that is flavoring to her being aware of the risk involved in having unprotected sex. I'm assuming that it'll be more fleshed out down the line but won't ever really be a huge part of the game as my understanding is that this is a spy thriller with sex, not a pregnancy kink title. It seems like it's there as a nod to realism and flavor, not as the main fetish focus.

Oh soooo no making our character a mother yet. Alright. I mean, since they have the gap, I imagine it would happen. I'm mostly enjoy when someone explores that. If it won't be a thing, I guess that's fine, still love reading all of this.

 

[Skjall]

I have only two complaints:
1. Wish we were at version 0.31 instead of 0.3.1 already. Space-time bending machines can't come fast enough.
2. We're at page 28, and I only now realized it's CassieBare and not Catti-brie. Time to put Faerun lore away for some time, I guess.

 

[Kiriel]

The debate on if/how to tell the player about stats is still up in the air and generally distasteful to me. Eventually there likely will be a marking for 'this is the stat you're about to use' or greyed out 'your X stat isn't high/low enough' for options that you don't have.

The eventual Dossier will have REDACTED areas that can be revealed by player efforts that may clue them into what stats are without ever getting an exact number.

Past that, I doubt we'll do anything more prescriptive with stats and relaying the information to players. It's too gamey for me.

With regards to the discussion on displaying character stats, would it be possible to lock the actual hard numbers as an optional toggle for a new game+ and later playthroughs?