So, a novel by Nunu:
Game Complexity
The largest feedback I got from the previous public release was about game flow. There was a significant amount of confusion and frustration in what people were saying. This is something I knew was going to be an issue and I tried to solve it with half measures while I designed something better, which is a decision that in retrospect I feel hurt the previous game release. So this is really a two pronged issue, firstly the game is too complex and secondly the game does not adequately explain objectives and progress to the player.
The first issue on game complexity is something I have thought a great deal about over the past week. What would a less complex version of this game even look like? If I remove some choice it makes no difference, do I just push it back into a full Kinetic Novel? Development would be easier for sure, the story would be easily followed and it wouldn't even hurt that bad as everyone has been very complimentary about the quality of my writing. But at the end of the day that isn't the game I want to make. Maybe I'll do the occasional build that includes a KN version just for those few who want to play the game that way. After all I want everyone to enjoy what I make, some people that isn't going to work for as they just aren't into mega boobs, but when a person honestly tries to enjoy the game and can't because of my design decisions, well that stings me real bad. If I can do something reasonably easy like a KN version that might let them enjoy my game then I am on board with that. What do you guys think?
Similarly on the game being overly complex, I am working on ways around that. I'm not looking to necessarily make my dialogue trees smaller, I am looking to increase the ways that you can access content and loosen restrictions about how you can access that content. Things like one date overwriting another work in my mind and make sense, it is unnecessary and will be cut going forward. They are just small changes for now but as the game continues to grow there will be more and more cross paths. This is things like being able to trigger Alex masturbating for Lina to watch more easily and in more ways at corruption level 2 than 1. I do realise that all this is technically solving complexity with complexity, but my design theory is that more paths to success lead to less frustration.
Upside of Complexity
One of the reasons this game takes place in a secluded location over basically two days is because I wanted there to be a lot of interplay between the characters. I wanted the player to be able to interact and mold the world with their actions, which is possible but untenable over a larger scope. I like that if you do something other characters will react to it, individual characters don't exist in a vacuum, only crossing over when plot demands it for progress. One of the scenes I wrote for the latest release are to do with these interactions, yes there is some unique content for it but it doesn't lead to progression, it's just the characters having fun. Maybe one day it will lead to progression as I pick up the issue at a later corruption level, as long as it doesn't make the game too complex.
Guides
The second issue of explaining the game better, as I said I had building guides from the simplest to the more complex. That wasn't solving problems, so now we are going most complex first:
It's a flowchart that fills itself out. When you see options they appear on the chart and stay that way forever, the option you take this run will be highlighted. Similarly passed checks are in green and failed checks are in red, I even drew some little icons for showing things. You also get to see the current state of things of the left there. The next step for it is to also allow you to navigate between scenes for total information control by the player. It is in the current patreon build but only for the first few scenes, the charts are time consuming to make and I don't think I will be doing a public release until they are done. Hopefully that will be by next thursday so I can maintain my poorly thought out idea for fortnightly public releases, but I'm just going to say this:
There will be no public release until this system is finished, no more half measures.
Animations
It's done, they are in the latest patreon build. Well two of them anyway, in one scene. I will be going back through and adding them to existing scenes where I think they will fit. The video quality took a hit with the unholy arrangement of programs I ran it through, but that's a perfectly solvable problem that will be solved. That being said it's not like it's bad... it's just not as good as I want.
Breast Expansion
The game now canonically contains breast expansion, but I wouldn't put the tag on it yet. It's one tiny scene in the post loop rundown and it's not much growth. Lets earn those tags. The question of will the breast expansion be real? Breast growth will definitely be real, full on expansion I want to be real (And optional for those who aren't interested in it) but I'm not quite sure how I'll work it in yet. It is likely that the next BE scene I write will be a dream, half because I'm not sure where it will end up but also because I haven't progressed far enough into the plot points for the relevant pieces to be in place for the scene to actually happen. As the development progresses these dreams may very well turn into reality.
Pregnancy and Lactation
They're coming, one sooner than the other.
More Character Sprites
I did hear one person say that they were disappointed that when I say a character sits down that the sprite doesn't reflect this. There are a lot of great games that do this, with individual renders for every situation. In a perfect world my game would be one of them, but in all honesty that takes a lot of time away from scene writing. I WOULD like to increase the number and expressiveness of the sprites and ran some tests on it before but haven't been able to find a good balance. It would be nice if the characters moved around more and showed their expressions and it's something I'll be looking into as development progresses.
Gallery Feature
I understand what this would look like in other games, but for me I blur the lines between what is and isn't a scene, then the scene itself may rely on half a dozen variables from outside the scene itself. All that being said these are solvable problems and the more I talk about them the more solid the issue becomes in my mind. I view a gallery as not a question of if, but when, at the same time, I don't think it will be soon.
Anyway... that's all for now.
