- Thread starter suo_mynona
- Start date
I'm seeing the coffee shop, bus stop and homeless camp. Even though I've been offered other jobs I see no way of getting there. Am I missing something?
So more content is being added, so i wanted to delete my old review and update a new one.
Well, apparently I cant write a new one.
v0.0.3
-Addional intro helped.
-Added a homeless camp, which is good. The coffee shop is still a mess, but it's still early.
-Option to flirt, instead of forcing it is a really good change.
-While the coffee shop working has random events, all in all, things feel very static though. Zack is the same every night... gets boring the second time you see the same scene.
-Sex scene is from a female POV. Personally I was disappointed at this. I hate faceless male characters and they all use pov, now it feels reversed and I still hate it.
-Sex scene has a 3 image gif. Better than a 2 image gif but still needs more feel like an animation.
It's getting better but still is at 2 STARS, but almost a 3 now...
Well, apparently I cant write a new one.
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v0.0.3
-Addional intro helped.
-Added a homeless camp, which is good. The coffee shop is still a mess, but it's still early.
-Option to flirt, instead of forcing it is a really good change.
-While the coffee shop working has random events, all in all, things feel very static though. Zack is the same every night... gets boring the second time you see the same scene.
-Sex scene is from a female POV. Personally I was disappointed at this. I hate faceless male characters and they all use pov, now it feels reversed and I still hate it.
-Sex scene has a 3 image gif. Better than a 2 image gif but still needs more feel like an animation.
It's getting better but still is at 2 STARS, but almost a 3 now...
- Nov 3, 2017
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This was a topic of discussion in the old thread before it was deleted. My goal is to tell the story from Emily's point of view. I have three choices:
1) Render the scenes from Emily's point of view. Lots of feedback about not seeing enough of Emily.
2) Switch points of view around to the speaking character. Get to see Emily but lose the intimacy of Emily's viewpoint. I'm exploring this in updates 0.0.4 & 0.0.5 and seeking feedback.
3) Switch to a third person point of view, maybe only dropping to Emily's viewpoint during her inner monologue.
I don't have an answer yet, nice thing is that it's still early days and we all can figure out how best to tell Emily's story. As long as we figure out what works by 0.1.0 I can redo scenes based on feedback. (Yes, 0.1.0 will be the close of chapter 1: the introduction. I expect we will be around 0.0.24 before that happens.)
0.0.X = How much content can I do in a week or two.
0.X.0 = Section of story feature complete.
1.X.X = Game's feature complete, rest is tuning, bug fixes, and fedback
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I'm expecting we'll be at update 0.0.8 before the coffee shop is feature complete. Prostitution is just being started at the end of 0.0.4. More work being done in 0.0.5 but not expected to be polished by then. 0.0.6 is more focused on Bill's bar.
Animation is way too expensive for me at this time. If I can build up enough of a Patreon following, I plan on going back and adding animation sequences. Right now it takes between 30 minutes to 2 1/2 hours to render a single frame depending on scene complexity. When I can afford better hardware, I plan on going back and rendering animations.
I am unemployed due to a layoff. I started this game as a source of employment while I work on my next novel. That means around 20 hours a week on this and 20 hours a week on my novel. I've targeted an update every two weeks as a way to get feedback and tune this game into something people will enjoy. I've been able to release an update every week so far, but the target is two weeks. :coldsweat:
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That's the goal
. I'm active on here and Patron on a daily basis getting feedback to make a game we can all be happy with. More participation from everyone and hopefully the better the game will be.
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Not yet. Further progression with Frank requires adding 'The Hotel' location or 'The Studio' location. 'The Hotel' also impacts progression with Darren. Right now 0.0.4 adds the start Max's apartment and the poll for 0.0.5 content closed wanting to progress with Alex, add more coffee shop prostitution content, and add Darren's crib location. I have a poll running right now for 0.0.6 content; adding Bill's bar is in the lead at the moment.
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Copied from my Patreon page to show work complete towards 0.1.0 status:
By the end of 0.0.5 we have content for:
By the end of 0.0.5 we have content for:
- Coffee Shop Initial corruption sequence [completed]
- Coffee Shop Prostitution [30% complete]
- Alex Pet path [50% completed]
- Max Apartment [20% completed]
- Underpass [75% completed]
- Bill's bar bar-tending [0% complete]
- Bill's bar waitress [0% complete]
- Bill's bar Zack scenes [0% complete]
- Bill's bar learn to sing [0% complete]
- Bill's bar learn to place guitar (Zack progression) [0% complete]
- Bill's bar open mic night scenes [0% complete]
- Bill's bar Emily & zack duet [0% complete]
- Bill's bar agent discovery [0% complete]
- Darren's crib city explore discovery [0% complete]
- Darren's crib gang party [0% complete]
- Darren's gang city encounters [0% complete]
- Darren's gang underpass encounters [0% complete]
- Hotel as a place to stay [0% complete]
- Hotel as a place to work [0% complete]
- Hotel as a place for prostitution (Darren Pimp) [0% complete]
- Hotel porn movie scene (Frank progression) [0% compete]
- Max dating path [0% complete]
- Streetwalker prostitution mini-game [0% complete]
- Streetwalker encounters [0% complete]
- Customized Emily status UI
- Toggled Emily's statistics screen
- Achievements! Additional UI toggle.
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I agree! Keep your ideas and not of some pseudomoral individualsOk. Just a suggestion though: don't leave too much future development decisions to patrons because it can easily end badly. Your idea and vision of the game is far far superior, the average patron is just going to vote for their favourite character forever
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They don't. The entire story has been plotted out already. The polls are for what content from my lists gets added when, not what content will exist in the game.Ok. Just a suggestion though: don't leave too much future development decisions to patrons because it can easily end badly. Your idea and vision of the game is far far superior, the average patron is just going to vote for his favourite character forever
When not What.
I'm using feedback to tune and may end up changing the plot based on that feedback. An example was feedback about choices leading to early endings. I thought about the feedback and agreed. I redid the several early bad ending paths (Such as Alex Pet) to be side paths that you can work yourself out of to continue progressing. Another example is regarding point of view with a strong feedback element not liking sex scenes from Emily's point of view. I'm willing to experiment to find a good balance; however, I'm not willing to abandon telling California Bound from a first person viewpoint - Emily's.
The theme of all the plot paths are the consequences Emily suffers for taking shortcuts toward chasing her dream of becoming a movie star and how that changes her. That requires getting inside her head and seeing her inner dialog change over time. I think it would lessen the story to switch to third person just for better sex scenes.
California Bound is a story of Emily's personal transformation as she chases her dream - it contains adult situations, but they aren't the focus of the story. Play paths that focus on porn will exist but those paths take her away from her dream.
So why does the story start with porn-centric choices? The prolog starts with Emily making a bad choice - a shortcut - in chasing her dream. The introduction chapter is Emily dealing with the consequence of that choice. Will Emily learn from that or continue down the path of more bad choices? That's up to the player...
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To clarify, my initial plot only had a small group of paths that lead to complete stories of Emily becoming a star. Many paths along the way lead to bad endings and incomplete stories. I took some of those paths and fleshed them out to interesting stories that were complete - just not ones that have Emily becoming a star. Others I turned into side stories that pauses the main progression until you can work out of them and continue. Every path now leads to a complete story with a few leading to her becoming a star.
So when are you going to add Harvey Weinstein?
I'm psyched to give this a go but I think I'll wait till .5.
I'm psyched to give this a go but I think I'll wait till .5.
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'The story, all names, characters, and incidents portrayed in this production are fictitious. No identification with actual persons (living or deceased), places, buildings, and products is intended or should be inferred.' If someone mistakes one of my fictitious characters, say because I showed them with a really tiny cock, for a real person, and asks if I added them. I would have to ask them if they identify with my fictitious character having a small cock...
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Perfect, that's what I wanted to hear and more. What I find more and more attracting in your project is that you seem to understand what are the key points that make a game like the one in my signature great.
I'm a a Patron with a low amount right now, but I'm pretty positive I'm gonna raise it soon. GL, and when you reach a good enough point content wise don't forget to advertise the game here and there... people are gonna recognize quality
PS: just out of curiosity, what do you mean when you say that paths with a lot of naughty stuff are gonna take her away from her dream? Shouldn't there be a path that makes her reach (and sustain) her dream through "corruption"?
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Dreams can change.
I like stories that show a character transform over the course of the plot. Think of a story as someone mindless going about the rut of their lives. Something happens that kicks them out of that rut. At first they struggle to find their way back to what was only to realize that you can't go back. Eventually they search out a new normal and settle into it. The story is what happens between the two normals. While this is great for some action plot where the characters have no control over the plot, character driven plots, like California Bound, have the plot driven by the character's action. At any time the character has the power to say enough of this and call it quits. So, character driven plots require the character's choices to be believable. That takes us inside Emily's mind and the growth she goes through.
Seven steps of growth in a character driven plot:
1) Weakness & Need: What is holding the character back, what is missing in their makeup that's ruining their life? What psychological and moral changes have to happen inside the character to overcome this weakness?
2) Desire: What is the goal that drives the character's decisions? How does this goal tie into their weakness & need?
3) Opponent: Who is/are the character(s) in the story competing with the same goal?
4) Plan: What is the plan the character will use to overcome the opponent?
5) Battle: What are the specific events that bring the two characters into opposition and what happens?
6) Self-revelation: From those battles, how does the character discover their weakness & need and how does that revelation change their desire?
7) How does the character settle into a new equilibrium based on their internal changes?
As you can see, self-revelation can lead to achieving a desire that is different that her original dream of becoming a star. The original desire was superficial because the character didn't understand themselves, through self-revelation they discover their true desire. For hints, look at the dialog with Zack and some of Emily's inner dialog elsewhere... IMHO, why people chase their dreams is more interesting than if they catch them.
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So think of chapter one as where they player chooses the particular sets of weakness & needs and how that ties into her current desire of becoming a movie star. Each of the paths going forward build on a different set of weakness & needs that the player chooses through their decisions and each build throughout the story to a unique self-revelation based on those choices. Later path splits will add flavor based on the plan chosen and battle outcomes but the core fundamentals are the unique weakness & needs identified during chapter one.