Howdy! In this post I wanted to dissect what we did in the last update, for I am a medical professional now! (As evident by the labcoat).
We kind of just dropped the update without any explanations, because I thought you’d prefer to discover things on your own, but now that it’s out - I’d like to tell you what it is we actually did.
I will spoil everything that happened in it, so if you haven’t played it yet and don’t want to see any spoilers - you should probably stop reading here.
With that out of the way, let’s get to it:
I asked for your feedback on discord, read all the comments I could find and shared everything with Moana. We did some reflecting and I want to work on all of the issues you brought up.
We will add more references to Kira’s dialogue during the new pole event, especially to her Lust and fetishes, and we will finish the pole event before moving on to the next thing. I agree that we tend to leave things unfinished - but 0.5c was honestly our attempt at finishing and advancing existing content.
0.5c completed one of the major main quests and advanced some existing storylines (Mainly Katya and Olga). Sure, it also added some new things, but this is a game in development - we’ll continue to add new things, until it’s done. We’ll just do our best to actually finish them, from now on.
I’d also like to mention that the previews we’ve been doing as of late are not just previews.
It’s just difficult to add things retroactively - especially without breaking your saves. So we’re trying to think of everything and putting in placeholders that can be removed if anything, but can’t be easily added retroactively.
The consent form and the fetish removal are both there because, while they are unfinished, this is the moment where they are supposed to appear.
Apart from that, there were countless requests to both make text optional and to cut down on walking. We did both. 0.5c may not feel like a big update because of that, but it’s better in the long run.
I mean, it technically is the biggest update we ever did in terms of text, but there’s a lot of variety and most of it is optional. We could’ve stretched everything out, added more walking parts and made some text mandatory to bloat the gameplay - but that’s just bad game design. I feel like the balance we struck in this update is solid or at the very least is getting there, and I want to continue in that direction.
The new elevator exists for the same reason - it’s just general quality of life things that I think make the game more enjoyable.
That said, I think curiosity should be rewarded - So most of the optional questions Kira can ask do something. Some give you stats, others utilize your stats, and most of them change your relationship with characters like Polina.
None of it is mandatory and our game will never be focused on “math”, since I am a god-fearing, law-abiding, christian game-developer-doctor (because of the labcoat) and we all know that math is from the devil! So there will always be an excessive amount of stats and relationship points you could earn, especially in the final product (we need to rebalance some stats in one of the updates tho, maybe closer to 0.6).
As for the bugs, it looks like there were just some unforeseen ones with the older saves and one major bug due to Moana being Moana and deleting something last minute.
Now, I believe I already shared this story, but it honestly keeps me awake at night - I once saw her washing coins, regular coins, spare change you get at the shop. When pressed as to why, she shrugged like it was the most normal thing on earth and responded with “to make them clean”.
I don’t know about you, but my newfound medical professional powers (because of the labcoat) are screaming that that ain’t right! As tasty and shiny as the coins looked, I couldn't even imagine spending my time like that, but that’s kind of the point - she keeps things clean, organized and categorized, especially if they are coin-shaped (apparently).
It’s a good thing for a game like ours, but on occasion her overzealousness leads to some bugs. Nothing unfixable, just wanted to thank you all for reporting on them and I hope we fixed them all rather swiftly.
I’ve also seen that there might be a bug with Polina not dressing properly, so we’ll look into that, but overall, and given the variability of everything, I think Moana did a great job in this one. She also does the pixel art (like locations), and all the slap-stick comedy segments (like the elevator) and I loved seeing how she brought my writing to life.
Other noteworthy thing that Moana did include, but are not limited to:
- Manually re-coding every single of dialogue Katya says to support her new layered art
- Manually re-coding every single picture of Kira in dialogue (over 700 pictures) to appear through transparency and fix the glitch
The glitch itself needs more manual fixing, every consecutive line Kira says needs to be re-coded, Moana will do it slowly in each update.
- Coded that insane moment where Polina checks what Kira is wearing, upper body, lower body, underwear, then tries to undress her and starts mimicking Kira’s appearance later on
- Coded that surprise event and found a workaround to the missing variable
- Coded and tested everything else, all the madness I wrote, and there was a lot of madness! Or MEDness, if you will (because of the labcoat)
Right-o, I think that’s all I wanted to say in regards to the technical side of things, now let’s talk a bit about the story itself.
We are shifting more towards the “Repeatable” side of things. It may not seem like much at the moment, but eventually the game will be full of repeatable content and things to do.
Katya now has a repeatable event, but imagine if she had 10 different ones, was more proactive and it all had a gameplay element to it - that’s where I want to take the game, and slowly but steadily we’re getting closer to that reality.
Repeatable content, characters like Katya that give Kira lewd tasks and for you to pick where to complete them. That’s on top of the main plot and scripted content.
Semi-open-worldness with life-sim elements in a story-driven choice-based game, as we doctors (because of the labcoat) say.
The “carry” pose is no exception, I fully intend to utilize it whenever the opportunity arises. And the next place it will be used at is Vivarium - we’ll add alternative “day” tasks on top of Napoleon’s madness, some will be lewd, some will be silly. This one will kind of be both, you’ll have to find all the lost girls and bring them back to the barn, and each of them will be caught doing something sexual (at least that’s the plan).
As for the current interaction you have with it (carrying Polina), we didn’t finish that one for time reasons, I wrote more jokes and I still have some in me, so I’d like to add additional short conversation to this part of “A Modest Proposal” in the next version, to truly close this chapter.
Speaking of “A Modest Proposal” itself, the quest is meant to give you some answers, some new lore, unlock the fetish removal system and to connect the more linear main plot with this semi-open-worldness I’ve been talking about.
In v0.5.1 we want to add “fetish removal”, the “briefing” and that’s it - task completed. You’ll see what I meant when I said that Vivarium is also a part of the main plot, and you’ll get a good picture of what other quests are planned till the very end of the game.
It should, theoretically, feel like a mid-game point that fits the version number. I also really hope you liked the new lore additions, but let’s move on to the next part - Katya.
We added this event for two reasons:
The first reason - is that from now on every “lesbian H-event” will be added to Katya. It’s akin to Kira learning a new pose and then using it with Katya.
And the second one - the lore needed a break. I mean, there had to be some H-event at that point, to break up all the talking with Polina and rebel leadership. We picked Katya because it seemed easy and because she’s later used again in the “Counter Offer” side-quest.
It seemed natural to us to add her in 0.5c, but maybe it didn’t come off that way. In any case, it’s done, so let’s talk about the event itself.
Katya’s storyline is centered around edging and substance abuse, she wants Kira to be completely reliant on her and eventually she will micro-manage Kira’s life, if Kira lets her. None of her content will be enforced, you’ll always have an option to disobey.
Disobedience adds “Bad girl” points, obedience adds “Good girl” points, they aren’t mutually exclusive - Kira can be both. This way you can always see all the content that we’ll add to Katya, like spankings for being a bad girl or gifts for being a good one (new outfits, etc).
That said, I believe I’ve made a mistake while designing her relationship arc. Since her content isn’t enforced and she wants Kira to be her dummy, I basically wrote her latest event for Bimbo-Kiras, and this is a mistake I’ve made before.
Originally, Chief Officer events didn’t have a slut path, they were centered around Bimbos and we later added the slut option because not everyone wanted Kira to be dumb. I believe the same logic should be applied here - so I will write an alternative “Slut” version of Katya’s H-event and continue to do so in the future.
To be clear, the Slut path isn’t that much different from a Bimbo, because Bimbos are basically dumb Sluts. Sluts can be cute, vain and fake too - it’s the intelligence that makes them different in my opinion. They generally have more control because they’re smarter, but they also can get giant fake breasts if they choose to do so. Katya will seek to control Kira regardless of the path, it’s just that Slut path is more focused on Lust, instead of intelligence reduction.
Now, how will the game know what option to show you? Well, there’s a couple of ways to go about this, we could reference the existing variables (Bimbo or Slut), but that requires you to first finish some chief officer content. Or, given how often this theme comes up, we could add this “Bimbo or Slut” question to the intro. But, I think I have a better idea.
I plan to add a proper and repeatable date with Katya, and this date will become unlocked right after the party quest (not now, but in the future).
I think it would be much more immersive and fun if the girls got wasted and talked it all out during their date - So that’s the current plan.
Once we’ll return to Katya’s storyline in one of our future updates, we’ll first add the date that will set up the relationship dynamic. But for now, I think the “Slut” path will be default, since it’s more neutral and we’ll add the slut version of the latest Katya event in the next version already.
Other noteworthy things are the “breaking up” and “Katya sub” route.
The break up is pretty straightforward, we’ll just add this option after the initial date and it will end the whole relationship arc, in case you wouldn’t like anything about their relationship.
As for making Katya your sub - it’s a whole different path. I do intend to make it, but only after the “Katya dom” path will be implemented. One path at a time is the way to go in my opinion, and I believe that the “Dom-Katya” is a more popular option, we can have a poll about it if you disagree tho.
I do however prepare for that path already, I want to make it easier for my future self. This path would require substantial rewrites to the existing events and the switch of roles during the H-scenes. The thought of redoing everything scares me, so I try to do some of it in advance.
The whole idea of this was centered around a simple joke - the girls got together to plan a murder, argued, and ended up making eachother suck a bunch of dicks for a silly t-shirt.
The execution of this turned out to be a nightmare. First of all, the set-up of this H-event is 60 pages long, of which you can see around 10 at a time:
- The game checks whether or not the chief officer is dead, and if he is - Olga barges in like an agent of chaos (the event can’t happen without this)
- Then the game checks who was on the pole, and there’s 3 possibilities - Kira, Katya or both (it isn’t possible for both of them to work at the pole yet, but we’ve prepared for that scenario).
- Inside every option, the game then checks whether or not Kira was under the Chief Officer’s influence.
- Inside every option, the game then checks whether or not Kira and Katya are dating
- Inside every option, the game offers you to use N9 on Olga.
- And all of the above references other stuff, like Kira’s intelligence.
Every option of the “Set-up” sets up partners for an H-events, and now the H-event part can happen:
- The game checks who is a “partner” in order of importance
Kira partner - (only if Kira is under Chief’s control), the event is focused on Kira, and it has separate self-contained blocks of Olga, Katya and Olga+Katya, also references to the dating status.
Katya partner - (only if Katya or Kira+Katya were on the pole) The event is focused on Katya. Kira has an option of joining her with some conditions, and there’s references to whether or not they are dating. It has separate self-contained blocks of Olga, Kira and Olga+Kira.
Olga partner - (only if N9 was used on Olga) The event is focused on Olga. Kira has an option of joining her with some conditions, and if Kira is dating Katya - she’ll join as well. It has separate self-contained blocks of Katya, Kira and Katya+Kira.
And now the “Event ending” part:
- The game checks who was a partner in order of importance
Kira+Katya+Olga
Kira+Katya
Kira+Olga
Solo Kira version
Katya+Olga
Solo Katya version
Solo Olga version
- During the ending, all of the girls either wear a new t-shirt, or not. Katya will now wear this new shirt at the dorm if she was a partner.
- There’s more text and more role-playing choices that influence the relationship with Katya. Katya can give Kira a task to use a pole to earn more good-girl points (if they’re dating)
- The option to kill Gulag gets unlocked and appears on the pole
With all of the above, this whole interaction can have drastically different results.
It is possible for all of them to be present - my initial idea and pretty much a joke. Or, it also could get relatively grim, if, for example:
Kira killed the Chief Officer and then when Olga appeared at the shop - she just ordered Olga to suck some dicks. Add betraying Katya and sending her to the pole into the mix - and your Kira comes off as absolutely ruthless, the opposite of a clueless Bimbo that she could also become.
That’s how it all supposed to work, but we ran into a complication - we couldn't make it work for older saves, just for the new game. So we had to pick what to do with this, and we chose to show the Kira version of the event for everyone, instead of just showing it to the new players.
It will work as intended in the next version, I just took into account the survey we conducted not so long ago - where we all agreed that Kira should always be the main focus, and based this decision on that.
Sometimes making the older saves work is rather difficult and we often resort to various band aid fixes to make them work. But we’ll continue to do so, and whenever a similar issue will arise in the future - we’ll always pick the Kira over any other option. I think that’s the way to go.
Oh, and to be clear, it is pretty much the same H-event on all routes. Same setting, same people, it just takes into account your previous choices, all alternative versions are super similar - they’re just consistent with your Kira and your story.
The current roster of pole events is around 50 pages long and it’s limited to anal and public humiliation.
I originally wanted to make a bunch of really short events (~2 pages each), but they all felt lackluster, so we changed the plan and redid the whole thing. Now the events have some story in them, instead of people just sticking dicks in Kira for a few seconds (this will happen too, just a bit later).
There’s currently two different anal events and two humiliation events (all having 2 stages), so we felt that the consent form is just not needed yet.
Because Kira is always in the same position, I managed to limit the number of layers - her breasts will remain the same in all three poses (standing, one partner, two partners). This little maneuver will save us a lot of time and I don’t think it would feel like reused art since all events take place at the same spot and with the same premise - At least I hope that it doesn’t feel lazy.
Now, in one of my earlier progress reports I did say that the pole event will be unlayered in 0.5c, but rest assured it will be properly layered in the next version.
Same goes for text references, currently all 50 pages have almost no references at all, especially when it comes to Kira’s Lust, so we will add more in the upcoming version.
We’ll also add more H-events to the pole and I already have another humiliation event, vaginal event and half of the lactation event written. I also did the artwork for vaginal sex and all variations of double penetration (double anal, double vaginal, anal+vag)
This was the last thing we worked on, so we kind of just stopped at some point and decided to release the update, but we want to finish this completely in the next release.
Here’s how it all will work and we do intend to implement everything in the next update.
By default, it will always have “public humiliation” enabled, the rest will have to be turned on and it will all require either Kira’s Lust stat being at a certain level, or for Kira to have a corresponding fetish (lactation fetish for lactation events, etc.)
Each individual event will give Kira 1 Lust, but only for the first time and Kira won’t be able to work at the pole indefinitely - it will be limited to once a day.
Other interesting features are the blindfold and the gag.
To avoid making alternative versions for all events and doubling the amount of text, the customers will remove the blindfold from Kira when they’ll trust her enough (if the blindfold is “off” in the consent form).
So, each individual “mini H-event” will have an alternative version with the blindfold off. What’s the point of this? Well, it’s an ugly bastard and the elderly kinks -
the blindfold decides the appearance of Kira’s clients.
As for the gag, it will become unlocked after you’ve progressed a sufficient amount of mini H-events and got to their individual repeatable stages.
The gag is actually an “abbreviated shift” - you’ll see short and repeatable versions of all unlocked events, my initial idea basically.
There’s also a reward, after a certain number of pole events will be seen, Kira will get to keep the ropes as underwear (with condoms and without), plus the lust and fame stat gains (fame stat is unused and needs a dedicated update, it’s a story for another post).
That said, I really could use your feedback on this whole thing. Especially in terms of length. For testing purposes you’re not currently limited with time in 0.5c, but there will be a time limit (once a day), so how many random H-events should one pole shift have? Two? Three? Or just one, like right now?
That’s pretty much it! In summary, we wanted to do Moana's quest now, but based on your feedback - we first want to finish what we started. So, the next version will have:
- More pole events (we want to do all of them, vaginal sex and cow stuff are a priority)
- More jokes during the carrying Shwift segment
- Alternative “Slut” version of Katya’s scissoring event
- Alternative versions of the secret AUG’s shop event
- Working “consent form” for the pole
- New underwear from the pole
- Technical things (like stats that the pole event should give)
If there’s anything else you’d like to see more of, or even less of - please do tell us! And what did you think about the update in general? Did you like Polina? The surprise T-shirt?
Thank you all for sharing your feedback with me, your kindness and your continuous support! None of this would've been possible without you and I sincerely appreciate every single one of you!
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I outta draw a bunch of boobs, as we doctors (because of the labcoat) do. Oh, and the end is near!