[Devlog] Lewd Invasion

[MondongoLonrongo]

I'm working on a RenPy game called Lewd Invasion (the extremely generic name isn't final, just a temporary placeholder; whether I change it or leave it as is remains to be seen).

I plan for it to be a mix of a comedic story and a gameplay loop. The original story is that you're an alien (a janitor, to be exact) sent by your superiors (as cannon fodder since they fear humans). The story would be difficult to take seriously: a clumsy alien dressed as a human, without camouflage or anything human-like, constantly the center of attention of the humans. While I was working on the layout of the game logic, I designed a Strip Poker (which is still half-finished, but the card logic is already fully done, so things are going well) to be a playable loop within the gameplay loop itself. That is, as soon as you clicked the four times to finish the story, you could start playing Strip Poker with the characters you've become close to. Now comes the interesting part: poker is going really well, and I'm adding and planning a lot for it. I'm thinking about making a more complete minigame with more features instead of a silly one. This Strip Poker would be heavily inspired by SPNATI. You could play against one NPC and up to four simultaneously. Now I have two viable options, and I need your opinions.

1. Should I stick to the original idea but centered on poker? Would our clumsy alien end up founding a tea room or something like that where you could play Strip Poker with other characters? This would create a complete game, Strip Poker within a game, in which it would go hand in hand with the first one.

2. Should I get rid of the alien and focus heavily on ONLY Strip Poker? Remove the alien and make a game inspired by SPNATI.

The game would use RENPY and models made with Koikatsu/CharaStudio.

There's also the possibility that I might decide to program the game to accept characters created by other users, but that remains to be seen if it's feasible, but the idea is there and it tempts me greatly.

 

[lagaard]

As someone who basically has tried everything with strip poker, both options are of course appealing, depending on how they get handled.
It's a little tough to recommend which to pursue, without having a clear idea of how the first one would really play out. That makes the second option a much 'safer' or 'easier' option, but it maybe isn't going to be what you originally envisioned as a creator. And that's also important.

 

[eevkyi]

Which of these options excites you most and motivates you to work on this project? That alone should guide your decision.

Personally, I prefer the first option. The second will likely lead to accusations of ripping off spnati

 

[lagaard]

Eh, be hard to 'rip off' SPNATI. We have a game project currently in development here, "No Trace of Luck" which is a VN-style thing with some strip poker sequences.
SPNATI is largely without story, and is more like old strip poker games of just letting you play against opponents. There is some minor story that depends on the characters involved but...

There was also an old game called... hrm... damn, I can't remember now but it also had some strip poker sequences and was a poker themed game. It got delisted off their site and you can't legally acquire it though. I recall it was on the same site that has Loren the Amazon Princess or whatever though. The strip poker sequences in it were fairly unimpressive though.

 

[Lerd0]

...good luck....

1. Should I stick to the original idea but centered on poker? Would our clumsy alien end up founding a tea room or something like that where you could play Strip Poker with other characters? This would create a complete game, Strip Poker within a game, in which it would go hand in hand with the first one.

....first option better for me....

 

[MondongoLonrongo]

I'm still making progress with poker, as I said all the logic of the rules and such is finished and now it remains to finish the events and make all the sprites of a character to test that everything works as it should.

I've been designing some characters and trying out ideas like a double character.






As for our ̶c̶a̶n̶n̶o̶n̶ ̶f̶o̶d̶d̶e̶r̶ alien protagonist, I had thought of a design like this.







And I thought about adding other aliens as competition, remember, they are aliens, not furries, you are safe.







Thank you very much for the feedback and I will keep you posted on how the project is progressing.

 

[lagaard]

The character designs seem alright to me, and also seem original enough in their designs which isn't a bad thing inherently. You sound like you have an idea of what you want, which is important, I'm just curious how you intend to implement it all. So I'll have to keep an eye on you...

 

[MondongoLonrongo]

A small update with a simple roadmap.
- Make 1v1 poker fully playable with generic events: Tease, Strip, Idle, Lose.
- The same but adaptable between 1 and 4 NPCs. The base is already done, and the first tests with up to 4 NPCs work, so the hard part will be making the sprites and, if necessary, tweaking the code in case there are any bugs.
- Release a playable prototype. It’s not a “demo.” Demos usually showcase a nearly finished product, while this prototype is focused on testing the Strip Poker gameplay loop and gathering feedback.

I have more plans for Strip Poker, such as more complex events, dynamic events, such as characters talking to each other instead of just saying generic phrases, and many erotic scenes that occur while the game is in progress instead of just at the end like other games do.
Once Strip Poker is playable and has a decent amount of content, I'll focus on the core game and story. Strip Poker will continue to receive updates, including more content, features, and events.

As for the game, it will be completely free, with no additional paid content or paywalls. The strategy is simple: reach more players and let them decide whether or not to donate so I can continue developing projects. Basically, instead of bleeding a few players dry at absurd prices, as some do for content of questionable quality, my games are completely free, and donations are optional and reasonable. At most, I'll probably give donators a beta before releasing the stable version of the update. I don't want this to be seen as early access, because it isn't. It's a beta, a test version, and it will most likely have bugs and won't be ready for public release. I want these testing phases to be short, fix the bugs a fast as possible, and release the public version. At first, since there's little to test and it's easy for me to do, I won't do betas and will release the versions to the public directly once I've made sure they work, but as soon as the project grows to a considerable size, I'll most likely do what I've said.

 

[lagaard]

Sounds promising, I'll keep an eye out on this prototype to get an idea of what you have in mind.
Given you know about SPNATI, I have hopes you have a pretty good idea of what makes strip poker games an enjoyable experience.

 

[MondongoLonrongo]

Sounds promising, I'll keep an eye out on this prototype to get an idea of what you have in mind.
Given you know about SPNATI, I have hopes you have a pretty good idea of what makes strip poker games an enjoyable experience.

The philosophy for Strip Poker is more or less the following:
- Same round-by-round mechanics as SPANTI: each round, all players receive cards, and the worst hand is the one that must strip.
- Reward isn't the only thing the player seeks: Winning will reward the player with money and possibly additional scenes, but the philosophy is to make the game itself feel as immersive and enjoyable as possible, so the characters will have a multitude of events, relationships, reactions, and more. Two NPCs who have been stripped naked could have an event where they start making out in front of everyone. Or, after removing a piece of clothing and being mocked, one NPC momentarily removes another piece of clothing from another NPC. And this doesn't stop the action; it happens while the game is in progress.
- Each character has their own personality, quite distinct from the rest.

This involves a lot of planning, which is why I'm programming in an adaptive and modular way so that the program can accommodate changes and modifications in the future. I'm also working in parts, first with a 1v1 with generic reactions and events, then with two to test the program's adaptive capacity, and then more. For now, it's about taking things step by step, creating and finalizing a reliable, modular, and modifiable base so I can add more reactions, events, and more with relative safety.

 

[MondongoLonrongo]

After completing the first phase and having a functional 1v1 with basic reactions, it's now time to "sweeten" the game to give it a little more complexity.
The player can "fold," but this costs a resource that we'll call "fold coins" for now. The player will start with a few fold coins. I was thinking of starting with 0 and earning up to 3 fold coins throughout the story. I also thought about earning fold coins mid-game, such as allowing an NPC to keep clothes from losing in exchange for a fold coin. Fold coins can also be spent on advanced interactions mid-game. Basic ones would be free and even offered by characters, but advanced ones require payment in fold coins.
This would also give rise to a mechanic: lying. If an NPC has a very good hand, they can lie to make it seem like they have a bad hand and tempt the player. Lying would be tricky, as it could be seen in different ways, especially in the differences with the sprite. This would change depending on the NPC, some would be easier to differentiate and others more difficult. For example, if it looks toward the player, it's lying, but if it looks away, it's telling the truth. I'd like to know your opinions on these ideas.

 

[MondongoLonrongo]

My next goal is to release a small demo of the early prototype.
What I don't know is where to upload it for download.
In this post itself I don't think it is allowed.