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Hey everyone,
the additional content poll has been closed. So, without further ado - here are the results.
(note: at the time when I've almost finished the entire post, including the rambling parts, I realized that I did not add votes from Subscribestar. With those votes added, the final tally would be Sunny 108 x Ana 130. The result doesn't change, just wanted to acknowledge it)
It should be self-explanatory, but just in case: the blue part represents actual votes and the red part is the additional vote weight based on tiers. Vote for vote it was pretty close (much closer than the public poll), but the oil barons are clearly in favor of Anasteya.
Anyway, I think I said it before but - it's not a big deal, Sunny has way more scenes than any other character. That said, the results are both reassuring and somewhat... unnerving (mainly with the public poll). It makes me wonder - do people really like Anasteya that much... or do they just dislike Sunny?
I certainly hope it's the former because there's going to be a lot of Sunny moving forward...
Speaking of which, I'll spend the rest of this post kind of rambling about Sunny-related topics, for anyone who might be interested - Ana won the extra content, Sunny gets the post as a consolation prize. Be warned though - it is very much unhinged rambling, so do not expect any professionally concise development update that strictly outlines how things will be; it is more just what I am thinking about the topic right now.
Working on Sunny's romance can be a bit of a headache sometimes, and that's mainly because I have mishandled it from the very beginning - for understandable reasons, I think, but now I am faced with the ramifications all the same. I discussed the topic ages ago, but essentially it is that Sunny would have been better as a slowburn romance that builds up over time while the protagonist can fool around with other girls. This would have allowed adult content to come sooner whilst making sure that Sunny's romance has enough time to simmer and not clash with the side romances. At the time, this wasn't really an option because I couldn't draw well enough to do sex scenes (or worse - kissing scenes).
There's always the objection every now and then that some players would have preferred the romance to be optional, but sadly there are greater concerns for me to consider - like how something would fit into the narrative, how much work it would take to implement, that sort of big picture stuff. The main advantage of making Sunny's romance optional is to avoid making it bleed into other potential side romances, however the key word here is "side" romances. Sunny does not have a counterpart as a "main" love interest - sure, you might think Becky, Kara, Trisha, etc. - but their participation in the story does not make them a viable counterpart/alternative as much as it makes them a neat addition. In other words, none of those characters will have even remotely enough screentime to make them an "alternative" to Sunny. And if the choice is between Sunny or nothing, it is a lot of work to implement the "nothing".
However, the reason why I revisit this topic again and again is because, like I said, Sunny's romance being mandatory bleeds into everything else. If the protagonist is flirting with Becky, it begs the question: "what about Sunny?" - and that's the case for just about every potential dalliance.
At this stage I think that trying to avoid that is the equivalent of "not eating the cake and throwing it away, too". I thought I had a solution (one that I discussed in the past) where the protagonist would not solidify his relationship with Sunny in spite of their sexual experiments, and that would rid him of guilt if he chases after other girls. But whenever it comes to executing this solution, I feel like I am falling short on ideas - and trying to force it just ends up making the interactions feel artificial (something I've recognized after retracing certain scenes in episode 4).
I want there to be consequences for the protagonist's behavior, but the issue is that Sunny's romance is mandatory - and punishing the player for a choice he's never made is a difficult pill for me to swallow, but to some extent it may be the only way forward. At this time, I simply think that the best thing I can do is to "eat the cake" with the good and bad, and approach Sunny's romance x side romances as a choice that rewards the player in different ways. In a very simplified way: staying faithful to Sunny = no scenes with side romances but more scenes with Sunny vs. partaking in side romances = less scenes with Sunny but you get scenes with other girls.
The outcome will definitely not be as binary as that since different side romances will have different impact on Sunny's romance, but the player's attitude should to some extent shape the protagonist, his relationship with Sunny, and also Sunny herself - e.g., the protagonist is a hopeless womanizer and Sunny turns into a cuck, making their relationship a little more depraved and a little less wholesome.
Incidentally, all of the possible variations become much easier to implement because there is a constant in each of them. For example, momentarily branching out with some side romance does not derail the story, because once it has run its course, the standard Sunny romance resumes (with modular additions to acknowledge that the side romance took place). So, if you had a choice between Sunny vs. something (or nothing), I would have to write parallel scenarios for everything; one where you are with Sunny and flirt with X, Y, and/or Z, and one where you are not with Sunny and flirt with them. It may not sound like that much more work, but these kinds of parallel storylines are incredibly tedious to write. Regardless, with Sunny's romance being mandatory, all of the side romances are rooted in the simple fact that you are always also romantically involved with Sunny.
This does not solve the problem that Sunny's romance dilutes every other potential romance. But like I said - I think the best I can do is to embrace that and let it shape their relationship, and as long as it's organic, it should all work out.
Anyway, these are just my "brief" thoughts on the topic, so nothing is set in stone. If you've read the whole thing, I commend your fortitude and appreciate any feedback as always. I'll make next progress log shorter, throw in a couple of pictures... and maybe make it look more like an actual progress log.
Love you all,
Worlaix
