HTML Female Agent [v1.20.1p] [Crushstation]

[Ripe]

Speak only for yourself. For me it's much more exciting if the character has a proper background -*especially* in a (mostly) text-only game.

Oh don't get me wrong, a proper background is a must, but what developer is doing is way more then just "proper background"... based on what he shared, we're going to start playing her at age of 7-8 (I think, could be even younger) and will be able to determine everything that happen to her until she's chosen for the mission. Hell, we're talking maybe a full hour or more of gameplay before we get to what is currently starting point!

Improving her background is nice, but that much? I'm not so sure...

 

[numanumani]

Oh don't get me wrong, a proper background is a must, but what developer is doing is way more then just "proper background"... based on what he shared, we're going to start playing her at age of 7-8 (I think, could be even younger) and will be able to determine everything that happen to her until she's chosen for the mission. Hell, we're talking maybe a full hour or more of gameplay before we get to what is currently starting point!

Improving her background is nice, but that much? I'm not so sure...

"Everything that happen"? That's highly doubtful. It could just as easily be a small intro part of a few important events, sort of like how it works in Fallout.

 

[Ripe]

"Everything that happen"? That's highly doubtful. It could just as easily be a small intro part of a few important events, sort of like how it works in Fallout.

Did you read what Crushstation wrote on his patreon page and what is on the "to-do list" Magio posted? We might not get to play everything but we will get to determine how each major event in her life went since she was in her early teens at the minimum...

 

[numanumani]

Did you read what Crushstation wrote on his patreon page and what is on the "to-do list" Magio posted? We might not get to play everything but we will get to determine how each major event in her life went since she was in her early teens at the minimum...

I had not, and I now see where you're coming from.

I guess I'm a "glass half full" person, so I'll wait and see what the early life part will actually entail.

If it's done well and lets you earn traits organically in an interesting way; I'm all for it. If it comes out as a slog through page upon page of dull context and backstory, I may be less so.

I admit I haven't been following all that many developers nor for that long but I can't recall seeing one say they were quitting their normal job to work full time on their game. That's daring. It will be interesting to see how it works when the game isn't a hobby side project but rather the main means of income.

 

[Ripe]

I admit I haven't been following all that many developers nor for that long but I can't recall seeing one say they were quitting their normal job to work full time on their game. That's daring. It will be interesting to see how it works when the game isn't a hobby side project but rather the main means of income.

I saw few of them make a claim about it (provided they hit a certain pledge goal) but there is really no way to determine whether any of them actually did it.

 

[OnionsDontCry]

Has there been a new update? I feel like someone said there was one a little while ago.

 

[xgrotesc]

Nope, he's aiming to have the update ready by the end of January. He esimates it should be ready around the 27th, althought that date is not set in stone and could still be changed, either anticipated or delayed.

 

[ray3dave]

Maybe I don't get it, the new concept. So far we got a good quality porn game, kind of. If I understand it correctly, there's gonna be some (in worst case longwinded) character building starting from the early teens (which of course just as well could be interesting). Vis Major used that in a short introduction in a nice way. At least it does not sound very necessary to me, as we start with a fully fledged great character for a porn game. And I am not keen at all on playing with underage characters, although in real life much of what we became might come from these early days in life. I'm not very fond of games that try to get close to realism (e.g. tedious boring day to day life and jobs). I totally like character creation, and especially games in which your choices change stats. So maybe it is going to be something like that? The news are making me nervous, I am no longer sure whether I am looking forward to the next release because it might just as well get screwed up. I keep my fingers crossed though.

 

[MagLev]

I totally like character creation, and especially games in which your choices change stats. So maybe it is going to be something like that?

That is the plan from what I gathered, yeah. During this prologue, the choices you make will influence stats that will (once the rest game has been updated to take those into account, I don't think that will be the case in the next release but definitely once Bangkok gets implemented) be leveraged to limit or expand the characters options to deal with a situation (sexual or not).

Also, I don't think there'll be sexual scenes while the character is still underage. I think that stuff will only start during her college years. Also I'm pretty sure it would be illegal (+ against Patreon's terms of service) to have an explicitly sexualized underage character, so even if he messed up and 1.4 had that, I'm pretty sure 1.4.1 wouldn't.

While I'm here, you can follow the progress of the "sprint" towards 1.4's release

You must be registered to see the links

. Pretty much nothing is "done", but a lot is underway or almost ready.

 

[dasflute2]

I'm not very fond of games that try to get close to realism (e.g. tedious boring day to day life and jobs). I totally like character creation, and especially games in which your choices change stats. So maybe it is going to be something like that? The news are making me nervous, I am no longer sure whether I am looking forward to the next release because it might just as well get screwed up. I keep my fingers crossed though.

In his latest update from today, he says this:

One thing I dislike in adult games (and games in general, actually) is grinding to level up, so we're not planning to implement that kind of gameplay in Female Agent. Instead of being used to gate off content, your agent's skill levels will determine whether she succeeds or fails at any given task, and our aim is to make both outcomes interesting.

Example: in a planned side quest, the agent is hired as a high class escort to accompany a client to a formal dinner. The agent will make an Etiquette skill roll to use good table manners; agents from a privileged background, or have experience waitressing, will have a high chance of succeeding at this roll.

Succeeding at the roll wins the client's respect and leads to him being wowed by the agent; failing the roll causes him to look down on her as kind of trashy. Both results lead to different, interesting outcomes to the encounter.

So sounds like he's on your page with not wanting to involve stuff like gaining XP or grinding.

 

[redwind21]

No update yet? Maybe Crushstation really is afraid of going to Bangkok!

 

[lioness]

I'm cutting Crushstation a break because he's constantly updating us on his progress.

 

[MagLev]

I'm cutting Crushstation a break because he's constantly updating us on his progress.

Not saying you shouldn't, hell I'm a patron so I do think he's actually putting in the work, but if it was a scam, he would also update us constantly.

By updating a lot, he gets around 4K per month despite releases being few and far between. I remember when that Tropic guy (Incredibles trainer) dropped off the face of the earth and only popped back every few weeks/months, his Patreon cashflow dropped a ton and quickly became close to nothing.

And before you say "but if he's releasing things every now and then, that proves it's legit", not really. In many cases with Patreon, the issue is that the monthly payout encourages the creators to drag out the development of whichever game they're making if it appeals to a lot of people for as long as possible, because if the next project isn't as successful their income will sharply drop. For an example, look at Akabur's income over the years. Sure, he still makes 5k a month, but back when he was working on Princess Trainer Gold, he was pulling 10k a month ! He hasn't dropped off the face of the earth, Star Channel is quite good and quite liked so far, but the fact that it appeals to his patrons a bit less still halved his income.

So in this case, Crushstation could very well be lying about how long he works on it everyday, could be lying about how long he thinks he'll need because he knows there's a big chance that once Female Agent reaches near completion, he'll find himself with less money coming in and will have to convince "us" again to get on board with his new project to regain a similar level of income.

Once again, I don't think he's scamming his patrons and BS-ing everyone. But do NOT dismiss that possibility because he's updating us frequently. He'd have to be a terrible scammer to blow his "cover" like that.

 

[Ripe]

I'm cutting Crushstation a break because he's constantly updating us on his progress.

Yeah, he's updating us on his progress... whether he's telling the truth or he's simply buying time is another question. In any case with his constant updates he already bought himself over six months considering his last release with new content was in June.

Personally, I find it amazing that he's getting almost $3.500 per month from his Patreons without giving them back anything other than progress reports for over six months... it actually makes me feel bad for all those creators who make regular monthly releases (some of them even for great games!) and can't get anywhere near that amount.

 

[BleepRose]

He definitely hit on an idea with an audience. I still love the idea of Female Agent but the amount of money that has gone into these results is pretty absurd.

 

[DinosaurUnion]

I recently stopped giving money, I've been getting nearly daily emails for months with nothing to show.

It's scope exploded when they went back and added way more RPG elements into it, meaning every encounter they have and ever will have has hundreds more variations to account for. Progress - if it happens - will be slow and painful, and given it's first version release was August 2017 we're *still* absolutely no closer to Bangkok.

 

[cellsase]

I'm not a supporter, but it's been a while since an update for sure. If he actually delivers soon, I will consider pledging but the lack of anything is definitely not helping his case. Not to sound like an ass or anything, but as much as I want to see this game succeed I'm not made of money.

 

[numanumani]

I'm not a supporter, but it's been a while since an update for sure. If he actually delivers soon, I will consider pledging but the lack of anything is definitely not helping his case. Not to sound like an ass or anything, but as much as I want to see this game succeed I'm not made of money.

You can read the patreon posts for updates. The last one was posted on January 12th and you do not need to be a supporter to see it. In it he also links to the Trello, which contains progress updates as they happen.

 

[dasflute2]

I believe in Crushstation, and I trust that he's working as hard as he can. And like someone above said, it's a testament to the idea that came up with that so many people continue to support him, along with the fact that what has come out so far is so high quality. While I'm not going to pretend that I'm happy with how long it's taking or that I don't wish the next update was out already, what he's done so far and what he's showing is making me confident it will be worth the wait.

If we still don't have anything out in another few months, or if it ends up being very subpar (which I don't believe is the case) well, that's another story, but for the time being I'm willing to wait another few weeks, even another month or two, to see what comes from this huge development time.

I mean hell, if I stick with shit from EA on their development timescales and opacity, I don't think I can critique Crushstation.

 

[kymico]

There's a seriously untapped "Girl Life" market out there.

Female Agent is slowly heading that way, Newlife has been milking patrons for years with small incremental updates (some created by Patreons at this point!) and we have new Devs coming up with games which seemingly take forever to release (ex: Accidental Woman). This is totally my sort of game but unfortunately... it's very slow going.

What I'd give for a Female Agent UI with an improved and complete Newlife...

As for Crushstation, I believe he/she means well. He communicates well. The releases do eventually come but the dev is stuck in a rut to keep improving the gameplay of the game (which can easily be used in future games). I agree the Patreon format makes it easy to milk games but I don't think this is the case. I'd also agree adding fresh content every 2nd dev sprint would be a far more ideal roadmap to project completion.

And as far as I'm concerned, people support who they want to support. They're not forced to donate monthly but they do and there's little non-Patreon folks can do about that. Let me tell you something though... the updates/communication I get from this game eclipses others in its genre mightily and I'll donate again when the releases come out.