Sharpx23

Newbie
Aug 15, 2022
75
241
Putting in checks where the player doesn't do anything to affect the outcome doesn't make something feel more like a game. It just causes people to save scum so they don't get locked out of content.
crush isn't the only developer doing that, it's basically the foundation of every RPGM game. Star Knightness Aura works like that too with the "pink" scenes or whatever which require certain methods of playing that are grindy and annoying as fuck which is why you follow a very confusing player written guide. Games with multiple paths = locked out of scenes unless someone makes a multi-mod or you want to enjoy playing 20 times. Multi paths also increase development time, and end of the day are still basically kinetic stories for me because I could give no shits about the other paths, I just choose one path I like the best, and it's a kinetic story if I pretend I was never offered another choice. I don't really get people who want to play a game 10 times tbh. All the stat sheet does is add some "character building" to the game, so you try and min/max the stats to see the best scenes like you said. But I'd argue multiple paths are just as stupid for multiple reasons and I want a kinetic story. Definitely they are stupid when you make a porn game and have some loyalty path, like AWAM where there is even less chance of sex scenes and all the MC is does is have sex with her husband. These are the stupidest paths to add in a porn game. Even perfect marriage has something stupid like this were the MC and the husband stay together. What a fucking waste of development time. Maybe soap opera fans love it, but go watch days our lives and fuck off, honestly. Our red string also is a total waste of time, multiple path garbage, where you can play 100 times and still not end up on the Holly path because you can't be bothered to puzzle out hidden variables and the walkthrough mod is trash.
 
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orellion

Newbie
May 12, 2023
96
63
crush isn't the only developer doing that, it's basically the foundation of every RPGM game. Star Knightness Aura works like that too with the "pink" scenes or whatever which require certain methods of playing that are grindy and annoying as fuck which is why you follow a very confusing player written guide. Games with multiple paths = locked out of scenes unless someone makes a multi-mod or you want to enjoy playing 20 times. Multi paths also increase development time, and end of the day are still basically kinetic stories for me because I could give no shits about the other paths, I just choose one path I like the best, and it's a kinetic story if I pretend I was never offered another choice. I don't really get people who want to play a game 10 times tbh. All the stat sheet does is add some "character building" to the game, so you try and min/max the stats to see the best scenes like you said. But I'd argue multiple paths are just as stupid for multiple reasons and I want a kinetic story. Definitely they are stupid when you make a porn game and have some loyalty path, like AWAM where there is even less chance of sex scenes and all the MC is does is have sex with her husband. These are the stupidest paths to add in a porn game. Even perfect marriage has something stupid like this were the MC and the husband stay together. What a fucking waste of development time. Maybe soap opera fans love it, but go watch days our lives and fuck off, honestly. Our red string also is a total waste of time, multiple path garbage, where you can play 100 times and still not end up on the Holly path because you can't be bothered to puzzle out hidden variables and the walkthrough mod is trash.
The trick is having the paths meet back up at some point, so you don't endless branching paths all telling an alternate story that a single dev has no hope of finishing in a lifetime. This takes good planning and does seem ass backward to try and implement as Crush is doing it.
 

CassieBare

Member
Game Developer
Jan 25, 2020
474
1,154
The trick is having the paths meet back up at some point, so you don't endless branching paths all telling an alternate story that a single dev has no hope of finishing in a lifetime. This takes good planning and does seem ass backward to try and implement as Crush is doing it.
^This. This is how all CYOA, branching-stories, etc do it. Branches leading to rails leading to branches leading to rails.
 

Mister-Wolf

New Member
Oct 26, 2018
5
4
More stats that won't actually do anything of significance and re-doing old content that has already been re-done to death?

This is just a scam at this point right?
I assume the stats will, in theory, let you pass some dice rolls that end up not mattering at all. If they were honest about completing the story *and* keeping goals manageable they'd probably lock some side missions or mission clues behind the checks with their completion mattering for the ending but that's not going to happen.

And yes, it's a scam, and always will be until we finally see "Finished" or "Abandoned." These skills are just going to add a simple modifier to the already existing RNG system and he's going to pretend it will take another 3 months to work out some bug in his code for simple addition.

I'm pretty sure Alpha Protocol had a shorter development cycle than this game.
 

Senor Smut

Member
Aug 11, 2020
180
706
I assume the stats will, in theory, let you pass some dice rolls that end up not mattering at all. If they were honest about completing the story *and* keeping goals manageable they'd probably lock some side missions or mission clues behind the checks with their completion mattering for the ending but that's not going to happen.

And yes, it's a scam, and always will be until we finally see "Finished" or "Abandoned." These skills are just going to add a simple modifier to the already existing RNG system and he's going to pretend it will take another 3 months to work out some bug in his code for simple addition.

I'm pretty sure Alpha Protocol had a shorter development cycle than this game.
Half-Life 3 will release before this game gets finished.

God I miss Half-Life.
 

Sharpx23

Newbie
Aug 15, 2022
75
241
Look, I'm not saying I could make something 95% like this in an afternoon...

View attachment 4114458

... but I could.
so could I, I could probably get this screenshot and turn those hairs into layers, and recolour them all 150 times, before the day ends, and save as SVG or whatever they are doing. He keeps saying the layers are misaligned or something though? Writing about how layers interact etc.
 
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Gyzul

New Member
Dec 9, 2023
7
17
It's so weird that he decided to focus on that highly specialized feature with hair color, when he could reconnect 2 parts of the game, implement rpg character sheet or just rpg mechanics in general, maybe add sound effects(club music, shower, car door closing) to add more immersion. There are easier things to do in order to get back your confidence as a developer, but he chose hair, it's just weird.
But, I personally do agree that he should shelve story for a while and do mechanics and stuff, because last bit he released was quite off.
 

hligahudiaunf

Newbie
Feb 5, 2019
50
63
It's so weird that he decided to focus on that highly specialized feature with hair color, when he could reconnect 2 parts of the game, implement rpg character sheet or just rpg mechanics in general, maybe add sound effects(club music, shower, car door closing) to add more immersion. There are easier things to do in order to get back your confidence as a developer, but he chose hair, it's just weird.
But, I personally do agree that he should shelve story for a while and do mechanics and stuff, because last bit he released was quite off.
He decided hair not because he could, just because they need to show something in reports. It is like:

Crush: I am planning to work 8 hr on game this month but we need to show some work.
Queen Victoria: Again? Ok I will save your ass again by creating new hair styles and tanlines.
Crush: Cool, I will fake that I have some plan and documentation and that I showed it to someone. This should be enough.

Do you really think they need rpg system and sound (you play porn games with sound?!) when they cant create single path kinetic story?
 

Troqu

Well-Known Member
Aug 6, 2017
1,261
1,899
He decided hair not because he could, just because they need to show something in reports. It is like:

Crush: I am planning to work 8 hr on game this month but we need to show some work.
Queen Victoria: Again? Ok I will save your ass again by creating new hair styles and tanlines.
Crush: Cool, I will fake that I have some plan and documentation and that I showed it to someone. This should be enough.

Do you really think they need rpg system and sound (you play porn games with sound?!) when they cant create single path kinetic story?
Giving Crush a LOT of credit to say 8hr.
 

Majus

New Member
Jan 20, 2019
12
9
It's so weird that he decided to focus on that highly specialized feature with hair color, when he could reconnect 2 parts of the game, implement rpg character sheet or just rpg mechanics in general, maybe add sound effects(club music, shower, car door closing) to add more immersion. There are easier things to do in order to get back your confidence as a developer, but he chose hair, it's just weird.
But, I personally do agree that he should shelve story for a while and do mechanics and stuff, because last bit he released was quite off.
Implementing sounds into the game would be way harder than hair colors, simply because it's new tech you're adding, .svg files are already used in the game, so using more of them is a low hanging fruit. It's development 101. It makes total sense.

He also tried to do that "character sheet" thingy, but there are probably some complications with it, hence it wasn't worked on.
 
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ibizadalton

Active Member
Donor
Apr 23, 2019
913
2,882



Nouveau

Good morning guys! ☕ Here is this week's work update.

1) Brows fixed & new options added
Players like Greyduck and gg will be pleased to learn the eyebrows are now standard issue to all female Five Eyes officers.

Can't tell you what a difference this makes to the character creator. Now I get why hot girls normally have eyebrows
Our illustrator lovely Victoria added 5 new brow styles, so Female Agent now joins the ranks of games with eyebrow customisation during character creation (which is pretty much all of them, so I guess players like choosing eyebrows).

Of course, this wasn't as simple as just drawing five new assets. The avatar's facial expressions require seven different brow positions, so this improvement required 35 hand drawn assets.

Anyway, they're now coded into a new "Brows" dropdown in the character creator.
(We also improved the natural ginger & auburn dynamic hair colours – thanks for the feedback on this Sharkk991.)

2) Tech work on RPG system and character sheet
I did some really nerdy under-the-hood work on the RPG system and character sheet, using JavaScript (because the basic Twee/SugarCube code environment the game is built in couldn't do everything I needed).
The RPG features are now pretty robust. Previous episodes kind of faked the RPG elements, but we now have fully working skills (with optional specialisations), XP progress and levels, permanent Perks and temporary Status Effects (e.g. the heroine's Extraversion checks are buffed when she's Drunk; Coordination and Resist Seduction checks are debuffed).

It's all tracked automatically on the Character Sheet.
Levelling up in other games is great fun, so I hope you'll enjoy it in Female Agent, too. It feels fun in testing.
Perks are a new feature, which give your heroine an edge in certain gameplay situations. She'll gain her first perk when you pick her high school clique (alpha female/athlete/geek girl/rock chick) in the next episode.

Turns out getting good with an Xbox controller wasn't just a waste of time

Things that remain
– We've still got lots of avatar glitches on the various youth avatars that need to be fixed.
– The next episode is heavy on avatar outfits and looks and some need to be drawn and coded in.
– There's some general scene editing and tightening up I want to do.

Okay, that's it for this week's report! I'm going to catch up on some DMs (sorry to everybody who has messaged me and is waiting for a reply, I've been nose deep in JavaScript ) then get back to work. ❤‍
 

Pede rasta 1

Member
Dec 28, 2019
320
391
Victoria needs to draw the avatar in at least a few sex scenes. Yes it would be time consuming, yes it would be a worthwhile investment.
I don't know if people are being too naive or if they are crush bots trying to make fun of us
Nothing that he does will give any extra nuance to the game because this is not a game of options, it is a graphic novel that the developer will never finish.
Until when will you realize that you understand? Eyebrows will not change the story and make it move forward.
 
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