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

[IamUnderman]

So, what do people in this thread talk about considering that the game hasn't progressed in any meaningful way in about a year?

In all seriousness, hi, I like this game (in theory) and I wanted to ask something. How many people in this thread actually think the game will ever be done? Like I'm not asking if the game will ever be updated again, I'm sure it will be. But considering the insanely slow update speed what are the odds of this game ever having that shiny blue completed tag? I put it at like 2%

 

[IamUnderman]

I mean, without trying to be disrespectful. The dev of lexi has literally died (RIP) and it seems that it still has a much higher chance of moving forward with it's development in a meaningful way than this one does.

 

[asdfasdf12341234ACSACA]

So, what do people in this thread talk about considering that the game hasn't progressed in any meaningful way in about a year?

In all seriousness, hi, I like this game (in theory) and I wanted to ask something. How many people in this thread actually think the game will ever be done? Like I'm not asking if the game will ever be updated again, I'm sure it will be. But considering the insanely slow update speed what are the odds of this game ever having that shiny blue completed tag? I put it at like 2%

Game won't ever truly be completed, by our standards or by Crush's standards. But when he inevitably gets tired and fed up with it, he'll just release what is done as "finished, might make another game". Pretty standard.

 

[aifgamer]

Game won't ever truly be completed, by our standards or by Crush's standards. But when he inevitably gets tired and fed up with it, he'll just release what is done as "finished, might make another game". Pretty standard.

"This was a real learning experience!"

 

[HeelsMaiden]

If you don't like the slow progress on the game, talk to some other game devs, and have them take all of crushs work which i understand is basically open source, and make a game of their own? you know what forces progress? competition. compete with him, make your own spy game, which releases updates every month. crush will be forced to accelerate updates if he wants to compete. And if he doesn't well there goes your claim that "it's all about money" and yet you'll have another spy game to play which might be better. but constant bitching on here? doesn't help anything.

This. I've said it before and I will say it again: there's a lack of porn games with a spy theme especially one with a customizable female MC. Even counting non-porn games there's not a lot which is rather surprising since the spy genre is so popular in movies and tv shows. So yes game devs if you're reading this consider making your next game a spy game because we really have a drought here.

 

[HeelsMaiden]

Also wouldn't mind more teacher protagonist games / lawyers. There is only 1 game? on this site where the female protagonist is a lawyer i think.

That one where she got framed/jailed (I never bothered playing that one)? There's also Descent but I think she's more like a law clerk.

I think there are more teacher games than spies or lawyers but I never did a count. On the top of my head there's Succulence and Agent Alona (which is coincidentally also a spy game lol but could get too extreme for my taste). Heck the MC from A Wife and a Mother is a teacher last time I played it.

 

[Dracis3D]

Also wouldn't mind more teacher protagonist games / lawyers. There is only 1 game? on this site where the female protagonist is a lawyer i think.

Why a lawyer? I partly get the teacher interest, though it treads a dangerous line with the school setting. Yes, I had some boyhood crushes on some of the female teachers but any story/game will tread close to minors which will put off most serious developers. A university (over 18 education) would be better as a student protagonist in my view, over say a lecturer. I get that skirting around a taboo area is appealing to many as well.

So with this game I was always curious what the main interest is, so extensive character customisation, being a spy or the prostitute/simulator future aspect?

 

[Beggarman]

This. I've said it before and I will say it again: there's a lack of porn games with a spy theme especially one with a customizable female MC. Even counting non-porn games there's not a lot which is rather surprising since the spy genre is so popular in movies and tv shows. So yes game devs if you're reading this consider making your next game a spy game because we really have a drought here.

I second this, but I can also kinda see why there's so few. My first game idea was actually a TWINE-based spy-themed one, but I ended up putting that on ice; The primary reason why was that I struggled to make the gameplay side of things interesting. I couldn't decide whether to go for a more traditional branching story (with regard to the operations), or whether to replicate the text-parser games like the old British Fox games, and whether or not to try and go for a "hidden link" approach to the latter to replicate players actually noticing things in those games and calling them out without being prompted. One major reason I was looking forward to Female Agent was because I wanted to see their approach to bigger operations and was hoping that would give me an indicator as to what people might want/tolerate/dislike.

(The other reason is that the "realistic British dystopia" backstory I had written started coming true. Not that I'm saying it was all that original idea, it was basically just a mashup of V for Vendetta and Children of Men, but I rooted it in ideas which felt like absurdist nonsense in 2016 that would only lead to decline (you can probably guess what), and also picked up some incidental shit that was unpleasant when it happened. If the 'rona makes people infertile then the project may be cursed. Otherwise, I do plan to go back to it with a rework if some other ideas I have pan out.)

So with this game I was always curious what the main interest is, so extensive character customisation, being a spy or the prostitute/simulator future aspect?

For me: Primarily, being a spy. I like the danger. IIRC Evindium captured that pretty well (though it has been a while since I last played it). I like the character customisation but it wasn't the biggest draw and depends on how well it's used. And, if anything, the actual prostitution bits... may actually be the least interesting part to me. Sounds like it'd be a lot of repetitive sex scenes if it's anywhere near "realistic". I'm more looking forward to what she gets up to outside of prostitution. Spy shit, hopefully.

 

[HeelsMaiden]

I'm also not big on the whole prostitution angle as the main porn content. I prefer to have the female agent go around seducing targets to gain intel or assassinate them actually. So pretty much like the Max mission in Dubai in that sense. I hope Bangkok will still let us do these kind of missions because the prostitution day job seems like a downgrade the more I think about it.

 

[berny]

So with this game I was always curious what the main interest is, so extensive character customisation, being a spy or the prostitute/simulator future aspect?

That's a very good question indeed and one I have been asking myself too for a very long time. IF we ever get to Bangkok long enough I'm very interested to find out. My main reason why I was interested in this game was definitely the spy theme, but this might as well be little more than a rich background story and the main gameplay could be just good old boring and generic corruption.

The fact that we still don't know this after such a long time is actually quite sad.

 

[HeelsMaiden]

It would be hilarious if people ended up liking the intro more than the "main" game lol.

 

[MidaHanna]

Thats probably what is going to happen since there is absolutely no way the rest of the game can be as polished as the intro if crush actually wants to finish the game before 2035.
That is one of the critic that I find the most scary to be honest because since he polished the intro for 3 years, he cant spend 3 years on each section of the game.

 

[aifgamer]

Why a lawyer?

I didn't post the previous comment but I think a lawyer protagonist is interesting. One reason is because it's fertile ground for lot of dramatic narratives -- for the same reason there are lots of TV shows about lawyers. Another reason is because you could do a lot with sexual power dynamics (also a frequent trope in tv shows about lawyers). One of my favorite recent games is this one: https://f95zone.to/threads/descent-v1-0-ryder77.27620/

Thing is, to make that portrayal work, the writer must be invested enough to display some basic knowledge about lawyering. And that's gonna be rare.

So with this game I was always curious what the main interest is, so extensive character customisation, being a spy or the prostitute/simulator future aspect?

I like the spy stuff, but I also like the dramatic tension of what happens when a highly educated, capable, motivated woman chooses to demean herself for a cause.

There's a great exchange in the game where the agent talks to the psychiatrist, and she says something like "I'm scared about prostituting myself, even though it's just a cover," and the shrink replies "Make sure you understand it's not a 'cover,' if you're having sex for money, you ARE a prostitute."

I love the dynamics of that exchange and the way it sets up the character's internal conflict.

 

[Dracis3D]

I'm also not big on the whole prostitution angle as the main porn content. I prefer to have the female agent go around seducing targets to gain intel or assassinate them actually. So pretty much like the Max mission in Dubai in that sense. I hope Bangkok will still let us do these kind of missions because the prostitution day job seems like a downgrade the more I think about it.

Funnily enough I've exactly the same preference, it was the Max scene that pulled me into loving the game. I liked some the last nightclub events with the groping, wet t-shirt and casting couch scenes.

......like the old British Fox games, and whether or not to try and go for a "hidden link" approach to the latter to replicate players actually noticing things in those games and calling them out without being prompted.

I played the two British Fox games, struggled big time with a couple parts of each one. Not sure the style would work that well in Twine games, and you run the risk of players getting bored.

Customization is the interest for me. Being a spy just means you can put her in different situations, she could go undercover as a teacher (like in Agent Alona) as a prostitute, as whatever (wet t-shirt contestant). But mostly I would say a game where you can name characters and change their physical/clothing appearance is the main draw.

Picking a name for a character has never bothered me, neither really has dressing up. I like SO's Newlife but I tend to use the same outfits everytime. I will customise a character but I'm aware it takes a lot of effort on the game maker to customise scenes so they can address the different traits. With Newlife I did play different character types to see how the content differed, but in a lot cases not much. What I do get is it can be fun to run different characters through the same basic scene, seeing if clothing choices and character make a difference or not. Lot of work though on the game developer.

 

[Kristof29]

I dont think the dev is actually finished polishing the intro. In one of his earlier posts he did say that he wanted to rewrite the club scenes to the new format, but was outvoted. He released the dubai scene in the new format almost 2 months ago and so far its incomplete. There are other games here that are developing slowly, but the point to note is that they are moving forward no matter how slow the development is. This game has been doing circles the whole time. The circle is being well polished, but its still a circle.

 

[Dracis3D]

I like the spy stuff, but I also like the dramatic tension of what happens when a highly educated, capable, motivated woman chooses to demean herself for a cause.

I like that concept as well, I do see this has a hard challenge for Crushstation as it brings in the mechanic of when does the person struggle. So it is one thing to be sexually promiscuous in relationships/one night stands with people she finds attractive, and another to do it ‘for the cause’ on a regular basis with people who will treat her badly. Much worse than the one night stand where she goes for a bloke she finds physically repulsive (e.g. Club night). Difficult game mechanic as the only option is dialogue around quitting or being strong. Too much of it and a lot of players will be put off by a suffering character, on the other side a character who likes having five customers a shift is odd as well!

 

[aifgamer]

Difficult game mechanic as the only option is dialogue around quitting or being strong. Too much of it and a lot of players will be put off by a suffering character, on the other side a character who likes having five customers a shift is odd as well!

Agreed, that's a very tight path to walk. It's more of an added flavor than a main element, but it's one of the strengths of the early sections.

I think for this game to be fully realized, you'd want the Bangkok section to include a series of vignette missions where she does some spy-type stuff (whether for her agency, or getting co-opted by underworld elements, or both), with the hooker stuff (and accompanying corruption angle) as a persistent background.

I suppose that's pretty similar to some other games you might be familiar with.

 

[Beggarman]

I played the two British Fox games, struggled big time with a couple parts of each one. Not sure the style would work that well in Twine games, and you run the risk of players getting bored.

Yeah, the old text parser games were kinda weird to play (I use BF as an example because it's the only one I can think of that comes close, but I believe there were others). The older engines were way too opaque - it wasn't always clear what was an interactable object and there were weird verb/word combinations to do shit all over the place. Later engines were a lot clearer with what was interactable but almost too much - no mystery at all, just click on what's down as an object and choose the appropriate action. (At least, I think that was the progression - by the time I got to the genre it was all old-engines, but some older than others)

I was hoping to take a sort-of middleground. Interactable objects and things would be handled as links in the text, but they wouldn't appear as links (i.e. same colour as body text and no underline, but the cursor would still change when hovered over). Like, you were looking for a key in a room, I would describe the room, and you would still have to think "Hm, I will search [specific location]", but you wouldn't have to worry about whether "Look at desk" was sufficient, or do you have to "Examine desk" or "search desk" or "open desk" then "look in desk" or whether you're doing this to the right object in the room. It'd also have a couple of fallbacks where interactable text was a slightly-off colour, or just flat-out looked like a link incase people found that too hard or just didn't care. It also wouldn't apply to everything in the game, just stuff that I'd actually want the player to potentially miss if they weren't paying attention. But alas, I never got the idea off the ground.

I like the spy stuff, but I also like the dramatic tension of what happens when a highly educated, capable, motivated woman chooses to demean herself for a cause.

I actually didn't consider that before, but yeah, this aspect as well is a major draw. It's also why I try to create a not-too-promiscuous character when I give the game the odd spin - not that I want her to be an out-and-out prude, but I find the idea of her already being fairly comfortable with banging a lot of people kinda reduces that demeaning aspect.

 

[Ripe]

It would be hilarious if people ended up liking the intro more than the "main" game lol.

Considering that based on what developer intend to do, the "main" game will be one huge grind that is not impossible...

 

[Mercedes]

Agreed, that's a very tight path to walk. It's more of an added flavor than a main element, but it's one of the strengths of the early sections.

I think for this game to be fully realized, you'd want the Bangkok section to include a series of vignette missions where she does some spy-type stuff (whether for her agency, or getting co-opted by underworld elements, or both), with the hooker stuff (and accompanying corruption angle) as a persistent background.

I suppose that's pretty similar to some other games you might be familiar with.

That's exactly what is planned.
Bangkok should be freely accessible. That means the agent plans his daily routine himself.
For the first 1 or 2 weeks he will still be taken by the hand to explain and introduce some things, but afterwards it is up to the player himself what Kate does.

Of course she will have duties. It must fulfill its mission but also be present in the HCC. But it should be clear to everyone that her day will not be properly divided into 8h sleep, 8h HCC, 2h for meals, 2h for body care, 2h espionage and 2h free time.

Here it is now a matter of bringing various NPCs into play that can intersperse clues, start side missions, or simply be friends.
Kate can start her day with a visit to the beach or go shopping, or just stay in bed longer and get up at noon.

Of course, many actions have to be scripted. So you have to think about what could happen to her on the beach. To do this, a random system must be installed so that this happens irregularly. And then you have to consider how many ways Kate (and with the new engine) would interact with each other.

There are tons of ways to describe and in the end half of them will scream again on F95 that it is too little and that it takes too long to implement everything. But it is not only the beach that has to be considered, but also the 20 (?, Probably more) other locations and times of day.