- May 8, 2022
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ha you can be relaxed, Joshy dont shag even his own Li.
- Thread starter NeonGhosts
- Start date
- Apr 26, 2020
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- Jul 17, 2021
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- Mar 20, 2019
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It's nothing I plan to address immediately, but I think your argument has a lot of merit. Ashe's first appearance in Chapter Two also featured my first time really using things like coded variables in the script. As a result, a lot of her relationship progression is.. Kind of clunky. I'd say the same is true of Gabby, who you can kiss, and then she basically brushes it off and never mentions it again. It's just because I didn't add nearly as many variables as I needed to, to track everything going on with them.
These are things I'd like to fix eventually. At present, Ashe kind of has a FWB path, which came from her recent dinner-date with Guy. If you just parted as friends in Chapter Two, then slept with her on her date, she leaves instead of staying over, and doesn't use much lovey-dovey language. Likewise, I plan to make her corruption path, where Guy coerces her into coming home with him in Chapter Two, have the option for an enemies-to-lovers sexual relationship. Again, there are some hints towards that in her date, if you manage to improve her opinion of you, and she asks you to fuck her. So, it'd be relatively trivial to move some things around and have the option where you see her as a hook-up. My intention with Ashe on the love path is basically that she, as someone who beleives in astrology, moon cycles, magnetic fields, etc. sees some kind of cosmic confluence in her romance with Guy. Meeting him, sleeping with him on the first date, and running into him in the park all make her think the winds of fate are blowing, so she jumps a little too readily into full-on romance.
As part of my remake of Chapter One, I'll be moving all the various chapter variables so they load before the game itself, with default values. This will be the end of the "XYZ not defined" error that's occasionally plagued me, while also allowing me to go back and tinker with things in the early chapters, adding content branches, without breaking the game. At that time, I'd like to clean up some stuff from Chapter Two and Three.
Well, like Tolkien said, "The tale grew in the telling."3 updates in a row, somehow the game now revolves around a girl that was supposed to be a side piece for quick extra lewd scenes.
I hadn't originally planned for Risa to occupy the spot in the story that she currently does. I'd planned for her to have a looser connection to events. But, ultimately I realized that having someone who was so closely acquainted with the main good-path antagonist would be useful.
As for her appearances over the last few updates, she was in a brief scene where she tried to make MC look good to Ashe, and then an optional scene where MC could visit her. Then she was in an optional scene where you woke up in the office with her present. Then the relatively brief scene where she baits you into visiting Lucien.
The same updates had scenes with Ashe, Viola, Nicki, Brittani, Cam-Pepper, and Carolina. So, I'd hardly say she's getting an outsized amount of shine. The only people we haven't seen much of lately are Gabby and Madison, but that's largely because their plot begins to take center stage with the release of Madison's husband, and his unraveling connection to the larger plot.
I'd still wager I finish it before George RR Martin gets the next SoIaF book out.
Look, I totally get that it's frustrating to wait for updates, or wait for content for a character you like. But, allow me to put this in perspective. The current script has 384,566 words in it, and nearly 3 million characters. Google tells me that the average 300 page novel stands around 90,000 words.
So, in less than two years, I've written 4.27 novels, while rendering something like 8,000 pieces of art, teaching myself how to do rudimentary coding, generating content for my subscription platforms, and interacting with four main communities/discussion hubs. And I work an average of 60 hours a week, make time to exercise every day, and saw four new countries last year.
There are games that have been around since 2019 that have put out less content than me, while having more supporters, multiple people working on them, and a frankly less challenging plot/branching storyline to write and render.
If anyone wants me to start putting out monthly updates where everything is POV, so I never have to render/pose more than one girl at a time, all the sex scenes are just a video of a dick sliding in and out of a pussy, and the location is the same mansion you've seen in a couple dozen games already, I can totally do that.
But, if you want me to keep making FiN, then it's going to take how long it takes.
- Sep 23, 2021
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I'm looking forward to the update. I took an instant dislike to Risa, and for the first time, I'm looking forward to seeing what Dark Path options are available.
- Mar 25, 2021
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I think Risa is awesome.
I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next with her story.
I hope I can help her with her drug problem.
I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next with her story.
I hope I can help her with her drug problem.
- Nov 12, 2018
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I look forward to getting her even More hooked on drugs.
- Jul 25, 2017
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We will keep her clean we will take shifts to simp over her while keeping her clean.
- Jul 17, 2021
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Hey, I'll be gettin her clean. I mean, she'll be chained in a corner, fed, watered and cleaned daily. While bein my personal anal slut. So, she won't be goin out gettin drugs.
No Brittani, we lost.
- Jul 25, 2017
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I know but I at least get 2 girls I like in this update tho 1 is only gonna have a small portion and 1 girl may change my mind if I like her or not depending on what happens. While the last update won me over to her side she could easily lose me depending on her actions.No Brittani, we lost.
- Sep 20, 2018
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I don't think anyone is concerned about monthly updates, Neon, or at least I'm certainly not. You can take as long as you need to craft each chapter. Quality is worth waiting for. The concern is about whether the quality of the game is higher for all the additional characters you've added and then bumped to increasingly prominent roles.
I believe you when you say that Risa can be a useful tool to introduce the antagonist, but there's still a price to pay for adding her scenes. As you note, most of the MC's interactions with her were optional. That means a lot of MCs had nowhere near a strong enough relationship with her to explain why he'd stick his neck so far out to help her. The earlier chapters had been spent developing his relationship to other girls, yet it's Risa's relationship that turns out to be the lynchpin.
The result, IMHO, is that Risa's contribution feels like a disruption of the story rather than the next step of it. It's not that her scenes are bad, or even that they're inferior to the alternative methods of introducing Lucien when considered in a vacuum. But those scenes aren't experienced by the player in a vacuum, they're experienced following 6-ish chapters that focused on very different characters and situations. Speaking as someone who liked those characters and situations, it wasn't great to see them sidelined so a minor character I didn't like could take center stage for a pivotal plot point.
Now maybe these issues will be fixed in the rework, when you'll have time to integrate Risa from the beginning. Risa may not be my favorite, but she would certainly benefit from proper groundwork. But then again, when the time comes maybe Risa will wind up taking a backseat to Isabella. Or Dorothy. Or to whatever new flavor has caught your eye by then. Because there's always another awesome idea out there that you think of just a little too late, and trust me, I know that sucks. But at the end of the day you *need* to draw a line somewhere and focus on what you have rather than what you ought to have had. If you try to include everything in a single work it will wind up feeling bland and unfocused - especially if you keep incorporating stuff late in the process. You mention how Tolkien's tale grew in the telling, but the amount of stuff he left out was more than he could sort through in his lifetime.
I'm sure you're sick of being second guessed by us pirates, and I know you aren't adding these girls to pad out the game without having to write a story. I am not questioning your intent nor your work ethic. You are a skilled developer making a game I like. But from my point of view, I've yet to see you reduce the scope of a girl's content once she was added; her content might get delayed, but we're always assured it is still coming eventually. The ratchet has only ever gone in one direction. That is not sustainable. So as much as it might rankle, my sincere advice to you is to think long and hard about what exactly you'd be willing to cut from another girl's content before you decide to elevate any more characters to a larger role.
Fantastic. Honestly I'm the kind to go for the vanilla routes but imo what puts this game a notch above the rest is that grey zone you've created in the relationship between characters along with a lot of variables from the little changes in conversation all the way to the big choices and the short distances in consequence, for a save scummer like me that has to see most of the differences this game is incredible. Ironically being a straight bastard to a few of these girls let's you learn more about them initially then if you played the hero. I think that's fantastic on your part. Also gives incentive for those who want to know what weaknesses/limits these girls have in advance rather than wait through a dozen dates or two to find out. I've got limits too though so being the devil himself is not for me and it's crazy to see the mc go off the deep end, but I acknowledge that's part of what makes you feel so in control over the game, that you can go full bastard even if you don't want to.
My main point is you're a hell of a writer for maintaining a sensible middle ground and it's really fun to overstep boundaries and see how much you can get away with. Being Hyde and Jekyll and confusing the fck out of these girls but still being relatively decent. Most games are pretty black and white in regards to what choices dictate your type of relationship/character but this game allows me to indulge the bully in me which likes to see how far I can cross the line with these girls but not so far that you can't have a romance with them. That's the best part. Tiptoeing that line. Especially looking forward to Risa, charming girl despite her problems (it's the wingman moment that does it for me, she's so animated). Keep up the great work, it's one of a kind I'm sure you know.
i really like the game, but IMO, even though i like side characters like risa, when there is so many of them, and they all "need" to have their share of screentime, its gonna make the "game" feel like its moving very slowly in the big picture. Im sure the end product is gonna feel and play 100x better because of it, but thats why i felt like its gonna take a long time to get it completed. thats how i see it.
This problem is something that is very obvious in BaDIK too, too many sidestories / paths that make the game feel like its barely progressing
- Jul 25, 2021
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To be honest the game progress feels really slow because every update seems focus on 1 char and only give other char little screen time. Also to many choice lock behind good, neutral and bad mc is another reason why every update feels so short. Keep adding new char without proper story also doesnt help.
A quick recommendation NeonGhosts
I know you're trying to avoid getting trapped in a rework cycle, but I was replaying, and when you first meet Ashe, if the two of you decide to, uhh... 'part ways', in the alley, you obviously still run into Mason, who was woken up by some ruckus (must have been racoons in the dumpster or something). He pretends to be asleep, and Guy talks to him a bit. This is a small thing and probably slips by most people, but I strongly recommend adding a throwaway line at the start of that one way conversation that explains Guy is changing his voice or something along those lines.
Anyone who has ever been in a situation like that will tell you, you will NEVER forget the voice of that person. Decades later, and someone who even sounds similar can cause an anxiety attack (that's usually for the victim themselves, but in this case it had to have been traumatizing to Mason to listen from just around the corner, especially when he's experienced similar, if less violent, treatment in the past). The same exact person only a few months later? Mason would absolutely recognize Guy's voice.
I know you're trying to avoid getting trapped in a rework cycle, but I was replaying, and when you first meet Ashe, if the two of you decide to, uhh... 'part ways', in the alley, you obviously still run into Mason, who was woken up by some ruckus (must have been racoons in the dumpster or something). He pretends to be asleep, and Guy talks to him a bit. This is a small thing and probably slips by most people, but I strongly recommend adding a throwaway line at the start of that one way conversation that explains Guy is changing his voice or something along those lines.
Anyone who has ever been in a situation like that will tell you, you will NEVER forget the voice of that person. Decades later, and someone who even sounds similar can cause an anxiety attack (that's usually for the victim themselves, but in this case it had to have been traumatizing to Mason to listen from just around the corner, especially when he's experienced similar, if less violent, treatment in the past). The same exact person only a few months later? Mason would absolutely recognize Guy's voice.
- Mar 25, 2021
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Its going to be so awesome when we can make sweet love to Cassie.
I'm so excited for her debut. I think she is going to shake things up.
I'm so excited for her debut. I think she is going to shake things up.
- Mar 20, 2019
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I appreciate the thoughtful reply.
I'll admit, a peril of working on this thing is that, as a serial publication, it kind of grows and changes as it develops. After the next chapter drops, I plan to to put out my original game document, which ends at the same point as the next chapter. That original outline was four chapters long, and the only characters to appear were Nicki, Mason, Alex, Gabby, and Madison. That was, for all intents and purposes, going to be the whole cast.
Then I got into developing the game, and people saw Brittani and said, "Whoa! Tell me more about her!" And so began the expanding cast.
I will argue that the quoted section of your reply isn't entirely true, though. There's a few areas in which I'm drawing down the amount of screentime girls get. There are dark paths that are closed, and girls who won't be seen on them again. There are sex-only and platonic relationships that won't get an outsized amount of time dedicated to them. There are girls that have already had full-length, multi-option sex scenes, and will only get more modestly-sized ones in the future (like Ashe's fucked-in-the-swimsuit scene, or Nicki's morning sex scene in the last chapter.) And, as girls become more locked into their paths, things get easier there, too.
I'm not going to sit here and be like, "Pfft, 12 girls and multiple routes? Cake! Simple!" It's not! But, I have a framework in my head, where some love interests will gain and lose prominence as the story develops.
I don't want to talk about this too much, because it's going to be a plot point for Mason, later on. >_>