First off, sorry for not replying here too often as of late; been really busy with work on all three games!
(Critique is just as welcome though of course, we're not ignoring negative reviews at all!)
If you really want to have some fun with them, Talia's reactions to many of the databanks change based on what cutscenes she's seen and even who she's killed or let live; for a fairly extreme reaction to one, for instance, kill Teshy AFTER talking to him, then talk to his Jumperbot, THEN go find the databanks about him. Talia's reaction after reading it also hints at a bit of the truth behind the game's plot, too.
Databanks are also set with dates too, so if you connect some of these dates, you can start to make a bigger picture as to the climate of the culture of the game's world changing or being affected by certain things.
I know this disappoints some people, but it's just how I want to write it; there are a lot of games out there with brutal, extreme, violent sex, and I'd rather the sex in our games be something where everyone is enjoying it to some extent, and/or it's treated somewhat comedically, like you said.
For the double milking scene, you'll be able to re-watch any cutscene in the game that you've found once we get the cutscene viewer in, too!
We'll likely further refine rooms before release, but that's why that level in particular does have some open spaces.
The Ice and Earth levels, meant to have a "natural" feeling, are even more expansive/open though, but that's also due to enemies having attacks that would be nearly impossible to dodge without that open space to move around in.
There's also the abilities and powerups which would be pretty hard to use in tighter spaces, too; speaking of those, we'll be redoing most of the powerups come the start of the 5th level, and the abilities like the fire dash and ice shot are somewhat situational, but without them, your opportunities would be decreased, and that's really what a lot of the design choices in this game are about; giving the player as much flexibility and freedom as possible (while still maintaining game balance) so that each player's experience through the game is different.
Most players won't even run into 70% of the cutscenes the game has on the first time through, and probably won't even try 80% of the powerups, or will rarely use their abilities, either, but that's fine and intentional; we'd rather they only use what they feel like using, rather than forcing anything on the player, and then the next time through, they might experiment more with other things as a result.
As far as the bonus things, in current builds, things like databanks and powerups are visualized on the megamap, but as there's no real way to "truly complete" a room given the variety of cutscene differences, etc. that'd be a hard thing to really setup or get functioning accurately.
In the Ice Level, she's somewhat more respecting of the pacifist Celodst, and depending on the scientific nature of thier requests, might entertain them by being up for sex if it means she gets something out of it in return.
By the time of the Electric Level though, she's pretty desensitized to their screwed up culture, and as such, doesn't really want to give anyone the time of day.
In the Earth Level, she's riding a high of having defeated the MainFrame computer, and is fairly cocky; this leads to her being much less likely to empathize with most of the people in the area, and as such, you likely won't see her giving many people the time of day there, either.
Due to events at the end of the Earth Level though, as well as the concepts behind the final level, The End, you'll actually see her being much more sympathetic than she was even in the Fire Level to being reciprocal about sex.
The only person who did was Seeber, and the only remaining record of what he was trying to do is in the gold-marked Databanks, some of which were so damaging to WORM morale and safety that they were made practically inaccessible.
So the only way you're going to find that out would be to find those particular databanks, sometime later in the game
(That, and the robots do have sentimentality; just look at Teshy's bot or the Spiderbots in the level with cutscenes)
for our viewpoint on piracy, see this post;
So that includes;
Really glad to see people enjoying the game this much, seriously, we'll never get tired of reviews like this that let us know we're on the right path.
(Critique is just as welcome though of course, we're not ignoring negative reviews at all!)
Also glad to hear you enjoyed these; I know they're not for everyone, but I figured once people had went through the game a few times, they might enjoy reading these, and we'll eventually have a system that lets you re-read any of them you've already found, too! Getting feedback like this lets me know I've done at least somewhat well at "putting myself in a character's shoes" too, so to speak.
If you really want to have some fun with them, Talia's reactions to many of the databanks change based on what cutscenes she's seen and even who she's killed or let live; for a fairly extreme reaction to one, for instance, kill Teshy AFTER talking to him, then talk to his Jumperbot, THEN go find the databanks about him. Talia's reaction after reading it also hints at a bit of the truth behind the game's plot, too.
Databanks are also set with dates too, so if you connect some of these dates, you can start to make a bigger picture as to the climate of the culture of the game's world changing or being affected by certain things.
Yeah, this is a design principle I want to hold in all of my NSFW games; make the main story of the game pretty normal, even light-hearted or silly at times, with a lot of the darker aspects underneath the surface so if people don't want to get a boner-kill they don't have to by not digging into that stuff, but the sex should never cross into being "dark" territory.
I know this disappoints some people, but it's just how I want to write it; there are a lot of games out there with brutal, extreme, violent sex, and I'd rather the sex in our games be something where everyone is enjoying it to some extent, and/or it's treated somewhat comedically, like you said.
For the double milking scene, you'll be able to re-watch any cutscene in the game that you've found once we get the cutscene viewer in, too!
Part of the Electric Level's design in particular has some empty space because of the gravity reversal mechanic; as best as I could, I wanted to give players movement flexibility when both right side up and upside down, and that does lead to some open spaces, yeah.
We'll likely further refine rooms before release, but that's why that level in particular does have some open spaces.
The Ice and Earth levels, meant to have a "natural" feeling, are even more expansive/open though, but that's also due to enemies having attacks that would be nearly impossible to dodge without that open space to move around in.
There's also the abilities and powerups which would be pretty hard to use in tighter spaces, too; speaking of those, we'll be redoing most of the powerups come the start of the 5th level, and the abilities like the fire dash and ice shot are somewhat situational, but without them, your opportunities would be decreased, and that's really what a lot of the design choices in this game are about; giving the player as much flexibility and freedom as possible (while still maintaining game balance) so that each player's experience through the game is different.
Most players won't even run into 70% of the cutscenes the game has on the first time through, and probably won't even try 80% of the powerups, or will rarely use their abilities, either, but that's fine and intentional; we'd rather they only use what they feel like using, rather than forcing anything on the player, and then the next time through, they might experiment more with other things as a result.
We actually have a system like this in, but it's in reverse; rooms initially are greyed out, and when you run through one, it becomes defined and lit up.
As far as the bonus things, in current builds, things like databanks and powerups are visualized on the megamap, but as there's no real way to "truly complete" a room given the variety of cutscene differences, etc. that'd be a hard thing to really setup or get functioning accurately.
In the full game, there will definitely be more of these; we just didn't get them all in for the public build, but I would say the ratio of "do something good/neutral to see a sex scene" to "fail to see a sex scene" scenes in the final build of the game would be something like a 40/60-ish ratio if you're going by pure animations.
Throughout the game, Talia's personality changes some with her experiences in each level; in the Fire Level, she's much more okay to do something like this as she knows very little about the abhorrent crimes the WORM has committed, and thus you get scenes like the Fire Level where she rides the Grunt that's near death.
In the Ice Level, she's somewhat more respecting of the pacifist Celodst, and depending on the scientific nature of thier requests, might entertain them by being up for sex if it means she gets something out of it in return.
By the time of the Electric Level though, she's pretty desensitized to their screwed up culture, and as such, doesn't really want to give anyone the time of day.
In the Earth Level, she's riding a high of having defeated the MainFrame computer, and is fairly cocky; this leads to her being much less likely to empathize with most of the people in the area, and as such, you likely won't see her giving many people the time of day there, either.
Due to events at the end of the Earth Level though, as well as the concepts behind the final level, The End, you'll actually see her being much more sympathetic than she was even in the Fire Level to being reciprocal about sex.
To be fair, the actual mission of the particular Rebel encampment that deals with this particular Facility is a mission that none of the rebels themselves know about; not even Vie knows the actual, true goal of said encampment.
The only person who did was Seeber, and the only remaining record of what he was trying to do is in the gold-marked Databanks, some of which were so damaging to WORM morale and safety that they were made practically inaccessible.
So the only way you're going to find that out would be to find those particular databanks, sometime later in the game
(That, and the robots do have sentimentality; just look at Teshy's bot or the Spiderbots in the level with cutscenes
)Glad to hear it! Thanks again for the super positive review and critique, it means a lot to us9/10 project you've got going and I'll definitely be supporting you on Patreon
We don't mind at all
for our viewpoint on piracy, see this post;
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We're going to TRY to get voices in, but for the rest of development, the only things that will get voices are things that have script which we can safely "lock down" for the final release and won't be possibly modified.
So that includes;
- Seeber (Gold) Databanks
- Game Over CGs
- Boss Sequences/Animations
- Long-form sex cutscenes (think the double fucking machine in the Electric Level)
There's no cutscene or anything special for it in the demo, but there will be in the final game; they don't have to be done in any specific order, either
The last Ice Level demo was v0.17a which has the full Celodst Emperor (we changed his name) fight in the demo
