Ren'Py Rovering to Sussex [Ch. 3 v0.3.5] [Zargon_games & RFB]

[reflexbound]

Devlog #3 - Relationships

Hello and welcome back to another devlog for Rovering to Sussex! Today we'll delve deeper on why different characters in the game might like you (or rather your main character) or not.

Relationship status

Let's start with what you've already seen in our first devlog: You can check the current status of your relationship with any other character through the contacts app on your phone.

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While the one shown in the first devlog was a guy's status, this one is from a girl. Aside from using different symbols, it works exactly the same however.

The scale here reaches from -1 (black unhappy symbol) to +5 (5 colored happy symbols).
Importantly, this is not so much an absolute, but a relative scale. Actual relationship values have a wider range and this indicator essentially shows you a rough estimate of how close you are to the maximum achievable value at that point in time. As the maximum changes in the course of the game, so does the indicator. So if you managed to get a good score early on, it may drop during the game if you don't try to keep it up. Early in the game it will however not be possible to get full +5 scores at all: No one knows you yet and so they will not just fall for you that easily.


So, now how can you influence your relationships?

Decisions

The obvious way is picking the right choices when presented with different decisions. In general, talking to somebody when given the choice is a good idea to befriend them. But there will be many more decisions that can have an impact on your relationships. Some may be more obvious, such as choosing to side with someone in an argument, others might not be that clear at first. The impact different decisions have on your relationships may also vary, with some more important than others. Be aware that decisions can not only gain but also lose relationship points and some decisions might involve a choice of gaining relationship with either of two characters, or a choice can result in gaining points with one character and losing points with another character at the same time.

Minigames

Every once in a while, you'll encounter a minigame. Don't worry, they are completely optional and you can get the relationship points without playing them (more on that in the next devlog). If you chose to play them, you may gain (or lose) relationship points depending on the outcome of the game.

Traits

Apart from individual relationship points gained towards a character, each character has a stance on your possible traits (which we discussed in our last devlog). That is, every character has one trait they view favorably, one that they dislike and one they are neutral towards. Thus, you can improve your relation to somebody by improving on their favored trait and by moving away from the unfavorable one. The effect from your traits is not a flat value added to (or subtracted from) your relationship value, but may vary over the course of the game and for different scenes. This is to counteract the fact the the number of decisions that can influence relationships grows but also because different characters might care about your traits differently in different situations.

Effects

What are the effects you get from having good (or bad) relationships with somebody? Sometimes it will just be minor changes in the way they interact with you, but, more importantly, relationships are the key to getting lewd with anybody. Whether you just need to not have a negative relationship or you need almost all relationship points that you can gather depends heavily on both the character you're dealing with and what you are trying to do. Note that you might not even always notice that you lacked the relationship points to get some interaction because the character might just not approach you. Of course, there might also come a time to decide not only about a single event but a long-term relationship and relationship status will be very important then as well, again with different thresholds for different characters.

Relationship points are not the only factor in what scenes you can get, though. Some scenes might require that you got some other scene earlier. In such cases, there will often be at least two ways to get the scene so as not to lock you out just because you missed a single scene. And while the relationship towards your favorite girls are obviously most important in all of this, don't underestimate how your relationships with the guys might also impact your chances to get what you want.


A preview image

Since this was a lot of text and not many images, I'll include a slightly lewd render of one of our characters for you. Let me introduce Rachel:

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See you next time!
RFB

 

[Mahgni Mada]

Love the look of this so far, especially theirs a peeing scene, thank you for including that. As a fellow WS lover, it made my day Looking forward to it's release.

 

[reflexbound]

Mahgni Mada It won't be the only one. Stay tuned for more devlogs where we will soon talk about the main fetishes explored in this game (and also how to avoid them if you don't like them).

 

[reflexbound]

Devlog #4 - Quizzes and minigames

Welcome back to another Rovering to Sussex devlog! This time, I'll talk about the quizzes and minigames that you will encounter in the game.

General

Every once in a while, there will be quizzes and minigames inside Rovering to Sussex. They are designed to be a fun little break from reading through the dialogues and to help you in getting to know scouting. Don't worry, they are fully optional though: the first time you are confronted with a quiz or minigame, you get asked whether you want to play them always or never, without being asked again, or if you want to be asked every time. If you chose to be asked every time, decisions that will lead to a quiz will be marked in a light green color like this:

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And decisions that will lead to a minigame are marked in light blue:

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You can always change your mind in the content settings of the game:

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If you decide against playing, either permanently or for a single quiz or minigame, you will get another decision that determines whether you get the effect of winning or of losing, so you don't have to play if you don't want to.

Effects

So what happens when you win (or lose) a quiz or minigame? Usually, this will change your traits in some way and often, this will also directly add (or subtract) relationship points with some character. If you don't play, you will get the same effects from an additional choice.

If you actually play and win, you will get an additional bonus render as a reward.

Quizzes

The quizzes are short series of around three to five questions that test (and maybe improve) your knowledge about scouting. Depending on the question, you either have to pick one correct answer out of multiple or pick multiple correct answers with picking a wrong one. You don't have to be right on all questions to unlock the bonus render and get some of the effect of winning the quiz, but sometimes you may get a better effect when you manage to get a perfect score. Sometimes, you may get additional options if you have different traits (your character might already know the correct answer if he is quite nerdy, but you might also be able to dodge a question if your social trait is high). Previous decisions might also influence the options you get, making it easier to pass a quiz.

Minigames

The minigames show you typical activities of scouting. The way they are played varies, but they often have a time limit and need some dexterity. Like with quizzes, your traits can influence how easy it is to pass a minigame, especially tasks that involve manual labor may be easier of your athletic trait is high.

Phone minigame

In addition to the minigames that you encounter as you play along, there is one more minigame on your phone (we mentioned this in [our first devlog](https://link-to-our-first-devlog)) that you can play almost at any time: Chicksaw is a jigsaw game where you pick pieces with your mouse and move them to the correct place. It should be pretty self-explanatory, but if you are stuck, there's a hint at the bottom that tells you how to play the game.

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There is no time limit and if you complete the image, it will be unlocked for you to view in the bonus image gallery. Chicksaw has multiple sets of images that get unlocked one after another as you progress the game, so check back every once in a while for new images. There are five levels of difficulty in the game and every image is available only on one level. For each set of images, you have to complete the lower levels before you can unlock the higher levels.

Hidden Minigame

Finally, there is some kind of hidden minigame. I won't tell you more about this, you'll have to find it yourself, but it will give you access to a few small bonus scenes. As with the others, it is completely optional. If you don't find it or don't want to play it, you will still get access to the bonus renders in the end of the game.


See you next time!
RFB

 

[JoeTheMC84]

View attachment 1848710​

This Game Settings menu seems conspicuously void of settings... lots of open space there... could it be some form of subterfuge? Have you hidden other setting option that should be there, mister sneaky developer?

 

[reflexbound]

This Game Settings menu seems conspicuously void of settings... lots of open space there... could it be some form of subterfuge? Have you hidden other setting option that should be there, mister sneaky developer?

Yes and no. Yes, there are other settings, but no, I didn't hide them. They will only appear after you encounter them in the game. Next week's devlog will say more about some of them.

 

[JoeTheMC84]

Yes and no. Yes, there are other settings, but no, I didn't hide them. They will only appear after you encounter them in the game. Next week's devlog will say more about some of them.

I was expecting a winking face emoji or a meme, thanks for an actual response. Looking forward to the next reveal.

 

[AslanBalaur]

Thanks for your interest.


Nothing is set in stone yet. That will be the focus, but there might be a chance for one or two male-on-female urination scenes somewhere down the road.

Will there be a way to avoid such fetishes as don't interest us?

 

[Larry2000]

Sharing is caring, isn't it? Jokes aside, these aspects will not impact the general positive spirit of the game. Sharing and cheating content is only part of some paths, it will always be clear on from very early on where this is possible and you will always be in full control of whether you want that or pursue exclusive relationships.

Wait right there... Does this mean sharing with other men or just ladies? I'm not trying to stir up trouble, but when I see Zargon Games involved, NTR/Sharing with men isn't what I thought at first. And if there IS sharing with men, I call a hard pass if it involves family members.

I looked and haven't seen mention of confirming its absence. Please answer, it'll at least tell me if I need to avoid the game in the future.

 

[Zargon_games]

Will there be a way to avoid such fetishes as don't interest us?

Of course, you will be able to avoid all fetishes you are not interested in, you will never be forced to watch content you dislike.

The next devlog will focus on explaining this topic, but anyway, there will be no NTR in the game.

 

[Zargon_games]

** This week I am posting Reflexbound's Devlog since he's not available, I hope you enjoy it! **


Devlog #5 - Fetishes

Hello to you out there! In today's devlog for our upcoming game Rovering to Sussex, we will have a look at three fetishes that might be considered controversial: urination, voyeurism, and pregnancy.

Before you run away because you don't like them, let me tell you that they are completely optional. You can disable all content with these fetishes once and for all and never see anything of them.

Now onto the individual fetishes.

Urination

Being outdoors for hours or days, there's not always much privacy when the girls around you have to take a leak. And what adult game would this be if it didn't allow you to seize the opportunity and sneak a peek. Some earlier scenes thus will be just female urination without any sexual context as you spy on the girls. Later in the game, there is a chance for sexual watersports scenes, both female-on-male and male-on-female (and maybe even female-on-female).

To make sure that you don't accidentally see this content if you don't want it, you will get a decision like this the first time you could encounter an urination scene:

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If you pick the last option, your character will just stay away from any opportunity to get urination scenes without you ever being asked again. If you don't opt out completely, you are still warned that a choice will lead to a scene with urination as such decisions are aptly marked in light yellow.

If you want to change your mind later, you can always change this in the content settings:

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(Un-)select urination here to enable (disable) the chance to get urination scenes as you play the game. This setting also decides whether you will get bonus images that include urination content.

Voyeurism

No, there is no NTR in the game! No one will take away your love interests. But not all the girls you meet will be single in the beginning of the game and their relationship status might also change depending on your actions. So if you want to, you can get the chance to watch some girls as they get it on with their boyfriends, girlfriends or friends with benefits. You might even have the chance to become part of a throuple relationship or make a girl cheat on her partner with you. Some relationships you might be able to crack if you rather want the girl for yourself only.

The same way we did with the urination fetish , we made sure that (also for the voyeurism fetish) you don't see anything you don't want to see. The first time you could stumble upon others having sex, you will get a decision like this:

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The third option will disable all sexual content without your main character participating, choosing the last one will disable only heterosexual content and still allow you to spy on a lesbian couple. Again, if you don't opt out completely, you will always be warned by the light red color of decisions that lead to voyeurism scenes. For lesbian scenes, the color is pink instead, so you know exactly what your decisions could lead to.

Again, the content settings menu lets you change your mind later on and bonus images with lesbian or heterosexual content without your main character will also be enabled or disabled by this setting.

Pregnancy

Besides some fantasies of your main character and bonus images, this will obviously only occur in the very end of the game. Still, as with the other fetishes, you will get a decision early on to decide whether you want content with pregnant girls or not. You can always change your mind about this in the content settings as well. Pregnancy content will not only include SFW renders of pregnant girls, but also sexual activities with them.


See you next time!
RFB

 

[JoeTheMC84]

If I'm understanding this developer log correctly then it seems you can just skip seeing these sex scenes? But they still happen, yes? So, some girls the MC is interested in romantically, and has already begun to pursue, will be having sex with other people even after they have shown interesting in him as well? Meaning, the player just gets to decide if they watch it or not but cannot do anything to prevent it?

 

[SeeEmilyPlay]

This game will have so many things I love, can't wait for it to be out there!

 

[reflexbound]

Sorry for being a little late with this week's devlog, I'm preparing it right now.

If I'm understanding this developer log correctly then it seems you can just skip seeing these sex scenes? But they still happen, yes? So, some girls the MC is interested in romantically, and has already begun to pursue, will be having sex with other people even after they have shown interesting in him as well? Meaning, the player just gets to decide if they watch it or not but cannot do anything to prevent it?

I hate that I can't give more than vague answers, but again, yes and no. First of all, there's of course some single girls that you can pursue without anyone getting in the way, including the necessary virgin(s) that wouldn't ever be with anyone but you. The others, in the beginning of the game, haven't shown interest in your MC, but are in different kinds of relationships on their own. And whether you watch it or not, they will do whatever they do in these relationships. Once you begin to pursue them, things are different between the different girls and relationships. Some girl might not be willing to cheat with you, so to even get their interest, you either have to make a plan to break up her relationship or become an important part in it. Another one might be willing to cheat, but not immediately break up with her current partner (but maybe put them on a dry spell). And yet another one might just have a friend with benefits they might or might not continue to see depending on what you want and do. Put shortly, once you actually got serious with some girl, you should mostly be able to keep her from having sex with anyone else if you want that.

 

[reflexbound]

Devlog #6 - Non-linearity

Welcome back to another devlog as we are getting closer to the first release of Rovering to Sussex! Before I start with the actual devlog, I want to apologize for being a little late this time. As a little compensation (and because there's no other image to show), I'll reveal another character today, Catherine:

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Today we will see how the game differs from a kinetic novel where you don't have any choices, but also from a typical linear visual novel with limited choice or a sandbox game.

We decided to include these aspects to make playing the game more fun than just a linear story, with elements to keep you engaged. It should also add to replay value as you try different paths through the game and discover different things. We try to keep everything unobtrusive though, so if you prefer a more linear way of playing, it shouldn't get too much into your way.

Traits and relationships

We talked about this before (in our second and third devlogs) and you might know similar concepts from sandbox games. In Rovering to Sussex you don't have to grind through the same scenes over and over to get points that you need to unlock some scenes. Instead, choices that influence these two kinds of values are integrated into the game at appropriate places. Most of the time, they are just a natural part of the story.

Quizzes and minigames

This also was a topic before, in our fourth devlog. Quizzes and minigames are not only a way to gain (or lose) trait and relationship points, they also provide a change of pace from reading through the story of the game. There is also a minigame on your phone that you can play at almost any time if you need something different for a while. If you don't like quizzes or minigames, you can always opt out of them completely and play the game without them without any penalties (except for a few bonus images that you only get for winning them).

Free roams

In some scenes, it is up to you to decide which characters you want to talk to or not. They will either all be on one screen or a handful of places that you can easily navigate between (nothing too complex, so you won't accidentally get lost). Talking to different people will give you different information into their backgrounds, award (or cost) you points in your relationships and traits and give access to different (lewd) scenes. In most free roams, you will have a way to skip talking to anyone if you want to. Be aware that some free roams may change with time: while you spend time talking to somebody, opportunities to talk to others might open up or be missed. You will usually have the chance to talk to most people though, if you want to.

Spending time

While most choices for your personality traits and relationships are a direct part of the story, at other times, you might get a choice how to spend some time and that can influence your traits and relationships as well. But again, this doesn't lead to repeated scenes over and over. And if you don't want these at all, you can usually decide not to do anything. You won't get the effect on your traits and relationships, but unless you really want to get some values to the maximum, that might not matter too much.


See you next time!
RFB

 

[JoeTheMC84]

I hate that I can't give more than vague answers, but again, yes and no. First of all, there's of course some single girls that you can pursue without anyone getting in the way, including the necessary virgin(s) that wouldn't ever be with anyone but you. The others, in the beginning of the game, haven't shown interest in your MC, but are in different kinds of relationships on their own. And whether you watch it or not, they will do whatever they do in these relationships. Once you begin to pursue them, things are different between the different girls and relationships. Some girls might not be willing to cheat with you, so to even get their interest, you either have to make a plan to break up her relationship or become an important part in it. Another one might be willing to cheat, but not immediately break up with her current partner (but maybe put them on a dry spell). And yet another one might just have a friend with benefits they might or might not continue to see depending on what you want and do. Put shortly, once you actually got serious with some girl, you should mostly be able to keep her from having sex with anyone else if you want that.

I appreciate your response and willingness to have a dialog. It speaks volumes of your character. However, I’m a bit less excited about this than I was before. Perhaps I am not your target audience, I guess we'll see. I was already wondering because I enjoy harems and this doesn’t have that under the genre tab, but I have enjoyed many games without harems as long as I was aware they weren’t harems going in.

I’ve spent some time putting my thoughts together. I will put it in a spoiler. I know I am wordy and a blowhard, and I often say way more than I needed to. But as a writer, and writing teacher for years, story craft is my passion and I have a lot to say about it. No one, even the developers should feel obligated to read it if it looks like too much. I mostly just want to get it off my mind.

Spoiler

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And just a word about harems, as it seems that many developers don’t really understand them.

Spoiler

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A lot of the above is just me getting the thoughts out of my head. Hince why they may come across meandering or even combative, though I hope not. I'd hate for anything I said to be taken badly. I’ll still be keeping up with the development, you have said that nothing was set in stone before, so I can hope that things may go the way I would enjoy a bit more. There have been games that I have enjoyed with minor voyeur, swinging, or sharing, so I'm not calling this crap and putting in the garbage heap or anything. I'm just putting my views and opinions out there. Even some of what I said above is less my personal view or issue and more just giving voice to a view that is out there that may not have been considered or that I have seen others struggle to get across and maybe I have been able to say it in a way or provide a way of looking at things that is helpful to some. Who knows?

I wish you the best in making this game. I know it is not an easy thing to do. Especially with everyone that hears about it wanting to give you their two cents or more of input. Ultimately, if you are happy with the story you are telling, and the game you are making, then keep going that way no matter what anyone says. All the best to you on your journey.

 

[reflexbound]

JoeTheMC84 Thank you for your such a detailed response. I do agree with lots of what you say. Before I go into detail on why I still want to do it like this, let me say that this is not a huge part of the game. Half of the possible LIs won't ever go near any other dick. For the others, it will be very few unavoidable (but skippable) scenes. It should mainly be three scenes all in the first two chapters before you actually got involved with the girls. Two of these you might not even come across, depending what you do, only for one scene it is necessary for the story that you at least get to know about it (but it is still possible to not actually watch it). In one of these scenes, you can even interfere and stop it. Also, I try to be not too direct about these scenes. You will kind of know what to expect, so you can make an informed decision on whether you want to see it, but I try to keep everything beyond that to a minimum. Pretty much everything after these very first scenes you can very directly influence (i.e., it's not some obscure combination of decisions you have to take but you are asked very directly if you want that or not). For example, there will be scenes that only occur if you don't pursue the girl in question. I've also said this before, but let me say it again: There is no NTR. No one is cheating on you to make you jealous. There won't be any situations like you described where a girl that you are (sucessfully) pursuing is the getting into a relationship with someone else before you. It is only relationships established before the start of the game and you can mostly end them, or maybe relationships starting in the game if you do not pursue some girl.

Now for my reasons:
1. Immersion: You are right that I as a writer define the world of the story and what is realistic there and what isn't. But immersion into a game works differently for different people. I do enjoy reading fantasy and sci-fi novels, but I much less enjoy fantasy and sci-fi AVNs. Why exactly that is, I can't explain, but it seems to fall into some kind of 'uncanny valley' for me. The same is true for AVNs with a modern setting, but where people behave in a way that I consider unrealistic. Especially, if it is easy to see through that the only reason for that behavior is to award me as a player with love interests that are essentially fuck dolls. On the other hand, maybe I just don't immerse so much into my MC as many players do, so I do enjoy sex scenes regardless of whether the pixel dick is the one I control or a different one.
2. Variety: I know there are certainly other ways to achieve this, but in many games, the different LIs and their paths feel so interchangeable for me. This way, I find it easier to make the girls' characters feel different, the gameplay on the different paths feel different. And I can add some kinds of scenes that you don't see much in other games, such as MMF/MMFF.
3. Fetish: This is where I think you really are wrong. It is just not the same fetish to spy on a lesbian couple instead of a straight one. I do want both in my game and I think there will be players who agree. Also, you may be right that what attracts one might turn off two others. All fetishes do that. There's lots of people complaining about lesbian content on these forums as well, for example. But there is thousands of AVNs around here. You never stand out by the vanilla stuff that everyone does, you only do by the more controversial fetishes. For example, you might have guessed that I might be into watersports. That's how I found Young Again and Zargon, because I was particularly searching for such content. It was only a single scene at the time, but it was enough to make the game show up in my searches. It then became one of my favorites, not for the fetish content, but for the rest of it. But without that, I would probably never have found it. Or at least not bothered to try it among thousands of games that one the first glance look similar.
4. Early lewd scenes: You will probably disagree, since you also argued against dream scenes, but I do see some benefit to having a few lewd scenes pretty early in the game. There are different ways to do this, including dream scenes (which you will also find to a very small extent in the beginning of Rovering to Sussex) or voyeurism. I consider these a good compromise, and again, both are completely optional. Quite a few games do this by having the MC be in a relationship at the beginning of the game, but I really dislike this option, because that really forces you into something (or rather, someone) that you might not like and opens up some moral dilemma of leaving said girlfriend or cheating on her.
5. Personal preference: Finally and most importantly, I do care a lot about you and all of our (potential) future players. But the reason I'm creating this game is that I want to create a game that caters to my personal preferences. Because there's few games out there that do. If some of you like the outcome of this, that makes me happy. But if this game isn't for you, I'm not losing anything. And neither are you, there are so many other games around here that might suit you much better. I'm not creating a product here to sell. In fact, I'm not making a single penny out of this. Zargon has his Patreon to recover the money spent on assets, hardware and electricity bills, but I'm just doing this for my own sake. And also, like Young Again, this is only early access and the game will always be released for free after a short time anyway. So there is no financial pressure for me to attract a large crowd of fans. I think this is very important. If you look at DMD, they promised a whole bunch of fetishes in the beginning, attracting people waiting for these, then were pressured by the many patrons that didn't want to see these fetishes and now everyone is kind of disappointed, because either they didn't do much in terms of the fetishes they promised or because they still have a little fetish content that not everyone wants to see. That can't happen here. I'm going to create this game the way I want it, regardless of whether that means a huge success or hardly anyone playing it. And that's also a reassurance for those that actually share my preferences, because they know that they will be getting this and it won't be changed for financial reasons. On the other hand, as I said, nothing (well, few things) is set in stone and I'm always open to incorporate good ideas into the game if I like them. For example, I'm currently not planning for any harem (that's why it's not in the list of tags), but I am considering whether this could be possible in the future (though if it is, it might be pretty different from your typical harem game).

 

[JoeTheMC84]

reflexbound thanks for the detailed answer. It really help alleviate some of my concerns. And as I said some of what I said above was just to get things off my mind or airing concerns others might have. Since not as many people check out development threads, thinking about these things now, and how you might respond to something later when the game releases and it gets more eyes and ears on it could be helpful.

I know a lot of people group NTR with sharing, swinging, and voyeur content all as one thing. I’m not one of those people. Depending on the story and the characters involved I sometimes even enjoy indulging in those other three on occasion if it’s a minor part of the game. Seems that was an issue on my perception. I thought your previous answers indicated they would be bigger parts of the game then they perhaps will be. That’s my bad. Sorry about that,

It is an unfortunate reality that some developer’s mistakes and even outright deceptions have backlash on other creators. I myself got directly burned by a developer once telling me in a private message that a certain content (NTR) was fully avoidable and wouldn’t happen if I didn’t want it to. So, I played the game, and it wasn’t. The main character's wife actually got knocked up by another guy she meets after the game starts. It wasn't even used as a catalyst for her to be removed from the game or something and she was still supposed to be one of the main love interests. That developer used a bunch of excuses, and it was a shitshow in our DMs. But anyway, that has made a me a little more cautious and I try to be as direct as I can to cut through any ability to obfuscate. It's funny in a way because it's so prevalent that some developers have even had their names become slurs tossed around to accuse other developers of following in their footsteps.

I don't have much else to add at the moment. So, I'll just drop a little about me below and let you know that if you ever want to bounce an idea off someone else who might have a different perspective or bring a new point of view then feel free to send me a private message. I've got a couple other developers I have some back and forth with about story craft and even a couple I've done some writing for. I won't expect anything in return as I see it as a way I can contribute to a game since I can't do it financially, maybe I can help with my expertise.

Especially about the potential for a more immersive or realistic (for the setting) way to have a harem. Few games do it well, though I think most games even without a harem ending fall short of dealing with any realistic or immersive relationship dynamics well. Many harems end up feeling like you're just collecting a new Pokémon to add to the MC's homebase usually. Which can be fun sometimes but gets very repetitive after the fifth or sixth game you do it in. Also, as you said about lack of variety, many harems can make if feel like the girls are little more than a sex doll with zero personality. That said, one of the issues I tend to have with non-harem games is that they reward the player early on for treating them like harem games, getting to know and going after all the girls, and then suddenly the game stops rewarding that kind of behavior and even sometimes punishes the player. I've seen games go the other way too, as soon as you meet a girl they basically say, "Commit now to only this girl you don't really know anything about, or it'll cause problems later. Otherwise reject her now." From a game theory point of view those are both just bad design... I'm rambling again, sorry...

Spoiler: Just a little about me as a person

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With all that said, best of luck and hopefully you make the game you've always envisioned.

 

[reflexbound]

JoeTheMC84 Glad I could alleviate your concerns. It still might not be the right game for you, I can't say that for sure, but I hope you will try it with a positive attitude (and maybe stay for more than the first two chapters) and then see whether it fits your bill or doesn't.
I'm trying to do a few things differently than I've seen in many other games. I fully agree with you here:

From a game theory point of view those are both just bad design...

I find it difficult to have a good solution for this, so I'm not blaming any other developers, but my plans here are essentially that you can have some uncommited fun with most of the girls and then, as the game progresses, they will make up their mind about you and then you can either end things with them on good terms or commit to them and end things with the other girls on good terms. This may differ a little between the different girsl, but you're not going to get punished by some bad ending or everyone leaving you. And in fact, there might even be a scene or two where you can get a benefit from having good relations with another girl, which might or might not mean that you got sexual before.

 

[reflexbound]

Devlog #7 - Bonus images, achievements & release date!

Welcome to this devlog on Rovering to Sussex. We're getting really close to the release of the first chapter, so check out the release date announcement at the end of this post. Before that, I want to talk a little more about the bonus images and achievements.

Bonus images

I've mentioned bonus images before, but I want to give you a little more detail on what to expect. I've also shown you this screenshot of the bonus gallery before:

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Each of the buttons you see is a set of bonus images and in each set, you have to unlock each image individually.

Most sets are unlocked by playing the phone minigame where you have to unlock the images of one set in sequence, starting with the easiest level and working your way up to the most difficult one. These image sets consist of around five images each corresponding to the five levels of the minigame. But what are the images about? They are not tied directly to the game, but are completely optional for you to unlock, and they show the characters of the game in unusual situations. Each set is one scene with some particular setting and often tells a little story. These scenes are tame for the first chapter(s), since we want you to have a chance to get real encounters with the girls in question before spoiling them in these fantasy images. In later chapters, the scenes will often be more lewd, though. Some scenes might include an image or two that are linked to the fetishes we talked about [earlier](https://link-to-our-fifth-devlog), but they will respect your settings. So if you opted out of some of the fetishes, you won't get to see these images. You will not even notice them missing, because for you, the image set will just be shown to have fewer images in total.

One more thing that you can see blurred out in the image above is the buttons on the left: They allow you to filter the image sets to only show those that have images of your favorite girl. We have the same system in place for the replay gallery where you can replay the lewd scenes. There you can additionally filter by fetishes, which is something that we don't (yet) have for the bonus image gallery here since as said above, image sets will usually have only one or two fetish images and you can hide them using the fetish content settings.

There are two more special bonus image sets (actually, there will be only one for the first chapter, the second will be added later) that work a little differently. You unlock the images in these sets by completing the quizzes and minigames that are part of the game. If you chose to never play quizzes or minigames, these image sets will be hidden. Again these are fantasy images showing the characters of the game in some situation that you won't see in the game itself, but you can unlock each image independently of the others, so if you don't complete the first quiz, you can still unlock the second image by completing the second quiz, etc.

Don't feel pressured to unlock any of these images, though. They are meant to provide some more ways to interact with the game than just playing it linearly and they allow us to get more creative in the situations that we put our characters into, but they are by no means necessary to enjoy the game.

Achievements

Again, we've already shown you the achievements gallery before:

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But what are these achievement? Each achievement is coupled to doing something in the game. Most often, this means you have to explore different paths of the game, but in some cases a single action might unlock an achievement. Only once you unlocked an achievement, you will see its name and the condition that unlocked it. Each achievement comes with a single image as a reward for you. These images once again show the game's characters in some situation that is linked to the achievement and may be lewd or just funny.

You will only find two achievements to be unlocked in the first chapter of the game, but many more will follow later on. And the actions you take even in the first chapter might influence whether you can unlock some of the later achievements as well.

Unlocking achievements is meant to provide you with some incentive to look at different paths in the game and try all the things that are there, but like the bonus images, don't feel any pressure to go for them.

Release date

By now, I hope you are eager to hear about when you will be able to play the first chapter of Rovering to Sussex. But since I only had screenshots here that you already saw way back in the first devlog, I'll take the chance to reveal another character first, Katie:

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But when now will you be able to interact with her, Catherine, Rachel and the others that we haven't revealed yet? Sooner than you might have thought, because you have just read the last devlog before the release of the very first chapter of Rovering to Sussex! It will be available for you just six days from now, on Friday, July 1st. And even better, this first chapter will be released for free publicly immediately, both here and on Zargon's

You must be registered to see the links

and

You must be registered to see the links

pages. Later chapters will follow Zargon's release model with early access for the different tier patrons before a free public release.

I hope you are as excited about getting the game into your hands as we are getting it out to you.

See you next time!
RFB