HTML Shadows Over Solomon Falls [v0.4] [Wendythered]

[Shelscott50]

I Have a Question and Possible Clarification on What You are 'wanting'/defining by Male MC.

I GUESS, and correct me IF I am wrong, that MOST players are going to assume that the "Male" (transgender to start) is
A Trans female (Male to female) because like in MOST Games, that is the case.
BUT in Your Game it seems MORE "Trans Male"
- "A trans man is a man who was assigned female at birth... Transgender is an umbrella term that includes different types of gender variant people."
"Trans men have a male gender identity, and many choose to undergo surgical or hormonal transition, or both, to alter their appearance in a way that aligns with their gender identity."

-THIS Is Why, and possibly confusing with players, why Our Male MC was so 'hung up' on his being Transformed into a Female.
(It was kind of against EVERYTHING He 'fought against'.)

And Our Poor Male Avatar,...
He looks like a "retro hippie".
And looks NOTHING Like people/players would expect a 'Trans female' to look like. Hence player confusion.
So, I am Just curious about your thoughts, and what you were thinking/planning when you decided to
give Our Male MC the transgender identity.

I, Personally, have No problem with it. It was Not what I was expecting either,...
- I chose the Male MC So He Could Be 'Transformed' into the Female Character Needed for her role in town.
- but kinda grow tired of the 'pissing & moaning' about wanting 'his male body back'.

 

[WendyTheRed]

I, Personally, have No problem with it. It was Not what I was expecting either,...
- I chose the Male MC So He Could Be 'Transformed' into the Female Character Needed for her role in town.
- but kinda grow tired of the 'pissing & moaning' about wanting 'his male body back'.

I think perhaps I am a bit confused by your question.

The intent of the game is to play as a female or a genderbent male to female character. It never even occurred to me that people might think that the male start is actually a female to male transgendered character who then becomes female again. Are you thinking that that is unclear? I don't mind adding a bit more to that screen to clarify that it is a male to female gender change.

As for the "pissing and moaning" it's been a very short time in game for the character. If I didn't have the newly female character comment internally and want to change back there'd be little practical difference in the options I gave you. Most TG games seem to follow one of two paths:

1) Character wants to get their old identity back and struggles against the change
2) Character enjoys being the other gender. This type usually seems to follow a fairly slutty progression.

I think for the story, 1 is the more realistic path. I'm trying to explain why the character goes along with things by implying the town is corrupting the character and some of the tweaks I'm currently working on are aimed at reinforcing that feeling for both female and TG characters after I got feedback that it's not always clear.

 

[Shelscott50]

Not yet. It is up on my Patreon and I will be widely sharing it on Friday it looks like. I'm also going back and tweaking some earlier content where I can. Mostly just doing some extra little tweaks here and there to the writing to make things flow better and to better convey the feeling of growing corruption.

I Love the Game so far,...
I am ACTUALLY Going to Restart New Game and Play as Female this time.
- I Do enjoy playing as a Male Transformed into Female; watching and dealing with How Our MC
Copes with his Changes around Him/her.
Only 2 things that bother me, and It Happens in MOST ALL 'Transformation' games;
- the Bitchy/whiney MC ("But I am Male! I do Not want to be female!")
- and Alot of Times the Issue of Female body; Male mind.
- Or by Default, Men Assume that Trans females or Sissies ONLY Purpose in life is to Be their personal "Fuck toy".

* A Good Example is "Transfigure".
where a young man is transformed into a female, by a Computer virus glitch; but MC STILL has Male brain.
His Best friend dismisses fact that His friend still sees himself as Male. ("I am Not Gay"!)
-ASSUMES that Just because His Best Friend Is Now Female, He/she should be His "Girlfriend" and 'playmate'.

 

[Shelscott50]

the male start is actually a female to male transgendered character who then becomes female again.

Well, If Our MC IS in fact a Male to female transgender; He/She would or could Embrace the idea of becoming Female
Right?
But instead, Our Male MC, after transformation, Is 'Hung up' about losing his 'Male' Identity. And How to get it back.

 

[WendyTheRed]

I Love the Game so far,...
I am ACTUALLY Going to Restart New Game and Play as Female this time.

I'd hold off until Friday. I'm doing little small tweaks to as much content as I can. It may not be much but I'm hoping it'll help improve some of the feel of the game. In particular I'm trying to give more of a sense of "I wouldn't normally do these things, why am I enjoying it?"

- Or by Default, Men Assume that Trans females or Sissies ONLY Purpose in life is to Be their personal "Fuck toy".

* A Good Example is "Transfigure".
where a young man is transformed into a female, by a Computer virus glitch; but MC STILL has Male brain.
His Best friend dismisses fact that His friend still sees himself as Male. ("I am Not Gay"!)
-ASSUMES that Just because His Best Friend Is Now Female, He/she should be His "Girlfriend" and 'playmate'.

One thing I think makes my game different is that no one knows the character was a male with very few exceptions. One of them will come up hopefully in the next full update but most people only remember the character ever being a female. From that standpoint I am going for more of a body horror vibe. Of course, since the character is new to town most people wouldn't know anyway, but the player can't even tell the other characters due to the corrupting magic behind it all.

 

[Shelscott50]

I'd hold off until Friday. I'm doing little small tweaks to as much content as I can. It may not be much but I'm hoping it'll help improve some of the feel of the game. In particular I'm trying to give more of a sense of "I wouldn't normally do these things, why am I enjoying it?"



One thing I think makes my game different is that no one knows the character was a male with very few exceptions. One of them will come up hopefully in the next full update but most people only remember the character ever being a female. From that standpoint I am going for more of a body horror vibe. Of course, since the character is new to town most people wouldn't know anyway, but the player can't even tell the other characters due to the corrupting magic behind it all.

I ACTUALLY LIKE That Part!
There was only 4 people in Solomon who 'Saw' him as Male before the Transformation (the Sheriff & Deputy, the Landlady of the BnB & her Grandson)
Nobody else had met him yet so Not that Big a deal.
BUT IT Is Cool How Everyone from his past life "Forgot" that He was Ever Male...

 

[WendyTheRed]

Well, If Our MC IS in fact a Male to female transgender; He/She would or could Embrace the idea of becoming Female
Right?
But instead, Our Male MC, after transformation, Is 'Hung up' about losing his 'Male' Identity. And How to get it back.

Yes, because it's not his choice to become a woman. It's forced upon him in the dream and his entire reality changes.

 

[WendyTheRed]

Alright, my next verision is out to my Patrons. I'll put it out publicly on Friday. I'm actually going to call it a new version because not only did I add Jill's date but based on some feedback I got privately I went back and slightly tweaked older content to make it more clear that the sexual events in the game are not normal for the character and maybe not for the townsfolk either.

This version weighs in at 121,000 words or so.

On another note, I've been thinking of making some kind of banner for the game like you see on a lot of games. I know a fairly common one is a bunch of the characters standing together. Or you might have the main character in lingerie lounging around and looking sexy or whatever. I'd love some ideas on this if any of you have any!

 

[makeitso]

I've been thinking of making some kind of banner for the game like you see on a lot of games. I know a fairly common one is a bunch of the characters standing together. Or you might have the main character in lingerie lounging around and looking sexy or whatever. I'd love some ideas on this if any of you have any!

Since the game is about the town, its influence, and the main character, those could be the main ingredients.

Background: whatever is the most iconic part of the town or least likely to change would be my pick, although it doesn't have to be strictly available in the final product, right? So whatever fits best, wreathed in the classic fog of intrigue and dramatically lit. Objects: the main character could be posed in their regular clothes left of centre as a larger point of attraction with more titillating but smaller images of the MC to the right of centre. I'm personally a sucker for the polaroids in the game, so I would suggest those be used for titillation, lifted from the game or not (the latter might be better so they fit the banner perfectly).

Including the whole cast feels like a lot of work and a very crowded banner, IMO. Save them as a surprise! Screenshots in the opening post are best for them, I feel (in case you change designs or remove someone, for example).

Finally, KISS works very well for banners, IMO. Who, where, what/why and you have your click or pass.

 

[WendyTheRed]

I've been playing around. What about this?

 

[makeitso]

That's a promising one already. The erotic aspect doesn't come across, and the *bottom text is maybe unnecessary, but I like the layout and background!

Edit: The layout of course depends on what format or aspect ratio you need the banner for, but I also feel like the top text is crushing our dear character.

 

[WendyTheRed]

That's a promising one already. The erotic aspect doesn't come across, and the *bottom text is maybe unnecessary, but I like the layout and background!

Edit: The layout of course depends on what format or aspect ratio you need the banner for, but I also feel like the top text is crushing our dear character.

Hmmm...it's hard to do the erotic context without going overboard. I could perhaps look into putting her into lingerie or something...

 

[makeitso]

Lingerie is about as erotic as clothes get, but you have at least a few provocative outfits ready as well. Just need the situations for them; body language and poses. I know I would be intrigued to know what a game was about if the featured character was pictured in a variety of outfits and situations (they don't even have to be explicit ones, although including one or two will definitely grab attention).

 

[WendyTheRed]

Lingerie is about as erotic as clothes get, but you have at least a few provocative outfits ready as well. Just need the situations for them; body language and poses. I know I would be intrigued to know what a game was about if the featured character was pictured in a variety of outfits and situations (they don't even have to be explicit ones, although including one or two will definitely grab attention).

Hmmm...interesting idea. I may experiment with some thoughts I have. This feels like graphic design work!

 

[makeitso]

Hmmm...interesting idea. I may experiment with some thoughts I have. This feels like graphic design work!

Good luck! This is pretty much that, just maybe without the crazy clients and expensive education.

 

[WendyTheRed]

What about something like this?



Or this one with a slightly tweaked version of the title:

 

[Shelscott50]

What about something like this?

View attachment 1617945

Or this one with a slightly tweaked version of the title:


View attachment 1618036

I Like the 1st One, but the 2nd one (tweaked title) Is maybe less "Distracting".

 

[WendyTheRed]

I got a lot of feedback on Discord that the first one didn't look as good with the title so I decided to go with the second one.

 

[Shelscott50]

Yeah, I messed up with Jill's date. I forgot people could have it as early as Thursday. I need to start making dates happen on a specific day. "Friday at 7" or whatever. Right now it is "today plus 2 days" or something similar. The reason is I make the game semi-open world so it's hard to predict when certain characters will meet.

Sean's date is on Saturday morning. Saturday is going to be an interesting update I think! I hope you all like it, I have big plans for it! It'll advance the plot more and [spoilery talk redacted]

Thank you for the well wishes. I'm spending tomorrow with her. We're going to watch some horror movies and stuff I think.

Well, So far, I found that the 'in 2 Days' kinda works as long as you do not specify which Day of week. Because You could run into a Date overlap problem (When You Meet Mark on Tues., and IF You agree to go on Date with him Date on Thurs at 7pm), THEN You Visit Jill at Dress shop on Same Day; (although MC does not REALLY get a choice about the "Date"), she Can Say Yes or No to the Dress (*). You Have/set Date on Thurs at 7pm with Jill.

Ending Result = You have 2 date Reminders showing up, when you get off work on Thurs.
player will have to choose which date to go on.
(Ofcourse, player could make a Save before Date, and do Both Dates; But Player will lose "valuable" Info.)

SO, what I did was, Go to Park on Tues. Meet Amber and Mark; make date with Mark (Yuck!) Thurs at 7 pm.
On Wed. Go to Dress Shop and Meet Jill. Hopefully, Meet Jill on Friday at 7pm for date.
(Although, now I am Not sure If I managed to do this, or If DEV 'implemented' it. LOL)

(*) First time I played this, I chose Male MC to Female. I Met Jill 1st time on Tues Afternoon.
(I was Not Feminine enough to say "Yes" to the dress) after choices made (??) I said "Yes" to Dress on Wed.
- Not Really Sure which choices I made at the time. (More flirty/suggestive choices I imagine.)
- I am STILL playing around (Streamlining) with this.

 

[WendyTheRed]

Ending Result = You have 2 date Reminders showing up, when you get off work on Thurs.
player will have to choose which date to go on.
(Ofcourse, player could make a Save before Date, and do Both Dates; But Player will lose "valuable" Info.)

In my playtesting with Jill's date I discovered something:

Spoiler

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