RPGM Tales Of Illium [Development Thread]

[IlliumGames]

Overview
"Tales Of Illium" is a RPGM game where you take control of Duchess Charlotte of Arles(No relation to Arles France) and help her navigate the politics, intrigues and romances of the great city of Illium. Most scenes are easily avoidable in this game and there is flexibility for a large number of different playstyles that cater to the player(i.e if you want to play lesbian only you can)

Setting
The game is set in a fantasy world during the age of gunpowder(Yes, there will be Orcs armed with muzzle loading firearms)
The story takes place in the Acadian Empire, a nation inspired by a mix of the Byzantine Empire and prerevolution France. I plan for the game to have a large open world where you can explore the empire and even other nations. But for now, the game is mostly limited to the capital, the so call "City Of The Worlds Desires" the city of Illium.

Main Plot
The game begins with the main character Charlotte returning from her half year trip abroad. During her time away, her heart ached for her best friend and long time crush...
Irena, the Empress of the Acadians. However, Irena sees her as more of a little sister and never reciprocated Charlottes desires and unrequited love for her in the past and most likely never will. Irena did however, miss Charlotte more than she would care to admit, she's also been acting strange towards her lately...

Characters(Subject to change)

Female

• Charlotte The games protagonist, 21, has sexual experience(Canonically with woman, experience with men is up to the player), the absentee ruler of a small duchy just north of the capital, idolizes her deceased war hero father(daddy issues?), naïve, nationalistic, jingoistic, other descriptive words.
• Irena Main love interest, 24, mother at 18 with unknown father(important later in story), technically a milf, Imperial Empress of the worlds greatest empire, Charlotte's self appointed mentor, see's herself as Charlotte's big sister, decadent, kinda a slut(Sometimes it feels like she'll fuck anyone but Charlotte), nepot.
• Julia Irena's sister, 19, pretty tame sexually(Especially compared to some of the other characters), can be heavily corrupted, very outgoing , a bit to outgoing and friendly(friends with people from the lower classes! Gross! #proclassdivide)
• Vanya An elven maid, 22-23, orphan born in the slums, ex prostitute, best friends with Charlotte Irena and Julia, traumatized-was sexually assaulted and exploited a lot while working as a street whore in the slums, kind and caring has a dark sense of humor.
• Chloe Sister, 18, a completely innocent girl who totally didn't turn into a slut while Charlotte was away, sleeps naked in the same bed as Charlotte... it's not sexual it's totally normal for sister to do this right? Has a cuckold Boyfriend.
• Zoe Mother, 39, MILF!, drinking and drug problem, took your fathers death really hard, Charlotte absolutely hates her.

Male

• Aaron Old friend of Charlottes and partner in-crime, 22, a noble of a rich family with a military history, wanted to study drama and theater but his asshole father sent him to a military academy nears Arles(That's how he met Charlotte) instead, was away studying for most of his life, returned home when his father died and reunited with his "step" mother and "step" sister after many years, seduced his "step" mother and "step" sister along with a few more woman including the "step" sisters girlfriend, married his "step" sister and her girlfriend and is a open relationship where they can all sleep around(only with woman though), his marriage is actually a complete lie, his sister wi- I mean "step" sister wife hates him after she found out he slept with her mom and kicked him out of the house. Planning on you repairing, joining, expanding his harem.
• Tobias Royal Guard Captain, 37, initially an asshole to you, veteran who is disappointed by the state of the other guards(their lecherous), planning on you being able to enter a NTR relationship where you can fuck his subordinates. There's variation in the relationship- You can be mostly/completely loyal to him, cuck him by being blackmailed or forced to have sex with the lecherous guards under him, or cuck him behind his back out of spite or lust.
• Charles Your Uncle, 45, surrogate father and mentor, lonely widow(waited 20 years), genius gun and weapon smith, so focused on his work he never focused on other things in life.
• Jake Tombstone Captain of her majesties royal rangers, war criminal(only allegedly though) and that's all the info you need.
• Samuel Idiot son of a senator, 20, not very bright but at least his kind, hated by his family as a failure, low confidence even though he is a male Adonis, unqualified for his job only got it due to the rampant nepotism, virgin?

Plan on adding more Characters...

And yeah that's it for now, will do another one of these describing some of the game mechanics in a few days.
Thank you and have a good day!

 

[egosga]

Waiting for this!

 

[IlliumGames]

Waiting for this!

Glad to here! I'll try and hurry it up so you don't have to wait long.

 

[robothehobo]

Musket wielding orcs! Byzantium! Jingoism! Nepotism! Class Divide! Elf Maids! Cuckold Boyfriends! War Criminals!
Is this a "Poggers" moment?

 

[IlliumGames]

Game Mechanics

• There will be a day/evening/night cycle. Every action will be divided into three categories.
  • Uses the entire timeslot(Rare)
  • Uses half the timeslot(Allowing for two actions per time slot)
  • Doesn't effect the timeslot(Majority of actions)
• Fights: The combat won't be traditional rpgm combat, instead it will be a small text based mini adventure with multiple decisions and varied outcomes. I've only written on of these scenes so far as a prototype and I'll provide a small download for you to experience it. Right now it's a small text based minigame with either armed or unarmed combat with a variety of outcomes, some of which include sex scenes(test only though). Please try it out and tell me what you think, also where should I have focused more on, the combat side or the sexual side.
• I've tried to make the quest as varied as I could with different ways to be completed and outcomes.
• There will be intrigues and plots you can join, start and defend against. Only written one quest like this so far but planning on adding more.
• Other things I'm planning on adding.
  • A war/ strategy system- Don't expect to see it though in a long time.
  • Duchy management
  • Become a powerful Duchess and be given power in the senate.
    • Messy politics(Ties into intrigue->Scheme against enemies)
    • Support or fight laws
  • Become a judge like figure(Through Nepotism)
    • Be just and or be corrupt
    • Fight against crime or be corrupt
  • An open world, visit other nations and engage in diplomacy for your Empress(Or scheme and sabotage the enemy)
• Corruption: Yes, Charlotte can be corrupted. Though it isn't necessary, many events don't need her to have corruption, however if she is corrupted more possibilities open up and she can be come more decadent and depraved. Also she can develop and exhibitionism fetish along with a few others, they progress similar to how her corruption builds up and unlocks more possibilities.
  Spoiler: A Rumor

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• Relationships: No grinding required! Build up your relationship with the Characters through quests and/or actions and events.
  Spoiler: Potential Spoilers

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  You can choose how you build up your relationships and they are dynamic to your actions and events.
  Spoiler: Potential Spoilers

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Yeah that's it, there's some other stuff I didn't mention or forgot to mention.
Feel free to comment your thoughts, asking for questions/clarifications, or leave any suggestions and things you want to see in the game. Finally, I'm uploading the Fight demo to megasync right now, I'll post it the link here in an hour or so.

 

[IlliumGames]

You must be registered to see the links

Here's the download to the fight demo, it's very short so give it a quick try and tell me what you think.
There are a few text only sex scenes sprinkled in so enjoy.

 

[egosga]

Maybe you can try to open a discord server or something like that so we can actually see update logs better in future

Also game's size looks bit big for that small content, i believe it won't be like that in real release of game i think. But its good fight demo for a text based thing.

 

[bboybarry]

The game sounds very promising. Also I checked out the fight demo I liked it, it was a cool little teaser for what's to come. I really liked how you mixed in sex scenarios. One suggestion though however, it seemed that the sword fight was better/easier for the mc compared to the unarmed fight, this makes sense that she would do better with a weapon compared to an unarmed fight against two men. What I suggest however is letting the player choose where the mc is better at, like a skill/stat system. And for the sexual elements of the fight, tie in corruption, the more corrupt the mc is the more sexual options open up.

 

[IlliumGames]

The game sounds very promising. Also I checked out the fight demo I liked it, it was a cool little teaser for what's to come. I really liked how you mixed in sex scenarios. One suggestion though however, it seemed that the sword fight was better/easier for the mc compared to the unarmed fight, this makes sense that she would do better with a weapon compared to an unarmed fight against two men. What I suggest however is letting the player choose where the mc is better at, like a skill/stat system. And for the sexual elements of the fight, tie in corruption, the more corrupt the mc is the more sexual options open up.

That's a pretty good idea, I was planning on something similar anyways.

 

[IlliumGames]

Created the first two coloured* cg's for my game. Let me know what you think, and where I could improve.
The blonde one is the protagonist, the other one is the main love interest.


* I made a few others that I haven't finished/coloured in yet.
** Might not bother colouring some of them.
*** Planning on outsourcing the game art to professionals, this took way too long.

 

[bboybarry]

Created the first two coloured* cg's for my game. Let me know what you think, and where I could improve.
The blonde one is the protagonist, the other one is the main love interest.

View attachment 883528 View attachment 883526
* I made a few others that I haven't finished/coloured in yet.
** Might not bother colouring some of them.
*** Planning on outsourcing the game art to professionals, this took way too long.

Looks good! I know nothing about art so I have no art advice.
That being said I do have one suggestion, you should ask around recruitment services https://f95zone.to/forums/recruitment-services.117/ there's unpaid and paid, ask for someone to do an a cg here and there or ask them to colour for you. I don't think they'll mind, there are some generous people there.

 

[IlliumGames]

Looks good! I know nothing about art so I have no art advice.
That being said I do have one suggestion, you should ask around recruitment services https://f95zone.to/forums/recruitment-services.117/ there's unpaid and paid, ask for someone to do an a cg here and there or ask them to colour for you. I don't think they'll mind, there are some generous people there.

You know what, I think I will.
Thanks once again BBoyBarry!

 

[IlliumGames]

Good Or Perhaps Bad News
I have written(In a doc not in the game) the overall story of the game, and I have decided to split it into two games.
This means that "Tales Of Illium 1" won't have: An open world, it will have less politics, no duchy management, no judge/ law system. Finally, there will be only 1 war during the swan song of the story. These systems and mechanics will be implemented in the planned sequel "Tales Of Illium 2", which takes place right after the 'true" ending of the first game.
I did this because it made more sense narrative wise. The first game is very small scale, it's purpose is to build up the characters and the setting. It focuses on the ground level, the little picture, and the past. The player and Charlotte are mainly exploring the city, having a bit of "fun", and getting into a bit of "trouble". The story is driven and revolves around the individual characters and their "shenanigans".
For the second game the character based stories and other small frame stuff will still be there, however there will be a greater focus the larger picture. Without spoiling anything Charlotte becomes a lot more influential after the first game, that's why it makes more sense to move the aforementioned mechanics to the second game.


In their place I will add other things that make more sense.
For example, one of the things I'm adding is the...

Tales Of Illium(Not to be confused with the title)
This will be the life stories of the denizens of the city of Illium.
It is a series of overarching narratives that I added to make the city feel more alive.
I have no idea how to explain it properly, so here are five in-game examples/teasers.

• Charlotte meets a prostitute and tries to solicit her. Charlotte is then interrupted by the prostitutes lesbian lover who prevents anything from happening. The prostitute gets angered, her girlfriend is okay with her being used my men she isn't attracted too, but the second she gets a pretty client(Charlotte) and might actually enjoy her work, the girlfriend gets all jealous. The girlfriend then begins crying due to being yell at and is quickly consoled by the prostitute.
  • Find out more about their relationship and become "closer" with them.
  • Learn about their circumstances, why she became a prostitute and why the girlfriend is so quick to cry.
  • Perhaps even help them out
• There is a strange new succubus maid in the palace.
  • Has a remorseful past
  • And that's all I'm gonna say to prevent spoilers
• Charlotte meets a kind lady one day...
  • Turns out she just married the heir of criminal empire legitimate brewery business
  • It would be a horrible idea to start an affair with her...
• There is a strange building that people come in and out of everyday, some kind of business or something that has no women policy... but you can see women staff inside...
• Charlotte overhears people are talking about their neighbor, they say he just married a succubus. One of them says he a "lucky bastard" the other one interjects saying the man has become depressed since wedding. Another ask if the succubus is unfaithful(reasonable stereotype) but apparently she isn't... Perhaps there is a different reason...

The Endings
I wrote up the endings, there are 9 of them. None of them are "bad ends" but I plan on having a few bad ends sprinkled throughout the game. The 9 endings are widely differ from each other and are based Charlottes actions throughout the game(Was Charlotte a slut, was she ruthless and cruel, was she kind), they are based of her relationship with characters and how their story arc ended(Did Charlotte build a harem, did she seduce her mother and sister, was she monogamous with Irena, did x and x end up together, etc) and finally it's based on whether the final war was won.

Spoiler

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[egosga]

Any news?

 

[IlliumGames]

Any news?

I'm have the first release ready, I'm just waiting on the cg's to finish.
So far there's only 4 absolute shit cg's I made, I have an artist working on a few more and I am also learning how to be a better artist and I've been experimenting around. Might recruit another a few more artist but idk.

 

[IlliumGames]

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!!!
Also I have a little Christmas gift:

You must be registered to see the links

This is the first "alpha" release of my game, it isn't much but it's a proof of concept.
I have a lot of half finished things in the works, so hopefully I can provide some more decent updates more frequently next year. Final notes: This is pretty much text only, though two of the "romances" have cg's and I've shortened the amount of time it takes to reach their scenes. Anyways, I hope you enjoy, feel free to provide any feed back.
And Shout out to Flemmaniac(https://f95zone.to/members/flemmaniac.2228434/) for his help with the art!

 

[egosga]

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!!!
Also I have a little Christmas gift:

You must be registered to see the links

This is the first "alpha" release of my game, it isn't much but it's a proof of concept.
I have a lot of half finished things in the works, so hopefully I can provide some more decent updates more frequently next year. Final notes: This is pretty much text only, though two of the "romances" have cg's and I've shortened the amount of time it takes to reach their scenes. Anyways, I hope you enjoy, feel free to provide any feed back.
And Shout out to Flemmaniac(https://f95zone.to/members/flemmaniac.2228434/) for his help with the art!

More news?

 

[IlliumGames]

More news?

I lost all progress since early Jan, this included a lot of bug fixes and coding.
I also lost my passion for this game because of that. I'm making another game and after I get that up and running I might return to this or perhaps make a new game with a similar story and mechanics.

 

[egosga]

I lost all progress since early Jan, this included a lot of bug fixes and coding.
I also lost my passion for this game because of that. I'm making another game and after I get that up and running I might return to this or perhaps make a new game with a similar story and mechanics.

How did that happen?

 

[IlliumGames]

How did that happen?

Long story short: I transferred the project to my old laptop because I was moving around a lot(moving out of my apartment, stayed with my parents for a bit, then moved into my new place) and than my laptop was stolen* and I lost everything on it. Thankfully I stopped using it when I bought my PC and moved most of my important files.
Unfortunately I had been using it to work on my game and lost all my progress since the transfer.

*Because Canada's housing market is so overinflated I had to rent a shit place with 5(2 were a couple) other people.
It was a crap situation, me and another guy didn't have real locks** on our personal room doors. So I only brought the bare minimum and left most of my shit with my parents, the most valuable thing I had was my laptop which I needed for school.
One day I come back from work and my laptop*** was missing, IDK who stole it.

**The locks were bathroom locks and only for privacy and didn't have keys and you could open them with almost anything.

***I know it was dumb to leave my laptop there but I had no choice, couldn't take it to work, I have no car. And I thought no one would be blatantly scummy/stupid enough to steal it. Also this apparently isn't the first time things were stolen and the
landlord was kind enough to let me out of my rental agreement, though this was after he begged/ordered me to drop the subject of my stolen property.