HTML The Fox and Stag - Playable online [Development Thread]

[obsessionau]

The Fox and Stag

The Fox and Stag is a business management game with an adult theme and a focus on fan-service.
It is similar in many regards to games like Whoremaker and Freecities just not as extreme with the content.

The game is still in a early Alpha development, which means I am still adding core features but the basic mechanics are pretty much in place.
When you start much of the content will be locked behind a research tree, which you have to build your office to start researching and unlocking these items.

You can play the current build at:

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password: foxystag

Seeking assistance with writing or balancing, even if it is help tackling a small coding issue I might run into!

 

[somebodynobody]

obsessionau
I would try it, but I get a JavaScript error saying "no valid storage adapters found", this is on the Chromium browser Vivaldi. I did turn off my adblocker to try, same error. This is one of the main reasons a lot of browser games have an offline version. Good luck on your game though.

JavaScript from "v6p9d9t4.ssl.hwcdn.net"

Apologies! A fatal error occurred. Aborting.

Error no valid storage adapters found.

Stack Trace:
Error: no valid storage adapters found
at Object.e
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)
at HTMLDocument.<anonymous>
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)
at e
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at t
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)

 

[obsessionau]

I can reproduce the exact same error if I block cookies. Sugarcube needs local storage functionality so if you allow cookies for it, it should fix the issue. You can leave your adblocker on.

The only issues I have had are on mobile devices where the side bar does not get displayed.

Edit: Downloading would also solve this issue as you are effectively doing the same thing. I have included a download option on the page for the current build but because I am updating every couple of days at the moment it will likely not get updated as often.

 

[somebodynobody]

Typos I saw.

As your fathers health deminished so to : father's diminished so too

take on your fathers establishment : father's

bar you find stuck on a wall a piece of paper with a bunch of contact numbers : (reads weird)

you recognise : recognize

are definately : definitely

Hint It is upto you : up to

------------

Yes I know this is in a very early state. Small things I noticed.

I would suggest instead of full months, maybe a week or bi weekly. Not giving someone hours at work of their job for 3 to 4 months seems not like a great time idea.

If you are doing a management sim maybe also go more in depth in the time you slot for people to work, like what days/hours. This allows events where employees may need to switch shifts and other shenanigans that happens in real life.

I am not a fan of the very light background. Maybe some type of ledger would look nice as a background image though.

The images on the right while nice, make no sense as of early game.

It feels like a bit too much clicking around to do things. Having to go multiple menus deep to deal with staff, and hiring is a whole other couple menus deep. In management games, you want to keep things as ease of access as possible. You have a full left hand bar for stuff to use, and you can throw more on the right too. I mean go crazy with ease of use and access, it is HTML.

I think the game needs a very good tutorial instead of just hints.

The cost of upgrading places is definitely not worth it in any short time frame. a 10k cost of upgrade and only getting an extra 100 or so money from it each month, that means the player needs to do more than 100 months to see benefit of money put into it. So I think the number balancing needs some work.

I would say the "Office Research" should be a much more noticeable button, I figured it was just about the time allotment and not the actual research. Also all the research lacks hints or info on what it does, or why you would want that.

Lots of missing hints.

Depending on the style of the bar the background could change.

I would mention on the larger areas that need to be built instead of just renovating the Bar, let the MC buy surrounding properties like the buildings next to the bar which he can shove put an entrance from the bar to for the nightclub/spa/etc.

Also if you only do the smallest places of single spacing, you have 2 left over but 3 upgrades that are 3-4 in size, thus you can't do anything with it.

With having so many places unlocked and so many workers, it would be nice to know what they are good at on the actual choice for the hours screen.

I look forward to see what you do.

 

[obsessionau]

Thank you, that is a great list of things for me to look at!

I have selected monthly advances for now as the game is going over ~50 years and I wanted the game pace to move forward quicker but with more deliberate turns where you have to think and plan each turn. I did consider fortnightly advances as many rosters and pay are done on a fortnightly basis but that would increase the game from 600 to 1300 game turns which is a very big jump. An average of 30 seconds a turn over 600 turns is 5 hours of gameplay which feels right for what I am after but it shouldn't be too hard to change warranted.

Missing hints, largely blank screens, elements not really being worth the investment - Many of these likely come down to early alpha build and I have not developed it yet, or it is only partially implemented.

The UI optimisation is an interesting one as many items are revealed once they are researched or developed. Researching "The Human Body" for example changes the beauty stat from 1 column to 4 columns.
Needless to say, I have a list of things that need to be implemented before I spend time tidying this up or work on the hints system as those other features will likely mean it needs to be changed again. A big hint is to get 3 people working in the bar for maximum efficiency (see below).

I will definitely add the option from changing from a light to dark colour scheme! Great suggestion!

The images on the right when you advance each week are mainly just placeholder at the moment and funnily enough are 95% of the games filesize. Having a image of the empty facility decked out according to your theme (and quality) makes sense and would be within my ability.

Adding tooltips for the research screen was on my agenda for today! So that's in progress.

Correct, not all the rooms that can be built will fit in your facility. This is deliberate and you will have to choose, possibly even destroy other rooms to build what you want depending on what you want to happen. Different rooms attract different types of guests which will have a impact on the story elements. If you want to just turn your pub into a brothel and fill up the space with private bedrooms. That will hopefully be a option.

 

[obsessionau]

Build 7 Available
Changes since last post:

• NEW - Selecting your nationality will affect the distribution of the nationalities when recruiting staff.
• NEW - Staff will wear different outfits depending on what job role you have assigned them.
• NEW - Marketing and Advanced Marketing information is now being displayed in your office once that has been researched by the player.
• NEW - Stats for staff will vary by small amounts as they age. Slightly depends on work role.
  
  
• MODIFIED - Modified previously hardcoded popularity information so that it can be displayed more efficiently and integrated the widgets.
• MODIFIED - General code optimisation.
• MODIFIED - Now shows sidebar on mobile phones (not a recommended device to play on though).
• MODIFIED - Different formula is being used to calculate youthful beauty that takes into count the persons age.
• MODIFIED - Redeveloped the research screen, uses less pictures and now provides tooltips on what you can unlock.
• MODIFIED - A few spelling and grammar errors fixed thanks to somebodynobody.
• MODIFIED - Buildcost of establishment reduced from 10000 to 2500.
• MODIFIED - Images in Advance month screen now relate more to the facility they are with and not just randomly displayed pics.
  
  
• BUGS FIXED - Karaoke room would not decrease health over time, Recruitment screen beauty info not displaying correctly.
• BUGS FIXED - The 'Fire staff member' and 'time allocation to staff' options were previously capped to a limited number of staff. This has been fixed.

Next up:
While I will probably be working on lots of other minor changes, these are some of the bigger elements I will be working on:

• Working more on the Player and Staff relationships
• Staff leaving (retire or quit) and staff happiness
• Improving the UI - As somebodynobody has suggested there is a bit of traversing back and forth which is kinda pointless. Toolbar to jump between Establishment, Facilities, Staff and Office
• Thinking more around the implementation of the antagonist's, doubt I will implement any of it yet.
• Thinking about and possibly start to implement "babies/children". Can staff have existing children when we employ them, birth control ... How complex will this be and what variables do I need to track.