Planning, technical details, and other definitions

Hello again, everyone!

First of all, I want to say that I am surprised and happy with the response to my last post. I expected a stampede, but not only did you stick with me, but all the demonstrations I received were supportive. Thank you very much indeed. It's great to be able to count on you.

Because of the last few posts diverting the subject, I ended up damming up a lot I wanted to tell you, and I don't see any solution other than to release it all at once in one devastating stream. So, in case you're interested, take cover, I want to talk a bit about the latest technical achievements, the changes to the gameplay and concept, the definition of the lore and potential future content, and the planning of future releases of the main game.

Latest technical achievements

In addition to the graphical changes, there have been other things I've been working on. Some are more conceptual but require a change in the programmed logic of the game. Others are more visible and I'll try to explain the main ones.

I've already explained to you how the clothing variations work and the need to adapt the skin mesh to avoid clipping. Until then, the system required me to create a body mesh for each clothing variation, which forced me to limit the number of clothing variations. Note that each minimal variation requires a different skin.

The solution was to use a system that hides some of the skin polygons when triggered, so I can use the same body mesh for all the variations, which makes my job much easier.

But I still need to work on the mesh of the clothes to match the mesh of the skin, otherwise they bend differently, like Nicole's shirt strap does in some poses.

Of course, the ideal would be for the clothes to be welded to the skin, but that would be the work for a large modeling team. At the moment a bit of skin clipping is unavoidable, but I'm gradually making adaptations to minimize this as much as possible.

Another element that took up my time was map navigation. This posed several challenges for optimization, since there are so many elements displayed at the same time. I believe I've achieved a functional and fairly lightweight system.

The biggest trick is to make the locations load and unload in a smart way. There's no point in keeping a house and all its furniture loaded in memory if the player chooses another location to visit. The mapping system decides what should be loaded and this makes navigation fluid, without long waits.

Changes in gameplay and concept:

I've always thought of S4H as a game to be played more than once, with different events depending on how you make your choices. However, many people prefer to experience games only once, which leads to some mismatches, players being alienated from much of the content, or never finding the content they like best. To improve this, I'm going to change a few things:

• A progress panel will be added where you can see the percentage of in-game progress, achievements, and replay scenes. This will give you an idea of how much of the game you've experienced.

• The option to play in "VN Mode" will be added, which dispenses with the open-world elements and strings the game scenes together more or less like in a Visual Novel. This mode is for those who don't like open games, but it will also serve as an option to re-experience the game.

• The game will no longer allow you to change characters in the middle of a Step; you will choose your character at the start of the Step and will only be able to change at the next Step. This is to simplify the paths, but also to encourage you to start another game to see the other character's point of view.

• When you finish each Step for the first time, it opens up the possibility of restarting the game with another character, so if you finish Step 1, you can restart the game from Nicole's point of view, finishing Step 2 allows you to restart as Barney and later as Jane.

Note that these changes also remove your obligation to play with some characters, except Brendon, who you'll have to play to unlock the other characters. For example, most of the content planned for Nicole's gameplay is lesbian and female masturbation, so if you're not interested in this content, just skip her part. When the game is complete it will be possible to play all with just one of the protagonists or alternating as you prefer. So there will be several ways to experience the same game.

The Blowhard Lore

Much of the game's open-world content relates to stories that will never be dealt with within Steps 4 Happiness. They're ideas that helped me develop the characters, but that don't fit into a single game. I've separated these stories into other content that could become later games or, if there are resources, I could pay an illustrator to turn them into comics. Or I could simply release the scripts for you to read. These contents are as follows:

• An epilogue to Steps 4 Happiness.

• A parallel story involving the Crankshaw family, with Angel, her sister Honey, their mother, and the player taking on the role of the family's stepfather.

• Another parallel story involving the Nutter family, with Chloe, Lisa, and from Jason's point of view.

• Three stories with the Sackrider family, involving Penny, Misty, and their parents. Tell the history of the family and the town. Also played mostly from Jason's point of view.

• A closing story, about a family made up of a widowed man and his three foster teens, who move to the outskirts and become involved in the town's hidden mysteries.

Next steps

Something I want to avoid between updates of the game is discovering that some system doesn't allow me to progress, forcing me to redo the system and, consequently, the entire game. This happened between updating from Step 1 to Step 2 and happened again when I went to update to Step 3. To avoid this I'm testing the systems beforehand and minigames are one of the ways of doing this. Before I update again there are still a few systems I need to test. I think the best way to do this is by remaking the three demos. So the next steps will be:

• Demo 1: Sneak Peeking - Where you'll try out the new navigation system, collectible items, secret scenes, and the VN mode option.

• Demo 2: The Besties - Where you'll test the photography system applied to a dialog scene, among other things.

• Demo 3: Not Related - You'll test the achievement system and progress display and a sex scene with various possibilities.

While I'm working on these demos, I hope to sort out the last details regarding the snowdrifts between maps and also finish furnishing the scenarios. Then I'll have no excuse not to focus solely on the main game. I plan to finish the game in four releases:

• Release 1: Step 1 for Brendon and Nicole with optional quests for each.

• Release 2: Steps 1 and 2 for Barney and Step 2 for Brendon and Nicole. Optional quest for Brendon and Nicole.

• Release 3: Steps 1, 2, and 3 for Jane and Step 3 for Brendon, Nicole and Barney. Optional quest for Barney and Jane.

• Release 4: Step 4 and conclusions for each of the characters.

I expect that the time between updates will be a lot shorter, as I'll need to worry mostly about the artwork.

I must make it clear that this planning is based on the content prepared so far. Some of this content is at the synopsis stage, and even the part that is already properly scripted may change along the way and this could affect the content of the releases.

Have I confused you? Don't worry, you'll understand everything as I release the content. Until then, I'm here to answer your questions and listen to your opinions.

Many thanks to all of you!