HoHH Release - Proof-of-Concept Demo for Notebook Functionality
Added 2024-12-03 14:56:15 +0000 UTCInstead of the usual harlot profile, this week I'll be putting out that demo of new functionality I'd like to add to House of Hellish Harlots.
HoHH is kind of like a roguelike in design. The player starts a run, they encounter a randomised choice of harlots, they play through multiple rounds of harlots until one inevitably kills them, then they restart and try again with the knowledge they learned from the previous run.
Missing from HoHH currently is a way to store that knowledge in an easy way for the player to access and some sort of meta-progression so the player still feels like they're making progress even with the repeated deaths.
At first I didn't think I'd be able to do this with Twine, but recent updates to Twine have increased the saving/loading functionality. I also figured out conceptually how to do it and this is a rough test to see what people think.
The regular default Twine load/save functionality has been replaced with an autosave/autoload. The game autosaves where it needs to (currently to browser slot 0, although I might try and expand this to make it more robust). On starting up again, it should remember where you were last time and you should be able to continue where you left off.
(There is a flicker at the start as the game autoloads and briefly switches backgrounds/harlot art. This will be hidden by a title page over the top, so don't worry about it).
Data is also stored between games, so HoHH can remember how many times you visited, died to a particular harlot, etc. You can access this, as well as information learned on the harlot through the notebook (which is meant to be a loose representation of the Portly Gentleman's notebook). There is a progression system which indicates the number of facts learned about a harlot as a percentage.
Once a player has experienced them in the regular game, they can also unlock replay mode in the notebook to playthrough favourite Bad or Good Ends again.
Navigation also makes use of the autosave functionality. The new notebook icon (replacing the old Save icon) takes the player to the notebook section. They can look this up mid-game and then return to where they were in their current game by clicking on the X icon in the top right of the page.
The open door icon is Exit, and takes the player back to the Options Page. Selecting Continue from here will take them back to where they were in the scenario.
It's a proof-of-concept demo, so there are only 3 harlots available. It also makes use of the Harlot Tester I created for HoHH 1.5, so you can use that to modify stats, gifts, and other things before visiting the harlot.
Some notes:
It's currently not possible to 100% any of the 3. One of the facts required is which faction they belong to, and neither of them reveal it as part of their scenario.
Replays are not true replays. They create a random player character and set the relevant stats to put the player on the replay path they've selected.
Not everything goes towards 100%ing a harlot. The player can find out additional notes on preferred gift categories and variant Bad Ends (such as bringing the harlot a Black Rose), but they don't currently count towards the progression score. Things that are hidden behind "?????????"s do.
I still haven't decided what should count towards 100% progress. I'll put a future post up with my thoughts and ask for people's opinions later in the week once people have had a chance to try the demo out.
The same goes for replay mode. There are a lot of minor variations on how a Bad End can play out. Currently the replay mode picks the 'best' one among combinations the player has unlocked. Again, how this should work will be the subject of a future discussion post.
For now, I just want to get the rough demo out and see what people think of it. If it looks good, I'll start adding it to the main game. I think some form of meta-progression will be really good to have.
I've attached the demo as a zip file which has the raw .html game file and an images folder for the art. As this might not work for mobile users, I've also updated the houseofhellishharlots website. You can find it under the experimental tab here:
https://houseofhellishharlots.com/experimental/
Get to it by pressing the "Notebook Testing" button. The password is:
saPo0n1S
This also the updated password for the other demo versions.
Let me know how you get on and please post any feedback.
Comments
Good point for testing. I might leave that option in to help test the new harlots as they are added. I don't think the option to give the Madam a mulligan coin to select a specific harlot will be in the final version, but it seems essential at the moment while I'm releasing harlot-by-harlot. It's a quirk of the core idea. In an ideal world I'd make it secret and then drop it as this big mystery box full of harlots and players would be constantly surprised as they encounter new ones. Unfortunately, I need to raise funding while I make it, and that model is much better for more incremental RPGs where new releases add the next stage or level. (If only I'd run with the City of 10,000 Whores idea first! :D )
Many-Eyed Hydra
2024-12-06 12:05:22 +0000 UTCYup. I want to try and balance that "choices matter" aspect (although a lot are actually hidden from the player, so going back doesn't always help anyway) with it having the convenience a H-game should have in replaying fav scenes and getting to the content the player wants quickly. I think replay mode and being able to fast-forward through already solved harlots should mitigate losing some functionality of manual save/loading, but I'll need to try it out and see.
Many-Eyed Hydra
2024-12-06 11:59:02 +0000 UTCAs a rampant savescummer, I like the idea of trying to restrict it a bit here. Part of the reason I savescum, is to make sure I get to see every possible outcome. The downside though, is that getting a 'bad end' and seeing the succubi truly be the monsters they can be has no real 'oomph' or impact, if I can just reload a save and go back 2min. But if it instead ends a run, and I go back in with more knowledge, and then I have the ability to still see other outcomes, without having to juggle a bunch of saves, that lets the impact of a 'game over' hit harder in my opinion. And even if it's tedious at first to see more scenarios, it makes it easier to revisit later, which definitely appeals to me personally.
vampchicklover
2024-12-05 06:43:09 +0000 UTCUltimately it's your game, your call. I prefer the current system not only for obvious hotness reasons but also because it lets one replay with different variables for lore stuff too. From a gameplay perspective what you say about autosave makes sense, though I think the individual scenarios would lose a bit of richness that way. An option (for pre-release) might be to have all new harlots from the Traperess onwards programed as black-book testing options.
CrimsonCrown
2024-12-04 22:20:54 +0000 UTC
