XaiJu
Zanith
Zanith

patreon


Cinematic Sex Scenes Poll

So. If you're seeing this poll, you must've played the v0.7.16 update and should've seen the new Rowen dream scene.

If you haven't, ➡️please go and see it before voting. If you couldn't be bothered with the The Heist, please go ➡️grab the gallery unlock code and at least watch the scene from the gallery before voting.

Now that we're on the same page, I want to hear your folks' thoughts about that scene. From our point of view, it was a super fun one to make, but at the same time it took us ages to finish. About three full weeks of man-hours from the animators in total, then at least two full days of rewrites from the writers to fit the timings, then there was communication with the external VA and a sound designer, and then about a day of splitting the whole thing into parts, rendering, testing, etc.

Still, If you liked it as much as we did, we could just switch to making such "cinematic" animations for most of the future sex scenes. We should realistically be able to add one such animation per update after we get used to this new workflow. And we could even try adding a tad more interactivity to them, something like looping some parts of the animation, letting you return to a previous stage, etc. It's still going to be less varied than some of our larger looped sex scenes, so keep that in mind.

If you liked Rowen's scene even more than we did, we could possibly start converting older sex scenes into this format, but obviously this is going to take a super long time, so this is an "out there" option. Another option is to  do some cinematic animations in the future, but keep them confined to dreams and special occasions, once every few months. Or maybe we should stick to doing them only when we come up with a cool script and want to shake things up a bit, once or twice a year.

And if we're keeping the looped animations, then tell us, would you like to see animated penetrations and especially endings in them? Gotta warn you right away, we won't be able to do really good-looking animations for the cum outside option, our engine simply isn't good enough for this. While we can and will do something to mask the uglier parts, we'll probably have to keep some of the endings as still images.

Then there's a question of sound and voices. It's a very big can of worms on its own, so we'll do another poll on that a bit later.

For now, please cast your vote. This is going to be another multi-choice poll, so mark all the options you like. And please, leave comments. I like comments. MORE COMMENTS. Polls are good and stuff, but they lack nuance. At the very least, tell us if you liked the scene with Rowen or not, regardless of your general stance on the cinematic animations.

See you soon!

Cinematic Sex Scenes Poll

Comments

Audio in the Rowen scene got way out of sync with the text

LeaTark

Freezing how?

Zanith

Sadly, the Rowan dream scene kept on freezing right at the start, so I can't in good conscience make a vote.

DoctorDiscord

Bolting an endcap onto some of the more important sex scenes in the past might be fun (the lyriel/cait double BJ for example, since it has such a huge amount of buildup), but generally I think the time is better spent on new content. Personally I'd like to see one really nice repeatable animation for each of the house girls, but beyond that save it for a special treat. It's just a huge amount of effort, and I'd rather have longer updates with less animation than this become one of those games where you have some lovely sex scenes but the whole update plays out in 5 minutes.

Dubsington

As a refugee from the summertime saga empire, I must insist and warn please do not go back and convert old scenes. just move forward. the game is great and the updates are released with amazing pacing. no complaints about the game engine either. let the good times roll. no overhauls please!

Bryant Reed

I may be stupid, thanks!

Aelanar Brightfield

But, you literally can

Zanith

If I could vote for both 3 and 5, I would. Have animated endings on looped animations as the "standard", and the cinematic ones for the "big" scenes

Aelanar Brightfield

I believe animated endings are key, it gives good flow and prevents being pulled out (heh) of the moment. Longer/smoother animations is also an excellent idea, but i can't vote for 2.

Malicemaniacman

Just want to preface this with: I thought the Rowen dream was awesome. While there was a little jank with keeping the text in pace/step with the animation, that's really minor compared to just how well the dream was executed. On the subject of having more long/"Cinematic" animations (TL:DR): I'm on the side of having them infrequent/rare, used for special occasions or when a scene/situation/event would really benefit from it over the standard loops, and it'd be great for the main girls to have them. I've got 2 main arguments for this. Firstly it's a case of continuity, in that Players existing and new will be familiar with the current way of animations being played, so a change in direction animation wise would feel strange until it's become more established across the current content. Also to speak in favour of the looping animations, I think they're a lot stronger when it comes to giving the Player control over how a scene with one of the girls plays out and generating, well, intimacy. The looping animations - animated finished or no - are an exellent core when engaging the girls. Secondly, the "Cinematic" animations allow for more detail compared to the loops, meaning they can have a bigger sense of spectacle to them. Because of that, my opinion is that they'd be a great tool for hammering home special set pieces and events, like major plot points, unique moments etc. that looping animations may struggle to pull off. Simply because they'd be a rare type, it'd make moment even more special when a player realises the kind of animation being used. (Sorry for the long post, couldn't think of a way to condense it all)

Torthirik

I worry that more of the cinematic animations would mean that less time and effort could be put into other aspects of the game. They are nice to have, but not if it means that the main story and the girls' individual stories are developed more slowly or are of lower quality.

John Hall

Definitely more animations for the house girls, especially animated endings ;)

Jeffri M

I second Shotgun Jackson. Ain't nothing wrong with the Rowen scene itself, but I do prefer the greater control of the looped scenes. Perhaps there could be a middle-ground? Like scene loops with little cinematics connecting them? Idk how feasible that is, being neither a dev nor scene blocker, though.

Rock

Personally, while I prefer the standard looped animations, I'm not opposed to longer cinematics, as long as they A) Maintain the interactivity of the looped animations and B) Don't detract from the addition of shorter/less intensive animations (the recent "Do" options or standard looped scenes for example) in regular updates. Also, if you do decide to do more cinematic animations, don't be afraid to not be too concerned about the addition of voice acting. Not that the addition of voice acting is bad by any means, just that I feel like it could be simpler to tie dialogue to a timed, un-skippable popup/box. I personally prefer just reading, but that's a subjective opinion.

Fish

Yeah, the lack of interactivity is one of the main concerns. We will improve the rollback situation for the non-looping animations in the future, but we won't be able to offer the same variety as in the regular looped scenes.

Zanith

I might be in the minority here, but for my part, I liked the animation... but it loses some of the functionality in the process. Rollbacks were really clunky; and it felt like I didn't have any control over the scene, compared to the looped animations. For those reasons, I went for looped animations with animated endings.

Sh0tgun_Jacks0n


More Creators