Status Report (Endgame Mechanics)

Welcome to what will be the game's final gameplay loop!
I got a TON done this month. Admittedly very little to do with beach stuff (for the commission I had to model Stella's bikini and figure out more ocean stuff, so that's something), but most of what I got done revolves around setting up the skeleton for the endgame gameplay loop.

I stayed largely true to my brainstorming post.
Here are the main things:

- There are no conversation minigames in the endgame.
- Guilt, Like, and Lust don't matter in the endgame. Only Love matters.
- Academics and Band don't matter in the endgame.
- Each girl you romanced during the rock tour adds four new options to the random pool of choices you get: Cautious date, Romantic Date, Passionate Date, and Sex.
- Instead of three options, you now have four options, but the first option is always set to a "normal date with Stella." This way, there's always a safe choice available. This option will be slightly inferior to the other types of dates with Stella.
- Dates can't lose you the game. Only sex can, and only if Suspicion and Awareness are both positive. But dates may raise suspicion.
- The little asterisk * denotes a better-than-usual event. Passionate dates in particular become a little more...special.

You may notice I created and added little face icons to each choice for the endgame. I'm not worried about you forgetting who Kelly or anyone else is by this point, but I found that this helped me parse the choice information visually in a much easier and faster manner.

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Dates allow you to train the finesse, sympathy, and passion stats (hence why they're color-coded), and also give you a little bit of love with the person you go on the date with.

Sex increases love more than dating does, but it's based on your sympathy and passion (and can lose you the game if you get caught, though finesse helps protect you). The sex scenes themselves are randomly generated and short, but I like that they help to cultivate a more zoomed-out sense of the ongoing affair(s) that are happening.

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I have ALL OF THIS working perfectly, from a game mechanics standpoint. Now it's more a matter of content; for example, a passionate date with Amy involves making out with her on the couch, so I need to make an image for that and gotta write out the mini scene. I'd really like to flesh out all these little events with fun renders.

Overall, if you've romanced every girl like I have in the screenshot above, then I want the endgame to feel like constant chaos, a hectic whirlwind of indulgence, sneaking around, and getting away with shit.

Some things I don't have working yet:

I want sex and date events to have a chance to increase suspicion. But not every time.

You may have noticed Samantha has an icon and a little love display up there! I've like, 95% committed to making more content with her, but she's going to be handled a little differently from the rest. At first, her options are only going to be text messages and phone calls. Then developments happen, and you can do more.

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As I've said, Love is going to determine what endings are available to you, when I finally get around to writing them. That's a ways off.

So, yeah. That's the essential inner workings, theory, and mechanics of how Love, Lust, and Rock 'n Roll will reach its conclusion. This was a super productive month, and I love that things are finally starting to take form! ~🎶💕