Reflections on 1.11 & 1.12
Added 2021-03-28 18:53:50 +0000 UTCTwo weeks ago we released version 1.11, the university year 1 update. Like I said in last week's report, I’m not crazy with the way it turned out.
I really like the avatar art in 1.11; I think Victoria did a great job with all the wardrobe changes. Hyneman, Lara and Mihail also did really good work on implementing the new character sheet, and Hyne also significantly improved the dice UI.
In terms of the story, I liked how it set up some cool new side quests:
- An optional university “fuck buddy” kind of relationship (Simon)
- An optional university affair relationship (Hot Prof)
- NPC friends, a part-time job, and a major hobby
All these threads have tons of potential – I’ve got dozens of scene ideas that I had to cut. However, we didn’t have enough time to develop any of them properly. The result is that – to me, anyway – they all feel kind of perfunctory to play through, lacking in branches and decision points.
I also think the sex scenes themselves were a bit underwhelming. I experimented with a new mechanic (where each partner rolls their Sexpert skill to make the other orgasm), which led to sex scenes which feel very mechanical and more focused on orgasms than sex.
Now we’re tracking the RPG mechanics on the character sheet, I feel like they’re falling flat: the wide selection of character attributes and skills is capable of modelling almost anything...but hardly any of them are actually being used.
TLDR: I'm not happy with 1.11.
Version 1.12 will be a narrative experiment
I wasn’t crazy about 1.11...but there wasn’t any kind of fan backlash. It would have been the easiest thing in the world to just carry on in the same vein for 1.12 (early release target: Apr 30), and release the next chunk of university content.
But instead, I want to try a narrative experiment.
So, instead of continuing the university experience, we’re going to skip ahead to some spy stuff in the new engine, and see what you guys think.
How will it work?
- When you start 1.12, you won’t play through the heroine’s childhood again. Instead, after character creation, you’ll jump straight to a scene where she’s working as an intelligence officer.
- You’ll be able to play through the story setup, a nude scene and a sex scene.
Outcome
After you’ve played 1.12, we’ll gather fan feedback here and on Discord. If you guys want us to finish the Lifepath, we’ll go back to uni in 1.13. If you want us to continue from 1.12, we’ll do that instead.
Does this mean the Lifepath is being cut?
No, I have loads of scenes I want to write for it myself, and literally dozens of community-contributed scenes. The plan is to temporarily bypass it in 1.12 as an experiment, then get fan feedback on the experiment.
Okay – that's the plan for 1.12! If you have any questions ask them here or on Discord, and of course I'll keep you guys posted on progress over the next few weeks.
Comments
I think the life path is great but could be shorter. I'm only disappointed because I thought we were getting close to the end of the pre-spy days?
Vasheed
2021-04-20 20:44:52 +0000 UTCI'd love for you to flesh out the side stuff, but i think the priority should be to give us a little prgress on the main story. Thats not a complaint, I genuinly love this game its just frustrating how, the story was just getting good, and now we back on an extended charcter creator.
2021-04-01 10:00:59 +0000 UTCI think skipping to the spy story is a great idea. It's seemed to me since the big course change from the old Female Agent that you were stuck in doing a coming of age sex RPG - a very good one, mind you, but something far afield of the original idea of the game.
Theyeti
2021-03-30 21:45:00 +0000 UTCIt can actually benefit the Lifepath content if it's being worked on in the background until it's in a more or less completed stage. The reason why it's interesting to me is that I can fully customize my character's background, but right now it doesn't have as many choices as I'd like. Right now replaying the Lifepath when it's deeper in a new version (but not wider) is a bit of a bore since I want to come to the spy stuff. So releasing a finished Lifepath together with plenty of fan-made content further down the line would make me happy (and make the character creation really awesome).
Breadloaf
2021-03-29 19:18:36 +0000 UTCway too long in the prologue, I will be very pleased to actually move into the real content.
Goblin steve
2021-03-29 06:25:31 +0000 UTCNice idea. The Lifepath if very important, but for now we can look in our girl's future. But I'm a fan of the Lifepath leading into intelligence officer instead of starting there directly.
Raveline
2021-03-29 06:24:51 +0000 UTCI think this the right step, Crush. I’ve been supporting for years, and seeing it wallow in the weeds of the prologue has been discouraging.
Tom R
2021-03-29 01:49:40 +0000 UTCIf you finish the main story, you can go back and do a wonderful lifepath thing, with the benefit of having fully created the plot and the mechanics for the plot. Instead, you focus on the lifepath, and the game itself makes almost no progress. My friend, why are you so scared of taking the project to Bangkok? Lady-boys intimidate you? Bad experience with Thai takeout? Advance the project, and then you can go back and put the final touches on a "GOLD VERSION" that includes the Lifepath, which again, benefits from all of the mechanics being in place.
Anand
2021-03-29 01:22:28 +0000 UTCBangkok. LOL.
Anand
2021-03-29 01:18:36 +0000 UTCMy main concern right now is that you seem to have a few weeks/months where you get enthusiastic about the game and think it's finally coming together, only to hit a release you don't like and either scrap the whole thing and start over or hold up development to try a new process. I understand wanting the game to be perfect and how demotivating it is to think your work isn't good, but you also need to keep in mind that you're creating a product, one that people are paying monthly for. If the audience is happy with the releases and the way things are going, that's a good thing. Can things be better? Usually the answer is always yes. But I think what you have now is beyond "good enough". It's genuinely a good game. One I really want to see actually be finished one day. My personal opinion is I wish you would get the game back to where it was before the MFAGA plan started, then finally get to Bangkok. If you want to tweak the lifepath stuff after you get the game finished, or even just a good chunk of Bangkok, then that's the time to do it. But the process you have seems to be a good one that doesn't really need to be tweaked.
Cy
2021-03-28 22:04:04 +0000 UTCI think that focusing on the main story is the way to go. The Lifepath is something that will make the finished product much better (mainstream games like Dragon Age Origins and Cyberpunk 2077 have playable character backgrounds after all), but it isn't integral for the story. It also feels like a part of the game where fan made content would fit right in, while the main story should be made by the game designer/director/head writer/big brain.
Breadloaf
2021-03-28 19:18:13 +0000 UTC
