Last minute complications
Added 2020-04-04 00:33:00 +0000 UTCI was expecting to finish the last writing task – the bed sex scene – yesterday. But every inch of progress was excruciating. It was a bit like the Somme Offensive, but worse, because it was happening to me and not just some guys in a photo.
The whole bed scene just felt sluggish and overcomplicated. I kept grinding away at it, even though progress was slow. I've been warned about perfectionism, so I wrote myself a Post-It note and stuck it to my screen:
This was pleasingly hardheaded...but it wasn't the right strategy. At about 1400 today I realised that I needed to rethink my approach.
I grabbed a pen and paper so I could visualise the design and look for problems. The problem became clear when I realised the design was too complex for me to fucking draw.
Some analysis led me to zero in on the orgasm mechanics. Previously, characters could only orgasm if they had the Edging Status Effect. This added a layer of complexity to the sex scene: both partners needed to first apply the Edging effect to one another, then try to make each other come.
This worked well in theory (you turn someone on, then you get them close to orgasm, then they orgasm – straightforward, right?) but in practice it exploded the writing workload. It required writing variations for contingencies like both partners are edging, but only one of them make their dice roll, neither partner is edging, and one of them makes their dice roll, and one partner is edging but the other one makes their dice roll. Et cetera, et cetera.
I'd made this work for the balcony path – where Max and the agent either succeed or fail at railing her over the balcony – but one of the reasons that people have sex in beds is because it's easier to try different positions. I think that part of the reason I found the bed scene so challenging to write was a subconscious realisation that, if it were difficult to write all those contingencies for a couple having sex in one position, it would be impossible to write them all for a couple trying multiple positions.
Before you write in to tell me this is an obvious design error, please consider that this wasn't obvious to anybody until I did the analysis earlier today. That said – this is an obvious design error. I'm sorry for not spotting it sooner. :-(
Anyway: by 1500 I'd laid out a new, streamlined design for this. This new design removes the requirement that a partner has the Edging status: now that status (which can be achieved during foreplay) changes the difficulty number of your dice roll. (It's normally Routine difficulty to make someone orgasm, but now it's Simple if the partner is already Edging.)
This change makes sex scenes quicker and sexier to write. Writing 16 slightly varying permutations of a scene takes forever and is hard to make sexy. Now there are four broad outcomes:
- Mutual orgasm
- Male NPC orgasms
- PC orgasms
- Neither orgasm
These are easier to write (because they're more differentiated) and also easier to write sexily. In this new framework, the outcomes are either natural (it's obvious how to write a mutual orgasm scene for two partners who are turned on) or intriguing (a variation where the heroine isn't that turned on by all the dating and the foreplay, but finds being manoeuvred onto all fours and fucked hard to be a surprisingly enjoyable experience, was effortless).
Anyway...I didn't even realise this was a hurdle until this afternoon, but I feel like I've jumped it now. This last writing task is back on track and should be finished soon, and then we can talk release dates for 1.6.
I've got some cool other shit that I want to announce, as well, but we'll do that after 1.6. Next update will either be tomorrow or early next week. (Unfortunately I'm not available to work on Sunday – since that's the highest holiday of the year in my religion – but if I don't crack this tomorrow then it will be Monday or Tuesday next week.)
Sorry for the last minute delay, everybody. :-( All I want is to get 1.6 out to you as soon as possible and it will be in your hands very soon.
Comments
Please don't take ANYTHING from newlife. I don't want this game to become a glorified wardrobe simulator with generic scenes and one updated sentence a month for a very highly specific scenario.
MS
2020-04-05 22:52:01 +0000 UTCYeah you both make good points although it still felt better than what Crushstation initially did. I spent hours on this game, i guess because I gave it context myself. I hope Crushstation will be able to build something that can still be entertaining and refreshing after weeks/months of infiltration but this post shows that he crashed into a thick wall of reality. It feels almost impossible to build a repetitive system that can give a handcrafted feeling to every scene... The amount of work needed is gargantuan.
2020-04-05 21:35:23 +0000 UTCI think that Newlife's text variation is lacking, but that's my minor gripe with the system. You click on an action which doesn't seem to change the actual scene very much, then you repeat until the scene is over. I never felt like I as the player was in control of the scenes. So it feels like click click click and then he cums - which is very similar to the original sex mechanics in Female Agent and something I think Crushstation tried to move from.
Breadloaf
2020-04-05 20:40:09 +0000 UTCI agree with Breadloaf, scenes are too generic. When you play it first time it is kind of fun. But quite fast you understand that every scene is the same with a little variation. After this it is boring. By the way the same method is used in some hentai games on rpg maker, like Karryn's Prison for example. But they do it much smarter. Every new enemy, skill or place add new variations, plus a lot of custom scenes that doesn't use generic text. Hope you can understand my broken english.
Sine nomine
2020-04-05 20:27:18 +0000 UTCReally? I though the scenes were nicely coded, had a good pace and writting, the problem came from the fact that characters had no background and therefore the scenes lacked soul. But in Female Agent i think the system would really fit.
2020-04-05 19:40:06 +0000 UTCI think that Newlife's sex scenes are the opposite of what the game should strive for! To me, they feel very generic and doesn't have a good flow. Of course, the lack of added content since forever doesn't speak in favor of that style.
Breadloaf
2020-04-05 18:41:17 +0000 UTCI think you should really take a look at New Life, a game made in Java by Splendid Ostrich. The game is not perfect, and even if all the groundwork has been done, no real content has been added over a year... BUT, the sex scenes are really well conceived, written and executed. They are not perfect of course, but i think that’s the direction you should take...
2020-04-05 14:15:58 +0000 UTCCrush...this is becoming a reoccurring theme....paraphrased...we've done all this redesign in our work flow.....we have it figured out.....things looking good...yadda yadda yadda...only to be delayed yet again.....Sometimes you just got to put it out even if you have the warning....this may change dramatically in the future in order to meet your other goals, one of which getting a product out to your customers in a timely basis (particularly when you keep making that an important part of why you've done all the redesign).
Kalon
2020-04-04 12:29:46 +0000 UTC
