Complexity
Added 2019-12-29 17:23:29 +0000 UTCHey everybody! Sorry for being off comms for a few days – I needed a bit of time to get over my bug, and honestly also to clear my head a little. I hope you guys all had a merry Christmas and that you’re excited about 2020. :-)
This is just a quick catch-up post to thank everybody who played the beta and gave their feedback. I read it all, and I think there were some really great insights from the community, which helped guide my thinking over the past few days – thanks.
Broadly, I think the feedback is:
- It’s an improvement over the existing sex scene. We prefer making choices that affect the scene to the existing click-click-click-orgasm mechanics.
- The notification spam is obtrusive.
- Some of the dice rolls feel a bit gratuitous.
- The pace feels inconsistent – some parts are glossed over, others bog down. The sex in particular is too quick. The scene also ends too abruptly.
- It took a long time to produce this.
I think a lot of these problems can be traced back to the complexity of the scene. Yesterday, I sketched out a design for a simplified version of the scene (based on player feedback). I’ll go into the new design in detail soon, but broadly speaking the aim is to make the scene leaner and meaner with fewer but more consequential dice rolls, and with some paths that don’t really add much to the scene being cut.
(For example, the “making out on the balcony” passage currently has four possible outcomes – Carla is turned on, Max is turned on, both are turned on, or neither are turned on. This is nice, but it takes 300% longer to write than if we just assume that making out with a hot guy or girl on a balcony at the end of the date makes Carla’s thong wet and Max’s dick hard, and move on with the scene.)
Personally I felt deflated when I released this; it just didn't feel right. I wanted to nail it and move forward, not produce a new design. But the good news is that the community feedback is going to make this scene (and all future sex scenes) sexier and more interesting, and also that simplified versions are quicker to produce!
Also – the community feedback was just excellent. In the days leading up to the release I felt this kind of gnawing, constant stress; I knew something was wrong, but wasn't really sure what it was. Hearing your insights and perspective helped me understand exactly what was wrong. (And also that not everything about it was wrong – the positive feedback really helped cheer up a sick and demoralised crab.) Thanks again, you guys rock. I'm going to try to make prototype releases more frequent in future.
I’ll write more on this tomorrow, and also take the chance to reflect on the past year and set out my plans for 2020. The game came a long way in 2019 – we implemented SURPS, the Lifepath, and the new customisable avatar this year – which is great, but we missed a lot of deadlines and the project isn’t as far forward as I want it to be.
I need to get a better grip of things in 2020, which means some changes to the way I've been working and also better engagement with the team and the community. More tomorrow.
Comments
For some reason all the posts I made yesterday have *vanished*, so I'll have to post this again I guess. I don't know if simplifying that out like that is a good idea. Just assuming that the guy will be aroused makes our agent's seduction skills redundant, and just assuming that she will be aroused destroys any distinction between agents who are really becoming total sluts and ones who are reluctant.
Wild Bill
2019-12-31 12:16:00 +0000 UTCIt's all very well to say we'll simplify things by assuming that everyone is turned on, but A: if you just assume that her partner is turned on, what's the point of her seduction skills? and B: if you just assume she's turned on that eliminates the distinction between slutty and reluctant agents.
Wild Bill
2019-12-30 14:01:42 +0000 UTCnot to be "that guy" (but really, yeah I am being that guy), but for many men (and all of us occasionally): the sex IS over too quick! ... at least from the guy's point of view. Though for a female sex worker, this is almost NEVER a handicap! It is a blessing... So many good pieces of advice - so I almost hate to offer this stinker: Perhaps have a subroutine that can get called from anywhere in your matrix of options where if the female is just not enjoying the situation she actively tries to get the guy to cum QUICK so it will be *over*. Whether it is skill, kiegle exercises, talking dirty - there are a number of options to push the guy over the edge. Similarly, if she is ENJOYING things, she might want to hold off doing something like that to prolong the experience... just a thought
William Urquhart
2019-12-30 06:53:09 +0000 UTCI would take a cue from some great games like Sunless Seas or FTL - have a random event come up, randomly (like maybe 4% possible occurance). Somebody sneezes or says something accidentally funny, or a mouse runs into the room, or somebody has to take a pee break -- something that breaks up a scene and makes it a little memorable, gives it a little je ne sais quoi. Just make sure that it presents a choice/opportunity and has some sort of consequence.
Anarchitect
2019-12-30 05:03:04 +0000 UTCAlso, depending on experience and skill, does she recognize that her partner is approaching orgasm?
Jax
2019-12-30 02:20:37 +0000 UTC+1 on that master complexity variable. I would add one thing to that: when the male participant is about to orgasm, the agent could make a skill roll to prolong the scene (or shorten it).
Breadloaf
2019-12-29 19:07:56 +0000 UTCPerhaps you could set a (for lack of a better term) complexity variable. At the beginning of an interaction, the scene could be complex or not, perhaps based on attributes, past experiences with that sexual partner, environment, etc. This would allow you to pre-set certain scenarios as "wham bam, thank you ma'am" and others as long-drawn-out sensual adventures. That's the master complexity variable, and it could cap the length (and depth) of the sex scene. Another thing about getting things done. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Make a list of your objectives for a sprint, then re-rank it. Progress is important, volume less so. Kick complex problems down the road, as long as you're able to make progress in some dimension. Thinking about this brings me back to the exams I did in school. They were timed. We did all of the easy questions first, then came back at the end for the hard ones. If we bogged down on the hard ones early, we could eat up most of the exam time. Whenever you get down, go knock out an easy task. Don't allow yourself to feel overwhelmed for long. You've already built an amazing game (that needs a lot more content, specifically Bangkok). Positivity will power you to where you want to go. <3
Anand
2019-12-29 18:48:20 +0000 UTC
