Breakthrough!
Added 2019-12-16 20:29:03 +0000 UTCApologies for not reporting over the weekend, everybody. I was grappling with the same problem on both days, and I didn't know where I was it until an hour or so ago.
The challenge was something both basic and profound: how to pace and structure the actual sex act when it happens within the broader sex scene.
My design for this looked fine on paper, but didn't work in the actual prototype. At first it was too complex, but streamlining made it too simple.
I then got a version working that was paced okay, but would have required writing 36-50 versions of each sex scene.
It really fucking sucked, and was demoralising, but tonight I feel like I made a breakthrough! I've got a version that feels well paced and easy to write.
Where we are
I wasn't anticipating this bit to be a problem. But now it's cracked, all that remains should be straightforward. I'll continue with the prototype tomorrow and hope to finish it soon.
We'll release the prototype to Operators+ as soon as it's fully playable (right now it doesn't run all the way to the end of the scene, and it has lots of dead ends). We'll polish it as much as we can before the general release of the prototype on Christmas Eve; obviously, the longer this stage takes the less polished that version will be.
Reflection
There are lots of things I need to reflect upon about this latest step; I can see lots of things I did wrong in the past few weeks. I want to thank all the fans who've offered suggestions (and just encouragement) here and in DMs, you guys have great insights and I'll definitely make use of them in the next sprint.
Okay, I'm totally frazzled and need to go reset my brain somehow. Now the little thing is done, I am hoping to make a big impact on the remainder tomorrow.
Comments
Yeah that's more or less what I think he should be doing as part of the sex engine, just not with random passages but like this: first the sex act (i.e. a bj) intro text, heavily pesonalized depending on the "source" (where it comes from, how it started) and the characters stats; then a set of actions that define the first phase of that sex act, each action heavily personalized (and/or accessible) depending on traits (pc+ncp), do the same for n other linked phases and then the same structure for the ending. Each text block could be taken from a pool of n similar text blocks to add variety, and each time you could pensonalize further by adding or cutting whatever you like to the same structure (i.e. variables linked to the enviroment and such). I really can't get if he's doing something like this right now..
Enrico
2019-12-20 11:44:57 +0000 UTCI'm glad you continued pursuing through the breakthrough. I have a suggestion that might help, and I am not sure since I don't know the structure you're using for your sex scenes. I know you mentioned needing to write a large number of things. I'm wondering if you could do that, and then have random access to those (included) passages as part of the sex scenes so that you're always creating variety from a very large pool of pre-created passages. That way technically the game could go indefinitely, at least for sex scenes.
2019-12-18 04:25:25 +0000 UTCThat picture is making me expect her to ask Ben: "Sell their houses to who?" https://youtu.be/RLqXkYrdmjY?t=187
Jumpy James Johnson Junior
2019-12-17 15:25:56 +0000 UTCWell done!
Benn
2019-12-16 21:55:45 +0000 UTC
