Development Update 63

Hey guys, 

Work continues on version 0.17; I've got most of the planning done and I have a clear idea of everything that's going to happen; I have a significant chunk of the writing done; and I've made a good start with the rendering and animations. I’d still rather not estimate a release date just yet. However, things are moving along at a decent pace and the longer the wait the bigger the update will eventually be.

Since our last development update, I released the first batch of image previews. Obviously, I can only preview the parts of the update which are substantially complete. So far that includes the beginning of Faye's storyline and punishment system. However, since then I have switched focus a little and I have been working on the girls' volleyball practice and the beginning part of the twins' storyline and punishment system. At the moment, I am still spending a significant amount of my time writing. Plus, I have a lot of videos to record of the twins being punished. All of which means it'll be a little while before I have accumulated enough renders for a second batch of preview pictures. Hopefully, I'll have enough to share in a month or so. In the meantime, here is a quick overview of what I’ve been working on lately.

Faye (and Nina)

I made a fair bit of progress with Faye’s storyline since the last development update, mostly in terms of the writing. I’ve got as far as Faye’s level three and I’ve got some draft animations and scenes set out for some of her more advanced punishments. I also made a start on the girls' volleyball games, where I have a scene in mind for Faye and Nina.

Volleyball

It was decided in a poll quite some time ago that I would be switching focus for the girls' sports lessons from football to volleyball. This proved to be a little more challenging than I first thought, requiring a significant investment of my time in setting it all up. However, I have finally crossed that hurdle and the first volleyball scenes are in the game. 

Given that the lessons take place outdoors, the headmaster will be very strict with the girls about the application of sunscreen. After one of the girls refuses the headmaster's order to apply protection and gets a bad sun burn, the school board is forced to grant the headmaster a consequential new power: Granting him the authority to protect the girls from dangerous situations, even if they need protecting from themselves. The headmaster will also be very strict with the school’s uniform policy, coming down hard on any girl who forgets to bring the correct outfit to each lesson.

There are currently 22 named students in the school. However, for the initial volleyball scenes I decided to select only 16 of the students (pictured above). This was to keep things manageable and to avoid using students who appear after the start of Chapter 2 (i.e Jasmine, Olivia and Arabella). I will eventually add the remaining seven girls (including the yet to be introduced Zoe) to the Volleyball scenes in Chapter 3, which will take us to 23 girls. The headmaster will be dividing the girls up into teams of four with the idea of holding a volleyball tournament later in the school year. This means that one of the staff (probably Samantha) will need to join a girls team to give us six teams of four for the tournament. That is a fairly long term goal though and it’ll just be 16 girls for all the Chapter 2 scenes.

The Twins

The twins once came first and second in a poll of our most popular students, so I know people have been waiting patiently for this. However, I am glad that I held back with these two. My skills as a writer, artist, and animator have all improved significantly since I started this project. I believe I can do a much better job now than I could have done a few years ago. I hope to do our ginger duo justice and deliver memorable storylines that will have been worth the wait.

As with Liz’s punishment system in the last update, I want to continue adding more variety to the type of actions available during the girl’s private punishments. Without going into too much detail, I will say that my plans for the twins involve the use of restraints, as well as some breast and nipple play. Obviously, there is going to be plenty of tickling involved as well. I’ve got some fantastic draft animations set up, courtesy of Gegecucu, and I am looking forward to recording those at some point over the coming weeks.

In terms of the storyline, the headmaster will be punishing the girls together with Claire acting as his assistant (following on from their punishment of her). We’ll have post punishment options with the twins and Claire, as well as private meetings between the headmaster and each twin individually. The two girls will be reacting very differently to the headmaster’s disciplinary methods, with one twin responding much more rapidly than the other. 

The staff training

The twins' storyline and the staff training storyline are connected (via Claire) and I don’t want one to get too far ahead of the other. Once I’ve got the twins to level 2 or 3 I will be ready to pick this storyline up again. My choice will then be whether I switch my focus to the staff training or whether I just spend the rest of this update cycle fleshing out Faye, the twins, and the volleyball content. That’s a decision for a later day though, we’ll see how I get on with the twins' punishment system first.

Code updates

Continuing the trend from all our recent major updates; version 0.17 will include a bunch of changes to the game’s code. As well as fixing numerous minor bugs and typos, we’ve added some new quality of life features. Most notably a new “Pin It” feature for the quest log so that you can pin a note with your current active objective to the main map (pictured above), making it much easier to remember if you have something you need to do at a specific time. We’ve also added a new feature when summoning Sam using the office phone where she can catch you up on any morning reminders you might have missed. The cheat menu will also now prompt players to make a save before making any changes, meaning that you will always have something to roll back to if you accidentally break your game. 

Summary

We are working hard on version 0.17 and it is shaping up to be a big and exciting update. I’ll update you all again in about a month's time with our progress. Hopefully by then I will be ready to estimate a rough release window.