The New Brothel #2

Hello everyone,

It's been a while but I can FINALLY show you where we're heading with the new brothel. I had to check back my old post (that's why this one is noted #2) to see what I had mentionned.

Things evolved and we worked and reworked and reworked it until now. We're finally satisfied by the look of it. In terms of gameplay and UX, that is. Of course, UI-wise, nothing will prevent us from polishing things in future updates. It's just good enough as is for now.

Since we changed some things and kept others, I won't tell you to go and read the old post. It'll be much easier to follow if you just read this one to understand the main mechanic. This part is more or less finished (I say more or less because we're currently working on the result page so that's what is left.) But after we'll have to work on the global integration and we'll see that part in another post.

So. HOW DOES THAT FUCKIN' BROTHEL WORK, NOW???

This is the page you're seeing when you first open the brothel. If you remember the old pre-alpha pic, we're not that far. The goal was to have something sober and neat so that it was easy to read.

Of course, it looks very empty but keep in mind that at the end of the game, all those circles will be filled. I won't talk about the two ??? parts as those are to be implemented in the future through specific quests.

Things are not very different in terms of gameplay than the previous brothel for now. It's just "select a slot and pick a girl". You'll notice the major change though: it's not "either female or creature". Both are available at the same time.

So when you select the circle next to the custommer, you're brought to that page.

That's where things are changing a lot. It may looks a bit overwhelming but it's easy as fuck.

When you hover a girl, you get different informations about her. The stats "Look, Professionalism and Charisma" are not for that part of the brothel so I won't talk about them.

Next to those stats you have the rank of the girl. The fact the circle has a thick line is because it fills itself with the experience of the girl. When it fills the whole 360°, the girl move to the upper rank.

Then you have a heart that I'll explain after. Now take a look at the three columns. They're aligned to the customer's. Because they're complementary to each other.

Basically, the column Fetish of the girl checks the colum Fetish of the customer, the column Attribute of the girl checks the column Likes of the customer and the columns Likes of the girl checks the column Attributes of the customer.

Of course, it should visually be the other way around (customers being, well, customers, they're the ones with requirements and the girls have to match them. But it's much more logical to have a focus on the girl nonetheless rather than the customer. That's why they're above.)

The principle is basic as fuck: Customers have requirements and the more of those are fulfilled, the better it is. There's a single twist: The girl has to fit at least ONE of the fetishes. You can see in the screenshot that Kaya and Jeanette are grayed out, that's because none of their fetishes correspond to at least one of the custommer. This is the ONLY element to check if a girl can be given to a customer or not.

One a fetish is validated, everything else is just bonus. Every green element is a validated one. Fetishes and attributes all have a specific value. If the element is validated, you gain the equivalent in money as a bonus.

For example, Footjob gives +$5, so $5 will be added to the total of the night. It's as easy. You can see the amount per fetish or attribute is not shown, that's because it was too heavy. But don't worry, there will be a sort of encyclopedia integrated later in the game to get all that kind of precise information if you're interested.

So in the current screenshot, Halcyon validates 3 fetishes + 3 likes of the customer. She'll earn the value of those 6 bonuses as a flat bonus.

You can have cases of customers asking for a girl to NOT have a specific attribute. In this example, Juro doesn't want a girl with dark hair. When it happens, the trait turns red. In that case, instead of GAINING the amount of money linked to the "like", you'll lose it (in the example of the blowjob I previously took, you'd be losing -$5.) Of course, it's extremely hard to have a negative total (especially considering it's the beginning of the game so customers aren't very demanding.) But sometimes you might have to ponder if a girl with red traits isn't still better than a girl with less green traits.

Now you're probably wondering "why the heck are things blue in the last column?" That's because it's the "bonus" column. Unlike the first two columns which are technically meant to be as filled as possible to satisfy your customers, the last column focuses on the girl's desires. But those are optional. After all, she's a professional and those personal likes are NOT to mingle in the process. That being said, if the customer has an attribute that the girl enjoys, then she'll enjoy the night even more, giving her best even more. As such, when those particular traits are matching, you get a bonus on the total money earned during the night (ranging from +10% to +100%)

Do you still follow me? Is it too hard? Too complicated? Fuck me with my math? Don't worry I got you covered. Do you remember the little heart on the top right of the girl's frame?

It's the matching compatibility. This value shows the % of extra money you can earn with that girl based on the total extra money you can possibly earn with that specific customer. It's based on the traits VALUE, not AMOUNT. So a girl validating a single trait that brings +$40 on its own, will always have a higher matching % than a girl validating 3 $10 traits.

TL;DR: Look heart if don't want to use brain.

On the creature side, things are the same BUT there's a twist to it and I'll make a specific post about it because we're working on that part.

So once you've selected your girls and your creatures, you end up with that screen.

There's a recap of the matching compatibility. And when everything's ready, you move your key to "Start" (GAME IS FOR KEYBOARD 8D). And press Enter or Space.

You will then see an animation feature the girl/creature and their customers while you'll see the money rise up to the total amount of money earned during the night. When everything will be finished you'll be sent to the result screen where you'll be able to see the details or skip everything to move on.

I'll quickly talk about customers. Unlike before I'm refraining from giving them a face. This allows me to create much more variety. BUT, as you progress through the game, some NPCs might end up in the brothel as customers.

When this will happen, the animations will turn into custom ones with the corresponding girl. I'm doing this only for the female customers, though. That's already costy enough as it is. Sorry for the male NPCs :x

Oh, and about the training slot, as you can guess, I'll explain it when I cover the creature side ^^' I still have things to mention about the brothel anyway so there will be more posts during this month, don't worry.

That's all for now! I have no idea how it will look to people, but this took us a LOT of time. Both in terms of gameplay (to give you an idea, the whole trait part was still completely working differently two weeks ago) than in terms of visuals (I tend to hate the time it takes, but usually I end up being satisfied by the result.) The implementation of data doesn't look that big either. But between inserting all possible traits of male customers, female customers, creatures, female employees and fetishes inside an excel sheet then making a HUGE-ASS json with all those properties (Json is slightly more than 700 lines), it actually took me one week and a half (I started right after Christmas and I finished yesterday.) 

So yeah, there are many element that aren't visible but trust me, this revamp wasn't easy. Especially considering I'm a piece of shit and despite all this time needed I also implement a battle rework and the pixel gallery, so in the end, no wonder we're so late :/

I hope you like the idea, I'll keep explaining things in the future. If there's something not clear, don't hesitate to ask in the comments (I may have explained things badly due to being immersed in the dev ^^').

I'll see you soon for more explanation about the brothel!

See ya o/