Stage 2, romance routes/voting system and upcoming updates

Dear Agents and Special Agents!

Here is the post that we mentioned before, it will cover our next steps after the public demo release.

First, let’s talk about Stage 2.

General structure of game missions will look like this:

Completing each Stage unlocks new side missions. After completing a minimum, to be determined number of side missions, the next stage is unlocked (you probably get some Metal Gear Solid V vibes, the missions system worked there similarly, but our side missions are not auto-generated and each of them serve a purpose). The current number of planned Stages for this game is five. It’s better to have a relatively short finished game as a final result than a long unfinished one. We are dedicated to the mission of not being another never finished Patreon game that over-promises what we cannot reasonably deliver.

So what is a side mission? A side mission is an additional level with a short (up to 5-7 minutes of walkthrough) gameplay experience with a minimum of cutscenes and maximum focus on solving puzzles and showcasing new features. It will reuse the assets of each completed Stage along with some minor new assets, to make the best of our resources and time. We would like to remind you that your playstyle of each mission may give you a bonus in the romance line of a character (Sigolla - all enemies are killed on the level, Caron - all enemies are non-lethally neutralized on the level, Ming - no alarms were triggered). You may have already noticed this feature being implemented in our Patreon version 0.1 demo.

Side missions is a good way for us to test some particular gameplay mechanics that we planned to implement in the future (new upgrades/items, interaction for vertical gameplay, more cover systems, etc.) with our patrons before completing each Stage, as well as introduce players to these features as they play. Making new assets for each Stage can take up to 1-2 months at least, so we can release side missions more often in our frequent Agent builds (we will cover the expanded benefits of Agent and Special Agent tiers in several days or less in a separate post).

Stage 2 will consist of two halves: sewers (tight close environments) and cyberpunk slums (open air).

It will introduce a number of new enemies, two that we can talk about today: the Fat Thug and the Upgraded Female Thug with their own special kinky scenes and behavior. I also plan to make some content with Ming, but everything depends on the level of support that we get after the public demo's release.

Fat thug:

This enemy is quite big and strong, the rumors say that he has a special large implanted cock, too…

He is dangerous at close distances because of shotgun damage and his strong melee bayonet attack. A special feature of this enemy is selective damage immunity: he is immune to sleeping gas/poison grenades because his mouth is covered with a respirator. His armor and big size doesn’t allow to drag his body or stealth eliminations from behind.

The best way to deal with this enemy is either to avoid him or distract him with flashbang/smoke/stone. If you want to get into firefight, you should use his slow movement speed and short range as your advantage, as well as use HE grenades and lots of firepower to deal with him.

Currently we don’t have a feature like armor-piercing bullets for some of the firearms, but we are planning it for the future  when we implement the weapon customization menu.

Upgraded Female Thug:

I have some sprites for her still in production, so you will see her on development streams soon, currently I can say only some certain things about this enemy:

1. She is inspired by the game boss, Yelena Fedorova from Deus Ex: Human Revolution, but with some sexy changes, of course;
2. She can move very fast for short bursts; the best tactic to fight her would be to place sticky landmine (we will introduce it soon in our side missions) and use her speed and mobility against her;
3. She will be armed with at least 1 or 2 submachine guns;
4. She will be voiced by KO Clover;
5. Some light BDSM fetish may be applied to her scenes with Kira.

Alright, let’s get back to romance routes:

The current concept of this project romance routes was created and calculated expecting at least our campaign goal 2 (3000$ per month) requirement being met. We hope that after posting our public demo that the level of support will rise, however we will have to prioritize which romance route to implement over time (Direct engagement means that these characters have sex, indirect engagement means that other character may be watching or have some other side participating role in the route). Improving relationships with each of the characters means unlocking more routes and scenes. 

We will run a poll of what next romance route HCG to implement from time to time depending on our level of support, but progress of a side-scroller part of the game is our first priority.

The relationship with the team will influence the game ending, currently I have at least 3 types of endings depending on team relationship status, key decisions in Stage 4 / 5 and how many enemies were killed/neutralized in the game. It’s currently planned to be a Dishonored and Mass Effect 2-like style of ending. As a reminder, the visual novel half of the game is optional and that smart playings of the game can give a decently good ending.

I have the audio files and text for Caron’s first scene, but there are unfinished assets from our lovely artist. Wish her well! Here's the current (as of this post) WIP of her HGC:

Here is the last GIF for that scene that I received (GFYCAT).

Our secondary characters have quite distinct personalities, so we will cover them in a separate post a little bit after the public demo's release.

So what will happen after the free public demo?

We will process feedback, then I will start working on some side missions for Stage 1 with implementing some new mechanics, introducing frequent early Agent builds and we’ll continue developing content for Stage 2 and introducing secondary characters in Agent builds before the Patreon build with Stage 2 will be published.

Stay tuned for more updates and updated free public demo!