March Dev Update 2

This will likely be the last update this month, perhaps even before the next release. If I do post another it’ll likely be to announce a release date/time frame (more on that later).

Progress since the last post

The last couple weeks have been spent mostly writing content and putting some finishing touches on the stripclub. I’ve managed to get the Jen story events for this release finished, as a reminder there will be two per route this time around. But they are rather significant ;) With these rather time consuming bits out of the way, now it’s just a matter of ploughing through what remains of Jen’s content.

On top of that I’ve put together the events and such for the strip club, and got them into the game itself. I’ll go into more detail in the strip club section of this post.

You can find some accompanying screenshots for this post in the preview section of the discord server.

A small new system

With the next release, on the lewd path Jen’s clothing progression will cap out at level 9. Since the game’s launch the outfits and such to this point had already been set up, as you may have noticed in the image files. Instead of expanding on this system, I’m going to treat it as the end point of that kind of progression.

But don’t worry! Instead I’ve implemented a system that’ll allow you to take advantage of her progress. Once you cap out at level 9, you’ll be able to unlock a special online store where you can buy new outfits for her to wear in the evenings. Those of you who missed out on buying toys earlier in the content will also find the ability to rectify this here. There’s only a few options for now, but It’s likely to expand in subsequent releases.

I posted some teaser screenshots of this system on the discord. I actually implemented this a while back, before the previous update post. But I forgot to mention it.

Stripclub content

As mentioned, I’ve added dozens of events to the strip club (a teaser screenshot is available on the discord). Including a bunch for interacting directly with Jen or Mel at work. Those of you who have played the office manager content will find the format familiar. Each pc → character event has a love and lewd sub choice so you can direct your attention to one of those stats, or just to experience the event from different perspectives.

One thing that differs from the office manager content is how upgrades work. I actually gave each one some flavour text to go along with making the purchase. There are also some upgrades that you acquire automatically via reaching certain club stat levels, with some more in-depth events to go along with it.

And of course, you can convince both Jen and Mel to perform some special tasks for some nice bonuses to the club. As it currently stands, the club just needs a good playtest and some number tuning before it’s ready to go.

Mel

Mel now has her own love/lewd stat tracking, and so you’ll be able to start building these stats up through managing the club. I’d hoped to start providing her story events this release, but I decided it’d be best for that to come in another update, seeing as this one is already taking way longer than I wanted.

So what’ll likely happen this release is you’ll be able to reach her caps for love/lewd, positioning yourself well for when the story events get released. There’s already a bunch of story with her included in the promotion chain to club manager itself. Where you’ll see your relationship start to develop. Her story will obviously be tied very heavily to the club, and which route you choose to push her down will have a big impact.

As with Jen I’ll try my best to let you go down both routes if you wish. Though they will take her in very different directions.

Release date update

My current plan is to get this out in the first couple weeks of April. As we get closer to this period I’ll have a more solid date to give you. Again I apologize for the long wait. It’s certainly given me a lot to think about regarding how I structure releases.

With Jen’s content shifting after this milestone, I theoretically can be a bit more flexible with what I actually put into a release. I’ll do my best to take advantage of this, as I would like the releases to be more frequent.

As an end note I’ll just thank you all for supporting Love & Vice. A number of new people have recently signed up, which is a big surprise to me in this lull between releases. I appreciate it immensely!