Hey guys! XG told me (forcefully 😂) in a call that I have to put out a dev report every week, even if I feel like waiting another day or two would make the report better.
He is, of course, absolutely right, so here goes:
Testing & feedback
This week I pushed out my new Lifepath build to the testers. The feedback I got was that I'd cut too much, and some things I wanted to cut needed to be reinserted.
I created a new design based ...
2025-01-27 17:22:17 +0000 UTC
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Hey guys, I'm very sorry for the long radio silence. I've been working non-stop on the game, but I needed some time to work and experiment alone on something important.
I know that “going dark” was really shitty and unprofessional, and you guys have every right to be pissed off with me. The truth is that sometimes – when things are creatively difficult, and I’m feeling like shit – I let the stress and doubt and haters get on top of me, and I feel like I need to just fuck off a...
2025-01-19 18:51:35 +0000 UTC
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Hey guys! I’m so sorry, I wanted to get the playable scene out to you before Christmas. I’ve been working desperately hard on it but it’s not ready 😭
I’ll get back onto it either on the 26th or 27th, and you’ll be able to test it shortly after that.
I’ve also been doing some really important (and quite radical) design work on the Lifepath, but more on that soon. Sorry I couldn’t finish it in time for tomorrow, my original plan didn’t work out l...
2024-12-24 18:29:55 +0000 UTC
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Hey guys! While our illustrator lovely Victoria is busy doing art work, I’m taking the opportunity to make improvements to future episodes.
– Warning, long post about design changes ahead –
One of the main things I want to make better is the game’s sex scenes. A few people have pointed out that the build-up to the sex sce...
2024-11-20 14:33:08 +0000 UTC
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Hey guys! The writing and coding for the next episode is now done. The taskings left are mainly avatar related:
1). We need to fix various layering and positioning glitches related to the recolourable skin, hair and eyebrow layers. Our illustrator lovely Victoria has had to redraw a lot of the assets, which is time consuming work.
2). I changed the script a lot, and ended up specifying a bunch of new wardrobe requirements that lovely Victoria now...
2024-11-11 11:14:36 +0000 UTC
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Good morning, guys! ’Tis the season to be spooky, and our illustrator lovely Victoria has been fixing some scary glitches plaguing the various youth avatars.
These were caused by layering problems that weren’t visible in Illustrator, but only appeared in the game engine. V was able to diagnose the cause and fix it by manually reorganising the layer structure in Illustrator.
2024-10-31 09:17:04 +0000 UTC
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Hi guys! ☕ 🦀 Short report this week, because we’re mostly working on behind-the-scenes stuff at the moment.
Our illustrator lovely Victoria is busy working on new art. In addition to all the avatar improvements, the new episode has a large number of wardrobe requirements.
For example: in the next episode, a few scenes are set in high school. This is where you set the heroine’s high school clique – alpha femal...
2024-10-21 09:56:23 +0000 UTC
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Good morning guys! ☕ 🦀 Here is this week's work update.
1) Brows fixed & new options added
Players like Greyduck and gg will be pleased to learn the eyebrows are now standard issue to all female Five Eyes officers.
Can't tell you what a difference this makes to the character creator....
2024-10-12 10:02:58 +0000 UTC
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Good morning guys! ☕🦀 We’re making steady progress on the next episode.
Since last week's report, 48 new hairstyles and 5 skin tones have been added to the character creator and are now working in the game. This will enable you to produce much more customisable and unique heroines, and I’m really looking forward to seeing some screenshots of your ‘Kates’!
Clicking the [Random Agent] button in the character creator now really feels like it’s...
2024-10-04 10:52:38 +0000 UTC
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Hey guys! Sorry for the late report, I've had my nose buried in my writing and coding apps and I didn't actually realise the report was so overdue. 😬
Like I said in the last report, I'm in the middle of a whole bunch of tasks. Right now my focus is on the character creator – I'm coding in the new hairstyles and skin colours so they're actually selectable by the player.
Like everything, this is more complex than it might sound; the game n...
2024-09-25 17:06:59 +0000 UTC
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Hey guys! Our illustrator lovely Victoria is taking a well-deserved break for a couple of days. But she did a lot of work on hair colours before she left! Here's an example of some of the colours the new system can dynamically generate:
(I know this looks simple, but it actually involved a ton of experimentation with the way the layers interact. Queen V w...
2024-09-11 13:02:34 +0000 UTC
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Hey guys! Since the last report we were mainly working through some technical issues related to hair layers.
Currently the hair assets are all individually coloured in Illustrator, then uploaded as separate images. But the new hairs are more complex and numerous, so we're planning to use an SVG layer instead to handle the colour; the idea is that we can change the colour dynamically using code instead of manually recolouring and uploading everything. 🤓
We've...
2024-09-02 15:05:36 +0000 UTC
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Hey guys! I finished the regionalisation for the youth section of the Lifepath today.
This is, of course, the least sexy part of the game. But it's used to set some important backstory flags like her social class, whether she was a rock chick or a track star at high school, etc. It also includes the character creator, and is where the first skills are awarded and added to the new character sheet.
Revisiting it, I felt like the existi...
2024-08-27 23:18:09 +0000 UTC
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Hey guys! The new character generator will feature a choice of seven skin tone options for you to further individualise your heroine.
Each option has its own unique glowing gorgeous tan version, to enable your heroine to convincingly go undercover among a group of bronzed backpacking babes in Bangkok.
(This is mainly a cosmetic change only, but will have occasional flavour text differences during sunbathing scenes, NPCs occasionally commenting on your tanline choices, etc.)
2024-08-19 08:59:11 +0000 UTC
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Hair in games is both interesting and challenging, since there is a lot to get right in hair.
It is an enormous time effort and I have yet to see someone do hair fast. As with everything in art: Reference is key!
Hair is one of the best tools to create personality in a character, since it shows a lot of attitude.
–Calvin Verhoolen, Senior Character Artist [EA, Disney, Konami, Ubisoft]
Hey guys! Our illustrator lovely Victoria&n...
2024-08-12 14:53:09 +0000 UTC
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Hey guys! I've been busy this week doing more writing and coding work on the Lifepath childhood section.
Several people have asked for a release estimate. I can't provide one yet because of some avatar customisation features we're also working on. (We want to include them in the next release, because the start of the game includes the character creation screen.)
One feature we teased a couple weeks ago is the new hairstyle options, another is tanlines. This is...
2024-08-05 18:06:14 +0000 UTC
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Hi guys! The previous version of the Lifepath was restricted to UK heroines only. Last week I updated the code and added some regionalisation text, so your heroine can now be from any of the FIVE EYES nations.
I feel like the childhood section in 1.11 is a little bit boring and overlong: there are some unnecessary scenes (like modelling the results of the heroine’s high school exams). So I’m streamlining those, and dialling up some emotional, zeitgeist-y moments th...
2024-07-29 10:53:33 +0000 UTC
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Hey guys! All RPGs need character sheets so you can track your progression (and understand how your character mechanically interacts with the game world).
Female Agent's character sheet has just been a placeholder so far, but last week I dusted off the nascent code and hooked it up to the game’s systems. Changes:
Hey guys! Version 1 of the MOABS design document is finished, and will be going out to a few selfless contributors next.
I plan to continue working on it in the background, but it's at the point where it will benefit more from fresh perspectives and ideas. I'm really excited about it; when I get feedback from the first eyes on it, I'll share the feedback.
Next steps
We're planning to fully implement the character sheet and sk...
2024-07-15 15:04:56 +0000 UTC
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Hi guys! I was hoping to report the MOABS design document would be complete, but tasks don’t always fit neatly into 7-day work blocks. The MOABS is currently 178 pages long!
😮 Why so long?
Firstly it’s in a more readable text size (12pt 🤓), and there are UI mockups and art inspiration throughout. So it’s not this impenetrable bible that no one will ever refer to, it’s designed to be an easily readable guide for each epi...
2024-07-08 09:26:33 +0000 UTC
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Hey guys! For the past few weeks I’ve been working on the MOABS, the Mother Of All Beat Sheets. The aim is to fix the story and player experience problems in the Bangkok section – too repetitive, heroine too passive, story progression too slow.
I’ve been working on it solidly and I’m happy to report the MOABS is now complete. I’m incredibly excited about converting it into new game episodes! I guess the best way to explain it is that
2024-07-01 10:46:58 +0000 UTC
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Hi guys! Last week I finished a third draft of the design doc I’m working on, the Mother Of All Beat Sheets (MOABS).
This was always my fear too. But the results are just so exciting! Like I said last week, significant improvements are on the way. I’m psyched about getting them out to you ASAP.
By its nature, the MOABS is full of spoilers...
2024-06-24 11:58:46 +0000 UTC
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Hey guys! I’m working hard on the Mother Of All Beat Sheets. Last week I finished a second draft of the MOABS– covering hundreds of big and small story beats, strung out over a range of Bangkok episodes – and it’s significantly better than the first draft (which itself was significantly better than the planned continuation of the Bangkok story arc).
While I am very conscious that I don’t want ...
2024-06-17 09:36:59 +0000 UTC
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“[It’s] what I call ‘The Valley Filled with Clouds’ technique. You’re at the edge of the valley, and there is a church steeple, and there is a tree, and there is a rocky outcrop, but the rest of it is mist. But you know that because they exist, there must be ways of getting from one to the other that you cannot see. And so you start the journey.”
–Terry Pratchett
Female Agent has always been a valley filled with clouds: ...
2024-06-09 17:12:34 +0000 UTC
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Hey guys!
Some testers liked playing this episode. But I’m not happy with it. I’m releasing it as an unfinished beta, which means it’s in an unpolished state, and has some missing dialogue branches.
I basically think the Bangkok episodes are getting too long and linear. This isn’t the experience I want in Female Agent going forward – I don’t want to keep making episodes like this.
I want:
<...
2024-05-31 17:54:57 +0000 UTC
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Hey guys, I'm sorry for the lack of visibility recently. I’m working constantly on the game. I keep feeling like I’m one day away from having a clear and concise progress report, and I’ve kept pushing it back.
1.21 STATUS
All the art for 1.21 is done* (and looking greta, as usual). I’ll release the episode before the end of the month.
LIFEPATH STATUS
Based on the feedback here and on Discord, I’ve de...
2024-05-21 20:10:47 +0000 UTC
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Hi guys! We’re prepping the next episode for release, and it’ll be with you shortly. This report is about what happens next.
Story planning
The whole point of Female Agent was always just to make the game I wanted to play. While I’m very excited about future episodes, the truth is I feel like the pacing and story beats have been off recently. I think there’s too much repetition and not enough acti...
2024-04-30 16:04:05 +0000 UTC
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Hey guys! Sorry I’ve been so quiet. I didn’t really have anything to say except “I’m working on it”, but I can now report that the prototype is done; the new episode is now playable start to finish in the engine.
I’ve pushed it out to contributors for testing and feedback. Some things still need to be done before it’s ready for release:
Hey guys, happy Easter! The Big Mac date scene is going well. It’s hard to talk about without dropping spoilers, but I’m finding it easy and fun to write.
It’s just a side quest, so it’s not supposed to change the world, but it does feel like a nice little change of vibe and pace. The main NPC, Mac, is kind of rugged and unpretentious, and some of the fun is our heroine going on a date with a different vibe than the previous swanky restaurants. Spi...
2024-04-01 20:56:20 +0000 UTC
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Hey guys! Just quickly reporting in that the writing's going much better. I pushed out a test version of the shift part of the episode yesterday and have received good feedback on it.
It feels short, so I'm going to squeeze the date with Big Mac into this episode (which is a bit shorter and lower-key than the fancy date with the Russians). That's already outlined so it should be quick to prototype – I'll get straight onto it now.
This episode has been an unexpected fuckin...
2024-03-26 09:28:35 +0000 UTC
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