crushstation

State of the game update

As well as building up the team by bringing aboard Victoria and The Scribbler, I’ve been thinking of changes we can make to our working processes that would enable us to get content out faster.

In the early days of the game, I did everything myself with my own two claws – writing, coding, artwork.  That big push of heroic personal effort was needed to kick the project off, but it’s not a good model for the long term (because the game’s development...

Late weekly Pomodoro report

A pomodoro is a 25-minute block of focused work.  I promised to do at least 10 per week when the first funding goal was reached.

I normally post these on Sunday, but I forgot – sorry!

WEEKLY TARGET: 10 pomodoros
ACHIEVED: 16 pomodoros

This week I finished coding Victoria's new avatar into the game – it's now working through the whole game in one skin tone.  Coding it in was really tedious, but it's now done...

My plans for your money

I promised a few weeks ago to have a serious think about how to speed up delivery of content.

What I wanted to do with your money

Keep it all for myself.  Live on it so I can work full time on Female Agent, instead of having to do a real job.

What I’m going to do with your money instead

Take a 100% pay cut, and reinvest ...

Dev diary: Bangkok gameplay model

So far, Female Agent has been heavily scripted.  You pass from one scene to the next in a predetermined order (e.g. you can’t visit Oceana before you visit Corinthian).

In Bangkok we want the player experience to move from control to freedom.  You’ll have the freedom to decide your agent’s movements. 

Here’s an example of how a typical gameplay loop might work:

Starting a new day

Your agent wakes up...

Dev diary: planned mechanics

We’re planning to introduce a set of new gameplay mechanics in Bangkok.  Here's a quick update.

Money

The agent needs money to live, to do certain activities, and to buy stuff.  She will earn money from working, mainly as a prostitute at the Hard Cock Cafe.

Stress

The agent becomes stressed by negative events (for example, working as a prostitute).  She can reduce stress through pleasant activities and p...

May artwork vote

I was sure that you guys would vote for selectable facial features, so I was surprised by the outcome of this vote.  

In fact, you could say I was ass-tonished!  Ho ho.

After weighting, the avatar back view won by a handy margin, so that's the next artwork project for Victoria.  Moar artwork polls to follow, and moar game news soon...

Monday pomodoro report

A pomodoro is a 25-minute block of focused work.  I promised to do at least 10 per week when the first funding goal was reached.

Pomodoros I-II

• Added lipsticks to the new avatar.  The avatar is now fully implemented up to and including Corinthian – just a few more lipsticks and eyeliners to draw, and the new avatar will be completely coded into the game.

I created a new lipstick layer today.  In previous versions of the ga...

Weekly pomodoro report

A pomodoro is a 25-minute block of focused work.  I promised to do at least 10 per week when the first funding goal was reached.

(Dev soundtrack: Baroness, "Blue Record")

WEEKLY TARGET: 10 pomodoros
ACHIEVED: 16 pomodoros

Apologies for not posting pomodoros daily this week.  I used all the pomodoros working on coding Victoria's new avatar art into the game.  That's all done and working now, we just need to go throug...

Female Agent character discussion

We're trying to introduce more dialogue and decision choices, so your agents have more ways to interact with people and situations.

Writing these involves anticipating the kind of Agent you'll enjoy playing, so you can help us by telling us about the sorts of characters you'd like to create.

Is your ideal agent a cynical badass?  Demure and dutiful?  A hotshot rookie?  A clever survivor like Ellen Ripley, or a femme fatale like Natasha Romanoff?  Or something totally ...

Art vote: asses or faces?

Snap poll warning!  This poll will end Monday at 1800 BST.

Our illustrator Victoria is ready to do some more work for the game.  What would you like her to draw next?

How this works: everybody gets 1 vote.  If you're a $5 Patreon in good standing, your vote counts 5 times, if you're a $10 Patreon in good standing, your vote counts ten times.

There are 2 options.  We intend to deliver both of them at some point in the game's dev...

Current task: coding in the new avatars

Coding Victoria's new avatar artwork into the game has required a bit of faffing around in Illustrator and with the game code so far, but good progress is being made now.

As part of testing, I just generated the same agent in both the public version (that you guys have) and the dev version (which we're working on).  I wanted to share a side by side comparison because I think it's such a big improvement!

Patreons, your investment in the game has made this possible and we are going to...

Weekly pomodoro report

A pomodoro is a 25-minute block of focused work.  I promised to do at least 10 per week when the first funding goal was reached.

(Dev soundtrack: Smashing Pumpkins, "Monuments to an Elegy")

WEEKLY TARGET: 10 pomodoros
ACHIEVED: 12 pomodoros

Victoria finished her current art tasking this week; we'll work hard to get you an interim release out soon so you can play with the new avatar.

There are lots of developments coming...

Thursday pomodoro report

A pomodoro is a 25-minute block of focused work.  I promised to do at least 10 per week when the first funding goal was reached.

Pomodoros I-IV

• Set up selectable skin tone artwork for the avatar.

Drawing different skin tones used to take ages; now, thanks to an Illustrator trick I learned from Victoria, we can now rapidly create new skin tone artwork with just one click (instead of hand drawing all the shading every time)....

Wednesday pomodoro report

A pomodoro is a 25-minute block of focused work.  I promised to do at least 10 per week when the first funding goal was reached. 

Pomodoros I-IV

• Wrote backstage casting scene (complete).

Pomodoros V-VIII

• Worked on implementing selectable skin tones on the new avatar (nearly done).

I sent a working version of the backstage casting scene to the writing team, who...

Weekly pomodoro report

A pomodoro is a 25-minute block of focused work.  I promised to do at least 10 per week when the first funding goal was reached.

(Dev soundtrack: Soundgarden, "Down On the Upside")

WEEKLY TARGET: 10 pomodoros
ACHIEVED: 12 pomodoros

Hope you guys had a lovely weekend!  The pomodoros aren't all the work that's being done on the game – I do other things, and more to the point it's bigger than just me now – ...

Friday pomodoro report

A pomodoro is a 25-minute block of focused work.  I promised to do at least 10 per week when the first funding goal was reached. 

TGIF!  Mine's a Bloody Mary.

Pomodoros I-IV

• Worked on backstage casting scene (nearly done!)

Link to current task list 

Your money gets shit done around here

With the big uplift in Patreonage last month I was able to hire an actual illustrator, the lovely Victoria.

Her illustration skills are way better than mine, but her style isn't radically different, so I was delighted when she agreed to work on Female Agent.

Her current project is a face and hairstyle upgrade to the avatar.  Let me know what you think!

The hairstyles come in four lengths (long, medium, bob, short).  I intend to add in some code t...

Thursday pomodoro report

A pomodoro is a 25-minute block of focused work.  I promised to do at least 10 per week when the first funding goal was reached. 

My real work has been annoying this last couple of days, but I managed to get in a solid block of work this afternoon.

Pomodoros I-VIII

• Worked on backstage casting scene (planning to finish this tomorrow).

Link to current task ...

Weekly pomodoro report

Weekly pomodoro report

A pomodoro is a 25-minute block of focused work.  I promised to do at least 10 per week when the first funding goal was reached. 

TODAY (Dev soundtrack: The Mars Volta)

Pomodoros I-IV

• Fixed bugs in Intox Engine.  (Complete)
• Wrote improvements to ops room debriefings.

– – –

WEEKLY TARGET: 10 p...

Wednesday pomodoro report

A pomodoro is a 25-minute block of focused work.  I promised to do at least 10 per week when the first funding goal was reached. 

Random encounters are planned to be a major part of the game in Bangkok, so I spent some time creating quite a complex one set in Corinthian club (Hyneman, esc and Diss are working on a similarly scoped one in Cathouse).  I ended up working on it for much longer than I thought it would take, which was boring and frustrating, but is n...

Monday pomodoro report

A pomodoro is a 25-minute block of focused work.  I promised to do at least 10 per week when the first funding goal was reached. 

I managed to squeeze in some game dev pomodoros instead of preparing for a long client call, and I aced the client call anyway.

Pomodoros I-IV

• Coded a complex random encounter for Corinthian.

Weekly pomodoro report

A pomodoro is a 25-minute block of focused work.  I promised to do at least 10 per week when the first funding goal was reached. 

TODAY (Dev soundtrack: Stevie Nicks)

Pomodoros I-IV

• Wrote and coded random encounters for Corinthian.

– – –

WEEKLY TARGET: 10 pomodoros
ACHIEVED: 10 pomodoros 

Extra work is always going on beside the ...

What do you want Female Agent to be?

Goblin steve asked a simple, but powerful, question: “Roughly, how often do you intend to put out an update?”  The frustrating answer is, quicker than I can put them out.

The follow up question to that is “Why?” – or, more practically, “What changes can you make that will allow you to produce content faster?”

As financial backers of the project, you deserve a serious and well thought out answer to that. &nbs...

Tuesday pomodoro report

A pomodoro is a 25-minute block of focused work.  I promised to do at least 10 per week when the first funding goal was reached. 

Pomodoro I

• Coded in random encounter framework.  (Complete)

Random encounter framework added

Today we built some code that can trigger unique encounters when you're hanging out in the nightclubs.  The test encounter that we built is really simple (the club photographer at Corinthian can ask to take a photo of you for their website), but we'll add more over the next few days.

The aim is to make all three clubs less structured and predictable.  If you guys have any ideas for random encounters in nightclubs – big or small, sexy or just scene setting, let us know in the commen...

Monday pomodoro report

A pomodoro is a 25-minute block of focused work.  I promised to do at least 10 per week when the first funding goal was reached. 

Pomodoros I-V

• Writing new content for the non-hypno path.  (Complete)