June was pretty busy for me (or perhaps I should say 'eventful') and I wasn't able to work on the game as much as I would have liked. (I expect this will go on for much of July as well unfortunately.) Still, in spite of this fact, I'm not too disappointed at my progress.
Lets go over last month's goals:
1) Implement one of the major characters.
The 'major character' I planned on doing for this goal - who's artwork I'd already done and who had the most writing done for her - I didn't touch at all. Instead I made the character Typhon, and implemented the startings of his quest.
Typhon is a former pimp who was forced to leave his hometown - and abandon a lucrative pimping career - due to the machinations of a double-crossing business partner. When you meet him, he's working as a bouncer in one of the many brothels on Brothel Road - a sleazy district in the Utara's Lower City (also known as the Undercroft).
He'd like to get back in the game, but he's barred from doing so by red tape, as the prostitution industry - and most industries on the island - are controlled by legally ambiguous business associations that make all the rules, and expect you to follow them. The player will be able to help him overcome that obstacle and become his business partner in starting his own brothel. The management of this brothel (recruiting, furnishing, profiting) will be an optional element of the game.
Anyway, I'm getting a bit ahead of myself. I haven't implemented the brothel system or the quest to unlock it yet, but I've put enough pieces in that I feel like I've gotten the ball rolling. As I was writing some of his dialogue, I started to realize that I might have some issues writing it. He's a black dude, inspired by a hoodlum character from a movie I saw when I was a kid. I could just write whatever, but reading back it might comes off as cringy. I don't mind if the lingo isn't 100% authentic, but if I'm going to write pages of dialogue I need to figure out how he talks and be consistent with it so I don't keep second guessing myself. I don't even remember the name of the movie that inspired this character - anyone know any good gangsta movies? Or even documentaries, honestly. It's not the sort of thing I normally watch, not sure where to start.
2) Finish off the content I've put in so far.
Done. Completed all the branches of the existing scenarios. Some I'm going to have to go back and revise once I've finalized some new ideas, because a few new systems I'm working on make certain types of interaction redundant. I'm not sure how to explain this without over explaining, but anyway.
The only thing I could have done but didn't was fill in some gaps in some of the location-based content. For example, there's things that can happen to you while at the beach that aren't necessarily 'events' or 'scenarios', they're kinda in a grey area. They were intended to be 'flavor' events but as I wrote them I started making it more involved. I should tie up those loose ends this month while resisting the urge to introduce more loose ends.
3) Create places and contexts and start putting content into them.I made 28 and linked them together in a way that kinda makes sense. Instead of having one map screen from which everything is accessible, there are separate districts you travel to from the map screen. I did this because if I allow myself to put in 1-use locations, I'll eventually have a map screen so loaded up that moving around will be tedious.
I have a table of data to track where every place is, and how it relates to everywhere else. Some are known from the start, others the player will have to learn about through conversations, eavesdropping, and other kinds of research.
4) Create 2 scenarios.
I made two new scenarios, one about - wait, I wasn't planning on talking about this type of content. I'm not sure if it's because it's 'spoiler' or if it's because it's not 'main' content and so going into details about it is outside the scope of these updates... but whatever.
The two I made were:
pornfreak - Some commented under porn videos the player uploaded to the game's equivalent of Porn Hub is asking for advice. His girlfriend is a porn freak and a fan of the player's videos in particular, and he can't compete. Do you try to help him out, or use this situation to your advantage?
anchorwoman - Someone asked in my last post if the newswoman in this image I posted would be fuckable. The answer is yes. The player can accept a job to get some information about this woman, ostensibly to enable a rival at the network she works at to get the upper hand in some way. Depending on the player's abilities and choices, he may be able to do more than just the assignment he's been given.
I just checked my folder to see if there's anything else - I also apparently added two other scenarios: 'pigtailgirl' and 'loverboy'. I completely forgot about those!
pigtailedgirl - I'm not sure if I finished it off, now that I think about it. I'll add checking that to my to-do list.
loverboy - This one is not unfinished, but it's not complete either - it's a set of 3 events wherin the player encounters a character. The completion of these events would unlock a fourth event that would conclude this 'story'; however, while I was working on it I realized that the intended final scenario was for a different kind of character than the one I was writing. Originally it was going to a douchey guy you would help get laid, or he'd help you get laid, and in the final scenario you'd have the opportunity to help him get back together with his ex, the only woman he ever truly loved. Or, if you hated him, you'd instead do something else. However, he ended up having a different 'feel' to him than this, a more eccentric and sympathetic character, and so the final scenario... I'm not sure if it works for this character. I'll see what I can do.
Other Things I Did
Internet Sluts - I wanted to implement the dreaming aspect of the game, but I didn't get to it. Instead I did some online dating thing. These are like 'quick scenes' the player can access by paying for exposure on a dating app. (Or by hacking himself some exposure, if he's good enough with computers.)
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| I also added whatever this is. |
Trello - Some time ago another porn dev showed me Trello some time ago, and I decided to finally use it. It's a site/app that you can use to organize projects. It's good for collaboration, but even just for a one-man operation it's pretty handy. Much easier than a text file of to do's, which is what I had before. Try it.
Home Furnishings - I realized that with a bit of modification I could use the interface/coding for the player character's outfit slots and apply it to a location, to add furnishings. So for example you could furnish your home with better furniture, decorations, etc. Not sure what the point of this is, just an idea I'm toying with. One thing for sure I'm keeping is the 'bedcam' slot. In IC, all your sex scenes were filmed if you were flagged as a pornographer. In II, you'll need an actual camera. When you bring dates home, you can film yourself fucking them so long as you have hidden cameras pointed at the bed. (To film sex scenes outside of the home, you'll need something else - maybe a spy drone? I'm not sure yet.)
Stalking - The idea for this 'minigame' goes all the way back to a RenPy game I was making called something like Haramaster: Hunting Ground (I'm vague on the details because I started several RenPy projects that were itarations of the exact same idea). Essentially, if there's someone at a location (they could be characters that are always found there, or characters from completed scenarios that have been assigned to 'freeroam' there), you might see them. If you see them before they see you, you can stalk them. If you get close enough you could pickpocket them, if you follow them to a quiet place you could attack them, mug them, kidnap them, etc. This is a long way from being useful to the game, but I got a good start into it. Maybe I'll post more on it next update, if I've improved it any.
I have a busy month ahead of me, but I hope I can get these done:
1) Fix <<change_bg>> widget. It's the thing that changes the background when you go to a new area, or when needed by an event. You'd figure this is simple, but for various reasons it's kinda buggy and sometimes the background doesn't change properly. Gotta fix it.
2) Fix the event system. I had it working ok, but as I work on the game I realize it needs work. Events can only launch when you first visit an area, and I'd rather have a possibility of them launching at any point when you 'explore' that area (ie do the action that signifies the passage of time - in a bar it's having a drink, at the beach it's doing beach stuff, etc). I also want to have a generic event launcher, something that creates events based on attributes of the place. For example, if an NPC is at that location, you can meet them, or stalk them; if there are items listed as being present, you might find them. If I've set rumours at that location, you may overhear one, etc. (This probably sounds like gibberish.)
3) Flesh it out. Aside from the above, I won't add any new systems; I'm just going to try to fill in the gaps in the existing content/systems I already have. It's so easy to let myself get sidetracked by a fun idea and create something I don't need yet - I've talked about this before - and I'm going to try to keep this impulse in check.
I may also write some scenarios, but I won't make it a goal. If I do, I want to force myself to do them in a way where I create a playable but content-sparse outline of it, and then add text/dialogue and additional flavor options once I've made it working and finished. I feel like this is the more sensible way of doing things, the way I do them now (following whatever ideas pop into my head wherever they take me regardless of what my original plan was) is a little haphazard and leads to 'lopsided' results.
Help Me
I need to come up with a name for the in-universe porn site that vaguely resembles Porn Hub and whatever else. The handful I came up with kinda suck. If you got any ideas, email me or post in comments. I'll credit you in the game if you want.
