BBBen
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$5+ reward: Update #1 February 2015
🕑 Added 2015-02-06 02:08:50 +0000 UTC February 2015 Well, it's the first big monthly update! This has been an exciting start to the Patreon campaign, and a great way to kick off the new year. I was already going just about full steam on Pervert Action: Legacy, but this also gives me a renewed sense of purpose. I've also been finding that it's easier for me to justify sitting down to work on the game now without feeling like it's potentially a waste of time, which is definitely nice! I'm having to be super tight with money IRL right now, so this has been a big help. I've had a bit of trouble working out exactly what to tell you in the updates. I want to give you guys access to interesting stuff and pull back the curtains on my work progress, but at the same time there's quite a lot of surprises in PAL and I don't want to spoil them for fear of spoiling your game experience. I think you'll understand when you play the game, because most characters in the game have some kind of surprise in store. Anyway, that said, here's some news and if you have any more questions do go ahead and ask – I'll withhold answers only if it's important to keep secrets for the plot. Images: This month Phinn has contributed a whole lot of really excellent stuff for the Ai sex scene. (Oh no! Spoilers! Now you know Ai has a sex scene!) I don't want to show too much that takes away all the fun of playing the game, but this is a proper patron update and you guys deserve to see something, so here's a picture from the start of the scene: Doesn't Ai look gorgeous? I feel like Phinn's really knocked it out of the park with this image series. I'll include another one below. Ai's a mysterious figure and I don't want to give away what her role is in the story, nor how this scene comes about in the game, but without unnecessary spoilers, you can see here the location is a room with furniture covered in dust covers – a really great location Phinn's designed to my request. I felt that a neglected room of the mansion would really nicely compliment Ai's storyline, and he's brought it to life in a magnificent way. I'm very happy with the other pictures in this set. Writing progress: My current method for writing the game has involved running a "live AIF" – letting a player give me commands so I can write up the responses after they are given. The player is EFon, writer of the upcoming Pervert Action: Origins CYOA book. This has been going well, and through that process I (with some help from Another Wannabe, writer of Bad Sister and the upcoming Fencing Academy book) have managed to write the bulk of many of the sex scenes, as well as a lot of the other content, like relationship/love scenes. In fact I'd go so far as to say that most of the love scenes are written, and a substantial amount of the plot and the sex are written. The hardest part to finish is always the sex writing and maybe some of the duller bits of programming – that doesn't look like it'll be too much of a problem this time. Here's a best guess at our progress in the sex scenes: Iku: 90% Fumi: 90% Kimiko: 90% Masami: 90% Rio: 10% Ai: 5% Threesome scene 1: 70% Threesome scene 2: 100% (I think it's done...) Threesome scene 3: 5% Other sexual content on the side (including endings): 50% So you can see that we've written quite a lot, even if most of them aren't done. Also this doesn't count images – most of them have some share of the images done, but I wouldn't say any of the scenes has a full image set yet. There's still a fair bit of work to go (it's always the last 10% that's the tricky part) but I'm happy about this progress so far. In other Pervert Action news I've also been acting as the player for EFon's PAO, and that's been going along well. Programming progress: While I haven't made substantial strides in programming the game yet, I have started work on building the combat system just this week. The plan is this: picture the PAF combat system, but you have three companions automatically attacking rather than one (the three maids). Kenji, however, cannot attack or be attacked – he's their trainer. Each turn you can issue one order, maybe "Iku heal Fumi", or "Kimiko attack head", and this will override their basic attack for that round. That's the system I'm currently trying to implement. Sex scene structure: One simple but interesting idea we've developed for this game is a slightly more developed sex scene structure. In this game each sex scene will have two stages: an introductory interactive stage focussed on foreplay, and a main sex stage. You could consider that a lot of classic AIF already had this kind of structure, generally built into the TADS stripping system. Where the PAL approach differs from that is only in the fact that these two-stage sex scenes are designed to also include an emotional/tonal shift in the scene when the transition point comes. When you play it I think you'll find that this allows the focus of the sex scene to shift – in stage 1 a participant in the sex might not be entirely sure about the situation, only to get into it through the course of that foreplay and get into it by stage 2. Or they might decide to become much more dominant/submissive than they were in stage 1. It's all used to serve the story-telling; simple, but in practice I think it's a nice touch. As for the planned threesome scenes, two of them will be structured as a set of either/or options, so they are interactive but I can make them more streamlined, and I don't need to program in a million different permutations. Since these scenes come after the one-on-one sex scenes the player will already have been through a lot of sex with the girls, so the scenes don't have to be quite so foreplay-based and can get right to the action. This also allows me to drop in more non-standard, unconventional sex commands, like choosing where to come or deciding on the girls' lesbian actions. There's one more thing about the sex scene structure: if you've played PAF you'll be aware that Kenji's skill level influenced whether you got some responses in the sex scenes. In PAL this will be expanded a bit. Now not only does Kenji have skills, but the maids do too, and these will each impact different things in the sex scenes, making the system a bit more fully featured. Add to that the fact that night service training can branch and be different, and you'll find that even pursuing the same girl can be somewhat different in sexual content a second time. So anyway, in addition to the one I put up I've attached a second picture of Ai, (hopefully that worked right) and if you have any comments/questions, go ahead and ask!
Comments
BBBen
That sounds spot on.
Hank Rillek
Fair enough, I'm looking forward to help test the combat module. Having a couple iterations of the battle sim will improve gameplay significantly. As for the characters talking, it helps connecting the battles to the story and adds a lot of characterization. If you're making battles a larger part of the game (compared to PAF) then the characters should have a larger part in the battles. You can have them say all sorts of stuff. Have them panic when they're low on health, cheer when they're getting healed. Think of all the possibilities with the archetypes and how they'd respond to certain things happening on the battlefield. It will not only help characterize them, but also make the battles more immersive. This immersion was already happening in PAF. With the following: 1: "Attack head." Critical hit! Double damage! 100 damage. 2: "Attack head." Critical hit! Double damage! 100 damage. Chiemi: 'Great hit Kenji!' Subjects characters could talk about: The type of enemy themselves their status ("Help I can't see!") Kenji And obviously let Kenji have his lines as well.
BBBen
Actually, what you're describing was the original plan for the combat system. The reason I changed my mind about it was that I felt it would be tedious to give so many orders, especially considering that a lot of the time you'd be giving the same orders each round. "Iku heal Fumi, Fumi attack head, Kimiko attack." Next round: "Iku heal Kimiko, Fumi attack head, Kimiko attack." It just seems a bit too slow, and possibly a bit too easy. It's also not very tactical with that much control, ironically. The reasons I feel the new system won't be too random are a) you train up the characters' skills before the battle, and b) all the important tactical choices will still need the player to make them. Another option I was considering was that giving characters potions would be a 'free move'. Also it's not actually all that different to the system in PAF, which already had one command each round between two characters, but you couldn't choose which character gets the move (enemies will still be one per battle). However, all that said I do take your point, and I really don't know whether it'll be too random, so you could be quite right. I don't like taking control away from the player unless there's a good reason. My first step with the combat system this time around is to build it into a playable module so that I and others can test how it feels. If it's not working well I'll still be able to rebuild it. BTW I did run it by Another Wannabe, he's been helping me develop the ideas for the combat system since the start. It won't make it into the game without testing! (Oh, and I like the little demo you laid out there - particularly having Kimiko complain, I'll use that.)
Hank Rillek
"The plan is this: picture the PAF combat system, but you have three companions automatically attacking rather than one (the three maids). Kenji, however, cannot attack or be attacked – he's their trainer. Each turn you can issue one order, maybe "Iku heal Fumi", or "Kimiko attack head", and this will override their basic attack for that round. That's the system I'm currently trying to implement. " I've reread this, and as a strategy game fanatic, it sounds mediocre. Not bad per se, but I do have a problem with it. It sounds like I as a player will have little control over the battle. You have 3 units, and the enemy will presumably have 3 as well. (asuming tournament style) This means that the RNG/AI will control 5 actions and the player just one. This is a lot of randomness. Generally, theories about game design state that if a player loses, he should feel like it was his fault, like if he'd taken another action he would've won. Controlling only one of 6 (or 4, if the enemy makes only one move) is quite bad and random. This will make players feel like they have little control. Perhaps a system where the player gives 3 commands every turn. How this would work technically I'm a bit in the dark about. Perhaps have the player give all 3 commands in one 'sentence', or have the game ask for input 3 times. -------------------------------------------------------- Example: Round 3 Tentacle monster: 300 health Yuki: 56 health Fumi 17 health Kimoko 23 heath Kimoko is blinded! Give Yuki a command: "Yuki attack eyes" Give Fumi a command: defend Give Kimoko a command: Heal Heal who? heal Fumi (at this point you could have the game to ask for confirmation ex: Confirm: Yuki attack eyes, Fumi defensive stance, Kimoko heal Fumi? "yes" ) Yuki attacks eyes and does 30 damage! Fumi enters defensive stance! Kimoko tries to heal Fumi but misses! Kimoko: "It's not like I can't see anything, idiot!" Tentacle monster attacks Fumi and does 10 damage! Round 4 etc. --------------------------------- You see what I'm getting at? This is way more immersive than just giving one order. The player should feel in control, these are his maids, his battle. He's not giving out suggestions which only one will follow. No, he's in command, he'll decide what everyone does. I advice that you talk to Another Wannabe about this, he worked on something similar for his unreleased Soccer Story. Unfortunately, he was never able to really nail down the soccer matches code and interactivity.
BBBen
Thanks, very much! And I'll give that update a look. That process sounds good and if it's interesting and informative to you guys I'll be happy. I hope to also give you a sense of the shape of the game and what it'll be like to play it through the course of these updates. I'll let you in on a few little things about gameplay features, and I'll also slip in a couple of pictures every time too :) though I'll hold off on any of the really sexual pictures in order to make playing the game worthwhile. And I promise no big spoilers.
Hank Rillek
Dude, you're freaking amazing. I love to read about the creative process. I'd rather you not spoil anything, teaser pictures are obviously ok. If you want an example of updates done right, you could check out Introversions official youtube channel, they've been in Alpha for a game called Prison Architect for more than a year. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/IVSoftware/videos" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/user/IVSoftware/videos</a> It's a small team and the alpha updates are small, but they manage to make an update video every month every time! I'm not sure how this would translate to written updates, but you could emulate the style a bit. Example: Look back at the past month, think of a problem you had to overcome. Perhaps you just couldn't figure out how to make the game stack boxes. You pondered on this for more than a week. Then you saw a documentary on Tetris and it's code and figured it out! Voila, an update about the design and game creation process!
