0.29 Preview and 0.28 Notes

Hi, perverts! My schedule continues to be a bit unsteady lately, but I'm continuing to settle back into a groove. I hope to get a small-ish release out tomorrow.

I hope you've enjoyed the recent releases! They've been challenging with my current situation, but they were still fun to write. I've got a tentative list of stuff I want to do in the next release, but first let's talk a bit about pacing!

Notes on Pacing

In some cases I try to maintain verisimilitude within the game, with respect to things like how familiar characters are with you or what would be feasible for your character to accomplish within an institution. However, I haven't bothered too much with encouraging suspension of disbelief with regard to pacing.

The cycle of time and days in the game is important to me: it encourages you to think of the protagonist as getting acclimated to a new place, it gives a predictable schedule for nightmares, and it lets some events happen at different times of day. It doesn't make too much sense when you think about how much happens in so little time.

If you're somewhat efficient with your time, you can take Theresa all the way from "nervous to talk about sex" to "selling her body on the docks" in a handful of weeks. This isn't really the way that people or anxiety work. While there are a few ways I could make the timing more believable, there isn't a solution I really like.

I could add additional requirements to certain events, such as making you "grind" training with Theresa, doing a certain number of play scenes or other actions before she's willing to move to the next level. This is implicitly done a bit through the requirement to do expeditions, but doing it more than that would feel a bit too instrumentalizing. I don't want it to feel like you're spending time with Theresa just in order to unlock some future goal.

Alternately, I could introduce explicit time jumps: at each Act break, or at other appropriate times, the game could jump forward a week or a month. While that might make the timeline of the story flow a bit better, I know that many players have the feeling of wanting to use their time well, and I'd worry that this would feel like time had been "stolen" from them. I'd also worry that it'd dilute any sense of urgency remaining in the main storyline.

I've considered removing the day count entirely, so there would be no easy way to tell how long you've been in Barrowport, but I'm not sure that I want the sort of timeless feel that would engender.

What do you think? Let me know if you have ideas or opinions on this timekeeping and pacing stuff!

Next Release

I'm finally working properly on the kneeling, first-person POV pose for Theresa! It's still not perfect, but so far I think the general perspective and proportions are looking much better, and avoid the issues the current art has with her face seeming too big or her body reading as childlike. I intend to have that implemented for this release.

Additionally, I want to continue with UI improvements. This release may just have something small, like a new confirmation dialogue box, but I'm looking forward to tackling the journal.

Depending on how much drive I find myself with, I may add in a new play scene to celebrate the revised pose, but we'll see.

As always, please share any comments, questions, or requests you have. Stay safe, take care of yourself, and seek pleasure in whatever way you find healthy.