11/15 Status Update

Last week I gave the first build of Netoria 2's third demo to my private playtesters and they had a lot of things to say about it. So the patreon release of the demo is going to be delayed a bit while I address all this feedback. Let's go over some of the most important ones:

Not enough tension in the grope system:

Compared to what was in Netoria 1, the new game was feeling pretty flat with how the gropes worked. There was really only one outcome, either people are groped, or they're not. So one big change I'm making is that Zaman and Shah will now actively grope each other as well. Instead of groping making the pairings change to Zaman + Vashti and Azar + Shah, with no gropes keeping Zaman and Shah together, no gropes at all with make Zaman and Shah break up naturally without other pairings forming. Now it's a fight between love gropes and NTR gropes. The early game levels will have the player trying to get the right kind of gropes regardless of what character pairings they're after, one side can't just ignore the system.

Luckily I had already commissioned art for Zaman+Shah gropes that was meant to be used after their relationship was solidified. So I just have to switch that around a bit and the change should be fairly seamless. I think it will be fun to have these gropes that aren't about seducing a character, but maintaining a relationship. Zaman and Shah don't have time to internalize their differences if they're too busy fucking each other's brains out after all.

This does mean I need to make what's essentially a new route of when characters are single. This is a bit tricky, but I think I can make it work. It doesn't really need new art, because most sex scenes require two characters to do the sex part. So mostly this be a matter of some fancy writing and structure to make it all flow. Ideally this no pairing state will flow into something more NTR focused in act 2 and beyond.

Mechanics becoming a little stale in the later end of act 1

In the build I had people try, there's a stretch of levels from 6 to 11 where not many new elements are being introduced. I was relying on varied level design to keep things interesting. And while this works to an extent, that part of the game could use a little bit of punch to make it more exciting. There also aren't many narrative developments beyond the normal character stories. It's all still going through caves, desert, etc. So I made one big change.

Notice something a little different about this screenshot of level 8? There's a fifth player unit! Netoria 2 has always been intended to have a small party, with the first new member being the POV villain in level 11. And then the sixth would be Danya being added at the beginning of act 2 in level 13. Well I've decided to switch that up and have Danya join the party earlier. At the beginning of act 2 all the characters get new classes, so it actually makes more sense to add that new character here instead since you'll have lots of new stuff to play around with anyway.

Who is Danya? She's Vashti's daughter! Seen here in all her temporary art glory. Danya is a support character who's main skills are all about moving units around. She can teleport nearby allies around, recall allies to her location from anywhere around the map, and pull enemies towards her. Use her to outmaneuver your enemies and put your units in the perfect places to get the upperhand.

As for her role in the story, Danya is there to stir things up. By the time she shows up, the character relationships of the main four are pretty much settled. Well not if Danya has anything to say about it! If you don't keep up the gropes, Danya will sow doubts between pairings and even break them up if you're not careful! This is another way that no-pairings state I talked about earlier can happen. This also addresses a problem I knew about for a while which was "what happens in the last few levels of act 1 after the pairings have been decided?" Sure there's all the POV sex scenes to keep the player entertained, but the grope system became superfluous. Now gropes still matter all the way until act 1 ends.

Even if no one is fucking each other at the end of act 1, that doesn't mean you've missed out on all the content because that's when the POV stories really kick in. And speaking of POVs, the POV villain art is almost done!

This is Nasib, crown prince of the kingdom, Zaman's brother, and Shahrazad's villain. This art is only flat colors and missing shading, but you can really get a sense of what he's going to look like. He'll join the party in level 11, and the third demo ends at 9 so he still won't be a critical part of the story yet in the new demo. But the villains show up a number of times before that, so hopefully all their art will be done be the time I've made all my changes.

As you can see, that's a lot of stuff to implement before demo three is ready. It's going pretty fast though. For me mechanical changes like this are always the fastest part of development. It's the writing that takes forever, and while some has been added it's not all that much. I'll still try to get all of this done before the end of November.

That's all for this week. As always, thank you for your continued support.