Update - What's next?

It's only a few days left until this new update will be released to the public, and I have already begun planning the next update.

As I have mentioned previously I thought I would take the time to do some revision on the game so far. When I began making The Life of Me , I was also learning how to do it - everything from coding, 3d rendering and planning out a game. Looking back I can see that there are things that could use a bit of an upgrade.

The reason I want to focus on it now is because it would make it easier in the continoution of the work, and also enabling me to deliever even better updates for the game.

Here is some of the ideas I have:

• Image changes:

  • I would like to revise some of the characters. I will use Nathan as an example, as I have had a few problems with getting the lighting to hit him right. The skin texture used on him has a sort of "plastic" quality - and I also wanted to make him seem a bit older. I've made a new character of him, as seen below, that fit my image of Nathan better.  

  • Oliver has also gotten some small changes. This includes small changes to his physique to make him seem a bit more mature.

    

  • With these changes I would go back and remake the previous images again with the new characters. That would also give me the opportunity to fine tune the lighting and poses to make the results better. I did a test with the new Oliver from the car ride at the beginning of the game, using different lighting as well.

    New:Old:

  
  

• Dialogue:

  • With the implementation of the new relationship counter in the game, along with the stats page for each character, I thought it would be prudent to take this a step further.

  • The relationship points will affect how the other characters talk to you. The higher the score, the more friendly/flirty they will be. I have not decided yet if I should split this up into friends and love, and therefore add another counter. I fear that would make every interraction quite a lot more complicated to write out though.

  • Choices made by Oliver will actually affect how he acts and speak with others. Right now you do have the chance to decide what Oliver should say in certain interractions, yet he has the personality I set for him from the get-go. One example being if you choose all the outgoing and flirty options, but then I write him as demure and shy? I think it would be cooler if some of those choices would affect him.

  • Remove unnecessary choices and add others that would instead affect him or the relationships around him. I know there are some choices that was put into the game because I had the idea to use them, but ended up not doing so. That's something I should definitely fix.

  • Sexuality. In this new update I've added the choice to be top or bottom in sex scenes, but I think I should add an option to opt out of sex if the other character refuses the opposite roles - in case anyone wants to play a pure top or pure bottom.

• Extra bonus content:

  • Basically just add a few more scenarios to the game that the player can unlock and enjoy, without it affecting the main stories.

• Coding: 

  • This would mostly be invisible to the players eyes, but there's some serious need to go back and fix some of the coding I did when I first started out. Let's just say I had no clear plan in mind on how to organize it, especially as the game began to grow.

So, this is the current ideas I play with as I begin with the new update. If you have any input or ideas, please fire away.

Best regards,
Thonduil