10/20/17 and what Spanquest is.

Hi again my loyal subjects, time for a "real talk" post.

I've gotten a pretty good amount of responses to my last poll, and a lot of good information for later too. Some has been more... inconsistant, like the question on how exhausted the player should get, the middle 6 options all have the same amount of votes... There isn't a way to balance that out. Either way, another issue for another day. What this post is about, is related to the last response question at the end. Most of those have been "keep doing what you're doing" or "add more of x" and that was expected. However, I got one response in particular that was quite lengthy, and commented on something I think has never really been clear in all of my time working on the game. 

Now this isn't a dig or a call out, I don't know who the person is but even if I did I wouldn't say either.

The reply talks about some concept in a game being developed that ultimately served no purpose or was unnecessary in the long run, and then goes to this: 

"As a player, unless the content is widely varied, a spanking doing .08% more damage to a character if *these* skills are used in *this* order isn't beneficial to my experience. I prefer seeing new scenarios as opposed to all these mechanics that I'm most likely going to forget about right after starting a game. "

That's a good point. For the average player, they definitely won't be going around with a calculator in a free hand making sure all of their actions are the right one. For the player who is only interested in the build up and not the spanking, none of this matters to them. And that's the reason why I want to give so much breathing room in terms of the objectives the player must accomplish to succeed in spanking, so while it can be done EASILY it can still be made difficult through artificial limits, or limits that the player puts on themselves. However, for those players who are interested in the authenticity of it, and enjoy the methodical process to a spanking, these things are important. Because if a hairbrush isn't the different from a paddle, why use the brush? If a spanking on their underwear is just as easy as spanking someone on their clothes, why have a baring option in the first place? In the future, there will be scenarios where you can' bare someone but must punish them, or they might start bared and you can't spank above a certain amount. In the grand scheme of things, having this kind of variety in output creates a larger variety in the requirements for a scene or even an entire quest.

" By trying to make sure every spanking has random elements, it takes away from the individuality of each one of them. The scenarios leading up to them may be different, but for the actual content itself, it feels like I'm just playing Mad Libs, but replacing all the words with numbers and stats. Comparing the various scenes now, I don't see any difference in receiving a punishment, save for the face that appears during the scene. As for the questions in this poll, I don't feel as though I can answer most of them honestly, given how I feel. Unless there is specific writing dedicated to a scene, these scenes need to be quite short, because it feels as though they're just the same scene over and over, pulling lines from the pool. "

They are spot on with this assessment. If you compare this new system to the last, you will see a lot more character before rather than after. This is really a natural consequence to having each scene being hand typed by me. Some people might already have guessed this, but the "randomized formula" spankings are not going to be the status quo from here on out. This system was developed so that under more generic circumstances, I wouldn't have to develop a new scene for something that could have just been copy and pasted. Now a question some of you might think of in response is "if they weren't going to be unique, why put them in the game?". The reason for this has a longer answer. In general, I try to write good characters. I put a lot of thought into how they act, where they will be, what will they do, etc. Sometimes, people REALLY like a certain character, and want to keep interacting with a character even past whatever specialized scene I made for them. The innkeeper is an example of this, when the game first came out a lot of players liked her. However, in the last game she had her 3 or 4 possible scenes, and then you saw everything for her. With this randomized structure, it makes it easy to sort of extend the longevity of a character with me doing little work with them directly. For special scenes where dialogue and interaction is a main point, a scene will go down much differently. I have a sort of prototype already in the demo with the scene involving looking in her underwear drawer. There are unique outcomes whether the character is wearing underwear or not, if they run away, etc. The system still has a lot of work, but the unique scenarios are still what I feel I do best, what people most like, and what the game will still be about, even if the last few versions haven't been indicative of this.

 "If you're dead-set on following this design path, I'm afraid I don't have any ideas or suggestions as to how to develop this better, to be more appealing based upon what I prefer. The simplicity of the spanking mechanics were never an issue for me, and, as I'm sure you're aware, there's only so many ways to write an actual spanking scene, meaning that, to me, the focus would be better spent on the scenarios leading up to the scenes, and the aftermath that follows."

This again is something I've been reflecting on over the course of development. On one hand, yes the core of the entertainment in these games are the lead up to the scenes and the reactions and consequences of your choices. This is another feature that I think will be only accentuated with the changes from now on. There will be many ways to approach and resolve a problem, and many ways to spank/be spanked. Now the amount of choices has to be limited, this isn't a virtual world or anything, but that doesn't mean I can't try. This is something else I think hasn't been very clear in the first town. Tungsten was designed to be and is a very generic tutorial town, meant to show you the ropes of this new world. It's why the main quest is so tame and anti-climatic in comparison to the other locations (climate controlling spirits and cultists, demonic prison colony massacres, etc.) . So mark my words when I say that Alumin will be way crazy in terms of things you can do. For both Alumin and Iron City, I'll be doing a lot of their plot lines over and changing other things, including the locations themselves and their names. Most of the characters will be maintained however. 

The last point I'll comment on how the simplicity of the old system was preferred, or even fine to them. To that I have to say, if you just want a game where you can talk to people and search for ways to unlock scenes, go play a visual novel, because that's what you're describing, and that's what a lot of these rpgmaker games have been lately, visual novels with some point and click elements. I did that with Spanquest and got bored of it, because to me that just felt like I was doing the same thing over and over again. I want Spanquest II to be my biggest and best spanking game, it might even be my last. I want to make a world that really changes based on how you play it, and it remembers how the player "behaves". I won't get to oblivion levels of interactivity, or even morrowind levels, but I'm damn sure I can beat Fallout 4 levels. Unfortunately that kind of thing takes time and complexity. Fortunately, I'm at the base of the summit, and only have a few more pegs to set before I can make that final climb and get the first real version of the game out, and this poll was one of them.

Have a good weekend everyone.