Update 19

tl:dr PAL alpha released; working on new images.

Today's image:

I've kept this one simple this week - it's a new image I've designed for when you enter the dining room when Fumi is assigned to the dusting.

PAL progress:

You probably noticed that I've posted an alpha version of PAL a few days ago. If not... well, go check it out! Working on that took up the earlier part of the week (and a lot of time beforehand, of course) to finish up.

Since releasing the alpha I've been working on putting in images of the characters to pop up when you enter a room with them. I actually need to make 6 for each maid - dusting in the dining room (daytime and nighttime), cooking in the kitchen (day and night) and washing out the back (day and night), as well as a couple each for Rio and Masami. They also have to be fairly good - nicely cheesecake images that won't get boring or look too weird once you've seen them a million times. The Fumi picture above is an example. They are a surprisingly large amount of work, but they do involve creating 'sets' that I will be able to re-use in later images, so there's that. I've been putting these images in the game, so they'll be in the next alpha.

I've also done some bug testing and stuff, but mostly this week I worked hard to get the alpha ready, then refocused on images, because the game feels sparse as of v0.2.0. So it's been a busy week for me, but the update isn't all that long because if you're a $10+ backer you've already seen a lot of the work, and the rest has been image designing.

What will be in the next version of PAL?

Apart from those pictures I mentioned it's a little difficult to say right now what I'll be including next, but at some point I'm going to have to tackle the combat system because that's an important part of making the game functional. There's a section of the plot that involves going into battle in day 3 (to introduce combat), and without doing that I probably can't proceed all that far anyway.

The easiest thing to introduce might be some of the romantic sub-plot scenes, so they may well make it in soon, although I'm actually still thinking about how to fully incorporate Ai's sections. I also want the alphas to be fun without giving everything away too early - I want you to be able to get the payoff as well as just the build up when you see a character's story.

One last postscript - I am looking to add more reactivity and

'explorability' to PAL, with hidden puzzles and objects. Ideally I want

Pervert Action games to be as crammed full of discrete side content as a

Batman: Arkham game is, so any suggestions of alternative commands,

clever hidden stuff or whatever would be appreciated. Naturally I've got

ideas of my own too, and there's some stuff like that already in the game - you don't need to just do what you're told all the time. If you have ideas, or maybe a transcript where you're trying out interesting options, then do send them to me at bbben.aif@gmail.com and I'll give them my attention. :)

Next week:

Any requests for images or information for next week's update? Or just comments on the PAL alpha? Let me know in the comments section below.