Venus Angels Developer Diary #1

There's so much to say when talking about game development, I just wasn't sure how to start. Well, maybe I'm overthinking it, and the best place to start is from the beginning.

Venus Angels is going to be a combat-driven turn-based RPG with elements of dating sims. I first started thinking of Venus Angels after playing a PS Vita RPG where the monsters and party members were all cute girls and the player was treated to plenty of fun sexualized illustrations as they accomplished milestones. Each girl had plenty of unlockable outfits each tied to a class, and they usually each featured at least a couple of outfits that were particularly scandalous. These are common tropes of ecchi and hentai games, and especially of visual novels, but I felt like there were some missed opportunities here...

The first involved the unfortunate distinction between the sexy cutscenes and the game mechanics. Gameplay-wise, the game never felt like more than a traditional dungeon crawler, except that the player was rewarded with these sexy scenes intermittently throughout. The second missed opportunity regarded the cutscenes themselves. Whether the illustration featured cute monster girls or cute hero girls, most of the cutscenes victimized the subject such that the characters rarely seemed like they were enjoying the scenario the way the player was meant to. Well, I guess that's also a common trope of ecchi scenarios in Japanese storytelling, but still...

So going in, here's what I had in mind when I began planning this project:

- The gameplay should be as sexy as the imagery

- The hero girls should use sex as part of their toolset, rather than just in punishment cutscenes for, say, losing a battle with a tentacle monster

- This is hentai first and foremost - the game should be engaging, but simple. Something that players can enjoy, but that they don't need a lot of brainpower to comprehend or succeed in... as they'll likely be distracted lol. This will be the tricky part, but that's why we're going to be doing frequent play tests!

This won't be my first time working on a video game, having worked on a horror visual novel, a tactical RPG, and an 8bit style bullet hell shooter with fellow H artist Cherrygig in the past. (I've asked his permission and he's okay with me showing our past work, so I may do that. No promises... I don't want anyone looking us up after all lol.) On these projects, I provided all the programming and music, as well as sprite art and graphical UI elements - and in the case of the bullet hell, I did the entire thing alone.

What I'm trying to say is that I know I have the skill set to do this, and I've been looking forward to developing my 'H career' with something that may include a broader appeal. If Venus Angels is something that people want to see and is successfully crowd funded after all, I'd be able to hire people and we could do even more with both Good Girls and Venus Angels. After much, much, MUCH deliberation, I've settled on using Game Maker Studio 2, a more contemporary game development environment than what I've used in the past, but the learning curve will be worth it. And I'm excited that you'll all be embarking on this journey with me.

I'm going to put up a few of these developer diaries before the month is out. I've had so much to say that I've felt too paralyzed to say anything. The only solution of course is to just start typing! I'm looking forward to introducing everyone to the cast, the story, the game mechanics, and most importantly, the development process! There's no use overthinking it, so here we are, starting at the beginning :)