Dev Diary #5 (Patreon)

Hello everyone! As v0.17 is being developed, I wanted to pause for a moment to reflect. When I began developing Harem Hotel in 2017, it was my first time doing any of this. Harem Hotel and myself as a developer have grown a lot since I started this journey, so I thought it would be fun to go back in time to see how the game has changed over the years!

First, I want to address the still large amount of content in Harem Hotel that doesn't uphold the same quality standards as the current content does. For example, this event with Maria:

Compared to this event with Ashley:

This is meant to be looking down at the same city, but it clearly doesn't look like it. There is a lot left to be desired in the first image, so this and other events like it are certainly planned to be improved. And it's not just the image quality that can be improved. I often find myself surprised at how bad I think some of my old writing was, but I suppose that's just a good sign of progress!

Above is one of the oldest images I have of the game from v0.1. You can see that the framework is there, but the quality is lacking. This was the introduction by the way! Most of the game was developed with sprites in mind (that is 2D images of the characters layered on top of the background image). But eventually I decided to phase all sprites out in favor of a more cinematic approach. This is a lot more work, but I think we can all agree it was worth it!

I think this old event was developed sometime around v0.2, and is no longer in game. It was very short and eventually replaced with this:

Wow! A plate!
And while this is certainly an upgrade, this isn't even up to my standards anymore.
These days I'm developing stuff like this (from v0.17):

Now that's a lot of plates!
Not only are there more plates, but each character now has much more expressive poses and faces which change more often. I think this really makes each character feel much more alive, especially if those expressions are what you would expect out of these character's personality. Doing this takes A LOT of time though. I'm lucky if I can hide the hands (and thus not work on them) but if a character needs to hold something, that could take a while to get right. It really begins to add up, but when the focus of a story is on the characters, making them feel as real as possible should only improve the overall experience. But I'll let you judge :)

Above is how the outside of the hotel used to look...

And this is how it looks now!

Lighting has been an issue I've struggled with in this engine for a very long time, but with v0.17, I think I've finally got it to a point I'm very happy with! Specifically with shadows, the night, and dark places.

The above event is meant to take place during the middle of a moonlit night. But other than her hair, sand, and sky, it doesn't really look too dark. This is because the engine I use apparently never considered the possibility of darkness. Turning the lights off doesn't always make an object darker, it just removes the shadows... so to get around that, I have to recolor EVERY object to be darker. Every rock, tree, leaf, shell, shirt, sock, shoe, and hair strand. Even the sand. Every color needs to be adjusted to make a scene look dark with the methods I employ now, but that's not even the end of it. Because after that comes the post-processing.

The above is a dark scene from v0.17. Here you can see blacker blacks, higher contrast, and multiple light sources. Is it modern AAA lighting? No, I'll never get there with this engine. But I think the style I've been able to develop over the years is visually appealing in its own right. Is it worth the extra time and effort though? That's mostly for you to decide. The quality may have gone up over the years, but so has the time between releases. That's not something I'm proud of, but it's not for no reason. All this work isn't just more time consuming either, it's stressful too. So finding a balance is really important, not only with work but with life too.

(v0.1):

(v0.16):

Unfortunately I can't show it here due to Patreon's rules, but the sex scenes used to be animated with only 3 frames. It was very choppy an unappealing. These days, most animations are in 24 - 30 frames, with the repeatable sex scenes including around 6 outfits for each action. This is the limit of what I want to do in terms of repeatable sex scenes, but I am very open to the idea of adding extra positions throughout the story.

When I first started developing sex scenes, it would typically fade straight into the animation and end with 2 - 4 images for the finishing actions. I like to include a bit more building up and post-sex moments now with these repeatable sex scenes. I remade almost every single repeatable sex option in v0.15 with this in mind, but there's still more to do with other characters. Namely Android. Hers are the worst at the moment and are in dire need of upgrades. Speaking of which, she's the worst to develop repeatable sex scenes for. Not only am I accounting for the position and the outfit, but also for the breast size options. When I remake her repeatable sex scenes, I will try to limit that option to only where it is extremely necessarily, such as when she tops you.

That's all for this post! I'll leave you all with a question; when did you start playing Harem Hotel? I look forward to your responses! Harem Hotel is still quite far off from being completed, so who knows what the game will look like down the line :)

Lewd previews during development can be found on my Twitter and Discord

As always, thank so much for playing and supporting!