Status update Episode 9 (Patreon)

Being a DIK - Season 3: Interlude

The Interlude is now available for the Mini DIK tier ($5). Get it here.

It's a limited offer on Patreon to get the base Season 3 game that you can patch with new episodes in the future. After episode 9 is released, only patches will be available in the Mini DIK tier, and the Season 3 base game will be available from the DIK tier.

You can continue Season 3 using Steam, GOG, and Patreon saves from the end of Season 2.

Development news

This week I mostly spent on creating art and writing dialogue.

Based on last week's survey, it's clear that you want a poll in the lewd scene area first, so I've designed a poll that will be live tomorrow for the $10+ tiers.

Last week I talked about the episode 9 development, and today I wanted to say some words about development that reaches far beyond episode 9, which I need to start working on right now.

No story content will be spoiled in this post, but there will be minor spoilers for an upcoming mini-game, so you shouldn't read further if you want to avoid that. If you're ok with looking at previews for the upcoming episode, you should be ok with reading further.

When you create a game like Being a DIK, you need to have it planned. But some things you can't plan for, and sometimes plans change and get updated as the game develops. The creation process gives birth to new things you didn't plan for with time.

For me, mini-games grow organically as the game develops. As a perfect example, for Season 2, I knew what the storyline would be, but the actual mansion mini-game wasn't planned until before episode 5 development started.

To see if it would work and fit Season 2 gameplay, I created the entire mini-game ahead of time and simulated the rounds so it would make sense even when the rounds were spread out through episodes 6-8. I could spot potential issues by isolating the mini-game and playtesting it early. It also allowed me to balance the mini-game, ensuring that players could complete it during Season 2.

From a developer standpoint, this meant that the mini-game and the truckload of work that came with it were completed when episode 6 was released. Only small touches, bug fixes, and some synchronization with free-roams were needed after this during the development of episodes 7-8.

This entire concept of developing a feature ahead of time is something I will apply again but to something new and fresh. Meaning that the code I write during episode 9 development will have to work for future episodes and the planned duration.

This might sound like I will be spending a long time creating a new mini-game, but since I'm part human and part machine, I've already finished ~90% of it. And to me, it's the most fun, challenging, and intricate mini-game I'll probably create for this game... Probably... I fucking love creating these things.

I'm aiming to set up the framework for the mini-game so that development after episode 9 will be a breeze in this area. The mini-game will be about something the game has hinted at during episodes 7-8, namely party planning.

I'm still polishing and balancing the mini-game, but I'm confident that any player who likes thinking, planning, and strategy will enjoy it. The choices and how you play the mini-game will also shape your game in different and exciting ways.

For non-mini-game players, there will be choices instead of the mini-game, allowing for similar outcomes.

While I'd love to show you the main mini-game GUI, I don't feel comfortable doing that due to spoilers and design. I will, however, show you the perk screen, which in itself might not say much about the mini-game, but it can give insight into how versatile your strategies will be this time around.

The perks and the design are subject to change as this mini-game is still a work-in-progress.

Something I wish I did more of with the mansion mini-game was the perk system; it's something I enjoy a lot in RPGs and character building.

So, this time around, I spent time designing a perk system that offers versatility in how you approach the mini-game. I won't spoil more than this, but I hope you look forward to the future of the series in this regard because I sure do.

Thanks for reading! Have a nice weekend!

Dr PinkCake