Writers Guest Post (Patreon)

Hey everyone! We decided to do a guest post this week from the writing team so I'll let them take it away!

From the desk of Sophie & Pudding

Hi everyone!  This is Sophie from Sophie & Pudding and we are the writers for Littleington University!  We’ve written over 2 million words in ABDL literature, with stories such as Audrey & Staycee, Little Luzy, and Lillikol.  You can find our works on Patreon at http://www.patreon.com/sophieandpudding or on DailyDiapers.com 

What do you do for the game?

We’ve been on the project for about 10 months and we’ve probably written 98% of all the written words you see in the game.  This includes all main story dialogue, NPCs, quests, etc.  The only thing we don’t write at the moment is the object descriptions, and we might take that on in the future.

What do you bring to L.U.?

Pudding and I are particularly good at writing creative, distinct characters.  We want the world to feel alive and realistic, which means NPCs should be more than just placeholders.  A main character NPC should have a complicated personality full of likes, dislikes, dreams, and fears.  A random NPC you talk to only once should still convey a bit of individuality, even if they only say one or two lines.

We are also good at writing ABDL plots that are not ABDL focused.  We often find that if a story that is all about ABDL stuff feels hollow and tropey.  Instead, we try to work in diapers and baby stuff to not-ABDL plots.  In L.U. specifically, the island is turning your character - and others - into bedwetting, diaper wearing, dress-up adult babies.  But the plot is broader.  What’s with these Figments?  Where do they come from?  Why is the island suddenly turning people into babies?  What happened to the Director?  There seem to be conflicting reports on whether or not the Figments are even dangerous.  There’s a lot going on other than “you’re a baby now”.

Lastly, we are very good at writing sexy diaper smut. >:D  We haven’t had the opportunity to flex those skills very much in L.U., but it’s coming! (pun intended)

What’s your plan for the rest of the main plot?

No spoilers, don’t worry!  The introduction to university and the main cast took a lot longer than we expected.  We also didn’t get to touch on a lot of baby stuff because we wanted sort of a slow build up to the mystery.  But now, after the Gnosis Lab stuff, we are able to go into baby stuff full force.  I think unlocking Juniper Town really puts that into perspective.

If you’ve been following the main plot, you’ll know that it ends just before you and Remi are supposed to go into the caves.  This is going to be the first of three short mysteries, each with a different focus on ABDL stuff.  The other two areas are going to be a beach and a forest.  We think one might have an ABDL daycare; that’s something we really want to include.

After the three mysteries, where the player will discover more and more about the island and its odd magic, then we will have a final arc to close out the story’s main game.  This involves a somewhat lengthy sequence in which the rest of the game won’t be accessible, but it can be done at any time.  After the “ending”, the game will continue with only a few changes to the world space, allowing the players more time to play baby.

What else are you working on?

Right now we have four main focuses.  The first is the main story, detailed above.  The second is reputation.  There are three characters you meet at the start of the game - Aiden, Claire, and Taylor - who are… for lack of a better word, romance-able.  You gain reputation by talking to them, saying the right things, giving them gifts, etc.  Eventually you can get to the point where they will baby you.  We rushed Claire a lot as a beta test for Scenarios, but we have already re-written that to be much more in character and fleshed out. ^_^

As for reputation NPCs, there are a few more planned.  Belle is one of them.  Then we will probably have at least a few in other game locations, such as the Beach, Caves, or Mountain Path.  We want the future NPCs to be a little more “to the point”, allowing you to get the babying aspects faster, since they are introduced later in the game.

The third thing we are working on is basic NPCs.  These don’t have reputation and are used to make the island feel more alive.  In our first draft, we had a list of random dialogue options each NPC would pull from, which was very easy to do.  It also felt very unrealistic and lazy.  In the second draft, we gave each NPC their own dialogue.  This was a lot of work, but gives random NPCs a lot more personality and interconnectivity with the zone they are found in.  But we realized that the NPCs were no fun if they can’t tease you for what you’re wearing (or what you smell like).  So in our current draft, we added alternate sayings depending on different appearances of your character, such as “visible diaper”, “baby clothes”, “wet”, or “messy”.  We also added pop-up comments to specific NPCs (usually 1-3 per zone) who are coded as either “nice” or “mean”.  They shout stuff out to you as you walk by if you’re in baby clothes or a visible diaper.

The fourth and final thing we are focusing on are called Events.

What are Events?

Okay, this is some intimate dev team knowledge.  Depending on logistics, a lot of this might not even make it into the final game.  Events are why things have slowed down a little bit the past month or two.

Events come in two forms: walking events and location events.

Walking events will be your ability to pick an NPC and walk around the world with them.  This will probably be a part of the rep system.  So, say you get to a certain reputation with Claire, you can ask to go for a walk.  She follows you around as you explore the world.  This serves two purposes: 1.) she can do things in public like check your diaper or push you in a stroller, and 2.) allows you to take her to locations for location events.

Location events are pre-scripted scenes.  If you take Claire to the movie theater, for example, you two can see a movie together.  She might talk about your diaper, if you need a change, ask what movie you wanna see, etc.  There will be a few different branches so you can have some replayability here.  The goal is for each walking event NPC to have a location event at each place in town, for a lot of variety. (Also a lot of writing. o_o)

Maybe we could have a non-reputation NPC for some walking events too?  Like the RA at the dorm?  Just for people who don’t want to go through the trouble of making friends.  Just thinking out loud.

Right now, location events seem pretty reasonable.  Walking events are a little harder to code and we’re bumping into some trouble.  Stick with us!

How is it working with GaucheCheeks?

We operate on radically different schedules, so it’s hard sometimes!  He’s also a very busy bee; I can really tell how much effort and time he puts into this game.  He cares so much about what you all think about his game, so be sure to be nice to him!

I digress.

I would say that our relationship is very supportive and encouraging.  It wasn’t always that way though.  We think very differently; he’s a programmer, and we are narrative writers.  It used to cause me a lot of anxiety.  But in the past year we’ve gotten very good at helping each other understand where we are coming from.  I think we’ve really grown together as people.

I think my favorite thing about working with GC is that I can come to him with a totally outrageous idea.  Like “can I make all the NPCs say different things when you’re in a messy diaper instead of just a wet one??” And he says, “I don’t know.”  Then he comes back the next day with “Yeah that thing you wanted?  I did it.  Have fun.”  I wonder if this is how people feel when they write for video games.

What’s your favorite part so far?

As a gamer, I just LOVE the animations.  I know GC isn’t an animator, but he does such an amazing job creating cute and believable animations for the characters.  I love seeing my character waddling!

As writers, I think we have the most fun coming up with obscure references and weaving them into the dialogue.  We have a lot of pop culture stuff, like Star Trek and Harry Potter.  We also have some references to our own stories.  They feel like little Easter eggs for fans to find.

Why aren’t you focusing the main story?

It’s an asset issue.  When we started this project, GC had already made the docks, the cliffs, and L.U.  While we were working on that stuff, he made the Mountain Path and Juniper Town.  But since both of those zones are more “fun” than “story”, we caught up really quick.

So, while GC is working on the Caves and the Beach, we’re doing NPC rep systems.  Though, asking him to work on the Event system is probably delaying that a little bit. >_< Sorry, everyone.

When do you think this game will be done?

Honestly, I don’t know.  What started as a pretty simple idea has grown a lot.  We want to put the story together as soon as we have the assets available, then work on side content.  But the problem is, you guys still want something to play.  If we gave you 100% main story and 0% NPC dialogue/events/romance options you’d get very bored very quick.  A lot of the baby stuff is auxiliary, and that’s where a lot of the fun is.

So rather than rush the ending, we’re fleshing out the start and the middle so you guys can have tons of fun while we keep working!  That means taking more time, but it also means a more enjoyable experience for patrons.

If you’re set on knowing a timeline, I’ll say this.  We are about 1/3rd of the way through the main story.  About 1/2 of the way through all NPCs.  About 1/2 of the way through assets and animations.  And about 2/3rds through the starting reputations (though we want to add more when the game is done/close to done).

If you’re wondering /if/ it will ever be finished?  Yes.  All of us on the project are extremely committed.  For example, of the 50+ ABDL stories Pudding and I have written, not a single one is unfinished!  So hopefully that puts your mind at ease.

Are you going to add [BLANK] into the game?

Right now, we’re sticking with the basics.  The main story is about the Figments and the magic of the island.  It’s also about why people are becoming adult babies.  With the mysteries were are going to branch into some related content.  I definitely want to write an NPC that’s all about punishment!

After we near completion of the game, we are going to look at adding clubs/activities that you can participate in that are more niche.  We would love some ideas for those when the time comes!  But we want to keep the main game’s focus on ageplay, diapers, and regression for generalizability.

Sex is another thing that isn’t involved in the game at present… I don’t know if that’s going to factor in.  I’d love to do something more sexual and overt, but for a lot of ageplayers, that either misses the point or it’s a turn off.  So maybe it will be a side story event?  I don’t know.  Thinking out loud. 

I have another question!

Cool!  If you want to leave a comment, I will try to reply to them.  We want to be open and transparent about our intentions.  Just be courteous and kind, because I cry easily!

Thank you for reading, and thank you for supporting us as the writers for this wonderful game! 

~Sophie