Dev Diary #7 - Content 📖 (Patreon)

Officer on Deck! 🎖 A big welcome to all new crew, and a big thanks to those of you who renewed your commissions – It’s much appreciated! 😀

So, Captain rogueremy brought up something in the comments the other day that I figured was worth a dedicated Dev Diary. I’ll quote it here for anyone who missed it:

"Given what takes place in this update, and the game explicitly stating that a certain character could be permanently removed from the stable, am I correct to assume that it won't be possible for MC to experience all sexual content in a single playthrough? Even in the last updates, with Hanzi vs Fiora and Lancelot vs Morgana, whenever there's a choice it's between a guy and a girl. I'm inclined to always pick the guy which is fine with me, but I'm wondering if there's a way to play as bi to maximize the content without losing more characters from the stable? Again, I am totally fine with always picking the m/m options hehe, I'm really just curious about the game design moving forward!"

Good questions! My original plan had been to keep all sexual content available in a single playthrough of Phase 1 (the VN part of the game)… but as I reach the end, that’s come up against reality 😱. A big part of that is just where the storyline has taken me… Although I have an overall game map, I like to spread my wings when a new idea strikes... and the characters have a habit of misbehaving! 😂

However, the major reason is that I’ve decided to progress the m/m storylines, faster than originally intended, to reflect the make-up of… well… you guys! With over a third of you preferring m/m-only, and another third on the bi-train, keeping m/m in the slow lane just wasn’t fair... Especially since it was just keeping to a plan I made when I wasn’t sure how well m/m content would be received in an adult game! Knowing that there's a real audience for it has given me the confidence to accelerate 🚀

There are, however, some workarounds to full content… most pertinent for bi-players and anyone who just wants to see the full story regardless of sexuality. I prefer giving second, third and even fourth chances to enable content because so much is specific to the circumstances. Players who chose Anna over Chad in this update will be able to enable Chad later on (they just won’t have done this scene 👋🏻). Players who chose Chad will be able to re-enable Anna later on if they choose (although they’ll have taken a massive  ❤relationship hit… leaving her to be abused in a basement so that you could get with a guy is rarely the start of a ‘how I met your mother’ story 😬).

I was going to keep this close to my chest, 🤐 but this seems a good place to bring it up. There's going to be a cheat-screen at the end of Phase 1 so you can ‘adjust’ your previous choices. That won’t change your stats, or your story progress, but you will be able to enable kinks/characters you rejected, and remove those you regret letting in! That’s all to set you up for Phase 2 – which will eventually have a lot of replay value as you play for different Branch and Ethical endings. ⛪⚔🏥🧹👮🏻‍♀️

Okay – I hope that made sense. Let me know what you think in the comments⬇ or over on Discord, and feel free to suggest topics for future Dev Diaries (i.e. anything you’d like to know about in depth).

😘 RanliLabz

PS: Before I go, just a quick run-through of some of the things coming up this month. We’ve got a Favourite ServiCorps Member Poll coming this weekend, another Xenobiology101 guest lecture by Major Umbreeyoree for Sergeants+, and a Captain’s Name Contest for a new arrival in the next update. I’m also going to be talking Stats (i.e. the stats in the next Phase) and probably doing a Command Deck Questionnaire on them. Plus Christmas stuff! 🎅🏻

🖖🏻RanliLabz Out.