Honest Work Postmortem (devlog #4) (Patreon)

What is an update? A miserable little pile of code.

I've mentioned this already, so I don't want to beat a dead horse, but this update wound up being a tough nut to crack because I planned it poorly. That will hopefully not happen again. I've written about how I will avoid planning issues going forward over in the state of the game post for v0.3, so check that out for the deets. This update was, ultimately, a success. It's out, it's got a decent amount of content, I think it's reasonably well-polished (I wrote this sentence before I needed to release a few hotfixes...), and, thanks to a gratuitous shot of the main character's rear, I actually managed to get some attention on Reddit this time around!

Of course, itch.io has totally failed me and seems like its queuing and indexing is broken, so although I got more traffic than normal from reddit, the total lack of traction on itch.io has actually made this the smallest release numbers-wise so far. Yay. Nothing I can do about itch.io being broken, though.

So overall, this update is doing okay.

Before we go too much further, I want to take a moment to welcome any new patrons. Thanks so much for your support! 

Now, to business.

Puzzles

Honesty time: I conceived of the maid academy concept in August when I was working on uptown events. In my initial story outlines, there was no maid academy, though I did have some notes about maid-style content. But once the idea of an academy was in my mind, it seemed like such a good idea and a natural fit. While it could certainly be better, I'm actually quite pleased with how it turned out. Expect some smoothing and minor improvements in future updates though.

The puzzles in the maid academy also just sort of fell into place as I planned out the details of the academy. I needed some sort of puzzle concept. At first I was going to do a much more simplistic memory challenge--just having players pick the right options in the right order. I decided a word bank where you would move actions and phrases from a word bank to the blanks in the text, but I didn't get far before scrapping this.

I settled on the current puzzle system and I've actually grown quite fond of it.

Maids and Masters

I liked writing the maid content a lot. Expect more events in the maid academy in the future. I am considering adding some progression to it, so that you can take more lucrative jobs over time based on how "satisfied" your masters are with your services (or "services"). This could just be a payment increase, but it could also expand the available events and options. Let me know if that's something that may interest you! I like the idea but there's already so much progression going on in this game, asking players to grind out yet another tertiary thing may backfire. Either way, it will probably not make it into the next version even if the concept is welcomed.

My biggest regret is probably that there's no maid outfit. I considered adding one, and one may still be added in the future, but the player's clothes are only really seen in the menu, so it seems like a lot of work for no payoff. I specifically don't really mention what she's wearing when she goes to work as a maid, but I do imagine that she changes into a maid outfit of some kind. I may make this more explicit in the future. And some sort of art for this isn't out of the question, though it is low priority for right now.

Branching Paths

This update marks the first version with major permanently missable content. There were some events and variations that you could miss in previous versions, but they were usually pretty minor. This version starts to branch in a much more major way in the story and requests, giving very different results and options and scenes for different paths. Right now, other than save-scumming or doing a new playthrough, there is no way to see everything. This will only get more pronounced in the future.

I don't want to have good and bad paths and good and bad endings. Players may have preferences, but I want every path through the story and through each request to feel well-written and fun. I do not want these branches to be punitive. For example, if you just lewd your way through the maid academy, your character is going to be kind of a shitty maid, but that opens up new opportunities and, in my opinion, some pretty funny situations.

On the other hand, being a really good maid means you'll make more money and get access to different scenes that usually focus on the player character being subservient and professional, which I think is pretty fun, too.

Still, consequences are consequences, and some are bound to feel like failures more than others.

Technical Changes

I've also made some more engine-level changes to the game in order to prepare for the inevitable addition of mod support.

I would like to try to get some very basic mod support integrated into the Windows executable version of the game by early 2021. I can't promise that, but I'm planning on it. Only custom random events and sexual encounter scenes will be possible at first, and you'll have to write these using the game's custom SugarCube-forked scripting language, which I will also have to document, since it differs in some ways from the normal SugarCube language used by Twine.

Users will be able to write out their events using Twee files, or by exporting Twee from the Twine editor (this is easy in Twine 1, harder but still possible in Twine 2). Placing the Twee files in a certain game folder will be all you have to do to add them to the game, though the files will require some special metadata. You'll be able to test your content in the game engine from within the game itself.

Eventually, I would love to have a custom Twine "story format" that makes testing easy and that outputs customized, compressed files for the game, but for now, this is step one. In the future, it will be possible to add activities and actions, and eventually even requests. You will probably not be able to add areas to the hub, but you will eventually be able to add sub areas, like the maid academy. I say "eventually," but these plans are not set in stone. If people never really use the mod tools, there isn't much point in expanding them. On top of that, technical issues will certainly crop up, so I can't promise anything.

Needless to say, developing mod tools and support will take time away from content, so I'm only putting together the foundations right now. For right now, I feel that what the game needs most is content, content, content. If you are excited for mod support or want to see it fast-tracked, let me know. For right now though, my primary focus will be on content,

Trusty Patches

Why yes, I Dark Souls and Castlevania. I am, after all, a man of culture.

I've had to patch the game already a few times. Sorry about that! Please be sure to keep the game up to date! I don't want anyone getting stuck because of my incompetence!

Next Time

That's all for now. In the next devlog we'll finally take a look at the software and technology I use to make SS. I promised that over a month ago, but had to cancel a devlog. You'll see it next time!