Beyond the April Update: New Development Schedule and Mod Tools (Patreon)

The April update will be coming out soon-ish. I hope to have the update preview out sometime next week, and I'll announce the release date then. After the April update is released, we'll be moving to a new development cycle. Instead of monthly updates, each update will be coming out in 6-8 weeks. If you're curious as to why this change is happening, here are some links explaining it, read the last sections in those posts. The short version is that the current monthly cycle sometimes forces me into unhealthy crunching, and I'm barely able to keep up. Giving myself some extra time will allow me to release slightly large updates, but the main goal is to have more time and more wiggle room.

Mod tools are also officially entering development in late April, but it may be a few updates before they are in the game. The first phase is to design the engine's internal API for handling mod content. The second phase is to design user tools for creating, editing, testing, and packaging mod files. The final phase will be documenting the game and engine, at least on a basic level. Mod tools will be patron-edition only for the foreseeable future, though they will come to the free edition someday. The web version of the game will not be moddable at all, only the windows executable version.

To a certain extent, modding relies on the community to have much value. However, I plan to create and release official mods (expansions? DLCs?) for the game here and there as timed (and maybe occasionally permanent) patron-only content. Again, this is just a plan, so I don't want to commit to it yet. Either way, it's a long way off. If the idea of patron-only content makes you nervous, these will mostly be content that I consider off-theme, so it's more like repurposed cutting room floor material than anything else. I'm still committed to Succubus Stories remaining a fundamentally free game.

I also have vague ideas for mod contests and things like that, hopefully with prizes. Because modding will be initially only available to patrons, I think that'd be against patreon's rules, however, so I need to think carefully about how to manage something like that. Modding itself will be as complicated as you want it to be. Adding new scenes or events will be fairly simple. Adding new activities, locations, potions, perks, requests, and traits will be complicated. Changing existing game content will be possible, but will probably require rather sophisticated JavaScript skill.