Monthly Update - July 2024 (Patreon)

Hey, everyone!

Coming in a bit late this month, but not for any bad reasons. I was able to take a nice little vacation with family at the start of the month, and am now home and rested up from the trip. Thankfully I was still able to work through it, but some days were more productive than others.

Progress on the game is steady, although I spent more time than I expected on one part in particular. Surprisingly (to me at least), it's adding the extra path back in Episode 10 where the MC confronts Laura without being hypnotized. Originally I pictured it being simple enough to get in, add a couple of scenes and call it good, but I'd forgotten how many paths there already were (there’s five), making it a challenge to add a sixth without contradicting the others.

So what were the goals for this scene, and why did I spend so long trying to accomplish them?

I learned only recently how many players were avoiding Laura altogether, which meant they were playing the remainder of the game without the watch, missing out on a decent amount of content including getting with Daphne, commanding Brittany to give her a bigger rack, and a few others. In Episode 14 I did my best to add these options regardless, but it still felt like I was just patching holes in an old boat to keep everything consistent.

This portion of the game has only felt more important with time, so I wanted to take the effort to do it right. I plan to make this new path the recommended path, as it serves several functions. It allows the MC to "win" against Laura, at least in most ways. He both avoids getting hypnotized by her and keeps the watch. He also gets to experience Laura working on his behalf as she attempts to win him over, mainly by hypnotizing Daphne for him and encouraging the scene between him, Laura, Grace and Daphne in her bathtub, something everyone who avoided being hypnotized has been missing.

Especially after implementing the walkthrough in game, it made me realize there needs to be a recommended path. Thus, I wanted to get back to my original idea: A path where the MC essentially "wins" against Laura. Why didn't I write this from the beginning? Well... I tried.

Originally, I planned to write three scenes. Two where Laura one ups the MC, one where he gains the upper hand. However, once I wrote the third, she still found a way to win. So I wrote a fourth, and she was able to sneak in once again. The fifth was where they go in to steal the watch from her, which worked... until she texted Leah who was still under her influence to bring her the watch back.

Originally, these paths also split, leading to the broken watch branch for some and the main path for others. But these weren't labeled, and took place two full episodes later, which is far too long to discover the destination for. As of now, that branch can be found from both splits, as can the main path, making it less confusing and easier to access.

This path also makes an effort to better lead into Laura's conversation in Episode 14 by showing a little more hesitation and inner conflict on her end. Part of the reason she acts the way she does is out of fear of losing him, and that is far more clear in this path, making her redemption make more sense.

I'll readily admit I'm still learning this whole multiple path thing, and although I still allow myself to experiment from time to time, it's been humbling finding out exactly how much time and effort it can take to let the game wander off the beaten path to see where things lead. My long term goal now is to still make choices matter but still make the majority of the paths overlap so I'm not doing double or quadruple the work to keep production faster.

I've been talking about doing this for a while, and started working on it months ago. So what made it take longer now than I expected? A lot of it was consistency, both staying aligned with the other paths in this episode and keeping dialogue consistent in later episodes.

For example, in each of the other confrontations, Laura either pulls out the watch right away or discovers the MC and Grace watched the video of her on Brittany's phone, putting them under her control. So for this, it took several drafts to give a reason this doesn't happen this time.

What did I come up with? Firstly, they take longer getting there since they talked to Brittany, giving Laura time to rethink her "I'm going to hypnotize my closest friends and command them against their will" plan. Instead, she hides the watch again. According to the timeline, this goes along with the "heist" path where Leah distracts Laura and the rest go searching for it, with Grace finding it in her bedroom.

Secondly, the MC has a better plan this time around. It's simple but effective: Grab Laura as soon as they see her and pull her in for a bear hug. Luckily for them, she takes this as affectionate and relaxes around them, although the MC stays close to her so he could grab her hands if she tried to put them in her pocket. He hugs her again later and grabs her ass to check for anything in her pockets, but she doesn't have it.

So that all took longer than I'd like to admit to figure out the timing. The next step? In this path, Laura isn't quite so bitchy. Again, she's had a little more time to think things through, and instead of lashing out in fear, she is more prepared mentally, and believes the MC is able to be won over in part to the warm welcoming he gives her.

This leads to her allowing her vulnerable side to come out, and even confesses her feelings to the MC. Unfortunately... she doesn't believe in herself, or in him for believing in her, and tries to hypnotize him. He avoids it, but she doesn't realize it. The scene continues with her telling everyone to go skinny dipping in the pool, and we continue to the scene where she takes them all to her bath and their foursome commences.

Here the MC tries to give her one more chance by asking her to "release" them, but she declines. She's still afraid of losing them. Of course, this works against her, and becomes the reason they all abandon her.

Aha! All the goals accomplished at last!

In total, the new path is around 3,000 lines of code, which makes it almost as long as the second half of Episode 14. It includes a few extra scenes along with repurposing some of the existing ones. I plan to release it on its own, as it also includes all the fix ups for Episode 14 I've been working on alongside the next episode. I'll post a devlog with it to point out all the new content.

Meanwhile, how is Episode 15 doing? I've been pushing through it, but it still needs a decent amount of visuals. I'm doing my best not to spend too much time on them, as I feel like Episode 14 had perhaps a few too many flourishes in it that took longer than it needed to. I always try to remind myself, "hey, if someone was able to get through the first half of this game, they aren't expecting perfection, so I shouldn't be spending five times longer in making them" but sometimes I'm better about listening than others.

I take pride in my work, and I'm always try to keep things fresh and exciting, not just repeating the same clothing, locations and situations for each new episode. But there's always a point where I have to say "that's good enough!" and use it.

In summary:

I've been meaning to make this new path in Episode 10/11 for a while now, and I'm excited to roll it out when it's finished. It softens Laura a bit and humanizes her more, lending better to her redemption arc.

Thanks, everyone!