Behind The Scenes: The Backend (Patreon)

Hey, everyone! 

I'd mentioned during the Holiday Special I was doing too much at once and needed to narrow things down, so I thought I'd make a post to go over some of what I'd been working on.

There are also a few things I want to get your opinion on, so I'll have a few polls coming up. Most of them are about gameplay and design choices, so nothing too flashy, but I'd still like to know your preferences.

One thing I'd tried for the last Endowed update was updating the notifications. Originally, I made my own images, complete with text, and made them pop up at the top. The intention was add a sense of completion and let the player know when important things happened, like meeting a main character or when a major choice was made. 

This was how it looked originally:

And it was fine, but I looked around for something less... homemade? 

Eventually, I found:

I liked the look of it and can use it with text in game, meaning I don't have to take the time to make a new image each time. Cool! Problem solved, right?

Well, no. A few people pointed out... this notification is stupid and pointless. When we're introduced to a new character, isn't it a given we'll probably see them again? 

Perhaps it wasn't as annoying as a little humble notification at the top, but to take up the whole screen for a few seconds and basically put a halt to the gameplay, what's the purpose?

Valid point.

I then tried placing the notification back at the top of the screen. Here's the template I tried for Hypnosis:

A little less obnoxious, right? Not blocking the screen makes it less of an annoyance.

However, the point remains... what's the purpose?

So I revaluated when the notifications are actually useful. Character introductions? Not so much. I was originally going for the sense of accomplishment, like the little Playstation "achievement unlocked" vibe. But does meeting a new character in the game count? Not really.

So if it's actually an accomplishment, it needs to reflect the player's choices. An easy example would be finding a new ending. For example:

Now we're onto something! For example, in the previous Endowed update where you say no to the money and go home, did you know there were 7 different possible endings? No? Well, after seeing this notification, you would. Gives a reason to find 'em, and keep track of which ones you already played. 

So this made me think, perhaps the notifications should also indicate when you've discovered a scene not easily found. A date with Hottie Bartender, a rendezvous with Raya in the club bathroom in Endowed, something extra which counts as a bonus.

Most importantly, it could indicate when you're on the path recommended by the walkthrough. This way you'd know when you're headed the way you intended.

And this brought me back to reevaluate the walkthrough systems. Originally, in my first few updates for Hypnosis, I made it where you could simply choose the second option in every menu and follow the recommended path. Easy, right? 

However, the game soon started to turn into the behemoth it now is, with a big portion of the questions being more based on dialogue and preference than the story itself. There are several choices which make a huge difference in the story, but the consequences are sometimes not shown until several episodes later.

My second attempt with bringing the walkthrough into the game was to give a choice near the beginning asking if you wanted help in the game. I then added a little additional note to certain questions, such as "Apologize (Jenn girlfriend route)" to help incorporate the walkthrough in game. This worked well for a few updates.

The problem with this was... it was a lot of work. To keep the hints optional, I essentially had to copy the question and the following dialogue twice, once with the variable and once without. Not a big deal in itself, but when I'd go back to edit something, I again had to do that twice. Plus, at the time, I was taking each question into a section of its own, not realizing I could simply continue the code until the paths merged again.

This soon made it a decent amount of time to go back to update in addition to the main walkthrough, and became one of those things I started to skip when I'd be posting the game at 5 in the morning trying to get it finished before the end of the month and falling asleep.

Then, another dev started making a Hypnosis walkthrough mod. I started posting links to that instead, because it saved me a lot of work. The problem is, that dev stopped making mods for the different games. In addition, that mod only worked for previous versions, and trying to use it on a new one messes the game up.

I've spent quite a lot of time since researching how to simply make text in a choice optional. I searched the forums, reddit, everything google could find, and haven't found the option.

So now... with my new easily customizable notification, I could make it optional. This also works as a way to tell you when you did something right without telling you when you didn't, making it somewhat less of a hand holding walkthrough and more of a nudge that you're going the right direction.

However, I wanted to ask you guys what kind of walkthrough you'd like. So I'll do that in a future poll.

My own experience is I like to play a game initially without a walkthrough. I want to try the options without knowing the consequences. That's what makes it a game, after all. Otherwise I could just be reading a comic for the same experience. Not a problem in itself, but a different form of media. The fun of these kind of games, to me, is how interactive it is. I love it when my choices and watching the protagonist react to the path I set him or her on.

So these are a few things I was working on alongside the holiday update. I have several more things I'll be working on I've been planning on doing since Ashley was a C cup.

But most of those things will take a long time to fine tune and implement. For example, creating a gallery system where you can go back to view scenes again, a summary at the end of each episode to tell you the girl's stats for those who are interested, remaking several scenes, especially animations, and several other things.

Most of these will take place in the past of the game, which means more time away from the next update. So I won't be jumping into those yet, I want to come out with new content first. 

After this next update (which I plan to split in half to get it playable sooner) I'll start up on some of that stuff, along with several of the short individual endings to keep up the new content.

I was going to continue with more about the phone system I was working on in the game, but I said I would stop making my posts too long, and save that for another time.

Whew, boy. So much to do. Better get to it.

Thanks for reading!