Roadmapping 2023: NTR’s Path Ahead [Big Post Warning] (Patreon)

Hey there hungry dining fans, or as a certain “Blondie” might say, “Hi-Hi”! We’re back again with a big packed post of planned steps ahead, as it’s the time of the year for setting our sights ahead to next winter, and setting down some goals for y’all to be hyped about. As we did with Agents of Heels recently too, today it’s Noemi’s turn for some intro/extrospection!

So then. If you’re a fan of fine Italian delicacies and knowing what the secret menu may have instore for the foreseeable time ahead, take your seats at your favourite tables and buckle up! One thing first though, for those who skipped over the AoH version for whatever reason, we did make a rather important but perhaps obviously inevitable announcement about our work flow. We are officially moving to a 6-week development cycle form 4-weeks, for a variety of important reasons, front of which are quality and best set expectations. Sadly that means 50% more time per release, and so about 50% less release chances on the flip side of it, so best we bear that in mind as we make this list of our goals. Fair?

Well, let’s get into it then, it’s what we’re all waiting for!

2022 – Getting Here

We’ll make no mistakes or spit shines about the last year, it was a tough one and not at all our best in terms of progressing things. Honestly, we always wonder ourselves just what is the right balance to strike between acknowledging such shortfalls and internalizing them in aims to do better, and how much we should look to the future and practical improvements instead with that time… Well, this is a post all about the future, so let’s not get too bogged down. The bright side of the last year is that we saw 3 full releases of Noemi, and those 3 releases came with a lot to enjoy. We set ourselves 5 major areas to improve in, which became our 5 top goals, and each and every one got something towards them we do believe. We saw plenty of Salcontent (though don’t we all always want more?), we saw Frankie get some attention too (and her womanhood out for us at that), there was some Main Story to see, we expanded the gameplay in both content and tactical play, we rebalanced in places and we even had the boon of Sound and Music added too. In many ways it was a good year with what we were able to do, so in 2023 we’re steeling ourselves to aim for that much again and more,

That’s our lead in from the last 12 months. That’s the course the river of time as meandered for us, and we should all have a fair idea of the base we aim to build on for the year ahead. So how about we talk about the 12 months ahead already!

Top Line Road Map

Last year’s Roadmap laid out a bevy of beautiful goals we wanted to make ground on, and the first half we did well enough on, but as we know, the tail end tripped us up. Well that just means we have a place to pick ourselves up on and run from, huh? Our ideal state to reach is the same as it was back then (we did tell you about before, yeah?), to pull up the underdeveloped arcs to a point we can see almost all the potential branched paths start out and get a taste for them. That way we can at last come to a place where while we are developing v0.xx, the fans can be voting on the Major Focus for v0.xy / v0.xz from there favourite arcs and content, bookended by Minor focuses of Main Story or Kriem/Frankie/Kelsey as we see as best for balance. Won’t that be so very nice?

We won’t be able to reach that point in the year ahead, alas, but we can get a lot closer and so that’s were our focus is with this Roadmap. As mentioned above, we are expecting to need 6 weeks per version at the best of our abilities from here on, which means that realistically we’re looking at 3 versions of NTR (v0.21-v0.23) this year, not including the upcoming v0.20 still on holdover from last year. In that time, we’ll be focused on pulling up one of the last remaining arcs to some level of parity to those we’ve seen to in the last 12-18 months, specifically the Beck arc. It’s that or the Brad arc (at lest one of his anyway as it paths early, which we know already), and we suspect that Beck is the best way forward at this point. He’ll take up about half of the scene content this year but we’ll also be spending some time with Kriem and Kelsey as well, as we still have work to do to further improve the gameplay side in the way Frankie scenes have as well as finally round out Noe’s days off menu too. Any stretch action on the goals that comes our way… unlikely but not entirely impossible… will be on the Brad side, specifically the “Give Up on Brad” path, as again, that’s what y’all want to see there, huh? Indeed.

And so that’s the top line, big picture outlook. The 10,000 feet view from above you might say. What will that look like in actionable form then? That’s our next topic to talk about then. Time we turn our wants into the usual Big 5 actionable objectives. Shall we?

Note: Once again, Roy’s arc is on the long finger as we decide what we can possibly achiever with that one and what time it will add to overall development. We won’t have time for it this year anyway, so that much we can say for now.

Top 5 Priorities

(Ah, Kel-Kel. How we do love to see you so happy).

As has become our custom around here, since NTR still as a whole lot to offer and achieve compared to AoH, we like to set up our Top 5 things that’ll most improve the game in the jaunts ahead we best think. For 2022, we can sum up those very things as simply as something like this:

A bigger focus on all the girls at Little Toscana, Noe most of all but more time for Frankie, Kriem and Kelsey than before. More sexy encounters and more actual sexing overall, and again specifically including more girls than just Noe. Continue keeping up the focus on restaurant themes, mostly through Sal content and also attention to the daily gameplay sections. Lastly, improve on the current gameplay by addressing the untapped potential the side girls can bring but are currently lacking in play incentives to make it worthwhile.

We made decent progress on a lot of it, but some was stymied by lack of releases to actually place the content last year, and so this year will be partly making up the shortfall and partly making the needed pivots to achieve that “ideal” place we mentioned in the Top Line section. Thinking and rethinking on these and how much path we see before us for 2023, here’s Our New Top 5 for 2023:

- A heightened focus on Noe’s personal character and her relationship, particularly in regard to the kinds of infidelities and taboos she’s becoming more willingly entangled in, outside of the pressures of the restaurant as well. The best way to do this is with more Beck arc content as they but heads over more pointless bets, the sexier the better. As mentioned, any stretch content potential will further reinforce this via Bradarc content.

- Right after that we’re keeping the goal of “More Se.x and Sexy” for the third time in a row, because the core nature of the game is that certain kind of delight, this should always be a focus. We know that comparatively we have high quality but lesser frequency lewd, but as more arcs reach into the mid-to-latter half of their runs we can really start to make more x-rated per version attempts.

- Keep the variety of girls going and stay open to including more than just Noe in the good times, though reduce the scope a little. We’ve added a fair amount to Frankie recently and Asana has have a triple hit of versions already too, so this year will include Kriem and Kelsey more, while not crowding out Noe’s screen time in her own game by trying for all other girls at once.

- Keep the improving, expanding and properly incentivizing the gameplay side of things. We know not everyone wants us to continue with game elements, but this is a case of us using our developer’s prerogative. We want it and all the extra delish idea outlets it brings. We want to learn from experience and to do better, and so it’s staying, and since it’s staying it’s worth making a goal of it.

And that’s 4… 4? Not 5? That’s actually right, yes. So Kelsey wasn’t being honest with us above…? Hard to believe, we know. Given we’re looking at 3 versions for this year (it just so happens it lines up that AoH gets the chance at the bigger slice of the pie this year), trying to progress on 5 goals at once might be a little too watered down. Instead of adding some 5th filler piece, we’re instead making this a year of a 4-point focus so we get good progress on all things above: More NTR-esque situations for Noe, more lewds and sexiness overall, time with Kriem and Kelsey (both character driven and adult orientated) and all the better gameplay. That’s all laudable to reach for right? Yeah, we believe these are the best steps forward from now to next Christmas, so let’s go for them!

Scenes and What to Expect

That’s our big headlines set above. Time to talk about how that’ll translate to actual content, the scenes we’d like to see, as it were. Why is it that we figure those are the best things we can do for the game right now? Just what is there in all this text to get tingly feeling about? This section will give a little non-spoiler insights into both those questions. Once again we’ll be keeping to the Major and Minor focuses per version, but the real division in content will be between the girls in focus, so let’s frame it that way.

Noemi Goodness – Pretty much all the non-gameplay, non-side girl arc content will be for Beck this run ahead, and will be just shy of about 50% of all that’s in our eyeline right now. Since we’ve already seen Beck before, y’all likely know what in general is in store thematically and sexily, huh? We’ll not spoil it then. Still, we’re homing in on Beck again as we left off with him a little too early last time (you know exactly what we mean). With him we get a lot of what Sal brings to the table, and while he’s not nearly as openly malicious, his intentions are pretty much the same… Only his area a lot more attainable sooner rather than later, which is what we want and need for Noe right now. We’ll be advancing his arc moderately, including showing off exactly where and how his arc splits, so be ready to enjoy two varying ways to have him spannering up the workings of Noe’s (love) life.

The Team Noe Girls – The remaining (bit more than a half) of the scenes content will be split between Kelsey and Kriem as they catch up on their Milfy colleague Frankie’s recent escapades. It won’t exactly be split down the middle either, but we suspect the attentive fans are already speculating some about girls’ involvement in our other arc content, so there will be plenty to see. As we’ve seen with Frankie’s jaunt recently too, Noe will be highly involved in their lives too, and hence she’ll still be pretty much in everything we do this year. The idea here when all’s said and done is simply to expand out the girls around Noe as they become more involved in things (we don’t like flat characters around here, duh!) while we have a chance, enable the last of the gameplay expansions sooner than later, and honestly, just to see some extra (and different) boo.bs, but.ts and in-between thighs along the way. Who can be opposed to that?

Gameplay

Now to the gameplay things, how delightful! It matters to us though, so let’s talk a bit about what we intent to do about making it more of a joy than a chore. We started out on rounding out the systems we’ve already built up but never really tapped the potential on, and we even got some ways down the line on it, just not far enough for our own liking. We’re going to continue in on this trend this year, reaching the full width of our plans for the gameplay so that we can in future go all in on depth from then on out. Now, to each of our two sections in turn:

Downtime Phase – Noe’s days off give us a lot of opportunities for outlets of fun and wildness, too many in fact that it takes real self-control not to fall down a rabbit hole. Still, there is room for a little more in Noe’s potential downtimes as she expands her horizons and indulges the “La Dolce Vita” in her. To that end, what room we have to build here we’ll be spending adding the last of Noe’s new hobbies, like we did with adding “Clubbing” after getting to know Frankie more. Our goal this year is to complete adding all 9 activities to the board, which will pull us over the 40% mark for what we consider the minimum content for this side of the gameplay. Almost halfway there! We say “minimum” because we may add more outcomes to the 9 activities after we reach that point for added sexy to find, but that discussion will come later. For now, you think you can guess what fun and outrage activities 8 and 9 might have instore for Noemi then…?

Restaurant Manager Phase – Inside the shop, we’ve got plenty more still to do. A lot, lot more. There’s plenty of spaces to fill in across all jobs in the restaurant with the Nerve points Noe can already build up, so filling them in, removing the “coming soons” from the Nerve UI and most importantly reducing the amount of repetitive outcome drops as much as possible is our goal. Keep it getting sexier and more fun! We’ll be zeroing in on some of the most used jobs too, like Resting, Cooking and Waitressing, as well keeping “Bad” (aka sexy but less ideal for the girls) in mind as well.

Stretch Content

We’re almost done, son! Almost. Nobody said the road forward wouldn’t be long! Still, let’s get to wrapping up. One last section on the stretch content (if any) so you know what’s in our heads if we manage to overachieve, because we do think more than just a few steps ahead.

It’s highly unlikely we’ll get more than the 3 versions already listed here this year, and it’s already a lot (but realistic) to be aiming to achieve in said hits, but 2022 did see our first ever back-to-back Noemi go of things so who knows what 2023 holds? If we do get any stretch content, the scenes will be for Brad to claim. We have good reason for that too. While the hubby isn’t the most exciting character in an ntr type game at first glance, there’s plenty to enjoy in his story, especially the “Give Up” path as we mentioned. The idea is not to treat Brad as a simple prop in the story, a reason for Noe to have a ring on her finger but he’s never really around, you know? We’ve seen time’s Noe’s stepped out and had “encounters”, it’s worth seeing what that means for her at home, right? She is still getting married as far as we all know after all!

Too Long, Didn’t Read

And that’s it, that’s all the news we have for the day. A whopper of a post but if any is worth reading and rereading over the course of the year, this one should be it, wouldn’t you say? Still, for those who want the highlights right now or only that, here’s the TL;DR version:

Development Update – An official switch to a 6-week cycle for each version of each game instead of the now impossibly impractical 4-weeks. Simply put, even at the best of times we need more time than we did years ago to fulfil the kinds of quality we can muster.

Goals and Priorities – A renewed focus on Noe, her cheating, and her entanglements with Beck as the antagonist dejour. Keeping up on what we started for the other Toscana girls, specifically more screen time for Kriem and Kelsey. Once again a commitment to more lewd, adult and x-rated scenes/content, and further expanded/incentivized gameplay sections.

Scene Content Focuses – Making moves and progress on the Beck, Kriem and Kelsey arcs, with any (unlikely) stretch content coming for Brad.

Gameplay – Continue the final expansions to Noe’s days off in her Downtime Section, in line with the furtherance of the other girls’ content, giving more options to round out your girls’ stats and tailor them to tactics when playing. Also keep filling in the open outcomes in the Restaurant Manager, including some sexy stuff for the most used jobs around the shop.

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*Exhale*… Wasn’t that a whole lot of talking, huh? Well, it was all about a topic close to our hearts and a woman we love for very sinful reasons, so it’s worth it. Yes, that’s the menu for Little Toscana this year ahead. We want plenty, and we’ll always want more than we get, but this feels to us like a fine and (importantly) a realistic set of steps forward into pure lewdness for our favourite Italiana OC and her crew. So that’s it. That’s our year ahead. We hope you’re as excited as we are for it… Now let’s get to putting in our orders, soups on!

Be coming around for dinner all year and beWilder!