Road to the Demo (Patreon)

It’s Been A Week Already?

It always surprises me how quickly a week passes when you are working hard on something, for me it feels like yesterday that I posted the last One Week Heroine update. The state of flow I get into when developing makes the time fly by. Fortunately for me, I have a supportive fan base (you guys), a supportive wife, and two supportive cats. You guys make it feel easy to keep creating!

Progress Bars and Map

This week I took some time to determine exactly what needed to be completed in order to release the first demo:

These bars represent how close each aspect of the game is to being ready for the demo’s launch. I have split the progress into Character Artwork (character sprites, outfits, expressions), Other Artwork (lewd images, backgrounds), UI (the user interface, buttons), Audio (music, sound effects), Mechanics (gameplay, items, flags, variables), and Scenes (missions, other scenes). Let's look closer at each of these.

Note, this doesn’t track how close each aspect of the game is to being ready for final release, just for the demo’s release.

Character Artwork (55%)

My artist is hard at work for the demo’s release, Agent Molly Rook’s character artwork, outfits, expressions, and cum overlay are completed. Agent Ginger Piper’s character artwork is in the polishing/cleanup phase. EX and Quincy are still in progress.

The last character that needs to be completed for the demo is the Regime guard/soldier, there are quite a number of variations of this character as it is technically multiple characters throughout the game. Work on this character will start after Ginger, EX, and Quincy.

There are also three other major characters that will be worked on (as well as a handful of minor characters) after the demo’s release.

Other Artwork (50%)

There are quite a number of artworks that need to be completed for the demo. The most important of these is the lewd artwork. There are two flavors of lewd artwork: scene specific and modular. The scene specific artwork is for special once-off artworks that relate to major story beats. The modular artworks are reusable and can be changed in various ways e.g. different outfits, different types and number of cocks, etc.

Other artwork includes location backgrounds, and the introduction’s briefing slides. I tossed up if I should hold off until I had the final location backgrounds and slides done before the demo but that would easily push the first release back a minimum of two months and would easily make the demo release cost twice as much to get the initial artwork done. So whilst it isn’t ideal, for the demo, I am leaving these as generated placeholder artworks but these will be replaced gradually each release after the first.

UI (100%)

The UI for One Week Heroine is done for now. There is some polishing I would like to do after the first release but the current UI feels good and is satisfactory for the first release.

Audio (100%)

I am pretty happy with the audio implemented into the game so far. There are a number of music tracks, music loops, sex sound effects, and regular sound effects that I have accumulated that really add to the atmosphere and overall feeling of the game. The sounds for the demo are ready to go.

Mechanics (100%)

As a story heavy game, it is hard to really separate the mechanics out from the scenes themselves. Each scene has flags and variables that can be changed to affect future scenes. So this category focuses more on the foundational work required for scenes to do their job. Variables and flags for each scene have been created. Functions (reusable sections of code) have also been created for common events such as time progressing or corruption increasing. Finally, the shop and mission hub are completed. Thus, everything is mechanically ready for the demo’s release.

Scenes (33%)

This is the bulk of what needs to be done. The scenes include missions and other events (both triggered and fixed). I only count a scene as being completed if I have it fully added into the game, outlines and scripts don’t count.

What to Expect from the Demo

So what can you expect from the first release? One Week Heroine’s demo will include the introduction of the game, a fully functioning mission hub/shop, and the first day's worth of missions, scenes and other content. In terms of lewd scenes, without giving too much away, even though it is just the first day it doesn’t mean there won't be lewd stuff that can happen to Agent Molly (and others). If you are so inclined, you can do a significant amount of corruption on the first day, but there won't be much penetration… yet.

Next Week

Next week we will be looking at an example scene, how you can guide Molly’s path through them, and how Molly’s training will affect her performance.

This Week’s Question

Another week, another question! This time it is regarding animations in lewd CG:

How much importance do you put on animations in a NSFW game, are they required for a game to be worth playing?