December 4 Update (Crimson Gray: Yandere Maker) (Patreon)

Before your regularly scheduled post, we have a little surprise! Today is actually the first Sunday of Lustmas... the glorious season in which Simon Claus goes around the world delivering "presents" to all the good succubi. Thanks to patron Argo the Ratfolk and Annikath, you'll be getting some lovely themed art every weekend leading up to Christmas!

Once you've enjoyed that, we have our next pre-planned post about some other work I did this year.

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Alright, it's time to talk about one of the side projects I hinted earlier. As long term patrons will remember, I had some personal issues earlier this year and spent a while on minor projects to try to creatively refresh myself.

I had a fantasy that I was going to 99% finish a game, then I could say "I may have struggled to work on TLS, but at least I have this for everyone." That wasn't to be. My fantasy downgraded to presenting a complete section of the game, but that hasn't occurred either.

To be clear, I could have finished that section, or perhaps the entire game, but that would have required sacrificing significant TLS development time. So the project, and the work I did on it, has languished. I'm still passionate about the core idea, though, so I wanted to get into some detail now. Some of you have been waiting for this; sorry for delays.

Heads up, this post will be long on text/ideas, short on graphic design.

This would be an unusual entry in the Crimson Gray series, roughly 2.5 as far as the timeline goes. The premise is that you play as Lizzie and John* raising their daughter. As the title suggests, it tries to hit the same genre as Princess Maker, and it also takes inspiration from Long Live the Queen. I thought then and still think that this idea has some nice potential.

*I've toyed with the idea of having a story mode as well as a "free mode" where you make generic parents. The benefit of this would be that the first mode could be more story-heavy and have more sophisticated consequences, while the latter could have wilder outcomes. I was thinking all this during my most ambitious phase, though, so I don't know if this is feasible.

For those who don't know but are still reading, in the Crimson Gray setting, there are individuals with exotic psychological profiles, in this case resembling yandere. The central child of this game inherits Lizzie's condition epigenetically, which means she has many sociopathic traits and the potential for great violence. But, if raised well, she could end up mentally healthier than Lizzie.

So basically, every period of time you would decide what traits/stats/skills you want the daughter character to focus on. In addition to practical skills and school subjects, there are also psychological traits like mental stability. Events happen after that phase and their outcomes, both direct consequences and choices available, depend on what you've prioritized. An event were kids make fun of your yandere at school could go down very different paths depending on her sanity and skill with pointed objects.

Comparisons

A few things regarding similar games. I've tried to innovate a little based on my design thoughts, but of course this would require iteration and refinement if I want to get close to the polish of similar games. Still, I have some thoughts.

The Princess Maker series is generally more open-ended than I intend. You'll be able to create different sorts of yanderes, from socialites to killers, but they'll have to face similar challenges. To be clear, I don't intend to include any of the creepy elements from this series. No "Buxomize Pill" or marrying your daughter.

Long Live the Queen is another major reference point. This one has a style of branching and inherent mathematical complexity that I'm not sure I'll be able to match. However, I hope my design can avoid the feeling that there's no way to know what will be useful ahead of time. Different sections of the game and plot will have clear goals and I'm trying to offer multiple rational solutions to every challenge. No naval battles where the Naval Strategy skill is useless but Climbing is essential.

As I said, this is going to require refinement. Not only have I not done this sort of game design much before, it isn't that common anywhere. Based on the sections I finished, however, I hope that the result can eventually become a worthwhile entry to this under-served niche. That's why I hope to get lots of feedback eventually, especially from those who enjoy these games.

Basic Gameplay

The story plays out month-to-month from a year before your yandere enters school to the end of high school. I hope to hit a balance of abstraction and realism: you won't be able to just ignore school subjects entirely, for example, or you'll fail.

Mathematically this means a lot of different steps. One thing that I hope will both keep the game fresh and give a sense of progression is that I want to divide the game into four different phases: pre-school, elementary school, middle school, and high school. Ideally each will have a somewhat different focus and feel.

The pre-school phase is actually completely done, but it's basically a tutorial. Essentially you go through a linear set of events and make choices to prepare for your yandere's entrance to school. Once she enters elementary, however, things shift. You'll have more freedom to pursue a number of different subplots that will change how the final elementary events play out.

I need to do some conceptual work on the later parts of this, actually. I have a clear idea for the high school phase, as it's the finale, but I don't have ideas I like for making the middle school section feel distinct. It's probably premature to discuss that, though, so let's talk about our central yandere.

I know there's some "dress up game" appeal to these, but that doesn't really interest me. Instead, I would like for your decisions to have a visible impact on your yandere's development. The above is an example that Annikath helped me with, but it's only illustrative, not representative of a full "evolution system". I would like different pieces to respond modularly, so you can end up with many unique combinations depending on interests, skills, and past decisions.

Still, I hope this communicates at least a little. The shift from pre-school to elementary isn't huge, because the player hasn't made many choices, but there are already minor differences between composed yanderes and those that are wilder. In middle and high school, your yandere can get into different subcultures and otherwise develop further.

There's a serious risk of combinatorial explosion, but I hope that spreading this across various systems will give the player some freedom and increase replayability. One thing I haven't touched on at all is that there will be some other characters as well, to respond to character development in various ways, but it's probably too early to introduce any of them.

Conclusion

That's the game concept, anyway! I'm not talking about it because I intend to put more time into it now (in fact, aside from this post I don't intend to touch it), but I felt like patrons were owed an explanation of one of the things I was working on earlier this year.

It's too early to discuss the game in depth, but now and especially later I welcome feedback, thoughts, and questions from patrons interested in this sort of thing. I'll need to iterate on this one, but ideas that enter early in the process can have a bigger impact.

That is all for now. Numbers post next week!