Weekly preview - Emi & the plug (Patreon)

tl;dr - The next release is probably the last focusing on toys at all in the near future.

This week's images

These are from the new butt plug option for Emi. This is similar to the way it's used in the Nobuko scene; rather than using it as a separate toy like with the massager or other things, in this case you'll just be prompted if you want to use it during the sex part.

Moving on from the toys after next month

For my part, because I've finished these and it's been several months' work I'm pretty bored with the toy scenes. They fill a good gameplay role, which is to create opportunities for other content and ways to expand the complexity of the in-game economy. The biggest concern I have about them is just that they don't really hinge on pushing relationships forward, so the events don't feel "new" in the way that I like most scenes to feel.

I probably shouldn't talk down my own content too much! But I did include some other stuff, in particular the addition of phone messages to the gallery, to make sure there's something in it beyond just the toys.

Anyway, as I spoke about last week I'm looking at some other quite different things to work on and we'll see how they pan out for upcoming releases. I've had a variety of small scenes in mind for discovering in the shops district, I've got a Hirai/Nobuko/Shuji DP scene already made and I've also (as I spoke about last week) been wanting to finally knock out the Shizu ending.

Writing endings

I'll admit I don't really like writing the endings in the game - they tend to be something that gives me writer's block. For Emi and Nobuko I just went with whatever interesting scene came to mind at the time to get them out of the way quickly and I sort of figured the Shizu one would go that way too, but I didn't get an idea I liked enough for a long time.

I think I'm almost there with one, so that should be okay. Her ending has some main plot elements that I've had in mind for a while but the sex scene part didn't really come to mind.

The problem is that with my design approach, reaching the end of the flashback chain and getting the sex scene kind of is the ending. The "ending" that comes on day 21 is more of an epilogue to the relationship arc, and isn't even a proper ending to the story.

A lot of players seem to regard the endings as very important, so I don't want to be dismissive about them, but in my stories the relationship is already resolved at that point because I want to have some gameplay time between the player and the character when the relationship feels complete, rather than just building to that the whole time then ending it when things get hot.

For Lord Goblin I've basically removed "endings" from the design altogether (although that game also has some other differences that allow for that change), which is nice because it feels more organic to me that way.

What do you think about the endings in the game? Are they an important feature for you? Let me know in the comments below!