House of Hellish Harlots: Roadmap 2023 (Patreon)

Patrons might have been confused by all the recent #SexDungeon23 posts, so I thought this might be a good time to put this out to detail where we're at with The House of Hellish Harlots and reiterate it's still my main priority at the moment.

Overall, what initially seemed a fairly straightforward idea has morphed into a fairly large project.  Thankfully, the core is still fairly straightforward.  The 'bloat' has come from the individual scenarios being comparable to longish short stories in length (5K+) rather than short short stories (~2K).  As it's resulted in better and more satisfying scenarios, I don't mind this, although it is a lot of writing (about 6 short story collections worth and counting).

I have been able to maintain a fairly regular release schedule, so I hope people don't think this is another of those 'forever' monster girl game projects.  It just has a lot of writing, and I'm trying to write it as fast as I can!

The ongoing plan is still for around 100 harlots spread across 5 factions.  I probably should have cut that down when the scenario length started to settle more around the 5K word mark, but it's pretty moot now.  While 100 sounds a lot, I'm already at 64 written and implemented, and most of the regular harlots are done.

Here's a rundown of where the individual factions are at.  I'm aiming for 13 regular harlot scenarios for each faction with some harlots doubling up for more than one scenarios.

Faction of Smother
12 of 13 implemented
1 planned out

The last slot is a repeat visit for Assphyxia, which - like Mammila - is a tweaked variation of her first visit.

Faction of Artificial
12 of 13 implemented
1 being written

Almost done with this one.

Faction of Sensuality
9 of 13 implemented
1 written
1 planned out

This faction is still a mess in terms of lore and will probably end up being a collection of vaguely similar harlots that use sensual techniques such as massage.  I intend to continue adding harlots (and factions) even after a 1.0 release.  This means harlots like Veronicella will eventually get shuffled out to filler and replaced with ones that fit the faction better.  My first priority is to get the project to 1.0, so there will be some 'loose fits' in this group.

Faction of Madam
9 of 13 implemented
1 written

This is also a loosely defined group, mainly being the more typical succubi.

Faction of Wrestling/Hunting
8 of 13 implemented
1 written
3 planned out (roughly)

This is the faction that needed most work and the one that has had the most progress since the last roadmap.

Filler
13 of 15 implemented
2 written
1 planned out

The filler harlots are independents to mix things up.  Technically I have more than I need queued up, but any over 15 can be assigned as loose fit to factions if I need to pump their numbers up.

My plan at the start of the year was to implement the 4 remaining harlots from the last poll, then push the number of rounds up to 9 (from 5).

However, this week I've been running into some technical problems with the Twine editor.  It was already lagging pretty badly because of the size of the project, but is now starting to timeout on occasions.  There are ways around this.  I'm currently looking into Tweego to split the project up into more manageable chunks.  I believe other Twine games like Degrees of Lewdity use Tweego.  It'll require some learning, but I have a rough idea of how to break the project up and hopefully it won't take too long to figure things out.

I don't want to give the appearance of being AWOL while I sort the problem out, so I'm hoping I can squeeze Cream Massage Girl and Fungal Dress Girl in and set them up in advance as January and February releases.  Eve Satana requires a code change as her scenario takes place in the bar rather than a room, so I'll hold her back until everything is stable again.  Mindflayer Girl isn't finished and I shouldn't have put her on the last poll.  I'm going to move her back to the next batch (2 new harlots are written and ready for that).

The technical problems are annoying, but they are with the editor rather than the game itself, so not full roadblocks.  The raw codebase is still pretty good, there's just a few too many passages for the editor to handle.

Once that is out of the way my plan is to lift the round restriction to 9.  Then I'll be back to plan as outlined in the last roadmap.

1) Round 5 Mini-Bosses
Rounds 5 and 9 will have special harlots.  The main distinction is that they will offer a choice of 4-5 different sex acts  (Similar to Succuba, but more detailed and each having a Bad End).  These will be like 4 or 5 of the shorter scenarios bolted together in one harlot.

2) Faction backgrounds and lore hints
This is to reveal more background of the various factions and steer players to the relevant end-goal.

3) Round 9 Mini-Bosses
Like round 5, but trickier to navigate.  However, for each faction there will be a replacement possibility.  Which is:

4) Round 9 Team-Ups
I have ideas for little sidequests that might open up a special scenario where two harlots team-up.  I have rough ideas for Assphyxia and Mamilla, Calliophi and Cerastesia, and some others (one of the ideas I'm currently writing is a soapy pitcher plant girl where her pot resembles a bubble bath.  I then had the idea to have Sapoonis join the player in that for both to double-team him).  These would replace the tricky Round 9 mini-boss visit providing the player unlocked them during his run.

5) Additional background lore and extras
This is to take the game up to Round 12.  Extras would be the bonus scenarios involving NPCs such as Nurse Honey.  The last of the regular slots will be filled in here (with maybe some of the NPCs occupying them).

6) Queens and endings
Each faction has a Queen.  She'll be similar to the mini-bosses except her sub-scenarios will be sequential.

7) Extra features
These are some of the other ideas I had for core mechanics.  This is things like random events in the post-room phase.  I squeezed them out of scope when I saw how big the project was getting, but might add them back in at a later date (likely after endings and 1.0 are sorted out though).

There is still a fair bit of writing to do, but I wanted to show I have a fairly organised plan and I'm steadily working through it.

The problems with the Twine editor are annoying, but I knew they'd have to be tackled at some point.  Using Tweego might also open up possibilities for graphics.  I'm stil worried about slowdown if I fill it full of pictures, but a nicer GUI might attract more eyeballs.  It does look a little too plain text and utilitarian at the moment.

Anyway, there's a plan for the year.  Overall, I'm maybe 70% done with the base game depending on how complex and long the Queen scenarios end up doing.  It is a lot of words still to write, so please be patient.  I'll keep putting out regular monthly releases and taking it closer to that ver 1.0.

Also, if you're more here for the short stories and other writing, don't worry.  I have plans there too.  More on that next week!