Dev Diary #85 (Patreon)

Hellooooo! It's been a long time, hasn't it? Just one month ago today since the last DD. The joke is that if someone asked me, I would say that I wrote another one after that one, but no...

I'm going to try to explain a lot of things in compensation. For those who don't want to read it all, here's a summary:

The v12 is almost ready, 85% I'd say. The beta will be available next weekend (not the upcoming one, but Xmas weekend).

Let's go back a few weeks... I was sick for a week because of flu (negative covid, I haven't had flu for about 15 years, hit me really hard). This coincided with the week of more workload preparing the beta of v11... It was crazy but I managed to meet the estimated date. It took me an extra week to fully recover.

After all that, I needed another week to fix really dumb bugs in v11. Nothing new, when you make such big changes it's usual but I didn't expect so many stupid bugs (there are still some in the public version).

After that, I went full steam ahead with the new version. Planning, changing plans, etc... And here we are.

I made more interface changes, designed a new interface (panel), wrote the first main quest, the second level of the new girl... I've done almost all the planned content.

In case you can't see it, I've redesigned several icons to make them look better.

The new menu (panel):

I could have put another "block card" but today I woke up in a silly mood, I wanted to make the joke with the Discord sticker. Very professional.

Oh, yes, I've also redone several renders of some quests and made changes to specialisation but since it's all SFW, I'll explain it in the next public diary.

What's left to do? The next main quest (introduction to the dating system), design of the dating system, depth revision of the hard mode, and... little more. 

I'm still debating with myself whether or not to include Myra/Alina levels for this version... I was going to just do one (Alina) but then I thought it would be unfair if you couldn't choose who to have sex with first (like the Anna/Mara quest). So that means even more work and this time I want to stick to the dates because Christmas week is a weird week on a personal/family level and I prefer my workload not to be crazy during those days. We'll see my final decision, I'll try my best to include those levels in this version because v13 is going to be crazy enough.

As far as this version is concerned... There is not much more to talk about. I'm going to show you spoilers but they're really relevant so... I'll do a little off and say goodbye before showing anything. 

Off and not off, these days, apart from having found the music for when you will face Vanessa (it will have several phases), I already have in mind the dialogues of when the dungs are unlocked, surely in the not-too-distant future we will meet Enya's sister because I think it's interesting to make a small plot about that since she is related to the GV assault. She won't be a main girl and she won't live in the Manor but she might be a secondary girl. Oh, yes, she will be a "Blue Oni". 

On the other hand, these days, in order to design the new interface I've been checking stuff from Lisapi's Adventures, and... damn, I decided to cancel it at a time when it was really advanced... Looking at it from another perspective, I would make a lot of changes if I had to work on it again, especially plot-wise. I think L'sA has potential despite being focused on lesbian as the main theme. That doesn't mean that in future versions I wouldn't have added futa or the MC of LA being able to be controlled as well or something like that, the possibilities were many although the main theme is what it is, which I had a really good time writing and made the course of LA change a bit because I decided to focus the MC personality in a different way. For those who are curious, know that in Itch you can play the demo. 

Also, I mention L'sA because at some point I want to work on it again. Quite risky as it's lesbian-themed and it doesn't appeal to the same amount of people that LA can appeal to but still... I think it has potential but I'll work on it when the time comes. That time will be a long time from now, more specifically when LA is at the "beginning of the end", at a very advanced stage. I can't say too much because then I would explain the first ending of the game and also the real ending (it happens after the first one) and I don't want to spoil the surprises that are to come in LA. When that time comes, I'll go back to work on L'sA but as a total side project, and it will always be like that until it's finished. Why? That brings me to talk about LA 2.

Lust Age 2 (its final name is... NA but I won't say the full name for the moment heh), is a crazy project... I haven't talked much about it here, maybe a bit on Discord and the most I've done is show the render of Lisapi/Mara/Anna from the "future". They're actually descendants of GV but a line far enough and scattered enough that it's not incest, hah (it'll happen a thousand years after the end of LA). Though honestly... that project is still "in the oven" so to speak. Let's just say that right now I'm more worried than determined to work with that project or make it exist at all. Why? Well, as you already know, if my journey as a dev keeps going as now or better, in the future I would like to do different projects using different engines until I end up using DAZ 3D, although I have more and more doubts because every year there are more and more games made with DAZ and it gets repetitive, a bit like Koi/HS1, that's why little by little there are devs trying to transition to HS2 or some crazy one will design using Blender/Unity. I wish I could do that, so I could design my own Genshin Impact hentai version without gacha system. As I was saying... My main concern is to go from Koi to HS2... For those who don't know what it is, HS2 is the "ultra mega HD 2k" version of HS1 (HS1 = Harem Hotel, Mythic Manor, The Headmaster, and the like). I'd give you an example of a game that uses HS2 but I have no idea of names, honestly. I discovered HS2 thanks to the Koi community and Pixiv, so I started to investigate.

I personally like the graphics of HS2 a lot because they have a "realistic" touch but it's still in the style of... Final Fantasy, let's say. Has its own charm. As an H-gamer I don't care what engine is used if the game is cool, the girls are well-designed, etc., but we all have our own criteria. The problem is that I have to think with a "business" vision and make decisions according to it, this is still a business with which I make a living from it, and I have to take care of my job. So, well, I've seen several devs over the years that have changed engines and are doing really well, but it's not usual to see something like that. In my case, I find it quite interesting because of the very premise of LA 2: It takes place in a very distant future, and what better way to reflect that than with a more modern and "realistic" graphical revamp? If it wasn't for this, maybe LA 2 would be designed using Koi but I find it interesting to transition in this way. I know this would appeal to more people who aren't so interested in Koi games but it's risky. I'm sure at least one of you is here because LA is designed using Koi, if it was designed in HS1-2 or whatever, that person wouldn't be here. Yeah, I guess I'm dramatising a little bit but from my position, it's more complicated than it may seem when there's a lot to lose and not knowing what can be earned in general plus the "failure" of L'sA... it put my confidence and motivation to work on other projects in question...

Anyway, LA 2, L'sA... all that is in the very distant future although as for LA 2, the story is at a quite advanced point in my mind and I have more or less planned all the content of the first version. In fact, I have Lisapi, Mara, Anna, and I stopped designing because I focused on LA but I was going to design Maria, because Mara/Anna/Maria were going to be the first main girls in the first version. Oh yeah, all the girls are designed x2 because... well, I'm not going to explain anything for now but for each main girl it requires designing her twice. A crazy project... I'm still thinking about introducing that you can choose between male/female as MC, both siblings, and descendants of the GV Champion, combat system, a lot of professions, maps, dungeons, x2 dating-system, wholesome harem themed with the same fetishes from LA 1... Really ambitious, hence all my concerns. We'll see in the future although honestly I'd really like to work on it in the future (and no, as much as I've thought about it, in my mind it doesn't fit at all to use Koikatsu for LA 2).

Too much off-topic for today, don't you think? Damn... I've been wanting to comment on all this for a long time... I wanted to take advantage of the fact that I've been reviewing L'sA these days to tell you all about it.

I'm going to say goodbye here and leave you a few really interesting spoilers. If you don't want to see spoilers about Lisapi... better close the post, all spoilers are about her.

See you!

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In the first quest of this update, we will go to the Refuge.

Will we bathe with them? You know how that would end...

Without Maria around? It could end very badly. So better go back home.

Interesting things will happen at home.

We have the full menu.

It only took me 12 versions to show how Maria sits on someone's face.

But she is not the only one who will enjoy a snack.

And... it's finally happening again! You no longer need a saved game in the hot springs... Repeatable event for you!

And with this comes the obvious... unexpected? I don't think so.

She actually starts at lvl 2 (bond), the main quest includes her task but she is not unlocked as a main girl until the quest is finished. To make it a "surprise".

Boom, we're going straight to her level 3 (task). I will probably make it a requirement in a future quest to have this task completed as it is relevant to the plot. 

I've shown too many spoilers for today so I'll leave this here and see you.

EXTRA: Fucking Lisapi will not be a repeatable event, it's just part of her task event, so... "Hehe~"

See you!