Sex Advice Succubus - postmortem (Patreon)

wowee, it’s the first month-long game jam i’ve done since… contract demon??? woah. i’ve really missed this feeling!!! let’s get into it :)

how’d this happen anyway

i talked before about strawberry jam and how a “horny game” could mean a lot of different things. i’m still uncomfortable with the idea of making an explicitly nsfw game (i don’t play them myself) but i like writing about sexual topics because it’s an important part of relationships (including the lack of it! don’t worry i’m ace lol). so this seemed like a great opportunity for a story that talks about sex without anything actually happening!

for many years i’d thought about making a game about a succubus helping people out and having a nice time with her clients, but i didn’t have the guts (or an excuse) to go for it. i have a few monster girl type OCs from before treat and syrup were written that i still really like, and chloe is one of them! i have old succubus designs too, but i scrapped them in favor of qmin. i’ll include the older drawings in the art collection whenever i get around to making it (someday…!)

months ago i had this idea for a neat ui layout, having the game screen split into thirds so you could see two characters interacting over direct messages:

i thought it might be something i could use for contract demon 2 (whenever i’m able to make that!), thus the phone. but i wouldn’t want to change CD2 so drastically from the first game… and it’s a cool enough idea to warrant designing its own game around, rather than shoving it into a sequel for something else.

but yeah, combine those two ideas and you get sex advice succubus! from there i could practically see the game in its final form already, so i just had to start making it!!

this game came together so fast omg

i spent the first day or so setting up the basic screens, designing qmin (since chloe already existed), and drawing the rough bg and busts so i could see how everything looked ingame. i like to be able to make test builds as soon as possible so i can share them with friends to show them what my idea is without having to write it out in text. the first build was done on feb 4th with a 1k wordcount. their dialogue is basically unchanged from the final game (my writing process is usually one and done like this).

i don’t really know what to say about it other than i started writing and quickly found out i had a lot to say about the topics that came up in the game. i didn’t make an outline or anything, not even a flowchart (which would’ve honestly been handy to have!). the script was very free flowing… but i think that worked to its advantage since it’s a conversation game!

the second build was done on the 5th, up to 2.8k words, the next day the third build got up to 4.5k where i thought i was done, but then i added one more ending on the 8th and the script was complete. so uh… basically from nothing to a full (unfinished) game in a week! the comfort mechanic and the music player were in the early builds since they were key to the experience, but i saved polishing all the screens for after the script was done…

i stayed up really late some of these days because i was having too much fun writing. adding the expression changes while i go makes the process a lot slower, but it also finalizes it really quickly… i like doing it this way because i get to see how the whole game feels, and then play through it again once the art is all finished (the art was finished last!)

it felt great to be able to blast through development and get it to a satisfying state days almost a full week before the jam’s deadline! i even took it easy and did other stuff a lot of the days… game dev really goes so fast when you know exactly what you want to make and just make it hahaha.

some design thoughts!

this section has some spoilers, so skip ahead if you haven't played yet!

it was important to me that qmin wouldn’t be gross to her clients on purpose. i also set it up so that making chloe a little bit uncomfortable wouldn’t punish you too badly. a lot of options that you think might make her hate you are actually fine, and some options can unexpectedly lead to discomfort… but ultimately getting through that discomfort is what allows you to reach the most satisfying ending, which is something that matters a lot to me! discomfort isn’t a bad thing, it just happens sometimes, and how you deal with it is what really matters.

aside from the single bad ending, the comfort meter doesn’t matter that much except for seeing different flavor text. i wanted the different options to be fun to explore, rather than giving an optimal path you should be following every time. it was nice to have the excuse to do some worldbuilding, especially with regards to chloe being a ghost, which i knew people would want some answers about haha. you can also get some background on qmin when choosing how to respond to chloe asking about her job! it feels like a very rounded out story even when it’s this short… i really love this format where you get sprinkles of new information each playthrough, but none of it is make-or-break to your enjoyment of any single runthrough… at least that was the intention :)

the girlfriend ending was the last one to be added, since i realized qmin should be encouraging chloe to talk to her gf rather than figuring it all out on her own (even if the other routes end with chloe saying she’s going to talk to her girlfriend anyway haha). the gf end is bittersweet because you don’t know if their visit will be as satisfying as chloe hopes, but my headcanon is that they’d eventually find a way to make it work between them even without qmin’s advice.

kinkster end is the best because it’s exactly what chloe wants, just to be able to touch her gf when she thought she would never be able to!!! it’s the perfect solution and also is probably awakening everyone to a new kink to explore with their ghost ocs (even i felt awakened when writing it lmao). wait, sorry, this was a postmortem wasn’t it?? i’m spending too much time gushing… i just really love these characters, they ended up meaning a lot to me!!!

wow the music!!!

i had been struggling with making songs for the last while, so i knew that i didn’t want to make the soundtrack this time (especially since i had to save energy to do the another piece of candy event AND not burn out before nanoreno)

i thought it would be really cute for the music to be diegetic in this game, and have a playlist of tracks you could choose from rather than having the songs be related to the mood of the scene. jaelights had mentioned wanting to make songs for me before, so i asked her if she would want to contribute to this game… little did i know, she was about to knock out a bunch of bangers in a matter of days!!! i was so impressed, they all turned out so great… i’m glad she could do the soundtrack for this one! thanks jaelights!!

i also asked chunderfins if he would want to do a remix, since my original plan had been to ask a bunch of different musicians to contribute before jaelights gave me so many tracks at once… i suggested he pick something from treat since a lot of my other games were already represented and it felt weird not to have a treat song. we ended up deciding on wormwood (one of my personal faves), and he had a blast making his super cool remix!!!! I LOVE IT… what a treasure. thank you chunderfins.

having the bonus tracks unlock when you reach an ending was decided kinda last minute. it feels like such a nice reward for clearing everything, and gives you more choices in what you want to listen to as you go through… i really hope that having them autoplay doesn’t stop people from listening to the OST, but i won’t know people’s habits with the music player without seeing playthroughs, and i doubt there will be many of those considering the content! it’s tough. but i got to listen to all the songs a bunch when i was testing, so i hope people are also picking their favorites and just grooving out for a while between endings :)

this game is too small and there should be more

as i was finishing this game i thought of more installments i wanted to write, where qmin talks other characters through their problems. and i’m REALLY EXCITED about my ideas for this…! but i can’t go right into making them because nanoreno is starting and i want to (need to!!!) finish treat 8 this year. so i’m casually hoping SAS gets a growing fandom of people demanding more content so i can rightfully move it up in my schedule… right now i honestly feel like i could finish a new installment in 2-3 weeks BUT i’ll be patient! SAS expanded version is for future nami to enjoy working on… along with more contract demon and more starry flowers… i’m extremely jealous of my future self but i know i’ll get there one day!!!!

um, sincerely thank you everyone for letting me make a nsfw game this month. i was pretty hesitant about it but i really loved the idea, and i can’t be stopped when i love the idea of something. so i would probably make this no matter what, but i’m really glad it seems to be very well received! what a relief…

again, i hope i can make more. but i’ll be sure to balance it out between sfw releases since i am definitely not done writing my usual stuff :) my nanoreno game will be very wholesome. because it’ll be about cassia! i’ll start posting previews next week, so look forward to it!! thanks!!!!

<3 nami