Solvalley available + some thoughts (Patreon)
Content
First, Solvalley is available for all patrons from $3 tier or more in this post.
The post will be available to all patrons in the near future (sorry $1 patrons, but I have to do this to get the support I need to keep working on my games).
Now, some thoughts...
About Solvalley's new version (2.1.0)
Well, it's more Solvalley so I guess you guys already know what to expect. I tried to add scenes requested by the players, and since most of them request "sharing", I tried my best to balance things out, because I know that the silent majority prefers the solo scenes. My goal was to do 75% solo content and 25% sharing, which I almost achieved in the animations (74% solo - 26% sharing), but in the case of the images it was a bit unbalanced (68% solo, 32% sharing).
As for the scenes, the focus is on the two endings (Alexandra and Shibuya). I only revised the scenes once, so it's likely that I'll need to touch up the lines in the future, but I didn't want to miss the opportunity to get the update out before the end of the month.
As for Solvalley itself, the time is coming to close the project. I'll probably add 10 "slots" for future scenes in addition to the ones already planned in the game roadmap, and these will be the last 10 added regardless of what happens in the future.
If I don't do this, all of us who like Solvalley (myself included, because as an author my concern is simply to make games that I like to experience) will be stuck with a game that is already obsolete in many aspects. Its resolution for example is 1000x700, inherited from the old RPG Maker project, which looks horrible fullscreen on 1080p monitors or higher.
There are many old scenes from Solvalley that have a completely degraded image because I was using a super old version of Honey Select in the beginning. Solvalley is one of the first, if not the first, game made with Honey Select, when there were not yet the features that exist today.
I honestly think we need to finish this game and give Alex, Lucy, Miranda, Kyra, etc. the rest they deserve after so many years having sex like crazy.
When I finally finish Solvalley...
I will most likely start a new project with the same style, but better character models, better images, better animations, better resolution (at least 16:9 1080p), better writing, etc.
I'm in doubt whether to use Honey Select 1 or 2, I will experiment in the future to see which gives the best results. I have experimented with programs like DAZ Studio and have gotten some acceptable renders, but my ability to create animations in that program is almost nil when compared to Honey Select or Koikatu. So maybe I will do some small projects with DAZ but without it being the focus of my efforts because I think animations are completely essential for my games. I don't intend to use Koikatu (the same one I use for HS Tutor) because I want the game that replaces Solvalley to have more "realistic" and less "cute" graphics.
The game feeling will be "Solvalley style" instead of "HS Tutor style". I don't want the school theme anymore, I was thinking something like an office and all its different employees (mostly women obviously) or maybe just have the player arrive in a new small town where he will have the opportunity to meet its inhabitants and have sex with them. One thing I definitely want to change is the way the player gets around. Clicking on places and arrows is horrible, I will think of something like a "girl finder": you decide which girl you want to meet and the game will direct you to where she's at the moment, instead of you going around looking for them.
But these are just plans, I'll concentrate on HS Tutor and Solvalley before I think too much about it.
What I'm going to do now
I'm going to create two updates in a row for HS Tutor. The first will only have two scenes, one on the beach with Kelly, Charlotte and Megan; the other will be the Strip Poker final which will end with lots of sex.
In the second update I will probably go back to Scarlett, that girl who plays shogi, but I also want to start adding scenes with the school principal and her daughter (possibly two daughters?). The principal's daughter(s) will be the last characters added to the game, along with that cousin (sister? I don't even remember, I need to check) of Mila's that only appears in one picture for now.