Game Update #39 (Patreon)

Hey there, folks! A new month brings a new game status update. Last month saw the long-awaited public release of the Club Update, and this month will bring even more content as I wrap up the New You Update and work in earnest on the next story release, the Morning After Update.

I also have the results of the preliminary Grind'm poll to choose the second guy getting a bonus in-game hookup. Let's get into it!

Art

The big art task for the New You Update continues at a steady pace. A recent big accomplishment for me is finally having new sprites for the new version of Connor. These are the expressions you'll see all game long, so they need to look good!

I struggled a bit because I was trying to keep the same pose as OG Connor. As I've worked more with the new Connor model, I've learned his best angle is his left side—and the original pose had the right side facing the camera.

New Connor has a crooked nose and parts his hair on the left, and from the original angle the lighting was overexaggerating the slight bags under his eyes. The result was him looking a little strange and, well, I don't want strange—I want him to be cute. I was hesitant to reorient him since it seemed natural to have him facing right—inward—from the lower left of the screen. But I finally said fuck it and leaned into a new pose, and things finally clicked.

I retained a lot of the original expressions, some in their entirety and some adjusted slightly. In some cases I made an entirely new expression, but the focus for all of the sprites was keeping his expressions familiar so he has the OG Connor vibe. Here's a preview of his new sprites next to the originals.

Playing through the game after I replaced all of Connor's sprites revealed that a lot of the original sprites for the game are washed out. Starting with the Frat Party Update, I created a standardized "photo booth" for sprites. The camera placement is the same for everyone so accurate heights are represented, and more importantly, much more flattering lighting was set up. The result was the newer characters started to outshine the original guys.

It's pretty trivial to apply an existing pose to a character model, so I decided to replace some of the original sprites to not look so starkly different next to Connor. So far I've replaced Matt and Riley. Here's a side-by-side of an early scene with the new sprites and a background color-adjusted to be consistent with the CGs set here; the gallery has a bigger screenshot of just the new version.

Matt looks the exact same pose- and expression-wise, but I took the opportunity to fix his sweater by applying a more realistic fabric shader and doing a draping simulation. (The bigger pic shows that I forgot to tone down Matt's nipples before simulating, and now they visibly poke out—whoops!) Captured by the new standardized camera, he will now also be as tall next to the other characters as he should, providing a better sense of his physicality.

Since I already redid a bunch of introduction CGs just by virtue of New Connor being inserted, and since I also redid Riley's intro CG, I decided to also make a new one for Matt. It's always bugged me how his smile bordered on Joker-esque with the way the corners curl up, so I took the opportunity to tone it down a little. The big version of this image is also in the gallery.

The insertion of all the new CGs and sprites makes the game feel really polished when you play. I'm looking forward to sharing the finished version soon!

Writing

The goal of these interstitial updates—which will usually just be new Grind'm scenes but this time has the new CGs—is to hold us over until the bigger story releases are done. That means that while I'm working on this next update I'm simultaneously working on the one that will follow, the Morning After Update.

One of the biggest things that needed figuring out is how to handle all the choice variants, so I thought I'd share more about how that's being done. (In a much-too-lengthy section, as is my wont.)

After each significant section of the game—Day 2, Week 1, Week 2, etc—there will be a calculation of all your choices, and those calculations set certain states for character relationships and Connor's preferences. These states determine the specific scenes you'll be shown as you play, as well as the vibe of those scenes—flirty, friendly, or awkward.

There are three primary states being set: Position Preference, Relationship Preference, and Relationship Status.

Position Preference

You may or may not be aware that I'm tracking what positions you indicate your Connor is into. There are four: Top, Bottom, Verse, and Side.

Setting a certain position preference flag does not lock you out of choosing other positions as you play. The primary goal of this status flag is so I can flavor the inner monologue you read during scenes like a fantasy sequence. For instance, if your Connor is top-only, I'll steer his interior thoughts towards imagining what it'd be like to fuck someone.

Relationship Preference

I'm also tracking relationship preferences—that is, whether you primarily pick sexual options or more friendly/romantic options. This again is just to flavor the text you read—you can definitely change focus to just hooking up if you previously leaned towards romance and vice versa.

Relationship Status

Lastly we have the most complicated state, which is your relationship status with each character. Based on your choices, you'll be assigned one of these statuses for each guy in the game: Potential Relationship, Good Friend, Potential Good Friend, New Friend, or Acquaintance.

Potential Relationship is reserved for the guys you dedicate a lot of attention to. It takes certain choices to reach this state, so this single flag consolidates a number of choice flags into one. This status doesn't necessarily indicate a potential romantic relationship, though that is one option. It also sets the potential for a fuck buddy relationship. I'll touch on that more below.

Good Friend is reserved for Matt at this point in the game, although Matt can instead be assigned Potential Relationship if you make certain choices. If he stays Good Friend, there's really only two sub-states—standard quo and waning. The latter triggers if you promise Matt to hang out but then blow him off. Choices do have consequences, after all.

Potential Good Friend is for guys you spent a lot of time with but didn't necessarily max out their love and/or lust for you—for instance, hanging out with Riley in the afternoon and the party but not going so far as to cuddle or make out will set this status. Again, I'll touch on it more below, but your dialogue with guys at this status will veer between flirty and friendly based on your decisions.

New Friend is for any guy you spoke to more than the bare minimum that doesn't fall into one of the above categories. It's simple to get this flag—just ask more about them during orientation or chat with them after Will's class.

And lastly we have Acquaintance, which is the flag for guys you did the absolute bare minimum of interaction with.

The reason for these specific statuses is they allow me to create a template to follow each time you interact with a guy. This could influence anything from a few lines of dialogue to adding entirely new scenes. The highest tier flags also encapsulate specific choices, meaning it's easy to know specifically what occurred with that character. This cuts down on a lot of stressing out about missing something while I script the game.

Attraction

Nested within each of these states are how much you and the other guy are attracted to each other, which in turn alters the vibe of each interaction. For Potential Relationship, a guy feeling more lust than love for you tilts the relationship in a more sexual/hookup relationship. Love indicates how much they like you as a person. A good amount of both love and lust leans things in a more romantic direction, while just love may keep things on a platonic level, depending on the guy.

Specifically, I give love points for how much of an interest you take in a guy as a person—asking how their day went, what their interests are, and what they felt emotionally during a situation instead of focusing on the sex. Each guy also likes you more if you make certain choices around them, some of which aren't necessarily intuitive.

For instance, if you call Alex out on acting cocky, he'll start to appreciate as a person who doesn't see him as just a gateway to the glam life. That'll set your potential relationship to both sex and romance. Griffin likes you if you give into his goading to break the rules—but sometimes likes you more if you are steadfast in your convictions. Some guys are easier to read, like Riley, who will obviously gain love points if you defend him from Victoria.

You'll get more of a sense of what each guy likes as the story continues—if you make an effort to get to know them.

Awkwardness

Lastly we have awkwardness status, which like romantic and sexual attraction is nested within the primary relationship state. There are guys who will be embarrassed about their actions, and this will well change the dialogue you receive unless you manage to alleviate that awkwardness. Riley in particular automatically has the awkward flag if you did any or all of making out, cuddling, or seeing him naked in the showers.

Putting it all together and using Riley as an example, if you get all the way to the make out scene, your relationship flags with him will be Potential Relationship, Sexual Attraction, Romantic Attraction, and Awkward. If you just hang out in the afternoon, don't proposition him, but do take an interest in him personally, you'd be at Potential Good Friend and Romantic Attraction, with the latter being set on how he feels about you.

Going into Week 1 was tricky to plan, both writing- and coding-wise, but I think I've settled on something very workable going forward, especially now that I have experience navigating a maze of choices while writing the frat party and club sequences.

The Jordi Grind'm hookup comes first as far as an actual script goes, but with these flags set, I've got notes being turned into flowcharts so I can soon dive into revealing what happens next in each guy's story. There's a lot of fun stuff to look forward to!

Looking Ahead

The goal for the next few weeks is to finish or nearly finish the New You Update so it can go into early access. I feel well on my way to accomplishing this!

Grind'm Results and New Poll!

Okay, now to sexier content than my ramblings about writing! Over the last few weeks, Graduates voted for which supporting characters they most want to receive an unlockable hookup. The field has been cut down from 18 choices to 8. Here are the semi-finalists!

Antonio & Blaze!

Gabriel & Hugh!

Parker & Quinn!

and Trevor & Wes!

There are two polls pitting four guys against each other. The winner of each poll will move on to the finals in the latter half of this month, where we'll vote for the winning guy!

Poll #1 is Antonio vs. Blaze vs. Gabriel vs. Hugh.

Poll #2 is Parker vs. Quinn vs. Trevor vs. Wes.

If you're a Graduate—or wish to become one—head over to Poll #1 and Poll #2 to make your picks!

That's what I've got today! I'll be back soon with more fun stuff—stay tuned 🙂