Game Update #42 (Patreon)

I'm back with a new game status update, a few days late because of some mild food poisoning. Just love when that happens, haha.

I've talked a lot about the next release, the New You Update, which will have entirely new CGs featuring a new Connor plus the addition of the first Grind'm hookup scenario. The first gallery pic for this post is from that scenario with Jordi. More and much more explicit screenshots can be seen in the latest Sneak Peek for Junior, Seniors, & Graduates.

Of course, this update is the bridge between the Club Update and the next big story drop, the Morning After Update. As such, it's giving me time to work on the story while also getting something new to play in the meantime. In this game status update I'll be going further into how the story is shaping up.

Writing

It's time, y'all—I'm bringing back the flowcharts. My favorite!

I've discussed in the past all the challenges of mapping out every variable path that can happen in a choice-based game. Taking all my notes and putting them into an organized, easily legible format is key to making sure the actual writing goes smoothly. 

Let's take a look at the different ways the story can continue after Connor wakes up—and yes, these flowcharts are purposefully too small to read. I don't want to spoil too much too soon!

Outside the dorm

I'll start off with the three places you can wake up that aren't your own dorm room: Matt's apartment, Owen's bedroom, or Griffin's apartment.

The yellow section is Owen's bedroom, which was the easiest to map out since there is only one path to get there—hook up with Julian and then stay with Owen. How you exit is similarly simple, with only two different paths, plus a few ways to run into characters other than Owen... like Julian and a very hungover Evan.

Griffin's apartment is the teal section, and there are three paths leading into it: you hooked up, you didn't hook up but watched a movie together, or you didn't hook up and just went to sleep. This sequence of events plays out more or less the same, but the actual interactions and CGs you see differ based on how things went down.

Lastly we have the top red section, which is lengthier and more web-like than the other two—Matt's apartment. There are three ways to enter here—passed out drunk, slept in Matt's bed, or slept in Leo's bed—and then it can play out many different ways... including some ways you may not expect. There's a reason there's an extended section at the end that the other two locations are lacking...

What all this means is there will be immediate consequences for your choices the day before. Some are awkward, some are good, and some are really good. 

In the dorm

The fourth location you can wake up is, of course, your own dorm room. Since this is the end point for many of the day two storylines, it has a lot of different ways it can play it. What you see here from top to bottom are:

• Jacked off with Marco
• Hooked up with Marco, slept in his bed
• Hooked up with Marco, slept in your bed
• Turned down Marco's advances after the party
• Walked in on Marco getting off but didn't join
• Got dropped off by Antonio while blackout drunk
• Got home when Marco was already asleep

There is actually a lot of overlap between each of these, so the length of this flowchart is deceptive. It's separated out this way so when I write it I can keep it very clear how each section of this sequence varies.

At the very bottom you also see different color boxes. Each one represents the end points for other characters that occurred before you came home to find Marco sleeping. In this section of the flowchart, it's really only in that scenario where your interaction with Marco is somewhat minimal with the focus being on figuring out how Connor feels about what you chose to do.

How does it feel?

All the other dorm wakeup scenarios lead to one of the top two sections in this chart. The first circular monstrosity is really just pointing at all the different people who you had notable and extended interactions with beyond Marco. It's a moment to ponder how Connor feels about everything—and an opportunity for you the player to set the relationship flags that'll carry forward throughout the rest of the week.

The second green section is for one specific character, Dominic, and it can only be seen if you reached a certain point with him at the party the night before. It might seem strange to single out Dominic at this point instead of anyone else, but like that extended ending to waking up at Matt's apartment, it's gonna be... interesting.

Finally, the last purple section is the end of the paths that began at Matt's apartment, the frat house, or Griffin's apartment. It's another point to stop and think about everything but will of course be specific to the shenanigans you got up to the night before.

Just the beginning

All of this represents the first third of the Morning After Update—yes, just the first third! While playing a single storyline, it won't necessarily seem super lengthy, but behind the scenes I have to write out the natural consequences to all the choices it's possible to make. 

After this point the story more or less ties back into one singular path with dialogue and scenes that reflect all of the prior decision-making. The middle third is set in the dorm showers because... well, because it's an opportunity to see half-naked or fully naked guys and have awkward/sexy interactions with characters you haven't seen in person yet. If you're curious how things with someone like Riley picks up, it'll be here, and like that Dominic sequence, it'll be... interesting 😉

The final third will take you to your morning classes and you'll finally have a chance to talk to Will again. Whether that involves propositions or not is up to you—and I'll say if it does involve propositions, you'll get an... interesting... scene with him, too.

This is clearly a lot of writing which takes a lot of preparation to do, so I'm glad to have this all mapped out!

Art

Also being planned via flowcharts is noting every instance of new art I'll need. I talked before how I want to make sure all the guys have at least 3 new CGs to unlock, and in going into more detailed planning, I think it'll be more than that for most everyone. It's an opportunity to add a bit more parity between the galleries so your favs don't miss out.

The shower sequence in particular is gonna add a bunch of new, very sexy art, as I'm sure you expected. I just can't help myself!

I am trying to rein it in a little so I don't task myself with so much art I can't finish in a reasonable timeframe. It's a balancing act for sure—being your own project manager can be tough!

Coding

When I created all the earlier flowcharts for the game, I was very much thinking with my writer brain. When you look at old flowcharts like in this update, each node represents a "beat" in the scene. That is, one beat would be Connor talking to Marco about his day, the next would be telling him about the writing assignment, and the next asking about his experiences with sex.

I've learned that when actually programming the game, it's much more helpful for both the coding and testing side of things to instead map it out so each node represents either a CG scene, a scene with sprites, or a menu. Taking that Marco example, all of the conversation up to asking about his experiences would be one node via this method. The next would be a menu node, with one choice from that menu leading to a CG node as Connor imagines what Marco's last hookup was like.

You can see in the above flowcharts where I first decided to change up how I do things. Matt's apartment and its spiderweb of lines and nodes was done with the story beat method. The rest of the charts were created with coding in mind and look comparatively simpler.

I think changing my planning in this way will really help when I get to the coding side of things again. Figuring these things out as I go isn't ideal, of course, but it's how it goes when you're a solo, amateur developer! Luckily I'm pretty good at adaptability.

Looking Ahead

Let's backtrack to the New You Update. I'm still committed to releasing it in early access this month, but probably later than I'd have liked. Juniors, Seniors, & Graduates will most likely still get it earlier than Sophomores as usual, but probably not a full week just for the sake of making sure everyone gets something to play for October. Once it's out, you'll get a Patreon notification to let you know!

Patreon

Speaking of Patreon, they're doing changes to the platform that are making things a little wonky. Nothing too disruptive so far, mostly just adding new features I may or may not use.

One new feature I am using are Collections, which are an alternative to tags that allows for better curation. You can still view and click on tags on the Collections tab, but you'll also see all the collections I've put together to help you find what content you want to see. I'll be adapting more tagged posts into their own collections as I find time.

That's what I've got this time! I've still got a lot of work ahead of me this month, so I'll get right back to it—I can't wait much longer to share all the new stuff!