Dev Update 7/11/22 (Patreon)

Hey, friends! Hope everyone's week is off to a nice start!

I'm making really good progress on FiN Chapter Three, though I'm not as far ahead as I'd like to be. So far I've added 1800 lines of code, completing the entire first act of Chapter One, as well as a big conversation in the middle part of the game. Now I just need to write a bridge from act one to that conversation, and I'll have a significant part of Chapter Three written.

I'm also employing some things I learned on The Student Loan vis a vis the sex menus. Now, instead of looping back to a choice that will replay exactly the same as the first time, the game will remember that you already chose an option, and reflect it in the menu/dialogue. So, you could choose an option, return to the menu, choose the option again, and get different dialogue reflecting that you've already done an action. This'll likely be a standard feature going forward, because I think it adds an extra layer of realism to the scenes.

I'm also making progress on rendering. Currently sitting around 50 renders, which isn't ideal, but it still comprises a big chunk of act one.

My goal is to complete the writing for the middle section of the chapter by tomorrow night, which should be doable. It doesn't feature any sex scenes or complicated variables, so it should go pretty quickly.

In other Friends in Need news, I'm kind of kicking around an idea: redoing Chapter One.

There's a few reasons for this, but the biggest one is just that I'd like to give Nicki a little more character development at the top of the game. Really show her and the MC interacting, so we understand why she's his friend, and why their relationship is important. In addition, I could redo scenes to add extra variety i.e. more positions based on the alignment of a particular scene, etc.

Here's a few test renders from what that might look like.

I know that people's danger-sense starts tingling when a dev decides to start redoing early content, but I wouldn't think about doing it, unless I thought I could really improve the game.

If I decide to go through with it, my plan is to do it in such a way that doesn't affect the update schedule of the game. It'd be a little more work than the renders for The Student Loan, and that game took me roughly two weeks to finish, including the writing and coding. So, I think I could redo the renders for Chapter One in roughly the same time frame.

Plus, I'd like to get the community involved, and let you folks vote on Nicki's dress and underwear, for the revamped Chapter One. I think that'd be fun.

But, that's all stuff to worry about once Chapter Three is wrapped. Until that's done, I'm putting it out of my mind.

I am going to put up a little patron-exclusive photoset this Wednesday, so look forward to that.

But, that's all for now! I really love how this chapter's turning out, and can't wait until everyone has a chance to play it.