Course of Temptation Dev Diary #40 (Patreon)

Hello friends! Wow, dev diary #40. One year is coming up!

The current version is 0.4.27g, with a small update out today that fixes some bugs and tweaks some stuff. If you haven't yet updated to the May content update, this is the one to grab!

I've spent this week doing a lot of writing and a lot of playtesting, in addition to getting May's public release out on Tuesday. It's safe to say I've gone overtime this week — I know many of you are eager for 0.5 early access and I'm eager to get it to you!

My focus has been on revising the BFF, Harasser, and Admirer storylines. I started with the BFF, which was a relatively easy revision, as they already fit the mold of what I want to do. I added a couple new longer events that I think are pretty fun, and represent ways to show how close you really are to your best friend and how you might start to see them in a different light.

These events intersect with the option to visit your BFF's dorm nightly if you wish to, but they're inflection points of sorts. Speaking purely mechanically, these new events will accomplish the same thing as the quad party's concluding event (that is to say, unlocking the path to alter your relationship), with the crucial difference that you don't have to go through a whole other storyline to get there. But that path is still available too.

Next, it was time to think about the Harasser and the Admirer. Those who have been here from the very start might know that these characters each got an introductory event in the very first public release... and that was the extent of their content at the time. Their storylines were built up gradually over subsequent updates, with the characters as vehicles for delivering certain types of events.

I wanted to go back to basics and think about who they actually are as characters, and give them backgrounds, hobbies, things they care about, and ways they want to grow, then reimagine their events as things that naturally follow from that. This character-first approach is how I usually write narratives, and this refinement is making me much happier with their content overall.

The BFF storyline is serving as a model for these two characters as well. They're doing their own thing and they each have a location that's "theirs." Rather than just waiting on events to fire, you can go to where they are and get some content with them on your own initiative. Many events are repeatable, but some are inflection points, unlocking a new stage of their storyline.

Besides just improving these characters and their storylines, this revision is also doing the vital work of integrating their storylines with the new relationship mechanics. The different branches of their storylines tend to lead to events where you officially form a relationship — and not necessarily a romantic one — with the character. The relationship mechanics can then fill in some gaps and lead to further content with them based on the relationship type, though in the future I will want to continue extending their storylines and giving them unique relationship content.

The Harasser revision is largely complete, with their new event set all written. I still want to go over it some more to make sure the character is consistent throughout, as well as add more new stuff. But for the moment they have enough content and have integration with the new mechanics.

I've also started on the Admirer, outlining their story, making "their" location, and revising their introductory event. Like the Harasser, they'll get new events and a revision of their existing events. I'll keep working on them after I make this post and likely into the weekend, with the goal of being able to move on to other tasks by Monday.

Early playtesting has shown me some gaps that I really want to fill in. I'm as eager to get to early access as any of you, but I want to make sure the new stuff really shines, so I'll be spending next week working on additional events and relatively minor mechanics with the goal of really integrating relationships well with the existing content and making the new stuff fun to engage with. I'm optimistic about where we'll be after next week, so I'll just ask for your patience for a little longer.

That's all for now! Sorry if this was a little sparse on specific details, but this week was basically all storyline work and I hate to spoil anything! I really hope you'll like the new vibe of these familiar characters. As always, I'll be back next week with another progress report. Thank you all so much for your support! I couldn't do this without your help!