Course of Temptation Dev Diary #3 (Patreon)

Hello friends! The Friday dev diary is here again.

The "seize the initiative" update is still underway (technically still 0.2, even though it's partly released already). I've added an event set for another hangout activity and I plan to do one more before calling it good for now. I've also been working on a couple more new mechanics that fit the update's theme.

I'm aiming to have this complete sometime next week or so, and with any luck next week's dev diary can be about the next major update.

Selfies

This update has added the ability to text other people on your phone, and I thought that along with that should come selfies.

As you can see, as Exhibitionism levels up, you can send some pretty daring selfies. These can be a nice quick way to boost Composure if you have some Inclinations toward exhibitionism, though for balance reasons you can get this particular Composure boost just once a day.

It's also important to consider how much you trust the person you're sending your nudes to! Once those pics are on somebody else's phone, they stay there, no longer under your control. If the recipient doesn't like you or is just inclined to brag, you may find that your spicy pics are getting spread around campus.

Self-directed Exhibitionism

Along these same lines, I'm starting to work on more self-directed exhibitionism at the request of people in the Discord and elsewhere. This means exhibitionism you do all on your own, outside of the prompting of semi-random events.

For example, you might have found that you're able to move around your residence hall in a state of some undress much earlier than you can go outside that way. This is to help make your residence hall feel like home, a place where your character can relax a bit.

However, what was missing was a bit of reactivity. If you're sprawled out in the lounge in your underwear, people should notice. So I'm updating the "play games together" event and a couple other things to fix that.

In addition, you should be able to get more daring if you want to, and sneak around outside undressed or naked, particularly at night. This is something I've always had planned, I just didn't consider it essential for the release version. But since it fits the theme of this update, I might try to make a first pass at it. No promises it'll make it in immediately — it isn't that trivial, since I need some mechanics for sneaking around and events that happen if you get caught, but I'll just see how far I get with this.

Un-seizing the initiative

Now that I've added a few things you can initiate on your own, what's missing is actually a bit of reciprocation. NPCs, too, should be able to ask you to hang out, text you, send selfies, and so on. It feels good when an NPC you're interested in shows interest back. It'll have to be a bit limited in frequency so it doesn't become annoying, but this is something I'll want to have in some form before I consider this update complete.

Initially, they'll ask for pretty much the same activities that you can ask for, but down the road I can see adding some unique ones to help plotlines advance.

That's all for now!

This is probably the last dev diary about the 0.2 "seize the initiative" update. At the end of it, we'll have several new options for pursuing specific NPCs you're interested in and steering those relationships in the direction you want. The Romance attitude is no longer just a stub, but instead now a path to pursuing a closer relationship with romantically-inclined NPCs through dating.

So what's next? I'm not sure specifically — there might be a poll in the near future — but I definitely have ideas. The game is missing a variety of regular jobs, with just QuickieBurger and Summit Market currently being available (and the arcade, but that's not exactly a job), so I definitely want to add another very soon. Levels of Disinhibition and Exhibitionism don't do much after 5, and I want to fix that. With the jobs I have in mind, we can kill two birds with one stone there. Also if your games are anything like mine, you probably have a bunch of money with little to spend it on, so a rebalance along with new things to buy are in order.

Expect to hear more about these ideas soon! Also, please keep giving me your suggestions in Discord or through DMs on this site! Thanks!