Course of Temptation Dev Diary #22 (Patreon)

Hello friends! I hope everyone who celebrates had a good holiday.

Our current version is 0.4.9! We've been doing bugfix updates daily (except for Christmas), and I think the remaining rough edges from the big 0.4 release have pretty much all been smoothed out, so it's a good time to update if you're behind.

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I try not to spam y'all with emails, so if you want to hear about these smaller updates as they come out, think about joining the Discord! Lurking is perfectly fine!

Poll results

For January, I'm doing a "bunch of little things" type update, so last week I asked what you think those things should be. Here are the results aggregated from both platforms:

If you don't feel like squinting at that graph, the top three are: more events focused around existing major characters (by a wide margin), more town events, and more streaming events. The rumor system and its related events is also right up there, and a lot of people want some attention paid to campus events and new hangout types too.

Frankly, people want basically everything! And so do I. All of these are things I intend to do sooner or later, it's just a question of what I prioritize right now. So if your favorite option ended up in the bottom half, don't fret, it's still on my list long term.

Storyline characters

One thing that's very clear is that storyline characters should be a big focus for me this month. The harasser should get some more events... and I know that some people have been asking for a way to excise them from the game forever! So I'll have to think about how to do that.

People also want more of the admirer (there are definitely some unresolved things there) and more of the BFF. And I've also seen a lot of suggestions to do more with the roommate and their partner. I definitely have some plans for them... which may need to wait until the "official relationships" roadmap item to reach a conclusion, but perhaps I can take things a little further in the meantime.

In any case, what I'll be doing next week is brainstorming a bunch of things for these characters and writing some new events for them. One specific thing want to do is write some events for them around town and around campus. Ordinarily, special NPCs don't get picked for random events to avoid inconsistent behavior, which gives the impression they're not out and about in the world, but they definitely are!

What else?

Town/campus events, streaming events, and reputation events are also things I agree should get some attention and that I'm looking forward to writing for. Depending on how much I'm able to get done this month, I'd definitely like to give at least some attention to all of these.

The reputation system in particular needs to get some devoted attention — the idea that everything has consequences is very key to my vision for this game. NPCs already remember what you do, so to have these things spread across campus as rumor and then get reflected back to you, more than they already do, is important to giving a more impactful feeling to your decisions.

Also, even though toys ended up in the bottom half, I'd still like to find some time to work on those this month. I'm glad I put them in, but the wearable and remote control toys are decidedly undercooked in their current form. I have a couple ideas for events around these that I think you'll like.

Anyway, I couldn't tell you exactly how much of this I'll manage to actually get to in one month, but I'll do my best! I do at least know what to prioritize, thanks to your input.

The support this month has been great — it's thanks to you that I'm able to devote so much time to this project, and I'm deeply appreciative!

See you next week!