Nooooooo, a dev update again?! 😫 But it’s been so long since the last release…
Yeah, I know—I know… Everyone’s waiting for something new to play. Believe me—I’m just as eager as you’re 😅 So, today I wanted to kick off this post by giving you more insights into what we’re working on and why it’s taking so long.
Deluded is not an easy game to make. It consists of complex systems and a complicated storyline. Just to give you an idea, last time I checked—our game had a whopping number of 247 character attributes! 😱 But that’s not something to brag about—and is not the point.
The point is, for the project as complex as Deluded we intentionally chose a pretty restrictive roadmap approach where each major update focuses on developing a single large gameplay system. And this comes with consequences such as less frequent updates.
Why’s that? You see, adding a new system is not as simple as just tossing in some new lines of code. It also means reworking a lot of older systems so they stay compatible. During this process we basically rewrite large chunks of the game’s logic, always breaking and fixing something until it finally works as intended. And there you should see where this lack of game updates comes from—we just can’t release something mid-dev with broken or half-baked game systems. Because we know how frustrating it’s gonna be for players to crawl through a pile of bugs and crashes, assuming the game is even gonna launch at all. 😅
But let’s imagine we just changed our way of development. We could pump out new content—scenes, clothes etc every month or so. And later, because we slapped this content onto unfinished systems and had a shaky game foundation, boom! We’d end up with a technical debt bigger than your mom’s…. khm. Well… and now we have no choice but to do the whole game refactor, rewrite a shitload of code, delay content updates, disable content that doesn’t work anymore, etc… while you, our fans, get disappointed and lose interest in the game, we ourselves lose motivation and… You see where I’m going. And all of this because of what? Because we didn’t bother to implement all the fundamentals from the get-go.
How many games do you know that have fallen into the same trap and never recovered?
We say fuck that, we’d rather be upfront with you—there’s stuff that needs to be done in order for the whole game not to fall apart. Because I believe that’s not what you want. Because Deluded deserves better. Think of it as if we’re doing the “rework” before the need for rework becomes imperative.
Currently we’re still working on the NPC schedule system—or, to be precise, the final NPC movement subsystem. According to our lead devs, it's the last most complicated one in the game. That means the rest of the mechanics are either easier to build or are already partially implemented (e.g. we already did some work on the character customization, the radial menu and the privacy system mechanics). Once that’s wrapped up, we do hope to push out more frequent updates—but, of course, I can’t promise anything concrete.
But what we’re sure about is that you—yes, YOU—our devoted supporters, who continue to stick around, are the best in the world. The enormous amount of trust you put in us is priceless, and we continue to work on this game every damn day to make up for it.
So, yeah, to repeat myself—Deluded is not an easy game to make. It’s ambitious and it promises a lot, some may even say too much. But we wouldn’t want it any other way. Because otherwise it won’t be the game of our dreams. Of your dreams. It won’t be the game YOU want to see from us. It won’t be the game you’re supporting us for.
But don’t worry. Good news is, we’ve optimized our processes in a way that the development of systems/mechanics and content go in parallel. No time wasted—which means, get ready to be buried under a big pile of new content 😊
Speaking of which…
Content
We finished making the final parts of the new gloor scene and are now polishing it, adding SFX and missing decals
The writer started working on another gloor scene that’ll take place in a fantasy setting and feature a shrink flavor
New building
Made a new hangar/warehouse building for the open world
Character customization
We continue working on adding attributes and functions for character customization. This time, we made some backend attributes for:
Whip marks
Bruise marks
Tan
Nails
Shape
Nail polish (color or art)
Nail polish wear level
Nip∗∗es
Areola radius
Areola color
Legs
Thigh size
Calf size
Cl∗t size
Pubic hair color
Pu∗∗y color (light or dark)
A∗∗s color (light or dark)
Eyelashes
Length
Color
Brows color
Elf ears
Lips size
Lipstick
Softness (gradient between colors)
Glitter level
Metallic level
Imperfection level
Shape
17 predefined places for tattoos
As for their visual representation, we’ve only made them for legs and cl∗t so far. You can also check out the visual we made for nip∗∗es and nails in the previous dev update.
All these attributes will be available for testing via the cheats menu, but not all of them will have functionality or visuals yet, because those are planned for the v0.5.
We’re also adding pills scattered across some open world locations (and available in the cheats menu) for adjusting those attributes—like Calf width pills, Freckles fade pills, Lips size pills, and 10 more types of pills.
Open world
Updated the Lindcliff town plan, adjusting its level design to make the town more complex but still easy to navigate for the player early on. We made sure to allow the players to gradually explore the town without making the experience too overwhelming. For example, we added some secret and hard-to-access paths, but also places with some basic survival options.
Added and mapped out buildings like church, motel, gas station, abandoned houses, residential houses and others. Currently working on attaching activities to them.
In terms of architecture, we’re aiming to make Lindcliff a blend of rural, industrial and occasionally medieval styles.
The Silver mine (aka the Prison) is also in active development, and we’ve implemented the following activities:
Playing rock-paper-scissors with inmates
Retrieving daily items from the cart
Growing mushrooms (quest)
Finding hidden escape routes
Mechanics
Added logic for gloor fog-polluted zones, being inside which will negatively affect your Energy
Added the logic to check if the place you slept in was comfortable. This may affect your sleep performance
Running now removes excessive dirt from the body—but only down to 75 points
Gloor flavors tags:
Just like the items and the clothes, the gloor vials (the drug you can ingest and watch h-scenes) will also have tags to indicate the flavors they feature. For example, when hovering over a gloor vial in your inventory, you might see tags like “hardcore”, “feet”, “latex”, “chastity”, etc, so you know what to expect beforehand 😉
New character
The camping location will feature a new side character: Macy.
Clothes
Imported the models of all new clothes into the game and here’s what they look like:
That’s all for this month’s dev update! Thanks again to our dear supporters and I’m wishing you all a happy and productive summer. 😉
Also, if you missed the news—we just launched our Steam page! Now you can add Deluded to your wishlist, which you absolutely must do—no excuses (unless you’re from Germany). 👀
And now, the new stuff…
New content
We finished the "Silent Observer" quest (fixing the TV) and added a new interaction with Violet (Alisa’s friend).
There’s a new mini-quest called “Dad’s Errand” where Alisa can ask dad to buy her a gift. Another one is “No room for spiders” where dad asks Alisa to clear the cobwebs around the house for some cash.
Added a few new items, such as:
Bullet vibrator
Broom (for the quest)
We've also reworked the easel interaction. Now the painting you pick actually shows up on the canvas (using AI placeholders for now—those will be replaced later).
One more thing that’s still in the works is a Webcam quest. This one probably won’t make it into 0.4—it’s only about 20% complete—but it’s too fun not to mention.
We’re creating quite an activity centered around becoming a webcam model. It will be kinda similar to what we had in our previous game (if you know you know), but way more advanced.
You’ll need to build a PC from scratch—assembling components like the CPU, GPU, motherboard, PSU, CD drive, and an Internet modem. Parts will come in different quality levels, so no two builds will feel exactly the same.
We’ve already prototyped a system for tracking subscribers, views and PC upgrades logic. If Alisa has high Intelligence, she’ll be much faster at putting the PC together.
The webcam model career isn’t the only reason to have a PC—you’ll also be able to play games, stream, chat on live streams, browse the web, shop, apply for jobs, watch porn, explore illegal websites, donate to the church, and even learn Latin.
New clothes
SilverGogs made a new mini-top and is making a cultist outfit.
Attributes and Mechanics
Our programmer is still sweating over the NPC system.
NPCs can now engage in scheduled tasks throughout the day. These can trigger animation changes, hide certain objects temporarily, or spawn animated objects for the duration.
There are also spatial sounds for activities and the system to track how many NPCs are in each location (this info might be used by the privacy system or others)
Added early versions of Gloor and Alcohol addiction effects. Both effects work similarly. Once addicted, you have to satisfy the urge or you'll gain Stress points. You can either go to the doctor or tough it out until the effect wears off
Added the Blindfolded effect for a quest. It blacks out everything except a small desaturated circle around Alisa
Added freezing water logic and visuals. It now freezes if the outside temp drops below 0°C
Locations
Our environment artist is currently improving the labyrinth’s hedge in the open world Park-Slums area. Here’s how it currently looks in the project; and here's what it's shaping up to be:
He’s also made more stuff for the Silver mine’s surrounding area and interior.
Also, we added a destruction effect to the greenhouse that is connected to the labyrinth.
And—that’s it! As I’ve said in previous posts, the content part for this update is almost finished. But the complex system that is NPC schedule is the main one that has to be done for the v0.4. We already assigned all the activities for all our NPCs, placed them, added animations and attached sounds. Basically, we’re waiting for the programmer to finish the “rails” system so that NPCs can move between locations and activities.
Following the previous dev update, we continue talking about the upcoming 0.4 release. Today’s post is a bit special because we’re diving into the open world. A lot has been developed over the past few months, and I felt like it deserved a dedicated post. 😀
Open world is a large chunk of the Deluded’s development, despite it being mostly on the backend. As of right now, we’ve managed to get 2 people to solely work on the open word, while the rest of the team is working on the prologue content.
As you may recall from our roadmap, the full-fledged open world is planned for 0.9, as we want to ensure it’s well-polished. Currently, it’s in the very early prototype stage, so don’t mind the screenshots not looking pretty. 😁
We’ll talk more in-depth about the open-world gameplay, its role and function in the game in the future roadmap posts (follow to not miss!). Right now, we gonna focus on what’s already being developed.
So, the team is working on the Lindcliff location Park-slums and here’s what has been done so far.
NPCs
Since Deluded is not just survival, but mainly a social survival game, we’ve prototyped a lot of NPC-related activities, like:
Rumors. You can ask non-unique NPCs for rumors, and they will hint at some interesting activities you may’ve missed
Asking for directions to certain places
But, of course, not every NPC will be be eager to help out of the goodness of their heart.
As I’ve already mentioned somewhere, NPCs will be divided into fractions. And one of them will be the so-called ‘security’ guys. These enforcers police the Park-Slums from their base in the old brick building ruins. On the 1st floor, you can find a chef and trade cooking or crafting materials to get food. On the 2nd floor, you exchange your stolen goods for money and get loyalty from the security faction. On the 3rd floor, you can rent a room to sleep in.
Jobs
Prototyped 3 jobs so far:
Nurse in the infirmary, for which you get a clear water bottle as a salary
Prostitute
Gravedigger
Crime system
Surviving in the open world might require resorting to crime, especially early on. But don’t expect to go unnoticed!
Stealing from unique NPCs can get you keys to their homes or workplaces. Non-unique NPCs typically carry food or rags.
Doing unlawful activities increases your crime level to a maximum of 10. When the crime level reaches 10 points, security will pursue you and attempt to throw you in jail. You have several options to avoid jail like: paying off, begging for mercy or… well, I think you already know.
Locations
The starting open world location Park-Slums includes several key areas:
The Greenhouse The long-abandoned greenhouse covered in thick vegetation, which you can clear and thus unlock shortcuts. You can also find some berries for food or crafting. However, not clearing the bushes on your way may result in mood reduction or clothes damage.
The Silver Mine A grim place where prisoners are forced to work. Not an ideal environment, with slippery surfaces and stale air making it even more dangerous. The deeper you go, the dirtier Alisa’s body will get due to poor ventilation.
But sometimes, with bad things, comes the good. Because in the silver mine, there lives a woman who can brew a special mixture for enlarging certain body parts.
The Farm The farm also provides job opportunities. If you work there, you can repair an old shed and use it as a living space. However, it’s only available to farm workers.
The Sawmill No activities there, only the building model thus far.
Your House If paying for rent or fixing up an old shack does not fit you, you can build your own shelter from scratch — a treehouse with all the amenities!
Minigames
For those who enjoy gambling and risk, we’ve prototyped several minigames:
Thimble A classic test of perception and reflexes. To start the game — buy a set of caps and approach the dealer. Features several difficulty levels.
Arm-wrestling You’ve built up some STR points and are ready to test it out? Then arm-wrestling is the right choice! But it’s not all about raw power — you can cheat using Ldness** or Submission attributes.
Blackjack 21 A card game where you compete against the dealer to achieve a hand value as close to 21 as possible without exceeding it.
Puzzles & Secrets
We plan to add a lot of puzzles and hidden secrets into the game, so we’ve prototyped the fountain puzzle. Find 4 pieces to insert into fountain slots for a reward.
FOOL-INT checks
We’ve started refining the FOOL-INT dialogue checks, which we’ll also integrate into the prologue content over time. Unlike other attribute indicators ([STR], [DOM], etc.), FOOL and INT choices will now appear as "???", adding an element of mystery.
Privacy system
The Privacy system aka the Exhibitionism system’s rough prototype was made, with the full version coming in 0.7. It determines Alisa’s Shame level and how NPCs’ react to her based on:
Clothing attributes - how revealing they are (transparent or opaque, has/doesn’t have holes, (not) wearing underwear, etc)
Each map zone’s privacy category:
Private: hidden places not available for other NPC (private houses, WCs, caves, dark forests, abandoned houses)
Semi-private: available for other NPC (alleys, forest paths, private backyards)
Public: crowded places (stores, roads, streets)
L**dness level
Effects (drunk, attribute perks, etc)
All of this affects the Shame level which affects Stress and Mood in the end.
Actions menu
The radial actions menu functionality is set to arrive in the 0.6 patch, but we’ve already made a prototype in the form of a dialogue selection. The radial actions menu will consist of these activities/options:
Prostitution
Pleasuring herself
Begging (available only for SUB)
Sleep
Urination
Other activities
Some more random stuff prototypes:
A water stream for showering. Located in a non-private place. Since the water is cold, it involves a high risk of getting ill
Begging — a Submission attribute perk. A high begging skill level lets you beg for specific items and/or of higher quality. However, be careful, since begging can attract thieves
Potion crafting. Brew healing potions from herbs and berries, energy drinks from grapes, etc. Potion crafting involves using a Herbalism skill, which is a Pureness attribute perk (I’ll talk more about other attributes’ perks in the next update post)
Warming up by the fire. Increases your body temperature and mood. But some unfriendly NPC might not allow you to
Rooftops exploration. Some useful loot can be found there, but watch out for slippery spots!
All of these prototypes will be available for testing in the upcoming update! Let us know what you think in the comments! 😊
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