Hey guys!  Sorry I’ve been so quiet.  I didn’t really have anything to say except “I’m working on it”, but I can now report that the prototype is done; the new episode is now playable start to finish in the engine.

I’ve pushed it out to contributors for testing and feedback.  Some things still need to be done before it’s ready for release:

This episode has been a serious fucking grind to produce.  I’m so sorry it’s taken so long.

I’m honestly still not crazy about it, especially given how long it’s taken, but we need to just finish up what we’ve got and get it out to you. More info to follow shortly.

Hey guys, happy Easter!  The Big Mac date scene is going well.  It’s hard to talk about without dropping spoilers, but I’m finding it easy and fun to write.

It’s just a side quest, so it’s not supposed to change the world, but it does feel like a nice little change of vibe and pace.  The main NPC, Mac, is kind of rugged and unpretentious, and some of the fun is our heroine going on a date with a different vibe than the previous swanky restaurants.  Spies (and hookers) need to adapt and perform in situations high class, low class, and somewhere in between, so it’s good practice for her.

I want to get this episode out as fast as possible, so I’m working long hours on it.  I stopped today at about 8PM and I’ll get right back on it first thing tomorrow.  I hope you guys had a lovely Easter and I’ll report on more progress soon! 🦀❤️

Hey guys! Just quickly reporting in that the writing's going much better. I pushed out a test version of the shift part of the episode yesterday and have received good feedback on it.

It feels short, so I'm going to squeeze the date with Big Mac into this episode (which is a bit shorter and lower-key than the fancy date with the Russians). That's already outlined so it should be quick to prototype – I'll get straight onto it now.

This episode has been an unexpected fucking nightmare to write. The good news is that all the struggle led to some cool and creative ideas to improve future episodes – more on that soon.

I've got more to say about this experience and what I learned, but I want to get this episode done, so I'm going to get straight into building the Big Mac date scene. Report to follow soon. Thanks so much for bearing with me and for the support while I've been creatively struggling, your confidence in the project is more motivating than you know. 🦀❤️

Hey guys! I’m sorry this report is so late. The truth is that I’m really struggling with the writing at the moment. I don’t know what to say except that I’m sorry it’s taking so long.

I’m working on it full time every day to get it ready for testing and release. The problem has been that what I’ve been producing has felt boring and I fucking hated it. (And myself 😭😭😭) I was really worried that I actually couldn’t pull off another barmaid shift and make it sexy, which is a problem because the story’s not ready for the heroine to make the jump to bargirl yet.

I realised that I was repeating story beats we’ve already had – the initial shock of the job itself (omg I’m topless! omg I’m on camera! etc). Unfortunately the solution to this wasn’t as simple as my original plan (“do it again, but this time in fuck-me boots”).  Skinnying down the length was an important step, but it's not the whole solution.

I think the solution I’m working on is quite exciting – what’s sexy about this part of the story isn’t so much what’s externally happening, it’s internally the heroine’s psychology shifting and her boundaries starting to blur as she slips deeper into the role – but writing this has been complicated and it’s taking a few passes to get right.  I am making good progress.

I really am sorry it’s taking so long. I’m working on it obsessively and I will have good news to report soon – just wanted to confirm here (and not just on Discord) that I’m alive and working my ass off.

Thank you humbly for your patience and support, I’m sorry I can’t make it quicker. 🦀❤️

Hey guys! I'm sorry for being quiet here, and on Discord. I've been struggling with the writing in this episode, and it wasn't clear to me last weekend how to fix it.

For story reasons, we need to send the heroine back into the club for a barmaid shift. My idea to spice it up was to do something cool with wardrobe, and give her an excuse to wear some hot gothy fuck-me boots for a shift.

It seemed cool in the outline. Our illustrator lovely Victoria created some gorgeous art, and we had some cool scenes of the heroine getting the boots, the bargirls cooing over her new look in the dressing room, the regulars commenting on and loving her whorish new look, etc.

Shakedown run
Unfortunately, once I'd put it all together, when I tested it…I hated it. I hated it so much I didn’t even bother sharing it with any of the normal testers. It felt contrived and, worse – boring. I have been a very sad crab about this.

I know it’s just a porno, but the story’s so important to me. When it doesn’t work I get dispirited.

Still, fear and despair are all parts of the creative process, so I just accepted it wasn’t what I wanted it to be, and worked hard on fixing it.

Diagnosis
In an effort to figure out what was wrong, I replayed the last episode, and at the end asked myself: as a player, what would I want to happen next?

When I pictured what I’d been planning, I realised that I’d just gotten the pacing completely wrong. ☹️ Going back into the club as a topless barmaid is fine, but it needs to be a sexy little blast, not a long drawn out procedural.

An experiment: leaner episodes
I cut a bunch of stuff, rewrote it to feel more like a little montage than a step-by-step simulation of a barmaiding shift. It’s now much zingier, sexier and faster paced.

I’ve cut so much that it’s actually now too short to release, even as a mini episode. My plan is to skinny down the planned length of the Big Mac side quest and roll it into this episode. So, the structure will be:

– Short punchy scene set in the club

– Short punchy first date with Big Mac

I’m much much happier with this approach, and if it works out I think it’s got some important advantages going forward – not least that if the episodes are a little skinnier, then we’ll make faster progress towards the part of the story that I really want to write (the heroine bargirling).

I’m really sorry for the delay; I wanted to blast this out of the way quick and I messed up on my first pass at it. I’m working really hard on making a faster, better episode and I hope you’ll like it. 🦀 ❤️

Hey guys! Sorry for being quiet, I’ve been deep in a scene.

Sometimes writing feels fast and easy, sometimes everything's difficult and it feels like a slog. This scene has definitely been a slog, requiring sacrifices of much blood, toil, tears and sweat just to get it to a rough first draft standard.

I was tempted just to cut it, but I’m glad I pushed through instead: it’s feeling really hot now. 🔥 I’ve finally got it nearly ready for testing by some heroic volunteers; I’m going to keep working on it today, and push it out to them for feedback shortly.

Hopefully this was the hard part of the episode, and the rest will fall into place pretty quickly. Our illustrator lovely Victoria has been doing some really cool artwork for the episode, which I’m looking forward to getting into the game.

Okay, that’s it for the report, I’m gonna get back to work on this tricky scene now. Wish me luck! 🦀 ❤️