Hey guys!  While our illustrator lovely Victoria is busy doing art work, I’m taking the opportunity to make improvements to future episodes.

– Warning, long post about design changes ahead –

One of the main things I want to make better is the game’s sex scenes.  A few people have pointed out that the build-up to the sex scenes is usually really hot, but the sex itself underwhelms.  Like in my real life 😭 (Just kidding, I’m brilliant at it.)

I think the main problems are that the heroine (called “Kate” internally, for convenience) is too passive, the scenes feel too scripted, and the NPC partners feel interchangeable.

Using an upcoming sex scene as a base, I tried redesigning it to fix these problems and make it hotter.  I started by adding in periodic initiative checks – like in tabletop RPG combat! – where each partner gets the opportunity to make a choice and nudge the scene in a new direction.

This created a branching structure where, at different points, Kate can either be bold and audacious and sexily drive the scene forward, or the NPC can take control.  

Both are sexy for different reasons, and it’s not quite as simple as just being “dominant” or “submissive”.  For instance, a BJ is a BJ, but it has a different vibe if (a) Kate sexily crawls down the bed to do it, or (b) the NPC pushes her head down because now he wants her to suck his cock. It's the vibe and the context that make it sexy, not so much the physical act itself.

Having these different options doesn’t require a lot more writing; in fact, in some ways it makes the writing easier.  The complicated part is organising the scene so all the options fit together:

I added in tracking for each partner’s Arousal meter (maxing it out causes orgasm).  Partners make Sexpertise skill checks to increase each other’s Arousal.  This is actually something I’ve tried to achieve in earlier sex scenes, but I could never make it feel right because of a design flaw.

The flaw
Here’s how I designed it originally.  Both partners make Sexpertise checks, leading to four possible outcomes:

The first problem is this caused a lot of writing. Each sex interaction needs four variations (and two of them each require a further four interactions, two of those requiring a further four interactions, etc).

It also created a very predictable (and unrealistic) rhythm and structure that you can probably recognise – sex begins, 50% of the time Kate orgasms straight away, and the male partner usually comes straight away after.  (This structure is one of the reasons the partners all feel interchangeable.)

The redesign
🤔 I realised that, generally, sex scenes actually end with the male orgasm – Kate’s are kind of irrelevant?  (Not to her, but you know what I mean.)  By splitting apart the Sexpertise checks and doing them in a linear order, we create much more interesting and varied results:

In this example, Kate might end up being fucked in one, two or three positions.  Thorson might make her come once, twice, or not at all.  The scene could either be a quickie or a marathon, based on dice rolls and the level of Arousal each character started with.  It’s become much more dynamic and has broken out of the scripted, stilted structure imposed by the original design flaw.

It only gets more exciting when you consider (a) throwing in some initiative checks and (b) incorporating the new RPG stats into the scene.  Sexpertise checks are buffed (or debuffed) by each partner’s Arousal and Beauty scores.

This creates exciting potential dynamics for sex scenes, e.g. Arousal mismatches (Kate highly turned on but unsatisfied from a previous encounter, going into the next encounter with a hair trigger); Beauty mismatches (unattractive male NPCs finding it easy to come with Kate, hard to make her come); Arousal pre-buffs (Kate or other bargirls increasing client Arousal with stripping, flirting, girl/girl shows); individual NPC preferences (things that arouse one client not arousing another – clients of type Degrader prefer a different kind of dirty talk than clients of type Fantasist), etc.

Testing it out
I’m very excited about this improvement, which I think will solve one of Female Agent’s big problems and make all the sex scenes hotter.  While V works on the next episode, I plan to make the scene design in Figure 1 above into a test scene in the game engine, and push it out as a beta.

Let’s time how long it takes and see if you guys think it’s an improvement – hopefully, your feedback could make it even better.

Okay, I’m gonna start now! Time me! 🦀❤️‍🔥

Hey guys!  The writing and coding for the next episode is now done. The taskings left are mainly avatar related:

1). We need to fix various layering and positioning glitches related to the recolourable skin, hair and eyebrow layers.  Our illustrator lovely Victoria has had to redraw a lot of the assets, which is time consuming work.

2). I changed the script a lot, and ended up specifying a bunch of new wardrobe requirements that lovely Victoria now has to draw.

Art takes time and every single asset is hand-drawn, so please be patient and let V cook.  She loves the game nearly as much as I do* and wants to do a great job for you!

NEXT STEPS
While V is cooking, I’ll switch over to writing on the next episode, to speed up production of that.

This episode has taken a long time to produce, but a lot of the work has been making big changes to the avatar and RPG system.  Those changes will carry forward into future episodes, so you should start to see them flowing through much more quickly.  Thank you everybody for your patience and support.  The game would not be possible without you.  🦀❤️‍🔥

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Good morning, guys! ’Tis the season to be spooky, and our illustrator lovely Victoria has been fixing some scary glitches plaguing the various youth avatars.

These were caused by layering problems that weren’t visible in Illustrator, but only appeared in the game engine.  V was able to diagnose the cause and fix it by manually reorganising the layer structure in Illustrator.

This is the kind of problem that sounds trivially easy to fix, but in fact is a complex and time consuming pain in the ass.

The good news is the avatar (of all ages, including the interesting ones) looks tweaked and better than ever!  V has been working so hard on this and I can’t wait to show it to you.

Meanwhile, I’ve been working on story and scene edits for the next episode (and planning for the following one).  I can’t talk about it without spoilers, but I’m excited about the improvements I feel like I’m making.  I’ve always hated 95% of my writing (the other 5%, I'm absurdly proud of), but I really feel like even if the writing isn’t as great as I wish it were, the flags and choices we’re adding to these early scenes are going to pay off so much later.  🤞🏻😬🤞🏻

I’m adding some cool stuff in these scenes and edits, but it’s nearly good to go from a writing perspective.  The code improvements we’ve made (mainly character sheet & RPG stats, but also some under-the-hood “refactoring” which will slightly speed future scenes up) are significant.  I’m really frustrated it’s taking so long, but I’m also 100% convinced this is the best thing for the game.

Next steps

Lovely Victoria is finalising avatar tech fixes (which will need to be coded in).  I’m almost done with story edits (there are a few more things I wanna take a pass at).  There’s some new avatar art requirements Victoria will need some time to work through (this isn’t her fault, I’ve been specifying changes and new art requests while I've been editing and tinkering).

It might be the case that – for the first time ever, I think – my work on this episode is going to be finished before the art. 😮 (I say again, this isn’t V’s fault, it’s just that she’s been given a huge and complex tasking.)  If that does turn out to be the case, I’ll just start work on the next episode.

Okay, that’s it for this report.  We’ll keep pushing on and get the episode out to you as soon as everything is working.  ❤️‍🔥🦀

Hi guys! ☕ 🦀 Short report this week, because we’re mostly working on behind-the-scenes stuff at the moment.

Our illustrator lovely Victoria is busy working on new art.  In addition to all the avatar improvements, the new episode has a large number of wardrobe requirements.

For example: in the next episode, a few scenes are set in high school.  This is where you set the heroine’s high school clique – alpha female, athlete, geek girl, or rock chick.  (These will individualise the heroine’s backstory, unlock new dialogue options with NPCs later, and also now have a game mechanics effect, e.g. athletes get the Amazon perk, giving them +1 to all Physical and Firearms skill checks.)  Of course, because the Lifepath now supports five different nationalities, we need five different school uniform looks, so lovely V had to draw five times the assets for this scene.

Meanwhile, I’ve been working mainly on scene edits, cutting bloat and adding in new flavour text variations and dialogue options.  TLDR; we’re working hard on the next episode!

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There was some interesting talk on the Discord yesterday about different backstories people want for their heroine (referred to internally as “Kate”, for simplicity).  Some players prefer a “good girl” backstory, some like Kate to have a more checkered past littered with hookups, drug use, etc.  This is actually highly relevant to the writing right now (karan’s comment actually made me realise that a certain scene from the next episode needs another dialogue choice in order to fully support the “good girl” playstyle). 

What’s your preferred backstory for Kate?  Let me know here, in Discord or in DM if you’re shy 🥰 – it’ll help me make sure the game has the right options.

Okay, that's all for this report! I'm going to get back to work. 🦀 ❤️‍🔥

Good morning guys! ☕ 🦀 Here is this week's work update.

Players like Greyduck and gg will be pleased to learn the eyebrows are now standard issue to all female Five Eyes officers.

Our illustrator lovely Victoria added 5 new brow styles, so Female Agent now joins the ranks of games with eyebrow customisation during character creation (which is pretty much all of them, so I guess players like choosing eyebrows).

Of course, this wasn't as simple as just drawing five new assets. The avatar's facial expressions require seven different brow positions, so this improvement required 35 hand drawn assets.

Anyway, they're now coded into a new "Brows" dropdown in the character creator.

(We also improved the natural ginger & auburn dynamic hair colours – thanks for the feedback on this Sharkk991.)

2) Tech work on RPG system and character sheet
I did some really nerdy under-the-hood work on the RPG system and character sheet, using JavaScript 🤓 (because the basic Twee/SugarCube code environment the game is built in couldn't do everything I needed).

The RPG features are now pretty robust. Previous episodes kind of faked the RPG elements, but we now have fully working skills (with optional specialisations), XP progress and levels, permanent Perks and temporary Status Effects (e.g. the heroine's Extraversion checks are buffed when she's Drunk; Coordination and Resist Seduction checks are debuffed).

Levelling up in other games is great fun, so I hope you'll enjoy it in Female Agent, too. It feels fun in testing.

Perks are a new feature, which give your heroine an edge in certain gameplay situations. She'll gain her first perk when you pick her high school clique (alpha female/athlete/geek girl/rock chick) in the next episode.

Things that remain
– We've still got lots of avatar glitches on the various youth avatars that need to be fixed.

– The next episode is heavy on avatar outfits and looks and some need to be drawn and coded in.

– There's some general scene editing and tightening up I want to do.

Okay, that's it for this week's report! I'm going to catch up on some DMs (sorry to everybody who has messaged me and is waiting for a reply, I've been nose deep in JavaScript 🤓) then get back to work. 🦀 ❤️‍🔥

Good morning guys!  ☕🦀  We’re making steady progress on the next episode.

Since last week's report, 48 new hairstyles and 5 skin tones have been added to the character creator and are now working in the game.  This will enable you to produce much more customisable and unique heroines, and I’m really looking forward to seeing some screenshots of your ‘Kates’!

Clicking the [Random Agent] button in the character creator now really feels like it’s producing a different doll each time, not just subtle variations of the same one.  It’s all part of our aim to improve the game by giving you more control, choices and personalisation options and making it feel less on rails than before.

Character stats and skills

The next episode is also bringing back character stats and skills, which you can keep track of on the character sheet.  This will let you further individualise your heroine, and lets us weave them into scenes to make them feel less scripted and compulsory.

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Example: Allure skill
An example of this in action is the new Allure skill.  (The heroine uses Allure to look good for the camera, and also attract male attention.  It can be buffed with clothing, makeup and dialogue/decision choices.)

Let’s take a look at how introducing this simple mechanic can affect one of the early scenes in the mission, the poolside encounter with Max in Malaysia.

Existing scene (with no stats): the heroine (internally called “Kate”, for ease) goes to the swimming pool.  She can make a few decisions (e.g. keep her bikini intact, or take off her top in front of Max and the other guests; later she can smile back at Max or just ignore him), but the scene always plays out in the same way: Max hits on her, and the player decides whether to take it further or not.

Changes by adding stats: Instead of the scene just playing out like a script, Kate makes an Allure check to attract Max; this check is modified by her stats and skills (in this case Beauty + Allure) and her decisions in the scene (e.g. if Kate takes off her top she gets +1; if she smiles at Max she gets +1; if she’s strikingly busty she gets +1*; etc).  If Kate passes the check, Max approaches her (unlocking the optional dinner date side quest); otherwise the flirting stays non-verbal and the two go their separate ways.

This is a small change but a big improvement.  Instead of following a script, the game world is dynamically responding to your individual Kate, weighting the chance of her being hit on based both on decisions you made in the scene, and decisions going right back to the start of the game.

It also mechanically captures a kind of male/female energy that’s present in the real world but currently missing from Female Agent: Kate makes the Allure check whether she wants to or not; she can’t exactly control when guys hit on her or who (but she can influence it).  Making more use of Allure checks in seduction and story scenes will make Kate more a force of temptation in the story (and male NPCs acting on that is inherently interesting and hot).
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I’m really excited about updating the scenes like this – it’ll finally make Female Agent less like a story you click through, and more like a game you play.  There are more complex uses for Allure (and other skills) planned for later in the game (e.g. Allure checks livening up the episode Girls’ Night Out; Kate making an Allure check while she’s trying to slip out of the hostel wearing the stripper dress leading to an extra dialogue scene with Noodle and his friend; potentially subverting the male/female approach/temptation dynamic in scenes where Kate fails her Allure check and finds herself having to make the first move/throw herself at a target NPC; etc).

Next tasks
But to make this possible, we need to make sure the avatar and the code base are set up to support it.  The main focus right now is still on tech tasks, like making sure all agents get issued eyebrows before starting the mission.

My current task is fixing some glitches caused by incorrect layering of hair and skin tone SVG layers on the youth versions of the avatar.  Once that’s done, there’s some tech work on the character sheet I need to look at (specifically how the game tracks and displays XP progress in each skill).  I’m just basically trucking through the unglamorous but necessary tasks that need to be tackled before the release, and it’s more complicated than usual because of the changes to the avatar and the game logic.

I can’t give an ETA on when it’ll be released yet – making the game is hard and we’re a tiny team – but I’m putting in long hours every day and it’s a labour of love.  Thank you to all supporters for making it possible.  🦀❤️‍🔥

*- Busty Kate getting a +1 to Allure in this situation is the game trying to simulate how busty women are often seen as promiscuous and sexually available (and therefore more approachable and DTF), just because of their body type.  Only you the audience can interpret whether I’m making a critique of sexualisation and the male gaze 🤓, or if I just think objectifying intelligent women with big tits is hot 🥵