Hey guys!  It’s been a challenging but exciting week, especially over the last few days.

Scene editing 1.9/3 complete
I wanted to get the second main scene fully punched up before this report.  It’s not, but it nearly is, and I expect to be finished on it tomorrow.

I added two more nude scenes to the episode, punched up a key dialogue scene, and did some general editing and tightening up.  The exciting part is how good I feel about these scenes: they’re sexy, they’re branching, they’re psychological.  Also, in a first for Female Agent, opting out of them is possible without ending the game (and in two cases there are ‘middle ground’ paths that are sexy in different ways).  I’m so eager to get this out to you guys.

I’m sorry I couldn’t finish editing scene 2 this week: I worked on it all 7 days, with no days off.  On Discord over the weekend, Rob Stark said: “writing is like digging for gold! You have a lot of shitty ideas just like the mud you dig out, and then find a tiny piece of gold. And that’s not it; you have to keep on digging to get the story movin’.”  I hadn’t heard that analogy before but it’s true for me, it’s why I can’t exactly predict how long a writing task is going to take – I don’t know how much I’m going to have to dig to get to a bit of gold.

Art update
On Discord last Thursday PrettyShyGuy asked for an update on artwork progress.  

Our illustrator lovely Victoria has done new clothes for 16 scenes so far (they look gorgeous, of course).  My edits keep throwing up changes – for instance, the new nude scene I added last week required 9 new individual art assets to support, so those got added to her workload (and more will be coming from the new scenes I added this week).  But there are only 2-3 more actual scene outfits we need for the quick start release, she has absolutely finished the vast majority of the artwork required on this.

Why isn’t there a beta?
Several people have asked, here and on Discord, why there hasn’t been a beta release in ages.

The reason is we’ve changed so much in order to implement the Lifepath that the game hasn’t been playable in large chunks.  Testers have had to follow careful instructions on how to play it and which parts work and don’t work.  It just hasn’t been in the shape where we can put a beta out to a large audience and let them play with it.

However it’s nearly in a shape where we could put out a beta without the new avatar hairs and skin colours – we could revert to the old hairs and skin and it would at least be playable.  I’ll plan to do that and get a beta out to Operators+, and they can feed back while we’re fixing the hair & skin glitch I mentioned in the Jul 28 report.

Okay, that’s it for the report and today, my brain is mush.  I’ll get an early night so I can get straight back on it tomorrow.  🦀❤️‍🔥

Hey guys!  Last week I worked mainly on scene editing.

Scene editing 1/3 complete
I significantly punched up one of the three main scenes I wasn’t happy with.  Some parts that weren’t landing were cut or rewritten; a lot of dialogue was tightened up to make the NPCs more believable and consistent; a totally new nude/CFNF scene was added to spice up a section that was just too long and procedural (I think it’s really hot 🥵); a section that felt like a grind was fixed by adding a new gameplay mechanic and making some passages (which exist just to give background story/lore) optionally skippable.  The whole thing got some tightening up for logic and characterisation and pacing: I’m happy with it.

The new nude scene requires some wardrobe adjustments for our illustrator lovely Victoria (who has been working on avatar art), so I’ll get those specced out right after this report and add them to her workload 😬

I also did some work on polishing skill checks and implementing placeholder code but I can’t mark those tasks finished yet.  My priority for this week will be editing the other two scenes which need to be brought up to scratch.

Why are you editing instead of just releasing
I tried to touch on this in the Discord last week, (come join in if you aren’t already, we have the coolest people).

The reason people like Female Agent is because of all the editing, they’re what it takes to get it up to its normal standard.

Okay back to it.  🦀❤️‍🔥

Hey guys!  Since last week’s report, I have:

Finished the remaining art specs
I finished speccing out the remaining outfits required.  Our illustrator lovely Victoria is working hard on making them beautiful for you 🥰

Wrote the unwritten small scene
I wrote the scene I wanted to add, where the heroine can voluntarily get in touch with the Malaysia station chief if she accidentally left nudes on Max’s phone.

It’s a small scene – just 240 lines of code – but there are a few different dialogue choices and I’m actually kind of pleased with the execution and characterisation.  I feel like the station chief isn’t a pushover, the heroine isn’t a doormat, and the outcome is kind of clever – or, at least, not what I thought would happen when I sat down to write it.  It’s okay!

Added the quest log
I’ve always wanted a quest log, and all CRPGs have them.  This week I added it!  I know nobody is playing Female Agent for the UI, but I did my best to make it not annoying to use (e.g. there are tastefully animated quest update alerts, a notification dot on the character sheet reminding you where to click, and the character sheet opens automatically to the quest log in this context – saved u a click).

When I populated it with actual quests and played through, it really did seem to add something?  It was satisfying ticking off quest objectives, and the log itself felt like a “story so far” reminding me of key events.  It’s also another place to execute (pithy) storytelling – I can use it to restate or summarise complex plots in tighter language.  (I know this sounds really boring, but think of it this way, it means characters on screen can now spend more time dicking down the heroine instead of explaining the story.)

Worked on scene edits
People say I spend too much time on this, but it’s the hardest work and it’s what makes it good?  (Or, at least, as good as it is, I wish I wrote better. ☹️)  Anyway I’ve been doing some good work punching up multiple scenes, and making them a bit sharper and better IMHO.

Sometimes it’s not obvious to me why a scene isn’t working the way I feel like it needs to.  For fun I asked ChatGPT to help me, but specified it had to do it in the style of a disappointed memo from David Mamet.

(I just did this for a joke to amuse myself one evening, but it actually was pretty helpful.  Thanks robot, not everything you produce is useless skibidi brainrot, just most of it 🤖)

Okay, that’s the weekly transparency report!  I’m frazzled now, but I will get straight back to work tomorrow morning.  ☕🦀

Hey guys, hope you are all well.  I have been working non-stop on Female Agent 🤪

I finished my writing task, so I now know exactly what scenes are in the next release, how many more art assets are required, etc.  Here is a list of things that still need to be done:

Scene editing (Crush)
Some of the scenes need some punching up/dialogue tightening.

Unwritten small scene (Crush)
One scene isn’t written at all yet (it’s just “placeholdered” so I know we need avatar art for it).  It’s an option for a different way to resolve the possible quest outcome where Kate leaves nudes on Max’s phone – in the previous version she’s kind of railroaded into just ignoring it and hoping it goes away, but I want to add an option for her to reach out to the local station chief, Wheeler (who gave her the mission) and fess up/attempt to get on top of the narrative.

This is the kind of thing that’s basically been added to Malaysia, a little more player agency and a little less of Kate being led around by the nose.

Remaining art specifications (Crush)
Kate’s wardrobe tells more of the story now.  It’s subtle, but you’ll see a visual change between her “real” self as an intelligence officer (repressed female sexuality) and her “fake” identity as a backpacker/wannabe topless barmaid in Bangkok.  (But which is the real her, and which is the construction?  Are either of her identities truly “real”?  What happens when you put an overeducated, underfucked girl in a brothel? 🫢)

Anyway, I need to spec out some remaining outfits and send them to our illustrator, lovely Victoria.

Avatar artwork (Victoria)
Then, of course, lovely Victoria needs to hand draw them all (with 3-6 different body shape variations for each top 🤪).  She’s already done 12 different outfits just for this episode, but we need about 8 more.

Fix the hair and skin glitch (Crush)
We’ve got a display problem with the new hair and skin colour overlays (they don’t position correctly on some common devices).  All the testers have been ignoring it but it looks horrible, it needs to be fixed before we can release.

Implement some placeholder code (Crush)
A couple of tables and logic choices aren’t fully implemented in the test code.  (For example, there are a couple of dialogue sections where the player is supposed to be able to go through in any order and skip some parts if desired, but in the test code you have to click through everything in a certain order.)  This is part of an aim to make the game feel a little bit less like a slideshow.

Polish skill checks and add XP (Crush)
This episode has a few more skill checks than we’re used to.  They need to be polished slightly (they’re currently calling from a test character’s skills, not the heroine’s real skills on her character sheet) and XP awards need to be added in for each skill check.

Add quest log updates (Crush)
The character sheet has a new quest log to help you keep track of your mission objectives.  This needs to be populated so it updates correctly through the episode.  (For example: the heroine now has two options of how to infiltrate the Hard Cock Cafe: she can walk in, like before, or go a more complex “dangle” route to get there, involving getting “talent spotted” at a wet t-shirt contest.  The game remembers what you chose, but the quest log is how you’ll remember what the fuck she’s doing and why 😂)

As you can see, there’s a lot of work that goes into making Female Agent, especially now that we’re trying to make it more polished, with more choices and gameplay elements.

Which is why I can’t have any days off until it’s done, I just have to crunch, because I know everybody is already sick of waiting so long for it. 😭 But it’s fine, I love the game and I love you guys and anyway, no peace for the wicked.  I’m gonna get on the art specs next, because V needs those so she can work concurrently.  Okay, end of report, I have a lot to do so I’ve gotta get back to it.  🦀❤️‍🔥

Hey guys!  I’m really sorry but I need more time to finish my writing task 😭

I worked on it full time every day since the last report, no days off.  I desperately wanted to get it finished, but some things I was trying just didn’t work, so I need a few more days to cook.

I’m sorry 😭 I know I’m really slow.  I was struggling with some characterisation issues that slowed me down – specifically around Max (the optional love interest in Malaysia), the heroine’s attraction to him, and just the general way he behaves, talks and acts (and, ultimately, fucks).  This is related to two of my least favourite things about Female Agent:

Even though I was trying not to, I felt like I was slipping back into this with Max.  But on Saturday afternoon, after a lot of what felt like banging my stupid head against the same wall over and over, I had kind of a breakthrough in both these two areas, and the writing is now flowing much, much better.

It’s nearly 9PM, so I’m going to get an early night and get straight back on it tomorrow morning.  Apologies again for taking more time on this than intended, I am doing my best but sometimes I have to put in extra hours to make things work.  🦀❤️‍🔥

Bonjour guys! I was aiming to have locked down writing on the reworked Malaysia scene, but I didn't quite finish it. It's 80% done and I expect to finish it this week.

The quickstart version has fewer wardrobe requirements outstanding than the full Lifepath, so I'm planning to release that first. (I'll publish a more detailed estimate when the Malaysia writing is locked.) The quickstart version will include:

Because some scenes have changed, there are some art requirements (but fewer than for the full Lifepath). Our illustrator lovely Victoria finished all the new tattoos this week, and has already switched over to working on quickstart clothes. She already completed a whole bunch of them that are needed for the early scenes:

I've always thought the avatar is the best thing about Female Agent and we're just trying to add a little more interaction with it (and subtle characterisation through it).

Okay, I am going to make supper then tomorrow get straight back to the work. Detailed release estimate as soon as the writing's locked down, sorry it took longer than the week to finish. For now...au revoir, mes amis. 🦀❤️‍🔥🇫🇷