Hey guys! I was really pleased with the feedback on the Halloween small release.

I was concerned people might find it too "character-y" and boring, with not enough sex scenes, but most of the people who fed back seemed to enjoy the content. (The main complaint was there wasn't enough of it.)


Next steps
My focus for the next few months is going to be getting smaller releases out quicker. The next thing to drop will be the revamped Malaysia mission, which has some punched-up scenes, some new small scenes, and more skill checks and choices.


Perspective
Part of the reason I took a break from writing Malaysia, and focused just on the small release, is that everybody told me I needed to take a break from it and get some perspective. It pains me to admit everybody was right; when I replayed my draft, it was just so obvious what the problems were. Some parts were over-written, some parts were under-written, and the whole sequence needed a slight restructure, not endless rewriting. (I can't write my way out of a problem I have thought myself into.)


Planning, writing, editing
Last week I gave myself permission to just sit and think about this part of the story – what it's for, what the player experience is supposed to be – and tweaked the structure into the correct shape.

I also edited three scenes, and – with the benefit of some time away and a clear vision of what I wanted the scenes to do – editing them was so easy and such a pleasure. It felt kind of like I'd got my writing mojo back, I'm really excited about getting these scenes out to you, I think you'll like 'em.


Bug fixing
I fixed a few of the bugs players reported, including some that players have been reporting for a long time – notably the game crashing on very wide displays, and also the weird way location photos display on tablets and phones. The game should now display properly on both huge and tiny screens! (Thanks playsafe for nudging me into finally fixing this – guys nagging me works).

Avatar work
Our illustrator lovely Victoria and I have been working on the art and code required to introduce skin tones and tan lines to the avatar. We're partway through this, but I expect it to be ready in time for the Malaysia release.

Lifepath update
The Lifepath still needs a fuckton of art assets – I want to prioritise getting at least the Malaysia mission out first, and maybe the following release (which will have the wet t-shirt contest at Chopper's MC Bar in Pattaya) out first, just so you guys have something to play. But Lifepath is (of course) not abandoned and will be worked in ASAP.

Okay, that's it for today's report. Thanks so much to everybody who fed back on the small release, and sent me encouragement in DMs. I felt like quitting a few times in the last few months. You guys kept me going. 🦀 ❤️‍🔥

Hey guys!  Early report today because I have to take my mum to the hospital later, and I don’t know what time I’ll get back.

Last week our illustrator lovely Victoria completed all her art tasks!  They’re looking so great, she did an awesome job (as always).  Sneak peek of some of her new looks in this episode:

I processed, uploaded and coded nearly all the new art assets into the game, adding in 176 new assets for this episode.  I also redesigned the BIO page in the character sheet so it now stores a bunch of useful information like birthplace, social class, education, bra size, high school clique, kinks, etc – it’s basically a 1-page summary of the Lifepath choices now.  (This was so tedious but I’m pleased with the result.)  And I did a bunch of other stuff.

I’m expecting to finish all the remaining stuff this week.  It’s mainly just a bunch of small admin type tasks remaining (like making sure menus have the right options available).  There’s some editing still to do – especially with the briefing scene which is a bit slow and dialogue heavy – but the solution came to me in a dream on Saturday night.  It was basically creating some visual aids that can take the place of some of the text, and I made them yesterday in Illustrator and Photoshop.

Okay, it’s nearly done!  This is probably the last transparency report before the next release.  Gonna get back to it right now!  🦀❤️‍🔥

Hey guys!  It’s been a very busy week.  Our illustrator lovely Victoria finished all her art tasks, and made some requested tweaks after testing in the engine.  (I sent her a new request today, which is why she now has an unfinished item on her list, but she only got it this afternoon.)

(She also had to do some other stuff, like fix a recurrence of a disturbing bug from a few versions ago where the head wouldn't spawn in certain scenes, and Female Agent became a disturbing body horror game.)

I did a whole bunch of stuff:

There are now only a few tasks left, mostly minor:

I pushed out a final alpha test to some alpha testers and got some and I got some helpful advice and perspective. Everybody seems positive about it.

As a reminder, the next episode is going to be a small release.  But it’s nearly ready!  I’ll get straight back on it tomorrow morning. 🦀❤️‍🔥

Hey guys!  Our illustrator lovely Victoria finished most of her art tasks for us this week!

It all looks great, of course.  I started coding some of the outfits into the game; the episode always feels more real when the new art is in it.

This week I finished the two most complex tasks left on my list.  One of them is a menu that’s hopefully simple to use, but behind the scenes is very complex.  It allows you to set backstory choices about your heroine (like was she an athlete or a rock chick?  Was she a cheerleader or a nerd?  Was she promiscuous or picky?  Did she use drugs?) without playing through the Lifepath.

This was complicated because changes in one part can affect other parts of the UI, and it’s also intertwined with a new section where the heroine can design and tweak some details of her cover identity in Bangkok.  But I got it all working nicely in the engine.

It probably won’t be obvious what a big deal this actually is when you first play it – you’re just picking some menu options during the briefing part of the story – but each of the flags you set here (or in the Lifepath) give us little hooks we can use to tweak and individualise scenes in Bangkok.  I’m really excited about it.

I also implemented the new tattoo customisation menu, and it’s now working in the engine.  A lot of the tattoo options depend on backstory decisions, so you can see why this couldn’t be completed until the previous menu was up and working.

There’s a bunch of other tasks to do before we can release – so much effort goes into making an episode playable – but we’ll get back on them tomorrow morning.  It’s nearly 8PM and my brain is mush now.  🫩❤️‍🔥

Hey guys!  Last week I got about half my tasks done.  Progress report:

Our illustrator lovely Victoria was busy on other client work last week (we’re not her only client, just her favourite 🥰), but she’s back in action for us now.  I’ll update you on art progress next week.

I didn’t take any days off last week, but working on these tech/admin/polish tasks has felt like a break in a way.  They say a change is as good as a rest.  I’m hoping that as soon as these tasks are done, I can go back to the writing task I was unhappy on with freshness and perspective, and get it up to a publishable state quickly.

I want to thank everybody who sent me encouraging words in DMs.  I really never did expect that people would like this game so much, and it humbles me that so many of you guys want me to continue making it.  I love you all.  🦀❤️‍🔥

Hey guys,

After I pushed what I had out for an alpha test last week, I replayed it myself – and honestly ended up in a really negative place about all my work.  I felt like I’d worked so hard on the writing, but what I was playing through was boring and underwhelming.

I know it's just porn, but...I don’t wanna make a game I don’t even like.  Full transparency: the truth is, I felt like my writing just sucks no matter how hard I push myself, and I came really close to just giving up, or at least putting the game on indefinite hiatus.  A little after midnight on Wednesday I even started drafting the announcement. ☹️

Some people I shared these thoughts with told me I’m overthinking it, what’s there’s good, I just need a break, I’ve been working too many hours on it and I’ve lost perspective.  So I’d like to announce I’m going on holid– don’t worry, just kidding. 😂

A change is as good as a rest
I do need a break from writing to get some perspective before I go back and finish the Malaysia thing.  So I’ve decided to polish up and release the first half of the quickstart – which is just the briefing scene.  I made a list of outstanding tasks:

Tasks marked (m) are minor, i.e. they’ll take less than 25 minutes’ work.  Other tasks are likely to take longer than 25 minutes.

I didn’t want to release this without Malaysia attached, because there’s no sex scene, and I guess my worry is that everyone will find it boring and pointless without that.  But there’s no point polishing something up then sitting on it, so the quickstart will get released in two chunks.

My hope is that switching focus from writing to tech will give my brain the rest it needs, then I can go back and quickly finish the thing I was struggling with and make it good enough to release.

I’ll post an update on this task list in the next report.  🦀❤️‍🔥