Beginning of Episode 5 - Dialogue with Lara

What's up, guys!
Today I bring you a simple but symbolic update: the initial Episode 5 scene is done.

The featured scene is the dialogue between Hector (Main Character) and Lara, making a small retrospective of what happened in episode 4 and introducing what will happen in episode 5.

The scene is 100% complete, both dialogues and renders.
Despite being a simple scene, you can see some new emotions of the characters in the video, while the dialogue happens.

Watch the video to have a taste of the beginning of episode 5.

That's all for today, folks.
Cheers! 🍻

[IMPORTANT] A lot has happened and I feel I owe you an explanation.

What's up, guys!
It's been a while since my last post, so I apologize for my absence during this time.
I feel I owe you an explanation as to why I am absent.

A lot has happened, coming from all possible directions, so I will address each topic one by one.

Health problems

A lot has happened in my personal life that required my full attention, the most important being my health.
I'm dealing with my formal job, this project, and everyday tasks like housework alone.
Due to the high level of stress I was experiencing, it ended up causing me high blood pressure and, at one point, some heart problems.

I had to pay special attention to my health, including being hospitalized for a while until the doctors released me from the hospital and allowed me to return home after concluding I was safe to be alone again.
It was a difficult time, but thank God I'm fine now.

This explains why I was absent for most of the time, but as soon as I got better, more problems started to occur, and I believe you are already aware of these.

Steam bans a wave of adult games

It all started because of an adult game called "No Mercy," which featured dark themes that I'd rather not name out of respect for the platform's rules.

Since Steam is a mainstream platform with a significant audience, this caught the attention of a group of feminist activists, who launched a campaign against the game and managed to get it taken down.

Still not satisfied, the group continued its campaign, now focusing on other adult games that they said contained allegedly abusive themes.

The activists' way to shut down the games was to pressure payment providers, especially Visa and MasterCard, who, in turn, began to pressure Steam.
It's difficult for the platform to reject a request from these companies, given their importance and the fact that most payments are processed through these credit card companies.

It goes without saying how important Steam is to my project, given the platform's size and importance.
Steam is essential for this game to receive the necessary support and continue its development.

Fortunately, my game was designed from the beginning to comply with all payment provider rules, as it was originally planned to be on Patreon.
Luckily, Steam kept my game online, even after the wave of adult game bans.

Valve Antitrust Litigation

This is another issue, completely unrelated to the previous one, involving Steam.

A development team (not in the adult game genre, by the way), dissatisfied with certain rules imposed by Steam, decided to file a lawsuit against Valve to try to legally overturn these rules. At the time, though, it was not very successful.

To gain more traction, this development team requested, in the court, that the judge make the case a class action lawsuit, which involved all (or at least the vast majority) of Steam's partner developers in the lawsuit as plaintiffs, as we were now considered "The Class".
Because of this, I was involved in a lawsuit against Valve against my own will.

I studied the context further to understand what the lawsuit was about and why my name was being involved when I never expressed any desire to participate in such an action, nor did I express any interest in taking legal action against Valve, but it seems I was "passively" included in the lawsuit.

When we developers agreed to partner with Valve to publish our games on Steam, their terms were very explicit, and anyone can accept (or decline, don't publishing there) those terms at their own discretion.
I do not agree, in any way, with the plaintiff's request.
I'd like to take this opportunity to publicly state this here!

I had to contact the lawyers involved in the case to request my exclusion as a plaintiff from the lawsuit, as I have no intention whatsoever of participating in such an action.
I believe that, from this point on, I am no longer part of the lawsuit.

Itch bans a wave of adult games and hides all adult games from their search engine

The context here is basically the same as that involving Steam.
It all started because of the adult game "No Mercy".
Feminist activists then pressured payment providers, who in turn pressured Itch to remove other adult games they deemed abusive.

The problem here was even more serious than with Steam, because although Itch banned a wave of games, it still hid absolutely all adult games from its search engine, harming the entire adult gaming scene.

Many developers rely on Itch for their games as part of their income, and some, although they don't have paid versions published there, use the platform as a means of promotion, publishing free versions to attract new players.

In the case of this project, I have a free version published there for promotional purposes, but since the game has been published on Itch since its launch, the platform is an extremely important part of the promotion, necessary to keep the game alive. Once again, since my game doesn't contain dark or heavy themes, respecting the limits of payment providers, luckily, the game was preserved and avoided being banned in the wave of bans.

Recently, Itch resumed indexing games with free versions in its search engine, since they don't accept payments, they wouldn't create problems with payment providers.

Since I only have a free version published there, we can say that this problem has been overcome.

Conclusion

After my recovery, despite my "absence", I spent considerable time resolving all these issues surrounding the project.

If any of these problems had persisted, it might not have been possible to continue the project, but fortunately, I was able to find a solution.
This was perhaps the hardest phase of the project, with all these unexpected setbacks that threatened to kill the project.

These were difficult times, as you know how passionate I am about this project, and seeing it die would have been really bad. Thank God, the outcome was positive, and I'll be able to continue developing it.

That said, today officially marks the return to development.
I hope to bring you some nice news soon.
Best regards.

Roadmap - MC Day 6 Clothes + Plans for v0.5 + Plans for the Project's Future

What's up, guys!
I've been working on the new version for a while now, but I haven't brought you any updates yet, so I decided to share some of my progress with you.

MAIN CHARACTER DAY 6 CLOTHES

First of all, as you can see in the images attached to this post, I have decided on the outfit that the main character will wear on the sixth day. It's inspired by a famous basketball team.
All renders related to moments already present in the game in which the MC appears have already been rendered with the MC wearing the new outfit.

But that's not the main focus of this post.
Let's take a look at the plans for the new episode.

PLANS FOR EPISODE 5

Episode 5 will consist of the following parts:

• Beatrice Sex Scene: Just like in Episode 4, there will be a sex scene with Beatrice as soon as the episode begins, but this time there will be more than just oral sex.
• Photoshoot with Julia: All the girls in the game will have at least 1 photoshoot each.
  Since Julia is the character who has just arrived at the brothel, you'll have to do a photoshoot with her and then post the photos on the escort forum to promote the brothel.
• Bartender Scene: As always, there'll be a scene where you'll work as a bartender.
  This time, there'll be a very special customer who will be part of the main story, and this will lead to further development of the story.
  In addition, you'll notice that the bar is more crowded than usual, thanks to the promotion that Leon did on his internet show.
• Luna Pole Dance Scene: As mentioned in the previous episode, Julia will teach the other girls in the brothel how to Pole Dance.
  In this episode, Luna will perform a Pole Dance show at the bar, just like Julia did in the previous episode.
  This will have a major consequence in the story, which you'll find out once you have the opportunity to play the new episode.
• Sakura Sex Scene: Sakura will also have a sex scene with you at the end of this episode.
  You'll find out that she has also joined the brothel team and she'll reveal her secrets to you, telling you why she made this decision.
  You'll be surprised by her reasons!

That's all I have planned for Episode 5 at the moment.
With that said, let's move on to the next and perhaps most important topic of today.

PLANS FOR THE PROJECT'S FUTURE

From the release of Episode 4 until now, I've been thinking about the future of the project and what would be the right decisions to make in order to achieve our dream of completing the development of this game.

I haven't told you this yet, but the time has come to say it: The project has already reached halfway through its development journey. I can say that it's somewhere in between 50% and 60% done.

I'm tired of seeing and hearing about other developers' work that was only half-finished and abandoned halfway through.
I'll not let that happen to my project, because what I want most is to finish it.
In addition, I also know that this is something that some players fear, due to some comments I have received.

Unfortunately, this is something that is quite common in the adult game development community in general and has become a ghost for everyone, both players and developers.
This creates a stigma that contaminates the entire environment.

Because of this, some players have already commented on my pages saying that I would abandon the project unfinished or something like that, which is not part of my plans.

As you know, this project is developed by only 1 person (me) at the moment, and my life has been quite busy lately, because my living conditions have changed a lot since the beginning of the project. Nowadays, I have a formal job to take care of, I have my household chores since I live alone, plus the work on the game development, all of which makes things a little harder than usual, as it's like trying to spinning plates for me, giving a little attention and time to each of these areas.

I know that, as players, we always want the game to be complete as soon as possible, because we want to see the end of the story, and if you feel that way about my game, I take it as a compliment, because it's a sign that it was interesting enough to keep you interested.
But I ask for a little patience, because the work will be done and I'll keep my word to you.

That said, I have made the decision to move straight towards the game's conclusion.

What do I mean by that?
In the past, I have always made a point of including optional extra content in the episode, which is not mandatory but can be unlocked by the player.
While this is nice, as it gives the player more content to explore, it does extend the production time of new episodes.

I'm not ruling this out, but these optional extra content will be released after the release of version 1.0.0, which is the version in which the main story will be complete.
If you, my audience, want me to continue adding content to the game and release versions 1.1.0, 1.2.0, 1.3.0, etc., I'll do so, but first I'll work towards delivering the complete main story to you. The extra content we can look at later.

That said, I've decided that the game will have 7 or 8 episodes in its final version, that is, the version in which the main story is complete.
More extra content may be added later, and this will be unlocked over the course of the days that make up the episodes, but first I've decided to deliver the complete main story to you.

The next episodes will focus mainly on the following (Contains a small spoiler):

• Episode 5: The main focus will be on Sakura's story. Content involving Beatrice will also be present, as mentioned above. In addition, Luna and Priscilla will have an important role in this episode.
• Episode 6: Priscilla will be the main focus of this episode. Luna will also play a very important role in this one, as she will be part of the development of Priscilla's story.
  There will also be a fight scene in the bar, which you'll have to intervene in. This will be crucial to the story.
• Episode 7: Yasmin will be the main focus of the story. She's Luna's college friend and will need help, so Luna will invite her to work at the brothel and she'll join the team.
  Lara will also have an important role in this episode, this is where she'll come into contact with the brothel for the first time.
  You'll also need to hire a security guard to take care of the brothel, in order to avoid fights in the bar like the one that happened in Episode 6.
• Episode 8: Lara will be the main focus of the story in this episode.
  She'll start to live directly with the brothel girls and the MC, and will even become part of the team.
  This episode will be the connection to the beginning of the story, which will take you to the Questioning (Scene 1), finally reaching the conclusion of the game.
  It'll have a surprising ending, but it'll remain a secret for now.

Maybe Episode 8 will be merged into Episode 7, that's something I still need to decide, but for now these are the decisions related to the script that I have made.

Something may change before development is complete, but I believe this plan will be followed for the most part.

This was a really long and revealing post.
I decided to open up about the full roadmap that I have from now until the final version of the game, and I hope this keeps you guys hyped to see how this story ends.

This was perhaps the most important post about the project's development that I've made to date, so I hope you enjoyed the news.
For now, I'll continue working on the development of the project itself: posing the characters, setting up the scenes, rendering, etc.

I hope to bring you some cool news soon.
See you next time, everyone.
Cheers! 🍻

New ideas about the next game

IMPORTANT: Our priority will continue to be the production of Living in a Brothel until it is completed. The ideas presented in this post will be developed after Living in a Brothel is completed.

What's up, guys!
Today we came to bring you something very different from usual, but we needed to show it to you.

During the development of Living in a Brothel, there were some things that bothered us, such as Ren'py's limitations regarding exploration.
We tried to deal with this by creating an exploration system (Free Roaming) through Point and Click mechanics, but it's not exactly what we wanted.

We also wanted to create a game that had really interesting gameplay, that was fun on its own. We also wanted to create action scenes, where you could directly fight your enemies, either by cutting them in half, shooting them, or whatever else your imagination could come up with.
We're not saying that the current gameplay is bad, but it's completely story-driven, which reminds us more of a book than a game.
We want to make something that feels like a game in the mold of what we usually see in traditional video game markets.

Because of this, we always imagined what it would be like if we could walk freely around the city maps or inside the Brothel. So we decided to test an engine that allows us to walk freely around, RPG Maker.
We know that RPG Maker's default graphics aren't popular with gamers in general, and we wanted to maintain a standard that was consistent with our graphic style.

So during this period, we studied how we could transform DAZ Studio's graphics into sprites and map tilesets to achieve the desired result.
After many attempts, we managed to transform Hector into a functional sprite that allows him to walk around freely.
We also built a sample map with graphics derived from DAZ Studio to see what the result would be.
This resulted in the prototype that can be seen in the video attached to this post.

Another limitation we had to overcome was RPG Maker's grid-based (tile) movement.
We've been working to create a game that allows players to walk in pixels, without this engine limitation, as this gives the player a greater sense of freedom.
That's why we also created our own collision system, so that the game works completely free from these limitations.

This will allow us to create 2.5D maps that are visually pleasing and consistent with the cutscene graphics we produce in DAZ, as if they were realistic representations of the characters seen from above.
This is not mandatory though, as we can create some maps from front-facing camera angles, so creativity is the limit.

In short, these are our ideas for the next game:

• You'll be able to roam freely around the maps. Explore the city, talk to characters, find secrets cards, etc. Something like what we already do today with Free Roaming, but on a larger scale and in a more dynamic way.
• There will be an action battle system, where you battle enemies directly on the map. This will be shown better in the next post.
• Cutscenes will be rendered in DAZ Studio, as usual. It'll be used both in terms of sex scenes and in some dialogues with characters that deserve special attention.
• Busts of characters during minor dialogues, with the graphics of the map in the background, will also be used depending on the context.
• The game will have a living environment, with systems such as an ingame clock, a day and night cycle, dynamic shadows that change position depending on the current ingame time, and a weather system that occurs naturally as you walk around the maps. Some of these systems can already be seen in this gameplay video.
• Other ideas to make the gameplay richer will be added in the future and as soon as they are added, we'll post them here for you.

If you want to get a better idea of ​​what this would look like in practice, we can recommend the game Treasure of Nadia, which conveys the idea we want to reproduce. However, NLT implemented this in a much simpler way, using grid movement, and non-2.5D graphics, but we took inspiration from his work for this.

We have several possible ideas for using the ideas present in this prototype:

• We can create a reimagined version of Living in a Brothel where you can freely explore the city, with more content available, more characters, etc.
• We can create a Living in a Brothel spin-off, telling parts of the story that would work better this way. (ex: A police action scene in which Lara has to invade the criminals' base and shoot them. Yes, this is connected to the story, you'll find out in the future)
• Create an entirely new game, with original characters, original plot, involving battles with swords and guns, and you can go around cutting your enemies in half, exploring dungeons, killing bosses, and saving the "princesses", but in the end you can fuck the "princesses" as a reward. (We're more likely to use this idea)

So, what do you think?
These are ideas that we've been nurturing in our heads for some time and we decided to put together a prototype to share an initial idea with you.

Would you play this game?
Does what you see in the video appeal to you visually?
Can you imagine a game with the mechanics we've described in this topic? Does that sound interesting to you?

Please give us your feedback, as this time it'll be very important for us to decide what kind of game we'll make from now on (after the completion of Living in a Brothel).

That's all for today, folks!
Cheers! 🍻

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1YUUQk8OLk