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