Rem Diary 7/13/2025

Hi everyone, I debated whether to title this as a Rem Diary or Progress Report but I think that is just semantics. I'm gonna go with Rem Diary for this week and as technical progress starts, switch over to Progress Reports.

So firstly, just a short physical/mental update on my side. You can skip this paragraph if you wish. Physically, oh boy, but basically the food poisoning from last week cleared up. It took quite a while and loads of trips to the toilet, way too much but thankfully no accidents. Mentally, I still feel the urge yo. Always calling me being like, "Reeemm, just a little, you never did generated AI porn of that character yet! Oh, and there's this character too, c'mon. Just a lil, no one will notice, you've been clean for X days, why not treat yourself." Scary, but being busy has helped out a lot.

So for game talk stuff. I am announcing the third installment of the Remtairy Heroine Series! First it was Meltys, then Karryn. And now, I'm announcing Amelya!! For now, I will call this Project Amelya. That will NOT be the actual game title, but just something to call temporary for now.

So for the past week-ish I have been spending it mostly brainstorming (uh oh, I can hear sirens going off in some readers' head). I was initially working on coding and learning RPGMaker MZ. Like I mentioned last time, I figured out that the code was only reading the English localization file, and the solution to that involved coding in a way to change the game language. And to do that, I needed a custom Options menu. For Karryn's Prison, I did this using a heavily modified Yanfly plugin, so I went back to trusty ol' Yanfly just to find out,

Yanfly no longer exists. Instead of Yanfly, it's a different suite of plugins for RPGMaker MZ and all their code are obfuscated, as in it's not possible to read or edit, and more importantly for me, to learn from. I could somehow find a way to decode it but that would be breaking their terms of service and stuff and I just don't want anything to deal with this stuff anymore. Luckily, a plugin Sachinama had already been using had a simple menu system similar to how I want the ingame settings menu to look like (basically the same or similar to Karryn's Prison's setting menu) so now I have a path forward by learning that plugin so I can make my own menus.

However before I was about to get started on that, discussion between Sachinama and I started getting deep and even philosophical at points. And they were regarding what Sachinama wants, and what gameplay systems to have for Project Amelya. Sachinama originally planned to have a 2D ARPG system similar to 2D Zelda and that one section in Meltys Quest. So that was the direction I was going to go with, until through discussion, discovered that Sachinama only planned to go with Zelda style was because that was his technical know-how limit. And upon realizing that it doesn't have to be a 2D ARPG system (which I would've struggled with a bit on how to make it deep, probably do this or that but it no longer matters now), I started coming up with different ideas.

The core of Project Amelya, as Sachinama wants, is that the heroine can dress up into different outfits and the clothing pieces are divides into many different parts, unlike in games like Meltys Quest where the outfit is just one item such as 'Princess Dress'.

And I thought and thought about how to best utilize this given system, to bring it to its maximum potential as I saw it.

Strangely enough, I ended up using one of the core ideas from the main game idea that I brainstormed last year before the KP's P-Cup DLC. Since I'm not planning to use that game idea anymore, a quick summary is that it would've been a turn-based combat RPG with a party system. But the scope of the party system depended on the 'Mission', such as diving into a dungeon which requires a few members, or escorting a caravan which requires a squad, or defending/invading a torn which requires an army. There's a lot more going on but basically the formation of your party was very important. Do you build up someone who is great 1v1 or someone who isn't very useful 1v1 but has potential to be a great commander.

For Project Amelya, it is also going to be turn-based. But like Meltys Quest and Karryn's Prison, there are no other party members in battle with you and stuff.

INSTEAD. The customization that would have been similar to how I was planning for in last year's game idea, would all come from the OUTFIT PIECES. Sachinama plans for double digit amount of outfits. Maybe it could even reach 20, but we'll have to see. And each outfit has multiple pieces.

Each outfit piece will have your typical RPG stats such as Stylish, Cute, Elegant, and Sexy.

And then they will also do typical RPG stuff such as provide CARDS for your DECKS.

It's a card battler?!?!?!?!

No. Well, yes. But you missed something before that. Project Amelya will have multiple deckS, plural. Specifically, FOUR types of decks: Field, Combat, Gathering, (Not too hot about calling this one a Gathering deck, trying to find a better word) and Trap.

Field Decks consists of cards like Combat, Gathering, Trap, Event, and Rest. When Amelya is on the Field, you'll draw a few cards from the Field deck and choose one of them, and that is what will happen next. Pick the Combat card and it will be a combat encounter using the Combat deck, similar to something out of a game like Slay the Spire. Pick Gathering (again, not super satisfied with the name yet) and it will be a gathering encounter using the Gathering Deck where Amelya tries to gather/harvest/find a useful ingredient. Pick Trap and Amelya will try to evade or disarm or do something to some sort of obstacle in her way using the Trap deck.

But it's not a deckbuilder like Slay the Spire and its derivatives (OGs will know that it's actually Dream Quest and its derivatives) where you add new cards to your deck as you go on while trimming your weaker cards. For Project Amelya, you remove or add cards by changing the outfit pieces.

Your typical RPG stats like Stylish, Cute, Elegant, and Sexy also determine the strength of some of the cards, as well as act as a requirement for events and stuff. And why do you need ingredients from Combat and Gathering? Because there will be recipes for potions and outfit pieces. The outfit piece part is obvious, fulfill the recipe to get new outfit pieces.

But the potions are for what the game is about, which is curing the mysterious disease the inhabitants of the town Amelya and co are staying at.

And there is a time limit. Project Amelya has a time limit. Time is of an essence, and you can NOT do everything in a single playthrough (unless it's on easy mode which doubles the time limit for everything). There are choices on who to save this playthrough. This person's quests give this outfit, but that person unlocks a helpful functionality. The necessary ingredients aren't coming quick enough, but maybe if Amelya agrees to this person's... request... her boyfriend doesn't have to find out and it's for a good purpose...

Yes, Project Amelya has NTR elements.

Can Amelya achieved the perfect Happy Ending (Happy End as in the slut ending like KP) without cheating? No.

Completing the main quest on normal difficulty without new game plus bonus and without cheating on her boyfriend will be my barometer for balance of a difficult playthrough.

By the way, unlike most NTR games, Amelya will be in a healthy, sexual relationship with her boyfriend right from the start! And can and should have sex with him especially while aiming for the no cheating playthrough.

If Karryn's Prison is a game with lots of plates to juggle at the same time, I would describe Project Amelya as a game where there are a few plates to juggle, while running in many hamster wheels. It's both much more complicated than Karryn's Prison, and also much simpler than Karryn's Prison in certain aspects.

It's going to be a delicate balance where in easy mode I want the player to just dress up Amelya in whatever silly outfit they like, and still be able to reach the ending with a little bit of thinking and gaming. But a complicated system like this would naturally lend itself to some extremely hardcore min-maxing. The skill ceiling is higher than Karryn's Prison, but the skill floor is also lower than Karryn's Prison.

And I think this time, I am just not going to pay attention to the skill ceiling at all, only ever balancing if there is just an outrageous OP combo that invalids the challenge too much. My balancing philosophy for Project Amelya will be let the player have fun and break the game or play pretty dress up doll.

And I think I will keep it here today for the game concept and stuff! As for my next plans, I am going to restarting studying the MZ code and learn how to make the ingame settings menu. I also google'd and found a card battler/deckbuilder paid plugin for MZ. After I finish the ingame settings menu, and also use that knowledge to modify the equip menu, I plan to buy that plugin and then study it. Basically, I would be paying money to access to code for drawing and displaying card on the screen and stuff like that. The card abilities and deck building part of the plugin I won't use since outside of the card drawing animation and card display stuff which I by myself would have a hard time coding, would all be custom code to suit my own needs.

So that's the plan for the coming weeks, just diligently burying my nose in programming while ignoring the siren call to tempt me back to being an addict. I am creating a new Discord channel in our Remtairy discord server for you all to talk about Project Amelya stuff! There's not much to talk about yet, and an alpha build is going to be waaaayyys away, but I think a channel is fine for now.

See you all next time!