Log inPublic Dev Log#4
Hi everyone!
Get ready for plenty of reading, this will be a long one.
Work is continuing on Chapter 3 of The Last Embrace. I am still working on Clara's route currently, about half way done. Currently chapter 3 has just broke 400 renders and it's not even close to being finished. This chapter has proven to be pretty tough to render because locations are very demanding so it takes a long time to render. Still, progress is made daily.
I also did some improvements to the game and the game is now going to have a achievements system! I have coded it in a way so that it will populate automatically when you load a save so you won't need to restart your playthrough to unlock them. Some achievements need multiple routes to get, some are hidden and some won't be unlockable until endgame. Here is how this looks like:
As you see, unlocked achievement are colored while locked are grayed out. Hovering over each icon gives you a small hint on how to get it. As you see they are located in the journal and have replaced current memories in the main journal menu while memories have been moved to the codex. Some achievements are tied to memories and while achievements are persistent across all paths, memories are only available per path so that way players can keep track on them more easily. Icons are not all implemented yet as of now but I'm working on adding more as I have free time to spare, usually when I'm rendering. There are quite a few of them so by the time ch3 comes out not all icons may be implemented yet but I have designed it in such a way so that the icons fall back to a generic one if the dedicated icon is not present. This eliminates any errors missing icons may cause.
Recently it has been brought to my attention that players have difficulties with some choices that are available in the game, especially when you first encounter Clara and have to decide weather to run or give in to your hunger. I have implemented warnings across the game for most important decisions to make it easier for players to understand hopefully. Here is what this looks like currently:
Hopefully this is clear enough for people and helps avoid further issues. There are also some important choices to be made in this chapter which will for instance determine one of the possible future endings, or what fighting style and type of abilities Kyra will use going forward. The choice is between physical combat, stealth combat and blood magic combat. Hopefully this will give people some variety in playing, even if you play only one route.
Speaking of combat, chapter 3 has pretty heavy vampire and mystery themes throughout and aside from first feeding with Clara (or alone), there will also be a fight scene, which can be approached from one of the options as mentioned above. Each choice unlocks a new ability and determines your style going forward. This first fight is sort of a introduction of how that may play out down the line, even though this particular scene is fairly short. Currently I'm thinking I will make this choice permanent and abilities from other styles will be locked out to you once you chose but we will see, they may become available for unlock later. I haven't decided yet. While I would rather not spoil who you are going to be fighting against, here is a shot of Kyra and Clara as they are about to fight:
But as usual, its not all about doom and gloom. There will be some shots of romantic affections throughout the chapter, even though not as numerous as they would be on a more day to day focused chapter. As you may know already, the way I structured the chapters, since chapter 1 really, is I do one vampire and mystery focused one where some major lore and plot points are revealed and then one that is more grounded in modern mundane stuff, so this one is vampire focused, while the next one will be more into romance and normal stuff again. With that, this chapter likely won't just have time for a lewd scene, however, in chapter 4 I am planning to do four lewd scenes, one for each path. So yea, Kyra finally gets to be deflowered if in Miles's path, or Evil path if you chose to do that, while on Solo good we will have a possible threesome with Erin and Yuna, again if you chose to do so. Plenty of ''action'' in ch4. So I apologize for the lack of lewd scenes in ch3 (although there may still be one on evil route involving Woman in Red and another person where Kyra will manipulate events into that taking place but she herself won't participate).
Now let's talk a bit about the survey I did about the game a while back and in light of transparency I would like to share some results and charts with you all as well as respond to some of your guys's suggestions, some of which are already being done for ch3.
So first one we have is routes. To no surprise, almost everyone plays Clara's route which I guess is expected, it is the most straightforward route to get to and according to you guys, the one with the best story overall and also most dear to me personally since I do this route first when writing and rendering, it gets the most polish probably. That said, a bit disappointing to see that more than half the game is not even being seen but maybe eventually some of you will try other routes as well.
Again, this one is not very surprising either. Currently, the game is very much focusing on Kyra and Clara's relationship, be it romantic one or friendly one, but nice to see that some other girls are getting some votes as well. As I said above, Erin and Yuna threesome will be possible in ch4 (can be declined) but for now at least, only on solo good as on solo evil their friendship is not yet to that stage. Also a couple of fans of Woman in Red as well, there might be something with her on evil route as I mentioned before and you also get to finally learn her real name and who she really is in this chapter. Pretty much everyone hates Miles for some reason from what I'm reading and no one is playing his route so not surprising he got no votes and other three have only been seen once, but one of this girls will be in this chapter as well, on all paths. More content with them soon-ish but currently out of other characters Yuna and Erin will be a priority for next couple chapters likely and developing those friendships some more seeing as they are the other two main characters.
I'm glad people are liking the vampire stuff so far and ch3 will have much more of it to wet your appetites' for some blood and gore haha, and some action as well as there is a fight scene so ch3 pretty much covers all of these points, and going forward things are now starting to ramp up on vampire and mystery stuff so chapters that are focused on them should have plenty for you guys to hopefully enjoy.
To no surprise, Erin and Yuna win here again. You guys must really like these two. And while there will only be a brief visit of Yuna in ch3, as I said, ch4 will focus a lot more on them, especially on solo good path where there will be a possibility for a threesome with them. And you guys can probably guess what that may look like since Yuna's preferences for BDSM. Yes they will teach Kyra about BDSM! Might not be for everyone but expect plenty of leather clothing and stuff. And some other characters get some votes in as well. For now I can say that Club Guys will return on solo evil (that interrupted encounter still needs to be finished after all). Jenny, could be there something soon and Woman in Red as I already said, possibly something in ch3 if I have the time for it and can avoid straight up mind control since Patreon doesn't look favorably on that type of content). Surprised no votes for Stella though, I personally find her cute. Can't win them all I guess.
Ok so this next chart I messed up so Yes and No responses get counted with the above options. Pretty even though with only one extra vote going for the no option. Personally, I as well prefer this option because story wise it helps Kyra blend into the normal world more, interacting and especially important, hiding her true nature. That said, I'm surprised that so many of you would prefer her to have red eyes constantly on evil path, which I guess would make sense in a way. I'm not going to shy away from saying that Star Wars had some influence on me and my storytelling so Evil Kyra is much lika a Sith with red eyes. She's basically Anakin more or less haha. If you look at it, green eyes means good, red eyes evil, makes sense to me so I suspect that's the logic behind fairly even votes here. All I'm going to say, for now Kyra will still have green eyes with red in certain situations, but at some point she might go full red, possibly in the second part of the game on evil route. Time will tell.
Honestly, not surprising here, considering I have made it in the game with the hunger system so that her skin gets more natural unless she's really hungry and that's unlikely to happen again. Although I will say that more pale skin will make her look more like a vampire and again Star Wars reference Sith have more pale skin as well. We will see for the future, but pretty much through the most, if not all of this game she's going to have her more natural looking skin. I will say though that blue moonlight lighting in the prologue didn't really show how really that skin looks like under normal lighting conditions so here, a bit of a shot how it really is:
So, pale sure, but definitely not blue like shown in the prologue.
Ok, so this is a big one. In chapter 3 I have already put in several choices that give points or take them away and on Clara's path for now there is a major choice that can only be presented to you if you have enough points for instance so there is choice and impact here already. That said, I hear you on points being given automatically. I have decided that this will no longer happen going forward even though it's more work for me, and I have also decided to go back to previous chapters and put in choices where appropriate for the points that are now given automatically. This however, likely won't be in ch3 because it is basically a total rework of the points system and points rebalancing will likely need to happen so this may be for ch4 demo and just a fair warning ahead of time, once I do this, you will likely have to replay again due to points rebalance. I hate forcing people to restart but if I do this it will be necessary however the game will be better for it in the long run I feel.
Honestly, a bit surprising since this still is a adult game but I'm glad people are liking the story enough that they don't feel like the game needs to be riddled with sex scenes to compensate for the lack of a good story. I'm not going to lie when I say that I'm still not very comfortable with doing sex scenes. For one, I still am not good enough with animating to where I can make them enjoyable and two, I just don't know how to write them, I just don't really know what characters should say other than Uh and ah lol. I know that sex scenes are probably the weakest part of the game and that is totally on me. I can only say that I will continue to try to improve and do better for you guys. CH4 will really show if I can do this properly or not as I will have both lesbians' and straight sex scenes in it and it will be the most sex focused chapter probably in the entire game, not just up to this point so I hope I can get it right for you guys. All that said, story still is, and always will be my main focus, in this any any possible future game I make. Some of you will be into that, some wont, I can't please everybody and don't even want to try honestly because that's how you get failed projects.
So that's it about the charts from the survey. As you see, stuff is mostly in a good direction already I would say for most of you who voted so I'm glad that's the case, and some minor issues will be adjusted, some already with ch3 and others not much long after that.
Next, I asked you guys some questions. I'm not going to respond to each one individually because this would go on forever and it's already getting pretty long haha. So I will give you some general thoughts about your responses.
On the question ''What do you think about the main protagonist?'' most of you said that she's hot or at least cute which I'm glad you guys and girls like not just her but her personality as well. Many of you praised her for not being just another slut as you see other MC's in most other VN's so that makes me very happy to hear. I'm not going to lie when I say that Kyra is kind of like a child to me and I have come to care for her while working on her story and her character. I have made her totally from scratch, you will not find another Daz character that looks like her. I put a ton of work into her to make her look just the way I wanted. So I'm very much glad that people responded positively to her appearance and also her personality who I wanted to be not just a vampire but also a human and a young girl with struggles and fears even though she's this badass vampire chick. Some of you said that you would like more of her backstory and to be delivered in more flashbacks like the dream sequence we had in ch1. All I'm gonna say is, more story is being revealed about her and other characters with each new chapter, and this will continue to happen pretty much until the game's climax. On more flashbacks, I may do more at some point if I can fit them into the story naturally as I don't want to force stuff, but I will say that I'm intentionally keeping some stuff secret because after this game I actually want to do a prequel game set when she was still human and during her 20 year reign as a vampire queen. So there are stories that I would like to keep for that but rest assured that some general stuff necessary for her story to make sense will be told in this one.
''How do you feel about writing and story so far?'' Most of you had positive things to say about writing and the story which I'm glad although there were a couple of you who said that it's too wordy and would rather not have this much reading in their porn game. Well to those of you who like what I want to tell with this game, I'm glad you find the story enjoyable enough to stick around for more and the world I'm building. And for those that don't, at the risk of being too blunt, but tough luck. I have a direction in mind and I'm not deviating from it. This game was never intended to be a porn game at all. In fact, if I could, I wouldn't do any sex in it at all but that's not profitable in VN space. I have said this before, but this is not a porn game, it is a story focused game with some adult elements sprinkled here and there. It's not going to be for everyone and that's ok. So if you like it, great, if not, plenty more fish in the sea.
Ok now to some of your suggestions. I will try to keep this brief:
Happy ending for Kyra and Clara - It's happening for sure. While there will be a couple possible endings with some variations depending on your choices, on Clara's route all of them will end on a good, and hopefully satisfying note.
Switching routes once you are already on one - sadly the way the game and story is structured this is not possible. Suggestion was to explore other people before going for Clara or Miles. Frankly, this would introduce unnecessary long extra development time for me, time I don't have as a solo dev who also works full time, and I want to keep this game fairly simple and to the point, hence only two dedicated romance routes. I don't want to be stuck in development for 10+ years and deliver one chapter per year or two like some devs. So this one is going to be fairly short and to the point with priority focus on the main story rather than delving into various relationships other than the dedicated romance ones.
Seems a bit too slow to start - it is intentional. Kyra first needs to adjust to the modern world and in case of Miles that relationship needs to develop first as well. You have to keep in mind that she's in her mind still just a young girl still finding her way, with her own struggles and fears that come with that. I'm not going to rush things just for the sake of getting to the next bit faster. Everything I'm putting into dialogue and story has a purpose, it's not there just because. Because of this yes it can feel a bit slow at times while maybe a bit too fast at others.
More routes you add, worse it gets - well no more new routes. Four routes is all there is. Believe me, even that is maybe a bit much. Original plan was to only have Clara's route and this being a linear kinetic story but who would play that. Most people generally don't like kinetic novels. Funny how that works because right now only route people play is Clara's. That said, there will be more than four endings. Basically four main ones with little variations to each based on some of the key choices. For instance, Clara's path will have two endings.
Not a fan of lesbian content, more straight in the future - There is Miles's route if you want romance option. It is a bit of a slow burn however, but in ch4 there will be a first sex scene with him and after that it will be somewhat regular, like on Clara's route. As for other males, this will only be on solo paths but only casual sex, no relationships with people you can end up long term with. Again, this is for story reasons as well as me just not having time to do more routes. But yea, there will be more guys, eventually.
MC taking too long in between feeding - I'm not sure how that is the case. Keep in mind that the prologue and first two chapters all happen within a span of three days. Vampires don't have to feed often, especially if they don't use their abilities, which Kyra hasn't had a chance to much up to this point. Her blood pool only drops when she uses abilities so that can last a while. Ch3 sees a jump of one week forward, and in this one there will be feeding as well as vampire stuff such as combat and gaining new abilities. So all I ask is a bit of patience, it may look a bit slow but if you consider in game time wise, it really isn't. If anything It may even have been too quick so far, hence why I'm introducing weekly time jumps from now on with each new chapter, to spread it out a bit.
Choices that affect stats and more equal story vs sex focus - concerning stats, more of this is already going to be in ch3 and then with every new chapter when points are given and older chapters will be rebalanced at some point. As for more equal ratio of story and sex scenes, frankly I just don't have the time. Sex scenes take a lot of work to do, and especially to get them done right. So one sex scene per chapter on just one route is best I can do. However, I'm committed to do one sex scene for each route in ch4, just to see how long it will take me to get done and if its still in reasonable timeframe, I may do one sex scene per route going forward. But that's a big If. My priority will always be the story.
Well that's about it for the survey. Sorry for the long read but I wanted to show you guys what the general sentiments on the game are so far. Overall pretty positive I would say with only one or two, I wouldn't say negatives, but constructive criticisms. I'm more than happy with that outcome. I would say that the game and support around it is slowly growing and gaining traction which makes me happy. Would I like more? Sure, who wouldn't right? But honestly, I'm happy with the numbers so far and the response has been mostly positive which makes me very happy.
So, when is the next chapter you may ask? Frankly, at this time I'm honestly not yet sure. As I said, I just broke 400 renders today but I'm still only halfway through Clara's route and I'm working on one route at a time. So still a lot of work to do. But once I get through Clara's route, the others should be going much faster, at least for the first three scenes which are all the same main story scenes in the same locations so basically I mostly just have to remove Clara from the existing scenes, adjust a bit for solo interactions and render again. At least for most of the Miles's and solo good route. Evil route is much different though with very different locations and story, and even Solo and Miles's route have some locations that won't show on any other route so those will need to be individually setup from scratch. Bottom line, still lots to do. Honestly, this fighting scene is taking a lot of time for me. I have done two out of three sequences, only blood magic version now remains to be setup. On Clara's route, scenes after this one are all fairly short so I should be done with them faster. Scene 3 really was by far the biggest scene in this chapter, maybe even the entire game so far and by far the most complex to render. For instance, in it, 104 total characters take part. Naturally, most are instanced but it's still pretty heavy to render. Bottom line, I'm not sure if I will be done by the end of this month, maybe, It all depends how other routes will go.
I also have a surgery to go through this month in my personal life. So that's fun times! NOT! That will also delay me for a couple days while I recover. But it is what it is. I'm getting old and shit is braking down hehe.
Anyway, I wish I could show you guys more stuff renders wise but pretty much all is spoilers heavy so I would rather not, so I will just leave you with this:
So yea, Imagine being in a room with a 100 crossbow and sword wielding vampire hunters, as a vampire. Fun times
Take care all!
NoX
