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Devlog #25 - Why update 0.1.4 is taking so long
Hey everyone! Hope you're doing well.
I want to start by acknowledging that this update is taking a lot more time than I'd like. What I can say is that I'm working hard to make it worth the wait, and that this update is important for the future of the game.
I'll try to explain what's made this the most work I've put into an update, and why it's taking longer than the rest.
The short version is that implementing bondage and the new item system meant reworking a lot of other parts of the game. I used that as an opportunity to improve them and add features for the future.
Detailed Explanation
When updating older systems to support new features, I basically have two options: I can duct tape something together to make it work quickly, or I can take the time to properly refactor it. The first option is faster, but it usually makes things harder to work with later. The second one takes more time, but it keeps everything cleaner and easier to build on
For this update, I've mostly been going with the second approach. It definitely takes more time, but it's better for the project in the long run. Since it involves rewriting a lot of code, I've taken the opportunity to make improvements and add support for future features.
The main issue with rushing features at the cost of code quality is something called technical debt. You see this a lot in ambitious early access games, they add features quickly at first, but over time development slows as the code becomes harder and harder to work with. In some cases, it gets so bad the project is abandoned entirely.
That's something I'm actively trying to avoid. I'm putting effort into keeping the codebase clean and easy to work with because I want the game to reach version 1.0, and also because I plan to reuse these systems for future projects and spin-offs.
Just to give a concrete example of what this looks like in practice, version 0.1.4 will include bondage. To make that work, I had to rework several core systems:
For this update, I've mostly been going with the second approach. It definitely takes more time, but it's better for the project in the long run. Since it involves rewriting a lot of code, I've taken the opportunity to make improvements and add support for future features.
The main issue with rushing features at the cost of code quality is something called technical debt. You see this a lot in ambitious early access games, they add features quickly at first, but over time development slows as the code becomes harder and harder to work with. In some cases, it gets so bad the project is abandoned entirely.
That's something I'm actively trying to avoid. I'm putting effort into keeping the codebase clean and easy to work with because I want the game to reach version 1.0, and also because I plan to reuse these systems for future projects and spin-offs.
Just to give a concrete example of what this looks like in practice, version 0.1.4 will include bondage. To make that work, I had to rework several core systems:
- Character Animation System: I needed to update it so animations can be combined (for example, tied hands + idle animation). While doing that, I also added support for facial expressions, which will be important for reflecting your relationship with characters. It won't make it into this update yet, but I also added support for heels.
- Snapshots: This change also affected how snapshots work (animation scenes with more than one character), so I had to rework how those are handled and displayed.
- Character Visualizer: I added things like ankle restraints and leg spreaders, which exposed a limitation: the visualizer only showed the upper body. To fix that, I added a full-body mode. That ended up requiring a full rebuild of the visualizer, and I took the opportunity to implement some improvements I've wanted for a long time.
The item system ended up being even more work, since it touches a lot more systems. The upside is that it led to improvements to many parts of the game.
Conclusion
I hope this approach makes sense and helps explain the delay. I'll be releasing the next update as soon as possible, and unless any new complications come up, it shouldn't take too long. At the very least, I can assure you that meaningful progress is being made on the project
Thank you for the patience and have a great day!
Orane
