Development News

Hi everyone! It's time for a development update.

The alpha build is out and currently in active testing. What's in it? All the logic, a detailed storyboard, and all the text are already in place.

Gameplay.

The alpha was supposed to come out earlier, but around the 30th I tested the first iteration of the gameplay… and realized it sucked. Video attached. Here's how it worked: you're given a map, which you first view through a camera to prepare. (Don't be alarmed by Noemi's prosthetics, they're empty inside. In future updates she'll be passing them off as real.) Preparation came down to picking the right combination of prosthetics for puzzle maps using simple arithmetic. The puzzle maps were tangled paths with stat thresholds: say, one door requires Tech7, another requires 8, and behind them is a mercenary who needs Seduction 4. You had to calculate all of that and put together the right build.

The problems started as early as the camera stage. All the gameplay happened there, while heading out to the puzzle was just walking from point A to point B. That's not bad in itself, but here it felt boring and disconnected. The hentai part existed separately, and I had to come up with extra mechanics and cram them in just for it. There are supposed to be several maps, so ramping up the difficulty required some serious contortions, and on top of that… Sounds like a slog? That's exactly what I thought while finishing the 4th map. So over the last few days I scrapped it all, took some of the groundwork, and moved it over to a simpler type of gameplay.

Noemi has a path of varying length, roughly 6 tiles, and 3 stats: SEDUCTION, DURABILITY, TECH. She needs to reach the final tile without losing them. And she will be losing them, because every tile is an encounter that requires Noemi to make a decision. Encounters can be dangerous, funny… and, of course, lewd. Each time they're drawn at random from a large pool of events. About 20–25 are planned for this update.

The hentai part fits this format much more easily, there's room to explore the lore, and overall it plays much better. The closest reference point is Darkest Dungeon. This is the gameplay being tested right now, though only the RU version for now; there's no English text yet. Nobody's spat on it so far, so we'll see :)

Art.

Active work on the art has begun, which means updates will no longer be walls of text and will come with juicy pictures from now on. As you've probably guessed, in this update and the next one Noemi will have to throw on a red robe and pose as a Hollow: a will-less person who just follows orders. Attached is the finished art of her outfit and a sprite of… her enemy? Her friend? Who knows.

No specific release dates yet.

That's all for now. Thank you for reading and for your support.

Take care of yourselves and your loved ones.