Update


I figured it’s time for another little update, so everybody has an idea of where I’m at and what I’m working on. So, let’s take a look at the state of the game…

Bugs
The latest build is out in the wild, and I’m sure everyone has noticed that it’s pretty buggy. The bugs have really been compounding as I go along. I know most of this is due to some problems with the core systems of the game, which is something I’d started working on back when I was furloughed at the beginning of COVID and had a solid block of consecutive days to work on it.

The biggest issues are with the scene pickers and how the passage of time is handled. The general idea here is that the game is divided up into a few time blocks like so:

Morning
  • Morning status update
  • Job notice (if applicable)
  • Morning prep (mirror, shower, dressing, etc.)

Day
  • Free day room menu (if applicable)
  • Day block #1
  • Status update
  • Day block #2


Evening
  • “Post-work” block
  • Free evening room menu (if applicable)
  • Evening block #1
  • Status update
  • Evening block #2

Night
  • Evening prep (shower option)
  • Sleep / Dreams

Each time block has code that looks through all of the scenes available for that time period and decides which ones to show. In the case of free time events, a scene will be selected for each possible activity type that the player can choose.

It’s worked fine for a long time because the player was kept on a pretty rigid schedule, but as I’ve been allowing more events that break away from this (hooking up with guests at the club, special story events like the beach party, or modeling for Scarlet/Dave), the more obvious it is that the current system just can’t handle these properly.

I’ve been a bit torn on tackling these issues. On one hand, there are some aspects of Python and Ren’Py that I could use some time to learn a bit more about (mostly getting a better grasp on how classes are handled, and what happens if I try to update or modify class objects between builds—can I do it in a way that won’t break saved games?). On the other hand, Twi is still working on a new build for Interns that will allegedly solve these problems for me. It could be quite a while before everything in the current build of the game is ported over and working, however…

Ultimately, I’ll probably take another stab at it, since, if nothing else, it’ll help clarify the logic we’ll need for managing these sorts of things (such as assigning priorities to events, checking for the characters involved, etc.)


MC System
Working on Interns always feels like a stop-and-go affair, where I work on something for a couple of days, and then have to put it off for a few weeks to do my day job, write more story, tackle some other problem, put out a release, etc.

The mind control/mental change system is probably the most recent victim of this. I’ve been chipping away at it, and the most recent build of the game actually has a lot of the new stuff in place; dream events and the player’s reaction to them now change some variables on the back end. What I’m still working on is figuring out the best way to handle how willpower checks will work in decision menus.

It’s getting there, though. I’ve figured out the basics of color-coded text, adding indicator icons next to choices, and the math involved in deciding if the player passes or fails a check. Working version also has some “hint” text that gives you an idea of what’s influencing/causing the willpower check.

What I’m still working on is figuring out how to handle overlapping checks (when obedience and/or indoctrination, lust hit in different combinations). I also need to revise the game GUI to have some kind of willpower indicator, so the player knows where their character stands at any given point in time.


Avatar Code
The code for displaying the player character is still an issue. It has the biggest impact on performance due to how complex and inefficient it is, and I know people are getting “out of memory” errors with the mirror scenes.

It’ll need to be revised at some point to make it work better. I know the biggest issue is the tanning system, as it’s doing a lot of crazy stuff to create custom alpha masks on the fly. I’ll either need a better way of doing this, or I may need to consider reducing the complexity or eliminating it entirely.

The most recent updates for Ren’Py have also added the MatrixColor operations to the Animation Transformation Language (ATL). I’ve been using the old im.MatrixColor to make it possible to color tint images, but this new ATL version is supposed to be much better for performance, so it would probably be a good idea to figure out how I can take advantage of it.

Oh, and lastly: No, I haven’t forgotten about the black dress issue. I still need to redo all of the artwork for it, but it needs revisions to the avatar code in order for it to display properly (it’s a layer order issue), so I’ve been putting it off for the time being.


Crowdfunding and Future Plans
More than a few times now, I’ve started writing a post on my thoughts on the future or my projects. I think, for now, I’ll try to do a short version:
It’s safe to say that the financial backing I’ve received on Patreon and SubscribeStar has been huge motivators for the project. Without it, I would have likely shelved the project and moved onto something more manageable in order to get more experience first. But as there’s so much interest in support, it’s been keeping me pushing forward.

And while the steady support has been a great help in my life, it’s at a bit of an awkward state where it doesn’t actually provide me with more time to work on the project—Interns is still something I work at on the days when I’m not doing my full-time job.

Interns isn’t really in a state where I want to put more effort into promoting it to anyone looking for a game to actually play, rather than “an interesting WIP to check out.” So, I find myself thinking: What kind of additional value can I provide for my supporters?

Time and energy are still limited, so I’d like to avoid anything that’d be too demanding (at least until I’m able to do this sort of thing as a part-time job). But here are some ideas I’ve been thinking about:

High(er) resolution images
This is probably the easiest thing I can do. The CGs I make are created well above the resolution I use for the game, so it wouldn’t be too hard to provide backers with large versions of some CGs.

I could also do wallpapers or maybe some exclusive image sets that are only for backers. (It’d be nice to be able to give the high-tier backers something unique, of course, since they rarely get anything special to reward the extra support they provide me with.)

Unrelated Story Fragments
My brain is always working on new worlds and story concepts. I jot them down when I think of them, to keep forgetting them, and often that includes writing down scripts for scene ideas that I have at the time. (I tend to be way better at coming up with interesting ideas for scenarios than I am at figuring out how to give them satisfying story arcs or endings…)

I’ve thought some of them might be interesting to share (maybe with a little bit of cleaning up, first).

The collaborative VN Student Transfer has a scenario viewer system built in that I found interesting. I thought perhaps I could make my own special viewer “game” that people could download and then I could release the little story bits as add-ons for the player.

It might be a good way to see if any of my other story ideas have any potential. Maybe there’ll be something a bit more straightforward that I can spin off as a secondary project.

Anyway, these are just some of my recent ideas. As always, let me know your thoughts!