Development Update: Phase 3


Hey folks!


I thought it was about time for another one of these. The development’s direction has visibly shifted more towards polish and I want to elaborate on my goals and what I’m currently thinking. There are also a lot of things I want to work on that I’d be open to feedback on, so please feel free to provide it in the comments here, or on the website form.


Before I start getting into it, I just want to mention that while there’s going to be a shift in priorities, this does not mean I will solely be focused on these new goals. The best content I make is usually derived from a burst of creative inspiration, and I try to make sure to utilize those when I can get them.
Without going too much into it, there’s been a lot of things in my personal life over the last couple months preventing me from being able to get into the necessary…uhh… "mindset" needed to come up with new major features. This likely will continue to vary month to month, as it has, honestly.


Anyways! The gist of things is that the game is officially getting into its later stages of development (what I’d called phase 3 in the past), where I really want to start looking at what I have to get done to call it ‘’1.0’’. This means a lot of polish, refinements, new assets to obtain, etc. There are certain major features I also really want to get done before that point, but they are such large undertakings I didn’t want them to cut into other development as I wanted to provide a steady stream of new stuff.


I’d like to transparently go point by point through what I want to improve and work on, with the reasoning behind them and what challenges I’m facing regarding them. This might be a little long-winded…


UI

In-Game
There’s still quite a few programmer-art menus in the game that I want to polish up over time. You can look at the current changes made to get an idea of what I want; not too intrusive, simple, but also a bit more polished than ‘’black square with text on it’’
Main Menu
The main menu clearly needs a rework at this point. It’s a nightmare-maze of different toggles that sometimes don’t even really belong where they are. Restructuring this will be a significant challenge, there’s a whole lot of sliders and checkboxes to fit onto a mobile screen. I’d like to reduce the time it takes to adjust settings, and surface the more important ones. Feedback on what settings you adjust the most would be appreciated.
Visual Customization
I’ve heard you. It’s one of the most frequent pieces of feedback I get. Not being able to see her visual changes clearly when you adjust them is a problem.
The reason this isn’t done yet is simple; this is a short term issue for every player, as they learn what each thing does it becomes less of a problem. It’s a significant inconvenience to newer players, which is why it still needs to happen.
The main issue I’m running into is one of presentation. I do not want it to take the form of a ‘’character creator’’. I would want this to be in-character rather than a menu, as Succubi are supposed to be able to change their appearance, and I think giving it a character creator format would negatively affect the feeling of the Succubus having her own identity/agency.
I’d appreciate some feedback on this honestly! Notably, I’d like to know more about long-term player behavior; How often do you change these settings? What would you like to be able to do more conveniently, what would you like to see that would significantly improve it?


Features

Custom Tasks
Very challenging to add. I do want to add them, but it will most likely be a simplified version of what’s available internally, thus it’s always best to suggest potential tasks. There’s a high risk that this feature would only be used by a tiny percentage of the userbase, so it’s not the highest priority.
Subtoggles
The more in-depth customization of each toggle (for example, turning all tasks of a certain toggle into punishments) is something that’s going to be very important for me to add, but also extremely complicated both UI wise and code wise. The game wasn’t designed with this in mind.
Better Import/Export
I’d like to make it possible to import and export things more separately; especially as more visual customization is added, it seems like it’d be neat to be able to share your succubus’s visuals with others. Low priority as understandably, most people do not interact with others in  a NSFW game context.


Content

Hairstyles
One of the more frequently requested types of visual customization. It’s coming, working on it. The selection will most likely be limited due to clipping issues and animations only being built around certain hair lengths, though.
Tasks, Visual Customization, Etc
This is mostly suggestion-driven. It’s not that hard to add, but a lot of things don’t quite fit.
I’ve built a lot of the necessary structures to make it easy to add more content, at this point it’s just a matter of sitting down and creating it. Suggestions help a lot on this front, especially precise ones. ‘’I’d like to see her request this task, taking this format, with these variants, using these toggles’’


Misc

At this point I’m starting to look at what I’ll be needing to sell the game on more traditional platforms. I’ll be seeking out an artist to commission things like splash art for the game. I’d like to make a solid trailer (which is going to be challenging with the lack of genre precedent to look at).
If you have an artist to suggest, or are one yourself and think your style would fit, please feel free to DM me about it anywhere.




Right now, that’s about what comes to my mind when thinking about heading towards 1.0.
Of course, this would not mean the end of development, as there are many other systems that can be added and worked on. I’ve heard the many Lovense support requests.
If there’s anything that immediately comes to your mind, please feel free to let me know.
You can provide feedback here in the comments, on the Discord, or on the website form!




To conclude…

Many things currently happening in my life would be a lot worse, if I didn’t have the security your support provides me. While the growth has declined a little recently, it’s very visibly lining up with widespread economic distress.
Please, if your financial situation has changed, do not feel obligated to continue. I’ll be secure either way at this point (especially if I can diversify away from a single platform) and it should not come at the cost of your financial security.
For anyone who is in that situation where they may have to reconsider luxuries like JOI game updates, I invite you to DM me on Discord, where I can give you a role giving you access to further updates regardless of your ability to pledge. Other options are available, and you can consider this my permission to utilize them in that context. I've been there.
Thank you for your support.