About NPC polls (Patreon)

I will be modifying the 5$ and 10$ tiers to change the wording to reflect it being voting in polls specifically. (Also the 10$ tier will give you an extra vote on polls.) The reason is listed below.

It's been suggested to me a couple of times to try and offer something alternative to the NPC polls. Typically I see these as a way to expand on the universe while having some way to offer patrons a way to influence what exactly gets added. Currently I'm a little backed up on the NPCs, though I'm going to start going through them now. However, I have been exploring trying to offer something else to vote on as suggested by patrons. The most probable scenario would be to allow patrons to vote on adding some kind of mechanic to the game. My biggest issue here is that adding new mechanics also does tend to mean new sprites as well.

But... the actual amount of time consumed by doing so would probably be lesser depending on the mechanic. Example being that I was suggested to have a mechanic where an enemy might have the ability to silence Aria by making her lips expand. So if we think about the implementation... well I already have a silence mechanic, it's just an aura right now. Applying it as a duration is as simple as increasing the duration that it's applied to Aria. Having her lips expand probably wouldn't take too much effort to do, though I don't know that I could make it look good on such a small sprite. Then there is also 'the projectile' that would hit you and cause that effect I'd have to sprite. Programming it wouldn't take much though.

Overall, I think that would be fairly easy to implement and then attach to a future enemy in the game, or as a trap of some kind. It still requires some small amount of sprite work, but it's not an extensive animation like I've been doing with the current NPCs. Probably a couple of days of work. So that's easily achievable.

The issue here is that for every idea that isn't too heavy on the pixelart or programming, there's probably going to be a ton more that require even more effort than an NPC to do.

Also I just want to say that for anyone who wants to point out 'feature creep' yes, but that's already kind of how the NPCs are. Just look at Mallory, the very first expandable NPC I did. Her animation is very short and simple at about 50 frames total including the idle anm and just a single portrait. Now take a look at someone like Yoyo. Extensive, more than 400 frames of animation with a little dance and multiple expressions. (Though there are a lot of repeated frames in there due to how it loops, it's still work putting that together) The NPCs I'm doing now are already getting a bit out of control for the original scope.

So I do have a few options. I think what I will do is start off this next month with a weeklong poll and simply ask what everyone would prefer I do. After this, I will make the associated poll/s.

I'll make the poll as concise and clear as I can with the description of what exactly each option will entail. Either way, the NPCs who are already qed up will be unaffected and I will put the same effort into them as I have been. (This includes the one in the poll that finishes soon)

Regardless of how this goes, thank you to everyone who has supported me so far!