Where should the game go... (Patreon)

Inc House started off as a different game. Originally it was much larger in scoop, it was colorful and featured all 10 “source heroines”. It was a logistical nightmare for a solo dev. I had finished the intro before I realized it but I could see the possibilities. The version of Inc House out now was purposefully trimmed to be smaller but with room to grow if I saw major success. It has grown and changed with input from players as well as my own observations. Now I’m coming close to an impasse.

Every developer wants to see their game thrive and now that we’ve hit the numerical milestone of v0.05a I think it's time to reexamine the direction of the game. I don't intend to vastly change it. No, “switch to RPGmaker and add battles”. But I’m looking for high value additions that could bring in a larger player base. These ideas come from feedback, bug reports, reviews, as well as my general observations around similar games in the genre. I want to describe them in depth with pros and cons to see what my current player base thinks. While it may not be indicative of the wider player base I do want to see what has drawn in my current supporters.

Here are the ideas numbered so you can reference them in the poll. I am still open to suggestions but these are changes I feel could greatly affect the game’s outcome.

This poll allows you to vote for multiple options. You can vote for all of them if you want. However, with the exaggerated lengths contradicting each other, that may cause some confusion.

Thank you to anyone who takes the time to read the options in full. I know this is a heavy task and I appreciate it.

1. Just more H-scenes - By this I mean a crazy more. The progress on H-scenes has been steady but I’ve balanced it with the story content. Let's not deny it, this is a porn game. But right now I’d say the game is more visual novel than functioning game. If it's going to be like this then maybe going whole ham on adding in a large variety of sex scenes would be more beneficial to attracting in new players. No story, no romance, straight to the action. Something along the lines of “a random NPC is here, cast the Horns spell to seduce”. Obviously this would halt progress on the main story but I understand if this is what people are actually looking for in these games.

2. Be more of a parody - At its source, Inc House is meant to be a parody game. However, it's not a good parody game. I fully admit I have vastly differed from the source in story, art style, and feel. This alienates a large portion of an audience that could enjoy my game. The big thing here would be including the other source “main heroines”. But then that's the reason I downsized the game, it would be too big to make meaningful progress. I don't want to just show those characters without doing something with them but I could add in a single scene for each of them. It would minimize the work while getting in the fan favorites. However this has the chance to feel cheap to the audience that wants to see these characters included.

3. More lore storyline content - One of the most surprising things that has come up is people fully reading the story. I mean noticing even the small nuances I’ve added for the backdrop. I’ve been actively trying to trim down dialogue as I thought people would tune it out. Instead it's been brought up in feedback multiple times. I wouldn't mind increasing the text to be an actual visual novel, I started in the fandom writing fanfiction. However, this would fundamentally change the game. It would add being able to read portions of Rita's diary, flashbacks, and larger mystery elements but it's not what the game currently is. Either the game would have to be simplified or even changed to be one of those popular episodic visual novels. This path is unclear.

4. Finish the gameplay - The game has development pain. Placeholder screens, developer notes, and lack of interactions plague the demos. Fleshing out all the mechanics would be a sure way to boost player confidence in the game. The sacrifice is plain to see. Fixing all the functionality would also push back all the H-content. There's also the fact the consensus has been that the current gameplay loop feels too grindy. I don't know if getting everything functioning would fix this or if I’d need to add something new.

5. Be edgier - There's an idea I’m fond of from the book/blog “Being Creative”. Paraphrasing, “you can tone it down when the client tells you to”. I did not heed this in several ways. One, although the story is different from the show, I should have gone with Rita and Leni being Lincoln's step family. It would have made more sense narratively and I know some players find the current relationships confusing. In my caution I decided to distance them even more to overly abide by several terms of service. The second change would be the powers. Leaning more into the hypnosis genre and risque game play. A shift to more Incubus inspired content and so forth. I’ve shown a little bit of unintentional corruption but I know people prefer active corruption games. The biggest issue would be being deplatformed. If that occurred I’d like to just switch to a new game rather than backtrack so the risk may be too high.

I leave it there for now. I’ve exaggerated most of these to their extremes to make the trade-offs more apparent. I won't make the swerve to a new gameplay style right away. This will likely affect what I prioritize in my updates.

Thank you for reading. Please vote. Later this week I’ll probably open polls to choose scenes for the NPC.