Devlog 0.34 3: Beach Bar New Minigame. (Patreon)

Every time I have to embed a video on here, I'm reminded that vimeo was a thing for pira*y anime streaming sites back in the 2010s and that it still exists today.

If you play it in full screen, the scene does slightly pixelated. I only realized it after exporting all 7 of the animations, I'll rework it when time allows.

There's going to be quite a few "hidden(nah not really)" variations that I'll be working on for the release.

This is the bakery's equivalent of hidden ntr with minigame except it'll likely utilize more pixel scenes and that I'll bump it's priority higher than the current dinner dash-cooking minigame that the beach bar has.

That's all for spoiler-free and the "surprise me" audience. I won't trouble you if you rather not, but if you would like to chime in, keep reading.

First, let's call this new minigame Bartending so it's easier for us to be on the same page (it's not really as sophiscated as VA-11-HALL-A). This is not a part of the Dinner service minigame (so it's not start dinner service -> it being one segment of it. But as a separate thing.)

Remember this?

Right now, I'm debating whether..

It should appear here (obviously after the relevant story event) and that I'll ditch the entire "Sending Shion inside" segment and replace it with "It'll only show during Bartending segment". So the original minigame still exist except you don't have the option to send her inside.

Except I don't exactly want to unless absolutely necessary. Because I want this minigame to be chaotic since if you've noticed, Shion and Jords aren't going to be the only ones visible. There's NPCs, there's real potential here to make use of the screen space.

But I badly wish to do something with the CCTV-Preview mechanic and include it here too.

It's a real dilemma.

Current suggestion (from myself to myself):

Imagine a phone screen held in landscape here and what shows here is what's happening inside but obscured by darkness. It will likely be pixel art or stupidly close up shots of new 2d images.

If your answer is you'd much prefer pixel art, keep in mind that kind of puts a damper on the effect it'll have on you seeing the hidden h sprite for the first time in the overworld. I thought of that too and came up with the solution below.

I just worry it is slightly too convoluted but I'm putting this out there for opinions.

After Shion strip for the first time for onlyfaps,

if the player does the Beach Bar dinner service without doing the Bartending first..

And the player send Shion inside, turn on the camera, the player won't be able to see it in full, and will instead get a censored screen. Unless they get a certain item from completing the Bartending segment with the relevant scene.

Similarly, if they go into the kitchen, they won't be able to see any much of sprite animation and I'll black out the room. Unless they get a certain item from completing the Bartending segment with the relevant scene.

So it'll be "hidden", like really hidden.

And to get this item (I can't even fathom what the fuck kind of item can manipulate a hidden camera through a laptop but I'll cross that bridge when I get there), the player has to run the Bartending and see the relevant stripping scene (not in the video above but use your imagination). And after completion, he gets an item that he can "use" on the Laptop/Monitor/CCTV during Dinner service minigame that uncensor/unobscure the cctv (inside).

Also unlocks the inside view of the room for the overworld (free roam).

This allows for when the CCTV appears for the "first time" (assuming the player chooses to do Dinner run over Bartending) to be hidden and build suspense and then he has to get whats happening by jumping over to Bartending.

Obviously if he does Bartending first, it'll also be interesting since he'll see it for the very first.

This is to create the element of surprise that Jords route has been missing and how I don't want to make the CCTV just...appear like that.

If you're wondering what the hell am I going on about, please understand that I do feel the same way and we'll see how it goes once the update is out.

It does have the problem of adding to the grind though since now players have to do both minigames. I'll try to make Bartending as fast paced as I can.

Keep in mind, this is not to extend playtime god no, in fact I would much prefer to shorten the time players spend on my game with what's currently out while still keeping the same quality and impact. Rather, I just don't know the perfect solution to how to combine what I already have and what's new.

I'm also looking to add one more scene to what Jords already have prior to Peach Garden and with this new minigame in and how much I'll need to draw, Side quests is shelved till next update. I hope I have the time to add one more scene to Jords, of course.

There's also this part, remember? Where Shion remains outside.

This will also be fun on its own to come up with the Bartending equivalent.

I think this is an example of wanting to enhance a section (beach bar minigame) with new ideas and what I've learnt with the engine (and the genre) that my previous implementation (dinner run game) doesn't fully allow. Honestly, I'm this tempted to nuke the entire dinner run game and just make it bartending but there's actually still value in there. There's also the fact that I've done a bunch of work on the "CCTV/livestream" animations already (not just what we already have but for the upcoming update too.)

By the way, the new mechanic I mentioned previously is not this, it's something else that has now been shelved all the way for Peach Garden focused events. Sorry about that, but hopefully I'll be able to implement part of it during this update.

If this looks like I'm overdoing it (along with the new phone mechanic) because a few of you praised the Bakery's minigame, you are absolutely right and I have no excuse because I promise you in exchange for all this new stuff, we're only moving like, half a mile, in terms of story for this update.

Please be patient with me but also, do look forward to it too.