September 5 Update (Patreon)

New art post for $10 patrons! I'm glad to have this set done for the next release; we're getting closer to the conclusion of both the war and the illustrated Part 2. Anyway, today I have a reflection for you.

My focus in any given update is on final quality. That doesn't mean quality over everything, but it's my principle to prioritize the final product over other advantages. For example, one section might seem weird on its own, so long as I feel it will play best when TLS is complete. Or the split routes were unpopular with some at the time, but I think they added to the game overall.

This is easy enough to manage in some cases, but grows more complicated when it comes to scope creep. Say that Nalili and Orcent are going to a conference to negotiate dildo tariffs. The simplest way to handle it would be to do some calculations in the background, then have them report on how good the result was: some math and balancing on my end, but literally just a few lines of dialogue in the game.

Except maybe I start coming up with good dialogue for Orcent and Nalili. It wouldn't have to be one calculation, it could be a section where they walk around and manipulate a new variable. All the switches that would have been in the calculation become events and maybe decisions. I invent new characters, like a poor old succubus granny who just can't afford her buttplugs anymore. Suddenly a small section turns into a lot of work.

Now, players of TLS have a pretty significant appetite for more complexity, so I doubt anyone would riot, but that might not be for the best. Maybe the tariff negotiations would be more satisfying to play, but maybe they're really not that important and would be better served with a simple calculation. This can reduce the size of an update, but again, my goal is for the whole game to feel properly paced in the end.

Then consider the opposite case, which is what concerns me more when an update is moving slowly. Say there's a complex section I'm not excited about: it would be really easy to just abstract it into a few calculations and save myself a lot of work.

This is the sort of thing I try to consider carefully, even if it ends up slowing me down. If a section deserves to be longer, I don't ever want to rush over it. But this leads me to a second consideration: am I not excited about a section because I'm just tired and need to push through with discipline, or do I need to change my plans because they're actually not interesting enough? That's not something that can be objectively measured.

Given all the pieces that are finished, I will most likely end these decisions and shift to the next phase during this week. This will be the real test, since I'm trying to maintain momentum through a book release. I hope after that I will be able to report significant progress and bearing down on the remaining project scope, but we'll see.

Anyway, this has all been a trick to ease you into the truth: all that war nonsense was a red herring and the next TLS update will be entirely about dildo tariffs.