October 31 Update (Patreon)

First up, check out the comic! I mentioned this idea a year ago, but only decided to make a comic recently. As mentioned then, the idea of someone being "congenitally tsundere" struck me as funny while working on Crimson Gray, but I didn't think it could really sustain a project of any kind. A comic seemed like a way to have a bit of fun with it. ^-^

I'm also sharing this around Reddit because I might as well. I only posted to a couple big subs and r/tsunderes, does anyone else have suggestions? You can also updoot the others if you want.

Anyway, I have something of substance this week...

Cognitive Breakthroughs

One benefit of not pouring all my energy into a single all-consuming project is that my brain has more free creative energy. It might seem like downtime, but it's critical to overall healthy functioning as a creative. I can always continue old projects that I've mentally designed, and my brain continually comes up with random figments, but there's also a need for another kind of creative work.

Here's my newest breakthrough: all of the rest of TLS will be managed by NFTs. Each unique affection point will be an NFT that you can purchase. All future sex scenes will be written by blockchain. All of this is a very good idea.

Okay, for real: one of my personal disappointments over the past two years or so is that I haven't been sure what I want to do following the completion of TLS. Oh, there will certainly be more art, short stories set in the world, a full replay with some editing, and potentially developer commentary. But I've been wanting to be able to get my subconscious working on a new concept so that when it's time to begin a major new project, it's been thoroughly considered.

For example, I do have a science fiction concept that could be a long term project, but too many details remain uncertain. Not details that my subconscious can work out, I mean fundamental constraints like genre and engine. This is still an unknown mentally, but I've gotten excited about another one of my ideas that I think could serve as a good interim project.

I'd like to do a post-apocalyptic setting, but instead of plot or characters, I want to talk about a game mechanic that's captured my imagination lately. A lot of digital ink is spilled about how sex is used in adult games, frequently falling into plot or reward categories. I think this is a hard problem to crack because the sexual and gameplay elements frequently operate as different, and potentially mutually exclusive, methods of engagement.

For this game, I'd like to explore a number of things: greater choice/branching during sex scenes, and iterative sex scenes. Now, you do lose some narrative potential this way and I'm concerned about avoiding repetition. But overall it's a concept that I think could be fun, perhaps better explained with an example than all the mechanics I have in mind.

Say you have a pairing, and for plot reasons both partners receive stat boosts from sex. However, they're not guaranteed to have great sex at first, and if you pick "jam it in" type options, things will go poorly. As the game moves forward, your choices both inside and outside sexual encounters will interact. Improved relationships lead to better sex options, sex gives you stats, gameplay choices lead to romantic encounters that improve relationships, etc. In theory, I think this could lead to a gameplay cycle where the sexual encounters feel inextricable from the rest.

Not sure how others will react to the execution of this, but personally I'm enthusiastic. I've always felt like it's difficult to include fetish choice or branching scenes in a game in a way that feels meaningful to me (as opposed to making the game an interactive masturbatory aid), but this will be my shot at it. I'm glad that I can be thinking about this, both in off-hours and subconsciously, so hopefully I can execute the idea well when the time comes.

As a reminder: I won't begin any work on this project until TLS is essentially complete. However, I hope that once I reach that point, the idea will be fully baked in my mind.

In other news: ugh, October is over and the year is almost done. >_< There's so much I want or need to do yet, so maybe no vacation after all. Just having a couple of normal work weeks definitely helped me get on top of the stuff that was piling up, so maybe I can shift gears in the other direction again.