All the Feedback We Got, and a New Sneak Peek (Patreon)
Content
Thanks so much for all your support! The latest public release was a little rougher than we expected, and you all being here really makes a difference for us!
TL;DR:
:: NEW GIF **NSFW**:
https://gfycat.com/DrearyImperturbableFeline
:: BJ animation is next! First Beta on the 20th. A lot will change regarding story and the poll results will be factored in.
:: Due to all the recent feedback, we're changing the release strategy. We'll start working on the complete no-shortcuts Desktop version, and release minor browser-based mini-games along the way.
So.....
We've been busy gathering and munching over all the feedback about the just-released game versions. The public release was a little rougher than we expected, although a few tweaks here and there seem to be holding it together so far. We feel like we should explain some of our decisions and why some things went the way they did, but instead of posting the three pages long "summary" we've written, let's do it like a Q&A again!
Q: Alright, it got a 3/5 score, which is close to the death threshold for content on the internet. What do the Devs believe went wrong?
A: Hmm... Two things, mostly. Culprit number one: we've tried too many things at once. Blair's current versions have 4 different sections (Visual Novel Section, Sprite Mini-game Section, Interactive Video Section and Point-and-Click Puzzle Section), each of those quite heavy on the browser for a game in pure JS. We've basically built the foundation for four different games, but barely used any of them. Why? We wanted to have all the foundations ready to see how playing in them feels like, but with barely any content on top of them, that's not fun for anyone.
And the other major factor for the harsh initial response seems to be that the game asked too much in exchange for too little. It turns out that blocking progression until the player deciphers on his own a cryptic puzzle game with unintuitive mechanics, without building any anticipation first, is a bad idea. And we kind of knew that, but we've been churning over Blair's chapter for sooo long that if we delayed it again it'd probably stay in development hell forever. Not that releasing it early helped it in that aspect.
Q: Yeah... You said you were going to expand the BJ scene next and release it as its own thing. Still strong on that?
A: Yes, 100%. We plan to have the early first version ready by the next scheduled update (10 days from now), with the poll results taken into consideration. Speaking of those, thanks everyone for participating! Here's a breakdown of the results:
A lot of people want improved endings, us included. We don't want to overpromise, but we'll try to put Blair's other great assets into the animation instead of only her face, and the endings seem like the perfect place for them!
7 votes for Less Gameplay vs. 1 vote for Better Gameplay. Yeah, we get it. We didn't want to do it the cookie cutter way of selecting animation loops in a menu (like the face-sitting scene), but adding a reaction based mini-game was not a smart decision. The spotlight should be on the animation, and not on gimmicks at the side of the screen. We'll try something a little different (yet again) instead of defaulting to a menu right away. Hopefully it'll turn out better!
11 votes for Foreplay and 6 for Story. OK, we think we know what we should do about those. In short, we're going to do the BJ scene exactly like we initially planned it, about a year ago. This is going to break continuity a little, but it's going to turn out much more interesting.
Q: A year ago? How long have you been working on that ten minutes teaser?
A: So, huh... We mentioned before that we have big plans for this game, but we never said how big. There must be, like, 200~300 pages filled with notes and sketches about the places, the stories, the settings... A minor spoiler: the most important character of the story hasn't even been introduced yet. This whole thing comes from years of daydreaming and wishful thinking that is finally taking form, even if still very amateurish and clumsy.
We're saying that now because both A Day with Paige and Blair's initial chapter were supposed to be very different. The only reason they feel rushed and with little time to let the narrative breath (we didn't even add in most choices) is because we put ourselves into a corner by focusing so hard onto the mini-games and software systems that we didn't make any time to develop the story.
And we know, it must feel so weird reading that because the games don't show any signs of a bigger story arc or anything. That's a legit complaint, in fact. A lot of the feedback we got about Blair's game is that the writing feels corny and cliché, and it really does. It was mangled in many ways to accommodate for the lack of assets that we didn't had the time to make, once again due to all the effort that went into getting all systems to work in a browser window, which even failed at some points.
At the time, we believed we didn't have the resources and skills to pull it off. To build the game that's in our heads. And to be perfectly honest, we still don't, but if we don't try it now we're probably never going to. And that means...
We're going to follow the script from the start and stop hamstringing the story for the sake of mini-games and systems. This is awfully vague though, so here's what we plan for the long term:
:: Have a MAJOR GOAL, the Desktop version of the game, of which only GIFs and screenshots will be released until it gets ready enough to be played by you all;
:: Have a MINOR GOAL, which is going to be a browser-based playable slice of the MAJOR GOAL. For example, the BJ scene, and the Whirlwind Class from A Day with Paige.
Ok, so, to summarize:
NEW MAJOR GOAL:
:: Release the definitive (non-teasery) version of A Day with Paige. It's probably not going to be called that, since it's going to be the full first day at the University, with a meaningful interaction with each of the main characters. It's going to be a Desktop game, built with Unity or Godot (probably Godot).
CURRENT MINOR GOAL:
:: Release the BJ scene as it was first written. It takes place into your dorm room, it's not a "hold back" challenge, and it involves three characters!
NEXT MINOR GOAL:
:: Release the remake of the Whirlwind Class of A Day with Paige. It's going to be a lot bigger than it was at the teaser, and we're going to use better character animations. We've even started on that already!
It still needs more polishing, but check it out **NSFW**:
https://gfycat.com/DrearyImperturbableFeline
Did you like it? We plan on using more of those together with the fullscreen artworks to really show what's going in each important moment.
And that was a lot of text already... As soon as we get some screenshots about the update to the BJ animation we'll send it your way, probably on the Discord chat.
Thanks so much again for being here with us and until the next time!
See you soon!