Pulse Devlog #2 - City of Evil (Patreon)

First off, I'd like to thank everyone who participated in the Christmas poll!

The winner, with a fairly decisive victory, is Parker! Parker isn't the most uhh... festive of the girls, so we'll see how that shakes out next week.

Anyway, without further ado, here's another devlog for you all.

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Ah, environments. My introduction to 3D modeling, and occasionally the bane of this game’s development. With AVN development, there’s a bit of a question of how much focus you actually want to put into the environments, considering how character-forward the genre is. Fundamentally, we're here to watch two people (or a person and a pig princess) have sex, after all. This isn’t a Terrence Malick movie. Having said that, it’s a visual medium, and establishing the tone through setting is pretty essential to the experience of this game in particular.

Neo Nysa (named after the land of rain nymphs from Greek mythology) is, at first blush, a fairly standard cyberpunk-adjacent city. Its neon lights echo from building to building, cascading the streets in an eerie glow. This bright, saturated, lively energy is contrasted by dark shadows, within which a displaced populace struggles to find their footing through any means necessary. It’s a story told time and time again. Batman Beyond. Ghost in the Shell. Blade Runner. That other video game. It works. But in order to set this city apart, and give it its own Pulse™, I wanted to make each of the districts distinct, while still leaning into this retro furistic setting. The more familiar notes from major, real world cities (Hong Kong, NYC, Tokyo, etc.) can be seen in these other districts, but would take on different forms. 

Anyway, no more yapping. Here’s a breakdown of the districts.

Downtown: Tried and true. Your neon-soaked heaven. Tall, billboard-covered skyscrapers give cover to rainy, sketchy back alleys.

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Oldtown: A retro-futuristic, noir/art deco cultural hub. Oldtown is considered one of the "safer" neighborhoods, but its criminals are simply more organized and better at covering their tracks. For those of you who have ever watched a certain art deco inspired animated series from the early 1990s, this area will look familiar.

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Westweald: A densely packed, crime-ridden slum, but with a sort of beauty to it, as neglect has caused nature to begin to reclaim the area. This district is home to many smaller gangs vying to make names for themselves.

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The Morrow: What started as a municipal project in order to revitalize the industrial area of the west end and was eventually abandoned due to misappropriated funds and mismanagement has become a depressing, technically livable, dieselpunk-inspired industrial park.

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Seminary Heights: A quieter, more residential hillside neighborhood. This district is overlooked by the local university, and is more reminiscent of areas like Tokyo’s Tama City.

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And finally Haven: An oasis for the ultra wealthy. Clean, monochromatic, and completely lacking in character. I'll be posting more details about Haven in the future.

I hope you enjoy the way in which these districts come together in order to create this troubled city.