Going Virtual

I got my PC working back a week ago, I have reinstalled windows, and I'm getting back to the working groove again. It also took a while to finish this post, as I kept re-writing it making sure my plans are clearly explained. Now, let's continue, onwards to two last posts of the planned series!

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A collage of what I have created over the years. It's a lot. And I can still use most of it, as these places and concepts of the Dragotheria universe are still relevant...

Over time, I have created some pretty levels, characters, shaders, visuals, etc. - I have accumulated quite a large library of content that I kept improving on. But so far, I couldn't properly show it off because the game was too slow to reach a playable state.

I was searching for a way to make those creations immediately useful to people, without the need to wait for the game to have something nice. I planned to split them into small, separate modules that I could distribute. This idea goes as far back as this Patreon itself (Remember Visualisator?), but I never could find (or create) a suitable platform for it all - regardless where I went, nothing would fit my project needs.

I didn't have a lot of time to dedicate to that pursuit until now. I desperately want to make my creations visible and interesting for people once again. There are so much enticing creative avenues possible now as well, but I still need a place that can become a center of our community, I need to redefine, to make it clear what it is all about.

Working smarter, not harder

Old world I made for Neos VR (that almost nobody has really seen) in just two weeks. I can do so much more, much better now!

While I'm still working on a standalone game project, I have determined that in order to achieve faster results, I need to use an established platform to show off my creations. Because of my consistent obsession with VRChat lately, I decided to use it as such a platform. It may not be perfect (nothing is), but that thanks to it I found and got a taste of the experiences I was searching for so many years, maybe even my entire life.

My plan is to make some worlds and avatars for VRChat first, then to move them onto the standalone game and refine them further there. In the new beginning stages, It will allow me to present my Dragotheria worlds to a wider, Dragon-loving audience immediately, to get valued feedback, and will give me freedom to experiment with various game mechanics, all without the need to code everything from scratch again - VRC already sorts out a lot of basics, like networking and all the VR hardware and avatar hassles. Altogether, it grants me a solid platform that I can use to get my new projects off the ground.

Especially now, that I switched to working with Unity, it's a great opportunity - all my visuals, models, avatars, worlds, shaders, and even some code can be copied from my VRChat projects to my standalone game. I also found a great community of creators to nerd out with about technical aspects, and even ask for help should I get stuck. Unreal Engine is great in its own rights, but ultimately it's too heavy for me to attempt to carry it alone - even my PC can't run it well any longer.

Challenges of public platforms

The biggest concern is that it's very difficult for my work to have a presence on public platforms like VRChat or YouTube where the NSFW content is heavily restricted. My Dragotheria is extremely, unapologetically lewd and proud of it - literally everything you see is inspired by some kink!

I became very optimistic after I have witnessed the incredible levels of debauchery in private worlds of VRC, group events, and in the entire discord servers with thousands of members, made to facilitate such activities. I learned the unspoken rules of the platform, and now fully prepared to use them!

So, after lots of thinking, I have devised clever workflows that will allow me to keep Dragotheria content "intact" and "fully functional" even on such platforms, while leaving the "fun stuff" accessible in private and in places which allow NSFW content openly. And even if those places change their mind about it (like how Patreon sometimes seems to be wishy-washy about it), with this approach I'm highly adaptable to the volatile internet world.

My goal is to make Dragotheria its own indie-franchise: it has to exist as a separate entity from any game or product. This way I can utilize many platforms and mediums, adapt it to them accordingly. Take D&D as an inspiration: games, books, tabletop games, movies - all exist within one universe. I desire to do something similar, but on an appropriately smaller scale.

Into the belly and beyond!

An example of what I'm sketching and brainstorming now. Soon there will be more pretty and vorny images!

Now that I have revealed my new angle of approach, I will talk what exactly I will be doing with it.

I already begun work on an organic, fleshy Vore-world. I have made concepts of Leviathans and Living Aerosaur ships before, and this idea is still "pinned" in my mind. Thinking about the inviting, soft fleshy caverns, coated by thick warm slime, fantasizing about sphincters that squeeze tightly on your body as you pass through them, exposing you to the new intricate organic chambers - it all fills me with a lot of excitement and an urge to create again - I must chase this feeling before it goes away!

My old experiment from Neos VR still inspires me to this day. A giant Dragon whom you can fully explore in VR is just too good to miss out on. There are plenty of ideas what I can do both inside and outside of him, on top and especially underneath - a comfy hangout area just under his tail.

And it is a great relief that I can just start creating worlds like that now. Because before, if it was for the game, it would not be enough to just make an interesting world like that - the gameplay would have to be considered too. And that was the exact part me and my ex-teammate got stuck on.

It takes several months to make these original 3D worlds (or game levels), and it would be beyond wasteful to make them just for players to stroll around through them for 15 minutes, complete them and forget. I designed a lot of interesting places - Gateway of Realities plazas, streets of Khzandithri's central city, Astral research Stations - but I had to abandon all of them…

I count on that VRChat will give me an opportunity to go back and revive this work again, so I may finally be able to show the pieces of my sensual Dragon world to the public, offering special "definite edition" and private NSFW versions as well. I think I have a better opportunity here than ever before, as the design requirements are different for VR worlds.

The main draw of VR comes from interactivity and immersion in a virtual space, not just some simple repetitive action of the "gameplay loop". I know for sure can design this interactivity better than anything - I'm fascinated with these aspects much more than working on "badass" jumping or shooting mechanics, like "normal" gamedevs do. And all I ever wanted is an opportunity to experience life of a nonhuman creature, and immerse myself in otherworldly surroundings; do some nice, peaceful, sensual interactions with the world and other creatures… I have a way to express it now!

Once the basics of that are figured out, I can begin thinking how I can refine and package it in the standalone game, while still keeping VRChat worlds as meetups/hangouts for people, continuously sharing and showing my progress with our community.

And speaking of the creatures, I have already talked about making VR avatars of my Dragonkin models - that is still going strong and I continue to work on this. I will start by selling regular avatar models soon. If that goes well, I will work on programming my planned customization system from the game, to make it available for public use. The ultimate goal is to allow people to create their own unique characters without any knowledge of 3D modeling or without commissioning someone.

Also, producing content separately should also allow me to earn some additional income (which I also urgently need), but for that I need to begin advertising my work again. In the next chapter I will explain my plan on how I'm returning back to public again.

…Continued in next chapter "Going Public"…