HoHH[1.5] PC/Tablet Demo - v0.010 [Core autosave and NPC Shops]

Finally, after teasing various NPC shop interfaces, I can finally put them out there for people to use!

This is for PC and (maybe) tablet users. I had to hack a fair bit of html and CSS. Those hacks haven't extended to mobile-sized screens yet, so I suspect it will display like ass or be completely non-functional on mobile devices. Give me a week or so to catch up on that.

This demo is for the 1.5/Art version of HoHH. It covers the first 4 rounds and has all 36 low-tier harlots present with their pinup art. The main change is to add the autosave functionality from the last proof-of-concept demo to the core game loop. The other main change is to incorporate the charm card art I AI-generated a while back and give some of the NPCs more graphical shop interfaces. While HoHH will always be primarily Interactive Fiction, I'm trying to include more art assets to have it resemble a more typical indie game.

It's still very rough around the edges. The goal for this demo was to get all the various elements in place and working. I can always pretty them up and add better .pngs/.jpgs later.

I've attached it to this post as a .zip file that includes the .html file to play the demo in your internet browser of choice as well as the folder containing the images used by that .html file. Alternatively, I've also put it up on the houseofhellishharlots website here:
https://houseofhellishharlots.com/experimental/

You can find it under the "Private Demo" button.
Password: Burba1k4

With that out of the way I'll go over the changes in more detail.

Title Page/Start Menu
I added a title/splash page on starting the game. Clicking anywhere on this (as you would any other indie game) takes you through to the introductory blurb and then through to the start menu. The options there are fairly self-explanatory. "Clear Progress" is mainly to help with debugging as sometimes I need to delete the autosave. "Notebook" takes the player to the planned notebook section. That is just a stub for the moment. The only functionality I tested was to make sure the player can jump to that and then back into their game where they left off.

These parts are very crude at the moment. In future I might try to add some animation such as the curtains opening. The Start Menu could definitely also do with some prettying up. For now they're just there to occupy the right spots.

UI Menu (top left)
This is the cluster of icons up on top left allowing the player to access the character sheet and other things. I've added some code to hide it until it's relevant to show it. The player won't see it on the start menu. The player won't see it on the game intro either. It will appear when it is relevant at the start of the first presentation round.

The semen gauge is still a rough placeholder until I find proper art for it. The other art is pretty much fine except I might make the clock hands slightly bigger on the round counter. I've also added tooltips for each icon to indicate what it does.

The main changes are carried over from the proof-of-concept demo. The manual save option has been removed. The new icons are to take the player to the notebook or back to the start menu (exit).

Autosave
I implemented the autosave function from the proof-of-concept demo. The game now automatically saves to the first browser slot at the beginning of each passage. I've added this to the core game loop and all of the NPC sections. It's not yet added to any of the harlot scenarios. Exiting while in the middle of a harlot scenario and continuing will place the player back at the door to their room. I'll extend autosave functionality to them during their upgrades to add notebook functionality.

The autosave is dependent on web browser permissions. It might not work for things like incognito mode. I will return to buff it up at a later date, maybe see if I can put the save file on the device playing the game. For now it will be a little rough, especially with version compatibility as I put out future versions. This is something I'll keep working on to make as robust as possible.

Switching to autosave is a little controversial, but I always intended to HoHH to be more like a roguelike and not being able to jump back to a previous save should ratchet up the tension on some choices. I'm also aware it's a H-game, so it shouldn't be too difficult to get to the H-content of choice. I'll be exploring options to do this through the notebook. New harlots might be added with their replay mode fully unlocked for example if the player wants to try them out right away.

Core Game Loop/General
Some general changes. "Coins" are renamed in game to "Diabolicors". I like the new name. I tried to do the same for "Mulligan Tokens", but still haven't found a name I like. I've also changed some text display elements to highlight important game words such as "actions".

I changed how the action economy works for NPCs. It was a little awkward before. I wanted visiting an NPC to cost an action even if the player leaves immediately, so there was an awkward check if the player had done anything with the NPC and the game charging the player an action if they just visited and left. That's been simplified. The initial visit to the NPC costs an action, but it also gives the player a single free action with that NPC. Basically, visiting an NPC will always cost an action, but the first thing the player does with that NPC is considered part of that action.

If the NPC is unavailable due to RNG, that now costs an action. Roguelikes are mean.

I also fixed some of the RNG elements. Before, if a player reloaded the page on the harlot presentation passage, they would get a different set of harlots. This is because the algorithm was on the same passage and would give a different random selection on reloading the page. All RNG elements are now moved to earlier passages so their results are preserved when continuing after an autosave.

Intro
Aside from hiding the player UI and adding autosave, I've left this as is. For now. I might try to work a tutorial in at some point. I might also use meta saves to track what run the player is on and only present the accelerated options after the first visit to the House. The jump from start to first presentation round is also a little abrupt for the accelerated start option. There are some tweaks that can be made here, but for now I've left as is.

The Madam
Added autosave and that's it.

The Barman
- Added autosave.
- Tier 1,2,3 harlots are now called low-, mid-, and high-tier. I was using tiers to refer to early-, mid- and late-round harlots to indicate when they'd show up (in finished game). The problem with that is we usually use Tier 1 to refer to Top Tier, so I switched to using low, mid and high to avoid that causing any confusion.

The Portly Gentleman
Added autosave. He's large unchanged aside from having to fix a few wobbles with his free "buy a mulligan token" option on the first visit that could result in the player going into a negative post-room actions remaining count.

Nurse Honey
Added autosave. Initially I was thinking of giving her a shop window, but she has a slightly more diverse range of actions from diagnosis, curing ailments and energy tonics. Also, it's unlikely the player will pick up that many ailments during a run. It's never going to be a big list of things to cure, so I decided to keep using the list option in the regular text display.

The new ailment art is temporary. Unlike with the charms, I couldn't really get much consistency with the AI art. That will need to be redone at some point, but for now is fine as a placeholder.

The Buxom Lolibaba
She's the main reason for the new version aside from incorporating autosave functionality. I'm very happy with how the AI-generated charm card art and icons turned out. What I currently have will likely make it through to the finished game. Buying charms from her now opens up a special shop window where the player can see them represented as cards.

I've removed the option to use a mulligan token to buy a specific charm. This is partly to avoid needing to create a separate interface to show all the charms (the cards are too big, although it could be done with the icons) and also partly because I want the charm randomness to steer runs rather than the player using their starting mulligan token to pick a specific charm and repeat the same run over and over. This is not finalised. I might change my mind on it.

The Doctoress
Rather than the separate categories for her potions, I also gave her a shop display where the player can click on the potion to buy it. I had mixed results with AI-generated art here. While there are tooltips to indicate what the potion is (Strength, Intelligence, etc), for the finalised version I'd like the potion bottles to have some sort of icon on them to indicate what they are.

The Elegant Woman
I also gave her a new shop window. This is mainly for her post-room visits as that list can get quite long as it includes all harlots the player has seen rather than just the harlots of that round. As the icons for this are just the harlot's (and npc's) portraits, the art is pretty much already in place.

Because of the change in interface, the option to ask her for sex has been moved. It now crops up after you ask her for information on herself. It still does nothing. She will get a scenario fairly soon though.

She was also another to receive some RNG fixes so the additional information she gives on a harlot is always the same after autoloading.

I also finally got a chance to give her some new leaving messages. Expect her to wish a wider variety of ills on you as you leave without buying her a (another) drink!

Character Sheet
I tweaked the display on this to hopefully improve it. Charms and Known Ailments are now depicted as icons rather than a plain list.

And I think that's everything. It was quite a bit of work, hence requiring me to work on it fairly solidly for the past two and a half weeks. The core is now fairly stable again. I've added a lot of nice new art. The stubs are also present to start to add the notebook functionality for the individual harlots.

It's still rough in places, but I'm happy with how it's shaping up. I always thought I'd have to migrate the project to Unity or Godot to get it to look like this.

I hope you have fun playing with the new demo. Let me know your thoughts below.