Progress log #20 - Survey results and FETISHES (and some other IDEAS for the future)

Hey everyone,

while the public release of Episode 4 draws near, I thought I would share with you the results of the feedback survey (and an impromptu ESSAY about fetishes, future ideas and more).

As of now, you guys submitted 914 surveys. Most of them did not come with the open field questions answered, but I was really happy to read the 200 or so that wrote out a message to me directly, whether it was to provide some more in-depth feedback or to simply share support. Thank you for that!

The feedback surveys will definitely be a thing for each episode. I will most likely split the survey into two, making one just a persistent fetish questionnaire in the discord and the other a "what choice did you make" + open field questions at the end of each episode.

And here are the graphs showing what individual choices you took:

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And here are your FETISH preferences:

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I have to say that I was very surprised by the amount of (gentle) femdom fans, and I think that you might be pleased with a few side romances I've got brewing - particularly one that you will only have access to if you revealed Amaya to the Ealdorman in the prologue (even though Amaya herself will have some gentle femdom vibes, but more along the lines of being an 'assertive' lover - her counterpart will likely stray further from the 'gentle' aspect and potentially be a little more... rough.)

As for hairy armpits, I am going to make some sort of a mod/switch in the options that will turn on hairy armpits for women (even retroactively for scenes in previous episodes). I already know how to implement it and it won't be time-consuming at all when I get to it, but don't expect it in the next episode - it's more of a longterm plan . And if you HATE armpit hair, don't worry - it will always be off by default and I will implement it in a way that you never see a glimpse of it even in the image folder of the game.

As for the dreaded IT-THAT-SHAN'T-BE-NAMED....

I think NTR being so hated that it's almost breaking the UI of the graphs is a surprise to no one. But it's still interesting to me that so many people actually do like it - my estimates were that the like/love combined would maybe share 5-10% of the total votes. Regardless, as you may know (or may not, since it was discussed so long ago), there are no NTR plans for Elvensang. I am struggling to manage everything I want to do already, and NTR is by far the most narratively demanding kink to implement properly.

There are plans to 'share' Sunny with other girls, either in a polyamorous relationship/fling or even by allowing Sunny to independently explore her "lesbian" side. I considered making it possible to let Sunny enter a slightly more serious relationship with another girl in the case when the protagonist himself has a tendency to explore his sexuality with with other girls - not that they would split apart, more along the lines of... Sunny herself would have an intimate, longterm 'side-romance' with another girl. Of course, it would all depend on the player's choices (and such choices will always be transparent). 

That being said, remember that I am sharing IDEAS at this stage - I am not promising anything, I am not laying out a roadmap of what I am 100% going to do. They are ideas for what might happen. I feel the need to stress that because the things I say have a tendency to become diluted as they travel down the grapevine...

Anyway, I am partially hesitant about the idea of Sunny openly exploring her lesbian side because I don't really understand the nuances of how NTR is perceived when it comes to love interest x woman. Sure, someone might whip out the technical definition of netorare/netori/netomatsaisiasddsfvd and judge things based on that, but I think we can agree that NTR is mostly evaluated by subjective interpretation. And one part of the equation is clear to me, but the other evades me...

Love interest having a friendly talk with another man than the MC = NTR

Love interest talking/kissing/fucking another girl = ?

At the end of the day, I expect it's about the vibe the whole interaction creates. It's always been my opinion that the technical definitions are completely irrelevant; if something tastes like coke, most people are going to call it coke even if it wasn't created using the traditional coca cola formula.

I've said it before, but I think it's also important to recognize the impact of the protagonist being passive vs. active in these sorts of scenarios - as that in itself can change the entire vibe. The protagonist should not have to be "active" to prevent Sunny's lesbian side from emerging, meaning that if he does nothing and remains passive, then Sunny will not have any lesbian tendencies (and this way it will not stain the experience of a player who is not interested in those sorts of shenanigans). Therefore, Sunny's lesbian side will emerge only if the player pushes certain buttons and makes an active effort to nurture it. I say "player" and not "protagonist" here because the PROTAGONIST might not be consciously aware of the effects it might have, but the PLAYER will know what direction it's going. The difference here is important too, because I don't want the protagonist to feel like some devious manipulator who reads lesbian poetry to his childhood friend with the clear intent to turn her bisexual. In the moment, they are innocent acts with innocent motives to both characters... but the PLAYER knows where it is headed.

And finally, I will mention something else regarding Sunny; if you have been reading these posts for a long time, you might feel like I am beating a dead horse with this topic, but;

Sunny is a mandatory romance. I want to experiment with the shape of that romance (as much as I can without neglecting the main story), but at the end of the day, Sunny and the protagonist will always be romantically involved in some way. Every now and then, someone says that they wish they could just stay friends with Sunny - and I don't blame you for feeling that way, but think about the impact it would have. 

Like I said months ago in the post where I was discussing this in depth, I would have to implement an equal counterpart to Sunny's romance, otherwise you would get a choice between Sunny and nothing. This would be viable if there were no side romances or if the main romace was detached from the main story and existed in a 'bubble', but with TWO main romances tied to the main story and a plethora of side romances on top, the amount of variables would become impossible to manage while trying to tell a story that is not a soap opera. And I need to say that again, because - Elvensang is not a dating sim. It is not a story about which girl you end up with and the spend the rest of your life with; that might be one aspect of it, sure - and I can tell you ahead of time that there will be quite a few endings where you do NOT end up with Sunny as the "love of your life", but we are far, FAR away from asking those sorts of questions.

However...

I will tell you that you have been planting the seeds of those decisive moments since the very beginning!

And on that note, I will conclude this extremely long rambling. As always, I appreciate and welcome discussion about any of these topics, especially when it comes to Sunny, her main romance, and the possibility of exploring her lesbian side. If you have any thoughts, don't hesitate to share them here, or send me a message on Discord... or send a pigeon with a letter if you want.

Love you all,

Worlaix