Dev Ramblings: Wedgies & Event Creation

Hello there!

Welcome to the first Dev Ramblings of October for the upcoming V0.03.05 Update! We still don’t have an update title, so for now it is being referred to as the 3.05 Update or the October Update. Once we have a title, we’ll be sure to let you all know. In the meanwhile, we’ve been working hard on the content for this update, mainly on the remaining Hallway Wedgie Scenes, OC Content (Most of it being stuff that wasn’t quite ready in time for last update, but nearly there), and large improvements to the Quest/Story System. However, today we are going to talk about the new Hallway Wedgies along with some insight into how we create events. For those just interested on the current status of the update, below is the current Status of added content from our Discord’s faq. We are going to start including a picture of this in every Dev Ramblings post to keep those outside of Discord up to date. (Current as of time of posting to Fanbox.)

So, as mentioned today we are going to go over the new Hallway Wedgies changes. We are adding these as part of our goal to bring all the main characters up to par with Lucas, who previously had Wedgie and Pantsing Scenes, along with improving existing content. Lucas, Carter, and Ben had their wedgie scenes included in the last update and the rest of the boys are being imported now, 3 for reach boy for a total of 15 new events!. Jackson, Thomas, and Felix’s are much like the previous boys’, with 3 events that are selected based on Social with the chosen boy. Michael and Xavier, however, are much different and extremely complex based on their ability to fight back.

However, rather than just telling you about these events, I decided to do something different and give you all some insight into how I write events for LaaB, my general process, and what goes into them. We’ll be using Michael’s Wedgie Event as an example, with some minor spoilers for said event.

Firstly, the reason Michael and Xavier’s events are much different, and more complex, than the others is due to their status as ‘Antagonists’ in LaaB. In the original outline of the game, these two, along with Gabe, were mainly created to be a challenge for the player. Bullies in different ways. Michael was meant to be the typical Bully character while Xavier was meant to be a more oppressive and manipulative character. They have changed since then, but that was their original purpose. Because of that, I felt it wouldn’t make sense to just be able to wedgie them like the others, as they would fight back in their own way. Xavier’s retaliation is much worse, and harder to avoid, than Michael’s. I won’t go into much detail on his but trying to give the most popular boy in school a wedgie in the hallways, when he is often surrounded by his followers, is very dangerous. So, keep that in mind when you try out his events and don’t say I didn’t warn you!

The first step when creating an event in LaaB is the premise. What is the event? In Michael’s case this is: “The player attempts to give Michael a wedgie in the School Hallway. He will attempt to fight back and retaliate, with outcomes depending on the Social he has with the Player Character.”

From this we create an Outline. This can be thought of as a ‘Series of Events’. I use the outline when writing the event to know what I need to write and where I need to go. This helps immensely with dealing with Writer’s Block since I already have an idea of where the scene needs to go. Though, I don’t always exactly follow the outline depending on if, during writing, it flows in a different direction. Outlines are meant to help write the event but not constrict it. Outlines are also the first thing I give to OC Supporters when planning out their events.

So, for Michael the outline may look like thus:

---

PC tries to sneak up behind Michael to give him a wedgie.

[Athletics Check]

-Pass-

PC gives Michael the wedgie and has to escape.

[Dex Check to escape]

Pass leads to PC getting away while a Fail leads to a consequence.

With High Social, he will playfully get the PC back with one of their own.

Etc.

-Fail-

Michael catches PC in the act and gets revenge, based on Social.

With High Social he will call the PC cocky and wedgie him playfully.

Etc.

---

This isn’t the exact outline for Michael, as my normal outline would include details of the consequences and revenge, but this should give you a basic idea without too many spoilers. From here, I move onto writing the scene. I generally follow the Outline to know what info I need to provide and where I should go. I start with the opening, then the Pass result, along with the Escape and No Escape result. Below is an example of what it looks like at this stage:

At the end of the scene, I add the Ending Notes. These are notes on how it should end. For example, the High Social Escape result has this at the end:

[End, +Wediger, +Fun, +Michael]

[End] marks it as the end. If the scene ends somewhere else that isn’t where it started, we will add it here like: [End at Player Bedroom] This tells the importer where to send the PC after the scene. [+Wediger] is telling us to add the Moodlet, in this cause the Gave Wedgie Moodlet. Normally, this would include a number (#) which tells us how many hours. I often won’t include numbers if I’m the one writing the end code, since I base it off of existing scenes. [+Fun] and [+Michael] are pretty easy to understand. We add +Fun to the PC and add +Social to Michael. Here is an example of what this looks like in-code:

But what if the PC has Low Social with Michael? Well, let’s just say that the PC’s underwear may be getting exposed in that case. But that leads us to some questions we have to consider. What if the PC isn’t wearing any underwear? What if they are wearing something embarrassing like a Diaper? This is where the variations come in. Due to the nature of the game, we can’t assume the PC is always wearing underwear so have to account for that. Having your underwear exposed is very different from having your genitals exposed. When the PC has their underwear exposed, we generally expect 3 variations: Normal Underwear, Diapers, and No Underwear. This is 3 times the work, but worth it to add special details based on player choice.

But wait, remember last update? We added the ability to gain Bully Nicknames. So, if PC has his wiener exposed, or his diaper, we need to add in checks to see if they gain the Bully Nicknames associated with these. But we also want some special dialogue based on the PC’s penis size, to add that extra layer of humiliation for extra small/large sizes. Altogether, this can add a lot of extra variations we have to account for and write, but I personally believe this is all worth it to add extra flair to the game.

So, we’ve written all 3 versions of the events, a pass/fail outcome, accounting for things such as Underwear Choice, Penis Size, Nickname Status, Ability/Traits, etc. In the end, Michael’s 3 wedgie scenes are roughly 12 pages long in Word. Now, keep in mind that the scene itself IS NOT 12 pages long, but rather all of the possible variations and content. A normal player will only see a BRIEF part of these pages. But if we aren’t careful, a scene can really blow up based on variations and choices. But the more complex a scene, the better the experience for our players, to an extent. We don’t want to go too far and risk bloating ascene.

So, we have our scene written and ready to go. What’s next?

Proof-reading. This is very important as, while writing, I often make mistakes. Typos, wrong words, strange/repeated word usage, even stuff just not sounding good. Personally, I tend to reread the events out loud to myself. This is because hearing something often makes little mistakes stand out more than just reading in your head. I also sometimes use a Text-to-speech bot to hear how an event sounds. I tend to proofread an event after it sits for a minute, so later in the day or another day after writing it, so it isn’t as fresh in my brain and I can read it with a fresh perspective.

Once the scene has been proof-read, if it is an OC Supporter scene, I send it to them for final approval. I will then edit any notes they give, sending it again if the event required major changes. However, Michael’s wedgie scenes aren’t OC Events, so the only one who needs to improve them is me.

Next up, I finalize the scene. This is adding Color and Avatar Notes. These tell our importers what color to color text, not counting Dialogue and Character Names, which is always the same, and where to put avatars. Those who have read our Contribution guides on the Discord know how this goes, but for those who haven’t here is the same as above once all the notes have been added:

Once this is done, the scene is ready to be imported! I have some lovely importers helping me, as this part can be time-consuming. First, I add the passage into the game’s code, you can see these in the Modder Friendly version of the release. I add the title, other little bits here and there, then paste the scene into the game with things such as Line Breaks and Code for all the variations and checks we have to do. Below is what the top of Michael’s scene looks like once pasted before the importers get their hands on it.

As you can see, we have the time progression, which is normally at the top along with other code such as marking the daily Michael Bullying attempt as finished, as you can only bully a boy once per day since after that they’ll be on their toes. We also have special Bully Nickname code to check, which is included. We then check to see which version of the event to play, based on Social. In this case, we are looking at the High Social version. You can also see our link code, the avatar notes, etc.

I then will generally add the End Code and Trigger Code, though sometimes I will leave this to the importers. I then push it to our git so our importers can get to work finishing the scene by adding Avatars, Colors, and anything else needed for the event to function. Once that is done, I pull the event from the git and test it out to ensure it is working correctly.

And, once all that is finished, the event is done and ready to be played! Until a bug is found of course. Alas, we cannot account for everything in the event and sometimes my testing is not enough. But that is why we have Betas and Testers.

So, a lot of work can go into one event, but it all leads to some fun content for you to enjoy! I hope you enjoyed this little peek into how we plan and create the events of LaaB. I love reading about what goes into making games, so figured I’d share some of our own processes with you all. If you are interested in more Dev Ramblings like this, let us know! I would love to give more peeks into how we create LaaB.

But that is all for now! I hope you are just as excited as we are to wedgie all our favorite boys! We’ll have more Dev Ramblings for you soon that’ll go into details in the other stuff we’ve been working on, so stay tuned! We also have a Beta coming out hopefully soon. So, keep your eyes peeled for that as well!

Thanks again for all your support!