All the Feedback We Got, and a New Sneak Peek
Added 2018-08-11 11:24:42 +0000 UTCHey everyone!
Thanks so much for all your support! The latest public release was a little rougher than we expected, and you all being here really makes a difference for us!
TL;DR:
:: NEW GIF **NSFW**:
https://gfycat.com/DrearyImperturbableFeline
:: BJ animation is next! First Beta on the 20th. A lot will change regarding story and the poll results will be factored in.
:: Due to all the recent feedback, we're changing the release strategy. We'll start working on the complete no-shortcuts Desktop version, and release minor browser-based mini-games along the way.
So.....
We've been busy gathering and munching over all the feedback about the just-released game versions. The public release was a little rougher than we expected, although a few tweaks here and there seem to be holding it together so far. We feel like we should explain some of our decisions and why some things went the way they did, but instead of posting the three pages long "summary" we've written, let's do it like a Q&A again!
Q: Alright, it got a 3/5 score, which is close to the death threshold for content on the internet. What do the Devs believe went wrong?
A: Hmm... Two things, mostly. Culprit number one: we've tried too many things at once. Blair's current versions have 4 different sections (Visual Novel Section, Sprite Mini-game Section, Interactive Video Section and Point-and-Click Puzzle Section), each of those quite heavy on the browser for a game in pure JS. We've basically built the foundation for four different games, but barely used any of them. Why? We wanted to have all the foundations ready to see how playing in them feels like, but with barely any content on top of them, that's not fun for anyone.
And the other major factor for the harsh initial response seems to be that the game asked too much in exchange for too little. It turns out that blocking progression until the player deciphers on his own a cryptic puzzle game with unintuitive mechanics, without building any anticipation first, is a bad idea. And we kind of knew that, but we've been churning over Blair's chapter for sooo long that if we delayed it again it'd probably stay in development hell forever. Not that releasing it early helped it in that aspect.
Q: Yeah... You said you were going to expand the BJ scene next and release it as its own thing. Still strong on that?
A: Yes, 100%. We plan to have the early first version ready by the next scheduled update (10 days from now), with the poll results taken into consideration. Speaking of those, thanks everyone for participating! Here's a breakdown of the results:
A lot of people want improved endings, us included. We don't want to overpromise, but we'll try to put Blair's other great assets into the animation instead of only her face, and the endings seem like the perfect place for them!
7 votes for Less Gameplay vs. 1 vote for Better Gameplay. Yeah, we get it. We didn't want to do it the cookie cutter way of selecting animation loops in a menu (like the face-sitting scene), but adding a reaction based mini-game was not a smart decision. The spotlight should be on the animation, and not on gimmicks at the side of the screen. We'll try something a little different (yet again) instead of defaulting to a menu right away. Hopefully it'll turn out better!
11 votes for Foreplay and 6 for Story. OK, we think we know what we should do about those. In short, we're going to do the BJ scene exactly like we initially planned it, about a year ago. This is going to break continuity a little, but it's going to turn out much more interesting.
Q: A year ago? How long have you been working on that ten minutes teaser?
A: So, huh... We mentioned before that we have big plans for this game, but we never said how big. There must be, like, 200~300 pages filled with notes and sketches about the places, the stories, the settings... A minor spoiler: the most important character of the story hasn't even been introduced yet. This whole thing comes from years of daydreaming and wishful thinking that is finally taking form, even if still very amateurish and clumsy.
We're saying that now because both A Day with Paige and Blair's initial chapter were supposed to be very different. The only reason they feel rushed and with little time to let the narrative breath (we didn't even add in most choices) is because we put ourselves into a corner by focusing so hard onto the mini-games and software systems that we didn't make any time to develop the story.
And we know, it must feel so weird reading that because the games don't show any signs of a bigger story arc or anything. That's a legit complaint, in fact. A lot of the feedback we got about Blair's game is that the writing feels corny and cliché, and it really does. It was mangled in many ways to accommodate for the lack of assets that we didn't had the time to make, once again due to all the effort that went into getting all systems to work in a browser window, which even failed at some points.
At the time, we believed we didn't have the resources and skills to pull it off. To build the game that's in our heads. And to be perfectly honest, we still don't, but if we don't try it now we're probably never going to. And that means...
We're going to follow the script from the start and stop hamstringing the story for the sake of mini-games and systems. This is awfully vague though, so here's what we plan for the long term:
:: Have a MAJOR GOAL, the Desktop version of the game, of which only GIFs and screenshots will be released until it gets ready enough to be played by you all;
:: Have a MINOR GOAL, which is going to be a browser-based playable slice of the MAJOR GOAL. For example, the BJ scene, and the Whirlwind Class from A Day with Paige.
Ok, so, to summarize:
NEW MAJOR GOAL:
:: Release the definitive (non-teasery) version of A Day with Paige. It's probably not going to be called that, since it's going to be the full first day at the University, with a meaningful interaction with each of the main characters. It's going to be a Desktop game, built with Unity or Godot (probably Godot).
CURRENT MINOR GOAL:
:: Release the BJ scene as it was first written. It takes place into your dorm room, it's not a "hold back" challenge, and it involves three characters!
NEXT MINOR GOAL:
:: Release the remake of the Whirlwind Class of A Day with Paige. It's going to be a lot bigger than it was at the teaser, and we're going to use better character animations. We've even started on that already!
It still needs more polishing, but check it out **NSFW**:
https://gfycat.com/DrearyImperturbableFeline
Did you like it? We plan on using more of those together with the fullscreen artworks to really show what's going in each important moment.
And that was a lot of text already... As soon as we get some screenshots about the update to the BJ animation we'll send it your way, probably on the Discord chat.
Thanks so much again for being here with us and until the next time!
See you soon!
Comments
Yeah, the next chapters of the story needs to be put into the game. We planned to finish the *new* whirlwind mini-game before advancing the story (it's going to be the basic mini-game of the first "book" of the series), but that can arrive later. After the BJ release (which will have some story), we'll advance the narrative further. We totally agree with you that story is the best motivator to getting through a game. Maybe if we had implemented all the choices we'd planned in Blair's game, the forging mini-game would be much easier to go through. The runic mini-game is a work in progress. We shouldn't have put it into the game, specially the public release. There are two big aspects of it that we did not add (recipes and scribbling) because we thought they were not needed per se. It turns out, though, that they are. That mini-game will make a return when it becomes much easier to grasp.
2018-08-14 09:07:52 +0000 UTCAgain I agree with Funky. In regards to exchanging the minigame with just a choice, I think the minigame would be better (it feels a bit like cheating just choosing the outcome I want). I think with the mini games though is, as I understand, they take a long time to make, so you have to invest a lot of time just to get ONE new minigame, but when you first have that mini game you can use it again and again. So I don't mind you had to spend time on making a foundation with some minigames you can now use again, but I'll like some more story now that you have some games to use. I think story (along with that universe and characters) should be the most important part of the game, that is the thing you can make your own. Just as pure gameplay you will properly have a hard time competing with like "real game developers". This being an "adult" game too, you can't compete on just sexy content either. If that was why the players were here they could just easier google cartoon boobs (okay your work is really good in this regard actual, some top notch scenes, but I hope you still get the point). We want to strip Paige down because the story makes us invested in her, we want to do well in the minigames because we want to proceed in the story. The story is what ties everything together and sort of what makes the games good in a sense, so we need more story now. I think you generally need at around 70% story and then a mix of games and pure "fan service" for the rest, BUT as funky says, those two parts should really also contribute to the story. I have a bit of an issue with the rune game though. It isn't that intuitive, so it's hard to figure out how to get 100% (if you like me wanted the reward), past just memorising the tutorial video. I think you have to start with an easier thing to build, so you understand how it works and then build more and more things (of course with more story around it to make the building meaning full).
Valdiii
2018-08-14 08:07:37 +0000 UTCIt does. We've been entertaining the idea of releasing layered updates. We'd first publish a version with the whole story of the first, say, three days. Then, on later updates, replace parts of the story with the mini-game version of them. For example, considering the Whirlwind mini-game in ADwP, it would be replaced by a choice system, like: "Aim the Whilwind at Paige", "Do the exercise as intended."... This way the story could advance at a much faster pace, but we don't know if it'd be for the better yet.
2018-08-14 02:56:26 +0000 UTCAn interesting dilemma... as a fan of Telltale Games, I would favour story-driven gaming over mini-puzzles (so closer to the 80:20) ; HOWEVER, mini-games and their outcomes should ideally impact the story being told. For example, the level of success in engorgement spell events affects the character appearance from that point, and to some extent, portions of the dialogue, such as varying comments about their appearance (ranging from flat to huge), or opening/closing certain story paths. I'm happy to have more mini-game content, if it is to develop and drive the story in different directions.... Hope all that makes sense!
Funky Munky
2018-08-13 11:12:28 +0000 UTCSay, if you had to choose between story (visual novel) and the gameplay (mini-games and spells), what would be the ratio like? 50-50 or more like 80-20?
2018-08-13 08:05:55 +0000 UTCThink I'm with Funky monkey on this one. I've been a supporter for at least half a year, and I've just been waiting to see what happens with paige the next day.
Valdiii
2018-08-13 05:53:25 +0000 UTCYeah, the episode strategy is kind of what we tried with this whole Blair thing. To release it as its own episode, but even that became too big due to all the gimmicks we added to it. At first, like at the very beginning, people seem to be way more interested in the mini-games than the story. So we went into that direction, but instead of doing it smoothly, we made a sharp turn and lost a lot of momentum in the process. This new minor goal thing is mostly to accomplish one thing: we're aiming at one sizable game update per month, and not an incremental update like we were doing. Something with beginning, middle and end to give that sense of accomplishment, like you said. The BJ mini-game is not going to be just the animation. There's an introduction, then foreplay, then a crisis, then the ending. These minor goals will be more like small but whole experiences. But you're saying something very important about the engorgement spell and Paige's arc. It's been a while since we updated them and it's way past due. But we plan to solve this two problems with the BJ release. We should probably run a poll about that.
2018-08-11 19:54:31 +0000 UTCTo be honest, I'm more here to see Paige's story arc, and hopefully to see more of the engorgement spell used - on Paige and other characters. It may have been simpler for you to release each character arc as episodes (ala telltale games) to produce your overall story. It would break up the work into more manageable chunks and give the supporters (and yourselves) a greater sense of progression and accomplishment
Funky Munky
2018-08-11 12:18:06 +0000 UTC
