Friday, October 30, 2015

Slight hiccup

Hehehe, I ran into a little problem with the time system. For some reason, my code isn't working as intended. Basically, I have the buttons called up on two separate pages, one sets up the parameters and coding of the button, and the other displays it. For whatever reason, when I have the code display both a 15 minute and 1 hour time pass, a total of 1 hour and 15 minutes passes by instead of just the value that is assigned to the button that you press. It's kind of annoying because currently, it takes 15 minutes to enter your bedroom and 1 hour and 15 minutes to exit. I have most of the house up and navigational, including the beginnings of interactions with the family and some secret variables and items already implemented.

I posted on the twine forum to get some help because I can't think of a solution that will fix this without serious breaking down and reworking my time/navigational system (which, in all seriousness is technically sound; I believe Java is just reading it incorrectly). So instead, I will be working on the branching stories for this weekend. Someone asked if the story will lose it's charm with the new system. Honestly, I don't think so. If anything, it helps fill in the gaps from the morning to afternoon to evening stuff. If by tomorrow or whenever I get bored/stuck with the family story stuff, I'll just start building the world anyways and have the bug be in there for now.

*Edit:
Success! I got some help off the Twine forums and the problem described above no longer exists (it was a syntax error). To add a little more info, I'm flushing out the Kevin-Judy and Kelly-James story. This means, following them and adding in all of their interactions for the day (not all the tangent story lines, just their average day and your early options with them). Other than that, I want the first release to be big enough to include the locations to train up your stats. A lot of the numbers behind the game are only lightly integrated in because the scenarios for them do not exist yet. Even so, once I add in the training stuff and a few more variables and systems, there will be nothing left to do but story line.

Sunday, October 25, 2015

Rework update

To update everyone, I have the mechanics down and have successfully created a time system, a 24 hour schedule for the entire family, directional movements, player customization, stats, skills and story variables. I don't know how much people will enjoy the new system because it is VERY different from the last two builds, but shows a lot of promise.

After much debate and consideration, I will no longer be releasing an in-between version of the new system. What's the reason for that? Because I'll actually need to go out of my way to create a restrictive version of the game. Instead of that, I will add on the family story while expanding the world room by room. I'll try to work in first time encounters with every family member and set up a world big enough that there are places to go to train up your stats. And yes, since there are much more interactions with the family throughout the day, I will need to rewrite and add in the missing gaps. Good thing is, once I fill in those gaps, they will always be there for each consequent day.

It's slow work because I'm doing this after watching 2-3 hours of twine 2.0 tutorials and constantly need to add more variables and code or look up how to troubleshoot problems I encounter. I can't give a good estimation of how much longer it will take for Ver.003 to come out, but I can't imagine it NOT coming out before December.

Until next week!

*Edit: Check out the "Design" page if you really want to know what the new system will look like.

Monday, October 19, 2015

Survey's over! Long post, TLDR below!

The survey is now over! I'm ending it partly because I wanted it to be a weekend thing, but the site I was using sealed the deal. There were 105 responses and I was only able to see 100 of them without having a "upgraded" account. I received a lot of good feedback, so if you had something you posted and would like to share or add to the discussion, please post in the forums. Nothing is too little or stupid; it all gives me motivation to work that much harder.

So, what did I learn? For the sake of keeping things anonymous, I'll just share the results instead of the actual survey.

Out of 100 people:
58 people loved it
40 people liked it
2 people were on the fence.

Writing quality:
36 Greats
58 Goods
6 Alrights

Favorite story line:
Kind of surprised, but all the girls were given the same amount of love, with Judy in front just by a margin. The only responses I received on the forums for Kelly was that she wasn't diverse enough, so I thought it would be skewed to Judy being 1, Abby 2 and Kelly 3. It is actually, Judy 1, Kelly 2, and Abby 3 (by averages). I thought I did pretty well with her writing too. I'll quote a comment I received: "just the say, the Kevin-Kelly story is a wonderful thing, and I'd love to see more of it. It's the most unexpected mixture of bonners and feels I've ever experienced." - Anon

Version:
Harlowe - 43
Sugarcube - 34 (It doesn't work in chrome for some reason)
Both - 22

The main question, STATS:
Very strongly - 13
Somewhat strongly - 19
Can go either way - 41
Not very much - 18
Not at all - 9

I guess that for the casual player, (as in those who check up on these type of games from time to time) it would be nice to come back to these options. For those who are invested, it'd be pretty heart breaking to see this project start back at ground zero. Most people are willing to let me take it in either direction, so thank you for that.

What will this mean for the game then? Good news is... the system is MAYBE almost ready? I've been grinding it out and have been able to establish a lot of things including conditions, customization, stats and variables. As I've said before somewhere, I've originally conceived of the game to be more like this anyways and since the CYOA version was torn through, I'm going to make it more into a repeating adventure game. Thankfully, the Harlowe version of Twine is simple and complex enough that I have established most of the things I've set out to do.

Currently, I'm working on a morning masturbation scene for Kevin, AND Kelly, incorporating all these things. If you've read the "Updates" page, I've stated this a few days ago, but I'm going to announce it now that everything seems promising. Once I finish both the male and female morning masturbation scenes, I'll add the breakfast scene and then test out actual sex with how my system works. It should basically let you choose a position then actions to perform. Then, using a dice roll that's based on your stats, skills and experience, you and your partner gain a certain amount of pleasure. I've sort of tested my system out, but it may require a lot more tweaking. My test subjects will be Judy and James, so we'll see how that goes! I might push out an in between version for those who are interested to try out the new system...

Beyond that, I need to figure out a good movement system so that you don't receive giant time skips for no reason while still limiting how far you can travel on foot. I have the game set up to an hourly system, but with how V.002's story flows, either the story or the system will need a little rework.

Aspects being developed:
Mmm, most people said the family. A couple said Kevin-Shasha and Kevin-Kristine, which is surprising because no one has mentioned them on the forums. (Once again, feedback, comments and discussions is greatly appreciated) A lot of people did not consider the outside world, and I guess I can't blame them because I haven't released a version that dives into that too much. I have some content, it just wasn't worth incorporating while everything else was so incomplete. With the new system up, I can always add people and conditions to change the story variety up with no overt decisions leading to them. All of that would mean a (easy?) system, where I can add events after the first day with little need to connect all the dots. All in all, read my "Design" page to hear from a hypocrite...

Funding:
Very willing - 34
Indifferent - 57
Not willing - 8

This is one of the questions I've been asking myself and hinting to for a while. I know I, or whoever else makes online content, will sound like a broken record, but these things take time and consequently, money. I think with my time frame and considering the three (I hate myself) reworks, I've done pretty well. I've seen a lot less being pushed out over a much longer time frame. With that said, I understand the concerns of most people about supporting what is essentially a person who may or may not complete something. Let me quote myself and say, "This is not an easy idea by a fickle writer. This is an ambitious project by an invested mad man." I've been working on this for over a year and only released it one and a half month ago. No, I wasn't doing it full time then, but I've managed to squeeze out 200 + pages over 4 weekends.

Let me go into full transparency mode here: I've realized I cannot do a 9-5 job forever. I hate it. I'd much rather be a purveyor of smut. What do I want? Something that can replace a minimum wage job for me to drop it (America, everyone). What does that mean? 1500 monthly or 750 per bi-weekly update. How much do I want to charge? 1 dollar for full access. I have something planned for beyond that, but I'm not sure of people would be interested in it right now. Can this story be completed? Yes, definitely. How long will it take to finish? I do not know and cannot give an accurate estimation. What I can say is that I do not plan to do this for an extended amount of time (meaning within 1-3 years with stretch goals and over estimation added in) and that I am a workaholic. What will this mean? 36 dollars from one supporting member if I go to the 3 year mark. What I'm really looking for is a big audience, not wealthy investors. Do I believe it "deserves" to be supported right now? I think it shows promise and a lot of potential. I don't want to have to stick my foot in my mouth later on, but what you've seen/read is just the tip of the iceberg. I have conceived of a giant play ground for you to relive the day over and over in, that isn't only inclusive to the family story (it's there because it's hot!). I truly want this to be something like it's source material (Groundhog Day/Edge of Tomorrow/Source Code) and have a universe of options.

Comments:
The comments were very nice to read. A lot of feedback and thoughts pointing to some reasons why people can't support me monetarily with some concerns about the mechanics and rework. Overall, everything was positive and nice. It's surprising almost, although I guess if you hated it, you wouldn't have bothered to answer the survey. I giggled a little when people told me, what seemed like, their deepest fantasies. I can't answer all your questions here, so post them if you want a direct answer to it. Other than that, thank you for your kind words.

Finally to quote the joker: "If you're good at something, never do it for free." AND "Oh, and every day he doesn't, people will die, starting tonight. I'm a man of my word. [laughs]"


TLDR;
Loved it, good writing, Judy-Kelly-Abby in order, Harlowe, Stats - either way, wants family story to be completed, indifferent to funding, comments were nice and helpful.

Friday, October 16, 2015

Survey time

I was going to wait until a little longer to post up the survey, but I figured that whoever hasn't played it just isn't interested in it. It's a minimalist survey with poorly constructed questions. It would have been a lot easier if I wasn't going to change the game again, but all things are pointing in that direction. So here it is:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/WBFRLGX

If you're interested and you've played the game, answer the survey to give me some feedback.

So, with the programming in mind, the more I work on it, the more plausible it all seems. I'm going to try and get a system up and running within the next few weeks. I'll then incorporate some of the content that's already there into the new system and push out yet another alpha version. It's quite a journey, but honestly, really fun.

Looking forward to your survey answers!

Update:*
Oh my god, I love you guys! I'm getting so many wonderful responses. It's funny because people keep pointing out things that I know the answer to, but don't want to give away. What I will say is: Yes, there will be pregnancy, yes, you can bimbo all the women in the family, no, there is not going to be any loli/shota-con, yes, there will be cuckolding, yes, there will be conclusive endings (with one true ending)... there is so much more here that I can't explain it all/don't want to spoil.

A few people pointed out some scenes that made me giggle because of convoluted it sounds... but, no one has pointed out the surprised butt sex between Kevin-Judy. Has no one found it? XD

Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Thoughts...

I'm having some second thoughts about how I should design the game. I thought that I could finish the first day with little to no Twine coding involved and make it a giant story and all that. But I think I'm going to need to go full ham on this and make it into a game as much as possible. Because of the way it's set up and because of the back button, I went through (skimming) 50% of my content with very little effort, which is over 300 pages. I think that by having it be a game and being able to redo the day over and over and having stats and all that, it will pad (for lack of a better word) out the game.

It's funny because as I read the story I found out that: IF you take your time to read the story, it's quite good. IF you've gotten into the habit of skimming over AIF's, kind of like me, then it's just alright.

I am currently looking up tutorials for Twine 2.0. I still don't know the full capabilities of it, but I'm beginning to see where I can take the game. I just need to build a good infrastructure so that additional events, stats and counters will be easy to keep track of. This will probably mean going back and adding coding into every single passage, or redoing the whole thing all together...

For now, I'll just test out coding individually and wait until this weekend to put up the survey. Depending on how confident I feel with Twine, I may or may not start to add stats and start building the game again...

What's good is that Ver.002 is already a lot better than Ver.001... imagine Ver.003, lol. SO much work.

Edit:
Well, the good thing is: The twine coding does not look that hard AND I've originally planned for a version of the game that did include stats. I don't want to make any promises, but it seems probable to make a "playable" version of the game. I just need to include areas to go and places to train your stats and all that.

The bad thing is: How to save... The Harlowe and SugarCube story formats use different coding. SugarCube has a save function (which I don't know if it'll save variables), but uses Twine 1.X coding. I am learning coding for the newer Harlowe Twine 2.X, but it doesn't have a built in save system. I'll update this as I find out more...

Edit 2:
I know this is getting to be a long post, but it is relevant. There IS a save function, but looks to be no export. Stats are easy enough to add and keep track of. At the current moment, what's getting to me is the math. As in, how to come up with a formula that incorporates a little bit of X stat with Y stat and a base percentage to figure out if you're successful in some (probably sexual) interaction. All of that and then the hundreds of event counters that I will need in order to tell a sensible story. I'll leave you off at a high note: I figured how to make a prompt show up so that you can input your own name AND I've (sort of) figured out how to set genders, so you'll probably be able to play as Kelly right from the beginning.

Sunday, October 11, 2015

Alpha Version .002!!

Hello everyone,

As promised, here it is, Sex and Sex Again Alpha Ver.002. Get it on MediaFire or Mega.nz and play it online at TextAdventures.

I won't lie to you, rebuilding this game from the ground up over four and a half weekends was pretty hard. I'm unhappy with it's unfinished state, but such is the way of early access. I figure that it'll probably take another 3-4 good weekends before I completely finish all the male-female(family) content. I don't like taking too long, nor do I like making people wait, so here it is for you to test out.

The most complete are the Kevin-Judy and Kevin-Abby content. I figured out why the Kevin-Kelly stuff was so hard to write... it's the longest one yet. I'ts at 150 pages and maybe 55% complete, (I should stop giving percentages because I over estimate too much). I'm quite frustrated, really because I took two weekends on it instead of one...

I'm going to take it easy for the next week or two and then post up a link to gather some info through a survey. I'm taking ideas on what I should work on next, so give me your suggestions! I'll also take any interesting questions you guys think I should include in the survey.

I'm looking forward to hearing what you guys think about this game so far. Thank you and enjoy!

*As a side note, I'm going to post this on reddit. Check out the "The game" tab for links to all that.

Sunday, October 4, 2015

Update!

Hello adoring fan(singular),

I have an update for you. I ran into several walls and was unable to finish today. I was really hoping to give you guys a bigger taste of the world, but the Kevin-Kelly story line is too incomplete. The alpha version .002 will definitely be out next weekend, so look forward to that.

As a side note, I believe I am falling in love with Abby. She's just so fun to write. XD