St Paddy's day report

Hey guys!

I've been struggling a lot with the rewrites. In many ways I feel like I'm being pulled between the game I want to make and the game I think people want me to make.

Right now I'm trying to balance the amount of sex in the Lifepath (and also its length). There's kind of a pacing issue here, in that the heroine's background isn't supposed to be as sexy as it gets in Bangkok.

But it is supposed to be a sexy game – nobody is here just to read my Ian Fleming fanfic ? – so the Lifepath does have to be sexy.  The feedback from the testers, that I'd sacrificed too much sexiness in order to achieve pace, and left it feeling empty and unengaging, was absolutely right and I'm really grateful to all of them.

I've been working through the draft Lifepath with a couple of things in mind when I try to sex up the scenes.  Firstly, would I want to play this?  I feel like I just have to trust that the things I find hot and interesting will also be hot and interesting to you.

As an example: the heroine can optionally do a corporate internship at a certain point in the Lifepath. In another game, I'd find it hot to optionally put the avatar in a short skirt and high heels for this gameplay section (especially if there were a story justification for doing so).

My fear is always that things like this are too subtle, players won't even notice this was supposed to be sexy, they'll just be clicking through expecting the part where she gets gang-banged in the boardroom. Why is this part even here if the heroine isn't getting fucked?

I feel like I just need to push those doubts and second guesses aside and just keep balancing it the way that feels right to me as the player. That doesn't mean not listening to other people's ideas or feedback – some of the best things in the game (so far, and still to come) came from other brains. But I feel like I can only do a good job of making the game I want to play.

The other thing that's really helped me this week has been Questing Beast's T.U.N.I.C. principle.

https://youtu.be/j-ywPjMEtq4?si=ZGPArrUW41MgdcKI

It stands for Time Until Next Impactful Choice and is basically a reminder not to let the story go on for too long without requiring a player decision. One of the things I hate the most about Female Agent is when it turns into a fucking slideshow. I've been thinking T.U.N.I.C. while I've been playing through, and adding in extra little branches and decision points.

I'm working really hard on making the game better than it ever was (I hope ?). The work is feeling good right now, like it's finally coming together into something that I'm happy to release. I'm sorry it's taken so long, it's because I have Writer's Suck. ?

I'm gonna get straight back on it first thing tomorrow. ?❤️‍?