First release + notes!

Dissonance V1 Available now to all!

This following section will contain my thoughts and design philosophy behind Dissonance.

THIS IS A LONG POST. IF YOU DON’T FEEL LIKE READING A LOT OF TEXT, THERE IS A TL;DR AT THE BOTTOM

Hello everyone and welcome to my page!

It's a little crazy. I never imagined myself to take the plunge and give adult game development a shot, but here I am, and I'm planning to stay a while.

Now enough about me and let's get into the reason behind this post.

I want to explain my thought process creating Dissonance, and the plans for the future development and story progression of the game, so let's get right into it.

(WARNING: There will be some spoilers for the initial release, and some omniscient scenes will be discussed, so it's best to skip the first 2 sections if you want to keep some mystery alive (play in Mystery POV) or you haven't played the game yet.)

1. Omniscient vs Mystery POV:

The initial intention behind this game was to make it purely a PC Simulator, but as time went on, I felt that a change was needed for two reasons:

Reason 1: Oversaturation.

Let’s be real here, anyone who’s a fan of the NTR genre has surely noticed an uptick in the amount of phone/PC simulator games lately. Regardless of the writing and character development, if my game were to stand out in this genre, it needed something a little extra, which leads me to my second point.

Reason 2: Not enough.

By the time I had gotten to day 16 during initial development, I started noticing that the game felt barren. Yes, there’s the forum and the daily messages, but it still felt too bare-bones, like there was something obviously missing. The thing is, I’ve written quite extensive and detailed stories for the characters, as well as motivations and inner monologues that explain the actions they’ve taken, and will take in the future. With the game remaining exclusively on the PC interface, a lot of that was gone.

That’s when I started toying with the idea of making an omniscient POV. At first, I wanted to keep it very minimal; just a few necessary scenes that fill in the gaps. However, the more I worked on it, the more I kept adding and the bigger and bigger it grew, to the point where I was faced with a dilemma.

Omniscient POV had added SO MUCH content to the game, that the Mystery POV started feeling anemic in comparison.

I’ll give you an example with numbers. If you play the game on Mystery POV, you get to see a total of 127 renders (~21 from the forums and texts / ~83 from day 20 / ~51 + a couple animations from the dinner date scene with Marissa)

Omniscient POV gives you 278 extra renders, EXCLUDING day 20.

Day 20 alone in omniscient POV gives you ~307(!) renders.

So yeah, it’s a very stark difference. Omniscient POV might as well be a whole other game, so why not lean into that idea instead of trying to fight against it. The PC Simulator that offers both texting and forum updates – I believe – is the perfect vessel for mystery NTR. I definitely see the appeal of piecing things together yourself and wondering how things progressed to certain points. As a matter of fact, that appeal is what lead me to developing this game in the first place. However, I understand that many players would enjoy the game more if they had the full context of what was going on. That’s why omniscient POV offers a more VN-like experience, with the PC interface sections becoming just another part of the story, rather than the main focus. With those two modes’ design philosophies in mind, it’s allowed me to streamline my work in a way that ensures neither one cannibalizes content from the other. They are meant to work together, and I believe giving the player the choice to experience the game however they wish is more preferable than choosing one myself and going with it.

2. Story Progression and corruption:

It's hard talking about how I want to progress the story without spoiling it, but I'll try my best. Let's address the elephant(s) in the room.

I. How long will this game go on for?

The story will happen over the span of about 300 to 360 in game days. I’ve set a hard limit of 360 days for myself to avoid dragging the story on too long, or having instances where I say to myself “Eh, I can do that next update.” With a clear amount of days to work with, it allows me to build the girls’ gradual corruption(s) while also giving me a clear time frame as to when everything should be wrapped up.

II. What will the update schedule be?

Each update will contain 20 in-game days, and I plan on releasing an update once every 40 to 50 (real life) days.

I intend to take about a 3 day break after each update to recharge and avoid burnout, and that gives me about 37-47 days to finish an update which amounts to roughly 2 (real) days to work on each in-game day, which will be more than enough time to get the updates out in time. Some in-game days will only contain text (conversations + forum updates without images) and thus won't take me more than a couple of hours to finish, which allots more time for heavier days. Therefore, delays will be very unlikely. However, if I were to ever delay an update’s release, I’ll be very transparent as to why and how long it will take. I will also be releasing dev updates every Monday, detailing each week’s progress.

Now if the update size might seem too large, and the time they take to wrap up and release seems on the slower side, that’s a concession I’m willing to make. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that people would much rather have a longer update with more content, compared to smaller updates that don’t do much even if they release faster. (I will elaborate on the amount of ‘content’ per update later on.)

III. Story progression.

First and foremost:

This entire game will remain kinetic, meaning there will be no choices or branching paths. There’s a simple reason behind that decision:

It’s easier and quicker to work on, and I already had a story in mind when I first started this project, so adding branching paths now -or worse- later on, might diminish or worsen the quality of the story-telling.

Now let’s talk about each character’s progression through the initial release.

(Keep in mind, talking about the characters and their progression in detail will spoil future content I have planned, so I will keep the explanations purposefully vague to avoid that.)

Adrianna:

As you can clearly tell if you’ve played the game already, she’s the one who got the most content so far.

I’m personally satisfied with how things are shaping up with her storyline. The story I’m trying to tell with her (and Kaiden) is one of miscommunication, misunderstandings and inexplicable volatility. Adrianna’s already an adult, but in her mind she still struggles to let go of some of her childish tendencies.

Everyone around her telling her to ‘grow up already’ and her internal struggle of knowing they’re right but not wanting to are the stage on which her story will be told.

Gemma:

Gemma’s a tough one to write, but I want to challenge myself here. Self-discovery and transitioning into self-reliance and independence are key moments in every person’s life, but the question I want to ask with her story is: What happens when someone comes along and derails, or undermines that?

And how do you convince someone who always wants to take the path of least resistance, that they shouldn’t when they start having everything provided for them?

I won’t elaborate much further (again, to avoid spoilers).

As for the current update all I’ve done is lay the foundations of her story, upon which I can build more and more.

Marissa:

Marissa won’t be getting much explanation. She’s the star of the game (at least in my eyes) and her story should be experienced and interpreted by yourselves. For that reason, I won’t elaborate at all.

Moving on:

IV. What should you expect from future updates?

This game is a SLOW BURN corruption/NTR game.

(NOTE: The following short section is intended to only be MY opinion and what MY development philosophy into the future of the game’s story is going to look like. What I say onwards is not meant to be treated as absolute truth but simply MY opinion.)

Slow burn does not mean “takes forever to get somewhere”. As a matter of fact, the way I see it, “time”, while still a factor of course, is not as important as many people make it out to be. Slow burn is about one thing, and one thing only. Cognitive dissonance, (hence the name of the game) or in simpler terms “I really shouldn’t, but I really want to.”

So how does that translate into the game? I intend to apply that idea to every character’s story by answering the same 4 questions for all of them.

What is motivating a character to do what they’re going to do?

What’s happened to awaken, or conceive these motivations in their head?

How are they going to deal with the growing disconnect between their beliefs and actions?

And finally

How far are they willing to go?

Now while their stories will be structured around the same questions, they will be moving at different paces, because the answers are very different for each character.

Given that each update will contain 20 in-game days, and the whole thing will be between 300 and 360 days, we’re looking at about 15 to 18 updates for the game to be finished.

Now that may seem like a long time, especially since we’re at the very start, and the stories do need some time to simmer before they pick up, I don’t intend to leave either you or the game starved for content. For that reason, each update will contain 1 to 2 self contained stories that will begin and conclude within the same update, that will be told exclusively on the forum.

They will serve to help the world feel a little more ‘alive’ via the introduction of other characters and stories, while also giving me a chance to practice and work on my animations even further, leading me to my next point.

V. Renders and Animations:

I understand story build up, well written dialogue and tension are very important, but I personally feel like it falls flat if there aren’t any renders or animations to match them. Creating side stories and subsequently the animations that go with them, is a great way for me to properly practice making them for when we finally get to the good stuff.

The program I’m using for my renders is easy to get into, but it has a VERY high ceiling and takes a lot of time to properly learn and master. I’m already confident that what I’ve produced is of a good quality, but I also know there’s room for improvement.

(As a matter of fact, you may have noticed this improvement throughout the initial release alone.)

I believe what I’m doing now is good, but I want my game to look great, and that takes time and practice and the side stories are the best way to properly learn, while continually giving you examples of my progress.

So please, when you view the animations I’ve already released, and will release in the next couple of updates, if there’s any critique you have as to how I can improve upon them, do not hesitate to leave feedback. I’ll read all you have to say and take all of it into consideration.

TL;DR :

• Updates will be released once every 40 - 50 days, and each will be 20 (in-game) days.

• The whole game will happen over a span of 300 to 360 in-game days.

• Total amount of updates will be between 15 and 18.

• Game will continue as a kinetic novel, meaning there will be no choices or branching paths.

• This game is designed to deliver a slow burn NTR experience, with each character’s story moving at different paces.

• Each update will have a self contained side story told on the (in-game) forums that will reach its climax during that same update.

• I plan to consistently keep working on my renders and animations to make them better.

• Weekly progress reports every Monday.