manyeyedhydra
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June Plans and an Updated HoHH Roadmap
🕑 Added 2022-06-04 11:33:15 +0000 UTCFirst up, I'm not planning to put out a new House of Hellish Harlots release in June. The reason for this is I need to get all my old books back up on Amazon and other places. I was hoping to fit this alongside working on other things, but it hasn't happened, so I'm going to take a couple of weeks to focus on it.
After then things are a little more open. I'm leaning towards making June and maybe July short story writing months. I nearly have enough to put a 7th collection together and it would be good to stagger the re-publication of the old collections and then finish with announcing a brand new 7th collection. Because I always want to give patrons something new every month, the end of month deliverable will likely be a brand new short story for June and maybe July.
This is all dependent on where my 'muse' is. If I find I'm grinding gears on short stories and have a killer idea for a new HoHH harlot, I'll write that instead, as it's more productive than staring at a blank page.
Now for the House of Hellish Harlots roadmap.
That project has morphed a bit from my original idea. Originally the scenarios were supposed to be very straightforward sex scenes that sometimes turned into Bad Ends depending on player stats, gifts, etc. The plan was to be able to write one a day and wrap it up in a year or so. Those scenarios ended up getting more complex and longer. I don't think this is a bad thing, as readers prefer them to be longer and better quality, but it is taking longer to write and implement them.
To give an idea of length, in terms of word count, HoHH is currently about the length of 5 novels. It's a bigger project than I initially thought it would be!
I don't mind this. I'm having fun working on it and people seem to be having fun reading/playing it. I'm a little concerned outside interest on it hasn't 'popped' in a similar way to game projects like "Corruption of Champions", but this might be down to the game having an odd structure (it's not the best for incremental releases) and me being poor at building-a-community type stuff.
Currently I estimate I'm about 50-60% done for a text-only version that has 5 factions, about 100 harlots, and an ending where the player can escape the House.
Way back when I last posted a roadmap, I think the plan was to go broad and replace the placeholder harlots (done), and then go tall and plot a route to an ending. The plan has changed from that. Mainly because I'm still brainstorming what the queen of the smother faction will be, and also because I was concerned that giving an ending would cause a loss of interest in the rest of the project.
Currently the demo is locked at 5 rounds. I want to keep bulking out the regular harlots and push it back to 9 rounds.
Here's a quick rundown of roughly where I'm at with the 5 factions within the House. Each should have 13 regular scenarios (with repeats counting as a scenario).
House of Smother
The regular harlots are pretty much all done. I need to give Assphyxia a proper second scenario and then write a bonus scenario where she and Mamilla double-team the player. I have a good idea of what the first and second mini-boss will be. I have a name for the queen, but still haven't decided what she is or does.
12 of 13 done.
House of Artificial
This is also close to done. There are two Tier 1 slots to be filled, but I already have those harlots planned out (1 was started a while back). There is a Tier 3 slot left open for when the right idea comes along. I have a good idea what the first mini-boss and Queen will be.
10 of 13 done.
House of Sensuality
Oh boy is this faction giving me problems on their motivations. Thematically they're about sensual pleasures (perfume, erotic body massages) and harem-type pleasure girls. Lore-wise they're a bit all over the place. Some won't kill, some are fine with killing.
On my list I currently have 8 in the House spread across the tiers. They all fit the theme, but not all fit the lore, so some might end up being moved to other factions or treated as independents.
At some point I'll be going through the factions in more detail to nail down their lore and background. Sensuality will likely be the first of those to better pin down how the harlots should behave. I want them to be as cohesive as the previous two factions.
8(ish) of 13 done.
House of Madam
This is slightly less cohesive as it's a couple of planned succubus factions (slutty and posh) mashed together. It's the main 'House' faction, so it's mostly under the control of The Madam and features various conniving and backstabbing succubus divas.
This is almost filled up. 8 are currently implemented and I have 3 concrete ideas to write. This leaves a Tier 2 slot open. The last remaining Tier 3 slot I'll throw open to a patron vote to give a previous harlot an extra returning scenario.
8 of 13 done.
House of Erotic Wrestling
Or hunting. I haven't decided yet. It was meant to be erotic wrestling and 'fighting' contests, but has also picked up a hunting humans theme.
This faction currently needs the most work. There are 3 currently in the House. However, there are 3 currently in progress and pretty much all of the slots are pencilled in with concrete ideas. (With one Tier 3 slot left open for a patron choice of repeat scenario).
3 of 13 done.
Filler
These are various independent harlots that either don't fit in the existing factions or will maybe get their own faction in the future. They serve a game mechanics function I'll keep under wraps for now. Because I originally added harlots without thought to factions, most of the 'filler' harlots are already in the House, with maybe only one or two Tier 3 slots open.
12 of 15 done.
The first priority is to bulk out the roster of the erotic wrestling faction. Once I get that up to around 8 harlots I can think about pushing the demo out to 9 rounds instead of 5.
After that it will be time to look at the mini-bosses. As well as the regular harlots, each faction will have a round 5 mini-boss, a round 9 mini-boss, an optional repeat scenario that can be unlocked and replace the round 9 mini-boss (eg Mamilla and Assphyxia), and an end-boss Queen.
For a while I wasn't sure what these scenarios would be. Now I think I have it. Mini-bosses will likely be differentiated from regular harlots in that the player will likely have a choice of 3-4 scenarios with them. Queens will be similar but likely play out sequentially depending on player choices made through the run (the Queen might ruthlessly dispose of the player early for a quick Bad End, or give them a very long test of their sexual endurance).
Along with this I need to go into and create the lore for each faction. This will likely be imparted to the player by both the Madam and Barman, and will help to guide the player to the end.
I haven't forgotten about the side quests and NPC scenarios. I have some ideas for how previous interactions will change or unlock future harlot scenarios. I'll start to work these in once the demo is up to around 9 rounds (where the player has a chance to trigger them).
The briefer summary looks like this:
- Bulk out 5th faction roster.
- Round 5 mini-bosses.
- Faction background and lore hints (for game progress).
- Round 9 mini-bosses/sidequest replacements.
- Fill in rest of regular harlots/faction lore if not already done (incl NPCs).
- Queens and endings.
It's still a lot of work, but there is a definite plan. And also, while it is a daunting amount of work, bear in mind the House already has over 50 harlots in it - it's not like I'm starting out fresh on an unfeasible, unfinishable project!
Because it is a lot of work, I will have to manage burnout and make sure I don't neglect other things. This is why June/July will be short story month(s) to maybe get that 7th collection ready.
I will keep flexible though. If I find I want to be writing HoHH, I'll do that as that results in the most productivity.
I hope this all sounds interesting!
