bagoolworks
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(12/10/20) Gameplay Poll
🕑 Added 2020-12-10 13:05:14 +0000 UTCHello everyone,
Posting this morning to let you all know of my progress and to set up a poll regarding something I've had a hard time deciding on.
So far I've finished all of the events and interactions with Viridia and Lora, and have worked on half of the interactions with Carrie. I've been able to make good progress recently and I'm on track to make my deadline of the 21st of December for this release. What remains are interactions with Verdeo, Shelly, Richie, Amalia, and some side characters, along with a final system to put in place which shouldn't be too articulate. At the rate I'm going I could have the content done early next week, but I need to set aside substantial time for testing.
Now to the poll. One gameplay aspect I've had trouble dealing with is how to handle spanking scenes when the player is already sore from a prior scene. For a few scenes I've already set up special cases where the player is "let go" and the scene is skipped, but the player can initiate the spanking at a later time by asking the NPC who would give it. This works for a few cases, where an NPC is in a regular location, the interaction happens nearby, and the spanking itself isn't based on something that is related to the area the scene happens in. If these conditions don't exist it makes the spanking more difficult to delay for later, and it almost doubles the work I need to spend on that one scene and delaying the game further.
In addition I have concerns that it's not an enjoyable way to play. In my earlier forms of Spanquest games this wasn't a feature, and you could walk around an initiate scenes at your leisure for the most part with no concern about soreness. While making the player care about their soreness is good from a game design perspective, I don't know if it'd be something that would actually be enjoyable to manage.
So with all of that said, I decided to open a poll on your opinions on the subject. The options are:
1. You dislike scenes being skipped for soreness and don't want them in the game.
2. You like soreness being a more important factor and the realism it gives with skipping scenes.
3. You feel halfway between those two, and think only some scenes should be avoided based on soreness.
Comments
Bagool
That'd be a fun concept to work with at some point in the game, but it's not a good thing to set up in a game world which will span several towns. I have a few potential areas that will work in though.
Bagool
You raise some good points about the nature of the game and the consequence of gameplay being antithetical to each other, but I think changing the nature of the soreness stat isn't a good idea either. At the moment much of the game is built around the stat, the way marks appear in the minigame, how intense some scenes get, and the pacing of scenes as well. Changing it in all of the associated events would take at least a week of development. Your idea about having reactions for crying is good as well, I could try experimenting with that later on.
Godspeak
I don't think that you should block content from a player due to a stat that increases when the player does what you want them to. It's like getting a game over because you played too well. I'd almost recommend dropping soreness entirely as a mechanic, perhaps only having a binary state of "Has been spanked recently/Has not been spanked recently". A player who has been spanked recently could show residual pinkness on their butt and perhaps have access to new ways to react, such as crying or begging? Then with that single bool value, you could have characters react differently to you depending on whether or not you've been recently spanked, commenting on your tear-stained face or a strange walking pattern. I think this would make your player experience one more about discovery than trial and error and would make your development much easier. :)
