knightofsolace
patreon
[Progress Report]: 5th of December
🕑 Added 2021-12-06 04:39:09 +0000 UTC
Hey everyone,
It's December already? Jeez. I always feel like I'm so far behind when it's the release week, even when I'm right on schedule. Above, you'll see one of Valentina's renders for her H-scene event, courtesy of being the winner of this version's patreon poll!
As for what I'm working on this week, I've cleared out the next seven days for Artemisia's big event. I'm not one hundred percent sure how long it will take, but I didn't want to take any chances. I'll be using a few new assets, and I've yet to put them through their paces. They've been playing well with the lighting, but you never know just what you'll need out of an object until you start rendering it from all different angles.
Instead of answering a question from my inbox this week, I'd like to open a discussion with you all about something.
In order to prepare for this midpoint event, I've been really pushing the main story and the main plot for a lot of characters. This has resulted in something that's been poking at me in the back of my mind: short events.
Maybe "short" isn't the right word for it. Maybe the apt word would be "succinct"? You've probably noticed by now that the pacing for the game has gotten a little quicker. It used to be that I would go at an "every other" type of pace, with one shorter event and then a longer one that "meanders" a little. These longer events didn't actually provide more exposition, plot, or real content, but they allowed you to spend more time with the characters. I know that, in writing, you should never intentionally try and waste your reader's time, but this faster pace has me feeling a little self-conscious.
I've been speeding things up two main reason: one because I would like the plot to move at more than a glacial pace, and because a critique I often received was that the game was going too slowly.
What do you all think? Are you happy with the game's overall pace? Should I be taking it slower? Maybe this is the right speed? Maybe I should go faster? This wouldn't change the amount of content per release, but instead give me some direction on how to deliver that content. Let me know.
Thank you for all of your support,
~Solace
Comments
Knight of Solace
That's a good point, and something I've been wanting to address for a while. Many of the "main story" events need to progress in a particular order, but they were supposed to be surrounded by character events that could offer progress at any time and eliminate the "sleep & skip" waiting time. Most of Superheros Suck's sandbox content has not yet been implemented yet. I'm hoping once we reach the midpoint event, or maybe the power reveal, I'll have more time to flesh out the general content in the game. I still want to add functionality to all of the stuff in the protagonist's room, for example, and that's been on the list since I created the new room - it's just so low on the priority because of the high demand for main story content. That said, I do see an end in sight. With Artemisia, Josie, and Miranda all added to the romance menu, the desire for character side content is growing, and I'd like to capitalize on that in the future to spread out more events in the game.
For those who play the game update after update, the pacing seems OK. But if you were to start a new game, then it's not. Main story is moving quite slowly, there are some crucial events that, storywise, should be followed almost inmediately by others but they don't (for example when the MC learns about his darkvision he literally ends that scene thinking he should tell Missus Powell, but then nothing happens for a week or so, which feels a bit odd). There's also that problem of having to progress some girl's story in order to trigger the next event in main story; all in all, you are spending way too many days 'waiting' for something that should have happened sooner for the story to feel 'more organic' (also it kind of kills the purpose of a sandbox, since you end up needing to do everything and in a particular order to advance the game, instead of choosing to do just what you prefer to do when you prefer to do it). This is not a problem of longer or shorter events, but of overall game's progression system. And that's a deeper issue. I can understand waiting for a main story event that is not implemented yet, but the parts already implemented are too much scattered during the playthrough, to the point that some of them feel very disjointed
Karl from Norway
Well currently the "major" updates to the main story takes a while, but not really much longer compared to other game developers. But we get character fillers, not sure if "sub story" is the correct term, since we learn vital new information of other characters. But those are nice "fillers" between the larger updates.
Knight of Solace
Thank you for the feedback, Karl!
Knight of Solace
I do try to vary it up regularly. I'm hoping I'll have a little more freedom once we're passed the midpoint event.
Knight of Solace
Oh, I do my best to make sure none of the content is rushed. Sometimes "short" events take a full to do while "long" events only take three days. I just fret over if you all are enjoying the pace of the story.
It's not a race. Done well is always better than done fast.
Karl from Norway
I'm alright with the current updates at this time.
Whooli
Pacing seems fine to me. But I always appreciate a story that fluctuates its pacing to keep things interesting and spend more time on things that need it and move faster through things that aren't important
Knight of Solace
The protagonist's heroics after his powers sequence will be a big part of the story! It's one of the main reasons I've been pushing so hard for it.
Cory F 41
Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing the MC doing some heroic stuff on his patrols after he discovers his powers. Events that are not necessarily part of the main story. Just a way to demontrate their teamwork, skills, and abilities. Then, after the event, it could be topped off with a celebratory shag.
