Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Developing, one scene at a time (a tale of laziness and... Well, more laziness)

So, I got one more scene for Malena done, now you'll be able to meet her again after you have sex with her once. Her romance will be rather passive for the players, as Malena will be in control, most of the times, and Celeste will find herself pushed around and having to come to terms with her craziness. I am also changing a few things here and there to make things fit better, and I am planning the inevitable showdown that will take place if you get a girlfriend and then try to get in Malena's panties, too.

To be frank, I had to re-write my previous plans, and the romances won't be as intertwined as I planned at first. Basically, if you get Malena first, you won't be able to hit on the others, and if you score with either Jane or Piper, you will be able to cheat with Malena (until things go south and you get busted), but not with the other member of the crew. This is because it would be unrealistic to keep a relationship under wraps in such a small environment, you have basically no chance of fooling either Jane or Piper. Also, the romances imply certain feelings for the love interest (you kind of "bump" into Malena's relationship, so it works well for her to be a possible "mistress"), and having you hook up with multiple girls kinds of puts me in a tight spot both from a gameplay/code and storytelling point of view.

Celeste isn't a blank slate, and while you get to influence several of her choices and if she is kind of a bitch or a saint (and everything in between), she still has certain traits and quirks that you can't affect. This also means that (unless I do some character killing), Celeste won't ever be a completely uncaring, cold hearted woman (she can still be mean, though).  It keeps me from adding a lot of options (my next game might actually feature a less characterised protagonist, if I want to go further down the road of a CRPG), but in turn it gives the possibility to focus on some things more closely. It would be impossible to change the game after this long, so I will stick with the current setup, which means, not too much drama between love interests (you will get some ways to screw up relationships, just not tied to important characters, most likely).

P.S.

I should really do another post about MC-themed videogames, as I have decided which one I should cover (Mass Effect 1 & 2. If you talk to me about ME3 I am going to plug my ears while screaming "LALALALALA-I-CAN'T-HEAR-YOU-LALALALA" while jumping off a cliff. So you shouldn't do that if you care about my game, as that would affect development in a bad way, ghosts make for lousy game designers) but I don't feel too motivated right now. Probably, once I get done with the romance arc, I will put another one out, just to change the pace a little.

6 comments:

  1. Hi,

    thanks for the update. Keep up your good work (or hopefully fun, as it is in your free time), but i dont want to push you into it :)

    greetings

    P.S. at least a very tiny and little push :)

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    1. I am having fun, so I am going to work on the game without any need to push, don't worry! ;)

      Recently it has been a mix of real life cutting my free time, getting caught in some other hobbies of mine, and generally trying to wrap my head around something that wasn't planned at first to appear in the game (the romances weren't included, though I would have done something with the relationship system anyway. As it is, I kind of pushed this forward, because I felt it would fit and it would be interesting).

      I still work on the game basically everyday, be it for actual coding or picture hunting (I don't consider planning part of the work, altough it takes a lot of time), but it's being kind of slow at the moment (I might also add the first video ever in a game of mine, so I am gathering some basic tools I will need to do so properly). It might also be because I keep having ideas for new games, and I am trying to sort them out a little (I have already enough notes on a project to carry me on for about 1/3 of its development).

      Above all, I am lazy in everything I do, so things can float around from time to time... :p

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  2. Is Celeste going to have any Hetero relationships in the game? You can add a love/hate relationship in the game. Someone she doesn't like but is physically attracted to?

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    1. I was entertaining the idea of having at least one male love interest, but I don't know if I'll actually do it or not. I want to hear my testers' opinion on the relationship system once I am done with it, before planning any more stuff for it. Malena is probably going to fit the bill for someone Celeste doesn't really love but will be unable to separate from because of the sex and a twisted co-dependant relationship they'll develop.

      This is the general idea, at least, I might always change my mind afterward! ;)

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  3. I´m not sure if you should put a video inside. Videos are big, no? They don´t do more for a RAGS game then a picture would do in my opinion.

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, that's why I am not 100% sure about it. But the video is short and, well, it looks "interesting", believe me. ^_^

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