Status Update: 2/11/15 - So far so good.

Hi again. So almost all that stuff I said I was looking into panned out. I have some music and sfx to put in the game, and I got the semi-complex event triggers working. There is little else to do from a structure standpoint given that I want to keep this first game somewhat simple, so it is coming down to time and content. I want this game to have a fair bit of content/different scenes but the more I put in, the longer it will take. Each event for this game is basically it's own miniset, and each miniset usually requires a day or so of work alone. (This is just for the images alone, that does not include the writing/coding of either.) It is probably best that I do what I currently plan to do though, I personally hate it when a game has multiple scenes with identical images and only slightly different dialogue, so I want to avoid that. (As I said before, I plan to have 3-4 variations per training option, each one would be a different image/scene.)

Initial tests that I did have shown that having the in game timer at 30 days might work, but I can't know until a handful of events are working. (It may need more, which is no problem.) I wish that I had something visual to show for this so far, but since it's all coding that would be a bad idea. I have made a lot of progress this past week and have gotten almost everything I wanted to include working in the technical sense. (Still working on the gallery. Actually I have the gallery basically working now, at least for images. Apparently I was trying to do this an old way which no longer works, so now that I have used the new method it works.) I will be busy this coming weekend, so there will not likely be an update until next week sometime, when I will be working on this month's story set. If you want to support my work and help all this along, my Patreon is www.patreon.com/redleatherart. I plan to post a few previews of some events and such on Patreon whenever I get them done; and the game itself will be posted to Patreon a while before it gets posted here for free.

Ideas/questions/requests still welcome, now is the time for those things; before the actual content gets made.

Status Update 2/8/15 - Looking into some new features for the slave training game.

Hey. So I worked on some coding related stuff yesterday with the time that I had. I am still working through some extra things, trying to see what little extras and helpful things I can get working. I want this game to be nice, but I also want to keep it simple enough that I can finish it in a few months. There are many little things that I would like to include if I can; such as more variations, sound effects, music, and maybe a gallery.

As currently planned, each 'activity' is basically it's own mini-set, with 3-4 variations of one or two images each (more for the complex options) depending on how many times it has been done and/or Salune's stats. Once I get most of the coding situated I can work on making the scenes/writing. I know enough from previous small games and other things I have made to get all the mechanics right before doing content. Essentially the base coding is all situated, but the rest will depend on how many bells and whistles I can get working/find content for.

I still could use votes in the new polls, votes so far are really low for whatever reason. One poll asks if you prefer quality or quantity when it comes to images, and the other asks if you want me to focus on story sets. I do use the results from the polls, as shown in the previous post and prior polls so votes are appreciated. Questions and comments are welcome, just keep it constructive.

Preview of slave training game early concept

Hello again. The thing I planned on posting today still is having issues so I am posting this instead. Hopefully I can get the other thing situated in the next few days. There are also still two votes on the right of the blog in need of votes, so vote if you haven't already! I did also manage to finally get page jumps working on the character page.

I had a lot of free time the last few days due to really bad weather and other factors so I looked into the slave training game idea. Apparently I now have all the base ideas and mechanics down and the framework in place, all I need is the time to make/put in the actual content. (And preferably some enthusiasm/encouragement from all of you.)

Below is a very early concept preview of what I have planned/made so far. It is a small slave training game featuring Zayla and Salune. (It will have numerous other people/monsters/fetishes as well.) I am going to try and get some animations/music/sfx in as well if I can. The basic idea would be to get all the stats as high as possible within a given amount of time. Notice: only a few options/stats and one timeslot are shown for various reasons, the real game with have more. This also does not guarantee that anything in the image is final or that this is what I will end up making for my first simulation game attempt, (though this is currently the plan) this is just an early concept/test run. 

If the concept here appeals to you, leave a comment letting me know that you like it. If it doesn't appeal to you, let me know why not. (Keep things constructive please.) I have no idea how much content I will be able to put in to this first attempt, but a lot of it depends on how much people like the idea and how much people want it. More positive comments will make this (or any other) game happen faster, since I will be sure that people like it and want it.

If you really like it and want to help me make it faster, the link to my Patreon page is on the right of the blog. Any support helps, and I will post this to Patreon at least a week or two before it gets posted here on the blog, for beta testing and quality control. (I also plan to send copies to certain people/3d artists to evaluate as well.) The $15 tiers and up on Patreon will get access to the beta test/preview version as soon as it's posted. They will also get to provide feedback on it, to fix any issues and possibly change a few things around before it gets released. I might even post an early playable alpha or something similar, but that depends on how development goes. There is also a poll up there right now asking who should be the heroine of my first VN attempt; which will probably be done before this. (It's probably going to be a lot smaller, simpler.) I take that back, this will probably be done first.

EDIT 1/10: The animations I am trying to make are still having issues that only show up on the final render, so I keep having to fix things. Hopefully I can post something in the coming days. I think at least one should be fixed now, I hope.

Status Update: 12/15/14

Hey. I have started work on the seventh set but yesterday and today have been crazy, so not much has gotten done yet. I am shooting for next weekend, but we will see how that goes. There will be a preview posted here at some point in the next week before the set is done so watch for that.

As an update to the serious story situation, I have finished most of what I needed to do in preparation; I am just waiting to get reality 4 working if at all possible. I wanted to wait to start an actual story arc until I got a decent rendering card and/or reality working. Reality is mostly fixed but is still having some issues, and even if it was working I can't use reality for everything. Reality renders tend to look a lot better but take exponentially more time to make, time that I can't spare for normal sets right now. I have to render everything manually with reality, and it takes hours; so this will be for special images and mini-sets only until the situation changes. (i.e. I get a separate rendering machine and/or enough support to warrant the time/effort.) However the first story arc and initial characters are all set to go, I may just have to go ahead and start it up in January either way, (I was hoping to anyway) but we shall see. If all goes well I may have the character info pages done before the end of the month, but again I was really hoping to get reality working for those.

In other news, I went ahead and looked into making VNs and such over the weekend and it turned out better than expected. Below is a screencap of the tiny test game I made to check that everything worked OK. Obviously this is just a basic test but the execution was successful so this means that VNs, the choose your own adventure style game, and the actual adventure game options could be done at this point. The rpg maker game, dating sim, and simulation game would take a lot more work and research to do well, not to mention time. (I know how to use rpg maker xp but I am not familiar with VX ACE yet, also are few things I don't know about using custom content in rpg maker.)

The VN style things seem more on the level of what I can afford to do both with my time and current skill level with python. (These could be done in a week or two for smallish ones, the harder projects would probably take months of solid work which I can't do right now.) Animations are already in the plans and tested, as I posted last week. All of these things just depend on the time I can spare and the interest of people in them. So keep voting if you want any of these things to happen! More votes = more interest = higher chance of it happening. Comments and follows are always helpful as well. (Follow widgets are under the polls on the right.)