Yes hello! I'm not dead! I'm sorry I never post updates, my life is just...kinda busy and structureless. Also I just...don't think about porn games so much these days. I'm sure that'll change again sooner or later. Also, Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you had good holidays! Now, on to the actual rambling.
I've programmed approximately two AI so far. That's technically a lie, I've done one, and then two AI to half completion, but the math adds up to making two AI so I'm gonna stick with that claim. In that limited experience, I've come to the conclusion that programming AI fucking sucks, and if I ever go back to making AI for that other game which is currently on the shelf, elaborate scripting is the way to go. The big hurdle isn't making AI that makes decisions, I've done that with every AI I've made. It's making AI that makes decisions with a purpose. That makes decisions with a clear goal of winning and doesn't miss obvious traps because it's a dumb machine that can't think like a human and thus can't foresee an obvious trap. But let's say you can do all that. You can make AI that doesn't make dumb mistakes, that tries to win, but isn't so brilliantly optimized that players can beat it. Maybe not consistently, maybe it's only a 50/50, but they can, in fact, win, and not just by getting lucky. Now you run into a new problem.
Just winning, in a porn game, isn't very sexy. This wasn't something I'd ever really considered before, but reading r/Healsluts, someone posted about how bad they are at Age of Empires. The point was that the AI didn't just beat them, it also humiliated them in the process. Obviously, this was not the intention when programming them. More likely they're simply not programmed to consider if enemies technically should own places when moving in to take resources, and don't have the highest priority in killing all your stuff. HOWEVER, it raised an interesting idea to me. The idea of AI that actually does try to humiliate the player.
To use Shield High as an example, if you've got two or more damage bars maxed out, and almost no fatigue, while they're still going strong and haven't even taken significant amounts of pain, why shouldn't the AI toy with you a bit? Why wouldn't it drive the point home that you're it's bitch right now? I mean, given that the AI is for a rival girl at Shield High, it stands to reason she'd want to rub it in.
It also opens up an avenue for other types of porn games. In fact, the nature of AI opens up whole other genres, as suddenly the content of the gameplay doesn't have to be sex-related at all. You could make an RTS game that has no sex mechanics, but have a narrative focus where the AI not just beating you, but openly disrespecting you in-game makes sense, and plays into the porn element of it. Obviously, I'm not about to do such a thing. I really do need to finish Shield High and my new project before I dash off to more porn games, however it's something I might be thinking about for the future. Y'know, if I ever do finish anything.
Or someone else could take this and make something of it. Both work. Just tell me if you do.
Pudding Earl
Tuesday 26 December 2017
Wednesday 8 November 2017
Earl's Musings: Life Simulators
I thought I'd talked about these already, but when looking at all my old stuff I don't see any reference to them in a title. I'm sure I've talked about what I think inside a topic, but I haven't really shared thoughts on them specifically as their own topic, so here we go.
Life Simulators are kind of strange games. As the name suggests, they're about simulating life. I haven't played many, and I'm not sure all that many exist, on the grounds that it's a big undertaking for a not particularly interesting concept. The only two I've played are Cursed and Girl Life, and Cursed was...not for very long. Despite only playing two though, I'm pretty confident in saying that any others out there (I haven't looked, it's not really my thing), and any others that will be made, will exhibit similar features. The two I have played both have a similar hook for their sex angle, which is you were a guy magically turned into a girl by some means or another. It's not exactly an unexpected angle, as it provides a good framing device as to why you have very little, and have to build up a life from nothing, since you're effectively an adult who's just been born into the world. Basically all the sex that comes up is as a sort of side effect of your own choices, and it's very possible to go for ages without getting into any sex at all, if that's your preference.
I played a LOT of Girl Life. I bounced off it several times, but finally I managed to pick up the rhythm of it, and there'd be weeks where I'd play a few hours every night, trying to reach some event I'd read about on the wiki. Long enough to know that I honestly fucking hate this type of game. There's a lot of issues I take with them, but I think they all really boil down to one core complaint. Life is complex as fuck, and thus simulating it is basically impossible. As such, the "life" in a life simulator is a surreal mirror of the world. Events repeat, and conversations happen again and again in identical fashion. That can be forgiven, obviously, it's still just a game. It's the smallest issue I take with it though. The world isn't the world as we know it, but the world as presented by the game's creator, and as such some things become strained. Moral compasses get skewed in favor of making sex more accessible, and people tend to be more uniform in their action. And finally, there's the issue of survival itself. It suffers from the same problem that every game that makes hunger/thirst/sleep things you need, where they're represented as simple numbers, with seemingly no tethering to real life. Girl Life, at least, tracks weight gain too, which makes things worse. The core problem of numbers for food is that it leads to odd eating times. You don't eat at meal times, you eat at the times you're hungry. Sleep behaves oddly too, and I often woke up at 4am and couldn't sleep more. But the BIGGEST problem of all, comes in the form of time management. Moving around the world takes time. This can cause some stupid issues where trips to places can take an amount of time that you simply didn't account for, in a way that would never happen in real life. Add to that the fact times are rather precise. X activity becomes available between 2 and 4. If you arrive at 1:59, you have to leave and come back to make it past 2. Some places have a wait option, but it's not consistent.
So, to sum up the point I was getting at there. They don't really give you LIFE, so much as a strange, game-y equivalent, filled with busy work. That's not necessarily a bad thing. Until you consider that these are, at least in part, porn games. Girl Life is indisputably a porn game, with how many porn images are in it, and how much casual sex you can witness for no reason other than having sex there. With the porn game nature in mind, it starts to just become an obstacle to the porn. And not a challenging obstacle either. I'm all for porn content being placed behind gameplay, but this isn't really that. It's padding to keep you spending more time doing things between the porn.
And all of this is a shame, because I think a life simulator porn game could be quite interesting. But without the busywork. By all means, keep the getting a job loop, hell, even keep in the paying bills angle, those I won't argue with as being essential. But removing the busywork of eating, managing when you sleep, getting ready in the morning, all of that stuff, could be very beneficial to the game. Boil it down to the meaningful choices, random encounters doing your job, pursuing relationships, and generally finding consequences for your actions.
Theorycrafting my ideal game from this idea, I'd want it to start off with a series of choices. What kind of career you have, how you got there (for instance, high performer, just an average performer there, slept your way into the job etc), what kinds of friends you have, if you have a partner, and how serious. So when you start the game, you have a basis from which to grow. And then it plays out similarly to other Life Simulators, with you being in a location, travelling around and interacting with the world, but with the boring stuff streamlined. Getting ready in the morning isn't a chore of remembering everything, you just hit the "Get ready for work" button, and then you're good. Another button press takes you to work, and then maybe an event comes up, maybe it doesn't. You could put your whole week on auto-pilot like that if you wanted, just waiting for something to come up, or you could be taking the initiative. Relationships wouldn't ever be given as numbers, just as a status, "Acquaintance", "Friend" etc. Obviously there'd be numbers involved, but by hiding it it can seem more believable. The only problem with this dream game is the sheer volume of writing that would go into it. It'd probably be a similar amount to how much I dream of having in Shield High. But I think that's the best way it could be done.
Anyway, just some thoughts. Sadly I don't have the time or money to take on such a project, so it's just theory. If I did have the time and money, I'd probably still take on something else. But if someone else wants to step up, there's an idea on how to do it.
Pudding Earl
Life Simulators are kind of strange games. As the name suggests, they're about simulating life. I haven't played many, and I'm not sure all that many exist, on the grounds that it's a big undertaking for a not particularly interesting concept. The only two I've played are Cursed and Girl Life, and Cursed was...not for very long. Despite only playing two though, I'm pretty confident in saying that any others out there (I haven't looked, it's not really my thing), and any others that will be made, will exhibit similar features. The two I have played both have a similar hook for their sex angle, which is you were a guy magically turned into a girl by some means or another. It's not exactly an unexpected angle, as it provides a good framing device as to why you have very little, and have to build up a life from nothing, since you're effectively an adult who's just been born into the world. Basically all the sex that comes up is as a sort of side effect of your own choices, and it's very possible to go for ages without getting into any sex at all, if that's your preference.
I played a LOT of Girl Life. I bounced off it several times, but finally I managed to pick up the rhythm of it, and there'd be weeks where I'd play a few hours every night, trying to reach some event I'd read about on the wiki. Long enough to know that I honestly fucking hate this type of game. There's a lot of issues I take with them, but I think they all really boil down to one core complaint. Life is complex as fuck, and thus simulating it is basically impossible. As such, the "life" in a life simulator is a surreal mirror of the world. Events repeat, and conversations happen again and again in identical fashion. That can be forgiven, obviously, it's still just a game. It's the smallest issue I take with it though. The world isn't the world as we know it, but the world as presented by the game's creator, and as such some things become strained. Moral compasses get skewed in favor of making sex more accessible, and people tend to be more uniform in their action. And finally, there's the issue of survival itself. It suffers from the same problem that every game that makes hunger/thirst/sleep things you need, where they're represented as simple numbers, with seemingly no tethering to real life. Girl Life, at least, tracks weight gain too, which makes things worse. The core problem of numbers for food is that it leads to odd eating times. You don't eat at meal times, you eat at the times you're hungry. Sleep behaves oddly too, and I often woke up at 4am and couldn't sleep more. But the BIGGEST problem of all, comes in the form of time management. Moving around the world takes time. This can cause some stupid issues where trips to places can take an amount of time that you simply didn't account for, in a way that would never happen in real life. Add to that the fact times are rather precise. X activity becomes available between 2 and 4. If you arrive at 1:59, you have to leave and come back to make it past 2. Some places have a wait option, but it's not consistent.
So, to sum up the point I was getting at there. They don't really give you LIFE, so much as a strange, game-y equivalent, filled with busy work. That's not necessarily a bad thing. Until you consider that these are, at least in part, porn games. Girl Life is indisputably a porn game, with how many porn images are in it, and how much casual sex you can witness for no reason other than having sex there. With the porn game nature in mind, it starts to just become an obstacle to the porn. And not a challenging obstacle either. I'm all for porn content being placed behind gameplay, but this isn't really that. It's padding to keep you spending more time doing things between the porn.
And all of this is a shame, because I think a life simulator porn game could be quite interesting. But without the busywork. By all means, keep the getting a job loop, hell, even keep in the paying bills angle, those I won't argue with as being essential. But removing the busywork of eating, managing when you sleep, getting ready in the morning, all of that stuff, could be very beneficial to the game. Boil it down to the meaningful choices, random encounters doing your job, pursuing relationships, and generally finding consequences for your actions.
Theorycrafting my ideal game from this idea, I'd want it to start off with a series of choices. What kind of career you have, how you got there (for instance, high performer, just an average performer there, slept your way into the job etc), what kinds of friends you have, if you have a partner, and how serious. So when you start the game, you have a basis from which to grow. And then it plays out similarly to other Life Simulators, with you being in a location, travelling around and interacting with the world, but with the boring stuff streamlined. Getting ready in the morning isn't a chore of remembering everything, you just hit the "Get ready for work" button, and then you're good. Another button press takes you to work, and then maybe an event comes up, maybe it doesn't. You could put your whole week on auto-pilot like that if you wanted, just waiting for something to come up, or you could be taking the initiative. Relationships wouldn't ever be given as numbers, just as a status, "Acquaintance", "Friend" etc. Obviously there'd be numbers involved, but by hiding it it can seem more believable. The only problem with this dream game is the sheer volume of writing that would go into it. It'd probably be a similar amount to how much I dream of having in Shield High. But I think that's the best way it could be done.
Anyway, just some thoughts. Sadly I don't have the time or money to take on such a project, so it's just theory. If I did have the time and money, I'd probably still take on something else. But if someone else wants to step up, there's an idea on how to do it.
Pudding Earl
Sunday 29 October 2017
Touching Base!
Okay so like, over a month ago I said I was in the US and working on Shield High again. That last part was a half truth. I HAD been working on it again, but since settling into the US basically nothing got done. In my defense, I've been busy cranking out the other project, which is coming along slowly but surely. I'm building the AI right now and I want to kill myself. So I figured I wouldn't bother posting until I actually started working again. Seeing as I'm presently taking a break from Karen's dialogue, I'd say this qualifies.
So yes, Shield High is now officially upgraded from the "project I'm working on" pile to "project I'm ACTIVELY working on" pile. Other news, I'm now married! That happened last Saturday. It was horrible. Mostly because it was all my wife's family and none of mine. Normally I wouldn't bore you with too many details about my personal life, but I'm making an exception for this one instance because it's a (hopefully) once in a lifetime event.
So, going forward from here I'm going to try and touch base more regularly, post screenshots of both Shield High and the new project which I don't recall if I explained what it was but just in case I haven't I won't mention it's name here. Also, going to resume musings probably, since I want to talk about life simulators again. Pretty sure I've already bitched about them, but I can't let things rest.
Until then.
Pudding Earl
So yes, Shield High is now officially upgraded from the "project I'm working on" pile to "project I'm ACTIVELY working on" pile. Other news, I'm now married! That happened last Saturday. It was horrible. Mostly because it was all my wife's family and none of mine. Normally I wouldn't bore you with too many details about my personal life, but I'm making an exception for this one instance because it's a (hopefully) once in a lifetime event.
So, going forward from here I'm going to try and touch base more regularly, post screenshots of both Shield High and the new project which I don't recall if I explained what it was but just in case I haven't I won't mention it's name here. Also, going to resume musings probably, since I want to talk about life simulators again. Pretty sure I've already bitched about them, but I can't let things rest.
Until then.
Pudding Earl
Monday 18 September 2017
Some Personal Updates
Alright so, I bet y'all are wondering what's going on since I mentioned a while ago I'd be in America around this time. I was right. I've moved, getting married next month, and settling in pretty well. Started working properly on a new project for the next few months until I can legally work. I'm also planning on resuming work on Shield High.
Surpising, I know. The issues fiance had with it have been resolved. It was a really stupid mis-understanding on my part mostly. Even so, I'm not going to be making any proper releases for several months. While I'm still in limbo with immigration, I can't legally do any work here. That includes getting money on Patreon. So since I can't charge Patrons, I don't really have any incentive to push myself for monthly updates. This is...actually probably a good thing. It means I can take some time to focus on cleaning up the AI without a looming deadline for getting it ready to release. So that's the plan, once I'm free from limbo, I should be back to releasing updates, once I've got my work ethic re-established.
There might also be some other stuff going on around that time, if everything with my new project goes to plan. I'll keep you all posted, might even throw out a demo to you all if I get there. Be warned though, it's not a porn game. I don't want to try and make another porn game until Shield High has been finished.
Pudding Earl
Surpising, I know. The issues fiance had with it have been resolved. It was a really stupid mis-understanding on my part mostly. Even so, I'm not going to be making any proper releases for several months. While I'm still in limbo with immigration, I can't legally do any work here. That includes getting money on Patreon. So since I can't charge Patrons, I don't really have any incentive to push myself for monthly updates. This is...actually probably a good thing. It means I can take some time to focus on cleaning up the AI without a looming deadline for getting it ready to release. So that's the plan, once I'm free from limbo, I should be back to releasing updates, once I've got my work ethic re-established.
There might also be some other stuff going on around that time, if everything with my new project goes to plan. I'll keep you all posted, might even throw out a demo to you all if I get there. Be warned though, it's not a porn game. I don't want to try and make another porn game until Shield High has been finished.
Pudding Earl
Thursday 31 August 2017
Earl's Musings: Porn Games and Consent
Okay so, I was thinking about some design ideas for porn games, and somehow my mind stumbled onto the idea of consent, and some ideas put themselves together, and now I wanna share said ideas. So, obviously, consent is at the center of all good, healthy sex. The kind not depicted in most porn games because we're all sick fucks, myself included. Of course, consent is also present in most forms of porn. When I sit down to watch porn, I am essentially giving my consent to whatever I'm watching. If ever I stop I can just...close the video and move on. Or, if I know the end gets better and I just dislike a small section in the middle, I can skip ahead and just watch the good bits.
But what about porn games? Obviously, by playing one, you're consenting to whatever you're going to see, but what about when something in that game stops being something you like? That opens up some interesting questions. After all, porn games are a lot more about immersion, about developing a proper interest and emotional bond with what's happening, so the sex part of it feels more fulfilling. (Emotional bond optional) With this heightened investment, I feel as though there's a need for a more hands on approach to consent.
This consent doesn't have to be offered in the form of a "Are you okay with this Yes/No?" question. It could be a boss battle for instance, where if you lose you end up being raped. That is, functionally, a form of consent check. If you lose, you can just close the game and re-load from before, picking up where you left off and trying again to avoid the bad outcome. Likewise, if you have a choice that can lead to sex or avoid it, you've got a consent check of sorts. But what if sex is part of the linear experience? What if your character just...fucks a character you don't like as part of the story? You can't just close the game to avoid it. Well, you can, but you can't progress in the game if you do.
The problem posed here is an interesting one, because it means that porn games either need to have A. choices before each sex encounter to dodge it, or B. be non-linear, so as to make all content encountered a result of your actions, known or not. Or, people could just not worry about it and carry on. That works too. I for one, am probably going to look into including sex avoiding options in the winning scenes, just to facilitate this new thought. Also to facilitate purity runs, one of the funnest parts about porn games in my mind. (Assuming I ever resume work on Shield High)
I do apologize for the half-baked-ness of the thought, it just kinda came to me and I needed to vent. Expect to one day see it again in a more thorough and well-articulated format.
Pudding Earl
But what about porn games? Obviously, by playing one, you're consenting to whatever you're going to see, but what about when something in that game stops being something you like? That opens up some interesting questions. After all, porn games are a lot more about immersion, about developing a proper interest and emotional bond with what's happening, so the sex part of it feels more fulfilling. (Emotional bond optional) With this heightened investment, I feel as though there's a need for a more hands on approach to consent.
This consent doesn't have to be offered in the form of a "Are you okay with this Yes/No?" question. It could be a boss battle for instance, where if you lose you end up being raped. That is, functionally, a form of consent check. If you lose, you can just close the game and re-load from before, picking up where you left off and trying again to avoid the bad outcome. Likewise, if you have a choice that can lead to sex or avoid it, you've got a consent check of sorts. But what if sex is part of the linear experience? What if your character just...fucks a character you don't like as part of the story? You can't just close the game to avoid it. Well, you can, but you can't progress in the game if you do.
The problem posed here is an interesting one, because it means that porn games either need to have A. choices before each sex encounter to dodge it, or B. be non-linear, so as to make all content encountered a result of your actions, known or not. Or, people could just not worry about it and carry on. That works too. I for one, am probably going to look into including sex avoiding options in the winning scenes, just to facilitate this new thought. Also to facilitate purity runs, one of the funnest parts about porn games in my mind. (Assuming I ever resume work on Shield High)
I do apologize for the half-baked-ness of the thought, it just kinda came to me and I needed to vent. Expect to one day see it again in a more thorough and well-articulated format.
Pudding Earl
Monday 28 August 2017
A Personal Update
So, for those of you who are particularly invested in my overall life, I had my immigration interview today, and my visa to the US has been approved. I'm flying over on the 14th, unless something goes horribly wrong. I am currently in total disbelief that this is happening, but here we are. Nothing else to really say for the moment, more news to come as it happens.
Saturday 19 August 2017
Earl's Musings: The State of Porn Games
Oh boy, it's that topic I've been wanting to talk about forever but haven't ever had the guts to because I was...iuno, scared of offending people? Seeing as I'm not actively developing Shield High at the moment, may as well go ahead and just come out with my opinions on the matter. So, what's the general porn game industry like, in my opinion?
Shit. It's shit. Which, to be totally fair, I understand, despite the relatively large amount of porn games available, we're still in our relative infancy. A lot of the really core questions don't have answers, and we don't have any veterans to say what is and isn't good. I have a lot of theories on what's good, but I don't have the time to actually crank out enough stuff to test them for sure, so a lot of it is down to what I've liked and disliked in games I've played.
But the goal of this post isn't to make excuses. There are some, to be sure, but that's not the point. The point is to suggest why it's shit, and then put forward what people can do to fix it. So, why's it shit? Lack of experience is an obvious thing I just pointed out. Honestly, the lack of most professionalism. Indie development is a much more personal thing than traditional development, and we see a lot more of people's personal thoughts and general life happenings than we do in the larger games production. This puts an unfortunate dent in the perceived professionalism of a lot of people, though isn't the killing blow. I think the lack of clear deadlines and schedules is the big problem. A lot of porn game work is done "when it's done" which I don't think is good enough. It's why I would always push myself to release Shield High on the same day every month. What else can be done for this? I'm not actually sure. Maybe the total appearance of professionalism isn't necessary. Maybe being open about everything is fine. But the work ethic of professionalism is something that is absolutely necessary, and I don't feel like it's there in a lot of new developers.
So that's problem one, and it's on the developer side. Now for some problems on the audience side. Primarily, I don't think audiences hold developers to account enough. I don't think people demand enough, in terms of punctuality, in terms of quality, and in terms of...personal value, for lack of a better word. There may be other areas where people could hold a higher standard, but I'm not sure what they are. These three things are, in my opinion, the most important things. A bad, late game made by a developer who plans to contribute nothing more, is not better than no game at all. I think maybe if the personal value is present, then one of these factors can be improved on, but again, audiences shouldn't just let it slide. If things are a problem I do think they should be called out. Obviously, this is less true for games without any financial angle, but if someone is asking for your money, then I think they should be ready to take your most brutal feedback.
To quickly clarify what I mean by personal value, I mean a developer who shows a clear inclination to stick with it. Not just this game, but to make another, and maybe another after that. If we want to see good porn games, it's really important to highlight people who are trying to make a real living off this, and help them grow to be able to actually really get deep into the craft and find out how things work. I would honestly suggest asking any developer you plan to support what they want to do next. I don't believe for a second someone passionate about making porn games wouldn't have a few other ideas, even if just vague ones.
And finally, what can be done about it all? I'd say get involved with communities, and apply lots of discretion when giving someone money for their work. If the majority of the appeal in the game comes off of images you can either get for free, or can generate easily with a tool, I would encourage you not to support that game, and put the money somewhere else to a developer that is working towards something that might be of real value to the community. That's not to say shun every game that uses such images, I understand they can be good visual aids, but if someone relies on them to do the work of making it appealing, I don't think they're really doing anything at all. As for getting involved with communities, find forums about porn games, post about them, tell people what's shit, encourage people to do the same, try and get other people to really think about what they're throwing money at, suggest alternatives for their money if it's going to someone who's not worth it.
Also, on the flip side, don't be an entitled shit about things. If you aren't paying for a game, you're not really owed anything. While I do say tell developers about problems, your wallet is the most powerful way you can influence the industry and get more good quality games. I spent a minute thinking about how to end this thought, to best explain how they interact. I think the best way I can put it, is to say pointing out problems when you're not paying is fine, if they were fixed, there's a chance you might start. Asking for new features, or specific content however, is kind of reaching I think.
Anyway, those are just some thoughts. I realize the last paragraph gets a bit confused, it's a complex topic, and I hadn't really organized my ideas on that last section before I got to typing.
Pudding Earl
Shit. It's shit. Which, to be totally fair, I understand, despite the relatively large amount of porn games available, we're still in our relative infancy. A lot of the really core questions don't have answers, and we don't have any veterans to say what is and isn't good. I have a lot of theories on what's good, but I don't have the time to actually crank out enough stuff to test them for sure, so a lot of it is down to what I've liked and disliked in games I've played.
But the goal of this post isn't to make excuses. There are some, to be sure, but that's not the point. The point is to suggest why it's shit, and then put forward what people can do to fix it. So, why's it shit? Lack of experience is an obvious thing I just pointed out. Honestly, the lack of most professionalism. Indie development is a much more personal thing than traditional development, and we see a lot more of people's personal thoughts and general life happenings than we do in the larger games production. This puts an unfortunate dent in the perceived professionalism of a lot of people, though isn't the killing blow. I think the lack of clear deadlines and schedules is the big problem. A lot of porn game work is done "when it's done" which I don't think is good enough. It's why I would always push myself to release Shield High on the same day every month. What else can be done for this? I'm not actually sure. Maybe the total appearance of professionalism isn't necessary. Maybe being open about everything is fine. But the work ethic of professionalism is something that is absolutely necessary, and I don't feel like it's there in a lot of new developers.
So that's problem one, and it's on the developer side. Now for some problems on the audience side. Primarily, I don't think audiences hold developers to account enough. I don't think people demand enough, in terms of punctuality, in terms of quality, and in terms of...personal value, for lack of a better word. There may be other areas where people could hold a higher standard, but I'm not sure what they are. These three things are, in my opinion, the most important things. A bad, late game made by a developer who plans to contribute nothing more, is not better than no game at all. I think maybe if the personal value is present, then one of these factors can be improved on, but again, audiences shouldn't just let it slide. If things are a problem I do think they should be called out. Obviously, this is less true for games without any financial angle, but if someone is asking for your money, then I think they should be ready to take your most brutal feedback.
To quickly clarify what I mean by personal value, I mean a developer who shows a clear inclination to stick with it. Not just this game, but to make another, and maybe another after that. If we want to see good porn games, it's really important to highlight people who are trying to make a real living off this, and help them grow to be able to actually really get deep into the craft and find out how things work. I would honestly suggest asking any developer you plan to support what they want to do next. I don't believe for a second someone passionate about making porn games wouldn't have a few other ideas, even if just vague ones.
And finally, what can be done about it all? I'd say get involved with communities, and apply lots of discretion when giving someone money for their work. If the majority of the appeal in the game comes off of images you can either get for free, or can generate easily with a tool, I would encourage you not to support that game, and put the money somewhere else to a developer that is working towards something that might be of real value to the community. That's not to say shun every game that uses such images, I understand they can be good visual aids, but if someone relies on them to do the work of making it appealing, I don't think they're really doing anything at all. As for getting involved with communities, find forums about porn games, post about them, tell people what's shit, encourage people to do the same, try and get other people to really think about what they're throwing money at, suggest alternatives for their money if it's going to someone who's not worth it.
Also, on the flip side, don't be an entitled shit about things. If you aren't paying for a game, you're not really owed anything. While I do say tell developers about problems, your wallet is the most powerful way you can influence the industry and get more good quality games. I spent a minute thinking about how to end this thought, to best explain how they interact. I think the best way I can put it, is to say pointing out problems when you're not paying is fine, if they were fixed, there's a chance you might start. Asking for new features, or specific content however, is kind of reaching I think.
Anyway, those are just some thoughts. I realize the last paragraph gets a bit confused, it's a complex topic, and I hadn't really organized my ideas on that last section before I got to typing.
Pudding Earl
Monday 7 August 2017
The (probably) last update
Okay so, here we go, final update of the game. It's a shame this one is ever so slightly broken. But anyway, you can find it here: http://www.mediafire.com/file/c3a89j4rketm11q/Shield_High_JS_0.689.7z
There's a whole bunch of new characters. 186 total characters. They all move around and interact and stuff and it was gonna be more in depth but...well...things happen. You can demand submission from one character, Pauletta, with a small series of options sprouting from that. Sadly if she does submit things get a bit weird. Thankfully unless you're using the point buy and going all in on Charisma, it's unlikely to happen.
There's also a new advanced start screen. It gives you the option to enable dicks. That does nothing. It was gonna get content in an update or two. There's also difficulty options in the form of increasing or decreasing starting stats, to give you an easier time of the game. Or a harder one, if you hate yourself.
Also, saving works again. This was the last big mechanics update I had planned, everything from here was gonna be refinement, so saving being fixed was about time due.
I think that's everything. Comment if you find something I missed.
Pudding Earl.
P.S. In a previous comment I claimed if all my fans, who I claimed to be about 200 people, gave $5 on Patreon it'd be viable. As it turns out I forgot taxes. I also mis-calculated my fans. There's about 350 of you, so ultimately the point is moot. But I felt like correcting myself anyway.
There's a whole bunch of new characters. 186 total characters. They all move around and interact and stuff and it was gonna be more in depth but...well...things happen. You can demand submission from one character, Pauletta, with a small series of options sprouting from that. Sadly if she does submit things get a bit weird. Thankfully unless you're using the point buy and going all in on Charisma, it's unlikely to happen.
There's also a new advanced start screen. It gives you the option to enable dicks. That does nothing. It was gonna get content in an update or two. There's also difficulty options in the form of increasing or decreasing starting stats, to give you an easier time of the game. Or a harder one, if you hate yourself.
Also, saving works again. This was the last big mechanics update I had planned, everything from here was gonna be refinement, so saving being fixed was about time due.
I think that's everything. Comment if you find something I missed.
Pudding Earl.
P.S. In a previous comment I claimed if all my fans, who I claimed to be about 200 people, gave $5 on Patreon it'd be viable. As it turns out I forgot taxes. I also mis-calculated my fans. There's about 350 of you, so ultimately the point is moot. But I felt like correcting myself anyway.
Tuesday 25 July 2017
An Unfortunate Situation
Alright so, I just posted about this on Patreon but I assume not everyone who follows the game checks Patreon and to the blog side of things there's some slight differences to what I've got to share. So, basically, I'm stopping work on Shield High. It's been causing some tension in my relationship for a while, and it really came to a head these past few days. Obviously, confronted with the choice between the game, and getting married, I've decided getting married is a little more important, and so work on Shield High has to come to an end.
I'll be keeping the Patreon up, but it'll be switched to a per-update basis after this month. I'm not expecting anyone to pledge, I just don't want to go through the effort of setting it up again if I ever do return to working on the game. The free release of the final Patreon version will be on the 7th, as usual, and then I might put out the current state of the game a few days after that. I'll only take a minute of work to put it into a not-broken state.
I'm really sorry to have to do this, but that's how things go.
Pudding Earl
EDIT: I 100% realize the irony of this happening after advertising this like, two days ago. To those of you who have come from that, I apologize.
I'll be keeping the Patreon up, but it'll be switched to a per-update basis after this month. I'm not expecting anyone to pledge, I just don't want to go through the effort of setting it up again if I ever do return to working on the game. The free release of the final Patreon version will be on the 7th, as usual, and then I might put out the current state of the game a few days after that. I'll only take a minute of work to put it into a not-broken state.
I'm really sorry to have to do this, but that's how things go.
Pudding Earl
EDIT: I 100% realize the irony of this happening after advertising this like, two days ago. To those of you who have come from that, I apologize.
Saturday 22 July 2017
Patreon Released on Time. Also combat explanation
Okay so! I'm really bad at updating this blog. I apologize for that. Just ignore all my false promises of content. But, here's a quick announcement just to let people know that once again, my Patreon release was on time. I would have announced this yesterday, when I released it, but...I wanted to do the combat explanation first. It's now done, you can see the inner workings of combat for yourself. Maybe it will even remain relevant! As always, public release on the 7th! That's all for today.
Friday 7 July 2017
Shield High 0.688 Public Release
Oh boy! It's time for another public release! By my schedule this one should've been spring cleaning but I have long since given up on that format. Instead it's a lot of new features being coded in, some new content, and some bug fixing to give access to old content. The big feature being the new AI feature for NPCs. It's incomplete, but functional, allowing NPCs to walk around and attempt to fill out their goals for the day. Slave owners can't change just yet, but I may well end up adding that in this month's code.
Anyway, download is here: http://www.mediafire.com/file/797yufiqd818v80/Shield_High_JS_0.688.7z
Otherwise, the Stacy > Carmen > Elizabeth order should be functional now. I do believe I updated the experience drops to now give experience for all characters now, but each month of work tends to blend together for me. I'm like, 90% sure this version has that. Otherwise, there's now slave content for all possible mistresses except Elizabeth. I skipped Elizabeth because she's the end of content when you win too, so it's the easiest solution.
I do believe that's everything. If I remember something, I'll add it on later. I hope you all enjoy this version!
Pudding Earl
Anyway, download is here: http://www.mediafire.com/file/797yufiqd818v80/Shield_High_JS_0.688.7z
Otherwise, the Stacy > Carmen > Elizabeth order should be functional now. I do believe I updated the experience drops to now give experience for all characters now, but each month of work tends to blend together for me. I'm like, 90% sure this version has that. Otherwise, there's now slave content for all possible mistresses except Elizabeth. I skipped Elizabeth because she's the end of content when you win too, so it's the easiest solution.
I do believe that's everything. If I remember something, I'll add it on later. I hope you all enjoy this version!
Pudding Earl
Sunday 2 July 2017
Earl's Musings: World Building
Originally, I was gonna write about glue here. Glue, in this case, referring to all that boring filler stuff that sits in between the porn and game mechanics that has to get done but isn't what you think about when you start. This is because glue is what I'm working on now. But instead, as I thought about literally any other project to take my mind off how monotonous the work awaiting me is, I wondered idly how important world building actually is for porn. (At the time of writing this I haven't yet done the days work, but I'm about to. It's just re-arranging the 150 new actors into rooms that match up with descriptions of rooms given, and maybe assigning slaves.)
I really like world building. I have spent the past two days plotting out the economy from farmers up in one of the nations of my D&D world to make sure the next game makes sense. That's how much I like it. As such I'm inclined towards adding world building to things that don't seem to need it, and hoping it adds value as it usually does. Porn, obviously, does not seem to need world building. In fact, for the most part, it has none. There's two people, there's just enough story to tell you why they're fucking, and then they fuck. That's it.
Obviously, porn games and stories have a bit more world building than that. The level of world building is pretty variable, from say...some of Toffi's earlier stuff, where the world building seemed pretty sparse, to the really intricate. I *think* TiTS has a lot of it, but since most of it's in the codex I've never bothered to learn any of it. I'm a hypocrite like that, I love a good wiki, but I'll be fucked if I'm gonna read it when I have the game open. To point to an example of world building I actually have bothered to learn about, I'm going to point to I Roved Out (in search of truth and loved). I Roved Out, for those not familiar, is a fantasy comic with a lot of porn in it. It goes a little overboard sometimes I think, since everything else is actually pretty good, and it weaves in the world building at just the right pace that though I'm not super familiar with the world, I'd probably read more about it given the chance.
But this all brings us around to one very central question. Does any of it matter? Does the world building improve my enjoyment of the porn? Sadly, no, it doesn't. But I don't think that's the fault of world building itself. World building is great, it makes everything better. But, if it doesn't impact the core of the experience, it's just filler. To use my own work as an example, if I just worked out how much money a farmer made (It's 2 gold, 25 silver and 95 copper a year) and left it at that, no one would care. If I used that number to influence how much an adventurers first sword costs, that's when people start to appreciate it.
And so the conclusion I'm coming to is that I think that world building does improve porn, so long as the information is relevant to the porn itself. If it establishes power dynamics between people based on external worldy factors, it makes the power dynamic of the porn potentially more engaging. When someone's dominant in sex, and it translates to total life dominance, the ability to ruin the submissive's life, it can make the scene more engaging, and thus, hopefully, hotter. Likewise knowing the reverse is true, that the dominant usually has no power, that the humiliation of submission is all the stronger for that detail can have the same impact.
How much work do you need to do to get that across? I'm not sure. But I think it's worth looking at doing. And while you're doing it, share some more of your world too. So long as it's done right, even if it doesn't relate to the porn, it can improve the overall enjoyment of the thing in question.
I think that's all my thoughts on the matter. Your thoughts are always appreciated however. Release soon, with some new slave content and basic AI.
Pudding Earl
I really like world building. I have spent the past two days plotting out the economy from farmers up in one of the nations of my D&D world to make sure the next game makes sense. That's how much I like it. As such I'm inclined towards adding world building to things that don't seem to need it, and hoping it adds value as it usually does. Porn, obviously, does not seem to need world building. In fact, for the most part, it has none. There's two people, there's just enough story to tell you why they're fucking, and then they fuck. That's it.
Obviously, porn games and stories have a bit more world building than that. The level of world building is pretty variable, from say...some of Toffi's earlier stuff, where the world building seemed pretty sparse, to the really intricate. I *think* TiTS has a lot of it, but since most of it's in the codex I've never bothered to learn any of it. I'm a hypocrite like that, I love a good wiki, but I'll be fucked if I'm gonna read it when I have the game open. To point to an example of world building I actually have bothered to learn about, I'm going to point to I Roved Out (in search of truth and loved). I Roved Out, for those not familiar, is a fantasy comic with a lot of porn in it. It goes a little overboard sometimes I think, since everything else is actually pretty good, and it weaves in the world building at just the right pace that though I'm not super familiar with the world, I'd probably read more about it given the chance.
But this all brings us around to one very central question. Does any of it matter? Does the world building improve my enjoyment of the porn? Sadly, no, it doesn't. But I don't think that's the fault of world building itself. World building is great, it makes everything better. But, if it doesn't impact the core of the experience, it's just filler. To use my own work as an example, if I just worked out how much money a farmer made (It's 2 gold, 25 silver and 95 copper a year) and left it at that, no one would care. If I used that number to influence how much an adventurers first sword costs, that's when people start to appreciate it.
And so the conclusion I'm coming to is that I think that world building does improve porn, so long as the information is relevant to the porn itself. If it establishes power dynamics between people based on external worldy factors, it makes the power dynamic of the porn potentially more engaging. When someone's dominant in sex, and it translates to total life dominance, the ability to ruin the submissive's life, it can make the scene more engaging, and thus, hopefully, hotter. Likewise knowing the reverse is true, that the dominant usually has no power, that the humiliation of submission is all the stronger for that detail can have the same impact.
How much work do you need to do to get that across? I'm not sure. But I think it's worth looking at doing. And while you're doing it, share some more of your world too. So long as it's done right, even if it doesn't relate to the porn, it can improve the overall enjoyment of the thing in question.
I think that's all my thoughts on the matter. Your thoughts are always appreciated however. Release soon, with some new slave content and basic AI.
Pudding Earl
Wednesday 28 June 2017
IMBALANCE AHOY!
So I'm adding in the advanced start. This a lesser version of it for the moment, until the game gets far enough along to support the dream for it. However right now you can tweak an option (with more to come) and adjust the difficulty by virtue of adjusting Jessica's power. I've given you a *lot* of lee-way here though. So in testing, I decided to put all my bonus points into Strength. The end result was a 42 Strength score. It was...ridiculous and OP as shit. I don't care, if you wanna do that you can, it's a cheat-y way to find the winning content. You can also have flat 8s in everything now. That'll be...probably impossible. Again, I don't care, it's your own choice, play things how you like, I say.
Thursday 22 June 2017
Shield High 0.688 Patreon Release
This is just another update to let everyone know I am still working to schedule. The release actually came out like, 17 hours ago, I just forgot to post about it because of needing to do some bug fixes. There's still some fixes to be done, but it should be a really simple fix, I have a theory on what the problem is. Anyway, that's all I've got for you for today, just letting you all know that it's out. Release will be on the 7th, as always.
Pudding Earl
Pudding Earl
Sunday 18 June 2017
Earl's Musings: The future of porn
Okay so, this post is going to be a bit different from my usual musings. In a normal musing, I talk about something I've observed, something I'm pretty confident in, and then I suggest some speculative stuff about how this observation should pan out. But today? Today we're going full on speculation. So, here's my crazy thought. Porn games are either the future, or a major component of the future of porn as a whole.
So let's start with the non-speculative stuff. There's a LOT of porn out there. And a lot of it is available for free. As a result, the attention span of people who watch porn is shrinking, and people don't really want to sit down and watch a single video all the way through. That's a thing I heard from someone who studies porn addiction, so I imagine it's valid for some people at least, if not everyone. I speculate this is largely because with so much porn out there, it implies there is the perfect porn film out there for your exact desire. Usually however, there isn't. Because a lot of porn, not all, but a lot, is very samey, and follows the same core formula. That's probably a big reason for dropping attention spans, you watch ten videos, you can guess how the next hundred will end.
I don't think I need to sing the praises of porn games that much, but I will for a moment. Porn games, assuming they're well made, don't suffer from this problem nearly as much. The main reason for that is they have something other than the sex to keep you invested, you get stuck in the gameplay loops, and the porn that comes at the end is just a nice bonus. A sufficiently well-designed game can even make sure to deliver a satisfying end to a play session, though that's treading into the speculation again.
So, with all this in mind, I'm starting to feel like video porn is going to fade in relevance, while porn games grow. It's not going away, obviously, there's too much already made, but I would not be at all surprised if we start to see porn games picking up in broader popularity in the coming years, and potentially becoming as viable as any other porn medium for more significant investment. Assuming we don't poison the well before we get there, which I also think is a possibility, and probably something I'll talk about next week.
Anyway, those are just some thoughts I've been having that I wanted to vent. Let me know if I'm completely retarded, or maybe on to something. It's probably the former.
Pudding Earl
So let's start with the non-speculative stuff. There's a LOT of porn out there. And a lot of it is available for free. As a result, the attention span of people who watch porn is shrinking, and people don't really want to sit down and watch a single video all the way through. That's a thing I heard from someone who studies porn addiction, so I imagine it's valid for some people at least, if not everyone. I speculate this is largely because with so much porn out there, it implies there is the perfect porn film out there for your exact desire. Usually however, there isn't. Because a lot of porn, not all, but a lot, is very samey, and follows the same core formula. That's probably a big reason for dropping attention spans, you watch ten videos, you can guess how the next hundred will end.
I don't think I need to sing the praises of porn games that much, but I will for a moment. Porn games, assuming they're well made, don't suffer from this problem nearly as much. The main reason for that is they have something other than the sex to keep you invested, you get stuck in the gameplay loops, and the porn that comes at the end is just a nice bonus. A sufficiently well-designed game can even make sure to deliver a satisfying end to a play session, though that's treading into the speculation again.
So, with all this in mind, I'm starting to feel like video porn is going to fade in relevance, while porn games grow. It's not going away, obviously, there's too much already made, but I would not be at all surprised if we start to see porn games picking up in broader popularity in the coming years, and potentially becoming as viable as any other porn medium for more significant investment. Assuming we don't poison the well before we get there, which I also think is a possibility, and probably something I'll talk about next week.
Anyway, those are just some thoughts I've been having that I wanted to vent. Let me know if I'm completely retarded, or maybe on to something. It's probably the former.
Pudding Earl
Monday 12 June 2017
A personal milestone!
In the process of working out the AI for the next update, I do believe I've hit a personal milestone as a coder. For the first time ever I managed to get something I was making to freeze for a portion of time as it processed things, before crashing due to not having enough memory. It spent around 5 minutes trying to process the AI at the beginning of the day, where it managed to get up to 2GB of used memory, and then crashed.
Clearly, this AI needs some work on efficiency here. I'll uh...have to get on that now.
Clearly, this AI needs some work on efficiency here. I'll uh...have to get on that now.
Wednesday 7 June 2017
Public Release for 0.687!
Okay so, first things first I owe everyone an apology for not posting things. I just...didn't really have any musing-tier thoughts until a few days ago and I hate making posts that get bumped off by news. Though I was partly just being slack, and for that I do apologize. On the plus side, I do have a release for you, I think it's a pretty good one thanks to my new mortal enemy bug tester.
So, you can find it here: http://www.mediafire.com/file/c2pir14mrf32jxn/Shield_High_JS_0.687c.7z
You can thank the bug tester for it being a C release. I imagine it'd have gone to a D or E if I didn't declare no more bug fixing would be done. So hopefully it's a bit more stable than usual.
So on to the important stuff, what's new? WELL, for one thing Stacy isn't bugged so you can now access all her content. The same method of submitting to Karen to access the new content from last time still exists and will continue to exist for the next few months, until I've built enough content to get you through the main plot. Otherwise, there's now the Elizabeth plot. This one was a fan favorite for the option to claim both Alison and Lucy back in the day. I haven't changed how that content goes down so, y'know, if you liked it before, you're probably very glad to see it back. I won't spoil it for anyone who has no idea what I'm on about though.
I should note, the end of the Elizabeth plot is a bit...unfinished. This is largely down to the writing constraint of preparing all the content for it. I'm going to work it out much later on, as it doesn't really need to function until I'm ready to add the final plot line into the game. Yes, there will only be 5 essential plots in the game, with everything else being entirely down to your own decisions. Mostly. The rest will be dependent on the AI I've been building for the game. It currently half-exists in a rudimentary state, which is how it'll remain by the time it gets released. I plan to refine it and add more and more sophistication as time goes on and I flesh out the core systems of NPCs interacting with each other.
AND FINALLY! Some news regarding Patreon. I realized I'm an idiot, and have been overcharging for what I'm offering. Whenever I become a Patron, I always give $5 a month, so I just...kind of assumed everyone else was like that? Which was really dumb on my part, and neglected the reason I give $5 (it's smug superiority over the plebs who gives $1). So, I've mixed it up, and you now get the game for $1 per month. For those who give $5 you get the voting rights that were reserved for the $10 tier. The $20 tier still exists as it was, while there's a new $100 tier which is basically just you telling me what art to get done with the money you're sending me. So, y'know, if you've been wanting to give but found $5 too much, you can now get the early access. Probably.
That's it for now. There's gonna be a few updates to the blog over the next few days, a rough spoiler-free content guide, and an explanation of how combat works. I'll give a quick summary and both the raw math for those who want it. If people *really* want, I'll even include an explanation of how the AI works so you can abuse the shit out of it.
But until then, enjoy the new update!
Pudding Earl
So, you can find it here: http://www.mediafire.com/file/c2pir14mrf32jxn/Shield_High_JS_0.687c.7z
You can thank the bug tester for it being a C release. I imagine it'd have gone to a D or E if I didn't declare no more bug fixing would be done. So hopefully it's a bit more stable than usual.
So on to the important stuff, what's new? WELL, for one thing Stacy isn't bugged so you can now access all her content. The same method of submitting to Karen to access the new content from last time still exists and will continue to exist for the next few months, until I've built enough content to get you through the main plot. Otherwise, there's now the Elizabeth plot. This one was a fan favorite for the option to claim both Alison and Lucy back in the day. I haven't changed how that content goes down so, y'know, if you liked it before, you're probably very glad to see it back. I won't spoil it for anyone who has no idea what I'm on about though.
I should note, the end of the Elizabeth plot is a bit...unfinished. This is largely down to the writing constraint of preparing all the content for it. I'm going to work it out much later on, as it doesn't really need to function until I'm ready to add the final plot line into the game. Yes, there will only be 5 essential plots in the game, with everything else being entirely down to your own decisions. Mostly. The rest will be dependent on the AI I've been building for the game. It currently half-exists in a rudimentary state, which is how it'll remain by the time it gets released. I plan to refine it and add more and more sophistication as time goes on and I flesh out the core systems of NPCs interacting with each other.
AND FINALLY! Some news regarding Patreon. I realized I'm an idiot, and have been overcharging for what I'm offering. Whenever I become a Patron, I always give $5 a month, so I just...kind of assumed everyone else was like that? Which was really dumb on my part, and neglected the reason I give $5 (it's smug superiority over the plebs who gives $1). So, I've mixed it up, and you now get the game for $1 per month. For those who give $5 you get the voting rights that were reserved for the $10 tier. The $20 tier still exists as it was, while there's a new $100 tier which is basically just you telling me what art to get done with the money you're sending me. So, y'know, if you've been wanting to give but found $5 too much, you can now get the early access. Probably.
That's it for now. There's gonna be a few updates to the blog over the next few days, a rough spoiler-free content guide, and an explanation of how combat works. I'll give a quick summary and both the raw math for those who want it. If people *really* want, I'll even include an explanation of how the AI works so you can abuse the shit out of it.
But until then, enjoy the new update!
Pudding Earl
Sunday 21 May 2017
Patreon release and also a little news on that front.
Okay so, as always, Patreon release was on time. I'm a little astounded I haven't made excuses and missed a release yet. That having been said, this one is gonna need a b update in a few days. The AI coding really hurt the quality and I don't feel good about it. Not that it matters for public release, but I like to own up to shit like this. So there's that.
And now, in the news, I'm changing my Patreon reward tiers next month. I'll throw all of it up on the 1st of the month, just so no one decides to start giving this month expecting the rewards and being disappointed, but under the new system, instead of $5 per month for early access it'll just be $1. When I started, I was thinking about how I use Patreon, which is to say, I give $5 to everyone I like. Being a self-centered narcissist, I completely neglected to think about how other people do things. Until I ended up only pledging $1 to someone, and realized I'm an idiot. So, $1 gets you content now, sorry to everyone who was giving $5 and then stopped, I feel like I cheated you a bit. Hit me up if you want a say in the new $5 tier, and I'll factor you in for a few months.
The new $5 tier is voting rights for the next update. I started that this month, which means in 0.688 you can expect to see more slave content because that's what the people asked for. The $10 tier will be just disappearing, and I'll tweak the $20 tier to be something much more rewarding. Finally, I'll add a $100 tier that absolutely no one will take (well, maybe someone will for like, a month) which is basically "Pay for a commission for the game. Basically whoever you ask for will get their art done." Otherwise, commissioning further art will start when I've started earning a bit more money off the game.
So yeah, that's the situation. Just thought you'd all like to know, in case you always considered giving but haven't because it was too much to get access. I'm making things cheaper and overall better value I hope.
And now, in the news, I'm changing my Patreon reward tiers next month. I'll throw all of it up on the 1st of the month, just so no one decides to start giving this month expecting the rewards and being disappointed, but under the new system, instead of $5 per month for early access it'll just be $1. When I started, I was thinking about how I use Patreon, which is to say, I give $5 to everyone I like. Being a self-centered narcissist, I completely neglected to think about how other people do things. Until I ended up only pledging $1 to someone, and realized I'm an idiot. So, $1 gets you content now, sorry to everyone who was giving $5 and then stopped, I feel like I cheated you a bit. Hit me up if you want a say in the new $5 tier, and I'll factor you in for a few months.
The new $5 tier is voting rights for the next update. I started that this month, which means in 0.688 you can expect to see more slave content because that's what the people asked for. The $10 tier will be just disappearing, and I'll tweak the $20 tier to be something much more rewarding. Finally, I'll add a $100 tier that absolutely no one will take (well, maybe someone will for like, a month) which is basically "Pay for a commission for the game. Basically whoever you ask for will get their art done." Otherwise, commissioning further art will start when I've started earning a bit more money off the game.
So yeah, that's the situation. Just thought you'd all like to know, in case you always considered giving but haven't because it was too much to get access. I'm making things cheaper and overall better value I hope.
Monday 15 May 2017
Regret of the moment
Right this moment I regret that magic isn't allowed, or that I've made no openings for myself to include a second sister so Jess can have an identical twin. For some reason selfcest suddenly became really appealing as I write these descriptions of actions you can take.
That is all.
That is all.
Saturday 13 May 2017
Earl's Musings: Text vs Graphics
I have a very inconsistent track record with sharing opinions on things. I alternate trying to be subtle and polite (Avoiding speaking about politics how I normally would, for instance) and outright stating something to be objectively the best or worst thing ever. Previously I've stated that I believe text-based games to be the best thing ever and that anything that relied on graphics to be terrible and bad. (That is an exaggeration of my position slightly) Now today I'm going to just go ahead and say I was completely fucking wrong.
That's not to say that text is bad. I maintain text is a wonderful thing and I'm sad that more things don't use good text in place of art, but I'm starting to re-think my stance on it's universal application. At this stage I'm starting to think that text excels at expressing a more emotive and personal form of sexuality. The key pull of text is in it's ability to describe how things feel, to emphasize the elements that you couldn't possibly express otherwise, like the sting of a spanking, how soft someone's skin is, or how impossible the bindings are to escape from.
Basically, text is good at immersion in a story about feelings, about being in someone's head. So what's it bad at? Well, the raw and visceral part of sex. The visual aspect of someone being naked, or the way a pair of tits bounce. Those sorts of things don't translate well into text. Not nearly as well as just a visual representation does. And on this front, I think I see the reasoning for graphics being good. To clarify what I mean here, I am specifically referring to proper animations, either 2D or 3D. So...Toffisama's stuff to Skyrim, all that falls within this to varying degrees.
I think the core of the problem is a lot of the visceral elements to sex revolve around objectification of someone. But in text, there's no clear object, and so there's this small disconnect between the medium and the sex on display. At least, that's my thought on the matter, I might be totally wrong. So let me know if I'm on completely the wrong track here, I like knowing if people think I'm on the right track in my understanding of porn games and how they work.
Pudding Earl
P.S. Still art in porn games in place of well written text is still utter trash. Minor animation doesn't fix it.
That's not to say that text is bad. I maintain text is a wonderful thing and I'm sad that more things don't use good text in place of art, but I'm starting to re-think my stance on it's universal application. At this stage I'm starting to think that text excels at expressing a more emotive and personal form of sexuality. The key pull of text is in it's ability to describe how things feel, to emphasize the elements that you couldn't possibly express otherwise, like the sting of a spanking, how soft someone's skin is, or how impossible the bindings are to escape from.
Basically, text is good at immersion in a story about feelings, about being in someone's head. So what's it bad at? Well, the raw and visceral part of sex. The visual aspect of someone being naked, or the way a pair of tits bounce. Those sorts of things don't translate well into text. Not nearly as well as just a visual representation does. And on this front, I think I see the reasoning for graphics being good. To clarify what I mean here, I am specifically referring to proper animations, either 2D or 3D. So...Toffisama's stuff to Skyrim, all that falls within this to varying degrees.
I think the core of the problem is a lot of the visceral elements to sex revolve around objectification of someone. But in text, there's no clear object, and so there's this small disconnect between the medium and the sex on display. At least, that's my thought on the matter, I might be totally wrong. So let me know if I'm on completely the wrong track here, I like knowing if people think I'm on the right track in my understanding of porn games and how they work.
Pudding Earl
P.S. Still art in porn games in place of well written text is still utter trash. Minor animation doesn't fix it.
Sunday 7 May 2017
Shield High 0.686 release!
Okay so, here it is! The new Shield High release! What's in it? I'm not 100% sure. What I remember for sure is that it has the two new story lines one for Stacy and one for Carmen. The polish on them is a bit...eh, in places. I was in a rush to get this one out. I'll try and polish them up for the next release, I promise. Or the one after, since that's meant to be spring cleaning.
Anyway, here's the download link: http://www.mediafire.com/file/w44p35jw28prika/Shield_High_JS_0.686.7z
So, to elaborate a bit more on what's changed, there's now a way to check your personal status within Shield High. It's like the three parts at the bottom of every NPC's relationships thing, but with one new stat. As well as power there's PERCEIVED POWER. Basically, power changes when something tangible happens. You obtain a new slave, you win a fight, that sort of thing. It shows how much stuff you can ACTUALLY do, how likely you are to win fights, and things like that. Your perceived power however is what everyone THINKS you can do. It fluctuates a lot more, climbing from resisting girls pressuring you to submit, or winning fights, or even just starting them, even with no follow through. Likewise it drops when you submit, or lose, or anything else like that.
This matters because the static story events, such as Stacy and Carmen will only trigger when your Perceived Power reaches a certain level. Currently that's 20 and 30 for Stacy and Carmen respectively, however it will be changed to 40 for Carmen when the game is a bit bigger. To make things easier on you until saving is properly fixed and overhauled and things, you can simply submit to Karen, which instead of dropping you by 2 points, ups you by 20, putting you in range to get one story, then the other quite quickly.
That's the main change. The majority of the work was combing every single event for changes in global opinion. There's also the new image added now, so you can see the new, nicer Jess looking at you in the map screen and the journal. It's just the one this month, but I intend to add the rest of the options, and a way to view yourself mid-combat, in the next update.
That's it for now.
Pudding Earl.
P.S. Sixth, and final book for the moment can be found here. It's an equally valid starting point in contrast to the first, if you've been considering getting the books but just haven't for whatever reason: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071RWT1JF
Anyway, here's the download link: http://www.mediafire.com/file/w44p35jw28prika/Shield_High_JS_0.686.7z
So, to elaborate a bit more on what's changed, there's now a way to check your personal status within Shield High. It's like the three parts at the bottom of every NPC's relationships thing, but with one new stat. As well as power there's PERCEIVED POWER. Basically, power changes when something tangible happens. You obtain a new slave, you win a fight, that sort of thing. It shows how much stuff you can ACTUALLY do, how likely you are to win fights, and things like that. Your perceived power however is what everyone THINKS you can do. It fluctuates a lot more, climbing from resisting girls pressuring you to submit, or winning fights, or even just starting them, even with no follow through. Likewise it drops when you submit, or lose, or anything else like that.
This matters because the static story events, such as Stacy and Carmen will only trigger when your Perceived Power reaches a certain level. Currently that's 20 and 30 for Stacy and Carmen respectively, however it will be changed to 40 for Carmen when the game is a bit bigger. To make things easier on you until saving is properly fixed and overhauled and things, you can simply submit to Karen, which instead of dropping you by 2 points, ups you by 20, putting you in range to get one story, then the other quite quickly.
That's the main change. The majority of the work was combing every single event for changes in global opinion. There's also the new image added now, so you can see the new, nicer Jess looking at you in the map screen and the journal. It's just the one this month, but I intend to add the rest of the options, and a way to view yourself mid-combat, in the next update.
That's it for now.
Pudding Earl.
P.S. Sixth, and final book for the moment can be found here. It's an equally valid starting point in contrast to the first, if you've been considering getting the books but just haven't for whatever reason: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071RWT1JF
Monday 1 May 2017
Earl's Musing: I HAVE MADE A TERRIBLE MISTAKE
Honestly this might not be a real musing, but I feel it as an opportunity to ramble a bunch, so I'm going to label it as one and see where this goes. So, a big problem I have in porn games is a sort of...inconsistency with other characters. Or an over-consistency. If a character is flexible, serving both a porn and non-porn role, often they tend to flip personalities on a dime. They're friendly and nice to you, until suddenly a switch flicks in their brain and they turn rapey. Then once they're satisfied, it's back to being friendly like nothing happened.
Alternately, they're just static, either always friendly, or always sexual and there's no in-between. The only case where this isn't true is the games that are linear. But obviously in these cases, there's nothing fancy going on, it's just a straight plot resolving(or one of multiple lines of plot resolving, whatever). The point I'm getting to is that for the most part, in open games, characters aren't active.
So naturally, in my usual trend of jumping ahead of my plan, I've decided to change that in Shield High. This has proven to be a terrible mistake. I'm not going back on it but jesus christ this is going to be a lot of work to get it working correctly. By the end, the goal is to make it so that every NPC has an ongoing ambition, and a number of short term agendas they're trying to see through. They'll walk around, socialize, pick fights, fuck girls, whatever it takes to see their agendas advanced. It's something I've wanted in the game for a long time. It's just...going to be painful to complete it.
You might be wondering why I'm doing this now. There's only like, 25 characters in the game, that's honestly not enough for the AI to work properly. And it won't, most characters in the next few updates will remain lifeless until I start to fill in the school, and it'll very slowly come to life after that. But, with adding blackmail, it's kind of integral to that, I feel. Being blackmailed for sex is all well and good, but being blackmailed for sex, and then for pursuing the goals of someone else is even better. Also, the AI here provides the possibility of the blackmail being followed through with, or it being traded around to others.
The other benefit of this happening now is that honestly, once this storyline is done, I'm kind of done with all the static stuff for a while. So having the AI working at the end of it means that I can start filling out more and more characters to come and provide filler plots for you, and generally flesh out the meat of the game without having to worry too much about programming them all on when to come and do the thing. Their AI will pick and choose when to do that for them. Assuming it all works out, of course. I may well have to cut corners and gimp the AI to make it all work for me. Who knows.
Point is, ambition ahoy, fuck you, everyone else who does porn games, I need to continue trying to prove myself to be better. I'm probably not. I'm probably just re-treading trodden ground that was proven to not work and will soon end up falling in line. Oh well, worth trying at least. If nothing else I'll be able to say for certain why it fails.
Pudding Earl.
P.S. Yes, update is on the 7th again, along with final book for the time being. That is all.
Alternately, they're just static, either always friendly, or always sexual and there's no in-between. The only case where this isn't true is the games that are linear. But obviously in these cases, there's nothing fancy going on, it's just a straight plot resolving(or one of multiple lines of plot resolving, whatever). The point I'm getting to is that for the most part, in open games, characters aren't active.
So naturally, in my usual trend of jumping ahead of my plan, I've decided to change that in Shield High. This has proven to be a terrible mistake. I'm not going back on it but jesus christ this is going to be a lot of work to get it working correctly. By the end, the goal is to make it so that every NPC has an ongoing ambition, and a number of short term agendas they're trying to see through. They'll walk around, socialize, pick fights, fuck girls, whatever it takes to see their agendas advanced. It's something I've wanted in the game for a long time. It's just...going to be painful to complete it.
You might be wondering why I'm doing this now. There's only like, 25 characters in the game, that's honestly not enough for the AI to work properly. And it won't, most characters in the next few updates will remain lifeless until I start to fill in the school, and it'll very slowly come to life after that. But, with adding blackmail, it's kind of integral to that, I feel. Being blackmailed for sex is all well and good, but being blackmailed for sex, and then for pursuing the goals of someone else is even better. Also, the AI here provides the possibility of the blackmail being followed through with, or it being traded around to others.
The other benefit of this happening now is that honestly, once this storyline is done, I'm kind of done with all the static stuff for a while. So having the AI working at the end of it means that I can start filling out more and more characters to come and provide filler plots for you, and generally flesh out the meat of the game without having to worry too much about programming them all on when to come and do the thing. Their AI will pick and choose when to do that for them. Assuming it all works out, of course. I may well have to cut corners and gimp the AI to make it all work for me. Who knows.
Point is, ambition ahoy, fuck you, everyone else who does porn games, I need to continue trying to prove myself to be better. I'm probably not. I'm probably just re-treading trodden ground that was proven to not work and will soon end up falling in line. Oh well, worth trying at least. If nothing else I'll be able to say for certain why it fails.
Pudding Earl.
P.S. Yes, update is on the 7th again, along with final book for the time being. That is all.
Tuesday 25 April 2017
Sharing some changed plans
So I realize I'm not 100% sure that I've announced the benchmarks I'm setting for version numbering. I've thought about it a lot, but I don't know I've ever made a post about it. So, let's go over what I was going to use for the numbering for the next bit of content, and then I'll announce how I'm changing these plans a bit, and then there'll be a musing or something in a day or two. Whenever I have an interesting thought.
So, the old system was as follows:
0.68 - The beginning of the new engine, almost every update builds up a new piece of functionality, however roughly that might be.
0.69 - Polishing a few of the core functions that are broken, and rebuilding my content bank to cover everything from the old RAGS version.
0.7 - All the old content finished, the progress of new content and a slow fill out of the character roster.
So what's changing? Not much, but still it might be worth mentioning. Basically, all the old Mistresses content from back in the day is being put off until the game is more polished. Well, more complete. At the current rate of content, the Mistresses would be inaccessible without me lowering the requirements anyway, and I'd much rather put off the end game content until the core of the game is more fleshed out. So basically, the core plot ends on Elizabeth now, who is being added in this month, along with that delicious delicious blackmail content that I'm sure many of you have been wanting.
In fact, that blackmail stuff is getting a HUGE rework, and it'll be a way more present theme throughout the game.
Pudding Earl.
So, the old system was as follows:
0.68 - The beginning of the new engine, almost every update builds up a new piece of functionality, however roughly that might be.
0.69 - Polishing a few of the core functions that are broken, and rebuilding my content bank to cover everything from the old RAGS version.
0.7 - All the old content finished, the progress of new content and a slow fill out of the character roster.
So what's changing? Not much, but still it might be worth mentioning. Basically, all the old Mistresses content from back in the day is being put off until the game is more polished. Well, more complete. At the current rate of content, the Mistresses would be inaccessible without me lowering the requirements anyway, and I'd much rather put off the end game content until the core of the game is more fleshed out. So basically, the core plot ends on Elizabeth now, who is being added in this month, along with that delicious delicious blackmail content that I'm sure many of you have been wanting.
In fact, that blackmail stuff is getting a HUGE rework, and it'll be a way more present theme throughout the game.
Pudding Earl.
Friday 21 April 2017
Patreon Release
It happened. I don't really know what else to say about it. My brain has just shut down today. So, y'know, 0.686 is out. It brings some non-lewd art. The lewd art comes next month.
Pudding Earl
Pudding Earl
Wednesday 19 April 2017
Earl's Musings: Dicks vs Strap-Ons
As is well established, dicks are a thing I'm not using in Shield High. This raises a few tiny problems for me, but none I can't handle. And honestly, it just makes me better at what I do, since I can't use a dick as a crutch, which in smut, it kind of is. However, I do sometimes use strap-ons and having just described one as a "fake cock" it got me wondering, is there really such a huge difference between the two? I mean, the difference is really one is real and one isn't. But from the perspective of what the dick *does* it's almost identical.
You shove it into a hole, and use that to pleasure or degrade the girl as relevant. I mean, in the case of a real dick, I suppose it cums too, which is an added feature that changes things. But at the core, the reason you use one is the same in each scene kind of. And so I'm just wondering if, from the perspective of your average reader who doesn't think nearly as much about the implications of things as I do, if you see the two as significantly different.
I think for me the key difference is a strap-on is distinctly feminine, and while a dick can be interpreted as a power play, it's just as likely not on. A strap-on however, is almost always a power play. There is a giver and a receiver, and on your average run of the mill strap-on, there's no real feedback for the giver. They aren't fucking you because it feels good. They're fucking you because they like the idea of it, they like the thing it does to you.
Anyway, that's just a quick thought I had in the middle of writing a scene. I will now go back to writing said scene.
Pudding Earl
You shove it into a hole, and use that to pleasure or degrade the girl as relevant. I mean, in the case of a real dick, I suppose it cums too, which is an added feature that changes things. But at the core, the reason you use one is the same in each scene kind of. And so I'm just wondering if, from the perspective of your average reader who doesn't think nearly as much about the implications of things as I do, if you see the two as significantly different.
I think for me the key difference is a strap-on is distinctly feminine, and while a dick can be interpreted as a power play, it's just as likely not on. A strap-on however, is almost always a power play. There is a giver and a receiver, and on your average run of the mill strap-on, there's no real feedback for the giver. They aren't fucking you because it feels good. They're fucking you because they like the idea of it, they like the thing it does to you.
Anyway, that's just a quick thought I had in the middle of writing a scene. I will now go back to writing said scene.
Pudding Earl
Friday 14 April 2017
Earl's Musings: Vision vs Reality
So, this month I'm expanding on the reputation system of Shield High. Up until now, the player has had an invisible, 95% static reputation which has impacted nothing. All of that is changing. Except that they have it. They still have reputation. You can just see it now. And it changes. And it impacts things. Primarily, you need to achieve a perceived power of 20 to get in trouble with Stacy. This provokes an interesting problem, where I have to explicitly make the second plot (a brand new one with a girl named Carmen) function on a much lower requirement than intended, so that it's actually reachable with my current amount of content.
And in seeing these reputation numbers go up, I was confronted with an interesting moment, where I realized Shield High is, very vaguely, starting to resemble the game I've wanted it to be for years. Very, very vaguely. And it occurs I might not have ever shared this vision, so I think I'm going to here. What I want for Shield High now, is a porn game with a *ton* of replay value. I want a game that changes every time you play it. Not just in terms of the random events that crop up, I want the power dynamic of the girls within the school to change as they struggle to enslave each other, or you. I want there to be new opportunities to enslave different girls each time. I want who you enslave to make different people pick fights with you. Ultimately, when it's all over, I want two people to play the game for the first time, try and talk about it and find they have almost nothing in common between the games they played, because of how much it changes.
But this is where we get to reality. The reality is odds are good this will never happen. Being a text game, everything in the game has to be hand written. I am just one man, and a very stubborn one at that who refuses to accept help from others. So this hand written content is going to take time. So with that in mind, the reality is you'll likely end up with a game that goes about half way. The game will be different every time you play, but not as different as I dream of it being.
That having been said, there is a chance I can get there. After all in under a week I did a plotline and a half, while going through an ungodly amount of emotional turmoil. (Nothing to worry about, just a bad week is all). Those plotlines need to be programmed in now, which is what I'm doing over the next few days, but one day they won't. One day every plot will just be a copy of another. At that time, there's a chance I could turn over a plot in about 4 days. Three of those days being spent on the writing, and one doing literally anything else to take a break from writing. And that's assuming my discipline doesn't get better. And spoilers, it probably will. In which case the only question is if I'll have time to work on it as hard as I'd like to, or if I'll end up being too busy finding a job and things.
So what's the entire point of this? Well, vision is nice and all but you probably will have to accept some concessions along the way, I guess. What a dull ending. Maybe this entire musing was just an excuse to give you guys an update about the reputation system. Who knows?
Pudding Earl.
Thursday 13 April 2017
Another Book Giveaway Thing
Just to let everyone know, until the 16th you can get my first two books free on Amazon now. So if you've ever been kind of curious about what my writing without porn looks like, you can go check them out now. I'd say without lesbians but my second book does actually start to go the lesbians route so, y'know, good work me.
Anyway, you can find the first book here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LQ5W5G4
And the second one here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M0PZ2WP
I appreciate it's probably not of interest to most of you, and that's totally fine. But if it does seem kind of interesting, I'd appreciate the download. Even if you never read it, you might help bump me up the rankings of free books to a point of being relevant. Also, y'know, if you happen to know anyone who might like this, then tell them about it. Source of how you found it not necessary, obviously.
Thanks to anyone who does give it a look, I'll be posting a musing probably tomorrow
Pudding Earl
Anyway, you can find the first book here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LQ5W5G4
And the second one here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M0PZ2WP
I appreciate it's probably not of interest to most of you, and that's totally fine. But if it does seem kind of interesting, I'd appreciate the download. Even if you never read it, you might help bump me up the rankings of free books to a point of being relevant. Also, y'know, if you happen to know anyone who might like this, then tell them about it. Source of how you found it not necessary, obviously.
Thanks to anyone who does give it a look, I'll be posting a musing probably tomorrow
Pudding Earl
Thursday 6 April 2017
Shield High 0.685b releases!
Okay, it's finally here. 0.685b. Why b? Because when I made release I'd fucked up a few things, and so it wasn't fully functional. I spent two days fixing them and put out a second release, which was this one. This one *should* be working. I've played through the whole game with it just fine, however I've also gotten reports it's broken. I don't know what's going on there but if you find errors, let me know and I might do another bug fix, who knows.
So, what's changed? Mostly back end stuff. The biggest change is that events on rooms can now be stacked. This enables me to let you run through multiple plots at once in the future, without running the risk of one overwriting the other. Otherwise, there's now pathing. It works! You can use it to be guided to the next class, or to the next event in the FIRST PLOT. It does not guide you on any other plots because I am lazy and I hate myself. Also I just didn't have time to really code it all in, it's a lot of finnicky work. I'll be fixing up future events to all have pathing, and slowly give pathing to the other plots as we go.
Other fixes include making romances actually work. Yeah, I really fucked up there last month, my bad guys. So now all romances should be accessible on the weekend. I set romances active in the wrong spot. Jillian now has dialogue options to allow you to romance her, if you so wish. And...Samantha got the ability to be your Mistress. It's not great, but it's there. And I do think that's everything.
Update can be found here: http://www.mediafire.com/file/n5n712q8ku6chvn/Shield_High_JS_0.685b.7z
I hope you all enjoy. Next month is Stacy content, and another plot that I'm still formulating in my head. Stacy is almost completely written right this moment, I'm about to do her final 2.2 text entires, and then tonight starting the new plot, once I've worked it out for sure.
Pudding Earl
So, what's changed? Mostly back end stuff. The biggest change is that events on rooms can now be stacked. This enables me to let you run through multiple plots at once in the future, without running the risk of one overwriting the other. Otherwise, there's now pathing. It works! You can use it to be guided to the next class, or to the next event in the FIRST PLOT. It does not guide you on any other plots because I am lazy and I hate myself. Also I just didn't have time to really code it all in, it's a lot of finnicky work. I'll be fixing up future events to all have pathing, and slowly give pathing to the other plots as we go.
Other fixes include making romances actually work. Yeah, I really fucked up there last month, my bad guys. So now all romances should be accessible on the weekend. I set romances active in the wrong spot. Jillian now has dialogue options to allow you to romance her, if you so wish. And...Samantha got the ability to be your Mistress. It's not great, but it's there. And I do think that's everything.
Update can be found here: http://www.mediafire.com/file/n5n712q8ku6chvn/Shield_High_JS_0.685b.7z
I hope you all enjoy. Next month is Stacy content, and another plot that I'm still formulating in my head. Stacy is almost completely written right this moment, I'm about to do her final 2.2 text entires, and then tonight starting the new plot, once I've worked it out for sure.
Pudding Earl
Wednesday 5 April 2017
A question about the "rules" of Shield High
This is a pretty quick post, and I doubt anything will come of the outcome for several months, but it's been on my mind, and I figured I should check with people sooner than later regarding it. So, when I made Shield High originally I had three rules of development.
1. No dicks.
2. Relative Realism, so no fantasy or sci-fi elements.
3. I have forgotten what this rule was but I'm pretty sure it wasn't important.
Now, these rules were written when I was an 18 year old with no real perspective on sex, and as such, I'm starting to question the wisdom of rule 1. Rule 1 was made in response to CoC, and other games I played at the time, which seemed to have an obsession with dicks. This obsession with dicks still seems present in some places, and by no means do I ever want to try and rival that. However, the no dicks rule does kind of place some limits on me, and so I'm going to put this to the fans. What do you all think? Should I keep to my no dicks policy? Or should I bend on that front and allow some?
For anyone wondering how I'd use dicks, worry not. No major male characters will be added. Shield High will not suddenly become a mixed school or anything like that. Neither will dicks be used where Jessica is in control. Rather, I'd include male characters as tools for your Mistress to torment you with. For instance, one thing I'm thinking of is having a character have a brother, and if you're her slave, he gives you to him sometimes to have some fun with. Boyfriends would also work in this role. That's all I've got planned for now, but other ideas might come to mind.
Also, if any of my ancient fans remember me ever saying the rules, and remember what rule 3 was, would you be so kind as to remind me? I'm concerned I have already broken it somehow.
Pudding Earl
P.S. Release in a day or two, worry not, I have not forgotten.
1. No dicks.
2. Relative Realism, so no fantasy or sci-fi elements.
3. I have forgotten what this rule was but I'm pretty sure it wasn't important.
Now, these rules were written when I was an 18 year old with no real perspective on sex, and as such, I'm starting to question the wisdom of rule 1. Rule 1 was made in response to CoC, and other games I played at the time, which seemed to have an obsession with dicks. This obsession with dicks still seems present in some places, and by no means do I ever want to try and rival that. However, the no dicks rule does kind of place some limits on me, and so I'm going to put this to the fans. What do you all think? Should I keep to my no dicks policy? Or should I bend on that front and allow some?
For anyone wondering how I'd use dicks, worry not. No major male characters will be added. Shield High will not suddenly become a mixed school or anything like that. Neither will dicks be used where Jessica is in control. Rather, I'd include male characters as tools for your Mistress to torment you with. For instance, one thing I'm thinking of is having a character have a brother, and if you're her slave, he gives you to him sometimes to have some fun with. Boyfriends would also work in this role. That's all I've got planned for now, but other ideas might come to mind.
Also, if any of my ancient fans remember me ever saying the rules, and remember what rule 3 was, would you be so kind as to remind me? I'm concerned I have already broken it somehow.
Pudding Earl
P.S. Release in a day or two, worry not, I have not forgotten.
Saturday 1 April 2017
Sad News
Today is a sad day in the history of Shield High. You see, it is April Fools, and in keeping with the element of fools, I was one, and did not remember to prepare my hilarious April Fools prank. This is a grand disappointment. Instead all you get is a meager request for opinions on if this face of my possible new Jessica looks weird, and if so how it looks weird and what might fix it.
http://sta.sh/02eo18eku7bq
Patrons got a first look at this but I realized I need more eyes on it to be sure. Patron opinions will be more heavily weighted because this is not a democracy. That is all.
http://sta.sh/02eo18eku7bq
Patrons got a first look at this but I realized I need more eyes on it to be sure. Patron opinions will be more heavily weighted because this is not a democracy. That is all.
Tuesday 28 March 2017
Earl's Musings: Choices and Customisation
So, recently I played the Scandalous Scarlet Moon. It's a pretty good game, and the author is kind enough to shout me out on his page, so I'll include a link back to him at the end of this for those of you who want to check it out. On top of being a good game, it's also an amazingly customizable game, letting you pick the genders of most characters you encounter through the game. You can choose at the beginning to have the game automatically set the gender of character's based on their role, if they're the spanker or spankee, or as I do it, you can simply make up your mind on the fly, with the game warning you which each character is going to be as they appear. It's a clever feature that works really well given the spanking-focus of the game.
The game also seems to go out of it's way to provide the player with choices about scenes you'll encounter, with an emphasis on letting you avoid what you don't like. This isn't something new to this game, I've played a few where the sex is almost entirely within the players control. And this is something I'm not a fan of. I'm a big fan of avoidable sex scenes. I'm not a fan of easily avoidable sex scenes, which is, in my opinion at least, a common problem with games where sex is avoidable. Whenever you're presented with a series of choices, one of which dodges the sex, and one of which provides you with "unwilling" sex, they're usually very clearly labelled. "Perform wise decision" is the first option. "Act like an idiot" is the second. I get why you might think this is a good idea, but to my mind it feels like a wasted opportunity. To me at least a porn game needs some degree of difficulty so you can actually fuck it up. Getting "punished" when I couldn't really not choose to fail isn't the same.
And this is where an interesting thought arises. If you're including any customization, why not weave that into these sorts of scenes. Why not make the decisions you're faced with when it comes to how to avoid sex actively difficult to make, or include options that, while obviously leading to sex, feel like the safe way to avoid other problems. And then, in the options at the beginning of the game, provide a way for your players to turn on content tips. So each choice is labelled as leading to sex or not. Or turn on advanced options, which tells you the kind of sex you'll be experiencing if you go down either route. Or you could just do what I do and do nothing to indicate what will lead to sex and what won't half the time.
As a quick aside, I should note that obvious player choice for consensual scenes makes perfect sense. If you're getting a choice if you fuck a character, you the player should be the one making that choice. It's when the consequences of your actions might lead you to unwilling sex that there should be a bit more ambiguity, to allow you to actually fuck up. Also of note, for those wondering, yes, I do intend to include customization for Shield High, largely in the form of difficulty and early game stats in the future, though customization for other parts of the game is something I'm considering too.
Anyway, that's it for today. Sorry I've been absent on the work front for a little bit, I've been re-adjusting to life back home after my schedule had been severely fucked by everything. I'm still sleeping at some weird times to try and get work done for Shield High.
Pudding Earl
P.S. Forgot to actually link to Scandalous Scarlet Moon. You can find it, and the guys other stuff here: http://www.spankingrpgs.com/
P.S. Forgot to actually link to Scandalous Scarlet Moon. You can find it, and the guys other stuff here: http://www.spankingrpgs.com/
Tuesday 21 March 2017
Update on time.
Yup, 0.685 just went live on Patreon, despite all that travel and jetlag. As promised, there's basically no new content, just some back-end changes, some balance tweaks to combat and general bug fixing. Most things people have complained about have been patched to one degree or another. Sadly the interact button refuses to behave.
Later this week there'll be an 0.685b release, as there's a few bugs I just didn't have time to look at, but which are vitally important to fixing before I go public. When I do go public all the romance options should be working, and the few display bugs will be "fixed". Then it's on to 0.686, which will be a huge leap forward for the main plot, as I begin my strides towards 0.7, and getting the game back in line with it's former self in terms of content.
That's all for today.
Pudding Earl
Later this week there'll be an 0.685b release, as there's a few bugs I just didn't have time to look at, but which are vitally important to fixing before I go public. When I do go public all the romance options should be working, and the few display bugs will be "fixed". Then it's on to 0.686, which will be a huge leap forward for the main plot, as I begin my strides towards 0.7, and getting the game back in line with it's former self in terms of content.
That's all for today.
Pudding Earl
Saturday 18 March 2017
Home soon. Update largely on time.
So, I'm currently sitting in San Fran airport, with a little over an hour until boarding time. I figured now would be a good time to update everyone on THE PLAN regarding this month's release. Schedule is same as always, Patreon on the 21st, public on the 7th. Work-wise I'm largely done, I've just got to test all the storylines and make sure the new system of running events runs smoothly. I anticipate approximately three hiccups per story, but once it's done it's done and this will make managing multiple storylines easier. With a little tweaking in the future, you should be able to be mid-drama with one girl, when you start shit with another, and they should resolve okay. Will they acknowledge each other? Absolutely not(yet), but they'll both actually resolve, which should be good. So far I've had to be veeeery careful not to allow plots to overwrite each other, which is why a lot of the limitations you might not have noticed existing exist.
I feel as if there was something else coming this update. I added slave stuff for Samantha cause it needed to happen, but that's about all I can think of. Oh, I added event and class guidance, which also laid the groundwork for future pathing for characters. All in all it's been a productive update of 90% back end stuff with some front end stuff there to make it noticeable. So a boring update for you, but one that will shape the game a lot going forward.
That's it for today, next post will be Patreon release.
Pudding Earl
I feel as if there was something else coming this update. I added slave stuff for Samantha cause it needed to happen, but that's about all I can think of. Oh, I added event and class guidance, which also laid the groundwork for future pathing for characters. All in all it's been a productive update of 90% back end stuff with some front end stuff there to make it noticeable. So a boring update for you, but one that will shape the game a lot going forward.
That's it for today, next post will be Patreon release.
Pudding Earl
Thursday 16 March 2017
Musings were a lie
I promised musings when I landed but being with girlfriend has left my porn game thoughts in a drought. Thankfully I anticipated this and have been bug fixing while here to avoid needing to do anything hard. Also changing combat balance. It's hard now. Possibly too hard. I'm gonna make another little tweak to make rest actually viable, and then it's down to fixing all the errors people have been reporting regarding fighting forever.
Musings will resume after next update. Apologies for that.
Pudding Earl
Musings will resume after next update. Apologies for that.
Pudding Earl
Saturday 11 March 2017
Musings to come soon!
I'm currently sitting in an airport, waiting the 8 hours or so until my next flight to see my girlfriend. For obvious reasons, this will significantly slow down my ability to produce Shield High stuff. But I have some plans to do some work in these 8 hours, mostly involving doing programming stuff and never writing anything until I arrive at girlfriend's house. Unless it's my book. I'll write some of that while I'm here. Anyway, once I've rested at girlfriend's house, I shall post a musing when I can. That is all.
Tuesday 7 March 2017
Shield High 0.684 Release and also some other things.
Yes, that's right, it's the 7th, and that means it's time for the new version of Shield High. This one added romance options and slavery content. Only one of which has been truly tested. The other one didn't receive any comments saying it DIDN'T work when I put it on Patreon however, so I can only assume everything is sunshine and rainbows on that front. So, to give you a proper list of what's new, here is the patch notes as given on Patreon.
BUG FIXES:
I fixed the following bugs (off the top of my head)
-Passing the weekend on Saturday no longer allows Jessica to travel back in time.
-Weekends in general seem to work better
-That annoying little flash in combat got too much for me. It's now gone.
-Advanced Start no longer crashes the game. Instead it does nothing. This is an improvement largely because people who do not know it is not a feature yet will stop telling me it crashes the game.
LOVE:
The following characters have super cute first dates:
-Angel
-Melanie
-Iris
-Josie
-Jillian
Jillian's date is currently inaccessible owing to changes to how the plot...functions. I'm going to add progressively more ways to start relationships with characters in future updates. Next week will include flirting, to let you get a date with Jillian.
Other dates might be broken. I'm only confident in Angel's.
SLAVES:
You now can be Karen's slave, with actual content. There's 6 random events that are chosen from each day. Five are simple, visit Karen, recieve sexy dialogue sort of events. One is visit Karen and get ordered to be a whore. In that case you have to walk around and let girls who are interested grab and fuck you. The current ones wil be phased out of fucking you as more girls get added and I can more accurately reflect the politics of the school.
There's currently only one way out, which is asking for Angel's help. You need to go and get all her friendship points up. Well, you need 40, you can get 43 right now. Then you just ask her for help with your Mistress and it behaves like getting her help with Andriana.
So there's that. Game can be found here: http://www.mediafire.com/file/d0v9k4yp7zxnd8v
And now on to some other news. The fifth book in my on-going series came out today, and this one is a bit more relevant to everyone's interests as it contains lesbians. Technically all of them have contained lesbians, but only the second one really talked about it before. This book however actually has some proper beginnings of lesbian romance. Also the giant mech fights, as always. In case anyone has been kind of interested in what I've been up to and just holding out, you can find the new book here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XFY3FY5
There's also now a facebook page for said book which, if you don't mind it being in your feed, you could follow, even if you don't actually ever read the books, it's a good way to hear things that I'm up to that I don't post here. You can find that here:https://www.facebook.com/MechanicalInstinctBook/
And as a final point on that, if you're interested in the books but hate ebooks, I'm planning on putting out the first 6 in a compilation for paperback on Amazon, when the 6th book comes out in May. So that's a thing, in case it matters to you.
Anyway, thank you all for your support on Shield High even if you don't care for my books, it's a strange feeling realizing this is my sixth month being back at work, and seeing how far my Patreon has grown in this short time, and how many people are back and commenting regularly, it really means a lot to me. So I hope you all enjoy the newest version.
Pudding Earl
EDIT: Copying from Patreon fucked many things. Have fixed them now.
BUG FIXES:
I fixed the following bugs (off the top of my head)
-Passing the weekend on Saturday no longer allows Jessica to travel back in time.
-Weekends in general seem to work better
-That annoying little flash in combat got too much for me. It's now gone.
-Advanced Start no longer crashes the game. Instead it does nothing. This is an improvement largely because people who do not know it is not a feature yet will stop telling me it crashes the game.
LOVE:
The following characters have super cute first dates:
-Angel
-Melanie
-Iris
-Josie
-Jillian
Jillian's date is currently inaccessible owing to changes to how the plot...functions. I'm going to add progressively more ways to start relationships with characters in future updates. Next week will include flirting, to let you get a date with Jillian.
Other dates might be broken. I'm only confident in Angel's.
SLAVES:
You now can be Karen's slave, with actual content. There's 6 random events that are chosen from each day. Five are simple, visit Karen, recieve sexy dialogue sort of events. One is visit Karen and get ordered to be a whore. In that case you have to walk around and let girls who are interested grab and fuck you. The current ones wil be phased out of fucking you as more girls get added and I can more accurately reflect the politics of the school.
There's currently only one way out, which is asking for Angel's help. You need to go and get all her friendship points up. Well, you need 40, you can get 43 right now. Then you just ask her for help with your Mistress and it behaves like getting her help with Andriana.
So there's that. Game can be found here: http://www.mediafire.com/file/d0v9k4yp7zxnd8v
And now on to some other news. The fifth book in my on-going series came out today, and this one is a bit more relevant to everyone's interests as it contains lesbians. Technically all of them have contained lesbians, but only the second one really talked about it before. This book however actually has some proper beginnings of lesbian romance. Also the giant mech fights, as always. In case anyone has been kind of interested in what I've been up to and just holding out, you can find the new book here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XFY3FY5
There's also now a facebook page for said book which, if you don't mind it being in your feed, you could follow, even if you don't actually ever read the books, it's a good way to hear things that I'm up to that I don't post here. You can find that here:https://www.facebook.com/MechanicalInstinctBook/
And as a final point on that, if you're interested in the books but hate ebooks, I'm planning on putting out the first 6 in a compilation for paperback on Amazon, when the 6th book comes out in May. So that's a thing, in case it matters to you.
Anyway, thank you all for your support on Shield High even if you don't care for my books, it's a strange feeling realizing this is my sixth month being back at work, and seeing how far my Patreon has grown in this short time, and how many people are back and commenting regularly, it really means a lot to me. So I hope you all enjoy the newest version.
Pudding Earl
EDIT: Copying from Patreon fucked many things. Have fixed them now.
Thursday 2 March 2017
I need some opinions from you guys.
So! As most people know, I'm also writing a series of books. The fifth one comes out in a few days. Today I got the cover art for the 5th book from my artist, who has decided to offer me a single free piece of art as a thanks for commissioning so much stuff from him. Unfortunately, I have no real ideas what to get. Or rather, I have too many ideas and I need to narrow them down. So, I'll quickly present my options, and then get to the point.
Options:
1. Get the next book cover. It's boring, but functional.
2. Get a big ol' poster-like image for the book series to go on my new facebook page I'm making for it. Something that can show off all the characters and possibly be used in promotional material or something.
3. Get a nice picture of Jessica (hopefully layered) to use as my core image on the character screen and when you're walking around. If possible, get one that can lose clothes as she does.
4. Get something purely for myself because fuck foresight.
So, here's the question really. Do you think a single image for Shield High could improve it that much? Would an image to demonstrate the art I'd get for it if the Patreon got there improve your enjoyment? Would it make you consider donating money if you're not already?
That's all I'm wondering for the moment. Feedback obviously appreciated.
Pudding Earl
EDIT: With some new limits I've been given on the art, I'm crossing off options 1 and 2. The character art for Jessica would be limited to a single image, either naked or clothed. I'm not sure if it's worth getting now, it might be better to simply wait for a bit more money and get a proper image done up.
Keeping this up regardless for feedback on the idea of an unchanging new picture of Jessica. That having been said, I'll likely go for a picture for myself, and spend some Patreon money on a proper Jessica commission later. Y'know, while it's not enough to actually pay for anything important. Like bills, or food.
Options:
1. Get the next book cover. It's boring, but functional.
2. Get a big ol' poster-like image for the book series to go on my new facebook page I'm making for it. Something that can show off all the characters and possibly be used in promotional material or something.
3. Get a nice picture of Jessica (hopefully layered) to use as my core image on the character screen and when you're walking around. If possible, get one that can lose clothes as she does.
4. Get something purely for myself because fuck foresight.
So, here's the question really. Do you think a single image for Shield High could improve it that much? Would an image to demonstrate the art I'd get for it if the Patreon got there improve your enjoyment? Would it make you consider donating money if you're not already?
That's all I'm wondering for the moment. Feedback obviously appreciated.
Pudding Earl
EDIT: With some new limits I've been given on the art, I'm crossing off options 1 and 2. The character art for Jessica would be limited to a single image, either naked or clothed. I'm not sure if it's worth getting now, it might be better to simply wait for a bit more money and get a proper image done up.
Keeping this up regardless for feedback on the idea of an unchanging new picture of Jessica. That having been said, I'll likely go for a picture for myself, and spend some Patreon money on a proper Jessica commission later. Y'know, while it's not enough to actually pay for anything important. Like bills, or food.
Monday 27 February 2017
Earl's Musings: The Power of "You"
So, I hadn't ever actually considered this before. I think probably because I hadn't played many games that don't feature it, if any, but it was brought to my attention by a fan, and once I thought about it I realized it was something that I had, at least in part, encountered but never considered a factor. That is the power of the word "you" in porn games.
By using the word "you", a porn game can really help it's immersion. It's not Jillian's fingers going inside Jessica, it's Jillian's fingers going inside you. It helps you picture yourself as being on the receiving end of whatever sex things are happening. It makes the sex, potentially, more personal, and easier to get invested in. It's also a double-edged sword. While "you" can immerse a player, it can also destroy that immersion, and I think that all boils down to how hard the word tries to sell itself.
In Shield High, "you" doesn't actually refer to you. It's a roleplaying game. The first sentence of the game tells you that you are not you. You are Jessica now. You are always addressed as Jessica, or Jess, and Jessica has some rather distinct traits that never go away no matter what your choices are. She can be sculpted a bit by your choices, becoming more submissive when a slave, or more brazen when in charge, but a lot of her is set in stone. She'll always love movies. She'll always not wanna get up and fight Karen the next day. She'll always be fairly nice to people when a conversation first starts. And in some ways, that all, in my opinion, helps you become Jessica. You aren't creating a character for you to be, you're being given one, and told to make her decisions.
So, why do I think this helps? Well, by being given a character, by being told, a little bit, about who "you" are, you almost never have a clash between the text and your understanding. You didn't make Jessica, you didn't decide what she wants and what she doesn't. So when you're told you find something hot, it doesn't conflict with your understanding of "you". This is not so true when you're given character creation options. And the more choice, or freedom you're given in deciding your character, the less the game can adequately tell you what "you" feel, because the less the game knows about you.
A game that lets you make a character, build their appearance, and their backstory, suggests you can pick their preferences. And if you can pick your preferences, then the game can't really tell you what your character thinks about things. Which poses a major problem in a porn game, because a major part of porn games is saying if something feels good or bad. Which, is a very simplistic interpretation, but it's a true one. At the end of the day porn games are about finding very elaborate and flowery ways of saying "You did the good sex" or "The bad sex was done to you".
An interesting observation is that games like Skyrim, or Fallout New Vegas have a lot more freedom from the "you" problem. They don't immerse you as well or as easily, but without words being used, you can quickly ascribe thoughts to your character. You can decide she loves being fucked by these bandits in the wild, or that she loathes her husband for forcing her to suck him off and so on. And as a brief aside, the msex Veronica mod I've mentioned previously does wonders with the word "you". Some acts that have no animations instead give you a simple pop up, a few sentences telling you what you do, and how it makes you feel. It works, because to get there you have to have volunteered so much, the motive of your character is obvious.
As I think on it, I think the type of game that would make the best use of "you" would be something like Skyrim, but more stable and built with an idea of porn in mind, that uses simple pop ups of a few lines to describe the feelings, or inform you of minor details. Skyrim has a mod that gives something like that in relation to sex, but it pops up as text in the upper left, and it never attracts attention very well. But with a pop up, and a game built for it, you only need two or three sentences, and constructing accurate ideas of your characters feelings in just two sentences is much easier, and could easily be built into a system of measuring your activity, and creating a profile of sorts.
Anyway, those are just my thoughts on the matter. It's not really a lesson that will change Shield High at all, but it might well change how I handle a game in the future. Assuming I get there.
Pudding Earl.
By using the word "you", a porn game can really help it's immersion. It's not Jillian's fingers going inside Jessica, it's Jillian's fingers going inside you. It helps you picture yourself as being on the receiving end of whatever sex things are happening. It makes the sex, potentially, more personal, and easier to get invested in. It's also a double-edged sword. While "you" can immerse a player, it can also destroy that immersion, and I think that all boils down to how hard the word tries to sell itself.
In Shield High, "you" doesn't actually refer to you. It's a roleplaying game. The first sentence of the game tells you that you are not you. You are Jessica now. You are always addressed as Jessica, or Jess, and Jessica has some rather distinct traits that never go away no matter what your choices are. She can be sculpted a bit by your choices, becoming more submissive when a slave, or more brazen when in charge, but a lot of her is set in stone. She'll always love movies. She'll always not wanna get up and fight Karen the next day. She'll always be fairly nice to people when a conversation first starts. And in some ways, that all, in my opinion, helps you become Jessica. You aren't creating a character for you to be, you're being given one, and told to make her decisions.
So, why do I think this helps? Well, by being given a character, by being told, a little bit, about who "you" are, you almost never have a clash between the text and your understanding. You didn't make Jessica, you didn't decide what she wants and what she doesn't. So when you're told you find something hot, it doesn't conflict with your understanding of "you". This is not so true when you're given character creation options. And the more choice, or freedom you're given in deciding your character, the less the game can adequately tell you what "you" feel, because the less the game knows about you.
A game that lets you make a character, build their appearance, and their backstory, suggests you can pick their preferences. And if you can pick your preferences, then the game can't really tell you what your character thinks about things. Which poses a major problem in a porn game, because a major part of porn games is saying if something feels good or bad. Which, is a very simplistic interpretation, but it's a true one. At the end of the day porn games are about finding very elaborate and flowery ways of saying "You did the good sex" or "The bad sex was done to you".
An interesting observation is that games like Skyrim, or Fallout New Vegas have a lot more freedom from the "you" problem. They don't immerse you as well or as easily, but without words being used, you can quickly ascribe thoughts to your character. You can decide she loves being fucked by these bandits in the wild, or that she loathes her husband for forcing her to suck him off and so on. And as a brief aside, the msex Veronica mod I've mentioned previously does wonders with the word "you". Some acts that have no animations instead give you a simple pop up, a few sentences telling you what you do, and how it makes you feel. It works, because to get there you have to have volunteered so much, the motive of your character is obvious.
As I think on it, I think the type of game that would make the best use of "you" would be something like Skyrim, but more stable and built with an idea of porn in mind, that uses simple pop ups of a few lines to describe the feelings, or inform you of minor details. Skyrim has a mod that gives something like that in relation to sex, but it pops up as text in the upper left, and it never attracts attention very well. But with a pop up, and a game built for it, you only need two or three sentences, and constructing accurate ideas of your characters feelings in just two sentences is much easier, and could easily be built into a system of measuring your activity, and creating a profile of sorts.
Anyway, those are just my thoughts on the matter. It's not really a lesson that will change Shield High at all, but it might well change how I handle a game in the future. Assuming I get there.
Pudding Earl.
Tuesday 21 February 2017
Patreon released on time. Pudding Earl forgets he has a blog.
Yes, I got Patreon release out on time. Some might even say it was early, as I had most glitches fixed within 30 minutes of beginning work, and the next problem only took about 20 minutes to solve. It turns out the method that removes the text option to ask for help looks for the character's name, and I was listing them as "Mistress." This caused many more problems than you might expect.
But either way, it was out a few hours earlier than usual and then I just...forgot to post here. Until now. So here I am, informing everyone that release was on time as always. Public release is now going to be locked in to the date I've had planned since the get go, and thus will be coming out on the 7th, the same day as my next book.
Anyway, that's it for the moment, musings resume next week as I already have a topic in mind for once.
Pudding Earl
But either way, it was out a few hours earlier than usual and then I just...forgot to post here. Until now. So here I am, informing everyone that release was on time as always. Public release is now going to be locked in to the date I've had planned since the get go, and thus will be coming out on the 7th, the same day as my next book.
Anyway, that's it for the moment, musings resume next week as I already have a topic in mind for once.
Pudding Earl
Monday 20 February 2017
A brief thought a day before a release
So, obviously I'm releasing in...about 24 hours. Most of the content is in working order, I'll need about 30-45 minutes to test all my romance content one last time but last time I checked it seemed to pick up and work. Being enslaved is in a state of half-working. The vast majority of the events work, though one seems to be a bit iffy. I can fix it quite easily I'm sure, with a little bit of tweaking to some numbers and an extra line or two of code here and there.
But the event that frees you? That's fairly broken. I'm not sure how exactly I can fix it. And the more I play the more I feel like my game is held together by tape and needs a few minor tweaks to stop things over-writing each other so readily. I'm certain I'll get to it eventually, probably during one of the many spring cleaning updates I'll be bothered enough to rework the bits that have become broken under the slowly growing weight of the content.
But, this problem got me thinking. For a game like this, where each update comes on an exact date with more or less whatever I've managed to do by then, are such problems to be expected? Is it reasonable to release the game with a bug that I'll have fixed in a couple of days, knowing if I held off I could fix it but not because it's release day so I'm releasing? Is there even any real grounds for people to complain? I mean, beyond the obvious reporting of bugs, is it something that is reasonable to be upset about? I'm not sure. I hope to not find out tomorrow, as hopefully I can pinpoint the bugs and fix them, at least in the short term while I try and sort out a way to fix some of the deeper issues that might resolve this whole problem.
Anyway, that's it, release for Patrons tomorrow with some of the wonderful content I promised, and some less wonderful versions of content I promised that will likely get expanded on a bit in the next update.
Pudding Earl
But the event that frees you? That's fairly broken. I'm not sure how exactly I can fix it. And the more I play the more I feel like my game is held together by tape and needs a few minor tweaks to stop things over-writing each other so readily. I'm certain I'll get to it eventually, probably during one of the many spring cleaning updates I'll be bothered enough to rework the bits that have become broken under the slowly growing weight of the content.
But, this problem got me thinking. For a game like this, where each update comes on an exact date with more or less whatever I've managed to do by then, are such problems to be expected? Is it reasonable to release the game with a bug that I'll have fixed in a couple of days, knowing if I held off I could fix it but not because it's release day so I'm releasing? Is there even any real grounds for people to complain? I mean, beyond the obvious reporting of bugs, is it something that is reasonable to be upset about? I'm not sure. I hope to not find out tomorrow, as hopefully I can pinpoint the bugs and fix them, at least in the short term while I try and sort out a way to fix some of the deeper issues that might resolve this whole problem.
Anyway, that's it, release for Patrons tomorrow with some of the wonderful content I promised, and some less wonderful versions of content I promised that will likely get expanded on a bit in the next update.
Pudding Earl
Monday 13 February 2017
Earl's Musings: Player Slavery and why no one ever does it probably
I'm sure I've mused about player slavery before. But in checking the list of posts I apparently haven't. So in that case, here we go, player slavery! It's one of my favorite ideas. The idea that when you lose you don't stop playing, you just become a slave. It's hot to actually experience your consequences instead of just reading a bad end story. But now that I'm adding it to Shield High, I COMPLETELY understand why it's so rare. It's such a difficult thing to make happen.
I am of course, still making it happen. Just expect slavery in this update to be slimmer than I'd promised. I'm finishing up the random events right now, and then I'm going to start building your outs. Now, I imagine my issue isn't one that most people encounter. My problem is that writing some of this content is mindnumbingly boring. I will actually have to go back and redo this event one day probably. But the main problem you encounter is "How do I make this still gameplay?" So, since shitting on Fenoxo went well, I think I'll review some other games and how they do it, and give some thoughts on the matter.
Shield High(RAGS version): Ah the vanity, putting my old work at the top of the list. Wonderful job me. Player slavery was a thing that appeared three times in Shield High. You could be Karen's slave, Andriana's slave, or Stacy's slave. Karen's slave is questionable because getting there required losing a nearly unloseable fight. However, once you were a slave, you had a pretty simple thing going on. You'd arrive at school, go and see your Mistress to get your random prescribed sex scene where she bosses you around, and then you had to try and find the plot that lead you to escape. This plot was entirely dependent on which girl enslaved you, and once you got free, I'm pretty sure the game broke. In hindsight, it wasn't the best system. It worked, but the single avenue out aspect of it is pretty lame. Overall it was a basic system that fitted the basic game but I'm not gonna call it good by any means.
Skyrim: Skyrim is probably the biggest lewd game I know. If you have a fetish for bondage and glitches, it'll be heaven. If you only like one of those things, I really hope it's glitches, but bondage will work out too. The slavery comes in the mod Sanguine's Debauchery. It's a pretty straight forward mod that makes it so that when you lose a fight you might be taken as a slave by someone who beat you. I haven't played out a full term of slavery. Why not? Because it's fucking boring. At first at least, it's a lot of sitting around and getting fucked. I'm under the impression there's more down the line, however Skyrim isn't stable enough for me to have found it. Honestly? Despite it's problems, it's still pretty good. For being modded in, it's a good solution, and I imagine a system like this built into a core game would be more enjoyable. The core problem is that you need something...more.
That having been said, there is Submissive Lola, which I do enjoy a lot. You can ask to be a slave to your companion, and once a day they fuck you (when you ask them if they want to, which is appreciated) and otherwise you go on with your adventure. However returning to towns can often result in short side quests, fetching your master something, or being paraded through town naked. There's some other things, instead of fucking you your master might apply a limitation, and you can also ask for spankings to help improve the rate you level up at. I may or may not be considering a similar feature for Shield High in the future.
Fallout New Vegas: Much like Skyrim, it's a buggy piece of shit. It's focuses are scattered and seemingly random, and overall the porn mods just aren't finished. However, there is "msex: Veronica" I think it's called. It lets you submit to or dominate Veronica and Cass. It's a bit like Submissive Lola, but I found it to be overall a more pleasant experience. You could set how long it would take for your Mistress to want something, from about 40 seconds up to 8 minutes. When the time was up, she'd talk to you, and give you a task. Sometimes it was a simple fuck, other times it was not being allowed to wear clothes, or move. Or you'd have to fuck the nearest stranger. It's a good system overall, though the not moving one was rough because it felt arbitrary. You got a small wander space, but no indication of how big it was. Otherwise however, I really enjoyed this system. Of all of them, I probably liked it the most. Content-wise it felt like it interacted with the world the most.
And so now that I've listed four methods of player slavery, the rant about why it doesn't happen much. The simple answer is making enough content to make it worth the limitations is hard. How do you make something that could go indefinitely feel fresh? I don't think you can. And that's before you consider every other question. How long should slavery last for? How much of the game should it dominate? Like, being a slave for 10 minutes every time isn't bad. But it's also not fulfilling if you're into that sort of thing. But being a slave for an hour every time might get dull. Perhaps there could be a middle of the road solution? I don't know. I've not yet solved this dilemna. All I've solved is knowing that making slavery content is hard, and I regret ever deciding to do it.
I feel there's more I could say but...1 it's long and 2 my brain is frazzled right this moment. So I shall stop here, write some book instead, and then write a bit more of this porn.
Pudding Earl
P.S. Once again, looking for recommendations on places to try out some porn games and places one can buy porn games. Suggestions on both appreciated greatly.
I am of course, still making it happen. Just expect slavery in this update to be slimmer than I'd promised. I'm finishing up the random events right now, and then I'm going to start building your outs. Now, I imagine my issue isn't one that most people encounter. My problem is that writing some of this content is mindnumbingly boring. I will actually have to go back and redo this event one day probably. But the main problem you encounter is "How do I make this still gameplay?" So, since shitting on Fenoxo went well, I think I'll review some other games and how they do it, and give some thoughts on the matter.
Shield High(RAGS version): Ah the vanity, putting my old work at the top of the list. Wonderful job me. Player slavery was a thing that appeared three times in Shield High. You could be Karen's slave, Andriana's slave, or Stacy's slave. Karen's slave is questionable because getting there required losing a nearly unloseable fight. However, once you were a slave, you had a pretty simple thing going on. You'd arrive at school, go and see your Mistress to get your random prescribed sex scene where she bosses you around, and then you had to try and find the plot that lead you to escape. This plot was entirely dependent on which girl enslaved you, and once you got free, I'm pretty sure the game broke. In hindsight, it wasn't the best system. It worked, but the single avenue out aspect of it is pretty lame. Overall it was a basic system that fitted the basic game but I'm not gonna call it good by any means.
Skyrim: Skyrim is probably the biggest lewd game I know. If you have a fetish for bondage and glitches, it'll be heaven. If you only like one of those things, I really hope it's glitches, but bondage will work out too. The slavery comes in the mod Sanguine's Debauchery. It's a pretty straight forward mod that makes it so that when you lose a fight you might be taken as a slave by someone who beat you. I haven't played out a full term of slavery. Why not? Because it's fucking boring. At first at least, it's a lot of sitting around and getting fucked. I'm under the impression there's more down the line, however Skyrim isn't stable enough for me to have found it. Honestly? Despite it's problems, it's still pretty good. For being modded in, it's a good solution, and I imagine a system like this built into a core game would be more enjoyable. The core problem is that you need something...more.
That having been said, there is Submissive Lola, which I do enjoy a lot. You can ask to be a slave to your companion, and once a day they fuck you (when you ask them if they want to, which is appreciated) and otherwise you go on with your adventure. However returning to towns can often result in short side quests, fetching your master something, or being paraded through town naked. There's some other things, instead of fucking you your master might apply a limitation, and you can also ask for spankings to help improve the rate you level up at. I may or may not be considering a similar feature for Shield High in the future.
Fallout New Vegas: Much like Skyrim, it's a buggy piece of shit. It's focuses are scattered and seemingly random, and overall the porn mods just aren't finished. However, there is "msex: Veronica" I think it's called. It lets you submit to or dominate Veronica and Cass. It's a bit like Submissive Lola, but I found it to be overall a more pleasant experience. You could set how long it would take for your Mistress to want something, from about 40 seconds up to 8 minutes. When the time was up, she'd talk to you, and give you a task. Sometimes it was a simple fuck, other times it was not being allowed to wear clothes, or move. Or you'd have to fuck the nearest stranger. It's a good system overall, though the not moving one was rough because it felt arbitrary. You got a small wander space, but no indication of how big it was. Otherwise however, I really enjoyed this system. Of all of them, I probably liked it the most. Content-wise it felt like it interacted with the world the most.
And so now that I've listed four methods of player slavery, the rant about why it doesn't happen much. The simple answer is making enough content to make it worth the limitations is hard. How do you make something that could go indefinitely feel fresh? I don't think you can. And that's before you consider every other question. How long should slavery last for? How much of the game should it dominate? Like, being a slave for 10 minutes every time isn't bad. But it's also not fulfilling if you're into that sort of thing. But being a slave for an hour every time might get dull. Perhaps there could be a middle of the road solution? I don't know. I've not yet solved this dilemna. All I've solved is knowing that making slavery content is hard, and I regret ever deciding to do it.
I feel there's more I could say but...1 it's long and 2 my brain is frazzled right this moment. So I shall stop here, write some book instead, and then write a bit more of this porn.
Pudding Earl
P.S. Once again, looking for recommendations on places to try out some porn games and places one can buy porn games. Suggestions on both appreciated greatly.
Friday 3 February 2017
Shield High 0.683 release!
Yes, I'm finally doing the public release for it. I anticipate that next month will be the last month of the release date drifting, as I'd always intended it to be the 7th, and then got impatient. So next month, 7th will be the day of release. This is done in no small part to coincide with the release of my next book, to keep my release schedule stable.
Anyway, here is download: http://www.mediafire.com/file/lf9aeru488rul0y/Shield_High_JS_0.683.7z
So what's in this update? Essentially, the ability to take some initiative on plots instead of just waiting for them to happen to you, you can now go out and make some trouble for other people. At present there is only two full plots, one for Melanie, one for Iris, and then a stub of a plot that was in there because I wanted to write something involving this idea. I'll be fleshing that one out eventually, but not for a while longer. I want to replace the event with an actual fight, which means making a new set of fight mechanics.
The addition of Melanie means there's now a bet manager. The one I made in my last attempt at Shield High was atrocious, so I learned from my mistakes and made it nothing like the last one. I'm happy with how it works for now, but it will need some tweaking in the future I'm sure. For the moment however, it works, and that's what matters.
Next release is romance plots and enslaved events. I don't know how many enslaved events you can expect, since it's going DREADFULLY slowly, but there's 5 romance plots, each of roughly twice the length of your average sex scene, so that's a good sign. I will, at the very least, get the cycle of being Karen's slave done, but I've got enough time to get escape options sorted out too I'm sure.
And finally, I have a request for a future musing. I want to talk about porn games in a broader sense, but I'm not confident that I've seen the full scope of them, and before I go making baseless accusations, I want to make sure I've seen as much as possible. As such, please throw in the comments any games you enjoy, places you go to obtain porn games(both stores and forums) and anything else that I might need to look at before I go ahead and make a fool of myself.
I hope you all enjoy the update!
Pudding Earl
Anyway, here is download: http://www.mediafire.com/file/lf9aeru488rul0y/Shield_High_JS_0.683.7z
So what's in this update? Essentially, the ability to take some initiative on plots instead of just waiting for them to happen to you, you can now go out and make some trouble for other people. At present there is only two full plots, one for Melanie, one for Iris, and then a stub of a plot that was in there because I wanted to write something involving this idea. I'll be fleshing that one out eventually, but not for a while longer. I want to replace the event with an actual fight, which means making a new set of fight mechanics.
The addition of Melanie means there's now a bet manager. The one I made in my last attempt at Shield High was atrocious, so I learned from my mistakes and made it nothing like the last one. I'm happy with how it works for now, but it will need some tweaking in the future I'm sure. For the moment however, it works, and that's what matters.
Next release is romance plots and enslaved events. I don't know how many enslaved events you can expect, since it's going DREADFULLY slowly, but there's 5 romance plots, each of roughly twice the length of your average sex scene, so that's a good sign. I will, at the very least, get the cycle of being Karen's slave done, but I've got enough time to get escape options sorted out too I'm sure.
And finally, I have a request for a future musing. I want to talk about porn games in a broader sense, but I'm not confident that I've seen the full scope of them, and before I go making baseless accusations, I want to make sure I've seen as much as possible. As such, please throw in the comments any games you enjoy, places you go to obtain porn games(both stores and forums) and anything else that I might need to look at before I go ahead and make a fool of myself.
I hope you all enjoy the update!
Pudding Earl
Sunday 29 January 2017
Earl's Musings: Describing Stuff
So, this past week I've been hard at work making all of my romances be good. So far we've got Angel, Iris, Jillian and Melanie all primed up with their first dates, and Josie is on the way after them. In writing these dates, I've spent a lot of time writing stuff that isn't sex. It's been fun, but I always worry I'm going too long with them, with the average scene taking about 4 entries to get to the sex. But then I reason it's romance and it needs to be different from normal sex, so of course it's going to take a bit of time exploring the characters and maybe a bit of the world while I'm at it. I know no one cares but I put some effort into this backstory and damnit I'm going to slip my clues in.
But then tonight I played some Corruption of Champions again. The game that first inspired me to start Shield High, in no small part because, in my opinion, everything Fenoxo does is obsessed with dicks and I just want some good lesbian stuff damnit. And in playing, I started to notice a trend that happens to me a lot when playing Fenoxo's games. I ended up skimming. Like, a lot. It always feels as if the text is kind of...in the way, rather than being an engaging part of the game. And upon reflection, I think the issue I take with it is how long it spends describing things.
I'm aware of the hypocrisy in this, I often stop to describe things in Shield High, at least when going home or to other girls houses. But it feels a bit over the top in CoC. For me at least, I'm sure other people really enjoy it. Which gives me two questions really, am I the odd one out in feeling this way? Do most other people enjoy the big descriptions? Or do you prefer a more minimalist approach with your porn? That was three questions, but they're really just like, lots of ways to ask the first one. The second question is how much description is enough? How much is too much?
I don't have an answer to that question. I'm just pondering it here. I have a theory that the amount of description that's acceptable is dependent entirely on the access to the porn. If the description is slowing people down from getting to the porn they want, it's probably too much. Though, perhaps that's the answer. Weave your sex content into your descriptions with enough regularity that you can ride the good will to the end. Someone remind me I made this post for my next game, I need to remember to test that theory.
Anyway, that's it for today, release SOON(tm)
Pudding Earl
But then tonight I played some Corruption of Champions again. The game that first inspired me to start Shield High, in no small part because, in my opinion, everything Fenoxo does is obsessed with dicks and I just want some good lesbian stuff damnit. And in playing, I started to notice a trend that happens to me a lot when playing Fenoxo's games. I ended up skimming. Like, a lot. It always feels as if the text is kind of...in the way, rather than being an engaging part of the game. And upon reflection, I think the issue I take with it is how long it spends describing things.
I'm aware of the hypocrisy in this, I often stop to describe things in Shield High, at least when going home or to other girls houses. But it feels a bit over the top in CoC. For me at least, I'm sure other people really enjoy it. Which gives me two questions really, am I the odd one out in feeling this way? Do most other people enjoy the big descriptions? Or do you prefer a more minimalist approach with your porn? That was three questions, but they're really just like, lots of ways to ask the first one. The second question is how much description is enough? How much is too much?
I don't have an answer to that question. I'm just pondering it here. I have a theory that the amount of description that's acceptable is dependent entirely on the access to the porn. If the description is slowing people down from getting to the porn they want, it's probably too much. Though, perhaps that's the answer. Weave your sex content into your descriptions with enough regularity that you can ride the good will to the end. Someone remind me I made this post for my next game, I need to remember to test that theory.
Anyway, that's it for today, release SOON(tm)
Pudding Earl
Saturday 21 January 2017
Patreon News
So, as is customary at this stage, I'm throwing a post here simply to let everyone know that the new version is up on Patreon today. I do this in no small part to suggest that those of you who wish to begin a patronage but haven't yet done so should do so now, but also, and this is the main reason, to continue to highlight that I'm staying on time with these things. Main reason for that is to keep holding me accountable to a wider audience, and thus motivate me harder to keep being on time.
And now a brief word about the next version. This one is, as I've said a lot, the making trouble update. You can chase three plots which I'll give more info on when I release. Next update however will be the Love and Slaves update. It'll be about 1. Adding romance options. I plan to make Melanie, Iris, and Angel all functional romance partners, as well as possibly Josie and Jillian if time allows. And 2. Being a slave. I plan to add in BASIC functionality for being enslaved by Karen and maybe Samantha? Exactly how much of this gets done is really down to how much time the framework takes to make, and how much time the romance writing takes and so on. I have a solid week home alone in which to try(and likely fail) to power out extra content, so we'll see how this all goes.
So yes, that is update. More musings to come later in the week when I feel like it. Probably on the future of porn games according to me.
Pudding Earl
And now a brief word about the next version. This one is, as I've said a lot, the making trouble update. You can chase three plots which I'll give more info on when I release. Next update however will be the Love and Slaves update. It'll be about 1. Adding romance options. I plan to make Melanie, Iris, and Angel all functional romance partners, as well as possibly Josie and Jillian if time allows. And 2. Being a slave. I plan to add in BASIC functionality for being enslaved by Karen and maybe Samantha? Exactly how much of this gets done is really down to how much time the framework takes to make, and how much time the romance writing takes and so on. I have a solid week home alone in which to try(and likely fail) to power out extra content, so we'll see how this all goes.
So yes, that is update. More musings to come later in the week when I feel like it. Probably on the future of porn games according to me.
Pudding Earl
Sunday 15 January 2017
Earl's Musings: Questionable Fetishes in Porn Games
I should preface this musing with two things. First is I literally only just thought of this topic after a week of not knowing what to muse about. That's why it's a little later than normal. Second, I should really qualify what I mean by "Questionable Fetishes" before I get too deep into this.
When I say questionable fetishes, I don't mean they're questionable in that "Why would anyone like that?" I'm well aware people are into some pretty weird shit, and since I write about lesbians fighting to rape each other on the internet, I'm in NO position to judge. I more mean fetishes that are hit or miss with people. Specifically ones that have a broad spectrum. So, things like Pedophilia or Scat aren't considered questionable in this case, one is morally reprehensible to act on(I'll concede you can't help what you like, and if you're masturbating to lolis and leaving it at that, you get a pass) and the other is just disgusting to the people not into it. I'm more referring to the fetishes that get a big yes from some, an "Eh, it's kinda hot I guess" from others, and a "This upsets me greatly" to others. For instance, fetishised misogyny, raceplay, maybe pregnancy and breeding, cuckold stuff etc.
These basically fall into two categories. "I'm not comfortable with this fetish, it's an active turn off for me." (Pregnancy and Cuckold in my case), and "I'm kind of concerned the guy who wrote this might actually believe this stuff" (misogyny and raceplay, from the above examples). It's the second category I'm particularly interested in today, but I'll share some thoughts on both while I'm at it. Right now the question hanging on my mind is something along the lines of "Do I have any responsibility when including such fetishes?" Or rather, does anyone making a porn game have any responsibility in doing it. Should some be avoided out of tact?
I'll start with the tamer choice, category one. Category one is overall less of an issue in my books. Cuckold and pregnancy stuff quite often are fairly niche interests, either they're clearly labelled as existing in the game, because they're a core component, or they're not. And if that's the case, no issues. But what if they're not a core element? What if I just include one cuckold scene as a consequence for some shitty decisions you make? Should I warn about that? I'm really conflicted on this front. On the one hand, a warning would be useful, you know what you're getting into. On the other hand, I feel like spoiling the kind of content that might appear in the course of a game isn't as exciting. And in the case of a well made porn game, either the scenes I'm seeing are because I have willingly chosen for this outcome, or I have made some mistakes along the way, and the outcome is the consequence of my choices, a thing that I hold as (at least kind of) sacred in porn games. There's also the simple fact the player could close it. If they're saving regularly they can reload back and do it again. Or if they haven't they could just, not read the text, skip through it to the next event as I often do in Shield High.
In conclusion for point one: I don't have an answer, but I'd probably lean on the side of include it without warning. Or maybe a small warning tucked away somewhere you can find it if you want it, or avoid it if you don't.
Next up is category two. Now this one is interesting because it also has a degree of extremism. It could be a simple playful joke between lovers, it could be a full on hate-filled moment. Sexism and racism are also much bigger issues of late than they were when I first started Shield High. The majority of the previous discussion remains in place, but with one new element, in that the inclusion, if handled poorly, might ostracize elements of your audience. For instance, if I included a girl named Laquisha who Jessica openly calls a nigger, I'm almost certain at least one person would be upset by this. And with good reason, it'd be such an over the top use of stereotypes, that even if the scene was hot, and ended harmlessly, I think it'd be a bit too much. But, since I am including raceplay as a thing in at least one scene, do I need to use some stereotype? I mean, without it, does the raceplay lose it's appeal? Can I justify using stereotypes in that case? I think I kind of am, so long as it's not totally hollow. If there's something behind the stereotypes, or something going on beyond just "Here's your stereotypical black girl to do the sex with" then I think it'd be okay.
But I'm not 100% sure, so this is a point where I put it to you, my dear audience. What do you think about the whole raceplay thing? Opinions might influence this update.
And as a quick aside about the update, holy shit, it's taken SO MUCH work, but Melanie is done. The reason she took so long is I had to program in a way to remove old events that can be safely removed when you issue a challenge. Then I had to program a bet manager. Then I had to add in relationship bonuses for conversations to make Angel charmable. And then I had to write out the 3 possible sex endings to the plot, 2 of which involved multiple choice ending just about doubling their length. But now it's done, so Iris is coming up next.
Pudding Earl.
When I say questionable fetishes, I don't mean they're questionable in that "Why would anyone like that?" I'm well aware people are into some pretty weird shit, and since I write about lesbians fighting to rape each other on the internet, I'm in NO position to judge. I more mean fetishes that are hit or miss with people. Specifically ones that have a broad spectrum. So, things like Pedophilia or Scat aren't considered questionable in this case, one is morally reprehensible to act on(I'll concede you can't help what you like, and if you're masturbating to lolis and leaving it at that, you get a pass) and the other is just disgusting to the people not into it. I'm more referring to the fetishes that get a big yes from some, an "Eh, it's kinda hot I guess" from others, and a "This upsets me greatly" to others. For instance, fetishised misogyny, raceplay, maybe pregnancy and breeding, cuckold stuff etc.
These basically fall into two categories. "I'm not comfortable with this fetish, it's an active turn off for me." (Pregnancy and Cuckold in my case), and "I'm kind of concerned the guy who wrote this might actually believe this stuff" (misogyny and raceplay, from the above examples). It's the second category I'm particularly interested in today, but I'll share some thoughts on both while I'm at it. Right now the question hanging on my mind is something along the lines of "Do I have any responsibility when including such fetishes?" Or rather, does anyone making a porn game have any responsibility in doing it. Should some be avoided out of tact?
I'll start with the tamer choice, category one. Category one is overall less of an issue in my books. Cuckold and pregnancy stuff quite often are fairly niche interests, either they're clearly labelled as existing in the game, because they're a core component, or they're not. And if that's the case, no issues. But what if they're not a core element? What if I just include one cuckold scene as a consequence for some shitty decisions you make? Should I warn about that? I'm really conflicted on this front. On the one hand, a warning would be useful, you know what you're getting into. On the other hand, I feel like spoiling the kind of content that might appear in the course of a game isn't as exciting. And in the case of a well made porn game, either the scenes I'm seeing are because I have willingly chosen for this outcome, or I have made some mistakes along the way, and the outcome is the consequence of my choices, a thing that I hold as (at least kind of) sacred in porn games. There's also the simple fact the player could close it. If they're saving regularly they can reload back and do it again. Or if they haven't they could just, not read the text, skip through it to the next event as I often do in Shield High.
In conclusion for point one: I don't have an answer, but I'd probably lean on the side of include it without warning. Or maybe a small warning tucked away somewhere you can find it if you want it, or avoid it if you don't.
Next up is category two. Now this one is interesting because it also has a degree of extremism. It could be a simple playful joke between lovers, it could be a full on hate-filled moment. Sexism and racism are also much bigger issues of late than they were when I first started Shield High. The majority of the previous discussion remains in place, but with one new element, in that the inclusion, if handled poorly, might ostracize elements of your audience. For instance, if I included a girl named Laquisha who Jessica openly calls a nigger, I'm almost certain at least one person would be upset by this. And with good reason, it'd be such an over the top use of stereotypes, that even if the scene was hot, and ended harmlessly, I think it'd be a bit too much. But, since I am including raceplay as a thing in at least one scene, do I need to use some stereotype? I mean, without it, does the raceplay lose it's appeal? Can I justify using stereotypes in that case? I think I kind of am, so long as it's not totally hollow. If there's something behind the stereotypes, or something going on beyond just "Here's your stereotypical black girl to do the sex with" then I think it'd be okay.
But I'm not 100% sure, so this is a point where I put it to you, my dear audience. What do you think about the whole raceplay thing? Opinions might influence this update.
And as a quick aside about the update, holy shit, it's taken SO MUCH work, but Melanie is done. The reason she took so long is I had to program in a way to remove old events that can be safely removed when you issue a challenge. Then I had to program a bet manager. Then I had to add in relationship bonuses for conversations to make Angel charmable. And then I had to write out the 3 possible sex endings to the plot, 2 of which involved multiple choice ending just about doubling their length. But now it's done, so Iris is coming up next.
Pudding Earl.
Saturday 7 January 2017
A mixed bag of things
Having done a bunch of advertising last week, I've noticed my traffic running MUCH higher than usual, as is to be expected when one does advertising, so I figured now that the initial burst has died down and everyone has probably downloaded the game, it won't be a huge issue if I make a new post and bump the actual update down a bit.
So, first off, for the new people, in case you feel like supporting me, I have a Patreon. It's advertised on the sidebar but it's small, and quite easy to miss so I figured I'd just bring it to everyone's attention now. It charges monthly, and gives you early access to every game update, coming on the 21st of the month. The public release varies on when it comes out based entirely on my whims, so if you want a regular time to get it, it's just $5 a month for that. Or if you want a guaranteed say in how the game develops you can pay $10 or $20 to get a vote on what the next month's update will contain. Currently I have no patrons for that much, so I'm just doing whatever I feel needs doing next.
The patreon can be found here: https://www.patreon.com/PuddingGames
If you feel like supporting me but for some reason hate Patreon, I'm also putting out a series of books on Amazon. They aren't smutty, so I appreciate that the vast majority of my fans won't be interested, but if mechs are a thing you like, consider checking them out.
I put out the fourth book today, which can be found here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01NAQD8BK
And to save anyone the effort of digging if they're interested, first book is here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LQ5W5G4
And finally, an update on how the next version is coming along. The post-fight Melanie scene was...long and painful to write. Mostly because I did 5 text entries, and THEN had to split it into three chains. So the chains were shafted a bit to be shorter, otherwise the whole thing would be too long. I've also got a template set up for socialising, and will in later updates be handing out chatting with most characters. Probably a spring cleaning update honestly. I'd have liked to be further forward on development, but the previous update has spawned so many problems I'm going to need to chase down every bug and fix them all. I'm making progress, but there's more.
Anyway, that's it for this week. Earl's Musing again next week.
Pudding Earl
So, first off, for the new people, in case you feel like supporting me, I have a Patreon. It's advertised on the sidebar but it's small, and quite easy to miss so I figured I'd just bring it to everyone's attention now. It charges monthly, and gives you early access to every game update, coming on the 21st of the month. The public release varies on when it comes out based entirely on my whims, so if you want a regular time to get it, it's just $5 a month for that. Or if you want a guaranteed say in how the game develops you can pay $10 or $20 to get a vote on what the next month's update will contain. Currently I have no patrons for that much, so I'm just doing whatever I feel needs doing next.
The patreon can be found here: https://www.patreon.com/PuddingGames
If you feel like supporting me but for some reason hate Patreon, I'm also putting out a series of books on Amazon. They aren't smutty, so I appreciate that the vast majority of my fans won't be interested, but if mechs are a thing you like, consider checking them out.
I put out the fourth book today, which can be found here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01NAQD8BK
And to save anyone the effort of digging if they're interested, first book is here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LQ5W5G4
And finally, an update on how the next version is coming along. The post-fight Melanie scene was...long and painful to write. Mostly because I did 5 text entries, and THEN had to split it into three chains. So the chains were shafted a bit to be shorter, otherwise the whole thing would be too long. I've also got a template set up for socialising, and will in later updates be handing out chatting with most characters. Probably a spring cleaning update honestly. I'd have liked to be further forward on development, but the previous update has spawned so many problems I'm going to need to chase down every bug and fix them all. I'm making progress, but there's more.
Anyway, that's it for this week. Earl's Musing again next week.
Pudding Earl
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