Hard at Work 3

Hello everyone, it's been another productive week for AW development! We've mostly been working on expanding dating and adding locations to date and hangout spots, as well as some basic relationship items. Before I get into the meat of the update, have a copy of this wallpaper I made last weekend for no particular reason...

I saw the original photo and thought it would look really neat if it was some sort of large vat or expanse of water instead of a small bathtub... so... yeah. ;)

With the work I completed today, it's now possible to progress in your relationship with an NPC, going all the way to being engaged. The NPC may be the one to suggest advancing your relationship (such as being the first to say "I love you", for example), or you can be the one to suggest it. You can also break up with an NPC as well, of course.

The credits screen has (finally) been updated with all of the AW supporters to date. I've carefully checked each listing to make sure no identifiable information is present. The start screen also shares a small "This game was made possible by ..." message, randomly displaying a supporter. There were also a couple of other minor updates to the start screen that I did last weekend to make it look a little nicer.

The text was also pretty well out-of-date, so I updated that too. :D

There is a new world event involving a certain van, for characters with a particularly youthful appearance...

Like most things, there is also the chance for your decisions to lead to a less-than-positive outcome...

The bad ending for that particular encounter is fleshed out like the one for getting caught by the APD while naked too many times, just due to time constraints. All the endings will eventually be getting attention to write out the story content of what happens for each, there's a lot of fun ideas. (After all, while the ending may be bad for the character, it doesn't mean it can't be fun for the player!)

The dark stuff in this version sparked a little creativity in me while thinking about some of the other "less-than-friendly" characters in Appletree, so I ended up creating this portrait. He's for a character that's been planned for a very long time, tentatively known as "Jimbob". I don't want to spoil anything for you, so I'll only say that he's the reason the forest in the north of Muschi valley got the name "Angler".

Wanna go Fishin'?

The last bit of news is more integration of the AI system into dating, but we're going to proceed cautiously in that regard and slowly hand over more control to the AI for determining the outcome of NPC-related affairs. :D

We're on-time for release (it's actually looking like we're ahead for once... knock on wood!), so we should be good to go to have our last framework-focused update on April 2nd. 

That's all for now, have a great weekend!

ThaumX

Industrious (Hard at Work 2)

Hello everyone!

It feels like it's been a while since my last blog post, but I guess it's only been 5 days. Maybe it feels like it's been a while because we've gotten a lot done in the past few days. Things are all coming together, and yesterday I finished the code on the last major piece of the AW Framework (the Event System). Besty has put in the Hangouts System, which is largely based on the Dating System, and we've been putting in even more stuff.

Like... you can now get caught running around in too little clothing, with an interesting scene that can happen there. there is now a function to tell if you named your character something like "dickslut" so that NPCs can look at you funny. Boob-Juice has been improved, there's the first sexy std in the game, a suicide option, a lot of improved data validation, more game encyclopedia entries, and more... Oh, and now we have a SubscribeStar page as a backup to make sure the porn train doesn't derail. 

So yep, we've been industrious porn devs this week. ^_^

Before I start talking about the event system, let me share a totally random selection of new images... (because why not?)

Besty loves making naughty clothes for the paper doll girl.

Everyone loves a good movie, especially when it involves unrestrained genetic science! 

Hanging out

Massages are a great way to relax and take a load out off.

Not all police are so intimidating.

Because shooting things is fun!

The Event System

The event system is the last major piece of the "making stuff happen" framework in AW. It complements the Omni System in terms of causing things to happen, but rather than short-fuse timers and effects, the event system focuses more on long-fuse items, game story, and (surprise!) events. Checking for a police officer in the area while you're buck naked, running a skill check to see if you avoid detection, and then handling the outcome... is something that the event system handles. It's also expandable and can be modded, of course.

It's actually split into three sets of events: 1) map and travel, 2) mechanics items, 3) game story. Events can be set up to only be valid during certain periods, or only after certain other events have happened, and many more options. In order to keep the checking of events from slowing things down and interfering with gameplay, it uses a special setup with a recursive async function that leaves small processing gaps at regular intervals. It basically runs in the background while you're reading or otherwise occupied.

In fact, it even has a system of check order randomization, to ensure that it doesn't fall into a situation where it checks certain events more than others if there are a lot of events to look at. I've also made it modular enough that should the number of events somehow overwhelm it, it can be adjusted in a rather straight-forward way to remedy the issue by tying the check cycle to a different game system.

Overall, the special handling of the Event System in regard to processing events is likely overkill, and it would likely be fine not to pay so much attention to it. However, because the system is a likely spot for content to be added over time--both officially and through mods--I wanted to make sure it wasn't going to become a problem down the line when there is a metric fuckton of events thrown at it. :D

A Closing Thought

I'm really excited about the place AW is in now. I know it's been a somewhat tedious journey so far, as most of the development effort has gone into developing the game's framework rather than content. Realistically, 80+% of the development work so far has been toward code, with the remaining being used to make some limited content to show off new systems as they are added. I'm really looking forward to phase III and focusing on content starting in April. The split will flip the other way, with the majority of time spent writing and the rest spent coding small things that go along with the content.

I think it is fortuitous that this change is happening at the start of spring. Traditionally, spring is seen as a season where the world comes to life and the birds and the bees get busy. It's a good time for AW to start coming to life with content. 

Thank you all for your support, because without you, I certainly wouldn't have made it to AW's spring! 

APPLETREE POLICE DEPARTMENT WARNING

Hello everyone,

It has been a long and tiring week, and I come with a little bad news. It seems Innoxia's page for Lilith's Throne has been put 'under review' by Patreon.

While there are a lot of differences between Lilith's Throne and Accidental Woman, I still find its removal concerning. I also find it interesting that it's being removed for certain elements of gameplay that is essentially identical to games like TiTS. (Update: The shared gameplay elements I'm talking about are obviously the gratuitous noncon/rape, as TiTS removed its relatively minor incest content several weeks ago.) and  I wonder if the larger games will be spared because of their high pledge value, or if they too will eventually be removed.

Not too long ago I promised that I would investigate some options for alternative funding methods in case the worst happens, and share that information with my fellow creators and followers. I don't want Accidental Woman as a project/ideal to die because of deplatforming. I've been really inspired by some of the creators out there working on interesting projects that have expanded the genre. I remember when adult games were basically limited to Japanese eroge/nukage and simple flash click games. Part of what I've wanted with Accidental Woman, as I've said many times before, is to help inspire other creators and demonstrate that the genre can keep growing to be more than it was before. 

To be clear, while some people may not care for Patreon's shifting policy and somewhat loose interpretation of that policy, it's still their right to have whatever policy they want. I'm not angry at them, and I am thankful that they allowed the adult games community to come to life in a time when creating adult games was essentially limited to being a hobby.

An Aside: Why don't payment processors like PayPal and Stripe like porn?

While it's easy to attribute this to some sort of moral or political stance, it's more about money. The online porn industry has some of the highest rates of fraud around, with fraud on both the buyer and seller side. There are scuzzy misleading or downright fraudulent websites, as well as sites that essentially operate as a front to charge stolen CC accounts. On the other side, there are people who contest porn charges for less than honest reasons. Payment processors don't want to bother with any of that. 

Let's Get It On Already

And by "On", I'm of course talking about my look at other funding platforms. Of course.

For each platform, listed below, I'm going to give a brief look at the positives and negatives and cover some of the basic information about the platform such as cost, flexibility, content restrictions, and other topics as relevant. I'm no funding platform expert, and I obviously haven't been able to USE most of these, so most of the information is based on basic research and information put out by the companies themselves. Still, I hope it will be useful for some of you out there!

One important note: There are several membership platforms that aren't listed here, including some popular ones like GumRoad. This is because the platform either:

1. Doesn't allow adult content (or is excessively restrictive in content that is allowed). This includes GumRoad, BuyMeACoffee and many more.
2. Has an operational model that isn't very compatible with adult game development.
3. I haven't heard about it somehow... Let me know and I'll update my list, but relatively unknown platforms should be approached with caution.

Cost: 5% of subscriptions + 3.5 to 5% in transaction fees.

Adult Allowed: Yes, though support and content are growing increasingly restricted.

Services: provides a limited blog on Patreon.com, provides some member management and analytics tools to creators, allows tiered subscriptions and content gating by tier.

Pros:

• Patreon has a large user base, and it is easy for existing users to start pledging to a new creator (good for visitor conversion).
• Patreon doesn't charge a monthly fee to creators, so projects just starting out don't have to cover any fees out of limited subscriptions.
• Discord integration, and integration with certain social media platforms

Cons:

• Limited customization of creator's page, and simplistic tools for blog entries and posting content.
• Frequent technical issues on the platform. Limited support
• Increasingly strict and unpredictable content rules, with an overall push away from adult content altogether.
• High cost, particularly for creators who make more than a few hundred per month.
• Creators hidden from searches on the platform, even direct searches for the creator.

Patreon is basically the current king of monthly subscription-based crowdfunding. Because of the large number of users, and people's familiarity with the brand, it is likely easier to get a person visiting your page on Patreon to subscribe. This is, of course, a bit of a supposition, as until recently basically all the major adult games have been on Patreon. This means that there isn't a lot to compare to... and when you're dealing with something as important as your game project, people tend not to want to just leave and see what happens.

Cost: Your time and sanity, but otherwise none.

Adult: Yep, though not via the popular third-party transaction processors like PayPal

Services: None whatsoever. You'll need to build any 'services' yourself.

Pros:

• Nobody to tell you what kind of content you can or can't create, as long as it isn't illegal, you can do it.
• You keep most of the money from your supporters, and some transaction processors like CCBill offer subscriptions and such as well.
• You have control over everything.

Cons:

• You have control over everything... basically, you have to DO everything.
• The term "user-friendly" shouldn't be uttered in the same conversation as any discussion about this option.
• This requires a lot more work on your part, and if you don't have a website already, you'll need one.

This option could work for certain creators out there, but honestly, it's probably too much work for a dedicated developer. Not only does it require more work, but you'll also have to learn. It also caries about no benefits in terms of an existing user base or services offered from an actual platform. It IS possible, but it also seems like the toughest choice.

Cost: Unknown, possibly something like 5%, maybe.

Adult: While not strictly official just yet, probably not...

Services: Available when the platform actually launches.

Pros:

• The platform is associated with Kickstarter, which also has a large community of users, most like exceeding that of Patreon.
• Likely a good platform from a technical perspective, but only time will tell.

Cons:

• Hasn't actually officially launched yet, still a very exclusive beta for certain creators.
• Likely will have hardcore censorship, and probably won't allow adult content at all.

This platform is really here only for completeness. It's basically expected to be worthless thanks to the expectation of strict content restrictions... It could turn out differently though, which would definitely be interesting.

Cost: Like Patreon, but add an extra 5%

Adult: Yesish. I didn't investigate thoroughly because of a) cost, and b) Patreon

Services: Similar to Patreon, but actually use your own branded page/website. Also adds some newsletter functionality.

Pros:

• I am unaware of any real pros to this service that aren't also offered by Patreon.

Cons:

• Expensive. Very very expensive.
• They want to put Memberful branding all over everything anyway.
• Owned by Patreon, with a similar expectation for quality of service and technical support.

Just no. I'm not actually sure how this is a viable platform at all, let alone for adult game development. Still, it's a possibility.

Cost: Just the transaction fees.

Adult: France

Services: Basic subscription donation platform. No content distribution or anything like that.

Pros:

• This is a true donation platform, where people donate money to help keep you working. This is great for non-commercial projects.
• Incredibly cheap, as it's essentially a non-profit operation.
• Donations/gifts are a lot nicer on your taxes.
• Started in France.

Cons:

• No commercialization allowed, you cant use the platform to unlock content or anything like that.
• Basically incompatible with most adult game development projects (but could be great for some).
• Started in France.

This is a pretty cool platform, and it's really about actual patronage and supporting creators you care about. Better yet, as a donator, you can use all your donations as tax write-offs in many countries. Still, the strict limits in place because of the donation aspect also make this unsuitable for a lot of projects. Definitely a case of "awesome if it fits, pointless otherwise."

UPDATE: According to Hentai Writer, Podia does, in fact, restrict adult content. I spoke to a representative and they didn't mention anything about it being forbidden, but I'm guessing there are some restrictions hidden somewhere, with some selective enforcement... so probably best to avoid.

Cost: Flat monthly/yearly fee - $79/month or $800/year (and no transaction fees)

Adult: Whatever you want, as long as it isn't illegal. 

Services: Storefront/web hosting, website integration, free platform migration service (to migrate from places like Patreon), blogging/analytics/etc. Offers more flexible subscriptions as well as the ability to sell digital downloads and merchandise directly. Multi-subscription support, for splitting up projects. Integration into your webpage, etc. etc. etc. (Basically the most I've seen out of all the platforms I investigated.)

Pros: 

• Competent platform run by people with experience in the field.
• A platform dedicated to creators, funded by flat fee so there isn't bias.
• Very inexpensive for creators that bring in $2,000 or more per month.
• Competent content hosting, and distribution for direct sales.
• Greater flexibility in subscription and sales options.
• A lot of support options, and free migration support.

Cons:

• Expensive for smaller creators, if you make less than $1,000 per month the fees are more than patreon (though you get a lot more for it).
• Not as simple as slapping a few paragraphs and a couple pictures onto a platform creator page.
• Not a "community" type option in the same way as other platforms, it's essentially your own professional brand, which means that you won't be getting a lot of traffic via recommendations or platform searches. I'm not entirely sure how big of a deal this is... Patreon only does part of this for adult creators.
• Lack of the "already supporting stuff on here" subscriber conversion.

Update: According to Hentai Writer, the adult video creator section also supports membership/subscription for games in addition to videos, I'll need to check out the details.

Cost: 

Adult: You serious?

Services: All the porn, 55gallon barrels of lube, find hot singles in your area.

Pros:

• 
  

Cons: 

• 
  

UPDATE: For adult projects, the cost is 5% plus transaction fees, not 3%

Cost: 5% + transaction fees
Adult: Yes, content must be legal (of course). 
Services: Basically what Patreon does, except a little better technically, and without the douchiness.

Pros:

• A friendlier more down-to-earth company that is still about supporting creators... kind of like how Patreon used to be years ago.
• Similar sort of subscriber atmosphere as Patreon, which would encourage community conversion. 
• Lower prices than Patreon, possibly significantly so depending on whether transaction fees are inflated and if so, to what level.
• Doesn't seem to be against sex or other things that responsible adults do. In fact, created its own adult subpage specifically for adult content creators.
• Seems to be growing fairly quickly as an alternative to Patreon.

Cons:

• Not fully set up yet for adult content. Update - now has a special /adult page for adult creators!
• Experienced some early technical issues, as well as some attacks by some kind of social justice warrior group... not really sure of the details on that, it seems to be resolved now. 

This option looks pretty good, though it's still fairly early, as the site hasn't been around for a very long time. Incidentally, this seems to be the likely location for Innoxia's Lilith's Throne. I personally will be watching closely there, to see how those things go. SubscribeStar has a lot of promise, but it's also still pretty early.

Whew... That's all for now. Let me know if you know of another platform you'd like added to the list!

Take care, and stay pervy my friends.

ThaumX

The Eating Out Release - Version 0.20.0

Whew, well it's about time. We ended up doing a good deal more than we expected to do this last month, and I think we finally have a really solid release. Of course, now that I said that... well, knock on wood and all that, lol.

This release focused heavily on some systems integration and some refactoring and improvements, as well as the integral dating system framework. It's now possible to text an NPC (or stalk them on the streets), set up a date, go on the date, eat some ice cream, and then head back to somebody's place for some sexytimes. The content is still somewhat light while dating, as expected for the framework, but it's still pretty neat. We also made the system expansible like most other things, so that means it'll be possible to expand dates in all sorts of perverted ways. Of course, there are also all sorts of other small additions and improvements, as well as SVG portraits.

I really hope you guys enjoy it!

Work Report:

So we put in 379 hours between the two of us in just 4 weeks. Whew, I feel a bit worn out. But I'm really happy with the work we got done, and the state of AW. As usual, you can check out the summary report and/or the detailed report of our shenanigans.

Known Issues and Compatibility

Unfortunately, the changes to SugarCube's save system is going to result in your saves being eaten by hungry internet sharks. If you want to bring a v19 save forward to v20, open up the game in v19 FIRST, load the save you wish to keep, and then save to file. You can then import the save from file in v20. There may be minor shenanigans from v19 saves, but for the most part, they should work okay. We hope.

Autosaves... seem to be persnickety right now. There's some delicate balance to get them to save properly in the convenient overnight spot. They seem to be working, but there's still a possibility that they may not execute properly on some machines. Check out an overnight autosave from v20 before depending on them.

Slavification. There is some less-than-stellar grammar in a few areas where new content was added at a rate faster than we could proofread. Don't worry, it's not permanent or anything, I just rather not block out a bunch of content just because of grammar.

Version 0.20 Changes

Words:    1,685,590     Characters:     9,796,421     Code Lines:     167,718

• Expanded and refactored the alcohol intoxication system.
• You now properly gain intoxication from drinking, and intoxication decreases with time.
• high levels of intoxication cause dizziness and nausea, and there's a chance you'll throw up (which decreases alcohol level slightly).
• The "puke scene" has an interesting image.
• Russian-level drinking will cause alcohol poisoning, which is no bueno.
• Refactored the Omni System.
• Omni events are much more stable.
• Expanded error handling to prevent game crashes/bugs from an error with an Omni event or the system itself.
• Some event bugs have been fixed, existing Omni events work nicely.
• Omni system performance has been improved.
• Added a massive amount of data validation and verification into the game's data storage objects.
• Values are inherently kept within allowable thresholds and attempts to set an invalid (bug) value are rejected and reported.
• Improved tracking of player data for better analysis of game balance and bug hunting.
• Save file size reduced.
• Inefficiencies in SugarCube's game save system mostly eliminated.
• Saving the game and loading the game is not affected by the number of existing saves.
• Time to create a save slashed dramatically (takes only 10 to 15% of previous save time), the time required to load a save improved as well.
• Save display menu inefficiency still present, so opening the game save menu can be slow with several saves present (it's on the to-do list).
• Created image display tool to assist players in customizing game images.
• Available from the mod loading page.
• Shows all game images in thumbnail format with their image data key and the dimensions. Makes replacing or reusing image assets easy.
• New Arcanist Codeworks logo. (Basically, me deciding there should be some sort company/brand name for the project beyond just "that guy ThaumX". I'll discuss it later in a dev blog post.)
• Improvements to the Scenario System.
• Easier to use for content, with some fixes/improvements for stability and performance.
• Slightly updated appearance to look 32% less ugly.
• Phone UI menu improvement
• Available shortcut buttons on the phone UI menu are now customizable.
• Several new shortcut icons with direct access to commonly-used menus are now available, such as the "Inventory" and "Actions" menus.
• Access customization settings from the game settings/theme menu.
• Fixed the padding issue with the storefront display causing text to use a limited portion of the screen even in locations without a storefront area.
• Added SASS (SCSS) to the game's compile process, allowing the use of SCSS for more consise and consistent style sheets, as well as making more dynamic displays easier to create and maintain.
• Added the Date System to the game, which is for dating NPCs, not a calendar.
• You can now properly go on a date with an NPC when you meet them at the place and time you set for your date.
• Dates affect your relationship with NPCs, with gooey things like love and friendship. (note, proper scenes for switching between relationship types, such as becoming engaged and etc. are not implemented.)
• Date Spots system of expansible locations around Appletree added.
• Includes special activities as well as potential events and other mischiefs.
• A limited set of date spots are currently available.
• Dates can end in sex, or your date can reject your sorry ass.
• System for suggesting locations or following along with your NPC date's choices allows for varied date progression, as well as allowing some interesting relationship dynamics later on.
• NPC AI System partially integrated into the date system.
• NPCs will form opinions using the game's tag language and learning software, to determine how much they like certain things.
• Systems are in place to expand the authority of the AI System as the AI behavior becomes more reliable. (basically, it's set up, we just don't want to turn dates into chaos courtesy of crazy AI behavior)
• Made some basic style improvements to the game.
• Splash screen is now more subdued.
• "disabled" buttons no longer glare at you angrily.
• background patterns darkened and unified to be more consistent across some menus.
• The default pink headers will continue to taunt you until you bother to either pick your own colors from the theme menu or pick a preset from the system menu.
• Tummy Hugger item added to the game, available from a pharmacy near you.
• Allows you to check on your future bundles of joy without resorting to cheats.
• Implements the Jerry Springer cheat so you can see 'who's the daddy' of each child, should you have that cheat enabled.
• Another fine product from Wayland Industries.
• Added SVG portrait system to the game.
• Added data to allow for billions of unique portraits. So male NPCs are now fairly distinguishable.
• Added function to generate SVGs for individual NPCs based on their data so NPCs will reflect the proper skin tone, hair color, and other features. 
• Added demo function to the 'name your character' screen, allowing you to view the portraits of some random NPCs from your upcoming game.
• All sorts of other little things required to make this conversion possible, such as changes to css and a spiffy data interleaving function.
• Created new async resource loading initializer, to prevent issues with slower machines without causing undue delay in resource loading for others.
• Lots of new AW art things added to the game in my spare time, and a few important ones.
• Get your first clue about the mysterious BPCORP in the corporate campus downtown.
• When spending time reading on your phone at home, there are a whole set of images with some text that appear. Items range from advertisements to news items and more.
• Some new location images, such as Boobies restaurant in the adult area, and hot loads in the amusement district.
• several new items to find around town. Don't miss out on the Tsar Pluga or renaissance fair.
• 4 new game area maps added to the game work Muschi Valley locations
• Clicking on an area from the world map will open up a dialog with the map and some description.
• You can now text NPCs, allowing you to set up dates with them.
• Several game fixes and improvements
• Improved time system stability and error recovery.
• Removed the timecocks from sleeping so that you don't wake up missing an entire day courtesy of anal rape.
• Removed the ability for the player to be fucked to death by a cock, thereby removing the potential for an unexpected bad end after a lot of ill-advised dry sex as a virgin in a sex scene. (it wasn't a tsar pluga, so the bad end usually took the form of depression or another cause, as there wasn't enough health damage from a standard-sized cock.)
• Some general fixes to the sex system, including the repeat action button, and certain positions not properly registering as sex.
• Created an improved content gate function and inline content gate macro to make gating content easier.
• Other stuff that I forgot to write down, as usual.

BESTY'S CHANGES:

• Making those fancy maps.
• date appointment system rewritten to fit new time unix-like time format
• reminder, calendar systems for new time format too.
• processing of appointments, cleaning the old ones and other mechanical functions.
• new possibly sexy maid events on ignoring the dress code
• new sm maid event on failing to fit the obey the company standards
• reminder system reworked
• 7 dating spots with events and activities
• some assets (mostly location pics) for date spots
• written 54 story threads for npc
• story threads was threaded into the dating events
• some new drinks available