Halloween Treat

 

Happy Halloween!

I figured I'd give you all a surprise and reveal the secret thing we've been working on this month:

AW’s sex system is getting a radical change. Totally different, not just a redesign of the current system. But before I go into details, let’s back up a bit for some context.

When I first conceptualized AW, there were really only two ways for sex to be handled. Either you had a predefined sex scene, possibly with a choice or two (think Corruption of Champions), or you had a sex minigame where you made choices about the kinds of actions you did, and built the sex scene yourself. To be honest, I wasn’t really happy with either. (The no-content with a gif playing approach didn't even get considered.)

The scene-based games had the advantage of being able to present erotica in an enjoyable way, and could be really sexy. As an erotica author and contributor to multiple other adult games out there, this route appealed to me. The main problem is that it seriously lacks replayability. Like a book or movie, you usually have to give any particular piece months or longer before you can really enjoy it again. The other problem is that these scenes tend to limit player choice, and the more choice you offer the more work it is to write… and you have to write a lot. That’s why the most successful games in this area depend heavily on fan submission for content, like the Fenoxo games. Not a bad thing at all, just something that isn’t going to work for every project.

The minigame style has the advantage of letting players craft the kind of actions they want, and gives them more roleplay control over their character. This avenue comes with a lot of downsides. The familiar issue of repeated content, complexity, and generally a dependence on player roleplay for the system to really work at all. NewLife’s sex system really only shines when you’re trying to achieve some personal objective. I’ve heard it be described as “the ultimate NTR simulator”. Which can be great, but is also very dependent on the player. In that case, the fun isn’t in the actual sex, it’s in achieving whatever roleplay goal you’re going for. The sex system is something you tend to rush through after you’ve read the same text enough times. 

With AW I tried to go with a mix of possibilities. Situational and event-based scenes all over the place, but a sex system for more routine interactions that would let you try and roleplay your objectives in relationships. To make the scenes better, I tried to make an extensive library of content for every action, and I made the system mod-compatible so that players could add their own actions and content. But ultimately, the sex system just doesn't work the way I had hoped. There’s a ton of content: about 150,000 words just for actions and orgasms. Despite this most players only see the content for the kinks they enjoy, and regardless it still gets old. And because AW is so open, roleplay goals don’t really work to carry things through because you aren't forced into a limited set of circumstances and outcomes.

So what do we do from here?

My thought is that no amount of reworking is going to fix the fundamental flaws inherent with having a sex system. Even assuming we nail everything and make an awesome system, it’s still going to be something that quickly becomes a chore, or at least is no longer fun. Lilith's Throne has an amazing sex system, but even it gets old. A scene system really wouldn’t work either, you’d be back to repeating a limited number of scenes.

My initial thought was perhaps making a hybrid, where you make some choices at the start, throw in some RNG and NPC traits, and then create a text scene out of a bunch of parts. But in addition to being difficult to do well, you end up with the same disadvantages of limited content along with more limited player choice on top.

So we’re going to try something totally different, and fairly new. It’ll be up to you to decide whether it works or not, there really aren’t any other examples I can think of to compare it to in adult gaming. Basically, a card game. Instead of a battle game that could result in a sex scene, sex as the actual card game. There are a few obscure games out there where sex IS a card game (which I discovered later on), but none that use it as part of a larger overall game. Most adult card games are a battle system that can lead to sex scenes. (you lost, now get raped!)

We're going for a the game as sex. You try to win the game, and the NPC tries to win by meeting different potential objectives depending on the situation and their personality. On a secondary level, you’re also potentially trying to meet more story-based objectives such as not getting a creampie, or avoiding full sex with your attacker, or making sure they like your performance and will want a repeat on a future date.

Rather than standard deck building, you get a deck based on your character. Each time you play, your (and the NPC's) deck is built based on your character as they are at that moment. In addition to connecting your character to what you can do in the card game, it also expands the motivation to collect all sorts of things (or avoid them). Things like your body shape/sizes, kinks, mutations, status, drug use, inventory, skills… lots of things to spice up the game when you're playing a new character, along with some extra potential consequences and reasons to avoid certain things.

Character-Based Concept:

• Have a high oral skill? get a more effective BJ action card.
• Have big enough tits? Get a titty-fuck card.
• Have a cock? get a suite of cock-based cards.
• Have a condom in your inventory? Get a condom card to put on someone.
• There are a million possibilities.

Obviously it’s not going to suddenly be complete, it’ll take work. I’m pretty excited about it, but it will take time to get there. We’ve spent a good deal of time this month working on the design, even doing play testing with printed out paper cards. Basically trying to get something that is fun and reasonably balanced. We hope to have a playable game ready for you in the 1.21 release.

Our plan is to start small with a basic game, and then if the response is favorable, keep going by adding more cards and play, adjusting balance, making animations look nicer, and generally making the game more complex and character-responsive as we go along. We’ll be doing this alongside the hucow expansion, we’re not abandoning it or anything like that!

This first release it did take up a lot of our focus, particularly because our new guy ended up being unable to start working until the 1.22 cycle. Once this initial construction is done though, it'll take a lot less work to expand on it and tweak it. I designed the framework to be extremely flexible and expandable with minimal effort, so most of our focus when expanding it can be on quality and balance.

Thanks for reading, and thanks for your support. I can't wait to show the result of all our work this month to you!

Some extra Halloween images for your enjoyment