My relationship

I had a very weird insight today: I treat my game like a girlfriend.

• I'm in love with it and I want to show it to everyone;
• Even when I'm not actively planning something or working on something, I'm always thinking about it at the corner of my mind - I do think about it all the time;
• I feel bad when I neglect it for too long;
• When I have the perspective of free time, the first thing I think is how am I going to use it to work on my game;
• When things are going good with it (e.g. I'm making good progress and I'm satisfied with the results), everything else in my life seems to be ok or loses importance.
• When I'm more involved with the game, I feel less interest in people in general and lose touch with friends a little.

Yeah, I know, weird. But the good thing is: it loves me back.

Developing rants

People have no idea how tricky the process of making a game is.

This was supposed to be a game made in little time, with not much thought put into things. Some sort of "first thing that pops into your mind" game.

The longer you take to make a game, the less likely you are to finish. The more detail you put into things, the longer you take. So people who make games should never try to make everything as good as it can be. That's a lesson learned long ago.

So, I was making this ranch map.

This is an entrance to a ranch map. The real stuff happen inside the house. Here, there are just some people you can talk to. I think it looks fine.

One day, thinking about the game, I decided this map should be bigger, so players could get the feeling like the ranch is placed on a big land. It would improve atmosphere, setting, etc. So I double the map width, and started adding... stuff.

Took me about 3h to add stuff. And then I realized: if I go on like this, I'll never finish this game. And then I undid everything.

That's a thought I have to keep in my mind at all times. I've given up on projects due to excessive thinking before. Don't want it to happen again.

It's funny how my later maps look so much more like normal games (graphic-style-wise) than my first maps, which were supposed to be plain-looking and more unique. Gotta be careful with that.

I've also decided I'll never make an RPG again. There's just too much effort on details that don't have a concrete impact on gameplay... like mapping, NPC speech, minigames, etc. I mean, it is important, and I like games that are full of details that improve on atmosphere. I've just been lacking the patience.

Oh, and check for new screenshots!

Birthday post

It's my birthday! Yay!

And that's actually the reason I haven't been working on the game for the past couple of weeks. Birthday preparations. Which means I'll go back to it strongly next week.

Coincidentally, this came out today:

Interview with Nicolau Chaud, Mind Behind Polymorphous Perversity

I was happy with this interview, because it allowed me to say a few things I hadn't said in any other context. Hope you guys enjoy it.

Don't forget to follow this blog and write stuff on the Bathroom Wall.

Conceptual issues

The concept of this game has changed a bit in my mind, I thought I would share some info on the process.

I took a break from making games after Beautiful Escape: Dungeoneer. But for a long time I had my next project on my mind. It's called Daddy, but I won't talk about it here.

Daddy was supposed to be a big project, and I spent a lot of time planning and preparing it. But it got me tired, and I felt like making a game for fun.

I wanted to make a game with sex. I always hated games and movies with strong sex implications and no sex scenes. Like... screen fading out (Fable), or just the faces of the characters showing (most movies), or mosaic censor on genitals (The Sims). Sex is cool, it gives space to many gameplay options. I wanted to make a game about something else (like high school kids with superpowers), and add sex in it.

I'm not sure how, but the idea eventually slipped from "a game with sex" to "a game about sex". I guess it's obvious that any game with strong explicit sex elements would be seen as a sex game anyway. So I decided to do this, and push the limits of the concept.

Hence, Polymorphous Perversity.

This project was supposed to be a lot like Space Funeral in terms of execution and gaming experience. I even asked for permission from its author because I expected the games to be very similar. I wanted a game that looked raw, that didn't require complex coding to make, that used custom simple graphics, with no focus on gameplay, no complex dialogs, just something very brainstormy that looked like a person's dream. I wanted to have fun making this game. I also wanted it to be done fast, so I could go back to Daddy.

It's coming nothing like I planned.

First, even making custom sprites with a limited color palette, my graphics don't look as raw. They just look 8-bit-ish. I guess I'm too stuck to my previous stiff spriting style. But I guess I still managed to make it look unique and dreamy.

Second, I was insecure about making a game with no attractive gameplay. So I changed from using a default battle system with no real spice (other than replacing regular attack names with sexual terms) to a more complex strategy-oriented custom battle style. I'm also adding Achievements and other stuff to make gamey-gamers enjoy this.

I still wasn't satisfied. So now I'm changing the final element: story. Initially, there was no real story. Just a story concept (you're a Joe thrown in a strange sex world) and minor plot excuses to make you go from A to B and explore the world. But I can do better. I'm still not sure what the story is gonna be like, but there will be one, with legitimate plot twists and some degree of depth.

I guess only now I'm satisfied with how this game looks like in my mind. Now it's just a matter of making it.