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On MC Body Types - Please Read -
🕑 Added 2021-11-13 07:02:43 +0000 UTCFirst time I'm using a poll, huh? Honestly forgot these existed. Whoops.
Please read all of this before selecting from the poll! Well, I guess you could change your answer but, like, please read it anyway!
Trying to find the words for this is hard, so bear with me. The main character of this game, default name Alex Johnson, has something of an issue with him. Namely, they are a lot of effort for not a whole lot of reward, at least in my eyes as the one coding and writing and drawing sprites and CGs for them.
As it stands, if I want to make ANYTHING for the MC, I have to essentially multiply that amount of work by between 3 or 4 times. If I want to make a new outfit for them, I have to make it 3 more times and with the female version. If I want to make a CG with them, that CG then has the same amount of changes. On top of that, I have to add into the code to show the right series of images according to what MC should be shown. This makes anything involving the MC a hassle.
This is a lot of work, especially for me, since I'm doing literally everything myself. Because most people (as I'm seeing with the twitter poll I recently made) prefer the chubby version, the majority of people won't be seeing that extra work put into the other three MCs. This makes this work not only difficult, but also inefficient. For all the work I spend on that, I could spend it on any number of less-frustrating things that you all would, on average, enjoy a lot more. Spending my already limited time on the MC just doesn't feel very worth it.
The second issue I have is mainly where it comes to expressions. If I want to make a new expression for the MC, of course it will have to give off the same "meaning" as the expression on other MCs, or else the emotion gets muddled and doesn't make any sense. It's pretty difficult to keep things the same, especially when they're three different physical forms. Maybe that's just me, though.
When discussing this with some of my patrons and explaining these feelings and problems to them (which is actually where I borrowed the Patreon poll idea from), one of them mentioned that as the MC has evolved into their own character rather than just a self-insert, the reason for MC's body type being an option at all has diminished. I definitely agree with that assessment, and it brings to mind one last issue.
Spoilers Spoilers Spoilers Spoilers Spoilers
Scroll down to the "Spoilers Spoilers Spoilers Spoilers Spoilers" line if you really don't want to read this!
Ok so, the last issue has to deal moreso with the people who like to play as a specific route with a specific body type. I hadn't thought about it until now for some reason, but this style of playing won't really work when we reach the final stages of the game.
Once all routes are complete and I am ready to move on with the plot, I will be introducing the True Endings to each route. The moment that you finish with one True Ending, the very nature of the game will change dramatically, as will the circumstances around your time at Sihai Industries. When this occurs, your gender, pronouns(WIP), body type, and name will all be locked in. When starting a new save file, the start will be very different to the one you can see by starting the game today. You will not get the same experience, and you will not have the ability to pick any of the choices you did on your first run.
Because of this, I believe some of you would wind up frustrated. Those of you that would run through Jorge's route with twink mc, run through Shen's route with muscular MC, and run through Jehu's route with chubby mc, would find yourself locked into only one of those paths for every other run. That's the way it's going to be, and it won't change. This, however, would not be any sort of a problem if there were only one body type.
Spoilers Spoilers Spoilers Spoilers Spoilers
Anyways, spoilers aside, let me get into what this poll is actually about.
Even though it may suck, would you be fine with allowing me to forego FMC, Twink MC, and Muscular MC in favor of a more unified (and overall better-quality) experience with Chubby MC?
Finally, I recognize that this is a Patreon fundraiser goal or whatever it's called, and that significance is not lost on me. If I wind up removing all MCs other than MC2 (chubby), I will be open to brainstorming with you all what a suitable replacement "reward" could be.
Regardless of all of your thoughts on the matter, I am truly very sorry that, even by saying this, I will be disappointing some of you. I have explained all I can on the matter, and I beg for your understanding.
Thank you for your continued support, and I hope you all enjoy the waterpark update in a few days!
Edit: Something that just occurred to me! If this goes through, I would definitely be open to adjusting MC's design to fit somewhere in between the three. While I enjoy drawing chumbly boys, I also enjoy having body type differences in my couples. If this really happens, then, when I rework MC for good, I will be sure to post WIPs and get input from all of my patrons (read: you all) via Patreon in order to make MC the best he can be! So basically what I'm saying is that the MC that survives may be reworked to not look exactly the same as current chubby MC. We'll see!
Comments
Caius
I think I'll miss FMC a lot but playing as male is hardly a deal-breaker or anything.
Raiko
I'm a twink player only, and I don't think it's an important feature imo. I think you should build your character the way you want, Alex doesn't feel like a faceless character, you don't need to identifie as them to relate, it's their story and it's great like this imo. You're clearly not loosing my support on that don't worry because I feel like we should all trust you in the process, if you feel like removing those is a good idea then we should trust the process. It's not like you didn't discuss it on discord with us and didn't think about it, there's valid reasons and in the end we might loose a feature to win a lot more.
Alvis
I appreciate your honesty and your support besides! If you don't mind my asking, what in particular do you not like about chubby MC? I do intend to go through a pass with him sooner or later to update him to modern standards, so he should look better, but I know there are other reasons to dislike chubby MC as the pick.
Letty Mercado
I'm honestly not really about chubby mc and I would have no objections if it was any other body type. I like the characters, but I don't know how I feel about that. I doubt I'll drop my support though.
