SuccuDev
patreon
Development Update: Phase 3
🕑 Added 2022-07-03 19:08:17 +0000 UTCHey folks!
I thought it was about time for another one of these. The development’s direction has visibly shifted more towards polish and I want to elaborate on my goals and what I’m currently thinking. There are also a lot of things I want to work on that I’d be open to feedback on, so please feel free to provide it in the comments here, or anonymously on the website.
Before I start getting into it, I just want to mention that while there’s going to be a shift in priorities, this does not mean I will solely be focused on these new goals. The best content I make is usually derived from a burst of creative inspiration, and I try to make sure to utilize those when I can get them.
Without going too much into it, there’s been a lot of things in my personal life over the last couple months preventing me from being able to get into the necessary…uhh… "mindset" needed to come up with new major features. This likely will continue to vary month to month, as it has, honestly.
Anyways! The gist of things is that the game is officially getting into its later stages of development (what I’d called phase 3 in the past), where I really want to start looking at what I have to get done to call it ‘’1.0’’. This means a lot of polish, refinements, new assets to obtain, etc. There are certain major features I also really want to get done before that point, but they are such large undertakings I didn’t want them to cut into other development as I wanted to provide a steady stream of new stuff.
I’d like to transparently go point by point through what I want to improve and work on, with the reasoning behind them and what challenges I’m facing regarding them. This might be a little long-winded…
UI
In-Game
There’s still quite a few programmer-art menus in the game that I want to polish up over time. You can look at the current changes made to get an idea of what I want; not too intrusive, simple, but also a bit more polished than ‘’black square with text on it’’
Main Menu
The main menu clearly needs a rework at this point. It’s a nightmare-maze of different toggles that sometimes don’t even really belong where they are. Restructuring this will be a significant challenge, there’s a whole lot of sliders and checkboxes to fit onto a mobile screen. I’d like to reduce the time it takes to adjust settings, and surface the more important ones. Feedback on what settings you adjust the most would be appreciated.
Visual Customization
I’ve heard you. It’s one of the most frequent pieces of feedback I get. Not being able to see her visual changes clearly when you adjust them is a problem.
The reason this isn’t done yet is simple; this is a short term issue for every player, as they learn what each thing does it becomes less of a problem. It’s a significant inconvenience to newer players, which is why it still needs to happen.
The main issue I’m running into is one of presentation. I do not want it to take the form of a ‘’character creator’’. I would want this to be in-character rather than a menu, as Succubi are supposed to be able to change their appearance, and I think giving it a character creator format would negatively affect the feeling of the Succubus having her own identity/agency.
I’d appreciate some feedback on this honestly! Notably, I’d like to know more about long-term player behavior; How often do you change these settings? What would you like to be able to do more conveniently, what would you like to see that would significantly improve it?
Features
Custom Tasks
Very challenging to add. I do want to add them, but it will most likely be a simplified version of what’s available internally, thus it’s always best to suggest potential tasks. There’s a high risk that this feature would only be used by a tiny percentage of the userbase, so it’s not the highest priority.
Subtoggles
The more in-depth customization of each toggle (for example, turning all tasks of a certain toggle into punishments) is something that’s going to be very important for me to add, but also extremely complicated both UI wise and code wise. The game wasn’t designed with this in mind.
Better Import/Export
I’d like to make it possible to import and export things more separately; especially as more visual customization is added, it seems like it’d be neat to be able to share your succubus’s visuals with others. Low priority as understandably, most people do not interact with others in a NSFW game context.
Content
Hairstyles
One of the more frequently requested types of visual customization. It’s coming, working on it. The selection will most likely be limited due to clipping issues and animations only being built around certain hair lengths, though.
Tasks, Visual Customization, Etc
This is mostly suggestion-driven. It’s not that hard to add, but a lot of things don’t quite fit.
I’ve built a lot of the necessary structures to make it easy to add more content, at this point it’s just a matter of sitting down and creating it. Suggestions help a lot on this front, especially precise ones. ‘’I’d like to see her request this task, taking this format, with these variants, using these toggles’’
Misc
At this point I’m starting to look at what I’ll be needing to sell the game on more traditional platforms. I’ll be seeking out an artist to commission things like splash art for the game. I’d like to make a solid trailer (which is going to be challenging with the lack of genre precedent to look at).
If you have an artist to suggest, or are one yourself and think your style would fit, please feel free to DM me about it anywhere.
Right now, that’s about what comes to my mind when thinking about heading towards 1.0.
Of course, this would not mean the end of development, as there are many other systems that can be added and worked on. I’ve heard the many Lovense support requests.
If there’s anything that immediately comes to your mind, please feel free to let me know.
You can provide feedback here in the comments, on the Discord, or on the anonymous suggestions page!
To conclude…
Many things currently happening in my life would be a lot worse, if I didn’t have the security your support provides me. While the growth has declined a little recently, it’s very visibly lining up with widespread economic distress.
Please, if your financial situation has changed, do not feel obligated to continue. I’ll be secure either way at this point (especially if I can diversify away from a single platform) and it should not come at the cost of your financial security.
For anyone who is in that situation where they may have to reconsider luxuries like JOI game updates, I invite you to DM me on Discord, where I can give you a role giving you access to further updates regardless of your ability to pledge. Other options are available, and you can consider this my permission to utilize them in that context. I've been there.
Thank you for your support.
Comments
dastrdlyW
To clarify a bit of this comment. I know you have shifting futa, but I'm unsure if having the futa toggle checked is required for it to function. Does the toggle overwrite shifting? Or does shifting overwrite the toggle? Or are both needed? I'd like be able to say "I like these glasses and these colors." and different sessions she will wear them or not. Same with socks, clothes, horn types, tattoos, etc. I'd like to be able to say "I like all of these. Feel free to wear glasses or not" kinda thing. I'd like to be surprised but what kind of tail she chooses to use show, or if she chooses to have bunny ears on. There's so much potential for adding user dictated clothing accessories, and then she chooses to wear them or not. Frequency sliders would be nice so you could say "How often would you like her to wear glasses?" if that's not giving the player too much control over her. But I also feel like there's potential for like, AI learning about the player as well if you wanna go that far.
I'd like to suggest s.th. that may greatly increas variation for users. You made a lot of different tasks, kinks, etc. available and I liked experimenting with them. However, after activating many different options, I realized that my favorite ones showed up less and less often. So I deactivated all the nice to have options to increase probability of my favorites again. I would love to see the option to give the different toggles different priority/probability. I'm not thinking about a slider for every toggle, but you could go for s.th. like probability factors: 0%=off, 50%, 100%=on, 200%=2 times as likely to show up. This way users could better make use of all the variations you are offering. E.g. I don't mind nipple play every now and then, so it's okay if it shows up only seldomly to increase variation. My favorites will get 200%, to make sure they make it in a session even if many other toggles are activated. As this may be difficult for new users, you could make this feature available only after using ingame favor points for it (either for all toggles at once or for single toggles).
Jameson Huddle
With what DastrdlyW said above in mind, I have come up with a few thoughts. When I first opened the game I was confused and scared and turned on because I had no idea what to really expect. There is enough information in the menus to give a general idea about trying a toggle or not (if you are familiar with adult terms at least) but there are a lot of interactions that you won't be able to foresee and you don't get to see how toggles are implemented until you try them. You could make a "perfect" Joi game with everyone's favorite fetishes and perfectly adjustable sliders and in menu examples so that each player could adjust their experience to exactly what they want at the time. Instead, the game is way more interesting and mirrors the difficulties of learning a partner's kinks, desires, and limits. I have not been playing the game long enough to know where it goes from there, my succubus isn't quite giving me the experiences I want and I also don't exactly follow the rules. I am probably over-adjusting settings myself and destroying my succubus's ability to learn what I want. The most fun I have had in the game is trying new things that I didn't like and actually being pushed to my limits, but it can be frustrating when she won't give me the rewards I want tho. I'm really looking forward to the future of the game and hope to have some ideas about what to improve soon. Sorry about the wall of text, edited a few errors.
Jameson Huddle
I'll try to give this post some thought in the coming weeks, wishing you the best!
dastrdlyW
I sent in a thing on the website previously. The thing I would most like to see in regards to being able to see her appearance changes before we get into a session is because I'd like to select a wide variety of options for her to pick from. I'd like to be able to say "Choose to wear bunny/cat ears, or be normal. Choose to be futa or not. Choose what kind of glasses. Choose what kind of socks/shoes" etc. Enabling a toggle of outfit selections for her to pick from as opposed to a set appearance. That way her physical appearance changes with clothes you tell her you like/don't like. I'd also like to be able to demo features and see what they entail before saying I want them in a session. Sure some people may abuse that to get something they wanna do, but you could honestly throw in a punishment of sorts for that if you want as well. You can still have the Succubus have her own identity while still allowing the player to customize her in a character creator sort of way.
