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Roadmapping 2025: Agents of Heels’ Path Ahead
🕑 Added 2025-01-22 20:14:33 +0000 UTCHello out there fans and friends. It’s January again and the holiday’s have passed us, which means it’s time to grab the reins and start taking the girls for a ride, or as we call them more technically, “releases”, but you know what they’re all about by now. Ha ha! Well, it’s great to have this energy charge up again now that we’re still recently off one of those release and had a little rest too. But energy without a steering plan isn’t the way to go, which is why today’s the day we set one down and pave out the year ahead. Come along with us as we hit the road before we get to hitting Nat’s a-… You know that by now too! Let’s go!
2024 – Getting Here
Today is mostly about looking ahead to the future, but we can’t really talk about what’s to come without touching on how we got here, most of all because the last few times we’ve done these docs we ended rather far off the mark. Admitting that and learning from it is the only way we’re going to have any credibility on this and without that what’s the point but wasting air, huh?
Last year we posted our 2024 roadmap here. The long and the short of it is that we wanted to get as close to v1.0 or “Game Complete” status as we could, and that we’d get 3 releases closer to that goal. In the end, we got 1. Not exactly a stellar leap forward, but it was at least something. It wasn’t enough progress to change much of the overall picture for Agent of Heels, so the top line of the roadmap will remain much the same. This year we’re going to talk about the balance of where we we’re at and what we’ve been trying to do last year and will try to do in 2025 to break the stalemate of things at last. Time we had that chat.
Top Line Road Map
As stated above, once again we’re going to be sticking to the same top line goal for AoH: To get as close to AoH’s completion v1.0 as we can. Once again, it’s not going to be possible to get to that this year, see below, but we’ve got a significant milestone in our sights for 2025 that will be the start of that.
One of the things we’ve had to face up and acknowledge in the last year or so is that as much as we love AoH at heart, Parody is not our best content nor a sustainable area for us, making it so AoH isn’t going be a branch of the beWilderverse that can much of a future to it. With NTR slowly taking over as the flagship too, it’s brought about a sense of depression at times within the team, for what could’ve been and what’s not yet finished. Honestly, it’s hard to put into words, but when AoH is the active game we get stuck in a vicious cycle of drained motivations that’s hard to break. We don’t want to slow down, it’s more that a paralysis strikes and despite wanting it, AoH just doesn’t come easy. That said… We’ve come so far with the game, we’re so close to the finish line, and after 8 years we can’t accept cancelling a 90+% content finished game either, for many reasons. So we will finish it, but make accommodations as best we can to not get caught up in that same cycle again.
We’re expecting to get 2+ Releases for AoH in 2025, hopefully more but at all costs no less. There’s a reason we’re setting our aims lower than usual, which is largely because the NTR side of things is getting clogged up unfairly the last couple of years, but 2 good releases should be enough for some worthy celebrations. Should things go well we might even get a shot at some more. Since NTR will be leading the timetable this year (which is one of the solid changes we’re taking action on to break up the deadlock) we will save breaking down the year on that front for NTR’s post in a couple of days. Instead, we’ll talk about how best we can maximize those 2 versions for AoH today.
Scenes and Content
One of the things we did last year when v0.27 was dragging on was to take a sit down together and flesh out our plans on paper, down the detailed bones. We’ve had our plans for how each of the paths develop and end laid out internally for a long time, but a list of scenes still has a lot vagueness to it and at this point we just can’t have that. It was clear some action and better planning was needed, and that’s what we did, down to the shot. We now have an internal document that leads each of Nat’s paths from the doors of Heels’ HQ to the last vignette, as close to the individual shot level as we can get short of writing it through which is the next step for us.
Why does this matter? It means we’ve taken the red pen through it all and cut the fat and slimmed the remaining content so it’s as trim as Nat herself, while keeping the plump content of the x-rated parts as full as we can. In doing so, we’ve made it so each path needs 2 more standard versions to be completed. That’s our plan for making the most of the content ahead without prolonging a game that needs finishing. 6 versions of main content left, plus 1 joint version of polish and potential post-game epilogue content for various game choices (we’ll see about that in when we’re closer).
Our goal for 2025 is to take 1 of the 3 paths, specifically Heels Nat (Villain Nat and Rogue/Evil Nat to come after) and take it to the finish line. With at least 1 path complete, a lot of the pressures put on upon ourselves will be relieved, and 1/3rd of the content weighing on our shoulders will be cleared too… Not to mention the sheer awesomeness of seeing 1 of our Nat’s complete her misadventures, plus seeing the lewds we still want to vitness turned from word to images. 2 standard length, quicker turnaround, versions that can lead us to 1 of the 3 milestones left and a partial completion to Mission #3 should be enough content to be hyped for and not too much to bury Unshi under, with a bright light at the end of it all to keep motivation high. That, and some positive changes on the NTR side of the workload too, are what’s different about this year compared to last and how we’re going to get us back on the ball.
What to expect exactly for those 2 versions for Heels Nat will be to pick up from were we last saw her and take her firstly through Heels HQ, and then through the finale in a place you might already be able to guess where. There’ll be confrontations with each of the remaining villains, important choices / facing previous consequences, and of course and importantly, x-rated encounters to play us out all sexy-like. We don’t want to say much more and spoil it. We’ll see it in 2025!
Too Long, Didn’t Read
It’s been a post of real talk, but some people just don’t have the time or the attention to spare for this. We get it. Actions speak louder, right? Those will come with just a little more time, so here’s the shorthand version to tide you over until then. TL:DR bullet points:
- AoH is the cause of the problems in recent years, despite our desire for it to be a bright light. That said, we’re committed to finishing it, with some accommodations and trimming as needed.
- Our yearly AoH goal is to get 1 or 3 paths to its endings, and get us closer to v1.0 in the process.
- That said, we’re aiming for 2+ released for this year in order to accomplish that, but giving more room to the underserved-due-to-AoH-delays NTR to spread out some more in 2025 too. NTR will be getting the lion’s share of the planned time this year for once with more versions that that, but the 2 versions of AoH are planned to be as impactful as 2 can be.
- Content will be aimed completely at Heels (Good + Some Corrupt) Nat paths.
- Still no time this year to revamp the gameplay side of things or attend to non-urgent technical aspects like the Gallery UI touch-ups or the stats UI removal.
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And that’s the goal for AoH for 2025. We’re doing our best to maximize our potential while still being realistic given how the last few years have gone for AoH content, despite ourselves. We’re also trying to make up for some lost time with NTR in the process, but we’ll see more of that in the next roadmap, so stay tuned for that coming right up. Most of all, our top goal for AoH is to see more of it and for it to be hot as Hell, so let’s do it!
Be pulling that black suit zip up with hope for the future, and beWilder!
