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News about Quid Pro Quo
🕑 Added 2020-10-22 01:42:34 +0000 UTCThis is a hard post to write, but bear with me. I think it's ultimately positive.
The more I work on Quid Pro Quo, the more I realize that it's not very good.
I've tried to gold plate it in a lot of different ways recently, but it just doesn't work as a concept. That's not something that can be fixed by more features, so it's time to go back to the drawing board.
This isn't something I'm doing lightly, but I'd rather deal with it early on rather than burn any more time on something devoid of potential. This also isn't quite the end; I know some people liked it, so the plan is to patch the critical bugs and clear quality-of-life issues after game #3 is released. After that, I'll release it for free or at a much lower price point than Stationmaster (and free for patrons, of course).
I'll post news about the next project when I have something worth releasing. I have a couple design documents (my favorite one right now has the working title "Brain Slug's Moving Castle"), but there's going to be a little bit of a gap in interesting news until I build a prototype worth showing. I can say that game #3 will be a lot more like Stationmaster in setting and tone (darker, more fantastical, and less vanilla). The more relatable corporate thing was a fun idea, but it didn't work for me in practice (or maybe 2020 just demands a higher degree of escapism).
Thanks for hanging in there, and, as always, I'll be hanging out in the Discord if you have any questions. This happened a couple times before I went public with Stationmaster too, and killing games that aren't working is a normal part of the process. Sometimes you need to build something to find out that it's a dud.
Comments
OYG
You have my support. I loved Stationmaster and prefer darker games so that sounds fantastic since I wasn't a huge fan of Quid Pro Quo due to the gameplay loop and the female character models which for some reminded me of one of the alien races in stationmaster.
Dreamweaver357
You have your community's support my dude, do what you think is best. We love stationmaster and really hope you that can pin down a new project that you yourself love and believe in its potential, like you did with stationmaster.
Richard
Station master 2 is looking very promising. Now that one has potential, quests, loot, more aliens, actually taking a planet and wandering on to see your buildings if you like and relationships.
Dark Nix
Honestly, I'm actually kinda relieved by this news. I was willing to give the benefit of the doubt with this, but I have been highly skeptical. Taking what works from Stationmaster as a base I think is a very good way to proceed. Some things I think would be nice to see (I'm working under the assumption that it will still be a slave oriented game). * Scale back the number of slaves from SM. Churning through the chattel is fun, but we got SM for that. Perhaps try something a little more intimate and personal? * Explore more fetishes and make them meaningful (they didn't really do anything in SM). They got a ponygirl fetish? put them in a harness and set them to racing. They got an exhibitionist fetish? set them to some kind of performing art. Etc. Make discovering (or coercing) these an interesting and useful way to get the most out of them * Might be fun to play with the legality of slavery. Some groups may not take kindly to such activities and will try and stop you. You can counter this with stealth, bribery, blackmail or good old fashioned force. You draw too much attention too soon, and bad things happen * Another mechanic that might be fun to play around with is slave security/escape attempts. They'd probably feel better with more freedom, but give them too much and they might make a break for it. * Would be nice if the slave's emotional/mental state would play more of a role than in SM. So long as they weren't MB, it didn't really seem to matter how they felt about life. Or if you got something completely different in mind that's good too :)
WaywardSquidMan
Gonna be honest, Quid Pro Quo didn't wow me all that much either. Maybe it's because of the scale and layers of complexity of Stationmaster compared to QPQ? Not sure, truth be told. But yeah, didn't resonant with me in the way Stationmaster does. While I'm sure it's frustrating to be switching gears mid-project, I'm actually super hopeful for your next project. You do awesome work and I have faith in your ability to make an awesome game that you're passionate about. In the meantime, whether you tweak Stationmaster or QPQ or just decide to decompress for a bit, just know we appreciate your work. Keep on keeping on, mi amigo! You've got this!
Aftermath Team
To be honest, Quid Pro Quo is something I will try, but only because you created something truly special with Stationmaster. If you're looking for suggestions, I'd suggest either doing another story similar in nature to Stationmaster (Maybe a colony management game in a sci-fi setting?) or something similar in a Fantasy setting with Elves, Dwarves, Goblins, and the like. You have a great formula with Stationmaster, there's nothing wrong with taking what works well for that and adapting it to a new setting of theme. Just my two bits for whatever it's worth. In the time I've followed your work, you've done an amazing job. I have no doubt that whatever you finally settle yourself on will turn out fantastic. In the meantime, maybe even some small updates to Stationmaster with a few new scenes here or there would be a good way to keep the community engaged.
