I'm going to having a closed beta of Soccer Story in a couple of days and I need playtesters. As there is little in the way of sex or story at this point, I ask that only people genuinely interested in the soccer and management aspects of the gameplay apply.
Please email me at AnotherWannabe93 at gmail dot com if you are interested.
Sunday, October 27, 2013
Friday, October 25, 2013
Thoughts on Return to Pleasantville by Lamont Sanford
As of writing, I have not read ExLibris's review of Return to Pleasantville RTP, which I will be interested in doing. Before that, I thought I'd write down my own thoughts about the game.
Peril in Pleasantville was the worst game I ever loved. The writing sucks balls -- there's no better way of saying it. But it has tons of pictures and bucketloads of girls to sleep with to make up for it. Peril in Pleasantville, after all, was the game where you could go out on dates with two girls -- neither of which was your girlfriend, and sleep through a plentiful cast. It was awesome.
...And then there was the weird alien subplot I don't think anyone cared about.
But it was RtP that finally made me learn what PiP was trying to be. The awkward horror elements, wanton shamelessness and terrible writing makes RtP the AIF equivalent of an awesomely bad B-movie. For this reason, I was excited when the cult randomly appeared out of nowhere, thinking to myself "ah, this is where the game really starts!"
As it turns out, that's where RtP would end.
We were all well-warned that RtP was going to be smaller than PiP. Despite that, you can't help but wish sequels to be bigger and better than their predecessors, and so RtP's relatively compact size was a disappointment. I can't help but wish RtP was a different game. For instance, why even return to Pleasantville? Why not set the entire game in the cabin by the lake, bring more of PiP's old characters into it and make them a bit more central? I found myself wishing I could interact with some of the established characters a bit more, like Emily, Katie and Maggie, in different combinations, too. In particular Emily, who was my favorite character in PiP, shortly following Katie. (Lamont, there needs to be a Katie/Emily threesome, make it happen) As it is, the important girls get only fractionally more screentime as the numerous random girls you encounter throughout the game.The ending cult sequence could have been foreshadowed a bit more too.
Speaking of girls, there's a lot of them in RtP, and they range from super-hot (Becky and Ms. Weaver) to scary-looking (Ms. Johnson, crazy old lady). It was especially nice to get with Ms. Weaver, who for some reason has become ultra-sexy between games. If women had the same sex drive as men, they might be in a Pleasantville game. After nearly every sex scene the woman has had a reason to bolt out with nary a word about cuddling or even a second date. One girl even said "Thanks for the dick," as she kicked me out of her home post-coitus. Talk about a male fantasy. I found it all a bit funny, really.
RtP uses a peculiar "flirt" mechanic to seduce strangers. Every time you flirt with someone, you either succeed or fail. If you fail too many times in a row, you ruin your chances. If you succeed enough times, you unlock their sex scene. It's as simple as that, and it's the kind of system I might imagine someone writing an AIF parody would devise. Honestly, it's pretty lazy even for a Pleasantville game, and I think it would have bugged me if I could seduce a major character with it. As it was, I didn't mind it as much as I thought I would, knowing that the alternative probably wasn't going to be much more inspired.
Technically, RtP is more stable than PiP, which isn't saying much. The game doesn't bug out as much, and there are just some niggling errors that I just feel could have been fixed pretty easily.
I really feel that Return to Pleasantville would have been much, much better if it had just merged the first part of the game with the second part. The part where you're moping around town and the part where you're camping just don't fit together. Sure, it's pretty cool to be able to cruise around town picking up strangers, but I think I would have liked to have seen more variety with fewer characters. I would sort of love to see an expansion which fleshes out the second part of the game.
...And then there was the weird alien subplot I don't think anyone cared about.
But it was RtP that finally made me learn what PiP was trying to be. The awkward horror elements, wanton shamelessness and terrible writing makes RtP the AIF equivalent of an awesomely bad B-movie. For this reason, I was excited when the cult randomly appeared out of nowhere, thinking to myself "ah, this is where the game really starts!"
As it turns out, that's where RtP would end.
We were all well-warned that RtP was going to be smaller than PiP. Despite that, you can't help but wish sequels to be bigger and better than their predecessors, and so RtP's relatively compact size was a disappointment. I can't help but wish RtP was a different game. For instance, why even return to Pleasantville? Why not set the entire game in the cabin by the lake, bring more of PiP's old characters into it and make them a bit more central? I found myself wishing I could interact with some of the established characters a bit more, like Emily, Katie and Maggie, in different combinations, too. In particular Emily, who was my favorite character in PiP, shortly following Katie. (Lamont, there needs to be a Katie/Emily threesome, make it happen) As it is, the important girls get only fractionally more screentime as the numerous random girls you encounter throughout the game.The ending cult sequence could have been foreshadowed a bit more too.
Speaking of girls, there's a lot of them in RtP, and they range from super-hot (Becky and Ms. Weaver) to scary-looking (Ms. Johnson, crazy old lady). It was especially nice to get with Ms. Weaver, who for some reason has become ultra-sexy between games. If women had the same sex drive as men, they might be in a Pleasantville game. After nearly every sex scene the woman has had a reason to bolt out with nary a word about cuddling or even a second date. One girl even said "Thanks for the dick," as she kicked me out of her home post-coitus. Talk about a male fantasy. I found it all a bit funny, really.
RtP uses a peculiar "flirt" mechanic to seduce strangers. Every time you flirt with someone, you either succeed or fail. If you fail too many times in a row, you ruin your chances. If you succeed enough times, you unlock their sex scene. It's as simple as that, and it's the kind of system I might imagine someone writing an AIF parody would devise. Honestly, it's pretty lazy even for a Pleasantville game, and I think it would have bugged me if I could seduce a major character with it. As it was, I didn't mind it as much as I thought I would, knowing that the alternative probably wasn't going to be much more inspired.
Technically, RtP is more stable than PiP, which isn't saying much. The game doesn't bug out as much, and there are just some niggling errors that I just feel could have been fixed pretty easily.
I really feel that Return to Pleasantville would have been much, much better if it had just merged the first part of the game with the second part. The part where you're moping around town and the part where you're camping just don't fit together. Sure, it's pretty cool to be able to cruise around town picking up strangers, but I think I would have liked to have seen more variety with fewer characters. I would sort of love to see an expansion which fleshes out the second part of the game.
Progress Report VI
I feel a bit confused. The word count jumped up 10,000 words, and I'm not entirely sure where they all came from, especially since I've been mostly working on Simpler AIF this week. It's especially disturbing since I made a resolution to write only 7,000 words per week. Anyways, this is all probably a sign I should slow development down a bit and concentrate on other aspects of my life.
Luckily, I feel pretty close to finishing the framework of the management component. I put in popularity, merchandise and ticket sales, which, along with finances and training, makes up the core management functions. The more interesting and challenging aspect of management (attending to the needs of your players) is up ahead and is really the core part of the game. Hopefully, sometime next month I could actually write an AIF scene.
This means I am pretty close to needing playtesters. Any potential playtesters should be more interested in the management and soccer component of the game at this point, because there is very little in the way of actual AIF.
Summary
It's nice to be close to finishing the managing component. It feels just like a teensy bit more to go. No milestones this week.
Total Word Count: 71084 (up 10247 this week from 60837)
Design: 100%
Prose: 100%
Internal Polish 25%
External Playtesting 0%
Act 2
Design: 40%
Prose: 10%
Playtesting/Polish: 0%
Act 3
Design: 10%
Prose: 0%
Playtesting/Polish: 0%
Design 100% Programming 75% Playtesting/Balance 30%
Design 100% Programming 65% Playtesting/Balance 0%
In-Game Documentation
Writing 75%
Recruitable Character 1: Prose 20%, Sex Scenes 0%, Romantic Sub-Plot 0%
Recruitable Character 2: Prose 10%, Sex Scenes 0%,
Recruitable Character 3: Prose 10%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 4: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 5: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 6: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 7: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 8: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 9: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 10: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 11: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 12: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Note: all the percentages are estimates.
Luckily, I feel pretty close to finishing the framework of the management component. I put in popularity, merchandise and ticket sales, which, along with finances and training, makes up the core management functions. The more interesting and challenging aspect of management (attending to the needs of your players) is up ahead and is really the core part of the game. Hopefully, sometime next month I could actually write an AIF scene.
This means I am pretty close to needing playtesters. Any potential playtesters should be more interested in the management and soccer component of the game at this point, because there is very little in the way of actual AIF.
Summary
It's nice to be close to finishing the managing component. It feels just like a teensy bit more to go. No milestones this week.
Total Word Count: 71084 (up 10247 this week from 60837)
The Acts
Act 1Internal Polish 25%
External Playtesting 0%
Act 2
Design: 40%
Prose: 10%
Playtesting/Polish: 0%
Act 3
Design: 10%
Prose: 0%
Playtesting/Polish: 0%
Gameplay
Soccer Gameplay
Team Management
In-Game Documentation
Writing 75%
Characters
Recruitable Character 2: Prose 10%, Sex Scenes 0%,
Recruitable Character 3: Prose 10%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 4: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 5: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 6: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 7: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 8: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 9: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 10: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 11: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 12: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Note: all the percentages are estimates.
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
Simpler AIF Version 4 Released
Version 4 of Simpler AIF is released. It contains critical bugfixes, some overlooked disambiguation rules and a feature I forgot to add. You can download it here.
Sunday, October 20, 2013
Simpler AIF Version 3 Released
More than a year after Simpler AIF version 2, Simpler AIF version 3 is released. It is a MAJOR upgrade over Simpler AIF version 2.
Simpler AIF is an adult extension for Inform 7 (built off the ever-popular Dudeman's General AIF) and is geared towards beginners who want to write their first AIF game and experts who would like an AIF extension that is internally easier to customize. Version 3's documentation has been totally and extensively rewritten from scratch to reflect that. -->Games written with Simpler AIF version 2 will not be compatible with Simpler AIF version 3. <--
EDIT: Version 5 is the newest version, and is a major upgrade over version 4. You can download it here.
If you want to help me improve the extension, please provide bug reports and suggestions, either in the comments, AIF archive or the email provided in the extension.
FEATURES
- Much, much better documentation that walks you step-by-step on writing basic AIF scenes, adding new actions and body parts.
- All the basic body-parts and sex actions expected of AIF.
- A sex action tracking system that minimizes the need to keep track of fiddly truth states.
- Upgraded action memory system that counts how many times you successfully did something and also provides a phrase to treat unsuccessful actions as successes.
- A simplified layered clothing system, including an optional "clothing sets" plug-in that expands the functionality of the default clothing system.
- Plug-ins that provide features of convenience for AIF writers, that can either be dropped in from the documentation or commented out of the extension. Plug-ins include additional default body parts, the ability to rename the basic body parts, orgasm controls and more.
A special thanks to Hanon Ondricek for helping me test the extension and give suggestions, and to Dudeman who allowed me to use his extension as the framework.
Because I am using Simpler AIF to write Soccer Story, it will receive regular updates. So expect more.
Friday, October 18, 2013
Progress Report V
Don't be fooled by the massive jump in word count... because of technical reasons, I had to remove the AIF extension I was using and replace it with one of my own design (Actually, Simpler AIF, which can be downloaded from the AIF archive). The bad news is that I'm going to have to revise my word count estimate for Playoffs to be about 100,000 words. The ambivalent news is that there will essentially be only basic layered clothing, which means less complicated (but hopefully not less good) sex scenes with faster development times. The good news is that the game is running much smoother than it was before, since Simpler AIF has, I think, fewer moving parts and better suited for large, complicated projects like Soccer Story.
So, much of the work this week was devoted to getting my AIF extension up to snuff (I'm hoping to release relatively soon). I've rewritten the documentation and extension is much more robust in general. The remainder of the work this week has been devoted to the soccer game play, specifically in information feedback. I was not going to include announcer commentary, but I realized as I was actually playing the game that it was a) difficult to know what was going on b) seemed kind of random because I didn't have a sense of what the margin of success was. Specifically, I had a terrible shooter score against my amazing goalie, and that frustrated me. Now, the commentator will hint by what margin you managed to score or miss, and when I replayed it the game told me it was some crazy fluke I could not have anticipated. In addition, commentators will give an overview of the situation, perhaps hinting gently at what your next action should be, and, if nothing else, provide some color commentary on players and opposing teams.
Summary
(Edit) An important milestone this week -- Soccer Story is now longer than Bad Sister, which was 55,000 words long.
Because everything I did this week was stuff I had not anticipated working on, nothing is getting ticked up. That said, I'm still feeling pretty good about the project and things are still humming along nicely.
Total Word Count: 60837 (up 8932 this week from 51905)
Design: 100%
Prose: 100%
Internal Polish 20%
External Playtesting 0%
Act 2
Design: 40%
Prose: 10%
Playtesting/Polish: 0%
Act 3
Design: 10%
Prose: 0%
Playtesting/Polish: 0%
Design 100% Programming 75% Playtesting/Balance 30%
Recruitable Character 1: Prose 20%, Sex Scenes 0%, Romantic Sub-Plot 0%
Recruitable Character 2: Prose 10%, Sex Scenes 0%,
Recruitable Character 3: Prose 10%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 4: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 5: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 6: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 7: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 8: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 9: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 10: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 11: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 12: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Note: all the percentages are estimates.
So, much of the work this week was devoted to getting my AIF extension up to snuff (I'm hoping to release relatively soon). I've rewritten the documentation and extension is much more robust in general. The remainder of the work this week has been devoted to the soccer game play, specifically in information feedback. I was not going to include announcer commentary, but I realized as I was actually playing the game that it was a) difficult to know what was going on b) seemed kind of random because I didn't have a sense of what the margin of success was. Specifically, I had a terrible shooter score against my amazing goalie, and that frustrated me. Now, the commentator will hint by what margin you managed to score or miss, and when I replayed it the game told me it was some crazy fluke I could not have anticipated. In addition, commentators will give an overview of the situation, perhaps hinting gently at what your next action should be, and, if nothing else, provide some color commentary on players and opposing teams.
Summary
(Edit) An important milestone this week -- Soccer Story is now longer than Bad Sister, which was 55,000 words long.
Because everything I did this week was stuff I had not anticipated working on, nothing is getting ticked up. That said, I'm still feeling pretty good about the project and things are still humming along nicely.
Total Word Count: 60837 (up 8932 this week from 51905)
The Acts
Act 1Internal Polish 20%
External Playtesting 0%
Act 2
Design: 40%
Prose: 10%
Playtesting/Polish: 0%
Act 3
Design: 10%
Prose: 0%
Playtesting/Polish: 0%
Gameplay
Soccer Gameplay
Team Management
Design 70% Programming 25% Playtesting/Balance 0%
Characters
Recruitable Character 2: Prose 10%, Sex Scenes 0%,
Recruitable Character 3: Prose 10%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 4: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 5: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 6: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 7: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 8: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 9: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 10: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 11: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 12: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Note: all the percentages are estimates.
Friday, October 11, 2013
Progress Report IV
A Title, An Estimate, and Future Plans
I've finally decided on a title: Soccer Story. I know I've changed the name several times during development, but I think I'm settling on this because a) it hasn't been used by a more notable project that I know of, b) it fits in well with visual novel naming conventions, c) it's pretty descriptive of what you'll get in the game. At this point, the other alternative is "Football Story" if I decide to use the British nomenclature. I know it rubs at least one person the wrong way but for right now it makes sense (ironically, while researching for the game I found out that the name "Soccer" originally came from the British, so technically both are British terms).
Secondly, I think I've come to an estimate to how long the final source code will be, and that the final game's source code will be between 130,000~160,000 words long, if I don't cut major planned features. That puts me between 1/3 and 1/2 of the way done with the raw draft, which is quite exciting to think about. Unfortunately, I doubt I'll be able to keep the same pace I have been at for the past few weeks. Much of the word count has been inflated because I've needed to copy-paste the same code with minor variations, so who knows when the game will actually be finished. Not any time soon, likely.
What will be done sooner, however, is the demo, which shall be entitled Soccer Story: Playoffs and encompass the first half of the game. I believe that will be approximately 80,000~90,000 words long and will be relatively raw when released. Like the tech demo I released earlier this year it might not have much in the way of AIF, but it will have plenty of teasing. Since it's extremely unlikely I'll have fully interactive scenes with all 12 characters, I'll be using the feedback from the demo to decide which players get those sex scenes. Right now, I know of only 3 characters that absolutely will get interactive scenes, and I think I'll add two more. But don't worry, in the final game every female character will get at least a partially interactive scene.
Another thing, I'm not crazy about one of my characters and I'm considering replacing her, but I am truly tapped out of ideas. If you submit to me a character idea and I use it, in thanks you will not only be added to the credits but also your avatar will be added during one of the game's very elaborate hidden Easter eggs. Don't worry, it won't be embarrassing. It's just a little cameo. In particular, I'm looking for a girl who might be a good comic-relief character, someone perhaps a little out of touch with reality, but in a charming kind of way. If you have a suggestion, email me at AnotherWannabe93 a t gmail d o t com.
Summary
No notable milestones this week. Last week, I put in equipment and sponsorships. This week, I fully implemented it into the game. The other thing I implemented is training. Training turned out to be extremely complicated, in fact, the second most complicated thing except the AI, and that really took up the remainder of the work time. I began fleshing out the paths for one of the characters.
I added a framework for random and triggered events. In a minor miracle there wasn't any obvious bugs and it worked exactly as intended. So far, the only events you'll get are players quitting.
Total Word Count: 51905 (up 10607 this week from 41298)
Design: 100%
Prose: 100%
Internal Polish 20%
External Playtesting 0%
Act 2
Design: 40%
Prose: 10%
Playtesting/Polish: 0%
Act 3
Design: 10%
Prose: 0%
Playtesting/Polish: 0%
Design 100% Programming 75% Playtesting/Balance 30%
Recruitable Character 1: Prose 20%, Sex Scenes 0%, Romantic Sub-Plot 0%
Recruitable Character 2: Prose 10%, Sex Scenes 0%,
Recruitable Character 3: Prose 10%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 4: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 5: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 6: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 7: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 8: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 9: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 10: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 11: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 12: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Note: all the percentages are estimates.
I've finally decided on a title: Soccer Story. I know I've changed the name several times during development, but I think I'm settling on this because a) it hasn't been used by a more notable project that I know of, b) it fits in well with visual novel naming conventions, c) it's pretty descriptive of what you'll get in the game. At this point, the other alternative is "Football Story" if I decide to use the British nomenclature. I know it rubs at least one person the wrong way but for right now it makes sense (ironically, while researching for the game I found out that the name "Soccer" originally came from the British, so technically both are British terms).
Secondly, I think I've come to an estimate to how long the final source code will be, and that the final game's source code will be between 130,000~160,000 words long, if I don't cut major planned features. That puts me between 1/3 and 1/2 of the way done with the raw draft, which is quite exciting to think about. Unfortunately, I doubt I'll be able to keep the same pace I have been at for the past few weeks. Much of the word count has been inflated because I've needed to copy-paste the same code with minor variations, so who knows when the game will actually be finished. Not any time soon, likely.
What will be done sooner, however, is the demo, which shall be entitled Soccer Story: Playoffs and encompass the first half of the game. I believe that will be approximately 80,000~90,000 words long and will be relatively raw when released. Like the tech demo I released earlier this year it might not have much in the way of AIF, but it will have plenty of teasing. Since it's extremely unlikely I'll have fully interactive scenes with all 12 characters, I'll be using the feedback from the demo to decide which players get those sex scenes. Right now, I know of only 3 characters that absolutely will get interactive scenes, and I think I'll add two more. But don't worry, in the final game every female character will get at least a partially interactive scene.
Another thing, I'm not crazy about one of my characters and I'm considering replacing her, but I am truly tapped out of ideas. If you submit to me a character idea and I use it, in thanks you will not only be added to the credits but also your avatar will be added during one of the game's very elaborate hidden Easter eggs. Don't worry, it won't be embarrassing. It's just a little cameo. In particular, I'm looking for a girl who might be a good comic-relief character, someone perhaps a little out of touch with reality, but in a charming kind of way. If you have a suggestion, email me at AnotherWannabe93 a t gmail d o t com.
Summary
No notable milestones this week. Last week, I put in equipment and sponsorships. This week, I fully implemented it into the game. The other thing I implemented is training. Training turned out to be extremely complicated, in fact, the second most complicated thing except the AI, and that really took up the remainder of the work time. I began fleshing out the paths for one of the characters.
I added a framework for random and triggered events. In a minor miracle there wasn't any obvious bugs and it worked exactly as intended. So far, the only events you'll get are players quitting.
Total Word Count: 51905 (up 10607 this week from 41298)
The Acts
Act 1Internal Polish 20%
External Playtesting 0%
Act 2
Design: 40%
Prose: 10%
Playtesting/Polish: 0%
Act 3
Design: 10%
Prose: 0%
Playtesting/Polish: 0%
Gameplay
Soccer Gameplay
Team Management
Design 70% Programming 25% Playtesting/Balance 0%
Characters
Recruitable Character 2: Prose 10%, Sex Scenes 0%,
Recruitable Character 3: Prose 10%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 4: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 5: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 6: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 7: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 8: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 9: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 10: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 11: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 12: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Note: all the percentages are estimates.
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
Meet Your Advisors
"Captain"
"Yes, you'd manage recruitment, training schedules, the finances and resources, and also provide support during our games... There's only one catch. You've got to make your decision right now, at this very spot. You can ask questions, of course, but you will not leave without giving me an answer."
The Latino girl only known as "Captain" is the legendary former manager of the Easton Egrets. No one knows where she came from. No one knows her real name. No one knows why she stepped down. Actually, no one really knows much of anything about her. Speculation abounds, and she deflects any questions with her trademark dry wit.
Captain is your assistant: she accompanies you as you recruit players, she manages the training schedules, she gives you advice on winning games and motivating your team. She's also one of your players, a skilled goalkeeper, and dedicated to boot. Captain is the only character that will never leave the team, although her exact reasons are known only to her.
Melvin
"It depends. Exactly how short are these 'shorts'?"
Melvin is very happy to be your advisor. He's the president of the Egrets Fan Club, you see, and is nothing except a shameless Super Fan: you couldn't catch him outside his green-and-white jersey. His constant interaction with other Egrets fans means he's got his pulse exactly on what people are thinking. And, you'd better listen to him, because without anyone to buy tickets, you're done for!
Melvin is an expert on merchandising, fan events, and stoking up a crowd. Through him, you can hire a cheerleading squad and mascot, set up interviews with the press, do signings, and other things.
Trevor
Trevor is an import from Easton's business school and self-proclaimed "high-functioning" sociopath. Incidentally, he cares little about
"The loving embrace of cold hard cash is all I want in life-- it just so happens that my soulless path to wealth and riches happens to coincide with the fate of the... charming Easton Egrets. That's how you can trust me. Let's tolerate each other, but I apologize in advance, 'barely' is really all I can muster."
Trevor will advise you on all things related to money. He also handles sponsorship deals, contracts, large purchases and tracks your income. He's constantly on the lookout for business deals and will often come to you with new opportunities.
Monday, October 7, 2013
Pervert Action Future: A Belated Review
I've been replaying a bit of Pervert Action: Future and I decided it never really got the sort of in-depth review it truly deserved. So I'll do a belated review of it. I won't be rating it at all because, really, it's a free game, and so you're not exactly sacrificing anything by checking it out. You can check out his website on the top right.
WARNING: Spoilers abound.
Story
First of all, bbben is a very clever writer. So, I couldn't tell if the story was convoluted just because it was very cleverly mimicking the sort of esoteric plotting often found in sci-fi anime or if it was just trying to build a connection between the original PAC game in a rather strange way, but I'm guessing the former. In any case, it gets away with it because of previously established tropes in the genre, but I couldn't help but scratch my head a little during the big reveal. I'm not sure, really, what to think except that the important parts were in the individual romantic sub-plots, which fortunately made a lot more sense.
All you need to know starting off is that Minami Tetsuya is a complete bitch, and in truth, it's Minami that really pushes the story forward. For this reason, I would have liked to see Tetsuya have a bigger role than she does. I'll get to that later.
Writing (ADDED: 10/07/2013)
The game uses a first person, script format to sort of emulate a visual novel instead of a traditional 2nd person narrative often found in AIF. It's appropriate for bbben's style in this case, especially when the air gets thick with one-liners. The important thing is PAF made me consistently laugh out loud, and it rarely felt like it was trying too hard to be funny.
For everything else, the narrator, Kenji, inserts much of his own color commentary as he describes what's going on around him. It makes normally utilitarian location descriptions a little more fun to read but I can imagine some people being annoyed by it.
Writing (ADDED: 10/07/2013)
The game uses a first person, script format to sort of emulate a visual novel instead of a traditional 2nd person narrative often found in AIF. It's appropriate for bbben's style in this case, especially when the air gets thick with one-liners. The important thing is PAF made me consistently laugh out loud, and it rarely felt like it was trying too hard to be funny.
For everything else, the narrator, Kenji, inserts much of his own color commentary as he describes what's going on around him. It makes normally utilitarian location descriptions a little more fun to read but I can imagine some people being annoyed by it.
Gameplay
Pervert Action Future very nicely combines the best of eroge dating sims with what we would call "traditional AIF". PAF's various component parts all feed into each other in different ways, the combat, exploration, dating and sex, so that none felt like an afterthought. Particularly nice was the combat system, which was very well balanced as well as being surprisingly deep and entertaining. My gripe with the combat system is that I was disappointed with the meager award for beating all the monsters, which is certainly not easy. It would've been nice to have a non-interactive scene or something.
The bulk of PAF's gameplay is choosing to either build stats or romance characters between your various fights. You have three stats, Hand, Mouth and Eye, which come into play both during fights and in sex scenes. You don't particularly need to have a balanced character, and in fact the game encourages you to load up on a single stat. Eye, I find, is not only the best for combat but also unlocks anal sex. Between Hand (which lets you rub pussy) and Mouth (which lets you lick pussy) the choice is pretty damn obvious. It might be a little much to ask for each of the stats to do a little more in bed, but it would be nice.
The sex scenes, for that matter, are all very well written, well voiced and well illustrated, but simple as far as AIF goes. I am not a tremendous fan of arousal systems and so I don't feel like I lost a whole lot not having to tap "G" to see the same message pop up until my virtual avatar busts a virtual nut, but it would have been nice to see something else brought to the table in place of it, maybe some sort of clothing system, especially since your in-game avatar can't orgasm at all except in some of the non-interactive scenes at the very end of the game. Again, having the stats come into play a little more would may have helped to add a little more interest here.
As far as the romancing goes, it's all an abstracted point system with some optional puzzles thrown in, with most of the plot being told through cut scenes. It isn't bad because the individual romantic sub-plots are quite good, but even some symbolic decisions would break up the feeling of non-interactivity.
The risk with this sort of game is what I would describe as the "symmetry" between all of the characters, which is both a good and bad thing. On the good side, you can romance any character with any stat. On the bad side, once you know the trick to seducing one girl, you know how to seduce all the girls. PAF isn't hard: you spend the first half of the game developing a single stat, then, in the second half you spam romance them with your uber complimenting, chatting and/or sparring, where at some point they'll fall into bed with you. It would have been nice to see some more dramatic differences -- for example, maybe you have to defeat Taka in a fight to get her to respect you, or maybe at some point Yuri goes missing and you have to find her. I would go as far as to say I would like it if some characters were flat out more difficult than others. I know the trend is to go puzzle-lite but here it all gets given away a bit too easily.
Characters
I played both PAC and PAF pretty close to each other, and the PAF characters definitely stick out in my mind much more easily, and I can't say it was just the superior pictures. For one thing, PAF's characters are just a lot more believable even while being larger-than-life, their exaggerated personalities given more context. I think part of the reason is that while PAC seemed to purposefully mimic the sorts of archetypes typically found in eroge games, BBBen in PAF seemed to free himself a little more, having already established this strange Dating Sim/AIF hybrid and not really needing to rely on the player's familiarity with eroge games. But that's beside the point, since PAF's girls are just more likable than those in PAC.
In this regard, Chiemi really sticks out. At the best of times, she was charming and genuine, she made me laugh and be happy. At the worst, she made me sad and sympathize with her plight, being desperate and lonely as she is. Between that and the voice acting, which is just incredible and adds so much warmth to Chiemi, she stands out as the strongest character. In the end, she hits a strange mark, because while some characters may have reminded me of some real life people, Chiemi was the only character where I felt like I knew people who were exactly like her. Don't get me wrong, of all the cast Chiemi would make the best real-life girlfriend, but as a romanceable character she hits an uncanny valley where, minus the cyborg parts, she's almost not fantastical enough. It's a difficult thing to explain... I just couldn't see her as an erotic character. I think that's why, even with Chiemi really being the best character in the game, she maybe isn't as popular as she deserves to be, not even with me, and that's a shame. Poor Chiemi. She always gets left out, doesn't she?
Taka, on the other hand, is damn fine. In my case, this isn't just because Taka's character model happens to be the least cartoonish and most vixen, but rather because I find Farscape's Aeryn Sun and Katee Sackhoff's portrayal of Starbuck to be just sex on wheels. It's probably the same reason I found Misato from PAC to be my favorite character from that game. I like tough, sexy girls, and Taka's not only badass, but her voice actress has a sexy, husky voice. It's just a personal kink of mine, and Taka just hits it square.
I'm not really sure what to think of Taka's relationship with Yuri. They are supposed to be almost like sisters, but I just can't buy it, considering how deeply troubled Yuri clearly is at least in the beginning of the game. Yuri struck me as the weakest character, I found her portrayal quite inconsistent, going from cold and enigmatic at the beginning to doing drunk karaoke with Taka somewhere in the middle, without much of a convincing transition in between. She's supposed to be deeply troubled, and considering her mother is Minami she would be, but her relationship with Taka is healthy enough to undercut this. It feels like both Taka and Yuri happened to be the odd characters out and needed a threesome ending. It's also not clear why Taka would trust Yuri and not Chiemi. I would have preferred, somehow, this sisterly relationship developing during the game with the player acting as a catalyst.
The final pair is Ayane the pop star and Ami the best friend, whose relationship made a lot more sense. I really liked Ayane because she was very believably "tsundere", and the story line with the player helping her come to grips with her exhibitionism was one of the best and hooked in well to her sex scenes. Ayane's voice acting was pretty good but it had the poorest audio quality, but studio-quality recording is probably a bit much to ask for. Ami's voice acting is second only to Chiemi's and, as a character, she could have very easily become boring or forgettable were it not for her generally pretty good writing and acting. Ami is the character which most obviously falls into a specific archetype, but fortunately it isn't noticeable because Ayane adds a little bit of interest.
A little should be said about Minami, who is very obviously the villainess of the game. Despite her being an awful person, I would have liked to see a little more of her, even if it's to mess up the PC's day a little more aggressively. She never really gets her own true interactive scene for one, and I didn't find her unsexy.
A final note: all of the actresses did a commendable job to breathe a bit of life into the characters, and for that reason none of them came off as Slutty Cheerleader #6. Plus, it's not easy to make dick-sucking sounds and not be self-conscious.
Overall
"Soccer Game", my own work in progress, is heavily influenced by the tone and game play of Pervert Action: Future. If there was any testament to how much I enjoyed this game, it's probably that. I just hope that BBBen wasn't planning on writing Pervert Action: Football.
I will, however, volunteer what his next game should be: Pervert Action: Sengoku. We've already been to the future, now's the time to go to the past. Finish Super PAC first, of course.
Friday, October 4, 2013
Progress Report III
Summary
Most of the work this week was focusing on the macro team management component. You can now buy equipment and choose a sponsor. A couple of milestones were reached. First, it is now possible to play through Act 1 into Act 2. Also, the word count is now higher than the standard rules but not quite as high as all of the extensions I've used. All of the Act 2 teams are implemented but not refined, and the skeleton of the tournament system has been implemented so you can technically get to the end of Act 2 although it's very bare-bones.
I've added a ton of admittedly lame humor. You've got to excuse me for that.
Total Word Count: 41298 (up 6338 from 34960)
Design: 100%
Prose: 100%
Internal Polish 0%
External Playtesting 0%
Act 2
Design: 35%
Prose: 5%
Playtesting/Polish: 0%
Act 3
Design: 10%
Prose: 0%
Playtesting/Polish: 0%
Recruitable Character 1: Prose 20%, Sex Scenes 0%, Romantic Sub-Plot 0%
Recruitable Character 2: Prose 10%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 3: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 4: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 5: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 6: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 7: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 8: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 9: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 10: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 11: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 12: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Note: all the percentages are estimates.
Most of the work this week was focusing on the macro team management component. You can now buy equipment and choose a sponsor. A couple of milestones were reached. First, it is now possible to play through Act 1 into Act 2. Also, the word count is now higher than the standard rules but not quite as high as all of the extensions I've used. All of the Act 2 teams are implemented but not refined, and the skeleton of the tournament system has been implemented so you can technically get to the end of Act 2 although it's very bare-bones.
I've added a ton of admittedly lame humor. You've got to excuse me for that.
Total Word Count: 41298 (up 6338 from 34960)
The Acts
Act 1Internal Polish 0%
External Playtesting 0%
Act 2
Design: 35%
Prose: 5%
Playtesting/Polish: 0%
Act 3
Design: 10%
Prose: 0%
Playtesting/Polish: 0%
Gameplay
Soccer Gameplay
Design 95% Programming 75% Playtesting/Balance 25%
Team Management
Design 50% Programming 20% Playtesting/Balance 0%
Characters
Recruitable Character 2: Prose 10%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 3: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 4: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 5: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 6: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 7: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 8: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 9: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 10: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 11: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Recruitable Character 12: Prose 1%, Sex Scenes 0%
Note: all the percentages are estimates.
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