What's Up?

So it's been awhile since I've posted any real updates here, but that isn't for a lack of work on my AIF projects. In fact, I've been really quite busy when it comes to AIF matters. I have two quick updates about some projects.

Simpler AIF

Right now I'm working on an extension for the AIF Toolkit that will introduce arousal mechanics. It is essentially an expansion on the Orgasm Control plug-in and can handle things like erections and simultaneous orgasms. I expect it to be out next week and, while this particular feature isn't backwards compatible requires some work to update to existing Simpler AIF projects, it is entirely optional.

This release will be 0.6.0. The next major release after that will be 1.0.0. The only other major feature I want to add to the AIF Toolkit is some sort of penetration and joining system that can be seen in School Dreams 2. I have an idea for a positions system similar to the one in that game but, since that's something I'd never consider using personally, I might save it for later.

Another thing I'd like to see in Simpler AIF is a bunch of templates that basically can be copy-pasted into a project, so that all you really need to do is fill out the descriptions and *poof* a fully featured AIF scene. That's going to be pretty labor intensive but, because I'm likely to use it myself, it might get done sooner rather than later.

If you have any requests, I'd like to hear them.

Soccer Story

I haven't written about this in a while. I became extremely dissatisfied with the gameplay and I basically discarded it and have restarted from scratch. Disappointing, since I sunk a lot of time into it, but I am a perfectionist so, for me, it's sometimes better to delete everything than put out something mediocre. What I'm going for now is gameplay that feel less "simulationist" and more "arcade-like" with special moves and simplified, RPG-like mechanics.

I am also thinking about reworking the interface to make it easier on myself. I'm looking at the menu-based interface of Corruption of Champions (but without any of the rather odd fetishes) as a model. I7 can actually handle these sorts of interfaces, but I'll need to delve into Glimmr which is something I find quite difficult to understand right now.

An Update

It's been a while since I gave an update. Well, here's one.

Soccer Story a little less than 100,000 words long now. For some perspective, that's about as long as your standard novel. It's a bit hard to estimate since much of the writing has been moved over to a word document, but the important thing is that it isn't even close to feeling polished, done, or even at a working state. I've slowed down development on it to gather my thoughts about the project. I'm dissatisfied with the simulation aspect in a couple of ways. While it is sophisticated as far as a text project goes, it's feels quite *random*, and I'm really not sure what to do about it right now.

More recently, I have been working on a demo game for Simpler AIF. I won't be releasing much info about it, except that it is in a genre I have little experience in, so it's an experiment. I am, however, planning on doing my own hand-drawn art for it, contingent on whether I'm still able to produce anything worthwhile. There was actually a time I was an okay artist, but it was by intuition and practice rather than training, and it has suffered unused for a while. My skill at art has always been correlated with my boredom at the time and, since graduating from university and entering jobs that would fire me for doodling, I've hardly laid a pen to paper. That must change.

If I do manage to draw something that doesn't look like a graphite turd, I will post a teaser here.

Progress Report VIII

So, I took a bit of a break this week. And by "break", I mean I didn't fiddle around with the source code like I usually do, but I have still been writing. With the framework pretty much done, the remainder of the work is pretty much is just pounding out the story, events and content. That should take quite a while, so I'm thinking it might be another week before I do some actual coding.

I've been experimenting using Scrivener to plot out AIF. So far, I like it, but I'll blaze this trail a little further before I actually write about it.

No word count estimate this week (most of the writing is in an external document at this point.)

Progress Report VII

Here's a bit of a teaser for the interface. I think it's going to be a lot easier to see what's going on now.

Not much to say really. A few days into the beta and I think it's going very well. I've gotten a lot of useful feedback.

Summary

The slog of game mechanics continues, but the end is in sight. For a break, I wrote some more of the actual story. I'm not going to post the usual percentage because I just don't feel like it this week.


Total Word Count: 80379 (up 9295 this week from 71084)

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)

The Acts

Act 1
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%

Gameplay

Soccer Gameplay

Design 100% Programming 75% Playtesting/Balance 30%

Team Management

Design 100% Programming 65% Playtesting/Balance 0%

In-Game Documentation
Writing 75%

Characters

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.

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)

The Acts

Act 1
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%

Gameplay

Soccer Gameplay

Design 100% Programming 75% Playtesting/Balance 30%

Team Management

Design 70% Programming 25% Playtesting/Balance 0%

Characters

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.

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)

The Acts

Act 1
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%

Gameplay

Soccer Gameplay

Design 100% Programming 75% Playtesting/Balance 30%

Team Management

Design 70% Programming 25% Playtesting/Balance 0%

Characters

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.

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

"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 is an import from Easton's business school and self-proclaimed "high-functioning" sociopath. Incidentally, he cares little about soccerpeople, but needs the experience and the grades to finally be able to plunder the retirement accounts he's always dreamed of. Trevor is the sort of man who can rub two coins together and make three... and then get a rebate from the IRS for a fourth.

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.

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)

The Acts

Act 1
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%

Gameplay

Soccer Gameplay

Design 95% Programming 75% Playtesting/Balance 25%

Team Management

Design 50% Programming 20% Playtesting/Balance 0%

Characters

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.

Progress Report II

I'm a bit too drugged up on allergy medicine to work, too sick to go out and so forth, so now's a good time to release a progress report.

Summary
I'm still trying to make up for lost ground after the big delete, but I feel I'm much closer to being in the core of the game. Also, I hit my first real milestone yesterday: I broke Inform's default memory limits. Luckily, you can always allocate more, but ideally you don't want to do that too many times.

Total Word Count: 34960

The Acts

Act 1
Design: 100%
Prose: 85%
Playtesting/Polish: 0%

Act 2
Design: 25%
Prose: 2%
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 10% Playtesting/Balance 0%

Characters

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.

Progress!

A lot of progress has been made, I've been working on the game pretty much every day. I can't explain it: in my view, there is very little in the world more purifying that deleting loads of your own work. It is like losing 20 pounds. So, I won't say that I am where I was when I restarted, purely in terms of word count I'm about 10,000 words behind, but I do feel like I'm much closer to being into the meat of the game.

The skeleton of day 1 is finished, which is the "set-up" of the game. Only the most basic level of team customization is in, in that you can rename your team now. There won't be a game effect but you will get funny reactions from people if you name your team something weird.

I'm working on the recruitment right now. There are going to be about 12 recruitable characters. I'm not sure how many of those will have romantic sub-plots and interactive scenes... ideally all, but I don't think I'm going to have the time to do all that. In any case, to recruit a character you have to complete a mini-CYOA sequence, and how to get those CYOA sequences to follow properly after the other is the challenge for the moment.

Anyways, that's all for now. It's churning along now, and hopefully I won't be deleting tens of thousands of words again.