Saturday 29 November 2014

Future plans

Hello everyone,

I'm working on the next version of Newlife at the moment, but I might not have as much time as usual for it this weekend so I can't show any screenshots yet.
For now, I'm going to post about the development plan for the near future. Of course bugfixes and small 'tweaks' can go in at any time, but I have a good idea of the big changes up to version 0.3. Here's what you have to look forward to:

Version 0.1 - The Internet release
First internet release. Newlife has been in development for over a year, but the final push to get it internet-ready was a massive piece of work that took 3 months and went from Newlife having just 1 screen to where it was a few weeks ago. That's all done now (phew!) and I'll try to avoid putting that many changes into a single version again!

Version 0.2 - The Themeless release
Version 0.2 won't really have a theme - it's a selection of important changes that I couldn't get into the initial release. Key changes:

  • Character browser to show details of npcs (done in 0.1.1)
  • The romance change : scenes for sleeping together with someone and the morning after if he stays the night. These will be in 0.1.4
  • The less-romantic change : Major overhaul of the caress/grope/undress code that will make it much easier to add some important new types of content, including grope-based scenes and new clothing types

0.2 should be finished sometime this year.

Version 0.3 - The Pregnancy release
Version 0.3 is based around increasing the game length to 52 weeks. This means it'll need a proper pregnancy implementation. I also don't want to increase the game length until there's enough content to make it fun to play for that long, so this will be a bigger release than 0.2.

  • Contraception improvements
  • Enough new content that 52 weeks seems like a reasonable game length (i.e. random events etc)
  • Improvements of existing skill-based activities OR a new skill (probably cooking or dance) with associated game effects, activities, events.
  • New clothing types
  • Rework of nightclub dancing. Probably this'll get put in a separate scene. Clubbing is already the most complicated scene and it would help if it was split up.
  • One new big sex scene
  • Better feedback regarding male traits. E.g. he'll comment on your appearance at the start of a date in a way that gives clues to his personality
  • Improvements of the current job. Probably won't be fully complete for 0.3 but I want it good enough that it will make sense to add a new career in 0.4 or 0.5
  • Proper pregnancy system including description, modifications to existing scenes, special pregnancy scenes, giving birth (probably won't be described in detail!) and some sort of 'childcare' skill.
  • Childcare. Kids definitely won't appear in any sexual/sexualised context : they'll probably be completely "off-camera" where you spend activity slots to take care of them but they don't appear in scenes.
  • Uses for money other than buying clothes & drinks. I have three big plans for money in the future, but probably only one of them will go in for 0.3.
  • Extend game length to 52 weeks.

As you can see, 0.3 is a big piece of work and there's no way it'll be done this year, but when it is finished it'll leave Newlife in quite a healthy position without much in the way of 'placeholder' code.
After that, I have a lot of plans for future changes but I don't want to talk about them in detail - after all, by the time 0.3 is finished I may have changed my mind about them!

Thanks for reading, the next version should be ready sometime next week. Have a fun weekend everyone :)

6 comments:

  1. I love what you have so far! Even in its bare-bones state, I am enjoying replaying over and over. My only comment isn't a complaint at all, but an expression of hope: BJs, please! I know pregnancy seems to be the main "goal", but I think offering oral to avoid intercourse is balanced by the lack of stress relief and probable humiliation from the spit/swallow/facial ending.

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    1. Oral is definitely the front-runner for the new sex scene that'll be in 0.3 :-)

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    2. Awesome! Looking forward to how you implement it. I would love to see multiple options for it the way you did manual stimulation, with varied responses based on the NPC involved. Plus, as monogamous mentioned, a variety of possible targets for the finish!

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  2. Really like what you have so far, especially the emphasis on pregnancy, which I feel kinda gets the short end of the stick on these kinds of games.

    If I could make one suggestion and to be fair, I have not beaten the game enough times to really see all the variations, but with a game like this, just having a bunch of endings, even just variations based on what you have done would be amazing!

    So things like, who you dated, how serious the relationship got, how many times you went to the bar and got hammered before sleeping with some random dude, wither or not you where really manly and refused to have sex with a guy unless you where fall down drunk and ended up with a kid despite refusing to dress femininely and taking the manly perks at start, est, would all factor into what ending you get.

    Maybe using hidden meters like, "Drunken flings: 6" (number of times during the 'offered drinks' event you reached the 'almost falling down' stage) Which if you hit 10 adds a line to the ending where it mentions how you became an alcoholic/bar fly. Or "Sexually Liberated" Number of different guys slept without dating. If you hit 8 you get an add on to the ending where either you end up as a sexually free spirited woman who never settles down (possibly even putting there kid up for adoption if pregnant without any steady relationship at the end of the game) or if you turn back, you get a bit in the ending where you become a pan sexual swinger, enjoying love every where you can find it after experiencing and enjoying it on both sides of the gender divided. Or "Mom: 5" How many times did you not ask for protection before having sex with a man after a date? 2 or less: If not pregnant at the end, your ending dose not refinance kids after staying a woman. 4 or less, if stayed a woman your ending mentions having a kid years down the line. 6 or less, your ending mentions having a small family. 7 or more, your ending mentions you having a large family with lots of grand kids and even some grate grand kids to coddle after the last of your own children left the house.

    On the opposite side of the coin, you can then have 'bad ends' where your character dose not embrace there feminine side, but due to pregnancy or a too low feminine score (or maybe even another "resistance score" with would be affected by doing things like refusing to cheek your own body, ignoring dates only having sex when piss drunk and ending up in kinda sketchy situations that would sour your view of womanhood), but still ending up stuck as a woman. Then you get more negative versions of the endings, so 'bar fly' turns into 'alcoholic', 'sexually liberated' becomes 'unhappy whore', mother becomes 'unplanned mother' where you raise your kids more out a sense of duty, but are envious of the boy/s for having the life you wanted.

    Anyway, I know these things might all be WAY harder to implement then they seem to someone with only a very limited understanding of programming like me, so if they are or they clash with your desires for what the game should be life, don't worry, I am not some crazy person going, "Add these to the amazing game you have made because I said so! Do it!" Just some average schmuck tossing out idea's that popped into my head as I was playing and reading your update plan. If any of the idea's you end up liking and had not planed on doing before, WONDERFUL! I helped! If you hate any/all of them, then derp, sorry about that, but no harm, no foul right?

    Whatever your thoughts, love the game, looking forward to more of it and so very glad someone is making such a cool game for our weird little internet sub community! <3

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    1. Good to hear you're enjoying the game!
      I'm definitely planning on adding in-game stats at some point. I don't know if they'll influence the endings though. Those will definitely get more variety but it's more likely to be based on your traits, career situation, relationship status etc.
      There'll be some sort of "rejecting your femininity" path eventually as well with appropriate endings for that - that'll take a whole major update to do properly though so it won't be coming in soon!

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  3. Fockin Brilliant stuff m8 keep up the proper work.

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