[PROGRESS REPORT] Season 2 Framework Complete
Hey all!
Little bit of a gap in communication over the holidays, and I apologize for that. Rather than things getting smoother, they got more complicated. But I do have a progress report for you.
As the title says, the framework for Season 2 is complete. I have a semi-fresh Ren'Py project ready to go that still contains all of the H-scenes from Season 1 so that the Gallery will still be full and you won't have to go back to the other game to view them. That being said, they still take up nearly 1 GB of space, so I might have to figure out how to compress them better.
This new framework supports the adding of character side stories as separate packages, which basically means I can ALSO make available a download of all of the Season 1 scenes so you can combine them and play Season 1 and Season 2 in the same game. Like... WCA... Legendary Edition lol.
Get it? 'cause Mass Effect... ah, never mind.
This also means that the game will finally have something for supporters that sets it apart from the public version. DLC characters. Now, I know there might be a bit of an outcry for taking inspiration from a game like Crush Crush, but the Patreon and SubscribeStar are growing quite slowly, and monetizing some of the character stories will help out a ton. Plus, we'll have the option to give away some of the DLC characters/packages as freebies as well for certain events. Patreon and SubscribeStar supporters will, of course, get most if not all of the DLC characters for free as thanks for their long contributions with little to no content between game updates.
Speaking of side stories, I seem to have reached the point where I'm overwhelmed with the amount of writing I need to do. Most of you know I'm a Dungeons and Dragons DM as well, and that I run my games on my Twitch channel. Well, a few of my players are also fellow DMs whose games I have played in, and I know their writing to be quite solid and very similar to mine. So I am experimenting with bringing them on board to get more content written faster, which means getting YOU more updates faster.
So here's how it's gonna work. I'm gonna get a few chapters of the main story done just so there's a good amount of main content to go through. It'll play exactly like WCA Season 1: very linear, with mostly flavor choices.
At certain points along the way, I will give you a break from the story and send you to a Free Time screen, where you can either dive right back into the main story or choose to spend some time with one of the girls and go down her personal story route for a while. These story routes will play just like WCA Season 1, but may have critical choices in them.
This also means each girl is going to have her own quest file in the back end of the game. I also have a visible affection system so you can check what affection level you're at with each girl from the Free Time screen. I'm toying with the idea of some scenes requiring you to be at a certain level with a certain girl, especially for girls whose stories are deeply intertwined.
On that front, we've also sorted all of the girls into categories: Core, DLC, Secret, and Main Story.
Main Story is just that: you will experience most of that girl's personal story within the main story of the game. Options to become intimate with these girls may appear in a separate side story branch, but there shouldn't be any more Main Story sexual encounters (unless the story REALLY calls for it). That way I'm not forcing you to get funky with a girl you don't like.
Core girls will be girls that everyone has access to for free. These are the girls whose levels might be required to progress each others' stories, DLC characters' stories, or even the Main Story. Core girls are characters that might accompany you during other scenes in the Main Story or other girls' stories.
DLC girls will be extra side stories for you to play through. DLC characters' affection levels will NEVER be required anywhere because that locks progression behind a paywall and I say hell no to that. But that also means they can't appear in anyone else's stories, unless they are sold as part of a pack.
Secret girls are just that: unlockable via some secret condition. Currently, there is only one of these. But if people like this idea, I may add 1 or 2 more.
ALL of these story branches will play out just like WCA Season 1, periodically returning to the Free Time screen so you have a chance to continue, switch girls, or get back to the Main Story.
Speaking of the girls, there are several of the upcoming girls that are getting a visual redesign. Chief among them is Lirum, the younger Spirit Elf you all saw in the stasis tanks. Lirum has a VERY cute face, and hiding it behind the swept bangs was a mistake. So I'll be changing her hairstyle.
Other characters getting a visual overhaul are Senia, a new Goblin, and Yuka, a new Ghost. Yuka might even get renamed. You know her as the Beetlejuice girl on the banner of the game. Sadly, this was the work of someone I recently had to permaban for excessive toxicity, so I'd like to scrub any and all influence he had from the game. Apologies to those who liked her design. But for the past three months, since being banned and blocked on every front imaginable, he's taken to using his Twitch channel to do nothing but shit talk me and my friends, and has published exactly 25 live streams full of defamatory content. So yeah, don't really want any of his stench on my pet project lol. Speaking to a lawyer about it in a couple of weeks.
That's about it for now. I have a lot of work to do, and it may be a little while before WCA Season 2 releases. But when it does, it's going to drop with quite a chunk of content, both in Main Story and in Core Stories. As I shoot the intro scenes for the Main Story, I'll have new screens to show y'all in the next update. For now, here's a Goblin. We call her Cerros. She's kind of a concept character and we don't even know if she should be put in the game. What do you think?
- Vic
