I've reached the point where I'm not sure where to go, other than to keep playtesting and fixing bugs. So, here it is: an alpha build.
That means the game is missing content, is full of bugs, is imbalanced, and is generally in an incomplete state. If your interest in this is as a fun little text-based h-game, I strongly recommend you come back later, because it isn't there yet. This is the first time I've ever made a game or made one publicly available, and I'm at a point where I could use feedback, not at a point where I'm pleased with the result.
I'm not posting the fact that this is available elsewhere. There's enough views coming in via the /d/ games general pastebin that I hope to get enough feedback without doing so.
I'm not posting the fact that this is available elsewhere. There's enough views coming in via the /d/ games general pastebin that I hope to get enough feedback without doing so.
One category of feedback that is less useful is complaint about the interface. Twine 2 and Sugarcube aren't particularly well suited to this game, at least in novice hands like mine. I can make small improvements, but the UI will not be completely overhauled.
Download:Mega (outdated, find the latest version under Alpha in the sidebar). Leave feedback in the comments below, please.
Download:
Known bugs:
- The latest version of Chrome doesn't like the story format I'm using. Until the format author fixes the issue, use another browser to open the .html.
- Saving the game and then using the enter key to advance play without any intervening user input will both reopen the save interface and advance play. To avoid this, click inside the game window after saving.
- Grammar in some areas is poor, because changing the code frequently damages the syntax the player sees. Grammatical errors will persist until beta at least and I don't need to hear about them.
- There are currently options for no-dick, all-dick, and rare-dick slave content. Many random events are not limited by either extreme option at present.
- Hard-coded slaves from the thread on /d/ are imperfectly statted. Rather than redo all 100+ slaves every time I change something, they're going to stay as-is until all major content is complete.
- The game is slow, especially handling random events; I'm working on this.
I was one of the ones who originally argued against releasing an alpha until you were sure you were ready for it so I'm very excited to see this out! I'll just type up my thoughts here as I play through the game a bit and hopefully I won't accidentally close the window and lose everything again.
ReplyDeleteI didn't notice at first that the FC Encyclopedia button on the left was context-sensitive and changed depending on what page I was on. Maybe bring attention to that in the introduction? It would also be nice to be able to browse through the Encyclopedia pages from any other page, though I don't know if that's the sort of UI thing that you said isn't as useful to you.
The third random slave I found in the market is both a virgin and pregnant. She also costs $4700, which is significantly higher than the other slaves I've seen so far. Presumably one of those two traits makes up for the big difference? She didn't seem to have any other positive traits, plus she was sick which I imagine should bring the price down a bit.
The end of week descriptions indicate that I'm auctioning off my slaves' anal virginity for extra money. It would be nice to know how much money I'm getting from this.
I purchased a rebellious slave who was still a virgin in her ass and her pussy and I wanted to keep her like that while I broke her in so I made her wear a chastity belt. It seemed like the chastity belt counted in the "nice clothes" category which increased her rebelliousness, which is definitely not what I wanted. Additionally, when I sent her out for public use her ass was used which is also not what I wanted. I was imagining more of a ring-gag and a pillory in the arcology's lobby sort of situation. It would be nice to have somewhat more direct control over our slaves' weekly actions.
At the level of reputation where the Slave School is available there is not a line break between the Slave School message and the line that reads, "You are not reputable enough to acquire other slaveowners' stock." Similarly, there is an extra line break between the Public Market and the Pre-Owned Auction.
Okay after an hour or so just found my first actual bug. I got the mother and daughter pair event (I'm so excited!) and set about setting up their rules and clothing and stuff. The first thing I noticed is that when I went to pierce the daughter's clit the game added a simple row of studs to her labia instead. Then each time after that clicking "Pierce her" in the clit section charged me $50 and had no further effect. Even more strange, after I went back to the main menu the mother was missing and her daughter was in her place in the slave listing. Below the daughter was a copy of the daughter, unmodified from her original stats and settings.
I kept playing around it with some more. It looks like those two spots on my slave list are linked and every time I click on the bottom one to change settings 3 things happen. First, the first of those two slaves (originally the mother) is removed. Second, the options I select are applied to the second slave and she is moved up to the first spot. Third, a copy of the original daughter character is moved into the second spot. I don't really know how Twine works but at a guess there's a bug in how the mother/daughter pair are linked and the creation of the daughter character
I'm not sure how much of that is the type of feedback you were looking for (a lot of it was "it would be nice if..." type things) but I just thought I'd give you my first thoughts on the game. Most importantly: I enjoyed it! I really could go on about things I think could be changed or improved but you have a good base game going here. Nothing struck me as egregiously unbalanced, which is good. Keep up the great work!
This is outstanding feedback and I am including almost all of it.
DeleteUnfortunately slave relationships are going to be an ongoing project; my code there is pretty bad. It looks like my switch to ID numbers as slave identifiers broke a lot of my relationship workarounds.
Just to clarify, are you mostly looking for bugs/errors at this point or are you also interested in content suggestions like more events or slave interaction options?
DeleteI'll read any suggestions you make. I can't promise I'll have the ability, time, and inclination to implement them, but I will certainly consider them.
DeleteRandom event: "$activeSlave.slaveName's daily routine includes frequent application of special skin care to her hugely swollen belly to prevent her pregancy from ruining her appearance with unsightly stretch marks." - slave's name not displayed properly
ReplyDeleteFrom the body mod screen: "0 Her perineum has not been pierced." - 0 should not be there
There should be something that tells you how much construction tasks will cost.
I only get warnings about 'not producing enough food' after I install a new hydroponics bay. I'm not sure whether this is because the warning is misfiring or whether hydro bays are creating negative food. The same happens with power. Profits are not actually increased, despite thew arnings.
The fucktoy interactions on the main screen go to a new page instead of putting the text on the current page, and the only way to leave that screen is to hit 'end week'.
Thanks; good reports. The random event one in particular is a nasty bug that appears when I use copy-paste inattentively. I've got enough to work on with other stuff that I'm taking arcology management offline until I have some hours to fix it. It's mostly bad legacy code I stole from my other project.
DeletePower warning went away after I outfitted a new shop, so I'm guessing the insufficient power warning is appearing instead of some notification about excess power.
ReplyDeleteThanks; arcology management is pretty far down the priority list but I'll take a look when I can.
DeleteGot a bad bug with the Encyclopedia, on Kidnapped Slave entry. Wouldn't let me go back.
ReplyDeleteThe weeks pregnant doesn't list a number.
Had a similar problem with the archology, saying it didn't have enough food.
Had a pregnant shemale slave in the market, which then wasn't once bought.
Good reports, thanks.
DeleteGot this after removing a girl's arms and legs:
ReplyDeleteERROR bad/missing surgery descript Surgtyp: amp Devotion: 3
I will say the game is fun even in its current state. Keep up the good work.
Fixed; reaction code was mistakenly pointing to the mute reaction. And thanks, I will.
DeleteFor an initial alpha release, this game is doing bloody well. Quite a few bugs, but the core concept, gameplay and writing are pretty solid - this is definitely a cut above the rest.
ReplyDeleteWhat I've run into so far:
With the power cells and hydroponics, I'm also getting the warnings when I build new ones. It seems like they are creating negative resources, since my profits seem to go down whenever I build one.
I ran into the bug that the first anon reported. When I enslave someone and their sister, going into the sister's menu and going back out again turns the first slave into a clone of the sister. (e.g. looking at Angelina's sister turns Angelina into another Angelina's sister, stats and all - I played around with it, and this cloning happens every time; performing surgery on the "clone" and then looking at the "original sister" removes the surgery on the "clone")
An event triggered when I had an extremely rebellious slave, in which the slave decided to stay in bed (it had 3 options, forcibly get her out, move the bed to a public restroom and move the bed to a whorehouse). I took the "move her bed to a public restroom" option, and it referenced a slave called "$activeSlave.slaveName", which after the event, turned out to be a newly created slave called $activeSlave.slaveName that didn't have any stats; I sold the slave and it turned my cash amount to *.
I had an event trigger where a slave begged for surgical modification. I accepted, and it threw up an error regarding breast and butt implants, though I inspected the slave afterwards and she had the largest possible breast and butt implant sizes, so I'm not sure what happened there - I can't remember the exact error, but it may have been trying to give her implant levels higher than the current maximum.
Quick update on the bug that's triggered when you enslave someone's sister - selling someone or their sister makes their counterpart vanish. e.g. selling Angelina's sister removes Angelina from the game and vice versa.
DeleteAll good reports: these issues are all easily fixable except the slaves with relationships, which is going to be a longer job. I have a quick patch over the issue but I'm eventually going to have to dedicate some variables specifically to storing relationships to stop this kind of crap happening.
DeleteShemale slave currently residing in the hole: "Emma walks past your desk on her way to As one of the only islands in the sea of black latex, her asshole is eyecatching." On her way to where? Should she be ineligible for showing up in the 'random event' things?
ReplyDeleteShe should indeed be ineligible; thanks.
DeleteFor the sake of my boner, please purge 'Santa' from the slave name list :(
ReplyDeleteHa, I knew this would happen sooner or later. That's a slave from the /d/ thread where anons submitted slaves for inclusion. You should see some of the stuff I didn't add. I linked the thread elsewhere, check it out if you doubt me. Serious answer: just sell her; if I remember correctly she should go for a decent price.
DeleteHad a starting slave who was wearing 'bisexual'. Like, that was what she was wearing instead of any other clothing. Her sexuality is normal. I think something in the slave generator is making 'bisexual' a clothing instead of a sexuality.
ReplyDeleteThat's a hardcoded slave from the /d/ submit-a-slave thread; I just hardcoded her wrong. Fixed; thanks.
DeleteIn the 'go clubbing' random event: 'Her enormous breasts get groped and mauled all night.' She's a c-cup, not really enormous.
ReplyDeleteA shemale turned into a hermaphrodite when I applied penis enhancement/female hormones/plugs. Not sure which of those did it to her. Later, another shemale turned into a hermaphrodite when I chose the 'use a machine on her' option after buying her.
'Care for' on unhealthy slaves automatically switches to fostering devotion once their orifices are re-tightened, even if their health is still poor.
Hermaphrodite slave working as a slave trainer: 'She gives a professorly, hands-off lecture to a classroom full of girls at a school, and wears a strap-on to take a male role for hands-on instruction of current slaves. Her dick is much better for teaching other slaves than a strap-on.'
'Since María is arrogant, your attempts to build her devotion have no real impact. She still thinks of herself as a person.' Slave is no longer arrogant, but is still getting this message when I try to build devotion.
Whoring a virgin slave wearing a chastity belt: 'The stress of being limited to her anus for penetrative sex is tough on her health. Her pussy gets stretched out by the whoring.'
Great reports, thanks. Code oversights creating herms is an ongoing problem; the enthusiasm for dick content on /d/ (shocking, I know) convinced me to add that content, which wasn't originally planned. Let me know if you notice where it happens, if it happens again.
DeleteMother/Daughter event: after reloading a previous save/reopening the browser the daughter's stats (name, age, etc) overridden the mother's ones. In other words, ended up with 2 identical slaves based on the daughter.
ReplyDeleteI've run in some other bugs but most of them have already been described in other posts.
I'd only add that the game loading times starts to increase dramatically with time, but you've pointed out that before already.
Still a pretty good release in my opinion (it's called alpha for a reason, bugs and the likes are expected), the core of the game is there, the customization works and i like the ideas you've been putting in it.
Mother/Daughter (and sister, and twin) problems are being worked on. And thanks. I haven't gotten any blowback for the unfinished state yet - to my surprise, it seems everyone understands what "alpha" means. I realized yesterday that I simply don't have the time to hunt down every last bug and improve code and add content; having these bug reports is priceless.
DeleteThe loading thing is a real pain. I've actually implemented 3 different workarounds that are reducing it from where it would be. If you try to run this in Twine 2 + Sugarcube without the workarounds turning off useless features, it rapidly becomes unusable.
Maybe for the future, it would be nice to have some tabs for organizing your slaves.
ReplyDeleteI agree. For now I'm adding a function that automatically sorts by devotion, and I'm planning other sort-by options.
DeleteThanks. That last bug is what happens when a random event points to the wrong slave.
ReplyDeleteHello and thanks for this excellent game.
ReplyDeletePlease forgive me if it was already listed and I missed it, but I have found an issue with the "Use her as a fucktoy" activity. Once you set a slave with that, she shows up on the main screen under whoever is passing by. If you choose an option from there, it clears the screen and you cannot go back to other options - only 'NEXT WEEK' will unlock progress.
Another lock that I got on my very first playthrough:
Buy a new slave (any source seems to act the same). On the screen with the "welcoming to the stable" options, click on the encyclopedia link, then back. The 'Continue' link is still stuck with 'Back', which completely locks the game.
A few typos here and there, but this is not important right now.
Mechanics wise, I'd also like to be able to control how the slaves will whore/give to other folks. It's a bit too hard to keep girls' sexuality focused on anal or cumguzzling right now. They all quickly end up nymphos.
Keep up the great work!
The fucktoy bug should be fixed in the next build; so should the encyclopedia locking. I understand the feedback on mechanics. Right now, "nympho" is basically shorthand for all of the above sexuality, a mentally perfect slave that will enjoy anything. As balance improves it will become much harder to attain and much more powerful; it's basically the levelcap of slave worth.
DeleteThanks for the quick reply, looking forward to next build.
DeleteSeems to be some kind of hang in pregnancy resolving. Occasionally, the birthing sequence continues to the birthing sequence ad infinitum. Play work-around is to load back to the auto save, and abort, but that ... will probably trigger mind-break.
ReplyDeleteGreat alpha so far, I'd love to see longer news blurbs and background reading of that nature to add to the flavor of a world gone (delightfully?) mad.