VN/TEXT [Sadtaco] Legend of Eros: Worlds Defiled

[Sadako]

Re: [HTML5] Major updates to LEWD (Looking for Writers)

Erm, but that's extremely similar to the way twine does it. Lots of people use Twine. Lots of people tell me it's straight forward and easy.
It's simply a conditional stanza. I feel like most people probably understand those. I see people write psuedo-code for jokes all the time on reddit, and people seem to get it. It's nothing complex, it's just a "if this condition is met show this" thing. Very relatable, and basically the same as "if ____ then turn to page 287".

Though actually, that was from forever ago and there's a shortcut to that. Just writing "your bottoms" will have it automatically describe what someone is wearing there, whether that's something or nothing at all without all those nested blocks. I just didn't update that scene to take out all that unnecessary stuff.

I'll also be adding some syntax highlighting and autocompletion to the psuedocode-within-writing-blocks stuff that should make it rather straightforward.

I felt that it would be more appropriate to recruit lots of writers and then train/mentor/encourage a few of them into becoming next-gen writers, instead of putting up a sign that says "only next-gen writers need apply."

But that's what I'm doing!
I really don't get where the confusion lies, here...
The top post, as well as the tutorial, both say you don't need a full understanding. You simply need to make something that looks like it'd work.

I just want to see that people can figure out how to make dialog options, and point them around, with a flowing or even cyclic story and to accommodate different sexes. If people want to show more, they can, but the bare minimum is the former. That's at least enough to write and get content in the game. More advanced stuff can be taught from there.

The hardest part is probably just the psuecode block(s) to check if someone hasPenis, or hasVagina, but I think those are well explained...

The thing is, if people can't read a tutorial, how can they read what I'd teach and mentor them with afterward? :/ Like you said, you only skimmed. If someone only skims, well they're not cut out for it.
And I think there's some people that'd be excited to do real development, hopefully, and get experience like this. And sure it's hard - it's work - but the potential reward is much bigger than many things out there.

Even the colour scheme suggests "IDE" rather than "word processor." Which is why I thought that it might be useful to allow plaintext submissions and then ask a JS (or python, or whatever) programmer to review the inbox and try to adapt the most promising stuff into gameplay scenes.

Yes, well it's a tool. It's an IDE as well.
But I think I've done a lot to make it easy, for those that just read the tutorial.

I purposefully set things up in a way that looks like actual programming with events, inline execution, object orientation, referencing, lookups, etc, because I think it's a good thing to learn some basics of programming with without the nightmare of things crashing, compiling, having no idea why something isn't working, etc.
It's something I think the average person can understand, personally, but only if they take a deep breath and read instead of skimming.
I think the whole concept of a conditional stanza, and variable referencing and comparing, is something most people can understand if they try to. Like my entire family consists of rather unintelligent people; I have terrible genes. But I can write decent, model, texture, materials, particle sfx, soundfx, video edit, and I'm great at programming. I'm not a savant, or gifted with anything. It's just patience.
If someone doesn't have that patience to just read a tutorial, I don't know how I'd be able to work with them to make something great. I'm better off abandoning my dream game and working on things I can do alone.

You talked about not having the money to hire a programmer; there are programmers who would (like the writers) work pro bono if they felt they would be guaranteed dividends later on, likely some of them even on ULMF, and Kimochi.co/forum has a place specifically to hire people for stuff like this.

There's been a number of people wanting to do that and wanting me to mentor them but... It's just too hard to organize. I need people that have some self sufficiency, because those are the ones that can be most productive with the least oversight.
I'd like to bring them on to help people who also have a basic understanding, and to people that do text submissions, but the game is not big to the point where lots of people are wanting to submit stuff.
If I had like 3 self sufficient writers, that made the game a lot better in 6 weeks in addition to me porting it to my new engine and polishing some other stuff up, maybe it would be. But it'll never get to that point when I don't find the right people for right now. And yeah, those are the people that deserve the most reward if this works out.

 

[HentaiWriter]

Re: [HTML5] Major updates to LEWD (Looking for Writers)

Erm, but that's extremely similar to the way twine does it. Lots of people use Twine. Lots of people tell me it's straight forward and easy.

This is what I'm trying to say man; generally similar people run in the same circles. It would be like me saying how my friends tell me that rotoscoping an animation out of a movie clip is straight forward and easy, when anyone who isn't versed in video work would be completely mindfucked, haha.

And again, writers, GOOD ones, are generally a whole different beast (there are exceptions though) than people who do code. Code is very strict, structured, organized, formatted. Writing is generally completely the opposite. It has structure, yes, but it's not too often you find competent writers who are also good at doing code, and that's what I'm saying.

Yes, you might find coders who can also write, but you have to take into account the variables here. You're looking for someone who;
-Is over 18
-Is ok with the fetishes in the game
-Will work pro bono at first
-Is a competent and fluent English writer
-Can eventually comprehend the code required to write for this game
-Has the time/desire/want to understand the code required to write for this game
-Can be found on ULMF/other forums
-Has the time to write the tens of thousands of words you were requesting
-Is self-motivated and won't balk/quit out on you

I'd say the likelyhood of finding someone like that is very, very slim, objectively/statistically, unfortunately.

If you remove the bolded ones though, that percentage shoots wayyyy up.

The thing is, if people can't read a tutorial, how can they read what I'd teach and mentor them with afterward? :/ Like you said, you only skimmed. If someone only skims, well they're not cut out for it.
And I think there's some people that'd be excited to do real development, hopefully, and get experience like this. And sure it's hard - it's work - but the potential reward is much bigger than many things out there.

People can read a tutorial, but you're basically expecting them to grasp the basics of an entire coding language in less than two weeks. Very few people can do that outside of people who are already experienced coders.

It would be like me dropping a tutorial on how to make 2D layers into faux 3D within After Effects on someone who's never used After Effects before. To someone who's an experienced editor, this is a piece of cake. To someone who's unfamiliar with AE, they'll get mindfucked.

The problem is, you want the cream of the crop, but you're saying you have basically no one. If you want a project to start out, it has to be ABLE to start, which means settling for people who aren't the cream of the crop at first, and then as you build reputation and experience and credibility, THEN you can go for the cream of the crop people and cull anyone who isn't making the cut.

Again, I really DO want this project to succeed, which is why I'd suggest you post on the Kimochi.co forums, but outside of that, I wish ya luck in finding dual coder/writers.

 

[Sadako]

Re: [HTML5] Major updates to LEWD (Looking for Writers)

No... I'm asking them to grasp a conditional, and variable references. I'm just asking them to grasp what the tutorial explains to them.
The entire basis of programming is more than 100x that. :/

I asked #4chan and some RP channels, and people said things along the "that's basically the only thing I do understand" to "I'm pretty sure everyone knows that" for every response.
So I don't think I'm too far out on a limb. I DO get that it's far harder to actually conceptualize stories in that way, but that's still a fairly basic skill with game writing.

Again, I think you're just grossly overthinking what I'm expecting from people, rather than it really being me that's expecting too much. I do have high standards, but I don't think they're that high that I can't find a few people. I'm expecting what the OP and the tutorial says, not the millions of other things you can possibly do with the tool.

 

[Sadako]

Re: [HTML5] Major updates to LEWD (Looking for Writers)

The parser works a lot differently, and a lot easier than it does in anything else that I know of. More powerful, too.

You must be registered to see the links

I made a post about how the writing parser for LEWD works, since there was some confusion based on a lot of old content that's in the game.

 

[Sadako]

Re: [HTML5] Major updates to LEWD (Looking for Writers)

I also went ahead and set up a Patron.

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I'm not sure what to expect, since most Patreons are supporting artists, and not programmers. There isn't really anything there to get in return for your reward right now, and won't be for like 6 or 7 weeks from now when I get the game ported over onto the new engine, some new things in, and some new content written.

Still, I'm hoping people might just support me out of their own kindness for now, until there's more of a game to support. To give to a programmer that doesn't shy away from adult games, and that can give so much more back - hopefully - to the adult game's community that's been given before. A lot of people did keep telling me to set one up, but I wanted to wait until I knew I could put all of my effort into these things, which is now.

Further down the line, I've been wanting to make a 3D Adult MMORPG. Something that's just as high quality and polished as any mainstream game. This always seems to excite people more than just a text adventure game, but that's a small step. I'll never get to that really expensive MMORPG without the support here and now. I easily have the capability of making that, as I've shown, but I need people's support leading up to it.

 

[Sadako]

Re: [HTML5] Major updates to LEWD (Looking for Writers)

I'm not sure how interested people will be in this, because it's so technical, but I made a blog post about a new addition to the tools that brings together a core part of the engine:

You must be registered to see the links

This is one of the big reasons why I had to make my own engine. I needed this feature, because it would make actually developing the game itself so much faster once it's in place. None of those MUD, MOO, or even expensive MMORPG servers had it.

 

[Sadako]

Re: [HTML5] Major updates to LEWD (Looking for Writers)

I've made a blog post about some of the work on going from that current prototype, toward the upcoming alpha release of LEWD.

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The prototype is still mostly the same, except I fixed a few things with some of that content.

I also updated the site a bit, including a new "info" page that's hopefully a lot less crap than it was before.

 

[meh65]

Re: [HTML5] Major updates to LEWD (Looking for Writers)

I would bother, except I don't proof read well.

 

[Sadako]

Re: [HTML5] Major updates to LEWD (Looking for Writers)

It's fine. I think I'll actually have enough good writers by the looks of it.

Thanks for checking it out, none-the-less.

 

[Sadako]

Re: [HTML5]LEWD, an erotic text adventure... in space! (Need feedback for alpha1 rele

I made a new blog post to detail a new feature that's coming, that'll enable supporters to easily give feedback about content.

You must be registered to see the links

You must be registered to see the links

I need some feedback on something important that I'm going to be working on:
In LEWD, you have those sliders for your descriptions. They tend to go smaller->larger, or feminine->masculine.
The sort of problem is: people can just write in any description they want there, making it say it's huge even though the slider is down small.
Also, for the role playing and player interaction side of things for multiplayer, I figured people should be basically able to change their descriptions at any time, or at least easily. But obviously this could really conflict with transformation that the game itself might do on the player. Does it matter that something made your dick huge if you can change it to something else? And maybe you don't like those huge dick descriptions, and want to change them.

So I'm not completely sure what would be the best way to handle that. To make sense of the variation between the hard set data that can't be changed, and descriptions that can.
A "Small Dicked Wonder" and "Not Compensating" trait that can get forced on someone might be better than really using the sliders for anything.
But... there's still the thing where the content might often want to change people around when I want people to really play their character that they want, that I'm not sure how exactly to work around. Those things really conflict with one another. I need to figure out some things to balance between the whole players playing the character they want, but also the game being able to change them.

 

[Sadako]

Re: [HTML5]LEWD, an erotic text adventure... in space! (Need feedback for alpha1 rele

Progress on the alpha is coming along smoothly and on schedule~

I wrote up a blog post on one of the improvements coming

You must be registered to see the links

Basically brings support for heterochromia iridis and a bunch of other stuff that can follow, on top of just plain improving how player descriptions are created.

 

[Sadako]

Re: [HTML5]LEWD, an erotic text adventure... in space! (Need feedback for alpha1 rele

For the upcoming alpha, I’m adding a sort of preword to the game to give some context to the world at the start.

You must be registered to see the links

As far as the rendering, things have changed a lot there.
When I first made the pre-alpha, WebGL was not very widely adopted. Instead I used Canvas with a little WebGL extras.

On top of being able to do a lot more with WebGL, it’s also typically a lot more efficient since a lot more of the work is done on the GPU. Here’s a comparison of the change so far:

 

[jadex]

Re: [HTML5]LEWD, an erotic text adventure... in space! (Need feedback for alpha1 rele

Well thats good to add more information but I suppose I thought that the hook for the main story was the main character having amnesia and trying to figure out where he/she came from in the first place.

Also I've looked back a bit in the thread and realized that you were looking for feedback. Is that still the case?

 

[Sadako]

Re: [HTML5]LEWD, an erotic text adventure... in space! (Need feedback for alpha1 rele

Well thats good to add more information but I suppose I thought that the hook for the main story was the main character having amnesia and trying to figure out where he/she came from in the first place.

Also I've looked back a bit in the thread and realized that you were looking for feedback. Is that still the case?

We've gone back and forth on that internally, actually.

We instead decided that there is none of that, it's just that your past life on Earth is mostly irrelevant.

There will be times that it comes up in choices to shape things about your character that'll procedurally generate content for you later, though. That wouldn't have worked with the amnesia thing.

After all, the previous game was just a prototype.

 

[Sadako]

Re: [HTML5]LEWD, an erotic text adventure... in space! (Need feedback for alpha1 rele

Test server for the alpha is now up for patrons
A public release that's open to all, and not just those helping funding it, will come in August or early September. At which point the test server will remain for Patrons.

Short recap thing on what has been done the past ~2 months:

• Now running on my new engine, which will become a lot more relevant in the future. Mostly just a port right now, which took a lot of time.
• About 50% more content
• Some basic character saving.
• Hundreds of little changes, but also some new bugs for now. (That's why it's a test server)
• See
  You must be registered to see the links
  for a more detailed list and info!

There's also a reward system for the supporters that I'll get finalized sometime in August.

 

[Sadako]

Re: [HTML5]LEWD, an erotic text adventure... in space! (Alpha server is now up!)

Got the original post updated with the new information. Was too exhausted last night to update it then.

 

[Sadako]

Re: [HTML5]LEWD, an erotic text adventure... in space! (Alpha server is now up!)

I put out an update 3 days ago.. Was too busy to get notes posted around though, slipped my mind. :x

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• The feedback and rating system for scenarios is now working.
• Fixed a parser error that’d happen if something was caught that ended with a period.
• Lots of other additional problems with the parsing has also been fixed.
• Fixed tile populations (number of players on a tile) not showing in online mode. They also use up less data than they did before.
• Fixed player count not updating as people join/leave and other issues caused by functions that were intended to output data to all players connected.
• Fixed an incorrect order of operations that would lead to the player not moving to the tile where a scenario was executing, which prevented getting to lots of content.
• Fixed a core engine bug that made it impossible for functions that drive the content to have “false” values for a player or object, which made it impossible to have a function that only sometimes used a player object as an option and was messing up a significant portion of things.
• Fixed a bug where some things with player sex not being set correctly for lots of content.
• Fixed a bug where players were no longer marked as “editable” when reloading a save and going through chargen again, which prevented many changes from happening. (This way you can reroll your character)
• Fixed some incorrect stuff with the message on the account page about what access you have.
• Character saves have been wiped (except for descriptions you’ve set)
• Reworked Patreon account scraper to get it working again. -_- Still some problems here, but working on it.

• You can now create new characters on your account page.
• You can now delete your character save if you wish to reroll by clicking the “Delete Character Data” button in settings. This will not delete the name and such, just the game save data.

The main focus on the next update will probably be some engine improvements I need to add, for instancing game objects that enables a lot of neat stuff with content and which will help fix a few bugs with items and some other things.

 

[Sadako]

Re: [HTML5]LEWD, an erotic text adventure... in space! (Alpha server is now up!)

I'm looking for at least one more writer again! See:

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[Sadako]

Re: [HTML5]LEWD, an erotic text adventure... in space! (Alpha server is now up!)

Been working on the map editing tool and updates to the maps.

You must be registered to see the links

You must be registered to see the links

 

[Sadako]

Re: [HTML5]LEWD, an erotic text adventure... in space! (Alpha server is now up!)

I put up a "dev tracker" which basically automatically generates some basic change notes. It's an easy way to see what we've been doing, albeit slightly cryptic.

You must be registered to see the links

I also really need help finding more bugs. I need to get things polished up for the Alpha 1 release in September. Don't be shy to report something that looks like a bug.