Progress Update
Uploading Beta version 0.4 for our Patreon today. This version introduces the Status mechanic, though without UI indicators, as I feel there's no need to refine this design further.
I need to announce that, after playtesting, we will be reverting to the original gameplay design (pre-Slay the Spire node map). I believe this approach has reached a dead end. Allow me to explain my reasoning below...
The new design feels overly brainy and disrupts the pacing. When people play this game, they're in a state of 70–95% horniness and 30–5% boredom. The pacing needs to align with the rhythm of our blood flow, if you catch my drift ^O^. Our goal is to solve two main problems: horniness and boredom. But the more I analyze it, the weight leans heavily—81% horniness, 19% boredom.
Our main motivation for this pivot was to lower our "porn grade" from 80 to 73, while increasing fun from 65 to 87. However, after extensive playtesting, I'm less confident in achieving either.
On the fun side, the new design barely reaches 40 at best. To push it from 40 to 87, I estimate it would take five months just to reach 58, and another four months to climb from 58 to 70. Balancing this is beyond my tiny brain's capacity.
As for the porn aspect, I've tried, but without a substantial amount of new graphical assets, reworking game flow, and redesigning transitions and pacing, I just can't make it work. The only content I feel we should focus more on is thrive scenes.
My apology for wasted yet another a month and a half. Sometimes, you just don't know until you try. But through this experiment, I now have a much clearer vision of what we need to enhance our original gameplay—and we're already working on it. I’ll share the final concept of our game in two days.
