Chapter 2 is done and available!!!
Oh man, where to start?
I guess I will start with the TLDR:
My vision and plan for Chapter 2 was WAY too ambitious and those ambitions threatened the entire project. Future chapters will be smaller, more manageable and released more often.
Hindsight is 20/20 right? Hindsight says that Chapter 2 should actually be chapter 4 or 5 or even later in the story. I could have built up the club night a little slower and it would have enabled me to both reign in scope creep and increase my knowledge of AIS and Renpy. I would not have had giant gaps of frustration of where to start, what to do next, how to light a scene, how to animate better, etc, etc…
I would start a scene and spend forever lighting it and hate how it looked. Then my day would be shot as the kids came home from school and I could not work on the project with them around. After more than a few days of trying to fit in production time I would just give up for days or weeks and even a couple of times, months would go between any work getting done. Those long gaps would then take me hours just to get back up to speed on the tools, then just as I figured it out again, yup, time to stop for the day. This was probably the largest reason for the significant delay in Chapter 2.
I created all these variables in the prologue intending to really allow player choice to affect the entire game. I still fully intend to allow this but keeping track of so many variables is a nightmare for me. I am still learning better coding practices (high school coding in pascal was 30 years ago and things are a little different now) and determining how many and what variables I need has been an ongoing learning process. So I am simplifying how the story tracks events and choices and what is important to include. One of the things I have noticed in the last week where I have really focused on getting this released is how much can come together near the end when all the scenarios have been almost completed. For instance, there is a scene where you get to watch a couple play and have the chance to play with the male half later on. Once I wrote and 90% finished the scene I was able to put in small lines of dialog to the effect of “Oh yea, I saw you two and it was great!” in other parts of the story. Knowing that now I would have changed a few things during my initial writing in order to lessen my stress. I really think small “throwaway” lines are important and I am happy I am able to include some.
Future chapters are not going to be nearly as ambitious as this chapter. A rough count of Chapter 2 is 5000 lines and 410 images, the Prologue and Chapter 1 were about 5500 lines and 380 images. Chapter 3 will be smaller, more intimate and focus on moving the story forward. There will also be no more “fail states”, I was trying to be clever but I really don’t think they are needed or help the story in any meaningful way. A VN has a story with input from the player but it is still mainly the author's story. I am going to do my best to allow a more focused experience while still having some agency in your choices.
Going forward here is my plan. Spend some more time adjusting the background music to fit the scenes, I will be going back to previous chapters as time permits to insert different background music to fit the scenes as well as allowing a scene select. Create shorter, more manageable chapters that may not even have any have sex scenes. Living in the lifestyle generally isn’t a sex party every weekend and dates during the week, I need to allow the story to reflect that.
I wouldn’t say Chapter 2 is a mess but it does not reflect my initial vision. You may notice there are parts of Chapter 2 that don’t reflect earlier choices you made in negotiations about going to The Garden. Again, I apologize, I just wasn’t able to make it all work and in the interest of the rest of the game not becoming vapourware I just did what I could do. Lighting in the club is inconsistent, I hate lighting scenes but I am getting the hang of it I think. There are also some scenes that may seem rushed and not fully baked. That is also true, again for the same reasons not all choices were reflected. Maybe you would not have even noticed if I didn’t bring this up, but I notice it so I want to explain myself to you.
So, back to the fact that this chapter is actually released. There are going to be some bugs, spelling and grammar issues, if you could kindly point them out to me in my discord it would be appreciated. Feedback is also appreciated, it’s hard just releasing something into the void, I know there are a small number of people who have enjoyed what I have made and shared that with me. Don’t be shy, criticism is ok, how else will I know what could be done better? Now that it is fall and the weather is not as nice I will have more indoor time to keep working on the project.
If you like what you see and have the means, a couple bucks here and there means a lot to me, it allows a couple of things, a little motivation for me, people are willing to pay me for this? It also allows me to support other Patreon’s that make putting this all together easier. Funds from the patreon and Itch allowed me to commission the GUI that you see and that makes everything more polished that I could accomplish on my own.
If you are just discovering this project, welcome, if you are coming back, thank you for coming back and checking out what happens next. Chapter 3 will not take forever, I promise.
Files
Get The Hotwife
The Hotwife
A couple starts exploring non-monogamy and the Hotwife lifestyle
Status | In development |
Author | NSN |
Genre | Visual Novel |
Tags | Adult, cuckold, Eroge, Erotic, Hentai, hotwife, NSFW, Porn, swinging, wife-sharing |
Languages | English |
More posts
- October Update30 days ago
- September Update71 days ago
- April UpdateApr 02, 2024
- Bonus Content #3Mar 24, 2024
- Chapter 3 release!Mar 14, 2024
- CrunchMar 04, 2024
- Mid Feb - Small working update.Feb 21, 2024
- Feb 2nd updateFeb 02, 2024
- Happy New YearDec 31, 2023
- Pros and ConsDec 12, 2023
Comments
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Firstly, congrats on learning and overcoming obstacles o/ I think most new devs discover that whole "being overly ambitious" issue; people don't realize until they are doing it, but a simple choice doesn't grow additively, it grows exponentially and can get out of control real fast the more elements you add.
This is me jumping the gun a bit, but is your game going to have options for cuckolding? I personally would like to see some femdom/light humiliation, but I also know that's not in a lot of people's wheelhouse. That said, I thought it might not hurt to ask.
good luck with your game regardless, if you can, try discussing other devs some tips and tricks, many are more than willing to share some neat info.
Yes, that is something that will be included. There is a scene in the club gloryhole that opens that door a little. And for those who have no interest in that particular scenario, they will never see it.
Thanks for the kinds words!
btw, towards the end of the first chapter I guess...when you and your wife are doing the survey together, there is a typo in some of the questions (breats), also afterwards there is an image failure (sink24 I think?) and also from this point on, you put in "jo" for the wife's name, regardless of what the player wrote. Its happening a bit.
btw, since I got this far playing it, I'm kinda disappointed, cus I absolutely would 100% want to clean her up (earlier in the game, it was a "some time" thing, but I'm absolutely wanting to go down on her whenever and full of whatever :P)
That said, I understand now precisely why you got overwhelmed. You have a loooot of excessive choices here that are gonna be hell to track, so I can see adding the player cleaning her up and eating her out is a no go :P Just thought I'd mention it though while reporting bugs
It is amazing what can be missed after reading something so many times. Breasts/breats have been fixed, "Jo" has been given the correct variable so you name choice shows and "sink" has been corrected to "wink".
Thanks for the bug reports, really appreciate it!
You may want to clean her up now, but hubby? Maybe not yet, it has only been 8 days in story and their progression at the club was pretty quick compared to what we and other friends have experienced in starting out. You will get there in time...
Well, my comment was based on just her and hubby on the first night XD I'm very much a pleaser and stuff, and I am assuming husband and her have been married for sometime, but it can't be helped, as you said, he will grow in time (or I'll guide him to a beautiful corruption)