The Princess And The Tower (18+)
Lessons Learned In My First Game
The Princess And The Tower (18+) » Devlog
After completing my first published game The Princess And The Tower, here is what I would do differently the next time.
Experienced devs will probably tell me that is "Captain Obvious" stuff, but I wished I had done it from the start in my first game.
Some facts
- Game style was a point and click adventure (NSFW) with some minigames / strategy elements
- The game was a renpy game, but mostly written directly in python (70%)
- Did not count the code, but probably 20.000 lines of code and 10.000 lines of renpy dialogue
- It was a single person project and I spent about 700 hours on it for 7 months or so (was kind of a holiday project)
- Art was done with Blender, DAZ and Photoshop.
- Sounds/music I used available assets.
- It was released in 7 monthly releases with incremental content updates.
What I will do better from the start next time
- Proper Art Asset Management (in SDE and in game folders): "OCD-ish" naming convention for all dev files and finished assets, properly structured subfolders and asset "house cleaning" every month or so. At the end I couldn't find assets, had inconsistencies across 3D character and item files and also only one flat in-game folder with a zillion image files.
- Quest System I: Use a state based quest system from the start, high quest granularity, "auto-update" layer that runs through the state machines and quest DB instead ofrelying to kick off individual quest transitions in the code. Also use the state transitions to autofill quest / help logs and direct control flow. Introduced that from V0.7, had to rewrite the old crappy quest code for weeks and wish I'd done that from the start.
- Quest System II: Bundle all quest data objects (which include title, quest help text, trigger and completion conditions) in a single file, so I can "write" the quest logic in one single location and not lose track
- Grinding/Convenience: Consider players with no beforehand game knowledge / replay experience and make quick progression not so dependent on game experience. Maybe add some redundant pointers to dialogues to push new players in the right direction
- Appeal/Accessability: More "visual" aids for the NSFW appeal (not everyone can run scenes 'in his/her' head). And of course more animations are always welcome.
- Game Flow: When doing multiple endings, plan them properly, make sure there is no interweaving of endgame quest-lines or secret items that unlock endings without mentioning them. This was quite messy for endings two and three and also the cause for a bunch of softlocks, player frustration and the need for bugfixversion (which was 0.9c), etc.
What went well and I'll do it again
- CRM: OCD-ish state based CRQ list (any excel list will do, ...) with target version planning, effort estimates, CRQ-state
- Testing: Find interested and capable Beta Testers, which help greatly in meeting deadlines
- Planning: "Release date first", postpone content elements to next update if schedule would slip
- Staggered release (beta testers -> patreon power users -> all patreon users ->public) to not be flooded with feedback & bugs
- Story: Focus on few characters rather than a large bunch of forgettable randos
- Feedback: Collect feedback on dev sites to content & features. Sites I used for that were F95Zone, itch.io and of course Patreon, definitely worth engaging there with the community
Maybe there is more, but this is what came to mind.
I published the game to force myself to finish something and not leave it 20% done (as my previous non published stuff) and move on to the next thing. That part worked :)
Thanks to everyone for feedback to the game and suggestions!
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The Princess And The Tower (18+)
Help our goblin hero escape from the Tower, while putting up with an eccentric Princess. Warning: Adult Content, NSFW
More posts
- Version 0.9c - Completed Game, Bugfix ReleaseJan 20, 2023
- Space Journey X - Character InfoJan 18, 2023
- Space Journey X - Early Access V0.2 InfoJan 15, 2023
- Version 0.9 - Public Release (Completed Game)Jan 03, 2023
- Space Journey X - Initial VersionDec 19, 2022
- New Game Announcement - Space Journey XDec 08, 2022
- Version 0.8 - Public ReleaseDec 08, 2022
- Work on The Princess Almost Complete (NSFW)Nov 23, 2022
- Work On Final Version StartedNov 14, 2022
Comments
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Excellent post. Thank you for taking the time to write this up.
You are welcome.
I hope it helped some people. It definitely helps me when I read my lessons learned summaries before I start a new project :)
Oh, this can be commented, great. I was surprised that this was done in 7 months. I perused lots of lewd stuff the last weeks on itch and there is a lot of half baked stuff with years in the making and less than half your content (including game play).
I imagine the rating of the tower game comes from frustrated soft locked players and such. The rating system here is just not precise enough. On a global indie scale the game might be a 4/5 (even 3/5, considering titles like Darkest Dungeon are "indie" as well) on a relative scale for lewd games rather 6/5. Some might not like the art or think the boobies are too small, but hey, I do not go running to kinetic novels and rate that down, just because I do not like the concept. Also there is stupid stuff here not actually a game, but just displays h animation without any game play to speak of, that is rated higher... figures.
What I liked.
The lewd stuff felt integrated into the story, and not only some reward for doing your quests (counter example would be a match3 game with a girl stripping)
There were optional skip buttons for some of the mini games. Even with an acceptable tradeoff, so the game felt not obsolete.
The optional wish mirror. I found 7 words. And the 4 riddle questions ( that were more than 4, in case you did not know the anser to the 4 the dev picked). It gives a sense of achievment, if you can solve stuff like this without consulting the net.
Boob size. Seriously. Many lewd games just have unrealisticly big cartoon boobs. On. Every. Single. Girl. It breaks immersion if all are supersized.
The hero is a goblin! Go, Goblins, Go.
Pubic hair. Just like the boobs. It adds to the immersion if all the girls are not the same. Even funnily integrated into the story.
What you mentioned with the story. The girls felt like characters. After a while you could guess what they would say to a situation about to happen. Also, that not all chars (and mechanics) were introduced at the same time, but step-by-step ingame.
What I disliked.
Lack of gallery replay mode. Almost a needed feature for this type of game, if you do have an endless mode after winning, but cannot reach most of the content anymore.
No buttons where buttons could have been used as an optional alternative to keyboard. (bomb laying. moving in dungeon. stash all, retrieve 100/1000, the rotation mini game ). I guess that would be good for playing on tochscreen as well.
Permanent hints about stuff that I can only use near end game. Like interaction with walls and pedestals (or maybe I missed some secrects. Do not recall any wall. Only the pedestals in the lowest dungeon with the questions. maybe the master token).
The night visits to make princess swallow. Unrealistic (the flawless aiming without making a mess) and a bit rapey. I inititially thought, he would go to her and whisper in her ear, she is very influencable, after all.
Some of the points you mentioned, like the intermingled endings. At least there are warnings that you cut off the other ending.
Hey.,
I greatly appreciate the detailed feedback.
The reason for it being "only" a seven month project is, that I did not want the issues my first game would invariably have drag on into an ever more complex unsalvageable design trainwreck.
I rather intend to take the items learned ( add or improve gallery mode, user guidance, UI control, ...) into my next game from the start.
Also, I wanted to improve on the overall visual style (proportion adjustment for characters to 1:6, cleaner renders, ...) and did not want to rerender the early scenes My asset repository was a mess in the end, couldn't find some of the early stuff any more...
So hopefully this will all go into a better second game.
I am glad that you enjoyed the game despite its shortcomings.
y.v.
Maybe you misunderstood. In comparison to many other projects I looked at, the tower game is polished - in only 7 months. I think your coding prowess is showing. Of course there is always room for improvement, something to nitpick over. But that goes for finished AAA titles as well...
The only thing that really irked me, was the Madame in the brothel. That she refused her special services, even when Grex was king. Maybe I missed something, maybe it is unfinished business. But most of the other stuff I thought are unfinished, had their uses. Like the soap. I read that afterwards in the wt, that you can use it in the bath. When I bought it in the shop (never found the barrel), I thought it would be gifts for Gwynn or the Queen. And then I thought I could imbue and swap them, similar to the glitter items, but when fetching you can not insert glitter/soap. So I thought it was unfinished. I even tried to improve the plugs and the dildo by combining 10 of them, but you can only combine scraps and building materials iirc.
At least your messy data structure left me with all the images to look at in the game folder. So I found out what gallery I missed, and since I did not find Madame, I think that service button is a red herring or unfinished business. And when I saw princess in the milking contraption my first thought was unfinished business as well (saw the sreenshots with Princess "Aurora"), since you cannot interact with her anymore. But of course, she just needed to see someone else get milked and wanted it done properly to her. So typical ;-)
Also the Art is fine. Especially stuff like the textures on Gwynns thighs. Or Princesses nipples and her slight belly, very sexy. 3d art is tricky. 2d is easier in that respect. You go into uncanny valley pretty easily, if you try to be too realistic. And the nitpicker in me says, there was a certain lack of money shots, as Grex conveniently likes to come inside.
PS One of the first words I tried in the mirror was gold. Funny that this obvious should be missing from the wt. And when I got power, it got a lot easier, almost felt like cheating.
The Madame indeed is unfinished. I left the special services dialogue in there as "ambience", as I decided to not put in stuff, that would get me banned from patreon or ith. But it could be a coding hook for an extension pack... ;)
But, it could also be inderstood in a way, that she isn't available for Goblins.
And "gold" was too easy (like all the names of the actual gems), so i slighty riddle-yfied it ;)
Uhm, "gold" does work, so any riddles might be in a different version. Oh, "riches" does work too, if you meant that.
The paypal pseudo monopoly needs to go away. They are the main reason for this stupidity concerning artifically created images. They have arbitrary content restrictions, a thing a payment processor should not have.
Having noticed that bit of unfinished business, I would like to add to this list. From the barrel, I have found the reigns and the spiked collar, and I have gotten to "free play" after becoming the Goblin King (I became the goblin king after sending to demonology studies twice) I would like to state that there is so much unfinished content and optional ending miss-outs that it really only makes sense to follow through to at least v1 completion.
There is a mention in the castle of expeditions, which could make for a wonderful Act VII intro, as well as the mention of a training academy for the maids, which could easily be tied in to the institute to form a "royal academy integration" in cooperation with both the institute and the madame, who would employ and fund students/graduates/trainees. This would also be a good tie-in for the spiked collar and pony-girls, along with the demonology outfit research (why is that option even there if you don't plan on using it?) As part of an agreement with the institute (perhaps a diplomacy quest or act could unlock it) you could even make it so that the girls can be sent for training to wear all sorts of outfits.
Putting the pony-girl reigns, spiked collars, possibly even gags in the unused headwear slot would simply make use of an otherwise unused feature and simply making everything available for all the girls would really give some true "epilogue" vibes rather than simply "free roaming" with all these unfinished bits and teasers staring me in the face.
I know you said this is the complete version, but please, even if you decide to take a break for a few months (ie. Put on hiatus for a refresher) since this really feels unfinished, and I'd love to see it pulled through to the end. Please come back to this later on and give a real finishing touch. You could probably bring this out to around ver.1.5 or so, with all the missing/unfinished content I saw in there... It would be a great leaning opportunity for you to figure out how to... "tie everything up" at the end of the game ;) so please consider it. For now I will simply watch your progress with the next game and what you're learning and doing from that.
PS. 7 months for a game this size is actually really impressive, despite the missing bits and bobs here and there, which I suppose might be due to you rushing the content instead of taking your time with it... really looking forward to future content from you dude! Great work!
I'm really happy for you. You did a really great game. Thnx a lot