New version, new overview!

First of all, apologies for not having done a diary earlier and therefore omitting the overview of the previous version. I don't know exactly how to explain what has happened these last few weeks without the post being a chapter of the bible so I'll try to summarise it: A few weeks ago I got sick and took me almost two weeks to recover. What was wrong with me? Good question... Something weird in my head, first world problems, but I had too much stress accumulated for almost a year now, I had a car accident back in December from which I am still recovering, then came some problems with the tax authorities because they wanted to make me pay almost half of what I have earned until now when I am exempt from paying that amount thanks to the treaties of my country with Patreon (that's how it works here, they go after self-employers to try to get all the money possible, but luckily, I have a good financial manager...), and a lot of shit that ended up making me explode. I've been almost two weeks with meds to be able to sleep, now I'm in treatment to finish healing my arm/hand, and I'm trying to see how to overcome the social anxiety that all this has caused me (this last one I don't even understand, but it's what affects me the most in my day to day, I'm still evaluating whether to go to a psychologist or not).

So... as soon as I started to feel better, I focused on catching up with work. Unfortunately, I was running against the clock and I had to postpone some extra content for the next version. The truth is that it's been an intense month mentally, although I've been like this since December when the car accident happened, I guess it was the last straw that broke the camel's back.

But back to the present... There are several things I want to explain, but I'm going to divide it into two main areas: The future of LA 1, and the content of this new update (v21).

Let's get to the important matter, the future of the project:

In the last weeks, I've had enough time to think, because for some time now I've been dragging an absurd penance due to my "perfectionism" and the only thing that really motivates me now is to try to make changes and think about the future. I never talk specifically about how I feel about being an H-games developer, but I never thought that the simple fact of having to work on a scene would totally demotivate me to the point of having to think about doing something else or I won't work on anything that day. I'd talk more specifically about it but it's just a pretty contradictory crazy thing going on in my head...

So, well, honestly, I'd rather focus on explaining what we're all coming to, and that's what's new in the game, not what's happening in my head. I just wanted to mention this because I realized that this is affecting the way I work. I thought it was unnoticeable, but after talking to the Lisapi's simp number 1, I realized that yep, the way I work has changed and it may be noticeable. This is neither good nor bad, it is neutral, but this is due to the lack of motivation I have to work on NSFW scenes, especially sex scenes. Why? Because the result is never what I would like it to be. For that to happen, I might need to work a whole week on that scene alone, and that can't happen because there's more content to add, so it's a balance between quantity and quality, which I always try to keep 50/50. 

The problem comes when I start to see the complications of what it is to make a simple sex scene... and I say complicated in the sense that it has to look good, with no clipping, no weird cameras, well-rendered loops, and a long etc of small details. This is a problem I have only myself because let's be honest... many people don't care if the girl's hair stabs the girl, or if the MC's pp doesn't match well with the penetration (synchronization), or the size is too big and there is a weird clipping, etc, etc, etc... Apart from wanting things well done in my own style, I have a second problem, and that is that I compare what I do with the work done by others who spend endless hours on animations or use other engines where you can work with more "perfection". I try not to be affected by the latter because everyone works with what they have and you can't be thinking about how unfair is because X person borrows stuff and doesn't give credit or any similar shit that I've been seeing for a couple of years now. As I say, I focus on what I want, and honestly, Koi is pretty fucked up to work with in some aspects if you want to do things right, let alone the hours you need to invest to make everything perfect with very long loops or whatever. It's like fishing with a spear, you need a lot of time and training. 

In any case... I said I wasn't going to explain anything and I've ended up explaining almost everything. Still, and going to the main topic... I'm a person who can't be stuck on one thing for a long time, and I've been developing LA for 4 years now (almost 3 since v1 but before that there were months of work before I had a stable version that could be released). Honestly, that's a lot of years stuck on a project, especially being my first project, which has pretty bad long-term consequences on a technical level. For example, what is often called "spaghetti code", wich as much as I try to optimize and fix, I would need to delete the whole project and start from scratch to get things working properly internally. I know this is something that nobody cares about in general, but when you work on it every day and you are implementing new things, changing others, etc... it ends up being a problem.

Then there's the other point: You make things unnecessarily long because of the learning curve. It's not the same to be a professional with experience in Renpy, writing, rendering, etc., than to start knowing a bit of everything but not being specialized in anything... That's why it happens that the intro was completely redone a few versions ago, the core system of the hard mode was changed, etc, etc, etc. I loved working on Lisapi's Adventures because I was 10000% clear about everything, and although there were things to improve and change, the project was clean, just started, and with clear plans. A pity that the execution was terrible. Still, I had a really good time working on it and making Lisapi almost "full lesbian". It won't happen again though, but in the future, we may see something similar through the story of Lisapi's daughter (Lisa). Let's leave that for the next part of the post.

So, to sum up, we have two conflicts: On the one hand the project has been "ongoing" for too long, and on the other hand, things are dragging on too long due to different factors. The result? Absolute demotivation on many occasions and situations. The solution? Let's get down to the nitty-gritty.

I have been saying for a year or so that the project was not going to be an endless project for precisely the reasons that I have never explained so specifically until now. Also, I was not going to drag it out forever even if it was the goose that lays the golden eggs. It is not my style, nor do I aspire to that. What I aspire to is to give more life to the Lust Age universe in the form of different stories connected to each other. A saga? A series? Call it what you will.

So after much thought... I've decided that the project must end now, though not literally. Gonna share a somewhat general roadmap, which I'll explain below (link here):

As you can see, it's a follow-up of how everything is going to develop in a somewhat generic way as there's always some delay, something that has to be left for another version or whatever. The general idea remains the same and the number of versions should be v21-v30 -> v1.0. I'm not going to drag it out unless there is a very important reason.

What stands out most in all this? That filler quests will be kept to a minimum from now on. Why? Because such quests should never have existed in the first place. In the end, I found a way to make everything flow by itself, as the main plot is to become a Champion and take care of all the girls you meet, but always focusing on both, and then the plot of everything related to the lust, Vanessa, etc. Luckily, I found a way to mix all that without making it look like a lazy job, although I admit that making the girls' tasks be main quests instead of separate things doesn't convince me, but... if everything was separate, there would be a lot of filler quests or no main quest in every new update as working on the girls specifically requires spending time on that. Fortunately, with Maria and Lisapi it's more manageable, and even so, it's not that bad. In future projects, I will try to separate it more noticeably like I did in L'sA as there was a main journal and then we had a "secret diary" that was going to be focused on the story between Mabel and Lisapi.

So, well... To sum up:

• I'm going to try to follow the roadmap to the letter with some small variations for sure.
• After all that, I will start working on "Lust Age: A New Beginning" aka LA 1.5. It is the continuation of LA 1 and starts a few years after the final events of LA 1.
• And that's it. There will be LA 2 but it's a long way off on the horizon yet.

LA 1.5 should last about 2 years of development at most as it is somewhat complementary to the first game. After that, I would like to make a not-too-long story focused on Lisapi/MC's daughter and son.

I know, I'm assuming a lot of things without explaining anything, but it's all spoilers... I can say for those who haven't played the second-anniversary game, that the MC will have descendants and it's something canon. That's why LA 1.5 will happen a few years later, in order to give some justification to something that will be "usual": Seeing the MC's daughters in their teenage years. I would love to explain part of the premise but everything is subject to change... but we will have the possibility to see and interact with the daughters. It's going to be quite a challenge because of the nature of the game and above all because in a roundabout way, I plan for Lisa to have some participation during the story. It complicates everything in the sense of not playing with fire and getting banned, I know. 

I'll have to work pretty hard on how to make sex-themed dialogues coexist with minors running around. A while ago the boss gave me the guidelines for NSFW games to have minors in them, so it's all under control although it will require extra work. In this case, it doesn't bother me because I really want Lisa's character development to be seen. You can expect that there won't be anything out of tone there and it will focus on more mundane and harmless things, something like with Anya in SxF. I'll give you more details about all this in the future and don't worry because everything is planned for the girls to be perverts and all that NSFW-related, but I think it will also be fun to see the girls from a more mature perspective and behaving like mothers... well, all of them except Lisapi because she will always be our favorite crazy girl, so you can get an idea of what her kids are going to be like.

Anyway, before we move on to the next point, I would like to clarify that everything will be very separated/cataloged and you will be able to differentiate perfectly between the moments when people have to behave like adults and the moments of perversion.

I could give you a summary of what LA 1.5 will be like but huh... right now everything is in the phase of discarding, major changes... and that would leave more questions than answers as there are some things I can't answer right now. I can't say if LA 1 will have an A or B ending, but it's more than clear that the "medieval era" continues, and it does so at the hands of our future Champion. SPOILER: The MC will be the Champion by then, obviously.

So... well... I think I've focused too much on explaining things related to LA 1.5 when I shouldn't have, but it's just that this change of direction is something that motivates me to talk about it and motivates me to work on making it all possible. I don't mind talking about any questions you have about future projects, so if you have any questions you know where to find me.

I think that's all clear, but as I said, cut filler quests, finish LA 1, and start a new beginning, literally. And before I forget... the main reason for this change of direction is not only because I don't want to be stuck in the same project for so many years, but also because the size of the game is too big, and despite having found the "trick" of the updates thing, everything is a pain in the ass for me and you. Not only that, but because of this, things that I would like to implement are not implemented because then at this rate the size of the game is going to be the same as GTA VI.

In any case... That brings us finally to the other point: the new version. If you don't want spoilers, I'd better say goodbye here and I hope to see you soon with more news about future updates, overviews, DDs, and all that. Friendly reminder that at the end of the post, I will add the change log.

This new version brings something different, as the new main quest is long but dynamic so to speak. When I was sick, I discovered that watching anime is an interesting therapy. I'm a person who knows a bit of everything but I've never been interested in watching series, anime, movies, or whatever. This time I said, why not, and in less than a week I watched all the episodes of SxF, and now I'm patiently waiting for Code: White. It seems a bit silly, but some things work as therapy sometimes. It didn't help me to get ideas for NSFW stuff, but it helped me to focus on how the course of a quest should happen. 

For this new main quest, I decided to break the quest into several short acts that together make a pretty dynamic quest. So far, the feedback I have received is not bad, and it seems that the result is good as it seems that now the long quests are enjoyable and don't become as tiring as the long talks of some quests. The funny thing is that there are specifically 4 long chats during the quest, but they are set up in such a way that they don't feel too long. It is a subtle change, as this will not always be noticeable, but in this case, it is due to the nature of the quest, and how it takes place.

Several things happen in this quest. I'm going to try to summarise it in a way that doesn't explain anything that might spoil the experience for you:

• The quest includes a new Lisapi's task so you can have sex with her at night.
• It literally has the three acts of literature: Beginning, middle, end. No messing around with the dialogues, etc.
• It solves 99% of the questions about "why Dany".
• Although the end of the quest seems to shed some light on whether Vanessa is "a bad girl" or a puppet, it's left open to interpretation, as always. This will become clearer in the next versions.
• The real antagonist of the game is introduced in the form of an "entity" as the story requires it.
• We have Aynia, who will visit us more often from now on.
• And talking about her, we get to know a bit more in detail about why she is a casual character. Although in line with the previous point, my idea is to change that. And in fact, this is new, it wasn't in the original story plan.
• The main screen is bait, I just wanted to show the design of the thong of the girl who appears (we all know who she is, but I'm not going to say it).
• There is a small change in the plot that although planned, wasn't initially planned to happen as it does, but I like the final result. It's related to the dragonbloods.
• I keep making you think that the MC is a guy who has nothing to do when it comes to facing real problems. First, because I don't give him a chance, second, because I want you to think that way, it's on purpose. I don't plan to drag that out much longer, though... I'm also not going to make the MC now suddenly become Gojo, even though they have a resemblance. 
• Epic and cool things happen even though the final result is not 100% to my liking due to Koi's limitation and my work time (it still took me about a week of work +8h every day). Still, I like the final result.

And without going into further detail... that would be all. While I'm writing all this, I'm still hesitating about whether to leave you some pics or not, because all of them are important spoilers... I wish Itch implemented the "spoiler" tag like on Discord...  Well, I'll leave you one irrelevant spoiler first and two key spoilers. If you don't mind spoilers, go ahead, if not, we'll say goodbye here!

First of all... the change log!

v0.21.0 change log

New content available: ALL DIFFICULTIES

• New main quest.
• Lisapi's stats cap: 5.
• Sleep with Yuna/Anna/Mara in pyjamas (seasonal event).

General changes

• Added new achievements: 1 general, 1 hard mode.
• Added new achievements (fetishes): 2 pee, 2 feet.
• Earning gold achievements have been changed: 2000 -> 2500. Hard mode: 1000 -> 1300, 3000 -> 5000.
• Correctly implemented being able to sleep in pyjamas with Yuna, Anna, Mara when you unlock their pyjamas (winter event).
• Now you can see how many days are left until Lisapi unlocks the next job.
• A rain sound has been added in the background when it rains (weather system).
• Added achievement paintings: Alina, Myra, and Tali.

Bug fixes

• Fixed a bug that caused some exploration items (achievements) to be visible when opening the achievements panel.
• The inventory should now correctly display the available gold.
• Fixed some achievement boxes in the pee section.
• Fixed that when changing difficulty from hard to any difficulty, the gold cap was not correctly adjusted.

Spoilers on the way...

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Yeah, why not.

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Things get serious...

See ya!