Progress update- bodies, brains, and state machines (Patreon)

Technical one this time >.>'

I have a coding stream starting in two hours!

To new patrons: We’re in the middle of an absurdly-long update cycle. Here’s the summary and how to access content.

What's being worked on?

Body sensitivity is progressing slowly but surely. I designed the code to allow to add more sensitivity types for different body parts easily, and so far it's working great!

State machines are "almost done" as of yesterday. Today I'll be debugging them and trying to move on. So close to being done with this detour >.<

State machines control the processes and cycles that a character goes through. Orgasm, consciousness, and minor states like the stages of erection, crying, etc. 

Body part states (like being tickled in the armpit), and brain states (like feeling aroused), are the simple forms of these. You can feel tickled in the armpit from 0 to 100% strength. Most of the game runs on these 0-100 type values. State machines are more complex, have logic behind them, and are harder to quantify in a simple way. 

These have been weirdly hard to pin down and finalize in the code. I think they're hard because they don't fit neatly into anything. Both my careful data structure, and the ECS (the architecture of my game engine) aren't good for them. They have to be mostly hard-coded, which feels weird after putting so much effort into not doing that.

The reality is that hard-coding is the most sensible path in this case. Trying to put them into more customizable data is wayy more difficult than the other things, because it would involve writing and interpreting a scripting language just for them. 

I still have a lot to learn about programming. When stuff like this comes up, I'm reminded that while I've been coding for a long time now, I'm still kind of a beginner when it comes to software engineering. 

My brain hurts.

I feel good about the game and the code, thankfully, but my human brain still needs some debugging >.>

Last week I talked about having trouble focusing, and steps I was taking to approach work in a more healthy way. Improving sleep was a big step, as well as addressing other basic mental health things. This week was tough, but better than before at least.

A question I got last week was- is there anything that the community can do to help me with these problems? And the answer is yes! And no. Leaving comments and honest feedback about how you're feeling about the project is actually a huge source of motivation for me. Positive encouragement helps me know I'm on the right path. Critiques help me see if I'm missing or underestimating things. 

They won't cure my adhd but they do help in other ways :3

Q&A

Will there be toys/spells that can plug up fluid leaks? Yes! I'll have to work out the math on fluid pressure/leaking. It was a little too aggressive in the past, and I'd like to allow more play with plugging up inflated characters.

"Will there be something like a transport ring to remove someone's fun bits and use them in place of a dildo or onahole?"

Yes! After this update, the next big feature is portals, which do exactly this. The engine updates should allow portals to be much easier to code than before, so I'm excited ^^

... and that's all for now!

These past two weeks have been a rough go. I've slowly been getting a better and better handle on my life surrounding my work though. This week was at least twice as productive as last week. Still like half as productive as normal though. Oof. I'm working on it!! 

Next step, stop eating like a starving feral raccoon. 

We're getting there, despite the slowness. Thank you all so much for supporting, and for following this (sometimes grueling) journey. I appreciate and respect the commitment to the smut <3