Progress update- prototyping (Patreon)

P*netration prototyping has begun! While a toy is hovering outside the hips area, you can scroll to swap between targets. It's janky at the moment, of course, but the mere fact that it's possible is an enormous accomplishment. This is the path toward having a pleasing interface. 

Observe my scuffed prototype. Note that the toy is showing as transparent over the body for testing purposes, but the orifices react as if they're being p*netrated:

(the gif can't be censored so it's only visible on the substar version of this post here) 

So you click to engage the hips area with the toy, then your aiming UI element shows what you're aiming at. You scroll to adjust the height of the toy and aim at different entrances. The only visual feedback atm is the indicator on the right.

There's a hilarious amount of jank at every step of course. What I'm excited about is that a ton of systems are all working together without any concerning issues. The past few months have all been building up to making the tools to make this work. The engine swaps p*netration animation/simulation tracks at will, without needing to stop the p*netration instance. Is big deal.

I'm gonna ignore any kind of polish right now and just focus on the basics of making it satisfying and intuitive to aim toys and p*netrate with them.

Aaaaa we're doing it! We're actually doing it! 

seriously if this hadn't worked i would just cry

The keymapping

In testing this on my laptop I realized I didn't have a scroll wheel to use. Pain. I unraveled how I might address the control scheme for different input devices and realized my keybinding setup was extremely basic. It was just: keypress -> action.

This little adventure has lead to a much more robust design for the input mapping. I'm adding context-dependent controls (buttons do different things depending on game state), tracking held-down buttons, and using modifier keys. 

The code is mostly put together but needs to be plugged in and tested still. But it feels nice to have identified a design issue, then have most of the code already done within a single day. I keep forgetting that I've been improving a lot as a programmer over the course of this ridiculous project.

... and that's all for now!

Okay so I understand that I shouldn't rely on milestones like this to feel satisfied by my own efforts, but also... I feel very satisfied with myself after finally hitting this point in development. I have no idea if showing off this scuffed stuff will make people feel hyped or just... concerned... but I promise it's a good sign of the engine's capabilities. 

I'm also feeling comfortable using the different systems, and reaching it to make big sweeping changes if necessary. That comfort is quite a new feeling. It gives me a lot of optimism about the current pace of progress.

We're genuinely getting there y'all. Thank you so friggin much for carrying this project through these many months of development. While I feel a lot of guilt about how long it's taken, I feel very confident in the engine/game itself. The code is solid and will support the many projects I intend to make with it ^^