Progress update- Roadmap to playable versions (Patreon)

Heyo! This week, I'd like to share the development roadmap I've been working on. Basically, it's a set of milestones. Each one is a small playable mechanic or sequence that builds upon the engine's current and upcoming features. They'll be in their most bare-bones forms at first, weaving together into a full vertical slice of playable mechanics. Then I'll work on expanding them outward. 

I chose this set of features, in this order, based on how each will build upon the engine's current abilities and strengths. This is not a complete list of planned features, but the path this game's development needs to take before we can make the next steps.

Also, this is your official anti-hype warning. This is an immensely exciting period of development, but initial playable versions will be janky, technical, and incomplete. They'll serve as a solid skeleton that'll get filled in. 

Also I gotta censor words on this platform. See my substar for uncensored posts.

Planned roadmap

Milestone: Simplest interaction

Select a character, grab a toy, p*netrate them until they org*sm, then dispose of the toy.

Requirements before it's playable:

Simple physiology. Technical sensations input. Characters can feel touches on and inside their body, and convert the physical stimulation into a basic set of sensations (pleasure, pain, etc).

Already working in-game, just need to wire up and balance the basic set of sensations. 

Simple character actions. Characters do a physical thing, like struggle, squirm, clench their b*tt, emote, ejaculate, etc. This comes out both as an animation and as internal game values (like b*tt tightness, for example). 

Partially working. The pieces are all functioning in-engine but need to be streamlined for actual use.

Prolonged character actions. Characters can enter into a state (like org*sming) that progresses through multiple stages, and causes things like sensations, emotions, outward reactions, bodily functions (like ejaculation), etc. 

This works in-game but needs streamlining for serious use. This'll also be used for much more complex AI behavior soon.

Milestone: Simplest fluids interaction

Use a toy attached to a fluid source to p*netrate and inflate a character. Drain the character.

All the individual pieces of this are already working in-engine. Now I need to wire up the animations and figure out how to visually represent a basic fluid source like a fluid tank, and connect it to the toy. 

Milestone: Expressions and bodily reactions

Characters emote based on their current state of mind/body.

Requirements before it's playable:

Emotions. Characters can take input from multiple sources and convert them to emotions based on their personality.

Basic form working in-game, just need a fuller set of emotions and personality traits. Not yet working with more complex emotional sources.

Expression designer.

I can already make the expression animations play but it's very manual atm. Next, I need to use my debugger tools to make it possible to create expressions in-game, then save them. I already have an old version of this written so I can start there. Since the output will just be the raw data I'm already working with, the first version of this can be extremely simple, and improved drastically over time.

Reaction designer.

Same thing as above, but for other bodily reactions.

Milestone: Character interaction basics

Use toys to p*netrate characters' orifices. Use toys to touch their bodies externally. Attach toys/clothes to their bodies. Grab their bodies in various places. Nudge them around by pulling/pushing, or by p*netrating them super hard. 

Requirements before it's playable:

External touching.

This is an easier one so I've left it until later. It should just need a quick hitbox check and some animations.

Force and character motion.

The characters are tied down, but they can move around a little within the restraints. This'll require a system to track forces being applied to the whole body, and the individual limbs/head. 

The needed physics systems already work in-game, but they need to be applied to characters, and link up to animations. 

Grabbing.

The player can click on the character's body and tug at them with the mouse. 

Will build on the previous systems, so by the time we get here it should be ready to work in a basic form.

Milestone: Complex fluid interactions.

Inflate characters, pump fluids in and out using pipes, and route fluids from character to character, or to external tanks.

The engine handles complex fluid routing just fine already, but still requires the ability to place external tanks and pipes in the world.

Milestone: Attention

Characters can look at and perceive objects, other characters, and actions happening in the world. They feel feelings about what they see, and react accordingly.

Not yet in-engine. I need to convert the old attention system into the new code. Since it's largely a self-contained system, I think I can salvage the core of it.

Milestone: Complex AI actions

Characters make decisions, and try to act on them.

Requirements before it's playable:

Decision-making. This is an extension of the existing personality mechanics. At this point characters can simply see something, then feel an emotion. For decision-making, they'll need to take what they see, and what they feel, then choose to take an action. For example, a prudish and strong-willed character might decide to resist showing their feelings of pleasure. 

Requires expansion of current personality systems to work.

Behavior trees. So this'll build on the "prolonged character actions" code mentioned at the beginning. Once a character makes a decision, they'll start a sequence of actions to act it out. For example, resisting feelings of pleasure would make them try to stifle their facial expressions and body movements, and resist org*sming. How successful they are depends on how much control they have at the moment.

Requires expansion of character actions systems to work.

Other thoughts

I'm excited. 

Also, it's been a chaotic couple of weeks for me with lots of IRL house moving. I really, really struggle in times like these to share my progress with y'all because it tends to be more scattered, technical, and incremental. Since that progress doesn't sound impressive, I get in my own head about thinking that my post will make everyone lose faith in the project, and end up procrastinating writing the post at all. Ironically, I'm pretty sure that the lack of communication in those moments is way more likely to shake people's faith in me. 

Also also, I've been having some technical troubles with the Patreon platform that's made it hard to respond to questions and comments. I'm working on resolving that >.>;

...and that's all for now!

I dunno what to say other than thank you to all my insanely dedicated supporters. You people have made this crazy endeavor possible. I'm frothing at the mouth to get through this roadmap as fast as I can so I can start showing y'all playable builds again after all this time. 

Seriously, thank you <3