Spankers, Spankees and Switches of All Ages (18 and above),
A new Etrian Odyssey episode has (finally!) been posted. Get it over at the downloads section. I’m much happier about this one than either of my previous two. Which probably means it sucks, because that’s how this usually works.
As far as Potion Wars is concerned, I’ve been pretty busy lately (hence why I failed to post an update last weekend). However, I’m still chugging away. I have one and a half scenes left I want to write before I make the next release, which will finally, finally have the next dungeon level. However, I’ll also be introducing a some new game mechanics (weapon/clothing enhancement, and catfights) in addition to the next episode’s enemies. So there’s still a lot of debugging, and balancing ahead, so I can’t really give an ETA. In fact, I’m going to give up on giving ETAs anyway, because I always, always, always underestimate how long it will take me to get stuff done.
It doesn’t help that I’ve had a bit of writer’s overload the past few weeks. I think a lot of it is because I’ve also been working on Etrian Odyssey on Sundays. That’s a lot of writing. When I started Etrian Odyssey I believe I was either in the middle of, or coming off of a major coding period, so I needed some writing to change things up. Now that I’m in major writing mode for Potion Wars, I’m finding that also writing the Etrian Odyssey episodes is a bit much.
So here is what I’m going to be doing: when I’m in major coding mode, I’ll be working on my Etrian Odyssey Let’s Spank. When I’m in major writing mode, I’ll be working on a different coding project. This way, my Sundays can be a chance to take a break from Potion Wars, do something very different from whatever I’m doing during the week, and still contribute something to this site.
The question of course is, what will I be working on when coding? This project will be an attempt to apply the lessons I’ve learned from Potion Wars and since I started working as a professional programmer:
1. I’ll be using Test Driven Development. Basically, I’ll be writing the tests before I write the code. This will ensure that the code is much more stable.
2. I’ll be working hard to make the code much better documented, and follow some style rules so that the code is more readable.
3. I’ll be using actual tools out there in the wild to help me (say the build tool Maven, the language parser tool ANTLR, the GUI library NiftyGUI), rather than trying to roll my own hilariously inferior and buggy versions.
I’ll be working on the project in a combination of Groovy and Java. Basically, I’ll use Groovy whenever possible, and Java when the tool I’m using demands it (i.e. ANTLR). There are several reasons I’ve chosen these languages. Most importantly, there is an awesome testing framework out there for Groovy/Java called Spock. And since I’m doing TDD, having a good testing framework is a must. Next, Java is ubiquitous. So it has a lot of excellent tools out there, from IDEs to language parser tools. This also means that more people are more likely to know the language, which means I’m more likely to get programmers willing to help me (learning Groovy when you already know Java is very very easy, especially if you also know a scripting language like Python, Perl, or Ruby). Third, this will give me a chance to mess around with some of the tools we’re using at my job, which will be nice. Also Groovy looks like an interesting language that combines some of the safety of static type checking with the flexibility of duck typing. Also its strings are called GStrings. So you know, it’s just begging to have a spanking porn game written in it.
The repository for this new project can be found here: https://github.com/sprpgs/GroovyBooty
I can’t decide if my proposed name for the engine (GroovyBooty) is awful, or awesomely awful.
Right now, it only has one branch (other than a basically empty master), where I was messing around with Groovy’s ability to easily create simple Domain Specific Languages (DSL’s) to see if I could use it to implement a dialect for writing dynamic game text. Turns out doing it directly in Groovy isn’t quite powerful enough, so I’ll have to use ANTLR. Anyway, if there are any programmers out there who would like to get involved, but have been scared away in the past by the fact that my Potion Wars codebase is garbage, let me know.
The next question of course, is what game should I be using as my motivating example for building the engine? I have two possibilities under Eye of the Brainstorm:
The Majesty meets Princess Maker game I talked about a while ago:
https://www.spankingrpgs.com/?page_id=88
We also have a Multi-Generational Dungeon Crawler that I just posted under Eye of the Brainstorm:
https://www.spankingrpgs.com/?page_id=302
Both games will share a lot of the same code, so we don’t have to commit to anything just yet. I am curious about what people’s thoughts are though.
An important thing to keep in mind: Any sort of playable game using GroovyBooty is a loooong way off. It took me 18 months to get the first version of Potion Wars up in all its buggy, convoluted, hacky glory. And that was working on it for several hours a day for most of those 18 months. This will be a much more deliberate, slower development process aimed towards building a well-designed, stable codebase that can be easily maintained and expanded for years to come, rather than for just getting something out the door ASAP like with Potion Wars. Furthermore, I’ll only be working on this once a week in spurts.
And again, if there are any programmers out there who’d like to help develop GroovyBooty, shoot me an e-mail. Furthermore, if there’s anyone out there who would like to help with the design process, that would also be welcome. The only things I’m not looking for right now for this project are writers, artists or musicians, because we’re a very long way off from developing any actual content. I will happily take such help for Potion Wars ;).
Enjoy the new Etrian Odyssey episode
Very excited, been checking the page every day since the end of July waiting for the update. Seriously, keep up the great work. This game is filling a niche that pretty much no other game offers, at least not in the huge abundance this game does.
You may find a few RPGs or games with spanking elements in it, but never any centered almost entirely around it.
I’m hesitant to point a glitch, cause I don’t want to increase your workload. I don’t know if its been pointed out, but there was one with the final boss of the first dungeon. If you decide to offer to join them and the assistant fights you and beats you, there is a convo choice that changes the spanking from a hand one to a spoon one. However if you pick the one that results in a hand spanking the convo seems to reach a dead end glitch and can’t progress, forcing you to pick the spoon option every time.
Anyway, take whatever time you need. You’re doing great so far.
I’m glad you’re enjoying it so much. It’s always nice to know your work is appreciated.
Don’t hesitate to point out any bugs or glitches. More than anything, I want to give people a stable, bug-free experience. Nothing quite kills the sexy time like a bug.
I’ll get that fixed, though I’ll probably just roll that fix into the update with the first level of episode 2, because releasing new versions is a serious hassle and I’m lazy.
Also, I don’t know if I’ve asked you yet or not, but since you’ve made the mistake of posting a comment I’m going to interrogate you. And spankings will ensue if you don’t answer to my satisfaction 😉
Anyway, I’d like to know three things:
1. What do you like most about the game so far?
2. What do you like least?
3. What would you most like to see that the game is currently missing?
“And spankings will ensue if you don’t answer to my satisfaction ”
Oh my.~ Anything but that! 😉
1. I really like the characters. Specifically the final boss of dungeon 1, although I’ve said this before. I like haughty, sorta sultry or flirtatious villainous women who talk smack about how they’re gonna beat you and can actually follow through with it. (Like maybe Karin from Street Fighter, although shes more of the spoiled rich girl type while your assistant character is not.)
2. Really dig the gender neutrality you have going with male and female protagonists, so the spanking scenes you get aren’t better or worse if you play as a male. I’m bi so I enjoy guys and gals getting spanked pretty much equally, and its rare in fetish or sexy oriented games for the guys to get much of the attention or detail, so I really appreciate the effort to make it gender neutral.
3. I LOVE the customization options you have in character creation, like the fact you can choose your butt size and density. I can actually play as a thin guy with a soft, big, jiggly butt, which is something most games don’t have at all. (I like soft bouncy rumps just so you know :P) I was very impressed with that aspect.
4. I like that the villains so far don’t seem cruel or outright hateful or evil, just sort of pragmatic and self-interested. It makes it far easier for me to like them. This is just a personal preference thing, but villains that are super mean or malicious in sexy or fetish games are kind of a turn off, I like them to be a bit more say, human? Flawed but with a conscious? Maybe a bit playful? And so far you’ve done a good job of doing that. I dig all the bad guys quite a bit. *if they are even bad guys, what with the brainwashing the guards do.*
5. I would have liked to have heard the assistants pre-fight trashtalking toward you before her boss interrupted her and just told her beat you. Again, just a personal preference thing. I like getting taunted or teased before a fight, it adds more to the after-fight spanking for me, especially if I lose. 😉 The after-fight trash talking was pretty good though, particularly the protagonists if they beat the assistant. Just a tiny bit of whining on my part that you can ignore just fine.
6. I would maybe like a comedic harmless villain, sort of like Team Rocket or something, that is really easy to beat, but if you actually lose to them it would be super humiliating, (and thus arousing) that maybe you can add in a later after your work on Episode 2 is done. (Again I don’t wanna add onto your workload, take everything I say with a grain of salt.)
7. I’m a lighthearted guy, so some of the darker stuff (like almost getting killed by the Amazon and the Mage) was sort of out of left field, so maybe I would like a bit more slaptick or comedic scenes? But you seem to have a good amount of those as well. This is probably the only complaint I can think of, but its just a personal preference thing. You can go with whatever you want, I mean, you ARE the expert here, I’m just a novice when it comes to stories. Maybe I’m just a bit too sensitive and easily disturbed. But its okay, that is pretty much the only complaint I can think of.
8. Maybe add in a sort of mini-game later on. Maybe like a tournament you can participate in where the loser gets spanked. Maybe like a Glitz Pit thing from Paper Mario Thousand Year Door. (My favorite part of the game). That has a variety of opponents with odd personalities. Or perhaps a sports scene where you have an excuse to make everyone wear tight pants. 😛
My GOODNESS I went on for a loooong time. Sorry about that. Hope I didn’t seem too annoying or gripey, or suggest too many ideas like a lameo. Feel free to disregard everything I said.
Keep up the good work!
Thank you so much for your long, and detailed reply. Don’t worry about your comments being too long, after all have you seen some of my blog posts? I’m hardly one to complain about tl;dr!
1. I’m glad you like the characters so much. I’ll keep the talking smack before a spanking in mind for the future. Feel free to add it as a spanking situation Something like “trash talk each other before a spanking/battle.”
2. That is one wonderful thing about spankings. Everyone has an ass 😀
3. I also like soft, bouncy rumps. There’s a reason why the tavern-scene with Elise and Carrie is so painfully long. 😀
4. I’m glad you like the Vengadores. One of my major goals for this game is to make them sympathetic, but at the same time questionable enough that a decent character can justify opposing them. I will also agree that overly cruel and malicious characters are a turn off. That doesn’t mean there won’t be such characters in the game (some people like that after all) but they’ll be rare.
5. Well this is hardly the last time you’ll see her. 😀
6. I’ll have to think about that. I’d never really considered that, partially because (with the possible exception of Team Rocket) I generally find such characters more annoying than funny. However, I do have one possible candidate in mind that you’ll meet in Episode 3, and Potion Wars could use a few more opportunities to lighten up a bit. No promises, but I’ll definitely consider it closely.
7. Yeah, that scene is a bit out of left field. One thing I’m wrestling with is the fact that I personally do prefer my spanking stories to be a bit more lighthearted. However, writing comedy has never really been my thing. I can write the occasional light-hearted scene to ease the tension a bit, but writing comedy never really interested me. Plus, the thing that’s really keeping me interested in writing this game is the dramatic potential of the story, and what my characters do with it. So I’m walking a tightrope here, where I’m trying to keep the game light enough that people can enjoy it for what it is: spanking porn, but at the same time dramatic enough that I do the basic story justice, and maintain my own interest. So far, this has resulted in some jarring tone transitions. Perhaps going forward, a better approach than intermingling comedy and drama to that extent is to have episodes that are lighter, and episodes that are darker. That doesn’t mean the lighter episodes can’t have dramatic moments, or that the darker episodes can’t have lighter moments. However perhaps the lighter episodes have some more of the slapstick and comedy, and focus more on relatively harmless character development and have more spanking scenes. Meanwhile, the darker episodes go a bit lighter on the spankings, and are the ones where the major darker plot developments occur.I’ll have to think about it some more.
8. Neat idea, though that would be a huge undertaking in and of itself, unless the minigame were basically standard combat with a twist. There will be a catfight style combat mode coming out in the next major release, where you’re not actually hurting your opponent, but rather just stripping and spanking each other. I could introduce some sort of (mud) wrestling style event where you basically catfight plus additional options like throwing mud in someone’s face, or trying to stir the crowd in your favor (for bonuses). Get the crowd enough in your favor, and they might even throw you something to help you (like a paddle). One could even have a ref who will spank you if you break a rule (the rule breaking will typically give you some sort of bonus, the spanking for breaking the rule a penalty), with different refs having varying levels of strictness. So maybe with some refs, you’ll want to break the rules because the benefits outweigh the downsides, whereas with others you very much do not. Furthermore, there’d be a chance of the ref not seeing it. So you could have a ref that is practically blind, but super strict, and another ref who is very sharp eyed, but not particularly strict. But that would be a few episodes out. After we’ve worked out the tweaks in base catfights.
P.S. GroovyBooty is a fine, unique name I think. 😛
Me too!
Thanks for another great chapter of Etrian Odyssey. Enjoyed it immensely.
For what its worth, I prefer the Adventurer’s Guild manager idea. Dungeon crawling never really appealed to me.
Glad you enjoyed the latest Etrian Odyssey episode so much. I will agree that dungeon crawling is very much a niche (part of why I went for a more story-heavy game for my first game). So even if I did go for more of a dungeon-crawly idea, I’d strive to make it more interesting than your average dungeon crawl from the plot perspective. I’d try to have a variety of levels, with a variety of different themes, and even subplots involving the denizens of the maze.
In short, it’d be more than bare corridors with bloodthirsty monsters.
But I will definitely keep your preferences in mind going forward.
I have a hard time choosing between these, but I’m very interested to play a dungeon crawler like the one you describe, because I know you’d give it some unique twists. Also, do you think it could be a good place to try out concepts for Potion Wars?
If it helps, keep in mind that the Adventurer’s Guild one would probably have more and a larger variety of spanking content.
In the dungeon crawl, the only spanking situations that really arise are between masters and apprentices, and maybe a few situations involving denizens of the dungeon. I could of course make the dungeon and monsters spankerrific, but I’m really excited about the concept of the dungeon crawl from a dramatic story perspective, so spankings would probably take a backseat.
Meanwhile, for the adventurer’s guild you’d have spankings involving you and adventurers, you and your secretary(ies), you and your diplomat(s), you and your teachers, your teachers and your adventurers, your diplomat(s) and other diplomat(s)…
Plus, Majesty always struck me as having a bit of a silly edge to it, and since I’d be channelling Majesty when creating it, I’d probably also want to make the Adventurer’s Guild game a bit silly, which makes me more willing to include spankerrific monsters. Like crotchety old giants threatening to paddle adventurers if they don’t get off the giant’s lawn, or Motherly Tentacle Monsters from the Deep.
I’m not quite sure what you mean by trying out concepts for Potion Wars. Potion Wars will almost certainly be very far along before we start seeing content for my coding side project. If anything, we’ll probably see more refined versions of concepts that are first introduced in Potion Wars!
I was just thinking that once the new game gets on its feet, it could be a platform for testing, but I see what you mean.
Ok, you’ve totally sold me on Adventurer’s Guild!