So, the story of Forlan has come to an end. The king is dead – long live the king. For some players, this is sad, but for us, it’s more of a relief. Doing the same thing for many years is extremely exhausting. We crave new experiences, new locations, new stories.
The release of the final update obviously brought nothing new. Since I wasn’t expecting anything, I wasn’t disappointed either. We’ve entertained you, brought the project to a decent conclusion, and now we can put a bold period on it. Anything left unresolved, feel free to imagine the rest yourselves. How the upcoming conflict between the mages and the Pure Ones will end, whether Foran will meet his Ilga, and what the outcome of that meeting will be.
Now, let’s turn to the presentation of the new project.
This is the story of a girl, or rather, a young woman named Emma—her twists and turns, her problems, her relationships, and her career. Why such a change?
When the problems began, it became clear that episodes based on VC were no longer needed by players. As many will remember, the decision was made to freeze the project. Novel Games would have ceased to exist, but a new developer with a new game would have emerged.
Why was this particular setting chosen?
Different options were considered. In general, everyone knows that nearly all the money is in “family” games. Any, even the weakest game, will make a lot more money than most games without it. Are there exceptions? Yes, there are. But the exception only confirms the rule. So why not choose it as well?
When I started my journey of being a game developer, I was first hired as a screenwriter for another developer. I was writing a “family” game, a mother-son relationship. At the time, I thought money was tight. Now I look at things a little differently... however, I would do it. But nobody on the team wants to do it.
Could I have gone ahead without asking the others? Sure, but it’s not something that resonates with me either. Teenage themes, for writers in their 40s... we’re too old for that and have long forgotten what the problems of puberty are like. Let's leave that subject to those who truly understand it.
A daughter and father relationship is a taboo for me. I don’t want to get my hands dirty with that, no matter the money.
Brother and sister? Well, that's possible in this project, too. Again, not teenagers.
So, the game is about a woman. Now, many will say they won’t play a game with a female protagonist. We understand and we’re not forcing it on anyone. I love you all, but I’m not going to redo over 1,000 renders that are already finished just because of that. Let me repeat, the project was chosen for the new developer we would have become, and with the new developer, this setting would have posed far fewer problems.
Now we’re approaching the most delicate topic: gameplay and story.
I’m working on a rather complex parameter system that can influence the heroine. I’m not sure if it will work, but I’m going to try. Let me clarify: the complexity isn’t for the player, but for the developer. There will be two modes: Game Mode and Story Mode. In Story Mode, we’ll turn off all checks, so you can just watch the images, and all scenes will unlock regardless of the heroine's development. We’ve heard your feedback, no problem. In Game Mode, you’ll have to balance things. What’s my goal here?
The main issue with games featuring female protagonists is that the woman often turns into a complete slut way too quickly, which makes her uninteresting. But at the same time, we can’t avoid including that kind of content altogether. Here’s how I hope to tackle this issue:
1. A well-developed home for the heroine, with plenty of scenes featuring her husband. One of the biggest problems in such games is that you’re often not given a real choice. You don’t want to explore other options because the husband is a dumb impotent with a small dick. That’s not the case here. While their relationship is somewhat strained by routine, they love each other, and the husband is decent looking as well (though it's hard for me to judge men). Their sex life is good. The challenge is that we’ll be putting them in situations that create problems and temptations. Will it work? We’ll see, but I believe an alternative is necessary.
2. I’ll try to build and balance a system to prevent the heroine’s rapid moral decline. First, there’s no need for it to happen quickly. Second, potential love interests will be normal people. Not every rival will accept a completely fallen heroine. Yes, there will be some casual encounters, but for that, the heroine will first need to significantly lower her moral standards (this won’t apply to Story Mode—there you can do whatever you want). Again, I’ll try to balance the system. It sounds complicated, and in reality, it’s even more so, but I’m eager to try. As a rough reference, I’m looking at some old QSP games. That doesn’t mean you’ll have to manually go to the bathroom or do other tedious tasks. No, I’m referring to a few games where gradual corruption was implemented quite well. Plus, corruption can happen with her husband, too. For example, they might post their home videos or have sex in public places.
So, the plans are ambitious, and I don’t know how it will turn out, but I’m really excited to give it a shot.