Saturday 2 January 2016

January Open Thread: Game Plans for 2016

After a great beginning to 2015 with a lot of entries this blog became very quiet. My open thread topics died off as I became very busy. There was actually a few times I signed on to start a monthly open thread, but then would get derailed by surprise events like Goblinboy's return (I actually went to post an open thread the same day Goblinboy made his first post in April and I chuckled about how it would look if I bumped his thread down the page).

Hopefully this blog can keep the momentum going through the year and I thought a good topic to get 2016 going would be for the authors/potential authors out there: what are your plans/hopes for releases for this year? Even if you just have an idea brewing and you hope this is the year, here's the opportunity to let us know what you're thinking. Give us as much or as little about the game as you want.

Feel free to err on the optimistic side for how much can be done: it's a new year, let's have high hopes.

19 comments:

  1. Working on another Twine game call Flatmates. It is about a male college who unexpectedly rents a room from a hot model/artist. I have about 7 scenes envisioned with 2 done. More CYOA than the snowstorm; but CYOA in good ways (making meaningful plot decisions), not "go left" then "you fell off a cliff". Themes include submissive/voyeur maybe others as it develops. Hoping to publish by mid spring. Also would love to find someone to do 3d art after I get more of the story down (I am not an artist). -anna.nee.moss

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    1. I think many AIF writers sit around and hope that an artist will happily come along to help.

      If you haven't seen this, I recommend BBBen's posts on images: you don't have to be an artist to get in images: http://adultinteractivefiction.blogspot.com/2014/01/easy-3d-images-alternatives-to-daz.html

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  2. I'm writing a superhero-themed adventure game in Twine.

    I'm just finishing up the 2nd draft of the text.

    My point-of-difference with most other AIF is that many of puzzles are within the erotic scenes (this might make more sense to you when you play it).

    I'm not setting myself a release date, but it might be another 2 months before it's ready.

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  3. Probably nothing. Hey, I'm more of realist than optimist when it comes to my own self =D This previous year I did several beta tests, and doing another at present, so maybe more of that?

    Like many of the potential authors out there, I have plenty of 'base' ideas; some big key plot points, character ideas, locations, but without a lot of work done. I've probably got a dozen games of various early beginnings.

    A couple are a bit farther done, with some fleshed out areas with descriptions, a handful of ideas between each key plot, and that sort.

    If I were going to become an optimist this year, I would say the one farthest ahead is a medieval fantasy. I have all the characters thought up, several locations done, the idea of the major puzzles mostly figured out (with each having optimal ways to complete and a few less so), and some of the early game done.

    That said it is still far, far, far from complete and probably won't be. But hey, you never know ;)

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  4. I am close to finishing a new game called "Seduce Code" and yes it is exactly what it sounds like.

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  5. First time author with maybe four games in the pipe. Possibly two ready to be released in 2016, one of which is somewhat similar in concept to Anna's college game mentioned in a comment above. This is all assuming I ever manage to finish any of them, of course.

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  6. Well, I've spoken a lot about Pervert Action: Legacy. That's definitely got to come out some time this year. It's already in a pretty advanced alpha state, although I'm going to keep working on it until it's properly ready before releasing it. I may decide to throw out a public demo at some point, but I can't decide what to put in a demo so that's holding me back.

    After that I've got designs on doing a sequel to Let Me In. That won't take as long to develop, so it's entirely possible that could crop up in 2016 as well. LMI only took about a month, but this one might be a little bit more work.

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  7. Well I'm just happy to pop in every now and then and see what's going on and offer my support in the form of a "You can do it!" :3

    Overall I enjoy the scene and find the many polite and helpful individuals out there including the rage quitters who come crawling out of the works for advice is always fun XD

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    1. It's always been a pretty good community as far as these things go, which is great.

      @Archer Fifteen BTW it's good to have these open threads, so you should keep them going!

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    2. I shall try to keep them up, they usually serve to keep conversation going.

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  8. Is there going to be a minicomp this year?

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    1. Unknown at present. It depends on there being someone willing to organise it.

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  9. Me also an upcoming first timer for maybe 2016. Neither own blog, established nickname nor patreon. But I'm quite interested in playing and reading topic-related articles. An annual AIF game salon (without an award or competition) would be fine.

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    1. What would an 'annual AIF game salon' entail? I'm not quite clear on what you mean by that.

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  10. We all love competing and comparing (IFComp, Minicomp). Also a single release on a personal blog might get lost or overlooked.

    But since our community is so small, maybe strict rules and a voting process is not necessarily needed (IMHO). An annual festival with anticipation, buzz and hype for contemporary AIF games might be interesting too. There, smaller buggy first-attempts could be bundled with larger SchoolDreams4 and even commercial demos - just to pleasantly cater a hopefuly growing audience, maybe even the openminded gaming press... Technically, this would only need a downloadable zip-file

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  11. "There, smaller buggy first-attempts could be bundled with larger SchoolDreams4 and even commercial demos"

    My concern would be the buggy first attempt being over-shadowed by School Dreams 4. The active AIF community is very small, so to me it doesn't make sense to divide their attention between multiple games, especially when there's a disparity in quality. This was something that happened with the Minicomp. There would always be at least one game that got no attention whatsoever, which can't have been very encouraging for its author.

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  12. "buggy first-attempts could be bundled with larger SchoolDreams4"

    That's a striking argument, I have to agree. Well, traditionally this has always been an author-friendly and encouraging place, so it's probably best to stick with the established Minicomp and it's democratic approach.

    Also the yearly list of released games on your blog might be all I wanted.

    /runs back to programming her game in ViM

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  13. A: Marvel Game: Director

    I don’t want to rehash the basics, but for those who might be new to the blog: http://adultinteractivefiction.blogspot.com/2015/03/game-announcement-marvel-director-and.html

    Current Status: A little over 40,000 words with pictures (though not original images).

    I hope to have this out this year. I really expected it to be out last summer but my life got unexpectedly busy and I haven’t done much work on it in about six months. I do have time now to work on it and there are a few issues to overcome:
    1: Remembering what all the parts are. I thought I had left detailed notes to myself describing what all the different code did, but apparently not enough as a lot of it just looks like gibberish after being away for so long.
    2: Incorporating the dating layer. At the moment the personal interactions that take place within the game just don’t feel right and I’ve been hoping to think of a better way to implement them, but sadly no great moment of inspiration has come to me.
    3: Writing the sex scenes.
    4: Ending. I don’t really have a concrete plan for what happens as the game’s ‘ending’. I know how the game progresses, I know what the player needs to do to ‘win’, but I haven’t decided on what happens as the epilogue. What I’d like is an ending that reflected which girls the player pursued, but that might be impossible to incorporate. The easiest thing I’ve considered is a score at the end that reflects how you played, but I’ve always found that dissatisfying in games.

    When finished the game might not appeal too many. It is strategy game with choose your own adventure elements in a fanfic universe, so there is a lot there that might throw a person off, but hopefully there are at least a couple people who will think their niche has finally been satisfied.

    B: The Game: Alpha
    Current Status: 11,000 words with the rest outlined

    This was the project I was working on for the Sneeze comp. The idea for the game was that the player was testing an MMORPG that was in Alpha. All of the player’s actions would take place in the virtual world, but the choices he made there would start to bleed into the real world.

    The problem here is simple; I lost interest in the writing. Part of my earlier concern was keeping things under the required word limit, with that no longer a concern though I’m hoping to get back to it.

    C: Those are the two projects I have a considerable amount of work on (as in you could start and play it as a game,), other projects that I have outlines on: a fan continuation of School Dreams 3 as a CYOA, a sci-fi fanfic game like the X-Treks but with more sci-fi fandoms, and an Adrift project like BBBen’s Let Me In called Bus Stop where every day the player makes one action as a senior in high school after getting dropped off by the bus.

    Overall I’d expect to have something released this year, optimistic would be two, though that really depends on whether I can keep project creep under control.

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  14. I may have something in the works, probably either sci-fi or fantasy (I'm a *huge* nerd), but you know how most AIF authors are ("Procrastinate, procrastinate, procrastinate!")

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