World's Crossing Academy 1.0
[PROGRESS REPORT] Season 2 Framework Complete
Hey all!
Little bit of a gap in communication over the holidays, and I apologize for that. Rather than things getting smoother, they got more complicated. But I do have a progress report for you.
As the title says, the framework for Season 2 is complete. I have a semi-fresh Ren'Py project ready to go that still contains all of the H-scenes from Season 1 so that the Gallery will still be full and you won't have to go back to the other game to view them. That being said, they still take up nearly 1 GB of space, so I might have to figure out how to compress them better.
This new framework supports the adding of character side stories as separate packages, which basically means I can ALSO make available a download of all of the Season 1 scenes so you can combine them and play Season 1 and Season 2 in the same game. Like... WCA... Legendary Edition lol.
Get it? 'cause Mass Effect... ah, never mind.
This also means that the game will finally have something for supporters that sets it apart from the public version. DLC characters. Now, I know there might be a bit of an outcry for taking inspiration from a game like Crush Crush, but the Patreon and SubscribeStar are growing quite slowly, and monetizing some of the character stories will help out a ton. Plus, we'll have the option to give away some of the DLC characters/packages as freebies as well for certain events. Patreon and SubscribeStar supporters will, of course, get most if not all of the DLC characters for free as thanks for their long contributions with little to no content between game updates.
Speaking of side stories, I seem to have reached the point where I'm overwhelmed with the amount of writing I need to do. Most of you know I'm a Dungeons and Dragons DM as well, and that I run my games on my Twitch channel. Well, a few of my players are also fellow DMs whose games I have played in, and I know their writing to be quite solid and very similar to mine. So I am experimenting with bringing them on board to get more content written faster, which means getting YOU more updates faster.
So here's how it's gonna work. I'm gonna get a few chapters of the main story done just so there's a good amount of main content to go through. It'll play exactly like WCA Season 1: very linear, with mostly flavor choices.
At certain points along the way, I will give you a break from the story and send you to a Free Time screen, where you can either dive right back into the main story or choose to spend some time with one of the girls and go down her personal story route for a while. These story routes will play just like WCA Season 1, but may have critical choices in them.
This also means each girl is going to have her own quest file in the back end of the game. I also have a visible affection system so you can check what affection level you're at with each girl from the Free Time screen. I'm toying with the idea of some scenes requiring you to be at a certain level with a certain girl, especially for girls whose stories are deeply intertwined.
On that front, we've also sorted all of the girls into categories: Core, DLC, Secret, and Main Story.
Main Story is just that: you will experience most of that girl's personal story within the main story of the game. Options to become intimate with these girls may appear in a separate side story branch, but there shouldn't be any more Main Story sexual encounters (unless the story REALLY calls for it). That way I'm not forcing you to get funky with a girl you don't like.
Core girls will be girls that everyone has access to for free. These are the girls whose levels might be required to progress each others' stories, DLC characters' stories, or even the Main Story. Core girls are characters that might accompany you during other scenes in the Main Story or other girls' stories.
DLC girls will be extra side stories for you to play through. DLC characters' affection levels will NEVER be required anywhere because that locks progression behind a paywall and I say hell no to that. But that also means they can't appear in anyone else's stories, unless they are sold as part of a pack.
Secret girls are just that: unlockable via some secret condition. Currently, there is only one of these. But if people like this idea, I may add 1 or 2 more.
ALL of these story branches will play out just like WCA Season 1, periodically returning to the Free Time screen so you have a chance to continue, switch girls, or get back to the Main Story.
Speaking of the girls, there are several of the upcoming girls that are getting a visual redesign. Chief among them is Lirum, the younger Spirit Elf you all saw in the stasis tanks. Lirum has a VERY cute face, and hiding it behind the swept bangs was a mistake. So I'll be changing her hairstyle.
Other characters getting a visual overhaul are Senia, a new Goblin, and Yuka, a new Ghost. Yuka might even get renamed. You know her as the Beetlejuice girl on the banner of the game. Sadly, this was the work of someone I recently had to permaban for excessive toxicity, so I'd like to scrub any and all influence he had from the game. Apologies to those who liked her design. But for the past three months, since being banned and blocked on every front imaginable, he's taken to using his Twitch channel to do nothing but shit talk me and my friends, and has published exactly 25 live streams full of defamatory content. So yeah, don't really want any of his stench on my pet project lol. Speaking to a lawyer about it in a couple of weeks.
That's about it for now. I have a lot of work to do, and it may be a little while before WCA Season 2 releases. But when it does, it's going to drop with quite a chunk of content, both in Main Story and in Core Stories. As I shoot the intro scenes for the Main Story, I'll have new screens to show y'all in the next update. For now, here's a Goblin. We call her Cerros. She's kind of a concept character and we don't even know if she should be put in the game. What do you think?
- Vic
Comments
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"... Lirum, the younger Spirit Elf you all saw in the stasis tanks."
Is there something I'm missing here? I've played through this twice and haven't seen anything even remotely close to stasis tanks. Nor even a mention of them.
Goodbye toxicity, you won't be missed. Good call removing toxicity from the community, people like that only breed more toxicity the longer they stick around.
Interesting way to add value to patreon and subscribestar. Out of all of the ways I've seen others try to add value to those platforms, this one is probably one of the best. Maybe you could even add links for the DLC characters here on itch behind a small one time purchase price. Not saying you have to, just saying that it's an option. Be careful if doing so though, as there are some people who like to complain regardless.
That's the plan. Each character will be a separate project on Itch with its own price. Supporters will get private download links.
The only thing I gotta figure out is how to get DLC to work on mobile...
A simple line of code to check for files in a designated DLC folder and use them if applicable should sort it out. The trick would be getting people to install the files in the correct folder in the first place. Maybe have the DLC install verify game location and install to designated folder would work? Just a suggestion, but since I'm not a programmer myself, I don't know how hard it would be to implement.
I wish I knew how to do that lol
Funny enough, doing a quick google search in an attempt to help, I stumbled across you asking for help in a Reddit post. Sad to see that nobody has answered your question in the past month.
First, Happy new year to ya hope you have a wonderful year as for the devlog, I love how your mind works, I like that you stick to the mechanics of WCA S1 but also introduce a new one as well. Sides, a single route to each girl will be a little bit of a stretch for you but it'll be worth it in the long run. As for the DLC/side characters, I dunno about this one but you can make a poll about it.
And as for "CERROS" (LOVELY very LOVELY by the way) there are only 3 questions I'll ask about her,
1. will she be relevant to the main story?
2. what are her personalities/behaviors, is she going to be a likeable character?
3. and If 1 and 2 checks out where would you want to put her/introduce her?
If these 3 checks out then she'll be good addition to the WCA universe if not, you can either trash her out (Which I really don't want to recommend since she has a great concept design) or introduce her at a later chapters where she would be relevant to the main story or just ADD her as a DLC character.
Sounds wonderful vic thanks for the update on progress! I liked the choice option to visit girls on like the third day where ya go say hi and get some flavor and world building text. No matter what route you go with ill be playing it happily
Awesome. Thanks for the update
First:
About the Season 1 H-Scenes being a big download, I think making that and optional separate download would be a better idea. Any more compression may horribly distort the images.
Second:
I like that the writing style is going to stay the same. I like the way this has been mostly story driven up till this point. My only concern is if I'm on a specific girls route, I don't want to be "trapped" in it. I would say that maybe break it down into day-long events so at the end of the "day" if we want to go another path for a while we can.
Third:
Hell yes to revealing Lirums' face. Good call there.
Fourth:
Cerros looks kind of bitchy. Maybe take some of the anger out of her eyes and add a little mischief. A smart ass goblin girl could be fun. Other than that keep the short stacks coming.
Extra:
As a personal request/suggestion, could we maybe get one goblin girl with really large ears? I don't want Dumbo sized ears but maybe double normal size? Just thought it would be a way to add a shy goblin in the mix. Could be fun convincing her that hear ears are adorable and not weird or cursed.
Keep up the good work. I am impatiently awaiting the next release.