What's next

Well, with the second release of Aluron almost out of the way (I'll be releasing a patch in a bit to address some game-breaking issues) it's time to start looking towards the third. For the immediate now, though, I'd like to focus on some art - I haven't made a "finished" piece since finishing the art for this release, which was a while ago now. So for the next week or so, I'd like to brush up on my skills and make some stuff to post onto my badly neglected socials.

After that though, it's back to work on Aluron, and the next release is going to be a bit of a doozy. I made a list on what you can expect:

Menus

• World Map
• Character Sheet - Skills, stats, items, equipment
• Shop Menu

• Main menu
• Saving and loading
• Player name entry
• "pause" menu - settings, using items, viewing character sheets, save & quit

A game like this is going to need quite a few menus. A world map for choosing what to do next (this'll be just a simple map screen with icons to click), a character sheet for all the RPG-y stuff, and a shop to buy items from. Menus are the one big feature still missing from the game, and I expect they will take up most of the time I spend working on the next release.

RPG Mechanics

• XP and Leveling up, unlocking skills
• Gaining money, buying items
• Changing equipment

Tying into the last point, once the menus are in, unlocking skills, and selecting items and gear to equip, can be implemented.

New Dungeon

• ...Same as the old dungeon, visually
• New enemies
• Actual loot as a reward - equipment and clothing

The first real real dungeon will also be in this update - the difference being that this one will give actual rewards. The idea is that when entering a dungeon the player can see what rewards they can gain, and upon clearing the dungeon, the players get to "roll" on a rewards table of sorts (exact implementation pending). These rewards include equipment like weapons, but also clothing (and other stuff) for use in intimacy mode.

Intimacy

• general refinements
• new pose - all fours
• undressing and alternate clothing

My plans on this category are the most blurry. What I'm feeling at the moment is that there'll be a new pose that you can switch into during intimacy mode, and that you'll be able to undress the girls. Also as mentioned above, there'll be collectable clothing for the girls to wear during intimacy mode - I expect acquiring more and playing dress-up to be a major motivator for players. I'll keep it simple to start with for this release, but eventually players will be able to find lingerie, hairstyles, tattoos and such for the girls to wear. I'd love for this release to include things like some actual (foreplay) sex acts, maybe even an excitement/climax mechanic, but this update and it's workload is gonna be big enough as it is. If development goes exceptionally quick and smooth, then who knows? But I'd rather get this release out sooner than later, and push big intimacy mode additions to the next, otherwise much smaller release. 

And that's pretty much it, I guess. As you can tell, it's a lot of stuff that's a lot of work. But starting from next week I'll be going hard at it, and I'll give you an update by the end of the month. Take care till then!