(Help Wanted) Let's talk about a girl called Rim (1 Viewer)

[RimProject]

(English is not my first language, fell free to correct my mistakes )

In the past, I wanted to make a h-game. But, it's very time consuming .
I choose Flash/AIR as platform, but I try to create all engine, unfortunately I always got lost in development phase, now I have the engine ready, but I can't manage myself or train someone to help me, and I'm not a designer. I really want to leave the shadows of development and go straight with this game.

So today, I tried the RPGMaker, the MV one, and it is so easy that things are flowing well, it's very simple to script and so.... but the "I am not a designer" problem is hunting me.
I create this thread because I need help. First I will tell the story of the game, I started to script already, changed all the game menu, I created all maps, some items, armors and basic mechanics like day progression, week progression, weather, basic needs and clothing system.

Spoiler: Game story

The year is near 2300, we humans fucked your planet, we went to Mars, released a deadly virus, we turn back to Earth, today we fight for survive.
In this time, we are doing well, but the population is very small and the earth is no longer the green and fertile planet, web build colonies and invest heavily in education.
We took the place of Rim, a 17 years old girl high specialized in agronomy, biology and genetics. She was transferred to a remote school in a completely isolated island to continue her specialization and help the development, the location is unknown to many, since it is one of the last green paradises on Earth.
After a quick stop on the island, the captain of one of the few ships that we still have, Rim is left in your destination alone, she goes to the island's entry and discovers that being over there is a mistake, because it is a school only for men.
The Grand Maister, a 79 years old male, with no choice, he must accept Rim because the next boat will only return after four years (1460 days).

The game starts here, can you imagine a lonely girl among 120 men (90 students, 15 teachers, 14 workmen and the maister)?
At the start, they will not do anything to her. But why?
She will learn, this is what we must teach, how to be an object of desire for all those who are on the island, and this will be a slow process, it's necessary to keep her alive, we must break her mind and not her body.
Now the problem is: The isle has security cams in several places, the recorded data is sent to Mainland, if Rim go careless, her time on the island will be reduced, we don't want this.
We need to take over the security, gradually disabling the security.


About the system and objectives:
Custom inventory and status with clothing system.
The day is divided in 9 sections, after you advanced all of then, a day passes.
We have a calendar (7 days a week), Rim need to participate in classes and gym during weekdays and all students has free time at weekends.
After the time advance, Rim body will become sweat and dirty, changing her humor and asking for a bath.
Basic needs like eat, drink and sleep are available too, you can skip it some times, some penalties will be aplied in high levels.
Rim will comment on almost everything based on her humor, it will be thousands of lines of dialogue. I will work hard in her personality.
We need to break Rim before the day 1460 (4 years), if she be forcefully raped before that, is game over.
I want to have a total of 2 events per week, some with 4 ou more (500 + events), making the game with more than 50+ hours of gameplay.
In the end, you can start over to collect the rest of the events. Plus, each man in the isle has a unique story path that Rim can discovery.
Random Weather (Sunny, Rainy and Storm - Snowly is planned), each weather has is own events.
The level of exhibition, disabled security, current apparel and time will determinate what event you will see (you can miss events).
Rim will work in the fields, she can grow and harvest some vegetables, use the lab to transform then in matter, that mix with other materials to create cloth and fiber, and with basic sewing knowledge, Rim can create new clothes like Dresses, Tops, Skirts, Panties, Bikinis and Lingeries.
Upgrade in house and fields are available, after certain level of exhibition other students will help you in daily tasks
Few animals are available too, and YES, Rim can offer her body for then. Plus, she can use collected three types of semen and squid eggs from her internals to mix and create better materials.
Bonus: During sleep, Rim will remember past events, revealing the future game.

Game features:
Sex? YES, a lot!
Gangbang? YES, things will go crazy in this game!
Rape? Yes, but is game over. (Note: We have consensual and forced sex, depending on exhibition and lust level, the forced sex will become consensual, avoiding the game over.)
Bestiality/Zoofilia? YES, Dog, Horse, Pig and and Squid.
Dendrophilia? YES (More tentacle sex with genetic modified plants)
Pregnancy? Maybe. But pregnancy will result in game over. (Actually, is not planned, because I don't want to pop babbies in the isle and multiply the amount of sprites, the idea is breeding some animals because of Rim true nature, that each one will discover in the gameplay).
Clothing? YES, we have 5 kinds: Dresses, Short Dresses/Pants, Tops/Shirts, Panties, Bikinis e Lingeries, all craftable and with unique reactions. Each one modify Rim appeal, interactions and enable a lot of specific events. In menu you can see the level of charm of each piece.
sample: In classroom, she can drop the chalk on purpose to show her panties while on a dress or show ever more if she goes commando.
sample.: First time in the lake, with a string bikini and a squid grab your parts, the other students help to take it off.
sample.: Go to a place naked during the night, a storm begins and after, Rim can't go home, trapped outside. Maybe, she can ask for help in workmen dormitory?
Toys? YES! You can use some recreative toys to raise her lust
Censorship? DEFINITELY NOT.
Mobile Version? Yes, iPhone and Android.
And more incoming.

After a small alpha release, I intend to put on Patreon to work full time. But, all releases will be public with no exception, I have a unique idea for exclusive content for who help me in Patreon in future (like be one the students with unique story path and events, vote for contents).

What I want?
I need help of a designer (one or more) to customize and create tilesets, draw poses and scenes of Rim and other characters, a help of editor to create dialogues will be great too). After, if I put on Patreon, we will share the profit.
(I will give access to the blog, github with all game source and a personalized email (domains http://iamrim.com + http://rimproject.com, coming soon).

I changed the game menu, you can see the full status of Rim (day and weather, current charm and lust levels, needs and bath request, how many love fluids inside her, current toy and much more.

What do you think? I like opinions.
Thank you all, everyone who reads the thread, participated or not.

(The screenshots of the status menu and clothing one, they will show all about Rim.)

 

[stuntcock]

(English is not my first language, fell free to correct my mistakes )

Not necessarily a mistake, but "Rim" in colloquial English suggests analingus. If you don't want to give this impression, then a slight name-change might suffice (e.g. "Remi" or "Reyme").

"Rim" also reminds me of a certain smeghead.

If the name can't be changed because it's related to the secret-identity twist, then talk it over with your team. Maybe there's a clever way to introduce the character which would nullify any association with Rimjob.

Rim will comment on almost everything based on her humor, it will be thousands of lines of dialogue. I will work hard in her personality.

That may be over-ambitious for your first public game-development project.

I'd suggest trying for a smaller scope first. Perhaps a story-focused "prologue" chapter which shows Rim's arrival on the island and provides a tutorial for some of the game mechanics? Something which you could conceivably create on your own, using placeholder sprites. It would serve as a public demo and a recruitment tool. If the game proves popular (and you've managed to find talented teammates) then you can proceed with your original vision.

We need to break Rim before the day 1460 (4 years), if she be forcefully raped before that, is game over.

Is there a conflict between player motives and characterization here? Does Rim "want" to become sexually active, or does the player need to trick and manipulate her into doing so? Or is there some kind of "secret identity destiny" thing which renders the whole thing moot?

I want to have a total of 2 events per week, some with 4 ou more (500 + events), making the game with more than 50+ hours of gameplay.

There are two ways to interpret that statement.

• a single playthrough (ending on day 1460) would require approximately 50 hours of gameplay
• a player would need to play through the game many times, averaging about 50 hours of total gameplay, before they've seen all of the unique content

When I hear that an RPGMaker game promises a 50-hour playtime, I become very pessimistic. It usually means that the game will be heavily padded with repeated actions, slow stat-grinding, tedious turn-based combat, backtracking across the entire worldmap, etc...

In the end, you can start over to collect the rest of the events. Plus, each man in the isle has a unique story path that Rim can discovery.

120 unique story paths? That's over-ambitious.

It's conceivable that you could setup 120 separate scripted dialog trees - in which each NPC will comment on choices that the player has made (and/or gradually reveal more information as the player progresses through the main story). But you can't expect the player to remember (or care about) the minor characterization details and personal struggles of 120 different people. Especially not when most of those 120 men will share the same portraits and sprites.

Even a character-focused game like Persona 4 restricts its roster to half of what you're proposing. I'd suggest limiting character interactions to a manageable set of primary NPCs so that you can focus on them and create memorable interactions.

I need help of a designer (one or more) to customize and create tilesets

Do you expect artists to have prior experience in RPGMaker?

draw poses and scenes of Rim and other characters

Do you have visual designs for these characters already prepared, or would the artist need to invent them?

a help of editor to create dialogues will be great too

To be blunt: your English writing isn't strong enough. I can understand it, but there are many small errors. If I was reading a paragraph of erotic text in your game, then I'd probably be too distracted to appreciated it fully.

It sounds like you're aiming to build engagement primarily through text, because you've proposed a lot of scene variations and events -- probably more than your artists will be willing to illustrate on a "volunteer" basis. Therefore, I'd suggest that you recruit an editor as your highest priority. Please note that Undertow is probably not the best place to search for such people; we have a crew of Fiction writers but there aren't very many ongoing game development projects on this forum. Lemmasoft might be more useful. You could also ask @fleet for advice (fleet has a lot of experience working on text-based games).

If you're unable to convince an editor to join your team, then consider reducing the scope of your game so that the amount of text becomes more manageable. It could be sent off for freelance editing at an acceptable price. If your crowdfunding campaign is succesful, then you could set aside some money for additional freelance editing work (or pay an editor to join your team).

 

[RimProject]

Hi stuntcock,
You made me realize that I failed to explain many things. lol

About the name Rim

In the story, I associate the name with the Nordic origin: 'White Antelope', Rim is genetic created, the scientist responsible for the project is Arabic.

That may be over-ambitious for your first public game-development project.

Luckily, It's not my first project, I have developed a social game in the past (for Facebook, 2012~2013) has a lead programmer and game designer, I started the game from scratch, after the launch the average of players a month is 1.5 million.
We can create a lot of lines of basic conversation and response for common interactions. I can shuffle then and create basic dialogs.

Is there a conflict between player motives and characterization here? Does Rim "want" to become sexually active, or does the player need to trick and manipulate her into doing so? Or is there some kind of "secret identity destiny" thing which renders the whole thing moot?

Spoiler: About Rim

This game is my second game idea about Rim, the first one is more complex. But Rim is the protagonist from the first one too, as a bio-weapon to counter a deadly virus in a human colony on Mars. The player can change her behavior, a frigid bitch or a insatiable whore.
Rim has a great lifespan ability and it's bring to my second game, she lost her memories and don't know her true self ("secret identity destiny"). At the start of the game, she will discovery a banned book about a 'past hero Rim' which had a dirty behavior. That will turn on her body to dirty things, strange dreams from the past will occur several times during the game progress.
But in this isle, we have a countdown for the rape behavior, they will turn Rim a sexy slave at some time and she will lose her freedom, the player don't know that until it happens. So, if we manipulate then, slowly, controlling their desires, can be easy to survive all 4 years, but all of this is not because survive, the more she learns, more she will want to be abused.

120 unique story paths? That's over-ambitious.

It's conceivable that you could setup 120 separate scripted dialog trees - in which each NPC will comment on choices that the player has made (and/or gradually reveal more information as the player progresses through the main story). But you can't expect the player to remember (or care about) the minor characterization details and personal struggles of 120 different people. Especially not when most of those 120 men will share the same portraits and sprites.

Indeed, but we can manipulate the RPGMaker MV engine to create diferent NPCS at runtime, we need only a combination of sprites (hairstyles, beards, mustaches and basic bodies). Javascript it's the easier programming language around here.

Do you expect artists to have prior experience in RPGMaker?

For character and poses, we don't need previous experience, I will provide the samples images (assets), the designer will draw on then and run the debug version of the game to try the results.

There are two ways to interpret that statement.

• a single playthrough (ending on day 1460) would require approximately 50 hours of gameplay
• a player would need to play through the game many times, averaging about 50 hours of total gameplay, before they've seen all of the unique content

When I hear that an RPGMaker game promises a 50-hour playtime, I become very pessimistic. It usually means that the game will be heavily padded with repeated actions, slow stat-grinding, tedious turn-based combat, backtracking across the entire worldmap, etc...

Sorry, the game will not have any combat. haha
The average of 50 hours to proceed in major objective. The map is small with few locations, think about Harvest Moon. You will take a considerable work to upgrade your house, cutting wood and gathering resources to advance.

Do you have visual designs for these characters already prepared, or would the artist need to invent them?

I have nothing prepared, I only imagine the body like Ryoko, from Kill la Kill (image annexed)

To be blunt: your English writing isn't strong enough. I can understand it, but there are many small errors. If I was reading a paragraph of erotic text in your game, then I'd probably be too distracted to appreciated it fully.

I will do a "Locale" file, all your texts will be located here, so anyone can help to fix text issues, update and fix dialogs and more.

Thanks for you post, I really appreciated all your tips.

 

[stuntcock]

We can create a lot of lines of basic conversation and response for common interactions. I can shuffle then and create basic dialogs.

That's fine. My fear was that you intended to give a unique personality and interactions to each of those characters. The player would have great difficulty in dealing with such a large cast.

Imagine that there are two male NPCs. One is a cool guy; flirting with him will lead to a lighthearted exchange of sexy jokes. The other guy is sexually frustrated; flirting with him will cause him to stalk, ambush, and rape the player character. Now imagine that the only visible difference between the two is the randomly-generated color of their beards.

The average of 50 hours to proceed in major objective.

Why are you aiming for 50 hours of playtime? I really doubt that you can deliver 50 hours of fresh and interesting content.

Fenoxo has been developing his current game for years, with the help of several co-writers. A straightforward playthrough would require much less than 10 hours.

My fear is that you'll fill up those gameplay hours by basically wasting the player's time. Forcing them to perform actions that they've already mastered; forcing them to repeat a bunch of day-to-day activities in the hope of unlocking some new calendar-based event; forcing them to slowly grind stats (e.g. corruption points).

Delaying the player is a valid goal when it serves a particular narrative purpose (such as: teasing the player with hints of an upcoming sex scene, so that their own anticipation and frustration will mirror that of their character). But you can push players only so far. Postponing a sex scene with five minutes of gameplay is fine (so long as the intervening gameplay is actually interesting). Postponing it for two hours would be absurd; the player will simply Quit your game and download some porn instead.

The map is small with few locations, think about Harvest Moon. You will take a considerable work to upgrade your house, cutting wood and gathering resources to advance.

Welp. That's what I feared.

What does this feature add to gameplay? How does this help to establish or develop your characters? What relation does it have to the core themes that you're exploring?

If I wanted to till the soil then I'd play Harvest Moon. If I wanted to gather resources and build a cool house then I'd play Minecraft.

I'm playing your game because I want to explore a strange world and experience the erotic awakening of a mysterious young woman. I want to discover artifacts which reveal the secrets of the island. I want to seduce all 120 men, Pokemon-style. I want to challenge myself to somehow complete the game while maintaining the main character's virginity. I want to max out my Corruption stat so that I can unlock the super-secret sextuple penetration scene.

Remember: is this the most interesting moment in your character's life?

 

[RimProject]

Why are you aiming for 50 hours of playtime? I really doubt that you can deliver 50 hours of fresh and interesting content.

Sorry, my mistake. The correct is "The average of 50 hours to proceed in major objective of [Watch all Events] achievement".
I will try to make the player suffer to advance for extra game content, load a previous save to try the same scene again with a different combination of choices. I know it can be boring sometimes, today many of the player don't want to waste time to breed the 'Golden Chocobo'.

Postponing a sex scene with five minutes of gameplay is fine (so long as the intervening gameplay is actually interesting). Postponing it for two hours would be absurd; the player will simply Quit your game and download some porn instead.

I really want a nice h-game with immersive and addictive story in the background, a game only for fapping is not my objective.

Welp. That's what I feared.
What does this feature add to gameplay? How does this help to establish or develop your characters? What relation does it have to the core themes that you're exploring?
If I wanted to till the soil then I'd play Harvest Moon. If I wanted to gather resources and build a cool house then I'd play Minecraft.

This is good. I will try to expand the locations, adding more secrets to the isle. Maybe a possibility to construct a boat and exploring near available isles, each one with their secrets and events.
In this game, the main protagonist was transferred to this school by mistake.

What I did not say in my first post:
As a accepted student, she will be required to participate in classrooms and gym activities, like any another student, wake, study, lunch, more study, dinner, homework and sleep. She has a technical knowledge in agronomy and botanic, her objective is to help to repair the isle and create new species of vegetables that grow in current Earth condition.
Rim will be evaluated, if her grade is low at the end of each 100 in-game days, a new ship will appear in the isle to remove any unwanted student. If she stays with good grades, the ship will never arrive, but the students they will always conspiring how to make her a sexy slave. So, it's a danger place after some time.
Now I will add some more place to go and explore.

 

[stuntcock]

I really want a nice h-game with immersive and addictive story in the background, a game only for fapping is not my objective.

That's a valid goal. The best example that I've seen among RPGMaker porn games is The Last Sovereign. I would argue that TLS worked because sexuality is woven into almost every aspect of the game, and it's explored in many different ways (intimacy, trust, infatuation, jealousy, seduction, manipulation, addiction, domination, gender roles, repression, ribaldry, etc).

The game can talk open about sex without expecting the player to begin touching themselves. Characters can express hesitation or reluctance about sex, and these sentiments can be shared by the player -- because the game has clearly explained the downsides of sex within its world (and you understand what sex means to the game's characters).

TLS includes some resource-management elements, but they are carefully synchronized with plot advancement and character development. The player is never stuck at a point where the game tells them "please chop 500 trees and then maybe I'll let something fun happen."

Your game need not be 24/7 casual sex encounters. But it also doesn't need to be stuffed full of mundane non-sexual tasks merely because you're afraid that the player isn't taking it seriously. Immerse the player in your character's identity, personality, relationships ... or the world around her. Don't try to immerse the player in her itinerary.

wake, study, lunch, more study, dinner, homework and sleep

A full playthrough will cover 1460 days. If I'm playing an adventure game, then I do not want to click through the messages "Rim goes to sleep" or "Rim ate lunch" 1460 times. I want to fast-forward to the next bit of meaningful gameplay - whether that means flirting with boys, or solving puzzles, or exploring caves, or customizing Rim's wardrobe.

I'll accept that sort of repetition in a simulation game. But simulation games tend to be focused on player expression (faceless/voiceless protagonist, character-creation menu, sandbox mechanics, etc). Your pitch seems to involve a more linear story about the main character. You can't really call something a "sandbox game" if non-standard play quickly results in a Bad End gameover.

 

[RimProject]

The player is never stuck at a point where the game tells them "please chop 500 trees and then maybe I'll let something fun happen."
A full playthrough will cover 1460 days. If I'm playing an adventure game, then I do not want to click through the messages "Rim goes to sleep" or "Rim ate lunch" 1460 times.

I will try to avoid this type of mechanics and work more in character progression without constant repeated actions.
To solve the empty spaces, I will reveal new location and puzzles to the player while he wait for resources to grow and other tasks that need day progression.

But some resources still need the repeated actions, the player can use her appearance and behavior to manipulate other students to do these tasks.

 

[Amonic]

With what you're suggesting makes it look like you could have a game similar to Princess Maker.
If you have the bad ends only during adventuring the island, minus the poor grades one, you could potentially have an h-game worth a play.

I actually wanted to make a game like that 10 years back and I designed characters and clothes. I'm more than willing to upload them because as I said these are 10 years old so the quality is not that good.

 

[RimProject]

Well, after a long time it's time to move forward in the game development. :P

I tested AIR / SWF (Flash), RPGMaker and WebApp, but I chose to write my game in WebApp style, focused on mobile (html, css and javascript).
I changed some things, I added combat and elements of exploration in the "point and click" system.

After analyzing your tips a few times, I have a better result of what I want to do (with several changes).
I'm trying to get closer to Persona, with the time to study, build relationships and explore.

- We have the protagonist and more 78 male characters divided into 6 categories: 1 director, 8 teachers, 61 students, 2 chefs, 4 Cleaners and 2 Farmers.
- The day of each character has 8 parts, every 7 days is equal 1 week of play. Each character has its own calendar, some more worked (with time, history and quantity can be added as needed).
- From Monday to Friday, everyone should attend classes in the morning and afternoon.
- Each day has a different climate, which changes in a random way (sunny, rainy and stormy).
- The combat will be simple (Sangeki of Gear style), has level of experience and a small skill tree.
- The protagonist has an important role due to its formation, develop better forms of farming and genetic engineering. Everything will be converted into raw material to get new clothes and tools. The limits of behavior of the protagonist are defined by their level of exhibitionism.
- The game follows the time of the player, being able to advance when they want.

The player does not walk through the scenarios, only interacts with the objects and characters, and can perform various types of actions.
The response to each action can be graphical and / or contextual, making it easier to develop the story and then add the graphics.

Extras:
Everything will work on your phone or browser with a "safe" option to not display certain content (in places with more people).
The application can be password protected, preventing access for children and boyfriend / girlfriend :P
Local and remote Savegame to prevent data loss.

The result can be followed here:
Rim Project: School of Athos

On the mobile phone (Android / iOS / WindowsPhone), the navigator option adds a shortcut to the desktop, it will result in a "WebApp". :)

Unfortunately it has more technical result than visual, I am in the focus of finalizing the rest of the menu this week, I will add playable content in the next days.
The addition of content is easy and intuitive, requires only a minimum of html knowledge, an example is the only map you have in the link:

[Module:{"name":"story.map.Current"}]
<div size="40*40" dev="true" tile="base.school.Docks.Intro.Night">
    <div class="object" size="4*4" position="13*17" story="base.school.Docks.TestStory"></div>
</div>
[Module:{"name":"base.school.Docks.TestStory"}]
<div>
    <div class="storyteller">
        <div class="topic rim-portrait" action="lock">
            <div class="face"></div>
            <div class="name" label="rim"></div>
            <div class="chat" label="test1"></div>
        </div>
        <div class="topic portrait">
            <div class="face"></div>
            <div class="name">System</div>
            <div class="chat" label="test2"></div>
        </div>
        <div class="topic whisper" action="unlock" label="test3"></div>
        <div class="topic" action="clear;navigate"></div>
    </div>
</div>

I made a file for localization, facilitating adding new content and translation:
http://rimproject.com/play/green/mods/locale/en.txt

I already have enough functions and parameter for content control, I just have to put into practice :)

The project is on GITHUB (private), if someone is interested in taking a look or helping, just leave the user I release the access to source.

I hope to post something with more content in the next week.

 

[theressomeonehere]

I'd be willing to act as an editor for this, if you still need one.