Afterhours Longpost

Hey folks, kept ya waiting, huh. This is a longpost about the game I've been working on for hell knows how long – Afterhours.

Setting

Afterhours takes place in alternate timeline's 1994, with us making advancements in robotics, but still hanging on diskettes and tape drives. You are a night guard arriving for your first day in a 1970s stylized mall complex which opens in a few days. Your affairs go wrong and you find yourself in a locked down complex. All staff robots and animatronics have become hostile towards player, and now the only task you have is to save yourself.

Gameplay

To lift the lockdown you'll have to visit 7 areas, each with their distinct gameplay features and find a way to reboot the animatronic girls.

First obstacle – the whole complex is looking for YOU. Malfunctioning staff robots will search for you and shoot on sight.

Second obstacle – complex is closed and you'll have to deal with its security systems to get around.

Complex traversal and the process of searching for a way to reboot animatronics are non-linear, you can do them in any order. If you find out how that is :)

You will also get access to the monorail system and unlock shortcuts for a quicker traversal around the mall and its staff spaces.

Main enemies are staff robots which will try to catch you, there are several types of them, including special ones that are specifically designed to make you become hunted instead of the hunter.

And the main feast – animatronic girls! Each inhabiting their special areas, roaming around, looking for you. They cannot be killed, only stunned. You'll have to be careful exploring their facilities, but those risks yield great rewards.

But don't fret, there are firearms in the complex, which you'll be able to get and upgrade to use against hostile forces. Pistols, shotguns and dart guns. All made to make the mall your playground.

Characters

There are a lot of characters in the game, but I'll talk about a few of them for now to avoid spoilers

Johnathan Howell

Our main guy, a Nightguard at the mall complex.

Conrad

AI voice assistant for the mall crew. Helps Johnathan in his quest.

Bjorna

Bear Lady, inhabits the Hotel section

Carmen

Chicken Lady, inhabits the Restaurant section

Annie

Cowgirl Fox, inhabits the Wild West theme park

Bonnie

Rabbit Lady, inhabits the Sound Recording Studio

Rachel

Raccoon Girl, inhabits the Lasertag area

Mary

Marionette, inhabits the Spa section

Scarlett

Shark Lady, inhabits the Waterpark area

Replay-ability and Length

The game will take around 10-16 hours to complete, depending on the exploration of the complex. There will be several endings, which account for your choices in gameplay, so you'll have to go with at least 2 walkthroughs to get the most out of the game.

Replay-ability is one of the main aspects for me. Mall is not the biggest location ever made, but is densely packed with side quests and interesting points to watch out for. Also non-linear level structure and “game-director” systems will make sure no playthrough is the same.

Inspirations

By and large, the main inspiration for Afterhours is Prey 2017. Isolated spaces, constant threats, immersive sim aspects. What's not to love?

Gunplay and stealth mechanics are inspired by Deus Ex games, meaning you can go stealth, but if your plan breaks, you can always improvise.

Each of the animatronics' reboot quests will be like a Dishonored level, meaning you'll have several ways to complete your task, depending on your character's build.

Main visual inspiration for this is Control. Brutalistic architecture, retro electronics and a sense of mystery around every corner. Also a huge amount of inspiration is taken from 70s sci-fi and slice-of-life films.

Musical inspirations are old rock and electronic bands, like ELO, Eagles, Scorpions and Lynyrd Skynyrd. With some bands from the '90s to give the game that futuristic feel.

AI Usage

NO AI! Tell you more, no stock assets.

All the things for this game are hand-made to fit the atmosphere and bring the unique touch to the game. So no AI voiceovers, models or drawings.

But what about PORN!

And now for everyone's favourite thing! To get NSFW sex scenes, you'll have to find special chip consumables around the mall. Then, you'll have to stun an animatronic girl and use that chip on her. This will give you access to a random sex scene minigame with that animatronic, which you'll be able to unlock for free play.

Along with those scenes, you'll be able to unlock skins for your character and animatronics for that little roleplay element. All unlockable for in-game credits that you get by completing story and side achievements. No microtransactions.

Erotic ideas play a big role in the game's story, the so-called “Jiggle TV” culture is one of the main themes of the plot, and is intertwined with other ones.

But if you want to play this game on stream or let your grandma have at it, then you can enable the SFW mode, which cuts out all porn aspects out of the game. Though losing some story aspects, the game will still be enjoyable in a more “family-friendly” manner.

Why is it taking so long?

I've already made a post about this game some time ago, and I have a pretty good explanation for taking so long.

It's a part-time hobby of a solo developer. I don't make enough money to go full-time developing, and time I have on my hands I spend on polishing the game story, ideas and art direction trying to make the best game it can possibly be.

I've also spent a lot of time on research of immersive sim designs, their level designs and the sense of freedom they give to players. It's a very fine line to make a game good and not boring.

So toss a coin to your NSFW artist, you'll get a nice immersive sim game with a side order of phat bunny booty to go with it. Sounds like a win-win!

Also let me know what you think about this game, your ideas and proposals. I'll be glad to check them out :3

p.s. Those screenshots are from UE, we ball so hard