Before the gloryhole’s release

Hi folks!

I’m not going to beat around the bush – let’s get to the interesting part. We intend to release the first version of the gloryhole this month (or as close as possible). We’ve been working on it for three months and the volume of work we’ve done in that time is staggering, especially looking at it from the inside. I wrote multiple designs, came up with a ton of cards and systems, some of which we kept and discarded the rest. At the same time, Flamie created multiple versions of the UI, and not just the main screen, but different elements like the cards, the deck, the hand, the shop, the level-up screen and many other things. She has also changed the architecture of several gameplay elements multiple times. I had no idea how many tiny details would have to be taken into account when I told Flamie “How about we make something a little more exciting than just a game of Twenty-One?” She probably had no idea either when she responded with “Sure”.

One category of cards is *frictions*. They mainly provide pleasure to the clients.

To temper your expectations and our ambitions, I’d like to establish what the first version will and will not have and what will be added in the nearest future. The game’s base is ready. Luna herself with a myriad of poses; all of the game logic; clients that come and go; 4 fully developed pose-suits and about 40 cards (not just for the suits) and card upgrades; a picky client system that adds extra difficulty; a leveling system that allows the player to improve their deck and make the heroine a more effective worker; a ton of art (several dozens of arts and covers) and most of the UI. Phew, that’s a lot to just type out!

The second category of cards is effects. They enhance the action of the frictions in various ways or help provide pleasure indirectly.

Nonetheless, this is not a complete game and not even the first version, but more like an alpha tech demo to demonstrate the work we’ve done. To take the gloryhole in the best possible direction in the future, we’d like to share more tangible results (that you can get your hands on) and listen to your feedback. There’s a lot of “un-tuned” stuff that might be unbalanced, but it’s already really fun to play!

We already have a list of things to add to the next version. I’ve prepared a roadmap of my own design as to not distract Flamie from working on designing the game.

Our very first priority is a reaction system. We already have the first emotion pack ready, but there are multiple ways to implement it into the game. It’s an important, but somewhat routine task, so we’re going to work on adding emotions to Luna right after the alpha release, to make her look more alive. We will add even more emotions in future versions.

The game will also have progression between shifts. I must admit that I don’t know how to balance the upgrades right now, so we’ve decided that there’s no point in adding it to the alpha release until we get your feedback and collect some data. The upgrades you can purchase between shifts are already done, but the upgrade screen itself needs some work and additional art. We also want to add an alternate Luna skin – naked Luna – that could be unlocked after finishing a few shifts or be bought in the upgrade shop.

Third on the list (but not in importance) is the response system, connected to the heroine’s corruption. It’s one of the things that goes “over” the rest of the systems in a technical sense, so despite designing it and already making some of the replies, we haven’t worked on the logic yet – we need to finish everything else first. But personally, I can’t wait to see Luna’s quips as she grabs yet another dick in the stall or meets a client with attitude!

We hope that the three updates won’t take too long, but until they come out, the game will not be released to the public and will remain patron-only. This is a “closed alpha test”, after all. I would also like to state that the roadmap isn’t set in stone and represents our current view of the game’s development priorities.

Pose selection window. The titjob pose is not yet available, but may appear in future updates.

If we see that you’re interested, we will continue to expand the game even after it’s “finished”. We have a few ideas to improve expand it. At the very least, it needs to have a “cиm system”, adding cream to the heroine and the stall, and it would be cool if it also affected gameplay somehow. I have a few ideas for that.

I’d like to show you what prototyping on paper is like. I used it to test some gameplay changes without distracting Flamie by adding this change or that change to the build. Yes, this is literally a paper version of the gloryhole that you can play at your table (we did). This approach gave us a couple of very cool gameplay solutions, but we will stick to our original plan until the first release and first few updates to collect your feedback.

After sketching out the mechanics and logic

After adding the interface

​That’s it for now! I hope the next post is a release announcement. I’d like to say that we see and appreciate the support we received from you after the last post. Thank you very much! If it wasn’t for you, we couldn’t have even attempted to come up with something interesting instead of just giving a casino game a gloryhole theme. Thank you for your support! And if you’re still on the fence, now is the perfect time to join!