Developer Diary #2

Hi all! It's one of the rare times we are headed for a ride into another Developer Diary!

If you are new or unfamiliar; this post is where I discuss things that I normally keep out of regular dev logs as it would make them waaaay more long-winded than they need to be! These diaries are usually a way for me to go into detail about the development process of... anything really!

This time around, I'll be discussing the challenges of developing Episode 2: Enhanced and things that went well and of course, things that went... not-so-well. This is sounding like a retrospective or post-mortem at this point... but I digress!

Do keep in mind that this post will contain spoilers about E2:E and it's contents! If you have not finished playing through the new content and do not wish to be spoiled, do come back another time once you have experienced the new content!

Alright, full steam ahead!

The challenges faced
When I embarked on the creation of E2:E, the challenge was something fresh and exciting: create a story that told things from a different perspective!

On top of this, it was revealed that this perspective was from the eyes of the twin sisters: Tiffany and Trinity, who were the two characters I thought were under-developed in Episode 2's initial launch, as they had sporadic appearances despite them sharing more or less the same genitalia problem our heroine Cara is facing!

-- Challenge 1: A different kind of storytelling
Ever since the Prologue, the storytelling of Cara in Creekmaw always forged ahead, meaning that each scene you see and experience is always new and foreign!

With "The Twins' Dilemma", its whole structure is built off of things many of you have seen before. This challenge was unique in that prior to this side story, there would at most be flashbacks or callbacks via dialogue and that was it. In this side story, however, there will always be points in the story where you would recognize certain key events that merge with Cara's story in Episode 2!

This meant that most of the scenes in E2:E had to acknowledge the flow of time and when these events in Cara's story play out, you would see them and it would make the side story feel more aligned and in-sync with the main story. This was a self-imposed challenge if anything as I wanted to experiment with different forms of story-writing and step out of my comfort zone.

-- Challenge 2: Switch-up of protagonist and personalities
Cara's personality and her character traits have been something I have slowly grown accustomed to writing for and she has been the one character that you have had control of ever since the game's creation!

With that said, it was a challenge to elevate the twins to become the main protagonists within their own side story. It was coupled with the fact that this side story would be linear with zero player choice, making this challenge feel insurmountable.

-- Challenge 3: The bells and whistles
E2:E was not solely for the development of the side story, but also for the new scene additions in Episode 2 itself, giving more variation of scenes and endings that were not originally in the initial release of the episode!

This challenge resulted in an attention split (more in the "not-so-good" section) during the development of E2:E, as its contents were all lewd scenes, and they all utilized the context of the scene that was already set up for them. Despite this, it is still work on top of the planned side story!

What went well
Overall, from a developer's point-of-view, I believe the side story added a healthy amount of character development while keeping the suspense and mystery that was left behind where Episode 2 left off. When I first started its development, I wanted the story to tie in closely to the main story upon its conclusion, and in this aspect, I would say it is a success!

The scenes that were added into the main episode itself were also something I believe went well; as I did feel some paths were lacking and E2:E really helped to close up the gaps and also added a good number of unique scenes and scenarios!

What went... not-so-well
As mentioned above, the 'attention split' was something that first started as minor and negligible to becoming a full-on problem where I would have to jump between the development of adding new scenes to the main episode (E2) and the development of the side story (The Twins' Dilemma).

In a sense, I felt like I had to put 100% into two things at once; one which was improving an existing episode and the other which was creating a new experience altogether. For me, switching between these two mindsets was similar to multi-tasking, which put a mental strain on me as it felt like things were jumbled.

This, coupled with my last-minute absence during the second half of March, resulted in me having almost zero productivity during March. While the new scenes in Episode 2 were ready, the side story was only about 20% done, as I had to make last-minute sweeping changes to its story and overall flow. Maybe it's my self-imposed time pressure, but I did feel I was racing against the clock for the entirety of April, and I'm thankful the story came out the way it did!

Oh and also, I want to be clear about one thing: The outfit poll for the twins did not make it into E2:E as the scene that I wanted the futa twin to wear it in (the scene where they revisit the stable) ended up feeling too short for the outfit. I am planning to have this outfit be worn by the futa twin in Episode 3, so do look out for it!

In closing...
As I fully immerse myself back into the development of Episode 3, it feels like I'm much more "at home" and focused on things one at a time. I must emphasize that I did enjoy the time I spent developing E2:E, and the challenges and pain points mentioned above are things I took in stride over the months of development prior. No challenge would be a fruitful experience if there were no ups and downs, and I now know how to tackle these things as I look forward to delivering greater things to all of you who support me (which I'm thankful for!).

But that's enough out of me, how did you find Episode 2: Enhanced?