LEWD, an erotic text adventure in spaaaace (Semi-public access now up)

Sadtaco

Well-Known Member
Aug 27, 2015
116
4
Legend of Eros: Worlds Defiled
homepage-tabs-about.png

LEWD is an erotic text adventure game, currently in development.
The goal of the game is to create a persistent living world that’s constantly changing by your actions.
Even when you log off from it, the world will continue to change, leading to new an unexpected experiences when you return.

You play your own character. Whether that’s breeding aliens, spreading around nasty things, rising up the ranks of “space academy”, buying up all the panties repeatedly and then burning them so no one can afford panties, or just trying to fuck or not fuck every single thing – you make your own story.

With enough support, there will be millions of words of content, as well as an immeasurable amount of procedurally created content. The engine is already in place to make this happen. LEWD is similar to MUDs (multi-user-dungeons) and other online text adventure games of the past. What I've mainly set out to do with it is to make a new engine that is far easier to make content for, with a powerful and flexible development tool, and to make the game itself very accessible.

I originally started LEWD with a prototype I made in about 3 weeks in May 2013.
Then I spent a few more weeks with it to both gauge interest and to figure out all the sort of features I'd need from an engine, and how best to set up the workflow for tools to make content for the game.
That's why you see a long gap of nothing happening. I didn't have the support to work full time on it at the time, and had a bunch of work to get done elsewhere, and was still figuring out where to go with it.

It was about a year later before I started working on my new engine, which took a long time. I've just recently got all the content then working on my new engine, worked on finding new writers, and...
Alpha 2 is now released!
This is the second release with the game running on my new engine, along with some more polish, features, and about twice as much content as the old prototype.

Some of the additions and changes since the old prototype are:

  • Almost 100% more content
  • Redone and improved ways that content is parts and descriptions are generated for your character
  • Improvements to the character generation and how you can personalize descriptions (It's a huge disorganized mess of listing out like 100 body parts, I know. That's just alpha things)
  • Client modding API for character descs
  • Feedback system for supporters to leave their feedback on scenarios
  • First of its kind(I think) Patreon rewards system. Patreon has no API for this, so I made a bot to handle it.
  • Updated rendering
  • Updated, more flexible, quests system
  • Efficiency improvements and slightly prettied up interface
  • Changes to the networking to use interpolation in many places so it feels more responsive
  • More improvements to polish, down to how sliders for stats work, selecting traits works, updating stats outside of chargen, it not waiting until the end to tell you if name is empty, and all sorts of little things like that
  • Lots of little bug and annoyance fixes, such as how the scenario box would move around when pressing tab (which should only happen when there is a chat window below it to scale against). Hopefully fixed that bug with getting "stuck" and unable to move
  • More settings, including the ability to disable NPC images for a more text-only experience
  • Progress/character saving
  • All new tutorial, which is more of a walkthrough and should be far clearer.
  • An introductory preword about the world
  • Updates to the site itself
  • This is still just the first alpha release, and just the start. There's lots more to come




How to play; there are two ways to currently get early access:
1. Either get a hold of a key from a supporter who has gotten some, or by being one of the older registered accounts on the LEWD website that'll be emailed keys fairly soon (probably for Alpha 2 release).
This gives you access to the main server(http://www.playlewd.com/main) that is typically a bit behind the test server, but unlike the test server doesn't go down for updates and debugging often.

Keys can be redeemed on your account page, and you can find your keys to share or use there.
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2. Support our Patreon for instant access to the test server.
The test

All you need to do is pledge on the Patreon, and then you can link your Patreon account to your LEWD account for instant access.
patreon-link.png

Then you can play right now on http://www.playlewd.com/test-server/!

Otherwise, you'll just need to be patient and wait for wider access.

LOOKING FOR WRITERS
Generally we're looking for writers whenever there is room in the budget for more.
See: http://www.playlewd.com/blog/?page_id=571 to learn how to submit an application, and if you have the talent when a position is open I'll let you know.


BLOG | FORUMS | PATREON | IRC (#lewdgame @ irc.rizon.net)
 
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redfox

Member
Aug 27, 2015
16
3
43
this isn't free to everyone just the backer and I already made an account but i can't play it because i'm not backer. TiTs has both public and backer vs LEWD has only backer and no public. so i can't like the game since i don't know what in it.
 

Sadtaco

Well-Known Member
Aug 27, 2015
116
4
The alpha will be released in September or so. The test-server that can be played on now is backers only.
It says that up near the top in the original post.
 
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Sadtaco

Well-Known Member
Aug 27, 2015
116
4
Well like it says in the original post, there will be a public release in September.
 

DaviceMathews

Well-Known Member
Aug 26, 2015
112
2
I'm actually pretty confused whether this belongs in Showcase or here.  We'll see, eh?

The showcase section is for active and serious developers of a game to put up a post talking about there game. This post on the other hand is for all of us who are interested in the game to talk about things in the game. It is meant to get bogged down by lots of posts and covered by other threads. Or so i understand
 
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DaviceMathews

Well-Known Member
Aug 26, 2015
112
2
I guess this probably belongs in Showcase then?  Seems odd to have them split up since sometimes there is little difference between a creator post and a post from someone else.

I think it is meant to make update posts by the creator easier to spot by others and encourage creators to put a good amount of info into the posts. Since they would know they are not just going to get subsumed by the masses. I look forward to the public release but sadly I am not a good writer of anything so I can't help there. Starship Inanna is a space exploration erotic game that is under development(terrible description I know). The author appears to be doing all the writing himself but he might know some people who have offered to write for him. The site is http://starshipinanna.com/
 

Sadtaco

Well-Known Member
Aug 27, 2015
116
4
A big update is up. This is the 6th major update in less than 5 weeks, and I'm getting close to a stable alpha release. A bit more detail is here http://www.playlewd.com/blog/?p=519
There's also been a lot more content added. Maybe I'll start doing monthly content update recaps or something.

Most things are almost in order now, except for some more efficiency stuff I need to do to get my costs lowered. Hopefully I'll have the stable release out at the end of this month and the next month or two I can put more time toward adding new features and neat stuff that I have in mind.

Also, we are still looking for another good writer to join the team. See: http://www.playlewd.com/blog/?p=460

Engine changes:
  • I did some major recoding that increases efficiency on both ends (a lot less data will be used, as well as less wasted CPU and memory on the client to handle some duplicate network events that could happen.)
  • Added some preliminary code to handle some client caching and instancing of things that can come up repeatedly, but it's not fully implemented.
  • Also a lot of stream lining of APIs on both ends that further reduces the amount of code that needs to be written to achieve things, including a client API fix that would sometimes make unnecessary calls when game objects are updated, which lowered performance.This also helped fix a lot of issues in general, namely with restoring save states.
  • Server also sends a lot of updates in batches to improve both network and client performance.
General:
  • Fixed a bug with the phallic symbiote sometimes not counting as a penis when it should... sort of (see known issues)
  • Fixed an issue with the writing parser that would be problematic with falsey values.
  • Fixed equipping and unequipping clothing not working correctly on a restored save. (would still show a top as on when topless, etc)
  • Fixed underwear and other previous items not restoring with the restored save.
  • Fixed a new issue where sex traits weren't showing as checked on a restored save.
  • Fixed the "more info" link on the game connection screen not actually doing anything.
  • Dev Tracker now shows dates for the updates.
  • Saves have been wiped since the way some player data is arranged has been changed. After the first alpha release I'll avoid save wipes, but right now it's not like there's a lot of progression lost. There are ways to refractor saves instead of wiping them later on, but I'm just not bothering with that right now.
Those that have successful payments of at least $15 now gain test server access even if they're no longer pledging (previously it required an active pledge)
This will be cut off once the alpha is launched and public. This is just to continue to give access for those that already supported a significant amount so they can keep playing/testing until there is the public alpha to play on. After that, test server access will remain a month-by-month thing.
 
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Sadtaco

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Aug 27, 2015
116
4
2 weeks before this round of writer tryouts is going to end.

I'll still make it possible to submit an application after that, but the later into development it is and the larger the Patreon is, the less good of a deal a writer is going to get, for good reason.
 
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Sadtaco

Well-Known Member
Aug 27, 2015
116
4
This update is rather small. I’ve been really burned out working 60-100+ hours a week the few weeks prior to this past one.

  • Fixed an issue where players could get stuck and unable to move after a scenario ends.
  • Fixed getting stuck on the part where recalling what you used the injector on after the last update.
  • Fixed Feedback on Scenarios not working. Feedback also now confirms the submission. (Again, please don’t use this to report bugs. Use the forums for that)
  • Client side descriptions now save and restore properly. (Clearing saved site data will clear them out, I should note. May add some cloud saving for them in the future for supporters so you can keep them across devices, browsers, or after clearing out browser data.)
I’m not really sure I’ll get it all polished up and ready for the public by the end of September. I’m extremely burned out and there’s still significant things left to do.
I want the public release to be nice and it’s just not nice enough yet. The release is largely delayed because I added a number of things that I didn’t originally plan to, but still.

Changes coming with Public Server release
  • Over the next few days a few things are going to be changing to faciliate the two servers and access.
  • The “Play” button on the front page will change to direct to the new public game server URL.
  • Your Account Page will change a bit to reflect what access you have (IE test server access, public server access)
  • Patreon supporters will have access to the test server and permanent access to the public server.Each Patreon supporter will also get a key to share that can be used to gain access once for each $ they’ve spent. (IE, someone that has
[*]Those that use an access key will gain free permanent access to the main (stable/public) server.
[*]Test server will remain something that gets broken occasionally, but has upcoming features being worked on and content that’s still being polished up. While the main (stable/public) server will be a bit dated, but will be stable.
Eventually I’ll put out a few extra keys besides the Patrons’ that each have dozens or hundreds of uses each once I feel it’s more ready to have more people playing it, but not quite totally open to the public completely until it’s more where I want it to be.
And further on I’ll eventually have it completely open, without requiring a key, to play for free.

I’m not sure if I’ll open up that thousand or so extra spots at the end of September like I wanted, or if it’ll be a bit later. Like I said, I’m super burned out right now.

Fetishes & pairings?

It's way to hard to make a complete list like that when making a game that could have tens of millions of words of content and could cover hundreds of different fetishes (including a lot of super mundane ones that I have). It's a lot more character focused than centered around any specific kinks.

The game info page covers a lot of that. You play whatever you want and mostly fuck any gender or thing that you want. Though there will be at least a few NPCs that are only gay, only straight, only into huge cocks, itty bitty titties, and so on.
 
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DaviceMathews

Well-Known Member
Aug 26, 2015
112
2
I hope you do not work so hard on this that you come to hate it or lose your motivation for it. That seems to be a real problem for a lot of developers. If a September release is something you are pretty sure you cannot do because of being burned out then trying to force yourself to do it will only increase that feeling. Better to make some relaxing progress and rejuvenate yourself. 
 

Sadtaco

Well-Known Member
Aug 27, 2015
116
4
Alpha 1 pre-release Update 8 notes (Almost there…)

Not ready to set the main, stable server up just yet, but getting there. There’s still two significant issues I need to fix, at the very least, and some writing that needs to be added and polished up and better connected first.
I’ll be releasing access keys for Patreon supporters to share soon, though.
 


 You may need to clear your save (in settings) to fully fix the aforementioned issue. Save wipes should be rare or not happen at all from now on, though, since they now appear to be in a good spot.

  • Added a number of tools and engines improvements and bug fixes, including adding some capability that was needed to make setting up procedural content more easily. Also fixed a new crash that was happening related to this.
  • Fixed object listeners propagating to object instances, instead of each instance having its own list of listeners. This drastically cuts down on a lot of wasted data that was being sent to players that they didn’t need to have sent.
  • Fixed how item adjectives were no longer modifiable, and things that would damage/destroy clothing can now do so again.
  • There was also a big issues with saves where the saves couldn’t properly save and restore different cross references to something, and instead created new objects/instances, which was creating a lot of bugs (like generally not being able to equip/unequip items from a restored save). That should now be fixed.
It's perfectly playable now, I think. Just not quite where I need it to be for a first alpha release.

I hope you do not work so hard on this that you come to hate it or lose your motivation for it. That seems to be a real problem for a lot of developers. If a September release is something you are pretty sure you cannot do because of being burned out then trying to force yourself to do it will only increase that feeling. Better to make some relaxing progress and rejuvenate yourself. 

I'm getting a little burned out after 2 months of working so much at it, sure, but that's why there's other people to add content and such.
A lot of interesting ways to deliver content and stories is all doable without real programming so writers can do that stuff and me taking a break here and there from working all day and all month on it shouldn't be too noticed once I finish getting everything nice and solid and polished.

But yeah, wasn't going to kill myself to make sure I got it done for September. An extra week or two delay wouldn't ruin anything.

Took a 5 day break to work on making a Dota2 mod and I'm feeling a bit better now. http://i.imgur.com/tEnnszn.jpg
 

Awaka

Member
Oct 2, 2015
6
0
What is the name of the Dota2 mod? Also if you ever need a break I am around 4kmmr player if you want to play some dota2!
 

treos

Member
Sep 12, 2015
13
0
hmmm...haven't i seen this on the e621 forums a while back? oh yeah, about 4 months ago and there was a test version playable then.
 

Nephilim_Anunnaki

Well-Known Member
Sep 7, 2015
750
156
41
hmmm...haven't i seen this on the e621 forums a while back? oh yeah, about 4 months ago and there was a test version playable then.

Yes, but seems that actually you need to be a patron to be able to play ...
 

Sadtaco

Well-Known Member
Aug 27, 2015
116
4
There will be a public release like it says. Was supposed to be at the end of September, but I got burned out and have to wait on writers to finish some things up.

Just taking a little longer than I originally hoped, and I've been sidetracked with other work myself.

And yes I posted it on e621 before. And yes, there was a playable pre-alpha prototype but that's taken down because it's no longer representative of where it's at now and there were a lot of new bugs from the port to my new engine.

What is the name of the Dota2 mod? Also if you ever need a break I am around 4kmmr player if you want to play some dota2!

Haven't named it. Maybe Dota Shuffle. Not gonna be released for a while since I have to spend most of my time on LEWD. The mod is just something I'm doing when I need a break since I like making stuff.
 

Sadtaco

Well-Known Member
Aug 27, 2015
116
4
So, things have been delayed a bit.
While I've been working on and added a ton of things that weren't originally on the list of things to get done for the first completed Alpha release, I still fell behind on getting the absolutely bare necessities done to get it released when I wanted, but it's just about there.

I've been working on the private messaging and social features that are upcoming, and ended up going deep down a rabbit hole with that which sucked up way more time than I expected.
I've also still been really burned out, so just haven't gotten as much done this month as I'd like.

Barring any major new issues being found, I'll be setting up the main/stable server and distributing a bunch of keys to the backers to share for access to that.

Update Notes
  • Lots of content bugs fixed.
  • Set lots of libido draining amounts to different sex scenes. (May have missed some)
  • Fixed the "you have disconnected" message not showing up when that happens.
  • Implemented some additional functionality to the writing parser to allow us to modify writing depending on what dialog option lead to it in the cases where two or more different scenes lead to the same other scene.
  • Implemented &&/AND psuedocode parsing on the writing parser, rather than needing to nest stanzas. There's also an update to make sure whitespace doesn't mess anything up and some general cleanups.
  • Fixed the server being unable to set adjectives on something of a player's by sub-reference lookups that used to work in the old engine, such as for their primary orifice.
Known Issues
  • Horrible reconnect support, really. Need quite a bit of recoding on the client to handle this well. Won't get this fixed in time for release, and it'll still require refreshing until then.
  • Libido doesn't always display accurately when reloading at first.
  • System map renderer still fails to load or crashes some times.
  • Some client side parser states aren't restored on saves, like if you're repeating something or not.
 

redfox

Member
Aug 27, 2015
16
3
43
are you sure it wise to give beta keys to backers because they might try to sell the beta keys instead of just giving them away for free. i have seen a lot mmos do this and it piss off a lot of people.
 

Awaka

Member
Oct 2, 2015
6
0
WoW stopped giving keys away and just flagged your account so people would stop selling them.
 

Scarebear

Well-Known Member
Oct 16, 2015
155
2
Is there a way to get a key if you don't know any backers?
 
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Sadtaco

Well-Known Member
Aug 27, 2015
116
4
are you sure it wise to give beta keys to backers because they might try to sell the beta keys instead of just giving them away for free. i have seen a lot mmos do this and it piss off a lot of people.

They get 1 key use per $1 they've paid, so what would one even be worth? Not even 50 cents? o_o They're welcome to do that, I don't really mind.
There's going to be a significant number and it's easier to just pledge. You can even just pledge $1, charge that, and you'd get a key at the start of next month. Plus each key can have many uses, so they can't just sell a single use of it.

Is there a way to get a key if you don't know any backers?

I think people on this forum, the playlewd.com forums, and others might give theirs out there once that's all launched.

Eventually there will be free access without keys, but I'm not sure when that'll be.

There's been some new bugs that cropped up. Almost ready to put it up, but not quite.
 

Sadtaco

Well-Known Member
Aug 27, 2015
116
4
 I think I have all the major issues fixed except some content that needs to be cleaned up, and one I note issue I have noted down below that should be easy to fix once I get some data logged to figure out the problem.

 
So I should have the main server up in a few days, and people will be able to find keys from the supporters to give access to that server.

Over time I'll give some thousands of keys out and eventually I can make it open to everyone without keys, but right now there's a lot that needs to be done to lower my bandwidth costs like with caching the content, which is quite a thing with how dynamic it is, I'll need to spend more on a larger server, and so on. I also want it to be more developed before then.

 Site

  • Created a system for giving out access keys and redeeming them that I’m using so people can give out access to the main server. It should automatically give out keys and update the amount of uses whenever someone is charged through Patreon in a few days from now once I launch the main server. You can find your keys to share, if you’ve been charged through Patreon, on your account page, in a few days from now.
  • Added a way to change your account password if you’ve forgotten it.
  • “Return to last page” links on the site will no longer point to the login page, since that was silly.
  • Supporter Forum can be viewed by everyone now, but you still have to be a Patreon supporter to post there.
  • Some styling changes for errors and confirmations on the site to make them more apparent, since some people weren’t noticing them.
  • Enabled character deletion on the account page. (previously did nothing)
 Game

  • Fixed some more parser and content errors
  • Fixed another server crash. Also added in some logging since I think there is an issue with one of the player teleporting events. I should be able to figure out the whole root of that issue as people play and test it out, but if you get “stuck” selecting an option, report that on the forums, thanks.
  • Fixed some new bugs with it not displaying some connection errors.
  • Fixed an engine issue that had a ton of things bugged, including not being able to reduce stats. This probably fixed a whole bunch of recent issues since some of the major reworking to it I did last month.
 Other

  • Updated the Patreon connecting bot so it doesn’t repeatedly message about their payments not working, and to work around some bugs Patreon itself has.
 
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Sadtaco

Well-Known Member
Aug 27, 2015
116
4
Hope to see a demo as soon as you can.

I almost have everything sorted. You'll still need a key for the "demo" for the time being, though, but they should be pretty plentiful.
 

Sadtaco

Well-Known Member
Aug 27, 2015
116
4
Alpha 1 Release Candidate 3(Actually Final?)

Well this is a lot later than I wanted to get this ready and released.

It’s a combination of there being a lot more that had to be recoded for the game to work on my new engine than I thought, and adding a lot of things that I originally didn’t plan on but thought I was making good time and had time for.

There’s also the demotivating factor of Paypal stealing almost $500. I thought the Patreon would take off considerably more and that I’d have more help with writing, too.

I should have the public server(non test-server) up within a day or two, now.

Updates
  • Updated description generation to be a bit smarter in how it chooses possible descriptions. You’ll no longer get something overly redundant like “egg-laden, egg-stuffed and egg-filled pussy”.
  • Fixed the isArea conditional that was used in the back end to change things based on where you are or where you last came from and such. Was making some text not show correctly based on those sorts of parameters.
  • Fixed an issue where items couldn’t be consumed on the backend by key word (ie top, bottoms). Things that take/destroy your clothes no properly do so again.
  • Fixed an issue where you couldn’t move back and forth to a zone/map that you had already visited.
  • Fixed planetary system map text showing over the local map sometimes.
  • Fixed 5 cases that could cause writing to not parse correctly.
  • Fixed a bug in generating descriptions that would cause everything to be blank. This was an issue with it writing something as torn, sticky, etc.
  • Fixed the revive-from-clone not working(though it’s intended behavior is still unfinished)
  • More fixes to the optimized way it detects levels of bareness on the server.
  • More content fixes.
Known issues:
  • Items you had equipped aren’t always requipped right on the client after loading from a save, which shows descriptions as if bare even though the game thinks you have clothing on. You’ll need to reequip them.
  • Some client side variables set like if a scenario has been viewed before is not restored between sets, giving a bit wrong of writing sometimes.
  • Eggs not disappearing?


  •  
 
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