Observation post of the Observer.
- Thread starter The Observer
- Start date
Characters: Kohaku Kobayashi (小林 琥珀), part 1.
Kohaku Kobayashi, by Rattlepool
(Of course, warning that all this content is speculative, etc, etc)
When I was looking through the planning document for Fluff Haus, it soon became clear that I'd left a big blank where a vendor was supposed to go. Of course I'd need a vendor in order to dispense with all the lovely weeb-themed loot that would go with the kitsune den, but I hadn't really thought up someone to fill the job.
Enter Kohaku.
Given all the personalities we had lined up so far, there wasn't really anyone who was energetic, chipper and optimistic in general. Yuzu might have made it work, but Yuzu's more or less a peripheral character, and besides, she already had a job to boot. A merchant would need to be friendly and polite, while still remaining worldly enough to justify being in business -- aware of the realities of the world, yet not being crushed by them. For some reason, one of the pictures Drake shared with everyone in Discord stuck with me, and I really liked the character design enough to base it on that.
The Mechanics
One of the primary issues which affected vendors was that you really had no reason to return to them. This goes double for vendors who sold equipment -- you'd go in once, check out their wares, maybe buy what you want and never head back again. You might visit a vendor a couple more times if they had a consumable you wanted, but generally you'd never see them again.
Kind of a waste. I want to avoid that.
The consolidation of consumables helps with that -- there's a "standard" set of consumables that were added a couple patches ago, and those are supposed to cover most bases that people will actually need. What I want to do, though, is to have a reason for people to step in and visit Kohaku regularly -- not necessarily every day, but I'd be flattered if it were that often. I want people to be excited to open up her shop menu, and visit over the course of the entire game.
Hence, Kohaku will sell her stock at 75% of its base price. She'll also be able to sell items that normally wouldn't be purchasable, such as winterstem (although Mai would probably strangle her if she found out). What's the catch? Her store inventory is random. Every day, a number of items will be pulled from a couple pools, and what's on sale for the day is populated; it's supposed to reflect the shifting state of things in the kitsune den's storehouse and what's considered surplus for the day. Her stock will refresh the next day, and the list re-rolled.
What I want to do is create the incentive for the player to drop in on a regular basis, to be able to find the thrill of discovering a good deal for the day, the impulse to get as much as possible while it's in stock, not knowing when it'll be around again.
This is made doubly so by the fact that Kohaku will have random special deals in which you'll be able to buy 1 of when they happen, and you have to make the decision on the spot. Powerful weeb-themed equipment is on the table, but most importantly, you'll be able to buy extras of the powerful, limited consumables in these deals. Part of the problem with rare consumables like these is that they can wind up being Too Awesome To Use, meaning they'll just collect dust in your inventory or storage. We want to avoid that, too, and give people some kind of chance at getting more beyond the guaranteed drops won't wind up with people dying because they didn't want to let go of their last Wyldsap or Kaelirra's Tears.
What I also want to do, if possible, is to have Kohaku buy metal scrap/ingots/whatnot at pretty damn high prices, knowing she can flip it to the Old Country for neat profit even with what she's willing to pay you for it. Armour scraps should be an obvious candidate, but we'll see if any other items fit the bill later on. It would be nice if you could somehow upgrade her storehouse the more metal -- and therefore prestige -- you're able to shove across the counter to her, but I'm still thinking of how that could work.
I'm hoping that these efforts will at least encourage people to pop into kitsune land and check out the storehouse on a regular basis, and while on the way maybe check in with some of the locals. Services provided should be relevant over the entirety of the game.
Kohaku Kobayashi, by Rattlepool
(Of course, warning that all this content is speculative, etc, etc)
When I was looking through the planning document for Fluff Haus, it soon became clear that I'd left a big blank where a vendor was supposed to go. Of course I'd need a vendor in order to dispense with all the lovely weeb-themed loot that would go with the kitsune den, but I hadn't really thought up someone to fill the job.
Enter Kohaku.
Given all the personalities we had lined up so far, there wasn't really anyone who was energetic, chipper and optimistic in general. Yuzu might have made it work, but Yuzu's more or less a peripheral character, and besides, she already had a job to boot. A merchant would need to be friendly and polite, while still remaining worldly enough to justify being in business -- aware of the realities of the world, yet not being crushed by them. For some reason, one of the pictures Drake shared with everyone in Discord stuck with me, and I really liked the character design enough to base it on that.
The Mechanics
One of the primary issues which affected vendors was that you really had no reason to return to them. This goes double for vendors who sold equipment -- you'd go in once, check out their wares, maybe buy what you want and never head back again. You might visit a vendor a couple more times if they had a consumable you wanted, but generally you'd never see them again.
Kind of a waste. I want to avoid that.
The consolidation of consumables helps with that -- there's a "standard" set of consumables that were added a couple patches ago, and those are supposed to cover most bases that people will actually need. What I want to do, though, is to have a reason for people to step in and visit Kohaku regularly -- not necessarily every day, but I'd be flattered if it were that often. I want people to be excited to open up her shop menu, and visit over the course of the entire game.
Hence, Kohaku will sell her stock at 75% of its base price. She'll also be able to sell items that normally wouldn't be purchasable, such as winterstem (although Mai would probably strangle her if she found out). What's the catch? Her store inventory is random. Every day, a number of items will be pulled from a couple pools, and what's on sale for the day is populated; it's supposed to reflect the shifting state of things in the kitsune den's storehouse and what's considered surplus for the day. Her stock will refresh the next day, and the list re-rolled.
What I want to do is create the incentive for the player to drop in on a regular basis, to be able to find the thrill of discovering a good deal for the day, the impulse to get as much as possible while it's in stock, not knowing when it'll be around again.
This is made doubly so by the fact that Kohaku will have random special deals in which you'll be able to buy 1 of when they happen, and you have to make the decision on the spot. Powerful weeb-themed equipment is on the table, but most importantly, you'll be able to buy extras of the powerful, limited consumables in these deals. Part of the problem with rare consumables like these is that they can wind up being Too Awesome To Use, meaning they'll just collect dust in your inventory or storage. We want to avoid that, too, and give people some kind of chance at getting more beyond the guaranteed drops won't wind up with people dying because they didn't want to let go of their last Wyldsap or Kaelirra's Tears.
What I also want to do, if possible, is to have Kohaku buy metal scrap/ingots/whatnot at pretty damn high prices, knowing she can flip it to the Old Country for neat profit even with what she's willing to pay you for it. Armour scraps should be an obvious candidate, but we'll see if any other items fit the bill later on. It would be nice if you could somehow upgrade her storehouse the more metal -- and therefore prestige -- you're able to shove across the counter to her, but I'm still thinking of how that could work.
I'm hoping that these efforts will at least encourage people to pop into kitsune land and check out the storehouse on a regular basis, and while on the way maybe check in with some of the locals. Services provided should be relevant over the entirety of the game.
Hmm.
Considering how the metal trade would be very important to the Empire, potentially people close to the Imperial Court could have greater interest in Kohaku's shop and its well-being? It could manifest in many ways, like noticing some small aesthetic changes throughout the den, some (background) people passing through the Torii, while the chances of some rare loot popping up increase or consumables being available in double the amount (unless the reputation building would be too problematic to implement)? Or a discount on services of other people, given that the trade benefits the whole den.
Potentially gifting the player an item to be moved back to the Torii (though that probably would break many situations) or make contact with her to make some quick transaction on the spot if player filled their inventory with junk - essentially a way to improve the yield from a valuable customer - but no selling of her wares, else it would limit one of the reasons to visit the den.
Potentially gifting the player an item to be moved back to the Torii (though that probably would break many situations) or make contact with her to make some quick transaction on the spot if player filled their inventory with junk - essentially a way to improve the yield from a valuable customer - but no selling of her wares, else it would limit one of the reasons to visit the den.
Characters: Kohaku Kobayashi (小林 琥珀), part 2.
ちゃんと商品見てます?
(Yes, she has four toes on each foot. I'll probably have her bust redone before release.)
The Character
One of the things I've wanted to do with the kitsune is to examine how expatriate communities react to host cultures, and vice versa. Sometimes they integrate. More often than not, they don't; tensions that develop can easily last generations. Sometimes diaspora communities evolve that make the fact that they're outsiders part of their core identity. Others, not so much. There're English enclaves in Italy that speak absolutely no Italian whatsoever, villages that consider the people from the next village over as outsiders, so on and so forth; even in Japan which is considered one of the most homogeneous nations around, the descendants of Korean immigrants are often a sore point in local culture and politics.
When I took over the kitsune all that time back, that was one of the biggest issues in mind: on one hand, I'm trying to create a weebfest culture. On the other, the larger backdrop is Fantasy Scandinavia, all vikings and valkyries. The culture shock is obviously palpable, and a bunch of justifications had to be drafted in order to answer the basic questions of 1) why are there foxen so far from home, 2) why are they still here and 3) how have they retained much of their distinct cultural identity after five generations instead of blending into the general population, especially when other races seem to do it quite fine?
Happily, history provided a good number of excuses -- I mean, examples to draw from. I'm pretty satisfied with the situation I've set up, and I hope you will be too.
First-generation immigrants are usually fine and grounded where they stand. Later generations can face... various problems. The basic identity issue of being born into a land which considers you as an interloper, yet the land of your ancestors may very well also regard you as not being one of their own. Being required to understand and conform to both the cultural expectations of your parents and wider society at large, which may be very different and even in opposition to each other. Being expected to have connections to a land you've never seen or set foot upon, one which has no reality for you. The list goes on.
Kohaku doesn't know about all that, she just wants to gossip all day and eat taiyaki.
I've personally envisioned the kitsune den as functioning like a kibbutz; people have high enough trust and know each other well enough to identify and deal with slackers in a small community like that. The community spirit of the Japanese people is legendary throughout the world, and this goes double when you're all soul-sucking vampires who would be hunted on sight and massively outnumbered by the natives; you stick together or die. The only people in the den who really handle money are those who have reason to occasionally visit the Old Country, or conduct trade with the natives -- the only ones falling into that latter category being Kohaku and her crew. Her official job responsibility is to manage the storehouse, of which dealing with surplus and sourcing local goods is a part; she will tell you in no uncertain terms she is not a a disgusting, low-status merchant just barely above crooks and outlaws.
So it falls to Kohaku go take her retinue of bodyguards, load up the cart and packs, and venture out into the wider world where other kitsune are content staying home. To dress in a style like the natives do, to disguise herself to look like them, to mimic their ways of speaking and habits. To wear a false face and look like a petite catfolk, to listen to people pour their lives out in front of her; she likes to talk to all kinds of people, and boy, is she good at it. While the warpstones can expedite travel between one location and another, business takes time... and all the while, knowing that if those smiling faces were to ever perceive what was under the glamour, they would likely turn on her in a heartbeat.
Kohaku represents the second-generation immigrant who tries to fit in, who does her best to adopt the practices and mores of the host culture to the point of drawing ire from her own kin; even so, it's not enough, it will never be enough, for the fact that she is a soul-sucking vampiric monster who needs to prey on others to live.
It's a disquieting state of affairs under that cheerful exterior, and would probably bother her more if she actually stopped to think about it.
ちゃんと商品見てます?
(Yes, she has four toes on each foot. I'll probably have her bust redone before release.)
The Character
One of the things I've wanted to do with the kitsune is to examine how expatriate communities react to host cultures, and vice versa. Sometimes they integrate. More often than not, they don't; tensions that develop can easily last generations. Sometimes diaspora communities evolve that make the fact that they're outsiders part of their core identity. Others, not so much. There're English enclaves in Italy that speak absolutely no Italian whatsoever, villages that consider the people from the next village over as outsiders, so on and so forth; even in Japan which is considered one of the most homogeneous nations around, the descendants of Korean immigrants are often a sore point in local culture and politics.
When I took over the kitsune all that time back, that was one of the biggest issues in mind: on one hand, I'm trying to create a weebfest culture. On the other, the larger backdrop is Fantasy Scandinavia, all vikings and valkyries. The culture shock is obviously palpable, and a bunch of justifications had to be drafted in order to answer the basic questions of 1) why are there foxen so far from home, 2) why are they still here and 3) how have they retained much of their distinct cultural identity after five generations instead of blending into the general population, especially when other races seem to do it quite fine?
Happily, history provided a good number of excuses -- I mean, examples to draw from. I'm pretty satisfied with the situation I've set up, and I hope you will be too.
First-generation immigrants are usually fine and grounded where they stand. Later generations can face... various problems. The basic identity issue of being born into a land which considers you as an interloper, yet the land of your ancestors may very well also regard you as not being one of their own. Being required to understand and conform to both the cultural expectations of your parents and wider society at large, which may be very different and even in opposition to each other. Being expected to have connections to a land you've never seen or set foot upon, one which has no reality for you. The list goes on.
Kohaku doesn't know about all that, she just wants to gossip all day and eat taiyaki.
I've personally envisioned the kitsune den as functioning like a kibbutz; people have high enough trust and know each other well enough to identify and deal with slackers in a small community like that. The community spirit of the Japanese people is legendary throughout the world, and this goes double when you're all soul-sucking vampires who would be hunted on sight and massively outnumbered by the natives; you stick together or die. The only people in the den who really handle money are those who have reason to occasionally visit the Old Country, or conduct trade with the natives -- the only ones falling into that latter category being Kohaku and her crew. Her official job responsibility is to manage the storehouse, of which dealing with surplus and sourcing local goods is a part; she will tell you in no uncertain terms she is not a a disgusting, low-status merchant just barely above crooks and outlaws.
So it falls to Kohaku go take her retinue of bodyguards, load up the cart and packs, and venture out into the wider world where other kitsune are content staying home. To dress in a style like the natives do, to disguise herself to look like them, to mimic their ways of speaking and habits. To wear a false face and look like a petite catfolk, to listen to people pour their lives out in front of her; she likes to talk to all kinds of people, and boy, is she good at it. While the warpstones can expedite travel between one location and another, business takes time... and all the while, knowing that if those smiling faces were to ever perceive what was under the glamour, they would likely turn on her in a heartbeat.
Kohaku represents the second-generation immigrant who tries to fit in, who does her best to adopt the practices and mores of the host culture to the point of drawing ire from her own kin; even so, it's not enough, it will never be enough, for the fact that she is a soul-sucking vampiric monster who needs to prey on others to live.
It's a disquieting state of affairs under that cheerful exterior, and would probably bother her more if she actually stopped to think about it.
Characters -- Kinu, part 1: Please take good care of her
A man dies — one of those mundane yet unfortunate deaths, like a mine cave-in or an accident with the plow — and finds himself in a dense forest aflower with fine cherry blossoms. Sunlight filters down through the canopy, but there are no shadows; the trees are thick enough to be impassable, but floating blue flames hanging in the air mark out a path. Seeing little choice, the man follows the dancing flames and happens upon a glade in the forest.
From the other side of the clearing, he sees someone approaching. It is the trickster god Keros, immediately apparent by his vulpine nature, nine tails, and the bow slung over his shoulder. As the Trickster comes closer, it becomes apparent he is heading for a chair and table which had not been noticed before, but seem to have always been there, as objects are in dreams. The deity sits and takes out a large scroll from under the table, unfurling it and poring over its contents.
"Ah, yes, you have lived a middling life, I see. Not good, not bad, but more on the side of good with a heavy dose of self-centeredness than anything else," he says. "That is about average; to be honest, I'm not sure why you're falling under my jurisdiction, but things are what they are. You were of reasonable intelligence, so you and your ancestors did something right in previous incarnations. This means I can offer you a choice."
The Trickster claps his hands, and two shoji screen doors appear in the air. Rolling up the scroll, Keros steps between the two of them, and gives the man a deep, respectful bow.
"Allow us to begin with the first door. Behind this door lies an easy existence; your job will be to raise butterflies. You will have a large greenhouse, and each day you must collect leaves with eggs on them before placing them in incubation trays. Then, when they hatch into caterpillars, you must feed them leaves that you grow. When each caterpillar forms a chrysalis, you must relocate it to the hatching chamber and wait for the metamorphosis to be complete, then release the butterfly after its wings dry.
"You will live in a grand, luxurious mansion. Your job will take about three hours a day. You will dine at a fine restaurant for two meals, plus takeaway for lunch. But, the butterflies you release will fly upward out of the greenhouse and into infinite empty space where they will be destroyed. You will watch the results of your labour vanish into meaningless nothingness before your eyes, every day.
"Now, for the second door. You will live in a small stone hut on a medium-sized island with rocky soil. Here, you will labour in clearing the land and planting it with the only crop that grows on this island, cabbage. You will survive on cabbage and the meat of an occasional goat, if you can bring down one of the wild ones that range the island. It is a hard and grueling life.
"On this island are deer who love cabbage. They will not take it of their own accord, but whatever you bring to them, they will eat. You will not be allowed to eat them, either. But you will be able to observe them and the effects of your care upon them."
The man becomes aware of a sensation that through its contrast to what he had been experiencing, reveals the shift in sensations that has occurred after death. He has not felt alive, but upon this decision, he feels more like he did when he was alive: a kind of trepidation mixed with hope, a sensitivity like cold air across his skin coupled with the loveliest, most carefree night. And yet, this choice is hard. The answer is obvious, and at the same time, it is not. He likes fine restaurants and large houses. The void, however, that is the thing. He thinks hard and gets nowhere.
As he gives up on the decision and on himself for being too useless to make the choice, a memory comes back to him. His first daughter, with her first doll, which some years later had become ripped. He had taken it and re-stuffed it carefully, then mended the rents with rough twine he kept in the storehouse out back. Then he gave it back to her, not having told her what he was going to do, and observed to his surprise a look of ineffable joy on her face.
Keros is watching him. "I see that your decision is made," he says, giving the man another bow. "So it must be. Good luck, and perhaps I will see you again soon."
***
***
When I was first concepting Kinu roughly two or three years ago, I didn't really know what I wanted to do with her. I had the vague idea of tweaking the noses of all those who would inevitably want to do the whole incest thing, plus I wanted to follow in the general direction Helspawn had originally taken and surpass her in most, if not all, aspects. She's obviously grown a lot since then and into her own thing, but that was what I had at the point.
Back then, too, I was writing up what would eventually become Gwyn and the nursery, and the boss-man and I were having a conversation about what role the Champion's children would play. In TiTs, what you more or less get is getting droned back to the nursery, followed by some interactions depending on writer support. The boss said something back then that stuck with me -- that while the player character's children are kind of on the side in the predecessor game, here there's more of a meaning to the nursery. He said something along the lines of "if you have kids, you need to go out and fight for them, because if Kas screws over the world there won't be a future for them". Sure, that's all good and well, but you don't really get that feeling if they're just numbers on a screen; there's got to be interaction, there's got to be emotion and meaning.
So fine. I had a companion who had a breeding fetish; time to make one of the children stand out by making her into an actual character.
I'm not going to say it wasn't tricky; putting a child into what's at its heart a smut game is always going to be iffy. Looking back at characters like Aurora, it's very easy to stumble in upon unfortunate implications. Still, with the way things were handled, I think this came out excellently -- your daughter has a nice safe place in which to spend her childhood away from the horrors that are happening in the outside world, plenty of fresh air, and (I hope you made) a big family for her to interact with. With the exception of her mother, who is careful enough to make sure the children are absent before getting up to any hanky-panky, there's absolutely nothing that might result in unfortunate implications in the Astral Plane.
With that problem solved, it was time to set about endearing the fluffball to the players. There are a bunch of ways I got around to doing that, but the most important one is investment in the character -- the player should put love and care into said character and then be allowed to observe how said care (or not) changes the character in meaningful ways. These changes should be spread out over the long-term, hopefully gradual, and with a curve to get people to understand the mechanics but also require heavy investment in the later stages.
Since the current bevy of content is somewhat cut off at the knees with me awaiting the Frostwood, Kiyoko actually illustrates this loop better: the player is encouraged to invest in her by giving her kits. The number of kits per stage doubles each time. Her appearance changes (I have DCL to thank for his insane insistence on drawing all 24 busts for her), her talk topics and sex scenes change, more events become available, her disposition improves, etc, etc, etc.
In the same way, when I'm able to finally get to Kinu's adult content, you'll be able to see the final fruits of your decisions in raising her -- how often you talked to her, the gifts you gave, the choices you had her make. The payoff of the investment must be impactful; you guys as the players need to feel like your choices made a difference in preparing her for the content to come.
Back in the day, I really loved Harvest Moon, and A(nother) Wonderful Life was one of my best-loved titles despite all its other gameplay flaws. The story revolved around your child, who despite having certain genetic inclinations depending on who your spouse was, nevertheless was influenced by everything you did around him/her. Just talking, to giving gifts, to showing him/her things and taking him/her places, so on and so forth bumped them just a little towards this ending or that. Long before the game ended, though, you could see the changes in their attitude, hobbies, speech, etc, and get the feedback your kid was giving you through every step of their lives.
I'd have loved to recreate such an experience with Kinu, but juggling all those outcomes and variables would have been hell for me, and I'm not THAT good. As far as my skills and organisation in wrangling game states allow, I can only really provide a watered-down version of that experience, and even so, feedback so far has been encouraging in that even this shadow of a raising sim is producing the desired effects in most people who engage with the content. People have told me that they want to make the world safer for mother and daughter alike, which is all the encouragement I need.
I really want to continue Kinu's storyline; it's one of the top priorities I have once the underlying foundations are in place for it to go ahead. I want to have all of those seemingly innocuous decisions and choices in bringing out different facets of the same person come to the fore and be able to bring all those to fruition. The story is far from over.
From the other side of the clearing, he sees someone approaching. It is the trickster god Keros, immediately apparent by his vulpine nature, nine tails, and the bow slung over his shoulder. As the Trickster comes closer, it becomes apparent he is heading for a chair and table which had not been noticed before, but seem to have always been there, as objects are in dreams. The deity sits and takes out a large scroll from under the table, unfurling it and poring over its contents.
"Ah, yes, you have lived a middling life, I see. Not good, not bad, but more on the side of good with a heavy dose of self-centeredness than anything else," he says. "That is about average; to be honest, I'm not sure why you're falling under my jurisdiction, but things are what they are. You were of reasonable intelligence, so you and your ancestors did something right in previous incarnations. This means I can offer you a choice."
The Trickster claps his hands, and two shoji screen doors appear in the air. Rolling up the scroll, Keros steps between the two of them, and gives the man a deep, respectful bow.
"Allow us to begin with the first door. Behind this door lies an easy existence; your job will be to raise butterflies. You will have a large greenhouse, and each day you must collect leaves with eggs on them before placing them in incubation trays. Then, when they hatch into caterpillars, you must feed them leaves that you grow. When each caterpillar forms a chrysalis, you must relocate it to the hatching chamber and wait for the metamorphosis to be complete, then release the butterfly after its wings dry.
"You will live in a grand, luxurious mansion. Your job will take about three hours a day. You will dine at a fine restaurant for two meals, plus takeaway for lunch. But, the butterflies you release will fly upward out of the greenhouse and into infinite empty space where they will be destroyed. You will watch the results of your labour vanish into meaningless nothingness before your eyes, every day.
"Now, for the second door. You will live in a small stone hut on a medium-sized island with rocky soil. Here, you will labour in clearing the land and planting it with the only crop that grows on this island, cabbage. You will survive on cabbage and the meat of an occasional goat, if you can bring down one of the wild ones that range the island. It is a hard and grueling life.
"On this island are deer who love cabbage. They will not take it of their own accord, but whatever you bring to them, they will eat. You will not be allowed to eat them, either. But you will be able to observe them and the effects of your care upon them."
The man becomes aware of a sensation that through its contrast to what he had been experiencing, reveals the shift in sensations that has occurred after death. He has not felt alive, but upon this decision, he feels more like he did when he was alive: a kind of trepidation mixed with hope, a sensitivity like cold air across his skin coupled with the loveliest, most carefree night. And yet, this choice is hard. The answer is obvious, and at the same time, it is not. He likes fine restaurants and large houses. The void, however, that is the thing. He thinks hard and gets nowhere.
As he gives up on the decision and on himself for being too useless to make the choice, a memory comes back to him. His first daughter, with her first doll, which some years later had become ripped. He had taken it and re-stuffed it carefully, then mended the rents with rough twine he kept in the storehouse out back. Then he gave it back to her, not having told her what he was going to do, and observed to his surprise a look of ineffable joy on her face.
Keros is watching him. "I see that your decision is made," he says, giving the man another bow. "So it must be. Good luck, and perhaps I will see you again soon."
***
***
When I was first concepting Kinu roughly two or three years ago, I didn't really know what I wanted to do with her. I had the vague idea of tweaking the noses of all those who would inevitably want to do the whole incest thing, plus I wanted to follow in the general direction Helspawn had originally taken and surpass her in most, if not all, aspects. She's obviously grown a lot since then and into her own thing, but that was what I had at the point.
Back then, too, I was writing up what would eventually become Gwyn and the nursery, and the boss-man and I were having a conversation about what role the Champion's children would play. In TiTs, what you more or less get is getting droned back to the nursery, followed by some interactions depending on writer support. The boss said something back then that stuck with me -- that while the player character's children are kind of on the side in the predecessor game, here there's more of a meaning to the nursery. He said something along the lines of "if you have kids, you need to go out and fight for them, because if Kas screws over the world there won't be a future for them". Sure, that's all good and well, but you don't really get that feeling if they're just numbers on a screen; there's got to be interaction, there's got to be emotion and meaning.
So fine. I had a companion who had a breeding fetish; time to make one of the children stand out by making her into an actual character.
I'm not going to say it wasn't tricky; putting a child into what's at its heart a smut game is always going to be iffy. Looking back at characters like Aurora, it's very easy to stumble in upon unfortunate implications. Still, with the way things were handled, I think this came out excellently -- your daughter has a nice safe place in which to spend her childhood away from the horrors that are happening in the outside world, plenty of fresh air, and (I hope you made) a big family for her to interact with. With the exception of her mother, who is careful enough to make sure the children are absent before getting up to any hanky-panky, there's absolutely nothing that might result in unfortunate implications in the Astral Plane.
With that problem solved, it was time to set about endearing the fluffball to the players. There are a bunch of ways I got around to doing that, but the most important one is investment in the character -- the player should put love and care into said character and then be allowed to observe how said care (or not) changes the character in meaningful ways. These changes should be spread out over the long-term, hopefully gradual, and with a curve to get people to understand the mechanics but also require heavy investment in the later stages.
Since the current bevy of content is somewhat cut off at the knees with me awaiting the Frostwood, Kiyoko actually illustrates this loop better: the player is encouraged to invest in her by giving her kits. The number of kits per stage doubles each time. Her appearance changes (I have DCL to thank for his insane insistence on drawing all 24 busts for her), her talk topics and sex scenes change, more events become available, her disposition improves, etc, etc, etc.
In the same way, when I'm able to finally get to Kinu's adult content, you'll be able to see the final fruits of your decisions in raising her -- how often you talked to her, the gifts you gave, the choices you had her make. The payoff of the investment must be impactful; you guys as the players need to feel like your choices made a difference in preparing her for the content to come.
Back in the day, I really loved Harvest Moon, and A(nother) Wonderful Life was one of my best-loved titles despite all its other gameplay flaws. The story revolved around your child, who despite having certain genetic inclinations depending on who your spouse was, nevertheless was influenced by everything you did around him/her. Just talking, to giving gifts, to showing him/her things and taking him/her places, so on and so forth bumped them just a little towards this ending or that. Long before the game ended, though, you could see the changes in their attitude, hobbies, speech, etc, and get the feedback your kid was giving you through every step of their lives.
I'd have loved to recreate such an experience with Kinu, but juggling all those outcomes and variables would have been hell for me, and I'm not THAT good. As far as my skills and organisation in wrangling game states allow, I can only really provide a watered-down version of that experience, and even so, feedback so far has been encouraging in that even this shadow of a raising sim is producing the desired effects in most people who engage with the content. People have told me that they want to make the world safer for mother and daughter alike, which is all the encouragement I need.
I really want to continue Kinu's storyline; it's one of the top priorities I have once the underlying foundations are in place for it to go ahead. I want to have all of those seemingly innocuous decisions and choices in bringing out different facets of the same person come to the fore and be able to bring all those to fruition. The story is far from over.
Characters -- Kinu, part 2: The Illusion of Choice
Kinu was built off the general frame of Helspawn, and one of the main draws of the character were events in which you could influence Helspawn to do one thing or the other. There were three events in total, and whichever came out ahead determined Helspawn's personality going forward. They were cute, but ultimately had a number of issues I tried to learn from and improve upon going forward.
Another interesting thing that happened during my time writing for FoE was when LukaDoc and QuietBrowser were writing for the the burrows. After Lagon's defeat, the player discusses with Vena what should be done with her ex-husband; multiple choices were presented, but Vena shoots them down one by one until you pick the "right" choice. While I understood that LD and QB were trying to explore and explain through the narrative why certain things couldn't be done, especially with the prevalence of murderboners about, players were still unhappy with the illusion of choice presented to them and stated that they would rather have had no choice instead of fake choices. As LD remarked later on, "fine, if they want meaningful choices, I'll make every other one a bad end."
Events provide the biggest modifiers to Kinu's personality score, and are the only means which are truly uncapped in their ability to affect her (being one-time and all). Looking back at the way things were handled, I wanted to do things better moving forward. What did this mean?
Both outcomes must be presented as valid choices.
Perhaps the most pressing thing in reviewing previous content was that choices tended to be obvious in their effects and simplistic. When looking at previous choices made by writers in similar content in TiTs and CoC1, what I wanted to do was avoid obvious "this is corrupt" and "this is good" options in Kinu's content. Value decisions between "eat babies" and "pet kittens" are not interesting to me; it's even less interesting when they're clearly labelled "paragon" and "renegade". One of the game series which tried to provide actual meaningful decisions was Ultima in its character generation process, which perhaps stood out to me most in that the moral dilemmas presented at least tried to present things as a choice between two virtues, instead of a virtue and a vice. Now, it wasn't always successful, especially given the prevailing attitudes that've changed since the 80's and 90's, as well as different weightings upon virtues by different cultures, but at least it made a serious attempt to have you figure out what you as a player cared for most in your avatar.
More neutral choices.
This is NOT a meaningful choice to most western audiences; the values of modern western society that pertain to this question are informed from a general cultural consensus of resisting authority which is seen as illegitimate. It might be more meaningful to, say, a Japanese player, though, although still less than it would have been to the same player had it been a few centuries ago. Cultural imperialism, friends!
It's important to remember that despite being rather unfortunately named, both versions of Kinu are ultimately the same person, just expressed differently. Her sex drive isn't going to crater just because she's a young inari, nor it she going to want to hump everything that moves if you make her an elegant slut. The outcomes aren't meant to be "good" or "bad", a "success" or "failure", she's just who she eventually becomes and there are both strengths and weaknesses to be had to each outcome.
Now, I personally see young inari Kinu as having more interesting conflicts with the world around her which would make for a more enthralling story, which is why she's canon. But that's not to say that elegant slut Kinu is somehow lesser, or will have less time devoted to her development when I eventually get around to writing it.
And this is the first, but most important step: making the choices essentially neutral. Once you strip the labels from the outcomes, the players can't really see (or at least, without checking the wiki and all) what each choice is supposed to correspond to. Hence, it helps to make the choice made more a reflection of what you really want to have her do based on your own beliefs instead of just gaming the system.
I'll continue more on this later on, but this is really what most of it flows out from: the rest like non-binary decisions, granularity in choices, having different aspects of a character that can be used to base a choice upon -- all of those rely on making the actual selections all morally palatable to the point where they could conceivably be a reasonable pick.
Another interesting thing that happened during my time writing for FoE was when LukaDoc and QuietBrowser were writing for the the burrows. After Lagon's defeat, the player discusses with Vena what should be done with her ex-husband; multiple choices were presented, but Vena shoots them down one by one until you pick the "right" choice. While I understood that LD and QB were trying to explore and explain through the narrative why certain things couldn't be done, especially with the prevalence of murderboners about, players were still unhappy with the illusion of choice presented to them and stated that they would rather have had no choice instead of fake choices. As LD remarked later on, "fine, if they want meaningful choices, I'll make every other one a bad end."
Events provide the biggest modifiers to Kinu's personality score, and are the only means which are truly uncapped in their ability to affect her (being one-time and all). Looking back at the way things were handled, I wanted to do things better moving forward. What did this mean?
Both outcomes must be presented as valid choices.
Perhaps the most pressing thing in reviewing previous content was that choices tended to be obvious in their effects and simplistic. When looking at previous choices made by writers in similar content in TiTs and CoC1, what I wanted to do was avoid obvious "this is corrupt" and "this is good" options in Kinu's content. Value decisions between "eat babies" and "pet kittens" are not interesting to me; it's even less interesting when they're clearly labelled "paragon" and "renegade". One of the game series which tried to provide actual meaningful decisions was Ultima in its character generation process, which perhaps stood out to me most in that the moral dilemmas presented at least tried to present things as a choice between two virtues, instead of a virtue and a vice. Now, it wasn't always successful, especially given the prevailing attitudes that've changed since the 80's and 90's, as well as different weightings upon virtues by different cultures, but at least it made a serious attempt to have you figure out what you as a player cared for most in your avatar.
More neutral choices.
This is NOT a meaningful choice to most western audiences; the values of modern western society that pertain to this question are informed from a general cultural consensus of resisting authority which is seen as illegitimate. It might be more meaningful to, say, a Japanese player, though, although still less than it would have been to the same player had it been a few centuries ago. Cultural imperialism, friends!
It's important to remember that despite being rather unfortunately named, both versions of Kinu are ultimately the same person, just expressed differently. Her sex drive isn't going to crater just because she's a young inari, nor it she going to want to hump everything that moves if you make her an elegant slut. The outcomes aren't meant to be "good" or "bad", a "success" or "failure", she's just who she eventually becomes and there are both strengths and weaknesses to be had to each outcome.
Now, I personally see young inari Kinu as having more interesting conflicts with the world around her which would make for a more enthralling story, which is why she's canon. But that's not to say that elegant slut Kinu is somehow lesser, or will have less time devoted to her development when I eventually get around to writing it.
And this is the first, but most important step: making the choices essentially neutral. Once you strip the labels from the outcomes, the players can't really see (or at least, without checking the wiki and all) what each choice is supposed to correspond to. Hence, it helps to make the choice made more a reflection of what you really want to have her do based on your own beliefs instead of just gaming the system.
I'll continue more on this later on, but this is really what most of it flows out from: the rest like non-binary decisions, granularity in choices, having different aspects of a character that can be used to base a choice upon -- all of those rely on making the actual selections all morally palatable to the point where they could conceivably be a reasonable pick.
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Can i just say i love how often you talk about your mindset when creating content? The insight we get can really change our perspective on the character, on top of being informative about what we can expect, and is honestly my favorite part about being in a game in early stages. You're awesome, Mr. Observer
I was recently remembered about the patreon ban on incest content. Has that changed the plans for Kinu in any way? Incest is pretty high on my fetish list (pls no kink shame)
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Dark question. Will hostile Npc's be able to knock up Kiyoko?
Sorry for the way off name....
Sorry for the way off name....
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July Report:
July has been a productive month, with a rough average of 3000 words/day for the entirety of the month. With Savin starting on the content that gates Frostwood very shortly (after he finishes up this next scene, actually) and allows you to unlock fast travel, there's a lot that's going to be happening. We already have four encounters ready-made for the Frostwood, two of which I am responsible for -- tanuki monster-girl witches who are Lady Evergreen's daughters, and a generic kitsune encounter, the latter of which stretches roughly 65,000 words, is comprised of five different mobs, and has several variants on how they treat you depending if you are a kitsune yourself, or have fox-wife in your party. I've tried to stick to the flavour of the original kitsune encounter in CoC as much as possible; between the enchantress, trickster, spellblade, protector and geomancer, they have a total of 21 scenes between them, some of which are actually multiple scenes packed into one.
The tanuki-girl witches will have a focus on cock/ball theft, being able to adjust your cock/ball size upwards or downwards depending on whether you win or lose to them; lose enough times and you might end up get robbed blind. If you don't want to play their games and just want to fuck them silly, you can always opt out of the cock/ball theft the first time you meet them.
From here on out, I'll be going through two things: firstly, the cloister for the chapel of Velun. Everything's done except for one more scene I need to write for Master Tollus' bad end, but I don't know when implementation will occur; it hasn't been that long since we last got a major dungeon. When this is completed, though, you'll be able to burn through corruption at-will at a material cost, as well as see Shar come into town every so often.
The other promise I need to work on is an orc blacksmith to replace Pavo since he got his ass kicked back into the slave pens for either betraying the Kervus or failing to stop you. Drake wanted a stronk big tiddy waifu, and I promised him one, so I've got to make good on that promise. Plenty of content has already been written, but I need to write the sex stuff, which I admittedly have been quite tardy on of late.
Once those promises are through, though, I'll be able to work on the foxen full-time. While William and Bubblelord have their own foxen they're working on, there are several things I need to settle just to get the ball rolling:
Nevertheless, I have everything planned, and there is so much more to be had. Kinu will be getting her own storyline where you will get the chance to play as your daughter in a controlled fashion and the choices you made in raising her make their impact known. I'm thinking of bringing back a spiritual successor to Raphael as an antagonist.
July has been a productive month, with a rough average of 3000 words/day for the entirety of the month. With Savin starting on the content that gates Frostwood very shortly (after he finishes up this next scene, actually) and allows you to unlock fast travel, there's a lot that's going to be happening. We already have four encounters ready-made for the Frostwood, two of which I am responsible for -- tanuki monster-girl witches who are Lady Evergreen's daughters, and a generic kitsune encounter, the latter of which stretches roughly 65,000 words, is comprised of five different mobs, and has several variants on how they treat you depending if you are a kitsune yourself, or have fox-wife in your party. I've tried to stick to the flavour of the original kitsune encounter in CoC as much as possible; between the enchantress, trickster, spellblade, protector and geomancer, they have a total of 21 scenes between them, some of which are actually multiple scenes packed into one.
The tanuki-girl witches will have a focus on cock/ball theft, being able to adjust your cock/ball size upwards or downwards depending on whether you win or lose to them; lose enough times and you might end up get robbed blind. If you don't want to play their games and just want to fuck them silly, you can always opt out of the cock/ball theft the first time you meet them.
From here on out, I'll be going through two things: firstly, the cloister for the chapel of Velun. Everything's done except for one more scene I need to write for Master Tollus' bad end, but I don't know when implementation will occur; it hasn't been that long since we last got a major dungeon. When this is completed, though, you'll be able to burn through corruption at-will at a material cost, as well as see Shar come into town every so often.
The other promise I need to work on is an orc blacksmith to replace Pavo since he got his ass kicked back into the slave pens for either betraying the Kervus or failing to stop you. Drake wanted a stronk big tiddy waifu, and I promised him one, so I've got to make good on that promise. Plenty of content has already been written, but I need to write the sex stuff, which I admittedly have been quite tardy on of late.
Once those promises are through, though, I'll be able to work on the foxen full-time. While William and Bubblelord have their own foxen they're working on, there are several things I need to settle just to get the ball rolling:
- Retool the fluff haus dungeon now that Taoth's route has been cut from the game.
- Design some maps for friendly fluff haus and Kiyoko's old home.
- Retool all of Kiyoko's content to work outside of the Astral Plane. This mostly involves changing the intro and outros, but I'm sure there are details that need to be worked out.
- Write the actual content for finally getting fox-wife her body back. This is likely, but not guaranteed, to involve a literal 狐の嫁入り later on if you so choose. When you finally free Kiyoko, she and Kinu will give you a senninbari which will be an endgame-level item.
- Writing some base content for adult Kinu.
Nevertheless, I have everything planned, and there is so much more to be had. Kinu will be getting her own storyline where you will get the chance to play as your daughter in a controlled fashion and the choices you made in raising her make their impact known. I'm thinking of bringing back a spiritual successor to Raphael as an antagonist.
William has graciously given me permission to share his art in order to drum up hype for the upcoming zone.
Wonder how many years I'd end up burning through, having my champion work her way through the Floofs...
... Is that Sachiko the fluffy ninja's reincarnation? Unexpected, but very much approved. Can't say enough though - the effort you put to flesh out everything from setting the culture and way of life to characters and their interactions makes for a very pleasant time reading it. If there will be any other gods trying to make player their champion, they'll have a very tough time convincing me.
Her working internal name is not-Sachi.
We believe that URWSachi is aware of this through a mutual friend.
Characters: Nakano Kurokawa (黒川 中野)
Sorry, I don't have a bust for him up right now. Moira's laptop broke and is away right now. We'll have one up when I can once again throw money at her.
***
"It's th' Zen thing, I'm tellin' ya," Miko complains to you when you bring up the matter of her cousin to her. "He goes with granny to th' Old Country for a small trip when he comes of age an' returns home five years later with a head full of ideas. Big an' grandiose ones. Our smilin' cus done turned into a bushi without a war to fight, an' it's eatin' him up inside."
***
As I've mentioned before, one of the primary themes I've wanted to explore with the foxen is how subsequent generations of immigrants react to the native culture and peoples, and the ways in which they cope with being divided between worlds. Some, like Kohaku, actively try to mimic the locals in order to try and feel accepted. Some, like Hitoshi, simply never give the matter much thought so long as they're left alone to do their own thing. And some, like Nakano, go the other way and identify far more with the homeland of their ancestors than the very place where they were born and raised.
To put it shortly, Nakano is a man who desperately wants and needs to prove himself, yet has little opportunity to actually do so -- up until the events of the game, anyway. He gets sent away to the homeland for five years after coming of age, and comes back with the appointment of Taisa (rough equivalent would be a colonel/captain) at the extremely young age (for a fox, anyway) of twenty.
Except he and everyone knows that it's a sham. Sure, the Western Imperial Colonies needs someone to oversee a so-called garrison, and tradition dictates that said someone must hold the rank of at least Taisa. Nakano knows he didn't earn this, it was thrust upon him because no sensible provincial warrior wants to head to the colonies in peacetime -- so just dump the job on a foreign-born brat and call duty dispensed with. Sure, he could call on every single bushi in the colonies if the need arose -- the number of which he can count on two hands. There's a part of him that resents this obvious slap to the face in his appointment to the role, but to show contentiousness towards his superiors -- especially in the homeland -- goes against so much of what he truly believes in, so that gets externalised towards foreigners instead. He can't fit in with the natives, nor is he really accepted by those he considers to be his own people, a mirror inversion of Kohaku's dilemma.
To say that Nakano is a terribly torn young man is an understatement. To his own shame, he drinks far too much, a habit that is not particularly helped by Takahiro being more than willing to ply him with drink for old times' sake. That, and horrible poetry -- mountains upon mountains of terrible doggerel, with little to no improvement despite trying so hard; his scroll painting is actually much better and would be quite worthy if he didn't insist on adding a few lines to every piece. But he does it anyway because that's something expected of someone of his rank and station -- to excel in culture, art and craft to deepen his soul. The mere thought of just dropping it and concentrating on what he's good at simply doesn't occur to him, it's a mental block. He's desperate to prove himself, he needs to prove himself to show that his appointment isn't a sham, to prove to his family across the ocean that he's no less of a fox for being born on foreign soil, to banish all those ugly self-doubts that keep one awake in the night.
And what better foes to vanquish than an invasion of demons from another world?
The traditional honour/shame dichotomy is given an extra dimension by Nakano's identity complications of being a foreign-born kitsune, making already sticky matters even more complicated. In the midst of reading material in order to try and get a better grip on this particular mindset and make Nakano more authentic, one comes by a lot of things that would be considered utterly alien to modern sensibilities:
For example, the Hakagure:
Also, the Hakagure:
The juxtaposition of this mentality is fascinating; a delightful mix of practical advice on everyday matters combined with the occasional deathseeking madness characteristic of Japan’s warrior class. Creating a character who truly and unironically believes all these things at once is a challenge for someone looking at it from the outside; I know I probably will have to simply things to make them accessible to the target audience or make mistakes of my own, but I try. He's arguably the character I've had most fun planning out and writing so far -- the cognitive dissonance experienced if Kinu becomes a kitsune hime and takes him as a consort, or even worse, you becoming Keros' divine champion, which by all rights means he needs to bow and scrape before you, a foreigner -- it's both thought-provoking and hilarious at the same time.
***
"It's th' Zen thing, I'm tellin' ya," Miko complains to you when you bring up the matter of her cousin to her. "He goes with granny to th' Old Country for a small trip when he comes of age an' returns home five years later with a head full of ideas. Big an' grandiose ones. Our smilin' cus done turned into a bushi without a war to fight, an' it's eatin' him up inside."
***
As I've mentioned before, one of the primary themes I've wanted to explore with the foxen is how subsequent generations of immigrants react to the native culture and peoples, and the ways in which they cope with being divided between worlds. Some, like Kohaku, actively try to mimic the locals in order to try and feel accepted. Some, like Hitoshi, simply never give the matter much thought so long as they're left alone to do their own thing. And some, like Nakano, go the other way and identify far more with the homeland of their ancestors than the very place where they were born and raised.
To put it shortly, Nakano is a man who desperately wants and needs to prove himself, yet has little opportunity to actually do so -- up until the events of the game, anyway. He gets sent away to the homeland for five years after coming of age, and comes back with the appointment of Taisa (rough equivalent would be a colonel/captain) at the extremely young age (for a fox, anyway) of twenty.
Except he and everyone knows that it's a sham. Sure, the Western Imperial Colonies needs someone to oversee a so-called garrison, and tradition dictates that said someone must hold the rank of at least Taisa. Nakano knows he didn't earn this, it was thrust upon him because no sensible provincial warrior wants to head to the colonies in peacetime -- so just dump the job on a foreign-born brat and call duty dispensed with. Sure, he could call on every single bushi in the colonies if the need arose -- the number of which he can count on two hands. There's a part of him that resents this obvious slap to the face in his appointment to the role, but to show contentiousness towards his superiors -- especially in the homeland -- goes against so much of what he truly believes in, so that gets externalised towards foreigners instead. He can't fit in with the natives, nor is he really accepted by those he considers to be his own people, a mirror inversion of Kohaku's dilemma.
To say that Nakano is a terribly torn young man is an understatement. To his own shame, he drinks far too much, a habit that is not particularly helped by Takahiro being more than willing to ply him with drink for old times' sake. That, and horrible poetry -- mountains upon mountains of terrible doggerel, with little to no improvement despite trying so hard; his scroll painting is actually much better and would be quite worthy if he didn't insist on adding a few lines to every piece. But he does it anyway because that's something expected of someone of his rank and station -- to excel in culture, art and craft to deepen his soul. The mere thought of just dropping it and concentrating on what he's good at simply doesn't occur to him, it's a mental block. He's desperate to prove himself, he needs to prove himself to show that his appointment isn't a sham, to prove to his family across the ocean that he's no less of a fox for being born on foreign soil, to banish all those ugly self-doubts that keep one awake in the night.
And what better foes to vanquish than an invasion of demons from another world?
The traditional honour/shame dichotomy is given an extra dimension by Nakano's identity complications of being a foreign-born kitsune, making already sticky matters even more complicated. In the midst of reading material in order to try and get a better grip on this particular mindset and make Nakano more authentic, one comes by a lot of things that would be considered utterly alien to modern sensibilities:
For example, the Hakagure:
Also, the Hakagure:
The juxtaposition of this mentality is fascinating; a delightful mix of practical advice on everyday matters combined with the occasional deathseeking madness characteristic of Japan’s warrior class. Creating a character who truly and unironically believes all these things at once is a challenge for someone looking at it from the outside; I know I probably will have to simply things to make them accessible to the target audience or make mistakes of my own, but I try. He's arguably the character I've had most fun planning out and writing so far -- the cognitive dissonance experienced if Kinu becomes a kitsune hime and takes him as a consort, or even worse, you becoming Keros' divine champion, which by all rights means he needs to bow and scrape before you, a foreigner -- it's both thought-provoking and hilarious at the same time.
It is both nuts and funny how much depth these characters have compared to most AAA games these days.
Cognitive dissonance mixed with culture clash. I like it. Maybe we can give him a younger daughter if Kinu goes the Young Inari route?
Eh. Just thinking a consolation prize sorta thing. Moment of weakness. Kiyoko and I will end up with a lot of kits to marry off, and there might be some trouble finding suitable mates that aren't related to them through my Champion...
Minor update: I've finished Kohaku save for her random gossip, which I'll put off due to requiring input from other authors on their characters; fans of ears and asses will probably enjoy her scenes. That's one character's basic functionality down, with about 5 or so more to go. Meanwhile, I'm still working on that promise I have to fulfil -- that and starting work on Miko and Mai. you know things are good when each of your approach variants is two pages long.
"Whatever d'ya mean, gaijin-san? O' course this here is part an' parcel o' harai. Now lemme tie this here charm 'round yer cock an' let me suck out all th' evil influences..."
There is a clear line here where perhaps we should have throttled back on the weebery, but let's keep on going instead and see what happens.
Oh man im killing myself agonizing about kinu's future. Part of me wants to go the young inari route. But that would mean she would have a bad relation with her mother and that pains me. Especially after reading the short and seeing how ive failed as a father lol. Hopefully there will be a way to reconcile them...
Please?
Please?
Nakano looks like he’s about to teleport behind me, kiss my neck, and say “nothing personnel kid.”
A crucial (okay, not really) question needs to be asked: do they wear fundoshi. Can we wear fundoshi. 