Dev Update #8: Slow progress is still progress

The Steam Summer Sale is now over. Huge thank you to everyone that purchased a copy of Bonding, Now! It was a bit of a rough time period for us right now. We've been moving across the country and it's always a big deal, always time consuming, always tiring. I think we settled in right now, but because of that progress on the next update was slow. Which doesn't mean there hasn't been any!

As mentioned in my previous update, my main focus right now is Story #3. It's a detective story, with the gameplay elements focusing on solving 'the mystery at hand'. I'm sure everyone remembers those good old detective games where the player had to gather clues, question suspects - slowly and slowly unveiling the truth. This is basically what it will be.

I try not to over-complicate the game mechanics, but I am working on a system for clues gathering and questioning suspects about them. I think complex mechanics in games like these have both pros and cons. For instance, let's say a system where you can ask any character about every glue you have gathered. It's a neat idea, giving the player the chance to feel like a real detective and figure out who to ask about what. But in reality, many players will most likely just brute-force this system, asking everyone about everything. And it might be frustrating when sometimes you really don't know what to ask a character about. So that's not ideal.

As of the actual story, let's just say I'm slightly inspired by an old noir crime movie "Laura" from 1944. But only slightly!

I know you will all like the gumshoeing of Story #3, but I'm sure there's also quite a few of you that prefer the slightly more 'erotic' nature of the stories. I am still undecided about which of my few ideas to pursue next. In the previous dev update I listed out 3 H-related story ideas and I think I like all of them equally. If you feel that one is more interesting than another, please, let me know!

I guess that's it for today. Oh, I also started chatting around the Visual Novel community on reddit - great people there! Why didn't I know of such things existing before? I guess that's the cons of living under a rock.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.