Peeping on Alice

*Even if you're not interested in what I have to say about the art piece, you might want to read the Dev Corner bit at the end* 

So, here's the latest art piece that I've been working on for the new game. It may seem awfully simple for how long it took me, but there are some major reasons for the time it took. One, of course, is the several days I paused work on it in my scramble to get the reward renders that were fighting me done. An irritating state of affairs I mentioned in my previous post. However, there were a couple of other issues. 

The first problem was that I've never once, ever, drawn a character from that angle. Period. Not even on paper rather then digital media. This resulting in me redrawing the thing almost from scratch multiple times, each time digging up more and more reference pieces in an attempt to get it right. I learned a lot from the process, and I think the final result isn't too terrible, but it definitely caused a delay.

The second problem was the environmental effects. I've never really tried to draw something like a shower into a scene before, save in the crudest possible manner. And, to be honest, I didn't have a clue how to make skin look wet either. After numerous tutorials, I think I managed both half way decently, though adding the shower water actually lessened the wet skin and hair effects, something I'm going to have to remember going forward.

Ultimately, this marks only 6 pieces I managed to make this month, whereas my target was 10. Which is a little depressing, but part of it is explained by all the other things I had to do, including the days I lost to the unexpected trouble with the reward renders. I also hadn't considered how much longer the first-versions would take. All things considered, I think I'm in not-terrible shape going forward...

Developer's Corner

I don't know if 'Developer's Corner' is what I'm actually intending to call this...but it'll do for now. I mentioned a few posts ago that I'll be providing occasional insights into development on The Sexy Cosplay Cafe. How it's going, what my thought processes are, what the various art pieces are for, etc. Essentially little glimpses into the development process.

Given the art on this post, I wanted to address an issue that many adult patreon games have in their early versions. Namely, actually having adult content! One thing I, as a player of adult games, find maddening, is the number of 'adult games' that get pushed out in their early days with effectively no actual adult content. 

As a developer myself, I understand the problem. You absolutely must work on core game components first, period. Being able to talk to characters, move around the world, etc., are all things that absolutely have to be done up front. Not to mention, of course, that you can ruin a story by just jumping straight to the sex, without any character and world development. Indeed, one of the reasons I choose to develop Eros Academy instead of more traditional ideas, was specifically as a way around this issue. The way Eros is designed, I could (and did) put erotic content into the very first builds of the game without having to worry about ruining the story by pushing things too fast. 

Unfortunately, that won't be the case with The Sexy Cosplay Cafe. The new game has an actual proper plot and story line to it, meaning I can't just jump straight in feet-first into the protagonist having sex with everyone and everything. As such, and knowing how frustrating I personally find it when early editions of games have no erotic content, I'm doing my very best to ensure their WILL be at least some in the initial releases of the game. 

Which is where things like the art for this post come in. One thing I can put into the game from the get-go is the ability to peep on the girls. In this case, it's going to be a chance to peep on Alice as she showers in your shared apartment, but I'm also intending to make it possible to peep on the dressing room at the Cafe. Indeed, at least one of the girls has a major plot point where you'll have to discover something about her by spying on her...

That's not the only thing, of course. I'm also intending to focus harder on one girl than the others, so that even the very first build of the game will allow you to advance to at least a heavy petting and/or oral sex stage. It's mostly like be Serena, but I haven't completely finalized that as the case yet. (She's the easiest to progress quickly with her story, but one of the harder ones to draw...). 

Well...that's it for this first developer's segment. Hopefully it's of interest!