How should I balance Dom and Sub content?

I've been thinking about how to make H-content for the game since I'm finally at that step of the development, but I always get stuck planning and making mostly scenes where the Player/MC can dominate or rape NPCs, characters and enemies. At this point I don't know how I should handle content where the MC loses, is raped or tricked without going the old GOR (Game Over Rape) route.

I would like to know what people think about this, I'm still going to focus on content where the player initiates the action but I would like to have a balance of both dom and sub content for the game to make more interesting situations.

So, how would you handle this kind of thing? How should a RPG where you fight monster girls and humans while dealing with NPCs handle content where you're submisive without going for the "rape on loss" and "game over rape" way?

November progress report

 Old map design WIP

New map design WIP

Spent most of the time making maps and testing animations, this obviously on my free time when I'm not working on commissions so the progress wasn't as good as I wanted.

I want to get everything mapped this month so I can start playing with animations in-game, things like the screens showing some ads, NPCs on the vending machine talking or buying something, maybe some machines moving. Little details to make things look less empty and boring, a good criticism I got in my last try with the game before it was reworked.

Other than that I have to make battle animations and art too so the demo isn't anywhere close to end at this point sadly.

Old battle animation -Idle-

New battle animation -Idle- WIP

I'm trying my best with the sprite animations to make them more dynamic, hopefully people will like them. Before I used small loops with blinking, now I'm using more clean animation loops and adding blinking and other details, maybe 20+ frames for the full loop when I finish adding everything to each animation, I'm still testing to see what works better but I'd be really happy if I can make good idles over 20 frames long, most people use 3, 5, 8 or 10 at best so I'm curious about how the quality would be if I add more.

No word on the hentai for now, the foundation of the game is my priority and I'd rather save the fun part for later.

Second collaboration artist: "Lustfire"

Second artist that collaborated and designed enemies for the game. Lustfire is also the artist behind the CG work of Crisis Point: Extinction, if you want to see more works from him you can check that out. His designs are more focused on tentacles and monsters while mine are inclined to futa work, a nice way to add variety to the game but don't worry most of the game is still centered on futa.

There might be a third artist that I'll hire for the game but I'm still contacting people for that last spot so no collaboration work next week or anytime soon.

Also, scene test:

 

Scene test WIP, monochrome comic, page 1.

Some pages will be animated.

First collaboration artist: "Vincius"

Vincius is the first artist that was hired for special enemies in the game, here are his sketches for the enemy designs and some keyframes for the scenes.

As usual the sprite work is mine and while his work is amazing even in sketch format what you see here will be adapted for pixel art in my style and animated for the game. You will be able to see his artwork in-game along the animated works.

Vincius is one of what I hope will be many artists that contribute to designs and content for the game, his work making clean sketches for animation and designs for sprites was obviously paid as he put a lot of work and time into them, and I hope to hire more artists for enemy designs and content in the future (as long as my wallet allows it).

Those that I hire work for full references like you see above (Full body sketch in 2 angles minimum + H-scenes sketches 3 frames minimum).

NOTE: Those that contributed art and designs for the game for free should contact me for payment via E-mail as soon as possible, from now on any contribution will be paid as long as it meets the quality expected and needed. The same applies to any artist that wishes to contribute to the project from now on.

Sprites sprites

 New sprite size and format for exploration and overworld

Not a lot to show other than the new sprites for the game, about 2x the size compared to the past models. Too many clothes to make for them so I couldn't finish in time for this post sadly.

Old models and sprites

 And new art for the MC which might or might not change before the final demo.

I hired a CG artist to help make the keyframes for animations in the game, the first scene has already been sketched and is in the process of being moved to pixelation and animation so maybe I'll show those for the next post.

Nothing much to say other than progress is a bit slow. No deadline for this yet, especially with maps and models being bigger so please be patient with this project.

September things and stuff

Apologies for the lack of posts during the last month, a few things got in the way and I was away during most of the month. That doesn't mean there was no progress, I just couldn't post or work on adult stuff while I was away.

Mapping is still ongoing and I'm working mostly on that and art, RPG sprite templates for the game are also done, I can't post them here though because I don't think blogger will be happy with me posting the nude models since they include different ages and body types.

Next post should have those dressed and ready to show along with some profile art for more characters, for now enjoy the new art for the main charater's partner and main heroine of the game.

More sprite stuff

Final roster for the first demo of the game, characters and monsters for battle and events.

Here's where updates and posts become slow because the next part is mapping, backgrounds and menus. Basically, the boring stuff and the bulk of the work that shows nothing interesting, I wish I could just rush it here and jump into animations but I shouldn't, so bear with me and whatever slow progress I show for this month. I'm hoping to finish mapping in a month at worst, I hope I can do it faster than that.

Anyway that's that for today, nothing new or interesting, sorry.

Note: Especial thanks to the people on /weg/ for their feedback on the game concept and art.

August progress report

This is a post to resume what I did on this whole month (August) and what I plan to do for the next (September).

Most of my free time this month was used in spriting, the characters are mostly done with only their abomination/monster variant remaining. At least 5 abomination designs are missing for battle and 2-3 more characters related to the main story.

Once I'm done with the characters I plan on jumping into mapping the areas of the game, there are around 50 maps needed for the first half of the demo. Before, these areas were done around 50% but I plan on upgrading the visuals just like I did with the sideview sprites you see above.

Note: This is something that has to do with my taste and standards, is not necessary but I want to draw the maps myself now that I have more knowledge on spriting to have a result that I like. Even if it takes more of my time this is not a commercial project and there's no Patreon or anything like that planned for it ever again (Patreon was a mistake).

I will probably talk about the details of the project in the future regarding those things because the focus has changed a lot.

For now that's the plan for September, expect more spriting in the future.

First area characters and enemies

Characters for the first half of the demo: Area 1. Isolation zone - Hospital.

These 8 characters will appear in the first area of the game, some of them hostile, some with just small quests and scenes you can witness or initiate while in that area. Only a few of them will be animated for battle but everyone should have at least 1 sex scene for the first demo.

Feel free to make suggestions about their scenes or what you would like to see with them.

Special thanks to Auronaito who requested the blonde girl in the middle a long time ago. After the first demo I will open a few spots so people can add to the pool of characters and enemies in the game with their ideas.

Scenes and mechanics in Libellia

 Rejected sprites and designs for the game.

There are no game over scenes in Libellia, I don't like locking content behind game overs, I find it stupid and a serious problem in design of hentai games. It makes the player save scum and go into battles looking for a way to lose quickly because the next scene can only be seen once you're defeated. 

Fight-lose-see scene-load-continue to next big battle-repeat.

How to deliver content in adult games is difficult. In a normal game you approach content by making upgrades to improve gameplay, then there are items and party members to help you in challenges, in adult games however the focus the player wants is less gameplay wise and more cosmetic, visual, such as new costumes for the girls in the game or your MC if it's female, and then there's the actual sex scenes, mostly a good variety art and writing content.

Rejected animation for the first part of the demo.

There are 3 aspects of Libellia that I want to develop. Exploration, battles and relationships.

Exploration 

Old art for the game.

Exploration will be mostly for finding scenes, new areas and more characters. There are no random encounters on the game so I want it to feel that when you are exploring you're focused on that, be it a town you're infiltrating, a forest where you can find monsters and other victims of monster girls and even meet or ambush some enemies.

So for now exploration will be for finding hidden scenes and characters mostly.

Battles

 Old art for the game.

Battles won't have rape mechanics, at least for now I'm not implementing that, though it might be an addiition for enemies focused on sex (Like succubus). Battles will be decided by your loss of HP or Stamina.

Losing by HP means death and game over, most enemies won't try to kill you unless enraged, this will be shown by the message "enemy X has marked you for death" or "monster X is enraged and trying to kill you" this status is temporary most of the time.

Losing by Stamina will knock you out and the monster will capture you. Once captured you'll have to escape from the monster lair, either by interacting with it or by fighting again, it will depend on the monster. A monster that has fought with you before will have a different relationship with the MC. If you're repeatedly defeated they will mock you and have a boost in power and if you've beaten them a few times they'll suffer a few negative states in battle.

Also, the same rules of battle that apply to your defeat work on the enemy, and defeating them by Stamina leaves them open to whatever you wish to do. Rape, stealing especial items from them or taking some information about enemies, the area boss or characters in the area. Obviously, defeating an enemy by stamina will be harder.

Relationships

Relationships increase by interacting with characters and monsters in the world, and battles if the character or monster is an active enemy. A meter will level up with the relationship between the monster and the MC and another meter will show their feelings, feelings being if they are dominant or submisive to the MC.

Monsters with a dominant attitude are more aggresive and assertive, outright raping you if they find you while exploring or going into battle if you resist. Their submisive counterpart are more peaceful and will tend to talk things out and charm you instead of fighting, each behavior depends on the monster, for now there's no way to change their behaviour from dominant to submisive and viceversa. 

Old relationship window.

I might add one meter for Love if there's interest in it in the future, but that will be after the full demo.

Some WIPs and stuff about aesthetics

My biggest struggle with the project so far has been what kind of atmosphere I want for the world and the story. I'm a fan of dark stories, but not on the edgy childish way, more in the subtle, quiet and atmospheric way. Dark stories have an air of mystique and mystery that really helps to trap the player/reader/viewer into the world and it's something I want to capture for this world too. Unfortunately that also touches on subjects that people are kind of sensitive about, subjects like gore.

Note that I'm using the word "gore", not "guro". While they both mean the same thing as each one is the same word in different languages I use gore for the appearance of blood and viscera in visual works and guro for the sexualization of that content.

I have no interest in gure as a fetish, my interest in gore for this particular work is to reinforce the atmosphere and the setting of the world in this game as well as giving a good layer of detail for scenes. After all when you're graphic and don't hold back there's a lot more you can do. However, it's not as simple as just taking the red color in Photoshop and splattering it all over the screen, not if you want to do it right at least, and I feel that this is the reason why most devs don't touch on the subject. Even non adult games with a focus on these settings will only go as far as imply it.

You might be playing the story of how your hero rises to save the world from a tyrannical mass murderer (human or monster), but you sure won't be seeing it on screen, the best you'll get is the classic skeleton on the cell sprite.

It is still something that I'm thinking about and testing. After all my interest is subtlety with these reinforcements, not to get a cheap shock from the player.
 
I have a lot of plans in terms of details to help the setting and the story, which is why I'm treating the demo like an experimental draft or sketch for the full game. I want to see what fits and doesn't fit in this thing, which mechanics works and which can be scrapped or replaced, but for all that I need to finish a demo and see how it plays out.

Alive, kind of

I never know what to write in these...

Hey, no, the project is not dead, no, I'm not dead either. There was a small hiatus of one month before but this is still in development.

Development is still ongoing, though a bit slower now due to my multiple jobs and me wanting to keep this more as a hobby project rather than something to get money out of. If you have been following Patreon or my posts around you'll know that this project is no longer the focus of my Patreon, instead I will be making animations there in exchange for donations, and the money obtained from that will be directed to game development.

It's better than showing screenshots or putting out broken versions and getting money from that monthly...

I'm trying to get a demo out whenever I can work on this. My focus for now is to at least release a full dungeon/city/area and let people play that without content missing for that particular part of the game. I plan on releasing that and then the full demo. Full demo should have 2 zones and about 10+ animations and scenes.

Meanwhile I should be showing more stuff here. At least some screenshots, scrapped artworks and rejected animation attempts since there are a lot of those.