⭐⭐⭐2021 Plans & News!⭐⭐⭐

Hey everyone!

It's time for another long new year post. No dramatic changes like the last time but there are a few exciting news I wanted to share with you!

I really don't want to talk about 2020 in general. It's been such a shitty year. The pandemic, natural disasters, political injustice... It just wouldn't end. I hope, and I know hoping is not very practical, that 2021 at least won't get any worse. That this was the rock bottom, and it will stay that way. 🤞

Anyways, I'm hoping I could make you smile even a little bit during this madness. I just want to create a small safe space for you to wind down and relax a little bit. 💖

To that end... Although we've had some bad hiccups along the way (because I just HAD to move overseas during a pandemic), I think we still had some pretty cool and fun content to share with you!

- Main game of this year: Oathbreaker -

I'm especially happy with how Oathbreaker is shaping out to be, not just as a story, but also as a learning opportunity.
I'll be honest with you, I've never been interested in having children of my own, so I've always found it a bit off-putting to have children in games. It was a subject I wasn't particularly interested in, so I've always stayed away from that theme(?).
But during the trend of gloomy single dad games of 2018-2019, I kind of felt like there was a pattern shaping.
We had strong female protagists, we had cute and clumsy female protagonists, we had cold-hearted female protagonists. But no moms...?

I wondered where were the gloomy single mom games? The only few times a mom was shown, she was either insane or portrayed in a villainous way. Not like the sympathetic, down to earth, sad dads with their traumatic pasts.
I wanted to know why this topic was so interesting that there were so many of the same type of theme was coming out one after another.
So, I wanted to try making one. A story where the MC would be a gloomy mom with a dark past. Just to see if I could add something to the mix. 

And I surprisingly really loved the challenge. I wanted to push my own boundries, to see if I could make myself feel a feeling that I had no intention of ever having myself.
Whether I have succeeded or not depends on your feedback, but I know I enjoyed studying this concept a lot. Having our cute Mini in the game gave a lot of depth to the story, so I kind of understand the popularity of sad dad games now.

Aside from the story aspect of Oathbreaker, it was also a technical challenge.
I know there will always be new technologies and engines to explore, but at the moment I feel like I will stick with Unity for a long long while.
Learning a new engine from scratch mid-game can be very unpractical. Because I wasn't used to programming in Unity at all, I failed tech wise. I know there are a lot of wonky bits in the system because of my inexperience, and I promise to do better next year.
However, despite the difficulties, Unity allows me a lot of freedom to play around with the gameplay. (OBS2 doesn't show anything fancy, but I'm learning a lot behind the scenes. Once I have more time to work on a game properly, I will put everything I've learned to good use. We will get there in a bit.)

- Monthly NSFW Mini games -

The monthly NSFW mini games have changed a bit during this one year. From teasing games to mini nsfw scenes of their own.
They are thankfully still easy and fun to make, and hopefully fun for you to play!
I know I've been getting some feedback about making all NSFW scenes a bit more *NSFW*. More visible poses, less strategic placements.
I'm totally okay with this, but I work with my artists within their boundries. I will bring this topic up with them, but if they don't feel comfortable doing, then I will not force them.
The purpose of these scenes for me isn't exactly giving you super steamy material, because I know I suck at nsfw dialogue writing. It's mostly to add depth, and a bit of fun to the stories.
NSFW mini games, however, can be a bit more in your face if you want it! (I'll make a poll soon.)

- Bonus gifts like emojis, funny BTS banners, and mangas -

It seems like funny BTS images especially are a big hit among the smaller gifts. I will speak with PrinceOfRedroses and continue doing them for the next year as well. I'm really liking the small gift concept, so I will try and find even more fun features in 2021. 

- What's next in store for major game releases? -

Regal Inquest:

With Oathbreaker approaching it's end (Which is not that soon, don't worry), I'm starting to plan the next games in line.
The first thing I want to do is to give the official go on Regal Inquest.
I've first announced this game about a year ago? Since then, Regal Inquest's two awesome writers have been working really hard on the story. They are already done with the prologue (which is pretty long and REALLY fun!), and almost done with chapter 1 as well. It's because I'm fully focused on Oathbreaker myself, I will soon be hiring a programmer/animator to bring Regal Inquest to life for me.
It will be a project I will only produce, which means while I'm focusing on releasing Oathbreaker chapters, you will be getting new Regal Inquest chapter releases simultaneously.
That's like two games every 1.2, 2 months! 😉
You can also heck out the upcoming OST of Regal Inquest by our favorite bard Delevine here: https://soundcloud.com/delevine-media/regal-inquest-main-theme

- My next main game -

This questions has been in my mind for almost a year now. When Oathbreaker is finally finished, was I going to start another same type of game? Was I going to make another fantasy game again? Should it be horror? Should it be more NSFW? Should it be Sci-fi or Cyberpunk again like Cardinal Cross.

I've made polls, I've asked questions, I've listened to feedback.
A lot of you had this very clear wish of having a "dark fantasy" type of game next. A game with horror elements was really really popular.
And I felt like I could take on that subject. I love horror, I love dark fantasy, I love building worlds. I thought, why not?
I already had the basic plot figured out.
Victorian twins visiting haunted houses, trying to find out whether they are really haunted or it's just a rumour. Also learning about their mysterious past. Choosing which twin to play, mini games depending on the twin, as they had different abilities. It sounded really fun!

Anyways, I made a few mock scenes to see how I felt about it. I worked with Moonarc for the main characters of this next dark fantasy game. And Voloshenko made me a really nice background so I could see this vision come to life.

I felt absolutely nothing for it...

Please don't kill me.

I looked... And I looked a bit more. And in the end I was like "Nah..."

It's just that... it really didn't make me feel excited at all. I don't know if you've ever had that moment where you want to eat a desert for days, and you finally eat it, and it feels so... bland?
I felt like that.
I figured I didn't want to build another world. I didn't want to add more demons to the mix. I've done that, and I'm really happy with the result. I craved something different. Something new.
And I know it looks super pretty, and I may one day make something similar to this, but that moment is just not right now.

In a way, I felt like another theme somewhere was calling to me. And I tried my best to ignore that feeling but...

This other theme was calling to me... It was like... this higher purpose! 😂

(I have to warn you, it's going to look SO ridiculous and I know it will not be exciting AT ALL for a lot of you, but twice I've felt this excited about something, and that was Oathbreaker and Cardinal Cross. Please hear me out. You'll see soon enough!)

(Insert fail trumpet sounds)

Ta da! (Yeah, I can feel your eyes rolling, but give it a second.)

My next big game after Oathbreaker will be Glam Pursuit. 

*Yaaaay~*

This will be a game about an MC who wants to be famous and rich, no matter what.(Emphasis on the no matter what please.)

I know it doesn't sound as exciting as demons and ghosts, but I have so many evil plans for this next game. Just hear me out!

What this game will be about is the violent and dark nature of the entertainment industry. You will start the game as a young and dirt poor individual with a vaulting ambition. To become a celebrity!

You will be able to do anything to get what you want and be a celebrity, and by anything I mean anything.
The game will allow you to become the very worst possible you ever. (Not that you can't be a good person, but it's not going to be easy staying pure with a heart of gold. And it'll be mighty fun to be bad in here.)
If you want to be a backstabbing ass? You can! You want to blackmail yourself into the industry? Go on! You want to bribe yourself into the industry? Good for you!
You will betray, get betrayed, be the subject of many types scandals, voluntarily or not. It will be messy as hell, and my biggest wish for this game is to make you laugh through all of these failures and complicated and messy situations.

(Including romance.)

Ask and you shall receive! 💖

As you may have guessed (?), the love interests will reflect the mess that is going to be this game.
Along with a main cast, I'm also going to add the option to have temporary love interests that are downright horrible people, almost as horrible as you! (which means, there will be one night stands, and short-term relationships just to spice it up.)

It will be made of 8 very long chapters (8 years), and a hell of a lot of branching.

Which brings me to gameplay. (thisiswhenthefunbegins.gif)

I will try and add all of the things that you are excited about in a game in Glam Pursuit.
Map explorations, unlocking events, a tiny bit of skill building, inventory and whole lot of freedom in terms of your story.
There will be a map/schedule system, where you can join auditions and do what you gotta do between your gigs.
These free times between gigs and auditions will allow you to unlock romances, gain skills, even find part-time jobs for money.
(There will be optional nsfw actions that you can choose as a part-time job, including posing for adult magazines.)

Giving you as much freedom as the engine allows me to do is my biggest goal here. And for that, each update of this game will be more like updates rather than chapters.
Slowly unlocking the map and introducing events, so that you can start over and over again while I'm updating the game, and try a whole new approach if you like. You can also go the whole game without meeting all of the potential LIs temporary/permenant.

Here are a few features I'm planning to add (the ones with star are features that are %100 going to happen):

• Pronoun and body selection.⭐
• Name & Last name. ⭐
• Temporary romances. ⭐
• Map exploration. ⭐
• Skill building and gigs.⭐
• Personality choices, as well as skill choices.⭐
• Gigs will require certain body types, color templates.
• Choosing your own manager, hence receiving different types of gigs.
• Firing & finding a new manager.
• Failing auditions depending on your skills and moods.
• Sleep and stress will be a factor.
• Buying/renting your apartment and decorating (within limitations).
• Outfit & hair style change. Acquiring new outfits. (I'm sooo hoping I can manage this!)
  

There will also be a small change in the release pattern for this game. I will only be exclusively releasing updates of Glam Pursuit on Patreon while I'm working on it.
But once the game is fully complete, I will put it on sale on Steam and itch.io as a standalone full game.
(The patreon version will have patreon exclusive content such as temporary LIs, clothes, gigs etc as the founders of the game.)

Phew. So... Yeah.

This is the plan. For the future... far future. Not any time soon. 

I will be working on OB this year along with producing Regal Inquest. I will only be saving artwork for Glam Pursuit and keeping you updated on the development (no releases), I just wanted to tell you what you can expect in the future.

Hope this has answered most of your questions, and gave you an idea of my plans.

As always, thank you so much for your support and your lovely messages!

I'm very very excited about the future of Larkylabs and I hope you are just as excited!

I will keep you updated on more news.

Love you and see you soon! 😘