Quest Failed: Chapter Two - Dev Log #119
Added 2020-05-23 16:29:20 +0000 UTCHiya everyone! How are we all doing today? Hopefully you're enjoying the warmer weather that this time of the year tends to bring, while still keeping safe out there!
I wanted to apologise for the minor delay in this dev log--as I was holding out to maybe post the new MerMay art. But that's going to take a few more days before it's to be posted--so please look forward to that last fishy treat before the end of the month!
So in place of that, I'll be going ahead with the regularly scheduled dev log I had planned!
I'm sure the biggest question you guys all might be wondering when I post these is probably--what have you accomplished in the last week or so in between this and the last dev log? And I'm happy to say that as of a few days ago, I was able to wrap up quite a large story milestone. A very important and dramatic moment in the main scenario, where something quite important is revealed--and plenty of action happens.
I'm really happy to be done with this large part of the story, as it opens the way to quite a few new paths for young Matt to explore--including some nice one-on-one training with Cynthia if you so desire. Rest assured, he'll be put through his paces! As for whether or not he'll actually get better at combat as a result...well...who knows! But at least he'll grow closer to the captain as a result.
I'm sure I teased a bit of the training segments with Cynthia before, but it's always worth posting the nice little CG that accompanies them just in case people might have missed it!
Hi-yahhh~! Even with wooden swords, the Royal Captain certainly isn't going to hold back for Matt's sake. He'll be hobbling out of these training sessions beaten and bruised--but at least he had a nice view while he was getting pummeled in! One has to wonder how anyone can focus while training with Cynthia with those regal assets of hers bouncing around. Maybe it's a purposeful distraction tactic she utilizes to get the jump on lesser-minded men? It's a mystery!
As you'd expect from a training segment--Cynthia's training will last across the course of a good few days. But the end result will be worth it, I promise!
With this large story milestone out of the way--I would say there's just one large milestone to go. With just as dramatic action and reveals. There are of course, lots of smaller segments in between these two, and all the side events that need to be wrapped up with characters still of course. But I feel like I've really come a long way with Chapter Two's GIGANTIC script, with its humble beginnings of having young Matt first step into the enchanting world of Rhan.
The fact that it's taken me this long to get this far still pains me deeply, though--and I feel as though I could have handled a lot of things better. It's been one big learning experience--and I definitely will be more on top of future projects after Chapter Two. I just appreciate everyone's patience as I continue to cobble together this giant thing, and hope it'll all be worth it in the end! Because there's still so many ideas for things that I want to share with you guys, and hope that I'll be able to do so one day!
Also--the attached image to this post showcases a small cut-in CG that I've added to part of the main story scenario, with the cutest little doll of death and destruction, backed up by hordes of maybe...less cute undead.
In this particular case, I think the choice of cut-in worked really well, since you can see the undead looming in the horizon, and then this panel provides sort of a more dramatic zoom-in as the scene progresses!
There's a few of these in this segment, along with some full-screen CG too for the really important moments. Complete with some small little movements and animation. (For example, some clouds of dust in one part gradually roll to the sides with some small animation to really add to the scene)
One thing I want to ask people though, is--and maybe it's a bit late at this point, but maybe it'll help shape how I approach finishing things up, but: how invested are you in the main story?
What I mean is--what do you personally come to Quest Failed for? There's no wrong answers, of course, and I won't judge anyone for what they might say. But I just want to maybe see if I was perhaps misguided in getting too wrapped up in a very flashy, action-packed story with serious moments, or if you feel I should keep to what the series if predominantly known for (i.e lots of cute girls, sexy moments and h-scenes.) Since ultimately I want to make sure I'm on the right path--and wouldn't want to end up disappointing people once they finally booted the game up and found lots of serious stuff getting in the way of their potential fun.
Maybe I've asked something like this before--but as I get quite caught up in the more serious parts of the story, I do sometimes wonder, haha.
Personally I've always found my strengths are writing smaller, character based interactions with lots of cute moments leading up to h-scenes. But for this particular installment I felt it was best I challenged myself, and tried to have quite a large scale plot going on with the main scenario--while you were still able to go for all the cute, fun antics in the side stories if you so desired. Knowing if I should dial back the 'grand' feeling in future games and to focus on my strengths instead will definitely help!
Though I also understand if you'd rather wait until you played the darned thing first before giving a verdict, which would make sense too, so you can see how it all interweaves and meshes together! So if so, don't mind me, haha. These dev logs essentially are just a stream of consciousness at this point, and can get a bit muddled. You don't know the amount of times I've had to delete large blocks of test purely because I don't even know where I was going with them. It's a struggle, I tell ya!
And that about wraps things up for another ramble log--and as I say, I'll hopefully be back before the end of the month with some MerMay related art. It's gonna be really pretty, so look forward to it!
Until next time~
Comments
I'd like to think there's a good balance of things getting revealed/more mysteries getting set up, and Matt improving--in both smaller ways and larger ways! So fear not--I'm sure Chapter 2 will deliver the experience you're looking for! I hope : P
Frostworks
2020-05-26 18:22:47 +0000 UTCTBH, I think it depends entirely on the execution, and like you said at the end, its hard to judge without played it. What I CAN tell you is that I originally found and played the first game because there was sex with cute monster girls. While that's still a large factor in my excitement for the second game, I'm also really interested in seeing where the story goes. Seeing Matt try to improve himself, seeing how characters grow as they interact with one another, maybe learning something about ????? and this person Matt reminds her of, there's a lot to look forward to.
Rock
2020-05-26 03:39:20 +0000 UTCThank you so much for taking the time to write out your thoughts, I appreciate it! And I totally get what you mean. I think the intimacy and context/build-up behind h-scenes is just as important as the scenes themselves and that instant sex is a bit joyless when there's no emotional connection or story behind it. Sometimes I spend so long with my writing building up to a h-scene I end up forgetting the sex part entirely, lol. And don't worry--Chapter 2's main scenario will definitely cover a lot of ground with some fun revelations. It's a bit more spaced out due to the other content, but each large chunk does give some key information I think. You'll learn the answer to one mystery, but then a far greater one will take its place to keep you going along, haha
Frostworks
2020-05-25 12:15:34 +0000 UTCHiya there! Thank you for such a detailed writeup on things--I really appreciate, and it helps give me a better insight into what people like about the series, and where they feel it could be improved. I won't touch on everything (or we'd be here all day writing novel length posts lol) but I will say I totally get where you're coming from in regards to the Chapter 1 characters getting sidelined for the Chapter 2 ones. My initial fear was that the Chapter 1 characters might get 'stale' if there was just a bunch of new scenes with them, as there's only so many ways a h-scene can be taken until it begins to feel samey with one character. So I tried to spice things up in this regard by adding a whole new host of characters who add different personalities/scenarios--with a lot of them aiming to be their own little contained mini stories alongside the over-arching plot. So you could embark on all sorts of side quests and smaller adventures. But I can definitely see how it might be worrying that they ended up taking the forefront to the Chapter 1 characters who are just kind of milling about the camp. It's a delicate thing to consider for sure--and I hope by the end of Chapter 2 I will have hit a satisfying balance. One way I tried to make up for potential 'samey' scenes with the Chapter 1 girls is that their scenes are far more emotionally invested, with a far deeper sense of love than some of the more disinterested flings Matt might get himself into with other girls. And while the cast is getting quite large--I've definitely taken this into consideration with my plans for Chapter 3, and will be aiming to bring back quite a lot of them in fun and interesting ways people might not expect. In some cases that might end up being based on who people like the most from Chapter 2, but I've already decided on quite a few roles of existing characters, and hope that'll alleviate some concerns about expanding the cast and dumping old characters!
Frostworks
2020-05-25 12:09:14 +0000 UTCFor me the plot is only a means to drive character interactions and character development. So for my sake there isn't much reason to have a grand story with the entire world being involved in a meaningful way, there can be just as much progression for the characters with a tiny little side quest. Be it small or big plot points, the plot is needed though. We want to get invested in the characters. We can't simply get h-scene after h-scene. Perhaps an analogy to explain why. Know how a lot of people love getting nudes from people they know? Despite there being porno online that was masterfully shot and with "hotter" people. That doesn't matter though, it's more exciting with a person you know (who is also giving their nudes just for you). I personally think it's the same with h-games. We are way more exited to see our monster girls in h-scenes because we "know them". So yes story is important and your h-scenes loose impact without it, but that story can be grandiose or simplistic as long as it drive character development and interaction. And all that said do at least develop the main plot a bit however. I know other games that push small updates where the main plot hasn't been developed for years because introducing new side characters take all the attention, that does get annoying. So there is obviously a balance. For example if we after chapter 2 is no closer to knowing who the hooded girl is than the end of chapter 1 I would be pretty annoyed. You just don't have to force a big important plot.
Valdiii
2020-05-25 08:12:38 +0000 UTCAs someone who's been keeping up with each version of the alpha of Chapter 2 and really thinks that Quest Failed stands out from the crowd of other available H-games for just having a refreshingly different take on characterization and the actual h-scenes themselves, in addition to the rarely-as-good-as-this Eng voice acting, I love the characters and think it's fantastic porn. That's true of chapter 1 and chapter 2, but I do somewhat worry about the precedent chapter 2 is setting for how the characters get handled in the story. There are so many characters now, and while that itself isn't a problem, most of the characters just exists in the world now and seem like there's no guarantee they'll be part of the story again. It seems like if the story wanted to move forwards with a totally new cast of characters and never touch the old ones again, it could. In chapter 1, it's written to feel like the band of girls is a team that's ever expanding, where it will be about this group of girls and Matt going on adventures and the dynamics of the group will be evolving with the new girls and the new relationships, and it feels like no matter what, even if Matt gets separated from the girls for a while, they're the core group and they're here to stay. In chapter 1 you seem the relationship between Matt and Jilly, for example, building and evolving, and it feels satisfying because it seems like they're the core cast and the story will continue to be about them. But in chapter 2, it seems like Jilly, Tari, Ruby, and a lot of other new characters just kind of exist. They might get a scene here and there, and they'll experience some bonding, but it feels less satisfying because it doesn't feel like they're main characters anymore, like they're hardly any different from girls that only show up for 1 scene and then don't participate in the story ever again. Now the characters that feel like they'll inevitably be involved in the story moving forwards are Ren and Cynthia, and in this instance it's fine in my opinion because I love Ren so much, but I think about if this same sort of story direction is, say, taken in chapter 3, and Jilly, Tari, Ruby, Ren, and everyone else sort of gets sidelined and don't feel like they're even guaranteed to be part of the story again in favor of new characters. That just makes the building of relationships feel more shallow, because it seems like they might not even last as the story goes on, if they aren't tied directly to the course of the story and it's up to the whims of the plot whether or not these characters are even relevant to a new story arc or conflict. Even if classic characters are put to the side for a time, if we had some vision of the future of the story that made it clear that those characters are definitely main staples of the series, and they'll definitely be back in the limelight when the plot goes back to some overarching quest that involves Matt and the girls going on adventures, that'd be fine, but this is the main plot, there's nothing about the main story that ties the classic characters to the future of the story, and that makes them feel disposable and makes the characterization feel less satisfying. But beyond that, where I think the story could be written in such a way that it involves all the characters and makes it seem like they're here to stay, the characters are great, the porn is great, it's a really refreshing take on femdom that doesn't rely on belittlement, the monster girls are great, and I have nothing but good things to say about it's sexiness. I think that trying to focus on writing talent is more about identifying what you want to accomplish with your writing, because while a lot of the increase in internal dialogue and descriptions and stuff like that take more time and effort, I often don't find them interesting to read through if I'm not getting an appeal out of it, if it's not working to make me appreciate the fun parts more, it often just feels like more effort on my part to read through the extra lines.
James J Canon
2020-05-25 07:25:23 +0000 UTCYeah, you get it.
Ilya
2020-05-24 13:53:17 +0000 UTCThank you for your kind words and detailed thoughts on things. I really appreciate it! In this case I tried to lean quite heavily into having both a lot of structure and setup, and lots of CGs too--which ended up being quite a larger workload than if I were to just rapid fire a bunch of casual sex scenes with limited intimacy and simply existed for titillation. Which I suppose ended up contributing to development time quite a lot, haha. I'm just happy to see that both you--and others--see QF as quite a unique thing where they can't get that same experience anywhere else. It makes me feel like I'm doing something right in this incredibly crowded adult market these days, and carving out my own niche : P
Frostworks
2020-05-24 13:46:40 +0000 UTCIn my view, sex is a seasoning, not a meal. Porn without plot is akin to drinking an entire bowl of sprinkles. Now, this isn't *just* a visual novel, it's an H-Game. It was *always* going to be heavily salted, so to speak, and y'know sometimes that's what I'm in the mood for. 's why I've played Chapter One three times. Nothing wrong with that. Nevertheless, my opinion has been asked, and I've always found it better to focus on the quality of the pizza's crust than its' toppings. The structure and setup is what lends *meaning* to the CGs. What's made this IP stand out from the vast sea of internet porn available to us all has been the strength of the narrative both implicit and explicit, and the genuine emotional connection that arises between characters(so beautifully brought to life by the voice-cast.). I ask that you focus on those strengths.
Ilya
2020-05-24 12:51:35 +0000 UTCI'm sure even in the midst of a zombie apocalypse they'd still all find time to cuddle, don't worry! : P But yeah I've definitely been trying to balance an exciting fantasy tale alongside the harem-esque shenanigans. I just have to hope I have the expertise to pull it off properly haha
Frostworks
2020-05-24 10:37:58 +0000 UTCYou'll definitely get no shortage of that then, haha. Hopefully you'll be happy with the end result!
Frostworks
2020-05-24 10:36:44 +0000 UTCThank you for your kind words--that really means a lot to me! I feel like being able to connect with the characters on a far more intimate level than more standard media might allow really helps with making the characters feel more compelling--and since this is more indie, without worrying about trying to appeal to larger demographics, the characters can be written in a number of ways without feeling too 'safe' or by the numbers. Which helps a lot, too. And whether or not I'm able to stick the landing with a story as ambitious as this one is yet to be seen, but I hope people enjoy it. : P And if not, I guess at least they might enjoy all the h-scenes, lol..
Frostworks
2020-05-24 10:36:18 +0000 UTCAh, yeah. I definitely understand what you mean regarding the whole growth thing--and it's a delicate balance for sure. I never intend for him to get ungodly strong or anything like that, but do want to have him grow and change in other ways. By the end of Chapter 2, I think he'll have changed quite a bit from how he was in Chapter 1! The femdom angle also changes quite a bit the more he's with a character. Where there's always quite an aggressive first meeting--but then the more scenes he engages in with a character, the more consensual they become, even if the other character is still quite eager. Which I think balances it out so it never feels like it's leaning too hard on any one aspect
Frostworks
2020-05-24 10:33:23 +0000 UTCQuest Failed - to me personally - feels likes the personal growth and story a guy bumbling his way through a fantasy universe. I like those stories, the girls are cute and fun, and there was always a sense of contant progression, with little filler and time wasting. Chapter 2 is different as there are sections of downtime, but at least gives the player options to explore and do side quests, plus builds up the world and lore more. One thing I would like to see in the future is the progression of Matt. We love him cause he is a bit of muppet well out of his league, but I wnat to see him grow. Do something heroic, maybe legit beat someone, not necessarily physically, but perhaps outwit them. Something to show he is developing as a character, cause while the whole weak-willed (reverse rape) thing got a lot of folks on board, doing that same same stuff for god knows how much longer this story goes on for may start to get tiring. Variety is a good thing, y'know? Looking forward to seeing how things develop from here!
The Green Pyre
2020-05-24 10:05:04 +0000 UTCSo, I don't have access to Ch. 2 Alpha's or anything, I've only had a chance to play the demo of it that you had hosted elsewhere, but I really do want to see where the main story goes. Matt's a pretty relatable character, and the characters around him run the gamut of being cheerful to brash. Yeah, the fun dialogue and the H-scenes bring the game a lot of charm and interest, but the main story and the stakes give the game some depth and seeing it through the dev logs makes me interested in how things will progress. I'm not saying you should use "Come for the H, stay for the plot" as a tagline, because that one gets abused by porn sites and cheap porn games, but it does kind of accurately represent your game to me. I mean... it's weird to say this but I'm finding REALLY compelling story and characters in some H-games these days(more so than some AAA games) and yours is one of them.
Richard Hardslab
2020-05-23 19:09:09 +0000 UTCWhat brought me to Quest Failed is what brought me to the Monster Girl genre in general: Femdom (gentle or otherwise) and so-called 'Reverse Rape' sort of things. I like epic. I like personal. As long as there is a reasonably likable protagonist with a harem of attractive females with interesting personalities who refuse to take no for an answer, I am pleased.
Birchtree
2020-05-23 19:08:19 +0000 UTCAs somebody who got drawn into the series from the chapter one demo, I'd say the serious parts are what made me more interested in the series. Granted, it doesn't have to go a route where Matt has to fight off a zombie apocalypse, but it wouldn't feel right to have world of heroics without one event requiring heroism alongside all the monster girl cuddles.
Mr Blah
2020-05-23 18:58:54 +0000 UTC
