(NOTE: These devlogs usually lag behind our official updates. The latest up-to-date information about the game can be found on our team's Patreon page!)

Hello everyone, and welcome to another ToLLA devlog! :)

Hope you're all doing well! We ourselves are busy working on new content...

The support so far from our players has been great! We hope ToLLA will continue to grow in popularity, and we definitely have plans to scale up and bring more artists onto the project when funds allow. Our short-term goal is to finish and release the next content update, then pump out a new one every couple of weeks. Ideally we'd like to get this down to a monthly basis, as having a new build every 4 weeks is something we feel would be ideal both for the game as well as all of you who are following and supporting us.

As for today's blog entry, we wanted to go over what exactly you can expect from ToLLA's builds in the future as we finalize and release them...

In professional game development, there's a whole slew of meanings and just as much heated disagreement about 'horizontal' and 'vertical' terminology, but for the purposes of this devlog we'll be talking about our own, personal take on the matter. As far as content in ToLLA goes, for us as its devs vertical means limited but deep with multiple stacked layers, while horizontal means expansive and full of freedom which leads to brief but satisfying outcomes. Basically a deep but narrow puddle vs. a wide but shallow lake. Or a thin slice of cake with multiple layers, vs. a thick but flat strudel. Mmmhhhh, strudel...

Wait, what were we talking about? Oh, game design, right!

In an ideal scenario, every single chunk of content would have vertical depth, and then many such small pieces would be assembled into a complete area which would give you hours and hours of playtime. Game development being what it is, however, means we have to budget our time and resources, and so must pick and choose how we develop every zone while keeping mindful of the time it takes to do so.

So what's all this have to do with ToLLA's builds?

Well, the best way to explain our design philosophy would be to give concrete examples that tie into what we've done so far...

BUILD#1

Build#1 was the introductory preview segment (and current free demo at the bottom of the game's main page) which will familiarize you with the setting via some branching dialogue, introduce Captain Hale and Meredith, then let you play through a massive, lewd CYOA where you get to pick the type of content you want to engage in (including its pics and accompanying text). As your most loyal follower (and ex-girlfriend!), Meredith will do whatever you want in bed, so it's up to you how you want to proceed with her!

Build#1 was a good example of 'vertical' content because it's relatively constrained and narrow, but incredibly deep... As an intro section, it still lets you make choices (like picking various dialogue responses, and naming your Captain), but you didn't have the freedom to move to other areas or mess around with things like inventory management and free-roam. Despite that, if still offers a good amount of content, and took us a while to put together! Massive CYOAs like that are reserved only for plot-critical characters and situations (ex: defeating a drow Matron Mother as part of the main story) because they require tons of art and take a long time to develop.

Build#1 was also a good example of how art-heavy ToLLA is, given there's a ton of sexy lewds in there!

BUILD#2

Build#2 opens up into the Fort's outskirts, which is a an outdoor area that slowly introduces you to the game's setting, its world, and the people that live and work around Captain Hale's home base. We mentioned some of this in previous posts, but for everyone who's joined us recently you can expect lots of unique NPCs, interactions, and lewds in Fort Ninevus.

Ninevus is a huge martial fortification with lots of military and civilian personnel, and you'll get to interact with many of them and solve their problems in exchange for XP, gold, items, lore, and later on even lewd scenes. The gameplay there is semi-linear, in that you have to complete the main storyline before being able to leave for the wider world, but the order in which you tackle its content is left up to you!

The entire Fort area with all its separate maps is designed as a light tutorial zone that'll gently introduce you to the game's mechanics (some of which we've written about in previous devlogs) via side-quests and character banter. Once finished, you'll also be able to seduce some of its female NPCs, shop around for equipment, loot things, perv out on civilians and subordinates (if that's the kind of Captain you want to play), and generally zip around doing things in any order you like.

Build#2 is a great example of horizontal content, as it offer more freedom, but your interactions with specific female characters and their potential scenes will be shorter (4-5 lewds on average, as opposed to 55+ with Meredith in the intro). The up side to this is that you can expect lots of diverse NPC encounters and many sexy characters!

CONCLUSION

We'll be combining both these design philosophies as we continue to work on future content like Build#3 and others after it... And as much as we love game development, we love food even more and there's always a risk these devlogs could turn into a food blog along the way! You've been warned! :D

But generally speaking, both vertical and horizontal approaches have their uses, as they allow us to build the game's content to meet specific goals. Most of the places you'll visit in ToLLA later on (villages, towns, hostile camps, natural wilderness areas, etc.) will be a mix of the two: horizontal for free-roam and sidequest encounters, and vertical for story characters and plot events. Some areas might lean more to one side or the other, but we'll be aiming for a healthy mix to make sure you have fun playing and always get a satisfying experience that'll never leave you bored or frustrated!

You can expect a diverse mix of dialogue, exploration, combat, party management/banter, and lewd scenes with all manner of NPCs as we continue to add content to the game. We'll be chipping away at this mountain of work in the months to come, but things should go much quicker once we've finalized the main systems and art backdrops present in the first few builds.

And that brings us to the end of this particular devlog.

As always, we hope you had fun reading, and that you'll tune in next time for more! :)

~ Crimson Delight Games