1. Will sprites and backgrounds be separate later on?
2. Will you have accompanying art for the Battle sex?
3. Will battle and battle sex be expanded upon?
4.Will this be out before 4houses?
Hayo! Breakin' it down:
1. Yep; this was a time-saving measure because of the ridiculously short development cycle. Right now they're baked in together, but that's because we haven't really built out any of the UI framework yet. Sprites, background, and the UI will all be drawn separately.
2. Double-yep. As well as animation for the enemies idling, attacking, and possibly during battle sex, although that might be limited to certain special enemies. And, of course, any extra-battle sex (either an encounter that goes south or goes exactly as planned) will also have accompanying art - as well as some generic animations for certain activities, including game over splashes and generic animations.
3. Absolutely. There's a ton of stuff that isn't yet implemented - all in total, there are 3 basic combat stances, 6 advances stances, 5 "positional" stances, and a number of sex stances and other special stances, all of which will have a lot more options in terms of skills than they do now - so the number of skills will likely hit low- triple digits. The combat system as it is now is purely proof-of-concept - none of the enemy stats or skills are finalized (enemy health is only as low as it is to make it easy to 'skip' combat), and while I have done an initial first pass of what classes will have what base stats (and there will be some tweaking for character customization), most of those stats are currently not used, whereas all of them will have uses both in combat and out - that's designed, just not implemented. Battle sex will be a tactical element to tire out (stamina system - only partially implemented, being fatigued will lower attributes), distract, or satiate your enemies, with the (design) intention that willingly and strategically using sex in battle will make battles overall easier, while making it more and more likely that your character will abandon and/or be forced to abandon their quest as they progress if they're constantly doing it, either because they pick the wrong partner or are too enticed by an offer of... companionship.
And though you didn't ask specifically about it - world map traversal, generation, towns, resource management and equipment will all be implemented and expanded upon.
4. Definitely don't have a release date in mind yet - there's still a ton of work to be done. This is just an initial build out of the core gameplay loop and some iterative design. Only reason we've even set this up on itch at this stage is to participate in the lewd game jam because it seemed like fun and gave us a nice deadline to hit. We've got a long backlog that will only get longer as we dive into each system, and we're a team of two. So far we've made pretty steady progress, but the final game is far in the horizon, so any release date would be a guess.
Thanks for the questions - if you've got any more, please, feel free, and suggestions are also welcome. We'll probably post up on here with a list of planned gameplay and UI systems so that it's more obvious what's in the wings definitely and what's still up in the air.
So I have a question and the reason I ask it here is because its related to something you've mentioned in this post.
You've suggested that the player will be able to make combat easier by engaging in sex but that comes with its own risks. I'm really curious as how those risks will present themselves.
The risk of picking the wrong partner is easy to understand, like the werebitch and her knot, whom I might add is my favorite monster thus far! Great job on that front. But it's the second part, the part about succumbing to temptation that has got me confused.
Is it just the player that will succumb to the temptation of 'companionship' because they crave the well written sexy times (a distinctly plausible scenario!).
Or is it that sex going to be a double edged sword in that, each time the protagonist orgasms or is on the receiving end of one, their willingness to slut it up increases until it gets to the point that they will drop their pants for anyone with or without the players consent?
Honestly I just find the whole concept of potentially sacrificing long term success (by engaging in risky sex), for short term gain (an easier combat encounter) interesting from a game mechanics stand point and was wondering what, if any plans there were for this?
Good eye - yep, that's the basic gameplay hook there. Sex in combat would be, in a general and abstract sense with probably a few different concrete avenues for it to manifest (general "looseness" factor, specific acquired perks/kinks, etc.), a short-term advantage sacrificing a long term one. You'd be more and more likely in future encounters/battles to end up in a situation where your character's willingness is more of a liability than an asset - and eventually that will checkmate you into a game over at, say, the hands of a sexy, sexy minotaur/giant/werebitch, or some enemy where having sex with them dramatically reduces your combat effectiveness (a succubus, for example), putting you at a disadvantage. It's entirely meant as a tactical vs. strategic choice.
So would this be tracked by a separate stat like 'sluttyness' or something to that effect? If so will one of the current base stats act as a counterweight? For example if a character has high charisma then will they be more able to engage in sex without as high a risk of consequence?
Oh and one further question if I may. For anyone planning on doing a purity or chaste route (or as close as you can do to one in this game), were their character tp receive some unplanned intimacy, (or even better, lots of unplanned intimacy) would the player find their chaste and virtuous hero corrupted into a sex addict? Because that would...'terrible'.
A character with higher charisma would have an easier time getting in to fight sexy times, or to defuse a fight with sexy times, or to avoid a fight (even without sexy times), but higher charisma itself wouldn't prevent the negative effects of sexy times, at least not directly. And yep, it'll be sluttiness, plus perks you build up (Level 1 Donglust, Level 2 Donglust, etc.) that might be unlocked depending on said sluttiness score.
Purity / chaste runs are actually going to be built in as challenges - ie tracked as an achievement or possibly even a mode. There would actually be a few different kinds of challenges - purity vs. chaste is a good example. As for that corruption scenario... yep.