Posted April 25, 2022 by Cisco Donovan
Private Dick is an erotic neo-noir visual novel, bringing a slice of pre-war noir to the modern world. And one of game's major ah, not kinks but preoccupations, maybe, is social media.
A private detective in the modern world would get no-where without social media, right? Protagonist Sam Steele is a bit of a man out of time and, begrudgingly, will start to use social media to better investigate the mysteries he finds himself involved in.
But also, Private Dick is a game about celebrating the beauty of the female form. And there is a lot of beauty in self-expression to be found in social media.
So as well as cracking the case, you'll be able to enjoy a dose of voyeurism and maybe watch a little corruption unfold in the social media screen.
I've been working on the social media subsystem on-and-off for a few days now, and I'm really happy with how it' s coming together. Yes, it could be prettier, bit it's nice and functional right now - and besides, it doesn't look TOO bad.
These screens play a really important role in the game. Social media is a place where some bits of story unfold, where Steele can see things he wouldn't otherwise see. Social media is a place where the women of the game get to express themselves, to develop their personality - because arousal isn't just physical, but an emotional state. And social media is a place to show hot artwork of my cast of femme fatales - a place to showcase and celebrate their beauty cheaply, and without a heavy narrative overhead.
There will be some deeper story threads surrounding this cyberspace as well, some narrative beats which provide interest throughout the 40 or so hours of gameplay I expect to implement. But that's something to talk about later!
The Social Media overlay will be coming to the Private Dick demo in a week or so. It won't integrate very tightly with the story because there's not yet enough story for it to integrate with. But that will come in due course.