Honestly, I was just imagining the first patron in Voodoo2 was going to be the same girl as the first game. What're you planning for that? I might be able to give some feedback on general stuff.
Also, I totally forgot about Hypnothick for some reason. Guess hypnoshooter overshadowed it in my mind or something, since they're the same universe? Totally excited to see more from that game, but I'm curious too, since I felt like it seemed pretty complete in its current state.
Aww yeah I think a lot of why the game was a hit was because of her, but I kinda feel their story is done, they have their partner doing the voodoo stuff for her. And I like coming up with new characters.
First I had a long dragon lady clerk stretching up for an item from a top shelf which I kinda liked but I think people wouldn’t be satisfied by a backshot with just ass and some sideboob, may use her later though. The current one is a thick giraffe mommy with big boobs mid shopping at the cash register.
Don’t think I’ll go for any transformations, but thinking you can buy an item from the shop that makes them nude, emperors new clothes style or maybe an xray vision. I think that would be a cool upgrade to the first game. Also toying with an idea that you wouldn’t mess with just a voodoo doll, but you could purchase different items. Stuff that represents boobs, a dick, feet etc. Wouldn’t need that much more character art but I think it’d make a big difference to the player that they are focusing directly on some body part.
The patrons would leave a personal item with a note what they are into at the shop. You choose from those and return home to toy with it. You could go overboard right away with them like in the first game but they wouldn’t return to the shop, you’d have to ease them in and fulfill their requests. Their requests would get more intense and maybe they give more personal items which would power up the voodoo.
Thinking I’ll call it Voodoo shop assistant, or Poppet shop assistant or Witches assistant. There was that one comment that called out poppets not being voodoo and it got a upvote or two so I’m not sure if I’m insulting someone calling it voodoo. But I think the voodoo name is catchier and most people associate the dolls with it.
Hehe Hypnothick has a steady playerbase and people have been asking for an update. I feel it’s in a really good spot too, so I’m thinking an alternative route to finish the game, escape room style.
Yeah, I guess having the same character again would be weird, since that was an entirely separate story.
All that stuff about the Voodoo game seems great! Especially the part about the "you can go full-throttle right away but it makes them leave and not give you more stuff to work with" It adds a lot of realism to the game, and having a steady progression is also good. Although, I do worry a bit that some people might miss that, even if you make it clear in dialogue and such. I think a good way of doing it would be to include a "tutorial character", I was thinking it could be the voodoo shop's owner letting you test out a doll/other voodoo thing on her to help get you the hang of things, and if you go too far with her, she'd scold you for it, so that you can see the consequences in action before going into a proper "assignment". And it'd be fun if the shopkeeper then became a proper voodoo-able character later on (like, maybe her lower body would be hidden under the counter for the tutorial, but you'd get to see it all later on), maybe at the end of the game. I always love it when games do that.
Totally agree with you there, save the backshot-only for later on in the game, it wouldn't make the best first character, but I'd love to see that eventually. And same for TFs, they seem like something to introduce later on. Being able to x-ray through layers of clothes also seems like a good idea for the "thing" to introduce with the first character, regardless of whether or not you're planning on carrying it through for all the other characters. I'd personally prefer if it was one article/layer of clothing at a time, rather than one item to full nude. Something like an "enchanted lens" would be a good generic name, but if they were tied to the personal items, it could make sense if it was a mini dress-up doll/mannequin that you'd get miniature versions of their clothes on, thus allowing you to make the girls' clothes invisible to you by taking them off.
Being able to focus on specific body parts would be cool, especially if what kind of toy you were using connected to the angle you were looking at the character from. But even if not, it'd still make you feel like you had a lot more direct control, especially if different points of contact had different reactions from the character (like, sweet spots). Were you thinking it'd be one single toy per character, thus with each character getting their own body part focus? Or each character could have multiple different toys? I feel like the former would feel a bit restrictive, like you're missing out on something if you really like a whole character, but you can only play with their boobs because that's just the toy they're assigned. Maybe all characters would have a base doll, but then varying "focus" items that you could use to "zoom in"?
Not entirely sure what you mean by "empowering" the voodoo doll, like, making it give the patron more pleasure, or unlocking new capabilities somehow (like, penetration, or the character's unique thing (ie. lactation or TF)) But the escalation of the patrons' demands is, as I said, a good system. Maybe the empowering could also let you see more of the character. Like, by strengthening the connection, you'd get a better view of them, magically-speaking. Or, in terms of gameplay, that means if the character was, like, sitting behind a desk that was hiding their bottom half, improving the connection would let you see through the desk.
And, "Voodoo Shop Assistant" seems like a perfectly good name. I can't quite think of anything better. Most people probably don't know what poppets are, so putting that in the title isn't the best idea. But, you could include that somewhere in-game, like that's what the dolls are referred to in shops and stuff. And I agree that most people think of them as voodoo dolls. You could include some dialogue from the witch in charge of the shop making a joke about "oh, technically it's not actual voodoo, but that's what gets customers in the door", so people know you know they aren't actually voodoo dolls. And, "Witch's Assistant" seems a bit too generic of a name. You could do something like "Dollmaker's Apprentice", maybe? But that gives off a bit too much of a mystic, mysterious vibe than I'm getting from the rest of the game concept.
And, about Hypnothick: Oh, an alt ending! That makes sense as a way to expand it. Any sort of new TF attached, or just the ending?
Hehee yeah her being the last character was the plan. Her working as a tutorial sounds good too but I think it’d water down the surprise. Tutorial character does sound good but I think I’ll focus first on just the one initial character to keep the project manageable.
The thing with TF is that you need so much more art, both nude and clothed. Doable, but probably leaving that much much later. The x-ray is a bit hard to implement too with the clothes getting wet and clothes and shoes compressing body parts so I was leaning into the full nude thing to keep it again a bit simpler. Had in mind that the nude thing would be kind of hypnosis that makes the patron think they are clothed but they never put any clothes on. It would be like the max intensity thing to do, you maybe could do it earlier but it would piss the patron off and make them leave. I’ll think about the stripping mechanism, but I think I’ll go with the full nude.
Yeah I had in mind that the maybe would be a picture in picture of the bits, would fix the dragon’s non revealing pose. Was thinking I’d add one item each time I release a new character, maybe the first version would be just the normal voodoo doll. They would be usable on everyone, except like the cock and pussy one only works on guys and gals respectively. The picture in picture would make it harder though.
Yeah not sure how it’d work gameplaywise, but the idea is that the voodoo gets more powerful the more personal the item is you use. Thinking maybe there is a timer, you burn the item and better items burn longer. But unlocking things and visibility sounds good too, gotta think about it.
Oh yeah Dollmaker’s Apprentice sounds awesome. But I like the joke a lot ahah.
Well I really dread touching the 3D model and I’m not even sure I can modify it at all without breaking everything, seems so much work. Got 2 transformations in mind, but they would be illustrations only. One might be a bit grotesque and not sure if it can be counted as TF, but it sounds pretty hot in my head, need to see how the art turns out. They both would be “bad ends”
Great minds think alike I guess, in terms of the shop owner thing! Yeah, TF would absolutely be hard to make, art-wise, even if it's just one stage, from normal to big. But I'm really hopeful there's at least some, it'd work really well in this. Not really sure what you mean with x-ray being harder to implement than full-nude, I wasn't saying that you'd have a movable xray-lens like some games do, it'd just be a thing you unlock. I'm not saying xray as in partial transparency of clothing, if that's what you thought I meant. Visually, it'd be the exact same as "she's nude but thinks she's wearing clothes", just with different background info attached. I also feel like the "emperor's new clothes" thing kinda clashes with the "I'm trying to hide the fact that I'm getting played with/fucked right now since I'm in public".
Clothes compressing body parts is a valid point (although it wouldn't make you have to draw more art, and you could just pretend it's not real, a lot of other games do that.) but I don't see how clothes wetness influences the X-ray mechanic at all (unless you were thinking I meant X-ray as in transparency.)
Picture in picture is a great idea! it would necessitate more art, at least in the case of characters with odd poses (or, just any ass-focused sub-item on a normally-posed character), but I think it's a great way of letting you see every angle of a character, especially the ones like the dragon lady.
Not entirely sure about the timer aspect... having a time limit makes the game feel a lot less sandboxy, and that's kinda one of the original's draws. But, it could definitely work! I just worry that either the timers just wouldn't really matter, or they'd be so short you'd be busy rushing to fulfill the customers' requests to actually appreciate the hotness, but it could be executed well. But, I guess if the final item was infinite time, no holds barred, and that would let you do a more sandboxy thing, then that could work too! Actually, the more I think about it the less of an actual problem it feels like.
Aaw yeah was thinking a movable lens. But even if not, if it’s an x-ray, wouldn’t the body underneath look different when clothes press their compress their body and fluids gather differently around their breasts? Like you said, I could just ignore it and make it look like they are just naked, but if they’d actually be naked, it would fix that inconsistency. And if the patrons really cared about hiding it, they would be wearing baggy clothes and layers, and I don’t people want to see that. I think deep down they want to get caught, thinking maybe the hypnosis could be a request at one point. They’d want the final stage of exhibitionism but are too squeamish to do it on their own. You could maybe cut the hypnosis mid the voodoo session to get their reaction. There’s the problem that you’d kinda have to decide on the hypnosis before you get to the voodoo part, but you’d still have the interaction of removing it. And is public nudity a crime in this universe? They’d get caught way before they even get to the scene where they’d be voodoed. But it’s porn, maybe I don’t have to think about stuff like that, you can make some logic/consistency sacrifices in the name of lewdness. You could use the same reasoning with the x-ray though, but to me visual inconsistencies catch my eye more. I do get your point though, and I think people would like the individual clothing x-ray, but I really believe the hypnosis could be pretty hot not to mention easier to implement.
Yeah the timer is a bit of a gamble, but I’d like to make this one more “gamey”. And the game would be multiple days. Like you said, they could give you an infinite item if you “beat” them. Maybe you could upgrade the vessel you burn things in, increase the duration and/or intensity in addition to the item burned. It would kinda remove the “full throttle” from the start, but you could do that with another patron if you upgrade the vessel.
I mean, yeah, the body would look different when being compressed by the clothes, but in most cases, the only notable difference would be the boobs. Most of the time, sure, there'd be some indents from waistbands and such, but they wouldn't be noticeable enough that you'd have to include them, people probably wouldn't notice that fine of a detail. The boobs getting supported by a bra or let hang free would be more notable of a difference on characters with big tits, but technically speaking, it wouldn't increase the number of different art variants you'd have to do. If you feel capable of drawing boobs as if they were being supported by clothes without them looking weird, then I don't see any problems with that. If anything, it makes it easier on characters with cleavage/other partially-exposed boobs, since you can reuse the part where they're shown. And it'll only actually come up if the character isn't wearing clothing that is either too loose to restrict the boobs, or is skin-tight enough that it's basically just the boobs anyways, and I notice you like to do a good amount of the former.
I do see what you mean about the fluids, now that you mention it, since there's a minor point of "oh, well, if there's actually clothing being worn over this, so there shouldn't be sweat drops on the skin here", but I doubt it'll be too noticeable. Even less noticeable than the non-boob-skin-indentations.
I don't mean to say that it's all about hiding it, but there's a level of plausible deniability. Like, looking at IRL exhibitionism kink, the risk of being caught is part of the thrill, so in this context, no, they wouldn't just wear baggy clothes to hide it. Honestly... I think you could do both, though. Make the nude-hypnosis art now, then later, you can come back and add the xray-clothes-disabling, and you won't have as much art to make. And, the idea of releasing the hypnosis in public seems too hot to pass up, especially with the general porn-logic "nudity is legal, but still embarrassing" reason to explain away why they wouldn't just cover themselves immediately. Although, I do think it'd be better for there to be a "underwear only" in-between stage even for that, so it doesn't go straight from fully clothed to nudity (well, not really "straight" there, since it takes a while, but you get what I mean). And hell, if you were feeling extra ambitious, you could even have alternate costumes that you could hypnotize the patrons into wearing.
Honestly, gameyness is good, that's what elevates a neat little sandbox into an actual fun experience. So, yeah, go for it when it comes to the timer, that's a good idea when it comes to that. As long as you make sure it's not too tight that it's repetitive. Although, I think a better system would be "Incorporating the personal items into the voodoo doll makes me able to keep the magical link open for longer at a time", since putting the items in the doll feels more voodoo-y to me, and it'd make it make more sense in the case where you fail to reach the objective in time and you have to try again the next day. Unless they're coming in the next day with the same exact type of item to burn along with their letter, in which case, that could work.
Yeah boobs and cocks mainly. But do not underestimate the small details like the the little squishing around the edges of clothes, can elevate an illustration to another level. I’d like to make the clothed characters as sexy as possible even without the nudity. You’d mainly play with the clothed characters and the nudity would be a very expensive upgrade, and/or high intensity if I go the hypnosis route. I also really dislike the current Godot masking system, it makes sprites have some ugly edges in web builds. I think I could avoid them altogether if the voodoo session strictly starts either clothed or nude and no switching mid session. Underwear could work well there though as a first step with the exhibitionism. The current character is going commando though.
Oh I didn’t even think about sweat drops, was mainly thinking that with lots of fluids they would stream along the body and go over the edges of the character sprite. If I make the clothing removable I would be needing masking which I’d really want to avoid.
Glad you think that releasing the hypnosis sounds good, I really think it’d be a banger mechanism. Honestly I think I’d maybe rather make the alt costumes than hotswapping/stripping clothes. But I’ll start with the hypnosis and see what’s next.
Yeah thought first you’d pin stuff to the dolls, but I’m not sure what kind of items I will be adding and they would require some additional art. And I’m thinking they’ll give out personal items like panties and stuff which would be kinda big to pin. Burning em seemed like a good compromise, not much additional art to do and it could give different kinds of lighting to the voodoo table. Maybe the flame could change color and stuff. Also toying around with an idea that the voodoo table or the item would be 3D, but haven’t thought it trough honestly and Godot 3D is such a pain. Oh crap yeah, found out when porting Hypnothick to mobile that for some reason 3D subviewports don’t work on 2D scenes on mobile, so would have to ditch the mobile version probably. Haven’t thought out the system that well yet, but I think I can make the burning work.
Oh, right, cocks, I entirely forgot there'd be male/futa characters in this, despite the fact that you mentioned it before. And, well, if on-the-fly undressing wouldn't work because of the limitations of your coding engine, you'd know that best, so go with what you know will work, but consider adding room to expand. Frankly, I'm a sucker for any game with any sort of stripping or dress-up mechanic, especially if it involves putting a character in skimpier/lewdified versions of their original outfit. When I was thinking of "personal items" I was thinking about, like, small body pieces, like hair. Since the original voodoo (in my eyes, at least) involves using a strand of the bound person's hair inside the doll, I was thinking it could work like that, getting more and more intimate. Like... a scrap of clothing, then hair, then saliva, then cum, something like that. But actual personal items like underwear could also work, and definitely wouldn't work with my idea, lol. Plus, you could even have the item slowly burn away in lieu of a more traditional progress bar, with visible charring slowly climbing up the item as time went on.
Hehe yeah, I tend to slap dicks all around ahah. But I’ll start with a regular chick, since I kinda feel that was also a part why the game was so popular. Made a concept early on of a guy at a club and a hand pinching a stressball or such, representing a prostate. Thinking the voodoo items will be everyday items which are enchanted by the shopkeep. Just having some trouble thinking what could represent a pussy or feet, other than just straight up sextoy or mannequin feet. Maybe just like anatomical cross section drawing which you can rub or pin, would make the hentai trope of stimulating ovaries possible.
Yeah stripping and skimpier clothing is hot, but I kinda wanna keep the game similar to the old one, focusing on the see-trough wet clothing, though with guys it’s more about the faces and bulges.
And yeah pretty much had all of those personal items in mind, but there’s one idea I want to implement with the shopkeep which kinda opens up all kinds of items.
Ooh yeah the item actually burning is a great opportunity to practice shaders.
