NOTE: While most questions are from the Q & A session on 6/2 I've gone ahead and truncated some forum questions into this recap as well.
Q: So what's the latest on Triple X? So the latest is that I'm working on an actual release date. The next immediate step is talking to our contractors to work out a way to get the art we need within two weeks time. While that's going I'd like to work on some marketing material with what we have. The game isn't out because we're missing two key assets. We're missing two keys assets because there are no funds to commission them. Q: Which assets? Well the mansion for starters is a wild card. We had this idea that the player would be able to upgrade to a mansion. From the mansion they could maybe do upscale photoshoots in the garden or shoot a scene inside in a floor-to-ceiling style windowed room. And, we're missing a fuck-ton of sex positions still. Both of these are plug-ins to my engine and could be added at any time with little issue. This is ultimately how I plan to support modding. Q: How many positions do you currently have in-game? the base positions are in. So doggy, cowgirl, missionary. Some solo play for men, women and trans. Maybe 20, then you have foreplay stuff.
Every time we commission something we have to get multiple skin variants and gender variants. So as we start from solo and work up to threesomes, you get the picture. We have to pick and choose what's most interesting and keep those in line with what's common. Q: Talent management is my fav part. Is there lots of that? I actually just flushed out the fame mechanic. You can take someone from a hooker to a real major face in the industry. Loyalty is a thing as well, you gotta keep em happy. It gets crazier when you start getting into STD testing and stuff like that being factors in health Age, special attributes etc matter. Q: Does that mean there will be granny action? And what about performer retirement/death due to old-age? Retirement is a mechanic I started taking seriously last month. The issue with granny/pop porn is that I'd rather the character models reflect their age at that point (late 50s to 60s). Problem is, money. That costs more money, and we'd have to get more position art. So retirement is between 40-50ish! But they'll go grey and shit yeah. Retirement depends on their success more than age and you bet that if they're making millions they might leave the industry or just stop working for you to compete with you in whichever niche they are best in. Q: Can you sign talent to an exclusive contract? I had a long internal debate over non-perpetual/perpetual BUT the compromise was adding a renewal clause. So you can keep renewing max term agreements until they get sick of you. So treat em right! Q: Is the extent or scope of the game rather low, or do you lack confidence in customer satisfaction within a higher price range? People already don't pay for porn. Porn games, maybe? We're not a large company and we've had to work for the opportunity to even be able to hosts things like a Q & A. There's a stigma unfortunately. We need to keep the barrier to entry low and that starts with the price. Also, we've spent less than 10k on the game. We don't need to charge more for the possibility of breaking even which, in the games industry, is all you can usually hope for as a small dev. Our problem is that yeah, we actually wanted to make a fairly deep sim as I'm not sure if we'll be able to make another game after this. It's taken a toll. Time will tell. Q: Can you give an idea of the playtime the game provides approximately for a complete run? Meaning having played the campaign with multiple approaches, because it appears that the game is based on replayability. Or is it more sandbox-y? It's a hybrid. We actually cut back on the sandbox content and went back to improving the original spec which was semi-linear with enough flexibility to allow for a different experience. The long-term goal however is sandbox and although the vanilla build will be a hybrid, the engine is already geared to go in that direction. It may be obvious as you progress that this was the intention. I haven't done the math in a while, we haven't even had a chance to test properly as now it's just me on core development. But I recall it was 5 minutes per month at normal speed. I think it was 46 hours if you do nothing in macro, meaning no shoots or alerts. Alerts should be 10 second pauses each (unless you read faster than that) and shoots are measured in hours in the day not days of the week. So a shoot that takes 10 minutes is calculated accordingly and subtracted from that hour of that day. Q: what part of the game are you most proud of? As much as we say it's not a sex simulator, the arousal mechanics. I really wanted them to "feel" in a way. It's a mix between machine learning and general A.I mixed with passive input. You don't control them but you do direct them and there's a lot you just don't have real control over. I wanted people to be like, "well this girl just had a kid so she probably won't be into it right away. But her last contract was kind of light and she's got bills to pay. Plus her co-star is nice and they've worked together before so she'll be more comfortable.." You get it.

NOTE: While most questions are from the Q & A session on 6/2 I've gone ahead and truncated some forum questions into this recap as well.
Q: So what's the latest on Triple X? So the latest is that I'm working on an actual release date. The next immediate step is talking to our contractors to work out a way to get the art we need within two weeks time. While that's going I'd like to work on some marketing material with what we have. The game isn't out because we're missing two key assets. We're missing two keys assets because there are no funds to commission them. Q: Which assets? Well the mansion for starters is a wild card. We had this idea that the player would be able to upgrade to a mansion. From the mansion they could maybe do upscale photoshoots in the garden or shoot a scene inside in a floor-to-ceiling style windowed room. And, we're missing a fuck-ton of sex positions still. Both of these are plug-ins to my engine and could be added at any time with little issue. This is ultimately how I plan to support modding. Q: How many positions do you currently have in-game? the base positions are in. So doggy, cowgirl, missionary. Some solo play for men, women and trans. Maybe 20, then you have foreplay stuff.
Every time we commission something we have to get multiple skin variants and gender variants. So as we start from solo and work up to threesomes, you get the picture. We have to pick and choose what's most interesting and keep those in line with what's common. Q: Talent management is my fav part. Is there lots of that? I actually just flushed out the fame mechanic. You can take someone from a hooker to a real major face in the industry. Loyalty is a thing as well, you gotta keep em happy. It gets crazier when you start getting into STD testing and stuff like that being factors in health Age, special attributes etc matter. Q: Does that mean there will be granny action? And what about performer retirement/death due to old-age? Retirement is a mechanic I started taking seriously last month. The issue with granny/pop porn is that I'd rather the character models reflect their age at that point (late 50s to 60s). Problem is, money. That costs more money, and we'd have to get more position art. So retirement is between 40-50ish! But they'll go grey and shit yeah. Retirement depends on their success more than age and you bet that if they're making millions they might leave the industry or just stop working for you to compete with you in whichever niche they are best in. Q: Can you sign talent to an exclusive contract? I had a long internal debate over non-perpetual/perpetual BUT the compromise was adding a renewal clause. So you can keep renewing max term agreements until they get sick of you. So treat em right! Q: Is the extent or scope of the game rather low, or do you lack confidence in customer satisfaction within a higher price range? People already don't pay for porn. Porn games, maybe? We're not a large company and we've had to work for the opportunity to even be able to hosts things like a Q & A. There's a stigma unfortunately. We need to keep the barrier to entry low and that starts with the price. Also, we've spent less than 10k on the game. We don't need to charge more for the possibility of breaking even which, in the games industry, is all you can usually hope for as a small dev. Our problem is that yeah, we actually wanted to make a fairly deep sim as I'm not sure if we'll be able to make another game after this. It's taken a toll. Time will tell. Q: Can you give an idea of the playtime the game provides approximately for a complete run? Meaning having played the campaign with multiple approaches, because it appears that the game is based on replayability. Or is it more sandbox-y? It's a hybrid. We actually cut back on the sandbox content and went back to improving the original spec which was semi-linear with enough flexibility to allow for a different experience. The long-term goal however is sandbox and although the vanilla build will be a hybrid, the engine is already geared to go in that direction. It may be obvious as you progress that this was the intention. I haven't done the math in a while, we haven't even had a chance to test properly as now it's just me on core development. But I recall it was 5 minutes per month at normal speed. I think it was 46 hours if you do nothing in macro, meaning no shoots or alerts. Alerts should be 10 second pauses each (unless you read faster than that) and shoots are measured in hours in the day not days of the week. So a shoot that takes 10 minutes is calculated accordingly and subtracted from that hour of that day. Q: what part of the game are you most proud of? As much as we say it's not a sex simulator, the arousal mechanics. I really wanted them to "feel" in a way. It's a mix between machine learning and general A.I mixed with passive input. You don't control them but you do direct them and there's a lot you just don't have real control over. I wanted people to be like, "well this girl just had a kid so she probably won't be into it right away. But her last contract was kind of light and she's got bills to pay. Plus her co-star is nice and they've worked together before so she'll be more comfortable.." You get it.