Month: June 2016

Hello everyone.

There is new version of Betsy (version 1.1) now available for download or to play online. There are no major changes, though there were a few responses that connected to the wrong pages. I also reduced the confidence requirement by two for Betsy to get the part in the play, so anyone having trouble with that part may find it a little easier. Big thank you you Serge for putting together a very concise list of things for me to tweak.

Betsy – a review

So, let’s try and sum up my own feelings towards the finished game.

Overall, I’m extremely proud. Betsy was actually the culmination of about two years worth of work and I think it shows. Not that I was constantly working on it for two years of course, but I had a very basic idea of what I wanted the game to be in my head, and for around 18-20 months I kept adding ideas to it. When I finally got around to creating the game, I had about 1000 words worth of ideas or scenarios or lines of dialog hastily written into a notepad file.

Best parts?

I love Violet’s entrance. I thought it was a great idea just to have a main character be introduced by her running into camera shot and whacking someone of the back of the head. In fact, practically anything involving her. I started this game lusting after Betsy, but I think think I ended it in love with Violet.

Apart from that, I think my favorite parts are mostly the smaller ones. I love the way Betsy chickens out for her first fully nude photo at the school (at least for a few moments). I love the way Betsy and the player laugh at themselves running home for sex after the dance.

I also really like the animations. Playing and image sequence rather than using an animated GIF definitely looks better.

What didn’t I like?

Though I’m of course very happy with it, I think there are a few fundamental things about the game that bug me.

For instance, how on earth did Betsy end up with the shy personality that she does? She has Cass as a mother, Rachel as a sister, and Violet as her best friend! I guess the explanation is that she inherited it from her estranged father before he left, but maybe I should have made a point of it somewhere.

I also think that the confidence building doesn’t go on for quite as long as it should. There’s only one date between Betsy reading the newspaper and posing for nude photos at school.  I feel like there should be one more date in the middle there. One possibility I’ve been considering is changing the dates so that there’s four date nights instead of three. So, for the first date, you can pick meeting Violet or bowling, second date you can pick Clothes shopping or staying home, and on the third night you can pick the pool or the nightclub. I’ll have to think about it though.

What’s next?

The next thing for the site will be dsp3000’s next game, The Academy : Part 2. Expect weekly blog posts concerning it soon.

For me, there are two games I have to choose between doing.

The first is Mia. I really wanted to do a game which is set in one place, but with lots of possibilities to it. In this case, you would both be staying in a hotel, meet at the bar, and get to know each other throughout the evening. The unique part of it though is that I want it to be a mystery. Mia frequently teases you regarding what she does for work, and what her true personality is, but isn’t very forthcoming. The ultimate aim of the game would be to finish it know who she truly is.

Mia would also give me the chance to introduce a new black woman to the cast of characters. If you’re wondering why my characters are usually white, it’s simply because they’re easier to get looking good or realistic. If you look at Josie for instance, her skin looks a bit plastic and not very detailed. I know a lot more about using Poser these days though, so maybe it’s time to try again.

The other possibility is Crystal : Part 3. People who check my blog regularly will know that I started work on Crystal earlier in the year, but stopped when my interest waned. It was mainly the setup that I had no enthusiasm for (it played very similarly to Jennifer), and I wanted to do something a little different.

I think I might have finally found something that I like though. Any American Dad fans reading? I was watching one of the older episodes a while ago, “Roger ‘n’ Me”. In it two of the main characters compete in a game show where player are awarded points for getting answers right about their partner. So, you might get asked, “What is Crystal’s favorite move?”, and you would have give the correct answer to get the points and her approval. I feel like that would be a good aspiration in the game ; to win the quiz show. It can be very character orientated and to finish the game, you have to really get to know Crystal, otherwise you won’t win.

I have some others ideas in place for it too, such as Crystal being a big Sci-fi geek and meeting the cast of my sci-fi games at a convention. I’ll have to think about it.

Another possibility is Photographer Part 3, but I don’t really want to go there until I have a good story driven reason for it happening this time.

As always, I’m happy to hear thoughts on my rambling ideas.

Thank you to everyone who reported issues and bugs over the last two days.

I’m am now happy enough to declare Betsy out of Beta, so the I’m labeling the newly uploaded version 1.0. You can find it here http://www.vdategames.com/betsy.html. Remember to refresh the page if you’ve visited it recently or the new version may not show. The downloaded version should say ‘betsy_1.0.zip’, and the online version should say ‘betsy3’ if you look at the URL.

All reported bugs have been corrected and lots of types fixed. This version also has the easy difficulty re-added for those who need it.

A quick summary guide for playing :

• As with most of my games, All browsers should be able to play the online version. Chrome cannot play the offline version though. I recommend using Firefox if you can.
• If you see a 404 page when playing online, this means that too many people are playing the game online at the moment. Either download a version if you can, or a wait until a little later.

EDIT : If the game is still not working for you, please specify your problem below, other wise I can’t help you!

UPDATE : A walkthrough for Betsy has now been added to the walkthroughs section.

SATURDAY UPDATE : I am on vacation until Thursday. This means, while I will try to answer email and comments, I won’t be able to do anything significant with the site until I return.

While most players had no trouble with the beta of Betsy I uploaded yesterday, about 10%couldn’t get it to work properly. The issues seem to be a combination of the new functions I started using for this game and the browsers people were using to play.

Since I’m a fan of the ‘simplest solution is normally the best one’ ideal, I’ve just decided to replace all of the new functions with the ones I regularly use for my games. If you were able to play games such as Miranda, Jennifer or Maddison, this version should work fine for you now.

I’ve updated the Betsy game page with new links, and I’ve replaced the online version. If you are playing online, the new version will have ‘betsy2’ in the the URL. If are downloading it, the zip should be named ‘betsy_0.91’.

http://www.vdategames.com/betsy.html

Normal rules for my games apply. The online version should work with every browser, but you can’t use Chrome for the offline version.

Note : If you’ve visited the Betsy page recently, remember to press refresh on your browser, otherwise the old version may still appear.

Hopefully, this version should work for everyone. I’ve also corrected all the bugs that people have reported to me.

Betsy is now live and for free on the site.

If you can’t see her yet, make sure you refresh the site’s front page, or the games page (whichever one you’re looking at).

The final image count for the game is a crazy 1652 images, making it easily the largest I’ve ever made.

Due to the size of the game, I’m only releasing it as a Beta for the first 24-48 hours. I will be very surprised if there aren’t at least some bugs left in it. If there are, I will be fixing them as soon as I can.

In case you missed the relevant blog post, I have also upgraded the engine for this game. You should be able to download and play it with any browser, including Chrome.

Finally, I just want to draw attention to the fact that this is a free game. Part of my intention of releasing it as such is to see if people will be willing to join the members section as a sort of ‘donation’ instead of being forced to join it to play the latest games. If you enjoy Betsy, have the money, and want to show your gratitude, feel free to sign up.

Happy gaming!

UPDATE : Since a decent amount of people seen to be having trouble with the new engine, I’m putting together a version of the game that uses the old one. The simplest solution is normally the best one, and if you can play any of my other games, you should be able to use this version. If you’re having trouble, just wait one more day and I should have the new version online when you wake up tomorrow morning.

This should be the final post before Betsy is released.

I’m finishing everything now. It is very likely that I will have the very last image rendered before the end of the day. That means I probably won’t have have enough time to check everything before tomorrow, but it does give me Friday and the weekend to check for bugs etc.

That means that today I am officially announcing that Betsy will be available for online play and download on Monday, June 20th.

A quick summary for those who don’t regularly follow the blog : Betsy is a brand new game to the site. She will be release for free so that everyone can play the game. It is a large one too. The final game will have over 1400 images.

Here are the final set of preview images.

Two of the possible last images you can see while playing the game. Each will come with a little summary of how things will continue in the relationship after you stop playing.

One of the two epilogues takes place on the beach where the player and Betsy have a final conversation about their future. Depending on how ‘wild’ Betsy has gotten throughout the game, the conversation can go a couple of different ways.

No doubt, the epilogue everyone will be aiming for however is the one that includes the three main characters and the player having fun in the empty nightclub (Betsy’s mom owns it, and has given them the keys so that they can have a private party). You can probably guess where the scenario goes.

That’s all for now. The next blog post you see should be on Monday when I release the game.

So, what have I been doling this week?

Sex, sex and more sex! There are now hundreds of images covering the two main sex scenes, and I’m still going.

The second time the player and Betsy have sex isn’t as public as the first, but is much wilder now that the two of you are confident being naked in front of each other.

If Betsy gets the lead role in the play, the Player, Violet and Cass come to watch. If April is friends with the group, she will also join them. If everything goes well, Cass gives Betsy the keys to the nightclub so all four of you can have a fun private party.

One thing leads to another. And then another. And then another. And then…you get the idea. Nudity ensues.

The foursome at the nightclub is the final part of the game, though you will have to unlock several things through the game’s main story to experience it.

I’m still not confident I’ll finish everything before next Friday. If it does end up being the release date, I’ll probably make a blog post about it on Wednesday. If not, Monday, June 20th, seems most likely.

 

Production on Betsy is getting very near the end now. The only remaining images to render are for the epilogues.

As with Miranda, there will be an ending, but there will also be multiple epilogues that follow, in this case three. Two out of the three involve sex scenes, so I still have a respectable amount of images to make, but they’re all in the same location which should make the process a bit quicker.

A release day of Friday, June 17th looks likely, but I’m not committing to it yet, so don’t be surprised if I release it the week after.

Today however, you still get a small preview!

Betsy will have one more technical upgrade I haven’t mentioned yet. Instead of using animated GIFs, I’m going to be using image sequences instead. This should mean that the animations play better, and at a much higher quality too.

Before releasing the game, I want to make sure the javascript function I’m using works for everyone, so go ahead and download the test by clicking here.

You should see a very short preview of the game where Violet is trying to talk Betsy into playing with her breasts in public. Please let me know whether it works for you or not. It should be compatible with all browsers.

Next, more preview images.

Everything set in high school needs to have a big dance at the end of the week, and this game is no exception.

A moment from the infamous play that Betsy is trying to build up her confidence high enough to perform a topless scene in.

If you fail to build her confidence high enough, she will be forced to take a much smaller part in the play.

A high enough confidence can also turn an after school photoshoot very naughty.

The final thing to mention today is that it looks like the amount of images will be larger than I was predicting a few weeks ago. There are currently 792 images altogether. That makes it likely that the game will have around 1000 when I am done.