HTML Incremental impregnation game

[AlexFenec]

Hello! I'm working on a simple HTML game that I call Incregnation.

Description:
In a world shaped by powerful magic to repeat the same cycle over and over, your bloodline has managed to gain a semblance of independence. You play as the last of your bloodline, raised by magic but also by the tapestries your ancestors managed to make to pass knowledge despite their end. Like them you are doomed to meet a mate that will impregnate you and to pass down your life to your child. But unlike the other residents of this realm, you will leave some of your own knowledge to your child and they will be stronger from it. Will your bloodline manage to uncover the source of these Cycles, or are their loophole ultimately futile?

It's a minimalist text-based incremental game inspired by

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, but with no time gates. You play as the last generation of your bloodline exploring the world while an exponentially increasing arousal drains your Determination. You will meet various characters that will breed you if your run ends in their area unless you breed them first to get to the next chapter. When a run ends your character returns to their ancestral home to give birth and you timeskip to the start of your child's journey to meet the respective children of the other characters.

Almost every action you take trains one of your stats, accumulating permanent speed bonuses for your descendants as well as temporary speed bonuses for yourself. You have a limited control over the story: you are free to take any of the available actions in any order and different actions may open different paths but the story decides which actions are available in the first place and will railroad you somewhat. The actions have evocative names and you can play trough the game without reading the exposition, but you might miss the smut as well or miss the details needed to optimise your route. There is no time gate: selecting an action spends your character's time but is instantaneous for the player.

There will be mainly Futa content and an emphasis on Impregnation. I am trying to avoid mentioning the gender of the player character, but they have breasts and a pussy and sometimes magically grow a cock. Currently the other characters are monstergirls because it's easier to write.

I'm using plain HTML and javascript, I'm creating my engine as I go. I tried to make it mobile-friendly as well but I haven't tested that in some time. Here is a screenshot of what this looks like:

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Stuff I need help with:
- I am not set on visual art. I have a few AI-generated images for Bunny but I don't plan on keeping them. I'm not sure how to work with an artist.
- Writing pitfalls. I'm not confident in my writing and trying to obfuscate the player's gender seems like a bad idea, but I feel committed to it. Currently the other characters are monstergirls because it's easier for me to write. Where can I find resources on how to write better smut?
- Getting feedback. I'm anxious about what the response will be to a what is essentially a complicated text-based clicker. I have shared a playable version, and would love feedback on it.
- Dev log. I will try to post updates here about my progress and challenges. I mean I would like to post here frequently, this post took me 2.5 hours to write so I can improve on that as well.

Latest update:

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That's all for now.

 

[AlexFenec]

Quick update to make a first version available!

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To try it, simply extract the zip and open index.html in your preferred browser.

This version is still in development. Some features are rough, such as the Save/Load system or the recap at the end of a generation. Some features are incomplete, such as the text at the end of a generation which has some placeholder or is simply missing for some parts. The current content ends after breeding the character in the Forest, I estimate it takes around 20 generations.

A few gameplay tips:
- You can recover Determination by cumming. Get Bunny to fuck you before your Determination runs out.
- The tooltip of Actions and Objectives start with flavour text and end with their mechanical impacts.
- You can save/load from different "slots" by changing the value in the input fields. Existing saves are not listed (yet), it's up to you to remember your save names. Saves are stored in your browser's local storage. There is no overwriting protection yet.
- You can right-click an action's button to stop just before completing it or the current Cycle. This can be useful if you want to optimize a route, but it's not needed.

 

[Toramizu]

It's a good start, here are a few tips to hopefully help make it easier for you.

- I am not using visual art currently. I am reluctant to use AI-generated art and I'm not sure how to work with an artist.

You can just borrow some are to show your vision and plan to replace it at a later date. More often than not, especially here on a pirating site, it won't be a problem.
As long as you're not making banks on other people's work and reference them/give a link to the author, it'll be okay.

If you want to work with an artist, there are multiple options. If you have/want a lot of art, it's better to hire someone interested in the project, but it can become expensive if paid and problematic if splitting revenue.
If you're okay with limiting the art to characters and few scenes, you find someone to commission, they aren't as invested in the project, but are easier to find. But find someone who isn't too overworked.

- Writing pitfalls. I'm not confident in my writing and trying to obfuscate the player's gender seems like a bad idea, but I feel commited to it. Currently the other characters are monstergirls because it's easier for me to write. Where can I find resources on how to write better smut?

There are a lot of different ways to write smut, and even more to write for a game; just write in a way you find interesting. I know it doesn't help, but I fell in the trap of only writing as the character when I started, as most Ren'Py games are written that way, but I found out I prefer including more descriptive writing rather, especially in the scenes (rather than 10 lines of moaning).

- Getting feedback. I'm anxious about what the response will be to a what is essentially a complicated text-based clicker. I will share a playable version soon, after I clean up the half-removed features and pad the half-implemented ones with placeholders. In the meantime I would like to have feedback on the concept and theme.

I'm quite focused on the UX, so my feedback will mostly be about that rather than the content itself.

• Shorten the tooltip or write them in a fixed place. It's uncomfortable to read long texts in small boxes and even more if you need to keep the cursor still. I'd suggest having a fixed zone at the bottom or the side of the window where the description is shown when hovering above the objective/actions, and not cleared until you hover another one.
• Using icons rather than words. You can keep the words in the progress bars, but adding icons in the descriptions helps identifying them faster.
• Is there any real use for the x69 button rather than >>? Most of the time, I only use > and >>.
• Drop the decimals when they are unneeded. In Determination and Cycle, the decimals give too much precision and mainly clutter the text.
• Good thinking : Showing the changes for next turn in a lighter color is a great help

And some suggestions for the aesthetic.

• You can change the colors and background to show progress, and it's even more true in a minimalist game. Keep the grays for the start in the cave, but swap to shades of green when you arrive in the plains.
• Leave a bit more margins around the edges of the screen, it feels too wide as it is right now.
• Having a dynamic layout sounds great, but can be harder to do, so be careful with that. (Ex : the save menu flies everywhere when you resize the window)

- Dev log. I will try to post updates here about my progress and challenges. I mean I would like to post here frequently, this post took me 2.5 hours to write so I can improve on that as well.

The first post is the hardest, it'll become easier after that ^^

 

[AlexFenec]

Thank you!

I took some time before replying because I tried to fix some things Toramizu mentioned, but it is taking more time than I had hoped.

I agree that the tooltips are not great. The current implementation is nice because it worked easily using little CSS, the code is very clean. I am trying to add a panel at the bottom and display the actions there but I'm struggling to make the layout behave like I want.

I want to use icons, I just haven't learned how to use them yet. I plan to have icons for various things: the 8 stats, Orgasms, Breeding, Arousal and probably more.

The x69 button used to be more useful before I added the stop-before-completion feature. Now it's useful as a display of the maximum you can complete, but it's not useful as a button, I will replace it.

I like the idea of changing the colors depending on the chapter but I am not ready to work on it yet. I am trying to keep the code for the engine separate from the code for the content. Currently the colors are defined in the engine, I want to extract them to the content at some point but It's not my priority.

There is so much left to do... I will share my progress in a few days, then I will take a few weeks to handle IRL stuff, I won't have access to my usual PC and I'm not sure if I will be able to work on this project.

 

[Shon_Shon]

Very good game, it was fun and hot.

 

[AlexFenec]

Thanks!

I was not able to make satisfying changes before going off to IRL stuff, but now it's dealt with and I ab back working on this project.

I changed the UI a bit, I added a maximum width and a panel to hold the descriptions instead of the tooltips.

I started rewriting the end scenes to be from your character's point of view, which is much easier to write than what I shared previously with taking the point of view of the character breeding you.

Before leaving I generated a few images for Bunny using an AI images generator.
I still have to implement a way to show them in the game before I can use them.

I will continue reviewing Bunny's scenes and I will implement the images, then I will share a new version.
I expect to have it done by the end of today.

 

[AlexFenec]

Here it is!

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To try it, simply extract the zip and open index.html in your preferred browser.

I will gather the full patch notes tomorrow (Edit: done). I wanted to have this wrapped up two hours ago but I spent more time to make sure the features don't break (they did, loading an existing save was broken).

Spoiler: Changes

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Enjoy!

 

[AlexFenec]

Well, so much for posting here often.

I worked a bit on this project before leaving it one the side. If I remember correctly I spent some time improving Bunny's AI-generated images, then tried to make images for Dryad and failed miserably, sapping my interest.

I came back to this project recently and tackled an easier goal: adding icons. It turns out when you have two days of free time, making passable pixel art is surprisingly easy!

I'm not sure what the full changelog is. I keep track of the code and story separately, but I had not set up git for the story correctly.
There's some improvements to the code for sure. There's some UI changes too. There's icons now so you can see at a glance what a Task does. I added the first scene with Dryad too, although I might change it still.
Here's the fresh version:

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Everything will probably change anyways. I don't think I will keep the AI art, I might just try making pixel boobs myself. I will probably rebalance Bunny's chapter to remove some of the more complicated interactions: I want to have an icon for all mechanics, but I don't want to overwhelm the player. I'm also thinking about making Breeding increase the amount of Determination you recover from orgasms, to encourage the impregnation fetish rather than punishing the player for indulging by making orgasms weaker.

All that to say, I'm back on this project.

 

[AlexFenec]

I'm continuing to make progress.

I was inspired to make a gameplay block for the next section, the River. It took about two days to make something enjoyable, it's nice when things go fast.

I still need to write the generation end scenes for this new section as well as two of the Forest end scenes. I'm not sure when I will get to that.

The other thing I am working on is a system to record the player actions. This will be used to improve the summary at the end of a loop as well as making a speedrun-like table table of time improvements when reaching significant checkpoints, but the first feature I want to use this for is the automation of the early steps of your journey.
The first goal is to let you mark the point you are at and return there exactly on your next generation, performing the same steps and ending at the same time without side effects. As your stats improve it will add wait time to compensate, encouraging you to go back and improve your checkpoint after gaining significant stats.
Actually, the first goal is to let me record scenarios and replay them, to test the balance of the game without having to manually go trough the game. I like playing the game I made but I do expect this to become a chore as chapters accumulate. Plus, I'm so used to clicking trough the actions that I don't notice the clunky things in the UI, hopefully automating it will help me take a step back when I actually play the game.
I may make a plan editor where you can see and configure the automated actions, but I'm not sure yet. I don't feel like making a UI for it if the initial Checkpoint system works well enough.

Speaking of UI, it feels clunky and I have to improve it, but I'm not sure where to start. I know what each action does and how to navigate the challenges, I don't notice which information is well communicated and which information is obscure. Looking into that is another thing I am procrastinating.

I plan to release the next version once the Checkpoint system is in place and well tested. I'd like to polish the new content too, and hopefully start writing the missing scenes.

 

[AlexFenec]

Time for an update!

The recording/Checkpoint system is in place and mostly working. I ended up reworking the code that runs the action so this took longer than I expected, but I would have needed to do that at some point anyways.
To use the Checkpoint, click the new "Save Checkpoint" button below the Save and Load buttons. Nothing visible will happen but the steps to reach your current position have been saved. When you reach the end of a generation the "Load Checkpoint" button will be enabled and clicking it will replay all the steps to reach your checkpoint, adding wait periods to offset and gained speed. This is to make sure you don't end a generation early due to finishing a dangerous task earlier than before, and don't break continuity by finishing a task that isn't available yet.
This works most of the time but I'm sure there are still edge cases with it.
It's also somewhat abusable: if you want to skip grinding you can set your checkpoint just before the end of a generation and repeatedly end the generation and load the checkpoint, quickly progressing the skills you used to reach that point. This is not really an issue though, if a player enjoys the game thanks to being able to skip the grind.
One thing that is missing from this feature is a way to know what it does in-game. I have not added a tooltip or anything yet.

I also implemented the change I mentioned two posts ago: breeding now increases the amount of Determination you recover from orgasms, up to its initial value. This makes it easier to breed your partner as much as you can and achieve a higher breeding bonus. It also rewards you for breeding earlier partners more than once, letting you recover Determination without decreasing future orgasms and negating decreases suffered from past non-breeding orgasms.

If you find an issue and want to help, you can copy the `game` javascript object and share it here, it should have all the relevant information to reproduce a situation. Or just save the game with a name you don't use and ask for help.

Here is the new version and change notes:

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Spoiler: Changes

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[AlexFenec]

Has it been three months already?

I'm still working on this project. I have new scenes written and new content past the River.
I'm also tweaking and rebalancing earlier content a bit to try and balance the amount of exp for each skill.
I'm not ready to share it yet. I'm still balancing the last encounter, I'm still behind on end-of-generation scenes. I'll try to get it done for mid to late April.

 

[AlexFenec]

This month I have been working on the new content as well as making changes here and there.

I am enjoying playing trough my game. That's a good thing, but it has some downsides. My experience with the game is much different than a new player. I know how to tackle each challenge, what each action does and what tricks you can use to be a bit more efficient. That means I need to hold back from making changes that would be cool but would be hard to show or overwhelming for the player.

That's why the "boss fight" I am working on past the River is now much different from how I initially made it. Less variables, no hidden information and more displayed information.

I also reworked parts of the existing content. Yoland no longer stops you from working, although you still have to deal with her before proceeding. The shameful thing in the Forest now increases your Arousal by a set amount and solving it removes the same amount. The Sun in Bunny's plain no longer increases Arousal, although the starting Arousal is a bit higher to compensate.

I'm also slowly adding tools to eventually replace the Objectives section with a Log that will show the outcome of your actions. The current Objectives will be merged into the Actions section so that the information they provide is still available. Hopefully that makes it easier to play on mobile.

I'm probably not going to complete everything I want for the next release. Reworking the Checkpoint system to be intuitive and easy to use, adding icons to identify each mechanic at a glance, finishing my tool that records the full playtrough so that I can include it in the game and get records from other players, learning to draw to finally replace the placeholder AI art...
I am aiming to share the next version on April 20. We shall see how much I can finish in that time.

 

[AlexFenec]

Update time!

I'm slightly late, but here's the update I promised:

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I'm not all that satisfied by the work I have done since the last post. To be honest, I rushed this update. I had started a lot of different threads in the past months and I came short when it was time to complete them.

I added mini bars inside tasks to show relevant information, like the progress on the 100 completions needed to progress or the amount of berries left, but it's not added in every part of the game that could use it and it could be improved to better show if something is increasing or decreasing, for example.
The new content is also still rough. I went trough it so many times already, I am blind to its flaws. I'm posting it as-is for now, please let me know if you see things that are not explained, missing descriptions, weird behaviours or anything noteworthy.
I did add a new checkpoints system, saving your progress at specific points in the story and adding options in the starting cave to fast-forward there. This should be easier to understand than the previous checkpoints buttons, although that system is still there if you prefer it.