Tailor Tales Plus DLC on Steam

TL;DR: Plus will be on Steam but I cannot give an ETA. It will most likely be worked on after finishing development on James, which is early 2021.

At the beginning of the year, I wanted to work on two systems for Tailor Tales before I’d release Plus:

• The date system
• The fashion show system

The date system took months to develop. You could go out on a date with Neil, and even touch him to get responses. Due to the low feedback I’ve gotten from players, and some even saying it just didn’t feel like it belonged in the same genre (it was more dating sim and not visual novel), I have since disabled this feature. A lot of months of development was spent on this, which in the end, wasn’t a hit.

Then there’s the fashion show. Players said once they had the Plus perk of reading through chapters without any sort of requirement, they missed having to make clothes to advance. Some say they didn’t have a reason to design clothes anymore. I wanted to address this reason by adding a new feature called fashion show. Players could enter a fashion show, dress up their character, and win pieces of an outfit. These outfits are unique and they can all be collected, giving the player more of an incentive to design clothes again.

Unfortunately, development on fashion show hasn’t started; my programmer was unavailable for a long time.

These two features are something I wanted to add before I released the Plus version on Steam. Things didn’t work out this way, setting me behind on schedule. I will most likely forgo waiting on the fashion show before releasing Plus, however that’s not the only hurdle.

I still have to figure out how to add DLC in the first place (Steam is NOT indie friendly at all!), and my DLC has to be approved by Steam as well because it is 18+. That means I have to give the person who reviews the DLC a way to access the 18+ scenes using cheatcodes, which also requires me to code this into the game (it’s a little wonky jumping towards a certain point in a chapter). Then I have to figure out how DLC is going to work in-game as well. The plugin I use to communicate with Steam’s API doesn’t have an option to check if a certain DLC is installed. Likely my programmer will have to add this feature, if he’s able to.

Basically; adding Plus on Steam isn’t as simple as it seems like. The content is ready to go; it’s been finished for a while. Adding it for players is a different matter all together.

Right now I’m too busy developing James’ route to have to dig through the documentation again on how DLC works, getting my page approved, setting my taxes up correctly etc. That’s not something I can think about as I’m approaching the end of James’ development. I want to be able to focus on him and complete his route.

Once James’ route has completed development (not necessarily when he’s released to the public), I will have the time to look into getting Plus DLC on Steam. James’ route is expected to finish development in early 2021.

Design a side character in Tailor Tales

To give some people the opportunity to add their own OC into the game and to support me as a developer, you can now design a side character in Tailor Tales for a one-time payment.

Aiden’s route will start development in 2021 and while I have all the side characters sketched out, I felt like I was missing another female character. That’s why I’m adding a new side character. She will be a twenty-something gamer and will meet the MC while they were playing a game together. Her personality or her relevance to the plot is undetermined still, but she does have a role to play.

She could be a sarcastic and an introverted gamer, or be super shy and quiet etc. It’s still up in the air.

Because I still haven’t designed her, I’m going to put her design up for commission. You can make her look like your original character, or even yourself. Her appearance is 100% up to you (with some restrictions), as well as her name. The character can also be non-binary, as long as they’re feminine presenting.

Just FYI in case the wording is confusing; you are not going to draw anything. I will be asking questions as to what you want the character to look like and eventually draw the sprite. Also note that you do not have a say in the pose, only the appearance.

So if the opportunity to have your original character feature in Aiden’s route appeals to you, go ahead and visit the product page!

Edit: it sold out within minutes, thank you Lexi!

Small graphical updates

Because Alex shows up in James’ route, he needed an older version of himself, and thus, I also decided to update his sprite a little so he fits in with the rest of the cast. He now has darker brown hair as well.

This meant Dimitri got an update on his old sprite as well (hair and skin tone). No further changes to him though!

And then here are a bunch of sketches for new characters that show up in Gray’s and Aiden’s route! Surprisingly, there is no new female character, all the new ones are male (Sarah already appears in both of these routes). Ron (the blond with orange hoodie) was originally supposed to be a woman, but I decided to change him to a guy because I wanted to stick more to real life in that most of your gaming friends will be men.

And finally I added some facial hair haha. There was a severe lack of facial hair for previous characters!

I have two more character sketches left to go before everyone’s been planned out. Once all the sketches are done, I can start looking for voice actors to bring them to life!

Update on James’ route:
Nothing has changed so far, everything is still on schedule for completion by December, and a release in early 2021.

Some select screenshots from James’ route

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Screenshots from James’ route.

With James being around 65% completed, I figure I should show some screenshots! He is currently hovering at 130k words, with 18 (out of 28) chapters coded into the game.

I didn’t want to show too many screenshots as they spoil too much, but I guess it’s impossible to show off his route to interested players if I keep hiding everything!

Either way, James’ route has a ton of new side characters to get interested in. Not to mention old characters (Caine, Neil, Angela, and even Alex appear in this route).

If you like long stories with a lot of fantasy action, then James will not disappoint.

James’s route will be completed around January 2020, and an eventual public release of his route may happen around May 2021.

Otome self-insert survey results

A little while ago I made a survey, asking players if they self-insert when playing otome, and how they do it. Here are the results!

Aiden’s route

Aiden Jager, the 5th love interest in Tailor Tales, will start development in 2021.

I am afraid that Aiden’s route will not be completely free to play. You see, Aiden’s route is very sexually charged as it is one of the main themes of his route. There’s constant talk about sex or doing something sexual or kinky. There’s too much for me to be able to release his route for the free version, simply because most of his route requires you to be 18+.

With some of the other guys, I would write around the sexual parts, or simply not include it. But since it’s part of Aiden’s core route, I just have no way of writing around it without gutting his entire route.

So I will most likely only keep the first few chapters for Aiden free to play, and to read the rest, you must have his Plus DLC.

Luckily Aiden is already a niche and also the least popular LI so far, so I doubt many people will be annoyed by this decision!

If you’re curious about a small writing sample for one of Aiden’s scenes, you can read it here.

Dominant MCs in otome

When it comes to the general tastes in female players who play otome games, the majority prefers an MC who can be forward but is also submissive.

This translates to an MC that is confident in general, but when it comes to romance or sex, she will not take the lead. This is the type that appeals to most players, a mixture of submissive and dominant.

These players want the MC to be active during sex, but not be in control. They don’t want to dom anyone, they simply prefer a more mutual engagement between MC and LI.

Then of course, there are the people who don’t want a dominant (or in this case, assertive) MC at all, they prefer her to be more submissive (25%), or full on submissive (3%).

And then there’s the last group; the players who prefer a dominant MC (12%).

That tiny sliver of people who want to play as a dominant MC. Not just every now and then, but to actually take the lead. Be in control. Do the pursuing. Tease the LI. Only 12% of players enjoy playing as a dominant MC.

Even less prefer having a submissive LI (10%).

Most otome games have a submissive MC. I understand why – it’s to appeal to most players. And that’s simply the truth; most players will relate to a submissive MC. This MC will be swept off her feet, generally be inexperienced in romance and sex, and blush a whole lot.

MCs like Fuka from Ozmafia! or Chizuru Yukimura from Hakuoki.

Western players are a little iffy on the ‘inexperienced in romance and sex’ part and enjoy an MC that is more savvy in those departments, but still gets swept off her feet. or they simply want an MC with more sass. Hence why the majority prefers a ‘mixture of both’.

You see these types of MCs in most modern Voltage games, or newly released Western indie games, such as Lucette from Cinderella Phenomenon, or Nora from Changeling.

But where are those dominant MCs? There may be some I haven’t played yet but they’re not in English.

Even a game like Norn9 where you can choose your own MC, still only had the option between a kuudere, genki and tsundere. Mikoto is the closest to being sort of dominant, but she is very much a submissive in Itsuki’s route, and still doesn’t take control of her romance in Natsuhiko’s route. Nanami was way too aromantic to even appear dominant.

Even Fashioning Little Miss Lonesome, which kind of marketed itself as having a dominant and submissive LI, had a…. submissive MC. Miki, who was supposed to be the submissive LI, took charge in any sexual encounter. He was ‘submissive’ in the sense that the game had MC step on Miki as a gag and at some point she teased his nipples. That is the extend of being ‘dominant’. Miki still took control. He wasn’t submissive at all.

Games featuring truly dominant MCs are… so rare, they may as well not exist.

As someone part of that 12% of players who prefer a dominant MC, I feel invisible. I have always liked couples with a reversed power dynamic. I liked the women to be confident and even flirty or teasing. The guy was always the one ending up getting flustered, or simply follows along because he’s whipped.

Dynamics such as Temari and Shikamaru from Naruto:

Artist K A R T A S M I T A

Seo and Waka from Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun:

Holy and Jamie from Oh! Holy:

Bulma and Vegeta from Dragonball:

Even Jessie and James from Pokémon!

While I for sure, like submissive LIs, and my favourite pairing is a dominant MC with a submissive LI, however, what I simply enjoy the most… is playing as a dominant MC.

That means I can enjoy any type of LI, as long as the MC is dominant in some way and controls the flow of the relationship. This is usually why I enjoy tsundere routes because the MC tends to have more ‘spunk’ to be able to squabble with the tsundere. However, it’s only on the surface, she is still submissive in romance and sex. She may confess her feelings to the tsundere first, but in the end, the tsundere takes over.

Any route where I’m forced to play as a MC that is shy, reserved, unemotional, naive, or inexperienced in romance – I tend to really dislike those games. Even the LI, who I could happen to like, can not save the game for me. This is why I really ended up hating Ozmafia, because the MC was a naive child, reminiscent of the born sexy yesterday trope (minus the sexy). It’s also why I adore Yamazaki from Hakuoki, but I really do not like the Yamazaki/Chizuru pairing.

I recognize I’m the minority here. Plenty of people like these types of MC and there’s – in general – nothing wrong with having an MC like this. It becomes an issue when it’s the only type of MC you’re playing in otome games.

To someone who prefers dominant MCs, I just really feel left out. There’s a lot of content for people who enjoy shy MCs, or MCs that are kinda sassy, but still let the LI be in control. But where’s the content for me?

There’s another otome developer Yoshibb who writes dominant MCs (she did My Only Sunshine & 2 Minutes for Roughing), but I think that’s pretty much the extend of content available. Unless I’m missing something here. I know The Arcana features a submissive LI and I believe you can be dominant (though the gender is not specifically female), but I’m not touching that game with a ten foot pole due to drama surrounding the developers itself.

Taisho x Alice has an MC that takes charge of her romance and is very, VERY forward. While the MC is supposed to be dominant, it feels like it’s just done as a gag. Every time she acts forwards or flirty, it’s set in a comedic light. I feel like – as a player who wants to play as a dominant female lead – that I’m being made fun of for thinking I could legit play like this. All of her flirty interactions have this mocking tone to it. I’m not even covering the issues I have with the game’s writing in the first place.

I knew I would have to create the content I wanted myself. That’s why in Tailor Tales, the MC is always able to play as ‘fierce’. Though she will be dominant regardless of the choices in both Aiden and Dimitri’s route, who are also the submissive LIs.

Dimitri ended up surprising a lot of people, with a number of fans, which makes me happy. However, I know Aiden will get less fans due to being a strict dominant/submissive dynamic (with a focus on gentle femdom), but I hope people will give him a shot regardless.

And I don’t only add a dominant MC with submissive LIs to my game, there are also side romances with that dynamic.

Sarah & Kevin.

Læna & Billius.

I hope to continue to add more dominant MCs as well as a dominant x submissive dynamic to my game. If the content doesn’t exist, I guess I’ll just have to make it myself, but I hope that there will be a game (or games!!!) with a dominant MC to cater to that 12% of otome players.

Variety is the spice of life, and I want to be spicy.

Caine’s route available!

 

Caine’s route is finally out, on both Itch.io and Steam! Go ahead and update your game, load your manual save file (your quick save file won’t work, but it’s okay, you can always create a new quick save!) and find Caine in the settings. Click on his profile and select “start new route” and you’re on your way!

For those curious, James’ 1st chapter is available to be read as well. You can’t start a new route with him, but you can reread his 1st chapter as it is unlocked for you.

Caine’s walkthrough for important clients:

A full changelog of updates below:

Content
– Caine’s full route has now been added (5 hours of content)
– James’ 1st chapter can be previewed (go to chapter selection, then reread his 1st chapter)
– A whole bunch of new clothing accessories are now available
– New clothing styles for tops and skirts have been added
– Geometric shapes are available as details
– Lots of new patterns to use
– New wallpaper, flooring and furniture to customize your boutique
– MC now has a sprite that has been added for side stories told in the love interest’ point of view (Plus users only)

Bugfixes
– Fixed a save file corruption error that would sometimes occur when the player tried to load their save file again, leading to an error saying “Cannot read property ‘name’ of null”
– Fixed a few layer issues with clothing that wouldn’t load when you first entered the designing screen
– Some GPUs would cause an error with the screen after alt-tabbing and going back to the game where the screen was frozen, which has now been fixed
– Sprites now fade in and out without seeing the underlying layers
– Fixed a bug where you could select invisible colours when picking out a background for the camera mode
– Some players would get errors with patterns displaying incorrectly. This issue was traced to the web-GL functionality being disabled on the user’ computer. If the user cannot turn web-GL back on themselves, they must switch out their package.
– After completing a route, players were asked if they wanted to read the other ending, but were sometimes met by the same ending regardless. It’ll now set the chapter back to 25 properly so you can choose which ending to read

New features
– All text messages have been replaced by a phone system that can show emojis and pictures as well
– Players can change the size of the text to small, medium and large by clicking the AA icon
– Players can now date characters after completing their route (Plus users only)
– Dynamic tinting to account for the surroundings or time of day (orange during sunset, dark during night etc.)
– Background blurring whenever a character approaches you has been remade and looks blurrier
– Screen effects such as dashes, lights, and action lines have been added
– The Profile in the settings of the main menu has been reworked to add a few more options
– Players can now determine whether they’re a virgin or not in the main menu, under Profile. Some routes (namely Caine) has slightly different dialogue based on this choice
– Players can determine whether they want to hear MC’s soundbites during side stories or not in the main menu under settings
– Starting a new route, you’ll be asked if you want to view the warnings and triggers for that route. Major spoilers are still hidden, so if you accidentally click yes, you will not be spoiled
– You can rename your brother (Ralph), who appears in James’ route. His sprite will take on the MC’s CG colours

Artwork
– A few backgrounds were redrawn
– Gray, previously named Sam, has been reworked
– Aiden and Neil has had some minor updates to their sprites
– Some of Neil’s CGs were redrawn
– Some of the clothing has been redrawn, namely the midi and maxi circle skirts
– A couple of hairstyles were redrawn

Misc.
– The introduction tutorial has been remade and spread out as to not overwhelm new players. Returning players may stumble upon a tutorial here and there
– All soundbites have been organized into subfolders
– All backgrounds are now organized into a subfolder
– Some quality of life fixes (more colours grouped, certain clothing elements excluded from being randomized)

Caine’s route releasing on March 25

Caine’s route is finally ready to be released! On March 25 the game will get updated with his full route, along with a load of improvements and bug fixes to the game.

When this update happens, your quick save will become unusable, so please be sure to load your manual save. New quick saves can be made after this update.

The tutorial from the intro has also been changed, so old users may run into a few tutorials here and there.

Anyways, be on the lookout for Caine! He’ll be there to steal your heart away. Clocking in at 135k words (125k words for free users), or around 5 to 6 hours of playtime, he is the longest route to date.

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Other than Caine’s release, Gray’s redesign is finished as well.

And for Plus users, they can now date Neil with the dating minigame available.

Plus will remain early access for Patreons at the moment. It will be released as a DLC on Steam in the future when I’ve worked on Neil’s dates some more.

Writer for Gray’s route

I’ve been a solo dev for a long time. Art, writing, coding. Little by little, I outsourced some part of the development. Starting with coding (TDS did an amazing job making all the systems), then through my Patreon I was able to afford another artist working on some clothing for the game. Then I had someone else help me out inputting the script into the game which freed up some time for me.

Writing however, I’ve still been apprehensive about. Writing is also expensive, considering each route for Tailor Tales is easily 100k words. It’s a lot.

However, one year of development for each route is also taking a long time. By the time Aiden starts, I’m sure many will stop following the progress. So I’ve decided to work on Aiden’s and Gay’s route simultaneously. I hired a writer (Nadine K!) for Gray’s route so that by the time James’ route is finished, I’ll have enough material to start adding Gray’s route to the game, while focusing my own attention on Aiden.

Patreons will be able to enjoy a monthly chapter release for both Aiden and Gray, which is projected to start in 2021, after James’ route is finished.

I’ve outlined Gray’s story with this new writer and I’m confident she’s able to keep the writing consistent with the rest of the game, and do Gray justice. I’ll be writing Aiden’s route as usual.

Caine’s route is projected to be released in March. I’ll announce an actual release date as soon as I’m able to! It relies on a couple of factors; finishing a certain system I’m working on, as well as getting my DLC accepted by Steam. Either way, if the DLC is taking a while or the system isn’t finished, at the very least Itch’s version will get updated with Caine’s route.