Danger and the Road to Release

I've been working on what I'm going to generically refer to as "danger". Danger is the chance of something happening that you didn't want to happen. A lot of the difficulty in Bounty will come from danger. A fairly-clean character who rarely (if ever) sells themselves for coin will take significantly fewer risks than a character who accepts everyone in the street. Shady people might solicit you for something simple, before leading you somewhere isolated and attacking you. Other people might attempt to rape you, and you'll have to decide whether to attempt to escape, or to accept what's coming in an attempt to minimize harm. There is also always the possibility of a partner being much more rough or violent with your body during intercourse. Finally, the least damaging but still unwelcome danger is when someone unexpectedly cums inside your character against your will. These are all things that can make an encounter quite sour, especially considering that attackers certainly don't pay you.

There are a few options to defend against these situations. The first (and best) defense is to minimize the chance of danger by increasing the safety option in the rules menu. This will have a direct impact on the amount of encounters per night. A common method of defense is to arm yourself with easily concealed (yet expensive) blades, which will help you in fending off would-be attackers. However, don't forget that you're not a skilled heroine armed with a magic sword - you're an untrained, desperate fugitive who has a sharp object. Orc women begin the game armed with a small axe and a little bit of axe skill. Another alternative is to raise the body attribute, which will aid in fighting and escaping. Finally, certain perks modify dangerous situations. For example, the Nympho perk, which is unlocked after taking the Party Girl perk, negates the mood penalty and reduces damage taken from rape/rough encounters that you 100% submit to, resulting in a character who would often benefit from being submissive and not defending themselves. Be careful with some perks, as some perks that augment vaginal sex (Tight Pussy and Naturally Wet) also increase the chances of taking an unwanted internal cumshot.

Now that I've talked about the now-completed danger mechanic, I want to talk about the upcoming release of Bounty.

As of right now, Bounty is playable. You can lose, you can progress from settlement to settlement, and the main management aspects are complete. Encounters for selling yourself are fully functional. Bounty is not, however, ready for release, as a lot of content is missing. I've been working on the framework and the encounter system for the past few weeks, as the rest of the game needs to be built upon it. As such, most of the remaining work involves writing and completing existing features.

Despite only having time to work on this during the weekends, I feel like progress is still happening fast enough. Instead of posting an update every time I complete some major work, I'm posting a checklist of what needs to be completed before I release the game. Whenever I complete something on this list, I'll come back and cross it off. This is to streamline the process of recording my progress, and to keep all of you updated on what needs to be completed before release. This list doesn't include everything being worked on, but the major updates that need to be completed. I estimate that I'll be able to finish everything below before the end of January.

Things to complete before release:

• Write and implement group encounters
• Complete all bounty hunter encounters (most resulting in game over)
• Polish existing encounter text and rewrite placeholder text
• Implement all endings
• Write the intro
• Complete travel encounters
• Complete settlement traits
• General polishing for public consumption

I've already decided that I'll be supporting Bounty after launch, and will be adding new features and content not present in the base game. I already have a list of a few things I want to work on, but don't want to delay the game for. I'll reveal those at a later date. Bounty will always remain a free game. It is currently intended for a "successful" ending to take a little over an hour to achieve, ignoring any and all dead characters and failed attempts. I assume that most players will play the game in what they feel is the most appealing way, but I hope that people will also try other character types out. If you played this game to make a human who sells anal in an alleyway in every city, I hope you enjoyed it enough to make a halfling that's been gangbanged in every tavern, or a mostly-pure high elf that gets people off with her feet when short on money.

If you ever want to leave questions, feedback, or requests, leave a comment on one of the posts on this blog. I will definitely read all of the comments, and I will answer them whenever I get a chance.