Hello everyone! My holidays are over, the new update is out, it's time to look at the state of Netorase Phone, and talk about the future!
There's a TL;DR at the bottom, for all of you gooners that don't want to read all that!
State of the Game
Yeah, we're Sony baby! Without the console exclusives...
For those who don't know, Netorase Phone started as a fun side project, that wasn't meant to ever become this large. This has created, over its development, a few issues that are are more and more visible each update.
Choices & Paths
First, despite the game being mostly linear, the abundance of small choices have created a mess of potential combinations that make writing harder as time passes. These choices compound to create dozens of potential paths that not only require a lot of time to write, but also create issues when I don't think about a specific combination (resulting in strange dialogues, such as complaining about Oliver's small dick), or when the paths get mixed up, starting events that shouldn't happen.
On top of that, some of these combinations require specific pictures and/or variants of existing pictures.
And, more importantly, all that work on alternative dialogues & pictures most people won't see mean the content of each chapter ends up becoming shorter. For Chapter 60, I spent nearly an entire week creating and debugging the alternative paths, that I could have spent on more story.
To avoid the game becoming even more complex in the future, I will reduce some choices, and remove some options that are less popular. The largest one being creampies. In the future, bulls will get to creampie Laura as much as they want.
Creampies being allowed or not is the biggest culprit in alternative paths. In Chapter 60, for example (which already doesn't have a "no creampie" option), it would require the last quarter of the chapter to be completely changed, with associated pictures, for an option that is only used by a very small amount of players. It creates additional work that most people will only see when they replay to collect pictures.
Limits of the format
Netorase Phone was created as a phone game without much thoughts about the potential limitations of the format. As I said, it wasn't supposed to become such a large project.
But now that the story has progressed, the limitations of this format are becoming more and more obvious. Any story including you, as a player, becomes an exercise in hearsay, with convoluted ways to tell you what you should already know. You were there after all.
On the other side of the coin, any story not including you has to find an excuse for you not to be there, making you look like an asocial, work-obsessed person. And while I'm sure half of you are actually like that for real, it doesn't make a very interesting story.
So what?
Okay, these issues exist, but what can I do about them?
Well, the answer is "nothing", really. That's how the game is, and I'll have to do with it.
That being said, with these issues becoming more prevalent, I'm going to slowly start aiming for an ending to the game. There are still a lot of stories to tell, and I plan on telling them, but I'll start thinking about a proper conclusion to the game, wrap it up, and start thinking about the future. Don't worry, you still have a lot to see about Laura, Ashley and Tara though. I'm not done with them, and even when the game will be "done", I'll have other stories for them. In followups, spinoffs, or (free) additional content.
The future
Of course, an ending to Netorase Phone doesn't mean an ending to Netorase content. And while the phone format is limiting for a project that wasn't properly thought out, it can still be useful for other projects. And, for that, I've got two future games in mind. These projects would be "full" projects, thought with the players in mind, and taking feedback into account, as opposed to what I'm doing with 365 Days before Us, that will stay a fun project.
Note that these projects will be part of the current plans. I'm not asking you to pay more. You're subscribing to everything I'm creating.
Netorase Phone Stories
NTS Phone Stories will be a compilation of short stories, told in a few chapters at most. They'll use new characters, or tell stories about older ones, and will allow me to explore scenarios that wouldn't fit in a longer game.
The very first planned chapter of this game is called "Ashley's First Challenges".
Netorase Phone: Iris
This game will be a complete story, thought for the phone format, and taking lessons from Netorase Phone's issues. It will be shorter, focus on less characters, and be made around the fact that you, as a player, only interacts through a screen.
You will play as Iris' boyfriend or girlfriend, right as she discovers your cuckolding kink. When she agrees to try it out for real, she's convince you'll regret it, and doesn't yet realize the consequences of her decision.
Iris' story will focus solely on cuckolding, with two tendencies: Gentledom, and Humiliation. Having only these two paths will allow me to have a story more fitting to this style, and to push it further. This story will be inspired by the work of some of the most popular NTS/NTR hentai, such as Terasu MC and Ratatatat74. Expect a lot of corruption and humiliation, from a woman deeply in love with you.
Don't trust me blindly, though. You can meet Iris right now, by playing the prologue of Netorase Phone: Iris, and get a feeling for her personality.
Planning changes poll
In the next few days, I'll make a poll for Supporters to vote on a potential change of the release schedule. While I like the current 3 weeks schedule, it can create issues on a single game. Not only does it make taking feedback into account more difficult (by the time I have most feedback, work has already started for some time on the following content), but working on 3 characters for 2 years, without much variety, is honestly becoming tiring.
The poll would allow you to vote for an alternating release schedule instead. 3 weeks after Netorase Phone updates, you'd get NTS Phone Stories and/or Iris updates. I'm convinced this change would allow me to create better content, by letting me work on more varied stories.
TL;DR: the game is a mess so I'll be removing some choices most people aren't using. The game will slowly move toward an ending, but don't worry, there's still a lot of stories to tell. I've got 2 future projects in mind, including one you can already test. You'll be able to vote to change the release schedule soon.