もしもし, YoraphimDev here!

I've always been passionate about RPG's that let you customise your character, or create your own story. For the most part games like Rimworld, Project Zomboid, or the Elder Scrolls series aren't great because of the game, but the stories that naturally form around you. Does that make sense? I don't think anyone is actually excited for the melee combat in Skyrim. 

In the lewd sphere Degree's of Lewdity is my number one, and most played game. It's the perfect combination of character combination, togglable fetishes, and an unforgiving world, that is also up to the player to decide just how dangerous it is. The other game that has caught my attention, excluding the endless amount of Renpy games, and is a large influence for me is “Abyss Diver Interactive“. If you haven’t already played it, it’s also focused on the Made in Abyss universe. You explore each layer on the way down, at which point you take more and more extreme curses that alter your character's body. It has some survival mechanics, and a party system, but I don’t feel they are too fleshed out. The characters do remark on the layers as you travel and their stories they can tell as they open up are very… Pleasing. 

This led me to wanting to build The Unseen Depths. I want to take the parts that most excite me from different games, and to see what's possible.

My first look was into a project called Yoraphim. It was more along the lines of Degree’s of Lewdity, an open world, with character customisation, where the largest change would be the implementation of a 3D player model, that reacts to your characters size, outfits, breast size etc. I’ve worked professionally on several projects that in theory could do all the above, just in a less erotic manner. The 2nd differentiation is the usage of more realistic NPC’s. Ones that would exist in the world living their own lives. Think Sims but on crack and butt naked. So when you bump into one in the world it's not just a nameless figure, it is an NPC that you will see later, that in theory should remember you. Again think Sims. 

Now this is not an easy task, and what was meant to be a 3-6 month project blew up into 14 months, with some progress, but not as much as I would like. And limitations appearing like I’m a programmer, what is art. Key components of the game just aren’t possible at this stage. The 3D models/world. 

So then the Unseen Depths. Something that is smaller in scope. A turn based RPG, with 2D art. Something where I can see what exactly goes wrong in development. 

Where are we at? Well not very far, at this point the character customisation is the focus, in fact to the point there is no game. Just a text generator of your character as you select different options. And some very very very placeholder art that changes as you select different options. 

Next up is looking into the actual game, expanding the character creator to include things like ability points, strength, charisma etc. Then can we go from that into your classic turn based fights. But I want to see if I can turn that up, everyone has played the same RPG maker fighting system. Persona is essentially the same system, but feels 100% better and is way more tactical. At the same time, Art, Im planning on getting some done for at least the character head and torso. Potentially more. The UI needs an overhaul already, so there's packs I'm checking out. 

Now a quick note about me. I'm a full time game developer. I’m a programmer who’s worked on many AA projects but also some indie projects. Games that a lot of you would have played before. This makes me confident in my ability to produce a game, but at the same time, it’s only going to be a passion project. One I do plan to finish, mainly because I want to play it. 

It's not even in a prototype state right now, but I still want to start hearing from anyone interested. What do you like about what I’ve said, or the games I’ve mentioned? What kind of features do you want to see in these kinds of games? Are there fetishes you would really want in there? 

Signing off!