1st Dev Diary, The office and a TODO list

Howdy folks and welcome to our very first HIGA dev diaries. I know HIGA is still a small project with very few super excited patrons but let’s hope that is no longer the case by the time you have read this article.

So, today, I want to present the first “scene” of the game (to get an understanding of the first “room”) you will visit when starting a new game, as well as a non-exhaustive TO-DO list, containing the updates and features I already plan to implement. Patrons and localisation requests will have their own timeline decided later on.

When you start a new game on the main menu, you will be asked for a player name, then, you will be moved to your “Office”. The office is always accessible no matter what “TimeOfDay” you’re in. (We will talk about TimeOfDay later on, in a different dev diary.)

As you can see on the screenshot above, the office is a big glass/holographic screen, with a main menu composed of the following panels:

• Embassy
• Blueprint
• Shopping (WIP)
• Daily Report
• Admission - Manage the admissions and investigate/coerce/recruit/install your girl.
• Journal - Open your journal and check your messages.
• Board - Keep tabs on the PTA and the Management Board.
• Calendar - Open the calendar to check the important days (payday, mission, staff salaries, etc...)
• Debt - (red trapeze) Open the debt panel and check how much you still have to pay back and the deadline.

Within the Embassy you can manage your relations with the other alien races in the galaxy. At the moment it only allows you to unlock different client races. We will discuss in detail about embassies and missions in a dedicated dev diary.

The Blueprint menu allows you to unlock 12 upgrades which separate into 4 branches:

1. DNA Lab, generating more and more Nucleic Acid.
2. Drug Lab, generating more and more Chemical Compound.
3. Lodging, increasing the number of girls you can set for work.
4. Spaceport, increasing the number of customers generated for each girl.

With the Shopping menu, you will be able to trade your resources and buy clothes, equipment and accessories to improve your girls. (WIP)

The Daily Report keeps track of your daily expenses and earnings. It is accessible from this button in the Office, and from a button located in the Bottom Menu in the other scenes. Note that you can access previous reports from the calendar by clicking on the desired date.

Then on the top right we have the Admission. This menu is your recruitment menu. All the girls start hidden and must be investigated and coerced (using money atm) to be recruited and put to work. The amount of money required to do so depends on the girl’s personality and traits. For example, a “poor” girl will be easier to recruit than a girl with the “spoiled brat trait”. Rest assured, the admission system and the girl will have their own “in-depth” dedicated dev diary.

In the Journal you’ll be able to read emails from your staff, the board, the PTA, other races as well as report events, mission reports and important messages. Note that this part is WIP and contains only a “welcome mail”.

In the Board screen, you will be able to check to very important variables:

• The board’s trust
• PTA suspicion

This part is still WIP and doesn’t do anything at the moment but will play a major role later and therefore will get its own dev diary. Check the Debt description below to get more info.

The Calendar. Nothing too fancy here. Each case represents a day. The “IC” button represents your payday (weekly) and the pink one represent your Board/PTA meeting (monthly). More and more icons will be added as the game increases in depth and complexity. The addition of a legend to quickly understand what is what might become necessary.

And finally the Debt panel. I am not sure if I want to keep this feature, and it might become optional if we feel it suits the lore better. We will explain in detail the era, the lore etc which could lead to its implementation in a specific dev diary, but the idea behind the Debt system is to make you, the player, start with a huge debt that must be paid back or face consequences that could lead to a game over.

In my mind, I imagine a “triforce” system. Three “powers”, each with a different goal in mind. The Debt, pushes you to put the emphasis on making money to the detriment of your girls’ academics results (IQ in the game) and happiness, the Board, pushes you to put the emphasis on academic results to the detriment of girls’ happiness and your ability to pay back your debt, and finally, the PTA, which pushes to prioritise girls’ wellness to avoid them complaining but preventing you to pay back your debt and good academic results.

Finally you should notice the assistant. At the moment she is just there for aesthetic purposes but I would like her to be more “proactive” by presenting the tutorial or why not have her be your first “waifu” put to work if I choose to implement characters in their 30s.

The TODO list:

• Implement the Japanese translation.
• Complete and debug the shopping menu.
• Complete the economics of the game (buying/selling/resources generation)
• Implement missions
• Develop the Board/Debt/PTA interactions, game overs and girl’s death.
• Redraw the girls, the clients and the sex scenes (If I get enough pledge I would like to use my Japanese connections and hire a pro artist, otherwise I will  improve what I have done so far)
• Why not switch from Unity 2D animation system to Spine or Live2D? I would have to hire an animator or do it myself but if I have time or money it is definitely doable.
• Implement a dialogue/replica system for the girls. The girl, when generated, would have a personality which would influence her replica and voice.
• Create and finish all the sex scenes. At the moment, only the human male/female doggy sexscene is available and has no sound. I need to add the sfx and draw all the other scenes.
• Create and finish all the “XRay” graphic assets that will be necessary in the “Medbay” and in the sex scenes such has internal ejaculation, impregnation, fetus growth, creampie, lactation, milking etc..
• And of course a bunch of stuff I miss as well as hundreds of bugs.

See you all next time for the next diary!