Jennys Ambition HTML5 -adventure/management (Update 16/1/30)

[sed]

"Jenny washed up on shore with no memory other than her first name. She has nothing, and no one. She looks out at a nearby town and decides she will make something of herself with this new start. First she will corrupt and rule this town. Then the country. Then the empire. And finally total world domination."
"But first, she is hungry. There's got to be a sandwich around here somewhere."


WARNING - early alpha, not much of a game yet. Images and writing are ugly placeholders. Just a demo of the framework and game world.
Controls :
WASD or arrow-keys : movement
Spacebar : interact, also 'next' key when in conversation or building and there is only one option.
X : status screen toggle
C : Config Units. Settings and jobs for possessed characters.
Mouse : navigate menus

http://jennysambition.bitballoon.com HTML5


This will be an adventure/management game. It follows Jenny who wakes up with no memory. At the start she has to find ways to get food and
survive. Later she can begin to thrive. Purchase businesses and buildings, hire staff etc.

Game will feature :

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

- Added 'C' menu from main screen.
- Change which character is being controlled. The player can switch control to any of their staff, or sometimes an npc.
- Statistics are kept on every unit in the game. Personal details, sexual history, stat changes, etc. are kept for all units and will change during interactions, whether the player is controlling them or not.
- Players purity affects what choices/options are available. More options become available as Jenny becomes corrupted.
- Npcs can interact with other npcs. Their relationships will grow, or shrink each time they come in contact with each other. Relationships, rivalries, and flings may result.
- Pregnancy. Both player and npcs can become pregnant. Child generation is guided by parent stats.
- Open sexuality. Can play as straight, gay, or bi. Npcs start with a range of preferences. Player is free to chooses their own. Encounters and interactions will be made to accommodate different combinations of gender and orientation.
- Set 'jobs' for staff to perform each day. earn income, skills, other.
- Time progression. It is not real time. The clock does not move forward, except when the player performs some actions or goes to sleep. Short actions and conversations do not move time forward at all, but more involved actions do. Amount of time taken by something can vary from a couple hours, to the whole day. Once the player is out of time for the day, they can take no action other than 'sleep'.
- At the start of each new day hunger sets in, results from staff working jobs comes in, and other new day events.
- as the morality of all the npcs decrease, sex becomes more common. group sex starts happening, and business related to vices generate more profit.
- There will be an 'idle game' mode to it. When you toggle it on, you no longer control any units. But they will continue to interact on their own and generate income/effects from assigned jobs.
- Stories/Quests. Can be randomly assigned 'generic quests' or statically designed with custom units. Can be short simple dialogue or series of goals/dialogues/other.
- Ageing of units. Over time units will age, children become adults, adults become old, old die. cycle of life. Includes player character. so eventually control must be passed on.

Change log - not a complete list, just highlights.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

16/1/30
-added pregnancy. Contraceptives on by default. Pregnacy lasts 1o days
-fixed bug with additional unit capability disappearing.
16/1/28
-minor update
-bug fixes
-ui tweeks
16/1/24
-children, and elderly added.
-units now age. start with child sprite, then at 16 becomes adult, then at 50 becomes elderly and will die of old age at some point.
-tavern escort job functionally complete.
-save system updated/fixed.
-groundwork for working economy.
-many engine improvements, bug fixes, and minor changes.
-a bunch of things changed, but I don't remember
16/1/20
-more images
-units generate images that match age/personality etc.
-can now die, resulting in game over.
-added rapist quest, started thieves quest.
-etc.
16/1/17
-added more images.
-Jobs have been restructured. No day jobs anymore. Unlock jobs during day, then set each characters job in the config menu.
-Characters can now be individually 'broken' and controlled.
-bunch of small things.
-bug fixes.
16/1/13
-fixed savegame. should work again.
-added a few unit images
-added some night jobs for staff
-reworked NPC interaction
-squashed bugs
16/1/12
-Fixed switching between units. Added better 'Staff menu' in tavern
-fixed a bunch of bugs
16/1/11
- Added a few static units with simple interactions.
-3 'day jobs' now available. Escort at the inn will be the highest paying job.
-Started building the staff/building management and day progression
-Can buy the tavern and hire staff
-Removed 'control unit' option now that it can be done in tavern

Some instructions:

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

-more options are available to characters with a low purity.
-You can gain 1 additional unit at the start. Once you buy the tavern you can get a few more.
-In this world a year is 30 days. AI units age and will die sometime after 60. Player units do not age.
-The price for acts of prostitution go up as the character gains experience.
-Each customer is looking for something different, And each unit can only handle a limited number of clients, which depends on their skill.

-If contraceptives get turned off, female units can become pregnant. Pregnancy lasts 10 days and results in a child whos stats are a blend of the parents.
-children grow into adults units at 16
-adult units grow into elderly units at 60

I Need help! I am a bad artist, so I will not be making original art for the game.

Wanted:
-Creative types to help me gather/create art. (All images must be open licensed, public domain, or original work.)
-Story ideas and writing.
-Game design ideas.
-UI design ideas.

[badashi]

Awesome. We need more HTML5 games!

I just hope the whole 'pregnancy' thing that is planned is somehow optional, that is one thing I can never enjoy :p

[DCF]

Awesome. We need more HTML5 games!

I just hope the whole 'pregnancy' thing that is planned is somehow optional, that is one thing I can never enjoy :p

Unfortunately if he goes with the whole ageing of units things it sounds like it will be required to get new characters.

I'd make the ageing of units optional myself...

[sed]

The pregnancy will be optional for the player. The npcs will have children on their own, but the player does not need to. Contraceptives will be available. As for the ageing, I'll add a 'youth potion' or something for players that wish to keep a unit alive.
No update today, as I have rewritten the dialogue and menu system. It took a lot of time, but is much more efficient now.

[sed]

Updated today. Most of the changes are to the engine so won't be noticed. I rewrote the menu/dialogue functions, and cleaned up other parts.

I did add a chat option that allows you to transfer control to that unit. This is not how it will be handled when more of the game is written, but it allows trying out other units for now. Later you will be able to change to any of your staff units at the tavern, but will only be able to control other npcs by using items/spells or sometimes as part of a quest.

I will likely be working on it more today and may update again later.

[Kurushimi]

This rather looks like it has some appeal to it.

[EliteMaster512]

I don't usually comment. When I do, I either need help with the game or I think its really great.

This is an amazing concept. Keep working on it. Add visuals. Add events. Add mechanics. Add more dialogue. Make a Story. You got this. Keep. It. Up.

[sed]

That's the plan

So I just updated again. More engine work, but also a new larger map, and a few bits of content. Now that most of the redesign is done I hope to add some static characters and other 'playable' things, next.

I think I will go with one large map for most of the game to play out in. There will also be other areas to visit, but they will be more like 'dungeons' where you visit to clear them, but probably do not go back.
I will dig up some better placeholder art for now, but I am not going to spend a lot of time on that yet.

[sed]

Updated again today, Added church, fixed some bugs, a few static units, and other stuff.

Now that I have 10 comments and the restrictions will be off I will just edit the original post when I update the game.

[sed]

I have a couple questions I would like some opinions on :

How do you feel about the controls in game? I realised that they might not be intuitive to others. It works well for me, but I made them. I find the combination of mouse and spacebar in the menus to be a quick way to navigate. But would anyone prefer the ability to make menu selections with the keyboard? or movement by mouse click?

Also a question about lore. Much of the lore is still open and will be filled in later when I get done with game mechanics and start adding quests etc. But one aspect I would like to sort out now is how the other units are being controlled. I think the most obvious answer is mind-control or possession of some kind. But I am not sure if that's what I want. I like the idea Of each unit being a separate personality with different goals and desires. Maybe there doesn't need to be an explanation?

[Rezzbin]

Personally, i'd like to see at least a basic explanation of some kind given just so it isn't just floating there. Similar to mind control though, it could be the player that possesses or controls Jenny to start the game and hop around to people from time to time. I personally can't think of any reasons that would explain it much other than mind control unless the characters that can be controlled are restricted and lessened so that it's several key people that can fit into a story or quest of some sort. I would also like to see if anyone can come up with other ideas though, as i'm stumped.

[Ayeka]

I started playing, game look good. Question, can be it downloaded?

IMHO interaction button should be Enter, menu (stats/saves) can be Spacebar.

I tried go to pub, game frozen.

[sed]

The game could be downloaded and played locally. I don't currently have a zip file up of it though because it is not yet much of a game, and is rapidly changing.

As far as the crash goes, what browser/os do you use? Do you know what the error message was?

[Ayeka]

The game could be downloaded and played locally. I don't currently have a zip file up of it though because it is not yet much of a game, and is rapidly changing.

As far as the crash goes, what browser/os do you use? Do you know what the error message was?

I use google chrome and not get aby message. Game simply stopped when I go in pub door, WSAD and arrows not work, X and Spacebar buttons too.

[sed]

Lore:
I've decided to go with 'possession' as the explanation. I think the player will be a demon from another realm that was able to escape back to earth when it found Jenny. Jenny had been in a traumatic accident that left her mind wiped. This made it easy for the player to possess her and return to earth. Other characters can then be possessed as well, but first a relationship much be established, and even when they are controlled, the player must break down their purity before they can be made to do things they wouldn't normally do.

I will also add an alternative set of controls. Right now they are set up for wasd, and x,c,spc. for a alternate set it will be arrow keys and enter. but what are the other two keys I should use for the second set of controls? shit/ctrl, or +/-? I never use the arrow keys, so I am unsure what buttons would be preferred.

As for the crash Ayeka had, I was not able to find it, however I changed many things, so it may no longer happen. If it does still happen can you hit F12 after and check the 'console'. There will likely be an error message there, and knowing that would greatly help me find the problem.

[Ayeka]

I tried today and get options about work. Seems it is working now

About lore, really possessing is better? Ambitious girl without morality is not bad IMHO.

[sed]

Well, I also like the ' Ambitious girl without morality' theme better. But I am trying to find a way to fit in the ability to control other characters.

Maybe she stumbles on an artefact, or makes a deal with the devil, that gives her the possession ability.

[Ayeka]

If possible can you do characters bigger sprites and different in appearance? Looking for someone specific is kinda hard now. Also, if you claim someone have around 60 years why you not use graphic character with suitable age? Looking for teenagers claimed to be in 60 or 40 years don't suit me too well.

[sed]

The sprites are probably going to stay the same style. I will add more, tweak some. But they are the best sprites I can find, so unless I can find an artist to make new ones, it is what I will use. I would love to have ones that were 128x64 instead of 64x32 but I gotta work with what I have. I will add more variety though.

Currently the sprites/images do not match up with the unit stats (age etc.) but they will. Once I add sprites/images for children, elderly, and other hair colours, they will generate appropriate images.
For now many of the images, and text are just the 'default' values because I have not added the art/writing.

If anyone knows of some better sprites I could use, let me know.

[sed]

So I've updated again. The game is getting to an almost playable point. Still lacks content, but you can play through the days, earn an income etc.
I would really appreciate some feedback before I go much further.

I'm still not sure how to handle the story aspect of controlling other units. I'm currently thinking of explaining it by Jenny using drugs on them. It could also be a magic item, or some form of hypnosis. ideas?

I will be adding 'ageing' soon. I am not sure if I should make Jenny and/or her staff immune to ageing. Or let everyone age, but introduce an item that can be used to stop ageing for chosen units.

I also want to know what people think of the 'game' concept behind it. As it is currently planned there will be 3 main motivations. Corrupt the town, Acquire wealth/Businesses, complete quests. There are also possible side-goals such as fuck everyone, or whatever else a person may find entertaining.
Will that be enough?

I would also like to hear from people what aspects of the current build do you like? What parts not so much?

I do not ask for money, and never will. All source is open and available to anyone who wants is. I will never make a Patron page, or ask for donations. You will always have access to the latest version.
But there is one thing I want in return:

Give me feedback.