Today, I come to you with explanations. No, not excuses. I'm here to make you understand why DommeBreaker is taking so long and will still need quite a bit of time. When we are done here, you will either believe we are wasting our time or you will see the dream we're trying to build, but there can be no doubt that we are hard at work. No sob story, no "we're doing our best, but making a game is hard" or any of that. Cold, hard facts and numbers. Let's begin.
Full list of characters in DommeBreaker base game:
- Michael (player character)
- Richard (friend of Michael and crucial to the plot)
- Hana (Richard's wife and Domme, who sets the game's events into motion)
- Emily, Jitsuko & Tomie (the 3 Dommes Michael has to defeat)
- Stacy (Hana's friend and the Upgrades girl)
Initially, we were going to have 1 or two character sprites for everyone but Michael (he's the pov character, so obviously doesn't see himself in story scenes). This has remained true for Richard and Hana. The 3 Dommes, however, now have 3 outfits and a 'broken' variant of their third outfit after defeating them completely. Designing these and having the artist make them took some extra time, but nothing too extreme. The character sprites were finished first and have been done since early 2023.
Not much has changed in the backgrounds since the initial concept other than that we added a park and public pool, so that we could use those for specific scenes as well. The backgrounds have been finished for quite some time.
Combat art. This is the big one! From the very start of the design process, before Zee even discussed the game with the artist, we settled on 3 Stages with 3 Phases each. Initially, each Phase would be a single image. Attacks from the Dommes would be related to what was depicted in the Phase art. The whole thing was going to be fairly straightforward: 3 Stages x 3 Phases x 3 Dommes = 27 pieces of Combat art.
Then our brilliant artist sent back the first couple of combat sketches and asked us which we wanted to use. We had a problem: they were all good. We couldn't decide. Couldn't pick a single one per Phase. So we discussed our options: stick to the simple plan and settle for mediocrity or let our artist show what they can do and time/budget be damned. We discussed this for several days and finally came to the realization that this game had too much potential to take the easy way out. So we changed the plan and started having the artist draw a different piece of art for each attack the Dommes use.
Here's where the math gets overwhelming: 3 Dommes x 3 Stages x 3 Phases per stage x 2-3 Attacks per Phase. Suddenly, we were looking at closer to 70-80 pieces of art compared to the initially planned 27. The crazy part? All of the combat art for Emily, Jitsuko and Tomie is done as of late June. Seriously. When we started working on DommeBreaker, we had intended to release it by the end of 2023, but that was based on the 27 combat arts idea. Make no mistake, if we'd stuck to that, the game would be done. Long done. It would also be nowhere near as hot as what we're making now.
Then there's the Victory Scenes, which would be scenes the player is rewarded with for beating a Domme in her current stage. Those have largely remained true to the original concepts. Where they've been changed, they've been expanded slightly. These changes have not had a significant impact. Only Jitsuko's Victory Scenes still need to be drawn along with the final ending of the game.
Player upgrades scenes. Initially, there would be one scene with Stacy in the tutorial and that was it. We also didn't have many ideas for upgrades early on beyond just more health for the player. Over time, we came up with the additional upgrades. Then it became clear we would need completely different Stacy art to reflect what happens in those scenes. 3 Variants of blowjob art for the Stamina upgrades and 2 completely new scenes (the aforementioned pool and public park) for the Control upgrades. These have yet to be made, since the artist was already working on the Combat arts by the time these upgrades were designed. For the Control upgrades, each of the 3 Dommes will also need their variants of those 2 scenes.
Lastly, we felt we had an anti-climax problem in the initial design. As explained in last month's post about game balance, beating one Domme at a certain Stage awards enough upgrade points that the other two become easier. It felt like a complete downer to have the last fight be easier than the previous two. Our solution was to add a final boss type fight after beating all 3 Dommes in Stage 3: A rematch with Hana where she's not holding back. This still has to be designed before we can even start on the art, but we're balancing the 3 Dommes first, so we know how to make Hana harder, but still beatable.
In short: the game as it was initially designed would have been done a long time ago. The combat has been greatly expanded and the art that has come out of it is worth it, I promise you. The additional art for the final Hana fight and the new upgrades scenes have yet to be made. Believe me, when you get to that Tier 3 Control upgrade where Michael fucks Stacy in a public park as she recounts one of her crazier sex adventures, you will understand why it was worth the extra time and effort.
We're gonna get one chance to blow people away with this game, so we want it to feel complete and be as hot as we can make it. Yes, we're still gonna need months, but we're not willing to compromise on this. We will take as much time as we need to make DommeBreaker a game we can be proud of; without feeling like we missed chances or left great ideas on the cutting room floor. Let me also just be 100% transparent: we have ideas for so much DLC content to release in the months and years to come; both Chapters and Girl Packs. We want to make all of those, but nobody will even care, if the base game doesn't prove that we're serious about providing a level of quality that's worth your money.
You made it all the way to the end? Wow. Okay, well, here's a little something extra for you:
Now that the special announcement is over, we return to the Roadmap update:
FINISHED:
- Jitsuko Victory Scene 3 edit + fixing
- Jitsuko Victory Scene 2 art
CURRENT:
- Jitsuko Victory Scene 3 art
- Jitsuko Control 3 upgrade scene writing and editing
- Editing every other Control 2+3 scene
- Programming and testing Jitsuko combat (all 3 stages)