'KoS' Development Ramblings: On Endings, Final Development Stages, and What Comes Later~ (Patreon)

Hello everyone. It's been a while since I wrote one of these posts.

With "Ending 2" finally done, I thought I'd write a little about the thought process that brought me to write it, as well as what comes next for 'The King of Summer', my dearly beloved game which is finally in its last stage of development.

There's still content planned for several months to come (as I detail in this same post), but for now, let's talk Endings!

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Ending 1 & Ending 2

When I released the final update for Ending 1 all those months ago, the responses I read were overall positive and sometimes amusing. I saw plenty of people stop playing, figuring out that was the very end of King of Summer (even as I repeated several times that it wasn't), and that all that was left was to tie loose ends.

Which makes sense! The main idea behind Ending 1 was to deliver a very traditional NTR Ending experience. My thought process was to write as if the story had stuck with only Mary, Kendo and Satoshi for its entire round. There's no participation from any other characters, with it simply centering around Satoshi finding out the truth of Kendo and Mary's affair. It brings to a close issues presented early on in the game and ties them up neatly. Maybe a little too much. That's by design, as I never intended it to be the main ending of the game. Even in the variation in which Satoshi tries to strike back, he's only successful up to a point. All he can do is watch as things develop, with him unable to do anything about it.

And then I started planning Ending 2. I already had a basic idea of how it would go, but I needed a little time to make sure of the details. If Ending 1 was a traditional NTR Ending, I wanted Ending 2 to add a few twists to that formula. This ending takes into consideration everything that transpired with Arato and Shizuka, and builds up on Satoshi's and Shizuka's relationship, eventually leading them to take matters into his own hands and secure a happy future. Kendo's underlying insecurities are explored, Mary's co-dependence is exploited, and Arato is swept away by his own pettiness to become a maniac.

I think the most important thing for me was to write this ending sincerely. Kendo and Shizuka's scenes felt a little 'off' for a reason: I didn't want to make her go 'oh actually I like bigger cocks sorry~'. Neither of them is having fun, they are both resisting each other, with 0 chemistry to be found. Same with Arato and Mary: unlike in the Arato Route, their relationship here isn't bickering or playful, it's just miserable, with neither of them seeing each other as human. I wanted to sincerely make an ending in which Satoshi could strike back and earn a happy ending for himself, not cheapening it with a sudden NTR turn, even if it carried the cost of making Kendo lose for once.

...Although he can still fuck it up~ lol~

I gather this ending was unexpected to a lot of people. I had folks doubting until the very last day that things would work out the way they did. And others very upset about it! Which is fine. I like getting these kinds of different reactions. But as I've said before, this is also not the final ending of the game. So what comes after? Weeeell......

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Final Development Stretch & Content Roadmap

Here's what's coming next, in the specific order I intend to do it.

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1. Rin's Storyline 

First off, it's time to bring Rin's storyline to an end! I put it on hold for too long. There is not much to do either, except for the finale. While the broad strokes of what happens won't surprise anybody, I still intend to make it feel special.

All-in-all, there's only two scenes remaining. One of these has already been released with the 0.5.11-early release, and then there's the longer finale, after which Rin (and Kaoru's) story will be officially done. I know they are not everyone's cup of tea, but I'll try to do a good job regardless.

For this story, I'll have Takumi grapple with an issue... the question of which is worse?

Having your girlfriend be stolen away by an old man?

Or having to watch as your sister, who's taken care of you for your whole life, is tag-teamed by this same old man and your girlfriend who might ALSO intend to steal her away from you?

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2. Arato Route Final Stage

After Rin and Kaoru meet their ultimate destiny (a line that reads more ominous than it should) comes Arato's time to shine! While some might argue Arato already got plenty of content recently, others (like might) might also argue that was a different Arato. In any case, I will be focusing on his route until its completion. So no going back to Kendo for a while!

Although it won't be too long of a wait until we see our jolly old man again. There's two big things to tackle: first comes Mary and Arato's Date N°2. I will make it longer and have more going on than Date N°1, so it'll definitely take at least one full update to get done (with some guest appearances). Afterwards comes the conclusion to their final contest... if you guys remember, Satoshi will have to give up A LOT once this happens. I intend to make this a point of no return, with several scenes and events happening in succession. You could consider this the Arato Route 'Ending Sequence'. There will be just one, but with slight variations depending on progress (such as to have watched Hanako's scenes or Rin's).

I'm definitely excited to get to them!

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3. Road to Becoming the 'King of Summer' (Game Finale)

And finally....... Ending 3. Internally known in my documents as the 'King of Summer Ending'. The option that'll lead to it already exists within one of the Kendo and Shizuka scenes. But there are things to be accomplished first!

As you guys might remember, local rich woman and neglectful elder sister Naomi Someya issued a challenge to Kendo, in which he had to prove himself "worthy" of calling himself a King. And how will he accomplish this? Why, by showcasing the power he's gained over the many women whose path he's crossed!

During the sequence leading to Ending 2, it was laid on Kendo how his actions had ruined the lives of these women, and that the best course of action he could take was to merely disappear after all was said and done... But is this really the case? Surely there's something else to be done? A proper King can ensure the prosperity of his most loyal subjects, after all! No matter the odds.

I've decided to divide this road to the finale in two big chunks. The first one will be Naomi's Challenge, which the player (as Kendo) will only get to tackle after attaining Manly Level 80 and thus having completed all available storylines. The initial idea was to have different events show up around the map (the current Natsuki / Hanako scene being one of them)... but I realized these scenes would work better as part of a whole. This means Naomi's Challenge will be a long series of scenes, involving all of the side-heroines (Hanako, Natsuki, Yoshi, Rin, Kaoru) and mixing their stories together, tying up any loose ends.

After you have completed Naomi's Challenge, the game will finally allow you to progress past the current main story roadblock, and reach the final ending sequence! I'm very excited to get here in a couple of months~

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?. Shizuka Ending (Arato Route)

Of course, attentive players will have realized that Shizuka has been acting solo in Arato's Route, getting tangled with a few boys here and there. She even suggested to Mary that maybe they can just drop everything with Arato and Satoshi and have fun on their own...? Surely something will come out of this, right?

Well yeah! But I have decided to not make it a priority. I have some fun ideas I want to make for this, but right now I intend to tackle it as a kind of expansion after KoS is official finished. I realized it might end up taking far too much time. But I'll get to it eventually!

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What Comes After 'King of Summer'?

The end is in sight, although it will still take us at least half a year to get there.

But the question remains... What comes after? Will NoTryStudios stop existing once 'The King of Summer' is finished? Will he stick to making spinoff projects, like the idiot bum he is?

Of course not!

I intend to make another long FULL NTR game after KoS is over, making use of the skills I've gained, learning from the mistakes I made, all of that. I want to make it a story that's intended from the beginning to be long, and so not fall into some pitfalls I fell with KoS.

As to what's it about? Well, I'll write up a post about it soon. It's about time I started promoting it.

Character designs, certain story elements and the title are still a Work in Progress.

But for now I'm calling it: 'To Usurp a Princess'.