Checking In & The 6th Anniversary Content Focus Poll

Howdy! My power was out for most of the day, but before I got back to the Halloween Sex CG design doc I've been making for TiltSHIFT because the ball of art commissions desperately needs to get rolling again (I have a firm idea of what I want from the scene and how it will flow with clear references for the steps, but I am still in the process of finding references for facial expressions and compiling them into a proper Google Doc), I figured I should check in to do that poll about the focus of the anniversary update I mentioned while I am still doing the parts of my job that don't require me knowing that for certain.

As stated,

I am planning the next update being either about updating the Keisuke Day 2 mall writing with better polish and the new CGs (NSFW link to an imgur album with previews and the plan for their use, but you might need to make an imgur account to see them) or the Keisuke Day 9 swimming pool scenes with their HCGs (NSFW link to an imgur album with previews and the plan for their use, but as before you might need to make an imgur account to see them) ((I probably need to figure out how to do this with a service that doesn't autoflag NSFW content)).

I still think that those imgur albums I linked are the best representations of each option (or at least, how I plan to use the CGs that will be the focal point of both) even if you (likely) have to make an account to see them, but part of the fun of this being a post behind a Patreon paywall (aka not public) is that I can actually show NSFW images for previews within this post even I'll only be covering the principal base variants of each CG set here to help me with explaining each idea with enough detail for you to make an informed decision of what you are voting for.

Mall Redux

The Keisuke Day 2 mall scenes are still rather good even by my much higher standards as I writer that I didn't have when I wrote them. I really should be going through the content again to say this more accurately before I say it, but I predict won't need to make many changes to the writing.

My first priority will be dialing in the personalities of Zach and Keisuke a bit more because I have a much clearer understanding of both characters and their entire dynamic to give them the depth that will let them stand out from their base roles as "genderswapped guy with a hot female body" and "jock childhood friend" because there's so much more to both than those shallow descriptions and their chemistry does a great job of bringing that to the surface.

I also want to polish the facial expressions to my modern standards through things like making someone's mouth open only when that person is talking (with rare exceptions for something like heavy breathing) or that their mouth is closed when they aren't talking, but even more importantly, using my system to make expressions from a combination of the constituent facial parts (e.g., "show zoey xa eyes_9 eyebrows_11 mouth_14 blush_3 gloom_0 sdrops"). This content was written back when that system wasn't merely not in place but when Zoey's placeholder sprites were the only ones I had access to (yes, it's that old).

I'm feeling enough whiplash from the past that it feels like a mental car crash...

Zoey was supposed to end up with a side-angle sprite which sadly never came to fruition, but my method of replacing the placeholders was an admittedly lazy project regex that translated each placeholder facial expression to its closest match in the new sprites. I fully believe that the expressiveness of each character is one of the largest strengths of re:Dreamer, but that only works when I have content written alongside those facial expressions to fully fit with the writing rather than being a later addition and when those expressions have a massive range from how I can swap parts in it.

I don't think the writing of the mall will fundamentally change, but I do want to add in a scene I've been kicking around in my head on-and-off for a few years of actually showing both characters getting lunch instead of adding a small time skip to right after it. I'd want to focus on not just how much both Zach and Keisuke are aware this looks like an actual date, but more importantly, how Zach responds to being seen as a woman and treated like one by the staff because there's a lot I can do with this.

Sure, I can do the boring option of making Zach feel kind of good about it in ways he doesn't quite understand, but I can also make Zach lean into the assumed role of a girlfriend to fuck with Keisuke (to the point of making a fuss about how rude it is to expect her to pay for her half of the meal), get upset at the assumed femininity and do something stupid to compensate like ordering something that Zach thinks a woman would never order out of defiant rejection of the assumption and/or ordering more food than he can eat (which stings when he notices his swimmer best friend with a huge daily calorie intake wolfing down even more food than Zach ordered), or looking at the menu differently than usual so he can be confronted even more by the idea that the sexy female body he got with zero effort isn't a free lunch and will require more effort than he is used to in ways he isn't familiar with in order to maintain it even if Zach sees that body as merely a rental. There's a poignant opportunity in there not just for Zach to muse about just how much of the choices that he always felt normal making were actually gendered choices dictated not by who he is but what he is and what body he has, and I think those points can really be hammered home by comparing himself to Keisuke in that moment.

Anyhoo, art!

The changing room scene has new art, but I don't see the writing changing much (or even at all).

Having the option to show Zach actually pulling out his phone to see how the hell he and Keisuke are getting back to campus now that they've missed the last bus isn't just somewhat visually immersive but something that can give insight into how Zach thinks in solving problems and making even trivial decisions. Being the grandson of a union organizer (and damned proud of it), Zach doesn't want to support a company like Lyft or Uber which exploits their employees, so he goes out of his way to call an actual taxi company so he can feel like he is spending his money ethically by giving it to a local business so it and their employees stand more of a chance of weathering an increasingly predatory labor market.

Do I really need to explain why Zach acting like a smug brat while giving Keisuke a handjob by priding his skill in it while taking shots at Keisuke would be fun to write?

Zach losing his virginity (for the majority of players) is a huge moment for him that deserves the proper attention to detail and personalness of custom CGs made for that. Besides, it's hot, and at the end of the day I like writing smut and try to do it well.

Swimming Pool

This one is honestly going to be explained better through that imgur album I already linked (and if you get to the end up the current Day 9 gym content, there's a short little bonus scene I added to outline the buildup to the event), but if I could sum up the scene with a single image (and then a lot of my own commentary rather than the outline of the events that imgur album will do better), it'd be this one:

I mean, I can't blame Zach for thinking that, now can I?

Zach is bisexual, and he does not realize he is bisexual for a bunch of layered and complicated reasons whose explanations will have to wait for another time. The important part is that Zach is an artist when it comes to mental gymnastics, and I think it is really important to demonstrate that so that the moment when he pieces it all together is even more satisfying. But in the meantime, his utter denial is entertaining and something I like seeing with gender bender.

Like, Zach is such a horny disaster after seeing his friend get out of the pool that he can't even do the exercise that they rented out to this pool for in the first place. The dude is wet before he even hits the water, and I won't consider my job as being properly done if I don't make at least half of the readers want to punch their monitor in frustration or scream at Zach to get a clue when it's so fucking goddamned obvious he's into his best friend and could accurately be described as swooning for him in this moment.

"Man, I need to get my best friend to fuck me so I can clear my head" is reasoning so stupid that only a massive fan of gender bender with a talent for repression could have come up with it. Zach is simply a utilitarian solving a problem through the most direct means possible while absolutely refusing to acknowledge why he has this problem in the first place. This is the good stuff that hits like crack for me, I tell ya.

This is the face of a person who overthinks so hard that they are oblivious to thinking about anything else.

Yes, I know Keisuke looks a bit weird here. I'll be fixing that.

Like, I don't know what else to tell you. Zach gets lost in a daydream about making out with Keisuke during sex that is so vivid that Zach is utterly shocked when he realizes he was just imagining it, and yet he still thinks he's not actually into guys because his female body is making him into them (in limited circumstances).

Yes, a fair bit of gender bender gets derided for being "comphet," with one of the lazier explanations being how female hormones make you horny for guys. Two years ago, I'd have said that was obviously bullshit but something that the genre invents as an expedient way to get to the sex (which is important when doujin authors might only be having 20 pages to work with), but now, I have lived through that exact scenario multiple times. Hell, I would say that tired plot contrivance is not merely possible but undersold in gender bender pornography, but it didn't make me into men: it made me realize I always was with no way to avoid the conclusion which was obvious in hindsight. My life experiences will have an influence on what I write, but I'm allowing this tired plot point of "comphet" because it's actually not that for Zach even as he tries to desperately make himself believe it is.

Okay, so, I sort of feel bad for stopping here and not giving both parts an equal amount of explanation, but I am falling asleep as I type. I need to get this post and poll out the door so people can vote on it while I still have things to do that I don't need the results for.

As usual, Supporters have 1x vote weight, Backers have 4x vote weight, and Sustainers have 10x poll weight. I'll have this poll set to end in a week (August 22) but will likely end it myself before then and post the results when I run out of things to do that aren't writing the update itself.

Also, I am probably going to remake the poll about whether or not the 0.21.0 sixth anniversary release this poll is about to give people more time to vote on the outcome even if I think the result of "it's public to everyone from the start" will stand, but I will decide that when I'm not so exhausted I can barely think.

Take care, folks!