***SPOILER ALERT! This devlog might contain spoilers about the game's story so far***
One of the features implemented in General Practitioner in the latest updates (and in future ones as well) is the so-called "jealousy" feature.
As explained in other devlogs some characters like or dislike each other. As Dr. Jones lives in a very small town people tend to know each other quite well, and people have the habit to talk as well. And for a Casanova guy this usually means trouble.
Starting from Claudia in 0.0.24 and continuing with Erika in 0.0.25 it comes a point where your past actions will need to be faced in front of your romance partner. While General Practitioner is not a stats-based game, meaning you don't have to grind stats in order to progress the story, stats will play a role in determining if a relationship will continue or not.
HATING AND LOVING Of course every character is different, so what bothers someone might not bother someone else. This is especially true in GP, because people will tend to trust each other and maybe distrust someone "just because". Let's take Erika for example: she doesn't notice (or care) if you have a relationship with Claudia, Elisa or Christina, but she WILL confront you if you happen to have a relationship (even a past one) with Rita or Kiko (because she can't stand medical professionals having a flirt with patients) and she will also be disappointed if you had sex (or you were in a relationship) with her close friends Vanessa or Aaron.
Also, she can't stand bisexuality in her partners (you might agree or not, but that's her opinion and not every character has the same one) and she will be more pissed off if you had a relationship with Aaron more than if you did with Vanessa.
Of course past relationship "stack" together, so the bad effect on her will increase proportionally as the partners you had.
BREAKING UP That means that every relationship with the above people will have you decrease her trust by a certain number of points (usually 10). You will also be asked some conversation choices that can increase or further decrease this value at some point.
That's where past deeds with your partner come into action. If you behaved in a certain way (in Erika's case for example: have you blackmailed her into sex at the gym?) during the course of the game she will remember those actions and decrease her trust even further. If you behaved well and have a strong relationship you won't reach her "tolerance limit" and she will trust you enough to keep your relationship safe and sound.
Each character has a "trust tolerance level" below of which they will break up with you no matter what. Then again, since every character is different one might have a very high tolerance while other won't. For example Claudia's trust level to stay with you must be higher than 60, while Erika's must be higher than 40 and Aaron must be higher than 70.
This has been done to "simulate" real relationships, because different people tend to be harder or easier to be with and your own deeds might mean more or less to them.
Still, the relationship system has been built not to be too much hard on players. The game won't feature a gameover and the story will unwrap with different endings for each romance.
I recommend you NOT to look for a "perfect ending" but to enjoy the game trying to take into the shoes of Dr. Jones, making choices as you would in his situation. A player recently told me that conversations with Claudia are very natural and resemble real life ones. That's a very nice feedback which also means people do get pissed off or are entertained by the characters of the game, so play with them and treat them as you feel you should, without worrying about a "perfect score" which not only doesn't exists, but that you can pursue in a new run!
Thanks for following the game, I hope to hear your impressions very soon!
Today I'm going to tell you about update 0.0.25, which will feature Erika and her personal storyline. As for Claudia's path in the upcoming 0.0.24 patch Erika will have plenty of situations to play with. While some will be similar to Claudia's (the "Physician, Heal Thyself" chapter for example), other will be playable only if you choose her path in the game.
One of Erika's-only chapters is titled "High School Lessons" and will feature a visit to a school by both our favourite Nurse and Dr. Jones to teach young students about the risk of sexually-transmitted diseases.
During this chapter you will return to a school after many years and you'll be either excited or scared by the people who attend your lesson. The students' questions can be sometimes embarrassing, especially in front of your co-worker, but they can also teach yourself something about the sexual preferences of young people nowadays.
Of course our Casanova Doctor will also face some important choices that could have consequences in his relationship with Erika. A student (female or male, depending on your sexuality) could even ask the Doctor some "private lessons" after everybody's gone.
Some of you might recognize the "High School" situation as something already hinted in the game in the form of "Secondary objective/quest". This was the initial intention, however as game's development progressed I recognized that side-quests were useless to the overall gameplay. A "side-quest" should be, for its very nature, something that can be skipped without consequences and without losing something important for the story.
Since this chapter became quite important for the game, as well as Father Torque's request in a future update, it was pointless for players to skip it and most people would have played it regardless.
For this very reason I decided to remove side-quests from the game and to have their stories added as normal chapters, so that everybody could play them in their stories.
"High School Lessons" is a chapter playable in Erika's path, but you won't have to have her as your girlfriend to unlock it.
More infos about Erika's path and 0.0.25 will be released very soon, so stay tuned!
Thank you for your outstanding support of the game! You are making every update possible!
PS: updates about The Coroner Saga coming up as well in a few days! Stay tuned!!!!
My holiday is over and I really enjoyed the beauties of Japan in the awesome Sakura's period.
This announcement is to inform you that we're back in action developing the game after this two-weeks rest and that you can expect A LOT of content coming up with 0.0.24 in a couple weeks, plus some bugfix along the way as usual.
Work on The Coroner Saga is also progressing and you can expect it to be delivered in 2 to 4 weeks, you can follow TCS's page for more details here on Steam as well!
Thanks for all of your feedback, bug reports and support, it's thanks to you that this game is going to become what it aims to be!
GENERAL PRACTITIONER 0.0.23 ALPHA RELEASE - "Cutting Loose Ends"
GENERAL: Save games from earlier releases after 0.0.17 are compatible.
Bug fixing - Fixed an issue where Josh's examination was not unlocking the Achievement - Fixed an issue preventing to unlock the "Entrepreneur" Achievement - Eloise, Felicity and Zola exams have had Mr. Xuan's agreement restored as it was missing - Phoning Erika will no longer result in changing the phone's settings
GAMEPLAY:
Added new Medical Conditions in the Codex: - Alcoholic Liver Disease - Hepatitis, B - Pneumothorax
New Achievements have been added: - Living to the Edge - Just an Injury - Dr. Yang to the waiting room! - Powerless
EXAMINATIONS:
New exam available (#62): Harlan. You can access his exam via the waiting room either by clicking on him or by typing his ID (3051278462) or by going to the Exam Room after January 20th
New exam available (#63): Sara (Child). You can access her exam via the waiting room either by clicking on her or by typing her ID (1925411863) or by going to the Hospital after January 25th
New exam available (#64): Josh (2nd exam). You can access his exam via the waiting room either by clicking on him or by typing his ID (9918259145) or by going to the Hospital after January 28th
New exam available (#65): Katia (2nd exam). You can access her exam via the waiting room either by clicking on her or by typing her ID (5400088609) or by going to the Hospital after January 29th
RANDOM EXAMINATIONS:
Elder Random Exams are now available! Each gender will feature three different archetipes for you to play with! This marks the end of the Random Examination Project development, we hope you'll enjoy this feature. Keep in touch as more illnesses and stories with random patients will be added!
Fixed an issue with Adult's exams not showing Abdominal and genital checks
Fixed an issue which allowed to perform exams that require nudity to fully dressed adult patients
STORY:
This update doesn't feature any addition to the game's story
Starting from today and until April 1st you will get the exclusive option to get the game with a 15% discount to celebrate the final release of the Random Exam Project on March 28th with patch 0.0.23
Supporting the game on Early Access is very important for our projects to progress further. As a very small indie studio we rely 100% on crowdfunding and players' support, and of course Steam support is one of the most important revenue for our work to date!
So, if you like what we're trying to introduce in the Adult Visual Novel industry and wish us to keep producing our games your help is very appreciated and valuable!
Thank you for supporting the game and its creator(s). We cannot say how important you are for us and we try to show you with each game's update!
0.0.24 focused on Claudia's romance, so the latest devlogs have been about her, but remember that each Romance has its development scheduled, so all characters will have their own space eventually!
Romances in General Practitioner are different in gameplay. You will experience different ways to "win over the heart" of your chosen romance as some will require you to date them for a while, while others will only need you to play events and make choices.
Every romance though roughly follows three major steps: meeting someone, getting to know someone and finally stay with someone.
As Claudia is a relative to the MC, the first step is missing completely, while you played the second one when she visited you at home with Alex, when you spent time with her and when you joined her for dinner or Chrismas.
After those events you might trigger the "romance starter" which in her case is either a kiss or something more, depending on dozens of choices along the way. Starting her romance will eventually lead you to sum things up and decide whether to romance her or not, unlocking her path and events in the game.
One such event is the Medical Conference in Canada, where she will speak to an audience about her medical research in the field of hearth surgery. This event might seem quite similar to the "Trip to Seattle" one, but it has many differences, at least in gameplay terms.
Yeah, because after a while every romance (thus even Claudia's) will enter a "final step", where her "trust" won't be enough to understand if things are going well with her when ending the game and which ending you're going to unlock.
With many choices available in each event, a counter of "good/wrong" choices is thereby activated and this, added to your romance's trust of course, will determine the outcome of the whole story.
You can choose to behave with Claudia the way you want. In each event you will get to know her better and better and the choices you'll make will reflect on your overall story with her. As usual, many situations will unlock only if you chose certain actions, but you won't be locked out from playing the events, as there's no "good choice" or "bad choice" but only choices that will bring you to the next event and so on.
All romances starting from 0.0.24 are pretty much the final content for each girl/guy in the game, but they NEED your feedback and I need your help too! While of course bugs and images can be added and fixed here and there, I need you to tell me what you think about dialogues, situations, even suggest some to add into the game.
Even if it's "just" a story (and a very long one since there are dozens of lines to read through), it still needs alpha testing, hence that's where you, our amazing players' community, come in!
I'm always available for your emails and contacts. You can reach me out by visiting my website www.brunimultimedia.com
Thank you for your time, I hope you'll enjoy 0.0.24, which will be available on Steam and other Retailers on late April and for crowdfunders on Patreon in a few days as usual (0.0.23 is on its way to Steam on March 28th!!!)
Today's announcement is to tell you about our upcoming holiday. Since I'm going to have a baby on August (our 2nd child!), my wife and I decided to schedule our holidays ahead of time.
For this very reason I will be out of office from March 31st until April 13th. During this period of time development for General Practitioner will stop, both for future releases and for bug fixes (that's why I'm releasing 0.0.24 without medical exams, which are the most prone to bugs in my experience).
I won't be able to reply to emails or private messages either, so don't get mad if you can't reach me the usual way, I promise I will read through all your messages when I'm back!
Development for The Coroner Saga will continue as usual instead, as we have a separate team working on it.
Thanks for your support over time, I believe you'll like our future story updates A LOT!
Today's devlog will introduce you an end-game event, which will be available for every route you will choose with some differences between one route and another. Being 0.0.24 focused on Claudia's romance we will explore her path today, but remember that each Romance has its development scheduled, so it won't be a Claudia-centered game of course!
That said, this unusual event starts with a nice day at the local pool with both Claudia and Alex, her daughter and niece of yours. You will have so much fun together even though something's bothering the good doctor's troubled mind.
Depending on how you dealt with previous encounters with Claudia this event will trigger different conversations and outcomes. You might even miss some images and situations that you would've experienced with a friendlier relationship.
The day at the pool goes well, you have fun together even though the difficulties of your relationship with your sibling are pretty obvious. In General Practitioner you won't have an easy time winning over the heart of your romance options, because they do have their own opinions and feelings, and they won't always match yours, like in real life.
Still, the after-pool is the main event, as the Doctor will fell ill, starting with an annoying fever rising up every now and then and finally keeping him at home with a very low energy and severe nausea. This situation was inspired by my own health issues, as some of you who are following me for a long time might remember last June, when development stopped for almost a whole month while I recovered from a very bad viral infection, something that was very hard to deal with and that left me with no consequences fortunately.
While the events are fictional, the illness is inspired by my own. And here I thought a change of pace in the game was funny to develop. If a doctor gets ill who you're gonna call?
The situation that plays there is awkward and funny, as Claudia will need to understand the doctor's symptoms and treat him accordingly. And doctors are the worst patients indeed as you will give her a hard time during the exam.
I thought it would be cool if the Main Character and the NPC switched sides for a moment, something which is rare in videogames. You will then play as Claudia for the examination, choosing what to do to a patient who has been you until a moment before!
While the examination and visit are quite simple, no real skills are necessary and they almost play out by themselves, I believe you'll have some fun exploring this unusual case and its very rare finding, all by reading through dozens of nice and real conversations between the two loved characters.
Physician Heal Thyself will play with other romances as well, while the examination itself will change some of those dialogues and might even trigger jealousy in other romantic interests.
Keep following our devlogs for more! It was very funny to develop this event, so I think you will have much fun playing it!
Claudia's Romance: Birthday Dinner As anticipated earlier 0.0.24 will feature many events involving Claudia and the doctor's romance with her.
Today we're going to show you a few screenshots of one of those events: the birthday dinner. Claudia is born on February and she wants to have dinner with you for the occasion! Everything's settled and this can be an opportunity to spend some time with her!
Depending on your previous choices, you can dine with her like a brother/cousin (and your mother will join you in that case), like a friend (Bob and Alex will join you in that case) and finally as a love partner (Alex will join you alone).
During the event you will have a conversation with the characters who are attending it, and your choices will again have consequences in your relationship with Claudia from that point forward.
Conversation between you and Alex will change depending on your relationship with her mother, for example, while Bob might not like you sharing his family's secrets with his daughter.
Your mother, on the other hand, might like you sorting everything out with Claudia in the first place, and your choices during the "Christmas' Eve's party at Claudia's" will play their role in conversations with her as well.
General Practitioner is a game where choices really matter, not only while examining a patient and trying to save his life, but also when your (private) life's at stake.
What are YOU going to do? What will be the outcome of your relationship with Claudia?