As a head’s up, there will be a very short update post next week. Obviously I’m out of town doing Holiday Things.
Coding and Art
Chicken is working on emotes, Koops is doing some raptors, and Urimas is taking a break. Hund is making an explosion, it’s gonna be cool. Me, I’m working on Peak Freaks, which should be hopefully releasing in January, and Project Carnation. More details on Carnation later, once it’s a bit further along.
Peak Freaks is an action-puzzle game where you play as a dude who looks a lot like Master Higgins from Adventure Island. Your goal is to use puzzle blocks to climb across procedurally-generated race tracks and go for the best time, and/or sabotage an AI-controlled rival for kicks.
The art is done by Chicmonster (same artist as the one working on Monoceros) and I (Salty) did the coding. I presume it’ll be available for cheap on Itch.io, that’s up to Chic.
Curious Cat
Fan Art
Artist HadezMuze made Sanya in a maid outfit and then asked for input. I said it was unfair that Zeke didn’t also get to wear a maid outfit. I regret nothing.
A bugfix patch was released to Patrons/Subscribers/Steam/Itch (it’s on the downloads page if you missed it) fixing most of the bugs that were reported last week. There’s a couple minor collision bugs leftover. The artists are back to work and I actually got some of the Empress emotes! Hooray!
This will be a short month because The Holidays are upon us. The Werecat story cover is now complete so expect the Amazon release of that just in time for your weirdo Christmas gifts of… soft/hardcore porn stories about transformation. Okay.
I am currently working on Project Carnation, more details later on. I will also be finishing up Peak Freaks this month (hopefully) and getting Monoceros done in the early parts of 2023.
Niko
What a handsome boy.
Curious Cat
Fan Art
Based off the bunny designs from chapter 2, we have Princess Zelda! She looks too cool NOT to be a playable character in BOTW 2 right? Right, Nintendo?
You know at some point I’m going to have to break it to people that Jeanne is a nerdy, quiet type. Until then, keep making fan art of her as a badass.
As usual, you can get it on the patron downloads page. If you want it via Steam or Itch.io, the Steam instructions for the beta are on the patron downloads page.
What’s that? You can’t remember where the patron download page is? You can find it in the pinned post on Patreon! Subscribers from Subscribestar will get their own version of the post, too.
What’s in version 4.10? Two major new areas, a new town with tons of NPCs, two new playable forms (Harpy and Bunny), a new party member, a pile of new enemies and items, bugfixes, backend improvements, enemy AI changes, and UI upgrades. It’s got everything you need!
If you’re a new user and don’t know how to get this stuff: You need to be a patron/subscriber, or buy the game for 1$ on Itch.io. The links are at the bottom of every blog post.
Fan Art
We got DOUBLE CHRISTINE this week. What a time to be alive!
By popular vote, she is throwing the water bottle at the camera, not stealing it.
Curious Cat
Aggressive Links
DMITRI OUT OF NOWHERE
You thought you were safe from cats because it’s the links section. GOT YOU.
The LIGHTNING POLL results were 80% in favour of waiting until we had the sprites. Everything else is ready, I just need some tiles and ability icons. I expect Urimas will have them today or tomorrow.
I’m still working on the update. I have a LIGHTNING POLL right here that you should fill out (it’s one question) as to whether we should release on the 31st, or when Urimas has the sprites ready. It may be another week if the vote goes that way.
I sent a bugtest build to the testers yesterday. Dozens of bugs flooded in. My release target for the next update is the end of the month, so I spent all day fixing the many, many bugs. It will likely take another day to clean them up, and that’s without any story or content changes.
I still need the bunny TF from Mario, the Harpy TF will be getting an upgrade, Chicken has to send me a fully shaded bunny Sanya (but patrons get to see the unshaded one!) and Koops is getting me some minor character art. I have pulled a gun on Urimas to get all the sprites done before I have to kill him. We’ll see if he lives.
Like always it’s time for that mad dash to release. Hence why today is HELL REVEALED.
All the maps are in place, I’m working through topics and examination text. Chicken is “back” and will be getting me Bunny Sanya ASAP so she can make it into the prototype. Amazingly, I actually delegated some work so the initial balance pass will be done by Pyxxis and not me. Amazing! Maybe the prototype will be ready on time. Otherwise, I was cleaning up some of the bugs that have been reported.
Let’s all give Urimas a collective kick up the ass to get me my sprites.
I am hoping the release will be out at the end of November. Worst case, first part of December.
Curious Cat
Fan Art
The great thing about dolls is that, even if you miss, they don’t mind. But Lotta doesn’t miss.
Parsley is absolutely getting a cameo.
And here’s Jeanne Imp! Really has that succubus vibe but who am I to judge.
The longstanding “Black screen on new game” bug has been fixed, thanks to SEVERAL DAYS of bug hunting. It will be rolled into the upcoming patch. I’ve also made several refactoring improvements to the enemy AI, which will make improving them in the future easier, and they already have some new tricks. Enemies will now alert other enemies they run past and they will share where they last saw you, and spread out in search for longer. You’ll need to break LOS and hide a lot more to avoid enemies.
Otherwise, I’m mostly done all the extra dialogue writing for the next part of chapter 2. I decided to “outsource” some of the pamphlet writing, for all the good that’s going to do. Mario is currently writing the bunny TF, and I’m going to be doing enemy layouts next. Urimas had better get me my damn tilesets!
Fan Art
A new fan artist appears, and their first work: An alraune! My (second) favourite form! Good pick. Art by Erorr418.
And a Dreamer fan piece by the same artist! It’s even better!
I think outfit swaps need to be done for way more characters. Have Izuna and Zeke switch outfits! Wait.
And lastly, possibly Hadez Muze’s best piece yet, it’s Sage from Monoceros! Moths have such cool designs in real life, it’s a shame people don’t draw them more.
You want a RoP development update? Okay, fine. Subquests are done and I’m working my way through all the “pamphlet” stuff. You can publish stories by reporting them to Mia, and she gives you pamphlets you can show to NPCs who then comment on things. I get to write hundreds of lines of dialogue! Urimas is also making sprites, and we have all the UI/map stuff from Hund for the next update now. Harpy TF is half done, Mario is working on the bunny TF.
Okay Now Monoceros
All the coding, scripting, balance, etc. is going to be done in January. I have currently assigned our unpaid intern Pyxxis to do the initial balance layout. Combat will be getting changed around a bit.
Enemies will come in several categories: Basic enemies, “tough” enemies (who appear differently on the field, have +20% stats and +50% HP, use curse more often) and “miniboss” enemies, who have a third field appearance. Minibosses are pre-designed enemy groups that appear in specific locations. When they are first encountered, the player cannot bypass them. If defeated they will respawn out of the way so the player can fight them again later to farm stuff if desired. Minibosses also have unique gimmicks.
The idea here is to use “beefgates” to require the player to engage with combat a certain amount in order to progress, and better meter the player’s levels and equipment. You will be less likely to be underleveled when engaging the game’s seven mandatory bosses since the minibosses will give you an idea if you’re underpowered.
The drop system will be getting reworked. Essences are still in, but you will also need material supplies which drop from enemies and can be purchased from Gavin. Material supplies are dropped by multiple enemy overlaps, and essence are still required but only needed in bulk to get charms. This should take a bit of pressure off the “farming” aspect, while still allowing a player who is finding things too tough to kill some enemies, get a few equipment upgrades, and make the game easier. Now instead of having to kill 20 slimes, you need to kill 3 slimes and 10 of several different enemies who drop the same items.
We’ve also created a tentative map layout. The game has 7 optional areas in addition to its 11 mandatory areas (not counting Heronstadt).
Yeah but what about the art?
Chicmonster has finished sketching ALL of the enemies and bosses, and has sketched about half of the player forms. I asked her to get me some finished pieces to show off for this milestone, so here we are:
First up is Clementine’s redesign. Chic ran out of time before the prototype was released, so I asked another ANONYMOUS artist to do Clementine. This is Chic’s take. The design is mostly the same, but we gotta keep the style consistent.
Here we have the Queen of Black Ice, who is assigned to stop you right before you reach the monastery. She’s the fifth boss of the game (I’m skipping the third and fourth ones on purpose, bwahaha) and, well, what do you want me to say? You think she tries to freeze you? The TF is a bit obvious. It’s like asking if Verand is going to vampire TF you (she is).
What’s less obvious is that she was never human, and is in fact an ice elemental, similar to the electricity elemental Electrosprites from chapter 5 of RoP. She’s a lot more malicious, but why? What does she gain from allying with Verand? Find out (next year)!
When I said the enemies were sketched, I meant it. I have them at placeholder sizes. Let’s show one or two off.
I asked Chic for some fish people. You know, mermaids, that kind of thing. Well we got some frog dudes too, and there’s a couple more aquatic enemies in this area. You’re gonna get mermaid TF’d from these enemies.
You want bugs? Bugs are cool. How about this firefly design? Fireflies are the game’s only bug TF, but I get the feeling Chic will try to slip in some other bugs (Caelyn would make a good stag beetle, maybe Centipedyrano?).
Here we have the succubus – hey wait, that’s Izana! Oops, my mistake. Clementine’s boss fight will also be changing so she performs the succubus TF and charms party members. Statue TF is getting moved later in the game.
And lastly, the piece I asked Chic to color and shade, because I loved it so much. This is the “Stained Glass” TF. I didn’t expect her to turn the party into ornaments and I love the result.
Salty’s game development pro-tip: Trust your artists. They have great ideas.
So what now?
Chic is going to finish all the player form TF sketches, then start lining, coloring, and shading. I have to get back to working on the next release of RoP (hopefully in November) and I have to finish another project in November, as well. My work on Monoceros doesn’t start until January, and we have another milestone post scheduled for the end of January. Until then it’s quietly laying out map progression and enemy stats.
What about Fan Art?
I didn’t ask the artist of this incredible piece of Izana fan art if it’s okay to post under their name, so the artist will remain anonymous. You can really sense the rage coming off this piece. It’s a work of passion from someone with, shall we say, more drive than skill. Keep practicing!
There are some RoP fan art pieces but I’ll hold onto those for next week in order to keep the post’s theme lined up.
Curious Cat
WARNING: I have slipped some near-invisible cats into the question and answer nonsense. Proceed at your own SPOOKY risk.
The photographer died seconds after this photo was taken. You will not be missed.
LINK OR TREAT
You’re getting only links because I don’t have money to buy treats. Bing bong.
The harpy stuff is finished! You can now do the bunny subquest to the end, and the harpy outpost has its characters and scripting. Thanks to some engine updates for Monoceros, we have a new game feature:
Monoceros forced me to add script interrupts to the UI (so the player can change forms on the fly by changing their charm), and that means I can use those interrupts to re-check enemy ignore states. This means I can have items you can equip adjust your ignore state, in addition to forms.
From a design perspective, I don’t want to lock the player out of fighting a certain enemy just because they wound up “making friends” with that faction. What if you need to grind harpies! Figuratively!
Adding these items will add that bit of flexibility. Just wear this badge if you don’t want to fight harpies on the roads. Even Zeke can wear it! I assume they glue it to him.
Next I will be doing a subquest in Westwoods, and that’s actually the last of the major new pieces. After that it’s dialogue, enemy balancing, and the dreaded bug testing.
Monoceros Update?
Ha ha, joke’s on you, it’s next Monday. There’s 31 days in October, sucker!
But, I was commissioned to write a short story. It’s a prequel! You can read it! It has zombies, vampires, ghosts, and TG/TF! It has everything you ever wanted.
Next week is the milestone update, where I discuss the state of the game and tease some of the enemies and bosses!
Fan Art
Related to the above story, here’s a zombie maid in her undies, by HadezMuze. I promise I’ll make the endings less depressing in the future.
Curious SCARY Cat
Yes, there are actually two cats in this photo. If you can see both, you might have SCARY eyes.
Pandemonium Development 