Category: Progress Reports

Prototype 5-4g will be released tomorrow, not today.

I was going to release it today, but there’s a crash bug in it and I don’t have time to track it down today (because I got called into work. Act surprised.)
I will try to deal with it tomorrow and get the new UI prototype released.

Development Update

I just got all the images from TL and will be releasing a new Classic Mode update next week (probably), which will include: Bees, Bunnies, Angels, Vampires, Latex Drones, and Vampires. So get excited.

Urimas is making sprites, Hund got me the title screen for String Tyrant, and the others are on vacation. Mario does not have an ETA on the Alraune Story.

Poll Results

Unfortunately we could not get Chicken and Koops for a steering meeting, so we’ll have that meeting later. For now, I will present the results as-is.

There are spoilers for the end of the biolabs patch in this post. If you haven’t played it yet, you should go do that because it’s free.

Question 1: What should the team’s objective be?

So this one is pretty clear. The public wants chapter 5 and then, oddly, chapter 2. The existing plan was: Chapter 5, String Tyrant, Balance Patch, Chapter 2.
Enthusiasm for String Tyrant is a lot lower than expected, but it’s also really really really close to completion. So I might simply not give it the new map I was planning and just put in the new enemy/TF/ending CGs and release it.

Question 1.5: The joke options about joke options

As if anyone would ever really want me to not put joke options in.

Question 2: What TF should be completed first in chapter 2?

Bunnygirls and Fungoids it is! Windthrall will come later, and the Trials of the Dragon/Trials of the Fox will have to come last. Oh how sad.

Question 3: Patron-Pal-TF-Choice!

So for those of you not in the know, I asked the patrons to pick a character and a form, and Chicken will draw it later on (probably September). Anything was valid, including characters and forms that technically don’t even exist yet!

Spin the damn wheel!

Some patron wanted a Latex Drone but didn’t know who? Okay. So the name of whatever character the next roll lands on gets droned.

So, Latex Jeanne will get concepted by Chicken and posted for all to see… sometime soon! Yay!

This might be a thing we do periodically going forward, based on artist time available. While all of these will eventually get concepted, it helps to break up the work patterns of the artists.

Public Feedback Poll

As usual, a fairly good response from people already predisposed to like the game. That is fine, this question is only concerning if the results are really bad. Then something needs to change.

I decided to go with a free-form response since there’s so much in the biolabs update.

There isn’t a particular pattern here, which is a good thing as it means the update had a little something for everyone (which was by design). I’m surprised by the synthwave answer because we don’t usually get musical responses. That’s why I made it free-form.

The least-favourite thing question is also free-form, and that gives me a lot more to work with. To address some of them:
-The milking sequence is going to get images later, but they weren’t even concepted in time for the release.
-Enemies being too hard or too boring is going to get dealt with severely in the balance patch. I know they suck, but every time I want to improve them I start wanting to do it with tools I don’t have yet. We’ll just have to be patient.
-A lot of people disliked the plot beats but that’s because they hate the character behind it. Which is by design, mwehehehe.
-Christine getting bigger boobs from the machine would require a lot of asset redrawing -_-
Otherwise, we’ll work on improving what we got here. Chapter 5 won’t be done for a while yet, since there’s still more content to go.

Agent Almond always wins!

But seriously, the board is pretty evenly distributed, which is good. That means I shouldn’t cut anything.

Most people who investigated the ranch did it as Christine and Sophie, or both. Several did not know you could do it with 55, which means I need to make that more obvious. Perhaps the scene where the party splits and Christine speaks with Sophie could provide a prompt.

2 people are okay with not having spidergirls. 12 are not okay with it.

Please direct all hate to Chickenwhite, whose idea this was.

Conclusion

The biolabs update was fairly well received but the combat sucked and the plot needs to be elaborated on a bit. Okay! On to the next part.

Argue about this post on the forums and demand I fix all the problems right now! Now now now now now now!

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Poll Results are Next Week

I will be calling a team meeting (if I can, Chicken and Koops have poor connectivity) so we can discuss the poll results. I’ll need to be updating the roadmap based on what the team thinks.

I can definitely say that Chapter 5’s completion is our first priority, since that both won pretty  handily and was already our target.

If you haven’t filled out the public survey yet, you should probably do that.

New Inventory and Equipment UIs

I’ve spent part of the past week working on an overhaul of the inventory and equipment screens. Take a look:

These should help make things a lot easier to keep track of. Equipment statistics are more visible and many more items can be displayed at once.

This is important because the Big Balance Patch is going to be adding a lot of new items and properties, so keeping track of everything should be as easy as possible.

I am currently most of the way through the vendor and gemcutter interfaces, which also have to be updated for the new system. The display is changing, but the backend won’t until the big balance patch comes out.

Dem Icons

Urimas is redoing the item icons for the 23×23 size. Since I’m finalizing this as the size from this point forward, we can get more item icons made. Each gem will have a unique sprite, there will be boots/gloves/viewfinders and much more on the way.

Everything Else

The artists are still on vacation for the immediate future. It’s all coding changes this week.

Argue about this post on the forums and call my UI terrible!

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Note: This is an experimental release

(Mediafire) (Mega.nz)

I re-did the loading system such that only chapter-specific assets get loaded. Therefore, please keep an eye out if you decide to play this version. If you see sprites or portraits did not load, let me know.

There are no content additions from 5-4e, and only one bugfix.

Programming Update

I enjoyed my “week off” last week (which wasn’t really a week off since I still re-did the loading system…) and am now going to be working on the next content patch.

Art Update

This begins the artist holiday. There won’t be much in terms of art progress for the month of August as Chicken and Koops are on vacation.

Polling?

Polling.

There is a public feedback survey here. I’ve decided to allow some open-question stuff this time because there’s just so much stuff in the biolabs. There will also be a 5$ patron-pal-poll on the patreon this week.

Other than that, it’s back to work for us.

Argue about this post on the forums and make sure to spoiler your spoiler talk!

Give us money on Patreon so we can make more monstergirl stuff!

Join our Discord and curse at me in person! Our testers are weirdos!

Follow us on Tumblr to see Koops’ awful puns!

Follow our Twitter to see the same content as usual, but wth fwr lttrs!

That’s right suckers, here it is

Here’s a mediafire link, and here’s a Mega.nz link. Patches may come out if I made any mistakes (I did), in which case this post will be updated. Also, the downloads page always has the most recent version.

Special thanks to the efforts of Klaysee and Aaaac to make sure we got lots of bugtesting and suggestions and just generally being really helpful. Klaysee even made the biolabs map and hasn’t taken credit for it publicly.

In this prototype…

We have the biolabs segment of chapter 5’s story, which includes the raiju transformation, the raibies transformation, a rebel sidequest, a moth movie with a knife fight and aboat chase, some frozen pipes and amphibians, milking machines, dumb jokes, and character development. There’s also some metaphysics in there if you look.

Previous Saves?

Your previous savefiles will work in the new version. Just import them to the new folder (do not install the new version over the old one because Windows frequently fails to overwrite files correctly). In case you don’t have any but want to jump right to the biolabs, some savefiles have been provided courtest of Good People Who Do Good Things Klaysee and Aaaac. What heroes they are.

So what’s next?

The month of August is going to spent dealing with any remaining high-priority bugs that come up, but mostly it’s straight on to finishing up chapter 5’s main story.

Our current objective is the next prototype (which will finish chapter 5’s main story) in October. This is a month longer than normal because Chicken and Koops are on vacation for most of August.

I want to give you my money so I can play with the debug menu.

A post will be up shortly on the patreon page detailing how to use the debug menu. The password is not changed from previous versions if you were previously a patron.

Argue about this post on the forums and make sure to spoiler your spoiler talk!

Give us money on Patreon so we can make more monstergirl stuff!

Join our Discord and curse at me in person! Our testers are weirdos!

Follow us on Tumblr to see Koops’ awful puns!

Follow our Twitter to see the same content as usual, but wth fwr lttrs!

 

Prototype 5-4d has been released for patrons!

Yep, it’s on the chapter 5 downloads page as usual. A changelog is at the bottom of this post.

Prototype 5-4 becomes public on the 28th of July!

So if you’re unable to afford the 1$ patron bar (the economy sucks, I know) then you can play the game anyway! Hooray!

Programming Stuff

Phew! I have a few more dialogues to write, and then all the high-priority bugs are dealt with! After that I’ll start chunking off some of the improvements and lower-priority bugs. I’ll try to get as much done as I can before the public release and then it’s on to the next content patch. Probably.

A roadmap of objectives will be getting published later to show what our goals are.

Artistic Stuff

Chickenwhite has been throwing around some designs for a character you won’t see until goddamn Chapter 6. Artists are scatterbrains.

Otherwise, Hund is inking and Urimas is spriting. Apparently they are also playing Monster Hunter or something. Artists are weirdos.

DrDiss has got us some new boss music and new waltz music for the Sunrise Gala! I didn’t have time to cue it for this release but patrons get to hear the new boss music. It will be in next week’s public release.

Boring Changelog

• Fixed damage computation for Implosion Grenade being incorrect.
• Made info boxes smaller to make them more legible.
• Info boxes now show symbols instead of words to make them easier to read.
• Info boxes now stack vertically to handle very large enemy groups.
• Enemy HP/Info bars are now centered.
• Combat text now centers correctly.
• Downed party members are now removed from the turn order list.
• Can now enter the Amphibian Center’s secret room when not in a movie.
• Added treasure to the biolabs!
• Added enemies to Aquatic Genetics.
• Added a vendor to the Raiju Ranch who will buy your crap.
• Added a gemcutter to the Raiju Ranch.
• Overhauled the Datacore exterior segment with a new building and a shortcut elevator once you have the keycard.

Argue about this post on the forums and make sure to spoiler your spoiler talk!

Give us money on Patreon so we can make more monstergirl stuff!

Join our Discord and curse at me in person! Our testers are weirdos!

Follow us on Tumblr to see Koops’ awful puns!

Follow our Twitter to see the same content as usual, but wth fwr lttrs!

 

 

Prototype 5-4c has been released to patrons

As usual, you can get it on the Chapter 5 Downloads Page. A patron-post will give some details on the new stuff.

July 2019 Budget Report

It’s about damn time.

Sorry this one took so long. I just kept forgetting and/or getting called into work and saying “I’ll do it next week”. And now it’s July.

Fan Art! FAN ART!!! FAN!!! ART!!!!!

It’s Christine as a Harpy! Drawn by Goop Sinpai, who sure is prolific. Go check out her DA.

And if any of you want to make fan art you better believe I will post it, I love me some fan art.

Coding

Nose to the grindstone. I’ve got (most) of the major bugs dealt with and will be adding treasure and abilities to the Biolabs next. That means 5-4d will be a content update!

Artistic Chicanery

Chickenwhite has finished all of the emotes except for Electrosprite Christine, which we hope to have finished soon. Stinkehund is inking them as always.

Recent Artist Addition Koops is working on her first CG image to go in chapter 5. Urimas is making sprites and tiles because that’s what he always does, we can’t stop him. Nobody can stop him.

Musical Chicanery

DrDiss gave us a new boss theme, and patrons get to hear it next week! Hooray!

There’s now just one musical theme left to be replaced before we’re 100% ready for prime time. Go get ’em, doc.

Prototype 5-3c Changelog

It’s boring but read it.

• Fixed spotting-circles not appearing in areas using the lighting shader.
• If an enemy leader dies, the following entities will now correctly show their viewcones.
• Enemies will now always report their stun thresholds instead of waiting to accrue some stun damage.
• Enemies will show how long until their stun threshold resets, next to the resist value.
• Added a case for the Electrosprite subquest where the player magically knows commands they really shouldn’t.
• Fixed collisions around the Biological Services building.
• Fixed lighting issues in the Biolab Datacore exterior.
• Added some rebel symbols to both Cryogenics and the Genetics labs.
• Fixed Catalysts causing Christine to revert to human if picked up in the wrong form.
• Added blockers so you can’t go running off to do sidequests without dropping Sophie off first.
• Fixed not being able to use the underwater elevator as a Latex Drone.
• Fixed SX-399 appearing during the Raibie-Christine quest defeat sequence even when she was never recruited.
• Fixed characters not having their special frames after exiting the Raiju Ranch.
• Improved map handling. Fading is faster, allows zooming in/out, controls are more responsive.
• Added map for the Biolabs.
• Being very close to a northern wall no longer makes you invisible to enemies.
• Added 55’s Implosion Grenade skill, which you can acquire in the LRT facility’s armory.
  If you already got the skill in a previous prototype, visit a Work Terminal and there will be a command to unlock it.
• There is now a Work Terminal at the Raiju Ranch near the athletics track.
• Added a special “Disable Perlin Noise” engine option to help some users with program instability.

Argue about this post on the forums and make sure to spoiler your spoiler talk!

I have a monstergirl problem, enable my addiction by giving me money on Patreon!

Join our Discord and curse at me in person! Our testers are weirdos!

Follow us on Tumblr to see Koops’ awful puns!

Follow our Twitter to see the same content as usual, but wth fwr lttrs!

 

 

 

Prototype 5-4b Released to Patrons

This is a nice and big bugfix release, with more on the way. Changelog is on the bottom.

Please see the Patreon if you’re a new patron and want to know how to access the prototypes.

Koops has joined the battle!

That’s right, famed artist Koops has officially joined the team as a paid member. Now she collects a wage just like everyone except Salty (and Mario but don’t tell him that). Way to go Koops!

Koops will be creating CGs for the game in addition to design and shading work. For example, we’re going to get ending CGs for Doll Manor, opening CGs for chapters 1 and 5, and probably other CGs! Yay!

Tentative Target for Prototype 5-5

Due to the artists (Chicken and Koops) being on vacation in the middle of August, we have set our very tentative target for Prototype 5-5 as October. The code will likely be done before that, but losing several weeks of artist time means October is the safest call.

The remainder of July will be spent on bugfixes and feature improvements.

Pandemonium Classic: Unity Edition gets Dolls and Bees

That’s right, with some photoshop wizardry, TL has added Dolls and Bees to the Unity edition. You can get a copy here, though it has some bugs left before a full release.

TL has been doing a great job photoshlorping forms into the Unity edition, which means I’m probably going to have to add these to Classic Mode. What a jerk!

Boring Changelog

Here’s a changelog for Prototype 5-4b. There may be unmarked spoilers so don’t look if you haven’t played it yet.

• Fixed a metric ton of typos and collision errors.
• Added a save-bench to the Amphibian Research Facility.
• Fixed misalignment of string entry form making it hard (not impossible) to hit the Cancel button.
• Music will now resume where it left off after combat instead of restarting.
• Fixed the Victory Jingle not playing correctly in areas using layered tracks.
• Updated the cultist music themes with stuff by DrDissonance.
• Updated the gala music with DrDissonance’s compositions.
• Fixed Christine’s turn-order images being the wrong entity.
• Fixed misalignment of DEFEAT text.
• Combat inspector now correctly aligns text with widescreen. Still needs a lot of work.
• Buffs will now have a + next to their indicators on the attack preview box instead of a -.
• Fixed camera blockers causing weird behavior in Slimeville due to the widescreen update.
• Leaving the Raiju Ranch with 55 as the investigator will no longer spawn Christine with the wrong sprite.
• Fixed Christine’s Steam Droid, Eldritch Dreamer, and Raiju sprites showing the wrong image on the loading screen.
• Christine can no longer moonwalk out of Hydroponics.
• Christine can no longer moonwalk in the LRT facility or out of the southern exit of the Gamma Labs.
• Fixed UI misalignments for every character.
• Fixed the golems after the Aquatic Genetics sequence not having dialogue.
• Fixed the incredible disappearing 55 after Aquatic Genetics.
• Using single-turn buff items on allies will increase their effective turns by 1 so you can actually use the buffs.
• Fixed a large number of portrait bugs in the Sprocket City quest chain.

Argue about this post on the forums and make sure to spoiler your spoiler talk!

I have a monstergirl problem, enable my addiction by giving me money on Patreon!

Join our Discord and curse at me in person! Our testers are weirdos!

Follow us on Tumblr to see Koops’ awful puns!

Follow our Twitter to see the same content as usual, but wth fwr lttrs!

As a general (brief) update, I took a day off after the big release.

We’ll be having a team meeting next Saturday to determine what our goals are for the next part of the game. The rest of July will (probably) be spent fixing bugs and finishing up the art assets for the prototype.

There will probably be new prototypes released later in the week, or next Monday, as I work through the backlog.

“Gee, Salty, why isn’t this post longer” I hear you ask.
First, I can hear you through your speakers. I’ve been listening and I approve.

Also, if you’re a patron then the prototype speaks for itself. Get off my back.

Argue about this post on the forums and make sure to spoiler your spoiler talk!

Support our dangerous monster girl addiction on Patreon! I just need one more hit!

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Follow us on Tumblr to see Koops’ awful puns!

Follow our Twitter to see the same content as usual, but wth fwr lttrs!

It’s out! Go here for the public information post, or here for the Patron Pal post!

From the public post:

If you’re a Patron Pal then you can go to the Prototype 5 downloads page. If you’re a previous patron (and have stopped being a patron recently) then you still have access to the page.

You retain the ability to download future prototypes and patches even if you stop being a patron, but we need your support, so if you have a huge pile of GOLD BULLION sitting around, consider giving it to us!

The prototype will be released to the public on July 28th, 2019. Why the 28th? Ask Klaysee.

If you are not a patron but were, please send me a message.
If you are not a patron and have no money, but really really really want to play the prototype, send me a poem/heartfelt essay about why you love the game and, if the team loves it, we’ll get you a copy.

In other news, I killed myself making this and am tired. The process of bugfixes begins on Monday.

Not much of an update post today. Release is on the 29th.

I am finishing up enemy placement and will be sending a prototype off to my testers tomorrow. After that I will try to finish up the last segments of the two subquests I didn’t quite finish.

Everything else is done-enough from the artist’s perspective.

Get psyched.