0.45, feedback form review, and an unfortunate departure.

Hello.

I guess the time has finally come. This will be a multi-purpose blogpost. 

I have a lot to talk about here... First, here is 0.45:

Click to download the update

 

0.45 is a nice little mini-update. It also breaks your saves again. As far as lewd stuff goes, it only adds 2 new optional enemies. If you've already played through the game, It can be worth checking them out, but aside from that... I don't have much to show you. I'm sorry it's only 2 after all this time, IRL has simply gotten in my way a whole lot. That, and my primary focus has been on polishing other aspects of the game. 0.45 does do a LOT of other, non-lewd things that are healthy for the game as a whole though:

-fixed up a LOT of bugs. A lot.

-Added a new slayer NPC to Aldren. Check him out, it will make grinding feel less terrible (I hope).

-New battle transitions! If you don't know what I mean, you'll see when you play.

-A new options menu, with a few options specific to this game (and more to come later)

-More old defeat scenes were remade

-A new intro cutscene, and revised tutorial

-Other small cutscene/lore adjustments

-All of the forest maps from the start of the game have gotten a visual glow-up, and given some minor gameplay redesigns.

-A lot of skill rebalancing, difficulty/item price adjustments, etc.

-The encyclopedia is better now, and it explains things like various enemy states.

 -Removal of evil route! Wait... That's bad, isn't it?

Yup. Evil route is gone... 

Trust me, I don't wanna do this, and I had a lot of fun things planned for it, but I need to be realistic. My reasons for doing this are simply:

 -Creating lore conflicts/inconsistencies in things like character motivations (including the MC) that are difficult to iron out

-It is a massive workload increase, especially with what I wanted to do with it. I gotta be realistic about scope, this game is already going to be massive as it is.

-Creating tons of other small issues... For instance, And I'll just spoil this, the idea was you'd help the gang overtake Aldren. It would completely change Aldren. They would consider you an ally, and you'd be able to wander the city safely... But Aldren has so many things that aid the player, that just don't make sense to exist in the evil route after you basically take over the city. Like... I can handle things like shopkeepers with valid explanations, but the new slayer system, or questgivers? How does someone on the evil route unlock the gallery? The DUDE that gave you the crystal to ENTER the gallery is currently busy getting banged by some random wolf because of your actions?? 

-It's just overwhelming, and I have to bend the world rules and lore to make it "work," as well as just being very time consuming. I'd rather dedicate fully to telling a more cohesive story on the good route, with consistency and legitimate/bulletproof explanations for everything you see.

-Despite all of this, maybe the evil route can come back some day. But for now, it seems both too soon and too unplanned to really be a good idea for me to jump into.

 

 

But that's enough about 0.45. You can play it, and have fun with the two new optional enemies (if you can find them...). Let's go over the feedback form for 0.4:

I may have gone a little crazy on my explanations behind exhaustion while making the feedback form... But I was a bit frustrated at failing to make it feel impactful in the past, despite believing it can be done. I still think this gauge has a ways to go, but I believe it will be here to stay, especially based off of these results.
 

 

I fully intend to remake a lot of these enemies. Don't worry, when I remake something, my intention is to make it better while still respecting the original version. In the case of these enemies, my goal is simply to make them look a little bit less jarring or weird, art-style wise. Buut, if I think I can capture their concept better, I may change up the pose/dynamic of the fights a little bit too. I actually want to rework the entire forest cave, and rework just a few enemies from the sewers/wolf cave. Oh, and I still need to do the two birds from the early forest sections. Then I'm done with reworks.

 

 

Ahh, sex toy support. I'm actually pretty surprised by these results. I don't imagine many people have these in the grand scheme of things, so I guess it really isn't too surprising. Still, I will likely explore the possibility of this in the future for those that DO have these stroker toys, but for now... Consider it low priority.

 

I'm glad that more people seem to enjoy this approach. Cause, I'm actually only becoming more convinced that this is the right way to do things. In the future, expect things to be even MORE fleshed out, even if it makes the updates take EVEN longer. Cause I want to make this stuff as impactful and immersive as I can. Besides, immersion can make the lewd parts more fun... But I also hope to tell a compelling story in its own right as well. So if the development of the game seems like it's 'slowing down,' please understand that it's just because I'm really trying to craft this story with lots of love and care by now, compared to when I was just making aimless forests with no clear purpose at the start of development.

 

 Well, I kinda already did this for the starting forests. I will probably touch up the cave too. I understand it probably doesn't matter to a whole lotta people in the grand scheme of things, but I don't want my maps to look "cheap" or "lazy."

 

 This is interesting, because a whole lot more people WANTED this to be done, compared to the last question. Not much to say on this though, cause my sentiments on this tie into what I've already said on the last question as well.

 

 Lots of animal lovers here I see. This is actually quite surprising, because I didn't expect THIS big of a lead. I always ask at least one question of this nature on each form, I just try to gauge what people are MOST interested in. In the case of this question, it was... What do you like the MOST? So, yeah, again, like I've said in previous forms... Beasts will probably continue to be a slightly higher priority. Cause I also like them the most. But for those that feel differently, don't worry... Because I still like everything else too. I'm kind of a freak if you haven't noticed by now. As always, the game will continue to have a bit of everything. This game asks that you keep an open mind. Even if you don't think you like something, maybe I can make you like it (muahaha). I just hope everyone can still enjoy, at least, MOST types of enemies... But people that like animals will be eating the best with this game.

  

 Not much to say on this after the last question. I see no need to change my logic now.

 

 This one, I do have something to say on. Yes, I completely plan to move into more outlandish animal designs a bit. You'll see what I mean a little bit in 0.5. If you're here for more realistic depictions, there will still be a few more... But let's be real, the MC is starting to get pretty strong. Why would it make sense for him to struggle with a regular dog? A MUTATED dog on the other hand, I can make a case for that... But, yeah you get the idea. I want to make creatures where, it makes SENSE that they are still giving you trouble even if you are getting stronger. So things will take a shift into the fantasy realm a bit more pretty soon here...

 

Again, not much to say here. But, I will continue trying to make more creative monster designs that are a bit more horrifying. The monsters I am most proud of are probably the flesh leech, or extractor. Still, I think I can come up with some crazier things...

 

We are entering "world-building/lore" territory here, so I can't speak much on this one right now. I was mostly just curious, that's all. But, there is an explanation behind EVERYTHING in this game... Trust me. I have a lot of things figured out. You'll see. Eventually.

 

 

 FURRIES... It sounds weird, but I was actually kind of nervous to include them. Especially to the extent that I did in 0.4. There were QUITE a few of them, huh? I just really got hooked on the idea of a tribe of furry ladies that live in the marsh, and then ended up getting a whole bunch of lore surrounding them... The reason they seem a bit crazy, for example, is meant to be because they are right next to the flesh cave. I wanted to go all in on showing this idea, and wanted to show how this flesh cave has impacted their tribe. So the furries took up quite a bit of space within 0.4. But looking back, I don't regret it at all... I think I captured what I was trying to go for narratively. Anyways, will there be more of them in the future? Well, probably. But probably not to this extent again. I just think the furry girls deserve some love too in this kind of genre, I really don't see reverse rape with them involved very often. Too many people are pansies. They won't even do furries. Crazy.

 

 

 Holy CRAP, I PISSED SOME PEOPLE OFF with this encounter. I sure am glad I made it skippable. Still, a lot of people also seemed to like it. This enemy showed me that, there really is a large skill range between players. I don't mean that to diss people that struggled with it, I just mean that I need to understand this as a developer, and design future encounters with that in mind as well. My intent is not to piss people off or blockade progression if someone is really struggling with a part of the game, and I don't judge you for struggling, if you did. At the same time though, I want the game to be hard. So, my solution in the future? ...Probably to just add skip options like I did with this encounter, rather than make it inherently easy lol. Oh, and maybe not having as much trial/error aspects to these types of things if possible, because that feels like cheap, artificial difficulty. Either way, even if a lot of people struggle with these encounters, I feel that they spice up your adventure with something unexpected. Soo yes, there will be more gimmicky stuff like this in the future.

 

 

 I was very excited for people to find out about the fact that they are completely TRAPPED within this place. I thought it helped to make it feel a bit more unsettling and isolating. A concern of mine was people potentially getting "soft-locked"-ish, but I think there are enough counter-measures in place to prevent that from happening to anyone. This was definitely a very, very intrusive gimmick that FORCES you to figure out what's going on in this place before you are allowed to leave in any capacity. Who knows what kind of mean stuff I'll do to you in the future...? I don't even know what I'll do yet! But it's probably evil. I'm glad that most people seemed to like this, it felt like a pretty daring move for me to make. I wasn't sure how it'd be received.

 

 No comment. You'll have to wait and see.

 

 

 Well, this one is weird... Maybe I didn't explain it very well. Or maybe the difference just isn't that noticeable to some people. Either way, by now, I think I'll be sticking with my new animation method. If you don't understand what I was asking here, I pretty much swapped up workflows, and the way I make these animations changed a bit. To me, they seemed to be of higher-quality, and I was wondering if other people thought the same thing lol.

 

 I still... Am not sure what the correct direction is. I very much do NOT want to adhere to the norm with this kind of stuff, I just don't know how far I should really be pushing it. I guess I will probably jump around a bit. Maybe some female creatures should be horrifically ugly. Others might be a bit more in the middle. But they will probably never just be "cute shortstacks." The reason is simply because, that goes against what this game is trying to accomplish. I actually can still appreciate a cute shortstack goblin, or other cute portrayals of female species that then proceed to have gross, ugly male counterparts, but this just isn't the kind of game where those kinds of interpretations of female creatures should exist. So it shall not. Goblins and other fantasy races are usually quite a common enemy in reverse R games... You can find more tame interpretations of them elsewhere.

 

 

 This is lovely to see, because I have put a TON of effort into planning the lore. The game itself still hardly shows ANYTHING that I'm planning, it literally just scratches the surface. Much more to come. 0.5 will reveal a lot more of what I'm planning, and things will start to make a little more sense... I wish I could talk about it here, but I can't haha. I am really excited to start sharing things though. Oh, and for the people that are only here for the NSFW, that is fine too of course. It IS ultimately a NSFW game first and foremost, I just hope to capture people with the story somewhere along the way. But I also hope that it doesn't come across as too intrusive for you in the future, if it never grabs your attention.

 

 

 Well, this is awkward... Sorry!

 

 A nice split between them, which is kinda nice to see. I started trying to make each zone feel a bit more distinct with its own themes and vibes pretty heavily in 0.4. That will continue going forward...

 

 Good. Cause I love zelda games. And rpg's. I want there to be more to your adventures than just fighting enemies, even if that means some aspects of your adventures are not inherently NSFW. Plus, who knows... There can probably be puzzles that have NSFW consequences in the future. But uh, yeah. I just want to try and be creative with area design and gameplay.

 

 

 

 

 Annnnd.... That's the feedback form. I didn't show individual written responses of course, but I always read them. I read every single one.

 

So... That leaves us here.

Now, I have to bail on development of this game for a month. I will be gone, and quiet. Even in the discord. I don't want to do this, but real life obligations leave me no choice. During this time, I will be very, very miserable. So if you do see me, it will be in the discord, and I will be complaining about how I hate my life or something. Just ignore that lol. I will get through this, I just like to complain as these IRL obligations are going on... I really will be fine. This is not my first rodeo. Still, if you are concerned for me, some kind words of encouragement do feel nice to read. The whole time I'm away, I will have this game and small little community in the back of my head, and I will be missing it all. After all is said and done with my IRL obligations, I will be returning to commence work on 0.5 in full force... At long last.

That said... How long will it take for 0.5, you may be wondering? AHAHAHA. You know how long 0.4 took? Longer than that. Even if we are saying that the timer starts AFTER my irl obligations are done. I am sorry. It's because... I have so much planned for this update, and it has a lot of unique challenges I need to overcome. It will be worth the wait, I promise. Just... Don't expect it any time soon. But still, if I had to guess...? From right now, like... 5-6 months. MAYBE. Yes, I'm serious. Get comfy. But also, buckle in... Cause the game is going to change a whole lot when that day finally comes. You have no idea what's coming... Hahaha.

So, with that... I appreciate your patience and faith in what started out as a simple little project. Cause I feel like this game has turned into something bigger than I ever thought it would be. It really was just a tiny for-fun project when I first started making it. But I care about it so much more than that now. And there are a lot of people that genuinely share my sentiments. And, people that are willing to offer financial support, feedback/ideas, or even direct work on the game... For FREE. Just because they like it. Thank you. It is crazy to see how far this has come... And the day I finally finish this game, I will probably cry tears of joy IRL. Lol.