Saturday, May 31, 2014

Alpha Build 4.8 for Patrons

Whew, okay, I will admit the last few hours have not been very fun. Ran into a few problems I was not expecting while attempting to add in the new animations. As a result some things I wanted to add did not make it in (namely the catgirl/catgirl animation). A lot of small convenience features got left out (was planning to add a donate button to the newborn menu and work in another couple of debug codes). I plan on doing a hotfix next week to rectify this. Still, I at least managed to get a good amount of meat in there. Many of the new systems I just put in are extremely rough and not at all balanced yet, so I do plan on tweaking them right away in the hotfix once you guys test them out a little.

Additions
- Monster donations/guild services have been added to the game. Go to the pens to donate a monster to the guild to get guild points, which you can spend in the guild services window in the guildhall by clicking on the notice board. The UI is still placeholder, and while stat/trait/store size upgrades and the ability to refresh clients work, you can't use the ordering system just yet.
- The brand spanking new Demon models have been added to the game, with a plethora of new variations
- The Elf Stockades and the Demon Pit have been added to the game
- Two new animations for Dickwolves/Elf Girls (rubbing and insertion, the animation will vary depending on whether their mating produces offspring or not)

Bug Fixes
- Fixed some minor menu errors (combo boxes staying when you close a window, etc)
- Reworked the system for applying color/variations to monsters

Now I gotta pass out :P.

EDIT: Very aware of the animation issues guys, will have a quick hotfix for them by the end of the day.

Status Update

Yo. Still planning on putting up 4.8 tonight around ~9:00 11:00 PM PST, give or take a couple of hours.

The demons are looking good, I'm taking a break from finishing up their variations to write this.

The monster donation system is partially implemented with placeholder UI. You can currently upgrade the shop but you can't order specific monstertypes or traits yet. I'll see if I have the time to get all of that working by the time I put it up.

As far as sex animations, there'll be a couple new ones, given I don't have any difficulties getting them working once Mittsies gets their latest versions to me. Sadly not as many as I'd hoped to have for this update, as I have to admit I'm currently holding up the production line a bit with getting the new poses designed without a working tablet. However, that'll get rectified soon, and along with some suggestions Mittsies has been giving me for improving our animation set-up you'll be seeing us start to build up to more and more animations per update. Right now we've got a Felf/Dickwolf scene and a Catgirl/catgirl scene we hope to get in for 4.8, we might be able to squeeze in one more but that remains to be seen.

Also, you guys should be delighted to know that once I do get my hands on a new tablet, cum shot endings for our existing animations should be soon to follow.

Meanwhile, S has been hard at work drawing up some new places you'll be able to visit soon:


S is also working on a redesign of the Marquis to make him a little more in line with the style we ended up going for with the elves. Here are some roughs, trying to focus on giving him an outfit sufficiently flamboyant to fit his personality :P, feedback is appreciated:

Also, S has been working on redesigns of Margo and Roxie as well:

Finally, some characters you'll be running into in a couple of new events. The girl is actually part of a crossover/cameo we're doing, I wonder if any of you guys will recognize her (it may be difficult since she's not wearing her usual outfit):


EDIT: Small snag with the update, due to a little miscommunication I didn't realize that Mittsies wasn't working on the Catgirl/Catgirl anim, though instead he did manage to make the Felf/Dickwolf scene a two-parter and it's good! I'm going to see if I can manage to throw together the Catgirl/Catgirl animation myself before I put up the update tonight as it's mostly set up already. Expect the update around 11:00 PM PST either way.

Monday, May 26, 2014

Status Update

Hey, just posting to let you guys know we're still on track for the update. Before I said it would be on the 30th but that was because i r dum and didn't realize there are 31 days in May. So the update will actually be on the 31st :P! Let's be honest I tend to need an extra day anyway (I'm working on that, I promise).

The monster donation system isn't quite working in-game yet, but barring catastrophe you can be assured it will be in time for the update. As far as other bits, the catgirl/catgirl animation is progressing as well as the felf/dickwolf animation, working on setting up some melf animations right now as well. Probably won't be able to squeeze in a demon sex animation this update but I'll at least try!

That said, S has all the demon parts finished and it's just a matter of assembling them in-game, so you will definitely be seeing the new models/variations at the very least.

And, of course, the new pens:

Friday, May 23, 2014

Upcoming Gameplay Changes

Alright, I said this would be on Thursday, but it's just barely on Friday due to my silly sleep schedule :P.

First of all, we're over $11k and close to $12k! Thanks again for all of your awesome support. The amount this game is growing is spectacular, and I never would've imagined it! I've went ahead and added in an additional goal to bring our small team up to four members!

As for the voting website, it's still a ways off unfortunately, but I do plan on devoting some time to getting it closer to finally being up and running after the 30th. I also plan on throwing together a wiki in the near future, so that it'll be easier to find information about how to play the game and what planned features we have.

Now, as for what you can expect for upcoming design changes to the game in the near future:

Monster Donation
This is hinted at by some of Roxie's dialog, but soon I'm going to introduce the ability to donate monsters that you don't want or can't sell to the guild. Doing so will earn you "Guild Points" based on the quality of the monster that you donate. You'll be able to spend these points in order to get a number of services from the guild.

By spending Guild Points you'll be able to upgrade both Roxie's and Kay's shops to hold more stock (increasing how many new monsters you generate when you restock), and you'll be able to upgrade the stats and traits of the monsters the shop carries (this will replace the steady growth of store monsters' stats/traits currently in the game). You'll also be able to place "orders" for the shops to carry more of a particular monster type, a particular trait, or a particular consumable for the next few days. You'll also be able to spend Guild Points to refresh a client that has a particularly annoying request and replace them with a new one.

Every time you purchase a particular guild service the cost to buy it again will go up, similarly to how restocking works.

You'll still retain the ability to release monsters into the wild if you so choose instead, and in the future this will allow you to gain reputation with Kala as well as work into some special events.

Stats
Stats are going to be reworked significantly. This change may take a while to make it into the game, as it is a big change and will require most of the consumables and traits to be reworked. The point of the changes are to simplify the stat system overall but to increase the meaningfulness of your choices in raising particular stats over each other. One of the big things I want to focus on is making it so that the optimal strategy for breeding monsters/making money changes based on things that will be unique to your particular situation, rather than there always being one best strategy. Unlocking particular traits will make focusing on raising particular stats more beneficial, etc.

Level: Stats will now be out of 100 rather than 1000. Each stat will have its own "XP" bar, and instead of the system now where breeding directly raises/lowers stats, the stats will "level up" once they reach a certain amount of XP from breeding. It won't be possible to lower stats. In addition, your monster will have an overall "Level" and a "Level Cap". Every time one of their stats levels up, the monster's Level will go up. Once your monster reaches its Level Cap, it can't raise its stats anymore (this will replace the existing stat cap system). Also, every time your monster levels up, it will make it require more XP to level up any of its stats. This means that putting levels in one stat will actually make it harder to put levels in another stat, and you will have to choose which stats you want to focus on.

Breeding Modifiers: The amount that your monster raises the XP of a stat for another monster it's breeding with will be based on its own level in that stat multiplied by its breeding modifier. Breeding modifiers will be clearly displayed numbers (rather than being sort of nebulous like they are now). By default breeding modifiers will be zero, but particular monster types will carry higher breeding modifiers in particular stats, which can be inherited.

Consumables: The growth modifier (MOD) will be removed entirely. Instead, consumables will now actually directly raise the XP of a monster's stats based on their quality. This means that if you have a particular monster you want to raise the stats of, you'll want to both breed it and feed it every day.

Stat effects:
STA: Will increase the number of times a monster can breed/harvested each day, but will do it as an average over time. For instance, if a monster has 25 STA, it would be able to breed "2.5" times a day on average, which means that each day it will have a 50% chance to be able to breed 3 times and a 50% chance to be able to breed 2 times. This means that each level of STA will matter rather than only every 10th level mattering.

STR: Increases the magnitude of the monster's breeding modifiers.

DEX: Decreases the time it takes for a monster to perform actions.

CHA: Increases the amount of money the monster is worth, as well as the amount of happiness another monster gains from breeding with it (explained below).

WIL: Increases the number of times the monster can be fed each day (in a manner similar to STA), and increases consumable quality.

FER: Changed to mean fertility rather than ferocity, raising this stat will directly increase the rate of producing offspring for this monster.

Happiness: Monsters will have preferences (they may prefer males, females, particular monster types, monsters with particular traits, etc). Preferences will be heritable but also have a chance to be imparted on a monster by repeated breeding or feeding (breeding a monster repeatedly with another monster may make it develop a specific preference for that monster, etc). When you breed or feed a monster according to its preferences its happiness will go up. When you breed or feed them against their preferences its happiness will go down. Depending on the happiness of the monster, it will change the rate of random good or bad events involving the monster. Bad events will make you lose time, reduce the number of times the monster can breed that day, lose money, etc. Good events will do the opposite, giving you free stats or consumables, etc.

Now, I can't give an ETA of when these changes will go into the game. I plan to get monster donation working relatively soon, but the stat changes may have to come later. Hopefully this gives you guys an idea of what kind of stuff I plan on introducing to alter the game play.

If you have any questions or suggestions feel free to leave them in the comments and I'll try to respond to which ones I can.

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Regarding the Feral Trait

I plan on doing a large "game design" post tomorrow detailing a lot of the changes that I have planned for the game systems and clue you guys in a bit more on what the game will look like moving forward.

For now, though, I realize that there's been a lot of controversy over some of the changes we've been making to the monster designs and where we're coming from with our decisions, and since I was discussing it with a fan in an e-mail I thought I would repost/expand upon that here.

For those of you who aren't familiar: the current plans are to have an optional Feral trait in the game that will allow you to have more monstrous/bestial monsters. A dickwolf with the trait would be wolf-like, a stallion would be horse-like, etc, as opposed to the more anthro baseline versions of the monsters we're putting in the game.

We're falling back on having the Feral variations on the monsters be associated with a trait for a few reasons, first of all being that a lot of players are completely driven away by what a lot see as more "out there" content. That doesn't mean we're abandoning more monstrous monsters at all, or that we don't want this kind of content in the game, but rather that we want it to be optional, hence making it a trait. The monsters we've been putting in place are essentially the "vanilla" versions. Think of it like if we had it so that you had to watch male/male or female/female sex animations even if you weren't into that sort of stuff; we want the baseline to be fairly human looking monsters that will appeal to most people and players who want the more monstrous/bestial content will absolutely still be able to get it.

So yes, the trend with the monster design for the vanilla, non-traited monsters is more towards anthro/human-like. This does not mean, however, that we intend to give any less love to the Feral variations. Feral monsters will have just as much attention (and require just as much work on our part), as the vanilla monsters. I mean, the fact that I made the original placeholder art as those style of monsters should show that I clearly want to deliver that kind of content. We've simply been focusing on making the vanilla monsters first because they're, well, vanilla. They're the baseline, the least weird variations of their respective monster types.

A lot of people are upset because we've had to remove a lot of the monstrous content as we go about making these changes, but the Feral trait, and the creatures and animations associated with it will absolutely be implemented in the game before it makes beta. There will be wolf-like dickwolfs, horse-like stallions, and more monstrous demons. The only reason we have to remove content in the interim is because this is an alpha and an ongoing work in progress, it's not even a beta release, and much of the existing content was always going to have to be replaced. Most games wouldn't even be visible to the public at this stage of development, but because we've had a very public development and rely very much on generous donors we do these public releases so that you guys can see and share in our progress.

This game is extremely far from finished, and there is still a massive amount of it that will need to be changed or cut or altered before we make it to beta, much less release. Of course, we are dedicated to paying the utmost attention to fan feedback and what you guys want to see. But you have to realize that we aren't at a place in development where we can deliver anything approaching a finished product or guarantee stability or content update to update, and it is entirely possible that you will see content that we have to cut out from the game for a month so that we can fix it up and put it back into the game another month. The game is very much still an alpha, and update-to-update our concerns are more with actually getting the game in a more complete state than delivering what fans want for this particular update. We'll be able to focus on delivering content and game play each update once we reach beta, but that's still many months out from now.

Finally, concerning players who want more petite and skinny monster types: these will absolutely be coming. The harpy and all of the neoteny variations will be designed to cater to those tastes.

Overall, I just humbly request your patience. On my part, I plan to do a lot more updating/keeping you guys more in the loop with more frequent blog posts explaining what I'm working on. I realize this is a big thing that a lot of fans are clamoring for, and honestly it can help me gather feedback and explain decisions we're making, as well as giving you guys a bit more insight into our work process.

Anyway, feel free to leave questions for me in the comments.

EDIT: Whoops, got a little sidetracked with setting up new animation poses, will try to have that game design post up on Thursday (tomorrow)

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Alpha Build 4.7 for Patrons

Alright, here's 4.7. As I mentioned before, this is a smaller one. Likely this will be the general pattern for updates: the first update of the month will be smaller while the second update will be larger/more significant.

I'm having some problems compiling the .exe version, I'll try to get that uploaded as well ASAP. Until then I'll have the .swf uploaded.

Additions
- New models and variations for male and female elves
- Dickwolf x Dickwolf and Dickwolf x Breeder sex animations

Bug Fixes
- Minor bug fixes

Tomorrow or Wednesday I plan on doing a fairly large status update for some major gameplay changes I plan on rolling out over the next couple of updates.

EDIT: Oops, found the problem, will upload the corrected file in a moment.

Monday, May 19, 2014

Slight Delay

Hey, the 19th update will be coming out a few hours later than I'd hoped, so expect it in the early morning hours of the 20th. I'm going to be shooting on putting it up around 3 or 4 AM PST.

This will be a relatively small update compared to the update we plan on having on the 30th. For this update it will be updated models and variations for male and female elves, a few new sex animations (though none for the elves just yet), and some bug fixes. Expect a lot more animations when the 30th comes, as well as those gameplay changes I've been working on.

Oh, demons also :P.

Thursday, May 15, 2014

Status Update

Hey guys, wanted to make an update just to let you know we're all still alive and working :P.

We're still on track for an update on the 19th for patrons. As you may have heard on S-Purple's tumblr, Mittsies will be working with us now as our new dedicated animator! We're looking forward to increasing our animation output moving forward (there will be a few new animations on the 19th, but you'll see them ramp up significantly for our update on the 30th). Eventually Mittsies also plans to be making music for us, which we're looking forward to!

Some of you may have heard that we were having issues receiving our money through Patreon's direct deposit. It seemed to be a problem primarily with Stripe (the company handling the transfer) though we were able to resolve the issue with Patreon directly. We still haven't gotten the money yet, which has caused us a few set-backs and headaches (primarily due to me being unable to purchase a replacement tablet), but we should be able to get that money soon.

Finally, for those of you who haven't been checking S-Purple's tumblr, I'll go ahead and repost some of the cool things he's been showing off recently:


Updated look for the new demons. Females will be a rare variant. They won't be making it into the update on the 30th along with the males, but you will be seeing them soon.


The beach, one of the new areas you can explore.


Hm, doesn't this mock-up looking interesting. Wonder what it could possibly be.

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Alpha Build 4.6 Public Release

No, that's not a mistake. I am being generous with the public release just this once and skipping straight to 4.6. The reason being, simply, that there's not enough of a difference between 4.5.2 and 4.6 to justify separate public releases due to the weird way the patron releases worked out at the end of last month. That said, because I'm releasing 4.6 early there's only going to be one public release this month. The next public release will not be until June 7th.

4.4.1 -> 4.6 Change Log:

Additions
- Catgirls and Dickwolves have undergone a visual overhaul, including dozens of new variations
- Brand new Catgirl/Dickwolf and Futa Catgirl/Dickwolf sex animations
- The Catgirl Kennel and Dickwolf Yard have been remade
- Small new Catgirl event
- Spiffy new splash screens, new Status menu (unfinished), and some other UI odds and ends
- A few NPCs have been redone

Bug Fixes
- Animation framerate should be increased significantly
- Fixed a number of bugs that were occurring with random Events
- Fixed some UI bugs
- Harvesting animations are now correctly turned off along with other sex animations when disabled in the options menu
- Replaced a lot of the compressed images, if you find any that I missed please let me know
- Added a scrollbar back to the lists

Known Issues
- Catgirls and Dickwolves new colors/variations do not correlate to their colors/variations in old animations
- Catgirls and Dickwolves may not inherit or transmit visual features to their offspring correctly, due to the fact that the rest of the monsters haven't been visually updated yet.
- Face images in the breeding menu match the old models instead of the new ones
- The Status menu doesn't correctly tell you when you're pregnant/when you're due
- The Albino trait was temporarily disabled

Now, as for the next release: we'll be shooting for a release between the 17th and 19th for patrons. This release will include both male and female elves, new sex animations, and, time permitting, some new gameplay changes/features.

Also, the hunt for an animator is going extremely well. I've been talking with some very promising individuals about filling out the rest of the animations, and with any luck they'll already be contributing animations by the time the next release comes out.

Saturday, May 3, 2014

Help Wanted: Looking for an Animator

First of all, we've reached over $9,000 on Patreon!! I could never have imagined this project growing so rapidly in such a short time, but through your astounding generosity and support we've hit this much in less than two months and there's no sign of our progress slowing down yet!

On a related note, we're still trying to decide on our third team member. We've decided that we definitely want to add a dedicated animator to the team. We have a few promising candidates that we're talking to currently, but we are absolutely open to more applicants.

We're looking for someone with significant experience working with Flash with a solid portfolio of previous work. Formal training in animation is a plus, as is prior work on Flash games.

Specifically we want someone who would be confident in their ability to mimic an animation style similar to Vanillaware games such as Dragon's Crown and Odin Sphere, and to work with myself and S-Purple to create the most efficient content pipeline possible.

Your compensation will be dependent on the amount of work you're willing to contribute each month, and will be offered as a percentage of incoming monthly donations. Which, if you notice the rate at which donations have been growing recently, has the potential to be quite high.

If you're interested in becoming our animator please contact me at HartistaPipebomb@gmail.com and put "Breeding Season Animator" in the subject line. Include links to your previous work if at all possible.

Also, to anyone who contacted me previously about doing writing: I apologize if I haven't replied to your e-mails yet. Once we determined that we definitely needed an animator first my priorities shifted so I didn't get a chance to respond to all of you. I definitely still intend to go through and respond to as many of you as I can, particularly if you're someone that we might consider employing in the future if we decide to add even more team members.