Progress Update

Hey all, hope you had a good Thanksgiving! I just wanted to let you guys know that tomorrow's update build is going well. This will be the first playable version of the new build so I'm really excited to put it up. It's too early to say exactly how many of the new features will be in working shape, but the build is at least playable now so it's just a matter of how many more additional systems I can cram in there by tomorrow night. I'll continue to keep everyone updated!

Alpha Build 5.4.2 (Demo)

Here's an update of the demo build from last night for patrons. This one has more of the monsters working (everything but Seraphs and Fluffdragons), and about 9 of the sex animations currently integrated (that was just what I could throw in tonight). It's just supposed to be another thing for you guys to play around with. I realize that the menus are really laggy with this many creatures; I have some methods of fixing the lag that I'll be able to attempt that should make it considerably less of a problem. The build is still very rough at this point, but it's shaping up quicker each day and most of the major hurdles to getting to a playable state are out of the way.

Progress Update

Sex animations are working, finally!

I'm going to put up another update tonight around midnight. I'll see if I can get all of the monsters working for demoing.

Alpha Build 5.4.1 (demo)

Alright, the AnimationViewer continues to be a butt. What I'm going to do is put up the build I have currently that just adds offspring (minus some bits of UI like being shown newborn monsters correctly) so that I have something more for patrons to play around with. I'm going to see if I can do an additional build tomorrow with the animations working and maybe some more of the UI if I can.

I still want to have a fully playable build (as far as breeding, time/energy and requests) ready by the 30th but some major features (saving, events, many traits, preferences) may not be available yet. I'm going to keep on putting up builds as soon as new features become implemented and keeping you guys informed of progress as it continues.

Progress Update

Continuing work on the 5.4.1 release. It'll still be pretty small/janky but some of the things that were missing before (namely, offspring and animations) should be working. I intend to put it up around midnight tonight, if anything goes wrong I'll let you all know immediately.

EDIT:
Due to a minor set-back it may not be up until 3 or 4 AM PST, sorry guys. I'll keep working on it and try to get it out ASAP.

Progress Update

Currently working on making 5.4.1 run, but there's still some issues with the animation viewer class. If I can I'll put up the new version of the build tonight around midnight, if not it should be up Monday night; I'll keep you updated.

Progress Update

Finished up all the code for generating offspring so that now works correctly. Also got some work done on some more UI (message prompts, etc) and got started on the dialog system. Animations are all handled correctly now; I just need to code the UI component that displays them. In between working on the dialog I'll probably also try to get the nifty new trait display working by tomorrow night.

Progress Update

Hey guys, I'm going to try to keep these progress updates going, if not every day than at least three-four times a week. Right now I'm working on getting the breeding animations working; it used to be that I had each individual monster remembering what each of its animations were for each pairing, which was just plain inefficient. As soon as that's done I want to get the new dialog system started finally.

I'll likely be putting up another build around Sunday.

Alpha Build 5.4 and Animations for Patrons

I'll be uploading a first look at 5.4 for patrons in a few minutes here. This build is still very restricted in what it can do; for the most part it's just a demo of the new breeding menu, but I wanted to put it up immediately just so you guys can have something after months of patient waiting. Sex animations are not displaying correctly yet nor can offspring be produced, but I'm close to having both those functions working. I will be uploading an additional build next week that should have more of the game working, and by the end of the month it should be fully playable. I really appreciate your guys' patience in this and I extremely value your support. You will not be disappointed by the final build; it's just a matter of getting it to work. I've ended up in a situation where I'm rewriting pretty much every last line of code in the game; it has been a trying process but in the end the result will be worth it. Anyone can decompile the .swf and examine my progress, and I absolutely encourage you to do so and offer suggestions if you have them.

Along with this update I'll be uploading .swfs of the new animations that will be available as soon as this new build has progressed far enough into the Creations section of our Patreon. I think you guys will really like them.

Also, I'm continuing to look through the applications for the PM position, and we're about to move forward on that. I apologize to anyone who has been waiting to hear back from us while I've been focused on trying to get this build into working order.

Progress Update

Alright, the build will be going up sometime around midnight tonight. The new build will not be finished yet: you'll be able to get monsters and breed them, but the requests, consumables, and events will not be working yet, nor will many of the ancillary systems. I want to make sure that I at least put up something for you guys today to mess around with, even if it's not in a fully playable state.

I will continue to upload more builds this month as I complete more of the systems; I'll release at least two new builds before the end of the month. My intention is to have the new build fully playable by the 30th.

Progress Update

Hey all, extremely sorry with the couple of missed progress updates; I kept delaying the next one because I wanted to get the breeding menu screenshots in it and I kept being sidetracked by other tasks, I should've posted something. I have a JSFL script I've been working on that automates the process of dividing new animation pieces into skin and primary color layers and unfortunately I've been struggling with it lately. It has some big issues with some concave shapes and I've been trying to hammer it out so that we can get the new animations prepared in time for the update.

Here's the work-in-progress breeding menu, at least; it's obviously missing some bits still but it should be done in time for the update. The two different folders swap which is in front when you click on the one behind. There's still a lot for me to get done before the 15th, but I'm going to see how much I can power out by the end of the day.

Progress Update

Short update today: Still been working away at the UI; I'm in the middle of putting together the new store and breeding menus. I think the new breeding menu set-up should be a lot more intuitive to use: the menu will swap background folders to show which monster you're selecting and you'll be able to switch between them by either clicking on the tabs or hitting the 1 or 2 keys. I'll post up screenshots tomorrow once it's done.

After that I'll either be focusing on the dialog/events system, the requests system, or the new consumable system.

Progress Update

Made some significant UI progress today; got the revamped monster selection menu all finished (just needs a couple of more icons) and I feel like it's a significant improvement over earlier iterations. I also have the ranch building expansion system fully operational. I think the UI should feel all-around much better to use. Note that these are still the old catgirl faces; they have a new and improved look that S has put together that I simply need to get the time to put in:

 I also got to starting implementation of the male breeder sex scenes that we have ready so far, these ones should be in the new build when it goes up:

I'm hesitant about establishing an ETA but the new build should be up by the 15th. I apologize for it being such a massive amount of time between this and the Halloween update I failed to deliver. I was never going to be able to get that Halloween update up in time, but even then I was hoping to at least be able to hack together what I could into a barely playable state so that you guys could at least have something. The problem is that even trying to hack together what rewritten components of the game I had finished with the existing code was just not going to work as the two builds are so incredibly different at this point.

Partly the reason it's taken so much longer after missing the Halloween deadline is that I can afford to make sure things are fully implemented for the release instead of having them sloppily tossed together, and I have been trying to squeeze in a lot more polish wherever possible, though largely I'll admit that there's just so many more issues and additional systems I've found myself having to rewrite than I predicted. There's still a lot of code for me to clean up and implement, but I've come a long way; I just did a count and since the beginning of October I've written a bit over 2,500 lines of code as part of this rebuild (and you'll all be able to confirm this by decompiling the .swf yourselves once the build is finally up). It's not the most efficient coding by far, but it's still a steady pace.

I'm still ashamed I've been so terrible at predicting and setting deadlines throughout this project, but I'm still very proud of the work I've done on this new build and I'm confident you'll enjoy it.

Progress Update

Finally finished up the rest of the animation display and customization system, then worked on porting more of the UI. The new set up for how animations are customized is by far the biggest improvement to come out of the rewrite so far when it comes to things that will make my own life easier in the future. It'll be extremely more manageable for me to deal with more complex animations and visual variations.

The things that I have left to tackle before I can finally put up the new build: I still have to finish porting the rest of the UI, implement the redesigned traits, implement the new dialog/events system and port the old events, implement the new consumable effects, port the existing monsters/ranch buildings, finish updating the breeding logic, and then add all the serialization methods. The upside to that list is that porting each of those things should go relatively quickly after I get over the hurdle of finishing the major systems.

I'll do another update soon with a much more solid prediction of when the build will be released; I don't want to keep you guys waiting much longer.

Progress Update

Mostly just did further work in porting the old UI into the new system. Also started working on implementing and testing the various new traits; a majority of the traits that are currently in the game were redesigned for the new build. Not all of them have been replaced yet, though.

Will continue on the UI tomorrow.

Progress Update

Did more work on the Animation customization system, and started a bit on the dialog system as well as some other UI bits. I've been remaking some of the UI components from scratch (rather than incorporating default Flash UI components which required hacking things together in a manner that was introducing UI bugs). This means that it'll be easier for me to modify UI functionality more easily. One thing that I'm working on is making it so that the Trait display box is a lot less annoying to use; you'll be able to expand it so that you aren't forced to scroll in that tiny box. That portion of the UI will still require more work, though.

Progress Update

Worked on the Preferences, Status Effects, and Traits. Will need to do more work on the Animation customization as I move into starting to work on the UI (just barely got started on it). With the new set up it's now possible to have new rooms for your ranch buildings to house more of a type of monster, though I still need to set up the system for buying them. At first additional pen rooms will just look identical to the first, but we may end up making them unique eventually.

Haven't touched the dialog system yet but I'm looking forward to it, as I have some changes designed that will allow dialog and choices to be a bit more dynamic depending on the player's situation. Nothing too fancy, but at least enough to make options where you're doing a "skill check" with one of your monsters more interesting.

Progress Update

Still getting into the groove of these daily updates; sorry yesterday's got pushed to this morning. Got the animation system started along with the appearance classes, preferences, and status effects. Will be finishing those up today along with starting to get onto the events and dialog system.

Also, wanted to mention that we got a ton of promising applications for the PM position. It'll take a little while to determine which are the most promising and move onto interviews, but if you went ahead and sent in a resume expect a response by the end of the week.

Progress Update

Short update: didn't get to the breeding menu just yet as I ended up needing to spend more time on aspects of monster creation; they're a deal more complex now with the changes but should be much more expandable. My previous system for dealing with various monster types relied on having them defined in XML and then just altered fields in a base monster class based on that. This time around I'm exploiting polymorphism more by having each monster type be a subclass of the base monster class, which should have the added benefit of allowing there to be more interesting and complicated differences between monster types as I can make more radical changes to them.

I realized I'll also have to nail down the preferences and status effects before moving onto breeding, and the appearance classes that will control the animations. This means I'll probably be pushing the UI stuff to right before I finish the update rather than tackling it now, but that shouldn't make the update take any longer to put together. Tomorrow I should hopefully at least get the animation system started, if not finished, and be able to start focusing on the requests and events.

Progress Update and Public Release 5.3

Worked on fleshing out the classes responsible for constructing monsters for the store and from breeding, as well as implementing revisions to how traits are generated and applied today. These changes should deal with most of the trait-associated bugs that are still present in the last release.

The monster building methods are also going to be significantly more granular now so there's more room for manipulating how monsters are made, which will make it easier to add unique monsters you can get from events in the future.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to get the new breeding menu together and working and then move on to the rest of the UI.

In addition, here are the 5.3 patch notes: http://breedingseasongame.blogspot.com/2014/09/alpha-build-53-for-patrons.html

Status Update

Just to keep you guys updated: I'm currently reassessing the amount of work left to have a playable update. Ultimately, my problem came down to leaving far too many big structural decisions until the time came for implementation; I made too many big changes to the design mid-month and didn't realize how that would affect designs for other systems I had made earlier, so when I got to actually implementing them I had to go back and redesign much of what I had put together before. My inexperience has been really nailing me here, and I will admit that I still find myself learning something new and having to hop back and redesign a part of the code structure periodically. I actually ended up buying 6 new textbooks over the course of the month just trying to scrounge up design solutions for my problems.

As of right now most of the fundamental code for the UI system, monsters, locations, and ranch buildings is in place, but some fairly large aspects of the game are still missing: each of the individual UI menus and components still need to be rewritten to work with the new UI manager, the system for retrieving and customizing animations needs to be put together, the new game events system needs to be put together, as well as the new requests system, and then finally each class that needs to be saved will need to have serialization methods added to them. I'm expecting that each of these are going to take about a day.

From now on I'm going to make a blog update every single day that I work detailing the progress. Some days the post will be short, but generally I just want to give a constant sense of how the project is advancing. If I run into any significant issues, I'll try to put them in detail on the blog so that any programming savvy commenters can offer suggestions. As soon as the build is working correctly I'll release it immediately. I'll go ahead and put up the public release tomorrow.

As far as the project manager position: more accurately I'm looking for someone who has experience in software development and architecture as well coordinating a small group of workers. Prior experience with Flash or AS3 is a plus but not necessary. Knowledge of good OOP design is ideal, as well as familiarity with some sort of project management software. If you're interested go ahead and e-mail a resume to me over at HartistaPipebomb@gmail.com.

Delay

I'm incredibly, incredibly sorry; what I believed was going to be a quick integration of the remaining code cascaded into a far, far larger task than I was prepared for and there's no way I'm going to be able to finish this in my current state. I've hardly slept in the last 3 days and I'm making zero headway at this point; I need to stop and resume this tomorrow. The fact that I bungled this planning so incredibly is completely inexcusable on my part and I am totally ashamed. There is absolutely no reason why I should've allowed this to happen and I can't express how sorry I am for continually failing time and time again to realistically and effectively schedule around these updates and account for all the work that needs to be completed ahead of time.

You guys frankly deserve far, far better than I've been doing, and I am immediately going to hire an actual experienced, capable Project Manager onto the team to replace me in these duties because I have been grossly incompetent at adequately scheduling and coordinating the project and I can't apologize enough for this failure. Coordinating a project of this scale is simply beyond my capabilities and I've been far out of my depth; we need an actual Project Manager and I should've hired one months ago. I promise I'll do everything in my power to make amends for this screw-up and get the new build into your hands ASAP.

When I started making this game I had no idea of the scope it would eventually reach. There is so much I've learned in the last year that I wish I had known when I began. I never imagined our Patreon would actually reach $5k per month, much less $23k, and I'd be lying if I said that adjusting to these heightened expectations has been painless. I am, however, still now and have always been totally dedicated to the project, and even moreso to the people who have supported us and allowed us to do the things we love for a living entirely under our own creative control. There is not a day that goes by that I am not bewildered with how incredibly, absurdly lucky I am to be in this position, and there is nothing that pains me more than knowing when I've failed to live up to promises that I've made to the people who make this possible. I'm incredibly indebted to you all and I'm not about to forget that. You aren't just a bunch of people paying for a porn game to me; you're the entire reason I'm able to pursue my dream job, and to do so entirely under my own creative vision, and that's a big fucking deal.