Maids & Masters (& More Progress on v0.19)

Despite my best efforts, reality seems to be conspiring against me to push the release of v0.19 back.

While all of the usual Freeze things are very likely going to be complete by Friday - Freeze events, chat options, special interactions, bonus events, all the new renders and animations, etc. - it's looking like the new story bit won't be. It'd be too much of a scramble trying to force it to happen, and it'd leave next to no time to do any kind of polishing or bug hunting.

 

A part of me wants to push the story bit into v0.20, or even v0.19.1, so that I can include the cult segment and end the Freeze in tandem with the story segment, but that would make for an extremely small update if I didn't also include something like the next round of affection quests. Doing that feels like asking for more delays between now and the end of the story, so I think it's in my best interest to swallow my pride and deal with the delay on v0.19.

I'm still not going to put an official release date on anything, because June and Chloe's bonus objectives are really unique, which of course is leading to some design difficulty. It isn't an insurmountable amount of difficulty by any means, but it's still enough that it's slowing me down more than I'd like. I also haven't really touched Cumhaill yet, and there are a few mechanics I'd like to finally include alongside the story revelations, so it's hard to say how much work is actually left to do. I still would really prefer to get v0.19 into early access before the end of the year, so that's still the goal, but we'll see how it goes.

The silver lining to all of this is that I don't need to go reaching for a lore post or anything for Friday's Patreon (and Subscribestar) post. As counter-intuitive as it is, it really feels like the best course of action is to take things however they come and putting out a near-complete test build. If all goes well, I'll then be able to get v0.19 complete and even have some time to go bug hunting. I've been less active in places other than Patreon and Discord than I'd really like to be lately, so I'm sure there are a number of bug reports out there that I haven't seen yet.

I just hope the last two posts of the year will be a little more positive. Or, failing that, that 2025 goes a little better. I'm still excited about finishing the story of Maids & Masters and then fully completing the game, and there are still cool things that I'm a part of happening that I want to talk about, but these past few weeks have been a little heavy on burnout for my liking. I really want to go back to being constantly flabbergasted that I get to do this at all, because I still love doing it and I still think it's extremely cool.

Maids & Masters (& Some Real Progress On v0.19)

Right when I was on track to have basically everything except the new story bit done in time for a test build on Friday, I get sick. I am still aiming to have a test build for Patrons on Friday, but this head cold has still slowed me down just enough that I'm not sure when a full early access release will actually become available. I really want to get it to Patrons before Christmas, but I'm not in a place where I can make that promise.

As for what I have gotten done - all the existing Maids have all their chat options for the new Maids, the new Maids all have Freeze versions, and the vast majority of that type of smaller interaction is done. There's still a little more left to do, but I've been working at it from multiple angles. Vicky, for example, is almost entirely done, only needing renders and animations for her event, but some non-characters (like the snowman and teddy bear) I haven't touched and still need updating.

That, unfortunately, is really as much as I can say about that. Everything being as in-progress as it is, there's not a lot for me to talk about.

In the interest of full transparency, I'm honestly not even totally sure I'll have a test build worth sharing come Friday. I might be able to manage it, but it's certainly not going to be as complete as I want. Plus, it is the holidays, so I'm busy with things besides work, which really only leaves me tomorrow to try and get more done before Friday.

I won't say anything else about possible release dates in the hope that I can still manage something reasonable.

Hopefully this cold passes quickly and I'm able to pick up the pace. It's frustrating wanting to get work done and not having the energy to actually be productive.

Maids & Masters (& A Little Progress On v0.19)

It still isn't a lot of details, but I think I've made enough progress that I'm comfortable talking about the cult segment leading into the Freeze. This one is a little more complicated than I'd have really liked it to be, and at the same time not as complicated as I really want it to be. I know that's contradictory, so bear with me.

This cult segment needs two versions. One where you won the election and are now leader of the cult, and one where you lost and are not. The trouble with that is that if you're the leader of the election, you should probably have some agency in what you do with that position. So, I set up the usual four choices plus the hidden choice, but if I'm going to do it right, that should be four completely different paths, giving you the option to do the most obvious things that the story might have led you to believe you'd be able to do once you finally got here. The trouble with that being that the story still has somewhere to go, so I need to find a way to somehow collapse all these different outcomes into the same conclusion so I don't entirely derail the story.

This is why this has taken me so long to reconcile. As burnt out as I've been, my brain just refused to process what I needed to do to make this any kind of coherent, much less as satisfying as I want it to be regardless of the direction you choose to move in.

I've finally reached a version that I think I'm happy with, though I haven't tested it very thoroughly. That'll come during the week, hopefully along with some meaningful progress on the Freeze events for the relevant Maids.

Because on top of this cult segment being unusual, this Freeze is also unusual, because it has some narrative that needs to happen during the Freeze to move the story into Act 3. 

Exactly none of which I'm ready to talk about in any more detail just yet.

Though one thing I am ready to talk about are the results of the winter bonus render poll. All those renders are done, but you'll have to wait until Friday to see them all. If you want to know the results (and see a preview), head over to Patreon (or Subscribestar). Also keep in mind that Patrons (and Subscribers) get bonus sets that I can't post publicly. Look forward to those on Friday.

Maids & Masters (& A Winter Poll)

There's still not much in the way of development news that I can actually share, but I'm slowly making something I think I can call progress. It's a bit slower than I'd like, but I'm taking it as a sign that I need the rest I'm letting myself have.

To help get the engine running (and because I'll have need of some promotional renders in the near future), I've decided to make a batch of bonus renders, and you get to vote on which Maids are in those bonus renders. 

You have to join, because I'm a jerk, but if you join for free (no, you don't have to give me money to participate), you can vote on Patreon (or Subscribestar) for any number of Maids you want to see in these vaguely Christmas-themed bonus renders. There's even a little twist you can read about in the posts I've linked.

Each render will have variants with and without the game/developer information, as well as lewd variants. The lewd variants have to go behind the paywall, though. The platform makes those rules, I can't have too much skin in public-facing posts. Sorry. If you want those (and early access and a Discord invite and everything else that comes with supporting me), you'll need to join a paid tier.

The poll results will be announced this Friday, with the renders going up the following Friday. And hopefully by the end of that, I'll have a test build worth sharing and you'll have v0.19 either just before or just after Christmas.

In other news, I've picked up a new client. The project is still pre-v0.1, so there isn't anything to share yet, but I'm excited to be joining it. Client work has been incredibly slow this year, and considering how much I rely on it to support myself, it's probably one of the biggest reasons I've felt so burnt out for so long. It feels good to be actively working alongside someone again. I'm not sure how long it will take to reach v0.1, but I'll definitely be sharing what it is and where you can find it as soon as there's something to share.

 

I hope something in here gave you something to look forward to. And if you're in the northern hemisphere, stay warm. It's cold outside.

Maids & Masters (& Starting on v0.19)

I did not intend for this to go up so late in the day, but, well...

For context, there's a post over on Patreon (and Subscribestar) that you can read. You don't even have to join as a free member to get access to the post. It is kind of a long one, though, so here's a quick tl;dr: 

I'm worn the hell out. 

I'm definitely not calling it quits, but development news is likely going to be pretty slow over the next few weeks while I work on v0.19. I'm doing my best to recuperate so I can get back into development in earnest, but trying to "relax harder" feels like trying to incite either anxiety or depression, so I just have to accept that it'll take some time. Once I've managed to catch my breath, I'll get back to it.

Though I do want to be clear - I am still working on v0.19. I'm organizing notes, brainstorming events, and trying to keep myself caught up on other background work (and non-development work) that I've been neglecting. There's just not a lot to say about completing that stuff, even for someone like me who has a talent for using a lot of words to say very little.

The silver lining to all this is that I have a very solid plan for what's going into v0.19, and there isn't a lot of non-development work that needs to be done on it short of renders and animations for the new lewds that'll be coming with the new Freeze events for the new characters. 

As a bit more summary from the post linked above, since there are only four new Maids for this Freeze compared to the last two averaging out at 8 each, the new content shouldn't take me a ton of time to get made and tested. That'll leave me more room than usual to bugfix and playtest, which is a very good thing, because the last few updates haven't gotten as much bugfixing as I'd have liked to give them. I've still got a list of things to address that I haven't had the time to give any attention to. All before the end of the year.

The last thing worth mentioning if you didn't read the post above is that after v0.19, it's hard to say how long individual updates will take to make from a sheer content perspective. v0.18 is the end of Act 2, with v0.19 acting as a sort of interlude before v0.20 kicks off Act 3. With what I want to do in Act 3, it would be bordering on impossible to cleanly split the arcs into smaller updates, so what's left of the story is likely to come out in as few as three updates. Obviously that's going to take me more time than usual to develop, so news may continue to be sparse as I move forward.

If you want to keep up with development news, both Patreon and Subscribestar have free options so you get notifications (even if you don't pay for access to all the juicy details), and I announce when posts go up in places like Bluesky, so you can also follow me there if you want to know when updates become available even when news is sparse.

And one last thing to mention from that post linked up top - thanks for being here. I really do appreciate it.

Maids & Masters v0.18 Release

I was hoping things would've gone a little more smoothly than they did, but that's life for you. v0.18 still entered early access and v0.17 still went public on Patreon, Subscribestar, and itch, but not having the time to work as I usually do, it wasn't exactly on time. I've only got a few hours today, which is why you're only just now seeing the change log. Sorry if this is confusing or frustrating. I've been a little frustrated, too.

I'll continue to be out of town through the rest of this week, with the posts on Patreon and Subscribestar likely being a bit late again, and since I won't have been able to get anything done between now and then, I won't have much (if anything) to post here next week, so if there's no news when you come back, that's why. Hopefully (with the exception of holidays) everything will be back to normal in the last week of November and I can dig into v0.19.

For now, here's the surprisingly short change log that goes with the recent update:

v0.18
Added the next story segment - the third Haunt. Including:
- A new region, the North Desert, with 3 new Estates and 3 new wilds segments to explore.
- A new trophy, awarded for fighting off a seemingly unkillable shadow.
Added missing Estate Info entries for the South Desert Estates.
Added a bugfix feature to address visiting Evdokia causing an incorrect transfer.
Fixed a bug that prevented teleporting from being used after completing the Wickham Estate.
Fixed a bug that left the player in the wrong costume after completing the Wickham Estate.
Fixed a bug that sent the player to the wrong map when attempting an audience with Evdokia.
Fixed a bug that allowed a gift to be purchased multiple times.
Fixed a bug that caused the South Desert Estate Info entry to have the wrong map.
Removed the “end of content” message from v0.16.
Various other minor dialogue updates.

Maids & Masters (& A Release Date For v0.18)

I have somehow managed to reach a point where the new content is more or less complete as of writing this. One of the optional Estates still needs to be filled out a bit with the usual slate of hidden items and it's own special events, but that's less than a day's worth of work. That leaves me the rest of tomorrow and one more day to bug hunt and polish. Not nearly as much time as I'd like, but ultimately not all that different from the amount of time I've had in the past.

I've already mentioned this to Patrons and Subscribers, but given the progress I've made, I'm ready to commit to v0.18 releasing this Friday, November 8th. I'm happy I'm able to commit to this for a number of reasons, the first one being that this is a Halloween update and Halloween has come and gone already. I do have a slew of other reasons I want to get this update done and released that have nothing to do with development directly as well, but I don't feel the need to get into that here.

Though as a somewhat important and relevant aside that I want to at least mention, one of those reasons is that I'll be busy with family again for a little over a week. This technically starts before release day, but I'm taking steps to make sure the release can happen with minimal interruptions before I'm out of town and unable to work for a while.

v0.18 is made up of three new segments of the wilds, two new optional Estates, plus the new story segment. I want to leave out the cult segment for the update, because while you'll have to walk yourself to the Ambrose Theater to begin it, the game will go straight from the cult meeting to the Freeze. I feel this might be somewhat unexpected, and I want people to be able to catch up on Haunt-related content before the Freeze update starts. This also comes with the added benefit of me not needing to trap you in your Estate at the start of the Freeze with no new Freeze content to interact with.

Looping back to when I mentioned Patreon and Subscribestar, that's where the updates are going live first, both early access and the free builds. If you want to get your hands on it as soon as possible, give one of those links a click.

And hey, if you think I've earned it, maybe consider becoming a Patron and/or Subscriber. It comes with more benefits than just early access, and I'd really appreciate any amount of support. It is quite literally what keeps me going.

Maids & Masters (& Progress on v0.18)

There are still a few things I need to fill in before I can call it complete, but the story segment is down to needing not much more than the story dialogue. It's otherwise mechanically complete and ready to enter the testing/bug fixing phase. The critical path is the only bit that close to completion, but that's the goal right now.

 

I'm still not totally sure if I want to go with this "no enemies except the one chasing you" setup, but there aren't a lot of ways to do a "stalker" type of enemy in RPGM that both keeps stakes high enough that you care to run away and doesn't become an annoyance. A lot of games that use the mechanic have the stalker hand you a game over on contact to force you to run away, but I don't like that idea. Forcing you to run makes the first few encounters intense, but after a handful of appearances, it becomes a notification to stop what you're doing and leave the room or do whatever other mechanical thing the game lets you do to end the chase. It's not really engaging gameplay, and can start to feel like the game is built for you to disengage in order to progress.

 

That's why I'm not sure if I want regular enemies. I'm sure the variety would be a good thing, but I feel like adding regular enemies to what I have will result in the same issue, with the stalker becoming annoying or frustrating more quickly. Especially if you dodge around the regular enemies on a first pass through the room so it's an obstacle later. The first few times might be a solid, intense chase, but if it results in a game over (or an engine bug that I can't fix that happens when two combats trigger simultaneously and the game crashes), it's gonna stop being fun real fast. So hopefully the more complete test build will provide some feedback. While I am pretty happy with how it works so far, I haven't gotten any yet, so it remains to be seen if this segment is going to be a fun change of pace or a giant pain in the ass for people who aren't me.

As for the rest of the update, the optional content should go fairly quickly. Most of the work I managed to get done before leaving town at the beginning of the month was making maps, so while I might need a few new enemy types to stop these new maps from being more of the same from v0.17, what's left is the sort of work I should be able to get done in a day or two on each area. With only two more wilds segments and two more Estates, that should turn out to be less than a week of work and the side content for v0.18 will be finished.

Though I do still want to focus on the critical path, like I mentioned last week. Getting that done and polished first still feels like the best way to get this update to a reasonable state for both testing and a relatively quick release. I don't want to put a date on it and jinx it, especially with the backlog of bugs I need to find and fix, but I'm optimistic.

In the mean time, there'll be a considerably more complete test build going up on Patreon and Subscribestar on Friday for VIPs to mess around with, and patch notes with more details on the build going out to everyone else. If that interests you, give one of those links a click.

Oh, and happy Halloween!

Maids & Masters (& Starting(?) on v0.18)

If the lack of a post last week didn't make it obvious, I've been out of town and largely unable to do much in the way of work, including getting a blog post up. I am now back home, mostly caught up on things, and able to resume work as normal. And as a quick aside - I don't know where all of you new Patrons came from, but it's great to see you. If you aren't one of the new ones, there's still plenty of room for more if you want to take a look at being a Patron or Subscriber.

Shameless plug aside, I have gotten some work done on v0.18 already. Mostly in the form of blocking out some maps and working out what I want for new mechanics (because I cannot and will not be stopped from experimenting with something in each update), but it isn't what I would call a significant amount of progress. There are also a number of bugs that need addressing from v0.17, some of which are going to take some investigation before I can call them addressed.

Where I'm caught up right now is that I don't like leaving bugs unaddressed, but I also don't like the idea of going yet another week without having a test build while I do all that investigation. I also really want to get the mechanic I have in mind in someone else's hands. Both for testing purposes and to see if it feels decent to someone that didn't invest dozens of hours into making it function and may have a bias on how good it is because what it is in the test build is thousands of times better than the jank it first came into being as.

This leaves me in a place where I actually need to focus a bit on what I'm developing. Usually there isn't a lot of rhyme or reason to the order I do things in. Obviously I need to make maps before I can start putting events in them, but once a map is made - whether I start filling it with events or writing out the story or making a new map or switching gears to render something or make or balance an enemy - it's almost entirely random based on what I feel like doing. If I want to get a test build out for Friday, I'm going to have to focus on the critical path (the bits the player is required to go through in order to progress), otherwise I'm not going to have enough done to really justify a test build.

I've also been trying to plan things out in my head for the side content for this update and how future story will factor in to one of the new zones. I didn't initially want to, but I may keep v0.18 to one zone instead of opening up two. Given how close to Halloween we are at this point and how far I still am from having a complete update, it feels like the better decision. From both a time standpoint and from a development standpoint. Holding off on putting the region together until it's relevant to the story means I don't need to put a bunch of extra checks in place to make sure future story doesn't trigger out of order in a more complete version of the game. It also means I don't need to spend days or weeks building all of that content when I have seasonal updates to put out. Even with my Patrons voting to have builds be complete regardless of development time, the more I think about it, the more it feels like the better decision.

Besides, I don't think anyone wants to wait until December for a Halloween themed update.

Spooky Adult Games Bundle

There's not a lot of development news so soon after the last release, but Maids & Masters is part of a massive bundle again.

Halloween is upon us!

Come indulge in a wide variety of incredibly sexy Visual Novels ranging from genuinely unnerving to genuinely heartfelt, there's something for everyone in the Spooky Adult Games Bundle!

This bundle has collected a whopping 57 games (including $37 worth of paid games) from 44 fantastic developers!

Get it free here:

https://itch.io/b/2679/spooky-adult-games-bundle

Maids & Masters v0.17 Release

I can't shake the feeling that I'm missing something, but aside from not having the time to add in any optional content, I also can't find anything important that's actually missing.

So let's get this release out in the world and one of you will tell me what's missing and I'll be mortified about it.

(and for posterity; it's not the cult segment - the story for this update is meant to happen inside of a day (not counting travel time) so not enough time has passed for a cult segment to be here)

Anyway, here's the change log.

v0.17
Added the next story segment - the South Desert. Including:
- Three new Estates to explore: The Fairweather, Emmerich, and Wickham Estates.
- Five new desert Wilds maps, each with secrets to find and featuring 8 new enemy types.
- A new trophy to earn, awarded for clearing the optional stealth mission without being found.
- A shop selling Contracts for the final two tiers of equipment, as well as Emily’s Contract.
Added the missing Estate Info entry for Iris.
Added a bugfix feature to add Iris’ Estate Info entry on talking to her in the kitchen.
Added an event to put you back in the Ambrose Estate Grounds if you left prematurely.
Fixed a bug that prevents progress if repairs are skipped in the second half of Repairs Part 1.
Fixed a bug where transfer events wouldn’t respond correctly during parts of Repairs Part 1.
Fixed a bug that caused the throne style plinth in the customization room to not loop choices.
Fixed a bug that caused a bugfix message to appear in the wilds leading to the mountains.
Fixed a bug in the Big Dick’s Barn Attic event that prevented it from registering as complete.
Fixed a Trophy Codex bug that displayed the “unknown entry” message for newer trophies.
Updated the position of the title screen window to not overlap with the game logo.
Updated Reckless Blow to resolve the guaranteed critical not applying to damage correctly.
Updated Contract Selling to include the missing items from recent updates.
Updated some conversations with Vicky to acknowledge the Opaque Monocle.
Various other minor event, map, and dialogue updates.