Maids & Masters (& Strategy Guide Act 2 Midpoint)

I said I'd save the stats for the strategy guide today over on Patreon and Subscribestar, so let's jump right into those.

The strategy guide is now up to 226 pages at the mid-point of Act 2. It's just shy of 375MB in storage (which compresses down to about 50MB on disk), and my playthrough that's accompanying the guide is just about ready to tip over into 100 hours of playtime. 

 

What I find most impressive (or, probably more accurately, most relieving) is that I'm already past the midpoint of act 2. Approximately, anyway. It's kinda hard to say exactly where the midpoint of act 2 is, as you could count it being completing the Introducing... task, or meeting Evdokia before Archibald, or starting Archibald's segment, or actually getting north of The Gate at the end of Archibald's segment.

Point being, progress on the strategy guide is going much more quickly than I expected, which is a huge load off my shoulders.

 

I'm still not totally sure if I can commit to getting a "test build" of the guide out this Friday with act 2 complete, as much as I'd like to and as quickly as I'm approaching that point. If I can keep up this pace, the rest of act 2 should only take me 3 or 4 more days, and Friday is exactly 3 days away. Sure, I could just commit to the crunch and make it happen, especially since things are going as quickly as they are, but that doesn't leave me a lot of time to fix any formatting errors or look for and fill in anything I might have missed (which does happen from time to time, and it's a giant pain to keep everything I already wrote when adding what I missed without adding extra mostly-blank pages and/or creating a bunch of formatting errors).

 

I don't really like the "play it by ear, we'll see what happens" strategy when it comes to updates (even if it's just a strategy guide), but it'll be such a close call if I try to force act 2 of the guide to be done that I think it'll be better for my health if I don't try to force it. At the same time, progress has been going significantly faster than I expected, so it might happen on accident, and I'm not going to arbitrarily delay sharing it for another week if I manage to get it done. So, we'll play it by ear and see what happens. 

Maids & Masters (& Strategy Guide & A Weekend Away)

If you didn't see the post on Patreon or Subscribestar, I was away over the weekend, and am settling back in today. That means, as you can probably guess, that there wasn't any progress on Maids & Masters' Strategy Guide over the weekend. That also means I'm pretty solidly behind schedule, and I'm not sure I'll be able to complete Act 2 by the end of the month for a new "test build" for VIPs at the end of the month (which would actually be May 1st, because that's when the closest Friday is).

 

To try and make up for that (and for the probably pretty boring preview that the Table of Contents page made for) I'll be doing a back to back page preview, with this Friday's post being about the Freeze tasks.

I've been trying to avoid that, as there are only so many "types" of pages I can post as previews before I'm just picking pages at random to show off, but I'm always trying to make sure I'm doing right by the people supporting me (and hopefully encouraging more of you to support me), so I'm hoping this makes up for any disappointment while I gather up the energy to try and have Act 2 of the guide finished in two weeks.

 

That's not an impossible goal, even if it does mean I'll likely end up in crunch mode again. While there are the cult segments in between and all the side content that gets unlocked as you go, most of Act 2 takes place inside of 6 major quests - getting into the mountains, the four Estates you can complete in any order, and Archibald's segment - and that first one is already mostly done. Even if each of those that are left take me two days each due to the extra complexity, May 1st is exactly 10 days away. That means no days off or really crunching down on a few days (or more realistically, both), but it's not impossible to do.

Though it's more likely I'll just take an extra week instead of killing myself trying to get all that work done as fast as humanly possible. 

 

Act 3 is comparatively short, so even with the extra week, it's entirely possible the guide will still be finished at the end of May, which is roughly in line with the longer end of how long I wanted to spend on this thing. If I actually pull it off, I'll be happy. Though it does seem likely I'll end up pushing into June (no pun intended) since I also have all the appendices to put together after the story is done.

But regardless of whether it takes until the end of June or not, that's still miles better than the original estimate I had of this guide taking a year to put together. I'm itching to get to whatever game you want me to make next, and putting that off for a whole year would drive me up a wall. 

Maids & Masters (& Strategy Guide Act 2 Begins)

I'm officially into act 2 of Maids & Masters with the strategy guide, having just finished the second Haunt over the weekend and started the second Freeze yesterday. I'll be out of town over the weekend, so I'm hoping to have the second Freeze finished before I leave and have a new page preview scheduled to go up on Patreon and Subscribestar before I'm gone.

It's actually kinda serendipitous that things lined up the way they did, as the thing that'll have me be out of town for a weekend was pushed back multiple times, and this particular weekend was pretty much always going to be really busy for me. Now I have an excuse to relax a bit and get away from work entirely (even if it makes things more hectic and increases travel time) rather than kinda feeling guilty about taking so much time away from work.

 

It's been a few weeks since the last time I posted anything about the guide here (and hopefully the Maids & Re-Masters 2 post for April Fool's Day didn't throw anyone too bad), so I suppose I can put up some stats.

The guide has nearly doubled in size from the 90 pages I mentioned last time, being up to 175 at the time of writing this (it'll likely have actually doubled by the end of the day). There were a bunch of formatting issues with the first preview (which was just Arrival), and all of those have been hammered out for the second preview (which includes the whole of Act 1). Something I'm not sure how to feel about is the way the file size gets compressed when it goes from my online storage to the final PDF, as it's now over 300 MB for the editable document I'm working from, but it's barely over 40 MB once it's downloaded. That's great for drive space and makes life way easier on phone people, but it was around 40 MB as a PDF back when it was 200 MB as an editable doc, which makes the compression feel weird to me.

 

I'm pretty happy with it on the whole so far, though. As much as working on it feels like trying to wade through knee-deep molasses (and if this guide doesn't sell well, there's no way I'm doing any for future projects), it is kinda nice getting to go back through and be reminded of all the bits and pieces that came together to make the final product, then use the commentary cut-outs to actually be able to talk about those things. Most of it is the sort of thing that I might say here, but a lot of it is "this was inspired by this" or "this was going to be this but changed" type of stuff that doesn't have a lot of depth to it, so it never actually made it into a blog post.

Though I might have to change that going forward. For as much as I already know and appreciate about game design philosophy, there's a pretty big gap between knowing a thing and having the practical experience to fully comprehend a thing, and there are lots of things I haven't really talked about in terms of puzzle and map design that probably won't make it into the guide, either. The changes that were made to Odette's puzzle in the Deep Wilds Tower Hold is a good example of that; with the way the guide is put together, there wasn't really room to put both a picture of the solution and a commentary box without creating a new (mostly blank) page, so there wasn't any room to mention that the buttons were added later in development as a way to make the puzzle easier because so many people were struggling with solving it despite being able to go back and forth between the puzzle and the painting that tells you the solution.

I might have to turn that into a poll for Patreon/Substar posts on off-weeks. 

Bundle of our Bunnies

Easter might be behind us, but that's no reason to not enjoy yourself a bunny-girl.

 

You can get up to 12 games for around 70% off - there's tiers involved, so you can pick how much of the bundle you want - or just grab some free stuff. 

There's even stretch goals, so tell your friends. After all, who doesn't like BooBs?

Get the bundle here: https://itch.io/b/3624/boobs-bundle-of-our-bunnies-easter-bundle 

Maids & Masters 2

Pre-order now.

 

Maids & Masters (& Strategy Guide Act 1)

The Maids & Masters strategy guide is officially over 90 pages now, and I'm approaching the end of the first act. There's still a bit left for me to fill out with Drain The Swamp and the Haunt, but once that's wrapped up, it's just Griselda, the Freeze, and Lalita left to finish out Act 1.

 

I would love to say that this Friday's Patreon/Subscribestar post will be a "test build" for the guide up to Act 1, but I've had a busy weekend (which is why I'm still working on Drain The Swamp - I feel like I should've had that done days ago despite still gaining 10 pages) and I still have a fairly busy week ahead of me. My general goal has been to complete one quest per day, but while some days I get two or three done pretty easily, Drain The Swamp is a quest that covers two regions, (technically) three Estates, four Holds, two optional Maids, and not one, but two entire side quests. Which is all still before I get into the trophies in the area. It's taking a minute.

 

But as much as I feel like I'm not making as much progress as I'd like to be making, when I actually put some math to the amount of work that I've gotten done, it maths out halfway decent. I think the main problem that I'm perceiving is that I'm used to either working myself to death or threatening to dive head-first into burnout, mostly because I genuinely enjoy doing the work. That - for better and worse - isn't so much the case here.

 

Which, to be clear, I don't actively hate working on the guide. It's not nearly as much fun as working on the next game, regardless of which game that ends up being, but I find myself dancing around what I actually want to say with these guide-related blog posts and ending up being unintentionally negative more than I want to be. I know the strategy guide is something you want, and for reasons other than my income backsliding, I want to do right by you for supporting me, regardless of how you've supported me. 

The guide is another way for me to do that, and I've been debating changing my development process to make a guide alongside the next game. I doubt I will, because as much as I like hiding secrets and making those secrets rewarding to find beyond the simple dopamine rush of finding something I've hidden away so you can feel extra smart (and if MnM's guide ends up making me enough money to fund development for the next game, repeating that would be really nice), I also don't want a guide to feel necessary. I've had people use the phrase "guide dang it" on me before, which is the sort of "moon logic" that's most common in old adventure games where what you're supposed to do makes zero sense until after you've looked up how to do it.

I don't think I've ever gone full moon logic for any of the puzzles or secrets I've designed; the vast majority of things that come close (or that people have complained about frequently) are just the sort of thing that only happens if you go looking for it (and unless you're looking for literally everything literally everywhere, you'll naturally miss some things) or that use the cancel mechanic (which is inherently not directly in front of you, so even though it's used constantly, unless you use it constantly, it's easy to forget it's there). I can think of more times where a puzzle was just poorly designed in the first iteration and had multiple solutions when only one solution was intended to be correct. 

 

But that's a lot of game design philosophy talk, and there's way more to be said on that topic than I can fit in several blog posts, so I'll leave that there. 

Maids & Masters (& Strategy Guide Suggestions)

I feel like I've hit a decent pace, at least in terms of how I'm working on the guide, if not the amount of work that's actually being completed. I still have this feeling like I'm going to spend far longer making this thing than I should, but I'm willing to believe that feeling comes mostly from the fact that I have the majority of the work still in front of me despite the guide already being nearly 80 pages.

 

Either because of or despite that (I'm genuinely not sure which), I want to know what would make the guide worth the asking price for you. Obviously I'm laying out combat strategies every time you encounter a new enemy for the first time, and I know trouble with bosses is one of the big things people have asked for help with. It should be equally obvious that I'm covering each step of every quest in detail, including the negotiation segments, which covers all of the "what's the best choice" (which doesn't always apply - there often isn't a single optimal choice - but the guide will give you all the mechanical information of which choices move which variables) questions, along with all of the "where do I find <blank>" type questions. Same goes for the usual appendix type inclusions for info on all the Maids and how best to use them in combat, detailed enemy stat lines, and a trophy checklist.

 

The less obvious things I'm already planning on including are little cut-outs for behind-the-scenes info. Things like what the original intent was for a thing that changed, and how things were before they got reworked later in development or things that got cut, and world-building type things that never got fully explored anywhere within the game itself but weren't really substantial enough for a lore post. That doesn't cover absolutely everything that'll appear in those little boxes; sometimes they'll be random fun facts that I decided to include as I was writing the guide, but that's the sort of thing I want to hear from you about.

 

Last Friday I put up a post on Patreon (and Subscribestar) asking for suggestions on things you might like to see. The suggestions I've gotten (both in the comments there and elsewhere on the internet) already range from already planned to a good idea I hadn't thought of that's easy to include to something that'd be basically impossible to include and I have no idea how to approach the idea. If you have any particular thoughts about or hopes for what you want to see in the guide, whether it's a detail about something I've already mentioned here or something else entirely that I didn't mention at all, I want to hear from you. The sooner I see a good idea (or even a bad idea that a lot of people want), the easier it is to include it in the guide-making process.

Maids & Masters (& Strategy Guide Progress Updates)

It continues to be kinda difficult to talk about the progress being made on Maids & Masters' strategy guide without just outright telling you what's in the guide so far, so... let's do a little bit of that.

 

As of right now, just the Arrival section of the guide has 5 different maps, two battle tactics pages, six commentary cut-outs, and is about 20 pages long. Those numbers might not be huge, but keep in mind you can get through all of Arrival in 15 minutes if you rush through.

For the main game, the guide is already another 20 pages long, and I'm not even halfway done with the first act yet. That also doesn't include any of the appendixes that will include more granular information about the Maids, enemies, and trophies.

This guide is gonna be big.

 

It's also gonna be exactly as much work as I thought it'd be. I feel like I keep ending up negative about working on the guide when I really don't want to be, so instead of the couple paragraphs I'd originally written out, I'll just say that it feels like a lot is riding on this guide's success, I hope it ends up being worth the time and effort, and that you think it's worth the asking price.

 

I also hope you don't mind these posts being short ones while I'm working on the guide. 

Maids & Masters (& The Strategy Guide & Precious Kouhai v1.0)

With Precious Kouhai checked off the list, that's one "major" project checked off the list, one left to go before I can put all my attention on the Maids & Masters guide. The other one is Divine Intervention, which I should really have had the chapter written for by now, but the writing is still significantly further out than the renders, so there's not a lot in the way of pressure to get that done outside of the pressure I'm putting on myself to complete my work.

 

Going back to Precious Kouhai, this is something I'll be posting to Patreon and Subscribestar as well, but it hasn't been said anywhere except the itch dev blog yet, so to recap that:

Precious Kouhai ended up even shorter than I initially anticipated it being, but at this stage in my projects as a whole, PK kinda became a to-do item that I'm glad to cross off and free up the brain space to dedicate to other things.

As you might have noticed, early access is a paid thing on the itch page. Now that the project is finished and there aren't any updates to rotate into free public access, there are a few things to call out in reference to purchasing early access.

First, if you don't think it's fair that something you're buying will eventually be free - don't buy it. While I'm an independent solo dev and every little bit helps, I know how tough times are just as well as anyone. Don't spend money you don't feel good about spending. At this stage, early access is mostly a tip to me for making a thing you enjoyed than it is a purchase for a product.

Second, PK v1.0 will go into early access once the MnM strategy guide is released. I'm expecting that to take a solid couple months, so as a vague general estimate, probably sometime in April. Maybe May. Then PK v1.0 will be free for everybody, including the mobile version that I've been keeping exclusive to early access.

The other point I want to bring up is that - unlike Maids & Masters early access - there isn't another related product coming later on that you'll get to replace your purchase of early access. I do my best to be honest about these sorts of things, but just so it's stated in plain words, buying early access means all you get is early access. Once v1.0 is public and the game is fully released, early access ends.

As a follow-up to that, I'll also be turning off payments on the itch page once early access ends. I would like to leave them optional as a tip jar, but due to censorious payment processor shenanigans, monetizing adult content is extremely difficult these days and itch won't index the project page unless I turn payments off. I don't blame itch for that, it's a payment processor overstep, but obviously there's not a lot that I as an individual can do to affect that.

 

And that's probably the last you'll hear about Precious Kouhai until v1.0 goes public. I have made slightly more progress on the MnM strategy guide, and I do have a better estimate on how long it's going to take to complete, which (unless I get into a rhythm and speed way up) is going to be somewhere between 48 and 72 days of work. Much more manageable than my original estimate based off of how long it took me to complete the Arrival portion of the guide, but that number also doesn't account for any days I try to take off (which I usually end up doing some work during anyway despite myself) or any extra time I dedicate to things like appendixes.

That does probably also mean the public release of PK v1.0 is going to be in the May/June part of the year, possibly July, but that still feels way better than the notion of spending another 1500 hours over the course of the next year on this guide, which would burn me out something fierce. 

Precious Conclusions

Precious Kouhai is now down to only needing two more animations to be finished, leaving just enough time for me to wrap it up, do some testing, and still have some time left over to do something other than work between now and Friday.

 

As much as I want to go back and add more animations to the first part of the update, I don't think I will. Once PK is done, I have a web build to try and figure out (though probably not one for PK, since I'm not sure if the file size will cooperate - it depends on where the game ends up) and obviously I have a lot of work to do on the Maids & Masters strategy guide, so crossing PK off my to-do list feels like the best way forward.

 

Even if the way PK ends is kinda bait. You'll see what I mean about that once you can get your hands on v1.0.

 

Since this post is ending up a little on the short side without saying more, I'll give you a little extra bonus.
The Valentine's Adult Games bundle has already ended, but it managed to cross the threshold for the final stretch goal in the last 24 hours it was running, so I'm running a sale on my Patreon tiers.
You can get 30% off Supporter and higher tiers with code VAG26, or (if there are any left, I'm only giving away 5) you can get your first month of Eternal Gratitude completely for free by clicking this link here.
Or, if you actually want Precious Kouhai, you can get early access on itch for just $1 by clicking here.

And as one last thing, if a bundle is what you want, there's a completely different bundle running over here. I'm not hosting it, but it is another opportunity to pick up Precious Kouhai along with a ton of other games.

 

Still a pretty short blog post, but hey, now you get free/cheap stuff out of it. 

Precious Little Left

Since I want Precious Kouhai finished by the end of the month and I've kinda been neglecting working on it to get started on the Maids & Masters guide and trying to finish writing the chapter for Divine Intervention, so now those two projects need to be set aside so I can focus on PK.

 

With the commitment made more to the release date than the amount of content, PK v1.0 is basically entirely written and only needs to be animated. I'm still dialing in how exactly I want to work on animations to find a good balance between quality and speed, but that's exactly what I started making PK for.

I could easily spend most of a day working on a single animation even using all of the time-saving techniques that I've learned, doing little tweaks and fine-tuning the movement to make things look as good as possible from as many angles as possible, but I do feel I eventually hit a wall in terms of diminishing returns. 

Granted, I don't want to just maximize speed and be sloppy, either. Especially when the animations are intended to loop, any flaws it has become more obvious with every loop that goes by. Making a loop that's less than a second long can make that problem exponentially worse, since you see that many more loops in the same amount of time spent looking at it.

 

As much as I want to believe the characters and narrative are the most important part of a story - and they arguably are, and they'll remain my top priority - it's a bit foolish of me to take the stance that people will look past the visuals in what is ultimately a visual medium. I want to at least put enough effort into the visuals of my future projects that the average person won't disregard or lose interest in whatever the project is because I've put so little effort (or it appears that I've not put very much effort) into the visuals.

 

Unfortunately I still have some obstacles that need resolving before I can get the full benefit of my updated software (the broken teeth texture continues to haunt me), but the main thing is that I'm continuing to improve, and the bulk of the improvements that came with the software updates are still being used, even if it's not to the fullest. Between that and PK being fully written, my hope is that the animating that's left to do will go relatively quickly and the rest of my February will be nice and productive.