Maids & Masters (& The Road to v0.2)

Work on v0.2 is now fully underway. I'm busy spending what is probably far too much time on a quest that people will likely find tedious and skip, but that's game design for you.

More bugs and placeholder assets were found and fixed, as well as even more necessary map adjustments to get rid of some of the jank, but I'm fairly certain I've gotten all of it now. For the maps that exist within the released version of the game, anyway. For the biggest current issue involving key items - it was pointed out by a couple people that it was possible to use those items, which would do nothing except delete the item from your inventory. Those items have been fixed so they cannot be consumed, and the dildo event has been re-written for the next phase of the game to check whether or not you have it in your inventory. So if you took "eat a dick" too literally and gobbled that thing down, you can just go pick up a new one. For the funeral trophy, you'll be able to talk to Setri (the mother) and she'll give you a new flower. Steps have also been taken to prevent trophies being consumable going forward, so no more gulping down everything in sight to break the game. The one thing that can't be easily fixed is the girl's body; if you ate that, you need to use the debug feature to get a new one, or you need to start a new game.

If you are one of those people that ate the body and broke your game and you don't know what or where the debug feature is and you don't want to restart your save, feel free to contact me however you see fit and I'll tell you how to unlock and turn on the debug feature.

For other random bugs, one bug I've found is that sometimes an ally will evade a buff. This shouldn't happen ever, but after digging around in my database a while, I found out why it might have been happening and changed some things so that it shouldn't be possible for buffs to "miss" any more. The other was the game returning "cannot divide by 0" under certain circumstances. I've never told the game to attempt to divide by zero and after some research, the issue seems to be linked to the game trying to find something that no longer exists. A few rounds of playtesting later, and I noticed this was only happening in one specific area, so my guess is that this was happening because two combat instances tried to trigger simultaneously and the post-combat event running couldn't happen until after the second combat resolved, which caused the crash. So I deleted one mob and moved a few others around, and starting with v0.2 it shouldn't happen unless you try to make it happen. And if you're breaking my game on purpose, there's only so much I can do to help you.

The maps for three new areas are complete, including the first portion of the world map, the first optional dungeon, and a map that is easily the largest map in the game so far - the deep wilds. For reference, the map for the Estate grounds is 60 tiles by 60 tiles, and the deep wilds is 120 by 120 tiles. I don't want to get too far into what's left, but I'm looking at easily another two weeks of development, and that's assuming I don't make any mistakes along the way (so it'll probably be 3-4 weeks before v0.2 is actually ready for release).

For those of you who just want more things to be horny about, there will be at least five new scenes coming with v0.2. One will be very short, but all of them (as with the others already in the game) will be repeatable, and two of those will be with characters that have not yet been introduced. The current issue of Stay Clean Quarterly that can be found in the library will also finally be getting the renders that it has been missing. While you won't get to interact with those girls directly, you will be able to browse the magazine to your hearts' content. I don't want to over-commit, but I am also currently working on a way for you to subscribe to Stay Clean Quarterly, so you'll get new renders of new girls on a semi-regular basis (if I'm able to get that working the way I want to - otherwise new issues will be more of a collectible hidden in the world).

Past that, I think I've finally settled on a final iteration of what the shop system will look like. It isn't a normal shop where you buy items directly, it will work on more of a "supply line" basis. I'll include lots of in-game info about how the shop works, but just to cover it quickly here: When you purchase an item, instead of the item itself, you'll get a Writ. Once you have the Writ, you will (by default) receive a number of the items per game phase increase (the number of items you receive will vary based on the item itself). If you decide you don't need any more of a particular item, rather than selling your extra items, you can change your Contract so that you receive silcrow every time the game phase increases. This makes the shop less of a traditional shop and more of an investment office. If this system sounds convoluted or bad to you, it should be pretty self-explanatory once you get access to it. If you just don't like it, there will still be various opportunities to trade for items directly with the Folk, though their offerings will be more limited.

Lastly, I want to mention the character portraits vs custom busts poll. With v0.2 development underway and custom busts being in the lead by 10 votes (which I know doesn't seem like much, but I've only gotten a total of 18 votes), it looks like that's the direction I'll be going in. I've gotten no negative feedback about the custom busts, and one person gave positive feedback about them, so I'm confident in going with that direction. The poll will remain open for another 7 days, so if you hate this decision and wish to rage against the Hourglass, now is the time to do so before the sands run their course.

No other current news. Just look forward to your first non-combatant Maid, getting your fourth party member and fifth Maid, and the next batch of story content that brings those things your way.

And more importantly, stay cultured, my friends.

My "Story First" Philosophy

Some recent conversation about Maids & Masters brought up how much (or more accurately, how little) adult content there currently is in the game. This led to me mentioning my philosophy about adult content in games as it relates to how I'm designing my games. I originally laid out many of my thoughts about this in an update post for The Rising Son, another project that is currently on hiatus (but should be resuming development soon - I'm only the writer there, not the sole developer).

For reference, here is that original post.

The Rising Son is a dystopian cyberpunk action thriller with strong dramatic and romantic elements.

So, let's run down that list. Between Cyberpunk 2077 and some of the other projects that have come through [F95], I'm sure everyone is well aware of what cyberpunk is, so we'll skip that part. Anyone who has watched a movie probably knows what Action, Thriller, and Drama are, too, so I won't spend much time there, either.

Dystopian, however, has a bit more room for interpretation. From everything to 1984 to all the subject matter with post-apocalyptic settings that have come out in the last 20 years, dystopias have a lot of different faces to present. The way I'm incorporating it here is a fairly simple prospect, at least on the surface. I want to present the dystopian angle less as 'everything is terrible' and more as 'equal parts progression and regression.' For example, I'm sure a great deal of the people here would be happier if society as a whole applied less stigma to sex and the subcultures that revolve around it. In Toyomi, that has been realized. Rape is still a crime, but where there is consent, there is acceptance. Establishments like The Peach Tree offer Peaches - their special brand of prostitutes - for anyone of age to purchase time with them. What goes on behind closed doors isn't just accepted, it's encouraged. There's the progress, but where's the regression? As is appropriate for the cyberpunk genre, the regression comes from capitalism. Sex sells as well in 2107 as it does in 2021, and companies are all too willing to sell you your Dream Girl in a bottle of sake. This follows through to the entire setting; from the police, to the people, to the shogunate that effectively rules the empire, every step forward is mirrored by a step back.

That takes us to the action thriller part. This is something most people are going to be familiar with. It's the part where swords get drawn, punches get thrown, and sometimes people die. Thriller just means that there's stakes. General United States needs to punch the Frost Warrior or else the fancy helicopter is going to start sniping people who chew gum too loudly. There's suspense, and maybe you're a little bit anxious about the bad thing actually happening. The biggest reason I wanted to call this out is because we really do have some ambitious ideas for how to implement these elements, and not just from a writing angle. Hopefully you won't have to wait too terribly long to see what I mean. [Writer's note: That line did not age well.]

The drama is a fairly mundane point by comparison to the rest. That's why it's near the end of the list of the descriptors. However, it is still important. Drama is building relationships with the characters of the story, learning more about them, falling in love with or growing to hate them. Drama when it comes to The Rising Son is simply familiar.

That brings us to the romantic elements. Though "romance" is really just a thin veil behind which porn tries to hide the fact that it is actually porn. This is the reason we're all [on F95]. And I went and put it on the bottom of the list. The reason for that, is that this is a story first, and porn second. Take the sex away, and the story will still stand on it's own. I've probably lost most of you at this point, but if you're still reading (if you are, you're handsome and/or beautiful) then I want you to know that there is still plenty of sex here. At the time of my writing this, there isn't a single female character in the game that you can't find a way for Joji to sleep with. It is important to note, I feel, that all of my favorite games that I've found here have all had this in common. The best always stand on their own and are compelling and engaging even when it stops being horny. I hope to achieve that for this project as well, and that you'll keep reading regardless of what you may or may not be doing outside of the computer.

That last paragraph is the most relevant to the current topic. And yes, I am calling out all of you out there who read romance novels pretending like they're just dramatic thrillers and you're in it for the interesting characters and the compelling story, not the galloping abs and Gronk doing his thang-thang. I see you.

But this is turning into a giant post, so I'll try to keep it succinct. If you haven't figured it out by now, I'm a sex-positive person. I think sex is great, and I hate that some people use it to cause others harm. I also love video games, and have a similar opinion of people who try to gate-keep or otherwise use games as an excuse or means to cause others harm. I want to present both in as compelling of a way as possible, hopefully through the construction of well-written narrative, with that last line of my old post being the most important. I want to keep you engaged and entertained regardless of what you may or may not be doing outside of the computer.

Maids & Masters - v0.1.1 Release

Version 0.1.1 update!

Most of the work done was behind-the-scenes systematic stuff. Some of it was game balance, some of it was making future updates would work probably, most of it was preparing for version 0.2. Game balance may have been slightly affected, but not so much that the game should be any harder or easier combat-wise.

The appropriate placeholder assets have also been replaced, so the Maid in the post-game now has all of her own sprites and portraits and all that good stuff. Master's Maids have also been made available. There's still not a lot to actually do in the post-game (actually less, since I fixed a thing that defaulted to always-on that shouldn't be active until after you get the quest for it), but you're still able to run back and forth between Cumhaill and the Estate and explore those areas to your heart's content.

Just as a not of caution, as much as it's said in the game itself, don't save during the post-game. Events are going to play out slightly differently than they currently do, and if your save exists during the post-game, there's about a 70% chance things won't work the way they're supposed to and you won't be able to continue on that save file when v0.2 comes out. I'll do my best to mitigate that happening, but I can't make any guarantees, and I definitely can't fix your mistakes for you.

Other than that, the poll regarding custom busts or rtp edits for portraits is still open and will remain as such until a little further into the development of v0.2. Though it does look like custom busts are the majority vote by a good margin, there's still a bit of time to make voices heard regardless of the outcome you want.

I'll probably give it a day or two before development on v0.2 starts in earnest in case there's still a game-breaker somewhere that I haven't found, but I've already got a few maps built out and I'm excited to get everything filled in with actual content.

Though v0.2 is shaping up to be a much bigger update than I thought it might be, especially with all of the optional content I'm planning. I might decide to split v0.2 into different parts if the optional content ends up being too much to manage for a single release. We'll see how things shape up.

Anyway, v0.1.1 is already live on the Downloads page. It will be up on F95 soon if it isn't already.

Here's the changelog, for those of you who are into that.

Updated some equipment to be equippable by more characters.
Updated some weapons and skills to perform more in line with intention.
Updated some skill descriptions to give more information.
Updated some skills names and on-use text for consistency across classes.
Updated and added to states.
Updated some maps.
Replaced placeholder assets.
Minor dialogue updates.
Minor class updates.
Added hidden grove.
Added Deirlinn’s grove (accessible after Deirlinn’s scene).
Improved v0.1 post-game (various bug fixes and small updates).

Maids & Masters (& Hunting Bugs)

Just a teensy little cross post, for the sake of keeping things centralized here.

I found a few things that warrant some bug fixing, and in turn make me feel like a v0.1.1 is necessary. The bugs (should) only affect the post-game, but if it doesn't get fixed there's a possibility you'll soft-lock yourself out of continuing when v0.2 comes out (which you should honestly only encounter if you blatantly disregard my advice at the "end" of v0.1, but I digress), and no one wants that. I also don't want to push out arbitrary "new" versions of the game for the sake of vying for more attention, so I'm working on things like replacing Ella's placeholder assets and adding in some other bonus things for the curious to find. So v0.1.1 will be out... I dunno, next week? Maybe this weekend. It depends on how much of a pain it is to get everything updated (unfortunate update: it has been a massive pain so far) and whether I find more things I missed.

I have also started on the maps for the new areas present in v0.2. They aren't accessible yet, but at least one of them is quite large. I'm also aiming to have some fully optional content for v0.2. I don't know how well I'm going to adhere to putting it all into the same release or if I'll hold off for v0.2.1 or some such, but I'll do my best.

The big hurdle with v0.2 is going to be the economy. I'm trying something I haven't really seen elsewhere, but is largely similar to something like Dark Souls, where your currency is also something you use to make yourself stronger. It's a work in progress. I hope it works out, because I think the idea is neat, and will let y'all customize the way you play the game a bit. You'll also get access to your shop, which will work a little differently than most RPG shops do.

Then it's just balancing all the classes and making sure everything in combat works the way it's supposed to, because I've already had (and subsequently fixed) a wolf's debuff howl accidentally heal a random party member.

Game development is a trip, you guys.

Maids & Masters (& Magic)

Something that I haven't really taken the time to get into yet is the magic system in Maids & Masters. I'm not sure how soon or how well or how deep I'll be able to get into it through the story of the game, and I do intend to put in more "library book" type things so that the curious can do the reading themselves, but I don't think I'll be quite satisfied with that, and the main character isn't quite enough of an idiot to need it explained to him (or the player) in simple terms.

So instead I'm gonna make a (probably too long) post about it.

The magic in Maids & Masters is (usually) a subtle thing. Magic is part of daily life for basically everyone, but the setting isn't what I would call a "high magic" setting. However, because of the prevalence of magic, it definitely isn't "low magic" either. In my head, I've taken to thinking about it as "middle magic." Magic is common, but most people (to borrow D&D terms) only have access to cantrips or level 1 spells. People who can sling fireballs and lightning bolts or raise the dead (either back to life or as an undead monster) exist, but they are extremely rare. Without going into spoilers or revealing too much, there are exactly two characters who are capable of magic on that level within the story of Maids & Masters as it currently exists.

Magic is generally split into three types. Theurgy, which is magic wielded by servants, and Contracts and Orders, which is magic wielded by Masters. 

Going into Theurgy first, this is the typical D&D style "I use prestidigitation to clean myself off after slaying the dragon" or "I cast fireball." Theurgy is split into three categories (Aggression, Inspiration, and Distraction) which each have their own different sub-categories. I don't want to spend a lot of time on this, but for the sake of completeness, I'll cover them quickly anyway. 

Aggression's sub-categories are Assault, Battle, Deter, Lash, and Incant. To continue using the D&D analogy, Assault, Battle, and Deter are basically your Barbarian, damage-focused Fighter, and tank Fighter. Lash is halfway between Bard and Warlock, and Incant would be Wizard or Sorcerer.

Inspiration's sub-categories are Motivate, Treat, Arouse, and Restore. For more D&D, Motivate is your Bard (but focused exclusively on buffing allies), Treat would be the Druid or Cleric (some heals, but mostly utility), Arouse would be like if the Bard was focused exclusively on seducing the other player characters but was still actually helpful, and Restore is the Paladin with too many spell slots (big heals, big smites).

Distraction's sub-categories are Interrupt, Agitate, Beguile, and Vex. As one last round of D&D, Interrupt is a utility Fighter (or maybe a Monk), Agitate is a Bard (but focused exclusively on debuffing and belittling your enemies), Beguile would be like if the Bard was focused exclusively on seducing everything you fight (but again, is still actually useful in a fight), and Vex is your Warlock.

Just for the sake of establishing it, Assault, Battle, Deter, Treat, Interrupt, and Agitate are fairly common, Lash, Arouse, and Beguile are less common but aren't difficult to find, and Incant, Restore, and Vex are incredibly rare and powerful enough that wars have been fought over (and won exclusively by) those Servants.

Probably nothing you haven't heard of. Theurgy might have some special flavor or flair you don't see often, but it's mostly pretty standard fantasy fare. Lots of horny Bards, but Maids & Masters is kind of a horny game. Where things get a bit more towards unique is in the Contracts and Orders. So, let's get into Contracts.

Contracts, like Theurgy, is split up into categories, but instead of a load of sub-categories, it's just two broad terms that represent different forms of the same thing: Writs and Pacts. 

Writs are Contracts given form, and are often optional unless one party demands one. Typically pieces of paper (though technically anything that can be inscribed will work - a tree, stone tablet, footprints in snow, whatever), a Writ details the scope and purpose of the Contract. Writs can be as simple or as complicated as the people writing them want them to be. For example, in the fiction of the setting, the first Contract ever written was a Pact of Servitude; the agreement a Servant makes to serve their Master. It went as follows: "I, so named, shall dedicate myself to your needs and well-being" for the part of the Servant, and "I, so named, shall ensure that you want for nothing" for the part of the Master. Both Master and Servant then signed the Writ, sealed the Pact, and that's all there was to it. 

More modern Writs are considerably more complicated and don't look too dissimilar from what you'd find in a contract or other legal document in the modern day, with each point of interest marked by a silcrow (this guy: § (this is also where the currency of Maids & Masters comes from, but that's a post for another day)). While a Pact cannot be sealed by someone who does not consent to the contents of the Writ, many of the less well-intentioned Masters know that you do not need to fully comprehend something to consent to it (this is also where a lot of the metaphor of the story comes into play, but again, that's another post). Writs are often full of confusing, archaic, or boring wording that makes it deliberately difficult to understand the contents of the Writ. We'll loop back and talk more about this in a moment.

Pacts are the non-physical aspect of contracts. In order for a Contract to be enacted, the Pact must be sealed. Where the Writ is optional, and gives any party requiring it a physical copy of the agreement, the Pact is not optional. As with Writs, a Pact cannot be sealed by someone who hasn't consented to it, or in a manner that is not consented to. This is important because of the way Pacts are sealed - by the exchange of fluid. This fluid can be anything - water, wine, blood, saliva, and so on. As long as the fluid is provided by one of the signed parties and is consumed in some way by an opposing signed party, the Pact is sealed. It shouldn't take too much thought to realize how a Master with compromised morals might attempt to force another to enter into a Pact if the consent part wasn't necessary.

Once created, Pacts are permanent. Silcrow can be added or removed, and the Pact can often be transferred from one party to another, but the context or silcrow of the Pact can change this. For example, if someone seals a Pact of Servitude to become a Servant, the Contract cannot be broken or otherwise made null and void. That person is a Servant for the rest of their life. The Pact can be transferred to a new Master, but the Servant cannot transfer their end of the Contract to another party. But there are always exceptions. We'll loop back to this as well.

Orders are the last type of magic, and does not have any sub-categories. Orders are, simply put, a directive given by a Master to someone that has signed a Contract that is backed up by magic to force compliance. So long as the Order does not violate the word of the Contract that the target is subject to, the scope of the Order is functionally limitless. The limit of Orders lies in the magical potential of the Master themselves.

For example, if a Master issues an Order to clean something to one of their Servants, the Servant feels an insurmountable compulsion to clean the specified thing. This can be modified by intent or intonation, such as "clean that" resulting in a response that - while compulsory - is no different than if the Servant had decided on their own to clean it. "Clean that, please" would be similar, but would also impart a sort of magically induced satisfaction at having completed a task; not too different from looking over a task you completed and feeling proud of yourself for the accomplishment. "Clean that or else" might induce fear until the task is complete, shouting the Order might instill a sense of urgency, and so on. 

This can also be modified by the Contract itself, such as if the Master included a clause that everything they say should be taken as an Order (effectively reducing the personal agency or amount of free will a Servant has), or specifying that a request is not an Order unless expressly specified ("I Order you to..." or "That was an Order.") This is where the magic of Contracts and Orders can get both very effective, and very sinister, as Masters with significant magical potential might be able to specify that a spoken Order does not need to be heard in order for it to take effect, or an Order may not need to be spoken at all. 

 

With all that out of the way, let's put it all together. The exact type of Contract can be almost anything. A Writ of Holdings specifies a location and it's contents as belonging to and accessible by specified people (which yes, the Pact could be sealed the same way a dog marks their territory), a Writ of Marriage would be a Master presiding over the wedding of another, there are Pacts of Alliance, Accord, Commerce; if you can put it into words, it can be built into a Contract. 

There are exceptions to this, because there are exceptions to everything, but again, posts for another day.

Using the Pact of Servitude as an example, in it's simplest form, this Contract consigns a person to being a Servant of a Master. This core cannot change, but a functionally infinite amount of additions can be made. The most common addition is a silcrow for how the Servant will (or more accurately, won't) age, with the intention being to keep the Servant working for the Master and in the best possible health for as long as possible (Masters use this same tactic to prevent themselves from aging, making themselves more or less biologically immortal by literally buying time). 

A more benevolent Master might include in the Contract that they won't mistreat, insult, or otherwise abuse their Servant, or include additional benefits such as childcare. A Master seeking to turn their Servants into property might specify that a Servant cannot speak unless spoken to or given express permission, or use the Contract to render them sterile (which could then only be undone by a Pact of Birth, using the core of a new Contract to override the silcrow of another.) 

Looping back to the first bit regarding Pacts changing hands, a Master might decide that's a bunch of hooey and write in that the Servant in question cannot serve another Master. How this is done can have just as much variance, such as saying if the Master dies, so does the Servant. It could also be written that if the Master dies, no other Master can seal the Pact, as the Master has permanently withdrawn the future consent of the Servant. This could also go the other way, with a Servant sealing the Pact with a single Master, but also serving other Masters as specified by the Contract, whether that be also serving the Master's spouse (whoever that happens to be at a given moment, accommodating (or not) for things like divorce and remarriage) or family member, or any other named party. As is the case with Phoebe in the game, it was part of a Writ that she was given that if the Masters holding her Contract died, she would effectively be her own Master until such time as she consented to resealing her Pact with a new Master.

That segues into the other pin we put in things. Phoebe is a Servant at the time our protagonists find her, but for all intents and purposes, she does not have a Master. This is one of the possible exceptions to the rules of Contracts, and why they have become so complicated. Had her previous Master specified nothing, her situation would not have changed much, though without the magic behind it, her Contract would no longer be preventing her from aging. She would have been a normal person, ignoring the fact that she would still have access to her own Theurgy. 

Another way this could have gone would be to write in these things on purpose; to actively choose to allow Phoebe to age normally, or have children, or be able to get sick. This is not often done, but when it is, it's usually part of a Pact of Accord, which is a deal made between a Master and a village of the Uncommon Folk. It allows the villagers to serve the Master for a time before returning to their life in the village, and could be done in exchange for all manner of things - education, food, housing, protection, the list goes on. The Master in return gets a steady rotation of willing Servants and doesn't have to feel so bad about stealing people away from their homes and forcing them into a life they may not actually want, even if they do get cool magic powers out of it (it also gives Masters a way of screening Servants for more powerful or desirable Theurgy and leaving room for practicing eugenics, and effectively gives them a reserve army if they sneak in a bit to the Contract about being able to Order the Folk back into service).

When it comes to Orders, a Master could potentially allow a Servant to fly or walk on walls for a short  while by issuing the right Order. A Master could also issue an Order to cause them to self-destruct or spontaneously combust. So long as it doesn't violate the word of the Contract, not even the sky is a limit.

The one big caveat to this whole thing is silcrow. Without getting too deep into the nature of the currency itself, each addition effectively costs the Master a silcrow. A silcrow can be represented by an equivalent amount of gold or jewels or other valuable commodity, but because the exact value of a year of life or whether or not you have free will is subjective, it cannot be strictly quantified. This is why I kept using "magical potential" when referring to what can or can't be done within a Contract by a Master. Masters do have access to their own pool of magic, just the same way as Servants do with Theurgy. The pool is typically considerably smaller for Masters, but Masters are able to supplement it with silcrow. With enough silcrow, a Master can magically mold a Servant into whatever they please, literally sacrificing their net worth to get what they want. 

 

The last piece of this puzzle is the Estate, and the headstones they are built to protect. Estates are old places, built around stone monuments called headstones, which serve as a channel through which Masters enact their magic. What exactly headstones are or how they function have been lost to history, but Masters can feel the one their lineage is tied to. If it's destroyed, they can feel their magic disappear. A Master can be anywhere, but so long as their family headstone stands, they can create Contracts and issue Orders and live forever. While the distance doesn't matter, the condition of the headstone does. Being a magical artifact, headstones are not easy to repair; especially when no one truly understands them. Time wears on all things, and when Masters live for several centuries, no small amount of time passes with each generation. Nothing lasts forever. No one knows this better - and no one fights against this harder - than Masters.

Maids & Masters - v0.1 Release

 Hey, first blog exclusive post!

The first public version of Maids & Masters is officially going live right now. The download links will live in the Downloads page for easy future finding, but here they are right now if you're staring this down and don't want to bother with the extra click.

DOWNLOAD (google docs)

MIRROR (mediafire)

MIRROR (letsupload)

These will eventually be up elsewhere, but at least for F95, there's a review process and I'm not sure how long it will take. In the mean time, you can always find the latest news regarding Maids & Masters as well as the most up-to-date downloadable version here.

Maids & Masters (& Wrapping Up v0.1)

So, the last stretch of development took a smidge longer than expected, but it is now complete. v0.1 is done, it just needs a few rounds of playtesting and I need to get a few other things in order so that I can comply with the upload requirements of F95. Once that's done, a new post will go up so that the game becomes available to download, and I'll update my website so that it's available there as well. That will hopefully be happening within the next 24 hours.

There are a few quality of life changes that could potentially be made, but if I decide to make them, they can wait for any bugfix versions that might be necessary, or v0.2, whichever comes first.

There is something of a debug feature available for people who like to do the bug hunting thing. It's tied to the bonus trophy for playing Arrival, so if you have any trouble finding the trophy and turning the feature on, the first step would be to make sure you're looking in the right place. You do need to be exact in order to get it, and you'll get a notification when you do. Then examine the plaque beneath the trophy. If it still isn't working after that, let me know (either here or on my website) and I'll help you figure it out.

Speaking of bugs, there is one issue I encountered during playtesting that happened both within and outside of the playtest environment. The game would crash, seemingly at random, when a battle started. The exact step when it crashed seemed to be after the battle launched, but before the menu appeared to allow the player to select battle commands. I added a script to help identify the exact issue, whereupon I stopped encountering the issue. Hopefully whatever was causing the crash was delayed and is now processing correctly because it's being forced to slow down by an extra frame or two. I haven't encountered the issue again since adding the debug script. If anyone does encounter this, please let me know so I can investigate further.

Which goes for any bugs or performance issues. There shouldn't be anything game-breaking, but every machine is different, so anything from sound issues to graphical bugs to slowdown to crashes, I want to know about it so I can see if there's anything to do about it from my end.

As for the poll regarding character portraits, that will stay open until I'm nearing completion for v0.2. I want to get a decent sample size of opinions before I fully commit to going one way or the other, and closing the poll too quickly feels like a step in the opposite direction. And just for the record, I will take into account any feedback that happens outside of the poll on F95, regardless of how that feedback finds me. I don't want to just take the poll at face value as an absolute representation of opinion.

One last note, there are some placeholder assets in place. It's only a single sprite and the associated faces, and they're only present in the portion of the game that's after the current "end" (you'll know when you hit the end, it's literally impossible to miss).

As a bit of bonus news for people who read my posts here instead of only following the Maids & Masters project on F95, in the time between my posting this information there and making the new post here, I've managed to resolve the issue surrounding how character sprites are displayed. It needs a bit more testing, just like the rest of this version of the game, but my preliminary implementation and testing went wonderfully. This means I have the option of potentially implementing different character outfits, which is a feature that I was considering including but felt it wasn't viable until after I had resolved this particular issue.

So how's that? Read the blog, you get exclusive updates that you don't get anywhere else. You're welcome, the exactly one fan that I have that's reading this when it's new.