Maids & Masters v0.4 Release

 Phew... Made it...

Just in time for Halloween weekend, here's the v0.4 release. Even if this isn't the Halloween content I wanted it to be, there's still some spooky stuff. I hope you enjoy the update.

 

The latest version is available on the Downloads page, right where it usually is.

I'm gonna go sleep for way too long, then get this uploaded elsewhere.

Changelog:

v0.4
Next story release
Includes ten new areas to explore, including: two new Hold dungeons, two new Estates, two new sections of the world map,
Added enemies to wilds leading to Nithercott ruins.
Added various interactive events.
Removed progression restriction on entering the Nithercott Estate and preceding wilds.
Fixed a bug where Poison would be removed when a character took damage.
Fixed Adhauga Accord not correctly awarding Silcrow during Emily’s shop payouts.
Minor dialogue fixes and updates.
Minor weapon and armor rebalance.
Minor map updates.
Updated animation on Weaken.
Updated some skill names to be more accurately descriptive.

Maids & Masters v0.3.3 Release

Whelp, time to make a liar of myself. v0.3.2 won't be going up elsewhere, because now v0.3.3 is out for ya'll to enjoy. Download links are updated on the Downloads page. Related, v0.3.3 won't be going up elsewhere. So if you're someone who checks my blog on a regular basis, feel free to revel in the feeling of superiority that you get from knowing you have access to an official version of the game that isn't available anywhere else.

As for the Halloween update, it's unfortunately significantly less Halloween-y than I wanted it to be. There is more horror present in the coming v0.4 release, but it's more "horrible" than "horrifying." Life is not easy in the swamps. Not for the Folk, and not for the Masters. More than just the Nithercott Masters have disappeared in recent years. Sadly, most of the side quest content that should be tied to these areas has also disappeared. Some still exists, but it's really just the bare minimum to support the story content happening in the area. In any case, I'm hoping to have v0.4 out this weekend, hopefully Friday, and I'll be putting it up elsewhere on the same day so the most people possible get eyeballs on it.

Now... future updates. I've said this elsewhere, but just to stay transparent, my focus in the coming weeks is going to be on quality of life improvements, restoring cut content, adding in all the lewds that I'm sure you're all missing, and building out optional content that I just didn't have time to put into the last few releases. This means the next story update is likely going to be the winter update, which I'll likely release a week or two before the end of the year. Plenty of content is coming between now and then, but I want my focus to be on bringing the current releases up to my intended standards.

Enough about the future, let's go back to the present. Here's the changelog for v0.3.3.

v0.3.3
Added Jenny to various locations after she’s recruited.
Added Alice to various locations after she’s recruited.
Fixed a bug where Emily was visible before intended.
Fixed a bug where the Deep Wilds Hold would teleport the player to the wrong location after using it for the first time.
Fixed a bug where the player could enter the DWH before intended.
Fixed a bug where the pillars in the DWH would not bar entry when re-activated.
Fixed a bug where the stairs leading into the DWH were not displaying correctly.
Fixed more instances of transfers placing the player higher or lower than intended.
Minor dialogue fixes and updates.
Updated Maids to have new dialogue after completing Viridius.
Updated various enemies to resist certain states.
Deleted old post-game message.
Minor dialogue fixes and updates.

Maids & Masters v0.3.2 Release

 Surprise weekend release!

After releasing v0.3.1, I did some more deliberate playtesting to prepare for implementing the next story release, and... hoo, boy, stuff was broken. That release was not up to my usual standards, and I apologize for that. That'll teach me not to rush.

Hopefully this release will make up for it. Not only did I fix what was broke, but the Nithercott Estate is now finished (pending any bugs I still missed and need to fix), the Missing Masters quest is now completable (though not all of the options are viable just yet), and Emily's shop has gotten a new wave of items you can buy contracts for to prepare for the next release. 

 

On top of those updates, the war table is now available. An event will play explaining it (as well as establishing another bit of lore that'll make keeping characters involved easier on me), and if you haven't made a move on Phoebe, she'll make a move herself. The table will also serve as your quest tracker, and has an option to give you a rough idea of how your Maids feel about you. The post game that v0.3 didn't have now exists. Hopefully that makes up for any transgressions.

This update will go up elsewhere next Tuesday, so if you are encountering the bugs I've now fixed, please find the latest version available on the Downloads page.

Here's the changelog:

v0.3.2
Added an event explaining the war table on returning to the player Estate after recruiting Jenny.
The war table allows formation to be changed, so Jenny (and future characters) can be used in combat.
Added new items to Emily’s shop (available after completing Viridius).
Added fast travel options on exiting the Estate (available after recruiting Emily).
Fixed a bug where it was not possible to leave the north forest Estate Ruins due to an event repeating.
Fixed a bug where leaving the north forest wasn’t working as intended after completing the current story.
Fixed some states not correctly removing under certain conditions.
Fixed more instances of transfers placing the player higher or lower than intended.
Fixed collision issues that allowed the player to get to places that weren’t intended.
Minor dialogue fixes and updates.
Minor sprite updates.
Minor updates to some NPC pathing.
Updated horizontal fence collision (fixes bug where you could walk through some railings).
Further decreased default title screen volume.
North forest Estate Ruins has been reworked (Missing Masters quest is now completable).

Maids & Masters v0.3.1 Release

Well, the crash I've been dreading happened over the weekend. Thankfully only about half a day's work was lost and it was mostly re-done by the end of the day, so it's not too big of a speed bump. 

Other than that, most of the maps are done for the next version. This is shaping up to be a bigger update than I originally intended, and as a result, I'll probably end up cutting the lewder end of the content for the sake of getting the main story update out.  If you're someone who is disappointed by that news, don't worry too much. Once v0.4 is out, my main focus is going to be on quality of life improvements and filling in all of that cut content. The new characters that don't or won't have scenes will have those filled in, there will be new maps and side quests, and things that should work better than they currently do will work more in line with intention.

For this update, the Estate ruins at the north end of the northern forest is now open. To set expectations, this section has been rather minimally playtested and is still in development. This section of the game is almost assuredly going to change, and has a few known errors in it. Please consider this area more of a preview than final content. This content can't currently be completed for that reason, even though the start of the side quest that involves this area has been available since v0.3.

With that in mind, please don't hesitate to report any bugs, glitches, or other issues you do happen across. I'd rather hear that people are encountering a known issue than have issues and hear nothing about them.

Here's the changelog for v0.3.1. I meant to have this released here yesterday, so the delay on uploading to other places will be much shorter than usual. The downloads page will be updated as soon as the new version finishes uploading.

v0.3.1
Added missing masters Estate (missing masters quest not yet completable).
Added animations to enemy skills that didn’t have them.
Fixed more doors in the player’s Estate.
Minor enemy rebalance.
Minor world map updates.
Updated some sound effects.
Replaced more placeholder assets.
Fixed a bug where you could find Maila before intended.
Fixed a bug where Phoebe would explain the hidden grove shack before joining the party.

Maids & Masters (& v0.3.1 Incoming)

Given my strict self-imposed time-table, v0.4 is in development. The world map sections are already put together and just need to be evented, I've got an outline for what is supposed to happen where, and if I keep at it at the pace I'm going, I might even hit my arbitrary deadline.

 

Some of the "upcoming" content is also going to spill over into the bugfix patch. It won't be a lot of content, but it'll be there. Just to keep expectations set, this content still isn't going to be completely finished. There's some background mechanics I want to build in so that I can have the events that take place have more impact than a "one and done" sort of decision, and that's going to take more of my time than I originally thought it would. I've found a good way to do it, but it'll still take a bit of doing.

For now, thank you to those who are still keeping up with the game even though these bits are going to be less polished than usual, content is getting cut, and things are probably a bit buggier than usual. You're my type of person, and I appreciate you. An extra thank you to those of you who have reported bugs. I try to be thorough in my playtesting, but I have a habit of accidentally doing things in the "correct" order, which leads to me missing things that I really shouldn't. Ya'll are helping to make the game better, and I appreciate you, too.

Speaking of bugs, a bugfix release (as the title suggests) is coming. I think I'll give it another week to let more bug reports come in and let myself have time to fix them, and then it'll release as usual: it'll go up here and be up elsewhere about a day later. Keep the feedback coming in, I like hearing what people think of this thing I decided to make.

All in all, I feel good about the project. Even putting myself under crunch time, I find myself tending to work on this because I want to more than because I have to. Here's hoping I get to keep doing this for a while. Maybe even get out another project or three after Maids & Masters is done. God knows I have the ideas for more. Hopefully I get good enough at this that you all want more.

Stay cultured out there.

Maids & Masters v0.3 Release

I want to apologize in advance if this section of the game feels rushed, because I feel a little rushed getting it done. Don't get me wrong, I've still gone through everything like I usually do, so this release still meets my personal quality standards. I've more or less run out of ways that I could think of to break the game, and I think it's time to call this done and see how broken it is for everyone else.

Which is hopefully not broken at all, but hope in one hand...

I'm also curious how the balance of this will feel for people. The Viridian Maids are intended to feel like a legitimate threat as opposed to just more wolves to grind for levels. I was able to clear everything with Maids at level 7-8, but knowing exactly what does what gives me an edge that ya'll don't have. On the opposite end of the spectrum, some of the older enemies feel (to me) so weak that even in greater numbers combat becomes more boring than I want it to be. If you have opinions in any direction, please leave a comment.

This release offers the first section of the game that you can approach in more than one way. As stated previously, there is some cut content, so I may be looping back to make this section a bit more complicated than it currently is, but I'm happy with the current version, so who knows. 

 

The new version is available now on my Downloads page.

As with every release, this will be going up elsewhere within about 24 hours, and here's the version changelog.

v0.3
Next story release
- Includes five new areas to explore, the second section of the world map, and a new character to recruit.
Added more sunshafts to indicate the presence of windows.
Fixed a bug with Deirlinn’s scene placing the player in the wrong instance of Cumhaill.
Fixed a bug where going onto the balcony at the Estate would transfer the player to the wrong instance of the mansion.
Fixed doors in the player’s Estate transferring the player one block higher than they should.
Minor NPC placement updates.
Minor map and dialogue updates.
Minor weapon rebalance.
Various updates and fixes to Emily’s shop.
Minor tileset collision updates.
Minor sprite updates.

Maids & Masters (& The Road To v0.3)

Well, this is going surprisingly well, I say to myself while waiting for something terrible to happen and set me back a few days. Fingers crossed, ladies and gents.

I don't want to get too far into the weeds, so to summarize, v0.3 is more or less on track to see release this weekend. Thursday at the earliest, but Friday or Saturday is more likely. The next story section can be approached in one of two ways (technically three, as you'll resort to the other if the first way doesn't work out) and as of the writing of this post, I'm writing out the events that wrap up the story for v0.3 for one of those two paths. It's the more complicated of the two paths, and most of it has already been playtested, so as long as the second path doesn't prove to be more difficult than anticipated to write out, that should only take a day or two to implement and another day or two to playtest and bugfix.

For the sake of setting some expectations, there's going to be some cut content with v0.3. There are things that I intended to include that would take nearly a full day to build all the assets for and implement into the game and so on and so forth... each. So instead of taking a week to fill in the corners, I'm going to focus on pushing out the meat of the update (which is the story) and I'll be returning to complete all of that content (which I have quite thoroughly documented so I won't miss anything) at some point in the near future. That near-future point will probably be after v0.4 is released, because I don't want to get my Halloween content built out and put together just for it to get delayed to the third week of November. That also means the v0.3 post-game won't really have any content. I'll at least get things to where you'll be able to roam the open world again, but there won't be any additional content like the addition of a new character or the shop. 

Speaking of the shop, I'm still looking for feedback on that. If I don't hear anything, I'm going to go ahead and assume that everything is more or less fine and I'll continue with the current iteration.

Now, before you think to yourself "why bother making seasonal content if you're having to cut other content to make timely releases?" it's because I decided to include content of this nature when I was still working on v0.1. It was always going to happen, and I have the opportunity to explore certain aspects of the setting I've created around the time that the majority of people are going to be in the mood for that type of content. I feel it would be poor form to miss that opportunity since I was always going to put this content together anyway.

Besides, I dunno about ya'll, but I'm down with big tiddy goths. So I'm gonna put a big tiddy goth or two in a maid outfit and you're gonna have to live with it.