Upcoming Demo: Redemption Harem's Setting and Battle Systems

I'm kinda behind on getting this out, but that's what I get for trying to work ahead to avoid life being hectic. Anyway, the next demo (side note, I'm learning a bit of photoshop, so some art assets should improve).

 

I'm not 100% sold on the title for this one, but it's descriptive, so it'll have to do for now. Redemption Harem is a dark fantasy RPG inspired by the Witcher and Native American (and to a lesser extent, Germanic) folklore where you capture monster girls and teach them how to be human again.

 

You play as Eckhard, a (renamable) Redeemer - a type of monster hunter that sees monsters for the humans they once were and focuses on curing them of their monstrous afflictions rather than killing them. You arrive at the fortress you call home home after spending several years in a kingdom to the west to find the fortress devoid of life. It's up to you to ply your trade as a hunter, master the Redeemer art of Blodwerk, grow the skills necessary to maintain your own well-being while caring for those you capture, and discover what happened in your absence.

In an effort to continue learning how best to use RPG Maker, I'm again doing some things very differently from how they're done in MnM while still being different from Love/Loss. I'm also trying to avoid using scripts for these demos, so some of these systems aren't going to work quite how I want them to due to system limitations (I can get the scripting right, but the events just don't run in a gameplay test), but the core idea will still be there. 

Firstly, the most apparent change from my other projects is the battle system. Redemption Harem has a much heavier focus on combat, so there are a number of things I'm trying to do to make combat feel the way I want it to feel while still being, you know, fun. The biggest change is that this will be the first of my projects to use RPG Maker's Side View battles, as well as the first to use the built-in ATB(Wait) system. This makes the Agility stat a much more important component in combat, and will open up new ways for you to approach how you hunt these monsters.

Next up is Redeemer Injections. These are the core of the crafting system. The idea with them is that you'll research what sort of monster you're hunting, preempt what this monster might try to do to you, and use Blodwerk - a type of alchemy unique to Redeemers - to create injections that will render you immune to the monster's abilities. These are used outside of combat as a preventative measure, much like you'd use things in the Witcher prior to a fight rather than in the middle of it. Each Injection will make you immune to a certain status effect as well as having an advantage and disadvantage. For example, one makes you immune to blind and massively increases your hit rate, but makes you slightly more vulnerable to fire damage. There's also a cap on how many of these you can use, so you can't just shove yourself full of Blodwerk and hope for the best.

The last thing I'll cover right now is the capture system. This is the biggest thing that won't work as intended for the sake of the demo. I've got this working great for single targets already, but as soon as there's more than one enemy on the field, it starts to break down. My original intention was to let you use the Capture status effect on regular enemies (instead of just the story hunts) so you could increase the amount of item drops you'd get from the enemy compared to just killing it. While the system does work, there's enough jank that you end up taking 1-2 turns while all enemies are captured, which leads to confusion as to whether or not you should do anything. The other option leads to combat massively slowing down while other enemies still exist, and the enemy you captured would just break out of the Capture status. There might be a script-free version of this that works, but I don't want this demo to take three months to make because one sub-system doesn't want to behave. This is still going to be a central mechanic, however. The core gameplay loop of the story - capturing monster girls to redeem - doesn't work without it. It will just be restricted to that specific use for the sake of the demo.

This post is way long, so I'm gonna go ahead and call it here. There's plenty more for me to talk about in terms of systems, so expect more of that next week.

Maids & Masters v0.7.1 Release

It feels good to have this done. Not gonna lie, going into setting up the Estate customization was kinda nerve wracking. It's yet another system I have no prior experience with, but what I'm pretty happy with how everything is working. Changing things is decently smooth, and it's not excessively difficult to add new options.

The next update will have the rest of the customization systems so you can really dig in; right now it's mostly just the garden, plus some things taken up by thrall status, if it applies.

 

The other thing to be aware of is some fast travel jank. I'm trying to figure out the costume system as well, so the Homing Stone might not work exactly as intended for this update, and there might've been a fast travel point or two that puts you back on your Estate but in the wrong instance. If you find any of that, please let me know.

One last thing; this update is the start of the two-week delay. If you don't want to wait that long, I'd greatly appreciate it if you considered supporting me on Patreon.

Here's the change log:

v0.7.1
Added a hint system for finding the hidden underground path in the Deep Wilds.
Added the Northern Hold, the first of the dungeons available during the interlude.
Added an additional teleport option to the Deep Wilds Hold.
Added Dense Wilds Hold, the second of the dungeons available later in the interlude.
Added the final version maps of the Estate, which become available during the interlude.
Added the core systems for Estate customization, which become available during the interlude.
Added Estate Garden customization, which can be accessed through Ivy next to your garden.
Added maps for the Servant’s Quarters, which become available during the interlude.
Added maps for upcoming seasonal updates, which become available later in the interlude.
Added a bugfix feature to pre-empt the player possibly being sent to the wrong Estate map.
Added new instances of Maids away from the Estate for the new party characters.
Added Kala and Odette to the room Lalita can be encountered early in.
Added buttons to Odette’s tower puzzle; it is now much easier to tell which step you’re on.
Fixed a bug where Teely would appear despite not having been recruited.
Fixed a bug in the Nithercott Hold causing teleport options to send the player to wrong locations.
Fixed a bug that rendered the early instance of Lalita invisible.
Fixed a bug that caused Odette’s tower puzzle to read as having failed after being solved.
Updated Rally’s description to correctly state it removes debuffs from all allies, not a single ally.
Updated the fail text for the second tower puzzle to more clearly indicate it has reset.
Updated a debug instance to remove options that led to previews for released content.
Updated fast travel instances to accommodate for instance progression.
Various minor dialogue, event, and tileset updates.

Maids & Masters (& A v0.7.1 Release Date)

As a quick update - Patreon tiers have been updated. The existing tiers are now limited, and the interim tiers are now available. Again, if you're already a Patron, nothing has changed for you. If you aren't a Patron, I'd be grateful if you took a look at the new tiers and considered supporting me.

Onto the update!

v0.7.1 will go out to my Patrons this Friday, 8/26. The update, as I mentioned last week, is mostly background work, so there isn't a ton of new stuff to interact with, but each of these interlude updates will still have a small event to them. v0.7.1 will also include the first of the two new Holds to find and explore. The main piece, the customization system, will be included, but only the garden will have options available to customize for now.

The customization systems are mostly done, but they won't be fully available this update. Estate customization will be available in v0.7.2, though. The groundwork is done, but with more than 40 variables included in these systems, I want to take more time to experiment and test how best to interact with the system while minimizing the chance that something breaks. There's also Auda's shop to figure out. If I'm going to be adding new items to the list of things you can purchase so I can track everything that way, there's a bunch of organizational work that I need to do first, which I don't have time to do before release day. If there's a better way of doing things, I haven't found it yet. Either way, it needs more time in the oven.

Adding new assets to the customization system will actually be really easy, based on what I've experimented with so far. The main points of contention are collision and making them all available to the player in a way that makes sense. Once I've got those figured out, the rest will be relatively easy.

I'm also still plugging away at the future releases behind the scenes, so if all goes well, that will get most of the way done and you'll be hearing the first news about my next demo project next week.

Maids & Masters (& v0.7.1 & Patreon)

We need to talk about Patreon.

First things first, if you're already a Patron, don't worry; nothing is changing for you. You'll still get the same benefits you're currently getting.

If you're not a Patron, and you enjoy my work and have been considering supporting me, now might be a good time to take a look at my Patreon and consider supporting me.

I don't want to get too deep into things, but I feel context is important. I'm currently in a situation where I can work on my creative endeavors full time without needing to worry about bills getting paid. The reason I've been working as hard as I have is because I know this situation won't last forever, so I'm trying to accomplish what takes most creators 5-10 years as quickly as possible. The reason I need to make some changes is that the first signs of my personal situation changing have arisen. In a perfect world, I could continue as I have been indefinitely, but we all know the world is far from perfect. This is why the demos I'm releasing are exclusive to my Patrons. This is why there are more changes coming.

If you aren't a Patron, the most noticeable change will be in my release cadence. Starting with v0.7.1, all of my releases for Maids & Masters will become available to the general public two weeks after being released to my Patrons. With the start of Act 2, all of my releases will go public a month later. If you're a Patron, you'll get releases the same way you always have; announcements and download links will go up on Patreon and Discord the day things are ready.

The change that my Patrons might notice is the tiers. I already reworked some of the benefits for the various tiers - more to better explain what the benefits are than actually changing them - but the two lowest tiers are going to become limited. Again, if you're already a Patron, nothing changes for you. If you aren't a Patron, this means you might miss out on the current tier pricing.

There are reasons besides money for these changes, but I have a policy of being as open and honest as possible - the money is a deciding factor. I really wish the money didn't matter, but it does, and I have to make some choices regarding money or I won't be able to do what I'm currently doing anymore.

Anyway. Enough of that. On to v0.7.1.

Most of v0.7.1 is setting up the customization system. Most of it will be locked off until v0.7.2, mostly for the sake of time, but the garden is already working beautifully and the rest is definitely coming. The Love Shack may need to get pushed off a little longer, or get partial implementation, just because it's so many renders. Some of these renders are already done, and some of the scenes are already mostly written out, but currently none of that lines up. It's a lot of work for a side thing that is relatively hidden and may not be found by everyone, so it's the easiest thing to de-prioritize and implement over time.

The content for the non-seasonal interlude updates is going to be relatively minimal, but that's mostly only compared to my full story releases. There are still two new Holds coming, both of which are already built, and other little things here and there to keep things fresh. Plus, I've been looking forward to this coming Haunt update since I first started working on Maids & Masters. It's a bit different, to be certain, but I think it's a ton of fun. 

 

The current plan is to get enough of the background stuff (maps, npcs, enemies, etc.) done in between the updates for v0.7.1 and v0.7.2 so that I can release the Haunt update two weeks before Halloween so that it goes public Halloween weekend. That does tighten up my dev time a bit, so it's not a sure thing, but it's not like I want to leave you non-Patrons in the dust without a second thought.

Speaking of, one last thing to mention before I call this post done: I've finally got an itch.io page set up. It's currently only the Arrival demo there, but v0.7.1 will be going there once it releases to the public, and more will be coming as I figure out how to use everything itch.io offers. So if you can't or won't support me on Patreon for reasons that are your own, take a look at my itch.io page for an alternative.

Love/Loss Demo Released!

Just a short update for your Friday to say that the demo for Love/Loss has officially released to my Patrons.

If you want some tragic romance and magical lesbians, you can download the demo through my Patreon.

If you don't want magical lesbians (for whatever reason, I won't judge (unless the reason is bigoted, then I'll judge very harshly)) but you do want urban fantasy tragic romance, the demo does include the option to play as a male protagonist as well. It also includes a New Game + mode.

This demo will not be releasing to the public, so if you aren't one of my Patrons, maybe you should be. I'd be glad to have you.

Upcoming Demo: Love/Loss's Elements and Release Date

With Love/Loss's imminent release, there's one last thing I want to cover - the elements. There will be in-game information later on, but it's not really covered anywhere in the demo or the included README otherwise. 

The array of elements isn't anything outlandish - Fire, Ice, Lightning, Wind, Earth, Water, Light, and Dark. What I wanted to do differently is tie status effects directly to the different elements; one positive and one negative for each. Combat is meant to be fast and infrequent in Love/Loss, so all of these states fall off at the end of combat. Each positive state also prevents that element's negative state from applying; Rage prevents burn, Reflect prevents Freeze, and so on.

Fire has Burn and Rage. Burn works exactly like you'd expect poison to - it does a percentage of damage every round for a few rounds of combat. Rage is a bit of a double-edged sword; it forces the character to auto-battle, attacking enemies at random, which is generally a bad thing. What makes it a buff is that it makes you attack twice per round, with a small chance of attacking a third time, and your attacks do fire damage, increased according to your fire Affinity. While you lose control of your character, Rage does allow you to do a great deal of damage without spending the MP that your spells otherwise require.

Ice has Freeze and Reflect. Freeze replaces the stun state, preventing a character from taking action for a few rounds. It's been modified so that the state has a chance of being removed when the frozen target takes damage, but it also reduces the target's evade rate (both physical and magical) and agility to 0, and applies a multiplier to any physical damage taken. Reflect works how you'd expect it to if you're familiar with RPGs; while it's active, you reflect any magic cast at you back at the caster.

Lightning has Shock and Charged. Shock is a lighter version of paralyze; like Freeze, it reduces evade rates to 0, but unlike Freeze, it doesn't provide a damage multiplier, and can't be removed by damage. Charged provides MP regeneration, and slightly increases all of your evasion rates. 

 

Wind has Breathless and Mistral. Breathless replaces silence, and works exactly how you'd expect it to; you can't cast spells while it's active. Mistral makes your TP regenerate while it's active, and you count as having Guard active while it lasts.

 

Earth has Knockout and Stonewall. Knockout replaces sleep; the target cannot act, and their evade rates, defense (physical and magical), and agility are reduced to 0. Knockout is removed if the target takes any damage, which is balanced out by Knockout lasting longer than other states. Stonewall functions largely like Protect; it substitutes you in for damage when a party member is attacked. Additionally, it reduces all damage taken (by different amounts, depending on the damage type).

Water has Soak and Flow. Soak is a status ailment that reduces fire damage and the chance of being burned, but amplifies most other damage types and the success rate of other status effects. It is also removed if another status effect is applied to the target. Flow replaces Counter; whenever you're attacked, the attack is nullified and you attack the target in return, like Reflect for physical attacks.

Light has Daze and Immortal. Daze replaces confusion, causing the target to fight automatically and treating all combatants as enemies, including their allies. Immortal does what it sounds like; as long as it's active, your hit points cannot be reduced to 0.

Dark has Blind and Conceal. Blind is mostly unchanged; it reduces the targets hit rate and critical rate, and reduces their counter attack rate to 0. Conceal is a boosted version of Hide; your target rate (the chance enemies attack you over another party member) is reduced to 0. Further, your evasion rates are greatly increased, meaning many attacks won't hit you if you end up being attacked anyway.

The demo for Love/Loss comes out this Friday, 8/12, exclusively to my Patrons. This will probably be the last time I talk about Love/Loss until it enters full development, so if you want to see Love/Loss be more than a demo, please visit my Support page here or consider supporting me on Patreon.

Upcoming Demo: Love/Loss's Systems

Despite using Maids & Masters to do as much as possible with RPG Maker's core engine, it's impossible for me to include everything that the engine is capable of in a single game. In my ongoing journey to experiment and improve as a game developer, Love/Loss will include a handful of systems that I haven't used before.

The first I mentioned last week: you'll be able to choose the gender of the main character. Love/Loss is written with a female protagonist in mind, so the main game may not have the choice to play as a male character, but the demo is small enough in scope that it's easy to insert all of the appropriate changes; mostly in the form of new renders. Both of the main characters - the protagonist and the fiancee - are also player-named, which means I have to write dialogue around the fact that the name could be longer or shorter than the default name. Not really a challenge from a writing perspective, but it does affect some formatting within the game's script that I haven't had to think about before.

The second is New Game +. Love/Loss is based on media that has the character like Love/Loss's protagonist be very stoic and say very little, but (to me, at least) these characters always seemed to have more going on in their head than they ever said out loud. Love/Loss's New Game + will remove the protagonist's internal monologue, which I think provides a new perspective to the scenes. This feature requires a little more attention to detail in how dialogue is constructed, but will almost certainly be present in the full game, as it's relatively easy to work with. New Game + also gives me the opportunity to include a couple things in the demo to let you experiment with the next two systems using features that won't be present in the main game. 

 

As an extra note: It should go without saying, but New Game + saves won't carry over to the main game if/when Love/Loss becomes a full game. Though unless I switch engines, I'll do my best to have normal saves from the demo carry over to the main game.

Next is the Affinity system. If you've played any of the Tales series of games, you're going to be familiar with this general idea. The more you use a certain element, the more your Affinity for that element grows. This growth comes with an incremental increase to your abilities associated with that element, as well as unlocking new ways to manifest your Affinities at certain thresholds, giving you more options in combat.

The last is the upgrade system. While normal leveling still exists and you can raise your Affinities through combat, you also have the option of spending your experience to raise your stats and Affinities. This is also how you'll unlock new Affinities after the choice to pick your first element. My initial intention was to only allow you to spend your current experience; the amount between your current level and your next level. However, the engine's back end only recognizes your maximum experience. This means that spending too much will cause your current level to drop. While I could figure out a way to check your level, how much experience would keep you in your current level, and prevent you from spending enough to level down, there's an intended metaphor within this system that I feel this level down consequence really helps drive home.

I've got the demo into it's final playtesting phase, so all that's really left to do is to create any necessary male MC renders (I'm not redoing all of them; sorry, but it is just a demo), make sure all the triggers are correct for that version, and decide how many bonus scenes I want to include and get all of those rendered out. I want to give my character preview post a chance to go public before I finalize the character's default names, so right now I think we'll set the release date for this demo as Friday the 12th. 

As a reminder, this demo will only be available to my Patrons, so if you're interested in Love/Loss, please consider supporting me.