Maids & Masters (& Starting on v0.15 & The Response to Precious Kouhai)

Before I get into the progress update on MnM, it feels necessary to say something about how the official launch of PK went. Not because it went poorly or because I got a bunch of complaints about it, but because it did so well that now I have complaints. Which sounds a little negative, I know, but hear me out.

For a little extra context, Maids & Masters has been struggling to break 100 views per day on itch since it launched. Even if I combine everything - the April Fool's Day specials, Arrival, and the main game - it still only hovers around 80 views per day. Even on days where an update launches, views don't get that high. The public launch of v0.13 is the best launch I've had so far, with launch day views hitting about 200, and some promotion causing it to peak around 600 on one day and continue to float around 200 views for a few days. About a week after that peak (which is much longer than normal; typically views level out within 3-4 days, not 10), it's back to normal at about 80 views for today.

Precious Kouhai brought in more than 2000 views on launch day, over 1000 for the next day, and nearly 1000 for the third. It was downloaded more times on launch day than MnM was viewed that day. Maybe this has something to do with itch's new algorithm pushing new games and de-prioritizing updates on in-progress games, but I can't say that for certain. I'm still absolutely floored by the numbers. I also have some conflicting feelings about MnM being something that has all this gameplay and care and attention put into it when the single-scene 8-minute preview that I did next to zero promotion for does this much better, but I think I'll settle on being happy it's doing well. And if you're here because of Precious Kouhai, thanks for being here. Expect more news on that in February.

Moving on to the actual MnM news, the intro scene is still just an idea in my head, but a little over half the maps for the new Estate are done now, and a few of the "common" interactions are already populated. The intro scene is also a complete idea, so all there is to do is actually put it in the game. There haven't been reports of many errors in v0.13 now that it's actually public, so I can put more energy into getting v0.15 done, and hopefully in roughly half the time that v0.13 and v0.14 took.

I've also had a lot more time to think on how the next segment should play out before my Patrons pulled a switcheroo on me and decided it was bunny girl time at the last minute (which I'm not mad at; I just wasn't ready for it). While I don't have the segment written out, I have a bunch of ideas I want to include, so it'll be less about making something from scratch and more about filling in the blanks to bring it all together, which is how development for MnM usually goes. I do have something else going on that may distract from development a little, but it shouldn't cause any significant delays. More on that next week.

For now, thanks for all the attention on PK. While you're waiting for an update on that, why not give MnM a try? People tell me it's worth a go.

Precious Kouhai

I've talked about this a few times now, but it's never gotten its own post, so let's fix that and make this official.

Precious Kouhai is a slice-of-life nukige-style adult visual novel. If you have no idea what that means, it basically boils down to not having much of a story. You'll see little snippets - slices, if you will - of the character's lives. The "nukige" part means that the snippets you see are going to be focused on the sex. Not to say that there will be no story, though. It is still a visual novel, and I'm still a writer, so there will be plenty to read. Just expect it to be short - maybe an hour or two in total once it's completed.

This isn't normally my style, but Precious Kouhai is (like most of Maids & Masters) in large part an experiment and an excuse to improve some skills. I'd like to think I've come a long way as a writer in the couple of years I've spent working as a writer and developer, but especially in terms of making entire games by myself, I've still got a long way to go. Precious Kouhai will help me improve in two big ways.

The first of which is visuals. In helping Berkili rework the renders for the first chapter of Companion of Darkness, I got to use a bunch of tools that I'd either ignored or weren't available to me when I started Maids & Masters. MnM now has a visual style that I don't want to stray too far from, so if I want to practice using those tools, I should start a new project - like Precious Kouhai. Since the visual style isn't established and the project will be relatively short anyway, I can try different things out from scene to scene without it being so unexpected that it takes you out of the experience. 

 

On top of that, while I have started making custom animations for Maids & Masters, it's something I'm hesitant to do because I'm slow at it. For Precious Kouhai, I want every frame to be an animation, not just the lewds. The title screen is animated, the mundane parts with the characters just sitting there will be animated, even things like the menu backgrounds will be animated. And not just animated - hand animated. HS2 has a lot of pre-built animated poses, and I'm not going to use a single one. This should not only help me improve as an animator, but help me learn how to speed up my process and create a unique experience since not many visual novels put the time and resources into animating mundane scenes.

The second way PK helps me improve as a developer is that it's the first project I'm creating in Ren'Py. While I want to keep my focus on making RPGs like Maids & Masters, Redemption Harem, and Love/Loss, eventually branching out into other genres like I have with Saccharine Soil, some of these games just won't work in RPG Maker, and I'll have to learn how to use different software. While I do want to eventually learn Godot or Unreal, Ren'Py is a much simpler first step.

Ren'Py is extremely easy to learn and work with compared to other things I've attempted learning over the years. I've also got a handful of stories that either I don't think will translate well into anything except a visual novel, or that will work best using a visual novel as the interactive medium instead of trying to shoehorn in game mechanics. As an added bonus, development in Ren'Py is also significantly faster than development in RPG Maker, so if I need a break from working on MnM, having PK as a fall-back project so that I can keep working without burning myself out grinding away on MnM will be incredibly helpful. It also means that if a month would go by without a release for MnM, I can spend a little time on PK and get a release done for that instead and keep up with making monthly releases without either project suffering for it.

As a closing statement - if you're the sort of person that gets nervous about developers picking up new projects because you've seen so many of them either drop the first project or stop developing altogether, do your best not to worry. I'm a little apprehensive about putting more on my own plate, too, but I've been working on multiple projects since I started Maids & Masters. Until I start making enough to financially support myself independently, I'll always be working on multiple projects. I abhor an unfinished story like nature abhors a vacuum, so you can trust that I'll be doing everything I can to finish everything I started, and that includes the games behind the demos I've been making.

Precious Kouhai's existing preview build will go public on itch and on Patreon this Friday.

Maids & Masters v0.14 Release

There's not a whole lot to say about this release that I haven't already said. The only big omissions are things like the love shack - you won't find the new Maids in there. Everything that should be in the build is in the build. It's a little on the shorter side, but I hope you enjoy it all the same.

 

Early access is available on Patreon right now, and will be available on itch soon.

Here's the changelog:

v0.14
Added the next main story segment - a vineyard that delves into Phoebe’s past… and yours.
- A new Estate to explore and two new Maids to recruit with a total of four new scenes.
- A new trophy that provides a special Contract for Experimental Concoctions.
- The third cult investigation segment.
Added a bugfix feature to Trophy 30’s plaque in the trophy room to discover its Estate Info entry.
Added a version of Kala’s extra Freeze objective to Cumhaill if Deirlinn is close to giving birth.
Added Freeze interactions for all Maids to pregnant Deirlinn in Cumhaill.
Added missing interaction events to the Bancroft Estate guest wing.
Added a plugin to allow more than three options to appear on the title screen.
Added a bugfix to prevent being locked out of completing the Guiding Lost Souls side quest.
Added a bugfix feature to award Trophy 30 if the bear is already dead on entering the cave.
Fixed a bug that caused the Estate Info entry to not be added when Trophy 30 is earned.
Fixed a bug that caused a fireplace to provide infinite Scrap Wood.
Fixed a bug that caused Deirlinn’s birth phase to change instead of setting Vendra’s.
Fixed bugs that caused incorrect dialogue/character placement at the Bancroft Estate.
Fixed a bug that caused a maze reward to give Pearl Earrings when Pet Collar was stated.
Fixed a pair of infinite item bugs in the Amaira Estate guest houses.
Fixed a bug where the freed prisoner would repeat her initial dialogue.
Fixed a bug that caused some customized statues to disappear during the second Freeze.
Fixed more bugs that allowed the player to stand on wall and ceiling tiles.
Fixed a bug that may cause Trophy 30 to not be awarded correctly.
Fixed a number of missing interaction and wall/ceiling collision bugs.
Fixed a bug that caused the fourth objective of The Color Green to not complete correctly.
Fixed a handful of bugs that caused the player sprite to be temporarily incorrect.
Updated the Sword Butler in the dungeon to not attack from the other side of the wall.
Updated the Trophy 30 puzzle to remove an issue that could prevent earning the trophy.
Updated Vendra with new dialogue after Celtchar is born and to correctly use her own variables.
Updated title screen links to include itch.io.
Updated the dance puzzle hints to be more like dance instructions (and hopefully more helpful).
Various other minor dialogue, text, BGM, and event fixes and updates.

Maids & Masters (& A Release Date For v0.14)

The update isn't entirely done, but it's close enough to done that I'm plenty comfortable fully committing to this Friday, the 19th, being the early access release date for v0.14, which means v0.13 is going public the same day.

Based on the feedback coming in from playtesting, this update does seem to be a lot more bug-free than the last one. Part of that probably has to do with the update being on the shorter side, but I'm taking it as good news. Some less good news is that there may need to be some rewriting done. Even with the segment being as short as it is, it feels like it treads water a little in some places. There's also not a lot of places where the drunkenness mechanic has much of an effect, which I'd like to change. Or maybe it's fine and nothing will change; if it comes down to it, I'm not going to delay the release for rewrites.

I've also got the rest of the actual build to make. Depending on time, there might still be a few minor things missing (like the new Maids not appearing in the love shack invite screen because they don't have any content yet), but before I get to the cult segment, I want to be sure all the follow-up content - like the new Maids actually being in the Estate after completing the new segment - is done ahead of time. It's nothing that will take a ton of time by itself, but these things tend to stack up.

Then I think it'll be time to put a little work into Precious Kouhai. I still need to make a few more assets and get some things set up for the itch page so I can make the preview build properly public. If I can figure it out, I might even keep the preview build as a web version teaser if I can figure out how to do a web version. I do want to focus on v0.15 once v0.14 has gone out, but with the Winter Games Bundle having ended, keeping PK behind the walls it's currently behind doesn't make a ton of sense to me. I haven't even made a proper announcement post for it yet, I just keep tacking it on to posts about MnM. It probably deserves a little attention of its own. Look forward to that before news about v0.15 starts to roll in.

Maids & Masters (& Progress on v0.14 & A Special Announcement)

Been a little while since we've talked about this, huh? Luckily all the news I have to share is good news. Things aren't quite back to the normal semi-permanent flow state that development work was for the first two years of Maids & Masters, but I've at least found a good deal of some sorely missed momentum, so development has been going a lot smoother than it did in December, even putting aside that I spent most of December sick.

v0.14 is very nearly done. Everything except the final step of the quest is done, then it's just the cult segment and making sure all of the side content is implemented - repeatable versions of the new scenes, the new characters appearing as they're supposed to, and so on. I'd like to say it'll be done and ready in time for this Friday, but given the growing list of things I need to do before I can call a build complete plus the number of bugs in each build seeming to grow ever larger, I'd rather give a little extra time to play testing to make these builds more stable. I'll announce the release date next week.

On that note, there are a handful of things I want to address since there's all kinds of side content that hasn't been making it's way into these builds the way it should be. The big ones being the love shack and affection quests. If Act 2 has felt a little light on content, it's because the side content was meant to be affection quests, which I haven't gotten around to implementing for a few different reasons. Once v0.14 is done, the segment for v0.15 is already decided on and can start right away (since it's the only option left in the Patreon polls that were happening). So, v0.16 (Act 2's halfway point) will probably be delayed so I can use v0.15.1 to add all of that content in. In may not end up being all of that content (because not a lot of the affection quests are designed yet), but at the very least, the missing love shack content and a few affection quests will be available.

Now for that special announcement. I've been thinking over this problem of my dev cycle slowing down for months now, and trying to find a solution for a handful of weeks. Over the last year, I've taken on a number of writing jobs out of necessity - I do this full time, my bills won't pay themselves, and as much as I greatly appreciate the support I already receive it isn't enough to pay my mortgage. Since the job that took up the majority of my non-MnM development time ended roughly four months ago, my development cycle slowed way down. If memory serves, I got two releases out in four months. When I began work on a couple of new demos, both demos were done in a month without development slowing on MnM any further. So, after a great deal of consideration, I've decided to start working on a secondary project - Precious Kouhai. PK is a short nukige-style visual novel made in Ren'Py, and should be between one and two hours long by the time it's done. 

 

There's even a preview build available for this new project for free as part of the "bonus episode" rewards for the Winter Games Bundle. If you want to check that out, go find a link to the bundle - the rewards are available on the bundle page, even now that the bundle has ended. The preview build will be public eventually, but the itch.io page is still under construction, so it'll be a little longer before that happens. Part of me is still a little apprehensive about putting more on my own plate, but with PK being as short as it is, it should give me enough time to find out if it's an improvement on my workflow or not, and if it isn't, it won't take long to finish and development will return to MnM as my sole project. If it works out great, I have more visual novels I can make. Either way, you get another game out of the deal.

Another Grain Through The Hourglass - 2023 Year In Review

Happy New Year!

If you're new here and have no idea what this post is, at the turn of the new year I like to take a moment to look back at the past year and celebrate all the good things that happened over the course of the year. Despite my development cycle slowing down, there's been a lot that happened in 2023, most of it good things. 

Starting with my Patrons. From those of you that just dropped a dollar or three and left to the V.I.P.s that form the backbone of my funding, I am well and truly humbled by your generosity. The year started with over a year of barely making enough money to pay for a meal or two, and support has grown all the way to the point of being able to pay a bill or two. I still have a long way to go before I can be considered to be making a living off of the work I do full time, but all of this support still makes a huge difference. All of you have my utmost gratitude.

Speaking of making a huge difference, Maids & Masters joined a number of bundles this year, all of which I am quite comfortable in saying were very successful. I continue to be blown away by the generosity of people. While I only saw a small percentage of the money the bundles made, the one I want to call out is one that I didn't see a single cent of and happens to be the very first bundle I've ever joined - a bundle for the Turkey/Syria earthquake that raised nearly $2000, all of which went to charity. As exciting as it is to see the other bundles I've participated in reach even higher heights, it was really fantastic to see me and my little game make a tangible difference somewhere in the world.

On top of all those warm and fuzzy feelings, I feel I've done a lot of growing as a developer. At the start of the year, Redemption Harem's demo went public, which was a project that I felt was highly ambitious in terms of creating crafting and management systems almost entirely without the assistance of plugins. It's a little buggier than I'd like it to be, but I learned a lot in building it and have the knowledge to iron out those bugs given some time. More than that, it laid the groundwork for me to build the demo for Saccharine Soil. Saccharine Soil by itself is easily the most mechanically complex game I've ever made, using a plugin set that doesn't have a lot of documentation about how to use or modify it to turn RPG Maker into a real-time action game. Having that demo out in the world feels like a huge accomplishment, because it represents a lot of ideas that I'd been wondering if I had the skill to implement for a long time.

If that wasn't enough, there's also Precious Kouhai. That isn't quite fully public yet - only Patrons have access to the preview right now (though it will be available through the Winter Games Bundle soon) - but I've been meaning to learn Ren'Py for a long time. Now I've got a project in that engine, too, which opens up a whole new set of options and opportunities. I'm not totally committed to the idea yet, but I may start developing Precious Kouhai as a second project alongside Maids & Masters just for the sake of diversifying my work, but that's a topic for another day.

Back on the topic of opportunities, I had the immense pleasure of working with Bear in the Night (if you're not familiar, look up Lust Academy) on Lust Element as a member of the Night Icons team, and now I can say that I have work published on Steam. It still trips me out a little that I saw something that I worked on featured on the pages of Steam's VN Fest. If that wasn't enough, I've also joined Burst Out Games as a writer, and worked with Berkili to remaster the first chapter of his AVN, Companion of Darkness. And that's just the paying work - the number of other developers, writers, and artists I've gotten to known over the last year approaches triple digits, and it's been great getting to know them all.

I still have a long way to go to reach the point I'm trying to reach, but 2023 felt like a couple big steps in the right direction, and I can't wait to see what 2024 has in store.