May 2024 General Update

Before I get into anything else, I have a poll on my Patreon that's available for everyone to vote in. Since some of these coming weeks are going to be a little slow news-wise while I do my best to avoid spoilers in between getting all this work done, I figured I could hold a poll to see what kind of content you want to see from me. There aren't very many votes in the poll right now, and I even made it multiple choice, so if you're at all interested in seeing content from me that isn't just "still working on it, see you next week," get over there and vote. There haven't been many votes on the poll yet, and it's free.

With that shameless self-promotion out of the way (though I really do want you to go over there and vote), the actual news for the last week is, like I anticipated it would be, pretty slow. I've largely been focused on getting client work done, and I'm still a little under half way done with that. The details on that work aren't really mine to share, but I can say I'm hoping to get one thing done today, and the other thing done over the rest of the week. Hopefully sooner rather than later, because a developer friend asked for some help with proofreading and editing, so I've got his game to go through as well.

Once the client work is done, I want to get started in earnest on Dawnfall. I haven't been able to do much of anything with it while I've been working on my client work. I want to think it's fairly close to finished on the back end (minus filling out the rest of the equipment options; but that won't be especially relevant for the demo) and I'll be able to actually test the game opening soon. Once I've got things set in a way that proves functional, the rest of the demo should be fairly easy to make. The biggest hurdle is having the time and energy to make it.

Precious Kouhai has, for now, been pushed onto the back burner. The monthly release for June is likely to just be the Dawnfall demo, and any work I put into something besides client work and Dawnfall is going to be the affection quests for Maids & Masters. For Maids & Masters, I'm still watching for bug reports, so if you find any, feel free to reach out to me so I can get them fixed. Some of the more recent reports were things that have been in the game for quite a while, so I'm glad to get them fixed. Keep those bug reports coming. Or, if you can't find any bugs, leave me a like or a review or whatever the platform you found me on lets you do. Positivity like that is what keeps me going.

Maids & Masters (& Looking Forward to v0.15.2)

With v0.15.1 out, it's time to get to work on affection quests. That leaves development - or, more accurately, development news - in a little bit of a weird spot. While I could talk through all the different quests and my plans for them, that would kinda defeat the purpose of putting it all in the game so you could play through it. What I'll probably do is go to more general updates and and find other things to post about to fill the time between now and when v0.15.2 actually comes out.

Part of the reason for this is that I'm not sure how long all of these affection quests are going to take to make. I do have most of them planned out, but there are still a bunch that I either need to redesign because certain maps aren't in the game yet or that I need to design in the first place. As a general statement, the quests will cover the personal stories of the Maids in ways that the main story would otherwise not have room to explain or explore. There's also a few rewards for completing those quests that might take a while to fully implement, because they include things like Estate customization items.

I also have a few things besides v0.15.2 to work on. Dawnfall will probably be the next thing I release, but being as mechanically complicated as it is, I haven't even gotten it to a point where I can start testing the combat in earnest, much less putting the stretch of story together that I want to create for the demo. I also have some client work to get done, which is likely going to take a week or two to get through. I should also take some time for myself, because the way things have been going lately, work has felt a lot more forced than it ever has before, and I don't want that to affect the quality of my work. Especially when I want to stay committed to monthly releases.

 

Between all of those things, news is probably going to be a little slow. I still want to post weekly, so I'll find something to talk about, but it might be things I haven't done or have done infrequently before, like lore posts for Maids & Masters. The same thing applies to Patreon - I fully intend to keep up weekly posts, but it might be things like opinion polls instead of news. Maybe more behind-the-scenes stuff for Dawnfall or some sneak peeks at affection quest renders. I'll have to take it week by week.

Maids & Masters v0.15.1 Release

It's time for a big ol' love shack update. A few other things got updated as well (along with a change I've been going back and forth on for a while), but nothing too major. Details are in the change log:

v0.15.1
Added color coding to Orders being issued by Masters.
Added a hidden Unique Recipe to the Beckett Estate.
Added love shack content for Vicky, June, Chloe, Setri, Caitlainn, and Celine.
Added a way to obtain Trophy 26 after completing the Beckett Estate.
Fixed a bug that caused a door in the Stebbing Estate to go from the 2nd floor to the 1st floor.
Fixed a number of bugs where skills meant only for combat were usable outside of combat.
Fixed a bug that may cause combat with a rat to trigger when importing a save from Arrival.
Fixed a bug that could cause Emily’s arrival event to not trigger when teleporting home.
Fixed a bug that caused June and Chloe to appear in the war room before being recruited.
Fixed a bug that prevented Mysterious Murder from being added to the task list.
Fixed a bug that could cause the Bancroft dinner event to restart during questioning.
Fixed a bug that caused the first animation in Katrina’s third scene to not play correctly.
Fixed a bug that may cause Vendra’s fireside images to not correctly display her pregnancy.
Updated the age gate question to be more clear about why the README is important.
Updated XP values for boss enemies to be higher.
Updated the nameplate outside the empty room to update when the room is no longer empty.
Updated some of Summer’s face portraits to better match what she’s saying.
Updated the Trophy Codex to use a variable that won’t affect static random events.
Updated Heavy Strike to have the same cost as its counterpart, Warded Strike.
Updated Love Shack interactions to give two affection points instead of one.
Removed the “end of version” message that was mistakenly left in from v0.14.
Various other minor dialogue and event updates.

Maids & Masters (& A Release Date For v0.15.1)

I've already announced this to my Patrons, but after some consideration, I've decided to break up v0.15.1 into two different updates. v0.15.1 will have all of the love shack content, which is six (technically seven) characters worth of fireside chats and bonus scenes. The reason it's only technically seven is that the seventh character will have her love shack content completed in the update, but she isn't available to recruit until v0.16. 

 

That means all the affection quests will be waiting for v0.15.2, which should be an amount of content similar to the Freeze updates. There might be a few quests that will need to wait for v0.16 or another side content update, but in the long run, I'm planning on having each Maid having three affection quests. I'm hoping I'll be able to find room to fit in everything I want to fit in without needing to delay content much.

On that note, because v0.15.1 will largely just be the love shack content plus a few other smaller updates, the release is more or less ready to go. There are still a few things I need to polish up or find a good way to include, but that won't take much work to get sorted out. That means release day for v0.15.1 will be this Friday, May 17.

If you're interested a little more than early access, there's also a poll on Patreon where you can vote for which image will be used to promote the update and serve as the cover image on itch. You can see the options and cast your vote right here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/maids-masters-v0-104016097

Shilling For My Fellow Devs - The Second r/GoodAdultGaming Bundle

While I'm still plugging away at the love shack content for v0.15.1, here's a bundle of adult games (that includes the early access version of Precious Kouhai) celebrating 1000 members of the r/GoodAdultGaming subreddit, which is run by a developer friend of mine.

The bundle is paid, but in addition to supporting a bunch of small indie devs, you're getting the paid versions of all the games that have them plus a few extras, bringing the total value of the bundle closer to $100 for your money.

Get it before it's gone: https://itch.io/b/2434/the-2nd-rgoodadultgaming-bundle