Maids & Masters (& Progress on v0.18)

There are still a few things I need to fill in before I can call it complete, but the story segment is down to needing not much more than the story dialogue. It's otherwise mechanically complete and ready to enter the testing/bug fixing phase. The critical path is the only bit that close to completion, but that's the goal right now.

 

I'm still not totally sure if I want to go with this "no enemies except the one chasing you" setup, but there aren't a lot of ways to do a "stalker" type of enemy in RPGM that both keeps stakes high enough that you care to run away and doesn't become an annoyance. A lot of games that use the mechanic have the stalker hand you a game over on contact to force you to run away, but I don't like that idea. Forcing you to run makes the first few encounters intense, but after a handful of appearances, it becomes a notification to stop what you're doing and leave the room or do whatever other mechanical thing the game lets you do to end the chase. It's not really engaging gameplay, and can start to feel like the game is built for you to disengage in order to progress.

 

That's why I'm not sure if I want regular enemies. I'm sure the variety would be a good thing, but I feel like adding regular enemies to what I have will result in the same issue, with the stalker becoming annoying or frustrating more quickly. Especially if you dodge around the regular enemies on a first pass through the room so it's an obstacle later. The first few times might be a solid, intense chase, but if it results in a game over (or an engine bug that I can't fix that happens when two combats trigger simultaneously and the game crashes), it's gonna stop being fun real fast. So hopefully the more complete test build will provide some feedback. While I am pretty happy with how it works so far, I haven't gotten any yet, so it remains to be seen if this segment is going to be a fun change of pace or a giant pain in the ass for people who aren't me.

As for the rest of the update, the optional content should go fairly quickly. Most of the work I managed to get done before leaving town at the beginning of the month was making maps, so while I might need a few new enemy types to stop these new maps from being more of the same from v0.17, what's left is the sort of work I should be able to get done in a day or two on each area. With only two more wilds segments and two more Estates, that should turn out to be less than a week of work and the side content for v0.18 will be finished.

Though I do still want to focus on the critical path, like I mentioned last week. Getting that done and polished first still feels like the best way to get this update to a reasonable state for both testing and a relatively quick release. I don't want to put a date on it and jinx it, especially with the backlog of bugs I need to find and fix, but I'm optimistic.

In the mean time, there'll be a considerably more complete test build going up on Patreon and Subscribestar on Friday for VIPs to mess around with, and patch notes with more details on the build going out to everyone else. If that interests you, give one of those links a click.

Oh, and happy Halloween!

Maids & Masters (& Starting(?) on v0.18)

If the lack of a post last week didn't make it obvious, I've been out of town and largely unable to do much in the way of work, including getting a blog post up. I am now back home, mostly caught up on things, and able to resume work as normal. And as a quick aside - I don't know where all of you new Patrons came from, but it's great to see you. If you aren't one of the new ones, there's still plenty of room for more if you want to take a look at being a Patron or Subscriber.

Shameless plug aside, I have gotten some work done on v0.18 already. Mostly in the form of blocking out some maps and working out what I want for new mechanics (because I cannot and will not be stopped from experimenting with something in each update), but it isn't what I would call a significant amount of progress. There are also a number of bugs that need addressing from v0.17, some of which are going to take some investigation before I can call them addressed.

Where I'm caught up right now is that I don't like leaving bugs unaddressed, but I also don't like the idea of going yet another week without having a test build while I do all that investigation. I also really want to get the mechanic I have in mind in someone else's hands. Both for testing purposes and to see if it feels decent to someone that didn't invest dozens of hours into making it function and may have a bias on how good it is because what it is in the test build is thousands of times better than the jank it first came into being as.

This leaves me in a place where I actually need to focus a bit on what I'm developing. Usually there isn't a lot of rhyme or reason to the order I do things in. Obviously I need to make maps before I can start putting events in them, but once a map is made - whether I start filling it with events or writing out the story or making a new map or switching gears to render something or make or balance an enemy - it's almost entirely random based on what I feel like doing. If I want to get a test build out for Friday, I'm going to have to focus on the critical path (the bits the player is required to go through in order to progress), otherwise I'm not going to have enough done to really justify a test build.

I've also been trying to plan things out in my head for the side content for this update and how future story will factor in to one of the new zones. I didn't initially want to, but I may keep v0.18 to one zone instead of opening up two. Given how close to Halloween we are at this point and how far I still am from having a complete update, it feels like the better decision. From both a time standpoint and from a development standpoint. Holding off on putting the region together until it's relevant to the story means I don't need to put a bunch of extra checks in place to make sure future story doesn't trigger out of order in a more complete version of the game. It also means I don't need to spend days or weeks building all of that content when I have seasonal updates to put out. Even with my Patrons voting to have builds be complete regardless of development time, the more I think about it, the more it feels like the better decision.

Besides, I don't think anyone wants to wait until December for a Halloween themed update.

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Maids & Masters v0.17 Release

I can't shake the feeling that I'm missing something, but aside from not having the time to add in any optional content, I also can't find anything important that's actually missing.

So let's get this release out in the world and one of you will tell me what's missing and I'll be mortified about it.

(and for posterity; it's not the cult segment - the story for this update is meant to happen inside of a day (not counting travel time) so not enough time has passed for a cult segment to be here)

Anyway, here's the change log.

v0.17
Added the next story segment - the South Desert. Including:
- Three new Estates to explore: The Fairweather, Emmerich, and Wickham Estates.
- Five new desert Wilds maps, each with secrets to find and featuring 8 new enemy types.
- A new trophy to earn, awarded for clearing the optional stealth mission without being found.
- A shop selling Contracts for the final two tiers of equipment, as well as Emily’s Contract.
Added the missing Estate Info entry for Iris.
Added a bugfix feature to add Iris’ Estate Info entry on talking to her in the kitchen.
Added an event to put you back in the Ambrose Estate Grounds if you left prematurely.
Fixed a bug that prevents progress if repairs are skipped in the second half of Repairs Part 1.
Fixed a bug where transfer events wouldn’t respond correctly during parts of Repairs Part 1.
Fixed a bug that caused the throne style plinth in the customization room to not loop choices.
Fixed a bug that caused a bugfix message to appear in the wilds leading to the mountains.
Fixed a bug in the Big Dick’s Barn Attic event that prevented it from registering as complete.
Fixed a Trophy Codex bug that displayed the “unknown entry” message for newer trophies.
Updated the position of the title screen window to not overlap with the game logo.
Updated Reckless Blow to resolve the guaranteed critical not applying to damage correctly.
Updated Contract Selling to include the missing items from recent updates.
Updated some conversations with Vicky to acknowledge the Opaque Monocle.
Various other minor event, map, and dialogue updates.

Maids & Masters (& A Release Date For v0.17)

Well, the test build was buggy, but it wasn't completely broken. In too many places. 

I still have a good deal of testing to do, but now that I've actually done a little bit of it (and have had some help from my VIP Patrons (shameless plug: Join Today!)) I'm really happy with how the new detection system works for the new stealth segment. Same with how "stealth optional" the segment is.

See, I'm a gamer myself, and as a gamer, I know how gamers feel about forced stealth segments. Especially long forced stealth segments. That really conflicted with how I wanted to handle this update, because with how the characters involved behave, it being a stealth segment is really the only way it was going to work. So, not only is it an optional quest (meaning you don't need to do it at all in order to continue with the story), it's also stealth-optional. The new trophy does require you to actually stealth your way through the mission, but if you don't care about the trophy (or you get the trophy and decide to double back to eat all the enemies for XP) you can just fight everyone without caring about consequences. I even went another step further and made it so you don't fail the stealth requirement by getting caught; you only lock yourself out of the trophy if you defeat an enemy. Granted, running away does set you back at the start, but you still get a second chance. Or third, or however many times you get caught and run away.

Other than that, the simplest solution seems to have ended up being the best for the new shop. I still need to give it a bit of polish, because as it stands right now you get a snippet of BGM that you shouldn't, but everything that needs to work for core functionality works just fine. Contract Selling should be all caught up as well, though like I anticipated, that plus a bit of playtesting is all I managed to get done today. I also need to actually implement the new animations in Evdokia's Estate; they're done, they just need a quick edit to fit the screen size of the game and to be placed within the game files, but I haven't actually done that yet.

But the TL;DR of all this is that the update is finished and just needs a few days of polish and bug fixing to bring it up to snuff. I'm happy to remain committed to the Friday (October 4th) release date.

Then it'll be on to getting this year's Haunt update, v0.18, done. Which will hopefully not take as long as this update did because it'll have less going on, but I'm sure I'll find some new mechanic to torture myself with as I experiment with translating what's in my head into actual playable game.

If you want the update right away on Friday, go join my Patreon or Subscribestar. The latest update always goes out to my Patrons and Subscribers first. They also get patch notes to accompany the test builds and extra development news and the ability to vote in polls and a bunch of other stuff, but I know the updates are what you really want.

Speaking of shameless plugs and game updates, Maids & Masters is in another mega-bundle. There's some good stuff in there, click here to check it out. It's free!