Maids & Masters (& Starting v0.22)

This week has gotten away from me in more ways than one. The weekend was good and productive, though, so the list of outstanding QoL updates that I've added to my notes from feedback on v0.19 and v0.20 is now empty. Even a few things here and there that were left over from even earlier than that, which feels good to have removed from the to-do list. That also means I get to move properly into development on v0.22.

 

But before I get too far into that, I want to mention the new public poll that's available on both Patreon and Subscribestar. The poll is for which of the mothers of Maids & Masters get bonus renders to celebrate Mayternity/Mother's Day. You can cast your vote without being a paying Patron/Subscriber, and those links also go straight to the poll so you don't have to dig for it. The poll ends this Friday with a preview render, with the full set going up next week. More details are in the poll posts.

 

With that out of the way - v0.22. I've really only started on the maps for the new content, but going into the Northlands is the final region of Maids & Masters. On top of all the content I need for the bare minimum of the story, I also want to make the region more content-dense than the other regions have been. I'm not sure exactly how far I'll go with things like side quests, but I definitely want to leave myself the room to add it in. Though, strangely enough, I doubt the number of maps for the region will be any higher than map counts have been before this point.

 

Depending on how an Estate gets split up, some regions need fifty or more maps to cover everything even though there's only one to three Estates and maybe a village. The Northlands will mostly be villages, which usually need far fewer individual maps to feel complete. The region is also going to feel more like the mountains than the deserts in terms of exploration. There will be more wilds maps than the mountains, but you won't need to move through the wilds to get into the villages from the region map, and you won't end up in the wilds the moment you step off the path like in the deserts.

 

What I'm really looking forward to (though haven't had the chance to start designing them in-engine yet) are the dungeon maps. While Holds and the wilds have served as the dungeons of Maids & Masters so far, I really haven't made a proper fantasy dungeon yet, and v0.22 needs six of those.

Technically it needs seven, but I think I've also settled fully into the idea of v0.22 being the "first half" of the end of the story and v0.23 being focused on character quests so v1.0 lines up with the end of the story. It does mean that the base v1.0 update might not be absolutely massive, but I do want to make what will hopefully be a really fun mega-dungeon that fits all the other Northlands dungeon mechanics together while you explore what was once the castle of the former queen. 

All that's really left is to make sure the ideas in my head actually translate properly into gameplay.

Maids & Masters (& Following up on v0.21)

I haven't received any super egregious bug reports about v0.20's public release (except one I haven't been able to recreate yet and one that had nothing to do with the war and has probably been broken for an embarrassingly long time), so shout out to those of you who reported bugs while it was still in early access. It's nice to know that the early access post-release patching fixed basically everything it needed to fix for the average player to have a relatively bug-free experience.

 

Same goes for v0.21's early access release. It seems more or less bug free, which - especially considering the agonizingly short amount of time I had to playtest and polish - is always good news. I'm sure someone else will point out something else once it goes into public release, because that always happens, but since it always happens, I'm not going to stress too much over it.

 

Now the bad news. My keyboard died on me. I had a backup lying around which I'm now typing this out on, but it's very much an old backup keyboard. Work isn't impossible, but using it feels like the emergency backup that it is, which has slowed work way down. I have a replacement on the way, but if you don't mind me trying to cash in on your empathy, I wouldn't be able to buy a replacement at all if it weren't for my supporters. If you enjoy what I make and want me to keep making it, head over to Patreon or SubscribeStar and consider kicking me a few bucks. Not only does it very literally keep me making games, you get early access to everything I make while you're a member, access to exclusive polls (like getting to decide what game I make next when Maids & Masters is done), invites to the private Discord server, patch notes (and usually image previews) for updates in progress (and access to those in-progress updates at the VIP tiers) and more.

 

A good chunk of my focus right now is on catching up the side content and QoL changes that didn't make it into v0.21 (like those trophies that are only partially implemented). Once all that's done, development on v0.22 will hopefully go a lot like v0.21 did. I have everything planned out, so it should go pretty quick once I get into a good rhythm. I want to try and make it a little less linear than v0.21 was, and there are close to double the number of locations, so it'll likely take me a little longer overall, but it does put us danger close to the end of the game and v1.0. Which still feels a little weird to think about.

Maids & Masters v0.21 Release

I was able to get a little polishing done for the new content, but not a lot got done for other content (including the partially implemented trophies; sorry about that, v0.22, I promise). This is mostly due to my being gone for the majority of the past week. But I'm home now, and I said v0.22 is coming out today, so here it is.

Or, well, here's the change log. If you want early access, you've gotta go to Patreon, Subscribestar, or itch.

v0.21
Added the next story segment - the Wastes. Including:
- A new region to explore, featuring three Estates and a secret area.
- A new Maid with holy Restoration Theurgy.
- The opportunity to open that Ashlands cave chest that’s been mocking you for years.
Added missing interaction events to the area beneath the shed.
Added a bugfix feature to the war map that re-defaults squad positions if they’re set to 0.
Added a save image for the Ash Lands maps.
Added new dialogue to Jenny to acknowledge the events of Aridius’ Estate.
Fixed a bug that could cause the Clown Nose to appear in the attic without the trophy.
Fixed a bug that caused A Long Time Coming to not update after receiving Trophy 33.
Fixed a bug that allowed entering the shed while a Maid’s repeatable Freeze event was active.
Fixed a bug that may cause the Homing Stone’s teleport to stay locked after the war ends.
Updated Clear Pond Paths events to provide clearer direction and avoid a duplicate message.
Updated the on-use messages for Poisonous Fog, Darkened Fog, and Choking Fog for flavor.
Updated the Wastes map to include location labels.
Updated the Augalamh Pond priestess events to not trigger after her disappearance.
Updated Katrina to include her “victory” scene once unlocked at the player Estate.
Updated the wait timer on the priestess’ first appearance to be shorter.
Various other minor dialogue updates.

Maids & Masters (& A Release Date for v0.21)

I'm currently out of town and not able to work (outside of posting this, which I'm only managing because I managed to get my tablet partially set up before I left home), which means I don't have much in the way of news, so this is mostly just going to be repeating information I've already put out in various places for everybody to see.

Being out of town also means I can't put as much polish on v0.21 as I'd like. I managed to get everything that the main story needed in order to function done with the test build that went out Friday. Similarly, I got nearly everything that needed doing that was more supplemental but belonged in v0.21 done (such as implementing the quest log, updating all the Estate character dialogue, and adding all the Estate Info entries for the new content) before I left for the week, so I'm comfortable releasing v0.21 into early access on Friday, even if there might be a few other things (like renders for the end of v0.21's story and a couple of trophies that are meant to be fully implemented) that might not make it into the initial build.

Part of me does want to delay v0.21 by another week so I can put some more time specifically into polishing up a few things, making sure everything that's been reported is confirmed fixed (bug fixes are done, but there are some QoL things that might get neglected, such as confirming all the information for Anne's quiz is available in Uncle Gil's library), and other little "double check this" notes that I've made after v0.20 went into early access while I was working on the most recent April Fool's Day release.

However, a much larger part of me wants to continue running the sprint to the end of the story. On top of that, the reason I don't have this week to polish up v0.21 basically comes down to a lack of planning on my part. I knew I was going to be out of town for a week, but I forgot to chceck my calendar, so I thought I'd be gone the week after release, not this week. It feels like bad form to put on a delay for my own mistake after telling my Patrons v0.21 would be done.

In future update news, for the sake of my own sanity, I'm heavily considering breaking up v0.22 into two updates so that v0.22 is the next story update but is still missing the finale, make v0.23 the update that adds in everyone's affection quests, and go to v1.0 and include the end of the game and include post-game content. That feels like a much more natural "okay, the game is done" conclusion to me, rather than having a bunch of content left to add after finishing the story. Doing that also gives me a lot more leeway when it comes to getting feedback on these last few updates and making sure v1.0 goes into early access with as few bugs and as many QoL additions complete as I can physically manage.

So, with all that said, I'm staying committed to v0.21 going out in early access this Friday, April 18th. Even if I do miss a couple things here and there, v0.21 is a much smaller build than v0.20 was content-wise, and all of the story content has already been tested through twice. Thanks to the size and early testing, there should be next to no bugs within the new content, and I can jump straight into developing v0.22 once I'm back home and v0.21 is in early access.

Maids & Masters (& Starting on v0.21)

It's slightly misleading to say "starting on v0.21" because I've been working on the maps and organizing notes on what exactly I want to happen since something like v0.17, but since the early access release of this year's April Fool's Day game, I've been working on v0.21 in earnest. I have had some client work come up (some if which felt long overdue - it feels fantastic to go back to some of that) which kept me busy for the majority of the week, but I've still managed to make some very good progress.

 

The maps for v0.21 are now completely done (with the exception of any secret rooms I decide to build after everything else is done), the eventing is done for roughly 30% of those maps, and now I'm starting on writing in the dialogue and implementing the story. I've actually been somewhat concerned about not being able to get v0.21 released in April due to the amount of client work that's been coming in and the familial obligations that have kept me away from work for a week at a time (which will be coming up again soon), but thanks to all of this progress, I'm much more confident that I'll be able to get a test build out this Friday, and absolutely have the update ready for early access before May.

 

On that note, while I do feel bad for going back on what I said about opening up the region for exploration earlier, I'm very confident now that it was the correct choice. Not only did it save me development time and let me put out the earlier update sooner, but now I can make inclusions that I'd otherwise have needed to find ways to hide or otherwise stop them from being accessed until this update for game balance reasons. I now also have time to include extra mechanics to make the new area feel more unique. Nothing too terribly complex (and certainly not as complex as turning the game into a turn based strategy for a while), but enough to keep the whole update from feeling like padding.

 

It continues to be surreal that I'm getting so close to the end of the story after working on this game for as long as I have.

Just one update left after this one.

Phew.

Maids & Masters - Ren'Py Edition

The wait is over. The time has come. Third overly dramatic announcement sentiment.

It's release day for the official Maids & Masters - Ren'Py version. You've asked for it, now you've got it.

I know I'm really close to finishing the RPG Maker version of the game, but hopefully this first remastered Ren'Py release will speak for itself.

I'm not even going to make you go to Patreon first for the download links.

PC: https://pixeldrain.com/u/wsgXuFct
Mac: https://pixeldrain.com/u/z9ttSd38
Android: https://pixeldrain.com/u/SvkopfHd