Maids & Masters v0.22 Release

I was really hoping development on this would've gone a little faster than it did, but this update still took me about 45 minutes to get through on my personal play through and I'm very happy with the final results. The bosses are all much more satisfying to overcome than I thought they'd be, so be prepared for the toughest fights in the game so far along with some new styles of puzzle and some tweaks and updates to combat mechanics that should hopefully really hammer home just how far you've come since you were scrounging up scrap wood in between fighting wolves to fix up your floors.

 

Here's the change log:

v0.22
Added the next story segment and final region of Commorance - the Northlands. Including:
- A new region to explore, featuring 6 Folk villages and 6 unique mini-dungeons.
- Six new trophies to earn - one for each mini-dungeon.
- Nina’s first scene.
Added a bugfix feature to the war map to allow entering the Estate after the war ends.
Added a bugfix feature to help prevent Maid squads from being stuck in the map corner.
Added new books to Uncle Gil’s library containing information relevant to Anne’s quizzes.
Added the same books to the library along with a message to indicate Trophy 31 is available.
Added Vicky and Nina to the group rooms away from the player Estate.
Added June, Chloe, Iris, and Nina to the affection check-in room.
Added an Affection Check-In option to the Homing Stone menu.
Added Iris, Vicky, June, Chloe, Nina, and Celine to the randomized wake-up event list.
Added non-randomized wake-up events to the Maids’ personal beds.
Added Nina to the arena.
Added Trophy 38, found in Baleflight Hold after the war, earned based on actions in the war.
Added additional dialogue for some costumes dependent on wearing the associated costume.
Fixed a bug that teleported the player outside of the war when using the Mind Hold headstone.
Fixed a bug that caused a war event to trigger prematurely in the Edgerton Estate.
Fixed a bug that may cause a death to not occur when intended during the war.
Fixed a bug that caused Summer’s wake-up event to cause a game crash.
Fixed a bug that caused the player sprite to be incorrect if Teely escorted you to the war room.
Fixed a bug that sent the player to the wrong exit when leaving the Ash Lands cave.
Fixed a bug that sent the player to the wrong instance of Ventire when entering from the wilds.
Fixed a bug that caused a set of enemies from war mode to appear prematurely.
Fixed a bug that disabled some events during the Amaira catacombs escape sequence.
Fixed a bug that sent the player to the wrong instance of the Beauregard Estate during the war.
Fixed a bug that caused Jeannie to be in the wrong place during negotiations with Viridius.
Fixed a bug where enemies would not correctly lose the Evade state.
Fixed a bug where physical skills may have ignored physical damage resistance.
Fixed a bug where physical skills did not correctly change elements with “force” states.
Fixed a bug that caused Charmed Blast to not have a chance to Charm enemies.
Fixed a bug that caused equipped weapons to override the “force” elements on physical skills.
Updated some Cumhaill object interactions to change after the player’s Estate is repaired.
Updated Deirlinn’s brother’s checks to more accurately be affected by Deirlinn’s pregnancy.
Updated Celine’s Freeze instances to match her non-Freeze Service and Move options.
Updated existing Maids in the affection check-in to all have versions up to 100 affection.
Updated the Affection Check-In map so it’s more centered in the game window.
Updated the wake-up event to not include a scene for Kala that was intended to be removed.
Updated the path toward Baleflight in Clannestad to allow visiting his Hold after the war.
Updated Farquhar’s old Estate fights to have a proper battle background.
Updated the sprite spacing on the Formation screen so the right-most sprite is not cut off.
Updated the description of Radiant Blast and Radiant Explosion for greater mechanical clarity.
Updated the damage calculation of Incantation skills to be slightly higher.
Updated the bonus percentage chance of the Evasion state to be higher.
Updated the bonus percentage chance of the Magic Evade state to be lower, matching Evasion.
Updated Radiant Boon to have a chance to bestow the Immortal state.
Updated Dark Boon to cause the target’s next attack to be a guaranteed critical.
Updated the descriptions of Radiant Boon and Dark Boon to reflect their changes.
Updated relevant skill descriptions to indicate they ignore elemental resistances.
Updated Charming Aura to be a magic attack instead of only inflicting Charm.
Updated the various “boon” skills to remove the “force” states they don’t apply.
Various other minor dialogue, event, and map updates.

Maids & Masters (& A Release Date For v0.22)

It's gonna kinda come down to the wire, but we're gonna get there. I still have some NPCs to populate in four of the six villages in the new region, but the puzzles are done and playtested, and while I still need to playtest and properly balance them, the bosses are done, and while I still need to go retrieve them so I can playtest them as well, all the trophies are obtainable. Populating the NPCs is the last step to take before all that playtesting can happen. That only leaves about a day for that playtesting to happen in, but I've done that amount of work on tighter time frames before, so I'm pretty confident in v0.22 releasing this Friday, May 30th.

 

The new region isn't going to be quite as content-dense as I initially wanted it to be, but I also initially wanted the villages to be larger and have minimum two side quests each, which was likely to feel like nonsense busy-work compared to the actual story that takes place there. That's content I don't really feel bad for cutting. If anything, that kind of content will probably work best for affection quests and it's for the better that it was cut for the time being. It certainly takes some weight off of the amount of work that needs to be done before the update is finished.

 

The dungeons are also more like mini-dungeons than proper full dungeons, because all there is to them is their individual puzzle and their associated boss (except for one, but there's some story for that). I've still had a lot of fun putting them all together and designing all the puzzles, so I'm hoping they end up being just as much fun to play through.

 

If you want to get your hands on the update on Friday, go check out my Patreon and/or Subscribestar. I've also got bonus renders, polls, patch notes, and if you're a VIP, regular test builds coming for you over there, and the support keeps me making games. Games like the one you'll get to vote on me making next once Maids & Masters is done.

Bundle of Joy - Adult Games With Pregnancy Bundle

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Maids & Masters (& Lots More Progress on v0.22)

This past week has been very productive, but also very draining. Maps are functionally complete (there are still a few that need making, but they're very specific extra maps that I'm not going to worry about including until after the puzzles are done), and the way all these new dungeons are supposed to function is all set in place. That means all that's left before moving on to story and enemy implementation is designing and implementing all the puzzles, which is also partially done. It's also why I feel so drained.

 

Puzzle design, at least for me, isn't just thinking up a solution and a method and connecting the dots. I also have to consider every possible incorrect answer and accommodate for it to make sure I don't break the game. If you make a move within the puzzle, that move needs to either be easily reset or  undone, or be a step toward the solution. In an ideal situation, both should be true. The more complex the puzzle, the greater the opportunity for incorrect answers, the more things my brain needs to keep track of at the same time.

 

I've gotten pretty decent at thinking in these terms for sokoban puzzles (those things where you push around a crate or a boulder to open a path), but given that I have the opportunity to bring in new puzzle designs, I've got to teach myself to think in new ways to make sure these puzzles work in a logical sense, not just a mechanical sense. I know some of the trophies can be pretty esoteric in the way you obtain them (cue Mind Maze trauma), but I do my best to avoid moon logic when it comes to progressing through the main story. I usually have a lot of fun with it regardless, but it can be mentally taxing.

 

It's a good thing most of it is close to done. There's just one puzzle left to finish implementing (more accurately, one step out of a three-step puzzle, but each step is its own puzzle; it's hard to explain without spoiling anything) and one more to finish designing (the basics are done, but the specific mechanics aren't, so the puzzle can't be solved yet), so I'm pretty confident in committing to a test build going out this Friday. It won't include any of the bosses at the end of these dungeons (and likely no NPCs, and no other story bits), but if you're a VIP on Patreon or Subscribestar, you'll still be able to solve the puzzles and explore all the new maps. If you're a regular Patron/Subscriber, you'll get the patch notes where I'll go into more detail on how these puzzles work.

 

I'm trying to avoid pushing myself into crunch time to implement more so the build is closer to complete since this is a chunkier update, but I'm also eager to put it into early access. I'm at this weird intersection between the new content nearly being done, but also missing a ton of detail work. It makes it feel like I could have v0.22 ready at the end of next week if I push hard enough, but I've been doing this for long enough that I know there's not just the last few steps of puzzles and the bosses to implement. Not to mention leaving room for final testing. I want each of these dungeons to come with its own trophy, too, which means six meta-puzzles in addition to the necessary dungeon puzzles.

I still think I can manage to get v0.22 into early access this month, but only time will tell.

Maids & Masters (& Progress on v0.22)

I have hit the part of developing the update where a large amount of work has been done but there's not a whole lot to talk about. The number of new maps is up to about 50 (which is more or less in line with the other more dense regions), with the vast majority of that being dedicated to Folk villages. I haven't added all the usual interactions to all the new maps yet in favor of starting to design the new shrine dungeon maps. Which, while they aren't done yet, there's plenty to talk about there.

 

I don't want to give too much about those away, but I want to design something besides a sokoban puzzle for these shrines to center around. Not to say there won't still be one - there is, and it's so far the only dungeon that's mechanically complete - but I've used that style of puzzle a lot, and I'd really like to flex some other puzzle-making muscles without going backwards to making a simple maze (though, full disclosure, one of the shrines is just a maze, too).

 

The puzzle I'm currently working on is another top-down RPG classic that I've never really had the opportunity to mess with, but is still kinda in the game - an ice slide puzzle. Rather than push a box or boulder around to open a path or trigger something, you do the sliding. This currently only exists on the Freeze version of the home Estate's pool, and only as a source for jokes rather than a puzzle, so it'll be fun to get to include a new puzzle type now that there's some ice involved.

 

Another one that I'm looking forward to making but may be a little difficult to implement properly from a visual standpoint is a light-bending puzzle. I don't want to make it overly complex, but the general idea is that you'll have to push these orbs into place in order to get them to cast light in the direction you've pushed them in until they're casting light into the receiver that solves the puzzle. This one is likely to end up being something that leads to a trophy rather than being required for the critical path, so the lacking visuals will likely end up being an added layer of difficulty that I leave be rather than trying to make it more accessible.

 

The part that I need to put some effort into to make sure it isn't overly frustrating for people are the boss fights in these shrine dungeons. I want these to be puzzles unto themselves, putting some kind of limitation on you that - at a glance - might make the fight seem impossible, such as the boss giving you the Flame Force buff (which raises your Attack, halves the fire damage you take, and changes your attack element to fire instead of doing physical damage) when the boss is immune to fire damage.

 

Of course, almost none of this is playable yet, much less tested for balance, but I've only got two more of these dungeons to make maps for, so that's going to change fairly quickly. Not "there will be a test build on Friday" quickly, but v0.22 will definitely be going into early access in May. If you're interested, both Patreon and Subscribestar see test builds for VIPs, patch notes for supporters, and the thing that will actually be getting posted this Friday - bonus renders. Not to mention that once Maids & Masters is complete, a poll will be going up for which project that currently exists as a demo will be getting made into a full game.