Maids & Masters (& A v0.6 Release Date!)

I cannot put into words the amount of joy and relief I am feeling right now.

v0.6 is functionally done.

Everything is implemented. The final event works, which is something I'm not sure I was able to accomplish ever, never mind in time for this weekend. I managed to figure out not one, but two things that should make scripting in the future much, much easier.

There's even a new feature I've implemented. Due to the structure of MnM, it sadly isn't something I expect to be able to implement across the entire game, but I'm glad to have learned it and I'm hoping to make good use of it in the future.

I do still have some testing to do. My test save is bugged because apparently one character's class data is something that was lost when other files got corrupted, but that has since been fixed. I just need to go back to the save that's set before the v0.6 content and get a few fresh test waves done, fix any other issues I find, and put it in your hands.

I intend for it to be in your hands this Friday. I'm really looking forward to what the reception will be like, and figuring out the new things I have has re-kindled the fire that had been so thoroughly doused by the recent difficulties.

I can't wait to hear what you all think of this update, because I love it.

(inb4 thx I hate it)

Maids & Masters (& And Some Overdue v0.6 Optimism)

I'm finally nearly back to where I was before technical issues led to lost work. I'm still a little shy of where the main story was at before, and I need to finish up the alternate ending that ties into a different side quest for one of the side quests, but I have lots of other work done that wasn't done before.

Since any kind of deadline was completely thrown out the window when that work was lost, I took the opportunity to implement something that I had initially skipped due to time constraints and not really liking the way it was coming together. Now I'm a little happier with the side quest in question and a version of the cut content is properly included. If you're curious about what that content is, I made a post of related renders on my Patreon, and those renders are available at all tiers.

In addition to that, all of the renders are done, and all but one of the repeatable versions of the scenes have been written out. That's usually some of the last work I do, but with everything that happened and the effect that had on me, I used that work as a sort of springboard to get back into working on everything else.

Being totally honest, I'm still not quite 100%, but things are mostly back to normal. If I don't run into any other issues, I might be able to convince myself to put in a few longer work days to get at least the side quests and main story done. If I manage that, v0.6 will be out for supporters this Friday, with the remaining content (as there are things outside of the core progression that you should be able to do, but you currently can't go do them) coming in v0.6.x releases.

If I can't manage to get a release out this weekend, there will definitely be a release the following Friday.

Maids & Masters (& Recovering v0.6)

Continuing work on v0.6 has been considerably slower than I'd like it to be, but shortly after posting last week's update I encountered issues with further data corruption. As if that wasn't bad enough, after posting the cut scene renders on Patreon on Friday, I discovered a hardware issue that I needed to address, as if it ended up being as bad as I feared, I wouldn't be able to continue working until I replaced the hardware in question.

Thankfully it ended up not being as bad as I had feared, but it did put a near-complete stop on my work in the interim. All of this on top of the damage to my motivation has made recovering the lost progress on v0.6 an excruciatingly painful process. I still feel like I owe an apology to anyone who has been following me through all of this and is currently waiting for v0.6 to come out, but I promise I've been doing what I can to keep working.

Things should mostly be back to normal now. I just need to get back into the swing of things, find my groove again, and v0.6 will be out soon(tm). I do also have a few other things in the works that I had intended to wait until after v0.6 was released to the public and I maybe had a bugfix update or two out, but that apparently wasn't in the cards, so the release cadence for the other things will be really weird.

I just hope all of these issues are more or less behind me now. It's really soul crushing losing all this work, and I'm way beyond tired of finding new ways to circumvent potential issues from occurring again, especially when they're completely outside of my control.

And a special shout out to my Patrons. You've been really patient while I've been working through all this. You're my favorite people. Thank you.

Maids & Masters (& Lost Progress on v0.6)

I genuinely don't know why this update has to be so painful to work on.

I was initially ready to get back from my week-long social obligation having brought some work along with me to say I had completed most, if not all, of the renders while I was gone, put up a Patreon post to share progress, and spend this update informing everyone that all of the side quests were done, all but one of the trophies was implemented, and the main story was between 80 and 90% done. Then I actually got back.

It turns out that somewhere along the line, the portable hard drive I keep the majority of my work on had gotten partially corrupted. I've only just exhausted my last attempt to recover the lost work. It is my incredible displeasure to report that none of the attempts bore any fruit. I do still have a backup I can work from, so all is not lost and the update will still be complete eventually, but this is yet another set-back. Given the nature of the corruption, I can't say for certain exactly how much work was lost. In terms that are relevant to those who have been waiting for v0.6 to release, we've gone from v0.6 possibly coming out this weekend to having no idea when it will be ready.

For the sake of my Patrons - I do still have something to share. That post will go up this Friday. As for v0.6, that will hopefully be available to my Patrons the following weekend, but it may be another week or two afterwards. I will keep working, and v0.6 will come out, but I need some time to reassemble the broken mess that is the remains of my drive to continue.

Here's hoping that process isn't as arduous as all of this has been.

Maids & Masters (& Progress on v0.6)

The majority of the scripting for the update is now done. There are two main side quests, a smaller side quest, and the main quest. One side quest is scripted except for the final step, the other side quest is about 30% done, and the smaller side quest is about 40% done. The main quest is maybe 60% done. One sprite sheet needs a little more attention, but past that, it's just renders for the lewd bits.

I do need to be away from the house for roughly a week again (which means no update next week), but I'll be able to bring enough work with me that I should be able to continue working on those renders while I'm gone. I do also have some work to do for TLotG, but that has a stricter deadline, so I should have it done with plenty of time to work on the renders.

My hope is that I'll be able to get most - if not all - of the remaining scripting done this week, get the renders done next week, and have a release date ready by the next time I post an update.

I'm not the happiest with how long this update has taken to get ready, but it's probably the largest single update to date, and I didn't want to go through the process of rushing out the main story and having the side content suffer like it has with the previous updates. So not only is this the largest story update so far, it will be the most complete, and the most in line with where I intended the rest of the game to be. I'm very much looking forward to getting it into people's hands.

I'm Back (Back In The New York Groove)

And work on Maids & Masters is resuming immediately. I've actually been itching to get back to work for the past few days, so hopefully I can capitalize on that desire and get a bunch done. I'm not sure how much I'll have to share come next Tuesday, but I will have something to share.

See you then!

A Working Vacation

Super short update this week - I'm out of the house, and will be for at least the next week. I did bring some work with me, but the amount of work I can get done on MnM is pretty minimal. There's some writing for TLotG I'll be doing for the 0.23 update they've got coming next, but that's about it.

This also means no update next week, since I'll still be out of the house and won't have a lot in the way of updates to share.

Things will be back to normal the week after next, at which point I should have enough work done for TLotG that my focus can be entirely on MnM and the v0.6 update.

Maids & Masters (& Fog In Game and Out)

This week went by so fast I didn't even realize yesterday was Tuesday.

TLotG is still eating up some of my time, but most of this past week went to things outside of my computer. Which is just as well, because I've been feeling a bit fatigued lately. Development is still slowly but surely coming along, but I've been dealing with this "mental fog" that's been slowing me down on both projects.

The introduction to v0.6 is nearly done, though. Once it is, I'll be reaching out to my Discord server to get some opinions on how I should handle the release for v0.6. The game as it currently stands has been locked into a limited portion that prevents exploration for quite a while now, which I recognize can be frustrating for those who want to keep up with current content and still explore older content. I have a solution in mind for that, at least, but the next release of the game needs to come out before anyone can take advantage of that solution.

If you have an opinion about how and how quickly you want to see the game released, you can join my Discord server as a benefit of becoming a Patron on my Patreon. Just click the Support link above and choose a tier. The link is available to all tiers.

Maids & Masters (& Juggling Projects)

Development on v0.6 is still underway, but my sudden taken on of development responsibilities rather than only being responsible for the writing has meant needing to shift much more of my focus to TLotG. I've nearly reached a point where I'll be able to bring most of my attention back to MnM, but TLotG has a long way to go before it starts to meet my internal standards, and will likely need a lot more work once I start talking with those who are supporting that project to determine what direction the game should go in, but I'm hoping to be able to stagger that out over the coming months as I build out new content, rather than completely rebuilding anything.

As far as progress on v0.6, all of the maps for the new section are done. The update is going to take place almost entirely within a single Estate, and it's easily the largest Estate I've put together so far. If you're one of those people who has been complaining about how much walking around you need to do and that last sentence made you groan, roll your eyes, or otherwise react in a distasteful fashion, you'll be glad to know that much more of the maps are meaningful. I'm taking a bit of extra time and making a few extra notes to scatter things around and increase the density of hidden items and other secrets to what I originally wanted for the game. Where maps like Uncle Gillespie's Estate or Lothario's Estate I struggled to fill in a meaningful way (and they should probably be shrunk down as a result; more on that in a future update), these maps I've had to make larger to accommodate things that I wanted to include. These maps, despite the intention of them being to feel cold and metaphorically empty, they're some of the most physically full maps I've put into an Estate so far.

I'm also experimenting with some new events for these maps. It's not perfect (you're almost certainly going to see the occasional visual glitch), but I've starting working on creating my own ambient weather effects within the core VX Ace engine. It's nothing terribly fancy, but it should add to the ambiance and general feel of the area.

 

On top of that, the trophies for this section of the game are going to essentially be quest chains. I've still got a bit of figuring things out to do before I can say too much more about those, but if you've gotten the Preserved Flower trophy following the funeral or the Mother's Blessing trophy from Augalamh, that should give you a general idea. The difference being that rather than having a series of random objectives you can complete in any order, these will be more linear.

The downside is that all of this means I've got some figuring out to do to make sure it not only works correctly, but that you'll be able to keep track of what you already did and what you need to do next, as well as make sure that if you miss something that locks you out of the trophy (which I'm going to try to avoid, but these are already proving a bit tricky and I haven't even started on them yet), you aren't haunted by the objectives every time you try to use the quest tracking to do something else. That means more development time, and more play testing.

I'm trying to take a "it'll be done when it's done" approach to this, because I want to put out the best version of this possible rather than rushing through things like I did with Viridius, but I also don't want to leave ya'll hanging while I get everything polished for release. The only solution I have in mind right now is that v0.6 might release in chunks instead of one giant release, but that presents its own problems and challenges and could interfere with development on later chunks or result in broken saves. I know I'll be able to figure it out, but it all requires time, and I've never seen good things come of asking the internet for patience.

For now, rest assured that I'm still working very hard on making the games I'm working on the best that they can possibly be, and stay cultured out there.

Maids & Masters v0.5.1 Release

Been a minute since I did a release on a Tuesday, huh?

 

Work continues on v0.6 (and if you're a Patron, there are instructions on the Discord to find a preview of the new maps), but it's being juggled with the new project. More on that new project next week.

For this week, I have the release for v0.5.1. Most of this update is bringing the Freeze content up to what I originally wanted it to be, plus some extra background work and a few bugfixes (thanks to the community for calling those out). I did want to get this out over the weekend, but some things were more complicated to get working correctly than I really expected them to be and I didn't want to push a release out when not everything was completely fixed.

Unless something breaks or I decide to go back and insert more optional content (which I do have some plans for), v0.5.1 will probably be the last release before v0.6. v0.6 will probably take 4-5 weeks of development, but with this new project taking up some time, it's hard to say how accurate that estimate is. Who knows, maybe we'll have a v0.5.2 after all?

Downloads are up right now on the downloads page, and links will be going out elsewhere shortly after this post goes up. Here's the change log:

v0.5.1
Added additional content to communing with Trophy No. 12.
Added a weather effects system - it will now occasionally start snowing when going outside.
Added “teleport” options to various door Maids.
Fixed a “divide by 0” bug after conceding and returning to the Fekhacht 2F skeletons.
Fixed a bug that locked the player out of the Estate and in Cumhaill buildings during the Freeze.
Fixed Alice walking in place instead of trying to make a snow angel again during the Freeze.
Fixed a bug where the game would freeze when entering Deirlinn’s house during the Freeze.
Fixed a bug where Lothario’s dialogue would continue to autorun, locking up the game.
Updated Chat options with Maids to be in line with other Freeze events.
Updated Folk to have more dialogue based on the state of the party during the Freeze.
Updated Master’s comment about going to Cumhaill during the Freeze to only occur once.
Updated doors so that weather effects only clear on entering a building.
Updated Alice’s post-event Freeze event to fix a bug and expanded the associated dialogue.
Updated the default hit rate of all characters to be higher so attacks miss less often.
Updated the evade rate on many enemies to be lower so they evade less often.
Updated the Operative class stats to not have default stat growth.
Updated the Caretaker class to have a higher base critical rate.
Removed an internal folder of unused images to reduce total file size.
Various other minor dialogue, map, class, and event updates.

Maids & Masters (& Maybe a v0.5.1 Release Date)

I still need to do a few playtest runs to try out different things, but I'm reasonably certain all of the lingering bugs in v0.5 are now fixed on the back end. Playtesting will probably reveal at least one more, because it always does, but work that I want done for v0.5.1 is pretty close to done.

If all of that work gets done and I don't find more work to do, then v0.5.1 will release this weekend. If I do find more work to do, it might get pushed back another week. In either case, the release will come by January 14th at the latest. 

Some work has also started (mostly on creating the maps) for v0.6. I'm not sure how large v0.6 will end up being, but it seems so far like it will be comparable in size to v0.4. v0.6 will hopefully be out prior to my work starting on this other project I've elected to join, but they're also talking about potentially having me start on things sooner rather than later. Only time will tell how that all plays out.

As for this other project, I'm going to hold off on saying too much about it (including avoiding naming it) until I've fully begun working on it. It isn't exactly my cup of tea, but I can see the story the original writer was trying to tell. I'm hoping I'll be able to bring that story forward and improve several other aspects of the game, but there's also a non-zero chance that the original writer will return to the project before I even start. Again, only time will tell.