Maids & Masters (& Following Up On v0.6)

As some of you may have noticed, there's that new "known issues" segment of the changelog for v0.6. As of today, all but one of those items have been addressed, along with a number of smaller items, some of which came from the feedback I got in the time leading into v0.6's release.

v0.6 itself will still go out to the public on Friday as planned, and v0.6.1 will likely be hot on it's heels. I do still want to give it a week to let bug reports and the like come in so any bugs I might've missed are addressed as quickly as possible, which means it'll likely be two weeks between releases, but I've got some plans for the v0.6.x updates.

v0.6.1 is going to be the typical "bug fix" update. Anything I hear about being broken or otherwise not working as intended will get fixed, that release will go to my Patrons likely the Friday after this weekend, and public the Friday after that.

v0.6.2 is going to be a reworked Estate, either your uncle's Estate or Lothario's. Both are considerably larger than they really need to be, and it's taken me some time to decide how exactly I want to handle shrinking them down to a size that better fits what you're actually doing there. Now that I've got my thoughts and some notes organized about how to handle things, I can actually go about reducing the size of those maps and bringing them up to snuff in terms of side events and loot to poke around and find.

v0.6.3 is going to be the other Estate rework, covering whichever Estate doesn't get done in v0.6.2. The release cadence shouldn't suffer since I'll be able to collect feedback and implement fixes as they come in, and the extra time between releases going to Patrons before going to the public should give me plenty of time to playtest everything and make sure reworking all this game doesn't result in things getting broken.

v0.6.4 may not be necessary, but given the amount of content I'm looking to either rework or add (because I still haven't talked about things like the game's second optional Maid, or the v0.6 post-story things that should exist, like the Hold near the pond, or having updated dialogue so you don't feel like you're traveling back in time if you deviate from what the story is telling you to do), there are likely going to be enough bugs or little fixes or other updates to do that I'm not going to rule it out now.

And by the time that's done, hopefully I'll have a better idea of how to handle v0.7, because v0.7 is supposed to be the end of the first act of this story, but as it stands it's shaping up to be smaller than v0.6 with fewer lasting consequences. I'm working on changing that, though.

I should probably stop there. Any more would be spoilers~

Maids & Masters v0.6 Release

Happy April Fool's Day, everybody. I hope you enjoyed Maids & Masters Abridged, because it cracks me up. If you hate it and you're mad about it: sorry not sorry. It's meant to be a joke (and I make plenty of fun of myself), but if you can't accept that, I recommend some deep breathing exercises.

If you're wondering about v0.6, it did actually release yesterday. It went out exclusively to my Patrons, as my releases do now, and it will go public next Friday. If you're interested in getting your hands on the build now, please consider supporting me. If you're waiting to support me because you want to see the game in a newer engine like MnM Abridged is, I made a post about that. TL;DR - if I get a copy of MZ, I'll port the game to that, but even working on three projects I barely make enough to cover my personal expenses, never mind do crazy things like buy my own food, contribute to my household bills, or pay the taxes I will inevitably owe on my self-employed income. If you really want to see that happen, again, please consider supporting me. Or support TLotG, if that's your thing. That won't translate as directly into helping me meet my goals, but it's still financial support, and I'll thank you for whatever I get.

Anyway, I owe ya'll a changelog. So here's that for v0.6.

v0.6
Next story release
Includes 2 new large areas to explore (consisting of nearly 40 new maps), 10 new scenes, 3 new trophies, and a new party member specialized in offensive Theurgy
Added a tracking condition to an NPC on Viridius’ Estate.
Fixed a bug where Phoebe’s dialogue wouldn’t trigger after completing the Cumhaill funeral.
Fixed a pixel being out of place with Phoebe’s sprite.
Fixed a bug where Trophy 13 wouldn’t appear correctly in the trophy room.
Updated war table/Homing Stone Quest Tracking for Augalamh to provide clearer direction.
Updated some item names and descriptions.
Updated the garden maze to make the end of the maze more apparent.
Updated a conversation regarding the hunter on the north road.
Updated Bianca’s sprite so her headband appears less jagged.
Various other minor dialogue and event updates.

Known Issues - These will be addressed in v0.6.1
Quest tracking is incomplete; guidance is attached directly to chatting with party Maids
This update utilizes a switch that can cause bugs with Viridius; his Estate may close off
There is currently only one NPC that can be utilized to progress a trophy quest
Some buildings are largely empty except for a few hidden items
Certain secret passages do not unlock as they should after you learn of them
You cannot re-enter the swamps (during the story, speak with Bianca next to your Headstone)
Some scenes do not currently have a means of repeating them

Maids And Masters (And Release!)

After some long and hard consideration, I've decided to drop the VX Ace version of Maids and Masters and move the game to RPG Maker MV. This means most of the script-based features in the old Maids and Masters are now part of the core engine of M&M, massively reducing the chance of bugs, along with other features like text skip and mouse support. I can also now take all the feedback I've been getting and implement it from the very beginning, no fussing with existing scripting and potentially breaking the game to add these highly requested (and frankly, absolutely vital) features. The download links are up on the Downloads page right now. I hope you like this new direction for my game!

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.