Maids & Masters v0.12 Release

The cult segment is gonna have to wait for the start of v0.13, because it ended up just a smidge too complex for me to make without delays, so I ended up making the Hold maps a little less empty instead. The speed with which my remaining energy left me once I finished making that decision tells me that doing some sleeping in and taking some me time is definitely not something to put off. Just as well, because I didn't want to delay this release any more than I already have.

Keep an eye on my Patreon for the poll for the next Estate. There's still three options left, so that poll will go up next Friday (the 8th) for all Patrons to vote in, and I'll announce the results publicly the following Friday (the 15th).

Until then, v0.12 is available to Patrons right now, and will become available on itch and more later today. Here's your changelog:

v0.12
Added the next main story segment - Ella’s first Master. Including:
- Two new areas to explore - the Read Estate and the village of Roich.
- A new scene for Ella, a new potential mother, and new random Estate events for Vicky.
- Two new trophies and a new Hold with the biggest payout of any Hold so far.
Added a bugfix feature to correct the East & North Swamps Locations image (for real this time).
Added the gift system, allowing the affection scores of Maids that stay at the Estate to be raised.
Added “invisible walls” to prevent potential crashes from encounters triggering simultaneously.
Added more Trophy 23 encounters to existing maps.
Added a “spring festival” to Cumhaill, which is only active during the Grow.
Fixed a bug where Green With Rage may complete instead of The Color Green in the Task List.
Fixed a bug where the Scrap Wood in the Village Ruins fireplaces would ignite then extinguish.
Fixed a bug that caused the mountain path fast travel options to appear before being unlocked.
Fixed a bug that duplicated Teely’s Escort options in the final phase of the Estate.
Fixed a handful of bugs that allowed the player to stand on wall and ceiling tiles.
Fixed a handful of bugs that affected progression near the end of Viridius’ Aggression path.
Updated Summer’s face sheet and character bust to better match her character.
Updated Viridius to actually be gone after meeting him in Act 2.
Updated Trophy 23 encounters to not make the player jump, potentially trapping you in a wall.
Updated the incorrect description for the Heavy Duty Bottle Contract to be correct.
Updated region map border events to not cause Folk camps to disappear on interaction.
Updated Vicky’s room in the Servants’ Quarters to have unique interaction dialogue.
Updated Quinn to acknowledge when construction efforts have concluded.
Various other minor dialogue and event updates.

Maids & Masters (& Looking To v0.13)

I meant to have this up yesterday, but the past two days were very busy. 

Jumping right into it, once v0.12 is released, I'll be taking a short break. The last break I took was mostly a creative one, and I took that time to make the demos for Love/Loss and Redemption Harem rather than actually taking the time off. This time I want to actually take some time off. I've been working on Maids & Masters for exactly two years as of this month, and I've never once gone through a day without at least checking socials to help people troubleshoot potential bugs or make a post here or on Patreon during that time. If I worked less than 50 hours in a week, it was a slow week. Most weeks were over 60 hours. As much as I love this job, my body doesn't love being worked so hard.

So, what does this mean for the coming weeks and v0.13? Hopefully, not a lot. While I do want to take off a couple of weeks, I've become something of a workaholic, so it's unlikely I'll completely stop working during this time. I've already got posts planned for both this dev log and Patreon, including the next vote for which segment v0.13 will be (though based on the last poll, I have a good idea of which one is going to win). I'll keep posting things on Twitter as I have been, and I've still got new promotional material (like a new Patreon banner and a couple things to spruce up the itch page) that I'll probably be getting done during this time as well. It's entirely possible I won't even be able to convince myself to stay away from work for two whole weeks and will end my little vacation early. The only real impact will be on the dev cycle, which means v0.13 will likely take roughly as long as v0.12 did.

In the mean time, v0.12 is still set to come out on Friday, which means v0.11 will still go public on Friday. I'm down to finishing touches, play testing, and bug fixing now, so that won't need to be pushed back unless something goes very sideways. Even then, it'll only need to be pushed back by a day or two at most.

 

I'll talk more about it next week, but Maids & Masters did join a bundle, which you can get for free on itch.io. We passed our goal so quickly, we've started discussing possible stretch goals, like bonus renders, possible sales, maybe even paid version giveaways. If you don't want to wait until next week, you can check out the bundle right here. There are more than 20 games in the bundle, so there's more than enough to keep you busy while you wait for v0.13.

Maids & Masters (& A Release Date For v0.12)

It took longer to get here than I wanted it to, but we got there. There's still a handful of things to do before the build is actually finished, not to mention a few other random bits and bobs that I want to include in v0.12, but it's close enough to done that I'm confident in locking in a release date.

The test build will go up on Patreon on Friday, the 25th to VIPs. Once play testing and bug fixing has had some time to happen, v0.12 will go out to all Patrons on September 1st. I know that technically means there's no release this month, but there's only so much I can do about that - and I really don't want to give you something so broken and/or incomplete that it isn't worth your time. 

 

Like I've mentioned in previous posts, I'm trying to offer multiple paths that will dynamically adjust to how you're playing the game for Act 2. For v0.12, that means two negotiation segments are entirely different based on your actions - not just what choices you make during the negotiation segments. While this update won't be as large as some previous updates, it's easily just as (if not more) complex, with roughly 40 quest steps compared to the 20-30 that the larger updates have had so far. 

 

Though as a slight disclaimer on that last point - that's 40 quest steps in total, not in linear progression. The Task List, if you follow it to the letter, has significantly fewer steps. It's the tertiary path where most of those steps are, accounting for roughly 30 steps of varying complexity. Like with most updates, I'm trying something new there. The Task List won't tell you exactly what to do next on this path, you'll need to go back and talk with NPCs like in the VX Ace version of the game if you need a reminder about what you should be doing. However, as this is the "hidden" path, it also represents the greatest rewards, including the largest payout of any Hold in the game so far, as well as a trophy.

I hope you're looking forward to v0.12 as much as I am, though the reason I'm excited to get this out is that v0.11 goes public. Since that's the most stable remaster build so far, I'll be doing a big marketing push. If you want to help out with that, I'd appreciate it if you left a rating on itch (or anywhere else you happen to find the game) - it helps me out.

Maids & Masters (& A Lot More Progress on v0.12)

I managed a bit of a development sprint over the weekend. I finished a bunch of scene posing, finished one new scene entirely, and got the first big conversation done. The follow-up to it is also much better organized, and fits into the less linear progression I'm trying to design around. 

Adopting this new design philosophy of allowing you to progress through methods that aren't listed out for you in the Task List at any time as been quite the challenge. Not only can you turn around and do something else when you're expected somewhere, if you decide you really hate this guy and go out of your way to antagonize him (instead of the usual balancing act of getting what you want while not putting yourself in a bad situation) you won't end up screwed over or backed into a corner. And I want you to be able to do any amount of all of this, give your actions a meaningful effect on things, and not trigger any bugs that might break progression.

Hopefully now that I've figured some of this out, future Act 2 segments will be developed a little faster.

As for what's left for v0.12, there's still one more scene for me to finish posing and rendering, a little bit of side content for Vicky to build out and add to the Estate, all the versions of this second major conversation, a few versions of a final conversation (which will largely serve as a fail-safe in case you don't use the hidden path to end the segment early), puzzles for a Hold, and the cult segment that will serve as the through-line for Act 2. All in all I'd say v0.12 is about 70% of the way done.

So, release speculation. If I manage another development sprint during the week, I might be able to get a test build out this Friday and have a release ready for the 25th. However, I have work for another project to do this week, so v0.12 might need to get pushed back a week to give myself breathing room and time to test and fix things. The way development has gone with this update so far, I may just need another week in general to get everything done. In a worst case scenario, that means I won't have a test build ready until the first week in September. While the overall structure isn't that different from Lothario's segment in Act 1, the addition of this 'hidden path' meant a number of things had to be un-complicated and rebuilt before it got into the game so the segment as a whole would work as intended.

As always, take these projections with a grain of salt, but here's hoping everything goes smoothly and I'll have something to share on Friday.

Maids & Masters (& A Little More Progress on v0.12)

Motivation has been low lately, so progress has been fairly slow going, but the maps are now mostly populated. I just need NPCs around, and to build out the story structure - which I've already started on. The first few steps are in place for both paths, a "negotiation" path and an "exploration" path.

Speaking of NPCs, this section does include a new mother, and the preview for her is available for Patrons as a behind-the-scenes look right now. If you're interested in checking that out, you know what to do. I had a lot of fun writing her, but I get the feeling that just as many of you will find her supremely annoying as those of you who will agree that she's a bunch of fun. Only time will tell on that one.

For the story bits, I'm trying to keep each of these segments focused on two Maids, with Melissa and Vicky playing a background role in all of them. For this one, the two being focused on are Ella and Alice. Ella, after all, has a fair bit of history with Master Read, and Alice is about as attached to Ella as ya'll are. This being the second act now, it's time for active growth. If you've been feeling like characters have been a little stagnant, this is what I've been waiting for to get those character arcs moving.

The story so far does require you to progress a small amount through the "negotiation path," but the two paths do function as completely independent otherwise. That means you can turn around to start on the "exploration" path at nearly any time. The overall plan here is that you'll be able to make progress however you see fit, whether that's trying to negotiate this guy into a hole, keeping yourself as far away from him as possible while giving a few minimal platitudes, or trying to do both just to see what happens. It's complicated trying to keep it straight so you can continue like that through the whole segment, but so far, so good.

The bad news is that I have no real estimate on when this update will be available yet. Aside from finishing the story segment, there's still content Vicky needs around the Estate, a gift system I need to build, at least one new trophy I need to construct and implement, and the next batch of shop Contracts to be added once you clear the segment. Not to mention the extra story bit concerning The Order that'll appear once you're done with the Master. 

 

Good news - that's lots of content to look forward to!

Maids & Masters (& Progress on v0.12)

Happy August! 

 

Before I get to the progress update, I have some not so happy news to share. One of the projects I've been working on is now on hold, and future plans for it may end up canceled depending on whether or not it's able to make back the money that's been invested into it. 

This means, rather predictably, that I no longer have that source of income. I'm already looking for other opportunities to try to make up the difference, but as joining established teams is never a sure thing in this industry, I've decided it's also a good time for me to switch gears a little bit and take promoting Maids & Masters a little more seriously. There are a lot of things I could be doing to try to get the game in front of more people that I haven't done yet, and while I'm grateful beyond words for the support I've already been given, it's still far short of enough for me to be able to live on. 

So, if you like what I do and want me to keep doing it, please consider supporting me, whether that means making a monthly pledge on Patreon, buying early access on itch, or even leaving a tip on the free version. It means a lot to me, and every little bit counts.

And if you can't afford to support me financially, share it. Leave a review. Follow me on Twitter (or whatever you want to call it now). Even just leaving positive comments can be helpful - if other people see how much you like my work, they'll be more likely to give it a chance. All of this matters more than you might think it does, and not just because it tells me you want me to keep going.

With the melancholy out of the way, I do want to say that because I'm switching gears a little, it's possible v0.12 will encounter some delays. At the very least, it likely won't be ready until closer to the 5 week end of my 3-5 week estimation. 

The maps are (mostly) done; there's still a couple I need to make for the segments that'll happen between the new Estates, but it's mostly down to populating all of the new maps with interactions and NPCs. Then it'll be on to building out the progression and designing all the puzzles. 

Since I can't stop myself from experimenting and trying to learn new things, these segments will also be less linear than they have been in the past (in addition to being able to complete them in any order). While the easiest way to do things so I can avoid potential bugs is still to lock you into a given segment once you start it, which way you go about things will be less of a binary choice (like Viridius, where you outright chose whether to be aggressive or diplomatic) but still different from the negotiation segments (like Lalita and Griselda) where the choices you make affect the outcome. 

Instead, the outcome will be based on a combination of choices - like those in the negotiation segments - and the actual actions you take. For example, turning around and leaving when you're expected to be somewhere. 

I've never designed a segment in quite the same way before, so it might be tricky (and therefore time consuming) for me to get right, but it should present a much more dynamic gameplay experience once I figure it out.

Maids & Masters (& v0.12 Poll Results)

For those of you just getting here, v0.12 (as well as the next 3 major updates) are non-linear. That means you can complete them in any order once they're all in the game. Since I like involving my community however I can, I thought it'd be fun to have my Patrons vote on what order I develop these segments in. The first poll closes now in a tie between the murder mystery and Ella's first Master.

After trying to figure out how tie-break this thing, I thought the fairest way to do that would be to give more weight to my VIP Patrons' votes... which still resulted in a tie. No matter which way I go, there's an extra Folk village to build as well as a new Estate, so I can't really justify one thing taking less work than the other and using my own vote to break the tie. I don't like randomness making decisions, so we're not doing a coin flip. I think what we're going to say is the squeaky wheel is the one that gets the grease, and I'll go by the comments on the poll, which makes the winner Ella's first Master. Well, I say winner, but I doubt he'll feel like a winner once you're done with him.

 

Once v0.12 is done (which, going by my usual dev cycle, will be in 3-5 weeks), the poll for v0.13 will go up with the options that didn't win to decide the next segment. If you want to be the tie breaker for the next one, I'd appreciate it if you considered supporting me. All tiers get to participate in these polls.

As for what else you can expect in v0.12 - I've spent this last week fixing bugs and building things out for the content that isn't dependent on which segment gets developed next. Thankfully there weren't many bugs to fix, so now the Cumhaill Vernus Festival is a thing that exists. The Grow affects farmland the same way it affects trees, and the Folk use this as a means to stockpile food. Since they don't have a way to easily preserve all of it, they have a feast, trading some of it away for things like beer, and using the excess wood from all the extra trees to build a fire as a centerpiece. You can even ask the elders about playing tag with the village kids if you want, but fair warning, they'll team up on you.

The other bit will be starting on the thing this story has been building up to for far longer than I initially intended - infiltrating the cult and investigating your parents' murder. There will be one of these sections after every introduction you complete, which will serve as a through-line to further the story of the second act and answer some lingering questions left over from the first act. Things like what Griselda actually wants with you, what Lothario's role in all this is, and maybe even where your uncle has been this whole time.

While all these politics won't be quite as dense as they were back on the Amaira Estate, all that experience with Griselda will definitely come in handy. I hope you're prepared, but more importantly, I hope you're looking forward to it.

Maids & Masters (& Promotional Material)

First, some news for v0.12. Since Act 2 is going to be a bit less linear, I've decided to commit to the idea of having Patrons vote for which segment gets developed next. To give you an idea of what these segments will be, we have four options:

 

Option 1 goes into Jack's past. Wait, Jack? Yes, Jack. The sculptor Butler hiding out in Cumhaill. This will be a bit of a murder mystery, with you arriving shortly after a succession crisis has been resolved, leaving this particular Estate (and the attached Folk village) in turmoil. It'll be up to you to figure out exactly what happened to secure this potential ally's place in his Estate - good practice for when you start investigating the murder of your own parents.

Option 2 digs into Ella's past. Her first Master is someone who has perfected the art of convincing Folk to sign their lives away to be Servants, treating the nearby village he built as less of a village and more of a puppy mill, leaving him a little too much autonomy to indulge in the very worst that hubris and hedonism has to offer. This will be less about making friends and more about destabilizing him without making it too obvious, lest your own reputation suffer.

Option 3... also digs into Ella's past. Yes, I know, but she's been through a lot, okay? Give the girl a break. This Master trained Ella, along with a surprising number of Commorance's other Maids. If Servants have ever felt like hollow shells just going through the motions of being polite, that's probably because of this guy. He's been doing this since the war with the fallen Queen, when he was training soldiers - for both sides. Expect this one to be fairly combat heavy unless you're very careful... or find something to use against him.

Option 4 looks more into Commorance's history and economy, and will be a little lighter in tone. Explore a vineyard, sample some wine, maybe get drunk and sample a few other things, learn how the political climate has shifted as Commorance recovered from the war, and gain some insight into the status quo. You'll still need to be careful, though. Just because someone is friendly doesn't mean they have any intention of being your friend.

And now, the promo material! These were built as forum signatures for people to use to help spread the love (or just show off their affection for their favorite Maid), but I figure they'd be fun to share for anyone to share on any other forums this sort of thing is allowed on. And if you want something a little spicier - a few variants are available on the Discord server. If you want in there, you can get access (as well as vote on the upcoming poll for the options above) by becoming a Patron.

Maids & Masters v0.11 Release

Fair warning, this is easily the shortest update I've put out. The story content is only about 15 minutes (depending on your reading speed), with roughly another 10 minutes of content for the Grow (assuming you know exactly where to look for the trophy). It should be closer to 30-45 minutes for ya'll since you don't know where everything is already, but most of the development for this update went into preparing all the new areas and doing writing ahead of time for things like the Estate Info. To compensate, I made more lewds - Vicky has her first scene, there's two futa scenes (both in Evdokia's audience hall), and the trophy scenes (of which there are four) all have unique animations instead of using the same animation for each.

With all of that preliminary work out of the way, I can actually focus on building out each new Estate as their own updates, which you can expect to be sort of halfway between Griselda's segment and Lalita's segment. If I build them right, with the added benefit of your actions deciding your path, rather than purely conversational choices. I still need to decide where to start, but I think I'll take a week to try to catch up on background events (like that Folk Grow festival for Cumhaill I wanted to build) and put up a poll on Patreon next week so you can vote on which Estate you want me to do next. If you want in on that, click here - I really do really appreciate your support.

But that's next week. For this week, here's your changelog:

v0.11
Added the next main story segment, introducing Act 2 and the final season - the Grow.
- Includes 22 new maps, a new trophy unique to the Grow, and a new Maid to recruit.
- The Grow adds new things to old areas, including more flowers to make hidden paths clearer.
Added a step to The Color Green and Green With Rage to clarify progression.
Added the hexagram scene for Willow and Bianca (plus a Haunt version) to their room.
Added a bugfix feature to discover missed Hold Writ entries on entering the relevant Hold.
Fixed a bug that prevented progression if the “skip” function was used in Repairs Part 1.
Fixed a bug that could cause a game crash after viewing Emily’s second scene.
Fixed bugs that could cause Emily’s animations to continue playing after the scene ends.
Fixed a missing image bug in the Edgerton Estate’s issue of Stay Clean Quarterly.
Fixed a missing image bug when communing with the Dark Mark after the first Freeze.
Fixed a bug that caused Melissa’s extra Freeze objective to not complete in some cases.
Fixed a bug that played Bianca’s dungeon table scene instead of her hedge maze scene.
Fixed a bug where the entries for some Hold Writs were not added to Estate Info.
Fixed missing image bugs for Iris and the random event in the Estate kitchen.
Fixed a bug where the Butler’s Tie would decrease maximum HP and TP instead of increase.
Fixed a bug that caused customizing the Master bedside table to not reflect correctly.
Fixed a number of bugs that caused some equipment items to appear in incorrect categories.
Fixed a bug that caused one of the Folk caravans to not correctly recognize Weighted Rolls.
Updated Cave Bats to have lower health and agility.
Updated the post-second-Freeze chats for Willow and Bianca.
Updated the cloth trader in the wilds near the Estate to complain if you try to trade 0 items.
Updated the Estate’s Master bedroom wardrobes to all work the same way.
Updated Headstone Material to be an inventory item so the amount can be viewed in the menu.
Various other minor event, map, Task List, and dialogue fixes and updates.

Known issue - existing saves that have completed the second Freeze will incorrectly display all of the objectives for Journey To The West in the Task List. This is corrected after completing the first objective. New saves and saves that have not reached this point are unaffected.

Maids & Masters (& A Release Date for v0.11)

I still need to do some final testing and editing, as well as making some new renders and maybe an animation or two, but v0.11 is now more or less complete. It's highly unlikely I'll have the time to build any of the Folk festivals I wanted to build for the Grow, but that does mean the early access release for v0.11 will be this Friday, the 14th.

v0.11 will also feature a small amount of new content that I've been planning on including since I first started working on MnM, but haven't talked much about because I know it can be divisive - futanari. I don't want anyone to be surprised about it being there, so I also want to take this as an opportunity to make the public aware so that questions can be asked and any concerns can be addressed.

Thanks to Theurgy, I have an excuse to have the extra equipment not be physically present at all times. Narratively speaking, the characters in question are women who can be Ordered to spontaneously grow said extra equipment. Mechanically, there will be an in-game switch pertaining to the new party member coming in v0.11 that will default to off. As long as that switch is off, there will be no futa content for her. In order to turn that switch on and enable the content, you'll need to go through a handful of steps (not all of which will be available in v0.11). It will not be possible to turn it on accidentally, nor will it be forced upon you. Her scenes either won't be affected by the switch being off, or will have alternate versions, so you won't be missing out on any content by leaving it off.

 

As for other futa content you might run into - there will be clear choices before you see anything. The default options will be to avoid it. It will never be "on male." It will not suddenly become the focus of all future lewd content. The idea is that you'll know where to look for the content if you want to find it, and you'll be able to avoid it just as easily if you don't want to see it. It effectively won't exist unless you go out of your way to make it exist.

 

If there are any other questions or concerns, please leave a comment. I openly welcome feedback, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

Maids & Masters (& Progress on v0.11)

Development on the second act of this story already feels a little unusual compared to the first act. Mostly because I've got all these areas to set up that aren't going to be used immediately. I'm not sure how often I've talked about it publicly, so now feels like a good time to cover it.

Act 2 of Maids & Masters is going to be less linear. I'm still debating on whether I want to lock you into completing a segment once you start it (part of me doesn't want to, but I probably will for the sake of timing other events), but the general idea is that where the first act saw you moving through the eastern portion of Commorance more or less in sequence, the western portion will be opening in two big chunks, allowing you to approach the different Estates however you see fit and in whatever order you see fit. With v0.11, this first big chunk opens, but not all of the locations within that chunk will be open.

There will still be certain events that take place in a set sequence. For example, the story coming in v0.11 will always happen first. There will also be intermediary events that happen after you complete each Estate, and those will happen in a set sequence (they have to, since that's where the main story will progress). Other than that, though, there are five Estates across the three new regions, and you'll be able to approach those in any order you like. 

As for how those will go individually - it will depend on the Estate's Master. In addition to the usual aggressive and diplomatic routes the game has used in the past, there will also be a third route. The third route may be a mix of the two paths, or a more espionage-focused path that avoids both combat and diplomacy, or something else entirely. I also want to make these paths more dynamic, rather than dictated by a single choice or determined by the outcome of one event, but it remains to be seen how well I'll be able to manage that. But that's all for later.

Getting back to v0.11 specifically, I've got nearly all of the assets created. There's still a couple face sheets I need, but all of the sprite sheets are done, and I've got all except one of the 3D models built out. The side content is about 85% complete now, with the main story content being closer to 70% complete - that still needs two major events and a handful of new maps (and if I have time, hopefully some smaller events). I'm not sure I'll have both the main story and side content complete by then, but I'm hoping to have at least the side content ready for a test build for my V.I.P. Patrons this Friday, with a sneak peek at the new Maid coming for all Patrons.

And for my fellow Americans - Happy 4th of July!