January progress

Phew, the new year started very troublesome.
But I'm happy to tell all of you, that we've managed to overcome everything!
Thank you very much for your kind words and support!

In the last couple days, I've been able to get back into programming.
I just need to fix one AI code, and then I need to include another enemy type.
After that I'll really get into some random-generation stuff.
And then we'll be able to show what we've been working on.
Even if it just is a "test game" (so don't expect too much!).

Crescentia just needs to make 2 sketched CG scenes and 1 tileset.
So that probably takes her around 3 days work.
Well, Cres also has her hands full with commissions and the webcomic right now.
So this will happen somewhere "inbetween" of all of that stuff.
But I'm confident that we should be able to get this done within the next 2 weeks.
Of course stuff can always be delayed... but I do hope this will not be the case...

Btw. lets name this test game "Last Demon Hunter".
Maybe I'll post some screenshots once the tileset is done.
(otherwise it would just be characters and... grey boxes...)
That's all for now, see ya next time!

Current status report

RL issues have been sorted out so far.
This month will be very commission heavy, but we'll also work on games as much as possible.

That being said, I decided on releasing the "test game" I've been working on to the public sooner or later. This is because it will need some time until we get the Sion and Medusa game working.
By "some time" I mean, it will certainly take longer than january, probably longer than february...
(can't say how much longer, but we certainly won't make any progress on it this month)


Why the "test game" then?
Well, the test game consist out of a lot of placeholder graphics and stuff.
But it has a decent amount of hentai sketches.
It's clearly nothing polished, but it should be fun to some people.
Also, I experimented a lot with the combat system, some other form of dealing with being "grabbed" etc. etc.
It's highly experimental, and sketchy... but it's still a game.
It was never meant to become a full game though, so keep that in mind.
If I release this, it's like... some sort of "present", you could say.
(obviously, this "test game" won't be sold, as it's far away from being a fleshed out game)

Time consumption wise, this game was a lot of programming work so far.
But it helped me to learn a couple new things.
Graphically it consumed nearly no time at all.
(maybe a weeks worth of work? probably a bit more than that, but nothing major)


I decided on doing things this way, since I get the feeling that we need to deliver some new game (whatever game) in order to make this whole blog more interesting again.
Also, you could say it's a way to give something back to all the people that supported us thus far.
Thank you very much!

And yes, that being said, I think we'll give the test game to our Patrons on Patreon first.
It's a natural thing to do since they support us quite a lot.
After a while, we'll release the test game on the blog as well.
At least that's the idea so far, and probably this is the best possible solution, giving the fact that we won't be able to make much progress on the Sion and Medusa game this month.

I'll write about this a bit more detailed in the upcoming days.
Or probably next week or something.
Just thought I'd make a small update and tell you about the stuff I decided on.

No idea how I should name this post

Well, I guess I'll do this as game progress status report and personal life report all together?


Personal stuff:

Anyway, lets first get the ugly things out of the way.
Originally I wanted to get right back to working again after a couple of work free holidays.
That's when my mom called me, she's been in hospital the last couple days and... it looks like she's going to die soon...
The short version is:
She has blood cancer for more than 18 years now (with chemotherapy and everything that goes along with it). It's quite impressive that she made it this far, but it really looks like this is as far as things are going.

Of course I was well aware that this day might be coming soon.
But still...

At any rate, don't worry about me!
I've gone through a lot of worse things throughout my entire life (like almost everyone else does, right?).
So I'll be fine.

It's just a bit difficult for me to concentrate on programming, so stuff will take a bit longer than expected. But I'll do it, I can do it, and I will do it!
I'm also responsible for the webcomics script and stuff, and all of those things should be fine as well.

Since I'm driving to my parents place to visit her one last time, (~1000 km throughout the country) there's a chance that webcomic pages might be delayed by a day or two!
We should be able to pull it off to release them always on time.
But just so you guys know:
There "might" be delays!
In case there are delays, we will definitelly deliver those missing pages afterwards!

 I just figured I'll inform you about those"possible" delays and the reasons behind it.
(but as I said, we should be able to release them on time!)
And yes, don't worry, I'm fine!
I'm really grateful to have everyones support, and there really isn't anything I need right now.
Thank you very much, everyone!


Game Status:

I was able to program the basic combat stuff of the "test game" before Christmas.
All that's left to do is add some enemies (Cres already provided me with the graphics) and then add the random generation stuff.
Depending on how things are looking, I'll might throw this testing game out to the public sometime in january.
(I'm not sure about this though, maybe I'll do it, maybe not)

But please keep in mind, that this game just consists out of simple graphics and placeholder graphics.
As well as a lot of sketchy stuff.
It's pretty clear that this is a "test game", never intended to be a full-game.
The games main purpose is to figure some programming stuff out.
And it greatly helped me in understanding how dynamic lighting as well as random generation works.
(well, I haven't programmed random generation stuff yet! Just read a bunch of tutorials about it. It's the next point on my list of stuff I'm about to do, so as soon as I'm able to focus on this complicated stuff, I'll get to it right away!)

Hopefully we're able to get a lot more work done on the Sion and Medusa game in january.
That one will be a "full game", and we're intending to speed developement up as much as possible.
Originally I wanted to do a blogpost on some of the game mechanics I had in mind for that one.
But I'll get to that some other time.
It will mainly be a post about "how" I intend to use the random generation, and stuff like that.

Aside from that, I wish everyone of you a happy new year!
I hope each one of you guys and girls will have a wonderful new year, with a lot of good stuff that happens to you!

See ya in 2015!

Merry X-Mas!

We all wish you a merry christmas!


And here's a little present for you guys and girls:

Ferania: "I'm absolutely not doing this for you guys!"

Other than that, small status report:

I managed to get dynamic lighting to work as intended.
And I also improved some performance issues and other things that existed before.
(dynamic lighting is actually NOT needed for the Sion and Medusa game, I just did this because I was curious and wanted to learn stuff about it)

And I did several other things, which I experimented with in a "test game".
However, since this test game just consists out of place holders and some sketches, it's not really something I want to show.
Or rather, there's not really anything noteworthy to see.
(not sure if I release it at some point or not, it's really nothing important and I'd rather speed along work on the Sion and Medusa game)

The last couple days this year, we'll be most likely celebrating christmas, finishing webcomic pages... and... well, it's unlikely that there will be any major things happening this year.
Though I planned to do another blogpost about some game mechanic stuff this year.
But I guess that's it.

Other than that, I need to learn how to "randomly generate" some stuff.
Not entire levels!
But at least the content of each level.
That will be my goal for the next couple weeks, and yup, this is going to be used in the Sion and Medusa game.

Status Report

I'll keep this post simple and short:
We're still working on the game, but progress is slow.
(well, it's christmas time, and things get really busy at this time of year)

And yeah, we're also working on the webcomic and other stuff (commissions) as well.


However, I've spend the last couple weeks with getting back into programming.
I've optimized and finished some of the stuff for the upcoming game with Sion and Medusa.
Mainly the CG script thingy (difficult to explain, but it's the script that is responsible for displaying CGs, effects, and text etc.) and some other stuff.

Lately I've been throwing all those things into a testing-game for testing purposes.
But since this only consists out of place holders and stuff, there's not really anything to "show".

Anyway, things are working as intended.
I'm going to do some testing and programming on dynamic lighting and random generation in the next couple days/weeks.
(dynamic lighting just for the lulz, while random generation is needed for the Sion and Medusa game)

So, don't expect any demo release in december.
But we're still working on it!


P.S:
Please tell me if you're interested in my thoughts about the stuff I'm programming and about the progress I make.
It's not much to write blogposts about.
But I might consider writing more often on Twitter about those things!

Bandits!

The first enemy group we're working on is the catgirl/catboy bandit group.

As bandits they're mainly agile, but have lower HP than the other factions.
Overall you could say that they're the weakest of all the enemies.
But don't underestimate them!

Male bandits:

Female bandits:

There are 2 types of female bandits, they either have a bow or a whip.
Most likely we're going to swap some colours for the final version, so it's easier to tell them appart.
These are just first pixel graphics, so there might be even more changes.


We've been busy with lots of stuff in the last couple days.
But hopefully we're able to concentrate on the game in the upcoming weeks.
Well, at least we're making progress again!

As always, feel free to ask questions in the comments!


P.S:
I also swapped the "slave traders" out with the "Witch-Hunters" for several reasons.
The Witch-Hunters are part of the webcomics future storyline (they're an important part of the Deathblight world) and there are also gameplay-reasons for including them.

One of the main reasons:
As Witch-Hunters, they mainly have armor and weapons that are effective against magic users.
This makes them basically the most dangerous faction in the game, as the main characters both rely on magic.
And I figured it would be more interesting to have them as enemies, instead of simple slave traders.

Well, they'll get their own blogpost anyway, so I'll stop here.

current game project info

Lets talk about what's planned for this game!

But before we get to that, I have good news for all of you guys and girls out there that can't wait to play a demo version of this game:
Well... we decided to release the game VERY early on to our patrons on Patreon.
(most likely, if everything goes according to plan, we'll be able to do that in about ~4 weeks? maybe in ~6 weeks... it won't be a polished version obviously... but it should contain basic gameplay and of course hentai stuff!)

We will also update it on a regular basis.
Most likely, there will also be a very early demo version made available to the public.
But this "public" demo version won't be updated frequently.
Also our supporters on Patreon will get the full version of the game, once it's done.
(well, they'll get the newest version all the time, but I still thought I should point this out)
And yes, please keep in mind, that those early demo versions are not representative of the final version of the game.

Why we decided to do that?
Well, the two main reasons are:
- more money/funds for the game = more/faster progress
(eventually more additions/bigger games in the future)
- more early feedback = more adjustments can be done in order to (hopefully) create a better game

Ironically, those two things are what we lack most.
So I hope our decision to stick with Patreon fixes that in the long run.

What's planned for the game:

I made some adjustments to the concept, and this is what we currently have in mind.
(yes, we already started working on the game)


Two playable characters:

We tried something different with the pixel style this time.
I hope you like it!


4 enemy factions/groups:

- Kemonomimi Bandits (Catgirl/boy bandits!)
- Orcs (and goblins)
- Witch-Hunters
- Demons

Each faction/group has it's own game over scene (game over CG scene with several pictures) with the heroines.
Not every enemy has it's own game over CG!
So the whole group shares one CG.
(we wanted to do a small game, and this is the only way how we can achieve this)


5 game over CG scenes:

4 for the factions, 1 for the final boss.
"Maybe" we're adding another faction, but for now we'll leave it as is.
These CG scenes are not animated, but they'll have several pictures per scene and they'll have text (narrative).


Hentai sprite animations:

Quite a lot of them actually.
They're faster to make than CG scenes, so we're delivering a lot of them.
However, only male enemies get H sprite animations!
For example, there are female Kemonomimi Bandits too, but they don't do hentai stuff with the heroines. (and nope, the heroines can't do hentai stuff with them either)
This way we have a clear distinction between who does, and who doesn't have hentai sprite animations.
If we include tiny enemies like cave-bats... well... they won't have any hentai sprite animations either.
(but I think this is pretty much obvious, still I thought I'd better mention this)

With these measures, we should be able to include ~12+ enemies into the game, while roughly giving ~8 of them hentai sprite animations.
Which is pretty much manageable, I think.

And yup, those are all "ingame" hentai animations, no game over needed in order to see them.


How will the gameplay be like?

I really want to do a rogue-lite game this time around.
So I actually picked parts of the concept of Feranias game (the last game we worked on), and decided to use it on this one.
However, there will be some more platforming, and some actual leveldesign.
Since this is a rogue-lite and not a metroidvania, there will be no backtracking etc.

Sion and Medusa will fight lots of enemies, while using magic spells (and occasionally close combat attacks).
And they'll also need to do some platforming in order to reach the exit of each "area".
I guess it's better to cover all of this in seperate blogposts, using graphics in order to explain stuff.

Anyway, expect more fighting, less focus on platforming.




I'll do more blogposts this month, depending on our progress.
Next blogpost will most likely be about the enemies.
Some concept art and pixel graphics.

And as always, if you've got any questions, feel free to ask in the comments!