Haremon Alpha 0.40 [Chapter 5 Finale]

EDIT: This is no longer the latest version. Click here for the current build!

Hi everyone! After a long silence from me, the final major story update is finally ready for download! It's been a long road, but 0.40 adds the remainder of Chapter 5 and thus, the completion of the main Haremon storyline. Of course, there is still tons of stuff to add (epilogue, postgame content, all the missing stickers, bonding scenes, side quests, etc) so please stick with me as development continues and we head toward a full release!

This build contains massive spoilers so please don't mention anything spoiler-y here! You can talk about spoilers on Discord in the proper channels. Report any bugs you find there too, but be careful with spoilers there too. DO NOT REPORT BUGS HERE IN THE COMMENTS ON PATREON.

Additionally, I know this build took a very long time, and I sincerely apologize for that. There are many reasons why, but I don't want to waste space ranting about it here; if you're curious, scroll to the bottom of this post for a more thorough explanation of what's been going on.

Without further ado, here are the download links:

C-cup patrons can download the build here.
DD-cup patrons can download the CG archive and MP3 soundtrack here.
E-cup patrons can download the build with developer console access here.

As always, and more than ever, thank you so much for your continuing support. It really means the world to me, and I hope the conclusion to this story brings you nearly as much joy as you've bought me with your kindness over the years.

~ CHANGELOG (Alpha 0.40) ~

Major changes/additions

- Added the conclusion to Chapter 5, and with it, the conclusion of the main questline. This includes the final quest, the final boss(es), the final Awakened Haremon, the final dungeon(s), a few new monsters, new CGs, many new moves, items, etc, and nearly an hour of new music.
- Added Katie's sticker board.
- Added the first bit of postgame content: After beating the game, you can enter dungeons at night. The boards are bigger and have a different layout, the enemies are stronger, and the art is different in most cases. There is also a new enemy variant in these dungeons.

Minor changes/additions

- Saves are now ordered in reverse-chronological order by default. You can press Y (or equivalent) to reverse them back.
- Added a unique remix of the town theme that plays at night.
- Added a feature where whenever a new song starts, a popup appears telling the name of the song.
- There is now an MVP bonus that awards extra Star Shards to the Haremon that did the most damage in a battle.
- All Shard modifiers (Skull Earring, Star Panties, etc.) are now listed on the results screen.
- You can now press a button on the sticker screen to view a hint on unlocking the currently selected sticker.
- Added a new event to the Manor: "Playtime". This is essentially a way to replay a certain fight from chapter 4.
- Added an item called the Sticky Bomb which is passed to enemies who Manipulate you for an item, immediately blowing up and damaging them.
- The amount of Food required to flee from battle now increases in harder dungeons.
- Added an easter egg pertaining to the Bug item.
- Repellants and Pesticides can no longer be used while there is an active story quest in the current dungeon.
- Altered the damage calculation formula to tweak the way Fortitude and Power boosts work.
- Sleep now prevents stat debuffs from recovering.
- Added a row of buttons on the corner of the dungeon screen allowing you to click to skip a turn, give up, or open your phone. The "open phone" button also appears on the town screen.
- Added a golden version of the Violet enemy to counterpart the Money Shot and Golden Goopy, which can be Manipulated for a ton of Passion Petals. It also has a unique technique and kink to learn from it.
- Changed the effect of the Trailblazer dungeon skill.
- Added a clothing tooltip when using a Sewing Kit outside of battle.
- Reordered the tutorials in the Help app to make more sense.
- Adjusted the speed of the Triple Trouble event animation to make it more doable.
- Added a little animation when a Haremon/monster dodges an attack, as well as one where fainted Haremon will slide in to deliver their lines in mid-battle dialogue scenes.
- Changed Annie's Backup Ability slightly to make her less OP.
- Replaced the Text Speed setting with "Typewriter Effect" which can be On or Off, since text effects are balanced around the default "Fast" setting anyway and there's really no reason for any of the other speed options.
- You can now press left/right in the inventory screen to jump several items up/down
- Added an indicator on the Technique and Kink subscreens telling you how many "secret" techniques you're unlocked (techniques each Haremon can only learn through Manipulation or VRMs)
- Boosted Moneyshot encounter rate by 33% during the associated guild quest.
- Gave Mefisto a new attack, which some Haremon can also learn.
- Dazzle now wears off after several turns.
- Panties no longer have any effect when the wearer is naked.
- Tweaked the way the battle camera works.
- Tweaked Curse damage to be less OP, especially against bosses.
- Various minor tweaks to audio and visuals

Bugfixes

- Fixed a crash when harvesting plants.
- Fixed a crash in the Horde event in the tundra.
- Fixed an oversight where you could not obtain the elemental Wisp items. They are now dropped by the ghost trio in the Manor depending on which element you used to KO them, and their old drop, the Spirit Dew, is now dropped by the fox ghosts on the mountain.
- Fixed softlocks in the final two battles of Chapter 3.
- Fixed a few Guild quests not working properly.
- Fixed the Black Mirror scene looping infinitely after winning the battle.
- Fixed several issues with Ash's "Bite and Bark" sticker.
- Fixed a crash when trying to buy a VRM while holding at least one of another type
- Fixed a crash when using bait to fish when holding many different bait items
- Fixed a crash when asking Delilah to wear her swimsuit
- Fixed a crash when buying certain items at the concessions stand on the Longwod Heights date
- Fixed a crash when Owlbear Cubs tag out for their mothers.
- Fixed a crash when using a sewing kit.
- Fixed a crash when the "Good Vibes" sticker was equipped
- Fixed the Gilded Lotus not working under certain circumstances.
- Fixed a bug where Clarabelle's "Milksteak" sticker didn't unlock.
- Fixed an oversight where Haremon's dialogue would sometimes not be properly personalized in mid-battle dialogue scenes.
- Fixed an oversight where bosses weren't immune to Bloodbath, which could cause some issues.
- Fixed an oversight where you could upgrade panties to max level before unlocking that ability.
- Fixed an oversight where cooking a meal for Tony would block you from cooking a meal at Camp later in that dungeon.
- Added a failsafe to prevent crashes when receiving a text message from an invalid sender.
- Added a failsafe to prevent crashes when reordering kinks/techniques
- Fixed many other bugs and crashes that I forgot to record.

~ P.S. ~

As I mentioned above, I'd like to take a moment here to talk about the development of this build. I've been working on it for over a year now, and I honestly can't thank you enough for your patience in waiting for it. This has been the hardest build I've ever had to make, by far, for several reasons:

• It's just a lot of content. Not just for me, but for the artists and other collaborators too. When you see and hear some of the new stuff, hopefully you'll understand.

• I wanted this conclusion to be perfect, so I spent way longer than I ever have before on the music, attack animations, etc. Some of the songs in this build took months to write, and some of the art assets took even longer.

• There have been some massive changes in my personal life over the past year, including marriage, a move, and some family/medical issues, which have radically affected my work schedule.

• And last but possibly most significant... I've never felt comfortable talking about it here, but I've been dealing with constant writer's block and overwhelming burnout. To be honest, I've felt this growing for a few years now, but over the past year especially I've reached the point where I feel trapped, stifled, like I've completely forgotten how to make games and can't for the life of me remember how to do this. I pushed through it, but I can't help but wonder if I'd taken a few months off to reset instead of forcing myself to keep going, maybe I'd've finished the build a lot sooner. I'm proud of what I've made, but I wonder if it would be even better if I hadn't pushed myself through this burnout as hard as I did.

I know this probably comes across as me making excuses for working so slowly. But surprisingly I haven't even received any real complaints (that I'm aware of) about the lack of progress, so this is really all just for the sake of transparency and a need to get this all out in the open my own sanity.

Anyway, the build is finished now, so I guess there's not really much point in even saying all this. I still have a lot of work to do before the game is "finished", but I feel like a huge weight has been lifted now that at least the main story is finished. I can promise you that updates will start coming quicker now that we're done with the big-picture story stuff. I hope you'll look forward to it.

Anyway, that's about everything I wanted to say. If you read all this, thanks. And again, from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much for staying by my side through this development process. I'll always be indebted to you all for giving me this chance to make the game I want to make and make it exactly the way I wanted to.

That's all, folks!