GAME PROGRESS REPORT - JANUARY

Hey folks,

It's time for a new game progress report.

Disclaimer: I'm posting these to be transparent on game development and show progress done. However, it goes without saying that some of the stuff you see here may be considered to be spoilers. Although I do my best to keep the big narrative points out (and believe me, there is a lot I would like to show, but that I'm leaving out for you to find and experience in game).

This month's progress report will cover three topics:

Progress on Barb's warrior path, beginning work on the Splatter rework, and some news about Squeal little Piggy as well.

So let's begin.

Note: If you want to play the latest patch currently available: Please check this collection section: https://www.patreon.com/collection/315794?view=expanded

- 3072 AD: Warrior path for Barb -

Scenes were written and added in. I don't want to spoil anything, but essentially, just like Bijou the player will be given two paths to acquire the powercell as Warrior Ash. The regular "fight barb" route and another that allows you to skip the fight but with consequences.
 I won't spoil, but it will have some cool surprises.

Further more, work to adapt and balance the actual Barb fight has begun, adding the values and winning conditions. This work will continue next month as I start drawing the kinky scenes that will trigger if you win or lose.

Barb's "Warrior path" is still scheduled to be released first. (Before the next big update, which will be the Splatter remaster.)

Added UI elements for the Barb fight.


 - 3072 AD: Drawing assets for Splatter remaster -

While I'm still working on getting Barb's Warrior part done, I am also getting started on some early work on the Splatter remaster. The initial phase for this is drawing some of the key assets that will be needed for this update.


New Splatter "charge" attack

This update is a full remaster of the Splatter encounter. Even more so than the D-Tox remaster. It will require a lot of work, but the end result will be a much more polished and memorable boss.

Splatter is a boss that I made when I was trying to release patches at an unreasonably tight schedule. The end result was a rushed boss that frankly doesn't offer much. And just doesn't live up to the rest of the content in the game.

Not to mention that a lot of players seem to struggle getting through splatter. Not because she's just "hard", but frankly, because her battle wasn't really well designed.

Splatter deserves to live to her full potential. And therefor, many steps must be taken to bring her where she needs to be.

These steps are:

- Completely reworking her fight mechanics, assets, and flow.
- The new combat will require new image assets (Like the Splatter charging attack image above)
- Remaking her level to add more flair, nuance, and personality. Not just a single empty ring.
- Redrawing some of the existing assets (like the punch bags, game over images).
- Adding new side characters (similar to the other bosses to make her level more lively and lived in).
- Making new, improved "bad end/game overs" for both warrior and slave Ash paths.
- Other improvements, like new music tracks and sounds.
- Lastly, remaking the story events to fit with all these changes.

As you can see, this is going to be a proper full rework of that boss and her mechanics and scenes. So much so that you can think of this as a new content update entirely. (Because it is, aside from Barb's sprite and dialog images, pretty much everything else is getting an update).

This is the last boss that will need such a substantial rework (the previous one was D-Tox). As I believe this will bring all bosses at a good place (There are some very minor improvements I have planned for Bijou, but not a full remaster.)

The beginning of that process is getting most of the core image assets, sprites, and tile sets done before they can be implemented in the game.

So you can expect dev updates showing off new image assets, new sprites, and maps going forward until I'm actually ready to put the patch together. Going forward, each new game update will give you a better picture of where I'm going with this new update and what to get excited about.

In the mean time, you can expect the next and final patch for Barb, adding her warrior path, which will have its own juicy content. But I will continue to get these Splatter assets done in parallel.


 - 3072 AD: Giving AVA a face! -

Most of you are familiar with Ava. The artificial entity living in the VR world.
Frankly, a boring... forgettable "character". That doesn't even have a face.

I'm fixing that.

It's a small thing, but I want to give her more of a presence in the game. I don't intend to make her a full-on new boss. But I think the way she is presented right now is just too boring.

So, I took some time to give her an actual design.

Meet the new Ava:


Ava's Dialog art

The new Ava will be included with the next Barb update as it doesn't require a lot of work. Just some reworked lines. Adding some cool "events", like for example, when you unlock a boss gallery, Ava will actually notify you that she has gathered enough data and that the gallery is now available.


Ava's Sprite


Maybe Ava will have more of a role in the future; who knows? But for now, this is more of a bonus to make her and the VR world more enjoyable.

The current: Ava

The Updated: Ava

 - Squeal Little Piggy -

Nothing very flashy to show for squeal little piggy but progress on the writing of the story was made. Bringing the game closed to a demo release.

Last month I showed you a new "Affinity Increase" system. This month I also added the "Affinity drecrease" equivalent, as this can of course happen.


- CONCLUSION -

Thanks to splitting my OC sets workload over two months instead of one month, I am able to be more consistent with my allocated dev time per month.

This month was very productive game development-wise, and I didn't feel like I was burning myself out (like I did in October and November last year).

This not only allowed me to get what I had planned for the last barb combat update done, but also get some early work for the future Splatter update and a new bonus Ava Update done for 3072 AD.

All the while allowing me to squeeze in some good Squeal little piggy progress.

All and all. A good month, and I think that splitting the OC sets over two month, while a necessary compromise, was a good call. It allows me to work better, faster, without burning myself out in the process.

As usual, I don't give precise ETA's until I'm absolutely sure that a release is close to being done. I will say, however, that the next patch (which will include The Barb Warrior Path and the new Ava update) shouldn't take too long.

I'm optimistic that it will release within the first quarter of this year (while I keep making progress on both the Splatter update and Squeal little piggy).

That's it for this month's update.

See you in the next one.