Tasks for v0.9.0 (Patreon)

I've updated the task board for the next release. All the completed tasks have been removed, but we got everything done we wanted to get done for v0.8.0! We'll spend some time looking ahead soon, but this update has been kind of a big deal so let's address that first real quick.

In terms of player counts, this release has been the biggest so far, and it's not even close! Thanks largely to the game now being released on TFGames.site, we're looking at an almost doubling of peak daily players on the free edition on Itch.io compared to the previous record set in February. Activity on the patreon has been a bit harder to characterize. New patrons have come through at a pretty crazy volume, but the dust is still settling so I don't want to jinx it. It is a little early to figure out what exactly is happening and what sort of increase in sales and patrons this increase in players might lead to, so we'll save that analysis for another time.

I don't normally talk a lot about player metrics here, but I think if you're a patron, or even a free edition player, it does affect you, so you have a right to know when big things are happening. The game's success affects my ability to devote time and resources to it, so that has an effect on both the overall quality of the game and the breadth of content available in it.

Note: As an aside, I do want to stress that the game itself does not track any user data at all. All my data is from itch.io's data which it tracks via it's storefront, which is all anonymous. I can't, don't, and won't track data from anywhere other than itch.io because I'd have to install some sort of tracking or analytics script into the game itself to do that, and I will never install any trackers of any kind in the game. (The script that checks your version and tells you an update is available also doesn't actually read your game data, the game locally downloads a small chunk of code from my personal website that contains the current version data, seen here, so no data ever leaves your computer.) End aside.

Anyway, if you're a new player, welcome, and if you're a new patron, thank you so much for your support! One of my major plans over the next month or two is working on mod tools, which I plan to make patron-only for a while, so I hope you're interested in that! I may even use the game's mod tools to release some patron-only content as "DLC" in the future, though I'm not sure so no promises.

Speaking of the months ahead, let's talk about v0.9.0. As previously reported, the game is moving to a 6-8 week development cycle, so the next update should arrive in mid-to-late June. I expect this update to finish out chapter 3. I also plan to add more futanari content. For one, you'll be able to use futa potions on NPCs. For two, I want to add more scene variants and add some futanari options to some already existing events. I also want to add the next round of character portraits, which, in accordance with a poll of $10 patrons, will be for Roland!

You can see a poll here ($10+ patrons only) for what sort of content that already exists in the game should be expanded. I plan to work on the requested activities in v0.10.0, but I may have time to add some of this stuff to v0.9.0 as well.

I also want to try to catch up on requests, which I feel are falling a bit behind. I want to aim for five in this update, but no promises. These aren't on the task board because I don't want to get into that level of detail with it, but rest assured that the need to develop new requests keeps me up at night.

I also plan to make some additions and changes to alchemy. I want to alter alchemy progression rather dramatically. I'm hoping I won't have to wipe player progression in ongoing saved games in regards to alchemy, but it is possible I'll need to. The style of progression we're moving too was determined by a poll from about a month or so ago, and we settled on the more tame option. I'll outline it below.

Alchemy Progression Overhaul Option #1

... [The] current points and tiers will remain, but different potions will be worth different amounts of "points" and certain potions would stop being worth points altogether as you increase your tier.... [You] will have to make more advanced potions to progress, rather than just a lot of potions. The number of potions needed would be less overall, but be harder to make, so ultimately this [will] slow down the alchemy progression.

Finally, as mentioned, I will start working on mod tools. I want to create some sort of in-game testing and editing system, so this is a pretty major undertaking, and the fruits of this labor may not be seen for a bit. While I'd love to have something to show for v0.9.0, I really don't want to put a timeframe on this. There will be unforeseen problems and circumstances. But I'll keep you all abreast of the situation. My primary goal is always trying to push content, but the extra dev time will help me work on stuff like this on the side.

So that is the rundown of the new tasks being added to the task board for the next update. As always, I'm open to comments here or on the discord, or anywhere really. So feel free to weigh in on this stuff and give me feedback. I'm going to be releasing a post next week where I'm gonna gather a bunch of feedback from various places and try to do a FAQ-style response to it all. I also have plans for some patron-only posts coming soon.

Also, something I wanted to mention was that v0.10.0 will actually coincide with the game's first anniversary. I didn't plan that, it just happened to work out that it'll probably land right around that time, so I want to try to do something special for that update. We'll see what happens.