Mochi Moshi Dev Log #22: 2022 Year End Report (Patreon)

Overview of the Project through the Year (and Some Change)

The year 2022 brought us the first anniversary of Mochi Moshi as of August. A lot of incredible progress has been made and a lot still has yet to be made, but hopefully this write up will provide information on what my co-writer and I plan on doing for 2023. The characterization of Kazumi was the first thing to nail, and was done over the course of two months back in 2021, to help us understand who we were writing about. This document was called the Kazumi Bible.

After that, we figured out how to optimally path what the game’s loop really would entail. Originally the idea was to have four different types of transformation lead into each other with each happening at least once per path no matter what. Basically if you started with Breast expansion, you would then see weight gain, ass expansion and nerd transformation (now known as lazy transformation) in your route no matter what. We decided that to maximize selected kinks, and to have an ending to a route, that the 4th week would be dedicated to accentuating the previous three chosen transformations instead of taking on a fourth haphazardly. So you will have routes where she doesn’t get a chubby belly from weight gain, or where she doesn’t get a breast size increase from anything other than becoming fatter. You can see where the fun comes from in route management like this.

Nerd Transformation (and the History There of)

Rolling back, the change of nerd transformation to something more generic like lazy transformation allows us to play with the idea of how loose that can be represented. It can help us accentuate weight gain, it can help us make her more into a neet/nerd; we can really play with whatever we want now that the idea is not hard coded to that. Because sometimes when you pick a route and want to see where she’s going to end up, you might not want to have her end with a bit of nerdiness in concept. I will say when we discussed nerdiness as a transformation subject we didn’t think about the average nerd transformation you usually see in a lot of images on deviant art, for example. The whole, freckles, buck teeth, top knot, gamer shirt, lisping nerd type transformation was not what we were going for. In fact we will have a route where she gets a nerdy/neet style transformation, but that will most likely mimic hikikomori culture and neet stereotyping (unkempt, no sleep, greasy, video game player) instead of bottle eyed wedgie receiver. I want to note that there’s nothing wrong with this type of nerd transformation and I respect it! I just wanted to explain more what we were going for and what we might explore in the future. If this sort of extreme condition depiction of neet transformation is off putting to anyone looking for a weight gain/expansion oriented game, please understand that at most this would be explored in one or two routes out of twenty-four.

The Twenty Fifth Route (and its Secrets)

The twenty fifth route is a concept I’ve been alluding at and also got funded. It’s something that is not even being considered until late in development. The contents of the path are only in a brainstorming phase and probably will stay that way for a long time. I will at least expose where the thought process is right now. I’ve thought about having it as an immobile path, kind of a goofy ending where everything is pulled to the extremes in terms of size. The only problem with that is that immobile content is very alienating to audiences who don’t enjoy it and I personally don’t like drawing it at all. I also think that in this context it would be something that would go beyond the world that’s being built. Sure gaining about 200-300 pounds in 4 weeks is a bit crazy in its own right especially when she doesn’t get stretch marks but– there’s a line I personally want to draw. People are free to draw immobile content of Kazumi since I think some people’s art styles with that content are fantastic but for me putting something like that in the game it seems unlikely. Let me know if that is a thing you’re interested in.

Locational Logic (and Mysticism)

Locations were something we struggled with in the beginning but make writing for the game infinitely easier. The way locations work for the game is like this, Every path in the game is anchored based on your first location choice. For example, picking a Cake Buffet will set your entire routes to be based on gaining weight first and foremost. Now every location after that is predetermined on how it connects to weight gain. If you wanted breast expansion to be the next thing you experienced you would then pick the Boba Tea shop. This means that every weight gain route now has Boba Tea as an option and you know that when you’re in the weight gain path that picking Boba Tea will make her breasts grow. This works in the opposite direction as well.

When you’re in the breast expansion path, picking Boba Tea will now cause her to gain weight. This doesn’t mean that every time you select Boba Tea that the same events will play out though, or even that they’re the same location all together. It’s just a boba tea shop in general which means that even if you think you’ve seen what it’s like to start with the weight gain path and pick boba tea at first, that doesn’t mean it’ll be the same when you pick weight gain, ass expansion’s location and then boba tea. She now has a bigger butt and is even fatter than the last time you were at the boba tea shop the first time you were there. Her life is fundamentally different including her experiences and appearance. That’s where the gameplay loop comes from.

We have a unique location for every combination of transformations that translates back and forth between each of the routes. The first location you pick will always be unique to that route’s beginning and will always play out the same. They also tend to be shorter to really jump you into the action and get you back to where you want to be, but still fun enough to want to read over six times (or at least a few of those times). So that means that, in the game, there’s a conceptual 10 location types you can visit. Those locations will not be inherently the same in different routes, they can be, but more often than not they will be completely new locations even if they’re the same type. I.e there’ll be 4 boba tea shops in the game but all of them can be owned by different people, managed differently, be different franchises, have different products etc…

On top of those ten location types there’ll be twenty four completely unique locations with no overlapping types. These locations are the ending of a route and will be the ultimate result of the story thread that Kazumi had been experiencing in the route. It’s more fair to call these events more than locations, but that would just confuse you without context so I’d rather just say they’re locations.

Nodes (and Weeks are the Same)

We’re currently at 18 nodes drafted out of 65. Nodes, if you don’t remember or you’re a new subscriber, are “weeks” in game. A week being an event that describes what transformation and location Kazumi went to thanks to your choice including social media feed and text messages. The rate of writing the game when averaged out is about 2 nodes a month since the start of actual writing of the games script. This in my mind is a bit lacking if I’m going to be honest. I love writing for this game but it gets difficult to dedicate time to writing a node and balancing a lot of my external life and work. That being said my co-writer and I have found a way to path forward.

What’s next (and What’s the Path Forward)

I personally received a message from my co-writer stating that she will be writing Mochi Moshi on a weekly basis, carving out personal time to make sure that happens. I’ve decided to follow suit as well, dedicating every Monday of 2023 to working on Mochi Moshi. I call it Mochi Mondays. Cute name, and a dumb statement, but little things like this will keep me motivated and dedicate time to working on the project. As it stands now I usually finish a node in one day, writing anywhere between two to three hours at a time, which mimics the amount of time I spend drawing in a day. If I don’t draw in a day I try to write, but most of the time I don’t draw it’s because I just finished a drawing and I’m taking a break. To use that break to write means that I’m doing more work constantly in a row. Something that had mentally affected me negatively through the late Summer early Autumn. I plan on making myself a schedule to more strictly follow so I can write and do art without shirking responsibility and my health.

In 2022, the most number of nodes I’ve written in a month is five, with the least amount written being zero. That being said, a lot of the time I’m working on Mochi Moshi isn’t directly script writing, but it’s also not programming the game either. The programming for the game is something I plan on working on once the script is over. It’s complicated to really make note of what’s going on without spoilers but transparency is very important in project support. So, I thank you from the bottom of my heart with the amount of support you guys have given me so far over the year and some change.

Thank You (and Thank You Again)

Honestly the reception of this project since its conception has been nothing but positive. Everyone wants to know what this game is and the pure mystery behind leading you to a paid support on Subscribe Star or Patreon is incredible. Thanks for taking the chance with me on this. I know a project this size needs constant support and you guys have provided a very decent foundation. There are a lot of things I want to do with Kazumi and this is only the beginning. If you have any questions at all about this project please send me a message or comment below. I have a lot of things to say about this project that this paper didn’t outline and I’m keeping some secrets for future reports. But, I hope to have some incredible news during 2023!

Thanks again to everyone who supported me and is even mildly interested in this project. 2023 is the year I double down on artistic progress, original characters and Mochi Moshi. I’m very confident in my artistic level and I can feel myself grow every day with art and writing. I hope some of you have a creativity expansion fetish! Jokes aside. Thanks again for enjoying my content and having fun with everything I make! Thank you!!!