Art update 34 ...and stuff (Patreon)

And we're back with another art update today! Is it really already two weeks ago I did the other one? Is there some kind of drug out there which can fix whatever is wrong with my perception of the flow of time? Maybe I need to start reading boring literature to moor me to the present? Anyway it's time to check in with you guys!

With the 1st of April well behind us we can all lower that shield of permanent disbelieve again : )   We always have some sort of problem which may take more or less time to deal with, but thank god being hacked isn't one of them (like the post on the 1st of April said)....yet?

I'm knocking on wood like a crazy m*therf*cker right now, because when it comes to FET I'm not taking any chances. I'm not superstitious, I'm just eeeextra careful to not anger Odin or whomever is in charge of messing with us mortals.

I have gotten some of those "support calls" trying to scam you into downloading  a virus or whatever they're trying to make you do. I always simply act like a  senior citizen who has never used a pc before and keep them on the line for a long , looooOOOONNNNNGG time!  

That's not because I like to listen to their voice but I figure the time they spend on trying to get into my system (fruitlessly) is time they can't spend on some other poor sap who actually believes them.  I'm not in the habit of calling other  people scumbags very quickly but those "support people" certainly deserve the title with a cherry on top.

But enough about that.

I actually made a short list with key words to help me remember what I've been doing lately but so far, instead of a little reminder they have proven to be a puzzle to be cracked. Did I already tell you my memory is a joke? I can't remember...

Anyway, clearly I've been working on the art files for our little April fools day joke. You might recognize a lot of it since I've been pillaging earlier game files for it. I've scaled, rotated  and then combined them with some new stuff to speed up the creation of it. It's not like we don't have other stuff to do as well, so I wanted this to be done fast.

I think catching the first 20 pussies to unlock the  quick n' dirty scene shouldn't be too much of a problem if you're willing to seriously try. Don't forget you can save your game with each pussy you catch if necessary.

The rewards for the highscore mode  (a few lowres sketches)  are harder to get so I'll just add some of those to the attachment of this post. All but the final highscore reward because the  people who got to 50 cats deserve that little bit of glory for themselves :)

I've been doing some research for a few minigames which we're planning to use in the future. Generally I leave that up to the coder, but it doesn't hurt to help each other out every now and then. Actually, that's the best way to do things. Sometimes I come up with ways of doings things he simply hadn't thought of yet and vice versa.

So one of those things the coder helped me with was a Toph scene. I had already finished making it when the coder came up with an addition which was just too good not to include. Unfortunately that also meant I  had to trash all of the work I had done so far because the addition just didn't look right in combination with the older things. That work isn't done in vein since I can  always reuse it during the love route. I'm sure it'll save me a lot of time in the future, but right now it's the exact opposite. I just look at it like I'm renting out time to my future self. You better be damn thankful to yourself future me!

So having done that, I tried to make up for the loss of time by cutting corners with another scene. Leaving a part black thinking the coder could use it as a blank canvas to paint the scene with words.... yeah... he didn't think that was a good idea either(rightfully so) and I've been  working on adding those parts. I'm happy I did(or rather he made me) because it makes for a far  better scene.

Another scene thought up by the coder was making me grouchy when working on it.  It had all the necessary elements to be good or at least mediocre, but I just couldn't feel it.  Whenever that happens I start adding stuff, trying to make up with quantity what's lacking in other departments.

That resulted in some nice extra's but didn't quell my general feelings of dissatisfaction. Long story short, after spending a lot of time on redrawing the faces and fixing some background colors things brightened up enough for me to high five myself mentally and mostly consider it a victory.

It's not all victories this month though. We've been working hard to try and catch up with our  original schedule and that turned out to be unrealistic(very).  We already sort of knew but we still had to give it a try. The latest early release build was on the 9th of March after all. I said it before but, when you don't have much room to spare any sort of delay which starts out as a guest, becomes a permanent resident.

I've also been working on a new part of the maze which had it's own problems. Putting it in worked fine... if you didn't mind having to start the game from the beginning again. Imagine  every possible trigger in the maze being reset to it's virgin state while outside of it everything is still where you left it the last time you saved. Pure pandemonium is the nicest way to describe the results.

We may not always manage to keep your save games sane and working, but we sure as damnation will try our best and don't feel like making exceptions just because the maze was having a fit again.

Getting things compatible with the earlier save games had us flipping out of our skulls with errors and problems, wasting a truly retarded amount of time on getting it to play nice, but we think we finally got it figured out. That doesn't give us back all of the lost time, but we can move forwards again. That also means we'll be late. Maybe the fashionable kind, but far more likely the "Where the FUCK have you been!?" -kind.  

Though without errors beating us down at every turn we might still be able to keep things reasonable(don't count on it). Just don't ask us for a specific date yet. Despite all of that (we hate delays as much as you) I'm feeling pretty upbeat about the next build. Maybe it's the weather. I actually got to see the sun again today which I haven't for awhile : )  Or maybe it's the fact we finally have what looks to be a way forward out of the save game madness for the new maze part. Whatever the reason is, I feel ALIIIVE BABY!!!

ALIIIIIIIIVEEEE!