The Bi-Weekly Report (#5) (Patreon)

Productive couple of weeks. Let's get to it.

GAMEDEV

Slime Forest has undergone a rather thorough rebalancing of the game's difficulty and reward curves. I've changed the fail state to something less visually confusing to the average person (empty energy meter instead of simply a meter below par), altered the energy meter itself to always have its maximum be at least 4x the cost of a turn (meaning it's low-key getting harder to fill, offsetting the gains you get from slime girl sets in your multiplier-building efforts, but also that if it's full you always can expect to be safe making a certain number of steps in setting up your next big move), and I've changed the slime requirement for the game level to increase to something higher with pretty much universally positive results.

I've also pinned that pesky bug down to something that results in one random slime sometimes dying late but everything else otherwise working as intended, so we'll just call that good and write in some joke about it in the game over hints or something. Yeah. Yeah, that works.

I also added these things!

These flash to get your attention when your energy is below the two and one turn thresholds, respectively. They'll get a sound cue later, and if that's not enough, your meters also pulse red. I think if that doesn't get your attention, it is no longer my fault. Hopefully.

There was also some backend stuff re: how the game and board managers organize and talk to the HUD. Mostly just declutter on my end, especially when altering rulesets or visual themes in GODOT.

COMMISSIONS

Finished:

• Seabass and Jo Doin' It On A Beanbag
  Shit, they sure were!

• Bath Goth Taking A Bath Like A Goth
  Please pay me to draw more naked goth women. This might be my calling.

• Threesomes With Sil
  I drew Ottercat with a cooter and everyone simped over it. I drew Kazziecat eating that cooter and only I simped over it. You can't win 'em all. Still not sure how I feel about a be-cootered Ottercat though. Mixed feelings. Especially mixed feelings about that being when the simps came out. Y'all not ready for my reality. Oh well.

Present queues:

• Artistic Freedom: 2

• Old junk: 10. It will be 10 until I commence much rejoicing. You will know when it is not 10. The executive dysfunction is a beast on this shit. This list changed how I take commissions forever.

WRITING

More Thralls edits, a bit of new stuff. Still not a lot, but it ain't dead, just slow. Oh, also, I properly wrote up the Karnan Laws finally.

...

In Demonic.

Look, sometimes a rabbit hole forms underneath your feet and away you fuckin' go. Sometimes you just give your conlang a trial by fire and come up with new grammatical rules and approximations and layered meanings. Or maybe not. Maybe that's just me? No, that can't be right...

Oh, also, I wrote up that huge-ass post-mortem for the

ANIMATION

Shantae is done. Memebrs can read all about it here. Rouge is next, but for this exact moment I'm just gonna breathe for a sec. Just for a second, though. The weekend is coming, so hopefully by then I get over what I'm told is the "post-project empties." That shit's unpleasant.

AND THAT ABOUT DOES IT

Minecraft updated. We've wandered so far in all these directions... Kaz and I debated making a new world, but we've just been starting to feel like we're at home in this one. We have cows and sheep and bees and the Freds. We don't want a new world. We do want to do the new trials, though. Fortunately, there is a nearby village consisting almost exclusively of cartographers. Time to put them to work... Make us our maps, lads. Point us to the new toys, wherever they are.

We have found two woodland mansions, though, which is two more than I've ever encoutnered in my life. Just a really good seed. We don't wanna lose it.

Also, I touched Tears of the Kingdom again. I'm sure these two things will have zero impact on my creative output!!

• Sera