Bi-Weekly Report #10 (Patreon)

Ten of these already??? That feels like it should be significant. Look at me go! Consistency on one front, at least!

Busy!! So busy!! Let's go!!

ANNOUNCEMENTS

There's more merch on RedBubble!

I've been plugging away at a few things to get the storefront up and running, including a couple fun little designs specifically for merch. (I know it all says "sticker", but you can get the designs on a bunch of stuff! Go give it a gander!)

Commission work is extremely up and down (never mind that I can only take so much of it before the workload demands addressing before I can take more), so I'm trying to throw things at the wall and see if we can't get a few bucks coming in here and there with more stable consistency. Shit's been rough!! I need to figure something out!! So hopefully something here appeals! If you like something and have an account, I think just liking a design helps boost it on the storefront (and serves as a nice bit of feedback to me re: what people are actually interested in), so it very much would not break my heart if anyone decides to do that. Wink wonk.

GAMEDEV

Oh my God I've done so much. Okay.

First up: we have a couple new prototype baubles! I've whipped up prototypes for a title screen and options menu, and roughed out some of the modes and features I'd like to explore going forward:

I've also reworked the entire save backend to account for the game tracking significantly more than just your high score. The game is now set up to maintain local and personal records across multiple users on a single machine. This means that you can compete with each other for the household top billing while still knowing exactly what your personal best is! Maybe this is less vital these days, but I'm old, and competing with my dad and brother for scores in this sort of thing is exactly the kind of business I cling to as fond memories. Maybe this will help someone else form equally fond memories. Maybe!

I've also got the audio engine separating music and sounds into two separate audio busses, which should make applying your lovely volume settings up there pretty manageable, and I've added a persistent preload object that tracks present save data and whatever else I need to have be a constant presence in the game.

Oh, and I've started setting up leaderboard implementation. Very much in the testing stages, but scores are at least getting sent to and showing up on the backend. Now I just need to get that business presented in the actual game! Want to actually implement profile setup first, though, so the names going through aren't just "DEFAULT".

In less words, the game now finally has more than one screen. Woah! Also, I made background music for it, which I thought I could embed here, but I guess not, so you'll have to tolerate a mildly outdated mix of it on Twitter instead. Sorry. (Especially if you don't have an account on there, as that might just have it telling you the account doesn't exist now. Very cool and shareable, Elon!)

And, of course, I simply must update you all on how the slime girl is coming.

This bitch is a bottleneck if ever there was one. But I carry on!

As a final note, given how much work the damn thing is taking, the game probably won't be free anymore. Given our financial situation, that's just incredibly hard to justify at this point. Some of the added modes and polish are being done specifically with this decision in mind, as much of it was content I'd planned on doing for a later kind of "Deluxe" edition if people liked the base game. As is, I feel extremely confident in said base game, and only more so as it continues to come together. It is taking much longer than planned, so I hope you all look forward to it in its final form!

COMMISSIONS

Pow! Bam! Kapow!!

Completed:

• Double BJ for Zone

• Sexy Tigress Threesome for Aist

• Yuri YCH

• Beach Goth sequel for Lys

Upcoming:

• Goddess of Everything Else piece for Spritz

• Ottercat Autofellatio for Aist (you got it, boss! *glomf*)

• YCH Result for Rowlet

• Deathclaw Den for Sterling

• The foreboding rabbit piece for BunnyLink. I must conquer this. I've conquered so much else on that old docket. It must be done! IT MUST BE DONE!!!

So powerful. So majestic.

WRITING

I still have not written chapter 13. Maybe I'll try that tonight. I really should. It's a pivot point for the story and I really want to get on with it, but I think I'm worried I'll handle it poorly or shoot the proverbial load way early?? A lot of my initial pacing ideas have gone out the window by now, but hey. The characters. Sometimes they win.

Oh, but I did write the entirety of The Contest. You know, the story between Hare Moon chapters? The nice short filler? Anyway, my penis won, so that's 24 pages long now. There was no page for a week because I got too caught up in writing the damn thing instead. It's supremely horny. If I can maintain my power level from the last week or so moving forward, I'd love to bust out two of these a week and get on with it. As a treat. For me.

On the note of Hare Moon, I got the PDF version of that up and out, including some minor written content for the ol' opening warning page and back cover. Nothing super special, but if you enjoyed my bullshit at the start of the Shantae video it's basically more of that. I'm still not your mom.

ANIMATION

The first loop is done!

Well, mostly. I might go back and alter a couple things after all. I don't know. I was gonna work on it yesterday but the heart was elsewhere. The heart was in that options menu, apparently, and in making a t-shirt that said "CERTIFIED CAT PERSON" on it like a cheeky furry. I should talk about that a bit I guess.

AND THAT ABOUT DOES IT

I spent a good week after the last post just wrestling the shit out of some depression. I'm still wrestling the shit out of it. Things have not been sterling for ya girl.

I've come to some conclusions, and y'all are seeing the results of it. I was down for most of a week, and still pulled all this out, as well as a couple bits of bonus content just for the ol' backers as fun little adds. I hope y'all have liked those! I want to keep doing it; basically the Scratches, except admitting I have no restraint and just fucking going for it. Doing alts again. Throwing more shit at the wall.

My sleep schedule is bonkers and fraught with interruption, but I'm adjusting. I'm teaching myself to stress about the clock less, because it's not helping. I'm trying to listen to my body when it says it needs rest instead of fruitlessly sitting at my desk and pretending to fight through it while getting nothing done and blowing the whole day.

I am on nobody's schedule but my own. I am, for now at least, my own boss. All I can do is keep putting myself out there and making this whole Patreon thing seem more worth it to the people outside of my immediate social circle to try and keep things that way. I am trying. I think it shows that I'm trying.

Maybe it means I'm unpredictable as hell. I don't know. That's nothing new, and I know it's a handicap, but it's how the worms in my brain seem to operate. If you can't beat 'em, ya know?

Anyway, Phantom Brave is going well. I finally, after 15 years, finished what the game calls Chapter 1. I may have beaten a boss that's supposed to be impossible. Despite that, I still constantly feel underpowered. Fascinating.

Also, I keep playing my own game a lot. That's probably a good sign. It felt good to actually do something in FL again after a few years of just not finding the excuse or the time, even if it postponed Rouge titties for everyone.

On that, back to work. Thank you for your continued support in this era of groceries costing hundreds of dollars a week. Good Lord.

• Sera