Update 24 (Patreon)

tl;dr - Progress on combat system and graphics; computer trouble and new computer plans; new goal - Let Me Out.

Today's image:

Okay, normally I show you something sexier, but this week I really wanted to show off some of the progress that I (we, actually) have been making in the combat system. This gif is for critical hits; there's another part that comes afterwards, but this is the most interesting bit. While this happens you'll get the maid's critical hit battle cry, and then afterward you'll get a randomly generated attack name like in PAF. I can swap out the monster for different battles, and I've got a version for each maid. This may not be the final version; it's not perfect, but I do like it.

The monster is a "gazor", a concept that Another Wannabe came up with, and Phinn designed visually. Most of the descriptive text has been written for it by EFon... come to think of it, I didn't do much of the creation of that monster, other than kind of directing and approving work. It's cool, though, isn't it? A gazor is tough to hit and very accurate because it's got a lot of eye skill (surprise, surprise).

I'll get back to the sexy pics next week I promise. :) At least Kim's dress is pretty low cut.

Combat system progress:

I've been making some good, if somewhat slow, programming progress on the combat system this week. There's a lot of juggling of variables and trying to visualise it all. I am getting somewhere with it, however! It's going to be better than the system in PAF. It's basically the same sort of concept, but there's just a lot more variation. Spells, special attacks, more complex tactics and training outside of combat will all (I hope) make this a legitimately interesting system to play.

Obviously I'm planning to spice it up with multimedia in a similar way to the way I did for PAF, as well.

Computer trouble/new computer plans:

I've had a problem lately with my computer CPU overheating, so I'm now looking at getting my new computer system reasonably soon. I had some interest in what system I might be planning to get, so for those interested here are a couple of

points about the system I'm currently thinking about:

a) I was considering getting an nVidia Geforce GTX 970 GPU, to make use of the fancy new IRAY lighting rendering engine in Daz Studio. IRAY needs 4gb of memory (and not a dual 2gb-2gb, it's got to be a pure 4gb card), and is also an nVidia card that gives good performance for money.

After looking at benchmarking info I don't actually know whether the 970 will be quite powerful enough, and so I still might not be able to do much with IRAY, but I don't think I can afford the super-powerful, crazy-expensive cards that are beyond the 970. Stretching my budget to a 980 ti seems unrealistic considering I can still just opt to stick with the current renderer (3Delight) and go for a different card for better value.

b) I'll get a new IPS monitor, which displays better colours than a TN panel monitor. This is obviously going to be useful for graphic design.

Other than that I just plan to have a good system, particularly having the kind of cooling and power supply needed for strong hardware in a warm climate.

New goal: Let Me Out!

You might have noticed on the main page I've added a new goal, a sequel for Let Me In, titled Let Me Out. This game will see improvements over the design of LMI, with a story that I think people will find a bit more fun.

I admit I didn't plan for LMI to ultimately become quite so much about victimizing Twyla; I tried to make it light, funny and silly, but I think it probably wasn't funny or silly enough to quite cut through the tone and make it disarming in the way I wanted it to. Not that it's terrible, it's just not exactly what I saw in my head at the outset. I feel like I'm going to be able to fix this problem to a large extent by changing up the character dynamics a bit. Next time Twyla returns, but she's the one doing the tricking; she's also the one initiating any sex.

Better planning will help, too. I know now, for example, to put more complexity into the images in order to provide more prompts for the player to talk about. I only worked that out a little bit too late in the process of developing LMI.

You might be wondering why I set it as the $1500 goal - to be transparent it's because I don't imagine we'll hit that goal particularly soon, but that's okay as I'm focused on PAL right now.