Proress report (Patreon)

Howdy! So, this is a long post, because I pretty much screwed up again, and I’m doing my best to explain my self-sabotaging pigeon brain here. 

Basically, we just finished our “crunch” and 0.4.8 is still not ready, it has all that we promised  (technically “has”, since it’s full of bugs), but not all that we need. We did our best and it’s ready for the most part, but it comes down to what I fear more - losing support due to a delay or losing support due to a subpar content. 

We need a week or two (preferably) to polish everything - there’s a hefty amount of “known” bugs all over the place, due to the size of the update, and we unfortunately have no time to fix them. As you know, we’re going away for four days, and when we will return - I don’t think we will manage to finish everything in two remaining days of the month. We’ll sure as hell try though. 

In the next part I’ll get into details and I’ll do my best to avoid any spoilers, but there will be minor ones:  

 The best way I can describe “what’s wrong” is in the example of the “Farm” event.  

I wanted to avoid showing it, since it kind of spoils the fun (and yes, stockings are wearable), but I need to show you that we’re working. 

it works similarly to our “gym squatting” event - it has stages and it is tied to the “days”.

Each day Kira will be offered a choice to further corrupt herself (with buttplugs, nose ring, branding, breasts expansion, lactation and pregnancy). It’s kind of a one long event, with a ton of separate “layers” to keep it interesting and fresh (just like at the gym). 

In the said “Farm event”, Kira is being held prisoner (by choice), and after the completion of her “sentence”, the event becomes “repeatable” (again, just like at the gym). 

It was kind of hard to implement, since it was the first event we ever did that features both preg and lact content (optionally), and It’s still pretty buggy due to that. 

The main problem is not in layers, I mean, partially, sure, but my biggest issue with it lies in the content itself -  Each day Kira gets an “offer”, which is pretty cool, but, consequently, pretty “empty”.

To fix said “emptiness”, we added more characters that have something new to say each day. On top of that, I decided it would be cool if Kira had a new “farm” name, and I named her “Princess”, because it works for both petgirls and hucows (we can only have one name for technical reasons). If Kira accepts being imprisoned and trained - she gets this name and all other “Vivarium” characters will call her “Princess”. 

That said, “Farm” is just a 1/3 of the "Vivarium":

We worked on our “Vivarium” location and our new main-story quest “Shrodinger’s Candidate” for over a year now (on and off), same goes for our two new fetishes (pregnancy and lactation).

As you can see “Vivarium” is not just one location - it’s closer to a village or another town. 

For 0.4.8 we worked on three different storylines - all tied to our new quest. And the coolest thing about them is that their order of completion matters (on top of the choices you’ll make). 

“Church of Veles” is the part where you will get new fetishes - They will affect Kira’s dialogues at the Farm and Oasis. 0.4.8 only has Kira’s “hypno” path and it’s only the first half of it, just erotic events.

Sharon’s path, “pure” path, and the continuation of “Church” story arc are planned for 0.5 in a quest finale. (0.4.8 Script is 21 pages long).

“Farm” is the part where you’ll get branded for a “public use” - this will make it okay for people to just approach and grab Kira (in 0.4.9), your name will be changed and if you’re playing with preg/lact content - other events will start showing both. 0.4.8 has only Kira’s “slave” path, Sharon’s path is planned for 0.4.9 and “pure” path for 0.5 (0.4.8 Script is 63 pages long). 

“Oasis” is responsible for “petplay” with lezdom - you might end up permanently crawling while at the farm, affecting your character art in every dialogue (available in 0.4.9, but coded in 0.4.8). 0.4.8 only has the “pure” path, small groping event and an intro to the “petplay” for either Sharon or Kira (0.4.8 Script is 26 pages long). 

The “intro” to Vivarium consists of the “eligibility test” (turns fetish content on/off), new outfit and an interactable “debate” (0.4.8 Script is 46 pages long).

“Random” people - “Vivarium” is a giant location, and its main idea is centered around exploration, with Kira trying to figure out what the heck is going on and win the election. That is why it needs a lot of “random” people (0.4.8 Script is 15 pages long).

Each location has three choices - you can either sacrifice Kira’s dignity, Sharon or “find another way”, in 0.4.8 we’re primarily focusing on Kira and her “corruption” path. 

But, regardless of your path, in the end, you need all three “tribes” to approve you in order to start the “election”, the outcome of which will affect the main story with KGB/ Rebels. You’ll also get to know a ton of new information about the world, all in the form of over the top and ridiculous jokes. 

0.4.8 is a “set-up” update, it’s meant to have all “set-up” for 0.4.9 (wich will only have hentai events) and 0.5 (which will be the quest finale). 

Overall, the script for 0.4.8 is 171 pages of non-erotic, mostly comedic, content. And 53 pages of H-events. 224 pages in total. For comparison, our Gym update had 148 pages of script in total (154 with pictures that have “text” on them). The text is extremely versatile and references everything, fetishes, lust, int and choices. 

But there is still a problem, “Gym” was a tiny  closed location  (or “closeted”, if you will) , and “Vivarium” is a giant one. The whole purpose of making it so big and having three different factions is to give you “exploration”, a choice of what to do and where to go first. 

And unfortunately it is extremely empty at the moment. Sure, we have 15 pages of “world events” to make the place more lively, but it isn’t enough. On top of that, there’s still “issues” all over the place - missing references, missing dialogues, missing character art, bugs and it’s all extremely “raw” at the moment. 

All and all, we need at least a week (preferably two) to properly test and polish it. Because in its current state, it will 100% be buggy or worse - broken, not to mention that it doesn’t have everything we need. 

I can only guess how I look from “the side”, my friend recently told me that I’m a person that “has to get to the tree before that random car”, and maybe that’s true, maybe I shouldn’t stress so much, but I’d like to explain myself regardless. 

We need “crunches” to speed up the development, but “crunches” are not possible without “deadlines”. That is why I often use “the date” as a “whip” to force myself and Moana to work as hard as humanly possible. 

Unfortunately, it only works if we believe in it, so I have to make our dates public, but you shouldn’t suffer because of my poor life choices - so I will, once again, do what we did with the “gym” update:

When we will release 0.4.8 at the beginning of September, I will make a public post announcing that everyone who has pledged to us in August, can dm me and get the link to 0.4.8.

I just wanted to finish this before our little trip, to not think about Defenestration for a couple of days, it was my personal whim. The game itself didn’t suffer, on the contrary, it improved a lot and we’re definitely at the finish line here. It would be such a shame if we were to just give up and release it now, when we’re so close to making it how I envisioned it. 

That said, not only do we need more time to bugtest it, draw more characters and polish it in general, we also have some things that we need to decide together with you. 

-Final outfit poll (hopefully final):

 -Final tattoo poll:  

-And last but not least, I’d like you to suggest a name for Kira, instead of “Princess”. We can change it pretty easily, but we can only have one. I will start the “name” poll when I return in four days. 

I know that it’s less than ideal, and that I’m probably insane for doing the same thing over and over again, but, at this point, it’s our tradition to delay the release at least once, and my ancestors might be angry with me if I disobey their will. 

In all seriousness, apart from me being disappointed in myself, nothing is “wrong”. There’s no serious obstacles, or unfixable bugs, it’s just that we can make this update even better and I want to make it as good as I know it can be. Me “rushing it” wasn’t really a mistake, it was a tool to finish it quicker and it did its job well. 

Because it is a creative process, I can’t really control it, I’m just doing whatever my warrior blood whispers into my ear, and Vivarium is its wish. I swear, once you’ll get to experience it in its glory, you’ll see why I did it, or, alternatively, you’ll report me to the authorities :) 

It has bugs, missing text, and it desperately requires more artworks for the npcs, I really think it’s better for you to see who you’re talking to, instead of looking at our usual “static placeholder” art, not to mention that I will still have to draw every character in the future, and every new “placeholder” art is more work for future Mulan. 

Again, I can only guess how I look from “the side”, all I can really do is be as transparent as I can, and hope that you will understand that I do what I do because I care, I care about this project and its quality matters to me. 

That said, the hardest part is behind us and we must move on. I get that it’s not really a consolation to anyone, but we’ve got time for three more polls, and maybe that’s for the best. 

-I need to know the color of our new outfit:

 Click me  

-The “font” and “color” of our new tattoo:

 Click me  

And I think it would be extremely cool if Kira’s “animal” name was picked by you (I went with “Princess”, but we can easily change it). 

So, if you’re interested, write your ideas in the comments, dm me here, on discord or email me (freshmulan@gmail.com). I will conduct the name poll in four days (when we’ll return to work). 

From the bottom of our self-sabotaging pigeon hearts, thank you all for tolerating our weird behaviour and sticking with us, I promise we won’t let you down in terms of quality content, but the end will come a bit later than expected! 

P.S: I’ll happily answer all your questions as soon as I get a chance, right now I’m dying of sleep deprivation :)