New Version Up Today

Hey all. As I said, there will be a new version up today. I've decided to keep the monstergirl village locked for now because frankly it feels much too empty. I could have whipped up a bunch of background characters pretty fast - but really? It's better to wait just a bit and have it totally finished.

There are partial combat updates and monsters chase you. Bilbao's religious district has a lot more NPC's. Captain Oola's sex scene is now in, full of extra Aussie slang. I asked and Aussie writer about it and they said to go all out with the slang, so fuck it. I did. Any Aussies playing the game can let me know what they think.

Frankly this update won't be huge, but you'll definitely notice a lot of the effects on combat and in dungeons in the early game. The volcano dungeon and Bilbao haven't yet been fully updated to the new respawning/chasing monster style. You can see my last post where I go over why there isn't a ton  of new content in this one. I don't personally think this update is worth a total new playthrough for those that have already played the game to Bilbao, but it's worth loading up a save and checking out Captain Oola's sex scene at least.

It'll be available at the normal download link later today as Ver. 0.5.1. The actual content changes are small enough that I don't think it's worth going through a proper beta with this. Let me know if anything causes a crash. Most of the combat updates and various new stuff has been tested carefully, so I don't expect a lot of issues with that. Still, keep an eye open.

I'm gonna start responding to e-mails tomorrow as I'll finally have the time to do so. Expect me to get around to finding ways to get the time consuming issues taken care of.


EDIT: It is now updated.

Tomorrow's Update

Well, let's start off with this: It won't have everything I want it to have.

Here is what I wanted this to include.

-Combat updates
-Monstergirl Village
-Group Battle
-Cowgirl Farm
-Bilbao's religious district populated

On the face of it that seems easy. Indeed, much of the underlying work for that stuff IS done.

Here's what is done as of right now.

-Partial Combat Updates
-Partial Monstergirl Village
-Bilbao's Religious District

So why is so little actually finished? I feel I owe you an explanation, especially considering that I extended this for a week in hopes of getting more in.

Mostly it comes down to some invisible (to you) but time consuming things. Implementing all of the scripts for combat and getting them to play nice together took a lot of time. Having some custom stuff made also took time. In total, this actually took more than the week I wanted it to. That said, I already explained why I didn't go all out on the combat updates right away in a previous blog post.

However I was fairly confident the monstergirl village would be swift.

It was not.

The main reason the MGV is sucking up so much time is the custom sprites. Each damn one takes a full day's worth of work. I'll be working with people on getting those done - I've gotten some e-mails, and I'll be messaging some of you back soon. Also an issue - I just hit writer's block here. I've been getting help with it from some other writer's friends, but trying to get the writing in the village to the level you all are accustomed to has just been a monumental challenge for me. I don't know WHY the MGV has been so difficult to write, but it has. It's pretty simple on the face of it. You have the sealed tomb of the first daughter, which is like a short tourist attraction. Then you have a few monstergirls with minigames that let you get a sex scene with them. Coming up with those minigames has just been an enormous headache though. I have the art - I have the sex scenes themselves sketched out, but getting the minigames written out is just... bleh.

Plus I know you all will want sex scenes for every girl in the village, but there's only four sex scenes in the village itself. A Fairy, a Lamia, a Sasquatch, and a Kitsune. Of those I've only made any real progress with the minigame for that. I've got to come up with excuses as to why you aren't going to bang the other monstergirls I use in the background when I write them. That makes THEM a headache too.

The cowgirl farm is pretty easy. Just buy it from the princesses after Bilbine's chapter when Bilbine, as an alchemist, is able to make the potions for you reliably. Then you'll get options to corrupt the princesses and make them into cowgirls themselves. However it takes place AFTER Bilbine's chapter, which means that the attack on the tower will happen first. That means there's no point in writing that content until after the battle scene.

The attack on the tower is going to be a big, complex undertaking. It will be very worth it when it is done but at the pace other stuff has been going at I haven't been able to undertake serious work on it yet.

I want to make it VERY clear that I'm not giving you all excuses for not getting this done. I misjudged how long it'd take to do this stuff and for that, I apologize. I will put out a release tomorrow that is mostly going to focus on monster/combat updates and Bilbao's content getting filled in. As soon as I get them done I'll release a version with the monstergirl village, then the attack on the tower and cowgirl farm, and once that's done I'll start working on Ilmatar's chapter.

Today will not be a hard work day. I got eight hours of sleep last night - something I didn't get on Saturday or Friday, considering I didn't sleep those two days because I was working throughout - not just on the game, but on tasks for my other jobs as well. I'll polish things up and ready it for the release I outlined above in the "what's done now" section.

As a side note I was put in charge of a minecraft server for the hypnohub community more or less out of nowhere. (I didn't ask for it, but I might as well do it.) I've managed to spend about a grand total of an hour playing on that server since it went up a week ago, so I'll be enjoying a little bit of that today. I make games but I almost never get to play any. I think it's alright for me to take half a day off. No matter how much I crunch it'd be impossible for me to get everything into this release I wanted to.

See you tomorrow.

Needing Spriters

Hey all, let me know if you know anyone who can do decent work on sprites or where to find them. I'm doing these myself and it takes several hours for each. I'd MUCH rather spend the time writing.

Yes, I'll pay cash for it. They'll mostly look like these:

You'll also get base sprites to work from and not have to do it from scratch. I'm slow and not the best at sprite work. Send me someone who can do it faster and better, please. Those two sucked up about 6+ hours each and I have several more to do yet with a release next week. I hate using placeholders.

The less time I spend doing stuff like this the more time I can spend adding content to the game.

Victory in our Time!

For those unaware I'll present a quick summary of recent events.

1: Google announced that blogger would be doing their best to hide all NSFW blogs, and prevent any new ones from being made.

2: This got everyone really freaking mad.

3: Google almost immediately realized the trouble they caused and caved. Thus, my blog will not have to move.

Just to note I was never in any real danger. There were many of other places I could have gone. First and foremost I could have just gone to the BadKittyGames site and made a blog there; I had already discussed it with NoMoshing. There were also plenty of other alternatives including just making my own website. Even so this means I don't have to waste time moving things, and that is good.

So success! Congrats, the status quo is maintained. This was an entirely pointless venture all 'round.

Human Faces

Here's a quick question you never asked or cared about the answer to. What would Nanshe look like if she were human? The answer? Probably a lot like this: 

Mia Khalifa is a porn star that is Lebanese by birth. A number of the nations in Overwhored are based upon mediterranean and middle-eastern nations. Indeed, the city of Sayda is actually named so because Sayda is the Phoenician name for Sidon - also known as the third most populous city in Lebanon.

Nanshe herself is from the Dark Elf culture which is more based upon Babylon, but I can assure you that women from ancient Babylon could also look a lot like Mia as they were also likely semetic. (Even modern Iraqis can also be pale and have red hair and blue eyes, if decidedly different-than-Irish facial features; I saw a few people like that. There is a great deal of variance there.) The Ancient Babylonians probably weren't that much different from Mia in appearance.

I suppose you could say I have a weakness for "semetic" women. They tend to have large eyebrows, larger noses, and wide smiles. I just so happen to like all of those things! They also tend to have amazing booty, but they have not yet discovered the power of its use. The day there is a proper acronym for middle-eastern booty shall be a day of great things. One must also admit that their eyebrow game is STRONK and that's fucking glorious.

Now poor Mia has received death threats for being in porn because she is Lebanese by birth. Lebanon is arguably the most liberal nation in the middle east and they ended up in quite an uproar because of her. She was disowned by her family and had her entire birth nation be angered by her actions. Fortunately she's in the US so she can do whatever she damn well pleases while they can do nothing but cry while fapping to her, knowing that the world finally knows how hot Lebanese women are. May rich people the world over steal those women away that they may have glorious and gratuitous sex lives.

My belief? The middle east knows they have so many beautiful women everyone would steal them away if they didn't make the place as unappealing to visit as possible. I've been there; I actually like the people. I'd probably go back to visit sometimes if they wouldn't chop off my head for doing so. Well, my girlfriend would be angry with me if I tried to bring back all the girls in the Middle East, of course. That's a good bit scarier than terrorists.

Still - the point is that although real women may face many issues in that part of the world the women I create are not real and thus not subject to death threats. I can make as many semetic girls as I like! Jewish, Lebanese, or purple elf variations. Girls with blue or green hair? Yep! Lebanese princesses turned into cowgirls? You bet! (As a side note Bulls and cows were quite prominent in many faiths and standards of ancient eras in that region. Just another layer I thought of well in advance.)

The great liberating truth of fiction is that you can do whatever you damn well please in it. As time goes on I will continue to bring you women that the real world conspires not to allow you to have.

PS: Funny note, Mia did not exist as a porn star when Nanshe was designed years ago. They just happened to end up looking very similar because Mia has the same features I wanted designed into Nanshe, which are basically just common features in women from that region. I let the artists decide eyebrow thickness because if I were choosing all the girls would have thicker eyebrows than Satsuki from Kill La Kill. It is my fetish. Also Mind control, but mostly eyebrows.

The Combat System Redux

So I'm sitting here at 3:49 AM on a Saturday working on the game because I am not yet convinced weekends or nights are things I should take off of working, and I came to a decision. I said I would release an update containing an updated combat system on the 1st of next month, including the big group battle scene. I will not.

This isn't because I don't like keeping those dates I set. As I've been working I've just realized just how much beyond the combat system I started with I can take this. During the course of this month I've done a bit of script writing, taken other scripts, and started to accomplish a LOT to improve the combat system. Let's go over some of it.

1: You are now able to have multiple groups at once and switch between them with a single button press. This was absolutely necessary for the army battle and was a huge pain in the butt to set up, but it's also something I could use for a wide number of things in the future. Now that it IS set up it's practically trivial to make a large number of complex and fun things. When I make Overwhored 2 expect me to make a ludicrous amount of use of it.

2: Spells and abilities can have an "area of effect". Thus, like in Chrono Trigger or Lunar or a lot of the games I based this off of spells can now do more than hit one or all enemies at once. This means I can and must think carefully about how to position enemies now.

3: Many of the things I wanted in the VX Vanilla version of the game I can now implement. Things like Regeneration are built into the new system, some, like a reflect spell, are something that has some in-system functionality but needs scripting to work optimally. Still - I can do everything I actually want to do now.

4: I can make custom animations, sound effects, and etc, and add them to the game. Because I can draw and do a limited degree of audio editing I can work in custom animations for practically everything I want to customize. I could make my own, custom icon sets as well. No more would I have to live with scraping by with what other people have made. I can make my own and have it be on-par with the default stuff in the game.

5: Enemies have a chase ability built into them. When you come close they will chase you, but when you are far away (or go a certain distance from them) they cannot chase you any further. They also require line of sight to start the chase, allowing for stealthy sneaking past enemies. I'm also looking into some "fixed area" fights like you see in Chrono Trigger.

6: Enemies now respawn whenever you leave and re-enter a map, save for ones like the villagers who are designed to only be fought once ever.

Also I should talk a bit more about how I'm designing these encounters. About a month ago someone linked me to a very informative analysis of the game Chrono Trigger and it just blew my mind. There were so many things in there that I could now do. I can't do things exactly like Chrono Trigger or Lunar because your sprites aren't really interacting with the enemy; I'm still using the "names at the bottom of the screen are your characters and they don't move" system, but even so, I can build in a staggering amount of potential into things.

Basically everything I couldn't do in VX Vanilla I can do now, and I can do it REALLY, REALLY well. I positively want to make these fights fun and work very hard on designing encounters, boss battles, and abilities that make the game truly enjoyable. I've got notes, plans, and I've been working a hell of a lot on things. There are still things I haven't quite figured out how to make like "triggered vulnerability" enemies, but I will get those down in time.

As a result I don't think I'll be making a single "Combat Release". It's ending as a large enough thing that it is far better I don't just try and hammer it out in a short period of time. Instead I'll gradully work on it alongside other game improvements as the game comes out.

My next goal is to release a version with the monstergirl village and some basic combat improvements. Right now the village, initial cave area, mountains, and graveyard have had some combat revamps. The monsters there now have abilities and use them; the enemy types vary a bit so some need magic to hurt or encourage you to use certain abilities against them like the three slaves Bash skill, or the upgraded Thrash skill they'll get that I've added in.

I'm trying to add depth to everyone and it is particularly important that I do so well. Rather than hit crunchtime and do something that isn't up to standard, I'll work on it more gradually while filling in more content and rewriting weak sections.

Expect the Monstergirl Village release complete with sex scenes by about March the 9th, along with some revamped combat for the first half of the game. After that I'll be working on rewrites and on Ilmatar's chapter.

Another Goal Reached!

Hey all! The $600 goal is reached. That means more Sleepymaid art in the game! Yaaay!

Note that this ONLY applies to this game. As I stated when I started the goal Sleepymaid's images have half their cost reserved already. That's because they cost twice as much as what was budgeted initially. Once the art for Overwhored is finished - and we're getting close - I won't be at the 4 pics/month rate until it's at $800. Not terribly nice, I know, but in order to do this at all I have to provide at least $360 a month to Sleepymaid.

But for now the money is reserved and pics will get made! Let's celebrate!

I spent much of yesterday working on the Monstergirl Village. It's far from done, alas. Why? Because it requires custom sprites. Custom sprites are a LOT of work and one can take several hours.

I did this one last night. It was relatively easy. Took several hours.

It's based on this character, drawn by Drew, with the finished art ready to go in the game:

I do start with a nude base. I take the nude sprites from this site, which is an incredibly useful place and resource.  I could make something like that myself, but when something like it already exists and its great - why? Just make sure you credit people if you use stuff like that. That site has a policy on it - no commercial games. I need to doublecheck my credits section before my next release to make sure I'm getting everyone.

I usually don't use the auto-generator as it's pretty limited, and if I do I usually do some custom work. Someone more skilled than I am could probably do it pretty quickly and better. But I'm fairly okay with the outcome. I also got about half the sprite sheet for a Lamia character you'll get a sex scene with in the Monstergirl village as well.

So! Time for announcing what I'll make the $20 reward.

Soon I'll be setting up a kind of "beginner's hall" much like you saw in FFVI. I'm going to allow named cameos in it. Not custom sprites, because those take several hours each. But custom names for the tutorial characters (within reason). These can be of you or an OC. I don't really care so long as they won't cause copyright issues.

I could make custom sprites for people for a $50 reward - but then I go and look at that and I just shake my head. $50 for a single custom sprite and a name? It's the only way I can justify it timewise, but I don't think it's worth it for what you get. So I likely won't be doing that. Likewise for me doing custom pictures for people. A single full color picture is at least four hours of work for me, usually more. I'd rather work on the game. I'm also not a pro-artist. Give that business to the art team. They're awesome people that will like it. For now you can donate more than $20 if you want to, but I'm not going to put up any bonuses because I can't think of anything good enough.

Still - just going off of the current tiers I'm doing better than I ever imagined. Thank you all so much for your support - you make it possible for me to do more and more work every month!