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Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Happy New Year!

A Happy New Year to everybody!

2014 will be a good year for the Overwhored project. Most of the vital art is done, I'm finally skilled enough with art to do a bit myself for the game, and the rebuild of the system is done.

Recent updates:

I started on the Pirate Captain Titjob picture a while ago, messed it up and had to start from scratch. I now have it drawn and inked; flat colors and shading will come next. Here's a quick preview.

The Pirate captain sprite, before and after some quick work to emphasize her cleavage, and one of the five variations on the picture:






Keep in mind I am NOT a professional artist like the art team. Criticism is welcome as long as it's constructive. I want the best art in the game I can put there.

The most important recent update is the music. Which is to say there's all new music. I finally found a good artist who puts their music up for open use.

The old music was purchased with my own money prior to donations being a thing. It looked good in the previews. Unfortunately, I spent $70 on precisely the songs you heard in the game. The rest weren't from the same artist and were so bad they were unusable.

I may use some of the old songs still, but I'm not sure. Personally I'm sick of hearing them but let me know if you've got a favorite or two.

I do need your feedback for one more thing, however.

I can fit a couple of monstergirls in the game. Which types do you want to see?

One proviso: I will NOT do succubi. Personal preference.

Actual appearance in the game depends on what sprites I can alter or find for that type of monstergirl, but I'm open to any suggestion except for the one above.

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Working Release Date

If you saw this morning's comment, please ignore it. There was a linguistic misunderstanding. If you didn't, don't sweat it.

For those of you out there who keep asking me what this new version will include and when it will be out:

One brand new heroine you can capture.

Three new cities.

Three new dungeons.

An option to skip to the latest chapter.

Completely rebuilt maps everywhere.

The option to kill or leave alive citizens in the first village.

A nice boat.

A titjob from a sexy pirate captain drawn by me!

A whole new opening with art done by the amazing artist Sleepymaid.

Art for the slave pits done by Sleepymaid.

Rewritten sex scenes.

And so, so much more.

This took a long time because the entire game basically had to be entirely rebuilt and I've been sick as heck lately. However, I'm confident we can get a release to you during the month of February. I'll be trying for the 1st, but it may be later in that month.

Thanks for waiting everyone. Let me know your feedback below.


Friday, December 20, 2013

Shopkeeper Name Chosen!

Congratulations to an anonymous poster. Thalia is the name of a Greek muse responsible for comedy and  and a form of poetry called Idyllic poetry dedicated to daily life, rather than heroic epics. Because so many names in the game are from the Mediterranean region, Thalia is a good fit.

Some fun runners up:
Alyssandra

 Karine

Kylie

Sunna

Parley (I consider this to be a close second.)

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I may use those names for some other characters in the future. Thanks for the suggestions!

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Shopkeeper Name

Sick or not, work has resumed! Some new maps are done and I'm working to integrate some of the new artwork in the game.

However, one thing I would like to do I want to leave up to you, the fans. Recently we've added name tags to all dialogue. The Shopkeeper who runs your business has no name. I'd like to give her one.

Please leave suggestions below, and I'll select my favorite to put in the game!

Saturday, November 30, 2013

Status Update

Sorry for not posting anything for a while. I've been pretty sick lately and I've been putting off doing blog posts due to general tiredness and dealing with side effects of medications I've been taking. Seems like I have a hospital appointment every day now, and enough lab visits that I feel like I'm getting poked with needles almost as much as I did training to use IVs. Fortunately I don't have to pay for any of it. One of those side-benefits of being a Veteran. On the plus side, I don't think I'm any more likely to die anytime soon than anyone else is. So don't worry about me disappearing due to a sudden bout of critical existence failure.

I currently have no timeline for the game, as I have no idea what my schedule will be like. I'm doing my best to try to do some work on it, but my energy is right about zero at the moment.

Don't worry about the game disappearing though. Development hasn't halted, and your donations are still being used to create new sweet art for scenes in the game.

A preview for the new opening CG art done by Sleepymaid:



There are other versions, and they are awesome! Boob Rubbing is a go!

The slave pits also have a picture now, as was originally intended. I'm not going to post a preview for that one though!

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Sleepymaid Art Stream Mk. 2

If you missed the first one, don't miss this one!

Wanna see how the art for Overwhored is made? My friend, the talented artist Sleepymaid, is streaming the process of making art for the game right now!

Hop on if you want to watch!

http://www.livestream.com/sleepymaid/

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

On Writing

Writing, like art, is a skill that takes time and effort to cultivate. A lot of people think they are writers because they can put text on a page, but doing it well is a world apart.

My post can't make you a writer. I'm not secretly a world-famous published author. The subject is one that takes years to get good at. Hopefully it will help you get a start, however.

First off. What is a story? Believe it or not writers who are either college professors (where people are required to read their books) and unemployed coffee house writers (who don't actually write books) have a lot of arguments about this subject.

For the purpose of this post, I'm going to define it as a sequence of events with a clear beginning and end.

Thus, "A man walks" is not a story. "A man walks across a room and gets to the other side." Is a story. Any sequence of events with a clear beginning and end is a story.

Of course, "A man walks across a room and gets to the other side" is boring. That's why you have goals, and conflict.

A goal is something the hero wants, and conflict is what stands in his or her way. Conflict is the fuel of a story. A goal is the end of a story.

The type of goal and conflicts you choose are what define your genre. For instance, "Indiana Jones walks into the temple and evades the traps (conflict) to get the golden idol (goal) and acquires it" makes it an action/adventure story. If the place is filled with traps that require gruesome sacrifice and his goal is just to survive, that's the plot of SAW. A man walks into a ballroom and sees a girl he's desperately in love with, but the dastardly bad boy is already seducing her. He manages to kick him off a balcony and ravage her flower of passion in a back room. That's essentially a harlequin romance. If he walked into the same room with a swingy pendant and fucked her pussy hard, that's an Erotic Mind Control story. (The main difference between porn and a harlequin romance novel is that one is slightly more flowery with the prose)

On the other hand, if you want to do Lovecraftian Horror:


This is the basic story structure of any story. You don't have to have a man or a room, just some sort of clear beginning and ending, and a person pursuing a goal and either accomplishing or failing at it.

The key to a novel or any longer story that often confuses people is that it doesn't feel like it's that clear. It is.

The trick is that they don't just use ONE story, they use several. They use one big goal and conflict, and along the way they use several smaller ones as stumbling blocks.

For instance, Indiana Jones goes into the idol and gets it, only to have it taken by that dastardly Nazi, whom he must pursue. That sets up the big plot arc, which is resolved when the Nazi Archaeologist dies at the arc. There's also a romance subplot.

OUTLINING:

This is where outlining comes in. You don't need a big backstory when you start (and you might not need one at all). Instead, you need a few 'a man walks into a room and gets to the other side' simple plots.

You lay down the primary one.

Primary:
Conflict: Indiana Jones wants to into Archaeology but those Nazis won't let him
Goal: Nazis want that sweet ass blingy arc but Indy says no way
Resolution: Nazis melt

Then along the way, you nest several smaller ones in as obstacles that impede that primary goal. For instance, the sequence where Indy has to get past the snakes and figure out the sunlight puzzle, the romance subplot, and so on.

The hero doesn't HAVE to succeed, and in fact can try and fail at their primary goal more than once, because as long as they survive the next time they'll try harder. (This is actually written into the three act structure of most movies.) So you can even reuse the same goal, provided that instead of raiding a tomb in Egypt and getting shot at he's fistfighting Nazis on a landing strip.

If you want to get a feel for how this works, look at at any book or movie and pay attention and you can actually see the "man walks across a room and gets to the other side" level plots.

The process of writing a longer story is literally just nesting a bunch of simple stories into one another like a Russian Doll.

Writing is a lot more complex than this. If you want to write, that's your first goal. See if you can watch a movie or read a book (or several, have a movie day!) and pick out the simple plots from it. Take a notepad and a pen, and mark them down as you see them, as well as their resolution.

Being able to see the plots is where you start if you want to write them.

And yes, this is work. I read a novel every single day. It only takes me about an hour or two if it's a normal book, but I do read a book a day, and I have a rather large movie collection.

So read. Watch. Study.

My next post will tackle how you add in detail, discuss how I use this process with Overwhored and in games, as well as some more complex story discussion.

Further Reading:

The Hero With a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell: This book explains how ancient myths tended to follow the same structures and breaks them all down. Do NOT take this as a writing manual. It is not a step by step guide to making a story. It simply helps you see and understand the plots. If you are curious how a story would look if you had it play out in a movie, watch the original trilogy of Star Wars. It's basically a literal step by step copy of the structure described in the book. Note that it might help to just read a thorough summary, because the author tends to get rather pseudophilosophical and uses some annoying prose. It's still an important book you should read, though.

This entire website:
http://www.writingexcuses.com/
Three highly skilled published authors discuss writing on their podcast. Listen to ALL of it. It's good.

Monday, November 4, 2013

Art Stream Now!

Wanna see how the art for Overwhored is made? My friend, the talented artist Sleepymaid, is streaming the process of making art for the game right now!

Hop on if you want to watch!

http://www.livestream.com/sleepymaid/

Thursday, October 31, 2013

Happy Halloween!

Happy spookyday everybody!

Halloween is my favorite holiday of the year. Shame I live in the middle of nowhere and can't do anything today and I'm not in much of a state to go out anyway, but hey. Such is life.

A friend recently told me I'm going to die alone. I stated that was ridiculous. Absolutely absurd. All my best friends are ghosts. They'll totally be with me.

And the best part? I've got a skeleton friend on the inside. He know's what's up.

The answer? Ghost birds. Lots and lots of ghost birds. And they all hate you. Don't look up.

I'm going to tell a true story to you all right now. This story didn't take place on Halloween and wasn't nearly so scary as most campfire tales. It's also not the type of story I tell to people for reasons that will become obvious soon.

When I was a teenager I lived in a house with four other guys. It was a convenient roomate situation. The house was nice, conspicuously cheap, and other than weird cold drafts, totally comfy. That is precisely the setup for a ghost story. Which is exactly what this is.

In between drinking crates of soda, playing D&D and doing what nerds in their teens and early twenties do, we loved to play with neat little technological toys. One of those was the black light. That was when we discovered some rather conspicuous stains that we could only barely see without it.

A very large round stain in the middle of the living room, followed by drag marks into a bedroom (not mine) into a closet, where there was another very large stain. A closet that was always cold. Which, let me tell you, is quite convenient in the middle of the desert. If I'd had that room, I'd have hung out in it all the time, but I digress.

Having discovered the stains, we got the bright idea to check some newspapers. And sure enough, we were living in an actual honest-to-goodness murder house. And worse, the landlords were too cheap to change out the carpet. They hadn't even done that good of a job of cleaning it. It's kind of gross.

The story, it turns out, was not some mysterious tale of intrigue. It was almost disappointing. Some teens had had a party there, and two boys had gotten into a fight. Over what, we never found out; the article never said. They'd been drinking, and one of them pulled a knife out. A girl jumped in between them to try and stop them from fighting just as he swung the knife. Between the newspaper and the stains, we puzzled out what happened.

After they'd stabbed her she stayed bleeding on the carpet while the two boys panicked. The police showed up, and they dragged her into the closet in an attempt to hide her, where she bled to death. The police were not fooled.

This is the point where I should point out that although I was nerdy, I WAS a teenager, and I was actually not bad looking since I worked out. I was probably the only one in the house that could be said of. I also noticed a lot more of the mysterious cold breezes than anyone else - both before and after we found out about the murder. Particularly when I was alone, or getting ready for bed.

Well I thought nothing much of it. I've always been neutral on the existence of ghosts. Still am. Maybe they exist; maybe they don't. But this experience has led me to believe that maybe they do. And then I blush, and realize it's a bit ludicrous to use THIS as an example.

I was alone in the house. There was absolutely no one else there. Everyone else had already gone to work, and I was hot and groggy, since I'd just woken up. Once again, this was in the desert. So I figured I'd take a shower. I felt a lot of strange cool breezes, but thought nothing of them by this point. It was comforting in the heat. If the ghost wanted to fan me, I was fine with that. So I get undressed, I hop in the shower, and I feel kind of strange for some reason. Not uneasy or bad, just strange.

Then I hop out of the shower, and before I can grab a towel, I hear something.

I've been all over the world; seen a lot, done a lot, but I've never heard anything like this sound before or since. It was the sound of a girl orgasming in a rather unique way.

I can't really describe the way it sounded, save that it sounded very much like a girl very loudly cumming her brains out, weirdly echoey and distant like it was coming from the other end of a vent with a fan in the middle while still in the same room. At the same time it didn't exactly sound like that. It's really hard to describe. "Weird trippy girl voice loudly cumming her brains out" is the best I can do.

Well, I put on my WTF face, searched the house, and found that no one had accidentally left a porn vid playing or anything. The place was quiet. Nothing in there could make a noise like that.

So I put the dots together. Only teenage male in a house where a teenage girl died. A lot more strange cool breezes than the others. And now, a girl's voice orgasming as I stepped out of the shower, totally nude. A voyeuristic ghost girl was schlicking it to me.

This idea did not freak me out. It made me feel extremely embarrassed since I also felt proud of it, which is incredibly silly. I don't know if the girl was cute before she died since the newspaper didn't give a picture or even a name, but I'd like to think so.

Well, real or just a trick of the imagination, I now have a distinct love of ghost girl porn. I moved out of that house not long after that because the building got demolished to make some sort of bigger luxury house, but I was a bit more... exhibitionist after that experience. No more echoey girls cumming, but there were still lots of breezes.

I still don't know if it was all imagination, but either way, I got to live out a real life ghost story! The kind that doesn't end with calling for an old priest and a young priest or an excess of unnecessary tape recorders and a fresh corpse or anything. When I was there, I never once felt that I was threatened. I felt good there. To this day, I'm not the least bit frightened of ghosts.

But if anything, I took this away from it. There could be a cute ghost girl behind you, schlicking it to you watching porn, right now. Turn around and give her a smile.




Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Developing an H-Game: Getting started.

I love games. I love H-Games as well. I enjoy seeing people happily produce new things. There's a strong financial incentive that let's people do this in Japan if they're good enough at it, but in the rest of the world, this isn't really the case. It's almost exclusively the domain of hobbyists, and you'll see most games halfway finished, then abandoned by the wayside.

I'm also a hobbyist. So take my advice keeping that in perspective. I won't tell you how to make a game on the level of a professional studio. I will, however, help you get a start as a hobbyist. Overwhored was started because I love these games and don't see enough of them. I wanted to inspire other people to create their own games, and to an extent I've been successful. I can point to at least one project inspired by Overwhored that's out there now. That makes me happy. Overwhored is far from finished, but I intend to continue working on it, and as I do, I hope others come to make their own games in turn.

I want to continue that process here and now.

If you're thinking of making an H-Game, that's great. But you need to consider why you're doing it. You probably won't get a lot of IRL credit for it (more likely you'll get the opposite), and you probably won't make money off of it either.

My inspiration is simply that I love RPG's, I love H-games, and I love making things. When I get the chance I simply enjoy tinkering with the system to make new stuff, try new things, and enjoy making something. Even if no one else would ever see it, I'd probably keep making it. Most of the stuff I've made in my life is like that. Much of the adult content I've made in my life, be it stories, games, and so on, have simply been deleted when I finished them, and I was content knowing they were made. Other people getting to see my stuff is a strange idea I've only recently come to be comfortable with.

Other people use other things. A supportive spouse who helps you out, making something with friends, and so on. Whatever it is, you need to find something of your own; something that drives you to make your game.


It's important for this reason:

You have to be capable, ultimately, of starting and finishing a project yourself. If no one else supports you, if you never make money off of it, you still have to be willing and capable to push through and finish it. If you start as a team, you need to be ready to finish the project when your partner wigs out.

That means you have to know what you, personally, are capable of. Do you write? Do you draw? Do you program? What is your specialty? Knowing that is half the difficulty.

You'll want to select an approach that utilizes your own talents as best you can. Renpy is good if you can draw and write. RPG Maker is good if you can understand a bit of basic programming logic and write. Making your own system is good if you can program.

Still, there's a bit of a problem before you begin working with your system. Before we start a story, we'll build up a perfect vision of a fairy tale castle of a game. It'll be perfect! It'll have flashing lights, and animated cutscenes, and the best art! It'll have the best story ever, and if you just give me the money I'll hire a team to make it and no I don't have experience, why do you ask? Wait, why won't you give me money?

Remember; in the end, it has to be something YOU are capable of beginning and finishing yourself. I hired artists for Overwhored, but I paid for every single picture out of my own pocket until Overwhored gained enough popularity that people donated. If people didn't donate, I'd still be paying out of my own pocket. It'd take much longer, but I'd damn well do it. The game would be progressing no matter what. I did my darndest to learn how to draw, so I could one day do some art for my own work. And I started with placeholder pictures. You have to be willing to take responsibility for your own project and show people what YOU can do. Once you've done that, THAT is when people are willing to help.

I didn't start with Overwhored, though. When I began, I knew how to write, and nothing else. I didn't know how to use RPG Maker, I didn't know how to draw more than a stick figure.

More than likely, you'll start off in a similar situation. So what should you do?



GETTING STARTED WITH YOUR SYSTEM

 First step, select your system. I selected RPG Maker, so I'm going to use that as my guide. Much of this advice is going to help you get started in any system, though.

I like RPG Maker, but it has flaws. I have a friend who swear by older versions of flash. I know some people who love Renpy, or one of the many other game making systems out there. Once again, this depends on your own talents. My friend that prefers flash is an amazing artist; his work is great because of his amazing quality art. I'm pretty much entirely a writer. I'd love to make a visual novel, but at the time my art was stick-figure tier. Plus, I'd played around a bit with RPG Maker on the playstation back in ye olden days, hindered primarily by the fact that I had no keyboard for the Playstation and text had to be painstakingly pecked out bit by bit. In the end, I decided I'd go with RPG Maker VX.

At this point I did not start on Overwhored. There is a very important lesson you should learn right away. You should NOT make your fist project your big dream project. As we play games we love we build up a dream of the game we'd like to make. We imagine big, perfect stories that have a huge backstory and elaborate setup. I could have started right away on such a project.

Instead I made about 20+ games designed around one thing: Learning the system. That's precisely what you should do.

These games were not complete; they were never intended to be. The stories were often very simple and cliched. Recruit a party, rescue the princess, kill the evil boss. But they fulfilled a very important function.

When you imagine your perfect story, you do so lacking something very, very critical. Knowledge of your system. You imagine cutscenes you have no idea how to make, you imagine stories with backstory you don't have the capability to show or make relevant to the main plot. You imagine elaborate magic systems you can't implement.

If you go in trying to make your dream project before you know the system, you will rip out your own heart and stomp on it. That is when most people give up. They start with a big story idea, a perfect dream of a game. Then they realize it's a lot of hard work to make one, their story is hard to tell in the system, and much of the cool stuff they imagined is impossible to pull off with the tools and skills they have. Disillusioned, they give up.

That is why you do the many, cliche little game projects. It's hard enough to learn the basics of a system; if you also burden yourself with the stress of trying to reach an impossible ideal it will crush you. If the story is cliche, you know it by heart, which means you don't have to think much about it. If it's something you're not attached to, you'll have no problem abandoning it once you realized you screwed up with something basic. Your first few games with ANY system are going to suck. Period. That's true of everyone, and it'll certainly be true of you. Making very simple games where you're not attached to the story is important. This is not your dream project. This is not your perfect vision of a game. This is you messing around and learning what you're doing. You don't have to feel bad when you mess up on a test project.

I made a recreation of my house, with a short game where I fought off zombies invading. I made a typical 'rescue the princess' story more than once. I played with minigames, events, and so on.

And so I came to learn just how the system worked. I was able to adjust my writing style to the system, and I knew what I could and couldn't do.

This is precisely what you should do no matter what your system is. Learn how to do it first, mess around with stuff that's inconsequential and you feel no attachment to. Keep it simple, keep it direct and linear and cliche. There'll be plenty of time for great stuff later. But you can't make good games without having the proper foundation. There's an extra bonus to this, of course. You have an excuse to play a ludicrous amount of games like the one you're trying to make so you can try out stuff in them and see if you can make them in your own system. It's often difficult, but very satisfying to realize you can pull off some stuff you've seen in one of your favorite games.

One of the first things I did was work with this RPG Maker VX Tutorial file.

http://www.4shared.com/office/9nuSqPnj/beginners_guide_to_rpg_maker_v.htm

I did every step in it several times. I did it exactly according to the guide the first time through. Later I changed the course of events, changed the items, changed the actors and played around with every aspect I could. But I still gladly held to the format. It's an excellent document if you want to start with RPG Maker VX.

I looked at websites for tutorials, I played around with every aspect of the system I could think of to try and learn more.

And I still sucked.

But the important thing was this: I knew how it worked now. I was ready for a big project.



HYPNO MASTER:

Hypno Master was a short, fairly crappy game about a fellow that runs around and mind controls girls. It's extremely simple, very basic and pretty short. But it's something I'm very proud of for all that it sucks, for one reason.

It's a completed project.

That's vital. Before you tackle a big game, make at least one complete, short game. Even after learning the system, you'll be surprised just how tough it is to make even a very short game.

Before you start a project like this, you'll need to make a very clear outline, with a defined beginning and end to the game. You don't need pages of backstory or volumes of character references here. There's precisely one purpose to a project like this: Getting a finished game out. An entire, self-sufficient game. You won't believe how much that will boost your confidence. More importantly, it'll help you learn just what you need to actually do to create a finished story. When you want to make something bigger, it'll tell you just what you need to do to make it happen. It puts everything into perspective.

After you've learned the system, this is your goal. A finished project with a defined beginning and end. It doesn't matter if it's short or crappy. You want it done. That's the most important thing. Prove to yourself you can finish a project in this system. Learn precisely what it takes to actually do that.

I didn't even consider starting Overwhored until after I was done with Hypno Master. Overwhored was not my dream project; it was something I wrote up AFTER I made that game. I have no dream project. If you make it this far, feel free to pull the writing you did for your old project out and look at it. You'll understand why you'll never make it by now. But that's alright. You'll make something better.

Be proud of that.

If you want to play hypno master, feel free to click on the link to the Copper Edition below. The Copper Edition has no lolicon content; the regular game did. I'm not interested in distributing the version with loli content at this time, but on the plus side the Copper edition is funnier. Also: Check the forest for an extra bonus.

http://www.4shared.com/rar/DWkVApj6/Hypno_Master_Copper_Edition_-_.html


Next time I'll talk a bit about story writing and structure, as well as game resources. Hope this helps you get started!


Monday, October 28, 2013

Quick Update

Not much for me to report right now. Just got back from a hospital visit. Have a few more later this week. Once this post is done I'm going to bed.

Not much done last week due to stuff like the above. Tomorrow I'm going to write a post to help people considering making their own H-RPG, or just RPG in general, or just game in general. I'm not feeling up to it at the moment though.

I'll help anyone who wants to make a game with advice. I won't make your game for you, but I'll definitely help point people in the direction of resources and show you how to outline a story and set up a game. Come back tomorrow, I'll go over that then.

One other thing: I'm going to be looking into methods of promotion for the game soon. I'll want to ramp it up right before I release the next chapter (though that's a ways away) I don't have an advertising budget, so if you have suggestions, I'd like to hear 'em.

See you tomorrow.

Monday, October 21, 2013

Updates and Considerations

Hi again, everyone!

I've been doing a bit of work on the game lately. The boat scene is done, the quest to get to the boat is done, and dungeons generally take a lot less time than complex cutscenes. The boat scene involved a ship-to-ship battle, so it took a bit of time.

I'm probably going to be in and out of the hospital this week and over the next few weeks - nothing serious, hopefully, but between that and work I don't know how much free time I'll have, since the hospital is an hour away. (I would suggest not having any sort of medical emergency where I live.)

This brings up a simple consideration. I hate taking so long to release a new version of the game.

This version needs several more things to be complete, some of which have complex cutscenes and such.

What I'm considering is adding several sex scenes for existing characters, doing the island dungeon, and then making the 'main continent' where you capture the dwarven heroine a separate release. Though all the maps have been redesigned, this will be a pretty short release if I do that. I'm going to put a poll at the end of this so you can decide whether you want to wait, or you want to get the release ASAP.

If you want to wait, I can't say how long it'd take. If you want it fast, I should be able to finish up the island dungeon and run through the game to fix some things related to the all new maps by the 4th of next month (depending on the outcome of hospital visits).

To clarify, here's what still needs to be done (Not counting the island dungeon):


1: Make the ruined village
2: Make the dwarven village
3: Make the hidden monstergirl village
4: Make the volcano dungeon
5: Finish up the tunnels dungeon

I may cut the ruined village and place a small camp there instead, and I miiiight push the hidden monstergirl village to the release after. The Bilbao chapter (Basque Lamaak heroine) will be a lot shorter than this one.

I've already done a bit of work on the above.

Now for some art previews! I honestly don't recall if I've shown some of these before. The next version WILL include the option to impregnate the three initial slaves, as well as a redrawn threeway bj scene.

This is important: When the next release comes out, I will include ALL sketches, small and large versions of images currently in the game with the beta release download for donators only. Those of you donating have been very kind, and I want to give something back. It's about time I did this.

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On the my art front: I still suck at shading, but recently got a new color palette and my lineart is looking a lot better. I'm starting to think I might be able to draw a scene or two for the game, but the main issue remains shading. My attempts at blended shading still look terrible and I still have no natural sense of how shading works.

Here's where I am right now, my latest pic. I used a photo for reference with it. With references, I seem to do alright. Without everything I do looks atrocious. This took me a few hours, spaced out over time.


If nothing else, I may be able to make some temporary art until it can be replaced with art done by a real artist on the team. It'd make me feel less like I'm wasting my time when I'm drawing instead of working on Overwhored, anyway. Right now I feel like I don't spend nearly enough time on anything I'm doing.

-----

Miscellaneous:

I'm going to plug two games now. Been meaning to for a while.

The first is called Harem Collector. You play as a guy out to enslave over a hundred women with the aid of magical mind controlling slave collars.

The game is made by a fellow that goes by NoMoshing and his wife, Nekochan. They're both excellent people. He started as a fan of Overwhored, decided to make his own game and ended up making a great one. It's far from complete but he updates regularly and his content is good. He's contributed to Overwhored by helping with some of the more complex events, and the cast has a cameo in his game; I'm planning to return the favor when I can get a chance.

If you enjoy Overwhored and want to make your own game, I will help you. With resources and advice, anyway. Harem Collector is a great game and I would love to see a thriving community emerge. I have a resource page up here for just this reason.

You can find his game and download it here:
http://nomoshingsgames.blogspot.ca/

I basically consider this a 'sister' game to Overwhored. Give these kind people some love. They do great work.

 ------

The Second game is called Ashford Academy.

Ashford Academy continues in the tradition of the Hentai Highschool games. You're the principal of a highschool which starts out prudish, and your goal is to make it preposterously perverse during your stay. You can be good or evil and corrupt various teachers and students along the way. It works in a VN style, but plays out more like the classic HHS games than an actual VN.

Now this does come with a disclaimer: This sort of game DOES use ripped images from various established games. It isn't done for profit, however, and I'm quite sure no one intends disrespect for the games the images are taken from.

This was exactly the sort of game that got me started on making games myself. I'm a bit obsessed about not having copyrighted material in my current work so no one can ever take it down, but make no mistake - games like this are where I got my start.

 I made a few events for this to show my support; actually. I did them hurredly, didn't actually program them (someone else did that for me) and didn't proofread them. I couldn't justify taking away more than an evening from Overwhored.

They are in the latest version, however. A version which came out today; the one year anniversary of the game's creation.

If you have an evening free, you should play it!

You can get the latest download (Which came out today!) here:
https://www.henthighschool.com/ashford-academy/public-demo-ashford-academy/msg9769/#msg9769

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Now for the polls:



Quick Release or Full Chapter?
  
pollcode.com free polls 



Should Cypress_z do some art for the game?
  
pollcode.com free polls 

Have a good week, everybody!

Monday, September 30, 2013

Boat Scene Progressing

Sorry for the lack of update last week. It seems I was much more sick than I thought I would be, and between work and passing out in bed I had no energy for anything else.

Currently I'm working on a boat scene. Unfortunately I do not have the budget to include a full musical number, but it will be a fun part of the game. The mission that sends you from one continent to the other is finished.

There's also been some art finished, and all of it is good! You'll love it when it's up, I may post a preview of some of it next week.

 I have decided that Skeletons have gotten old, so I have decided to change the blog so that you will get the full guidance of the Chinese Legalist philosopher Shang Yang. He is one of my favorite philosophers. Yes, the fake caption is essentially what his philosophy boils down to.

But to give 'em one last shebang, I have created a story out of a series of entirely unrelated skeleton themed images.

Enjoy.



Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Quests begun Questing

The Quest to go to the new land has begun, though it hasn't gotten too far. Real life concerns remain time chompers. The tower mistress issues the mission now, and some new NPC's are done.

The servant quarters are done, so I can now fill them with cute maid girls. Unfortunately I have no maid art, so the actual sex scenes are going to have to wait.

It's starting to get cold here, and my body is reacting as it usually does - by trying to pretend it's an extra in a horror flick and doing its best imitation. That is to say, lots of nosebleeds, colds, and aching in all the joints. I can handle all freezing cold, I can handle all scorching hot, it's those blasted parts of the globe with seasons that mess me up. It's not about age (I'm not old); I've always been this way. At least I rarely wake up in pools of blood from midnight nosebleeds anymore. And you thought wetting the bed as a child was embarrassing! But since thinking too much about this particular topic is making me a tad woozy, I think that's all I'll say on the matter.

Since I am sick and likely to keep getting sick for a bit, It's likely I'll find more time to do this rather than real life work. Believe me, it's better than bed rest.

I also want to take a moment and thank everyone for assisting me with examples of backhanded charity.  I will put your examples to full use. Also a special thanks to the individual who has been corresponding with me via e-mail about Norwegian culture. The information I've gotten is extremely useful.

I don't have anything else that's particularly useful to say. I've been sketching a bit lately, and will share some sketches with you all. If my crappy art doesn't interest you, this is where I'll wish you well. See you next week!



This last one is a character I'm designing in case I ever do a game with my own art. I'm still highly unsatisfied with my skill, and nearly broke myself trying to draw this simple goddamn face. Maybe another year or two.



Monday, September 9, 2013

Sunday, September 8, 2013

Quick Game Plug

I'm going to do an actual status update tomorrow, but I wanted to take a moment to plug this game:

http://dreamingofcheshirecat.blogspot.com/

Pendulum.

You know, there's something I really value in my porn. Much like I value in everything in my life; surreal experiences and weirdness.

This is an adult platformer filled with a lot of that, and it's best that I don't say too much. The sex scenes aren't too gratuitous, but honestly I just like it as a game.

Mind that unlike Overwhored this IS a commercial game, but you can still try out the demo for free, which is enough to help you decide if it's an experience you'd care for.

By this point I'm a pretty jaded guy. I tend to view a lot of games that go weird or dark as 'edgy' 90's nonsense. But this triggers... none of my natural cynicism. It's just a fun game, and that's a grand experience.

I should probably go through and give a solid plug to a lot of different games that I like; that may be this week's mid-week update.

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Feminist Friendly Facts about Overwhored

"Wait, what?" I hear you say. Yes. Believe it or not, I was amused when looking over a few checklists and tests for feminist friendly works, and it turns out Overwhored somehow manages to pass a whole bunch of them.

Now before you flip out, I'm going to mention to things in advance. 1: There's always some sperglord who flips the fuck out at the very mention of the WORD feminism. I would quite explicitly NOT encourage you to douse yourself in gasoline and play with a box of matches, but I wouldn't be too sad if you did. 2: I'm not some jumble-brained tumblr social justice blogger. I happen to actually like women as people in spite of the game I've made, and I find the fact that this has somehow managed to pass a number of pro-feminist tests amusing. I'm going to be pointing that out, but don't ever expect moralistic rants from me.

Pretty much nothing is going to make it past the basic premise of the game - that is, you're a guy that uses mind control to turn women into sex slaves - but funny enough, that ALSO doesn't erase the fact that somehow my game treats women better than a huge amount of fiction.

Bechdel Test: 
Two women speak to each other about something other than a man. 

This one has been passed several times over already, often in the dialogue concerning objects or things, and there are only going to be more examples of it passing over time. Especially during the flashback sequences I'm going to do later where you'll see the heroines during their full glory.

Basically any time any two characters talk about ANYTHING in the story other than the Overmind, this test is passed, since most of the characters are female. It helps that the Overmind himself doesn't talk much.

Plot Significance: 
A female character is featured prominently in the plot as something other than a love interest who is there to be loved.

All seven heroines have their own story, and I've posted a few here, edited for spoilers. Their actions before they met or first fought the Overmind have real significance in the story. The fact that they become his "love interests" later on doesn't really change that. Moreover, even after capture they're all going to have some major individual driving momentum in the plot. When you eventually make it to Chianina or Nanshe's city or some of the others, you will see that even after capture, they do in fact have lives even outside being the Overmind's sex slaves.

Moreover, most city leaders are female (the towns I'm making now have more female leaders) and actually there's a lot more being planned. Nor are all prominent female characters going to become sex slaves. (A lot probably will though, because that's the point of the game.)

The Finkbeiner test sounds indecent and amusing, but is a gauge for gender neutrality in journalistic articles. Though it isn't meant to apply to games, I'm gonna try it anyway!

To pass the test, the journalistic article must not mention:
  • The fact that she’s a woman
  • Her husband’s job
  • Her child care arrangements
  • How she nurtures her underlings
  • How she was taken aback by the competitiveness in her field
  • How she’s such a role model for other women
  • How she’s the "first woman to..."
1: I rarely mention the fact that the female characters are female at all outside the sex scenes, and I don't think I really even explicitly mention it much there, since you can see their gender quite clearly with your own eyes. Other than using "heroine" as a descriptive term or describing how the Overmind's magic works only on women, it's rarely mentioned at all.

 2: None of them have a husband and the Overmind doesn't count. Funny that. It's unlikely that I'll ever have the Overmind explicitly steal a woman from her husband/boyfriend (slave owners don't count). NTR/Cuckolding is not my fetish and is something I rather dislike, so you're HIGHLY unlikely to actually see that in the game.

3: This one is currently passed, though I will have some characters mention how they'd rear children in the next release (in a context appropriate scene), and some will be able to get pregnant. So I don't think it'll be passed in the game as a whole, but it won't be an issue for most characters. It certainly won't ever be a major part of the game.

4: Well most heroines will fail on this account because most of them are going to have underlings in some capacity, though Iskis, Kael, and Alexia will pass with flying colors. Christie, for example, will eventually lead your armies. Knowing how various characters run things is important in this game from a storytelling perspective, so there's no way out of this one. Skree will never have underlings, so yay Skree! The naked nymphomaniac batgirl is truly a pillar of feminist virtue. (tongue-in-cheek-sarcasm intended)

5: Really most of the heroines and main characters have utterly dominated their field of expertise. Fairly, I might add, through legitimate skill and hard work (as you'd see in Branda's history). I don't honestly think any of them were 'taken aback' by the difficulty of getting there; they're heroes. It comes with the job. I've never had them say anything like that and probably never will. (Though I reserve the right to have them speak with tongue-in-cheek sarcasm about anything.)

6: Being heroines becoming a role model comes with the territory, but few of the heroines are ever going to actually talk about that. Not that they're really role models at this point in the story anyway.

7: None of the heroines are firsts. They aren't the first women to kill the Overmind. They're simply the greatest heroes of their time, and Branda, for instance, looks at Femcinnatus as a big inspiration, but primarily for historical reasons.

I also have a personal test, which isn't necessarily feminist but is one of my personal pet peeves:

The Not-River-Tam-Or-Buffy-Waif-Superasskicker Test.

I love Joss Whedon, don't get me wrong. I love Firefly and Buffy. But it bothers the hell out of me that you have pretty waifs or supermodels effortlessly beating up everyone. If a woman in my game is supposed to be strong, I prefer that she have some muscle on her or is at least well built. Branda, for instance, doesn't have a lot of visible muscle definition, but she's definitely not a twig (and there's that potion) and is well built. Honestly she reminds me of some girls I knew in the army who were strong but curvy. Audr is short, stacked, and looks as strong as she is, since she's a Dwarf. Heck, even the mage Nanshe has nice abs.




I do have the artists hold off on super-muscle to maintain a broad appeal, but I personally am fine with ladies with good muscle definition.

Something about the whole concept of the waif-superheroine just strikes me as off and probably vaguely sexist, somehow. I'm not sure why, but I relegate it to the uncanny valley of writing concepts.

Believe it or not I do try to give women a fair shake in my game, and if I notice something has a disturbing subtext (other than, you know, the main premise) I'll work to correct it. I'm not perfect; I'll probably screw up in that respect a few times. Help me make sure those moments get fixed.

Considering the main premise I don't expect a lot of women to play my game, but in the event that they do I'd like it to be a game that gives women a fair shake. If nothing else, that's just good writing. Treating women like props and love interests that are just there to be there is piss poor writing, and I don't want to engage in that.

I'm not going to try to defend the basic premise of the game. It'd probably still be viewed as sexist even if the main character was female and the slaves were male (which is a potential idea for a future game I've toyed with). That's just how it goes; you're either going to like mind control or not. But as far as things go, I'm going to work hard to keep explicit sexism out of the game to the extent that I can. Not because I'm a white knight, but because I actually like women as human beings and most importantly, because I want to do a good job writing.

So if you see something you like; comment on it. If you see something you don't, comment on that too. I do listen to your feedback and want to hear it.

In other news the hiatus is over; I'll give full details on what work I'm currently doing on Monday! Have a good week!

Monday, August 26, 2013

Still on Hiatus

Sorry folks, I'm running ragged lately. I haven't been able to work on the game lately. So the hiatus continues.

I did find an hour or so tonight to sketch up a bit of hypno-themed mind control porn in the hopes it will appease you. Enjoy.


Saturday, August 17, 2013

Story Post: The Age of Titans

Some say that once all men were titans.

In the beginning of the world the gods who shaped creation combined the elements and divine power to create their greatest servants. They were powerful creatures that attended to the fine work of the world, beings of magic and vast size and power. Enormous, they dwarfed all other living beings both physically and in terms of magical power.  They shaped the mountain ranges, they created the seas and skies, they heated the heart of the land in molten flame, and they created all the races in the world.

They imbued the elves with magic, making them natural mages. They created the dwarves to build and craft and shape. They created the Lamaak to inspire and invent. They created many great creatures and works of power. Great beasts that dwelled beneath the seas; powerful dragons and spirits of air and earth. While the goddess and other creators of the world had shaped the world and given it life, the Titans made it the world it is. They were a force for order, creation, and power.

They were corrupted.

Records of the earliest period of history are fragmentary, even among the races that can date back to the earliest eras. It was, however, an era of peace. The titans were builders and shapers, created to form the world in a manner pleasing to its creators. By all account they were pleased to do so for uncounted eons.

When they changed, they changed suddenly.

Mountains were ripped asunder. Seas were boiled. The deep of the earth cooled and the skies ripped apart with thunder. They waged war and leveled their great cities. The races they created cowered in fear. Worse, many created their own new servants - those now considered monsters. Goblins, the undead, horrors lurking in the oceans of the deep; dragons of a new and vile kind. Creatures of living lava emerged from volcanoes and ravaged the land. The Titans aided none, devouring their former servants, creations, and each other in a massive orgy of war and consumption and corruption.

This was the first time the Overmind was spotted in the mortal world.

He was not a titan. Though taller by far than any of the servant races, by human standards he is merely very tall. The titans stood between dozens and hundreds of meters tall. He stood a mere eight and a half feet. But he was vastly powerful.

His origins were unclear, but his purpose was not. He was not a deliverance for the created races. He conquered and enslaved them, breeding a vast army of monstergirls. With incredible magical power he faced the titans, fought the titans, and slew the titans.

He was slain in turn. For though he was powerful, they were capable of rivaling gods.

He did not fight for hatred of them, but for the reason he has always fought; to conquer, to breed, to claim.

Titans cannot be claimed. In time, they died. Unlike the Overmind, they did not return.

The servant races created heroes to fight the army of Titans and Overmind, striking whenever one side was weak. The Titans devoured all, the Overmind enslaved all he could. The mortal races survived and struck blindly at all. Beasts of nightmare ruled the land.

In the single greatest instance of divine intervention in history, the goddess acted.

Over centuries of war with each other, the mortal races, and the Overmind, the Titans had weakened considerably, but still undoubtedly ruled the world. She struck them down with incredible power in a single instant. Why she did not also strike down the Overmind - why she has never struck him down - is something no scholar or priest has been able to answer. Most believe him to be a divine test or punishment for the mortal races. Why then did the titans rebel? Why did she strike them down?

It is recorded in most histories that they had died at that moment. However in the most ancient and fragmentary records of the elves and dwarves, it is recorded that something quite different happened.

The titans did not die, but were changed. Stripped of their vast power, stripped of their size, stripped of everything that made them great, they were remade into a new race. A savage race. The race of Mankind.

It is known to be true that humans first appeared shortly after the titans died. It is known to be true that for many eons mankind fought with its own nature to claw its way to civilization. Though many humans rank among some of the most powerful mages in history humans have no innate magic of their own. Though there are many powerful human mages they borrow from the goddess or beings of ancient power or are descendents of humans and non humans interbreeding. Humans also have the innate need, drive, and desire to reshape the world in their image. Modern humans are not savage cannibals, however. Indeed, they consider themselves to be the pinnacle of civilization, and have done so since the time before the era of the Chianinan empire.

Are the humans the descendants of titans, stripped of power and allowed to wallow in savagery until they beat the madness out of themselves? No one knows. Few remain who were alive in that time, and even the Overmind has lost his memory.

But there is one who could say.

The Overmind could not conquer the titans and could not claim them. But even so, one of those proud, mad beings willingly lay with him.

Once, and only once. Through poetry, romance, wit, and guile, he briefly charmed a Titaness.

The first daughter of the Overmind. A titan by birth, slightly shorter than the Overmind, but no lesser in power. Godlike power, godlike will, and the Overmind's endless, relentless desire to conquer and consume and take. She did not disappear in the divine purge with the titans. Like her father she remained untouched.

In her time she sought to become queen of the world. To slay or capture or rape all, to consume everything and become the queen of all things. The first true queen of monstergirls, rival to her father, and last titan, surviving beyond the purge.

For the first time in his existence the Overmind did not try to claim and enslave a woman through corrption, magic, strength or guile. He went to true, total war with her empire.

The Overmind is not a man. He does not choose; he is a being made of his own purpose. His purpose is his power, and his power IS his purpose. Never before or since has he deviated from his own path in this way. None know why. Perhaps it was the similarity of their nature and soul, or perhaps it was a different reason, known only to the Overmind himself. Were the actions that he took thereafter some form of lengthy guile? Were they taken out of fear? Hate? None know. Even with the titans he did not take an action such as this.

They battled in a conflict that shattered the heavens and rent the earth. No record survives of that battle, but it is clear that the Overmind emerged victorious. On that site was created a shrine, tended to by ancient monstergirls. It was not a tomb, but a prison. Its keepers would never become warriors or slaves, forever given leave from that requirement. They had only one duty; to ensure that her prison would never open by any hand. Daughters of the strongest mortal heroines in the age of titans and the Overmind at the height of his power, they are undoubtedly the most powerful monstergirls in the world - if they still exist.

No one has seen them or the shrine in thousands of years. Or, at least, seen it and escaped to talk about it. They take their duty seriously.

But one thing is true. Only she could truly say the truth; whether all men were once titans, and recall the first age of the world.


Authors Note: 
The First Daughter is not the last boss. She is not going to be a party member. You will be able to visit the shrine in the next release, but she will not factor in the game in any important way. 



Monday, August 12, 2013

Monday, August 5, 2013

5/Aug/13 Update

My apologies for making this update so late at night. Real life interfered last week and is going to interfere this week in a big way. Long story short I'm making some big life changes and there is a lot of paperwork. I may return to college soon.

The team is making progress everywhere. I've gotten back new sketches and new maps are being made. Unfortunately my own work is going to be rather delayed.

Don't think I'm slacking though; the next release will probably be out within two months, and may not just be version 0.4, but version 0.4 and ver. 0.5. It depends on whether or not I'll be able to get in a day or two to cram.

I've been wanting to do another story update but haven't had the time. We'll see if I can figure something out.

Monday, July 29, 2013

Status 29/JUL/13: A new heroine appears!

A lot of work is going on behind the scenes as usual. I'm afraid I don't have time to go into detail as much as I'd like. Today is unfortunately a busy day.

However, the design for our cute Basque Lamaak heroine is getting closer to complete:







Mapping is progressing well, and I'm in negotiations to add another artist to the team. She's particularly skilled. No name drops until she's officially on the project, though.

I've also created a new feedback thread on the forum.

https://www.henthighschool.com/overwhored/overwhored-feedback-suggestions-thread

Feel free to leave feedback or suggestions there. I, my mapper, or other parts of the team might occasionally leave things there for you to comment on. Don't take it as a given that we'll do all your suggestions (because we won't and because that's a good recipe for chaos) but do take it as a given that we'll read them and consider them. You know I do.

I'll try to make another post later this week to go into things more; perhaps another background and story post.

Monday, July 22, 2013

22/Jul/13 Progress Update

Work continues. Not much to tell you this week I didn't last week or in previous weeks. Translations are ongoing, art is ongoing, remapping is ongoing. Plans are being made for the next module.

This is one of those periods where things seem quiet but a lot is going on behind the scenes. I'll try to have something a bit more substantial for you all next week.

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Overwhored Progress Week of 16/Jul/13

Progress is going just spectacularly. Images are being drawn, translations are being translated, and plot is being plotted.

The German translation of the game is coming along REALLY well. A significant portion of the game has been translated. To this day I can't quite figure out why Germans seem to like the game so much, but I'm more than happy to accommodate them. The translator, Braindeadmaster, is hard at work and doing a great job. Many Zaftig ladies shall be added in his honor.

There's also a Spanish translation just starting. Here's to hoping it turns out well!

If you speak any language other than English fluently and you're interested in translating part of the game, let me know! This is especially true for Japanese. The Japanese community doesn't even know that this game exists. After all the inspiration they've given me (their RPG Maker games were a heavy influence) I'd love to give some back.

The shining star right now is the mapping. You would not believe how much EVERY map being worked on has improved. 0nymous is really rocking it.

Compare these two maps for an idea of how much these maps are improving the game.

This is the outside area I created forever ago.









This is the WIP area he created for the same location.



Yeah. Progress is going well.


Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Vacation!

My much belated vacation is starting tomorrow. I didn't know this in advance, so you get to know now. I'll be gone for a week. As a result, I will not be doing any work on Overwhored while I'm gone and I will not be updating the site on Monday. My artists will still be arting and my mapper will still be mapping however, so work isn't really going to stop.

Please continue to leave bug reports and feedback and I'll get to them when I come back.


I'm going from a place that has been 110 degrees and having 80mph thunderstorms (and thanks to said storms, about 100 degrees during the night) to a place that is a wonderfully frigid 85 degrees and has delightfully mild weather. It's quite likely I won't even be attacked by bears or mountain lions there! That'll be a nice break for a week or so. There's also much less in the way of roving packs of coyotes up there. Though I will admit that's a bit of a disappointment, as it's pretty fun to sneak up on a pack of Coyotes in the middle of the night and scare the hell out of them. I don't shoot 'em like most people do around here but I do like messing with them. Just don't try it with bears.

While I'm up there I think I'll do some hunting and fishing. Ought to be fun. Well, not fishing, because it's horribly fucking boring. But fish ARE tasty, so it's worth the time. I don't think I'll arrive early enough for the fireworks but hey - if I do, there's always good food at those celebrations. Not that it matters. If I really wanted 4th of July fun I'd stay here to watch the crash derby. That's a sporting event where a bunch of elaborately painted cars are in a mud pit surrounded by big logs and a chain link fence and slam into each other repeatedly until only one is still "working". You sit about four feet away from the ring and get splashed with mud and occasionally almost crushed by a car that goes over the logs and through the fence. When I was young I wouldn't have missed it for anything in the world but they've made it too safe and boring these days. (I used to collect autographed car parts that were shredded in the ring, in fact.) Plus I can't watch it with friends and family any longer so I can't be told who to boo and hiss at and who to root for because I don't know any of the drivers. Besides; when I was a kid they played all kinds of music but these days they just play really bad country music during the whole thing. I hate country music.  Ah well. They still have tasty tiger's blood snow cones and Chorizos, but those alone aren't worth going for. I can get those anywhere.


In any event I'll see you in a week!