Halloween Pinup, Kyrie
End of the Month Check-In
Just a real quick update this week. It’s raining cats and dogs outside, the power keeps flickering, and it’s supposed to continue on like this until tomorrow evening. Which is partly why this blog update is so late and short- my internet is more indecisive than an anime character with multiple love interests.
So, I’m done the character-design-y bits of Ulania and the Phantom Knight mechanics, and I’ve started in on her quest. It’s a weird feeling… by now I can tell in advance if I’m going to get angry emails about a particular bit of content or not, so I’m half tempted to make this dungeon even more annoying just to bother people since I’m going to catch flak for it anyway. Oh well, I’ll try to restrain myself. Despite the angry emails, I think it’ll turn out to be a cool dungeon.
There’s a lot of new faces in the next release. Bronwyn’s new faces, of course, plus Ulania, (hopefully, finally) Diadira, a “brainwashed” face for Yeon (also finally), possibly that Westcastle shopkeeper, possibly faces for all the miscellaneous guards. My mouse hand will never forgive me.
Uh, other than that things are proceeding pretty smoothly.
Remember to check back on Saturday for this year’s Halloween pin-ups!
Phantom Knight Power Makeup!
This week I started working on adding the ghost harem girl to the game. Working name so far is Ulania, and she was once a warrior in whatever civilization left all those ruins and lost cities lying around. Bound in place for centuries, the Hero is busy doing adventurer things when boy meets ghost and boy figures out how to take advantage of an ancient geas in order to stick his penis inside said ghost. I don’t want to give any more spoilers, but I think recruiting her will be a fun quest.
The important thing is that recruiting Ulania to your harem allows the Hero to switch between his Warlord class and the Phantom Knight class. So what is Phantom Knight class? I’m glad you asked, theoretical strawman-type player.
Phantom Knight is intended to swap the Hero from a support role to a more defensive, tanking role. He gets a bonus to Defense and Resist at the cost of Agility and Luck (and thus, evasion, hit rate and critical chance). More importantly, the Hero’s skills all switch around to suit his new role. Backers can find the details in the backer forum, but there is more of an emphasis on Resist and managing spell damage than any of the other tank-type characters.
I really can’t think of anything else to add, so I’ll leave it there. More details are available on the Bad Kitty Games forum if you’re a backer, and I hope everyone enjoys this new mechanic when it comes out in the December release!
Harem Collector October 2015 Public Release!
Same Harem Place, Same Harem Time!
October Changes
NOTE: Bronwyn’s face has been removed due to avoid a potential copyright issue, and couldn’t be replaced in time. Please tolerate this for now- I am very aware that a huge amount of Bronwyn’s appeal has to do with her face set, I just need to head off any potential problems and will replace it as soon as possible.
ALSO NOTE: I made a last minute decision to extend the quest “Cannibal Corps” (as detailed on the blog) because I thought the end of the quest was kind of limp and deserved more player involvement. Please don’t think of this as a half-finished quest, simply a quest that was finished that I decided to add more content to later.
ALSO ALSO NOTE: Last week for some reason I didn’t receive any email notifications of new blog comments, which is why all the new posters didn’t get approved until just now. Sorry for any inconvenience, it wasn’t an attempt to censor anyone or control comments, and I’ll be more diligent about comment approval in the future.
-You now need a $65 Season Pass to access Harem Collector Multiplayer.
-There is a new backer sex scene! You can view it with the code “Bwjfnc” or add it to the random scene queue with “Bwjfnc2”
-New music for the Northmarket Wealthy District and Eastfort Military District.
-Abandoned Fort is re-visitable with a handful of daily encounters there.
-A bunch of new banters, added code for Yeon banters
-Trophy Traders are now available in Southport and Westcastle!
-Therese’s weapons no longer gain the Radiant element. She does gain a “Smite” Technique that deals +20% Radiant damage on hit instead.
-Elaiya’s Stealth and Ready, Aim statuses both confer increased chances of a critical hit. And they stack!
A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Release….
First off, despite what the title may imply, the release will be along later today- just have to polish things up a bit first, it should be along later this afternoon or at the latest this evening. Second, sorry I didn’t do this post last night, I just plain forgot.
Anyway, I use cloud storage so that 1) I can work on Harem Collector from anywhere, and 2) so that I don’t lose everything if one of my computers happens to fail. A while ago I discovered that my laptop and my work PC weren’t syncing up properly, and I ended up losing a couple of sex scenes, some enemy behaviour, and the entire back half of the “Cannibal Corps” quest. Which was kind of a problem… with the help and patience of the testing team, we’ve managed to pull everything together, but it has lead to a pretty big change.
I originally had two ideas for Cannibal Corps. One idea was very plot-relevant, but in terms of the style of the dungeon and the enemies you face would have been very similar to several other quests. The other idea involved a dungeon that is (I hope) unique and funny, but wasn’t very relevant to the plot, and had kind of a limp ending where the important stuff happened off-screen.
While I went with the second idea initially, while I was re-finishing the quest over the weekend, I wanted to do something more. It also didn’t feel right dropping the big reveal for the Demon Cult questline and then not doing anything with it for months while I get the rest of the questlines caught up. So, despite having a dungeon and a boss and all that stuff, Cannibal Corps isn’t actually over this update. You’ll have a (hopefully) fun little dungeon, and the chance to advance a day, but that’s only the first half of the quest. There will be a second dungeon, with the big plot bombs, when I’m ready to go on with the next bit of the Demon Cult questline.
Anyway, just thought you all deserve to know what’s going on with that one quest! I’d better get to polishing, so thanks as always and happy fapping!
Pre-Release Check-in
So far, the release is looking pretty good. Got music today from PeaSea- the new music for the Wealthy District and a legit voiced pop song he wrote for when Diadira gets introduced that’s going to knock your socks off. On top of that, one of the new bosses has a piece of incredible art for him from GusBus… but you had your preview already.
Unfortunately, I was surprised this afternoon to find that a couple of previous commitments I made are coming into play a day earlier than I expected, so I might not be able to get the test release out to all the testers by tomorrow- though I might be able to pop on long enough to get a link on the official tester’s forum I very much doubt I’ll get the mass email before midnight. Just one of those things. Things will be on track for the Backer Release the following week, though, unless there’s some kind of Hall Monitor from Hell-style complete fuckpile.
Anyway, I hope you’ll all enjoy the new content when it finally gets into your hands. Until then, so long and happy fapping!
She Slimed Me
Not a long post I’m afraid. Due to a Dropbox-related incident, I’ve lost a ton of work hours. And now I have to figure out how to fix it if I ever want to use my laptop for gamedev again….
Anyway, Gusbus dropped whole pile of slime on me today, so here’s a preview of some of the new enemy battlers that will be in the next update.
The new Virulent Green Slime is just happy to see you:
The new Quivering Jelly offers some insight into why those caves are always so well-lit:
The new Clockwork Slime just realized how ridiculous his mere existence is:
Anyway, that’s all for now. There’s a lot to do in the next week, so I’d ought to get right to it!
Office Tour
Alright, so I totally dropped the ball yeterday- I was totally intending to write a blog post on time but then I started playing video games and for some reason I thought it was Monday… sorry.
Anyway, in a rush to have a topic, I’ve gone ahead and delivered on a promise I made last summer- a tour of the new office.
Okay, so here’s the view from the door- doesn’t look like much, does it? We’re still unpacking- a a combination of no personal time and needing to replace a bunch of old Ikea-type furniture that fell apart in the move- so this isn’t the final state of the room. Some highlights- you can see Nekochan’s drawing stuff on the right of the desk, next to my file folders of legal/tax/business docs. On the floor is a mismash of stuff- that’s my Senhime statue still in the box, our collector’s edition Catherine box, and a Diablo II strategy guide with a bunch of boxes. On the extreme right of the photo, you can see our CD rack- firmly establishing Nekochan and I as 90’s kids- and you can also see that I was in the middle of painting a mini when I realized I needed to do a blog post.
You probably also noticed the cat, because this is the internet. She hates being alone, so the cat tree is in here so she doesn’t lie down on my keyboard or notes. You can also see my backyard which is currently an overgrown jungle filled with spiders.
This is my Figma waifu harem, cheering me on as I work. I’m kind of a hipster when it comes to figures- Figma only, thank you, unless there’s no Figma for a particular figure (like Senhime). Can you name them all?
Right now this is not only my office, but also my minis painting zone. I’m making a serious effort to finish my enormous backlog of unpainted minis, and it’s actually helping me get more done on HC as I do a little bit of work while waiting for a mini to dry, or taking time to paint and chill out when I hit a wall while working. The office is going to be multipurpose- in time, we’re also going to store our lego here, and it’ll also be Nekochan’s sewing room.
This is the other corner of the room, to the left of the wide shot above, where the drafting table and sewing table will someday go. That corkboard is probably going to be hung up soon, as I like using the corkboard to keep track of my notes while I work. The lockboxes there will be moved into the office closet sooner or later, and they hold our more rare and expensive video games and memorabilia (Earthbound, FF3, Chrono Trigger, an autographed copy of Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep….) Uh, please don’t rob me. I just wanted to brag.
Anyway, that’s it. Uh, enjoy!
What’s a Paladin?
It may surprise you to hear this, but I like playing paladins and good clerics on the few occasions I do get a chance to play D&D (or Pathfinder, I suppose). Part of it is that I don’t really mind being healer/buffer and letting everyone else do the damage. There are a few people in my regular tabletop RPing group who feel the need to be the high-damage powerhouses, so I don’t mind them taking all the attention in combat. Besides, if that subconsciously primes the GM to think that I deserve more “spotlight” outside of combat, all the better. But the other part is that I really don’t like playing the bad guy. My perverse fantasies aside, at the RPG table I prefer to be the paragon. Even in games like Vampire or Dark Heresy where you’re not really a “good guy”, I prefer characters who aspire to some kind of higher ideal.
The reason why I’m telling you all this is because when it comes to paladins, I know my shit. And I care about what being a paladin means.
So, what does it mean for Harem Collector?
There are four orders of paladins in the HC world, each devoted to being an exemplar of a single Angel’s virtues. Rather than priests, who are there to tend to the faithful, convert others, and protect individual communities, the paladins are meant to lead by example. They are not always successful in this, of course- those wacky paladins sure do make a big deal out of falling from grace- but their primary duty, even before the smiting of evil and whatnot, is to guide others by doing.
The largest order devotes themselves to the Angel of Law and Justice. As they serve the only male Angel, the order itself has a disproportionate number of men in it. This leads to rumours that the Law and Justice paladins are more than a little sex-deprived and repressed. At least that’s the stereotype, unless the paladin in question is a confirmed bachelor. Which does happen- more than a few paladins of this order joined for the opportunity to meet other men in a cloistered setting. More than a few of the female paladins of this order joined for the yaoi. Sex lives of the faithful aside, they mostly go about serving Angelic justice and enforcing Angelic law, which often takes the form of vigilantism, kangaroo courts, and trial by popular opinion. Hey, nobody said that being a paladin made you perfect.
The next largest order serves the Angel of Light and Mercy, who are basically classic paladins straight out of a PHB. Therese’s order is the one most often found joining adventuring parties and actually being active in the world- as I’ve mentioned elsewhere, this order means “Light” in the “taken into dark places” sense of the word. They take it upon themselves to protect the common folk, heal the sick, and generally be all-around good people. However, they are badly decentralized- they rarely gather in force and when they do in tends to be whoever happens to be at the order hall that week.
Third largest is the Order of Loyalty and Service. These are the least paladin-like paladins- because they usually end up swearing to some individual or organization that they find worthy, they often don’t end up out in the world, smiting evil and kissing babies. However, their oaths are no absolute- loyalty is a two-way street and someone who begins to act in an unworthy manner will find their paladin buddies deserting them. There are plenty of folktales involving a paladin of this order discovering that their “master” is corrupt somehow and betraying them, only to turn themselves in to their own order out of shame for such abject betrayal.
The smallest order is the one who follows the Angel of Peace and Comfort. The rare few individuals who find themselves dedicated to the least popular Angel become expert undead hunters, to grant the final peace and comfort of the grave to the unquiet dead. This is the only order not to have a tower at the Middle Kingdom citadel outside Westcastle, as the local paladins of this Order are too few to make much of a political impact. Luckily, their buddies at the Order of Light and Mercy are happy to provide space, as the two orders tend to get along famously.
It’s popularly thought that paladins must be celibate, but this is not the case. Of these orders, only the Order of Loyalty and Service demands celibacy, preaching that in order to devote themselves fully they cannot dilute their attention with lovers. Promiscuity is frowned upon, however, and marriage is rare. Masturbation is thought to be selfish- which is why a certain someone decided to go into hiding to cleanse herself of impure thoughts- and making use of prostitutes is strictly forbidden.
So why Therese keeps her powers after she is captured should be clear. She’s not actually breaking any of the rules of her order, as long as she still attempts to be an example to her peers. And by serving the Hero and exerting what little influence she can gain over him, well, that could be interpreted as taking a candle into a dark place as well. Maybe one day, she can goad him into being a Hero in a less ironic way.