Author: NoMoshing

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NeverRemember Nights

Sorry that is post is covering a few hours late. I recently started a throwback 2nd edition AD&D campaign and the nostagia feels it’s been giving inspired me to find and play Neverwinter Nights again, which is why I didn’t remember that I needed to do a blog post until I was too tired to think straight.

It’s weird how things get left behind in popular culture’s wake. Once upon a time most PC gamers I knew as well as pretty much every gaming magazine was salivating for NWN (as well as others, in one of the earliest examples of compensated endorsements from internet personalities). Now, despite it being a pretty awesome game, doesn’t make anyone’s PC RPG top ten lists, and has been basically forgotten. Easy come, easy go, I suppose.

There are all sorts of things that were huge but never stood the test of time. Anyone remember the Zoop craze of the late 16-bit era? There was a version of Zoop on every available platform at the time, and was subtitled on the Playstation as “America’s Largest Waster of Time”.

Or ask yourself, when was the last time you heard about Myst? Hard to believe these days that a point-and-click puzzle game with virtually no dialogue or character interaction was the best selling computer game for nine fucking years.

This extends to more than just video games, too. Younger anime fans would be shocked to learn that before Sailor Moon and Dragonball Z popularized anime in the West, the biggest anime around starred a gender-bending martial artist and his unlikely number of fiancees.

If you know of any other weird blind spots in pop culture, please share them in the comments. I’d love to heard/be reminded about some of the detritus on pop culture’s roadside.

(Psst! Just so you know, Nekochan and I are running a poll this year to see who will be a Halloween pin-up on the blog! Check it out here!)

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Lowercase, the Divine, and You

Because of an extended conversation that look place on the HC forum, I’m taking it upon myself to clear up a bit of game lore that some people have been getting wrong.

In Harem Collector, there are the Angels who are the subject of worship, and the Demons who are normally reviled but are also (occasionally) worshiped. These beings are widely known- the various churches spread the teachings of the Seven Angels, while the Tarnished Grimoire is a not-uncommon scholarly text defining the personalities of the Seven Demons. The Angels and Demons are somewhat oppositional- just as there is an Angel of Love and Passion so too there is a Demon of Lust and Envy- this doesn’t constitute a perfect 1:1 match. Because Angels are associated with virtue, and Demons are associated with sins that pervert specific virtues, some of them correspond with one another.

Muddying the issue somewhat is the existence of angels and demons. You see, the Angels and Demons are each served by what is called a “servitor race” of weaker beings created in their image. These servitors are frequently confused and conflated with capital-A Angels and capital-D Demons by humans who are ignorant of the difference. These servants have three properties in common: they are totally subservient to the Angel or Demon that they serve, they posses a similar appearance and powers of their master, and they are easily controlled by human magic. While they are generally more powerful than humans, it is well within a group of humans’ ability to destroy one of these lesser servants. The Servitor Archons, Guardian Fiends, Guardian Seraphs, miscellaneous Imps, and Marel the Brute are all examples of these lesser angels and demons.

So, in essence, it works like this:
The Seven Angels > lesser angels > humans < lesser demons < The Seven Demons The Angels and Demons have a few other things in common. They both are capable of granting powers to humanity, known as Prayers and Rites respectively. The different powers have slightly different properties- the two sets of beings have a preference for different elements, and while Prayers are fairly straightforward, Rites are much more powerful but come with some kind of extra cost. Angels and Demons can grant or take away their powers at will, and can also use their servants as intermediaries to do this. And now, for some heresy. Prayers and Rites are far from the only powers humans are capable of obtaining. While Evocations are poorly understood, they still undeniably exist and nobody knows precisely what power source they come from. Arcane magic is also available to anyone willing to put in the work to learn it. Some scholars theorize that these abilities are granted by their own pantheon of Seven Whatevers, but these individuals are usually shouted down because arcane magic is clearly different from divine and infernal magic. Some church scholars are surprised to note that the Angels don't seem all that interested in opposing the Demons in any way, despite what their followers say. Then they do conflict, it's often incidental- minions of the Angel of Law and Justice clashing with minions of the Demon of Cruelty and Hate, for example- but there is no specific enmity there. The only reason why demon cults are illegal in the Middle Kingdom at all is because they tend to disturb the peace, cause all sorts of trouble for the nobility and disrupt trade. Anyway, just some food for thought (and some assumptions pointed) for those interested in HC lore.

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Guess What We Just Did….

Hey, just wanted you all to know that this evening past, Cypress_Z and I recorded the first of the (rebooted) Indecent Gaming Podcast. I don’t know how long it will take for us to get this thing edited, but Patreon backers (both mine and Z’s) will be getting access to the raw recording in the next few days, for your listening pleasure.

Other than that, I uploaded a dungeon preview for my Patreon backers earlier on Tuesday, so check that out if you get access.

Anyway, that’s all for now- progress is continuing at a steady pace, and I hope you’ll all be pleased with the update when it’s available!

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Backer Topic #4: Auto-Extinctionism

Things are proceeding pretty smoothly. About 50% done a new quest, with a pretty interesting design if I say so myself- I’ll post some screens for Backers when things are a little more complete. Finally getting the sleeping sprites done for Meline and Elaiya, too.

Anyway, on with the show.

Every third quest has you killing a bunch of clockwork nerds, or bandits, or just some royal guards. Often times the worst wars or unrest comes when the population booms. … So is there an in-story reason there is an excess population the hero is helping cull?
-snapped

You know, I never really thought of that. Probably? That is a lot of dudes- over 300, even without daily quests. An excess population (particularly an excess population of men, though I’ve never heard of the opposite) has historically lead to unrest, war and crime. I never wrote any such thing into the game, though.

I do have a Doylist explanation, though: human antagonists are more interesting to write about.

It’s probably unsatisfying to hear, but most monsters have very simple motivations. Vampire counts and demonic conspiracies aside, a lot of monsters have no dialogue and no motivations outside “protect my territory” and “get something to eat when you’re hungry”. There’s a reason why random encounters exist- hordes of perfectly anonymous monsters in most RPGs that show up, kill or be killed, and have no lasting impact on the story.

Instead of random encounters, combat in Harem Collector is firmly focused on quests. Because each of these quests has its’ own little story, it’s just easier to write around an understandable antagonist. There are a few quests built around other monsters, either incidentally or as minions of a more relate-able threat.

So there’s the simple truth- I put a lot of human antagonists in the game because it’s easier to justify in-story. Sorry that there’s no deep story reason behind it.

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Goals for October Release

Since things are finally relaxing at home, things are looking up in terms of gamedev. I was able to put in some solid work so far this week, and hopefully I’ll be able to fulfill my plans for the game.

Things I’ve already done:
-Added a half dozen new banters
-Added new mind control scenes for Therese and Yeon
-Added new Trophy Traders for each major city
-Made the Abandoned Fort re-visitable, allowing players to grind a few more slimes per day (or not)
-Made the face set for a new harem girl
-Added a new hovel to the Northmarket Slums with some minor plot significance

Things on their way:
-Finally have a sprite artist on board, so expect a lot of sprites that were unfinished or whatever to start appearing.
-New backer custom scene for next release, which happens to also include something you guys have been demanding for awhile.
-New town music courtesy of PeaSea
-More revised battlers

Things I want for next release:
-Beach vacation quest
-Sacrifices for Algernon quest (continuation of the Demon Cult arc)
-New quest for the Save the Elves arc.
-New harem girl + sex scene
-At least two more random sex scenes
-Make more revistable dungeons (there’s a relevant thread on the forums, if you’re interested in a more in-depth discussion on that)
-More on demand scenes, banters, etc.
-Be able to spend more time promoting the game and getting back on track with Patreon rewards/goals.

Anyway, that’s all for now! Have fun and happy fapping!

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July 2015 Public Release

Download can be found in the usual place.

Changes in this version
-New quest! Check out your desk in the Northmarket manor or speak to Shally to proceed.
-We heard you liked quests, so we put a quest in your quest so you can quest while you quest. (translation: new miniquest in the new quest)
-Elaiya’s Love Quest, Finishing Unfinished Business, has been extended. If you haven’t played it yet, check it out!
-New music from the game’s new composer, PeaSea.
-Hall Monitor from Hell has been fixed and should now be complete-able.
-Many of the earlier quests have had their XP rewards rebalanced.
-Sibling Rivalry, the custom backer scene from last month, can now be added to the list of random sex scenes with the code “JuFJrY1”

Unfortunately, house stuff raised it’s ugly head once more so I wasn’t able to work as much as I wanted since the backer update, so there are not many changes since the backer version- the weapon upgrade from the new quest is now in, and there’s a new piece of music, that’s about it. Things are definitely settling down though- only a little bit of work left, waiting on a few specialists in particular- so I’m going to try to do the Wednesday updates right at midnight EST again.

Fortunately, a couple of days ago it was too hot to work in my office (A/C was off because of reno guys running in and out all day), so I spent the day chilling out at a coffee shop, and got all the planning done for the next update. SO that’s something, right?

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Backer Release, Finally

Hey there everyone! It’s finally here!

If you’re a Patreon backer, the post with the latest version is already on the Patreon page.

If you’re a Paypal backer from 2014 or earlier, I’m struggling with my email server at the moment- the anti-spam policy is being hyperactive. I’ll get the emails out ASAP, for now if you’re listed as a backer in the official forum there is a link there.

The extra backer present I’m hoping to have ready for this weekend or Monday, just wanted to take a little more time on that.

As for news… even though it’s not affecting devtime right now, the renos on the house should be finished up by Friday, which’ll be a load off my mind. Then I can actually, you know, unpack stuff and make this place a little like a for-reals, grown up home.

Anyway, please keep in mind sometimes that I miss my email notifications for this blog, and don’t approve comments until awhile after. I mention this now because this time it happens to be a comment critical of how I run things, and I just want to make it clear that I’m not trying to censor anyone.

Sorry for the late arrival on the release this month, and here’s hoping the next release will go a lot smoother!

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Summers are Bad, Yo

So, summers apparently suck for HC.

Second summer in a row where Real Life butted it’s ugly, ugly head into my development cycle in a big way. At least it won’t be as awful as last summer’s accident- our roof has been gutted and replaced, the leaky wall has been repaired. and the testers are busy hunting for bugs like a hungry primate. Now if only I had a functional kitchen….

No matter. Just rest assured- the update is on the way!

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I Love It When A Plan Comes Together

So my house is still a mess, but at least now I have an office. Sort of. Most of my desk is still our “kitchen” (kettle, toaster, coffee maker), I can’t find my mic or my production notebooks, but at least I have my work PC and the internet. And that’s not nothing.

I’m hoping to start testing week next Wednesday. I just want a bit of time to put a little more work into HC- make it somewhat worth the wait- and finish putting together a little something extra for backers.

Been playing Slave Maker 3 in my *ahem* personal time lately. Damn did that game ever get complex. The evil NoMoshing inside of me takes particularly perverse glee in making slaves who hate me bear my children… it’s probably a good thing I’m not a parent in real life. Especially since I make hentai for a living. Can you imagine that career day?

Anyway, I’m going to get back to work. Now that I have my shit together, I’m all fired up! So expect the fresh updates for The Last Sovereign and Project: Starship to be on the site today or tomorrow, depending on when I feel like a break from game dev. Until then, see your later and happy fapping!

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Landlords are Lazy

Hello and welcome. ‘Tis your friendly neighbourhood Nekochan!

So moving was…a thing.

It went smoothly, except for the fact that the renos we had scheduled weren’t done yet. So we’ve moved into a house without a kitchen that can actually be used. The stove, sink and all the cupboards aren’t set up. The basement is also basically unusable (especially since the plumbing needs to be redone so it drains properly). The upstairs is barely useable, but we can’t use the closets. The renovators, instead of tackling one room at a time, are bouncing from place to place. So the end result is that there is no place in our house where we can actually unpack.

…And then on the first night after moving day, it rained. And we learned the roof leaks. Haha. Got that patched but was warned:
a) the patch is only good for 6 months
b) except for the shingles, the roof is original to the house (which was built in the 20s), is rotten and should really be replaced.

So we have the roofers working on that too. So the renos won’t be done anytime soon. Haha.

The reno crew also noted that it looks like the A/C may be shot (since it’s overgrown with plants that no one ever bothered to clear)

These two issues weren’t caught during the house inspection since it occurred during winter. You can’t run an A/C in the cold and the roof couldn’t be inspected (though the prior homeowner insisted it was sound.)

This leads us back to the title. The former owner of the house was a landlord and our renos are making it apparent that any work done recently was a patch job or just cosmetic and any proper maintenance wasn’t bothered with. Since we actually want to live here, we’re getting caught doing all the work.

Anyhoo, what all this means is, NoMoshing has not been able to access the game since we moved. Our time has been spent working on renos, finding a roofer, finding someone to look at our A/C and waiting for deliveries. Also the PC NoMosh does most of his game work on can’t really be set up since there not enough open space to put it, the chair he uses has clothes stacked on it due to the aforementioned closet problem, and it’s not getting signal from our router anyway (mental note: if you’re going to put something in cloud storage for safekeeping, make sure you can access the internet to get it back!) Hell, we’re using handhelds to entertain ourselves since we can barely set up our TV.

We’ve been promised most of the renos should be done by this week, though our time will then be taken up with cleaning and getting enough shit unpacked so our house doesn’t look like some weird warehouse.

Clearly we underestimated the disruption this would be. Cuz we’re house virgins. Now that cherry’s been popped we’re sore and limping and this metaphor is going to a weird place. Sorry. Time to stop typing Neko.

(Note from NoMoshing: Sorry everyone… looks like release will take even longer. Hopefully I’ll be able to pull it off before August. I certainly don’t want to get to Fred Gallagher or (dare I say it?) Gabe Newell levels of update neglect.)