Okay, so there totally wasn’t a blog post today.
In my defense, it is a) pre-release crunch time and b) Daredevil is one hell of a show.
That is all.
Backer Topic #3: Beyond the Veil
First, a quick update. The revamp of the random daily quest is in the bag, and good up to level 20- I’ll try to remember to add new enemies as the content piles up but I think I’ve definitely bought myself some breathing room. The beach vacation event I mentioned elsewhere probably won’t pan out for next update, but I’m hoping to get out a quest or two that will make up for that. There will also be a new harem girl!
Also, I’ve started looking for an artist, considering that I’ve passed the $600 milestone on my Patreon! So if you happen to A) have artistic skill, B) are reliable, and C) are comfortable with sprites, monsters and/or landscapes, shoot me an email with a couple examples from your portfolio and we will talk. This work will be compensated, so serious enquiries only. Just remember to mention “artist position” in the subject line of your email, okay?
Now, onto today’s question…
How permanent is death in the HC setting? How well do people understand the fate of the spirits of the dead?
-glacier
An excellent pair of questions. Unfortunately, the answer to the first part may disappoint. Much like Final Fantasy 7, death isn’t permanent unless it is. Sorry, but that’s kind of how video games work- you have to allow for small failures, and temporary character death provides both a punishment for allowing your beloved party member to fall, and an extra mechanic (ie, life potions, phoenix downs or what have you) for you to account for while planning your dungeon crawl or overland travel.
The setting, however, feels differently. I’ve always kind of felt that it’s better to leave the specifics in the air. Obviously, the name “Resurrection Potion” and the reference made by the Essential Salts item implies that you’re literally bringing the dead back to life. It would also be in keeping with the setting that such items absolutely do bring back the dead- but only the extremely rich can afford them, leaving a nigh-immortal oligarchy ruling over mortal plebes. Or it could be that such items only bring those who are near death back to functional life, and the names are simply marketing hyperbole.
I admit, I’m deliberately keeping my options open- I want to be able to permanently kill of and resurrect characters to suit the needs of my story, so I’m avoiding hard and fast rules.
As for the dead themselves, they’re not saying anything. Most dead either come back brainless (like zombies, wights and skeletons), come back “wrong” (like vampires and ghosts), or don’t come back at all, instead being replaced by an entirely new entity. Straight, clear answers are not the purview of the dead. Necromancers don’t have any special insight, either, any more than a coroner or a mortician would have. Just because necromancy is what you do doesn’t mean that you understand how it all works.
Official dogma on the subject differs. The Angels refuse to offer a single, unified answer. The Angel of Light and Mercy preaches a kind of reincarnation- good people reincarnate into successively more pure forms (eventually becoming angelic servitors), and bad people are punished by reincarnating as impure ones (like animals, fish, bugs, etc). The Angel of Peace and Comfort suggests that there is some kind of “rest”, maybe not an afterlife per se but an eternal sort of peace and comfort. Of course, the Demons gleefully contradict all this- there is no afterlife, they say, just oblivion, so why not enjoy yourself and indulge in sin during life? But who would ever trust a demon, especially one that is pushing a world view where there are no long term consequences to selling your soul?
So hopefully that long list of non-answers gives you some insight. As for me, I’d better get back to work- deadlines can creep up on your while contemplating the mysteries of life. Until next time, happy fapping!
April Revamp Version
Hey, everybody! I just uploaded a new version of Harem Collector, with a bunch of fixed stuff in it and some changes to the opening of the game. Unfortunately, some of the changes are database and table changes, so it is not a good idea to import your old saves- you’ll have to start a new file from scratch.
Get the latest version here!
Backer Topic #2: It’s the Apocalypse Again!?
How do you feel about RPG’s protagonists tendency to save the world? I think “small scale” RPG, where most of the action is limited to one region, could be as engaging as running around the whole world. -Seil
Small-scale RPGs aren’t all that uncommon, I think. The mid-range Ultima games (IV-VI) were generally focused on the affairs of a single kingdom. The Fallout series usually looks at an area the size of a medium US state. Persona 4 (unless the secret ending contradicts me) is essentially a morality play set in a Japanese small town. But I could list examples all day- that doesn’t make for a very helpful conversation, now does it?
Unless you’re talking about very short stories, every tale sooner or later has to raise the stakes. The traditional three-act story structure requires that the fundamental conflict change over the course of the second act, so that the climax feels grander and more important (and more satisfying to the audience) than the first act. The Avengers begins with the initial conflict- Loki has stolen the Tesseract and mind controlled a bunch of SHIELD personnel and is enacting some kind of plot- and gradually escalates to the climax- Loki opens a portal to somewhere in space, and an invasion of alien warriors threatens the entire earth. I won’t bore you with an extended lecture on story structure though- other people have done it better and I wasn’t all that great at college-level English anyway.
What RPGs (and, it seems, JRPGs in particular) often due is focus on increasing the scale of the conflict rather than exploring other ways of raising the stakes. In action movies, things often get “personal” at one point- in the Matrix, for example, the scale of the conflict (ie, freeing the human race from the machines’ control) never really changes, but the climax is kicked off when Neo’s mentor, Morpheus, is kidnapped (ie, something specific the hero cares about is threatened, rather than a broader conflict that is difficult for the human mind to properly comprehend). A few games don’t shy away from this. The stakes are raised in Persona 4 when Nanako is put under personal threat.
Another way to raise the stakes in by sheer exhaustion. To get away from the examples from movies and RPGs, in the first silent Hill game the stakes never really change- Harry is looking for his daughter the whole time, and uncovering the mystery doesn’t really change his driving motivation to find her. But by the end of the game, Harry sounds tired and exhausted, having been through hell (thrice!) and (probably) just murdered his only real ally. The stakes are raised not because anything about the conflict changes, but Harry’s got nothing left but a hail mary play, going all in with his remaining energy and sanity to end the conflict before the conflict ends him.
Shit, I’m listing examples again. The reason why I think a lot of games decide to increase the scale of conflicts rather than finding other ways of raising the stakes is because spectacle is easier than good writing. Not that there’s anything wrong with spectacle, but it’s far harder to get an audience to care about the small things. A big final boss fight against a dragon is easier than, say, a race against time to save a little girl being used as a hostage. The dragon doesn’t need to be “sold” very hard to the audience- as long as it looks bigger and more threatening than anything else the player has fought, that makes it a climax. Getting an audience to really care about a character, a group, or a region is much harder.
Now, I hope you all don’t get the impression that I hate spectacle, or I think smaller conflicts are better- just because something is more difficult to do doesn’t make it automatically more enjoyable. It’s just that broadening the scale of conflict to raise the stakes is easy, and, to be honest, we’re all still figuring out how to tell stories through the medium of video games. Nobody’s got the perfect formula quite yet, and once that happens, well, I think all game developers will be forced to raise the stakes- on their own writing and plot development.
Plans for May Release
Update: March Public Version 3 is now available!
Okay, so March public release version 3 should be out later today- maybe around 12-3pm EST. It will contain a great many fixes- I just need a little time to work in all the little fixes. I think that most of the problems with the release are all nice and smoothed out now, so it should be good. I hope.
Anyway, release problems aside (I really should just get used to the fact that there are going to be problems no matter what I do). Starting tomorrow and going to the next two weeks or so, I’m going to be posting a Let’s Play of Harem Collector on the BKG forums. While I have played through individual parts to “spot check” them, it’s been quite awhile since I played through my own game front to back. I’m going to do so, taking notes to tune up the game a little and I’m also going to post observations and commentary on the forum, so feel free to follow along and share your perspective.
Wait, what was the title of this post again? Oh yeah.
So, May will hopefully see the triumphant implementation of either Diadira or Yeon. I also intend to throw in another quest, possibly Cannibal Corps. or the second quest in the Ancient Mysteries line. I also want to implement an event that has been sitting on the back burner for some time… and will remain mysterious. Not to mention I still have to go fill in some missing bits, like the alchemy system.
Unfortunately, it’s also tax time. So depending on how much that actually eats into my time, I might only get some of that done. Considering I managed three quests for this release and it wasn’t a complete disaster, I’m choosing to be optimistic.
Just to recap if you didn’t catch it on the website, next Backer Release is May 6th and the Public Release will be a week later on the 13th.
Harem Collector March 2015 Public Release
EDIT: PublicV2 is now available on the Harem Collector download page, fixed a couple of the more egregious problems, including the Stuck in the Middle with You infinite loop.
It’s finally done. You know where to grab, and if you don’t, try here. Happy fapping!
Note: I’ve taken care of all of the game breakers (I think) but there are a number of bugs I have yet to address in this version. Please keep that in mind as you explore the new content- everything will be straightened out for the May release if not sooner.
Also Note: I forgot to remove references to the Teamster’s Guild and setting up trade routes. This feature is not yet implemented. Sorry for giving you game mechanic blue balls.
Changes in this version:
-Three new quests! Check out the Southport Adventurer’s Guild and the Eastfort Adventurer’s Guild to kick two of them off. The third is the result of a wandering encounter, so you should run into it eventually.
-One new mini-quest, Slave Hunt Part II!
-Four new sex scenes!
-One brand new party member- Bronwyn, the Elven ranger!
-One temporary party member made permanent- Kyrie, the adventuring sorceress!
-Four total new harem girls!
-Two new villages!
-Raina’s “Beneath the Armour” scene now has placeholder CGs for your enjoyment- they just need a quick recolour.
-Randi’s Relationship now starts at 41.
-Weapon-enhancing items no long stack- only the one you applied last will be viable.
-The guy running the Money-Making Game will only put up with your save-scumming bullshit for so long.
No Moshing and the Case of the Cursed Release
Okay, so I am still wading through a veritable deluge of bug reports on the current release. The code for the new mechanic being introduced is being a beast. Nekochan and I are working on getting our very first house, which is a pretty involved process once an offer has been put down, and on top of that the current owner of the place we bought try to screw us twice (once by lying about when work was done on the house, once by delaying paperwork so that the offer would hit it’s deadline before Nekochan could sign). On top of that, I’m also shivering my way through a fever again. I’m seriously getting tired of being sick every couple months, got to get that checked out.
The upshot of all this is that Harem Collector’s public release will be delayed until March 13th while NoMoshing figures out his first-world problems. I’m sure everyone would prefer a (relatively) bug-free release than me rushing something out for today. Seriously, I have stacks and stacks of bugs to stomp before I can finish the new content I’ve already delayed (hint: it rhymes with Officer’s Loan). When it does release, I’ll do an extra post this week with the comprehensive list of changes.
I hope it’ll be worth the wait, and I thank you for your patience.
Oh Shit!
I totally forgot the blog this week.
Shit.
Uh, things have been busy. And also, I really need to write these waaay in advance. Also, buying a house is a lot of work. I mean, damn.
Uh, see you next week with the public release!
Progress and/or Life Update
Work continues on the game, which is really too bad because today I’m supposed to send stuff to the testers. Testers: I might be behind by a day or two. There’s not much else to do but program a couple encounters and write some dialogue, so hopefully I’ll be done tomorrow or Friday. I don’t expect many problems with the release (knock on wood!) because of how much I’ve had to test things myself, but we’ll see.
There are two reasons for my delay- one, last Thursday my back seized up to the point where menthocarbamol layered on top of extra-strength ibuprofen made be barely functional enough to lie on the couch without moving all day- otherwise I was in an incredible amount of pain. The earliest I could see a specialist was Friday afternoon- so I basically lost two days during “crunch time”.
Normally, a mere two days wouldn’t even be a delay- I’d just have to work double a couple days the following week. Except that Nekochan and I are officially house hunting right now, which is exciting but time consuming. You see, that vague “good thing” I mentioned a couple weeks ago was a monetary windfall that’s letting us get out of debt, purchase our first car and our first home, and letting me get some of the specialized medical attention I’ve needed for years but never could afford.
In the short term, HC development will probably slow down a little as a lot of my time will be eaten up by house-hunting and tax season. Long-term, I will be more productive because I’ll be happier and healthier, plus able to work from a brand new home office that I don’t have to share with moldy walls, puke green carpet and the cat’s litterbox. Once I get that set up, I’ll post a little photo-tour of Bad Kitty Games’ new digs.
Another great thing that happened this week: BKG’s Patreon page finally hit it’s second milestone goal! That draft table for Nekochan and (when she’s at the office) MagicWhiteLady might end up waiting until I’m getting the new office together, but it’s going to happen for sure. More importantly, between my recently zeroed debt and the Patreon increase I can finally start compensating MWL, Gurotaku and Kakurine for their time every month, something that they both deeply deserve.
In short, there might be a bit of a delay (I’m going to try to make sure that the delay on testing doesn’t impact the Backer release next week) but otherwise everything’s coming up Milhouse over here.
Oh, did I mention that Kyrie and Bronwyn are finally joining the party this release? Because they are. =)
Two Years, Gentle Reminder, Game Development Breakdown
Two years of game development on Harem Collector! Yeah, that is… not an achievement. Don’t get me wrong, I’m perfectly happy celebrating two years of getting to work on games, but I’m really hoping I can wrap-up HC by this time next year. I have lots of other projects I want to share with you all, so here’s hoping I can escalate my efforts accordingly.
Also, small reminder- if you want to get in on the Backer release on March 4th, you have to sign on to the Patreon campaign by the end of the month. If you’ve ever donated before the Patreon campaign, then don’t worry about it- you’ll still get the regular backer email.
So, lately I’ve been reflecting on why RPG Maker has such a terrible reputation in the gaming community. There are plenty of folks who avoid games made with the engine entirely, and now Unity is starting to get the same reputation. This makes my job significantly harder- it’s hard enough to get people to try your product in a crowded marketplace without potential players thinking “all games with your engine suck”. The truth, the only difference between Unity, RPG Maker and all other game engines out there is the barrier to entry.
Game development is tremendously complex, but it generally gets broken down into a handful of categories:
- Game design, or mechanical design, which covers how the game plays, the mechanics work, how the levels are laid out and the general “feel” of the experience.
- Sound design, which can be broken down further into music, acted dialogue, sound effects and audio engineering.
- Game “writing”, which covers everything from plot expression, character dialogue, and even something as mundane as menu or tutorial text.
- Art or visual design, which covers literally everything visual that appears on the screen, from animation to image stills to character design to font choice.
- Programming, or code. Most programming is “just” making all the other harmonize on a computer screen in such a way as the game does what it is designed to do, but there can be plenty of “art” rather than “science” to programming, especially when things like physics engines are involved.
I hope that short list really gives you a sense of the scope of things that need to get put into any one game, because there is a lot that needs to happen in order to create a good game experience.
My essential point is this- very few individuals are the kind of savants that can actually do all of these things together. I like to think my main strength is mechanical design- though everyone currently stuck on the Count Corgan battle will probably disagree with that assessment. Chibi’s primary strength is in visuals, and the “feel of the experience” parts of game design. Cypress’ biggest strength is his writing and dialogue. That doesn’t necessarily mean that any of us slouch in the other departments (we all work very hard at what we do), but it’s almost impossible to be an expert in all five. For every Phil Fish and Jasper Byrne there are hundreds of game designers who are weak in two or more areas.
Which brings us back to RPG Maker and Unity. The biggest strength of these engines is that they provide art, sound, code editors, and some rudimentary mechanics. This lower “barrier to entry” is attractive to anyone who isn’t some game dev Übermensch, but unfortunately it also means a lot of poorly thought out crap gets made available to the public.
So, I guess, don’t judge a game by it’s engine. There are lots of great (free!) RPG Maker games that absolutely deserve your time and attention. The same goes for Unity.