Category: Harem Collector

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Iron Waifu Grand Tournament 2017!

Hey everyone! We’re nearing the end of April and some of you might remember what that means! As for the rest of you, during the month of May we run a month long tournament on our forums, every day we run a poll between two of the Harem Collector girls going through all of them until we crown the ‘Iron Waifu’ (run by myself this time around). The winner of the tournament will become the focus of an update later this year, which will include their love quest (or equivalent if not applicable).

Feel free to check out the round 1 match ups, the date they’ll happen, and keep up to date with the standings here! Please note that to participate you will need to have an account on the Bad Kitty Games forums, both to vote and to post, so if you don’t have one you might want to look into getting one.

Now, some of you might have noticed a few changes in participants this year, most notably Therese, last years winner, will not be partaking in the main tournament, as the reigning champion she will instead face the winner of this year’s tournament in a one on one match after May! The winner of this year’s tournament will receive the prize regardless of the championship match, but didn’t want you Therese fans to think that we forgot about her!

Hope to see you all there!

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Party Time

The focus of the last few weeks of development has been on the upgrade from a mere Journeyman to a Banneret- the highest rank in the Adventurer’s Guild without becoming a part of the Guild’s bureaucratic and leadership structure. Banneret, if you’re not familiar with the term, refers to a knight who earned his knighthood as a field promotion, and while in the world of Harem Collector it’s not an actual knighthood, the Hero does get a literal banner to decorate his house with. We probably won’t have the art finished for the mini-release, but soon there will be proper heraldry for the Adventurer’s Guild, instead of that samey red banner that comes with the default tileset.

Of course, by the time you have enough Fame to reach that lofty rank, you’ll probably have almost every harem girl in the game. That makes for a pretty crowded party! One of the hardest things about planning the Banneret party is just how busy it is. Twenty-five guests, plus the guild staff and Shally crammed into that little room. More than once I’ve placed a new sprite only to block off this character or that. But hey, that’s the kind of game I signed up to make, right?

I also want to try to get the Old Piano into the manor. While in the redesigned manor there will be a proper trophy room/bar for you to decorate, I know a lot of people have been wondering what the Old Piano is for. The plan is for it to be a fixture in the manor possibly with some kind of reward for practicing every day.

With regard to artists, we’ve got Kumiho currently tasked with a new set of status effect icons for the battle interface. We’re going to do our best to reduce ambiguity between the different status effects, plus getting new icons for a lot of status effects that would be been invisible before we made the battle interface change. Also, we might have gotten a replacement artist already. I don’t want to say much until some of the new art is in the game, but I’m remaining optimistic.

Anyway, that’s it for me this week. See ya next week for the mini-release!

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Stun-locking and Saving

Hey everyone! Conash here, to tell you about a couple of things we have planned for the next release!

First of all, we’ve heard complaints about several enemies being able to stun-lock players for extended periods of times, in some cases making it impossible to win the fight. As such NoMoshing and I talked about it and came up with a few ideas for how to fix it, to that end we put in the changes and gave our testers a copy so that they can give us feedback on these changes. We might need to fine tune the percentages more to help allow players to use these statuses without enemies able to lock down the player enough. Hopefully things go well so we’ll see!

Now I know that most of you generally aren’t too interested in some of the scripting projects I’m working on but I like to at least give you all a brief overview of what I’m working on each update. This time around between the Iron Waifu contest coming up and me working on enemy we’re keeping me to just one scripting project this update. What we’re looking at is revamping the save system, firstly by changing over to the Yanfly save system which allows for 99 save files instead of our current 16, the other major change to the save system we’re looking at is implementing a new auto-save feature. This auto-save feature would activate right before the player enters a dungeon or any other ‘point of no return’ over a save file that players can load but not save over. We hope that these changes to the save system will help prevent a lot of the struggles with save files that players tend to have!

Well that’s about all that I have to say for today, hope you all enjoy the recent release!

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What’s Next? (May Release Goals)

…Is it Wednesday already? Fuck. Well, okay, I think I can stop licking Ann Takamaki’s thighs long enough to tell you guys what’s going on.

First of all, I need to fix up a handful of vacation content issues tonight, and will roll out v0.27.4 around midnight or so. It won’t be new content, mostly, because fixing up the vacation is probably going to be a long term thing from here on out. I’ll try to add a little bit every update, though, so check back in with the vacation from time to time.

As for v0.28, coming out next May, the biggest chunk of content will be a new quest in the Save the Elves questline. Obviously I don’t want to give away new plot details, but for the first time that plot will be getting out of the vale and joining the larger Middle Kingdom. I’m looking forward to getting the Hero to look cool a little bit, and of course there will be a little more involvement from Bronwyn, plus Conash is doing to try his hand at enemy design, which is pretty exciting.

Another thing that’s going on, is that I’m going on a fairly hardcore recruitment guide. I’ve heard all the complaints, had a talk with GusBus, and we’ve agreed to part ways professionally. So I need to recruit 2-3 artists,which will hopefully unfold over the next couple weeks.

That’s about it for now, I suppose. At least I can’t think of anything. I’ll be updating the April schedule in a couple days, the backer devstream will be this weekend so that link’s going out soon, so please pay attention for that. Thanks for your support, and happy fapping.

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Harem Collector v0.27.3 Public Release!

Hello, everyone! After some struggle, Harem Collector v0.27.3 is now unleashed upon the world!

Journey to far-off Sunnyshore Island, where you will be able to explore three new dungeons, uncover new equipment and items, and (most importantly) unlock sixteen new sex scenes with your lovely harem girls!
Expect the vacation to be updated with additional content in the future, as you can get away from it all and enjoy a holiday whenever you wish!* Please visit the travel agent in Southport for more details.

We’re also trying out the Yanfly Battle Engine mod for RPG Maker VX Ace games, so please tell us what you think of the new battle interface as we’re not 100% sold on using it or not. You might recognize it as the same battle engine that games such as Overwhored use, and we feel it might help keep straight the various buffs and debuffs that end up applied to your party members and enemies. As well, there is the usual bevy of bug fixes and such that come with these updates.

*Additional in-game fees may apply.

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Island Vacation Post-Mortem

So, that was a learning experience, at least.

Back when I was first working on Harem Collector, in the “lol throw it in” phase of the game’s design, I thought it would be a good idea to include two vacation events. I figured that a) going on luxury vacations played into the fantasy of being a rich, successful adventurer, b) there could be a ton of vacation-themed sex scenes, and c) it would put a lot of the harem girls in a new situation, in order to inspire new and more interesting dialogue. I had Gurotaku make up some CGs for all the available girls (at the time) having sex in various swimwear, drew up some basic ideas, and resolved to revisit the vacation later, when I had time.

Two years later, we throw up this poll asking what quests should be done next. I plan the next few updates after the results of that poll, and behold, the beach vacation is number two on that list. I was about two weeks into developing the new content when I suddenly realized that this just doesn’t work.

You see, the vacation as a whole doesn’t feel like part of Harem Collector proper. It’s just kind of… bolted on to the side of everything like ill-fitting DLC. I eventually came to kind of resent the vacation content and wish I was actually making progress on parts of the game that contributed more to the whole. But, because of the poll and the fact that the vacation was part of the plan from the start, I didn’t feel like I could just cut my losses. I’m beholden to my patrons to at least attempt to deliver on my promises, so I pressed on. And things did not go well, drawing out the process of working on the thing I’d rather not be working on. Not an ideal situation by any means.

Either way, the vacation is mostly finished at this point- just have to write dialogue- except for adding a few more sex scenes once pics become available. But this is why I’m cutting the second vacation, why I’m not happy with this update, and why more 3DCG sex scenes are getting added to the game.

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Fan Art Contest, Progress, Etc

Hey everyone, very busy today, so I’ll keep this short. have a lot of work to do before Friday, so I can’t do a big, healthy blog post.

First off, unfortunately, due to the lack of response, I’ve decided to cancel the rest of the fan art contest. A big thank to everyone who had entered, but continuing just wasn’t feasible with the amount of people who entered.

As for progress, I caught the flu from Nekochan last weekend and spent Saturday through Monday having occasional bouts of chills and fever. Now, we’ve been to see a doctor, and apparently all the sickness lately doesn’t have any broader implications- we’ve just been repeatedly unlucky to catch every variation of the cold bouncing around this year and a flu mutation that we weren’t vaccinated against. I mean, it has to happen to someone, I guess. I just wish I had won the lottery instead.

As always, I’m also thinking ahead to the next release. April and May are always busy for me- the trinity of tax season, wedding anniversary, and Iron Waifu- so we’ll probably turn things down a touch for that release cycle. Details will be forthcoming in a couple weeks, when I have a better idea of what’s going on.

Anyway, I have to spend almost every waking hour for the next three days getting shit done, so if you’ll excuse me….

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Vacation at Sunnyshore Island!

Hey everyone! Today we’ll be getting version 0.27 out to our testers to help fix up some bugs and all before the upcoming backer release next week and public release following that! I managed to finish up most of the achievement system I mentioned before, but NM is still busy with his end of things so we thought it best that I give you guys a run-down of what he’s been working on!

In this release we’ll be offering you a vacation! This one has been planned for quite some time and it’s looking like it’ll be real good if you ask me! The vacation will take place on the luxurious  island off the coast of the Coastburg area. Here you and any of your fellows (read followers) will get to spend a few days relaxing on the ever sunny beaches found here, with plenty of room for all your guests! Though, I will warn you that the front desk isn’t always efficient with how they distribute the rooms, everyone might always have a place to stay but we can’t guarantee that you won’t have rooms with four people in them while other rooms are given to just one person, this minor oversight has NOTHING to do with the complexities of having dynamic rooms that auto-adjust to always have a similar number of people in them, not one bit.

Now, while you could spend your time on this island relaxing, hanging out with your guests, maybe having some ‘personal’ time with them, you should keep in mind the island has a few different tourist attractions like a real haunted pirate ship or the islands volcano! Do not fret, there is absolutely no danger in these areas as long as you make sure to stick with the group! So don’t go wandering off now, otherwise the local monsters might fight you and drop some delicious experience if you happen to beat them (and maybe get some action from one of the locals)! Who would ever want that? Much better to collect our beautiful seashells all over the island that definitely don’t have any value off of the island! So uh, make sure to return those so that we can keep the local ecosystem filled with excess shells that no one uses! Why there’s so much to do on the island you may not find time for everything, and that’s quite alright as we will ensure that you will always be able to return for as long as you can afford the tickets, remember there’s no better way to spend your time than relaxing with our beaches!

Now, some of our…. less profitable clientele might be worried about the potential loss of money from not managing their businesses while away! We assure you that your businesses will keep running smoothly and you deserve a break, why we’ll even ensure that any money sent to your household is available to you on the island so that you can spend it on relaxing at our appropriately priced gift shop or snack bar! Why some of our more successful customers have even claimed they earned more money while staying here thanks to their businesses managing themselves! So make sure to visit the Southport travel agent and visit us at Sunnyshore Island!

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The Squire Party

Last Sunday Lewdgamer shared an editorial on hentai game introductions (that you can find here) that I took a look at. The subject of the editorial piqued my interest, and since it was written by T51-b, who you might remember as the person who wrote that update article on HC back in January, I decided to take a look.
Just about when I was thinking, “Yeah, maybe HC’s opening could use a little bit of punching up,” I see this:

After getting over my “Senpai noticed me” feels, followed immediately by high levels of smug, I figured I’d talk a little about the opening this week.

First off, not many people realize this but the current opening isn’t the first opening to the game. The black-screen-and-disclaimer bit has always been a part of the game, although the disclaimer itself is currently on the fourth or fifth version at this point. But originally, instead of opening on the squire ceremony, the game would instead open on the Hero standing out in front of the manor, lamenting his lack of ability to purchase the manor. While this original version of the opening laid out a few things pretty clearly- that the Hero wanted a harem of sexy slave girls and that the manor provided the Hero with enough space to host such a harem- most of the other important information that the Hero needs to start the game was missing.

One of the things that I’m particularly proud of with the squire ceremony opening is exactly ow much information is laid out for the player in a rather short amount of time. Just by going around, talking to people and having drinks, the player learns that:
-The Hero is an adventurer, and has been for awhile.
-Who Gargan, Raina, Meline, and the guildmaster are.
-The function of the two vendors at the Adventurer’s Guild.
-The layout of a guildhouse, so you can identify them on sight.
All this in addition to similar exposition about the Hero’s goals that already existed in the previous opening. Plus, particularly sharp players can pick up a variety of details about the world and it’s setting. Most importantly, you’re interacting with the world rather than sitting through some exposition about it.

If I could change it, I’d figure out how to stuff a sex scene in there somewhere- early sex scenes always help draw me into a game, and maybe getting a handjob or something from Raina would help build up excitement for getting her later. But all in all, I guess it’s a pretty great opening sequence!

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Our Community, Achievements, and walkthroughs!

Hey everyone, Conash here filling in because NoMoshing is very sick with another cold! To start things off I’d like to remind everyone about the fanart contest that’s still open for the next two weeks! So make sure to get those drawings submitted if you want to partake!

Next, I’d like to take a little moment to thank all of you for all that you’ve done to help make this game and everything around it what it is.  Back when I first found HC several years ago I was rather nervous about trying to join the little social group around HC and while it’s had quite a few ups and downs it’s really been a great experience. I’ve had a lot of fun hanging out with you guys, helping you however I can, and now even I’ve got all of you to thank for me having a job as part of the BKG staff! So even to those of you who are rather new here, thank you very much for helping make this community what it is! However we’re not done with trying to grow this community, so we’d appreciate it if you all could give us a brief vote in this month’s monthly poll or spreading the word to some friends you think might be interested in HC about it! It goes a long way to help us grow! The more people who know about HC as we wish the game to reach as many people as who would enjoy it!

Now, onto more coding matters. While it’s been mentioned in brief before, my big project for this upcoming update is reworking the achievement system. As things are, the achievements take a fair amount of time for us to code in, are tied to each specific save file, and there’s no existing menu for you all to see what achievements you have and haven’t unlocked. Well when I’m done with it, the achievement data will be stored both in the ‘Misc_Data’ file and your specific save file as to allow achievements you’ve earned in one save file to transfer to the next, which combined with the new achievement menu that I’m working on will go a long way in making it all the easier to collect them all! I also plan to also make the popup that you get after an achievement to be a bit smoother, having it show up in a corner without interrupting your game-play for a little bit showing you the name of the achievement before going away, allowing you to read up on it in the achievement menu! This new system will also be a lot easier for us to program in future achievements and avoid little issues that most of you might not encounter often if at all. $10 and higher patreon backers may have also noticed that I’ve updated the combat system in the mini-release to be the Yanfly Ace Battle Engine this helps makes things better due to a few different reasons described above, though there may be a few bugs here and there with it for a bit so we ask that you bear with us while we work them out!

Finally, I’m not sure how many of you use the wiki, but currently the walkthroughs on it are a bit…. Out of date. While one user is working on one for how to get the most out of Day 1, people who have been following the updates that have happened recently might have noticed that the ‘Strong Wild Start’ and the ‘Rich Mid Cure’ guides are a bit…. Out of date. I’ve been meaning to put together a new one since now we not only have Daidira but Therese’s love quest which both affect what I believe to be the ‘optimal playthrough’. But with how busy I’ve been lately finding the time to sit down and write out the walkthrough that I’ve got in my head is rather difficult, so I wanted to ask if you guys would be interested in a new ‘guide’ for this game? I already know the suggestions that I’d make but there are other things I’d rather put that time and effort into if most people wouldn’t be too interested.

But yeah, that’s just kinda where I’ve been at in general! Feel free to post any questions, comments, or concerns below and I’ll do my best to field them at least until NoMoshing recovers!