So, uh, sorry for the lack of blog lately. I know it’s the primary way we try to communicate with you the progress on the game, but things have been a little hectic, and honestly, saying “We’re still behind but less behind than we were last week”, even if accurate, doesn’t feel great. But, something major did happen last week that is great news for all Harem Collector fans- a generous backer who wishes to remain anonymous stepped forward and gave us an absurd amount of money expressly to get the soundtrack finished.
To quote this incredible person: “I’ve been impressed with the quality of the game, the artwork is fantastic, and I feel you’ve been sincere in almost every interaction with you. I wouldn’t offer to throw money at you if I wasn’t impressed. … My only real regret is that I can’t offer more to help.”
Thank you, sir/madam. Everyone on the team is humbled by your donation, and we will do our best to make the most of what you’ve entrusted us with.
For now, we’ve sticking with Clara as our composer, as I can’t easily give up on the person who brought us “Rescue Me“. We’ve had an in-depth talk about what is expected of her and she is going to give it her all this year. Already she’s working on some new boss battle music, as well as a sex scene track that fits more emotional or sensitive scenes better than “TLR” and “Love and Mercy”.
So what does the future of music for Harem Collector look like so far? Here’s the list of “wants” we have:
Town Music- Lumberhill (nice), Huntervale, Elf Village, Southport University, Southport Docks, Orctown, Sunnyshore theme
Event Music- Triumphant trumpety music, Generic military music, Fancy castle music, Sensitive sex theme, Boss Music, Final Boss music, Anime-style opening
Dungeon Music- “Beast” dungeon theme, “Nature” dungeon theme, “Spooky” dungeon theme, “Mountain” dungeon theme, “Criminal” dungeon theme, “Arcane” dungeon theme, “Military” dungeon theme, “Swamp” dungeon theme, “Hell” dungeon theme, “Hot” dungeon theme, “Weird” dungeon theme, “Magitech” dungeon theme
You may notice a few things. First off, there’s no generic fight music. What we’re going to attempt is to have a battle remix of each dungeon variety’s theme song to be the combat music for that dungeon. This will take a little big of extra coding infrastructure, but shouldn’t be too onerous, as it can be arranged at the same time we go to fix the battle backgrounds.
Second, we’ve group dungeon tracks by theme. Rather than have unique themes for each of the dungeons in the game, we’ve separated them out by theme. For example, the third track of music I’ve asked Clara to start working on is the “Criminal” dungeon theme, for use in the Bitch’s Sixth Tit, Deliquent Hideout, Tartufo Manor, and a few other places. We’ll also work something out so that the random dungeons are themed according to the enemies you face. And of course, all music will be selectable in-game as manor music, so if the Hero chilling out as a criminal overlord appeals to you….
This is the plan we’re going with so far. As always, we may need to revise our expectations along the way. But we have the talent and, finally, we have the budget. It’s going to be an even more exciting year for Harem Collector, that’s for sure.
Our donor has already given the go-ahead to throw any money we have in excess at the art budget, so once the music is done we might also get some additional scenes finished. In terms of relevant Patreon campaign stuff, we’ll be making early music track access a benefit of the $5/month tier. For our goals, we will be changing our $2,500/mo. goal, just as soon as we get caught up on the SAVIOR release (I cringe even saying that) and get a good lead on the RICHES update.
Anyway, hope that’s enough Harem Collector news for you all to look forward to. I’m going to stop slacking off and hop-to. See you next Wednesday for the public release!