Category: Planning

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I Live To Serve Dungeon King, Development Go!

Hey everyone! Conash here to bring you an update as to the biggest change we’ve got going on among our team at the moment. After years of being in pre-production, I Live To Serve Dungeon King, our next project, has officially been moved into being in full development! We haven’t forgotten about Harem Collector, and while there may be a few months where we’re less productive on it as a result, given the amount of up front work that ILTSDK requires to really get going, working on it while we’re working on closing out the story of HC just makes the most sense. So, as the guy in charge of a lot of the more technical and mechanical aspects of things, I thought I’d take this opportunity to tell you all a bit about the stuff that we’ve discussed as a team about the project!

The first thing that I should answer is a question that we’ve gotten asked a lot over the years in regards to this project: what engine we’re going to use. I’ve given a different answer on this subject in the past, but over the past few months I was given more concrete information as to why some people at least were apprehensive about our original choice of Unity, and have since looked into things. Due to a variety of development concerns, from ease of use, to licensing pricing structures, to support available, we’re currently deciding to go with Godot, keeping Unity as a backup if we run into any catastrophic issues during these early stages.

This isn’t to say that Godot is just ‘better’ than Unity, as Unity has several advantages, however, everything that I’ve found suggests that Godot wouldn’t be as much as a resource hog as Unity would be for our 2D game, the open source nature will also allow us a bit more freedom to fix issues with the engine, while getting Unity’s tech support would require that we spend a pretty significant chunk of our budget each month on licensing. Some of my research also indicated that Unity has been allowing some pretty big bugs in their engine to stay around for a long time, and fosters development practices that are difficult to take to any other engine, both of which just push me into feeling that Godot is a better long-term pick. Those aren’t all of the factors that come into play in this decision, but for those wondering we did look into about a dozen different engines before we got to this choice.

Onto actual development goals. The BKG staff has been coordinating a lot of things over the past week, since ILTSDK is going to have a very different development cycle than HC. We’re very excited to get working on the game, and I’ve got to say I do not envy NoMoshing having to coordinate all of us while still doing what he can to help develop two games and manage his own life!

Right now, our goals are to work on getting out both a trailer and a tech demo out later this year, to show what sort of things we have planned for the game. My focus, as our programmer/technical guy, is mostly on the tech demo, so I’ll leave talking about the trailer to others. I’m hoping to be able to get the tech demo into a state where you can play the game and get a good sense for what to expect from it, maybe even add in more substantial gameplay if we can manage it, but it’s very much going to be bare bones compared to the main game as we’re looking to more show off the very foundational elements of things. Don’t expect a full 20+ hours out of the tech demo.

What we are currently hoping for is to have a decent slice of all three aspects of gameplay, the dungeon building, the dungeon defence, and the story sequences. We don’t want to bite off more than we can chew right out of the gate, but it is important to be able to at least give the basics of what we’re hoping for the full experience. While the demo will probably be rather bare bones, there should be some level of depth to the gameplay here as I’ve already got plans on how to make use of the elements we do have planned in ways that should give some depth of options. When combined with some adaptive difficulty that we want to implement, this should help give an enjoyable experience to you, the players.

While our intention is to capture a piece of what hallowed, older management sims like Dunegon Keeper 2 were like, and seeing a hentai parody of that concept fully realized. We do intend to make things a bit easier to approach, trying to push towards more ‘macro’ or ‘mid’ level managements at best since a micro heavy gameplay loop is not something we really feel enthused to make.

Another consideration that will be coming into play with the gameplay is that we want players to be able to more easily approach things at their own pace, to not have any sort of ‘traditional’ game-overs. Instead, we’re focusing on having it so that poor gameplay or choices result in a loss of resources instead of a full on game-over, adding in adaptive difficulty to allow players to be able to recover from situations they end up in.

Before I go, I’d like to talk about the design motivations that are going into ILTSDK. I can’t go too deep into specifics as almost everything still very much is up in the air, if you’re reading this then you’re probably a fan of Harem Collector, so I do think it is important to mention some things. ILTSDK will not feature several of the fetishes that are explored in HC, due in large part to it running contrary to the general themes and character motivations that we’re hoping to hit on with the game. Not just in gameplay, but in terms of theme and story, I Live to Serve, Dungeon King!! will be a very different experience to HC.

To be clear, while we know how certain subjects would create trouble with our current funding model, their lack of inclusion has more or less been something that we’ve planned to do from the start for this project, as we have Harem Collector and perhaps some future projects that will handle those subjects already, and these topics are just not going to be a part of Dungeon King’s theme and style.

We are not abandoning everything that featured in HC, however. As Dungeon King will continue being a harem game, there will still no no single romance “routes” and we already have plans for incorporating harem relationship progress into gameplay, so that developing relationships gives you benefits instead of costing resources. To say much more would probably get a bit spoilery, but I’ll say that many of us on staff are very excited about various characters and the choices or motivations about them being made, so look forward to all of that!

That’s about all that I have to say on the matter, hopefully we’ll have more to update you all on over the next few months, but I hope this much was enough to at least whet your appetites a bit in regards to a project that we here at BKG are very excited to be working on!

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Let’s Rock

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!

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Direction in the New Year

Oh, wow, I didn’t realize I haven’t updated the blog since before Christmas. I hope you all managed to have a good holiday, nonetheless. I had a pretty good time, I think- Nekochan seemed to enjoy her gifts, and I received some nifty things. As you might recall from earlier posts, my mother in law is very sick, and so doing the holidays with her was very challenging. My mental health still has not super improved from the fall, but I’m trying to focus more on using my time effectively when I am in a fit state to work. Like everything else, it’s a process.

But, that’s enough about me. What you’d like to know is, what’s the plan now? Last year, Conash and I made a big push towards getting story progress done and spinning a more cohesive narrative from the scattered plot strands in Harem Collector. It was a huge success, and because of that I feel that we’re going to be taking it slow (in terms of plot development) for the first quarter this year.

Our January update will be the BROS update, featuring the final relationship quests for Kevin the blacksmith and Gargan. Kevin, a longtime supporter of the Hero, finally comes asking a favour, in order to earn a little adventuring cred with which to impress his childhood friend. As for Gargan, they find out about a witch rumoured to specialize in curses, and the removal thereof… and of course, a witch living in the middle of nowhere doesn’t trade in money.

And what could possible follow the BROS update? Why, only the HO… RTICULTURE update! March’s update will feature primarily new content for Doll and Chimei, the harem’s resident nature-themed slaves. Doll’s Love Quest will revolve around her origins, figuring out who she really is and how she ended up becoming a slave. As for Chimei, her Love Quest will… revolve around her origins, figuring out who she really is and how she ended up becoming a slave! Ooo, mysterious….

Seriously though, one of these quests will involve crossing swords with a pair of powerful dryads, and the other will involve dealing with a cult of assassins seeking to bring about a terrible prophecy using your harem girl… so please look forward to this new content coming soon!

And for those of you who are backers may remember, now that we’re done with most of Princess Quinta’s scenes, we will be moving on to all new art assets for Doll. Originally, we were going to do Chimei next in the art asset queue, but Nekochan wants to focus on getting her summer cosplay done, so we’re going to put that off until summer. Thus why I ran that poll where backers got to vote on which girl who has already had a redesign will get focused down on next. And the winner was Doll, which is great because I was planning on doing her love quest anyway!

So her art queue will include her introductory scene, her gangbang during the Manor Invasion, and her love quest sex scene. Unfortunately, her random scene, being that foursome with Chimei and Lilac, is going to have to wait just a scootch longer. And, following that, there are two very important and long requested scenes I want to get done before we resume….

Anyway, those are my plans, at least, for winter through to early spring 2020. I’ll see you all in just a few more weeks for the BROS update, and check back here every Wednesday for bloggo goodness!

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Tits or GTFO

Some of you who received the Backer’s Release last week might have noticed that there was something fairly significant missing from the end of Hell to Pay. I was hoping that Hilent would only be a couple days behind the release with Bell’s first sex scene artwork, but unfortunately due to some moving-related snafus he has been significantly slowed down, although the maid piece is already finished and all that’s left are some colouring on the variations.

Otherwise, things are going well, well enough that I decided to take “release date interlude week” as a sort of staycation. I’m attending to work here and there, but mostly chilling out, catching up on housework, painting minis, and catching up on some personal projects I’m behind on.

I’m also taking some time to contemplate exactly what a post-demon-cult-and-kellos -invasion Harem Collector might look like. With the final quest of the Demon Cult questline wrapped up and the last two quests for Kellos Invasion getting tied up in v0.42, that leaves us with only a couple more Harem Drama loose ends, then Ancient Mysteries and Save the Elves to do, then the endgame.

We’re getting close, ladies and gentlemen. I can feel it.

So expect new character designs for Hanelore and Meiriona very soon, as well as the final shopgirl who will be able to set up in the Elf Village. And there, on the horizon, the mysterious 15th party member….

Thank you again for all the support you’ve given to get us to thing this point!

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Some Good News, Finally

So, something good happened to me this past weekend.

A relative of mine sent me a cheque, for a large but not huge amount of money (I know this is super relative- it’s more than I make in a month but less than I make in a year, let me put it that way). Apparently, they sold some property that used to belong to my father, and felt I deserved to get a piece.

Now, of course, I did some dumb and not-so-dumb stuff with a bit of the money, as anyone would when they receive an unexpected windfall. Getting some work done on the house, bought a copy of Kirby Super Star for my retro game collecton, that sort of thing.

But I can’t with a clear conscience enjoy this windfall without contributing to the same project that you all are- that is, Harem Collector, and Bad Kitty Games in general.

Those of you who follow me when I stream will know that I’ve been having more and more frequent hardware problems. Abyss, my PC, and Meido, my laptop, have both been having more and more frequent issues. I’ve been reluctant to switch to new hardware up to this point, as doing so would require me siphoning out of the (already plenty disrupted) art budget. I was waiting for something in the formula to change- either the Patreon gets a big hike, or I save up enough bellmarks and Tim Hortons coupons, or Abyss finally becomes irrepairable and I have to do *something*.

Well, something happened- I got this windfall. So, without having to take any money from my awesome backers or HC development at all, I can replace at least my work PC and, if I can, also the lappy.

Also, I’m looking to accelerate some of my own art. It’ll depend on what costs how much and how everything shakes out, but there are a few sex scenes which I’d like to have finished that aren’t connected to any particular character but would be pretty pricey to have done, so it’s a hard thing to justify when there are so many main cast harem girls who are lacking in art.

So just thought I’d share what’s going on. Hopefully this doesn’t inspire anyone to leave- I’m not suddenly rich or something- I just wanted to share my good fortune and what this means for Bad Kitty Games.

Hope you’re enjoying Iron Waifu, and I’ll see you all later!

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Website Done, What Next?

Ah, so the website is finally finished and out there, and the old website safely packed away where it can do longer hurt anyone. And, as a bonus, there were no problems or bugs in how the site was put together- well, I suppose I should say, at least none that came back to me. I hope this new site will last us for many years.

Redesigning the website has been a major time sink for me in the last month and a half. While standalone WordPress is pretty easy to use, there was terminology to learn, visual deisgn to mull over, plugins to negotiate into cooperating. The last time I put together my own website, it was on Angelfire of all fucking things, so there was quite a bit to learn for myself, and I am also old enough that a lot of software isn’t intuitive for me anymore.

So, now that the new website isn’t taking up so much of my time, what’s next?

A high priority right now is working more on ILTSDK!! There is lots of writing to do, characters to make, mechanics to plan. While Harem Collector is the focus of my attention, I want to make good progress on ILTSDK so that when it comes time for primary production, the team and I can put in our full effort and work efficiently. The way that Harem Collector has gone, with me making things up as I go, hasn’t been the best and I’d like to do better.

The other thing I want to do is investigate how best to market Harem Collector and offer great incentives for existing backers to switch to higher tiers, without increasing the prices for the tiers that currently exist. I want to be able to afford a good composer to make more proprietary music for the game, I want to be able to get an animator for doing new battle animations and make all the special skills and spells really pop. I also want more and faster sex scene art. And, well, if I’m being honest, I’ve been feeling the pinch more and more at home and making a little more money for myself would be nice.

To that end, I’m going to be doing some more formal polls a bit later this month, but please let me know your own thoughts in the comments. If you’re a backer, let me know what sort of rewards you would find valuable, and don’t be afraid to show me ideas from other projects you support. If you’re not a backer, let me know what I could offer that might stoke your interest. Or just tell me that I’m a sell out or saint, or whatever else, I suppose.

Next week is the public release of v0.39, so please look forward to it!

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Hello, 2019!

So it’s the start of a new year, and everyone is hopeful and making resolutions, setting goals for themselves to achieve before 2020. Here at Bad Kitty Games, we’re also looking at 2019 with excitement, because there are a number of big changes coming our way.

First of all, Harem Collector.

Looking back, 2018 was a big year for Harem Collector. We completed ten new quests, which account for more than 20% of the quests currently in the game. We added two new harem girls, the fallen noble Natya and the clockwork robot Pandora. We also added a whopping sixty-seven new 2D CG images, including all the solo scenes for Yamamaya and Orange Kid. That might seem a little slow, but keep in mind that includes doing a bunch of minor sex scene images and the introduction scenes for Natya and Pandora.

We’re going to continue to push on new quests, and have solid plans to end the Demon Cult arc by summer. Our hope is also to end another arc (probably Kellos Invasion, for various reasons) by the end of the year, but obviously we have to remain flexible and might have to adapt as we go. We’d also like to get 3-4 new harem girls added to the harem before the end of the year- the last two shopgirls, and the reward girls for finishing Demon Cult and whatever other questline.

We will continue barrelling along with the new 2D CG, and, in addition to Larelle (who is currently in progress) and Therese (who is coming up), we will be doing a full set of CGs for the next Iron Waifu contestant and another character or two by years’ end.

We’ve also finally formally announced our next project, I Live To Serve, Dungeon King!!

That is currently in pre-production. Nekochan will be doing character designs, NoMoshing and Conash will be getting the engine and mechanics figured out, and plans will be put in place for a more efficient and organized development.

We will be doing updates every month, starting next week, with updates on the development of ILTSDK. So, if you’re kind of confused right now about what ILTSDK, we’ll be discussing the project in much more detail next Wednesday.

So, all in all, we’re feeling really good about the upcoming year and challenges, and we hope to continue to deliver awesome hentai goodness to you in 2019 and beyond! Have a great new year!

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Orange Kid, Pandora, Motivation

Aw, man, I’ve felt such a writer’s block over the last few days. Well, here goes.

Orange Kid’s solo stuff is coming along, with her Love Quest happening this month. Still at the concept stage at this point, but we should have it done for the backer mini-release, even if the art/sex scene comes a little bit later. Also on deck for this month is the Orange Kid wallpaper… which also means that Alina’s wallpaper if going to become publicly available! So, look forward to that!

The following month will be the intro scene for Pandora, so unlocking the Southport manor and getting everything placed within it will be a significant chunk of content for the next release, though it’s a secondary priority to Orange Kid’s LQ.

Following that… We’re going to try to move into the next leg of the “Harem Drama” plotline, and it should be a doozy. Both in terms of work and in entertainment value.

I’ve felt really motivated lately to get work done on HC, and ironically enough it came in the form of someone being critical of the game. Someone somewhere said, “this game is dead, don’t fund it, it’s a failure”, and I was able to successfully transmute the resulting outrage into energy that I poured into Harem Collector. This isn’t an invitation for additional abuse, by the way- I’m more just commenting on the funny way things work sometimes.

By the way, thank you very much to all our supporters on Patreon. July 2018 was our strongest month ever, and because of that I can get an additional image done this month and can serious look at doing seven images a month permanently. Your continued support and patronage is very appreciated, and I hope you’ll continue enjoying the benefits as we go forward!

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Iron Waifu Week 1 Commentary and Art Stuff

So Iron Waifu is off for another exciting year! Already there has been one solid upset- Princess Quinta, the biggest loser of Iron Waifu 2016, has finally gotten a victory in over Violet, not bad for the first match-up of the month!

I won’t comment on today’s match because I don’t want to put my thumb on the scales, but I like Princess Quinta and I’m looking forward to doing more for her… as always, these things take time. Later matches this week include Kyrie vs Serade (tomorrow), Elaiya vs Gargan (Friday), and Evanie vs Yeon (Saturday).

As for other news, I’ve decided to release publicly the wallpapers SacB0y did of Nerys, which you can find here. Every harem girl is going to get a wallpaper set going forward, and while the two most recent wallpaper sets will remain backer-only, the rest will eventually be released for the public. Expect Alina’s wallpapers in a month or two when the backers receive Orange Kid’s set!

Speaking of SacB0y, June will be the last month for Yamamaya artwork (for now). As I said, next up is Orange Kid, who should be done just in time to start the Iron Waifu update this fall. After the Iron Waifu’s solo and applicable group sex scenes are in the can, then it’ll be starting on Therese and… oh boy.

Therese will be a nice meaty chunk of art to do. Not only are there her existing 3D CGs that will be getting new art, but also a “mind controlled” version of her opening scene and sex on-demand stuff, not to mention a “random nightly” scene for each version of Therese… That’s six months of work at our current rate, provided that there isn’t a demand to have SacB0y do his own version of “A Knight to Remember”. Whew! Hopefully we’ll get up there and be able to afford a faster pace by then!

Anyway, have fun voting on Iron Waifu and such, and I’ll see you again next week!

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Extreme Makeover, Manor Edition

So, this month we’re working on the manor revision, as well as setting up a few things in preparation for the relationship system overhaul that is currently planned for v0.31.

The manor revision is pretty basic- chances are, if you’ve been following along games made by amateurs in RPG Maker before you’ve seen something like this before. We’re tightening up how the manor is laid out, reducing the total number of maps, and making things much more compact. It should be easier to move around and involve fewer screen transitions to get where you need to go. Further, the maps will be smaller in general- no more running through that massive, empty front hall.

Finally, we’re adding a Kamidori-like furniture system. You’ll be able to buy new furniture, rearrange things, and make the layout of your manor however you like. All rooms will have a type- for example, the Chapel will still be the Chapel- but what you put in those rooms will be up to you. Right now, we’re setting it up so that you can place things like trophies, banners and that sort of thing, but eventually you’ll have a wide array of options so you can decorate to your heart’s content.

There are two reasons why we’re going to all this trouble. One is to make it so that the various player housing is yours, and you can customize it to your heart’s content. Want a massive trophy wall in your bar? Sure. Want to wave your middle finger at the Angels by setting up your chapel for Elven Spirit worship? Go ahead, fuck ’em. We’re also going to tie some functions into the various furnitures- such as making you purchase a wooden horse, a whipping post and a fucking machine separately for the dungeon, for example.

The other reason has to do with the relationship system overhaul, like I mentioned. As I’ve said elsewhere, the new relationship system will be mainly passive. The idea is that every harem girl will have separate happiness and relationship score trackers, with the relationship score ticking upwards based on how generally happy your harem girl is. While gifts can provide a temporary boost to that happiness, more importantly will be caring for your harem girl’s wants, tastes and needs. This has the added benefit of reducing the amount of “chores” you’ll need to do- since gifting will be less important, you can focus on actually playing the game rather than delivering 20+ presents to various harem girls.

All your manors, except for some that will have already been occupied, will start with low-tier furniture, and you’ll be able to buy new stuff and work your way up. Keep in mind that just because something is pricier doesn’t mean that it’s going to be better- certain girls are going to want to be in the lap of luxury, but others prefer a simpler lifestyle. Don’t worry, the happiness changes your furniture placement will affect will be spelled out for you, so there won’t be a lot of guesswork.

Anyway, that’s a lot of stuff to do! So, I’m out of here for now. Thanks for following the blog, and like always, happy fapping!