Mailbag #2

Game Update

The undead quest is divided into about three sections. Part one involves repelling a zombie invasion from Lumberhill. Part two involves a more or less normal dungeon crawl. Part three is a logic puzzle right before the boss fight. I’m almost finished part one, which probably represents 60-70% of the total work.

Seriously. The zombie attack is probably the single most programming-intensive series of events I’ve put in the game yet. I hope after all that effort that it ends up being fun and challenging rather than frustrating, but at the very least it should be unique. And if it turns out that there aren’t any bugs, it will be some kind of hentai gaming miracle.

Of course it doesn’t help that I worked on it all week, realized that there was a far easier way to do it, and then re-doing it all last night. Of the thirteen combats, it took me all week to do four of them, then I managed to re-do those four and finish it off just last night in probably about four hours’ work.

The logic puzzle is about 50% finished, and dungeons are pretty easy. I’ll probably polish those off tonight, and then take the week to do internal testing (ie, getting Nekochan to do it) and adding more widgets, like shops and things. I haven’t added the bulk purchase option to all the stores yet, so I’ll probably do a lot of that too.

So, in other words, things are on time, even a little ahead. If I’m fortunate enough to receive 3DCG soon, I’ll have lots of time to figure it out and plug some CGs in for the release next week.

Something donors should note- your week-in-advance downloads won’t actually kick in until the June release. I promised everyone that the May release will be available next week, and I’m going to hold to that. The Player’s Guide is coming along nicely, though, and of course you’ll get the in-game credit.

Hmm… I think that’s basically it. Now, I’ve been posed a lot of questions deserving of more extended answers, so that’s why I’m doing another mailbag so soon after the first one. Also, it’s easier than making up content by myself. On with the mail!

Q: Is the game going to have a definitive ending? As in “The End”, game over? Or is it going to remain playable after all the content is finished? -Rose Flutterby

Probably not. There might be some kind of scene upon getting all 151 harem girls, but beyond that, no. There might even be some kind of post-game content, depending on how I feel once it’s all done. However, I have mentioned before that there will be questlines, and each of those will basically constitute a plot arc unto themselves.
There might even be more than one “ending”. I’ve been tossing around the idea of breaking up the game into six episodes, one for each continent, since they’re so self-contained. This would have the additional advantage of letting Nekochan and I do other projects between each episode. For instance, there are several other franchises I would love to do hentai parodies of. I also figured out how to use a numeric code to pass important information between each game, so you can carry over certain decisions between each game. It would also let me trim the cast between episodes. But, I originally started this project to be a single game, and there are many unexplored possibilities for each continent’s content to “mix”.

Q: Is there a reason the towns are so big? -Idan Erlichman

The technical term is called “design space”, but that basically means, I want room to drop things in when I need them. If I run out of things to need space for, I’ll just shrink the maps. But I’m always thinking of little bits to drop in, like the drug dealer in Eastfort or the sausage seller in Northmarket. Besides, not every dungeon can take place in a cave or a sewer, and towns provide a lot of opportunity for interesting things to happen.

Q: What ages are the characters? -paraphrased from Lamekill

Here is my official CYA statement on the current characters who have sex scenes:
The Hero- 22
Meline- 18
Therese- 24
Elaiya- 27
Doll- Unknown, but over 18
Yamamaya- 21
Larelle- 19
Alina- 21
Florine- 20
Violet and Lilac- 19
Randi- 23
Penelope- 18
The Item Shop Girl- 31

Anyway, see you next week for the release!