Well that was a dumpster fire….

So 2020 was like a whole thing.

But, for Harem Collector, it wasn’t as bad as it could be. My depression and the general malaise of just… everything… did affect development to a degree, but I think despite everything we managed to get some good work done, and I’m looking forward to story-complete Harem Collector in 2021. We accomplished a lot last year- more new CG, more quests, pages and pages of new dialogue, as well as the promised cosplay photoshoot, and of the triumphant return of Clara Middleton to the team as our composer, cranking awesome new music again and again.

Unfortunately, that also came with a lot of hardships. Nekochan and I lost a member of our family in November, and it’s been busy settling their affairs ever since. Still, we’ve struggled on, and it looks like we’re on track to close out the main story of Harem Collector this summer!

So how does this look going forward? Well…

Quests: This upcoming update, which we’re naming RELIC, is going to cover the last two quests of the final plotline, Ancient Mysteries. Finally get to the bottom of the mystery of who left all these ruins dotting the Middle Kingdom, and what secrets they might be hiding. Following that will come the real end game content, so get ready. The end of the game is going to change the map to such a degree that we’ll be cooking up a separate instance of the world map to account for all the changes that are going to flying at you.

Hentai: Porn gnome Hilent is currently working on the new stuff for Kyrie, and when she is done we’re doing the once scene with the dark elf antagonist of Save the Elves, then Florine (as determined by backers), then it’s on to the end game orgy involving all 34 eligible harem girls!

Sprites: While it’s perhaps not as flashy as straight up porn, Kumiho has done some incredible sprite work this year, really giving her special something to a lot of the characters you know and love. As you can tell if you’ve seen the ARCANE update, we’ve started the process of adding NPC sprites to the game. I’m not sure to what degree we’re going to end up revising the NPC sprites in the game, but at the bare minimum we’re going to finish new sprites for all the major harem girls and named characters in the game, as well as make NPC sprites for all the elves, orcs, the Sunnyshore Islanders, the Kellosians, and a new suite of unit looking adventurers that fit in with the kind of people you’d expect to be doing that kind of work. As well, we’re going to get some enemy sprites done that better fit the different enemy themes.

Music: Clara’s still trucking along, focused mainly on dungeon tracks. In terms of BGM, we’re about halfway done in total, and I’m hoping that by the end of 2021 the BGM will be completely done. Clara’s also exploring the idea of doing different leitmotifs for each of the harem girls for when they level up their relationships.

Other Stuff: This May will be the final Iron Waifu for Harem Collector, so it will be your last chance to get your favourite character to win the coveted crown. Also, we have an exciting, and mysterious new way of connecting with fans of HC coming this February. What will it be…?

I think that’s it for now. Obviously, there’s a lot of specifics still to be determined, but we hope you’ll agree that 2021 will be the best year yet for Harem Collector. See you again soon!

Harem Collector v0.48.4 SAVIOUR!

Get it here!

New in this version:
-Complete the final Save the Elves quest and get the girl!
-You can now ask harem girls “How are you” and get an answer that indicates their current happiness rating!
-New music has been added, a new “sensitive” sex scene them and a dungeon theme for when you’re dealing with the criminal element!
-A whole bunch more “harem” chats have been added!
-Asking a girl “How are you” now generates a hint towards that girl’s lowest category of satisfaction.
-New art has been added to “Triple-Layer Angel Cake” with an extended, revised sex scene.
-Raina has new art and a revised sex scene while you’re on vacation!
-New sprites for Gargan, Kyrie, Therese, Bronwyn, Alina and Meiriona, new alt outfits for Therese and Doll, and a swimsuit sprite for Raina!
-With the new sprites come six more portraits from Quinta!
-Text-only sex scene with Amiri, the dark elf sorceress!
-Miri now has a random nightly sex scene!
-Chimei’s love quest sex scene has both text and new artwork!
-Legit over 100 bug have been identified, solved and repaired by Conash. Give the man a round of applause!

Last Couple Months

Jeez, have I really not updated the blog since August? Damn….

So, the last few weeks, I lost the battle against depression really badly. It became all I could do to manage incoming assets (sex scene artwork, music, sprites, etc) and picking away at the game whenever I could. That’s why all through September I didn’t stream except to discharge my obligation to backers, and why the blog fell by the wayside. I don’t know if I necessarily feel better at this point, but I’m trying to push myself to come out swinging this month.

So one of the things I’d like to do if offer an apology to all fans of Harem Collector. Some of you hanging out on Discord may recall that there were a few times in the last couple months where I said something along the lines of, “I don’t know why you all are here” or “I don’t understand people keep coming back”. Setting aside our relationship as creator and audience for a moment, that’s a terrible thing to say about anyone’s fandom, and I’m sorry for disparaging your tastes like that. But also, it must be a terribly disheartening thing to hear from the creator of something you enjoy. I am tremendously privileged to have such a passionate and devoted fanbase for my my work, so I wanted to say, thank you for continuing to enjoy HC even though I sometimes disparage my own efforts. I will try better in the future to have the same level of faith in my own efforts that you all do.

Anyway, work on the game is ongoing, as ever. I’m very excited to finally implement the “How are you?” chat option for almost all harem girls. With the new update, you will be able to ask most harem girls (some of the more unusual girls will need a bit more work) how they’re feeling, and gauge their happiness level as well as get a hint towards which one of their happiness values is lowest. Equally exciting is the return of new music tracks for the game. Clara has only completed two new tracks so far, one for “sensitive” sex scenes and the other for dungeons which are themed around the criminal element, but I personally feel they’re awesome tracks and I hope you’ll enjoy them as well.

This upcoming update also marks the end of the “Save the Elves” questline and the additional of a certain elven MILF to the harem. I know people are excited about this, and while I don’t know if the Dark Laboratory is on the same level as Hell and the wedding, I hope it will be warmly received nonetheless.

Finally, one final thing I’d like to broach. I have recently been approached by a certain fan of the game who happens to Asian, who challenged me on certain aspects of how Chimei has been implemented in the game, and made me think about the degree to which I’ve fetishized Chimei’s other-ness, particular in comparison to other characters in the game who are foreign to the Middle Kingdom. I’ve taken my time digesting what they had to say, and I’ve decided on what I feel to be the most appropriate action. Following the release of version 1.0 of Harem Collector, our first major update following that will feature a broad update of Chimei and how she is portrayed, including a revision of all her dialogue so she’s speaking the same language as the rest of the cast. Most of the jokes revolving around cultural misunderstandings between characters will remain, and which characters Chimei forms close relationships with will remain intact. Even if you’re the sort of person to dismiss cultural sensitivity issues like this, I hope you’ll agree that changing Chimei’s dialogue will make her a more fully-formed and interesting part of the cast, on the same level as the rest of the characters you love.

I guess that’s it for now. Thank you very much for your patience, sticking with us through all this time. I hope you find our little project to still be worthy of your attention and support, and I look forward to hearing what you think of the latest update soon.

Big News

Those of you who have been paying attention to the Discord, my Twitter, or Patreon lately have already heard this, but as promised in this year’s Iron Waifu, Bad Kitty Games is teaming up with ero-cosplayer Mikomi Hokina for a sexy photoshoot of Kyrie this November! Everyone at Bad Kitty Games is really excited to be working with Mikomi, who you might know her work from cosplaying for fellow erotic game Future Fragments earlier this year. We’d also like to give a big shout-out to our friend ArchitectofDystopia for helping make this happen, so please when you’re done checking out Mikomi’s work, please take a look at ArchitectofDystopia’s first full-length game, Overgrown: Genesis!

Things are looking pretty good up here at Bad Kitty Games HQ, so here’s a few other updates for you:

The latest patch to Harem Collector contains a couple extra goodies more than we usually put in a patch. First of all, Elaiya’s skill trainer can be encountered a few time ahead of when he unlocks for good, in case you wanted to get her new skills in earlier. Also the Florine text-only dungeon scenes are finally fixed, and Chimei’s new face set is in the game.

Meline and Chimei’s solo scenes are going to be done very soon, as well as the threesome with Alina and Therese and Miri’s random scene. All of these sex scenes are being worked on by Hilent, and while things have been a little rocky due to the unusually high proportion of threesomes she’s had to deal with, it’s looking good for all of that getting into the v0.48 release. She’s been working hard as hell lately, so if you’re on Discord please take the time to tag her and give her some thanks.

On the music front, there was a small delay on Clara’s end but she now has all the equipment and software she needs to get working, and we will have a new track to share with our Patrons very shortly!

Also, Jalila’s character design is done, so the last 100% brand new harem girl is going to be in the game for next update as well!

Please, if you’d like, take the time to check out the Harem Collector Manor Invasion Grand Prix speedrunning contest currently happening in the forum. The prize for the top 3 finishers is an alternate outfit of your choice for your favourite Harem Collector waifu, no overly-complex voting process involved!

I think that covers everything, so I’m heading out for now. Thanks as always for all the support, and please look forward to lots of new content to come!

Harem Collector v0.47.4 RETURN Update!

Get it here

What Happened to the SAVIOR Update?

Changes in v0.47 include:
-A new quest in the Save the Elves plotline, where you once again must uncover the mysteries of the late Count Corgan’s manor. Begin this quest by visiting Meiriona after completing the Dragon Graveyard.
-A number of new sex scenes with updated art, including Chimei’s picnic scene, Meline’s introduction scene, Meline’s footjob, and Meline and Larelle’s blowjob scene.
-New Sex a la Carte for Diadira and Yeon.
-New Vignette for Doll and Elaiya if you’ve heard all their currently existing banters.
-Chimei’s sprite has been updated.
-The “harem” chats can not be toggles between random and a menu in the options.
-A bunch of new harem chats for Bell, Ino, and Lilac at minimum.

What Happened to the SAVIOR Update?

Short Answer- We couldn’t get the actual final quest of the Save the Elves plotline together in time and so we’re combining that and the v0.48 update into one single thing that will be the proper “SAVIOR” update, and have renamed v0.47 to “RETURN” because it involved returning to the Westcastle Manor in order to get an important magic item.

Long answer- COVID- and social isolation-related stressors finally got to the team, particularly but not limited to NoMoshing and Nekochan. While the final dungeon of the Save the Elves arc is making slow, creeping progress, it is nowhere near a ready state. It was a difficult decision for me (NoMoshing) to make, but the rest of the team convinced me that I’m not going to make something I’m going to feel HC fans deserve by cramming at the last minute. So, following this advice I’ve renamed the v0.47 and we’re going to be making the v0.48 update the proper “SAVIOR” update.

I am not happy about this. Not only is it a failure of management on my part, it also threatens to push our schedule back by at least a month. I’ll do my best to keep caught up on progress and not to let things slow us down, but I am very leery of falling into the attitude of “one more month won’t matter, it’s already been so long.” I want to deliver the completed main story next July, and tripping over the plan so soon is a real letdown. But, I have to be realistic about what I can accomplish in the short term.

Anyway, for now please try to enjoy what there is in the RETURN update, and thank you as always for your interest and support.