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Two Years, Gentle Reminder, Game Development Breakdown

Two years of game development on Harem Collector! Yeah, that is… not an achievement. Don’t get me wrong, I’m perfectly happy celebrating two years of getting to work on games, but I’m really hoping I can wrap-up HC by this time next year. I have lots of other projects I want to share with you all, so here’s hoping I can escalate my efforts accordingly.

Also, small reminder- if you want to get in on the Backer release on March 4th, you have to sign on to the Patreon campaign by the end of the month. If you’ve ever donated before the Patreon campaign, then don’t worry about it- you’ll still get the regular backer email.

So, lately I’ve been reflecting on why RPG Maker has such a terrible reputation in the gaming community. There are plenty of folks who avoid games made with the engine entirely, and now Unity is starting to get the same reputation. This makes my job significantly harder- it’s hard enough to get people to try your product in a crowded marketplace without potential players thinking “all games with your engine suck”.  The truth, the only difference between Unity, RPG Maker and all other game engines out there is the barrier to entry.

Game development is tremendously complex, but it generally gets broken down into a handful of categories:

  • Game design, or mechanical design, which covers how the game plays, the mechanics work, how the levels are laid out and the general “feel” of the experience.
  • Sound design, which can be broken down further into music, acted dialogue, sound effects and audio engineering.
  • Game “writing”, which covers everything from plot expression, character dialogue, and even something as mundane as menu or tutorial text.
  • Art or visual design, which covers literally everything visual that appears on the screen, from animation to image stills to character design to font choice.
  • Programming, or code. Most programming is “just” making all the other harmonize on a computer screen in such a way as the game does what it is designed to do, but there can be plenty of “art” rather than “science” to programming, especially when things like physics engines are involved.

I hope that short list really gives you a sense of the scope of things that need to get put into any one game, because there is a lot that needs to happen in order to create a good game experience.

My essential point is this- very few individuals are the kind of savants that can actually do all of these things together. I like to think my main strength is mechanical design- though everyone currently stuck on the Count Corgan battle will probably disagree with that assessment. Chibi’s primary strength is in visuals, and the “feel of the experience” parts of game design. Cypress’ biggest strength is his writing and dialogue. That doesn’t necessarily mean that any of us slouch in the other departments (we all work very hard at what we do), but it’s almost impossible to be an expert in all five. For every Phil Fish and Jasper Byrne there are hundreds of game designers who are weak in two or more areas.

Which brings us back to RPG Maker and Unity. The biggest strength of these engines is that they provide art, sound, code editors, and some rudimentary mechanics. This lower “barrier to entry” is attractive to anyone who isn’t some game dev Übermensch, but unfortunately it also means a lot of poorly thought out crap gets made available to the public.

So, I guess, don’t judge a game by it’s engine. There are lots of great (free!) RPG Maker games that absolutely deserve your time and attention. The same goes for Unity.

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Nekochan on Character Design

Nekochan here yet again.

NoMoshing is otherwise occupied so yet again I step into the breach.

Since NoMoshing has been going into detail regarding how he designs quests and such, I thought I’d share some of the work I’ve been doing with the characters. Specifically their appearance. Much of what I’ve been working on lately is for HC2: Hero puts it in. Most of HC’s character designs are being handled by NoMoshing with sprite work by Chibi. This is mostly because of the demands my day job put on my time. I need looooots of lead time to have enough time to get art shit done. (Backers with the Player’s Guide will also note I’m usually about an update behind on quests included in the guide.) I’ve done rough drafts of about 5 of the new girls planned for HC and 1 of the returning girls. Can you guess which one? Elaiya!

When designing a new character, I’ve found the main challenge is the “blank slate”. NoMoshing provides some general outlines like, “battle-maid with bracers, no nonsense personality, modest bust” and then leaves the rest to me.

Returning characters present their own challenge though. Since there is a timeskip (about 2 years between the end of the events of HC1 and the start of HC2), it’s likely things have changed. A person may have changed their hair, gained weight, lost weight, changed occupations, or if they’re young enough, 2 years of growth could also impact height and appearance especially if they are pre-pubescent (looking at you Ino). Character development also has to be factored in since clothing is often a means of expression, even if it isn’t on a conscious level. So you’re looking at a new character who has to “feel” like the old one. Heck look at Kosmos from Xenosaga, she got an overhaul in each game of the series.

You mess up the design of a new character and people may let it go (“Let it gooooooo”). Mess up the design of returning character? You’ll have hell to pay for potentially “ruining” them.

When I thought about what Elaiya would look like in the sequel, my first thought was what her mindset was. After all, if you’ve finished her love quest, you’re aware that much of her drive that lead her to become a bounty hunter has been dealt with. She’s found some measure of peace. Hell, by HC2 it’s probably fair to say she’s not even a bounty hunter anymore. She’s sure as hell not taking on any more contracts and is one of the pillars of the hero’s core adventuring party. So how would that reflect in her appearance?

Elaiya HC2 rough concept

The first thing I thought was that she’d likely let her hair grow out a little. Her style in HC1 is on the shorter side. In fact, I personally imagine she cut the hair short when she chose to become a bounty hunter. Her jacket in HC1 is buttoned-up, with a shirt that has a high collar (which is funnily enough is hidden by her harem collar), indicating a withdrawn personality. By the second game she has probably relaxed a bit. Not entirely though, while she’s close to the hero and others in the harem, she’s still wary of new people. She still needs her guns and goggles, obviously. Don’t want to mess with her colour scheme too much, and she should be wearing something she can adventure and manoeuvre around in.

I also aimed not to make the design too complex. In the end, it has to be recognizable as a sprite.

It should be noted that this is concept art, and I’m likely to trash this and redo it at some point before final designs are required. (sorry it’s really sketchy, I try not to worry about making it clean when I’m working on a concept)

So, what do you think? Is it still Elaiya or have I ruined her?

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Quick Progress Update

I’ve been trying all day to put together a normal blog post, but I’m just not happy with my writing, so instead here’s a brief progress update:

-Working on the Huntervale quest, things are proceeding smoothly, hopefully I’ll have it completed by Friday.

-Added a new feature to the game, which will allow you to synergize your various investments.

-Something really good has happened to Nekochan and I, which changes our situation rather drastically. This will result in me having more resources to use making HC.

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Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges

Before getting into this week’s blog topic, I first want to shout out to my new friend and fellow eroge creator BBBen, author of of a number of adult adventure games that are free to download from his site. Now, full disclosure, I was only introduced to BBBen so we could endorse each others’ Patreon campaign, but I wouldn’t be telling you about him if his games weren’t fun. Last night I was up late playing SuperPAC to completion- which I highly recommend, it’s like a 70’s-era sexploitation murder mystery that had sex with a text adventure- but I’m having a blast with his games. The project he’s raising money for is a new game about training a harem of sexy battlemaids, which sounds like everything I want to be a part of.

Now, lately several HC fans have been asking me about the legal system in HC and whether or not the Hero will have a “court scene” like the famous one in Chrono Trigger (with optional sexy lawyers, because of course you want that). After all, the Hero violates the law pretty frequently (and flagrantly), and those of you who read the notes I posted as part of “The Process” last month know that one of the next quests involves him attacking a legit government installation next release. So will the Hero see his day in court?

First of all, you have to understand that such a scene- taking into consideration every crime that the Hero may or may not have committed at the point in his adventures where he gets arrested is a lot of work. It’s the reason why Chrono Trigger does it early in the game- giving the player as little opportunity as possible to add to their potential crimes. Implementing such a thing would be roughly the same has having a second Manor Invasion- a game event I would be forced to update almost every release. I’m not really interested in getting bogged down with another event like that, especially not when I’m closing in on the 50% completion mark. So from a technical standpoint, I don’t think it’s feasible.

Second of all… would such an event even be appropriate? The Middle Kingdom is corrupt as fuck, and money would probably prove to be a more than adequate solution to any sort of legal trouble the Hero finds himself in. It would have to require a pretty powerful individual to be able to throw the Hero away for good.

And we all know that powerful people don’t become powerful because they throw useful things away….

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Backer Topic #1: Recent Influence

How has a game you played recently influenced your dev work on current projects? -Glacier

Because there hasn’t really been a Harem Collector master plan, development has been somewhat unique in that I’ve been able to fit in so much user feedback and follow my own mercurial whim. It’s only very recently that I’m finally nailing down who all the characters are, what the various plot arcs are going to be like, and that sort of thing. However, as this process of the game organically taking shape continues, it means that not a lot of the games I’ve played very recently have had an influence on the project.

Fairy Side is a bit of an exception. Chibi doesn’t do a lot of game design for it- she focuses on plot and dialogue and characters and such- so I actually have a fair bit of freedom when it comes to figuring out the mechanics of the different characters. Very recently Chibi and I were discussing the next two party members that she was going to add to the game, and while she had a very strong idea of how one character would work, the other really didn’t get much more detailed than “cute boy who fights and uses magic too”. The basic idea was that the character would be some kind of spellblade or red mage kind of thing, but she didn’t really know specifically how it would function.

Well, considering that the game already has a tank and a debuffer and Chibi had this really strong idea for a buffer/healer, I knew this character had to be a damage dealer. So, I looked at Dragon Age: Inquisition, and was inspired by the Tempest specialization. So, this character (tentatively called a “tempest swordsman” but that’s not the final name) is an okay vanilla attacker, but is able to enchant himself with various elemental effects to hit for massive damage. Of course, there has to be a reason why you wouldn’t do it all the time, so I cooked up something- when enchanted in this way, the character constantly loses Mana, and when he hits zero he is actually stunned and unusable for several rounds, so you need to pay attention and cancel out before you hit bottom.

As for other projects, Harem Collector 2 is a lot more flexible than HC1 by virtue of being in the concept phase, and I’m letting what I’m playing affect that a lot more. I’ve been playing a lot of Kamidori Alchemy Meister lately and getting influenced by that. For example, I did a write-up and Nekochan did some art for a character that is sort of a mash-up of Kohakuren from that game and one of my favourite pokemon. I also have some ideas inspired by DA:I that I’m going to use for the more management sim side of gameplay.

But actual mainstay HC? Not so much, sorry.

Anyway, sorry for the late post today, I totally just forgot to do a blog post until now. See you next week, and happy fapping.

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A Few Quick Reminders…

First off, progress update: The dungeon I’m currently working on ended up being quite a bit more complicated than I expected, so it’s taking a touch longer than I thought. Hopefully I’ll have a ribbon on it early next week. As of right now, the enemy behaviours have all been programmed, mapping is done, and the big puzzle of the dungeon is done. All I have to do is add encounters (always time-consuming, but relatively simply), connect the maps (the part that’s being unexpectedly complicated), and then the quest outro and wrap-up (which will be more involved than normal, as well). Yesterday I took the time to add a new shop (which you can also invest in) which sells an item which will probably prove to be a huge boon in this dungeon.  Hmm, I’ll have to add another shop before release now, just to obfuscate which shop it is….

Anyway, just wanted to drop a couple reminders on you folks:

  • If you’re registered for the forum but your account still hasn’t been activated, email me with your username so I can fix this. I evaluate all account activations myself, and occasionally individuals slip through the cracks, so let me know if you’re having trouble.
  • Similarly, if you’re a backer (either from the current Patreon campaign or the previous Paypal one) and haven’t been acknowledged as a backer on the forums yet, please contact me immediately with your forum username and either your Paypal email or Patreon username.
  • Same thing if you’re a backer and missing a credit from the game.

Anyway, thank you very much if you’re supported (or are going to support) through the Patreon campaign. Things are off to a great start- just yesterday we’ve passed $100, and I’m hoping we’re going to hit that first funding goal my the end of the month. Please keep in mind that I’m figuring out how best to do a Patreon as we go, so some of the funding levels and goals are subject to change- but I want you to know that it’s my policy to never take away something you’re already expecting. So, please be patient and remember even if I change things, you’re never going to lose anything unless I’m replacing it with something better.

If you’ve added me as comrade on LoV, sorry but that list filled up hella fast, so don’t wait on me for a response when you could fill that spot on your comrade list with a functioning player.

Anyway, that’s basically it for now. See you next week, and happy fapping!

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Progress Updates and Design Goals for March

First of all, a few quick updates.

So far the new year has been good to me. As of this Monday I’m off the leash (time-wise) and working on the next update. First up: a quest called “Research Materials” which will finally see Kyrie join the party, and (if you’re clever enough) a sex scene that many of you have been asking for. Gurotaku’s already on the images, I’m about halfway done mapping the dungeon, and everything is clicking along a-ok.

If you’re a monster girl fan who specifically like reptilian ladies, I have a new waifu that has softened me somewhat on reptilian girls.

<3

Will one end up in HC? I don’t know- a lot has been set in stone already and if one does end up in, she’ll be in a non-combat role. But if I get to the end of the game and have room of one more-definitely.

Also, as of Monday I’ve officially launched a Patreon campaign! If you enjoy Harem Collector please consider supporting my work on Patreon. If you were a backer on the old Paypal donate system, please check your email- I had sent an email last Friday explaining how you’ll be integrated into the new system- suffice it to say that you should experience no difference in service. Harem Collector, of course, will remain completely free to play. Cypress_z has also started a Patreon for Overwhored- you can find that here.

I’ve also gotten hooked on Lord of Valkryie, an online hentai idle-browser-card game sort of thing. It is definitely not sleazy like most F2P games with microtransactions, and I feel it’s well worth checking out. If you do, click on this link to let me refer you so we both get a little bonus gold. (Turns out you only get 20 referrals, and I’m closing in on that cap, so this link might not work- instead, see if someone else put a referral link in the comments!)

Fairy Side was finally released on Monday, as well. Please check it out over here. Sorry for last week’s miscommunication.

Now, onto new project goals.

There are three quests I want to complete for the next release- Research Materials described above, a quest centred on the mysteries of Huntervale, and the first quest of the elf plot arc. I still do not have the unique assets I need for the latter two quests, but I can live with placeholders for now. More importantly, this should contribute to a much smoother play experience, without the gaps in leveling that come after level 7 or so. I also hope to add the first arena tourney (other than the one for Hour of the Beasts), add a bit more content to Finishing Unfinished Business, and revamp the random daily quest system. We’ll see how much of that gets done, though. Given the number of delays that have plagued this project, I’m not saying that anything is certain.

As some of you have gathered from the recent release, I’m also trying to focus more on main game content than love quests. Sorry if your favourite character doesn’t have a personal quest yet. It’ll come eventually, but I’d rather work on main game stuff right now. I want to focus down a little and save more love quests for late-game.

Anyway, that’s it for now- have a great Wednesday, and happy fapping!

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Difficulty Adjustment

Thank you to everyone who provided feedback on the latest release of Harem Collector. While I have not been able to address all the bug reports, I have made a few changes regarding the accessibility of new content. Namely, Quest for a Cure has been rebalanced for level 12 and Bewitchy Women has been rebalanced for level 15. You can get the new version at the same Harem time, same Harem channel.

Please don’t think of this a nerf, I simply didn’t take into consideration the general flow of the game when releasing new content, and I’ve endeavored to correct that. Please enjoy, and check back next week for a big announcement.

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Harem Collector Fairy Side Release!

Well, that’s annoying. Apparently my comment-approval thingy isn’t emailing me when there are comment in queue anymore. So, sorry if you commented last week- they’re all up not, I wasn’t trying to censor anyone. And here I was, wondering why nobody seemed to be commenting on the blog…. Anyway, I think I’ve fixed, and even if I haven’t I’ll start checking back daily.

Anyway, I’ve been really busy with visiting family and assorted other bullshit this holiday season. Man, if this is the season of joy or whatever, why do I have to spend twelve hours a day hanging out with people I barely know and don’t share any of my interests? Anyway, I probably won’t be able to properly “get back to work” and address some of your concerns until the 1st or 2nd. I put out a new version of Harem Collector yesterday that featured a ninja in the Northmarket bedroom who will remove the requirement for Female!Gargan in the party if you’re having difficulty with that.

I’ll handle some more bugs and more importantly, the balance issue, and put out another version in maybe a week, hopefully less. And don’t be too hard on commenters like Jash- he might be saying harsh things, but he has a point and I made a pretty critical mistake with regards to game design and balance this update. These things happen.

Anyway, if you need something to whet your palates in the meantime, I have good news! Chibi is all set to release the newest version of Fairy Side sometime today. This one is highly polished, but even if it’s still just the intro quest everything is still there- including CGs. Plus, after getting the story part of the opening mission on, there’s a random dungeon that Chibi and I collaborated on that I’m pretty proud of, so please check that out. If you like futanari or girl-on-girl and Harem Collector never scratched that itch for you, you’re going to want to check out Fairy Side.

Anyway, like I said, I’ll get moving on the new version of HC tomorrow or the day after, depending. At the same time I should be able to finally release this year’s Backer Christmas Gift- better late than never, right?

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Harem Collector December 2014 Release!

Get it while it’s hot! Well, I’d hope it’s hotness would not decrease with time. Whatevs.

Changes in this Version

If you’re updating from the Backer’s Pack version:
-Serade, Therese and Larelle now have proper chat messages.
-Some more banters have been added.
-Buncha bugs fixed.

-There is a brand new secret quest! Good luck finding it.
-There is a quest to cure Gargan now. Successfully completing the quest adds Gargan as a party member.
-There are five new sex scenes.
-There are now CGs for when you walk in on the tentacle sex during Virgin Gynocides.
-Southport has been redesigned! Huzzah.
-Two new harem girls(?)
-The blacksmith can now be chatted with and gifted.
-A skill trainer has been added to give the Hero some of those high-damage attacks many have been looking for.
-Seeker’s Stone should now work for all hidden items, not just buried treasures.
-The Lore Book counter now works properly, and there are around a dozen new lore books to find.
-Key items you no longer need after dungeons should now disappear from your inventory when you advance a day.
-Raina’s Phalanx and Deflect skills no longer have a failure chance.
-Raina’s Shield Bash and Shield Rush have had their damage increased, and no longer remove Phalanx/Deflect. Phalanx and Deflect are still mutually exclusive, though.
-Therese’s Shining strike no longer hits automatically.
-Meline, Larelle and Chimei have new top-level spells/prayers/invocations they learn at high levels, if you’re really obsessive with that Timeturner.
-A minor lore change: succubi are the only demons capable of interbreeding with humans, instead of being the only demons with primary sexual characteristics.
-There are two new roaming encounters on the world map.
-Added/changed some battle animations
-A small disclaimer has been added to the pre-game dialogue.
-Fixed a slew of bugs, see Bad Kitty Games forum for the deets.
-Removed Herobrine