Big news! And lots of it!
tl;dr - We're removing the Baron tier for new sign-ups but letting existing subscribers keep it if they have it already; we're releasing early access on Steam on March 17th; the next couple of subscriber builds will have new content but we'll be focusing on polishing the UI and gameplay and preparing the Steam builds; but that said we've got heaps of great spicy features really far into development already!
We're retiring the Baron tier ($5 USD)
Before I get into why, I just want to point out that you get to keep the Baron tier if you're already on it. We're not kicking anyone off of it, just removing it for new sign-ups.
There are a few reasons we're removing it:
- The Baron tier was really just designed as an early cheap option when we knew the game was still pretty janky and didn't have much content. Now that it's got a lot more going on, it's not really appropriate.
- We can't under-cut the Steam pricing too much without annoying Steam, and damaging our own sales.
- We get a much smaller cut of the money on the lower price range, because a lot of it goes on processing fees.
- Most people here are more about supporting the production anyway, and receiving the Earl bonus rewards, so the Baron tier isn't our biggest.
- People who want the most cost effective way to buy the game are likely to prefer the Steam/Itch release.
If you think this is a bad idea or the wrong decision, I'm happy to listen of course. I actually planned to retire this tier much earlier, but the nonsense we went through with Patreon set my schedules back for a while.
The Steam early access release is coming on March 17th!
It's exciting! First we're going to put a demo out for the upcoming Next Fest, and then we're going to be launching the
early access version soon after. Please
wishlist the game on Steam! It helps us out a lot!
Just so you understand, the Steam build will be behind the SubscribeStar build. Steam will get older, stable builds while the latest content will be in the versions we post here.
We'll probably also be launching a similar build on Itch in parallel, and maybe eventually launching on other platforms like GOG if we can, but don't wait on those because that's not a guarantee.
Releases will focus on polish for a couple of months
We're still making releases with new content on SubscribeStar over the next couple of months and I think they're good ones, but I wanted to let you know that right now the Steam release (getting the build ready, getting our demo ready for Next Fest, etc) is eating up a big chunk of our work time. We need to do stuff like polish the look and feel of the game a little more, and make sure the builds work and aren't too buggy.
We've got some lovely (and spicy) new art of Beth hugging Lord Goblin in appreciation of his building the chapel, and soon we've got a new special holding court event chain in which Az'ea will give LG a very sexy reward if he removes a troublesome witch hunter for her.
On the polish side, we're trying to improve the clunkier parts of the UI with pretty new menus and such, fix bugs, make the weather and night time work properly on the village screen; stuff like that. We're also revising how new villeins and artisans arrive, to make it more reliable. ("Aspiring Artisans" and "Vital Villeins" will become weekly events once you expand the fields/repair the bridge.)
That said, we've got some really exciting stuff in development now!
Some of the cool things we've got pretty far into the development process for the upcoming months include:
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The introduction of a new character: Queen Fina! She'll visit the castle regularly and if Lord Goblin treats her well, she might just treat him well...
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Beth's romance and animated sex scene! This is quite well progressed; the animated parts are already done, and all we need now is a little more still art to get the whole thing mostly ready to go!
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More Delia fun! Her romance scenes are well underway and she's got two animated sex rituals in development right now.
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Bathing with the maids! This will be a special feature, animated, that you access from the castle, much like spanking the maids. Pick a maid to wash Lord Goblin and they can both get squeaky clean together. ;)
And more!
Whew, there was a lot of news there, wasn't there? What do you think? I'd love to hear your thoughts. Let me know in the comments below!