Hey crew! Now that v0.37 is finally out and bug free* it's time to do some forward planning. Step one is making sure a delay like we've just had doesn't happen again.

(*mostly bug free, at least. There have been a few minor bugs reported, and which I've already tracked down and fixed up. It's mainly texting events not triggering due to inconsistent end-of-turn behavior. The fix for that will be included in the next release.)

There isn't much I can do about one-off interruptions, but that was only part of the long gap between v0.36 and v0.37. A huge factor was a productivity feedback loop: being behind schedule makes me less productive, and being less productive puts me further behind schedule. That feedback loop is something I can plan for, setting things up to break me out of the loop before it becomes a problem.

To that end, I'm going to start putting out AVFH Weeklies on Discord, every Friday. Weeklies will be work-in-progress builds, similar to nightly builds or snapshots which you might already be familiar with. Weekly builds will give me a steady timeline for adding new content, and making sure it's in a playable state (rather than having a bunch of additions that just need to be "tidied up", which usually takes a few days of work). It'll also be a chance for some early bug testing, and to get feedback before overcommitted to anything. The three or four days before a release are usually my most productive by far - my brain might not enjoy deadlines, but it's when it does its best work! I'm hoping to capture that energy with these low risk weekly builds.

I want to stress that these weekly builds ARE NOT proper game updates! These are going to be rough builds, often with lots of unfinished code and content, held together by placeholders. Weeklies won't get get bug patches, and I won't be worrying about save compatibility between weekly builds. If something's broken, it's staying broken until the next weekly. Even the schedule - every Friday - is a guideline, not a rule. I may push a weekly back if I need a few more hours to finish writing a scene, or release early so I can get started on the next major feature right away. The point is to keep me motivated (and accountable) by having to show the class something every week.

Weeklies won't change anything about the way normal updates are handled - other than speeding up development and bug testing, hopefully! I'm aiming to push out a new update every three or four weeks, with each update containing some new or improved art, some new written content, and some code improvements. Weeklies will be distributed on Discord, while the polished release builds will be released here on SubscribeStar along with a feature writeup and teaser screenshots.

This first weekly will have some modding code improvements, which pairs nicely with the new modding resource pack I've also just released! If you've ever wanted to mod in your own content to AVFH, swing by and say hi on the Discord - I'm always happy to answer code/development questions!

Happy new years everyone! While the holiday rush of social obligations has been keeping me busy I've been able to squeeze in some work on AVFH. The biggest chunk of new work was focused on updating many of the UI elements throughout the game. The old icons for Stress, Arousal, and so on are ancient at this point and due for some improvement. So, let's take a look!

By their powers combined, I hope these UI elements are a little more attractive and clear than their old versions. These new icons have been drawn at a 512x512 resolution and then exported to their in-game resolution of 64x64. The old icons were natively 64x64 (or smaller!), which made it functionally impossible to scale them up or down without ugly scaling artifacts.

The Control icon has received a full redesign, changing from a pair of handcuffs (Did you know they were supposed to be handcuffs?) to a hand bell. For all of the icons I'm still tweaking the designs, line thickness, and colours, so leave a comment and let me know what your thoughts are!

I also did some experimentation on the code side of things. I've found that adding animated UI elements is reasonably straightforward. That would let me have, for example, an arousal flame that flickers over time, a control bell that jingles left and right, and so on. I didn't pursue that any further than a proof of concept because of the time it would take to create good looking animations, but it's something I'd like to revisit in the future!

Lastly, I spent a good chunk of time adding shadows to all of the NPC bedroom items that needed them. That mainly meant their beds and desks, and just that minor change has helped make the rooms feel less floaty. All of those clickable objects will have to get a proper art pass in the future, but for now at least it's better than it was!

That's all I've got to share for now, I'll be back with some more updates soon!

Hey everyone, I've got another progress update for you all today! Last preview I gave a preview of the new living room. With the art for that done I shifted my focus to the last unfinished room between the MCILF's bedroom and the (already mostly finished) backyard: the kitchen!

First, a reminder for what the old version looked like:

And then the new version (spoilers, of course!):

As you can see, the core concept of the room is pretty much identical, but I was able to squeeze in some details to make the space feel more comfy and lived-in. Most obvious is probably the counter color and design. The shared eggshell and brown palette helps make the whole house feel more cohesive while you move around, and the new design lets me show more character art while people are standing at the sink.

I've left the schedule board blank for now since there's no game mechanic tied to it, but I'll be changing that in the near future.

The only thing I slightly regret about this new kitchen is the placement of the fume hood. Logically there should be a whole exhaust system connected to it, and that interior wall is waaaaay  too skinny to fit that hardware into it. It would have made more physical sense if I switched the position of the sink and the stove, but that gives less space for character art when people are standing at the sink - a much more common event!

In addition to renovating the kitchen I've done some touchups in the backyard. I've smoothed out the excessively turbulent pool water, as well as replaced the placeholder door with a proper one with a proper interior view. Lastly, I've added some basic shadows for standing NPCs. I'll see about putting up a preview of that in my next update post.

So what's next? I'm going to be taking a few days to create tidier looking UI elements, particularly the corruption heart, arousal flame, and control handcuffs (which might become a bell; I'll be experimenting with a few different icons). I've also had inspiration for a few minor events while working on this art, so I'm going to get those added in while they're fresh in my mind.

That's all for today! This marks the end of the big art improvements I wanted to finish for v0.37, so we're getting close to being release ready. I'm still not quite ready to commit to a date - I'd rather be slow and mysterious than slow and disappointing - but I feel like we're getting close!

When you start working on art for a porn game there are some things that you're absolutely sure you're going to draw: boobs, butts, dicks, that sort of thing. There are also some things you might not think about ahead of time, but make sense: hands, faces, outfits.

What you might not be prepared for - I certainly wasn't - is sheer number of random household objects that you'll end up drawing! Chairs, desks, beds, carpets, lights, bookshelves, books (A bookshelf needs so many books to look not-empty!), the list just goes on and on! Making matters worse, drawing every day objects is like trying to draw a bicycle from memory. It sounds easy, and you know what it shouldn't look like, but your first attempt is probably going to be very wonky.   

All of those random house objects are important for, quite literally, setting the scene. Since my last update I've been finishing all of the art for the upstairs bathroom and living room. I shared a preview of the bathroom a few days ago over on Discord, so today I'll focus on the new living room art. First, a reminder of what the old location art was looking like:

Obviously that's all looking pretty flat and boring. Beyond boring, without contact shadows Madison looks like she's floating over the couch, and the couch seems to be floating over the floor. Past Mira also messed up the perspective on the ceiling near the stairs, and the outside is a featureless bluish void.

There was lots to improve, so lets take a look at the new and improved version:

Much better, in my opinion! I wanted to break up the rigid square shape the rooms have all had, so we've got a bay window instead of a simple one. The couch was probably the trickiest thing to draw with its combination of rigid structure and soft cushions, with the bookshelf a close second because of all the individual books that needed to be added - I was able to use a brush for all the book spines, but giving them depth and perspective was all manual.

I'd love to spend more time filling the space with more little details - a welcome mat at the door, some knickknacks by the window, shoes on the shoe shelf, etc. - but I've got plenty of other stuff to work on first. Next, and last for this update cycle, I'll be working on the kitchen art. I want to finish the kitchen so there's a consistent quality of art as you move through the most common rooms, going from the MCILF's bedroom all the way out to the backyard.

Let me know what you think of the new location art, and I'll be back in a few days with another progress update!

(Hehehe, I'm so punny)

Hey crew, it's been a little while so I thought I'd give you a progress update on v0.37 of A Very Full House!

For the last couple of weeks I've been bouncing between a bunch of different sections of AVFH, tidying up things here and there but (in retrospect) not achieving much. I reflected on that for a bit, and decided that was a symptom of there being so many "good enough" placeholder pieces of content. Any time I started to work on something I'd run into something else that wasn't quite finished, meaning my new content would need to be updated or rewritten in the near future - a thought that really puts a damper on productivity!

I decided to tackle that "oops all placeholder" feedback loop by working on something that was absolutely going to be in the final game: better location art! I started with MCILF's bedroom, since that's a location you see for a bunch of the game. As a reminder, here's what that location looks like in v0.36.6:

The first thing that jumped out at me was the lack of shadows for. The sewing table was the biggest offender; without any shadows on the wall or floor it looked very disconnected, almost as if it was floating or drawn in a different perspective. Casting shadows onto other objects needed an update to how room objects were drawn, as well extra shadow assets for each object. This was exactly the sort of catch-22 that was holding me up!

I pressed on, updating the clickable code to have optional shadow images (coding always takes less time than I expect) and adding shadows for each object where they should be casting them (drawing always takes more time than I expect!). With that side project actually finished I was able to go back and update all of the clickable art in the room, bringing the whole thing up to a more uniform standard that looks significantly better! Of course I'm going to be biased, so I'll let you be the judge:

Now that the room art is more put together I can start working on new content in the bedroom without worrying I'll have to redo it in a month or two. It also means I now have a shadow system which I can expand to all of the art for other locations! That's going to be my next focus: updating all of the house art to give it a more consistent quality.

Last up for today, I forgot to post an update here with my latest bit of practice art: Madison's PR campaign! You can leave a like and retweet over on Twitter if you want to encourage me to do more, or just enjoy her big bubble butt right here:

That's all for today! I'll keep you posted on v0.37 progress as I chug along!