This is gonna be kind of a long one, I can TL;DR the core bits at the end, but I think the whole thing is worth a read.

# Lets get Translucent

So it's been a bit since the last devlog, a little over a month, and unfortunately It's been really stressful behind the scenes.

It's no big surprise if you're someone interested in adult games on itch.io you know there was a huge shift in how itch.io handles adult content on the platform.

For the 3 of you who aren't aware the long and short is [itch.io recently made a decision to delist all _**paid**_ Adult content from the platform.](https://itch.io/updates/update-on-nsfw-content)

That obviously includes us, and so we've been quiet since then seeing how things were playing out and waiting for more information. 

Recently they updated us with [this post about getting adult games reindexed](https://itch.io/t/5149036/reindexing-adult-nsfw-content) and the long and short of it is:

### Games with adult content must be marked as free in order to be visible in the algorithm on itch.io

This means in order to get re-listed we will need to remove the paid content here. We have emails and stuff for everyone who bought the game, but we will need to. 

# The effects of the delisting

So prior to this I put together the early redesign prototype content to get feedback and such and see how the community would react to a possible change to make the game more of a management game. 

I did this part of the work for free in my spare time with the idea that at some point we'd actually start development of the full game.

Kaen and I had talked about using a portion of the Patreon funding to pay me while I worked on the game, this income would allow me to put down my other contract work, my own game, and my IRL job to work full time to finish the new version of the game as fast as possible. 

However this relied on the Patreon funding to remain at the revenue it was at, and unfortunately the game disappearing from itch.io meant that our primary way of advertising the Patreon effectively disappeared overnight.


With the Patreon losing a third of the funding in the last month, and us losing any future itch.io funding, It meant that I wouldn't be able to work on the game full time like planned. So over the last month I reconfirmed my schedule with my IRL job, took new contract jobs and began spending more time working IRL than on the game. 

# College Life

As for Kaen, he made the decision to go back to college after a layoff from his day job in order to expand his skill set. This happened, unfortunately, right around the itch.io announcement. He spent the last month or so very busy with getting all the college paperwork ironed out and so, for at least a while, he will also have a limited time working on the game while he does college and looks for a new day job limited time to work on the game. 

# Where do we go from here?

Step 1 is getting the game re-listed We have a couple options we're trying to decide on:

* Try and get this page re-listed by removing all the paid content, and then marking the game as a free game. 
    * The cons of this would be that anyone who wanted to download the game after the page was re-listed would be unable to.
    * We may have to put a system together to try and do tickets or something through Discord or Email for anyone who's looking to re-download the current version.

* We could also create a whole new page that has no content but instead just advertises the Patreon since we can't sell the game on itch.io. 
    * In this scenario, this page would stay up for people who bought the game already but will remain delisted. 

Either way we're going to try and grow the Patreon again, if the Patreon returns to where it was then things will speed back up!

We've also been throwing around ideas over the last few weeks for more long term solutions:

### A Side Project

I've tossed around the idea that I could release something smaller in scope with a smaller budget, as a stop-gap on the way to the full release. I have a few prototype projects I worked on that I could polish up and turn into a smaller scope game.

We aren't sure what game it will be yet, but [Discussions will happen over on the Discord for sure!](https://discord.gg/jKav4kZj4S)

Some current suggestions from Patrons in the subscriber chat have been potentially doing a spin-off arcade game featuring a character from MonXXX. 

We've also possibly discussed a new IP to keep it from getting tangled in the MonXXX lore and such, but anything and everything is still on the table. 

### SFW

One thing we've been looking at is making the game SFW this would make the game monetizable and allow us to push the game on more platforms. This would mean cutting some things like NSFW activities, or rewriting others to make themSFW. 

We have also considered doing this and then providing a patch to restore NSFW content to the kin scenes. This would mean the game could be sold in it's SFW form on itch.io, and a NSFW patch could be provided for those interested. 

There are challenges with this approach a big one being we're unsure if this is in line with the new set of rules for itch.io. If the rules beecome more strict or if the rules are enforced or interpreted in a way that providing the the NSFW patch is breaking the rules, the game could be delisted again or even fully removed. 

The upside to this approach however is that in the case of the worst possible outcome(a full adult content ban) we could stop providing the NSFW patch, and continue the game in it's SFW state where it would continue it's life as a time management dating sim, minus the adult content.

### A Steam Release

A big part of the plan since I joined the team was to release on Steam. Unfortunately Steam seems to be slowly phasing out adult games on steam with them recently not allowing adult games into Early Access(Something we would have likely done as soon as the game loop was complete with at least 1 kin)

We still want to release on steam if possible but we're still seeing how things go. All the stuff above about the SFW stuff applies here as well, Steam already has plenty of Adult games that offer 18+ patches and so this is in line with what we know now about games on Steam. However if the anti porn sentiment continues and Steam starts banning all NSFW content including those with patches, then we can again just go full SFW dating/management sim. 

# TL;DR:

* Itch delisted the game, preventing the game from being found organically
* Itch was our primary way of advertising the Patreon
* Patreon funding decreased by over a third in a month
* Because of funding work on Monster XXXPeriment has slowed down
* We are still working to move forward but updates will be slower unless funding goes back up
* We will be re-listed and/or make a new page for the game to advertise the Patreon soon

### Thanks to everyone who's still supporting us! We appreciate you!
### TechTsundere

Also reminder to follow us on Socials and share stuff:

* [AstroKaen BlueSky](https://bsky.app/profile/astrokaen.bsky.social)
* [Join the Discord](https://discord.com/invite/jKav4kZj4S)
* [TechTsundere's BlueSky(Mostly reposting stuff lol)](https://bsky.app/profile/techtsundere.bsky.social)

Hey everyone! It’s TT back with some more MonXXX devlogs!

Today we’re going to be talking about research, stats, and how the progression works.

Research is the #1 thing needed to run the facility. You need research both to fund the experiments by providing research to M.I.S. as well as to use your research to improve your experiment techniques. Today you just have to focus on your job: to get research points and run some experiments! Experiments come in all sorts of flavors, like physical, mental, behavioral, elemental and biological research. Some kin will excel at some experiment types, and fail at others, but both give research!

Even experiments with negative outcomes are a learning opportunity, though the kin may have different opinions. Failing an experiment, or getting a negative outcome can affect the Kin’s happiness, and unhappy kin are prone to outbursts, or can become aggressive!

Research points are awarded for completing experiments regardless of outcome. Research points can be invested into increasing affection, unlocking perks, discovering info on the kin, info that can lead you to new experiments, or point you to obscure behavior that could lead to uncovering the kin’s secrets!

Early version of the research screen for Flare, small boxes mean fitting text was a challenge

Research points are needed for both advancing as well as maintaining the facility. The facility has to be maintained in order to keep operating and the main way to do that is to sell research to M.I.S. who will continue to fund the research facility as long as you’re making headway with your research! Selling research points gets you funding for buying repair kits, supplies, items and makeovers for the kin’s rooms, and upgrades for the facilities, but as all things balance is needed, as research points also helps you unlock useful info about the kin!

I’ve talked about happiness and affection in the past few devlogs, and figured I’d chat about the differences since they aren’t the same! Happiness is what you imagine, kin are happy if you do things they like, and become unhappy when you do things they don’t. This is mainly affected by experiments, experiments most of the time are often frustrating or invasive to the kin, but all kin have preferences, so sometimes experiments are less negative than others, and some can even be positive if it’s an activity the kin particularly like. Many things will affect happiness for example repeating the same experiment over and over is fatiguing, and so the decrease in happiness may grow if you don’t change it up and try other things. Kin may come to loathe an experiment if you do it too much so even positive experiments can cause negative outcomes.

Unhappy kin will sometimes have outbursts during the workday leading to a facility emergency lock-down that as a researcher you’ll need to resolve! (I’ll go into more details on this later!)

Affection on the other hand is your bond with the kin, this can be improved by spending time with the kin and over time building your relationship. While you may do experiments and make them unhappy sometimes, their affection will never decrease. Increasing your affection will unlock new dialog and new scenes with the kin, as you become closer with them. This is essentially the primary way to progress a kin’s personal story.

Doing experiments is exhausting, and so kin who do many experiments run out of energy over time. As kin lose energy they also decrease in efficiency, a tired kin is less likely to produce as many research points as they’ll be less cooperative and potentially prone to a mental break. Kin need time away from doing experiments in order to recover, but it’s a balance, let them rest too often and you won’t get the research needed to keep the facility afloat with all it’s maintenance costs. Some kin recover faster than others, but they all need breaks. Happiness also affects recovery time, an neutral or unhappy kin will recover slowr than a happy kin. Managing kin’s time and energy to do research experiments as effectively as possible is a challenge but it’s your job to overcome it!

Tabbed idea we’re considering, better for putting text, plus we can add longer tooltips!

Okay so that wraps up this update! However for now things are going to be quiet on my front, unfortunately I have some IRL stuff happening over the next month and a half so there won’t be any stuff done on the programming side and I won’t be posting again until May but rest assured I’ll be back in May as we continue work! I’ll post an update when I get back in mid May where we’re at. Currently we’re still working on getting a demo of the new game loop, which we’re currently hoping to aim for July some time, though things could change.

On the art and writing side we’re going to be testing stuff internally so I don’t think there will be any posts about it, but rest assured I know the things we’re working on will be exciting to many so stay tuned in for that! I’ll make sure to post something about what they came up with once I’m back.

ALSO! If you aren’t I HIGHLY suggest joining the Discord! I started hanging out over there so if you want to chat about the game definitely join and I can answer questions for you!

Hey everyone it’s TT again! Back with some new stuff to show!

Disclaimer

Full transparency we all have day jobs so really it’s only had like 2-3 days of work!

Everything we’re showing off is super early and nothing is set in stone yet!

We’re still fleshing out ideas, , so some things may change a bunch before release, so keep that in mind!

Time Management

First I’ll chat about one of the big changes, time management. Previously you would select a kin and choose to chat with them to pick activities. Now there’s more of a focus on doing different kinds of research, as well as maintaining the facility and then the general well being of the kin.

Every day there are 3 time segments, morning/afternoon/evening, and you can assign the kin to do work, or chores during those times. If you don’t assign a kin to do anything than you give them free-time.

I’ll go into more detail on the various types of work, and chores at some point, but for now the idea is that:

You’ll need to balance these in order to maximize the speed at which you gain Research Points!

Once you’ve assigned the kin to do jobs, you can start the day

The Lab

Another change is how you interact with kin! The lab has been buffed into a fully fledged research campus! Once the day starts you’ll be able to walk around the lab, and see all the kin at their daily assignments.

You can talk to them, and you can get a gauge on how they are doing and if they like/hate the assignment.

You can also get the opportunity to interrupt them for that time slot and hang out with them instead. Spending time with them is how you advance the individual character stories, gain affection, reputation, and most importantly get spicy with the kin!

Next time!

That’s it for now, we think these changes will be fun additions, they give a lot of new opportunities for character scenes and events, and have there more to do with the kin.

There’s a lot more to all the changes, next week I’ll talk more about Research Points, and more detailed changes to progression with funding and such.

Let us know what you think and I’ll see you all soon!