Theme reveal~

Lemme chat about posting schedules for a moment.
Last time, I had an idea. Doing small monthly updates, and saving big posts for whenever there's fun progress to show. Since big posts are stressful for me, it sounded ideal. Everyone seemed happy with that plan.
Problem: to my anxious brain, "a small post" == "a big post". I was stressing the exact same amount, going through the same thoughts: should I just delay the post a little longer, so I can try to make what I'm doing look "presentable enough" to post? Thus, everyone's wondering where the scheduled post is and I'm wasting dev time on nonsense.
I've had a couple of extremely tumultuous but informative years IRL, and I'm slowly accepting that there's nothing heroic about smashing your head against the wall over and over. Anxiety isn't something I can just power through and expect good results. So... 
I'm done with trying to force myself into a consistent posting schedule. If you require that to feel comfy supporting a creator, that's understandable! Don't expect one here for the time being. I'm working on my anxiety in the background, so who knows how things'll change over time.
New plan: freeform posts.
Until we're in the swing of releasing builds, we're just gonna post whenever there's a thing to share. Any other arrangement has slowed game development down way too much. Posts might be days or months apart, depending on the size of the feature being worked on. It's a learning process! Maybe we'll come to a new decision in a week >.>

Theme reveal, concept art.

We're making a game and the lewd sandbox engine that powers it. Most of what I've talked about so far is the engine building. Time to talk about the game:
New title: Fluttercord Experiments.
We have a theme! Meaning, a setting, backstory, and ethos. The game is an ongoing conversation/research project between Fluttershy and Discord. 
Fluttershy wants to learn what unimagined possibilities exist with the Lord of Chaos as her lover. So Discord is showing her an infinite tapestry of lewd logistics and scenarios to satisfy her curiosity. Discord wants to learn what's enjoyable (and ethical) to do to ponies, so Fluttershy is acting as his guide.
You play as the Fluttercord duo, ascending their original timeline to pull in volunteers (ponies, other creatures, or even themselves), from multiple worlds/timelines to conduct their experiments.
Discord sets the stage, controls the world's physics, and creates tools with his magic. Fluttershy helps you find a wholesome way to navigate the ethics of pushing your volunteers' bodies and minds to cartoonish extremes. 
I had little beyond "lewd" as the basis for big design choices until now. We ended up in a sketchy dungeon with mismatched tech aesthetics as a result. We're moving into Discord's domain now. Discord's presence explains the chaotic premise of a sandbox about tinkering with bodies, minds, cloning, and cartoon physics. Everything from UI design to all the technical sfx, animations, rigging etc, have become so much easier to make them make sense. 
The art has been low priority so far. I've restrained myself from spending dev time on it directly, unless it's a visual feature that relies on it. That being said...

Here's a recent screencap from testing the new environment configuration features (layers, colors, tiling). The game's vibe is improving.
I've been drawing for myself outside of work, but my excitement is seeping into my personal sketching practice. So, now we have some concept art to show off! These are rough assets, concepts, and mockups for the game Fluttercord Experiments (previously SHF3). It's reflective of the theme, our current direction, and the mechanics that are either planned or already implemented in the engine. (also, these are not organized in any way, and subject to change on a whim)
Menu concepts for a start screen and sidebar (these are separate menus, just mashed together in the sketch).

Exploration mode is our planned progression mode, led by Fluttershy. You unlock and upgrade stuff by fulfilling requests and experimenting. It'll sneakily teach you to play the game. Discord leads the current sandbox mode, where everything is infinite and free.
The sidebar is a concept for a (far future) feature where creatures can live in the menus, be lewd there, and help guide you.
Animation and character select concepts:

A messy bunch of concepts. Figuring out invisibility fx, and the toy spawner, inventory, and tinkering station:

Plushification feature concept:

Plushification is a multipurpose power. Make them sit and watch whatever's in front of them, use them as a toy, or play with their plush form instead of their normal form. Most importantly, it gives me as a developer an easy-to-rig-and-animate version of a character that can be moved around or held. 
Working through ideas about the beds they're laying on, and the floor beneath that:

I'm excited. We're replacing the old "beds", which were locked into a static spot, with placeable, configurable playmats. Sometimes you want ponies to lay on a big soft flower pillow, and sometimes you want them on something more hardcore. 
The playmat being a game object means that it'll be able to be granted any ability in the game, like having a live electrical current, storing fluids, even having a mind :3

Also, having them laying on a mat on the floor solves a lot of logistical problems.
Fluid pipe rendering and object placement:

Don't get too hung up on details here. The first full piping in this engine will look somewhat like this. They'll be underground, stackable, with overlays to help with visibility. 

... and that's all for now!
The code is progressing well. There are loose threads that have to be tied before things really work. But otherwise, the engine work is entering into a final wrap-up phase. 
To the ones in my comments and DMs that need to hear this: You have two options to play this game. Support me and wait, or don't support me and still wait. 
I'd be plonking away at this game and engine with or without financial support. But good grief, y'all's support is SO helpful, given the cost of living rn. Thank you all so much for keeping us fed while we do this. 
<3