Lots of interesting things in the works, but nothing quite concrete ready to release, so here's a devlog for everyone to see how things are coming along!

Firstly, as mentioned previously, I've begun the process of porting HMA's development into RPGmaker MZ, and that process began and continued with plugin selection and systems porting.

I have the core combat system developed from Demo 1(Lily's game) mostly implemented in MZ now, but I wanted to expand the development of HMA and try to add a few features that I always wanted, and now seemed to be the perfect time as plugins must be redone from the ground up anyway!

So without further ado, here's a sneak peek into how development is going, starting with...

This took far, far too long. It's something I've wanted to do forever but the logistics of the plugins and performance just didn't support it.

It's here now, which means everyone's going to get at least 1-2 new outfits in the future, and HMA can now have both uniforms and casual clothes, as well as the fabled bikini armor and stuff!

I celebrated this discovery by making Lily wear a leotard styled outfit for the next combat demo, with her original outfit and perhaps the dancer armor I drew for her before as alternate outfits available for her in her role as the star of the next combat demo.

For a variety of reasons(mostly to do with how I want to utilize zoom in/out for development now), All menus need to be redone, and I think I found the perfect plugin for it.

As a bonus, visible above, I now have working Live2d model support in the menus, meaning you can see Lily/Olivia/Perhaps Party Members/Friends just by opening the main menu!

This can allow for some fun things like showing status effects via facial expression changes (Aphrodesiacs-horny, poison->sick, slime goop -> slimed, etc), Pregnancy is easily visible from the main menu, and cured womb tattoos will be able to be properly displayed right on the player's bust image!.

In other news, I replaced the previous plugin I was using to control night fog with this one! It's got far more control over lighting effects and direction, so I'm excited to play with it, especially with the main theme of the first dungeon for the combat update being a dark cave filled with tentacles!

Make your own equipment by combining various materials you find throughout the game! This can tie into artifact crafting/engineering classes by making the study of magical ingredients and compositions actually mean something, give a good selection of loot throughout the game world to harvest/collect rare and exotic materials to make new stuff, and more! I'm going to start small with Lily's game though, nonmagical/weaker ingredients for the base system and focus on gameplay effects and differences. A cracked wood sword like above might have an inherent +int and accuracy buff, while a scrap iron sword gives you +str at the cost of accuracy.

The combat system has also been overhauled in several ways, including the addition of accuracy as a new component, a newly-remade damage formula, and much more. 

And finally, I wanted to really start digging into pixel art. I made and animated the tentacle larva(top), tentacle pitfal trap(Bottom), as well as the enemies attack patterns and telegraphs!

That's all I've got for now, but I'll have something playable at some point soon! The games opening and tutorial are well underway, and a good amount of the mapping and combat systems are online. It's just going to be a little bit longer before it's ready for an alpha build.