Dev Log #51

Hey folks, we’ll be diving into everything we’ve been up to since the last build.

Build 36

First, our next build is near ready just waiting for animation work to be completed! Continuing the main quest, this new story content follows the events of Yela's temple and pushes forward the events of Kaldea. It features a scene for each companion!

We will be introducing three new lavishly designed locations drawn by Etherek and touched by Arbuz, these locations will introduce you to the opulence of the aristocracy, as well as something more mysterious.

New combat sprite and NPCs.

Hiho scene rework

Just like for Samara, we've been cooking a rework of Hiho’s first scene, updating her to be more in line with the quality bar we have set with our earned experience and new team members to the project. This should mark one of the last rework scenes, and will really do Hiho justice while also fixing some pacing issues where players felt her scene was a bit abrupt with her moving far too fast into an amorous relationship.

We are adding a few new bits to her sprites as well! We are adding a rear sprite, this will mean Hiho no longer races the camera perpetually in travel when you should see her back. There may be small touch ups to her first quest in the future pending discussions internally, but these sprite animations have been a long time coming.

Blackfur rework

We redesigned the blackfur sprite, these were the first enemies introduced to you in that ancient build so long ago with Samara as the only companion so… this has been a long time coming. Blackfurs make a huge part of the setting and Avarice, even being an important part of Gold and Sand as well.

Here is the old sprite for comparison:

The new sprite also has a back pose.

We have contracted and tested out a new animator in this process, so it was a great training project for them while updating some sorely needed sprite animations. We do hope this will improve the combat feel, too.

Goat

Camel

Water shader

We've been working on a way to have our 2d sprites interact with water. It's still a work in progress, but here is the current state.

Unity 6

And finally a mention on Unity versions. We recently upgraded the game engine from Unity 2022 to Unity 6, which took a bit more time than planned, but it should now be fully ready. There won’t be any noticeable visual changes or gameplay changes in general though, but it was an important update backend-wise more for future proofing and compatibility.

Gold & Sand

We’ll finish with a little tease for Gold & Sand! Don't forget to wishlist the game on Steam if you haven't already done so. We are pushing to release a demo soon™… most likely. Hopefully! It actually is VERY close, the endings are being worked on already, so it really is just building the demo and smoothing out any wrinkles!

Anyways that's all for now, you can expect Build 36 to release in the next few days!

Merry Christmas / holidays!

No pff page this week.

Due to the situation in Ukraine, Pff pages production is halted for the time being while Arbuz is busy irl. Everything is okay, just lots of busy work taking too much time.

As for the game, we are still aiming to release the new build at the beginning of the coming month.

Ukraine update

Hello everyone, may this Sunday find you well and safe.

As most of you likely know, ArbuzBudesh, our team lead, artist, and friend… is Ukrainian. And you all no doubt know Russia has launched an invasion against Ukraine on the 24th of February, 2022.

He and his family are safe for now, but no one knows how things may change. Obviously, we are all worried about him, and as a team, these events likely will impact our ability to deliver our next build on time. Although we are close to finishing the build the added stress of the evolving situation in Ukraine is making these last few steps fraught with frustration, desperation, and a near-constant need to be updated about his well being.

Many have asked for alternative ways to help Arbuz directly, but so far he doesn’t wish to and has enough that he will be fine for now. We will keep you up to date if the situation changes… and if we may need some form of aid in the future.

Thank you all, and please, stay safe. For now, donations to the Ukrainian Red Cross would be a great avenue to help those afflicted by this injustice. Portions of our patreon will be set aside in the event of an emergency, and our team is ready to help him at any time financially if it comes to it.

All of you take care… I hope Monday will be a better day than today, for all of us.

Quick update and future plans

Hey everyone,

First of all we are extremely thankful for your persistent support despite our lack of updates in the past few months. The events in Ukraine has disturbed our workflow quite a bit, especially Arbuz's who lives there. Your donations alleviate a big chunk of worries for us.

The Price for Freedom Comic will probably stay in hiatus until things calm down in Ukraine, Arbuz lacking motivation for it. He is instead drawing the more casual Hell Comic we are now posting, to decompress (will be published for free once finished).

However we recovered a somewhat normal workflow now. The long delayed build 23 aka "Osh'to update" is mostly finished and only missing some polish, will be released in a few days.

Afterward, we plan to release a new build every month, with a small update interlaced between a bigger one:

• June: Nailah pole dance.
• July: Aya and Dee quest.
• August: Katie pole dance.
• September: Main quest with a horny demon.
• October: Terry pole dance.
• November: Companion update.

Of course this is assuming things don't get too much worse in Ukraine. Each update will include incremental improvements to the gameplay and combat system.

Anyway, thank you for bearing with us!