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Dev Blog #1 - Touching Grass

Greetings everyone!

So… it’s been a while… Let’s get right into it!

The Sob Story

Before I even get started, let me be clear that none of what I’m about to get into is meant to be some kind of excuse for my general absence over the last few months. I think some kind of explanation is still deserved though.

To put it plainly, last year was something of an unmitigated, unrelenting shit show.

We bought our first home, only to have it start to immediately start falling apart at the seams, all while getting hit with one financial emergency after another. The Company got taken down by Patreon, and while we recovered services quickly enough, the financial impact was substantial, adding to existing issues. At the end of 2023 we discovered we were a lot less of a “Jeffrey” and a lot more of a “Jennifer”, seemingly to the surprise of no one. While I’d never walk back on that, it came at the cost of much of my family, and in fact, my second marriage. The political climate in the US now, especially in a red state, has done me no favors either.

Towards the end of fall 2024, while attempting to add minor content to The Company, I found I could no longer even recognize my own project anymore, let alone manipulate it… cue the existential crisis and full blown breakdown.

The Action Plan

At the very end of 2024, Haseo and I sat down and had a number of meetings to address the sorry state of The Company, and The Company’s developer. I’ve been trying to fight it for months, but at the end of the day there was no more denying that burnout and feature creep had finally taken their toll, and it couldn’t be ignored anymore. In my hands, in my condition, The Company was incapable of growth. For this reason, we made the decision to make three major announcements today.

The Company is Going on a Hiatus

After all the lead in, this should be the least surprising of today’s announcements. The Company is going into temporary maintenance mode likely through 2025. This is one of the most difficult and terrifying decisions I’ve had to make, but simply letting it coast without seeing any meaningful updates was a far worse option in my mind. Don’t be surprised to see occasional minor fixes get pushed, but the most recent update to The Company will be the last coming from “me” in 2025, segueing nicely into the second announcement.

The Company Source Code Release

Today, both here and in Discord, I will be providing a link to the complete source code directory for The Company. Every passage, feature, function, annotation, reminder note, and general fuck up will be yours to peruse in its fully decompiled form.

To any budding explorers, let me warn you - It’s bad. Think of it like a look through my journey as someone who could barely write code to… someone who can still barely write code but took some online classes. It’s a mess, but all the pieces are there, and with a simple TweeGo compiler script, you can generate and share your own builds of The Company.

In fact, just like image packs, modded versions of The Company are something we’d like to offer visible sharing for. Expect channels for it on the Discord server, as well as occasional featured content pieces for particularly ambitious ventures.

While it is my intention to see Chapter 5 finished, I don’t want that to stop the community from having fun with the engine and innovating in the meantime!

Download Here!

Now, the final announcement of the day is a big one.

I’ve already mentioned how The Company has been an incredible, if not sometimes painful, learning experience when it comes to writing and coding. In a similar matter, it’s also felt extremely confining. That is, for everything new I learn, I see missed opportunity when it comes to the project I’m attached to. It would become a daily conversation in my head that, if I could just start over…

I think this is common among creators, obsessing over their next project, thinking about how they could apply all their gained knowledge.

So, during our meetings, the decision was also reached that by temporarily shelving The Company, it would mean redirecting all resources towards something new. We spent most of January this year in the planning phase, making sure that this next project would be something we could actually maintain a reasonable scope with. Something that could allow for some level of user generated content, and most importantly, something that would actually see the light of day in a realistic time frame.

Then I started writing.

This is Brothel in the Woods, an amalgamation of ideas from a number of whiteboarded projects including parts of what was going to be The Company 2.

While The Company focused on branching story arcs, and character and player transformation, Brothel in the Woods will offer a much more linear story, but with many more management and RPG features.

After creating your character and selecting from one of three story backgrounds, you’ll find yourself in a run-down shack in the middle of the forest. Repairing your little shack will take resources found in the woods which will need to be processed into crafted goods. Enemies can appear in dangerous areas, but drop loot and XP.

Brothel in the Woods, henceforth BitW, uses a stamina system to limit your actions in a day. Stamina can be recovered in various way, mostly through eating, but you’ll be penalized if you pass out before making it home. Gaining XP allows you to level up your character, potentially increasing their maximum stamina.

You’ll eventually find your way to the nearby village, where new characters can be met, interacted with, and romanced! As far as romance options go, you’ll have your pick of three men and three women, and one upcoming non-binary character. Interacting with these characters can increase their affection towards you, resulting in a few romantic, and a few more spicy, scenes. They may even offer to upgrade your brothel in some way!

The star of the show is converting your run down shack into a thriving brothel. After working your way through part of the story and amassing enough materials, you’ll find yourself in charge of running your own brothel! Now, this isn’t The Pit - workers aren’t randomly generated datasheets, but rather real characters you’ll meet and recruit in the game. What’s more, is that all brothel workers are loaded from external JavaScript files, meaning new brothel workers can be created and shared by the community right out of the gate.

Your workers can be assigned tasks, promoted in the village, or even “hired” for professional services, free of charge to the owner, of course.

At the end of every night, you’ll get a report on what each of your workers was up to that evening, and take in a reasonably hefty chunk of change for their efforts as well!

Honestly though, I feel like I’m spoiling a lot here, which is dumb considering the game’s first Alpha build is complete and available to everyone right now! This version of the game will also launch with three builtin image pack options - The recommended artwork, pictured above, is set as the default. Additionally, our community manager Haseo has provided both a live-action and hentai option that can be switched to and from, straight from the sidebar in game!

Updates for BitW will be coming out often starting today, both in the form of semi-frequent dev builds for people who don’t mind their toys kinda broken, monthly backer releases, with public releases trailing behind those.

New channels will be open on the Discord to discuss The Company source code and, of course, Brothel in the Woods.

I haven’t been this excited to be behind the keyboard in a long time, and I hope you all enjoy the ride with me!

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