itch.io

Aw, well thanks! Good to hear.

As far as adding more, it's important to manage scope on these things. A lot of stuff isn't carried over by design, because it makes balance and managing various things overcomplicated. I decided on 3, for example, to just stop scaling Mezz's level every game because the games aren't really ABOUT that and balance rapidly becomes over-complicated. I'll also usually have a particular special skill, and battlesex mechanics for each given game, and not carry them over so each has room to breathe on its own.

Well thank you! Glad you're enjoying the games so far. I've always felt that people leave a lot on the table when they make explicit games; there's so much more you can do with an interactive medium than a simple graphic novel or a fighter that shows you a few mediocre cg when you lose or whatever. For a while, the Japanese were KILLER at this, and really inspired in terms of the fun a person could have if they cared. So if I've been able to capture and bring along at least a little of that, I'm glad.

On saves, you're correct! There are two saves with the game, the normal RPGMaker system, and an extended system I call "Data Crystals". In your game folder for GT, under js\plugins, you will find a "DataCrystal.js". This is, at first, a default placeholder. DataCrystal has an "inbox" and "outbox" location for each game (except the first, obviously, where it only goes out). When a game is finished in one of the survivable endings (where Mezz continues on one way or another), DataCrystal.js is written to the MAIN game folder (next to the exe). This contains certain details about how you played the game. You can then take this file and place it in js\plugins for the NEXT game, overwriting the placeholder file. When you start up the game (say GT) and start a new game, it will read this file and, depending on how you played the PREVIOUS game, unlock certain new scenes around Haven. The idea is that depending on how you play each game, certain corruption side-plots open up around Haven. Alternatively, if you avoid all this, you get a "pure" subplot, starting in chapter 3, where you get to date Scratch (NOT in the initial release, but will be there eventually). GT, like CS1, will also write a DataCrystal file to its main game folder on completion, which can then by carried over to Chapter 3 in the same way. As far as what matters for this, it's mainly how many times Mezz was defeated in the main "defeated by mobs" loop that each game has, though certain other things are tracked as well.

Oh it's both. My understanding is that the raw, emergency backup of the forums is going fairly well at this point, and will almost certainly be done well before the forums go offline in six months, but the community is also in ongoing talks and planning to set up a new long-term base of operations. And it's been heartening to see that they GET it: Discord isn't a replacement, raw archives aren't a replacement etc. It has to be something that can show up on google results so people can use it as a casual resource as well as going hardcore and actually participating in the forums directly if they want. There's been some talk of opening up sub-sections for other engines as well, as MV and MZ won't last forever (especially with GGG effectively giving up on them), but that's a small part of things at this point. 

There is, though it's a little buried far back in the dev logs. Take a look. Off the top of my head I don't remember which 5 is, but glance at that and see if anything sounds like something you haven't done yet.

To be clear, this isn't an "Ew straight sex? Evil!" thing. I'm bi. But this series has always been male/male themed. That's the brand.

Plugin creators do come and go a lot. I'd offer some further help, but if you're set up on Godot already there obviously wouldn't be much point. Hope it works out well though!

The problem with Godot, and really all the alternatives, is that you have to do everything from scratch. It's a general purpose engine, not an RPG engine. That CAN be powerful eventually, as there's more freedom to optimize, but you end up sinking a LOT of time into re-inventing the wheel on things that are already pre-packaged and just work in RPGMaker. 
As for plugins, depends on the one in question. Have to make sure they're for the right version, and yes, sometimes have to do some work to get them to play nice together. As long as you're careful with your stack and try not to make it too massive it's usually fine though. I've also taken to starting to make my own for small things at this point, as it's more targeted, and thus less chance of overlap and conflict with other plugins.

The good news is that it looks like there will be/is a substantial effort to archive, so as I said most of the content will probably end up being saved in SOME fashion. But that's still only of limited use of it's difficult to find on a search engine, and if there's no ongoing community hub for NEW discussion and content. They are working on that as well though. We'll see how it goes.

Nope. This is gay-focused series.

Good to see. At the very least, a LOT of the raw material is going to be saved by the time things close down, if they close down on schedule. The issue then becomes whether it will be made accessible in a meaningfully useful format (searchable, intact links and forum structure etc), and what happens to the community going forward.

Petitions don't actually accomplish anything. When dealing with government entities formalized complaints SOMETIMES do, but even that is an extreme longshot (Stop Killing Games for example got EXTREMELY lucky, and they may still get nowhere in the end). But GGG is not a government entity. 
What does work, to some degree, is direct communication on whatever platform they're actually paying attention to. There has been a LOT of that on the new, crappy forum, and they have responded to some degree: supposedly they're looking into archival possibilities at the very least. But we'll see.

There IS some AI nonsense built into the new forum they're trying to steer everyone toward, but I think it's just out of sheer laziness/lack of caring: ie, the platform just came with it and they didn't care.

So far a lot of the community is in the early stages of planning a new self-hosted forum, but it's not a trivial thing. The cost isn't much for a big company, but for ordinary people it is a pretty big ongoing expense, a lot of time to maintain, etc. But we'll see.

There are other options out there, but none of them come close to the established history and community of RPGMaker. Anything at all you might want to do in terms of a basic RPG has probably been tried there, discussed, programmed around, etc. The community and decade of documented experimentation IS the product, as much or more so than the engine itself. Which is why this is such a blow.

To be fair, I try to have some humility when I assess things like this, because I don't run vast multi-million dollar companies. I can only apply common sense as best I can. But in this case, I can't see any rational motivation for nuking their own brand and products like this. The negatives column is huge, and the positives is almost non-existent. They destroy the good will of the community, the community itself, the value of their own products, and in return they...get to consolidate their forums a little? Again, I am FAR from an accomplished business person, but I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that if GGG can't afford to keep a minimal traffic 2007-style forum online INDEFINITELY, they're probably not going to be solvent for much longer. 

Very much so. I actually think "greed" to a certain degree can be good, or at least benign, if by greed you just mean selfishness. But at a certain point that ordinary, selfish greed turns into completely irrational, self-defeating greed. At any rate, maybe "greed" isn't the right term in this case. Extreme tunnel vision and mis-management may be more accurate.

Reddit has many of its own issues, and it isn't really a good fit for this kind of thing anyway. Sharing information like this doesn't fit well into the ever-rolling popularity contest of superficial posts that reddit encourages. 

There is, and that will help a little at least. Still a very poor situation though.

The sad truth is that there ISN'T any real replacement, just as there wasn't any real replacement for flash. People just...stopped making games in the niche flash allowed for once it disappeared. Godot, GameMaker and others are more full-fledged, generalized development platforms. You CAN make an RPG in them, but you'll spend an enormous amount of extra time doing so, because you've got to re-invent the damn wheel on EVERYTHING. RPGMaker is what it says on the tin: A simple tool to make RPGs. All the basics are already in place, zero effort needed. You just tweak things and go.

The RPGMaker situation is a convoluted mess too, because who the hell owns, publishes and develops the games seems to be harder to follow than the lore of a 20 year soap opera. I THINK it used to be deved by one group and PUBLISHED by Kado? And then after MZ the devs split off onto their own thing which was GGG? But GGG was far worse, stupider and more corporate than they ever were under Kado, which is baffling?
Nobody has cared about anything they've made since MZ. "Unite", the Unity plugin monstrosity was a disaster. They actually shut down the forums for that FIRST, because no one was using them. The only thing that gives the product line any value is the legacy of MV and MZ, and now they're determined to kill that, essentially demolitioning their place in the market. Utterly baffling.
It sounds like GGG is currently at least CLAIMING they're looking into archiving the old forums in some way, so that's something. Discord isn't a long-term solution: Morons that like flashy new things HATE forums, but things like this NEED to be a forum, 2007 style, so that they are SEARCHABLE, both locally and from Google. Even if they DO archive it, it'll take ages for the community to re-form somewhere else, if they do at all. A bunch of people used those forums the way I used to use Itch as well, as an audience to release games, including commercial games into. Now those games just get to get hurled into the void. GGG really, REALLY wants to destroy their own brand and products as quickly as possible.

Ha, this is much better than the alternative, "I can't believe it's been two years and it's still not out!". Although I bounce between both myself. I swear this stuff opens up like a fractal. As I said in the above post, wanted to have programming done end of May, didn't happen. "One more week". Then I thought of a great additional thing to make the final wolf loss great, which threw things back, and then the last bit, while not HARD, ended up being really dense programming. So now we're halfway into the SECOND week of June and I'm still not done. Hopefully by end of week. But at a certain point, you've just gotta make sure you're putting in the hours, make sure you're making good progress and not spinning your wheels, and relax and let the process happen. We'll get there.

Appreciate it!

The planned scope of Chapter 3 will almost certainly be as big as it gets, for practical reasons. Part of the reason 3 has taken so long has also been constant distractions and dramas in my own personal life as well, which the release of 3 will hopefully empower me to diminish greatly. Mo' money, LESS problems in this case. But it is also just a very big game. 

The first game was "Let's see the bare minimum I can make and still have something fun". The second was "Ok, I have SOME time and budget, let's try to make something decent in terms of scope." 3 has been "Let's see how far we can reasonably push things". So for 4 and 5, I may actually pull back a little. But we'll see. Each one is a learning experience in its own way.

Oh I try to do new stuff for every game. There's already quite a bit of fresh stuff in this one mechanic-wise, but nothing super elaborate like the gloryhole game yet. That'll probably come later.

Breaking the bunny is the central thesis of these games after all. But yeah, worrying but exciting. I've been away from serious drawing for a WHILE now. But I'm sure I'll get back in the groove eventually.

Man, the way the internet is now, I'm just happy when it works at all.

And yeah, it's gonna be a big one. GT had roughly 30 maps, some big, some small. When I finish up the two remaining small maps for Chapter 3, it will have 56. Beyond the maps though there's just a lot more going on in a lot of ways, more systems, more fun little things. I do worry that despite this, the SCENE density may feel a little lacking at first, because despite there being more than GT had on launch, they'll be spread over more area. But we'll get there in the end. I think people will have a lot to have fun with here.

And thanks! Always appreciate your support Dino.

Sorry for the trouble. A few things to consider:

First, if you simply wish to support, I do have a Patreon. This is effectively just a tip jar however, and no news or content will be shared there. If you wish to "purchase" the game by supporting for a month, or get early access when the game is complete, SubscribeStar is still required.

Second, due to increasing censorship from payment processors, SubscribeStar is the only available platform I can use. If I tried to fully use Patreon, my account would rapidly be shut down, or I would be forced to heavily censor my work. I am not aware of any serious competitors to these two platforms. Various Japanese platforms exist, but these are largely inaccessible to anyone outside of Japan, and require a different kind of censorship. If you don't mind, what is your specific circumstance that leads to you being unable to use SubscribeStar? Where are you located, generally? Have you tried SubscribeStar's new wallet feature, which opens up many additional payment options?

No no, you're fine, and I get what you're saying. More directly to that though: no, I don't want to cut it down any more than I already have, and I definitely don't want to release a game that isn't completable, even as a teaser. Besides, I want to see people's reactions as they get hit full-force with this entire release. But we'll get there. Every step of development on each of these games is impossible, eating a mountain. But I eat pebble by pebble, and somehow the mountains keep disappearing. Just a few more to go now.

You're the second person to suggest something like this, and I want to stress I'm not mad, it's an entirely fair question. HOWEVER.

I need to be so very, very clear with you.

This version? This 3 year production version? This IS the cut down, "let's get something out so people can start playing" version. I'm ALREADY doing that. This will be enough to play through the game from start to finish, with two main endings (a good and "bad" one), eight or nine scene CG,  and a lot of content along the way, but this STILL represents maybe half the planned content. Maybe less.
So believe me, I know. This is as much as I can cut it down and still have something worth playing for a first go (I did the same with GT, basics to start, eventually built everything out).

Yes, there will be a continuation of the boars in Haven if you started that path on GT, Hyenas in Haven (eventually, not in first release), and dating Scratch (again, eventually). All dependent on the DataCrystal file.

Soon!

No no, "Start to finish" just means the programming for the main path in Chapter 3 is done now, making an actual full play-through of the game possible. Structurally, the game is now complete enough to be played. It won't be very exciting without the artwork though, which is what I have to work on next. 

Definitely pup play. "BDSM" is harder to say, since it's a broad field; probably not the super-cliche stuff, but things along those lines, yes, probably.

Aw, thanks Fluff. The deadlines are what they are; they're important so I don't drift too much and lose a sense of urgency, but I know people are patient. On the other hand, I really want to get this out and rolling before TOO long, and if my current estimates end up being right, total dev time will be about 3 years; I REALLY don't want to go much beyond that. But I'm glad people are still excited after all this time. 

And as for cuddling, there IS the Scratch date path (eventually) so we'll see.

Aw, appreciate it!

To get the initial release out? Like I said above, probably another 4 to 5 months, give or take a little. To fully finish and fill out everything I want to on Chapter 3? I'm not even going to try to estimate right now. I will say Chapter 2 was at least an additional year of new content development after release, and 3 is considerably larger.

These games largely operate on the dynamic of Mezz behind in denial, or just unaware, and that gradually falling apart. In a sense that may actually get a bit meta with this one, but I won't spoil more than that.

And thanks! Also good lord you're going to have a lot of "fun" trying to diagram the absolute chaos that is the flow of this game. I look forward to those discussions though.

It takes a while, but we are getting there in the end.

It'll release with about the same amount of CG as were planned initially for first release, around 8 or 9. There is quite a lot beyond that planned eventually, this is already the "basic" setup, enough to have fun with to start out. 

Oh the art is always the hardest part by far, but I've gotten better at both over time. It IS nice to know the rest is safely squared away though (or will be very soon).