Hi folks!

It’s the start of a new month - time for a month’s results post (the first of the year, as it happens). As you can see, we immediately got to work. That led to the release of 0.11, with the first interactive tavern mechanic and the first part of the magic contest, and 0.12 with the next part sometime later. We are currently working on 0.13, where you’ll see the third part of the magic contest and three interviews - one for each of the tavern locations. The main bonus is a scene for each interview while the contest itself will move the plot.

The new contest will take place on a street outside the tavern, which you can already check out. To be honest, I enjoy drawing isometry, and it’s been going better than I thought. We’ll continue in this fashion and keep periodically releasing new locations. Next, we’d like to add the second floor (in 0.14), the basement, the attic, Mirana’s room, the kitchen, the shower, the stable, and maybe the sewer. Lyralei’s remake will most likely feature isometric locations too. I’m happy for the opportunity to reuse the assets from the tavern to create a new environment, but there will be a lot of new, unique objects, of course.

By the way, we are very actively working on the remake. The first task we’ve solved is a conceptual one. We knew from the start that we couldn’t just repeat the old plot and keep the same approach to quests and characters, but the key idea of a heroine in a city, helping its citizens protect the status quo at ANY COST appealed to us. To make sure there were no delays in development, we’ve recently asked a writer for help. Together, we mulled over and created a plan for the remake’s scenario, which has already taken shape. It has a beginning, an end, and approximately six acts. In every act, Lyralei will have quests to deal with during one half of the day, and combat during the other. In broad strokes, the plot is a confrontation between two forces: the Legion, personified by Tresdin, the Legion Commander, and Lyralei, protecting the citizens. There will be a ton of content.

Once we were done with the conceptual question, we asked the next one. What part of our game does the combat system occupy? I really didn’t like the idea of making a game about an archer and her confrontation with an entire army without any combat. But I thought that since we’re making adult games, any action in the game should lead to adult content. And that means that there’s no point in making combat without the ability to fight using special, very contact-heavy techniques between a man and a woman. So we decided to develop combat with a battlefuck from the start. I went through about ten options, trying to find the right system in terms of tempo, character-enemy interaction, and player-choice interaction and I think I’ve found one. We’ve gotten the combat mostly down in text form. Now we’re making a test build with a working fight where we can work on UI design. There will be testing, of course, and balancing, and other questions, but I like how things are moving so far. We’re gotten the hang of creating interesting plot situations for adult scenes. Now we want to make something more interactive.

As you can see, the year has started very dynamically for us. We dove headfirst into work on two fronts and we’ll be happy to share the results with you (when they’re ready!). Take care of yourself, follow the development and subscribe! By the way, Electron version 0.11 is available!