Posted January 29, 2025 by bitshiftgames
Hey all, finally time for another progress update on the next chapter. As always, I'll start with a general summary of progress, and then go on to the new content I'm able to share. So if you just want a quick update, you can stick to the first section here.
As always, progress is slower than I'd hoped, but I do have a fair bit done. I had wanted to have all the art assets aside from scene CG done by now, which is definitely not the case. I am well over the halfway point at least though, with a fair bit in the bag. As things are looking right now, this will probably shift release forward a month, November rather than October, but we'll see. That said, the pieces are finally fitting together fairly well, and I have some fun stuff to show, so let's get to that.
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One of the reasons this bit has taken longer than expected is that I usually only introduce one new species for each game (Scratch being the exception last time), which I then just do variants of for boss, antagonist and mobs. This time I decided to do THREE. Which meant I had to learn a new animal for each character, in addition to working out their design. But let's get to them.
First, the panther, who you already know. He has a name now, two actually. One of which is Lucius.
Second, our secondary antagonist helpful guide:
This is Elias Farthing. A very enterprising gentleman feline of the city who has a strange knack for being everywhere with "helpful" items and info. The plan is that he'll be the store for this adventure: you'll collect otherwise useless items and trade them in to buy the usual energy and health, as well as potentially some other things. Entirely trustworthy I'm sure.
Third, the mobs!:
These imposing fellas had a name, but I'm reworking it. We'll just call them the wolves for now. They're effectively werewolves without the were part: they don't transform to or from anything, but they have that weird angular, muscular, elongated form, the rough, bestial canine instinct and a lot of strange magic flowing through them. They are one of two groups vying for control in the strange city Mezz finds himself in, the other being a group of cultist cats which will come in a later content pack.
That's one thing I should clarify actually. Mezz will end up in a lot of strange places this game, but due to the first update a lot of people were thinking about exploring a mansion, which will actually be a fairly small part of the game, mostly at the beginning and end. Most of it will take place in a city that's kind of a spooky abandoned Victorian setting. A bit Bloodborne.
Now let's talk combat. The battle sex in this will be a somewhat more simple version of the one from GT. Rather than slowly wearing down a stat to get a chance to pull you in, if you're not careful the wolves will suddenly grapple you, which looks like this:
Fail to escape, possibly with a quicktime combo, and you take damage to your third stat, which will probably be something like "resistance". The theming on 3 revolves around Power and how people instinctively and automatically respond to it (especially when enhanced by magic). Drain the stat to zero, and you're forced to submit, first mentally, which looks like this:
And stripped:
And then physically. Your only move options will be one of the surrenders, each of which is paired with a way of being fucked like in GT. Unlike in GT, you'll learn them gradually, unlocking new ones as you go. The first you get automatically the first time your resistance is drained, and it looks like this:
Which then leads to this:
I'm still working out some of the rest of the fight loop, revising and re-revising, so I won't get into that too much, but this gives you some idea. In general I want it to be faster and rougher than GT, but still with a little more agency than 1. Unlike in GT there won't be any specific target with these surrenders, you can use any of the ones you know. The wolves aren't particular. Rather than training like GT, the mechanic and motivation will be more "become more and more corrupted so you have more and more ways to give in when you're 'forced' to."
And as always, things like mechanics are always subject to change up until the game's out: GTs battlesex mechanics were constantly shifting as I worked on the game. But this is the plan so far.
And that's it for now. Next is getting a few more of these surrender pairs done (the other two I have immediately planned are even more filthy), one or two detailed cut-in images for important story items, and walking sprites for the new characters. After that I can FINALLY start in on the maps and programming, though I have already started doing some test maps to work out the tilesets I'll be using.
I've said this before, but as much as I try, figuring progress on game dev is tricky, because you're never doing quite the same thing the same way. Which is good, I don't want to just make the same game over. As much as I'm able, I try to iterate and improve, at least a little. But that means it's often hard to tell if you're doing great, ok, or really falling behind. All I can say is I'll keep an eye on it, keep chomping away, and do my best to keep giving honest progress updates like this one.
And finally, of course, thanks again all those who bought and continue to buy the games, and to those supporting over on SubscribeStar. It's only because of you that these games can exist. I had assumed interest and sales would fall off a cliff a few months after release, or at least after the last content pack (it is a small game after all), but that has very much not been the case, and the continued interest and enthusiasm around the games has been incredible. And if you're new here, and like what you see, feel free to toss a few bucks in yourself. Even the small subs help a lot.
Hope you like this, let me know, and I'll see you all in another 3 months!