I love the music choice in the game! ^^
I especially love the music in the background of Khazeem’s fight :3
I'm glad, cause MAN did it take some time trawling through a bunch of sites to find what I was looking for. But you gotta have that personality, you know? Especially because in a game like this, you spend a LOT of time listening to some of the tracks. Me even more so when bug testing. So they have to earn their keep, or they get tossed out quick.
But yeah, Khazeem's is definitely a good one. I was really pleased with myself finding the title theme too, took a while but it fit perfect.
I was going to say right-click, but shockingly it seems like this functionality is completely absent from RPGMaker by default. I've found a plugin that does it just fine, but it also seems to slowdown the skip speed you get by holding down enter by a bit, so eh. Will test and possibly include with the next bugfix release.
Just the convention from a lot of Japanese games I was emulating that I carried through. If I had to guess, it might have something to do with them reading right to left instead of left to right, but that's just a guess. For what it's worth, these kind of games also require a really large and detailed player character sprite, and I think it feels more "balanced" to have that on the right than on the left for some reason.
Hey there, loved the game and have been watching your work from when you first launched Cruel Serenade! Just a few questions if you don’t mind.
— The scene where Mezz inspects a certain vent (being vague to avoid spoilers) and you play as a different person for a little while has got me wondering. Do you plan on future scenes in other games where you’re not actually playing as Mezz or is that a one time type of deal?
— With Scratch being an actual ally to Mezz and Mahir being… nicer towards Mezz, do you plan on adding more characters in the future that are named friendly NPCs or will we see something more similar to the first game where it was Mezz solo the whole way through.
— Lastly, will there ever be other weapons Mezz uses or will it be the same staff for each game? Just curious since we learn more moves but never any different beating sticks. And will moves such as the Dodge from the first game and the Dazzle Blast attack carry over or is each move in it’s own game and that’s it?
Sorry if these are dumb questions, and thanks for working so hard on bringing something this cool to itch!
No, always glad when people have questions like this. It means they're actually getting into the game and story, which is great!
I can't say one way or the other whether I'll have more non-Mezz gameplay, It kind of comes down to what presents itself story-wise. I will say I probably won't have FULL gameplay, fighting and all that, because lord would that be a lot of new art assets. But I have full walking sprites sitting around for most of the characters, so if it's something like that, it's always possible. Just depends on how things go.
Scratch will definitely be sticking around, and have some extra stuff as time goes on. I probably won't be introducing any other allies/rivals that kind of thing, but there will obviously be new named characters with each chapter.
Almost certainly just the staff. It's an art asset's thing: I'd have to redraw something like eight battle sprites for each new weapon (and the nude versions, and on and on). Plus the staff is just kind of his thing, it's part of his design and all. The plan with the special moves are that there's a new one for each chapter to keep things interesting, but none of them carry over. Balance would quickly become a nightmare if I had to account for all of them.
Thanks for the questions, and for playing the games!
Nope, just flavor. I guess I had it in my mind that I wanted him to have an excuse to be bringing the clients over there, even though they...just use the alley anyway. So it could have just been bare, but I think in my mind the implication was "hey big guy, let's go to the shady BAR and fuck, and then they never quite get there. Game dev is not always a straight line.
Oh this is INTERESTING. I've thought a few times it would be neat to actually see someone stream the game, but resigned myself to that never happening because Twitch and Youtube are very against hard-core bunny fucking action. I had no idea one could even stream on Fansly (though it makes sense), let alone that there were people doing game streams. But wait, is this an announcement of a stream today, or have you already done it? Either way, will definitely take a look, certainly can't pass up the opportunity to finally live my lifelong dream of being Devin Chat.
Also, took me a moment, but my, that's a very familiar outfit you're wearing there :D.
Im playing the 2nd half today! we just got to the dlc last weekend and got to our first breeding pole scene before ending we'll be continuing the rest of the game today. around 7:00cst
And yes I loved the outfit so much on Mezz i Had to draw my self in it. I can't wait to see the rest of the dlc and the ending of the game i think my community is gonna love it.
Nice! Well I'm in, will take a look at the VOD and drop in for the second half (hopefully, my browsers don't seem to play well with Fansly.) Also, if you aren't already, remember you can check OpenFireplace's handy reference chart to make sure you've seen everything, since I haven't got a gallery in yet (soon!).
Also holy shit, sorry I never responded to your question on the first game! I check notifications pretty regularly here, but sometimes Itch just...breaks and I don't see a comment. Or maybe by the time I saw that one you had already figured it out? Glad you got it in the end though.
The startersave is for people who have already played most of the game so they can get to the most recent content pack quickly. The DataCrystal transfers some extra information from the original game. At this time, it only unlocks one additional scene, but other information is carried over as well, and it will be used more in future chapters.
The scene in GT that the DataCrystal file unlocks is unlocked based on number of defeats in the first game. Low defeats mean no scene, mid means a scene, but you can fight to avoid it, high mean the scene is forced. Any ending in the first game where Mezz leaves the island will write the file with the relevant information. The other information in the file is not currently used, but will be later.
Not sure if this has been discussed before, if so I apologize, I am still fairly new to the series, it's been 2 and a half months I think. However, in terms of content of the series that I'd like to see/be willing to pay for beyond what's already available (unless I missed it somewhere), I'd be interested in a Mezz (or CS/GT themed, potentially options for other characters as well) Poster. Option for SFW/NSFW. I know you are focusing on the game itself, and I don't know if it's appropriate of me to ask you to take your character to that kind of medium, however I thought I'd throw this out there and see if maybe I'm not the only one interested in something like that, and if it could be a possibility in the future.
Oh no worries, I'm always glad to hear ideas, though obviously I have to turn down most of them. This is actually an interesting idea, and one I hadn't considered. I tend to take a chuckling, self-effacing view to the idea of merch for the games for the most part: a. Are people really THAT enthusiastic and b. Do they really want to advertise in public that they're jerkin' it to a cartoon bunny? But a poster would be...somewhat private? And fairly cheap and easy to contract production for, shipping etc, with some decent room for profit margin (sounds mercenary, but you have to understand this stuff takes time, and I'm running a business, so it has to generate at least SOME income to justify itself.)
So yeah, I actually really like that idea. That said: Time. I am currently working on the third Content Pack, and getting some IRL stuff sorted. After that I have to immediately dive into Chapter 3, giving it 150% of my time and energy because 1 was important, 2 was important, but 3 is also very important to get just right for a variety of reasons. Without even researching it I'm guessing it'll take me two to three weeks to whip up the art, and probably at least another month to get all the logistics of printing and ordering worked out. So it's probably not happening until after the initial release of 3 is out. That said, if you or others have suggestions for services to work with on this, I'll definitely archive them for reference later. Those kind of groups have a history of being unreliable, disrespectful of IP, and cutting pretty aggressively into profit, but it definitely won't hurt to get a jump on researching the options.
Never would I have expected to be using the personality of "Broken" Mezz for inspiration for a Dungeons and Dragons character but lo and behold, I just had to roleplay out an insane mind broken of my kobold character. So uhhh thank you for that I suppose?? Lol. In other news I've absolutely loved both chapters and can't wait to see where the next chapters go.
Ha, always glad to inspire further filth! This sounds like quite the campaign, let me know how it goes. Over the years I've gradually realized I enjoy re-tellings of tabletop games more than actually playing them. But glad you're enjoying them so far!
Oh for sure. The campaign itself has been nothing short of a rollercoaster ride, and I found myself so caught off guard when I realized where the campaign was going that the party would be running into a version of my character who's just flat out insane. (Basically, the party had been on a mission to save him from hell but due to this campaign being a large scale campaign with two groups in the same world, the second group made a drastic decision which lead to both groups jumping to the past when we all first met therefore abandoning my character in hell and our last session ended with one of the party getting a vision of my character basically being out of hope, giggling like a maniac, and yea! Terrified myself and the DM. Excited to see where that goes and also mortified to see "Broken" Mezz come out of me. Definitely will update you on what comes next.
Used Scratch as a guy in the chair/fixer for a one-off campaign. The crew had to netrun into the city subway system's local net to drop a virus and a NetWatch agent intercepted comms and messed with the team's memory so they forgot they were in a simulation. The agent was impersonating Scratch and trying to get them to drop the payload at the wrong "car" (port, server, folder?) while Scratch was trying to signal to them the right location with the train PA, billboards, etc. which was causing glitches until they figured it out.
Saw a Humble Bundle on my feed for royalty free music and sound effects and figured I'd let you know. Not sure if it's anything you could use but if you do it's less time scouring the internet for bgm
https://www.humblebundle.com/software/audio-arcade-definitive-collection-music-a...
Oh I have it planned out, but I'll share more once I start gearing up for the production process on the third game. Got a ways to go yet: bugtesting on this pack, releasing this pack on Itch, getting a gallery set up on the first game, working with a very hard-working Japanese fan to get the translation up and working, etc. If all goes well, I'll hopefully be doing my presentation of "here's the plan for 3" in a month or so.
Just so you all know ill be playing the 3rd part of the game on my fansly Stream at https://fansly.com/JohnnyJellyJaw/posts at 8:00pm CST tonight for those of you who wanna toon in and watch a horny slime watch this horny bunny slut get railed. 
No one with that email has purchased GT recently according to my records. Please share the email associated with the itch account you used to buy the game. I would also highly recommend against sharing email addresses here, as they will be harvested by spammers and scammers. Please contact me via note on FA (bitshift), or if you have to post an address here, at least add additional clear nonsense characters (legitmailSPACE@SPACEgmail.com).
Hello, I'm kind of stuck as well. I don't know if I'm looking at the right guide but it only gives instructions for the scenes and not on how to progress the game. And I did look for that particular item, which I believe I've found. But I have no idea how to use it as the guards say the same thing to me every time I interact with them. Clicking "use" on the item in my inventory while standing in front of them also does nothing, so I'm at a bit of a loss
You went along the alley until you came to a gate, with a voice print lock. You (I assume) found a voice recorder, went back to one of the hyenas, and got a clip of him talking. So now that you've got that recording, the next logical step would be to take it back to the lock and try again.
You are correct though, the guide focuses just on the scene collection, as walking through the entire game would make it pretty massive.
That's true yeah, and thanks for the reply! And yes, I do have the recorder. Though, I don't exactly have the clip of him talking. I've tried just talking to him and then returning to the gate, but nothing's happening. I've also tried clicking on the recorder and then talking to him and going back, but still the same result. I think it's because I'm currently on the slut route and fully naked, but I'm also not sure if that's one of the things Slut mode blocks. I can't even get the beaten by enemies gameover because there are no roaming enemies left in the area to fight. I'm not sure, just trying and seeing what works
To be clear, the intended action is get recorder, talk to either of the guards, get a special dialog from Mezz that indicates he got the recording, and then go back and interact directly with the voice lock. Using the item itself won't do anything, it's just direct interaction with the hyena and then the lock. Should still work on the slut route (because obviously you still need to get through), but you may have managed to glitch the game somehow. If you keep having trouble getting any response from the hyena or the lock, I'd recommend trying from a save a little farther back if you've got it. And if you don't...too late now, but for future, ALWAYS rotate saves with RPGMaker games. After all this time GT is FAIRLY bug-free, but it can still act odd occasionally, and others aren't so forgiving.
I got question dont know whether this will count as spoiler or not. Will there be a route or bad end that involve mezz and scratch being fucked together within one cg. it might be a long shot but i really like the slut khazeem fight bad end and how i wish we get the cg describing their fate in the Gutter
Hi, been following your journey for a while and i can't wait to play your game!
But to buy the game on itch i'd need to provide my precise location in accordance with 2015 Vat Moss regulation, and im not really comfortable with that.
I know that you have a subscribestar and i think they only ask your country which im fine with. Can i buy one month of your 10€ subscription and still be able to get the game(and future bug fixes updates)? Sorry for the bother , big fan!
They were originally going to be another kind of "enemy" in the proto-version of the center path, but with different "fighting" rules based entirely around sex. That ended up being scrapped both because I decided to do something less top-heavy and tedious for the center path, and because they didn't work well as direct antagonists due to how non-emotive they are.
So to clarify, we're talking the center path? If you get caught by the hyenas, you get a scene with them, but then can continue trying to lure in dobermans. You won't be able to get ones you've already pulled, and it's randomized: it activates...3 or four, can't remember, at random to be available, and if you go through all 4, it activates a new random set of 4. Once you've used an alley, you can't immediately use it again, you have to take them to another one, but there should always be A doberman to find and A alley to take him to. Finding both and threading that needle without getting caught is the challenge.
Again, make sure you're reading the guide carefully. The file just transfers over details of how you played the first game (it's written every time you finish that game). You can also "cheat" and just edit the numbers yourself, it's just plain text. The numbers have to match certain values for the scene to trigger. In addition, it doesn't trigger the FIRST time you enter Haven and walk past the alley, but the SECOND, after you've talked to Scratch and done a bunch of things.
Yes, assuming you have the right switches set in the DataCrystal file, you have to go on the first "mission", and then the alley scene triggers once you walk past it. Keep in mind, we also have a text walkthrough/guide stickied here, so feel free to check that. Even I do sometimes when I'm going back to test something.
Probably not. While Steam has massively reduced what they censor (or increased what they allow, depending on how you want to look at it), my understanding is that a lot of the "adult" games you see on there use the dodge of selling a "clean" version and then making the explicit stuff available as an "add-on pack", as this bypasses the payment processor's forced censorship guidelines ("We didn't sell smut Mr Mastercard, we sold a perfectly clean game! If the users want to mod it after the fact, that has nothing to do with the transaction you were handling!"). This is goofy, and there's not really a way I could make such a version of the CS games even if I wanted to, because the sexual aspect is so inter-woven with everything.
There's also a question of audience: While I certainly want to draw in a crowd, there's such a thing as too large a crowd. One of the many things that makes social media terrible is that it shoved everyone into one big tent instead of letting them hang out in their own communities, which leads to chaos and misery. I'd rather stay in the niche I belong in.
I played the game entirely on a pure playthrough. Then I started a new save and agreed to work for Mahir. Problem is, when the Strip Club shift is over, I'm stuck in the restrooms. For the love of God, what do I need to do to leave?
Nvm, figured it out. Regardless of the fact that I clicked the door and beyond and even walked up against the wall a million times, I couldn't leave until the last try.
thank you, but it was only the first shift. I was so sure it was the door too bc nothing else made sense. Only took a few tries (this part's for anyone else who might have the same issue: don't try to walk out of the door, click the bricks against it with your mouse, that's the only way that got me out). Otherwise, yeah, I didn't have many problems. Gotta say the combat is the best part, and I had a lot more fun on the pure playthrough. Not something I expected from a porn game.
Hello, I loved chapter 2! (loved the glory hole minigame) I had an idea. maybe you could include an extras folder with chapter three showing behind the scenes dev stuff like some other games do? it's really cool and fun to see a developers thought process. (example: concept art, rough sketches, scrapped ideas)
Potentially. There isn't a ton of that to go through though, and I tend to keep it fairly close to the chest just because there's always the chance old stuff gets repurposed down the line (has already happened in a few cases). Also I tend to talk about a lot of that here and there in devlogs before and after. But certainly worth considering.
'The Boar's Newest Plaything' by PupNeedsToBeBrainDrained - Gay Spiral Stories
A little story for all of you to enjoy and possibly add your own stories to.
A good opportunity to point out people can certainly link their stories like this as well, doesn't have to be visual art. Also, good to see but not a fan of that site. Any reason you didn't go with AO3? Or sofurry? Or hell, even rentry.org if you just need a place to dump formatted text and don't care about the community element?
Yup, definitely a trick to it. He looks like he has one special, but he actually has two, that act as fakeouts for each other. Pay attention to the icons, they're slightly different for each. Once you've got that figured out, it's just a question of figuring out the counter for each: there is a given counter for each special that works every time.
Chipping in to say: very fun game and chapter! Games like this are a great example of winning on "execution" - the stock rpgmaker assets and clean simple art style are leveraged towards a very effective implementation of a key vision. Wonderful exploration of hypnotic themes, kinky and spicy in all the right ways.
I especially liked the "progression" of the hypnotic influence - how repeated encounters and losses would push the character further and further into new behaviors and scenarios. Added a lot of depth!
Very much looking forward to future chapters - this one was a home run!
I love this game, I'm so glad that I bought it. It hits so many kinks and toys with some really hot ideas.
I normally don't do this, but an idea has just lodged itself in my brain and won't let go. And that's that I think there should be a short little scene (using one of the 3 pre-baked in-combat CGs maybe) once Mezz is completely lost to the dragon where he can willingly ask Mahir to top him and to not use the clicker to make him forget it. There's all sorts of ways to play it I think but I just love the idea of Mezz wanting to actually remember one of his Hyena encounters.
I'm really glad you like the idea! And I wasn't expecting anything to be added.
Honestly this comment was far less "a serious suggestion" and more of a "if I don't mention this I'm going to spend the next month learning rpgm in order to make a one minute long mod" kind of situation.
I know because I'm currently knee deep in twine due to something similar happening and I do not have the time or energy for another project like that.
Well, yes and no. He's certainly aware and not drugged, but the implication is that he's been fully mentally re-arranged, "trained", so the drug is no longer needed. I think Dash was thinking more of a scenario where Mezz is REALLY drugged and just wants to stay like that, which probably wouldn't work because he'd be too out of it to be thinking in those terms. Still potentially interesting as a more general idea though.
I was more thinking the opposite tbh.
A scene where Mezz isn't drugged, but has been defeated and therefore trained so many times that the barrier between his hypnotized self and his regular self is very thin. So in his lucid state he asks Mahir, of his own will, to put his Hyena cock up his ass.
Because lucid Mezz must be able to tell what's happening at least a little. And it's scary to not know...but there's also a part of him that wants to know what it's actually like. Like...there's gotta be a reason why drugged up Mezz wants it so bad. So in a moment of vulnerability or being unsure in himself, he asks the only person who knows how he's conditioned (and therefore maybe knows how not to put him into the drugged up state) to, let's say "let him know what it's like".
Part of my mental image is: after asking Mahir pulls out the clicker to put Mezz into that state because they don't entirely get what the bunny is asking for her and Mezz goes "No wait! Not with that."
And after that the full implication of what Mezz wants sinks in and once they understand they begin teasing Mezz about it.
Ah, pardon then, misunderstood. But at that point then it would pretty much just be...ordinary sex.
Pardon me for going on a bit of a tangent here, but I think this is something a lot of people misunderstand about Mezz: He's not a slut. No, genuinely. He's a switch (though he'll never admit the sub side), but that's not the same thing. That's why it's hot. That's the crux of the whole thing. There's no hook, no humiliation, no exciting aspect to taking someone who's already a slut and...making them a slut. A lot of people seem to think the hypnosis angle is just about forcing him out of denial, and maybe I haven't helped that by joking about it. He has deep-seated subby tendencies, and those can be exploited to reforge him INTO a slut, or an obedient toy, or whatever. That's what the tape personality is tapping into. Yes, he has the POTENTIAL to become a cum junkie cocksleeve, but he isn't ALREADY that and just trying to pretend otherwise. He isn't encountering the boars or hyenas or whatever for the first time and going "man I wonder what's in their pants?" All of his brain space in those fights, at first, is just fight moves and trying to think of cheesy one-liners.
And again this is key, because you have to have that separation for the kink to work. You can't have a fall if there's nothing to fall TO.
Fundamentally, CS is a series about changing into something, either good or "bad" as time goes on. But lucid "old" Mezz is never going to volunteer to wrap his lips around a bad guy, even under duress. It goes against the whole way he sees himself. Remember even in the center path and the host club the plan was always to just pretend. Is there something else under that? Of course, but he can't consciously choose to access it. Which is why all the mindfuckery is needed.
Not at all an attack on you though Dash, and I actually appreciate the chance to clarify this a bit. And I don't want to be too absolute about any of this; we've still got many games to go, and things often shift in my head as I work with them. But at least right now, this is the way I see the setup.
I don't feel attacked at all. In fact I really like this kind of in depth character analysis. This does make the section where you need to sneak past hyenas make more sense to me character wise.
It seems to me like Mezz can tell that he's just a few words away from just "giving in" but he's still so determined to complete his mission. So even under what amount to extreme danger and a high likelihood of falling he's still not giving in and it takes drugs and implanted conditioning to make him do so.
I do want to say that the original idea is more like "how much the conditioning and repeated fucking is affecting him and wants to indulge even for a moment" than "he's an inherent slut wanting to let loose."
But understanding his character more makes that not work more in my brain now. I get why he wouldn't do that. It's interesting that I often see a lot of character depth and porn games like this. There are obviously games where that's the whole point but I often see it emerge seemingly as a side consequence as well. I think because it brings out things that are crying out to be explored creatively but don't get explored in a lot of media.
"I do want to say that the original idea is more like "how much the conditioning and repeated fucking is affecting him and wants to indulge even for a moment" than "he's an inherent slut wanting to let loose.""
Fair enough, and that is a different thing. But for the most part I've settled into the path of normal, gradual corruption/loss of control, and then if it goes on long enough, "new" Mezz, altered in how he sees the world (Not needing the ear clips with the boars in GT, normal eyes at the end of GT when serving Mahir etc). Again, the engine of the whole thing is the tension between "old" Mezz and the "new" version that's gradually eating away at him in each scenario. If the old version willingly gives in, then that destroys the tension. And if you mean the point at which the new version gains enough control that "he" starts doing things "voluntarily", then...again, that's pretty much the Mahir scene at the end. Sorry for being so difficult, but in my mind at least it snaps to one of those two binaries: either he's being slutty (which doesn't fit), or he's been fully trained/corrupted, which is awesome, but already in the games. For me, the point at which he starts "willingly" giving in/asking for it/going along with it/submitting is the point where "new" Mezz crosses the threshold into having more control than not. So there's never really space for "old" Mezz to do that.
Glad you're not annoyed though, I do enjoy the chance to be forced to actually explicitly think through why I'm doing certain character or story things sometimes, though it can be a little like trying to consciously remember the steps of tying shoelaces.
any advice to starting the game? I got the digital component from the hotel clerk but I can't find scratch anywhere on the available map positions and I've talked to every single npc and there's no way to progress the story. The only building I can get in and out of is the hotel and there's nothing else I can do.
Man I love spending 5-6 hours to play the Chapter 2 and ended up for the slut mode ending then replayed it seriously for the pure ending in just 1 hour with the help of the charm until I realized there is an extra scene with Mahir which also needed that charm to activate. Me shipping them so much and my brain blew up! ٩( ᐛ )و
*Scratch crying in the corner*
Yeah that's why I ship them so hard for now, Mahir could have just broken Mezz so easily but he gave Mezz chances to serve him in both ways lol. He fully used Mezz both physical and mental strength and the line "lucky you have me" from Mahir when Mezz lost to the mobs made me blush so much. >//////<
Ha, glad people enjoy him. I think I kind of seized on Mahir as a chance to have someone with a little more depth now that I was going all-in and spending more time. It gets trickier not to repeat myself the more games in I get, but hopefully the new "friends" will be fresh enough to be their own thing too.
Sadly I wasn't achieved that scene myself but with the help of the scene guides. I was like normally doing slut run and pure run like the Chapter 1 then come to see more contents and saw that last Mahir scene.

The funny thing is I yeet-ed myself 3 times with the Adder's stuff just to get in the slut mode asap. Mahir must be disappointed that he would yap "Huh? Bunbun isn't you just won our battle a couple of minutes ago?" :C
hi! first of all i literally LOVE this game sm, the music is fantastic and the story is seriously amazing, secondly is there any way to change the title screen back to mezz hiding around the corner, instead of it being the poster of him at the lucky bunny with his eyes covered by a black bar? thank youu!
I have a "lore" question: boars and hyenas are enemy to each other or neutral ?
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Because: when you defeat hyena's boss whit Mahir's pendant in slut mod, he told Mezz how he will transform Haven in his "playgrownd". So he das not know were Haven is, but boars they are already there, they co-habit whit locals, whitout conquering the place, we deduce they don't excenge information whit hyenas, am i tripping?
A good question. First, if you're ever curious about lore, be sure to read the stuff on Scratch's computer, lots of basic stuff covered there. But to be fair, I didn't touch on this directly, it's more implied. There are two "areas" in the city, the normal ruins and the barrens, the desert-ish areas. The normal ruins are further divided into four types of areas: Haven, Gutter, Tower, and everywhere else. The hyenas more or less stick to the Gutter normally, their post-apocalyptic Los Vegas/redlight district. The Boars roam around that "everywhere else. The Hyenas have nothing inherently against them, they'll let anyone in with money or goods, but the boars tend to be too chaotic and destructive, which is why there aren't any in the Gutter we see in GT: they're bad for business.
Now, as time goes on a variety of different groups may end up settling into Haven, first secretly, then more openly depending on player choice. And yes, this will mean both boars and hyenas being there. For the most part though, this won't be an issue, as they'll be operating in different areas and staying subtle at first. Eventually, the final stage in each of their sub-quests will be domination of the area, which will probably mean the other just disappears, but I haven't worked out the details yet.
Also, that's an interesting way you have of spelling. Not ragging on it, I'm just curious where it comes from. It almost seems like you're trying to deliberately phonetically reproduce some kind of dialect. Which is interesting, because most people don't "type with an accent", outside of fiction.
Interesting, now I'm even more curios for what future updates will have in store. Hope to see more old world ruins, technology and what not.
About my spelling; I'm not english native speaker, I'm Italian, most, if not all my knowledge about english come from YT and internet in general, probably sound strange because it is a melting pot of a lot of culture, dialects and etc. Add the fact that I'm not that good write in it, and you got your answer
Interesting. Like I said, certainly not giving you a hard time. It was just such a unique way of writing I wanted to know the story behind it. Plenty of people make mistakes, native speakers and not, but mistakes are usually random and sporadic, whereas the way you write has a kind of predictable feel to it. It's neat! And hey, your English is far better than my Italian.
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so in the scene after mezz defeats kazeem in slut mode WITH the good luck charm, mezz completely submits to mahir... BUT his eyes aren't green meaning he isn't under the effect of submission or dragon's breath! so does that mean anything significant or am i just reading too far into things lol
Generally the idea in both the games is that if the hypnosis/conditioning/mindfuckery goes deep enough, it becomes internalized. It becomes MEZZ, so there's no need for the hypnosis itself, just a trigger to turn off the fake confident hero bunny he used to be and flip on who he really is now. That's why there's no glow: no need for dragon's breath any more. The conditioning is complete. Same reason the boars don't need the clips when you meet them again. Now, his eyes DO glow for the boar scene, but that's because of the different nature of the boar control vs the hyena one. Hyena one is about learning to be of service, so once that's internalized, the scaffolding of training can be removed completely, and no more glow. Boar control is just about being OUT of control, being puppeted and light and floaty and helpless. So he still has that altered state, he just goes into it by himself when they trigger him, no need for the clips any more.
this is super interesting because, if the boar control is all about puppetry and the hyena control is about enforced servitude, then what could chapter 3's premise be? maybe something to do with savagery/losing his ability for coherent thought... and the other possibilities for chapters 4 & 5, along with the red eyes are interesting too!
also, another question if you don't mind, i noticed that there are only 3 endings where the credits show up along with only 2 that have the "CRUEL SERENADE" title in the ending monologue. the 3 are the slut mode ending where mezz wins against kazeem with the good luck charm, where mezz wins either in or out of slut mode without the charm and mezz losing the kazeem in normal mode (the two with the "CRUEL SERNADE" title at the end are bolded). do you think any of these will be significant in the next chapter?
(also super sorry if i sound rude or passive-aggressive in these comments, i promise i'm not it's just i am LOVING this game and it is my new favourite thing to obsess over)
Oh no worries, I enjoy people taking the time to think these through. I think I've discussed theming for 3 a bit in the dev logs though, definitely recommend reading those if you haven't.
As for the endings, not sure what you mean by significant. The credits indicate a "full" or "real" end, ie that you've gone all the way through the story for the episode and concluded it one way or another. Lack of credits is meant to imply that things got cut short part of the way through, and there's a lot more to see. My memory's a little blurry: did I do credits after the normal loss? If so I guess credits don't indicate a scenario that could carry over to the next game, but title drop then credits probably do. I think that was the intention.
And yes, as discussed, various things that happen in GT have the potential to be reflected in 3, just like stuff from 1 was reflected in gt.
Is there a lore explanation for the ear clips btw? As in can we know enough so they are not a mystery?
Boars mention someone as a weirdo at the start of CS1, making "good on their promise" then say they are annoyed at the rabbit(Mezz), so I guess that might imply the ear clip's from that weird someone to help deal with Mezz?
Then Mezz says the clips are familiar before getting zapped up.
So the clips certainly had history pior to the start of CS1.
That got me interested in maybe replaying CS1 or CS2 to try to figured that out. But I decided to ask it first ;P Are the clip's origin an afterthought, a mystery, or Is it explained somewhere?
Aw, thanks, glad you like them! The pony stuff was what pulled me into finally focusing, finishing, and getting stuff out, it was a moment in time that did that for a lot of people; a lot of shared enthusiasm and creativity. And the designs are fairly simple and easy to work with, which also helps. That said, it's unlikely I'll do a game with that setting or those characters. Mezz and Cruel Serenade weren't even originally created as a game, but just as an exercise in character design, an initial test case for growing beyond pony stuff, because I knew I'd have to eventually. For three reasons: the fandom, while still around, is pretty small at this point. I want to do something original, so there's absolutely no nonsense to deal with when it comes to copyright takedowns. And it's just fun and more flexible to work in your own setting. Exercises the mind more too.
Sorry about that. First, hopefully you're aware of what's going on generally with itch right now, if not, take a look at the recent dev posts.
Due to this, I've had to remove the downloads for now, as it's the only way to ensure no one purchases the game for now. I have to ensure THAT because Itch is refusing payouts now to anyone who's game they fully ban, which means they'll just...take whatever money comes in from now on. A full ban is likely here. Also, once they DO fully ban it, they'd pull it out of your library anyway, effectively stealing from both you AND me (They've already done this with some games). Fun!
That said, the most recent version of GT is 1.0.5. If you do not have this version, email me at [email now redacted] and we can work something out.
Oh you just need the spanish patch? Here you go: https://mega.nz/file/vCRTxRKL#aLCbRr_pJFr6lo0Ire5ykF7vm_mo-azs5fD6nWVjUUM
I don't like having my email out any longer than I have to, it's a contact of last resort. If you have issues, I would recommend making an account over at FurAffinity and "watching" me there, both because that's going to be the new "news" hub anyway, and because you can then "note" (dm) me about any issues you have. https://www.furaffinity.net/user/bitshift/
Yep. To be clear, for a little while here while I'm still able, I'm happy to get people copies directly if they've lost theirs (as long as I don't start getting a flood of requests for totally legit purchases -.-). But when and if (probably) the game is pulled completely from itch, that's it for ordinary purchase and being able to have it in a "library". Yet another reason it sucks to lose Itch. Provided a lot of great services.
This is why online digital libraries are a bad idea. I bought this game but if I decide in 6 months that I would like to try it again, I can't because it's gone as is the money. It's unfortunate for so many that this has happened. It's affecting livelihoods and consumer trust. It's like we're all getting bashed, kicked, and beaten and for no good reason. Move to a new spot and what are the chances of it happening there too (if money is being exchanged)? It's just a travesty that can't adequately be put into words.
Yes and no. First, in this case it's technically my fault, not Itch's. I've voluntarily disabled the files because I want to make sure no one else pays for the game until I can be sure I'll actually be able to withdraw the money, and there's no way to have the files up for people's libraries, but have sales disabled, at least as far as I know.
Second, the lesson here is that online libraries, the cloud etc are a convenience, but you shouldn't rely on them. When you buy something, download and archive it locally. In the several decades I've used computers, I've only had two incidents of local hard drives failing on me, and one of those was actually a shit power supply frying everything. Meanwhile stuff stored "in the cloud" disappears all the time. You can't rely on it.
Third, Itch is at least better than most online stores, in that you CAN download what you buy, and it's 100% drm free. So as long as you download and archive your games, it doesn't matter what happens with Itch, you can play them forever. It's the ideal circumstance. You can't expect a service, even a good service, to exist indefinitely, you can only expect that the goods provided on that online service can be archived and survive the death of said service. Which is the case here. They did that part right.
Third, follow me over on FurAffinity: https://www.furaffinity.net/user/bitshift/ so you can keep up with new updates when they're out, and toss me a "note" (dm). I'll work on getting you a copy of the most recent version this once. Going forward I'll have some kind of setup for users on SubscribeStar to access, but I'm not sure how I'll do that yet.
For me, it was a faulty modem (I don't think it was a USR) that literally caught fire and caused a cascade effect that fired the 486DX motherboard (brand new at the time) and the HDD. That was... fun.
As for the copy of the game, it's alright. I don't need a copy, it just annoys me that it'll be gone, if you know what I mean. To be honest, I didn't care for this iteration of the series. I loved the first one but this one didn't appeal to me. The next one might but I'm uncertain about the pre-ordering idea. (One thing I did like about this iteration was its length. The first one now seems like a flash in the pan by comparison. lol)
Ho ho, a modem and a 486. Ladies and gentlemen, we've finally found someone older than me here! But not by much, I DID use some of those, they were just out of date by the time I was old enough to be building/owning any. I THINK the old acer multimedia systems (that I always thought were black, but I guess were dark green??) that had Jazz Jackrabbit pre-installed were 486s, but I could be misremembering.
And fair enough, different things for different people. Third will definitely be more along the lines of the length of 2. Probably a bit larger once all the extras are added in.
I fear I may be a fair bit older yet. I started programming in BASIC on an old Commodore 64, moved up to an 8088 with GW-BASIC (not counting the Unisys Icons at school), before I got my own computer some years after that - a nice 286 (Q-BASIC) (which also caught fire, interestingly enough: the plastic on the speaker wires starting smoking one day for no reason I could fathom). To really date myself, my high school still had old PET computers in a storage closet (they weren't actively used anymore but they were there and still functional).
And I will be keeping an eye open for Third tidbits you decide to let slip.
(Edit: Apparently I'm a sucker for punishment but to add to the above, when I was still a kid, I played Centipede with my neighbour on their Commodore VIC20.)
Oh nice! Yeah, definitely have me beat, very much a 90s kid here. I started out tinkering with GW and Q BASIC, but at that point it was on old 286 and 386 IBM compatibles. Enjoy the old stuff though. There's a lot of really good youtube channels right now digging into that early 80s pc tech, and I've really enjoyed taking a look at what they cover, in large part because I didn't have exposure to it naturally. It's a whole treasure trove of machines and companies and histories I had no idea about before (Commodore and Atari especially are just wild). Also, they ported/wrote a version of centipede for the vic20?? Did it run at anything resembling a proper speed?
Funnily enough, the first PC I was allowed to tinker with on my own was also a (then ancient) 286 in the early 90s (the family had a more modern one), and it also...well it didn't catch fire, but it definitely released the magic smoke. Worst and most unique smell I've ever had a computer give off. No exhaustive youtube videos back then to tell me about the dangers of ancient caps or the need to clean dust out of things.
Oh wow... um... this was over 40 years ago so I don't really remember how Centipede ran. I just remember it was on a cartridge that plugged into the... back? of the unit. Around the same time, another neighbour of mine had an old console plugged into their t.v. Now to see if I can remember what it was called... No I don't remember. I just remember that the gamepads had a round joystick and a keypad of buttons. Each game came with a plastic template that you slipped into the gamepad that showed you what buttons did what for that game.
I passed the half-century mark a couple years ago and it is mind boggling to know that I was around and playing with computers and game consoles before the internet existed (in its public form). People still had BBS's set up that you could contact and play games or whatever on. I was part of the whole private website/blogging craze that dominated the internet in the mid 90s (before corporations figured out that it was an absolute goldmine). I remember the Grey Day movement. It was an attempt by artists that made webpage assets (such as graphical buttons, background tiling images etc... even entire sets) to stop bandwidth theft (direct linking to their artwork on their webpage so that when a page was called, it would load images from the artist's site ramping up the amount of bandwidth used and they were charged for it by hosts and/or ISPs). Those early days were quite something. I learned HTML (and CSS when it came out) followed by PHP server side scripting as time went on.
But I digress.. by a lot. LOL. I don't program anymore (I stopped programming in BASIC after Visual Basic was released by MS as the Visual Studio package they charged a mint for. Now you can get the entire thing for free). The last thing I programmed was a personal spellbook for my AD&D (2nd ed) character a few years ago in C#.
LOL, yes cleaning and dusting. Mice were the most annoying as grime would get into the wheels and you'd have to pop out the ball and clean them. Computer maintenance was basically trial and error most of the time. Speaking of, the first time my friend got an Intel... Pentium? chip... I think it was the Pentium. Anyway, you used to be able to pop in a processor and fire up the computer without worrying too much about the fan. You still needed one, of course, but it wasn't urgent... until the Pentium. LOL. My friend ordered all the parts but the fan was shipped separately for some reason so it hadn't arrived yet. We figured it should be alright to set it up at least, so we did. Figured we'd turn it on just to make sure everything was working, then shut it down and wait for the fan. The chip fried pretty much instantly. When he sent the chip and MB back to get replacements, the guy wanted to know if the computer was hit by lightning based on the damage to the chip. LOL To this day we don't really know what happened exactly whether it was a faulty chip, a power surge (most likely) or a sudden overheating (since the chip did get damned hot in a hurry). Not funny at the time but it is now.
Ha, fair enough, I have trouble remembering stuff from a few years ago sometimes.
Ohhh yeah, I remember all the consternation over hotlinking. And just the whole era where many webpages, especially personal ones were literally hosted out of someone's ordinary, personal desktop box and would go down whenever that box was off for whatever reason. The times when "a website" was just html and some (small) images, or later a bit of css sprinkled on too. Now everything is a horrifying spew of javascript, literal programs running in the browser instead of marked up text like it was supposed to be.
I'm in no way a "serious" programmer (RPGMaker is lego bricks, though you can shove in bits of javascript here and there when the default system fails), but I do muck around from time to time. Had some fun putting together a few site scrapers in python a while back (not to steal content, just grabbing a bunch of text and links and info and re arranging it so it was easier to skim through). Fun to mess around here and there.
Oh god, yeah pentiums ran HOT. Especially once we hit the brief period of the slot CPUs, those things were a nightmare. Kind of interesting to think about, because we've kind of come full circle. I watched a vid a while back of someone DESTROYING the airflow in a modern case, worse and worse with each iteration until there were no case fans at all and the thing was covered in blankets and it....still ran fine. Given, thermal throttling is a thing now, and also given this was a few years ago, before the most recent batch of GPUs, which from what I've heard may have sent us right back to the Pentium days :P. But for a while at least, unless you were on the absolute cutting edge, PCs just...didn't care much about cooling.
But good talking! One of the bright spots of all this nonsense has been getting to know some of the fans of the games a bit better, and it's been fun meeting people.
Hello, bitshift! A bit of a weird question, but what does Mezz sound like when he talks? Does he have an accent of some kind, is it high pitched, normal, a little gravelly, what? I think I recall you saying somewhere that you wouldn't hire a voice actor for Mezz, and that's okay! You can do what you want for your art~! I was just curious if you had an idea in your head as to what he sounds like when he talks, because i want to imagine what he's saying in that voice when i am playing. :)
This has come up a few times, so I'll just repeat the basics of what I've said before: in the ballpark of Sonic. Not EXACTLY Sonic, but that general type, smug, confident, wisecracking kind of thing. But not overly femmy, or super masculine or gruff or anything. Just a smug, slightly athletic sounding early 20 something, typical hero type. I think the sort of voice Spiderman often has (not Peter, Spiderman) might also be a good point of reference.
But also, I mean...he sounds like what you imagine him sounding like. That's the whole point of text. It plays out in your head and your brain fills that in.
The "demo" is not actually a demo, it's just the translation pack to translate the game into Japanese. I do it this way because there's not a good way to distribute some files for free on a paid game, and I want the translation packs to be freely available for obvious reasons. Effectively the first game in the series serves as the "demo" for the series, and should give you a general taste of themes and what to expect.
I won't totally commit to it in terms of official canon, but my thinking for now is that yes, they can see it. The ear clips and the dragon's breath literally cause his eyes to glow (and other things, in certain GT endings :D). Remember though that the entire setting is a somewhat heightened, slightly cartoonish reality, so this isn't really out of place. The boars probably recognize the effect of dragon's breath. The hyenas would be able to work out he was under control, but would have no idea what the ear clips were. That product was a very...limited run.