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.
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.
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.
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'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).
Oh I think you're definitely going to enjoy some of 3 then. Still haven't fully done the endless servicing thing, but there's definitely some stuff that leans in that direction.
No, Substar always gets the release a month early. This has its ups and downs: you get the game earlier, but you also get the very first raw version of it, before any bug fixes, extra balancing etc. I'll let people know once it's getting close regardless though, and for some people SubStar may be the better option, as there are a LOT of payment options now, including expanded credit card options. Definitely worth checking out, even just for one month to buy the game, if you can't use Paypal here on Itch.
Technically there are BRIEF moments of this in GT where one of the ordinary hyenas leads Mezz around a bit. But it's brief, and not really fully "playing". It's certainly a fun idea, but one I probably won't do for the immediate future, as I already have a lot on my plate (and a LOT in the game, as the gameplay nears finalization here). Will certainly keep in mind though.
First, just a heads up: The forum for GutterTrash is usually the best place for this kind of thing. In the future, feel free to ask in the main thread, or start your own. If you DID and I somehow didn't see, my apologies. Generally, fanwork of all kinds is fine and encouraged with two caveats: 1. No profit 2. Clear up-front identification as an "Unofficial Fan work". IE, making it clear I'm not involved in development, writing, approving things etc. If you're planning to integrate it into the existing game that complicates things a little. If it's fully stand-alone, a mini game of its own, great. If it's a mod that can be DISTRIBUTED on its own and installed on top of a GT installation, the way translations are, also fine. Anything deeper integrated than that is probably a no-go for now, as I don't have time or energy to work on side projects at the moment. But as long as you're content to do your own thing, and again make it clear it's unofficial, non-canon, sure, knock yourself out. If you end up doing something with it that's HORRENDOUSLY brand-damaging we may need to talk, but I don't anticipate that being an issue. Would be neat to see what you come up with.
Digging through my code a bit, there are three switch checks on the Khazeem fight that you have to get through to get the Mahir ending: GoodEndScene, HaremSlutMode, and EverWoreCharm. Not sure on GoodEndScene, EverWoreCharm is what it sounds like. But HaremSlutMode is probably the issue. It ONLY gets set if you get to Khazeems's HQ via the secret stairs in the Host Club. If you get there any other way, that switch won't be set and you won't see the scene.
So you have to get the charm, wear it at least once, lose to mobs a LITTLE so Mezz will be willing to go in the host club (and have the outfit), but not maxed out (or you'll just get auto-taken to Khazeems' HQ before you can get to the host club), work your way through the club, and take the secret passage to Khazeem's HQ, then WIN. That should get you the scene. I'll talk to OpenFireplace about potentially updating the guides a little.
Long answer: RPGMaker MV games are fundamentally just a local web page running a ton of javascript. The "program" is just a browser without any of the usual UI that presents this web page. Thus, any system with a modern web browser can load the page itself, and thus the game, in THEORY. In practice, the javascript in question is heavily tweaked to assume this artificial environment, so it can get a little glitchy if run on a normal browser, and I use a few plugins that interface with the filesystem (for the special save/load system across games) that assume a desktop Windows environment, so those probably wont' play well if arbitrarily shoved into a different OS. In other words,a DIY port isn't unthinkable if you're technically minded, but I'm not going to devote time to developing and maintaining one (or several) myself, as the overall percentage of my potential audience that ONLY has a Mac, Linux system or phone is fairly small.
I do a dev log for each new release, and clearly label them, so if you're every curious you can just thumb through those. Since you asked though: It looks 1.0.6 changed data crystal handling, which will be important to carry your info over to Chapter 3. At the very least, you'll want to carry your normal saves over to an updated version of GT and play through to whatever ending/playthrough you want to be "official", so that the proper new datacrystal is written to the game directory (you can check the "created" date on the datacrystal file to make sure it's fresh).
1.0.6 also updated the lighting engine to run better, and added a load option to the menu, but those are obviously QOL, not crucial. 1.0.7 just fixed a sprite glitch in the gallery, so again, minor. Long story short though, I still would recommend getting the newest version and genning those datacrystal file(s) in prep for Chapter 3.
As for how 3 is going, again, I post an update to the dev logs here every three months or so, next one is planned at the end of this month. Currently nearing the end of the programming/game design for the game(for initial release) (hopefully also by end of next month), which will "only" leave drawing, writing, and slotting in the planned scenes, which I estimate at 4-5 months.
It's like anything, dose makes the poison. Can be a powerfully positive thing in the long run as long as it doesn't go too high, but if it does, it just crushes before you can learn or grow. Luckily I haven't hit that point yet. And thanks! Like your avatar pic!
Ha, glad it was useful then. No, I totally agree: you work and learn as you go, and if it's good enough for release, you release. Things never end up releasing if you worry too much about polish. Ha, and glad you liked the griffin suggestion. Maybe some day!
And yeah, getting visual stuff in IS a lot of work, whether you do it yourself or pay for some assets. Just wanted to suggest, as it gives a LOT of bang for the buck: even a little bit here and there does a lot to pull people in and keep them in place. People's minds wander a lot especially these days. I guess you could say it's its own form of hypnosis.
But I'm glad you were able to satisfyingly cap this off, and definitely hope you're able to plunge into another big project once you've built up a head of steam again. It's satisfying to get something this big finally done, isn't it? In a way that's just different than smaller projects.
Finally got around to finishing this, sorry it took so long. But in my defense, there's a LOT. Which is great, but it does take a while to get through.
I ended up throwing out a lot of what I was going to say, because you actually ended up implementing it as the game goes on. Early on, it's largely a bunch of silo'd encounters that all end in game overs, but further in you start to have some NOT be hard game overs, and start to mix them into each other a bit better, which is exactly what I was going to suggest. I especially appreciate the various callbacks to what's happened so far by the time we get to the Monster Hunter guild quests, especially the werewolf one. Very nice.
I didn't enjoy EVERY setup, such is the nature of kink and personal taste. But there's a LOT of fun stuff here. Personal favorites would be the Griffon knight (though I'm not as much into the scent aspect as just the "abuse" /manipulation/abuse of power etc), the lizard shaman fella while guarding (VERY nice), and I think most of all the traveling hypnotist.
The whole monster guild thing is a really nice bringing together of everything, and a good actual capping off the proper story the thing has. My only real complaint there is that I wanted Lenti and Oliver to get into more trouble together, potentially even just get blindsided by the griffon again. Maybe betray each other TO him. But a very fun little group after all.
And a very impressive piece of work overall! I think the only downside is that BECAUSE it's text-only, and Twine, a lot of people may bounce off it before they get hooked in, which is sad because there's a LOT here to enjoy. Not that you have to, but if you wanted to, I think dumping this into something like Renpy (to give easier control on some things), making some MINOR tweaks and sprinkling in a few visuals (Not full scene stuff, just a few bits here and there to get the imagination going) would let you absolutely blow people out of the water with this, even more than you are already. Potentially even make some decent money, if you were interested in going that route. Again though, just thoughts.
I'm glad you finished this, and that *I* finally got around to going through it all. A really fun little adventure.
Ha! Yeah, lot of possibilities, but I don't want to get distracted for now. Will certainly consider once I have the first release of this chapter taken care of though.
