New Plan

 

I didn't feel the inspiration to work on the quest after all, so I pivoted to taking care of some extras from the previous month's poll. Specifically, I started writing some new reactions for NPCs. I added some comments by guild members, depending on your rank (they aren't necessarily rank-related, but they serve to show how their perception of you changes overtime and stuff like that). I also did something for NPCs outside the bazaar (so that they aren't stuck on certain outdated comments, and might have more to say depending on the chapter you are in). I did some more individuals here and there, as I think of who might need more reactions and to what quests or chapters.

I also wrote a new sexy scene for the "rude girl" in Tarisa (her scenes need Marintas's charm in order to trigger).

The plan for this week is more of the same, as well as the usual patrons-only monthly polls and art preview. I think this is pretty much it for the moment, but do let me know if I am forgetting anything.

Until next time! ^_^

Warming Up For the Cooldown

 

Once again, I am back after a release. Last week, I worked a bit on the walkthrough (I added a new quest to the list, fixed some stuff here and there and so on). I have been bouncing back and forth between some entries, because I also got some questions about this or that content from people that were confused, and so it was a bit more laborious than I would have hoped. I'll probably work on it a bit more, if I can spare the time this month.

Other than that, I have worked on the succubus brothel at the military outpost. There were a few things which require some polishing (some dialogues + adding a "once per day" limit to the scenes) as well as writing a new scene for one of the girls.

Maybe I took it a little too slow, but I was feeling a bit tired after the update, so I guess this is just a reflection of that.

Anyway, next week is back to work on the Golden Leaf quest. I'll do one week of work on it, and then probably do other stuff which is easy to complete. I figure it's better not to rush it, so unless I am confident I can complete it this month, I'll just focus on other content (perhaps the romance path with Duke Kito's son and/or small quests + reactions to what you do and general content around the variou cities/towns. There is still a fair amount of stuff to tackle, so I am sure I'll find plenty to do.

Anyway, that's the idea for september. The weather should hopefully cool down soon, and I'll be able to enjoy my days much more as a result (fingers crossed). Have a nice week, and always look forward to more Caliross! ^_^

August Update

 The neverending development continues in a shocking twist* of events: we have another Caliross update!. Get the public version here or at itch.io. Read the changelog here, question your sanity* and then go back to playing the game!

*As much of a twist as a pet animal knocking shit off your furniture.

**Questioning my sanity isn't allowed, no matter how much the changelog makes you worry about me.

Mad Scientist

 

Hi everyone! Last week turned out to be more experimental than I expected. first, I wrote the new scene which won the previous poll. For those who don't know, the spoilers are that it involves the bimbo trait, a hooker/succubus costume for Erica, and the Caliross equivalent of two porn producers.

Other than that, I worked on some changes/quality of life/polish:

I added an auto-transformation key (the default will be "A") to the mouse and fish transformation. This makes it much faster to use those, of course. I have done some basic testing, and I think I addressed all the issues, however I'll be glad when the testers get their hands on the game to verify everything is fine.

I went ahead and gave a bit of polish to the spells/transformation area in the travel sphere. I think most if not all of the spells can be unlocked there, I cleaned up and re-organized how the area is presented, and introduced some other improvements (if you want more stuff in the debug tool, just let me know, and I'll see if it's something I can reasonably add to it).

I also did some miscellaneous stuff, like removing the Lv and Xp from the menus (since we don't level up in the traditional sense) introduced a little randomness to the damage for most skills (small range, but just to make things feel slightly less rigid). I was thinking and thinkering with other possible uses for the remaining keys (maybe I should add the debug tool to one of them, instead of using the key item), but for now I left things as is, and I'll wait to hear if you guys have some opinions on that.

Finally, I started working on the ending scenes for Eloise and Tania, so I have the text ready for when I commission the art and wrap things up for their paths. I did some slight tweaks to the Golden Leaf quest still (since I had the inspiration for it) and that pretty much wraps things up.

I might delay the release a bit further this week, since I'd like something more for the update. Hopefully it should stil be before the weekend, but we'll see how things go. Ideally, I send the game to the testers tomorrow, and try to write some scenes before release. So be on the lookout for a new release! See you soon! ^_^

PSA and Recap

 

First things first, if you are a patron: I received an email from Patreon, and unless they reverse this decision (caused by new requirements by Apple to stay on their app store) in the following months I'll have to change from charging per creation to a monthly subscription. In theory, nothing really changes (I only ever had 1 release per month), but I figured I should inform you now, in case this new arrangement causes you problems I can't foresee (also, using Patreon through iOS will become more expensive, since Apple will now receive a cut).

I have time until November to make the change, and I'll probably post about this again when I go through the steps to do so.

Onto the dev blog proper: the final details for the "plants vs zombie"-like section I mentioned last week took longer than I anticipated (I flip-flopped between a few approaches for the UI, how complex I wanted it to be and so on), as this stuff is hard to nail down (especially the UI and the presentation).

I also started working on the second section, which if you remember I mentioned as well. Since at its core this is a regular fight, I focused on designing and balancing a new unit, with new abilities that should work well with the skills Erica has available. Even in this case, the difficulty will change based on previous choices. The biggest influence should be who's the guards' commander, but I have other elements in mind as well (something like how "trustworthy" you are for the people of Golden Leaf).

The third section will be somewhat like a puzzle, and you'll make more use of your spells and be able to roam around, unlike the previous parts of the quest. Well, the map for this isn't very big, but it should be a nice change of pace from the previous content.

That's all for next month, though. I think it's better to focus once again on something smaller before the release, and get back to the quest in september. I have scenes and endings to write, so it shouldn't be a problem to get something fun together. The update should go live next week, probably around the 20th, if things go as expected.

Sorry for the long post, and see you soon for the new release! ^_^

Golden Leaf Defence Force

 As anticipated last week, I got to work on the new quest, specifically on one of the gameplay sections (the quest should have 3 major ones). This will be the opening section, right after the quest intro and the preliminary choices you can make before the quest properly starts.

It's going to play a bit like a simple, turn-based Plants Vs. Zombies. You get to direct your attacks on the encroaching enemies, and you must make sure to stop them before they reach your defenses. It's not meant to be very long, but it has some flexible options for players to use, so hopefully it's fun. Balance still needs time but presentation and gameplay are mostly finished. Without giving too much away, you also get an easier time if you befriended the minotaur village, so it should be nice to see how your previous efforts pay off and there are some choices from the intro that also play a part, so I am sure it will at least be fulfilling once it plays out.

Not much else to report, though. I have fixed a few typos and looked into some stuff for future updates (I got a few comments from various websites which took some time to parse, and reply to concerning possible improvements), but the bulk of my time was spent figuring out the details of the gameplay. I was tempted to make the section longer and with more mechanics, but I think it's better to keep it simple, since the quest will have other gameplay mechanics to rely on. The second section, for example, should be a more straightforward fight, although previous choices and efforts will also play a part on the difficulty there.

Anyway, that's about it for now. I can't say for sure if the quest will be finished this month, but it's probably a safer bet to put together some "accessible" content for the month, just in case I have to push it to september. Whatever the case, more info on the game coming soon, so stay tuned! ^_^

Short and Sexy

 

So, with the release last week, there was a bit less time to get started on the new content than usual, so I decided to write a couple of scenes for the "free use" content at the academy. With this, we should be pretty much finished on that part of the academy as well.

Coming up next, I'll return to the Golden Leaf quest. If I find the time or need a break from working on it, I figure I can update the walkthrough, so that's going to be the plan for the next couple of weeks, most likely. As usual, I'll be flexible if needs be.

There is still the need to write some sexy stuff, to make the best use of the art budget, but there might be a couple of new ending slides I can add (Eloise and Charles, as well as Gabriel probably deserve something on that front), so depending on how things go, we might get more sexy stuff or more ending content.

Nothing else to report for now! Let me know if you are curious about something, otherwise I'll see you next week for another report! mdqp out! ^_^