V0.3.0 Development Update and Combat Rework Poll 1 Results

Development has gone very well this last week. I'm slightly ahead of where I thought I would be last week's update. Currently, all images for V0.3.0 are complete, with new images for a random sex scene between Erina and Yukako, and a threesome with Erina and Misaki. I've also completed going though the intro and Misaki's corruption route, fixing all reported bugs and typos, making slight adjustments so that certain conversations flow better, and I have added in the progress/quest tracker room, which currently covers all main and side quests within the introduction, and Misaki's corruption.

Starting tonight, I'll be going through all content from the end of Misaki's corruption, to the start of Ayumi's corruption. Like before, I'll be fixing reported bugs, typos, making other needed adjustments, making the progress tracker room account for the relevant content, and animating scenes that don't already have animations. One thing I'll be doing for this section is either adding, or adjusting a cutscene to introduce Maiko a bit earlier since right now she hasn't been too established even though her route is about to start. This should help set up her character, role, and corruption route a bit better as well.

That's all I have for updates on V0.3.0's development at the moment. Now, let's talk about the poll results. There are a few concerns, questions, and issues people had about a potential combat rework that I'll address here as well.

Combining patreon and subscribestar votes, reworking combat for V0.4.0 won with 53% of the votes. Combat will be reworked in V0.4.0, and later tonight or tomorrow, there will be another poll on how people would want a combat rework to be made. As I've said before, combat won't become something more important than it already is, just made to less tedious, less annoying, and more refined and beneficial to the overall story and game experience. So, this next poll will determine the specifics of how I should approach the rework in V0.4.0's development. I'll provide more details on that in the poll itself.

This was a very close poll, and a few people have expressed strong opinions on a potential combat rework. I'll reiterate again, that combat will never be the focus of the game, or something more important than it currently is. The goal of combat in Rise of Corruption will always be to support the story, and showcase the growth of the relevant characters. Like I've said since the beginning, the context and meaning around the fights is supposed to be more important than the fights themselves. I won't be accepting every suggestion for combat either, as I don't want to make it needlessly complex, or make it overshadow the corruptions in terms of importance. Like I said, the goal is to make combat less tedious, less annoying, and more refined while making it benefit the story and characters more.

There were also two other major concerns and questions about a potential rework that I'll address here as well.

One concern, was that a rework would require a new game. As I mentioned in the poll, I'll be adding additional skip content cheats between now and V0.4.0's development (there will also be more of those cheats added in V0.4.0's development). These cheats will also take into account the choices players can make in said skipped content, and allow players to make those choices. This will essentially allow players to pick up where they left off at the end of content made before V0.4.0's development. I will also be thinking of ways to mitigate, or even negate the need to restart for players that either don't or can't use cheats. So, there will be ways to soften the need of a restart.

Another concern, was that a combat rework would waste development time and focus. So, while V0.4.0 will include a combat rework, that's also when actual development on the rework will start. Until then, development will continue as it has been, as actual work on the combat rework won't begin until V0.4.0's development does. The time between now, and V0.4.0's development will see development continue as normal, and I put out the occasional poll or question to determine what people want in certain aspects of combat as I take notes and make plans. Assuming combat is the only thing I rework in V0.4.0, development time of V0.4.0 will take around the same time V0.3.0 will to make, if not less time to develop.

Now, as I mentioned in the poll, V0.4.0 will be the update released just after all elf corruption routes are complete. That means that there will be an additional six corruption routes completed, two other corruption routes having their characters brought to be level 4 of their corruption (with one of those two characters potentially having their corruptions completed, bringing the total additional completed corruptions to seven), and much more flavor content, random sex scenes, and other things. This means, that by the time V0.4.0's development starts, the game's content will be doubled compared to what it is as of V0.2.14, if not slightly more than doubled. Considering that content will likely be more than doubled, that amount of content being made means that V0.4.0 won't come out for a long time. At the absolute earliest, V0.4.0 won't enter development until around early 2026. Though, considering how long development took to reach the current amount of content for the game, doubling it's content might take a bit longer than early 2026 depending on how much time I have to work on the game, and if I have started developing the game full-time or not.

So, to summarize: Combat won't be more important than it already is after the rework, there will be ways to mitigate, or even negate the need for a restart in V0.4.0, development time and focus won't change between now and V0.4.0, and there will be more than enough time before V0.4.0 to plan out how to make a combat rework that ensures combat is non-intrusive, less tedious, less annoying, and more refined, and beneficial to the game as a whole.

Now, that's all for this week's development update. Next week's development update shouldn't be as long. As I said, I'll be beginning work on fixing bugs and typos reported in content between the end of Misaki's corruption, and the start of Ayumi's corruption, while animating scenes within that content, and incorporating that content into the progress tracker room while making other adjustments here and there.