January 8 Update

Several things this week: the big roadmap you see above, a brief TLS report, and a request for potential contributions from players.

I wish I'd had a TLS update for you this Friday. For the past several years, I've worked hard over the holiday season and started the new year hot out of the gate with a substantial release. This year I still worked hard, but it was a melancholy season and I didn't accomplish enough.

But this post isn't about that. Instead, I'm unveiling something new: a precise roadmap for the remainder of TLS. Back in 2017 I posted a text roadmap for the remainder of the game and we've been following it, but it's come to my attention that many players have forgotten or never saw it. So, since we're getting closer to the end, I thought it was a good time for a new roadmap. Many thanks to Lamsey for improving the visual garbage I started with!

This version doesn't give all details, but it shows you exactly what content remains in the game compared to what has been done in this section. No more need to speculate about who gets a harem quest and who doesn't. Perhaps more importantly, I hope it will remove the need for promises or arbitrary dates: everyone will be able to see the changes in the remaining content and judge my progress for themselves. Look forward to this image being updated every release.

Some of these icons are far more work than others, of course. You've seen how some of the harem quests are quiet character moments while others are elaborate events, so the number of checks per update will vary. But I believe this will give a strong enough overall impression. The only thing likely to change is that I might add some time doing revisions in between the postgame update and officially releasing the game as 1.0.0, just to create a better first impression for any new players.

If I'd been more focused over Christmas, I might have a quick two checkmark update ready for you. Instead, I've made progress on five different elements. Since January started, I have been focusing to try to wrap these up and not scatter my attention any further. The update won't be next week or anything, but it will include a lot of content when it arrives!

Now, request #1: do I have any patrons familiar with RPG Maker who would be willing to help me with a huge chunk of work for the base portrait feature? This is the one that will let players hang the custom portraits all over their base.

Work on this thing has really been slowing me down. It's probably not that many hours total, but the repetition is tiring. -_- Thanks to help from Decanter there are no more technical obstacles, but there's just a huge chunk of work making all the events. Each portrait location needs several events that can't be entirely copy-pasted because they include unique elements.

Information for potential volunteers: you don't need particular expertise, but you do need RPG Maker VX Ace and familiarity with it. I'd send you map files with completed logic and it would just be a matter of replicating it. 

Request #2: I've lost contact with my people who used to edit RPG Maker resources, or they've slipped away. Do I have anyone with the knowledge to edit a few things? I want an orc and two succubi to have unique "painter" sprites and faces, to give the painting element more flair. I'm not sure what it should be... little painter hats? I'm hoping either an old collaborator will get in contact with me or someone new will take a shot.

If there are no volunteers I'll still get these things done, this is just one of the few times when there's something that could be easily delegated.