RegulusNSFW

Features, and patching up

Heyo everyone! Some new things were added this week. There was still a few things to do in Pearlus2 as well. It's been a little bit since I've dumped a bit of my thoughts on the game state, so I'll open up with this.

I've been trying to think retroactively about certain qualities that could be slipping over time. I am likely going to be doing some brainstorming in the coming days and come up with a stronger plan for myself to fix some things up in future builds (Like changing/polishing up some HScenes I feel were rushed, or just have scuff in them). The game is progressing well, but I feel it could be more well-rounded. Some aspects are a bit lacking still. (Like Settings, and things available in the shop). Naturally these things were to be addressed during development at a certain point, but I do think it's something to keep up with.

Which kind of leads into some of the work that was done this week. I'll start off with it.

UI and Player controls have now fully been converted to the new Input System. This "should" have no noticeable effect from a playing standpoint, but it does mean I can now approach things like keybinds (Which I can hopefully implement in the next build or so). If there are any issues of bugs with this when the build comes, be sure to let me know!

Next I added a window that will display current ally's active and passives in the pause screen.

And for Siren's upgraded ability: Heal Drones EX.

It may not be super apparent here, but the ability is as follows:

>Siren now heals 50% faster.

>While healing, her bio-electricity range is doubled, and it's ATK spd is increase by 50%.

This means on top of healing faster, her offensive ability is strengthened as well.

And for the final new feature this week: The SpunkStock players may be familiar with this, but we added Pom with some fun features along with her.

As you can see this is where you will lead into her Hscene (Note her portrait will likely be different here)

 Much like the jukebox in SpunkStock, you can choose any song for the lobby music you like via the music select. Note you will need to beat the corresponding levels to unlock them. (In the future this feature may need to be purchased from the shop).

Finally we have Crewmate Bios accessed via Pom:

As you may have glimpsed there, in the character Bio window, it will show all of their Hscenes, a preview, and requirement.

 Unlike SpunkStock, you can actually jump straight into the Hscene from this screen.

Now we'll close off with some of the small additions/changes in Pearlus2

The clams let out noxious bubbles. These bubbles can be destroyed, and will hurt you upon contact.

Finally the clam ahead also will try and shut on you.

Freya warns you of this, along with a subtle visual queue. You will need to brake in order to avoid getting crushed.

A couple of the other small changes were: Not allowing the player to move under the water before the transition happens, and further changing some of the enemy's firing timings.

That should pretty much sum up this week. Next week is going to be all about Build Wrap-up. This means tying all scenes together, making sure boss transitions, and dialogue all trigger at appropriate times, bug testing, and fixes.

Thanks again everyone! I will catch you all next week!

-Regulus

Finish touches on Hscenes, Dialogue, and Transmission Sequences.

Heyo everyone! Here we go again! This week was a bit of monotonous work that I failed to get around to earlier, but I'll break it all down here!

First thing I actually did was a bit of work in the menus. Making it slightly more managable with gamepad. Another step in moving to the new input system ahaha.

Still some work to do on it though. (Like with the dialogue system)

Next was finishing off some of the final bits on the Hscenes.. like the "splat" effects, the SFX, the climax animations, and the button functions.

Next was writing all the Transmission Dialogue in Pearlus 2. This is where we will be introducing Freya and Tiger.

Freya, Siren, and Tiger are all of different factions, so they don't work too well together.

Freya and Tiger have their own things to contribute.

As you see above, Freya dive bombs the enemy's largest cluster of enemies.

and Tiger provides support in the depths.

Upon blasting the blockage, the currents summoned by the Tiderunners propel you forward.

Zoooooooom

I also did some final balancing with enemy spawns. Though there isn't much point in showing this ahaha. But!

Here are some more small dialogue sections

I scaled these guys up, as they were kind of too small to be a threat before

With that I also wrote up Siren's remaining 2 conversations for the hub.

There is still a decent amount to do. I still need to add emotion triggers to the hub dialogue. There is still actually some polish to do on the level.. especially with the boss' intro and death sequences.

Next week is going to be patching these up. It will mainly be focused on new "features" though. This means adding Siren's upgrade to her ability. I also will need to add Pom's base functions within the Hub. This should lead in to the Hscene with her as well. If I manage to get this done in a timely manner, I will be returning to the ol' list of bugs/features.

Anyways! With that, I will catch you all next week! Thanks again everyone for the support! I hope you are all looking forward to Pearlus2!

-Regulus

Siren's 4th Hscene animated!

Heyo again everyone! Here we are with Siren's 4th Hscene! There are a couple things I want to cover, but first off! I want to announce the results of the level Poll!

The winner of the poll is Catiya2. This means the next featured character will be female Aether (and perhaps a bit of Nova content).

(Also a heads up to all Groupie tiers, I will be posting high res art later today! Thought it might not be for a little bit)

Now let's get into what was covered this week.

The main thing was obviously the animation, so let's start with it. Above, you see the basic Idle animation.

Here we have the base loop.

A grind.

A hard/fast version.

And finally, I have been playing with a titjob loop.

There may be a bit of reworking, for this, but we'll see.

Those are the base 4 animations for this scene. The other thing that was actually done was something kind of small, but worth bringing up. The newest level will introduce a couple side characters. These characters will be allies/friends of Siren. They are the head of their respective sects on Pearlus.

We have Tiger the Tiderunner.

and we have Freya the Preserver

To get the biggest question out of the way, no, there are currently no planned Hscenes with these 2 characters.

You and Siren will be working together with these 2 in the newest level to cleanse the arctic waters.

Another very minor thing, which will probably be further improved on, is adding some glow to the foliage in Pearlus2, to break up some of the monotony of red.

Okok, that should probably sum up this week. Next week is going to likely be more of a catchup/balancing week. I am going to be fine-tuning the level, and enemy spawns. I am also going to be writing all the Transmission dialogue through the level now that the 2 new side characters are ready to show. I also have a bit of catch up to do on all the Hscenes with climax animations, and ordering buttons appropriately, etc.

Thanks again everyone! I hoped you liked the animation preview! I'll catch you next week!

-Regulus

Pearlus2 Boss breakdown. Siren's 4th Hscene sneak peek.

Heyo everyone! Here for the breakdown of the boss of Pearlus2. There is a lot of polish to be done here, but luckily it's mostly just tweaking variables to help with the pacing.

I just want to give a quick reminder to all those who are VIP ($10+). The poll for the next level is closing in a week, so be sure to get your votes off!

https://www.patreon.com/posts/v0-10-level-poll-105794503

Now! Let's get into the boss. The boss won't have too many individual moves, but it will keep you on your toes.

To start, the main mechanic of this boss is a "Shuffle". The boss will shoot beams out of each active eye, but the location with shuffle around. You will need to move accordingly to avoid these.

To start off, only 2 sets will be active.

After defeating the first 2, it will spawn the remaining 3 sets.

Between all of this, the boss does have another attack that it can transition too. It will scuttle on the ground to spawn incoming bubbles. You will either need to avoid these, or destroy them.

Once all sets are destroyed you will have beat his first phase. The boss will retreat and spawn several columns.

(This will likely be much slower, and is an example of those "tweak variables". But the idea will be you can either weave around the stacks, or you can try and boost/brake between the bubble lines.)

Finally, the boss will return in full force.

All 5 eyes will have regenerated, and his center eye will be vulnerable. (oops.. looks like his center eye is slightly out of place...)

Destroying his center eye is all you will need to do to defeat this boss. You "can" destroy the arm's eyes if you wish, to cripple his attacks, but it is not mandatory.

I think I will be working on this boss a bit more. I feel the planning phase took longer than I was hoping, but I've found him to be fun so far, which is good ahaha.

I may add a bit more to his "Final phase" to spice things up a bit. There will also need to be some visual fixes, but overall it's turning out well.

That pretty much sums up where I am at with the boss. I'll see if I can finish him up this weekend. As for the upcoming week, I will be focusing on Siren's 4th Hscene.

Thanks again everyone! I'll catch you all next week for some motion!

-Regulus

Siren's 3rd Hscene animation. First look at the Pearlus2 Boss.

Heyo everyone! This week was focusing on Siren's 3rd Hscene animations. This one actually gave me a bit of trouble for multiple reasons. There were some strange bugs with my animation software that caused issues with layering. I had to wrestle with some work arounds, but figured something out in the end. It was also a bit awkward to get some animations working well as a whole. To top it all off, early on I overwrote the file as a png. (This basically killed all layering data, and lost me about half a days worth of work. Lol... oopsies.) Well ALL things considered, it was a headache, but we got there in the end. Here's some previews of the animations to come!

As you see above, we have her Idle animation.

In this animation I had to break the vagina up into several more pieces than normal, so I could give a bit more of a show on depth.

Basic Loop:

Climax animation:

Foot:

Fast and up close (The low gif frame rate makes this look a bit incoherent loll. It should look much better in-game):

There is still a little bit of polish, and final animating to do. I'll see about doing it over the weekend, but this upcoming week will be a bit of a change of pace from Hscenes. I will be jumping onto the boss of Pearlus2.

  With the model ready to go, I will be setting up the fight.

I have some ideas on how the fight will go. I'm hoping it will be a fun one!

Alright everyone! That should pretty much do it! I'll catch you all next week with a breakdown of the boss!

-Regulus

Pearlus2 Breakdown. Siren's 3rd Hscene sneak peek.

Heyo everyone! This week was focusing on the enemy setup of Pearlus 2. Everything is set up until the last boss, save a couple events I would like to have.

I'll start with a couple small things I did before getting into the level.

First I implemented Rooster's alternate outfit, and alternate hair.

Combinable with the jacket.

Separated into 2 pieces

And finally Rooster with some greasy ass/wet hair.

Another thing I did, was add a few more components into the new input system. While not done yet, we are a couple steps closer to making gamepad more viable.

Now.. onto the level.

What you see at the head of the post, is the first interaction of the level.. with familiar enemies.. after that you are attacked by the worm enemies scuttling on the top of the ocean.

The missiles are fired quite close, so engaging these enemies can be risky.

After a couple other small exchanges you will see the large ships from Pearlus reappear. It's likely at this point you will notice the water becoming red.

 Upon reaching the end of the line, you will dip down and submerge in the juice. (Saturation and intensity may still be adjusted.. the important part is that the scripts are there, and functional. :P)

These clams will launch toxins that you will need to avoid.

The ships are a little more aggressive down here.

When destroying the large ships, they will sink. Avoid being under then when they do, as you can take damage during their crash.

There will be a large clam for you to go through, but you will likely need to boost your way through before it clamps down on you.

Shortly after this you will see Nova's water ships fleeing from the seaweed thicket

Upon entering it you will see some things must have gone wrong, and are faced with a graveyard of sorts.

With that, the level is ready for the boss. There may be a few neat events to add to the feel of the level which will be added later. We'll tackle that a bit later though.

Now what's on the menu for next week? Well... Siren's 3rd Hscene. I will be breaking it up and animating it. Here is a first look at it.

With that, I'll wrap up this report! Thank again everyone for the support, and I'll catch you next week with some motion!

-Regulus

v0.10 Level/Character Poll.

With Molbon2, and Pearlus2 on the map, what will be the next level?

v0.9 Breakdown, and a first look at Extra Hscene with Pom!

Heyo everyone! This will be a bit of a lengthy post. I'll start with the breakdown of v0.9, then I will showcase Pom's Hscene. It's a bit of an interesting one.

I hope you've all enjoyed Molbon2 along with the recent changes. Just before we get into it, I will put out a reminder that the next poll will come alongside this post. Now let's talk about Pearlus2!

Let's start with the concepts for it. Pearlus2 will take place within the ice caps. This is actually one of the oldest (if not THE oldest) level concept made for this game. It was drawn before development even started ahaha, but it's coming back for this level.

The enemy will likely not make an appearance, as this was all in early planning. (Still when "Help" Sequences were just being discussed.)

This is not the only concept however. You are back on Pearlus due to a form of corruption within the depths. Part way through the level, you will go under the water. (No, this doesn't mean you'll have goofy swimming controls)

The source of the contamination is a large monster. This monster will be the boss of the zone. I'll save the boss concepts for when it comes time to work on it, but until then, our 3D modeller has sent over a first look at the environments he's set up for us.

 (2nd screenshot will be underwater, and have a red haze as shown in the concept.)

Next, Amhidden has done up a good amount more art. Some intended for builds in the future, so I won't showcase those ones, but he's done some pinups. These will likely be added to the shop in this build, along with another outfit for Rooster.

tl;dr: For a time, there was a random community/group? They essentially grouped up and review bombed Starbreed for "Futa based content", or some other form of that statement... but either way, Rooster seemed to be their worst nightmare so we gave them this shirt.

Now! What about Pom's Hscene? You saw the idle above, but let's show a bit more!

 This Hscene is a bit of a play on perspective. Because Pom is digital, you can only bone her in the virtual world, so that is what you do. The bottom would be your peripheral vision outside the headset.

These angles can be done during animations.

Basic loop:

Aether taking control.

Fast variation with a bit of angle:

With the angle I thought a variation might be interesting. What if Lana can surprise you in your moment with Pom?

Lana's animation is just a simplified version of her 2nd Hscene, but I thought it might be a fun add.

If there was anything else I was going to talk about, it must be escaping me at the moment, but if not, then that should do it for this post! Remember to check out the poll if you are in the applicable tiers.

Thanks everyone for checking in! This upcoming week might be a bit of a weird one. Half of it will probably be dedicated to enemy placement in Pearlus2, and the other half to... an Hscene? or perhaps features/bug fixes... Due to couple things, it might need to be improvised, but we'll work with what we got.

I'll catch you all next week! Thanks again!

-Regulus

Pix Blasts Back In! Starbreed v0.8 Out Now!

The first release of v0.8 is good to go! As always, be sure to keep an eye out for hotfixes. This changelog was quite large, so I'm expecting some bugs :P. Without further ado! into the Changelog.

v0.8 Changelog:

MAJOR: 

-New level: Molbon2
-2 new Hscenes for Pix
-Event Hscene with Rooster and Tanya
-Upgraded Pix ability
-New primary weapon type: MITE Drones
-Apparel section via Tanya's shop(Clothes via dialogue removed)
-Female Aether now implemented in Hub, and in-game.
-Functions for medals, medal tracking, and high score tracking

Minor: 

-Added alternate hair for Pix
-New dialogue for all characters between 25 Aff - 49 Aff (100 for Pix)
-New Intro to the Main menu.
-You can now skip intro cutscenes
-Finishing a level will now give +10 Affinity to Aether, and partymembers instead of +3
-Aether's phallic and nipple color is now pink
-Clothing states now save
-Temporarily disabled female Aether options in Hscene room
-Female Aether options in HScenes now require 50 Resolve.
-Added new visuals to some water.
-Added icons for Nika and Rooster abilities.
-Molbon1 Boss now gives 20 points.
-Each dialogue will now give +4 affinity for the selected character as well.
-Affinity now locks at 49, and upon finishing the 2nd level, you will unlock up to 100. (Only availble for Pix at the moment)
-Removed enemies from Titas' last convoy
-Added new visuals to Pom's support crate.
-Barrel Roll 2's cost has been reduced from 500 to 300
-Medal Thresholds have been rebalanced as follows: Bonze, Silver, Gold
Raptura: 100, 135, 170
Molbon: 100, 130, 160
Pearlus: 100, 125, 150
Neos: 100, 125, 150
Titas: 100, 115, 130
Zol'gan: 100, 130, 160
Molbon2: 100, 120, 140

Bug fixes: 

-Gatling will no longer sometimes freak out if shooting at the end of a level.
-Last block in Titas now spawns at the proper time, rather than as you are transitioning to the boss fight
-Titas boss now has music
-Fixed a bug with lock-on and snap tracking. (Locking on would sometimes struggle to lock on depending on environmental issues.
-Rooster's conversation art layering has been rearranged
-You should no longer be able to miss zone triggers in Titas.
-Changed how Route changes work in Raptura. (the pipe, and the jitter before the boss)
-Fixed a bug where "Help" sequences could give random, unrelated names/portraits despite not being present.
-You can no longer shoot through the first 2 green glass panes in Neos.(At rail carts)
-Fixed a bug with Zol'gan's boss. Where there was a small chance it could softlock on the transition phase.
-Yet again addressed another detection issue with lasers. Lasers should be more reliable in the Titas boss fight, Molbon1 Boss fight, and likely more areas.
-Fixed a bug where planets wouldnt reset properly after backing out from the Loadout menu.
-Rooster no longer receives a reputation bonus by failing his levels condition (Them surviving until the end of the level)

Initial Release:

v0.8.1

HOTFIXES:

v0.8.2:

FIXED-You cannot enter Raptura's alternate route
FIXED-Pigman in Molbon2 sometimes displays him in the wrong state.

Download Links:

Windows: https://mega.nz/file/4TshxJpI#SUrLiSCZQp2pcbn1roWlzQ4KFilUVAbuhduTuK2O-yU

Linux: https://mega.nz/file/1SsUCT7L#zZH1anujDThhoMFe8LFIHqS_1I4B1jVnmkQ03IHdrfI

Last Progress report before v0.8.

Heyo everyone! The launch will be tomorrow, but I would still like to report what this week held in terms of development. Let's go!

The summary is basically that I have completed everything on that list from last week, plus a couple other things.

Here's the list of "to-dos" left over from last week:

(DONE)1-Finish Pix's 3rd Hscene's animation routing, and climax animations

(DONE)2-Pix's 4th Hscene's SFX and buttons.

(DONE)3-Prefab all the animations

(DONE)4-Fix up animation transitions on Molbon2 Boss

(DONE)5-Fix a bug with one of Molbon2 Boss' attacks

(DONE)6-Add Screenshake/rumble to boss attacks

(DONE)7-Make it so MITE Drones only become available after purchase.

(DONE)8-Set requirements on Female Aether when she is in Hscenes.

(DONE)9-Checkpoints in Molbon2

(DONE)10-re-orientate Pigman in Molbon2, as he doesn't always look at you.

(DONE)11-Finish a small final sequence in Molbon2. (This is a kill-point for Pigman. If you do not kill him before this point, a Golem will destroy him, and you will not be rewarded the points).

(DONE)12-Fix new pipe transition in Raptura.

(DONE)13-Balance medal amounts. Bronze, Silver, Gold

Catiya (unchanged)

Raptura: 100, 135, 170

Molbon: 100, 130, 160

Pearlus: 100, 125, 150

Neos: 100, 125, 150

Titas: 100, 115, 130

Zol'gan: 100, 130, 160

Molbon2: 100, 120, 140

(DONE)14-Finish some transmission dialogue in Molbon2

(DONE)15-Review/rewrite dialogue. (not completely mandatory, but I would like to.)

(DONE)16-Depending on how timing goes, I may block off Female Aether in the Sex pod, or implement her new visuals.

Due to things being last minute on this. Female Aether will be temporarily blocked off in the Hscene Room (sex pod)

Here are the other things I got to on top of these:

-Added the ability to skip the intro cutscene to levels

-Fixed a bug where transmission portraits would get jumbled up during "Help" sequences.

-Player, and party members now receive +10 affinity each instead of +3 upon level completion.

-Molbon1's Boss now gives 20 points.

-Made it so you can't shoot through the first 2 instances of green glass in Neos.

-Made it so Pix's Satchel, and Tanya's Barrier ("Player Obstacle" damage) will detonate golems in Molbon2

(Shown in the gif of 11 above)

-Fixed a bug with Zol'gan boss where there was a small chance it could softlock when transitioning phases.

-Fixed yet another laser collision issue (Mainly on Titas boss, and Molbon1 Boss)

-Reduced Barrel Roll 2's cost to 300 from 500.

-Added a "Tracker" for MITES. The player will be able to properly manage their stock now.

-fixed a bug where planets can get stuck after backing out from the Loadout Menu.

With that, the build is stocked and ready for release on the 1st! Catch you all Tomorrow!

-Regulus

v0.8 Build Wrap Up.

Heyo everyone! There won't be too many "new" things to show this week, as it was mostly just fixing up, and finishing off the current things. I actually found I didn't do any of the climax animations for the extra scene, so that ate up a decent amount of time... oopsies.

Before I get into the report, I just want to show off the new trailer! This was shown at Hentai Expo. Unfortunately Patreon doesn't natively support video uploading, and doesn't really embed from things like Twitter. https://x.com/RegulusNSFW/status/1792104819513344334

Here's a link though, for those who can view it.

Anyways! Let's get into the progress report!

First thing was rewriting some of the conversation scripts. I created a new function for when 2 character need to display emotions.

A name will also display above conversations to display who's talking (I thought I had this before, but it seemed the name never actually appeared.. lol)

Next was editing a bunch of the atlases. I have decided to make the change that Aether's phallic and nipple color will now be pink instead of a dark green.

Oh! I can't remember if I mentioned it, but if you are female Aether, and you play a level, your transmission art will reflect this.

 During the initial demo, Lamia recorded some lines for female aether. I am on the fence about putting them in the build as I never had them processed and were never up for retakes (As female Aether was not in the actual demo), but we'll see.

Next was actually removing the "Clothes" options in character dialogues (due to the new Apparel/Changeroom)

I whipped up a bugfix in Titas. Previously, when entering the blue dome in Titas, you would hit an event trigger. This trigger would isolate you into a giant blue sphere (Basically the blue zone). The issue is that it seemed there were some players who would somehow miss this trigger (Maybe the trigger wasn't increased in size when I gave the player more horizontal movement, so they could just go around the trigger). Either way, the events are no longer triggered by an actual trigger collider, and are now triggered via player's position in the level. This (hopefully) means consistency will be 100%

I added an "Events" button in the Hscene room

You can use this to review Hscenes that are triggered via events (like Tanya/Rooster scene).

These buttons, along with the characters in apparel also have conditions to appear which I needed to add. (Basically this doesn't appear until you have seen the scene naturally, and the characters in apparel don't appear until you've unlocked the character).

Finally, as you saw above, I finished off the Rooster/Tanya climax animations. This actually took a little bit to get done, as I hadn't gotten as far on it on the 1st week as I thought.

I also had to finish off the animation routing for it.

That pretty much sums up this week. Unfortunately there's still a decent bit to do.

1-Finish Pix's 3rd Hscene's animation routing, and climax animations(Might half a day)

2-Pix's 4th Hscene's SFX and buttons. (Should be really quick)

3-Prefab all the animations (super quick)

4-Fix up animation transitions on Molbon2 Boss (Could be quick.. but could take a bit longer depending how smooth it goes)

5-Fix a bug with one of Molbon2 Boss' attacks (Should be quick)

6-Add Screenshake/rumble to boss attacks

7-Make it so MITE Drones only become available after purchase.

8-Set requirements on Female Aether when she is in Hscenes.

9-Checkpoints in Molbon2

10-re-orientate Pigman in Molbon2, as he doesn't always look at you.

11-Finish a small final sequence in Molbon2. (This is a kill-point for Pigman. If you do not kill him before this point, a Golem will destroy him, and you will not be rewarded the points).

12-Fix new pipe transition in Raptura.

13-Balance medal amounts.

14-Finish some transmission dialogue in Molbon2

15-Review/rewrite dialogue. (not completely mandatory, but I would like to.)

16-Depending on how timing goes, I may block off Female Aether in the Sex pod, or implement her new visuals.

Luckily most of these points are really quick things to knock off... The only points that "could" eat up time are 1, 4, 7, 11, 12, 14.

No worries though, a week should be well more than enough to knock these off.

Thanks again everyone! I'll catch you all on the 1st for the v0.8 launch!

-Regulus

Apparel screens, Pix's upgrades, and some fixes

Hey everyone! I was actually hoping to get a bit more done this week, but the apparel windows actually took a bit more time than I thought they would. I did cover a few other things though

Just before I get into things, I want to send a bit of a reminder to everyone that Hentai Expo 2024 is tomorrow! Starbreed's new trailer will be shown amongst many other new and upcoming Hgames.

You can watch via the Hentai Expo page:

https://hentai-expo.com/?utm_source=ovs_x_Hentai_Expo_en&utm_medium=social-network&utm_campaign=ovs_hentaiexpo2024_en

With that, let's get into the progress report!

To start off, I implemented the upgrade to Pix's active. Upon completing Molbon2, Pix's active will throw out 5 satchels instead of 1.

With this, I might make some adjustments to the particle effects. I kind of feel the smoke lingers a bit too long... destroying visibility ahah. The ability will still cost the same amount of thrust.

Another thing I found was a bug that had annoyed me for a while. I found this while implementing MITE Drones. Certain allies/weapons have a scanner of sorts, that searches for, and targets enemies. I found out that this scanner conflicted with raycasts from the player. As a result, if a scanner was on your screen, you could not lock-on to enemies with the charge shot.

This canyon was one of the big culprits of this, as Lana is flying alongside you. The ability to lock-on was very spotty along this route. This should now be fixed.

Next was something small and silly. I'm actually not sure if it was present in the last build, but I rearranged some of the layering on Rooster so that her right tit is actually infront of her jacket. It looked weird before.

Finally we get to the meat of what was done. I removed the "Clothes" option in character dialogues, and put it all in 1 place in Tanya's Apparel/Changerooms.

Upon selecting Apparel, you will be presented with a character select.

 You will be presented with very similar options as the dialogue, except the navigation should be a bit more straight forward.

Clothing options aside from the base options will require different medals. These medals are tied to their respective planet. (As you see, with Lana, it reads "Raptura Medals"). In some cases it will require 2 medals. In these cases it means you need to have access to their second level to achieve this. I may reduce these to 1 until their 2nd level is released, just to ensure you still get access to it in current builds.

Right now the only character that kind of lacks these options is... well... Siren... for obvious reasons ahaha. Siren may get her own set of options in the future though.

With the release of Molbon2, getting gold on both levels will unlock the ability to put on Pix's alternate hairstyle.

Alternate hairstyles will generally be the universal "Gold on both levels". You might ask why making the character nude isn't the final goal, but I feel getting gold on both levels is a bit of a strong skill-check for a form of H-content. (A similar reason as to why SS coins in SpunkStock were never anything too important, just neat stuff to show for your accomplishments).

That being said, currently you need a gold medal on one level, and at least a silver on the other to get the character completely nude.

As for Aether, they will work the exact same way, except their planet will be Catiya.

The last thing was some fixing up some of the visuals on Molbon2's boss

 Textures and such...

That pretty much sums up this week though! Next week will be build wrap-up. Meaning tying up scenes, level's ending cutscenes, fixing a few lingering bugs, etc. Basically getting it to a proper playing state. If I get time for anything extra, I will add it.

Thanks again everyone! I'll catch you next week, have a good one!

-Regulus

New weapon type, Pix's dialogue, Affinity changes, and more.

Hey everyone! This week was focused on dialogue, but there was plenty of time to spare. I used the extra time to try and round off some things, and even do some further planning on how I want to shape the hub's experience. I'll share some of it after this progress report, so let's go!

First up was obviously Pix's dialogue

Previously every character had 1 "conversation". It gave a small boost to affinity based on dialogue choices, but now all 4 conversations for Pix have been added. Each conversation is available at certain points in Affinity. 1st is Aff: 0, 2nd is Aff: 25, 3rd is Aff: 50, and 4th is Aff: 75. I have plans to make a 100 for characters later that will likely involve impreg.

Along with this, I wrote the rest of the cast's 2nd conversations as well

As always, these dialogues are totally optional, but can grant you some bonus Affinity, and give a bit of backstory for the character, or their planet.

Speaking of affinity from these. I had done a lot of thinking about how affinity is rewarded. I found it could feel really bad if you wanted the extra affinity, but just guessed all the wrong dialogue options, and only got affinity for Aether. (As you really only have 1 chance at the affinity). Due to this I thought it might be better to give a flat rate after the dialogue. I was a bit split because I do feel like the responses giving affinity felt a bit more engaging. I ultimately decided to keep it how it was, but also give 4 affinity to the character at the end of the conversation no matter what the choices were. This means these conversations actually give more affinity than they did before.

Raising the amount of affinity given is likely something that will be needed as the characters routes open up. I don't want gaining affinity to feel "too" much like a grind in the full game.

Anyways! Next up!

Every character's Affinity is going to cap at 49 now instead of 100. The affinity cap's at 49 and the text will change to green to reflect this.

Once you hit 49 Affinity with the character, a new distress signal will appear on their planet. This distress signal is their 2nd level.

Completing the 2nd level will unlock their affinity to 100. You can then gain the affinity needed to reach the new dialogue, and new Hscenes. This will also give an upgrade to their ability.

Next is how we bring in our "Extra" Hscenes here. When certain conditions are met, an "EVENT" button will appear at the top of the hub.

 In this case, the condition is simply that you have both Rooster, and Tanya unlocked. These events will lead to the extra Hscene. Once viewed, this button will go away, but the Hscenes can be viewed at any time after the event via the Hscene Room.

Next up is an interesting one. I decided to take a bit of time to implement a new weapon type I had been thinking about. These are called MITE Drones.

The gifs are a bit hard to make out, but I'll explain. The weapon is a primary weapon. Every time you shoot, you will spawn 2 drones up to a max of 20 (number pending). These drones will auto-target random enemies within range and detonate on impact.

Overall the MITE Drones do low damage, but if you use down-time to generate a cluster, you can enter fights with massive bursts of damage, as once spawned, the drones will orbit you indefinitely until they find a target. They're strength falls off once the initial cluster is largely used though. In small numbers their damage isn't strong enough to keep up with the other primary weapons.

It is likely best paired with a reliable secondary like the Gatling.

Unlike the other weapons, MITE Drones will not be available right away. They will be purchased from Tanya's shop.

A couple other things I've done is saving clothing states of characters. This code was always written but never truly implemented, but now it is.

This is actively saved, so it'll persist between sessions too.

Next was to simply apply the requirements, and method of swapping to female Aether

Female Aether requires 50 Resolve. Once achieved she will be unlocked. It is likely that you will need to achieve 50 resolve to use her in Hscenes as well.

Finally, some small tweaks.

-The Titas boss will now play the boss theme (Before it just kept playing Titas' theme).

-Before the Titas boss, during the fading transition, a block enemy would spawn in a weird spot randomly. It no longer does this, and instead spawns with the rest of the blocks.

-Before the blue dome in Titas, a large convoy spawns. The numbers in this convoy has been minimized

-Fixed a bug where if you are shooting the Gatling before the final cut of a level, it could get frame-locked and freak out.

I also spent a bit of time doing some brainstorming on some changes in the hub, and the structure of some things.

Basically I was thinking of a coherent way to introduce the medals, and their rewards. The rewards will largely be cosmetic, but I didn't want confusion on requirements when the player talks to a character and goes to "Clothes". I didn't want to add explanations during dialogue, so I'm thinking I will add ALL character aesthetic options in a "Changeroom" window within Tanya's shop. This way it can show all options you currently have, currently do not have, and the conditions to each one laid out in a simple way, all in one place. This means I will also probably be removing the option to change clothes/aesthetics via dialogue, and do it all through the changeroom. I'll see about implementing this in the next week here.

I came up with a couple neat ideas aside from this, that I will talk about when the time comes, but I am excited about.

That pretty much wraps up this progress report! Next week will be focusing on similar things as this week. Implementing, and adjusting the setup to accommodate the changes. Things like the changeroom mentioned, adding Pix's upgraded active, and basically just going down the list of things I've yet to get done on here.

With that, thanks again everyone! I'll catch you all next week!

Main Theme Preview, Pix's 4th Hscene previews. v0.9 poll concluded!

Hey again everyone! First thing I'd like to mention is that the v0.9 poll has concluded. The winner of this poll is Pearlus. Meaning next build we will be returning to the ocean, and see more of Siren.

Initial concepts are under way, but we will cover that when production starts! For now, let's get into this progress report.

This week was quite smooth. Everything got done without hitch, with a bit of extra.

Idle.

Thighjob

Climax

Which will split to continuing with a grind, or sex

Or a faster version

With the Hscene done, and a new Title sceeen song, I decided to add a bit to the title screen.

The next week is going to be focusing on some dialogue, and a few changes to the affinity system to get ready for it's full implementation. I would like to have all of Pix's conversations implemented, and have her core content essentially completed. Overall the pace this build has been really good, so we should have a good amount of time to add overdue components. Hopefully this will make v0.8 a pretty significant update. There is quite a large list of things to implement and fix up.

Anyways! I'll catch you all next week. Thanks again everyone for the support!

-Regulus

Molbon2's Boss, Score System, Aether, and Pix's final Hscene sneak peek!

Heyo everyone! This week had a good amount going on. I decided to take a bit of extra time this week to at least get a few extra steps done. I'll start with where the week began!

To start, I rigged, animated and put Aether in dialogue and relevant menus.

I am thinking about having a toggle during conversations to Hide Aether's portrait if the player so chooses though.

With that I also have plans to uncap Aether's affinity. Meaning you should be able to raise their Resolve and Assertion to 100 each. I would like to properly implement certain requirements in the build following this.

Next, we added icons for Nika and Rooster's abilities.

I also officially made it so Highscores will now be saved alongside the medal achieved.

Because Molbon now has 2 levels, I have reworked the UI a bit to show this.

When a medal is achieved it will display by the planet and the associated button within the UI.

 When 50 affinity is achieved by a character, their corresponding planet's 2nd level will be unlocked. (50 Aff with Pix.)

I will likely be reassessing some aspects of gaining affinity due to it becoming a bit more relevant. Some things I have planned are:
Dialogue options no longer give Affinity based on what you choose. Instead I will likely make it so no matter what you choose, at the end of the conversation you will be awarded something along the lines of "+6 to Lana, and +3 to Aether". This way the player doesn't feel like they are battling RNG of sorts.

I will also in general, raise rewards across the board for affinity.

Though I'm not sure if the function of medals will be in place this build, we will see.

Let's get onto the boss!

This is the same as seen above... At first the golem will be relatively harmless, showing that the vulnerable spot will move. Cycling between specific points. When 1 shackle is destroyed, the golem will become aggressive.

The Golem will have slightly different attacks depending on the arm freed. The arm shown below will send tidal waves at you, however if you destroy the other one, he will instead throw rubble at you.

Both hands will summon rubble from the ceiling. (As seen by the smoke.) You will generally want to avoid these patches, lest you have rocks fall on your head.

When both shackles are destroyed, he is at full capacity. This golem attacks very fast in comparison to previous bosses. The goal is to make the 2nd levels of each planet a bit of a difficulty spike, as you will likely have resources, and stats in these levels.

When everything is combined there will be quite a bit to avoid as you try to destroy the remaining 4 runes.

Once they are destroyed, the golem will be cast back. In a last ditch effort, the golem tries to block the waterfall, causing the water to rise. you must destroy the last run before the water rises to kill you. This means it is practically a DPS race.

Destroying the final ruin will cause the golem to fall and release the water.

Next is something that Amhidden has done the art for, but I have yet to actually put in, which is the remaining 4 alternate hairstyles

This leads us to what next week is going to look like... It will feature Pix' final Hscene (At least of the core 4 scenes)

If you asked for a date night with Pix... you got one.

This will play as the Thighjob that won the poll back in... January I think? There will also likely be penetration, but we'll see how the animating process goes!

With that, I'll catch you next week with some motion on this! Thanks again everyone, catch you then!

-Regulus

Pix' 3rd Hscene, and first look at the upcoming boss.

Hey everyone! This week was a bit crunched, as I fell quite ill for a few days of it. I'm on the climb back up to recovery though. This week was focused on Pix' 3rd Hscene, and as you see above, You can approach this scene as either male, or female. Let's get to the progress update!

As you can see above, that is Pix's Idle.

The Hscene will start with a hand job

Something to note here is that the phallic color is pink (when it is normally a darker blue/green)...That being said, I do actually think I like the pink phallic color with female aether more... it kinda works well with the hair... I'm not sure... I may rethink this later.

Next up is the basic Hscene loop

along with the harder version

or opt for a grind

There is still a bit more to do to make up for that lost time, but it shouldn't be an issue.

This next week will be about implementing the boss for Molbon 2! Here's a look at his concepts!

With the golems being so fierce in this area, it can only mean one thing... the big boss golem is here.

I won't provide too much on him yet, but I'll be sure to break it down with the showcase next week.

I'll probably just keep this post quick, and to the point so I'll leave it at that. Thanks everyone! I'll catch you next week with the boss!

-Regulus

Molbon 2: Valley Temple breakdown.

Hey everyone! This post is a bit early, as I'll be away for post day, but the week's work is done up. I'm pretty excited to show this one off. For the first time in Starbreed, our modeller has put together the environment of the level, and I think he did an awesome job of it.

Because I didnt have to write too many new scripts for enemies, I was able to adjust current ones to make some new unique interactions... But less talk! Let's show!

First off, yes.... Pigman's back... don't ask how...

In the start, for the first actual time, the temple ships that fly will be firing at you.

Nothing too significant, but previously anything shooting ancient lasers were stationary.

Not long after, you will come up upon an exchange between the 2 forces. In general, the Golems will be a bit different this time...

As you pass under the arch, the Golem is not done with you, or Nova's forces.

At this moment, you will likely be able to move around the golem, or destroy him via a satchel.

Cruising past will put you into... an ambush... who woulda thought...

Turning the bend, you will be faced with a bit of cross-fire from an off-screen battle between Pix and Pigman. Through Pix's destruction you find yourself avoiding tumbling rubble from the cliffs above.

Surviving puts you up against the second Golem... It seems they have adapted since your last fight. (Laser shots are a bit scuffed, but are a super easy fix)

Getting past this golem puts you into a tango with an enemy that hasn't been seen in a while.

 2 of them actually.... and then 2 more... I hope you've improved since Catiya.

After that you are met with non other than a fight with Pigman... though this time is different.

Pigman is the same as he was in Catiya.... but he is not this level's boss. He is simply an enemy to get through.

Which leads to the final section.

A final interaction with another Golem that is quite brief. (A bit unfinished here, but he will destroy everything he runs though... this will include Pigman if you have failed to kill him by this point.

And finally you will ascend the waterfall.

The peak of this waterfall will bring us to our final destination. The boss room, and boss will be modelled and done in a future progress report, as this week was focused on the level, enemies, and structure.

There was someone else that was on Amhidden's platter. This was doing up a couple alternate hairstyles.

The other characters will be getting some, but these are early first looks.

Anyways! That should sum up this week's progress report! There is still a bit of scuff to iron out, but we'll get there!

Next week is going to be dedicated to Pix's 3rd Hscene. Here's the current concept!

I'll catch you all next week with some motion! Thank you all so much!

-Regulus

v0.9 Level Poll.

Heyo everyone! What level should come after this jungle build? The corresponding character will also get 2 new Hscenes.

What's in store for v0.8? New build breakdown.

Heyo everyone! Hope you enjoyed Rooster and Zol'gan! Today I'm going to be going into depths on how builds are going to look now considering we are returning to planets. First I will say, for all VIP and up patrons, the new poll will be posted alongside this to decide the next level!

I'll start by explaining the new build format.

Because the next builds will be focused on revisiting existing planets, many of the enemies will be returning, but bosses will still be completely unique. The environment and levels will likely have a unique twist to them as well.

The new jungle concept will have us fighting in a river valley, with cavern ridges presenting some new ruins. The level layout is currently being put together by our modeller, which frees me up to focus on our next big point

In the builds to come we will be trying to bring 3 Hscenes per build as opposed to 2.

2 Hscenes will be on the featured character (In this case, Jungle = Pix)

and 1 Hscene will be what we consider "extra". This is to fill in any Hscenes we feel the base workload may not have been able to include. For example... what you see at the top is this build's extra Hscene. This will likely be an event between Tanya and Rooster. Here's a bit more of a look at it!

Much like Aether x Rooster, this scene will feature a pop out window

In a later post I will cover the Pix Hscenes.

With these things there was a few other things I managed to pin down.

I got to the bottom of a bug that has been lingering for a while. If you spawned at Raptura's 1st checkpoint, transmission dialogue wouldn't play, and no enemies would spawn in the alternate route. While I spent a lot of time looking for 1 big issue, I found that it was 3 separate, completely unrelated bugs that happened to only happen in this 1 isolated instance. The issue has been fixed, and with it, likely some other (less noticeable) bugs will have been fixed in the process.

I also reworked how the rails transition in Raptura, so the weird skipping before the boss should be fixed up as well.

With that, there is a bit of communication to be had between the team before confirming what next week is going to look like, but it will likely be a showcase of the level's environments in-game along with enemy placements.

I'll catch you all then! Thanks again for all of your support!

-Regulus

Rooster Wakes Up! v0.7 Out Now!

Alright everyone! v0.7 is ready to go!

IMPORTANT: The save system has changed as of this build. An alert will likely appear if you are loading data from the old system. If you've never had problems loading a previous save file, the transition to the new system should be seamless. If you HAVE had issues in the past, it's possible you could run into issues with the transition. You can still attempt it, but it may only bring over certain data. I'd say regardless, it's worth a shot to see what you can salvage.

Upon your first time loading an old save, the save will be converted to the new system.

If you have had troubles loading in the past, I would recommend closing, and re-opening the game right after you load old data for the first time, and things get converted. I could explain why, but it might bloat this post a bit, but essentially rebooting the game will refresh the scripts, so any issues from the old save system will go away, as it will then be loading using the new system.

As mentioned.. if you have never experienced issues with saves in the past, this can likely all be ignored.

--------------------------------

With that, let's get to the changelog!

Changelog:

MAJOR:

New Level: Zol'gan

New Ally: Rooster

2 Rooster Hscenes

Rooster's abilities:

Active > Soul Siphon: Shoots a low "damage over time" beam. If an enemy is killed by this beam, a ghost will spawn by you. This ghost will periodically shoot at enemies. Ghosts are very fragile. They will die in 1 hit by practically everything (including obstacles).

Passive > Life Tap: Upon running out of Thrust Meter, you may continue to use abilities and boost at the cost of health.

• Added function to Pom's passive. Once you have completed Neos, A box will now spawn once on every level. Destroying this box will reveal a "Power Cell". Power Cells will give you unlimited Thrust meter for a period of time (While your jetflame is yellow).

• Changed to a new save system

Minor:

• Added new SFX by Lewd K.

• Fixed an issue with Pigman and Titas' boss where Lana (and the new ghosts) would shoot the wrong place, or off-target from the boss.

• Changed the update methods of several objects like lasers (so laser registration is more consistent)

• Lowered base opacity for all buttons (This is to hopefully make them less "aggressive" and get in the way of images like Hscenes)

• Damage-over-time effects can now kill the player. (ie. purple claws latching on to you.)

• Finishing cutscene now removes DoTs (damage-over-time)... so you can't die during the cutscene.

• Added a vignette visual for when the player is at critical health (The edges of the screen will turn red).

• Attempted optimization on Titas (admittedly, I believe the result was quite fruitless, and likely only made minor improvements.)

While I didn't manage to get female Aether's stuff done in time, you can still use Female Aether in Rooster's 2nd Hscene.

As always let me know if you guys run into any issues!

-Regulus

Download Links:

Windows: https://mega.nz/file/sSVE1SyD#oLggU1OMcI4nVFBKNxd1L6fFgi3TYTCGTNMKLtK0EH4

Linux: https://mega.nz/file/5GcnnJbD#Rym2OoeCAYjrM0-ydegQV4OsfFFCmSFdYe4iULHYK0M

Final Post before v0.7 launch. Rooster's abilities.

Heyo everyone! The base of the build is completed! This weekend we will be doing some final testing and fixes so that things are ready for v0.7's release, but there are definitely some things I want to cover here. Let's get right into it!

So there were still some final things to wrap up, like putting icons, and portraits in the right areas, finishing/balancing the transmission dialogue, etc, but with the new build there have been some small changes:

DoTs can now kill the player (Things like the purple claws, and new attack types that latch onto the player).

Because of this, a change has been put in where the edges of the screen will turn red when the player is at critical health for a better alert. I do actually want to add a bit more for this, as I think it will be important, especially with Rooster's new ability. (By add more I mean stuff like SFX, but that will have to come later).

So let's talk about Rooster's abilities. They are a bit far fetched, might be kind of imbalanced, but so far I have found them to be pretty fun.

Passive: Life Tap

You can now use thrust beyond 0 at the expense of health

This can help for those moments where you just need a bit more of an ally's active.

Active: Soul Siphon

Fire a low damage beam. If you kill an enemy that is worth points, spawn a ghost grunt to fire alongside you.

Right now it is quite powerful, and is very subject to balancing.

The grunts do a lot of damage when you have built them up, but they are extremely fragile. They can take hits for you, but they can also die from colliding with obstacles.

1 bad collision, and you can lose everything you've built up.

You cannot spawn these minions by killing missiles, or enemies that spawn during boss fights (As a general rule of thumb.. if a number doesn't pop up when killing something, it means they are not eligible for spawning a ghost grunt)

Now on to something else I had briefly been going back and forth on, was saves. As mentioned, the Save System has been changed as of v0.7. I set it up so that you can attempt to load previous save data. This should work totally fine for those who have not been experiencing any issues with saves. For those who have been experiencing issues, attempting to load this data will present the same issues, but at least SOME of the data might be salvaged.

All saves that happen in this build, however, will be in the new save system so the issues should cease for future builds as we move forward.

Something else I should say is that, I didn't get around to some of the extra stuff I was hoping to wrap up, meaning there will still be no function for medals, Female Aether is not quite ready for release (almost there though. She will still be available during Rooster's Hscene).

With that, I am going to get back to some final testing, so that we are ready to go for launch! Thanks everyone! I'll catch you all on the 1st with v0.7!

-Regulus

Build Wrap up. Zol'gan theme, and more.

Heyo everyone! This week might not be too exciting in terms of new visuals, but good progress was made. Some good news is that Wishful Simping has sent in Zol'gan's theme! Here's a sneak peek. With that... let's jump right in!

First thing I did was actually do some fidgeting with Steam. I launched the Simplified Chinese translation for SpunkStock on both Steam and Itch.io. (A bit unrelated, but it was something I spent the first day doing).

Next I addressed some issues I had run into. This was making adjustments to Pigman in Catiya. In this level, his "position" was actually disjointed from where he was. This caused auto-target things, like Lana's active to actually shoot to the side of him. On top of that, I made some further changes to the player lasers to help with proper registering.

Something else I have done was swap off of the current Save System. The game will now be using Player Prefs (This was the system I would use to save browser versions). I have decided to use this for now to eliminate the issue people have been having with the current Binary system. Unfortunately this will mean everyone's data will be wiped in the next build. Hopefully this will no longer be an issue anymore. Player Prefs can also come with it's share of issues, but it will at least be a step up from it's current state.

The next chunk of the week was focused on finishing up Zol'gan, it's boss, finishing the Hscene set ups, and connecting the code for the conversations.

Something minor I added, was Zol'gan now has a wind up to his charge to project the attack more. On top of that, when he charges, he will spawn 9 purple claws that will pursue you.

As Zol'gan spawns in, and when he returns from his charge, you will need to watch your sides.

This is an additional attack. Zol'gan will spin much faster, and launch purple goo at you. These are the same attacks that the spiders shoot at you, which are treated similarly to the purple claw enemies. They do no damage on impact, but they will apply a stacking DoT(damage over time) to you. You can simply barrel roll to cleanse it off of you. As you can see at the very end of this gif, upon destroying the red segment, the previous segments are destroyed, and you will move closer to Zol'gan's head. You will get closer and closer until his body is destroyed.

And once unleashed you will be faced with the final showdown with Zol'gan's head. Simply burst him down for this victory.

The intro and outro transitions to/from the boss fight are also implemented now.

Next was assigning the animations for Rooster's conversation, and registering the right scripts for loading their Hscenes and changing clothes.

Next I finished off the climax animations, added SFX, and aligned the buttons for Rooster's Hscenes.

And next I finished up the variants for Rooster's 1st Hscene.

Unfortunately I still need to finish the Transmission dialogue for Zol'gan's level, and implement Rooster's passive and active abilities. Realistically these 2 points shouldn't take long. I will likely get them done over the weekend so I have the final week to work on implementing some new/extra stuff. I'll be going down a list, but I would really like to get more work done of the implementation of Female Aether. If that takes a reasonable amount of time, I will likely either move onto medal function/balance, new weapon types, or the implementation of Pom in the hub.

With that, I should get back to it! Thanks again everyone! Amazing to see the growth. Thank you all so much! I'll catch you all next week!

-Regulus

Rooster's conversations, and hub setup.

Heyo everyone! It's been a pretty busy couple months between development and some other related things, but I'm happy to say things have been panning out, and I finally feel like I've mostly caught up, and have everything in a comfortable position again. Let's get into the progress report!

This week was focusing on Rooster's conversation animations. In general, there's not a ton of variety in Rooster's poses and animations, as they are a rather "inanimate" person/alien. I'll mostly just cover the ones that stand out.

As you see at the top, that will be Rooster's basic idle pose. (no emotion)

Rooster also has a sip animation...

And a Smug/Happy animation

And of course the clothing options. (These ones are a bit darker because I forgot to reset the color space before recording the gif. They will be normal in-game)

With that, I wrote the base of Rooster's dialogue.

Something else that's pretty cool to look at, is with the release of Rooster, we can officially see the filled out cockpit/bridge.

Ironically, in the corner we have the 2 polar opposite characters having a nap.

Rooster has rather subtle animation in the background compared to the others.

And of course the new planet has been added to the level select.

It's the only planet with a unique model due to it's broken nature.

and Rooster in character select.

Another thing I crammed into this week, that unfortunately may not be shown for a little while is a new trailer. It took a bit, but it's another thing off my to-do list.

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This leaves the question of what will the next 2 weeks look like? With this build releasing on the 1st, we are in a pretty good spot. Aside from really quick things, the next week's priority will be to wrap up all loose ends. Basically there are some small components that are unfinished, like certain enemies in Zol'gan need proper hitboxes, finetuning on spawns, and transition sequences for the boss. Kind of boring, but important things ahah. Once all these essential small things are done, I am going to be spending the remainder of this build's development on looking into, and fixing bugs that have proven to be a thorn in my side.

The one small issue with looking into this, as the progress made could vary quite a bit depending on whether I am really able to nail down what the issues are. I am going to likely start by rewriting the current save system. This means there is a pretty high chance that save data will be wiped with this build. I know I did initially say that I would try and make it so the new save system transition was seamless, but we will see how it converts over. I will try, but I won't promise that I can pull that off.

Unfortunately the "new" save system will likely be a temporary system as well, but at least it should function well without errors coming up for people like the previous system has. I have a small suspicion that the current jank save system could be the root cause to some other bugs that seem to appear from time to time. 

From here until the release, I am going to be going down the list of new features, and bug fixes that have been piling up, so it's tough to outline exactly what will be completed each week. 

Anyways! I'll catch you all next week for a report on what I managed to get done! Thank you all so much for sticking around, and I will see you then!

-Regulus

Rooster's 2nd Hscene!

Hey everyone! Here we are again! Before jumping into this one, I just want to say there will be the Hi-Res post featuring Nika for Groupies tier alongside this.

This one won't be too wordy, as it will mostly just be animation display, so here we go!

Here is the intro/Idle

You will have the option to approach this as male for female Aether.

As seen above there is the base loop, and there is some variation. Here is a more "deepthroat".

And a fast BJ.

And there is a line of animations for male

This one still needs a bit of polish, but here is a "hard/fast" version as well.

In the upcoming week I will be breaking up, and animating Rooster's Conversation art. Along with this I will be writing their dialogue, and putting in any associated assets into the hub/cockpit.

With that, I will catch you all next week with Rooster's conversation art and hopefully a few other things to show off!

-Regulus

Rooster's 1st Hscene. Next build's poll concluded!

Heyo everyone! This week was focusing on Rooster's 1st Hscene. Before I dive into the animations though, I would like to announce that the previous poll has concluded. At first it seemed Pearlus and Raptura were going head to head, but Molbon made a swift comeback.

We will be returning to the goblin, Pix, and Molbon once Zol'gan is completed. This build will likely be where we bring in the "thighjob" which won in the poll even prior to this.

Another thing I was mentioning in the last post is that I would be spending the weekend fixing up some of the jank with the boss, so here's an example:

BEFORE:

AFTER

I re-rigged the whole body, and used a bit of a different approach... and yippeee! It's smooth!

Now on to some of the animation!

As you see at the top, we have the idle.

Next we have the basic loop

And a hard loop (could use some polish on places like the hair.)

I am tinkering with a variant, but we'll see how it looks as it continues

There is still a bit of work, and experimentation to do, which I think I might continue to tinker with through the night, and maybe into tomorrow.

With that said, next week is going to be focused on Rooster's 2nd Hscene. I hope you guys like the first look at the 1st one!

I'll catch you next week!

-Regulus

Zol'gan boss rundown, and a few other additions.

Heyo everyone! Late post again. Admittedly, this week wasn't as fruitful as I had been hoping. The boss still needs a good amount of work. Due to some last minute issues, I have decided to rework some of this boss which has put me behind. I am going to be working through my days off to try and remedy this. 

Unfortunately what I would show you has kind of been trashed, but I will try and give an impression based on the code still prevalent.

While fighting Zol'gan,  there will be specific segments of his body that will be vulnerable to fire. Destroying the segment will eliminate all segments up until that point, shrinking his size with each one.

Upon destroying all of Zol'gan's body, his head will separate. The next segment will likely result in this stage's method of gaining ally affinity.

Upon defeating the last phase, Rooster will enter the boss. The specifics are subject to change as I'm implementing them, so I may cover it at a later time, but a big inspiration for this was because there was an extra animation for Rooster sitting around. I figured I would try and make use of this after the fight :P, but we'll see.

As for the moves from Zol'gan, he will have a move similar to what was used prior in the level.

__NEEDS REWORK__

On top of this he will have a charge, and this is where a huge amount of the reworking is necessary. I'm basically going to have to re-rig his whole body, cuz it's just completely fucked lmao.

But despite the jank, the coding, and the tracks are all lined up, so it shouldn't actually be a big undertaking.

For now I will call it there for the report on the boss... there is still a decent amount to do, which is a bit frustrating, but nothing too threatening to pacing.
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There were a couple other things I managed to get in this week. Lewd K has sent in a new batch of SFX which I have now added. These SFX include:

>Sandstorm SFX in Titas
>A wind up sound for Titas' boss' chain ball.
>Chain ball firing, retracting, and locking back in. (These SFX show allow the boss to be more readable)
>Water torrents during the underwater pass in Pearlus
>SFX for the Pearlus boss (Saber)'s emerging from the water, and submerging
>SFX for Saber's cannonballs.
>SFX for the rail cars in Neos
>Specific sounds for Pom's boss fight. "Slice, Powder throwing, flames"
>Unique sound for Flame Wave primary attack
>New unique sounds for Gatling Gun
>SFX for when Siren's bio-electricity passive discharges at an enemy.
>new sounds for Siren's heal-drones
>Tanya's barrier will now have SFX as well.
>Nika's yarn ball now have a unique launch and collection sound.

And the next thing I did quickly put in was Pom's support in the remaining levels.

And finally, during the last weekend I managed to finish breaking up Femme Aether's image, so it is ready to be meshed, and rigged.

This is something I have to slowly pick away at on off-time, as it doesn't quite fit into the core workflow. As such, there is still quite a ways to go on this front.

Alright everyone! That should pretty much do it, I'm going to get back to work on this boss! Thanks again! Next week is going to be dedicated to Rooster's 1st Hscene! Catch you then.

-Regulus

Zol'gan's Enemies.

Heyo again everyone! This week was dedicated to populating the level with enemies and events. Before I jump into it, I want to quickly address the state of the poll, as it's the closest we've ever had a poll ahah.

Pix and Siren are in the lead currently with Lana a single vote behind. There are 14 days remaining on this poll for v0.8's Level.

With that, let's jump into the rundown on the enemies/events of Zol'gan... the parasite planet.

Let's start with our basic "mites".

These little guys will be sprinkled around the level and will shoot basic lasers at you.

The next is the Spider.

These spiders will fire a purple icor at you. These purple balls can be destroyed, and act in a similar way to the purple claws. It will stick to you and slowly drain your health. You can barrel roll to remove this.

Next up is our Red Claws. These enemies are ones you will enter into a bit more of a "tango" like the brown mid enemies in Catiya. Their firepower is different though.

This shot cannot be barrel rolled. You will need to actively move to avoid it. 

And finally we have our large worms.

These worms will often come at you. They do not have projectiles, but they are quite agile.

With the core 4 enemies covered, we have a couple other segments that will pop up. Like avoiding loose islands.

Overall this level is technically the longest by far... by a significant margin. Most levels average about 2500-3000 units in length, where as Zol'gan is between 3500-4000. Due to this, and the scale of the level. The overall rail speed of the player is increase a decent amount.

Now let's get into something else. We come back to a familiar face on this one. Welcome Pom.

Destroying the supply crate will reveal a golden power cell. This turns your jetflame yellow for 10 or so seconds. During this time boosting, braking, and ally abilities cost 0 thrust. It is your time to spam your abilities if you have them.

After you beat Pom on Neos a Power cell will spawn in every level. The location will be the same, and will likely be in a segment just before a lot of enemy spawns.

And the last thing I will touch on is the introduction of Rooster in the level.

Not too enthusiastic about the predicament, Rooster will lend you support in the coming level. Rooster's abilities are yet to be implemented or announced, but I will be sure to cover that when the time comes.

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I have also sent off docs to Lewd K for additional sound effects, so those are in the works ^^. This next week will be dedicated to the construction of the boss. At the core of the planet, you must temper the parasite.

Thanks again everyone! I'll catch you all then!

-Regulus

Zombie Planet First Look.

Heyo everyone! Sorry for the late post. Some awkward sleep patterns put me in a bit of a weird timing. This week was dedicated to setting up the atmosphere, layout, and obstacles of the scene. I'll cover a few other things, but let's jump in!

Alright! To start, this level will be you following alongside some tubes/pipes. These tubes actually belong to a planet sized Parasite. Here's another look at the planet's overview concept.

As a recap, this planet, while having been devoured by the parasite, finds itself in a situation where it is also the main component holding this planet together. The population has since been zombified, like this.

This is one of the characters we are going to be involved with the level.

Many islands are being held together by chains. Throughout the level you will be weaving between this planet's rubble.

At a certain point the track will start spiraling around the giant tube (As shown by the white line gizmo). I had to rewrite some scripts to allow the player, and camera to technically be upside down, as this is something that was never needed before. It may have minor effects on other levels, but likely nothing negative.

With that we also have our alien's (Who we are going to be calling Rooster from now on) intercom

and their spot on the ship

With many of the set pieces in play, next week will be dedicated to putting in the enemy tracks. 

Alright everyone, thanks a ton! I'll catch you all next week for the enemy layouts and breakdown!

-Regulus

v0.8 Poll! What planet to revisit?

Heyo everyone! This poll is for v0.8. The planet that wins will get a 2nd level, and 2 more Hscenes based on their corresponding character.

I will add a quick reference sheet for what each planet is for those who aren't familiar with the names.

Catiya - The intro planet. City under Siege

Raptura - Moon mining base

Molbon - Jungle planet

Pearlus - Ocean planet

Titas - Desert Planet

Neos - Neon city

????? - Zombie planet (currently in development)

v0.7 Plans! Alien, Zombies, and whats to come!

Heyo everyone! While I wouldn't call this post a "Progress Report" as this week was mostly wrapping up v0.6, I will use this as a means to give an overview of what's to come! As a result this will be fairly brief.

Before I jump right in, I will be posing another poll alongside this. The poll is a bit of an exciting one for me, as all the base planets will have been covered. The poll will be asking the first planet we will revisit. Whichever planet wins will be getting a new level based on it, and 2 new Hscenes with it's corresponding character. With that said, let's get into the quick overview.

As many of you know the Alien is our last character. The featured level will be a "zombie planet". Let's start off with the planet, it's design, and plan.

The planet will have a very green aesthetic overall. 

It might be a bit odd at first glance, but that is because this planet has long since met it's fate. It was eaten by a massive parasite. The "life" on the planet has been doing what it can to survive. Unfortunately, cleansing the parasite is no longer an option, as it is now the only thing holding the fragments of the planet together

The beings that inhabit this planet will be zombies, clinging to their expired lives. Amongst these zombies lies someone who is, in fact not a zombie. Their tired, and exhausted demeanour is a product of their environment, however.

With the introduction of a character with male organs, I will be pushing to expand more on the femme Aether in this build as well. Here is a look at their design.

We'll see how far we can get with the implementation of her.

I also want to spend a some good time fleshing out a couple big, overdue bugs that have lingered for too long, but I'll be reporting on all of that in the weeks to come!

Thanks everyone! I'll catch you next week with the layout of the level!

-Regulus