Slowly getting more systems in place for chapter 6. This build contains:
- Roughing out several NPCs for chapter 6, namely Swick & Hanako. No dialogue for them yet though (expect lots of “COULD NOT LOAD TEXT” messages!).
- Added a warning not to overwrite save games from stable builds with save games from WIP builds.
- The beginnings of the ‘Ride an NPC’ system:
- You can now mount & dismount our main Dinoian NPC, Hanako. Head to the north of Haven and talk with Swick, then you’ll be able to mount Hanako in the room next door.
- You can ride her in any of the Underworld areas, but not in overworld areas like Mulberry.
- Still needs flavor text, as well as all the planned actions / scenes Hanako will do as you travel together.
- It does not work with the save system yet.
- Standing on the hot sand of the desert areas will now damage you unless you’re either riding Hanako or are a Dinoian yourself.
- 64 character password support.
- Fix for room tags not being loaded during load from save file — this manifested as sometimes respawning in the wrong place after loading from a save file (a fresh start worked okay).
If you backed at the WIP backer level for the July 1 Patreon cycle, head to the employee intranet to download your copy.
Okay, so, I haven’t been around for quite some time, months, to let updates trickle in, and I noticed I’m completely locked out of said small updates due to not doing patreon. I have a question about that since I already am doing private builds to access the latest content, that I can’t access because of the new patreon system having WIPS and such. Why isn’t there an option to “upgrade” to getting WIP content there? The difference between private builds and WIP is like $5.05 according to what I originally paid and the access to “DEV” builds. Or is it $20 per month to access, like the… small handful of extra features from what I’ve seen added since April.
I only ask, because Private builds used to be these WIP builds that only had like one or two extra things before becoming full chapters and I already paid for that concept. It’s for the extra adventurous and such but I honestly don’t see $20 being worth it each month for a small handful of features added, especially since, like I mentioned, I last checked in last like in April-ish or so.
I’d actually recommend most people don’t back at the $20/month WIP tier, at least not if they’re only backing for WIP builds. Most players are better off waiting for the full chapter 6 release and then they can experience everything as one cohesive chapter. The WIP builds are more intended as a symbolic reward to thank people who are willing to support me at that level and/or want to see behind the curtain of how the game is developed. The WIP builds themselves are full of missing text and half-implemented features — academically interesting, but not something I’d want to release to lots of players.
Anyway, I think you already have the right strategy of checking in every once in a while for a stable private build
Hey! Just thought I’d leave a comment asking about something real quick. I’ve been checking out the game pretty regularly (probably at the very least once a month) for the past few years now, having been I think among the first to buy premium access and have enjoyed all of the released content so far.
Forgive me for saying so, but I must admit that the addition of the Patreon system has me… slightly worried, since the Patreon format isn’t something I’m really able to use (I prefer one-time payments, as I don’t often have a reliable flow of income) and it worries me that I am possibly missing out on content for something I’ve already paid for. It seems that these incremental, WIP builds are (from the outside looking in) quite similar to a few of the private access builds we’ve received over the past just over two years. I hope I don’t come off as entitled, but instead that it’s understood that this might be somewhat worrying. To be perfectly frank, I almost feel as if I have been downgraded.
That all said, I can understand why you are holding back updates for private access users until the next complete release. I appreciate that you most likely want to deliver as complete an update as you can to us private build-ers. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to do that and I will say that I am excitedly looking forward to it, it looks like a doozy. But I wanted to say something about these polls you’re apparently giving to patreon donators only, as indicators or voting as to what should be worked on as well for the coming update. It feels somewhat frustrating to have no ability to help shape what the coming update might include, especially having been following for so long.
If, again, I can be somewhat informal: I want *so much* to vote for the Frog TF to be added to the game. If you can make slug-girls an attractive concept to me, I cannot *wait* to see what the Frog TF might be like! I said I was looking forward to it three years ago since day one and oh my god *please* can I vote for that option?
Can it be at all possible for private-access users to have a say in these polls? I, for one, would greatly appreciate being able to have some sort of small input or influence on what sort of content might be being worked on alongside the coming update.
Sorry for the long comment! But I do really like this game and the content within it and am looking forward to what’s on the way, I just wanted to express my concerns. Good luck with the update! Again, I’m sure it will be a real doozy 🙂
Hey Railby, I remember you from way back 🙂
You won’t be missing out on content — 100% of everything in WIP is coming to Private builds, but most of private will never make it into public (ie: chapter 4+).
Regarding polls, the options in them have been mainly sourced from people’s suggestions both here on the blog, as well as comments on TFGS, e621, cons, etc. There’s also been plenty of ideas that people have suggested that just get implemented directly without a poll. Voting is still important, but in terms of contributing ideas, there’s no actual requirement to back the game for your idea to become implemented.
And on a whole other level, only private backers can directly change the game by modding it with the mod tools and sharing their work on the wiki. Hard to get more directly influential than that IMO.
That said, I do see the $5 tier as the ‘community tier,’ and I’d like to add more optional social features to encourage building a community of backers at that tier. Things like maybe forums or a discord or something? Basically I see it as Patreon providing different mechanisms for people to get more involved than previously, but only if they want to — most people really only want to check the blog every three months and that’s good too!
PS – So much pressure to make Frog TF amazing now if it wins, lol 😛
Hey! Thank you for the response, it’s great to hear from you. ^_^
Reading back through my comment and your response, I realise that you’ve got a pretty good point when it comes to how private-access users can contribute, so I think I’d like to apologise for insinuating we don’t have much sway, I was perhaps a bit premature on that one. 😛 I think I may start trying to be a little more active where I can, perhaps try to come up with some suggestions or ideas of my own and most likely post them in these comments or through TFGS. I may have to see if I can look into those mod tools as well, perhaps try and make something of my own 😉
I’m glad you’re looking into more community options! A Discord server in particular sounds like a good idea which I could definitely see myself interacting on if I could. Though as I said previously, Patreon really isn’t something I’m able to use at all, at least not currently or for the foreseeable future, so I’m a little sad that I won’t be able to make use of these features by the looks of things. If my circumstances change, I could surely see myself looking to try and use it, but at the moment it’s simply an impossibility.
In the meantime, could I perhaps ask a one-time favour for an old supporter? Could you (pretty please) add a tiny little +1 to the Frog TF option? 😛
Again, glad to hear from you and looking forward to the future! Keep up the good work ^_^
Great! Comments anywhere are always appreciated, but I check this blog the most frequently (I need to get more active on TFGS again, haven’t posted there in ages unfortunately). And mods are even more appreciated. I’d like to expand the mod toolkit in future so people can make even more changes to the game.
FYI Frog TF is currently in the lead!
nyi still vote onya catgirl voice nya. <3 or frog girl tf complete with character talking frog like inya croaks, ribbits everywhere nya. just an cute thought nya.
If I could vote, the catgirl voice would *definitely* be my number two choice! That concept is so hot to me, I love transformations that change player character speech. If I hadn’t been looking forward to the frog-girl TF since the beginning, this would 100% have my vote and I hope it is added at some point, however any vote goes 🙂