Research Blog

If you backed on Patreon for the billing cycle on Sept 1st, that’s now been processed and you should have access to your builds in the employee intranet.  Thanks for your support!

There’s about six things left to complete until the ch6 functionality is complete, and then I’ll release a missing text WIP build.  Then I’ll get the remaining text written up and release the full private build.  It’s a bit ambitious, but my goal is for both builds to release in the next two weeks.

Midway through the writing phase, I might also release a teaser snippet of the writing to patreon supporters as a non-interactive text story, and then sometime after ch6 releases, post that snippet publicly (similar to the snippet from chapter 4).

Probably will also do another community feature vote at the end of the month also, so keep on brainstorming ideas and I’ll choose my favorites for the vote.

Finally got around to setting up the Discord rewards for patrons.  There’s special roles for the Supporter tier and the WIP build tier.  The roles grant you a special chat color for your name and access to a hidden chat room (#research-lab).

If you’re a patron, click here to learn how to get your role.

In future, I’d like to add a role + room for all private / full game backers – possibly one for each faction so you can represent your favorite.  But that’s all going to probably require writing a custom discord bot, so it’ll be something I worry about later.

Chapter six is coming along great and should release to all private backers either at the end of this month or the first few weeks of next month.  Prior to the private release, I plan to do a missing text release to WIP backers once the chapter is functionality complete but before I’ve written the remaining chapter text.

I realized it’s been two years since the last new chapter, and I think that has to do a lot with the scope creep for this chapter — the number of new systems implemented / to be implemented for it got a little ridiculous (ie: multiple map support, large map support, text editor, pathfinding, movable NPCs, hands being bound, ability for you to ride certain npcs, ability for certain npcs to ride you, etc)

Anyway, chapter 7 should be lighter than chapter 6, so hopefully will be able to get future chapters done faster and actually finish the story.  I do want to get to a point where this is a complete game, and most essential to that goal is completing all the story chapters.  The overarching story was mapped out years ago, but for some reason I never shared it.  So for the first time I’d like to share the final planned chapter list:

• Chapter 1: First Transformation
• Chapter 2: The Swamp
• Chapter 3: The Dragon Temple
• Chapter 4: Cowgirl Farm
• Chapter 5: The Pound
• Chapter 6: Dinoian Desert
• Chapter 7: Aquatic TF / Aquarium
• Chapter 8: Latex Doll TF
• Chapter 9: The Big Finale
• ( Chapter X / End Game )

By the end of chapter nine, all the story threads should be neatly completed.  At between 20~60 minutes per chapter, that puts one playthrough of the game probably somewhere around five hours at a guess.  I also want to have chapter 9 have one ending per faction, so depending on how you beat the chapters with faction-specific endings (Chapter 6 has three different endings, each with their own strategies for unlocking), that’ll affect which ending you get later on (note that faction points currently aren’t being tracked, so you’ll have to re-beat chapters 1~8 before 9 comes out).

If your favorite TF isn’t saurian, aquatic, or latex — don’t worry, I’m still planning to add additional non-story enemies and transformations, so keep those suggestions coming.

Chapter X is in parenthesis because it’s tentative.  It’s not a story chapter so much as it is my secret plan for adding a lot of replayability and letting you experience the content from chapter 1 ~ chapter 9 again in a different way.  It’s also a massive amount of rework, so I’m not going to guarantee it’ll happen for sure yet.  Even if chapter X doesn’t happen, you’ll still be able to replay chapters 1~9 and go for each of the three different faction endings.

There’s some other large projects, like mod support for custom TFs and areas, that I’d also like to get in — but due to their size don’t want to guarantee yet.  My goal right now is to get to a complete game and try not to let myself scope creep too much along the way.

Frog TF won this month’s poll option.  Based on how excited the comments for it was, I tried to make it extra special, so you can look forward to 4000+ words of content including different scenes when the Naga Queen defeats you based on what form you’re in.  The minions are a bit smarter too, and won’t try to transform you if you’re already a frog or slug (unless you’re not 100% in that form, in which case they’ll try to re-transform you if you’re of the matching species).  Frogs and slugs also now leave a slime trail wherever they go, which can re-transform you if you use it (it’ll eventually evaporate).  If you track slime into Nixie’s shack during the swamp quest, she’ll comment on you making a mess of her place.

Frog form is another in the all-fours category, since frogs can’t stand upright.  As frogs naturally gain weight over time to get that nice frog belly, that can eventually cause their movement to be difficult.  At larger belly (and optionally breast) sizes, it will drag on the ground beneath them and sometimes get stuck in the slime as they travel.  If you go farther and intentionally max out belly/breast sizes… good luck moving at all.

If you backed at the WIP backer level for the August 1 Patreon cycle, head to the employee intranet to download your copy.  Otherwise, the next chapter will (finally) be done either at the end of this month or beginning of next so expect private build soon (almost there!).

For the backers who pledged last month, private build access has been granted if your card was successfully charged (download at the employee intranet).

If your card was declined, then you did not receive private build access (but also weren’t billed anything either).

Thanks for your support!