Thursday, April 28, 2016

Poll closed

Evidently the free version of survey monkey only allows me to take up to 100 votes so I will continue to look for another survey host but I did get enough data from the Patreon and public version of the poll to get a pretty good sense of what people want.

I will be adding the brothel back into the game, but with low priority.  My goal will be to have the brothel acquisition done in 4m1 and then give you the option to convince some reluctant slaves to sign up in 4m2 and maybe 1-3 scenes.  Phoebe in particular had a plot-centric brothel scene in v1 and being able to recreate it will be important.

Don't forget that any Patreon pledges need to be in before the end of the month for them to get processed in time for you to get your reward.  $2+ for the HD version of the CGs of the game, $5+ for the early access version (currently slated for 5/5), $10+ for the full CG unlock and $25+ for access to the bonus non-canon scenes (up to 10 now!)

Thanks in advance!

Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Brothel poll

I’ve been getting a lot of great feedback from everyone, and I really do want to take it to heart.

While we’re the ones developing the game, you are the ones playing it and I do want to make the Harem the best game I can, and that means focusing on what people enjoy.  The feedback I got on the dark route absolutely influenced my development of chapter 4 (and it’s not too late to pledge to get it early!) and another topic which  has come up periodically is the brothel that you set up in Eowen in version 1.  While I was never satisfied with the quality of content it provided and thus cut it out of version 2, I’m not opposed to recreating it, focusing on making it much higher quality along with everything else in version 2.

This poll will be worded a bit oddly.   As a player, more content is always better and I want everything possible in the game.  But as a developer, I realize that everything added must come at the cost of something else not added.  So what I need to know is the priority to give development of the brothel, and the answers will be in terms of what’s cut to find the time to work on it.

Brothel development will always be part of the minor releases.  Working on the chapters themselves is a big enough job to consume the entire month, in each minor my goal has been to have 2-3 sidequest lines with 5-8 quests overall and a similar number of scenes either included or separate from the quests.  So how much time should I focus on that versus how much those versus how much time on the brothel?

This is the public version of the poll, separate from the Patreon version
Poll closed as max respondents have been hit

Also this is a bit old now, but I had put a down a rough roadmap of the next few updates if people want to see it.  It is a public post.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/roadmap-4869341

Sunday, April 24, 2016

Chapter 4 in testing!

I hope everyone is enjoying 3m2, chapter 4 has entered testing.  Assuming that it goes well, it should be ready for Patrons on May 5th and then released to the public on the 27th.  Remember that if you want the early access to chapter 4 through Patreon, you will have to put your pledge in before the end of April.  It works by running the pledges as the month turns and if you wait until May to pledge, it won't run until June.

Content additions
-Lesser Corsix is now open!  Main storyline progress through there, heavily involved with Jessica and a new character Centura Vanessa
-Introduces Isabella, part of the Namuhist church and Centura Vanessa
-Two new quest locations, the Tower of Selem and the Corsix Mines
-23 new scenes, 2 non-canon scenes added
-369 new images for main content, 29 for two new non-canon scenes
-287 pages of new text
-New sprite and faces for the main hero!

Bug Fixes
-Several choices did not alter ethos properly.  The vast majority of those will be corrected when you step onto the world map

Now a bunch more teasers:  I have listened to the feedback on the dark route and they should feel very different than the light route in this content.  The last image is Sarah in a non-canon scene.  She's not actually part of it, but seeing her in a dress was cool, even if it didn't look right without putting a collar on her.  And I might do a bit with the idea later, maybe even in 4m1.






Friday, April 22, 2016

Harem Chapter 3 Minor 2 Public Release!

Harem v2c3m2.1w is ready for your enjoyment!

Content additions
-More sidequests! Gregory in Eowen has sidequest for you leading to another zone, Fiona as another, also if you buy enough from her, she'll grow more friendly. Slightly
 -An additional line from Phoebe, snaking through the Celeean and Fiona quests as well
-Added a library to Castra Corson. It is to the east of your chambers
-Added a quickie mode when interacting with your slaves in base.
-Resort in Fishing Village reopen! Talk to Sarah after you've completed her other events.
-Put Cindy and Fenja in the bases, but they won't have any interactions.
-Variety of bug fixes from v2c3m1
-1 new slave with 1 new hinted at.
-5 new scenes
-~150 pages of text
-~120 new images
-Updated walkthrough included!

 Base game, requires RTP installed seperately.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3KuKjSbH2FhQV8tb09zOUZjcXM

Game w/ RTP.  Larger download, no RTP necessary
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3KuKjSbH2FhcmlaN0JsVTVrWk0

Credit to the people who helped out with their time!
Copy Editor and Sanity Checker -HirotonoRei
Testing - Hunter769, Omnibomb, TheHiddenOne
Walkthrough- Ikatashi Paku

Chapter 4 is 99% done and will enter testing in the next few days.  Should be an early May release for Patreons.

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

An open request

One of the things that has bugged me about Harem is that the main character (Actor1/Ralph) looks so completely different in the game world versus the CGs.  This was mostly because of available resources.  Male mods are far rarer than female mods in 3dcg and the one I use is the best one by far of what I've been able to find.  There's a better selection of spites for VX ACE, but I had found an emotion set of faces for Ralph and thought that it would make the text more interesting if they character emoted a bit when he talked, and there's very few of them around.  So we ended up with a red hair/green eyed sprite and face with a brown hair/black eye'd man doing the fucking.  Something which needed to be fixed.

Ninjician as already created a sprite to move closer to the 3dcg model but couldn't do the face.  I gave it a shot but my photo editing skills are laughable.  So lets throw it open to all of you!  Anyone that wants to give it a shot, I'm going to attach the emoset for Ralph and what I was able to create by modifying it.  If you can improve it, please do what you can and send it back to me at haremrpg@gmail.com.  I'd also love a nude version of it (just the shoulders bare) to better match up with the scenes as well.

A couple of requirements from VX ACE
A face is 96x96 pixels.  A face file is 8 of those, 384x192.  The file format must be a .png to allow for transparency. 
If you want to start from scratch, please use the same rough expression in each face so it will sync into existing code.






Both should make the chapter 4 content.  It definitely feels strange using a different sprite/face for the main character after so many years, but I think overall it'll be for the best when people adjust to it.

Friday, April 15, 2016

Chapter 4

The work on Chapter 4 is proceeding well ahead of schedule, and unless there's a huge issue that comes up, release should be on May 5th to Patreons, May 27th to the public.  I have been thinking about the feedback I have gotten on the dark route and you will see a much greater difference between the two paths in this content.  Also as I've been rewriting it, I've focused a lot of attention on giving it a much more active feel.

In version 1 Western Corsix (now Lesser Corsix) was a fairly passive city but I'm doing a lot more to improve the gameflow in it, with a much more active feel and design to the event structure.  Should feel much different then it did in version 1.  Captain Vanessa (now Centura Vanessa) has a much more active role then she did before.  Her character was fairly undeveloped when I wrote the content the first time and her personality didn't start to come together until chapter 6 last time.  Now that I know who she is, she's a far more interesting character in this section.

Jessica will still be a focal point in the content and both Rhea's and Alena's content is far better written this time around, focusing more heavily on their relationships with Sarah and Samantha respectively.  Phoebe has a more active role as well as she was optional at this time during v1 but required in v2 which has let me write her into the content much better.

Coding for Chapter 4 is done as well as rough drafts for all events.  Will be hundreds of pages of content, most of it completely rewritten and all of improved.  The vast majority of images are also new for v2, but there were some that I thought were good enough to get ported over directly.

I'm also taking a new look at non-canon scenes, which are part of the $25+ Patreon rewards.  The eight already in the game focused more on behind the scenes events.  Things that could have happened in the normal run of the game, just weren't significant enough to be included in the main game.  This time I'm taking more of a 'what-if' idea.  Things that did not happen in the game, but might have.  What if Donnie went to Jessica during the party?  Or what if somebody else caught your eye during it?

As always, I appreciate all the support that you all give me for making this game.  Be it through feedback and talking about what you did/did not like in the game and your pledges through Patreon.  Remember that if you want to get access to the new chapter 4 content on the 5th, you must pledge at least $5 before the end of April for the pledge to process in time to get the early release.  And if you choose to pledge $25 or more, you'll gain access to the 8 bonus scenes already in the game and the two new non-canon scenes being added.

Enough of me talking, here's some teasers!





Sunday, April 10, 2016

Work continues!

Thank you everyone for the feedback!  I was able to get a lot of useful information before the poll was polluted and will be taking it into mind as I continue to develop chapter 4.  The routes were always going to deviate more there, but I'm going to push them a bit further apart than my initial plans with a focus on your character's motivation driving it (hopefully)

The actual development of chapter 4 is going very well.  Both the writing and coding are more than 2/3rds done, after finishing that it just leaves imaging and testing.  While it's way too early for me to pin down a date, I would expect a chapter 4 release earlier rather than later in May.

Finally, I've decided to stop using rapidgator/filefactory for distribution.  I'll be using google drive as the primary download in the future.  I did gain some small income from using them but it's been dwarfed by Patreon and no longer makes sense.  So a big thanks to all my Patrons.  The only downside is that I won't be able to track the number of downloads, but it's been 5000+ for every version.  If you like the change, I do ask that you post a bit of feedback in the forums to draw more attention to the game!  I do regularly check and respond to the linked forums same as I do here, so be confident that any feedback you give me will be read and responded to there as well.

Wednesday, April 6, 2016

Poll down

I'm going to have to find a poll site that does a better job of restricting votes to one per.  Strawpoll didn't like the length of the question and answers, does anyone know of a better site?

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Dark Route poll



I’ve recently gotten some feedback that people aren’t satisfied with the dark route, thinking that it has been pulled back too far and made to similar to the light route.  I was not happy with how cruel and irrational it was in version 1 and my goal in version 2 was to have it more focused on callousness, ego and disrespect than outright cruelty, but I may have taken it too far.  The idea was to have it start slowly and over time grow into a harsher route which hopefully you’ll see a bit in 3m2, but I can accelerate the process and have it separate from the light route faster than the initial plan.

Your feedback on the development of the game is extremely important.  While I will not make the dark route work the way that it did in version 1, I do want as many people as possible to enjoy the game.  So I’m making a poll to collect your feedback and help guide me in creating the future content.  While I’ve written most of chapter 4 already, most of the dark route scenes still have to be written and can be crafted as you like.  I am making a poll both on my blog and in the Patreon, please take the time to vote and leave feedback to let me know how you want the dark route to be developed.  This is something that I really want your feedback on.

Taken down due to clear multi-voting

Edit: After 10 days I'll be closing this poll (in my mind at least) and making a new poll.

v2c3m2 sent to Patrons

I have sent out v2c3m2 to my Patrons today, thank you for the ongoing support!  Public release for it will be on the 22nd.