We should be within a few days of release. I'm sorry for how long it's been since I've had a real content patch, but if you can just wait a few more days, I think that you'll find that there's a huge amount of new content coming in.
0.5 will bring
-Scene count up to 148. This more than doubles the number of scenes in the game.
-Corsix (Proper or Ratan) major zone added with unique quests for every character.
-A dramatic upgrade in many of the systems underlying the game. Grammar should be far better, combat should be less awful (notice I didn't say good), and music should be better (I usually play RPG maker games muted and had simply forgotten about it).
-A epic sidequest that winds through the 0.4.2 and before content.
-Introductions to 7 new characters, one capturable.
-Two existing characters will finally join the fold.
A repeat of an old message. Your old saves will not work in 0.5. Regrettable but necessary. Initially chapter skip will be disabled while you all find the bugs that we missed. I will try to have a 0.5.1 release within 2-3 weeks of the 0.5 release that will enable chapter skip again. But I think the amount of new content in old zones should justify the replay.
I will be switching to filefactory for the hosting. Harem is free and I have no plans to charge for it in the future, but if I can make a few dollars and not inconvenience anyone, well I don't see any reason not to do it. If it's a big issue for people I'll release side by side with mediafire, but I'd prefer that you use the filefactory link.
Here is the 0.4.2 link if you want to make sure that it works for you.
http://www.filefactory.com/file/2gvthnhu7hph/n/Harem.exe
Also if anyone knows of a blogging site that would let me have advertisements and income generated by the blog, please let me know. Assuming that it's not a pain in the ass of course (no pop-ups or aggressive banner ads. Evidently you all enjoy this game enough to check this blog on average 150 times a day.
Sunday, April 15, 2012
New download link.
I'm trying a new site to download Harem, and want to give it a bit of a test run before I release 0.5 (which will happen in a few days). I do get paid a bit for your downloads but I want to make sure that they don't inconvenience the people who play my game. So let me know if there's any issues with the new service.
edit : removed turbobit link
And just to clarify - I have no intentions of charging for Harem. The game is free, all that I'm doing is making a bit from the distribution. I may also be moving this blog in the future to one that I can draw some income from as well. If anyone would know of a good blog host that allows you to monetize a adult blog, please let me know.
Edit : actually never mind, evidently they are fine to let you create an account and upload a file from the US, just not actually download it. Dumb. Mediafire links put back.
edit : removed turbobit link
And just to clarify - I have no intentions of charging for Harem. The game is free, all that I'm doing is making a bit from the distribution. I may also be moving this blog in the future to one that I can draw some income from as well. If anyone would know of a good blog host that allows you to monetize a adult blog, please let me know.
Edit : actually never mind, evidently they are fine to let you create an account and upload a file from the US, just not actually download it. Dumb. Mediafire links put back.
Friday, March 23, 2012
First front to back playthrough
Getting close. Was just able to complete our first playthrough front to back and get through all the content. Ran into a load of bugs on the way, but was able to fix all of them and never have to use any manual switches to fix anything.
Normally this would happen a bit earlier in the dev cycle, but 0.5 has a different design then most prior releases. Generally each release focuses primarily on a single event chain which is long and winding. 0.5, from a dev standpoint, is far more like a batch of 15 simple strings. Each string in itself is easy to check, but what proved the biggest challenge was binding them together properly where everything works as it should and the it all feels natural. That part is done, mostly just oddball grammar bugs, the always present /n[1] (which needs to be \n[1] to work) and a few missing faces.
I may throw in a few more scenes while my testers try to find what I missed, but Harem is over 140 scenes with what 0.5 adds in.
April release is almost a certainty.
Normally this would happen a bit earlier in the dev cycle, but 0.5 has a different design then most prior releases. Generally each release focuses primarily on a single event chain which is long and winding. 0.5, from a dev standpoint, is far more like a batch of 15 simple strings. Each string in itself is easy to check, but what proved the biggest challenge was binding them together properly where everything works as it should and the it all feels natural. That part is done, mostly just oddball grammar bugs, the always present /n[1] (which needs to be \n[1] to work) and a few missing faces.
I may throw in a few more scenes while my testers try to find what I missed, but Harem is over 140 scenes with what 0.5 adds in.
April release is almost a certainty.
Monday, March 19, 2012
I can't stop writing scenes!
I'm trying to test. Really I am. But every time I play for more than 30 minutes a new idea for a scene comes in. Get through Eliba, I get an idea for a bonus scene in the pirates cove. Clear out the orc camp, and here's one for the Tower of Selem. And they're starting to breed. One scene is making ideas for another.
I guess that's why I'm thankful for my testers. Because I suck at it ;)
Up to 140 scenes between major and minor scenes. So you all have quite a bit of porn coming at you. Still on pace for a release sometime during April.
I guess that's why I'm thankful for my testers. Because I suck at it ;)
Up to 140 scenes between major and minor scenes. So you all have quite a bit of porn coming at you. Still on pace for a release sometime during April.
Monday, March 5, 2012
Testing has begun on 0.5
0.5 has reached an beta state! Where the update isn't finished, but the vast majority of content is in as well as a huge number of bugs. moonblack and Calristan have been doing a great job digging through the new content and finding the many many errors I made. Part of development I guess.
Raziel321 is working on a few new combat scripts which should hopefully give the combat in Harem some much need flavor. Don't want to go into too many spoilers about it, but I'm quite excited on how it's going to play and feel.
Megaflamer and ninjican are finishing up the last of the art content in 0.5. Looking very nice so far, much like a living world. Sprites are solid with a few custom sprites for different character outfits.
Myself, I'm still writing. Finishing up the end sequence of 0.5 and then going to go back and add a few more scenes to the 0.4 content. I'm a fairly lousy tester (as I act the way that the I expect the player to act) so during most of the testing phase I work on backfilling some content. There's still about three long events that I have to finish writing before 0.5 could possibly released, and 5 more scenes or so I'd like to add if time permits, although I can release without them. Then a bit of breadcrumbing events and some NPC filler dialogue.
Also we've squashed some bugs that were in 0.4 content. Noemi's brothel sequence should be completable as well as Sarah's orc GoR scene.
I'm not looking for any more testers (or contributors at all atm). But 0.5 is progressing nicely and I'm giving a rough ETA of some time in April for initial release.
Raziel321 is working on a few new combat scripts which should hopefully give the combat in Harem some much need flavor. Don't want to go into too many spoilers about it, but I'm quite excited on how it's going to play and feel.
Megaflamer and ninjican are finishing up the last of the art content in 0.5. Looking very nice so far, much like a living world. Sprites are solid with a few custom sprites for different character outfits.
Myself, I'm still writing. Finishing up the end sequence of 0.5 and then going to go back and add a few more scenes to the 0.4 content. I'm a fairly lousy tester (as I act the way that the I expect the player to act) so during most of the testing phase I work on backfilling some content. There's still about three long events that I have to finish writing before 0.5 could possibly released, and 5 more scenes or so I'd like to add if time permits, although I can release without them. Then a bit of breadcrumbing events and some NPC filler dialogue.
Also we've squashed some bugs that were in 0.4 content. Noemi's brothel sequence should be completable as well as Sarah's orc GoR scene.
I'm not looking for any more testers (or contributors at all atm). But 0.5 is progressing nicely and I'm giving a rough ETA of some time in April for initial release.
Monday, February 20, 2012
Updated link and compromises
First a bit of clerical. With the chaos in file host services, my multiupload link doesn't work. Steveman on Hongfire is hosting the game temporarily, so check the thread to download it. When 0.5 is ready I'll take a look at the situation for hosts and use a new one. But I have time to not worry about it.
Just to quickly address one common response to this. While I do use a SVN for development, it's not appropriate for release. My skill in VX has grown past the sledgehammer stage, but only up to machete. Not scalpel. The development version is not a working version, and I like it that way. Lets me develop more freehand and worry about the consequences during testing. And I'd prefer to work hidden to avoid spoilers.
Also please do not use this blog for bug reports. It's a horrible format for it. Use the blog for either feedback or suggestions. Use the forum threads linked for bug reports please.
On a positive note, Musca from Futanari and imercenary from Hongifre have offered their help in writing the last few scenes that I've been having issues with. I want to thank them both.
Finally I've decided to make a few compromises in developing 0.5. The biggest will be save compatibility, or lack thereof. The core engines in Harem have changed dramatically during development, and trying to write correction events has turned nightmarish. I will not be doing so for 0.5 and you will have to restart the game fresh. Kurupt has been kind enough to do a grammar pass on nearly the entire game, so it should also be a better experience than it has been so far.
I might rebuild the chapter skip to support the new version, although that is not a promise. When 0.5 goes in for testing I will work on it, but those tend to be very complicated events as well and buggy. It's in the maybe pile, but you might have to restart at the beginning. Sorry.
There is currently no eta on 0.5.
Just to quickly address one common response to this. While I do use a SVN for development, it's not appropriate for release. My skill in VX has grown past the sledgehammer stage, but only up to machete. Not scalpel. The development version is not a working version, and I like it that way. Lets me develop more freehand and worry about the consequences during testing. And I'd prefer to work hidden to avoid spoilers.
Also please do not use this blog for bug reports. It's a horrible format for it. Use the blog for either feedback or suggestions. Use the forum threads linked for bug reports please.
On a positive note, Musca from Futanari and imercenary from Hongifre have offered their help in writing the last few scenes that I've been having issues with. I want to thank them both.
Finally I've decided to make a few compromises in developing 0.5. The biggest will be save compatibility, or lack thereof. The core engines in Harem have changed dramatically during development, and trying to write correction events has turned nightmarish. I will not be doing so for 0.5 and you will have to restart the game fresh. Kurupt has been kind enough to do a grammar pass on nearly the entire game, so it should also be a better experience than it has been so far.
I might rebuild the chapter skip to support the new version, although that is not a promise. When 0.5 goes in for testing I will work on it, but those tend to be very complicated events as well and buggy. It's in the maybe pile, but you might have to restart at the beginning. Sorry.
There is currently no eta on 0.5.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Strange
So I've been gone for a while. Most of it had to do with Holiday busyness, but I've also been having a huge writers block about the game for the last month or two. To the point where I actually went onto the forums and put the game on hiatus.
I definitely over-reached with 0.5. Both the most complex code that I've worked on, both in terms of eventing and content. Some of it flowed easily, but with the way I've set up the content, every character needs their own story arc and some of them just won't come. In hindsight I'm working to much on character rather than story, but there's too much content already in 0.5 for me to scrap the general idea of it. I'm not quite sure how I'll finish the remaining arcs. 0.6 and beyond will definitely be different, I'm going to be doing a few deus ex machina moves in order to streamline the content so I can focus more on the story.
But after putting the game on Hiatus, it's actually been easier for me to write. Rather than dealing with the arcs that I'm stuck on, it's allowed me to skip over those steps and write some of the end parts of 0.5. So while I'm still leaving the status of the game on Hiatus, 0.5 will come out sooner or later. I just don't have any idea of when.
I definitely over-reached with 0.5. Both the most complex code that I've worked on, both in terms of eventing and content. Some of it flowed easily, but with the way I've set up the content, every character needs their own story arc and some of them just won't come. In hindsight I'm working to much on character rather than story, but there's too much content already in 0.5 for me to scrap the general idea of it. I'm not quite sure how I'll finish the remaining arcs. 0.6 and beyond will definitely be different, I'm going to be doing a few deus ex machina moves in order to streamline the content so I can focus more on the story.
But after putting the game on Hiatus, it's actually been easier for me to write. Rather than dealing with the arcs that I'm stuck on, it's allowed me to skip over those steps and write some of the end parts of 0.5. So while I'm still leaving the status of the game on Hiatus, 0.5 will come out sooner or later. I just don't have any idea of when.
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