Dev Blog #65 - A Touch of Plague

Greetings... everyone...

Spring is here, which, as the great Tom Lehrer once sang, means the season for skittles, beer, and pigeon murder... and also for getting really, really sick.

It's unavoidable, apparently, for me to NOT somehow come down with some horrible ailment during the Winter to Spring and Summer to Fall transitions.

I am, at present, a shambling husk of a human being functioning solely on NyQuil and SpaghettiOs.

So let's talk about stuff!

Backer Build 6.0.4 Feedback

Last week saw the release of Backer Build 6.0.4 to patrons, and which it came a number of issues that have been added to the 6.1 bug tracker. Naturally this isn't ideal, however, getting feedback on these issues prior to a public release is extremely helpful, so thank you all for bearing with it.

Additionally, there's a noted lack of content, and there's a few reasons for that which I think will be helpful to talk about in terms of setting expectations.

First and foremost, while the serum events themselves are programmed in, the extended implications of those events are not. That is to say, even though you've changed Penny's behavior and had a chance to experience the initial event, all the conversations, random events, and event variations that would spawn from that action aren't yet implemented. Once they are, you'll see the results of you choices a little more prominently.

Additionally, the new content added for Penny (aside from the new date events) is tied specifically to her serum routes, which are all mutually exclusive. What this means is that even though Penny has received a large amount of new content, you'll only see about 20-25% in any single play through. This is by design, and while it can make content seem a little thin, that will change once the same system has been applied to multiple characters and you're forced to decide what the best use of your time and resources are.

Finally, not all serum nodes are created equal. Not every dose will unlock some major new character feature or mechanic, or set of events. Sometimes a serum event just provides the context to move you on to the next event, sometimes it's just a cosmetic reward such as a new outfit or personality tweak. The serum system is like the Sphere Grid: You have to pick up a few +3 Def before you can grab Hastega.

So definitely expect a more complete experience when 6.1 hits, but also remember to look at the update within the correct context, which is to say the complete picture of the new system relies on it being implemented game-wide... which is happening!

So About Update 6.1

April is what you might call a life-altering month for me. Rather than a bunch of small events culminating into a single major event, it's a bunch of major events culminating into something huge!

The end result is going to have big implications for The Company, like, "good" big implications that will affect everyone positively. I'm not ready to talk about them yet (soon!), but it's definitely something to get hype over. However, as is usually the case, the transition will be a little rocky.

As of right this second, I'm still targeting the end of April for the 6.1 release date, however, there's a chance I'll be missing that window by a week or so. As always, I'll keep everyone up to date as the picture becomes more clear, but I just wanted to get that out there.

The Immediate Future

In the meantime, expect to see Dev Builds popping up again very, very soon as I wrap up Penny's serum events before diving into her new written content. Additionally, Marketing Associates will get some great new Dakota previews tomorrow and the public will get their first peak of her next week!

Until then, I'm going to go crawl back into my medically induced coma before returning to the smut mines. As always, thank you all for your continued feedback and support!