Monday, July 3, 2017

v0.29 is Live!

Play the new version right now by clicking the Play the Game tab above!

Finally, the first trip through the Glass Door is complete. The last scene has been added with this version, a few others have been polished up, and I'm ready to get started on the next section. That's only a small part of this release, though. It's turned into a real grab bag!

The first thing you may notice is that, thanks to the support of my Patreon, Lith's portrait in the upper left has finally been replaced with a proper artist's rendition! It's still just as functional as the old portrait, but about a hundred times nicer looking. We actually hit this milestone a while ago, but it's been a challenge finding the artist I really thought could make a Lith face I could be happy with. It's awesome to finally see my derpy old art put away and some professional work going up! Though yes, if some among you are nostalgic for old 3-face Lith, there is an option to switch back in the Options menu.

Other than that, a few scenes have been added here and there to deal with the fact that the Glass Door has opened. They fall into two main categories, and if you know the game well, you can probably guess what they are! Also, I've added one big, new sex scene that rather stands out from the rest, and is probably exactly what some people have been hoping for for some time, going by the comments I've seen. It's extremely easy to find under the right conditions, but to meet those conditions, you may have to get out of your comfort zone. Happy hunting!

Lastly, besides the portrait, one other piece of new art has been added, a cute one for every now and then. Also, while discussing the finer details of Lith's appearance with Mz Nite, one of my favorite artists for this game, she was so kind as to offer me corrected versions of a few pieces, so you may notice a slight adjustment to Lith's appearance in a couple pieces of art.

From here, I expect to start working on the second trip through the Glass Door, but due to the nature of this next segment, I don't think it'll be ready in time for the coming version. So I'll probably continue to work on some other side content for the game as well, and center v0.30 on that, with whatever I got done so far available to peek at in the cheat version next time.

I think that about wraps it up for now. Time for gratuitous linking! I mentioned my Patreon above, but did you know about my Twitter? I use it to report on the writing I'm getting done, and sometimes make jokes and complain. If you'd like another way to support me, you can find some of my writing on Amazon as well!

Thanks for reading, everyone, and thanks for playing my game! Hope you guys like the new content!

23 comments:

  1. Hey
    Nice to see an update. Just a thing that is bothering me about the lasts updates : Could you be more specific about the scenes you're adding?
    Descriptions like this one makes me quite anxious to play : " but to meet those conditions, you may have to get out of your comfort zone"
    Does that mean there is violence, or rape or death? I can handle some drama, but if it gets too extreme, I will not be abble to take it. So please, could you at least tag the new content, so we know if we can play it, or avoid it?

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    1. That would be convenient for most people, though it would also negate some key parts of the game like "challenge" and "discovery". If he gave more obvious hints at the new scenes, then he might as well just be giving tutorials and that would be, for him at least, rather time-consuming and unnecessary.

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    2. I'm aware of that. That's why I ask for tags and not for more detailed things.
      I just want to know if I can play it without wanting to kill myself ^^
      I just ask for an explicite warning about the content that is added, not a full disclosure about it.

      Just to be more specific, I didn't play the doors contents for now because I can't be sure of the content I will find. I am fine with playing the game without it, but I would like to know what I'm missing / avoinding.

      Sorry for being so sensible.

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    3. Generally speaking, my philosophy with writing MVOL has been that you can't get real emotional depth without including something that hurts. Everyone is happy in Sesame Street, but it feels fake because things never really go wrong. Life has ups and downs, and your relationship with Lith will only grow more authentic if you go through the bad times with him as well as the good.

      Further, while I personally disagree with the idea of avoiding exposure to topics like rape or death altogether, I follow a certain rule of thumb with the game: either you get to certain content because you're trying to get to it, or it's something you might not expect, but you'll generally get some telegraphing, maybe even several paragraphs of it, that things are going bad before it really gets into it. If you want to choose to stop reading and load a save, that's your right, although I personally discourage it. I don't put anything in this game for shock factor or because I like the horrible things that can happen to people. I do it because I feel like it's important to the game, and I try to treat it tastefully.

      Past that, I do tend to be cryptic about new content, and even a tag can spoil the experience, or simply taint your reading by giving you certain expectations ahead of time when a few words cannot accurately reflect the whole of the scene. There is one scene that most of my most devoted blue-collar players find especially gratifying, at the end of the Stone Door path, and it's because it's hard and you may fail a few times finding it that it becomes a better experience. I couldn't accurately describe it without affecting your expectations in some way to make the scene less than it should be.

      As far as a solution to this particular dilemma... I can't in good conscience write a real guide to this game, but I've tried to encourage others to write and share their own insights. So far, I've been mostly disappointed, as those few who have tried to write for others tend to be vastly misleading, and those who seem to understand the game well don't take the time to write anything out to help others. Maybe that means they agree with me that a guide will only ruin the experience, or maybe just that the right person hasn't come along. Until then, I hope you can still enjoy the game, and that if you keep playing and toeing outside your usual playstyle occasionally, you'll find yourself well-rewarded for your experimentation. I believe games and stories can do a lot to help people expand their personal horizons in a safe environment, and it's my hope that MVOL will help many people open their hearts to new ideas of the world or otherwise improve their lives in some small way.

      Thank you for playing, and for your feedback. I'm sorry I can't give you what you want directly. For your original query, though, I can try and give a hint, as I am wont to do on request.

      It's not as bad as all that, but you may have to play naughty.

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    4. OK, I think I will keep on cuddling my kitty for the time being. It's fun this way, and it doesn't mess with my soul.

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    5. To add on my previous comment (i'm anno 1, 3, 4):
      I understand and agree with you about trying to emotionally shake your player.
      And keeping the discovering intact is fine.
      The thing is, some players can't handle the shaking.
      I know first hand what rape and physical abuse are. I try to reconstruct myself from that. I don't want a game that makes me remembering things I try to heal from.
      What attracted me first in your game was the innocence and cuteness of lith. That's what I'm looking for.
      I don't want to keep you from doing what you think is best for the story, I just want to make sure I don't stumble on content that I can't handle.
      I would like to keep myself on not spending weeks on therapy about what I read in your game.

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  2. Yeah it would be nice if you were more specific because most people don't want to spend hours clicking buttons searching for the one new thing every update based on some vague hint.

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    2. From day one, one of my goals with this game has been to make it rewarding to play through multiple times, with small changes in behavior leading to a new experience and the occasional new scene. My general philosophy with updates is to support this by sprinkling in content with only a few hints on how to find it to perpetuate this feeling, so you can come back and play again without being entirely sure if the new content you found is something I just wrote, or something you might have missed all along.

      I'm assuming here that the majority of players only really come back to the game occasionally when they see an update's out and play until they get tired of it, for which this works well. If you're in the subsection of players that have already played so obsessively they actually "really really" found every last bit of content already, and you play every single update as soon as it comes out, but you're not on the Patreon so you can get spoilers ahead of time, then that does make it more of a trial on your patience, and for that I'm sorry ^.^; But hunting is part of the experience, and I think that's important.

      To be fair, I do feel like the hints I provided were appropriately helpful to point the player in the right direction for most of the scenes. The one more vague scene... Well. It's targeted at crowds of a very specific taste, but to find it, they'll have to commit to something most of them have probably tried to avoid. You could say it's a reward for a very specific subsection of a subsection who have been waiting a long time for this to be in the game, and for everyone else, it won't necessarily be a very rewarding scene anyway. So I feel somewhat justified in being stingy on that one.

      I do apologize for any frustration you may feel. My general advice is to just play now and then for enjoyment, let new scenes come to you naturally, and when it feels stale, put it aside until the next release. In any case, thank you for playing.

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    3. It's annoying for me because I have no idea if the new content is even something I'd be interested in, and finding out would probably mean a LOT of bored, repetitive grinding, without having any idea if I'm even barking up the right tree. That's not exploration or discovery, it's just tedium.

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  3. ill be honest, people complaining about an awesome furry sexy simulator, which there arent many out there, with GOOD writing to boot, lay of this poor soul, and thank em for takin time out their day to create this

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  4. ey this may just be my shit computer (It's one of the oldest things on earth)but anyone else having a glitch where basically all progress is lost?

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  5. Adobe Systems announces it will stop updating and distributing its multimedia software platform Flash by the end of 2020. (Reuters) (CNN)
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-adobe-systems-flash-idUSKBN1AA22R
    http://money.cnn.com/2017/07/25/technology/adobe-killing-flash/index.html
    Fun game, but almost impossible to play due to its usage of Adobe Flash.

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  6. I've been hunting for around a month and I'm super confused as to what was added. I found the cute art, but that's the only difference i've discovered? Could you say what subset of people this scene is for? I don't want to miss anything :(

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    1. A few different pieces of new content have been added that are specifically related to the Glass Door having been opened. What other content in the game specifically cares about the Doors, or about what's through the Glass Door?

      The other new scene, the sex scene, is specific to people that want Lith to act a certain way... and want him to act much, much more that way than usual, by any means necessary.

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    2. Hi, new anon here. Obviously this has something to do with Dom!Lith- however, I keep getting him to 99 dominant, but I can't seem to find the scene you're speaking of. Am I missing something?

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    3. I never really got the hints, is the new scene(s) about a dominant Lilith (like anon implies), I just need a hint as to which type of playstyle this would be categorized under. >:

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    4. Is the scene starting with

      "You start to reach toward the feline, but a rhythmic sound draws your attention. Blinking, you find Lith is bouncing her knee in the air, her heel tapping at the floor. Her arms are folded, paws flexing slowly against her sides, and as you finally pause to really look at the feline, her tail gives a lash through the air, her eyes sliding your way under heavy lids. "...Hey," she murmurs. "Whatcha doing?""

      the new one?

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    5. Regardless of if it was or not: That was so, goddammn hot I don't have enough words for it!!

      (PS. Been following the development of this game for a long time, and I love it as much now as I did back then, usually I come for the smut, then I get totally hooked because of the lore and the overall great writing!)

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    6. Swedra: sounds like you found the elusive new scene everyone's making a fuss about! For this version, anyway. Glad you enjoyed it! And awesome to hear you're a longtime fan ^.^ Thanks for playing!

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  7. I believe I found it. No spoilers. If you have a particular playstyle you will run into it easily enough. Don't worry about being offended, it is telegraphed well enough, and your choices will lead there with plenty of forewarning. So no worries about finding something you might not want.

    I thought it was a well written scene. Thanks for your continued work on this project!

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