Can You Taste It?

Things are coming along smoothly, and the cracks are filling in. I'm sure there are half a dozen things I've forgotten about, but hopefully I'll manage to remember most of them in the days to come. The prototype has just gone out to my proofers!

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We're at 90%! Short of a miracle, I'm probably going to be releasing the game officially on the weekend of the 17th, so my proofers have time to look everything over and I have time for last-minute additions and finishing touches. If you're on my list of premium donators who have been so generous as to donate $25 or more for v0.13+, however, you'll be getting a copy of v0.14+ the very instant it's ready, regardless of the day of the week, so you keep an eye on your inbox! :3

With all that said, I've one more teaser for you all. I'm still exceedingly nervous about the pretty dramatic changes in tone and direction this update is introducing-- I've had all of this in mind for over a year now, but you all will finally be seeing the very first part of the strange ride I'm taking you all on soon x3 Hope you all enjoy!

A form emerges into the pale light, hulking but humanoid-- at least seven feet tall and filling the doorway completely. Its thundering snarls choke back in strange, hollow little giggles as its eyes glimmer ferally in the light.

Summon the Honor Guard!

The game is still crawling toward completion, especially now that I (seem to) have broken my addiction to FFXIV, huzzah! The text portions are nearly completed, and I'm now primarily crawling around in the guts and gears of this strange cyborg of mine trying to get things together and working properly. It's approaching completion!

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And you know what that means? It's time to rouse the proofers! I'll have a semi-working prototype hopefully lurching around in the days to come, and I've sent an email to check in on my first and last line of defense against glitches, typos, and inexplicable catastrophic failure! If you're on my list, check your email! If you're not on my list, as ever, I encourage you to consider taking up a position in their brave ranks. You should have just a few days now to complete the initiation if you want to be sifting through the test version of v0.14 for me!

And if you're uncertain of your interest in the coming release, I've another little snippet of a preview ready...

A strange crackling behind you encourages you to throw your face to the dusty stones, craning your head around to spot the feline, his staff raised high and glowing-- no, not glowing, the tip is radiating a fearsome, blinding energy. He raises his spare paw, and the energy arcs suddenly to his open palm, creating-- lightning!

Surprise, Sex!

Things slowed down a bit working on the game, as you may have noticed. A nasty crossing between my netbook and a thermos full of tea gave me a scare, but that wasn't the primary cause. As is my greatest boon and burden, I refuse to write if I don't think I can do the piece justice at the moment, especially when it comes to this game. The section I'm working on right now is coming out differently than I expected, to be honest-- and a deal longer. The process is pretty organic, and while I have goals and plans, I leave myself a lot of room to improvise according to what sounds right, like what would actually happen.

So what does that mean? It means that, even though I thought this update was actually going to have very little sex in it, embarrassingly enough, a big sex scene has sprouted up, and I'm struggling with keeping the word count down for this section. Partly because it's already pretty lengthy, and partly because it makes the other sections all the more imbalanced. I was chewing on it a while deciding if I wanted to go back and cut stuff, but at this point, I'm thinking I'll take this where it needs to go, and go back to add in some more to the shorter section if necessary-- or maybe as part of v0.15, just to get v0.14 out the door already.

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With all that said, I'm tentatively marking another notch on the progress. Hopefully, there isn't much more actual writing to be done, and the last 20% should be putting all the pieces together in the game and getting it running, then proofing it out. If you're on my proofing list, it may be time to start easing out of your comas. If you're not on my proofing list, consider helping out! My pool of proofers is still embarrassingly small, and who knows how many are still alive for this round ^.^; I end up finding out about a lot of errors and typos well after release, and I want to snatch up as many as I can ahead of time!

Either way, I appreciate your patience, everyone :3 I'm still pretty nervous about how folks are going to take all the crazy new stuff going on, so part of me is in no rush to see all this released x3 But released it must be! I have so much more story to tell you. So for now, I'll leave you with an obscene little teaser for the new stuff written up just tonight! :3

"p-please, use me too! I-- there-- there's still room! If you get underneath...!" His face is bright scarlet as he lifts one leg, shaking on the edge of balance to demonstrate the open space below him and reveal the tight, pink hole between his cheeks, apparently thinking he can manage the both of them side by side...

One Nasty Cold Later...

Hail! I was out of commission for about a week on account of spending every waking moment wishing I was asleep, and every sleeping moment wishing I could breathe, so yes, bit of a delay. But I've gotten some more work in! Enough, I believe to bump the progress bar up a notch.

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The worst thing about these colds (or flu's, or whatever) is that they don't know when to go away. I could swear I've been past the worst of it for almost a week now, but I'm still all nasty and clogged up. Egh. Hope you guys are doing better out there! And here's another spoiler-ish, less depressing preview for the coming update!

I remember 'amateur magicians,' because it was like a double whammy of condescension. Magician is a nasty word at the college.

Halfway There!

Hopefully not time wise, but content wise, I do believe I'm at least halfway done with the basic content for v0.14. Not to jinx myself, but judging by previous releases, this is hopefully me picking up steam as the finish comes into sight :3

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And I'd like to take a moment to thank those of you who've been spontaneously donating of late ^.^; I know it doesn't make much sense to donate to a project when it seems to be stagnating like mine tends to between updates, but it feels a little like folks are cheering me on even when I falter, as silly as it sounds. As an extra bit of thanks, a rather longer preview. It's a little spoiler-y, so I've colored it to be harder to read unless you highlight it.

Hey. Everybody dies sometime. You sigh silently, pulling a vial from your pouch. When you break this seal, you have sixty seconds before the contents loses its potency.

Progress and a Tease

Another chunk written up. I swear I'm not playing favorites, but I'm pretty sure one of the three routes is going to come out a good deal heavier text-wise in this update. Can you guess which one??

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40% of the base required content for v0.14 complete! And now, a five-word preview from today's writing:

          You've hired my skills at

Where are We Now?

Hello, folks! My friends in the chat room, and the comments on FA, and just about everywhere, tell me I should hurry up and make another blog post, even if I'm ashamed of how little progress I've made with the game so far. Yes, the game is still going, though dreadfully slow in its pace for a variety of reasons of varying validity. As for how far along it is toward the next update... well, that's a bit tricky. I have one large goal for this next update, to release the first chunk of the new story. To be honest, I'm expecting this next step to be pretty controversial, and I wouldn't be surprised if some people are disappointed with it. The real payoff will be long in coming, as this is the first step toward an actual full on story and ending.

So my dilemma is: the story itself needs setting up, but this initial stage may be frustrating. There's a good-sized chunk of side content that I'm also looking at developing, however-- less story, more treats. So I can either set my goal for just getting this first chunk of story done and out, or I can push to include some goodies as well to make it a nice overall update. Looking back to my previous posts, I resolved to make smaller, more rapid updates, but obviously, the rapid part hasn't worked out so well so far. That said, for now, I'll be estimating my progress according to the minimal requirements for the next version, if only to lend myself some small sense of accomplishment and the accompanying sanity. So, to the progress bar!

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30% Completion! I've spent a while trying to get it all straight in my head, but yes, one of the three main routes is just about complete for this chunk of the story. As I've mentioned before, the three collars serve a specific purpose in the future of this game: they delineate the three primary paths the plot can take once it's underway. This reflects the three main styles of relationship you can have with Lith. A lot of people want to make dominant Lith a fourth path, but I see it more as an overlay for the other paths. Of course, in some areas, this will break down Lith's behavior with you into six or nine possibilities rather than three, but such is the grave I've dug myself. As ever, I thank you all for your support, and I hope you enjoy the new version when it finally arrives! I'll try to post again soon!