Livestream this Friday!

v0.10 is finally out, and I'm trying to put a little bit of everything in the code! If you want to see what's coming up, or get an idea of what this conversion stuff is I'm talking about, or just wanna come chat with folks interested in the game, come watch me code this coming Friday at 6 PM EST! If you aren't sure when EST is, check the handy clock widget on the right, under the survey.

As always, I'll be having an interview session for the intermission-- if you have any questions for Lithier or Lith, now's your chance to ask and get a big, proper answer for the records! Hope I'll see you all there! ^.^

On the Survey

If you haven't seen it already, MVOL v0.10 is up on the "play the game" page! Go fondle that poor kitty, he must be lonely!

Now. The survey on where to go from here has a week left, but it's already seen a much larger turnout of votes than I expected-- and more surprisingly, there seems to be very little consensus on an answer! There's easily the potential for one or two options to climb past 50% if they're widely favored as the survey stands, but I've watched it linger in the 40's at the highest for some time. Thinking about it, I realized that I might not be terribly clear in what each option means-- there's only so much space for questions without clogging up the survey, after all!

So, with that in mind, I thought I'd take a little time to clarify what my thoughts are behind each option. If you find you've changed your opinion on what you'd like to see next after reading this, you should be able to easily change your response to the survey by clicking the "change your vote" link near the bottom of the survey.

Vagina/NoDick for your Avatar Your avatar being the crude, humanoid representation of your will that interacts with Lith on your behalf, the one referred to as "you" when you play the game-- this would unlock the option of having a vagina either instead of or in addition to a dick. This would not be considered the "main mode" of play, however, and the player would have less options available to them if they didn't have a dick-- due to the nature of Lith himself. Some achievements would be impossible, and there would likely be fewer sex scenes available, but the game would have a good deal of content adapted to handle avatars sans dick.
Vagina/NoDick for Lith (cuntboy? maleherm?)
Technically, the idea of Lith being female is split into two things here. This one would unlock the option for Lith to have a vagina instead of or in addition to his dick. He would still be referred to as "he," but could be configured to be a woman anatomically by some means or other. I haven't spent a lot of time just yet figuring out exactly how that would work-- whether it would be a transformation you could induce in game, or something you set at the beginning. The former would make more sense, probably, but the latter would be more "convenient." Anyway, people that like vaginas would probably be interested in this. Breasts may get thrown in with this, as they shouldn't be as hard to add, relatively.   Girl Lith ("she" and "her")
The other big problem with trying to make Lith a girl is that, whereas the game always says "you," which is gender neutral, it says "he" all the time in reference to Lith. Going through the entire game and setting it up such that Lith would be referred to as female is a massive undertaking on its own. With the combination of this and the above option, Lith would effectively be a woman-- but each have their possibilities if used alone. Breasts could also be included with this option, effectively making Lith a shemale by most definitions, or simply a transgender of some kind without-- a cat with a penis that identifies as female. With just the V/ND option above, he would still be referred to as "he," hence the suggestion of such things as cuntboy and maleherm, the terms I've heard used for a "he" that has a vagina-- with and without a dick, respectively.   Bonus Mode, play as Lith interacting with Avatar
I've had this option in the back of my mind for a long time-- ever since I realized that I had, in a way, made a serious mistake in designing MVOL. The largest audience, as far as I know, for Lith's exploits in the stories you all met him in was people that enjoy being on the bottom-- people that like to fantasize about being Lith. But when I made this game, I put the player quite explicitly in the viewpoint of an outsider-- the often-dominant partner that interacts with Lith. So in an effort to mend this oversight, I've formulated the rough idea of an alternate reality: dreams. The idea would be that, when you sleep, you have the option to "dream" of being Lith, interacting with your avatar. And whatever your avatar has become under your guidance is the creature Lith must interact with, for good or ill, naughty or nice. It would be a much shallower experience, with few options and scenes, but at least one or two for each possible configuration of your avatar, as the options come up. If it saw a lot of interest, I'd likely expand it, but it would never become the "point" of the game, or sizeable to match what already exists, I'm afraid. But it may well be what some folks were looking for when they first came to find out that the character they knew and read of was being imported into this game.   Dominant Lith
Hard as it may be to believe, Lith is a switch! He can greatly enjoy getting pounded every day of the week and every hour thereof, though he might never admit it, but he also is quite fond of doing some rutting of his own when the situation is right. This option would essentially add another variable to the game-- how dominant Lith sees himself in your relationship. If you submit to and pleasure him often, he'll grow more confident, and start taking a more active hand, eventually mounting you more than you mount him. Of course, he'll never lose his love for cock, but you'll see a side of him that has been exposed very little in my past work, and that some people have professed a deal of interest in.   More Detail for my Avatar in regular scenes (species, endowment size, demeanor, knot)
As I mentioned recently, my code as it stands is somewhat cumbersome. I've recently expanded my programming vocabulary into the wonderful realm of parsing, however, and adding extra code to stories should be a deal less cumbersome and distracting than it was originally. So where many scenes in the game might only make reference to the size of your phallus a couple times and your species only so far as whether you have paws and/or a knot, I would much more easily be able to go through and customize scenes to reflect your individual avatar's variables-- cock size, breasts, species, naughty vs. nice, how well you know him, perhaps these other variables we've been talking about adding. Classic scenes, already in the game, would essentially be revamped with new content to nod to who and what you have made of your avatar, and I would also know that this is a priority for writing in the future, if it has a large showing in the votes.   More Endowment Options for Avatar (larger breasts/dick, other?) There was a bit of fuss early on in the game's development when, for basically the reasons above, I trimmed out some of the extra options for the avatar. Some of them, like ball size and dick thickness, were folded into dick length to make an overall size stat, and I've been pretty happy with that. But things like larger sizes for breasts and dick would be more doable now, and I could certainly see there being a significant demand for them. I've already gone ahead and included more species-- that wasn't that hard to implement, though it may come back to bite me if I'm retrofitting old scenes more thoroughly according to the option before this one. For other options, I'm open to suggestions-- I don't imagine there's a very large demand for smaller breasts and dicks for the avatar, but configurations such as alternate heights or builds? Tall and muscular, short and effeminate, towering and curvy? I don't know if these would be huge appeals to a lot of people-- it is, as ever, a matter of what's more appealing, and a better use of time and energy.   The point of this survey as a whole is to get a better idea of what would be most appealing to everyone, what they most direly desire to see added to the game, and immediately. These are all options I'm considering, but they might not all make it, and many of them will probably have to wait quite a while. So, what is most important to you? That's what you should vote for.   Thanks for taking the time to read all this, and for playing my game! Happy voting!

MVOL v0.10 is Live!

The update is here: MVOL v0.10! I felt it was time to bump up the number a bit, even though v0.05 was probably a larger jump forward than this one-- this version represents the closest we're going to see to 100% of the content I was planning to include in this game. From here, I'm expanding beyond my original vision to include a longer plot and more options for the players for how to interact with our favorite slutty kitty.

That said, I should warn that v0.10 is actually going to be the hardest version yet-- and may be the hardest version that ever comes out. The path system I set up in v0.05 finally comes together with the first of its two main purposes here: a new set of Player Achievements that require you to be intimately familiar with the game! Your goal is to achieve a certain value without so much as thinking about doing anything inappropriate to your "true" self. That's your hint, good luck!

If you need any further help, Petre's guides actually still apply quite well-- I wrote them anticipating this content. You only need to figure out a little more at the very end to get these achievements...

Also new with this update: I've gotten a proper donate button, which you should find through a link on the sidebar to the right! Any and all donations are welcome, and as a small incentive, I've prepared an alternative version of My Very Own Lith with a handful of interesting cheats enabled, including the ability to change many of your avatar's stats and some of Lith's on the fly, as well as explore the content of the game a bit more directly rather than going through the standard decision tree and pushing up variables. Please note, however, that the cheat version has many potential glitches, and that you cannot earn achievements in this version! Other than that, you are free to use your saves in either version of the game. To learn more about MVOL+ and why you should (or shouldn't) donate, check out the "Why Donate?" link to the right!

I can't say that I ever expected this blog to have to sit around this long before finally getting another update. I'd been pretty hesitant at the time about making this blog at all, but I have to admit it's actually helped keep me on track more than once-- if only because people kept coming back, and making it clear to me they still wanted more. I won't go into too much detail, but I've been through a lot of motivational trouble trying to get back into making this game. Part of that was the feeling that I was sinking too much time into something that's not putting food on the table, so I hope that this new donation option might make this a more legitimate option for me to put man-hours into compared to writing commissions or actual work.

Beyond that, though, I've dealt with a lot of frustrations in this project. This update in particular felt a lot like I was trying to write "the same, but more so," and it was hard to get fired up about adding content that felt like it would be the exact same thing. I feel like it came out as pretty distinguished material in the end, though not as good as I would have liked. From here on, though, it sounds like I'm going to be starting to explore new kinds of content at long last, as some of my peculiar ideas and fantasies come closer to seeing fruition. This, combined with the new code I've implemented for more flexible output, makes me hopeful for a more robust update schedule! I'm also planning on releasing content in smaller chunks if I can help it-- meaning less content at a time, with few new achievements, but more rapid updates to the game. I hope that this will be a bit more to everyone's liking, and keep me working on things more steadily rather than lapsing into shameful silence as I have in the past. I have found that there is a deadly cycle in the shame of being unproductive, and it is easy to fall into the immediate gratification of other, less useful things...

So! This update isn't everything I'd like it to be, nor has it come as soon as I would have hoped, but I feel like I've finally done enough to warrant a proper update, and one that should stand on its own as a challenging experience. In the immediate future, I plan to add more content to make the process easier as a whole before going on to add more storyline content, so if you enjoy the challenge MVOL offers, this version is surely for you. If not, the guides are in the blog archives, and they should serve you well enough! (Befriend/Seduce/Use) Thank you all for your patience, and I hope you enjoy v0.10.

Oh My Goodness!

Well, I seem to finally be on a bit of a proper productive kick! MVOL has now entered the playtesting and touching up phase, and I'm planning on releasing the next version this coming Friday!

If you have been so kind as to root around in the current game and send me typos and glitches and such to fix up, keep an eye on your inboxes, as I'm planning on sending out batches of new content to be proofread tonight, and possibly a playtest copy of the game to be double-checked for bugs. If you haven't, but you're just dying to see new material as soon as possible, try hunting down and sending me some typos and glitches! Break the game, furs and scalies!

Additionally, if you're looking to help out in other ways, there are two big new options coming up. The first is that I'm getting to work on an overhaul for the formatting of my code-- if and when this is completed, the game will be much more flexible and easily customized, such that scenes can reflect your character with more precision and with more possible options for you and even Lith! But the hard part is that alllll the text in the game needs to be reformatted. So if you have meticulous eyes and a lot of patience, email me (lithiers@gmail.com) to talk about helping with the conversion!

The second new option is donations! On Friday, I'll also be opening up a proper Donate button through Paypal to make it a little easier for folks that want to show their support in a more pecuniary manner. And to show my thanks for these kind supporters, I'll email every donator, whatever the size of their donation, a special, cheat-enabled version of the game! What exactly this all entails will be explained on Friday, but if you're interested, you'll be able to donate by either Paypal account or credit card readily, so you've got a couple days to make sure you've one or the other.

That all said, I hope this new version is worth the wait I've put you all through ^.^; I never expected it to take this long to put out another version on this blog, and I'll be discussing the process I've been through and what I see in the future of this game on Friday as well. Thank you all for your patience and attention, and I'll see you Friday!

Progress!

Phew! I've just finished completing one of the tougher scenes I've been staring at for some time now ^.^; These things always surprise me a little with how they come out x3 But I'm hoping you all will enjoy when you get your hands on it! I now have... let's see... four new scenes ready for the next version! I've got one more big one to tackle, some extra bits here and there to add, and some playtesting/refining to do. So the progress bar is now:

(+++++++===)

We're getting there! ~.~ My current plan is to complete this update, where the game will finally be considered in a semi-complete state slightly beyond what you already have-- and I'll start putting out smaller updates more often past it. Thanks again to everyone for all your patience, and for checking back despite the inactivity! With a little luck, I may well have the game out before the end of the year :3 Fingers crossed!

Last Night's Interview

Thanks to everyone that came to the Livestream last night ^.^ We tackled some interesting questions, and Lith and I got rather wordy in the process. I hope this makes an interesting reading for folks!

Interview Transcript

Your questions, our answers! Lith and Lithier will take all comers in query format, so this is your chance to learn, to pry, and to educate the world! We're starting with Lith.

Xanes : tell me Lith, how is it being a cat? don't you sometimes wonder how it would be as a Wolf,Dragon, or maybe a lizard.

Lith: Oh o.o Well, I don't know how much I'd want to be a cat if I was born something else, but living with it all these years, I'm inclined to think it rather suits me :3 But it's hard to say how much of my being comfortable in being a cat is just because I'm so used to it, you know? I know I have a lot of traits that people identify as cat-like, so it's kind of hard to say if I'd still have those if I was something else. I guess what it comes down to is-- your species is a part of your identity just as much as anything else. Would I be the same person if I had a different father or mother? That's all awfully philosophical ^.^; But suffice it to say, I'm pretty happy with being a cat. We get it pretty easy-- people don't expect us to do too much, and nobody really discriminates against us like they do against, say, snakes, or rats. And of course I wonder about being something else :3 Don't we all? I'm inclined to think I'd be kind of an... underwhelming example in races like those, though. I'd be a pretty quiet wolf, I imagine, and... well, I don't know, I guess it depends on what kind of lizard I was o.o As a dragon, though...? That's a very odd thought ~.~; I know some of them can fly on their own, and I'd be hard pressed to say I wasn't interested in that... But overall, I think I'm pretty happy with who, and what, I am :3 At least, in these respects...

link45oo : Lith, what do you look for in a significant other? Not just someone who you want to mess around with, but someone on a more intimate level?

Lith: Oh. Well... I guess I'm not too sure ^.^; There's a small problem with the question, in that I don't really look for that possibility in people. I've run into a lot of people that have been interested in making a more permanent relationship with me over the last few years, and sometimes I've kind of gone along with it, but somehow, it's never really worked out... As things are now, I have a lot of friends, and some of those relationships are more physically based than others, but I tend to avoid that sort of thing, I guess. It's never really felt right. Maybe that will change some day, or maybe I'll be kind of a drifter to the end of my days ^.^;; If I had to guess as to the kind of person that might suit me best, though... I guess it'd be someone kind, and patient. Someone that I could trust to be absolutely honest with me, and that I could trust enough to be absolutely honest with them, without being afraid of it all falling apart. I guess... I guess a big part of it would be trust o.o It's kind of a rare asset anymore... Well. I hope that answers your question...

Xanes : do you sometime wonder how is it is being a girl? and has there been times were you wished you were a girl?

Lith: Well, I think I have a bit more insight in a couple ways into what it's like being a girl than most guys ^.^;; Er o_o And not just like that! @///@; But um! I mean. I've been kind of more... sensitive than a lot of guys all my life, and especially as I started... interacting more with guys... I think I got more of a feel of how a lot of women feel ^.^; I even found women tend to make more sense... But sure, I wonder sometimes, even so. Although, usually for more... illicit reasons, I guess. Along those lines, I think that most times I wished I was a girl were when I was a fair deal younger... things like wondering about boobs, or when I was considering the women's locker room ^.^;; If you're talking about in the transgender fashion, that's never really been my thing, no. I've known men that were very interested in being women, and it's a pretty interesting concept to explore, but I've generally been pretty happy with my gender-- when I'm not ashamed to be a man ^.^; It comes up sometimes, especially listening to some girls' horror stories...

link45oo : I've also have another question. Lith, do you have any philosophical thoughts, or just life lessons in general that you want to share with us?

Lith: Goodness. If you'd asked me four or five years ago, I would've had a lot for you ^.^; But I think I've grown just enough to realize that sometimes, just because things make sense, doesn't mean they're right, or best. So my list of absolute truths in life is somewhat... shortened. I used to believe that honesty was absolutely always the best policy-- that every lie is a hurtful thing, inherently. But the world is a complicated place, and people are complicated things, imperfect and full of desperate needs. Sometimes, a lie is what we need to keep going-- and sometimes, that's more important than anything else. I'm getting really vague now ^.^; The only things that have really held up... Balance. I mentioned it before, and I'll bring it up now. The world is all about balance, and if you try to push things too much one way or the other, either the world will push back, or it'll just all come apart. Balance is essential to all things. Every disadvantage comes with an advantage, and every boon comes with a curse. You can call it karma if you like. If you live a balanced life, then you're ready for when life pushes you-- but if you aren't, then you'll be the one that's falling apart. And one truth that is really hard to accept-- something I've been working on for years. Every single person in the world, no matter how stupid or hateful or ignorant or endlessly frustrating they may seem-- is a real person, just like you, full of desire and hope and pain and fear. And it's hard to really wrap your head around that-- we get through life by looking at the people that frustrate us and just saying "oh, he's just a dick," or "forget her, she's an idiot," or some horrible thing like that, reducing the miracle that is a living, sentient being to a single word, a one-dimensional concept. And that is a crime against that person, and against yourself. You might not know what drives them to be who they are and do what they do, but at their core, there's always a dreadfully good reason. Sometimes, this is the best they can do when they're already trying to hold back so much, because it hurts so much inside... And if you can just see that in every person... If we could all come to understand this one fact about each other, and the entire world... I think we could become... better. Objectively, undeniably better as living beings. That's what I want to share, philosophically. It is simple in concept, but mind-crushingly difficult in execution. But it is my one hope.

Xanes : do you have family? if you do, then i would like to know more about them. if you don't have a family, then how was your whole childhood?

Lith: Well, I'm an only child, but I did live with my mother and father. I'm afraid that they haven't received proper names from the great overlord of the world yet, so that part's a bit ambiguous ^.^; My mother had a large family, though, so I have a fair deal of aunts and uncles, and some cousins that I meet very occasionally. My childhood was pretty good, all things considered, I think-- my dad wasn't home a lot, but he still got along pretty well with my mom, and they're still married to this day, which seems to be more of a miracle than ever, looking at the world. I still talk with them, probably every week or two, when I'm not trapped in an infinite void with no phone service or internet. I'm pretty distant from the rest of the family, though-- we haven't even gotten together for Thanksgiving in several years now ^.^;

Xanes : why do you like dicks so much? what happend to you when you were young?

Lith: Oh o//o; Er, I wasn't-- you know, molested or anything like that, if that's what you mean. At least, not in that old psych book way @_@ I was pretty... "normal," when I was younger, besides my interests in games and anime and all that. All of... that... didn't really come up until late in high school. I met a girl that, um... well, she fit the definition loosely, and she taught me a lot of things. It was a pretty rough experience, looking back, but... well, I have a lot of fond memories. And she kind of... shoved me headfirst into the lifestyle I have today ^.^;; I have no idea where I'd be if it wasn't for her. Maybe I'd have a steady girlfriend and never have known the difference, or maybe I'd have eventually, um, found out on my own... or maybe I would have just... felt like I was missing something, all my life. But looking back, even with all the regrets I have now... I think I'm glad it happened ^.^; Not all the time, but most of the time.

(Editor's note: These events are described in detail in the story series, 'Learning Lessons.' Check the accounts listed under "Other Places!")

Lith's questions come to a close here, and we switch to an interview with Lithier, the writer and creator.

Xanes : what is your opinion on the furry community?

Lithier: The furry community is a pretty diverse place to make any blanket statements about, or to bear any particular opinion on. The more I've seen of it, the more I've been amazed with just how much variety there is in the formation of groups and relationships, and in what it seems to mean to people to be furry. Overall, one of the strongest attributes of the furry community to me seems to be its sensitivity-- in a good and a bad way. Speaking in the most general way possible, furries tend to be more accepting and welcoming than the average group, or the average stranger-- especially on the internet. Entering any group for the first time, I've seen little in the way of hazing or rejection, and a good deal of kindness, patience, and open thinking. I play now and again on furry TF2 servers, and I've often heard it remarked from other players that they aren't even furry, but the community is so friendly compared to other servers that they keep coming back anyway. I attended a local furmeet all of once, and I was welcomed readily into the group, embraced socially as readily as anyone else, it seemed. And of course, as a writer and creator on SF and FA, I've been the recipient of a lot of kind words and generous sentiments. Overall, the furry community has a very positive sensitivity to it-- but, of course, it also has its negative. Sensitivity has a price, after all. Furries are renowned for their Drama. Emotional turbulence charges exchanges at random, and people will tend to be very open about expressing their frustration, especially with another member of the community. This is, I think, a natural element of an online community-- specifically, it is the polaric opposite of the troll epidemic. In an online community where everybody is cryptic and anonymous and keeps everything to themselves, trolling is a common form of combined entertainment and emotional venting. But in a community where people take the time to care about each other-- that's when emotion enters center stage, full of violent and raw energy. So that's the drawback to a kind and open community-- a sincere and open torrent of emotion. These are the main things I've seen in the furry community that seem to span it from one end to the other, though some of it may be more oriented on the internet community-- I have frightfully little experience with the offline form. But it has proven a fine place to dwell and sharpen my abilities, and I've been very grateful for its existence, and how open it is to all the concepts the mind can conjure. This could be, of course, partly symptomatic of simply being the latest oppressed minority, but that, along with the peculiar question of sensuality in the furry community, is a whole bundle of thoughts for another time.

link45oo : Ever think of having a certain "person" from Lith's past showing up in-game and kind of changing the game?

Lithier: I have had plans for some time to have other actors of sorts make cameos in the game-- some pre-existing, some not. I think you might be surprised who I pull onto the stage, though :3 But! That's for another update. Keep that under your hat.

Xanes : why did you make Lith as a cat, and why did you desired to make him gay? is Lith the whole purpose of MVOL?

Lithier: Lith was a character of mine before I started writing properly-- to be perfectly honest, he was originally created for the purpose of roleplaying, back when I had the time for all that. I actually used him to explore my sexuality when I was younger, and I learned a lot about myself through him. He developed his own personality over time, becoming a sort of creature of fantasy based on the best reasoning I could find. He started as a cat because I was just looking for something to play as-- and I owned a black cat. A pussycat, actually. I'd considered several alternatives, but that seemed the most comfortable at the time, and Lith grew into his nature well. I had no reason to change him later-- being a cat was perfect for him, and as he'd said himself, being some other species could change who he was substantially. His orientation is-- he's not gay, but some kind of omnisexual. He is a paragon of open-minded sexual exploration, with a strong fixation on certain pieces of anatomy. If you wanted to pin his sexuality as attached to any one gender, it would have to be hermaphrodites xP But transexual already means something else :p And yes, Lith is essentially the focus of the entirety of MVOL-- the game is, above all other things, intended to be a Lith simulator. That's why suggestions to make Lith some drastically different thing or to go focus more on other characters don't get very far with me-- I might be receptive to the idea in general, but that's not what this game is about. My goal is, in a way, to capture the entirety of what Lith is, in this game. When the game is complete, someone that has played it all the way through, in every nook and cranny, may very well know just as much about Lith as I do. Or at least, that is, in a way, my ultimate objective.

Xanes : do you sometimes wonder how it is being Anthropomorphism ( a real live furry )

Lithier: Well, wondering that is basically how I start every piece of writing involving furries :P My style of writing involves digging into the mechanics of everything involved and trying to kind of simulate every detail of reality in my mind-- and from these details, I pluck the juiciest, the most striking, the most defining parts to write a story. So I spend a lot of time thinking about how it would work to be a living, humanoid snake, or how it works to have one's body stretch in this way, or what the social undertones of certain interactions would be-- because a little snippet of that thrown in at the right moment can really give the story life. If you mean from the perspective of imagining being an anthropomorphic animal myself, though, I can't say that I've given it a lot of thought. Furries engage me as a concept, and I can wrestle with that concept indefinitely and have many fulfilling evenings of contemplation and discovery, but I can't say that I, personally, really wish that I was a humanoid cat, or dragon, or what have you. Some of it sounds cool, but I also have respect for what we are. Our very existence, just as humans, is miraculous in uncountable ways. Humanity is, on the scale of evolution and life, some kind of terrifying explosion, transforming and questioning itself and becoming more and more developed in a matter of centuries where life usually develops over hundreds of millenia. If I try to imagine how it would work for every species on earth to develop a humanoid form at the same time, or for some event to generate all these different species, fully cognizant and capable of abstract thought and the use of tools-- all I can honestly imagine is global disaster. Maybe the biggest miracle of any "furry" world is that all the different species live in harmony in most incarnations, and work together for the betterment of the whole. It's very difficult to seriously consider the implications of a world of furries without first tackling the prospect of world-wide war, considering we humans, as a single species, already have such a hard time getting along... So maybe I'm something of a spoil sport, or maybe I'm taking a bit too realistic or even pessimistic approach to it, but I can't say that it's ever been a big appeal to me as a concept ^.^;

Xanes : do you plan on doing commentary later in the future with people from your stream, or just solo commentary?

Lithier: This particular format doesn't make back-and-forth discussions work quite as well, but I'd welcome additional questions regarding something I've already said ^.^; That might encourage me to keep my answers relatively short, if I can expect people to request that I expound specifically on what they're interested in hearing about xP

Xanes : what do you do for a living?

Lithier: I'm afraid I won't be answering that specifically-- I've kept a rather old-fashioned policy that is part old habit and part statement. One of the most valuable facets of the internet to me is the anonymity-- that anyone can assume an alias and be a new person, and develop their identity from that moment on, independent of the real world. As of this moment, I'm keeping that separation-- I am Lithier, and while there are some extenuating circumstances that might affect me originating in that place called IRL, I prefer to otherwise present myself as an entity on the internet. That might seem strange to some folks, especially with the spread of facebook and tweeting and all that filling the internet with faces and real names, but that is the internet I grew up with, and it's what I cling to now. If I had my way, I'd make my living writing for you kind folks-- but I don't know how practical that will ever be. For now, we will see! And I hope you all will forgive me my strange ways.

Progress Report!

I've been told folks would like to hear the latest on how the game is coming along! Truth be told, I've been pretty quiet on that for a while mainly because I've been embarrassed with how little I'd actually gotten done. I'd hoped that the illusion of some significant amount of work would be better than killing Schrodinger's cat, and also your hopes and dreams. But! I've been making some progress at last. It's still not lots and lots, but the game is moving!

My current goal for the next release, in cryptic terms, is three big scenes, two small ones, and some extra stuff. I've currently completed one big scene, one small one that turned out rather big, and some of the extra stuff. So, tagging on some playtesting on the end, I'd say I can graphically represent the progress to the next version:

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I know it doesn't look like much @_@ My apologies to everyone that's waiting with bated breath! I'm hoping that things will gradually get more regular from here. If you want to help, check out the Help Out! tab above this post! And if you'd like to show your support, I'll be streaming this Friday at 7 PM EST-- and if you don't know what that is, check out the handy dandy lil clock in the column on the right! This project is competing for my pen with a couple others, but it's coming along @_@ My thanks to everyone that comes to check in on things!