#development update

[andrabeets]

Dandori Downpour - A Pikmin 4 Dating Sim - August 3rd Development Blog

Welcome to the eighth installment of the Rescue Corps/Pikmin 4 Dating Sim development blog! A "news letter" where I will discuss my progress on the dating simulator.

Here's an updated video of the character creator with the new assets!

I ran out of questions last week so I asked: Who would you trust the most on a deserted island with you?

Survey says

Shepherd & Collin tied!

Obviously... No bias here... I would pick Shepherd.. Even if we'd both be screaming at the slightest bush rustle.

---

What has been done since last time?

Blinking sprites for all castaways and Rescue Corps

Exporting and troubleshooting new create-a-character assets

Finish all castaways sprites needed for the game! 🎉

1 Background

1 of Russ' CGs

Started another Russ CG

Started 1 of Collin's CGs

Planned special mechanic for someone's route 👀

Began writing Shepherd's route in Twine

Began implementation of Intro in game

Yonny's route planning

Tweaked Dingo's and Russ' sprites a bit

Set up better sprite exporting system for Rescue Corps characters

So a lot done! There may even be more that I forgot about.

Release News...

I've been thinking these past few weeks about when I think/when I'd like to release this game... It's very hard to pin point as I am a perfectionist. However, I think I've changed my mind on releasing the first 3 routes then releasing the other 3 later. I feel like if I release the first 3 routes, I'll get bored of the project and just give up on the last 3. Also, I think it's better to have a finished product come out all together!

As for release, I won't lie, it's anticipated for 2026. YEAH... Going into this project, I truly thought I could handle it in a summer's time (At least 3 routes) but now that it's August, I'm not really that close! Don't get me wrong, I've made great progress, but with my day job and side gig, it's definitely a lot slower. And my ADHD.

I'm super dedicated to the project, however! I am taking an unpaid week off in October just to work on DD. I am gonna plan and attack that week "game jam" style then completely burn out when I return to my day job hahaha then in December, I have another week off due to the holidays where I'll have extra time between events to work my ass off. Here's to hoping! Also, I might turn this newsletter into a "whenever I feel like it" sort of thing. Most likely monthly? And polls will now be what you guys would like to see as a preview.

Speaking of..

POLL TIME!

I hope you guys are as excited as I am for this project, I'm super duper excited for the day I can share it with you! Just needs to bake in the oven for a while. But for now, vote on which preview you'd like!

As always, feel free to reach out, say hello, give ideas, what have you. I appreciate your support!

Stay curious!~

andrabeets / Cherie <333

[blight-if]

It's out! Play and have fun!

Unexpected scene and set up to a zombie apocalypse story

In text character creation that flows

Cast of interesting platonic side characters

Underlying tension

Mystery romance option that you may or may not choose

Introduces the MC's "normal" life

And then, with aggression, it strips it away

Ends on a cliffhanger

@interact-if

[allieebobo]

Update No. 9 (and apologies!)

Very sorry for how long this chapter has taken, but good news is: I’m finally done with the draft of the entire full chapter! It’s now undergoing testing and editing, and should be out / ready for ko-fi supporters on Oct 5.

It has been a real journey (I’m not sure why but this chapter was really challenging to write, mostly because I really wanted to make sure I did enough credit to the possible routes/branching and also cater an experience that even non-Sam romancers would be able to enjoy.) I'm not sure if I fully succeeded, but it's a WIP—with the amount of rewrites I do to earlier chapters... I'm sure I'll improve this one in the months to come as well. !

In any case. Without further ado, I present to you the features for the fifth chapter / update No. 9, and thank you all so much for being so patient with me and supportive!

Update No. 9 Features

Sam attending team dinner (when the flamenco music comes on, you can choose to… get cozy with Sam/Rayyan/Tobin)

Team party on Friday night (participate in a drinking game known as the Devil’s Dozen (party edition). Partner Sam, Tobin, or Rayyan and get… drunk (or not. Non-alcoholic drinks are available too!)

Share a bed with Sam… pt. 1.

Go out to a fancy Italian restaurant on Saturday with Sam (you can choose to wear something nice or not), and then head to a bar afterward.

Share a bed with Sam… pt. 2. [exclusive to Sam romancers]

Have a (tough?) conversation before Sam leaves on Sunday (or you might’ve had the tough conversation earlier on Saturday).

P.S. Sorry again for how long this update has been ‘in the works’, but I can't wait to share it with you all!

If you sent in bugs/errors/suggested improvements earlier, I’m so sorry but could I possibly get you to send it to my gmail (allieebobo@gmail.com) for easier referencing if I haven’t gotten to it yet? The forum thread’s really hard for me to keep track of, so I think I might’ve missed quite a few things!

[pawborough]

January Check In

Hello, all!

Happy update day, catfolk! We apologize for the late update, but we wanted to share the Beta dates with you in this update. We took extra time to ensure the dates were accurate without risking something not being ready in time or causing burnout for our team. We’ve done quite a bit of internal assessment on the pros and cons of letting ~2,000+ people into the game. 

Our most pressing thought was how to reconcile needing to continue working on key features while getting valuable feedback and play data on all that we already have. There was a lot to consider, in reputation, timeline, and team morale. We did not want to give the wrong impression that we felt anywhere close to a done game, but we have a lot of high fidelity mechanics and playability to share which need high population testing regardless. We’ve finally settled on rolling our sleeves up and opening to testers. At the start, we’ll provide a comprehensive breakdown of everything we’re planning to add over the months of the test, and continue our monthly check-ins on our progress. We’re ready to grind, and we hope you are too! And in many ways, it will be much nicer to get the comprehensive mass testing whenever we have something new to roll out!

We hope you will all agree that this update was worth the wait, as we have exciting news to share with you today, along with our most exciting news yet! :)

Accessory Progress

We are proud to announce that we have 47 unique accessories, altogether with 564 color variations. 

We have just about reached the edge of our odyssey in the first production run of accessories. After 8 months of practice and training for our fledgling team, we’ve improved immensely at our pipeline. What has previously taken us months now takes a matter of weeks. We have one more backer accessory to develop, and any additions in the near future will be small, simplistic items in comparison to our full sets, but I’m very proud of the team for how far we’ve come, and the marvel of quality they produce in good time.

This month’s new progress includes:

Frog Friends

Illustration by Remmie, sponsored by Hag

Protogear Recolors

Recolors by Emma

New decor

We’ve also been busy with decors. 

Argh, matey! 

Macaws by Jersopod, cannon, barrel and newspaper stack by Giulia and Remmie

In addition, style compliant sketches of the original rose decor!

Sketches by Remmie

Archetypes

We’re here to introduce a very exciting mechanic that has been in the works since our initial overhaul. It’s one of my personal favorite concepts, and the primary motivation behind how we’ve structured the cat design system.

Introducing… cat archetypes!

Archetypes are a specific combination of traits which, when fulfilled, mark the cat’s profile with a badge and reward the user as an achievement fulfillment. (If the cat’s traits are changed, the badge will be removed. Cats may fulfill multiple Archetypes simultaneously.)

For example, this badge means the cat fulfills the Ruby archetype, a badge which requires the cat to have the color Ruby in all slots.

Examples of the Ruby archetype include:

To give examples of the specificity, other Archetypes include for example “Leopard,” which must have the following to comply:

A Yellow range Leopard overcoat

Light Greyscale or Light Yellow undercoat

Yellow or Greyscale Claws

None for the second accent

Here are some Leopards!

Owning these cats will give the user rewards, sometimes completely custom to the Archetype. 

What we hope to achieve with this system is a greater incentive to think creatively within the restrictions of our cat builder, and to reward our players for intentioned play in collecting, breeding, and designing a variety of cats. After all, it is the core of the game!

And with each new addition of colors or patterns, we’ll release an onslaught of new Archetypes! We plan to introduce a healthy amount of them, some easy to get, and some harder depending on genetic obtainability and the obtainment method.

This system is already up and running on our servers, and is in its infancy. We’ll get a lot of data from testing it out!

Originally, this system was on the backburner while we focused on bigger picture mechanics, but we’ve fast tracked it so we can bolster and better encourage casual play while the Guild system is still in its preliminary beta state. 

Pelt System

Perhaps the feature we are most excited to see in use and tested is the Pelt System, which we briefly introduced in the 2024 November Check In. There is a frankly insane amount of functionality behind this feature, which includes autonomous user decision and interaction every step of the way. 

First, we were able to implement dynamic layering. This means that Unclipped (top layer) pelts can actually sport layers which are placed behind the cat automatically. Valuable uses for this feature include the inside of sleeves, backs of hoods, and items which you would otherwise always want to go behind anything it’s stacked above.

Users can view their pelts already submitted, see their submission progress, choose to submit more to the pelt, choose to print their pelt themselves, choose to list pelts for buyers to print on demand, and view their pelts on any cat.

There is also a draft system which allows users to store information they aren’t ready to submit yet. 

Users can list pelts as a print-on-demand resource, and are able to control how many copies they will allow to be printed. 

All prints will require a tax which will be dependent on the coverage %, calculated based on the amount of pixels that cover the canvas. This means that small pelts, like a hat or a monocle, will take only a small tax!

AND we have a rudimentary tagging system going as we experiment with this feature! Big news! Once we iron out the kinks, we’ll be able to roll out user filtering and tagging of other content, such as cats or forum posts.

And drumroll please…

As teased at the beginning of this update, we are overjoyed to announce the Closed Beta dates!  Early access launches on February 3rd, with the regular Closed Beta starting on February 6th!

During the Closed Beta, you’ll have the chance to experience many new and polished gameplay features, exciting customization options, and the now refined economy! We encourage all testers to not only find any potential bugs and ui improvements, but also to provide feedback and suggestions on all of our game features and our economy!

All 253 Early Beta, 1940 Beta and Kickstarter codes have been generated, and we will begin sending them out shortly over the next day.

In the coming week, we’ll put out writings on our expectations early on and the features roadmap that we’re currently staring at. We can’t wait to see you all in Kotemara soon!

To summarize: We shared decors, Protogear recoloring, Frog Friends, pelt system showcase, archetypes and closed Beta dates.

What to expect next month: Further asset and development updates. Check-ins for how closed Beta will be going.

[stellarbonds]

⭐🌙Item Sprites!🌙⭐

The Stellar Crew is hard at work with development! We can't show all too much now, but just know that progress is being made! In the meantime however, We do have a small teaser for some items that we hope you'll enjoy!

[immortal-if]

Development update #8 - 9/3/25 (11.56pm so barely)

Might do updates on Sundays seeing as I do most of my writing over the weekends.

Still been working at the opening scenes of chapter 2. Don't know what it is about the scene that I've been struggling with but I think I'm going to move on over this week and come back to it else be stuck on it for months more. This is what the rewrite/edit process is for.

Trying to add in options for the decoration of the investigator's home as well as clothing options and it's not helped by the fact that I have no sense of style. Was writing out outfit options and realised most of them had jeans so might have separate options for upper and lower half 🤔

It's just hit midnight here so happy Monday, I'm off to find a globe for my lesson tomorrow (today?) and then sleep.

As always have a wonderful week :)

-Robin

[mythauragame]

Development Update - December 2023

Hi folks, a very Happy New Year to you!

In the spirit of new beginnings, Mythaura has entered a new chapter in its development, which we detail in our December development update. We also take time to review what was accomplished in 2023 (our first full calendar year with Mythaura!).

We've also got our color contest winners, the winning Fighter companion, and much, much more. And of course: our demo is now live! We're so excited for you to traverse the Wild Area, a procedurally generated map with monsters for your team of three Beasts to defeat.

Demo Trailer

Message From The Developers

We're thrilled to share this pivotal update about Mythaura’s development journey, which showcases many of the core features we have planned for this game. Today marks a significant transition: we're shifting from the intricate and challenging phase of game engine development to the exciting realm of feature development.

Since beginning this project, our focus has been on scoping and then crafting robust and core components. Features such as wild areas, battle, and multiplayer systems, not to mention the complex breeding system, passive effect management, player inventory system, and the beast image engine. We've also been diligently integrating these elements with complex user interfaces and ensuring they will work on most devices (an ever ongoing battle). It's been a journey of overcoming unknowns and technical challenges, and we're proud of what we've achieved.

Now, we're entering a new chapter. Our attention turns to fleshing out the game's features, with a special focus on developing an immersive questing and dialogue system, towns & shops, skill trees & progression, and tools for content development among other needed feature development. The hardest challenges have by and large been solved at this stage and our focus can now be how to best deliver an amazing gaming experience by bringing them together. This shift doesn't mean the work is done—far from it. But it's a major milestone that brings us closer to realizing our vision for the game.

We want to express our heartfelt gratitude for your unwavering support and enthusiasm, and look forward to a jam packed 2024.

Year In Review

This year has been marked by numerous milestones. Below is a recap of our key accomplishments, excluding the latest updates which have been a major focus of our efforts for the past several months.

1. Introduction of 'Supers': Enhanced breeding complexity by introducing 'Supers' as a new mechanic, making well-structured breeding projects more valuable. We started with the debut of our first Super: Tegu.

2. Special Additions: Welcomed the special Panda to our list of Specials.

3. Expressions for Beasts: Implemented expressions for beasts, a significant and ongoing undertaking that gives life to your beasts as they interact with NPCs.

4. Elements System: Introduced the Elements system, assigning each beast a pair of inherent elements. An element page was added that delves into the lore of each element.

5. Beast Sizes: Standardized beast sizes, assigning each beast a unique size within its species' range.

6. Beast Classes: Initial build of beast classes, providing each beast with a class-based playstyle and initial items.

7: Radiant Companions: Unveiled Radiant companions, rare alternate colorations for companions that are bound to be highly sought-after.

8: Deep Dive into Seasons: Explored the planned feature 'Seasons', designed to reward ongoing gameplay.

9: The Weekend Traveler: Designed the Kobold NPC known as the Weekend Traveler, who deals in ultra-rare goods, along with the Kobold non-player species.

10. New Colors on the Wheel: Established a sustainable method to introduce new colors to our color palette, allowing us to add 16 new colors this year (including the 3 contest winners).

11. Ephemeral Inks: Introduced Ephemeral Inks, a way to alter the colors of a beast.

12. Color Wheel Page: Created a dedicated page listing colors and corresponding inks.

13. PvP Battle Demo: Rolled out a demo showcasing our multiplayer technology in PvP battles.

14. Mutations Feature: Added Mutations as a rare breeding-only feature, beginning with our first Mutation: Piebald.

15. Items By You: Crafted 11 sponsored companions (excluding recolors), 5 sponsored apparel pieces, and 2 sponsored items.

16. New Game Engine: Designed a render pipeline that can create the 2.5D effects used in Wild Areas during exploration. Including, but not limited to, dynamic shadows, volumetric fog, real-time lighting, collision detection, special & particle effects, and gravity simulation, all accelerated by your GPU.

17. Granular Settings: Created a UI to manage game settings, graphics settings, audio settings, etc as well as added gamepad support with keybind remapping to Wild Areas.

18. Procedural Map Generation: Developed technology to procedurally generate bespoke Wild Areas.

19. Ongoing Production: Work on ongoing behind-the-scenes features such as worldbuilding, map design, systems design, and the exploration features we showcased on this update!

UI Update

You may notice the UI has received an update. This redesign focuses on being accessible for players using controllers, which is something we are working towards supporting on all screens and not just the Wild Area demo. The about page has also been updated. All the links to informational pages you would have found in the left-side menu of the previous design can be found on the about page with the exception of the /species page, whose contents has been moved to the about page.

We have also added an install button to the homepage that will display for users who have browsers which support Progressive Web Apps. This will add Mythaura to your taskbar/home screen for easy full-screen access.

Mobile and tablet users may enable gyroscope to interact with the parallax graphics if they would like.

Feature Spotlight: Wild Area

Wild Areas are a key pillar of Mythaura’s gameplay, and will be where you can expect to spend a lot of your time.

At A Glance

Procedurally Generated Levels

Traverse through uniquely generated levels with your trio of beasts. Control your adventure with WASD for movement and Space for jumps and shift for sprint. This can be remapped in the settings.

Each Wild Area boasts a series of floors. Your goal? Reach the top (or bottom)!

Your Safe Havens: Checkpoint Floors

Leave the Wild Area without any penalties

Choose to start from any previously reached checkpoint.

Encounter formidable bosses or minibosses at many of these checkpoints.

Prepare for the Journey: The Adventure Bag

Your Adventure Bag is your lifeline. Pack it with essential items for survival and success.

Provision Wisely: Stock up and get ready to face the unknown.

Limited inventory space for both what you bring with you and what you find along the way.

Keep Your Energy Up

Your team's energy is key. Keep it replenished with food from your Adventure Bag or found on your journey.

Running out of energy or facing defeat? You’ll black out, dropping your Adventure Bag's contents. But don't worry, you can retrieve them by returning to your last stand.

Encounter the Unexpected

From unlocking treasure chests with lockpicks to aiding NPCs, each exploration offers unique surprises.

Day and Night Dynamics: Encounter different enemies and events. A full day/night cycle completes every 12 real hours.

Wild Areas have natural water bodies, perfect for a fishing escapade.

Escalating Challenges

Increase difficulty with each New Game+ cycle and encounter new enemies and challenging secret bosses.

Multiplayer Co-Op

Up to 3 players can group up to take on a Wild Area together.

Take on enemies as a group with co-op battles.

See your friends jump and move in realtime, split up to make the most of your exploration while keeping tabs on your team-mates through the text chat and the minimap.

Fledgeling’s Forest Demo

The demo features a single floor of the Fledgeling's Forest Wild Area, with unlimited energy.

Day/Night Slider: Experience any time of day at your convenience. (Note: Creatures that spawn remain the same in the demo)

Currently Disabled: Fishing, lockpicking, loot & foraging, multiplayer, and other events are not available in this demo.

NG+ Cycle Update

In last month's update we revealed our plans for Mythaura's New Game+ system. Originally, our plan allowed players from NG+2 and beyond to create any Tier 1-Tier 3 Beast.

We have since changed it so that at the beginning of a player's NG+2 cycle they may make a Tier 1-Tier 3 Beast with up to three Specials, but NG+3 and beyond will not feature any custom Beast creation. The player will instead have access to a pool of NG+3-exclusive items that they will receive items from.

Thank you to our Discord members for all their input, it provided us with a much better direction to move forward with!

Winter Quarter (2024) Concepts

It’s the first day of Winter Quarter 2024, which means we’ve got new Quarterly Rewards for Sponsors to vote on on our Ko-fi page!

Which concepts would you like to see made into official site items? Sponsors of Bronze level or higher have a vote in deciding. Please check out the Companion post and the Glamour post on Ko-fi to cast your vote for the winning concepts!

Votes must be posted by January 29, 2024 at 11:59pm PDT in order to be considered.

All Fall 2023 Rewards are now listed in our Ko-fi Shop for individual purchase for all Sponsor levels at $5 USD flat rate per unit. As a reminder, please remember that no more than 3 units of any given item can be purchased. If you purchase more than 3 units of any given item, your entire purchase will be refunded and you will need to place your order again, this time with no more than 3 units of any given item.

Fall 2023 Glamour: Ghastly Grin

Fall 2023 Companion: Saddleback Rattlecat

Fall 2023 Solid Gold Glamour: Ryu

Custom Color Contest Winners

Last month we revealed the names of the winning colors of our first ever Custom Color Contest--now they've made their official debut in the Beast Creator!

Congratulations again to:

Xander's "Moonstone"

Rhahatl's "Wintergrass"

Andydrarch's "Trench"

We were so impressed by all the amazing entries you all submitted. We'll definitely be running more contests like this in the future, so please stay tuned for them in future updates. Thank you all for participating!

Fighter Class Companion Winner

The brutish Domestic Wolverine will be the starting Companion for the Fighter Class! These brave and hardy creatures are perfectly suited to aiding new Fighters. Next month, we will vote on the next class companion: Rogue.

Meet the Team

We've gotten to learn so much about our supporters over the past year and a half, we thought it was time to share a little bit about ourselves as well! On our About page you can find short bios on each of the devs, including their favorite Mythaura species, color from our color wheel, and other fun and (very miscellaneous) facts.

Safari & iOS Problems

At this time, iOS devices like iPad and iPhone are only partially supported. These are the issues that the dev team is aware of and actively working on:

On iOs, Safari forces a refresh if the memory usage spikes, forcing you back to the demo start page. This happens at different times on different devices dependent on its RAM usage.

Sometimes when starting a battle, battlers start shifted down, then snap to the correct position after interacting with a button.

The zoom in on a beast image is pixelated (Safari bug: https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=27684).

On Mac Safari, battle animations showing with a black background. iOS is fine. Solution is to disable battle animations in the settings.

You will need to be running at least iOS 15 and Safari version 15 or greater in order to use Mythaura.

Mythaura v0.25.1

Improvements to AI Behavior: Improved target selection and behavior profiles for AI enemies.

Class Infrastructure Addition: Added new class infrastructure.

Stat Effects from Classes: Implemented functionality where classes affect stats.

Glamour CMS Process and Fixes: Updated and fixed issues related to the glamour content management system process.

Ability Usage Tracking: Implemented increments in the 'ability times used' counter, enhancing tracking of abilities' usage.

Policy Code Refactor: Conducted a significant refactor of policy-related code, improving efficiency and maintainability.

Item Actions Refactoring and Rename Feature: Refactored item actions and added a new feature to rename items, allowing users to name their companions.

Book Item Type Addition: Introduced a new item type - books, adding to the game's content.

Encounter and Description Fixes: Fixed issues with encounter metadata and corrected miss descriptions.

Shadow Maps Generation: Added tools that allow the system to generate shadow assets.

PHP 8.3 Compatibility Updates: Made updates to ensure compatibility with PHP 8.3.

Queue Configuration and Fixes: Improved the configuration of job queues and fixed related issues.

Fixes and Updates for Battler State: Addressed issues in practical testing and refined the battler state management.

Refactor of Current Effects: Refactored how current effects are stored and managed. Moved current effects to state and resolved turn resolution issues.

Map Generation and Space Management: Improved the map generator to add empty spaces when out of view.

Behavior Selection and Shadow Rendering Fixes: Fixed issues with behavior selection and shadow rendering in battle states.

Party Leader Management Updates: Implemented changes for setting new party leaders upon defeat.

Stat Resolution Enhancements: Updated the resolution of stats, improving the mechanics of stat calculations.

PvP and Demo Battle Fixes: Made fixes specifically for arena PvP and demo battles.

State Management and Pruning: Improved state management, including pruning data when no longer needed by the system.

Species Data Addition: Added species data to the about page.

Rest & Defend Action Health Gain: Resting no longer increases health but does recover more stamina. Defending no longer recovers stamina.

Remade Companion Page: Used the new scene component to improve usability and performance of companion page.

Adjusted Radiant Overlay: This fixes an issue Firefox users had with viewing radiant companions.

Updated Tooltips: Tooltips have been replaced with a more modern library.

Gyroscope Support: The game can use a devices gyroscope to move parallax scenes around.

Websocket Connection Updates: Ensures websockets get cleanly disconnected at the end of every battle.

Improved Hitboxes and Rendering: Objects no longer appear to "float" regardless of their size and their hitboxes have been refined.

Added Global Sound - App can now maintain music across different pages and the settings control master, sound effects, and music seperately.

Enhanced Settings - Greatly improved the number of modular settings a user can use in both graphics and gamepad.

Wild Area Game Pad Support - Wild areas now support game pag usage. Full game pad support is in progress.

Virtual Joystick - Touch screen devices can control movement with a virtual joystick.

General Cleanups and Tweaks: Conducted cleanups and minor tweaks across various parts of the system.

Thank You!

Our first full calendar year with Mythaura has been one primarily focused on foundation-building. We're so excited to use these systems that we have built to create the content that players will engage with as they travel throughout Mythaura. Again, a heartfelt thanks to those who have supported us through all of this--we really couldn't have done it without you. We hope to deliver an experience that you'll want to revisit again and again.

As always: we'll see you around the Discord!

[amadeusgame]

Devlog: Unionizing Is Good News For Amadeus's Development

"What?"

This is a very short update, but it should explain what I mean.

( Steam | Itch.io | More Links )

Many things happened this month. I got very sick and very stressed over the situation at my IRL workplace, did a lot of organizing work, and ultimately made a speech about unionizing at a team meeting... which got me placed on "administrative leave" and probably fired. If I'm not fired, I intend to quit anyway because there is no way I can have a healthy relationship with that workplace anymore. I'm still going to support the ongoing unionization effort I've left behind, because it's sorely needed and I really care about the coworkers and clients from that job.

Which means, while I have not had much time for Amadeus this past month, I am about to have a LOT of time for Amadeus in the coming months.

I have the savings necessary to spend a few months unemployed and focusing on finishing this game. So, that's what I intend to do.

I do also have a brief development update! Even in the middle of all this, I managed to get started on a fix to the pathfinding algorithm in Amadeus's point-and-click control scheme. It's not working yet, and if I can't get it to work I will revert to the current system as a backup; but I'd very much like to get it fixed so it feels a little better.

Sorry there's not much more to say for this past month, but I'm looking forward to having more time to focus on this project for a while!

[from-the-depths-if]

Final development update before release at some point in two days (don't know if I'm home Christmas day so may be late on the day - I'm in the UK)

Working through getting everything up on Twine and finished with coding so enjoy the previews in the meantime, since I'm not giving a percentage or fraction of where each part is at today. Enjoying how Immortal looks like a person with an axe while FtD looks like a guitar? Or maybe fishbones? Fishbones are more fitting XD

Whether you celebrate or not I hope you all have a wonderful week ahead, and I'll see you all on the 25th at some point for the prologue release!

Love you all!

-Robin

[velvet-cupcake-games]

Hey hey!

I forgot it was Canada Day long weekend and I wanted to spend some quality time with my spouse, so I didn't quite finish Chapter 3 this past week.

However, we now have 2/5 Will CGs complete and a lovely new set of expressions just for Marion and Will (though I may add Marion's to a place or two in Robin's route, heh heh).

[andrabeets]

Dandori Downpour - A Pikmin 4 Dating Sim - May 24th Development Blog

Welcome to the third installment of the Rescue Corps/Pikmin 4 Dating Sim development blog! A weekly "news letter" where I will discuss my progress on the dating simulator. I was too excited so I posted this on Saturday instead of Sunday! Forgive me....

Two weeks ago, I asked you which character are you most excited for? The winner is....

Yonny!

Here's a preview of Yonny's look and his medbay! Within Renpy!

Previous Development Blog Character Creator Showcase

I get the hype around Yonny, I know he has been a fan favorite since Pikmin 4's release!

Obviously... You all know who my favorite character is hehe.

--------------

What has been done these last two weeks?

Yonny's Medbay

Most of Yonny's Sprites

Rendering Russ' Sprites

Finished Collin's Rough Draft

Began Russ' second draft in Twine

Some of you know that I had a big work deadline this past Friday! Well, I kind of found out it has extended to next week so hopefully I can get more done??

--------------

Russ' Route

The first route I am making assets for and implementing into the game is indeed Russ' route!

I love his route a lot and I am happy to say that asset creation is about 70% done! Which of course, backgrounds, character sprites, etc will be used in other routes. That means everyone's routes get a little bit of progress with each art asset made.

I have yet to begin doing CGs, which unfortunately will be very time consuming. Russ' route has 3 planned CGs, one of them being complex (I cannot go into why~ But every character has a least 1-2 of these "complex" CGs)

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POLL TIME!

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Sorry that this was a short one! I feel like I've said most of what I needed to say in the first two!

Thanks for reading this weeks newsletter! Stay curious!~

andrabeets / Cherie <333

[blight-if]

Chapter One Release: 5/30/25 at 7:30 pm

WRITING

I completed the first draft of the first half of chapter one. Before I started this blog, I wrote some of the second half as well so I just need to continue it and change old information around a little bit.

CODE

I finished all the setup code before I started this blog, so any code will be variables and stats I already have. So, in the future, this section will not be here unless there are any issues.

RELEASE

The first chapter is expected to be done before the end of this month. The full chapter will be released in a couple of days if I am efficient. If not, I'll push back by a day. I didn't want to keep you guys waiting, so I started writing and doing code pre-opening this blog so you can have something from me sooner. I'll let you know when the second half is done, which will most likely be tomorrow, then the full thing in another couple of days afterward. I put the day on Friday so I can give myself some time for editing.

[askstrangeweird]

The Caduceus: The trademark gun of The Ambulance Chaser. Capable of both great harm, and miraculous healing abilities.

[pawborough]

July Check In

Has it really been another month? Come and see our July pawgress!

Longhair accessories

Our artists are busy finishing accessories for Longhairs. We’re in the final stretch, with only a few pieces left to draw. Below are some of the finished pieces! Once everything’s wrapped up, the new accessories will be added to the game right away.

Art by Remmie, Azarel and Asp.

Premium bundle art

Though not our primary focus, we also continued working on the silver bundle arts.

Art by Hydde and Tybaxel.

A look at the Husbandry and Farming mechanic

Husbandry

Husbandry is the process of raising animals and harvesting their products. Animals are held in pens, players start with two small pens and may purchase up to five using copper. For additional copper, pens can be expanded. Small pens hold up to three animals, while large pens can hold the maximum number of animals, which is five.

After placing the young animals into a pen, players must tend to them for several days. This phase is similar to nesting—you’ll need to provide a specific item from a set pool, determined by the number of animals in the pen. After a few days, the animals begin to produce byproducts. During this stage, players can harvest byproducts (such as honey or milk) daily, or choose to slaughter the animals for a portion of their adult meat yield. Once the animals reach adulthood, they stop producing byproducts and will only provide meat upon removal.

Animals fall into two main categories: flocks and herds. Flocks include chickens, ducks, and bees. Herds include bison, goats, and sheep. Each group has distinct preferences and growth times. Flocks are fast growers, reaching adulthood in just 7 days, while herd animals take 12 days. Animals can be removed from pens at any time. If they’ve reached the young adult stage, you’ll receive a partial reward based on their adult yield.

Harvesting animals affects the pen's grass density, which directly influences animal happiness—and thus, yield. Grass quality ranges from -10% to +110%. Herds prefer higher grass density, but also decrease the quality of the grass when harvested. Flocks, on the other hand, prefer lower grass density and increase the grass quality after harvesting.

Additionally, you have the option to modify the soil quality after each harvest by spreading ash or scraps on the grass - these items are obtainable through another mechanic, called rotting. Rotting occurs to 0 star supplies and foods in your inventory - food turns into scraps, which raises the grass density, and supplies turn into ash, which lowers it.

But wait, there's more! Each day, something might happen. We decided to make the husbandry game more colorful by including random events. When an event triggers, you’ll have the choice to act or leave it be and accept the consequences.

We’ve crafted several scenarios, for example, one of your animals might turn out to be especially stunning, and a buyer visits to offer you silver for it. If you choose to accept the offer, you’ll receive silver, but your harvest will be reduced. If you turn down the offer, no changes will apply.

Another scenario is a predator attacking your animals. If you leave it be, your harvest will be greatly reduced. If you take action, your harvest will still take a small hit, but you’ll also receive a new friend.

To summarize, husbandry lets players raise animals in pens of various sizes to harvest byproducts and meat. Animal growth and yield depend on species, amount, grass density, and random events. Grass quality can be modified by scraps or ash from rotted items.

The pen size, grass quality, animal species and numbers, and random events are all represented through art as well.

Farming

Farming functions similarly to husbandry but has some important differences. Players start with one plot and may unlock up to three more using copper. All plots are the same size and can hold up to ten seeds.

Instead of flocks and herds, farming features stalks and trees. Trees include Avocado, Apple, Bamboo Shoot, Cacao, and Shooting Starlet, while the rest of our current plants—including all incense plants—are considered stalks. Instead of grass density, farming uses soil quality, which works in the same way.

Stalks prefer low soil quality and need only 3 days to be ready for harvest, but they produce only once. Trees, on the other hand, prefer high soil quality, and take several days to reach a harvestable state, but can be harvested five times. They exhaust on day twelve, and when removed, yield rare resources: light hardwood and dark hardwood, which can only be obtained through farming. Additionally, they also provide sticks and, of course, their fruits.

Farming also features random events, such as crickets munching on your precious plants. If you choose to do nothing, your harvest will be reduced—but you’ll gain some crickets. If you repel them, your harvest remains unaffected. Not all random events are negative; for example, bees might visit your field, greatly increasing your harvest.

To summarize, farming lets players grow plants to harvest produce, and wood. Plants growth and yield depend on species, amount, soil quality, and random events. Soil quality can be modified by scraps or ash from rotted items.

The grass quality, plant species and numbers, and random events are all represented through art as well.

Below are some of our WIP and finished art assets for Farming and Husbandry!

Art by Remmie and Tybaxel.

Beta progress

This month we pushed out the finishing touches for the wardrobe, introduced the scene builder, restored archetypes and fixed several bugs. We are nearing the final stretch of Closed Beta. Below is the list of the remaining functions we need before we can go to Open Beta:

Farming & Husbandry – Currently in active development, and the biggest lift of everything in this list.

User-to-User Trade and Direct Messaging

User Report System

Archetype Collection Page

Updating comment UI

Splitting Cooking and Crafting into two

Undercoat Pattern Split

Forum announcements displayed on the main dashboard

Faunapedia Layout

Adding white patch selector to both the Cat Creator and Founder Creator

We know a lot of you are excited (so we are!), and we appreciate your support and patience. Stay tuned — we’re almost there!

To summarize: We shared longhair accessories, premium bundle arts, and farming and husbandry game mechanics.

What’s next? Expect more art, feature check-ins, and progress toward Open Beta. 

[bloodandbones-games]

MISERY CLUB development update #1

Hello everyone!

Unfortunately I haven't been able to do much work on the game this month due to the fact that I'm currently dealing with quite a lot of exam preparation.

Moreover, most of the work I've done has been on the game's script. The script for the first part of the game is complete, and I will most likely spend most of February working on art for it, as well as sprites and adding a few details to the map where it takes place. I doubt that I will be able to finish all of it over just one month, but we'll see.

I apologize for the lack of interesting information. Hopefully February will be a more productive month for me.