Backer Build 0.2.3.0: Busty Brigands (...and poll results, and future plans) (Patreon)

New month, new build! A couple days early, because I have some unavoidable conflicts this weekend. For the third time this month. I swear, every August I think, "It is too hot, I will stay inside and work," and everyone else goes, "Hey, you know that thing it would be rude to say no to? Guess when!"

So only two new enemies and some back-end stuff, which is technically what I promised, but still... I'd hoped to do three. Oh well. Next month!

Backer build update link and changelog below the paywall! But also...

Future Plans (How Many Updates Edition)

About a month ago I put out a poll asking how often I should update this here. Most of you said please limit it to the most important stuff, slightly fewer said weekly updates, and like two people said as many as possible (thank you for your interest! Sorry it's apparently only you.)

So I thought about that, and then did another poll asking about which bandit enemies to make first, and then thought about it more as I tried to write up the results of that poll. Do poll results count as 'important'? Or is the update the important thing? Figured I'd work on stuff and come back to it, and... instead I just worked. Oops. Speaking of which:

Bandit Poll 1 Results (Belated)

First place, with 46 votes, a well-endowed futa: the Bandit Ambusher!

Second place... was a near tie! The winner, with 22 votes (thanks to an assist from one of the 4-vote Demons) is a big-boobed woman: the Bandit Temptress!

Third, at 20 votes, a well-endowed man (name tbd, coming next month)

Anyway I think I've learned that, for someone who overthinks things as much as I do, structure helps. I checked some other Patreons in this, er, genre, and most of them seem to do weekly. Of course, most of the top ones are teams of people, and I'm a team of person (at best).... but either way, I think I'm going to try for scheduled weekly posts AND try to keep them important/relevant? Maybe not EVERY week, if there's nothing particularly important to report, but what I'm going to try next is:

Week 1: poll 1 post, and any bugfixes

Week 2: poll 1 results, and any further bugfixes

Week 3: optional/ad hoc - devlog, preview images, a second poll, maybe a super-buggy broken preview build for Demons if there's something to show?

End of Month: new backer build

I'd like to post free builds at the same time as the backer builds... but itch.io will only promote a "Major Update" to a game if it's 30+ days after the last one, and I need that traffic. Which is why this month's free build won't be out until early next week. (Sorry)

Anyway! Changelog and download links for backers below. And thank you all for your support!

LINK: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/nlk3xxjr7xwv8ljtse6bn/ALiZWo6K_XCpWDhwF31wVfU?rlkey=5hetil5e3oh79jr2h8wmb2afb&st=gaz2ctxu&dl=0

Password: LasTetasBandidas

Changelog:

New Enemies!

Added initial build of two new bandit enemies, with 2 sex scenes each (one for win, one for loss):

The Bandit Ambusher, a hugely-endowed futa still getting used to her new anatomy

The Bandit Temptress, an impulsive, egotistical, incredibly top-heavy woman.

A few simple new ambush events (nothing fancy, just integrating the bandits into the map)

Cheat Menu

Stats Menu (now you can change your four primary attributes as well as the previous appearance options)

Engine

Changed it so that tf events that modify bodyparts require those bodyparts to exist first. If you, for instance, increase dick sensitivity, and don’t have a dick, it’ll now swap out for a dedicated grow-a-dick event. Also added dedicated events for loss of bodyparts, following similar logic.

Back End/Devtools (not visible to players, but recording here anyway)

Game balance testing scripts for quick-and-dirty balance tests, setting simple player-ai rules and auto-running combat encounters at hyper-speed and output spreadsheets to help with balance fixes.

Updated graphics pipeline. I’ve been doing a hand-sketch → ai render → hand edit → ai inpaint → hand-touchups process for a while, using some janky local models from two years ago, which were… not great. After much experimentation and frustration, have replaced most of them with janky models from this year! While keeping the game’s style consistent, which is the most important thing.

UI

Added a little UI animation for when the event window is closed. Subtle, but I think it helps a lot with distinguishing between related sequences of pages.

Bugfixes (new)

Managed to shrink the build size about 10%! Who needs another multi-gigabyte visual novel? Not me!

Settings menu/pronouns: fixed typo

A bunch of post-combat events had their button text and tooltips switched. Oops.

Fixed animation flicker on enemy sprites (layering sprites is annoying; now I’m using a shader and it’s better)

Fixed “With each orgasm, your corruption grows” getting added multiple times… I think

Fixed soft-lock issue (clicking “close” on the inventory-full menu sometimes didn’t register properly)

Fixed it so that you shouldn’t get events modifying a bodypart before the bodypart exists

Added graphics to tf butthole scene, to account for characters with neither vag nor balls.

Fixed relatively rare crash that would happen if combat went on for too many rounds

Fixed recurrent issues with the combat text for various tease-type moves.

Bugfixes (since last major patch, in case you didn’t see the hotfixes)

Fixed sprites sometimes showing their normal/aroused/orgasm versions simultaneously, leading to third arms/legs (but not the fun kind) - I fixed this before, but as of the last hotfix it’s now extra super fixed.

Fixed equipment corruption notification layout issues

Fixed several corruption issues, including one that made you sometimes start with 5.

Numerous typos and text errors in events fixed

Fixed several weapon/echo moves that were missing targetting data (and thus unusable)

Fixed battles sometimes not ending even after you won/lost

Changed wait/delay code from events, and the events in question, so they should be more consistent and make more sense.